| Neil Young – Rockin' in the Free World Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This song, one of Young's masterpieces, is both a celebration and critique of freedom and democracy. The chorus is exultant and cathartic, yet the verses hold a less-than-flattering mirror up to the U.S. as it was when the song was written in 1989. Like Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A.," this song is easy to misunderstand if you only know the chorus but don't examine the rest of the lyrics as well as the context of the era in which the song was written. Some of the references are dated and may need explaining, but the essence of the song still resonates today. First, a corrective note on the song's origins. As other commenters have pointed out, Jimmy McDonough's biography of Young, "Shakey," traces the inspiration of the song to a line uttered by guitarist Frank Sampedro, who was on tour with Young in early 1989. According to Sampedro, as he and Young saw news reports of Iranian mourners burning American flags after the Ayatollah Khomeini's death, Sampedro said, "Whatever we do, we shouldn't go near the Mideast. It's probably better to keep rockin' in the free world." Young then asked for and received permission to use the line in a song, and within a few days had created a rough version of "Rockin' in the Free World." However, there is a chronological problem with Sampedro's account: Khomeini died on June 3 of that year, but McDonough and other sources assert that "Rockin' in the Free World" was first performed at a concert in Seattle on February 21 -- more than three months before the ayatollah's death. An explanation that makes more sense is that Sampedro simply misremembered the news report that spurred the conversation between him and Young. That is, the flag-burners were not mourning the ayatollah, but protesting the publication of British author Rushdie's novel, "The Satanic Verses," which they viewed as blasphemous. Protests against the book by Muslim fundamentalists came to a head on February 12, 1989, when six protesters were killed by police and scores were wounded outside the U.S. Information Service building in Islamabad, Pakistan, during a violent demonstration against the book's U.S. publication. Two days later, Khomeini issued a call for Muslims to execute Rushdie and anyone directly involved in publishing the book. A shaken Rushdie then cancelled his U.S. book tour and went into hiding as an act of self-preservation. The ayatollah's fatwa had a chilling effect on U.S. booksellers, who were afraid to display Rushdie's book on their shelves. It also spooked many writers and publishers, who when asked to comment on the matter were reluctant to publicly defend Rushdie's right to free speech. The timing of the Rushdie affair, with several key events taking place just days prior to the debut performance of "Rockin' in the Free World," makes it -- not the ayatollah's death -- the event likely to have inspired the writing of the song. In the first verse, the "warnin' sign on the road ahead" and "people sayin' we'd be better off dead" represent the ayatollah's fatwa and other threats made against the U.S. by fundamentalist Muslims, and "Don't feel like Satan, but I am to them" is a reference to the ayatollah's labeling the U.S. as "The Great Satan" during his rise to power in the Iranian revolution of 1979 and thereafter. The rest of the first stanza sketches a troubled portrait of America. "There's colors on the street / Red, white and blue" evokes the U.S. flag and, by extension, pride in the nation and its people. But it could also refer to the burning of the U.S. flag by anti-American protesters around the globe. Another possible interpretation is that the colors represent gang activity and other problems of the inner city. This interpretation is consonant with the next two lines: there are "people shufflin' their feet" -- i.e., loitering, going nowhere fast -- and others "sleepin' in their shoes," homeless. Regardless of which meaning is implied, the tone is set: this is no patriotic paean to the glories of the U. S. of A. The first verse concludes with a reference to anti-Western attitudes, as explained previously, followed by Young's response: "So I try to forget it any way I can." Then he launches into the chorus, which is insistent in its exhortation to "keep on rockin' in the free world." "Rockin'," in this context, is freeing your mind of external troubles and conducting your life as you see fit without regard for what the ayatollah or anyone else thinks. From an artist's perspective, the chorus is a classic plea for the right to uncensored self-expression. More generally, it is a call for Westerners, and in particular Americans, to continue living the way of the free world -- the world consisting of nations with democratic, or at least non-totalitarian, political systems -- and not to be cowed by outside threats. But as the next verses show, not all is well and good in the free world. Reading the second verse, in which a drug-addicted woman disposes of her baby in the trash, we encounter a representative of two problems, unwanted pregnancies and illegal drug use, that were all too common in American inner cities during the 1980s. More specifically, the '80s saw the rise of crack cocaine use, and when scientific research suggested that prenatal cocaine exposure could stunt a child's development irrevocably, the children of crack users were labeled "crack babies." Much of that science has been tempered by later findings, but the prevailing fear at the time was that crack babies were destined for impaired lives. Although the child in the song is not explicitly identified as a crack baby, the possibility is strongly implied by the mother's drug use ("she's gone to get a hit"). "A thousand points of light" in the third verse is an unmistakable reference to then-recently elected President George H. W. Bush, who notably used that phrase in his acceptance speech at the 1988 GOP convention to describe individual American citizens and organizations making a difference through service to their communities. During his time as president, the elder Bush frequently rehashed that bit of rhetoric by inviting exceptional citizens to the White House to award them a Thousand Points of Light plaque for their service. The phrase reflected Bush's conservative philosophy, which emphasized individual agency (in the form of free enterprise and volunteerism) to address society's needs, as opposed to reliance on government programs. In this vein he continued the policies of his predecessor, Ronald Reagan. Young doesn't denounce Bush's "thousand points of light" trope, but by juxtaposing it with the homeless man he appears to be questioning its adequacy as public policy. Over the previous eight years the Reagan administration had reduced federal funding to many social assistance programs, thereby creating large gaps in the support structure to be filled by the states, nonprofits, and individuals. One could argue, based on increases in homelessness, poverty, illegal drug use, etc., in America during the 1980s, that the state and nonprofit sectors were ill-equipped to fill the breach. Not that Reagan's economic policies were a total failure -- the U.S. economy as a whole grew during the 1980s -- but the poorest classes of American society did not enjoy the benefits of that growth nearly as much as the highest earners did during that time. Even while cutting social spending, Reagan significantly increased defense spending during his time in office, hence the lyric "kinder, gentler machine gun hand," a satirical take on Bush's line "I want a kinder and gentler nation" (also from his '88 nomination acceptance speech). The machine gun reference could also be a dig at the U.S. government's supplying arms to other countries in accordance with perceived U.S. interests. The most infamous case of arms-dealing was the Iran-contra affair of the mid-1980s, which revealed that the U.S. had secretly exported weapons to Iran and to Central American rebels in return for money and the release of American hostages. It was far from an isolated case, though: other nations, such as Afghanistan, also received arms and military support, thanks to American Cold War policies designed to thwart communism at every opportunity. To improve conditions for economic growth, Reagan ordered deregulation of industry, including relaxation of the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to limit environmentally harmful practices by businesses. It's probably inappropriate to lay the blame on the Republicans for the ozone-layer-damaging chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in Styrofoam ("Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer"), because that problem existed for years before it was finally brought to public attention in the mid-1980s, resulting in an international phase-out of the chemicals. However, it's no stretch to state that environmental concerns took on a lower profile in the 1980s as the culture embraced consumerism, which Young alludes to in his references to department stores, toilet paper, fuel to burn, and roads to drive. The "man of the people" who says, "Keep hope alive," can only be the black politician Jesse Jackson, who used the phrase often in his speeches. Jackson, a champion of civil rights for the oppressed, was a Democratic presidential candidate in '84 and '88 who attracted a modest share of support, even winning a few primaries, but failed to mobilize a large enough following to seriously vie for the nomination. A skilled orator and organizer, in many ways Jackson continued the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. as a spokesman for racial equality and social justice. But here he gets only a passing mention, his message overshadowed by Bush's rhetoric, the ills of the inner city, and images from the culture of consumption. In a larger sense Jackson represents the diminishment and fracturing of the American left, which had been in decline for some two decades. Even though it still held a majority in Congress, the Democratic Party's fortunes were at a low ebb in the wake of a third consecutive presidential election defeat. The idealism of the 1960s had receded, having been replaced by a more self-interested, pragmatic course in the 1980s. Throughout the song, Young refuses to whitewash or to sugar-coat his presentation of America. Instead of praising the virtues of the land of liberty, he holds up to scrutiny the troubles of the urban poor, who are subject to government policies that reward individual agency but do little to improve the lot of the marginalized. He points out the contradiction in America's status as a beacon for peace even as it throws its military weight around by stockpiling weapons and distributing them to other countries, in effect fighting shadow wars. He shines a light on modern consumer culture, with its focus on satisfying individual desires and needs perhaps coming at the expense of civic and planetary responsibility. A subtle line of sociopolitical criticism runs throughout the song, yet Young refrains from overt condemnation, letting the words and images mostly speak for themselves. Young leaves us with the sense that freedom is not a panacea, but a double-edged sword that should not be taken lightly. In a democratic, capitalistic society such as the U.S., benefits redound to those who are able to take advantage of their freedoms. Yet those freedoms can also be taken to excess, leading to destruction and tragedy, as painfully illustrated by the case of the drug-addicted mother and her ill-fated child. Free-market capitalism, though clearly a more sustainable economic system than the state-run socialism that was on its way out in 1989, also has notorious drawbacks, among them stark social inequality and environmental degradation. So the song's repeated mantra, "Keep on rockin' in the free world," can be taken as an injunction to exercise one's freedom as a force for good, keeping an eye out for others who may not share the same rights and privileges. |
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| Neil Young – Rockin' in the Free World Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| The association of styrofoam with the ozone layer comes from the fact that styrofoam production once used ozone-layer-destroying CFCs, although that method was phased out in the 1990s. The CFCs were replaced by H-CFCs, which were also found to be harmful (albeit to a much lesser extent) and which are now on track to be phased out. The EPA's web site has more information on this if you're interested. | |
| Bon Jovi – It's My Life Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Following up (yes, I'm a bit obsessive about this): Bon Jovi's official website has that line as "Luck ain't even lucky" (go figure), but in a video of an unplugged rendition of the song on YouTube, Jon Bon Jovi clearly sings "Luck, it ain't enough". So I'm sticking with the latter. | |
| Bon Jovi – It's My Life Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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You're basically right I think, except it's "breaks" not "brakes." As in "Luck, it ain't enough, you've got to make your own breaks" -- according to the Gracenote-sourced lyrics on Metrolyrics.com. In general the highest quality lyrics I've found on the Internet -- besides artists' web sites, which are hit or miss where lyrics are concerned -- are the ones provided by the Gracenote service, which supplies lyrics to various sites including Metrolyrics.com and MP3lyrics.org. Note that when Gracenote does not offer lyrics to a song, the site may go with a user-submitted version -- look for the Gracenote logo to be sure the lyrics come from Gracenote. |
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| Alanis Morissette – Ironic Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Richard Leiby wrote an article in the Washington Post (April 4, 1996) on why this song is (mostly) not ironic. The English professors he consulted said that most of the purportedly ironic scenarios in this song fall under the category of coincidental misfortune. So the real irony, perhaps, is that much of this song's lyrics are not ironic, at least in the literary senses of the word. Despite that potentially fatal shortcoming, it's a fun song to listen to, with lots of playful charm. It's basically Murphy's Law exposited through pop song. The woeful situations described are so absurd that I am not left feeling pessimistic or bitter, but amused and heartened. As in, life really sucks sometimes in random and unexpected ways that could be seen in another light as funny. Grin and bear it, and someday you may look back on this and laugh. |
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| Keri Noble – Look At Me Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The lyrics to this song are so simple that I don't think they need much explanation. But this is a heart-achingly beautiful song, buoyed by Noble's gorgeous vocal performance. Basically, the singer is expressing her unconditional love and support for a guy friend who seems to be down emotionally. She doesn't see her love as just a temporary salve, though; the last two stanzas suggest that she hopes he will reciprocate her love and form a lasting mutual bond of happiness. |
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| Diane Birch – Fools Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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When Birch introduced this song at her WXPN concert this past June, she said she wrote it "while I was living in Los Angeles -- and I guess I'll just leave it at that." Reading some of her mini-bios on the Internet, I learned that she moved to L.A. after high school with initial aspirations of working as a film composer. She honed her musical chops there by playing the piano in hotels and bars by day and performing her own songs at night in "muso joints" (I'm not sure what these are; my guess is that they are clubs frequented by serious music fans). Her talent attracted offers from various sectors of the SoCal entertainment business, but she eventually decided to move to England, where secured a record deal and was able to focus on writing and performing her own songs. Knowing all this, it isn't much of a stretch to guess that this song is a rebuff of those in the SoCal entertainment industry who tried to pull Birch in various directions as she was trying to stay true to herself as a musician. In the lyrics, Birch portrays these "fools" as over-solicitous suitors ("Knockin' at my door / Calling out my name") who want her for what they want her to be ("Tellin' me to change my ways"), not for what she is. Every suitor brings a different "vision" or "plan" for her future, and in trying to persuade her to their side, they attempt to plant seeds of doubt on her personal musical ambitions ("Laughin' in my head / Telling me my dream's gone cold"). But Birch, to her credit, won't let others lead her astray; she knows her heart and stays true to her artistic drive ("One city of angels / It ain't goin' put out my flame / Ooh my love is a fire / No one can tame"). She would rather fail on her own ("stand out in the rain") than compromise herself artistically by submitting to the cajolery of others. (The rain could also be a literal reference to the wet British climate, which contrasts with sunny southern California.) On a more general note, Birch is the daughter of a pastor, and evidence of her religious upbring can be found in many of her songs on "Bible Belt," including this one. Here, the "fools" resemble agents of the Devil, with the tools of temptation and deceit at their disposal ("You tell me lies / You look me in the eyes"). It may seem ironic that the "city of angels" (i.e., Los Angeles) is the source of Birch's troubles, but according to Christian doctrine, Satan was an archangel before being cast out of heaven, and he can assume the form of an angel as part of his deceptions. |
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| Steve Winwood – While You See A Chance Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I've always loved this song, and I agree that its general thrust is about making the most of your opportunities in life before it's too late. But I've also always been mystified by the line, "Find romance, fake it." Can anyone explain why he wants us to "fake" romance? It just seems out of place in the context of the song. | |
| Fastball – Out Of My Head Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think most of the previous commenters have the right idea. The singer has been sitting on the fence, unwilling to commit to the "you" in the song (presumably a girl) because he was distracted by other possibilities (other girls, perhaps) available to him. "You know there's always more than one way to say exactly what you mean to say" suggests that he was not straightforward with her about how he felt about her. But now, the singer sees the error of his ways. He realizes that he's treated her badly by allowing his attention to be so divided, that his indecision left her in the lurch. Now, after expressing his contrition, he is determined to get off of the fence and either commit to the relationship or end it (it's not clear which), and asks for her say. |
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| Sugar Ray – Someday Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Here's what band members said about the song in an interview with "Melody Maker" magazine, Oct. 16, 1999: Singer Mark McGrath: "'Someday' (their new single and 'Every Morning! part-two, basically) is about reflecting back on your life and appreciating the one you chose to be with and hoping you made all the right decisions." Drummer Stan Frazier, who wrote the song: "It's like 'Every Morning'... I have a girlfriend and on the road I'm tempted to go with other women. And dogs. And men. And she has remained faithful. She was always so perfect and I was this f* * *ing guilty asshole and it's about that I think we've all grown a bit as people." |
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| Sugar Ray – Someday Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| To me, when I hear this song I think of the people who have loved me unconditionally, and how I haven't always loved them back the same way. I think the singer intended it to be addressed to a spouse or an ex-lover, but I think it can be extended to good friends or family members as well. | |
| Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I, too, think that this is a great song, the best Christmas-themed pop song since "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" by Darlene Love. This song expresses ideas that are universal no matter the time of year. The things that make us happiest in life are things we can't buy. Also, the things we want the most are often things we don't (or can't) have. Things that are seemingly out of our reach have an ability to enthrall our imagination and tug at our innermost emotions. I could go on, but I think Carey's song puts it so much better than I ever could. | |
| Madonna – Take A Bow Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This is an exquisitely written, lushly arranged postmortem of a relationship. Few songs capture the essence of heartbreak and melancholy like this one does, both lyrically and musically, and make it so easy on the ears in the process. Lyrically, the song is clothed in the language of the stage arts. The singer compares her ex-lover's romance of her to a "show" and a "masquerade," with him playing the "one lonely star." But "there's no one here, there's no one in the crowd" -- she's left him. She doubts the sincerity of her ex-lover's words to her: "Say your lines but do you feel them / Do you mean what you say when there's no one around." Evidently his words rang hollow because his love wasn't there; maybe his love had faded and he just couldn't admit it to her, or maybe he never genuinely loved her on a deep level. She is crushed because she always loved him, and he never reciprocated that love. He "took [her] love for granted" and broke her heart, so she's calling it quits: "The show is over, say good-bye." There's a hint of bitter irony in the second verse, with its parting sideswipes "Hide behind your smile, all the world loves a clown" and "You deserve an award for the role that you played." The singer, perhaps, is too overcome with sorrow to manifest her bitterness as rage, so instead she resorts to flinging sardonic barbs at her ex-lover. But what really boosts this song to the highest echelon is the arrangement, which hits all the right notes. The languorous melody, spare bass line, muted synths, background vocals echoing key lines -- breaking up never sounded so sad, yet at the same time, so soothing. I hesitate to categorize this as a breakup song, because it is no ordinary breakup song; it is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, period. I think this song is perfect for listening to as night falls at the end of a long day, leaving us to reckon with ourselves. It's a reminder that words and appearances only go so far; in the end, it's what we do and who we are inside that counts. |
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| Jens Lekman – Black Cab Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Thanks for the translation, ohioghost -- the black cab being llegal makes sense and makes the song's lyrics easier to understand. | |
| Jens Lekman – Black Cab Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This is a surreal, elegiac lament set to rock music. The harpsichord riff (which, I've read, is lifted from "I've Got Something On My Mind" by the Left Banke) combines with a hypnotic, pounding guitar line, and together they push the song along. To me, the driving repetitiveness of the instrumental track has a leavening effect befitting the motion of a cab ride. The lyrics are about a man dragged down by weariness and defeat who finds a kind of solace in a ride in a black taxicab. Failing to catch the last tram home accentuates his depression, which stems from feelings of social inadequacy at a party he attended that evening. A taxicab is a temporary escape, a roving island where he can take his mind off his troubles. Being the silent type, he doesn't feel like talking to the driver about his problems. Instead, he loses himself in the movement of the cab, dissolving his pain in the music that he asks to be turned up. The black taxicab hints of danger and caprice. "Black cab" sounds like "black cat," a sign of bad luck. And apparently black cabs have a shady reputation ("If you take a ride with them / You might not come back alive"). So hailing a black cab and telling the driver to "take me home or take me anywhere" is a risky decision, perhaps even a suicidal one. Maybe the singer has a death wish, or maybe he just wants to invite a little excitement into his life to shake him out of his despair. Either way, his thinking and actions are irrational. The sound of bells pealing at the end of the song can mean many things, but for me it evokes church bells welcoming parishioners to services on a Sunday morning. That would fit if the party took place late on a Saturday night, and the extra-long cab ride lasted until daybreak. Another possibility is that the bells are signalling the funeral of the singer. |
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| Huey Lewis and the News – Do You Believe In Love Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This is a classic, timeless song about meeting someone and falling in love. It combines a straightforward message with an absolutely irresistible hook -- that harmony in the chorus kills me every time. The lyric is not deep or complicated, but I actually prefer it that way -- its very simplicity captures the naiveness and excitement of first love. RE: "I'm so glad it's changed" The singer is "so glad" because now he has a real woman ("now I've got you") and not just a photograph of one (see the preceding line). I guess the next logical question is how the singer acquired a photograph of this woman. Perhaps she's a model or a beauty queen. Or maybe she's a former schoolmate, so it was a yearbook picture. Perhaps a mutual friend passed along the photo. Or (shudder) did the singer stalk the woman with a camera and snap her photo surreptitiously? Ah, I guess it doesn't really matter. |
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