| Ellie Goulding – Anything Could Happen Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Very creative interpretation, bordering on the completely insane. | |
| Awolnation – Sail Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I believe this song is about a drug dealer/user who just lost their lover to an overdose. "An angel" lies dead, killed by drugs from "own supply." Why wasn't he paying closer attention to the situation? He has no real answer. He's always been self-absorbed and emotionally detached. Blame it on his "A-D-D." So what does he do now? Call 9-11? Just kill himself now rather than face the police? Strangely, he doesn't feel as panicked as he should. Even now he knows he's detached and self-absorbed. Maybe he is a different breed. Blame it on his A-D-D. But he is in more pain than he lets on, crying out in anguish as his lover crosses over the to the side. "Sail," to wherever you must go, my love. Sail. |
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| Frightened Rabbit – Good Arms vs. Bad Arms Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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This is a great song and there are some great comments already, but I thought I'd toss in my two cents. I think Good Arms vs. Bad Arms refers in part to his two natures, the side of him that wants his ex-love back (back in his arms' embrace), and the side that wants to grab the guy she's with and beat him senseless. And so the song is about wrestling with those two opposite emotions, the little good angel on one shoulder and the little devil on the other. These hands can give love or they can give pain, and he don't know which one he wants more. The repeating "arms" motif recurs again when he expresses the need to keep both of them "at arm's length," or far enough way that something becomes not immediately reachable. He doesn't want to get to close. For his ex, it's because he remembers her flesh too clearly, because seeing her brings up too many painful memories. He still wants her and he can't have her. He wants to touch her but he cannot. And the reason he has to keep her man away is because he's afraid he might "kill" the guy, or at least beat him senseless. The middle of the song swells with rage. The arms are now munitions. War is declared. The path of anger seems the clearer one. He doesn't know if he wants her back, but he does know that he hates him. Is that the solution then? The final act is the confrontation. The first time he actually has to walk up to the two of them and smile. Can he keep his cool or is something going to give? It's a flash of images. Him beating the guy, telling him to roll over and not fight back. Him looking at his ex, seeing her happy and hating it. Realizing that he still loves her. All the while still keeping everything at arms length. He hasn't given in yet. He's still keeping his cool. But he's right there on the edge, about to snap. And then the song ends, and we still don't know which half of his nature won out. Did he confess his love? Start a brawl? Just turn and walk away? That's the mystery. |
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| Stars – Elevator Love Letter Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The woman is the song is an upper middle class working girl in a big city. Think the "Sex in the City" girls. She's "hard" for a rich girl, or street smart and tough. Or at least she likes to think she is. That's the persona she projects. But inside she's vulnerable. It's harder and harder to make it through her unfulfilling days. She gets so tired after midday. Lately. The man in the song is the sort guy who preys on such vulnerable women. He sees her more clearly than she sees himself. He knows exactly the sorts of sweet little lies he needs to tell to bed her, which is all he really cares about. The man is not a villain, he's just doing what he does. He admits up front that he's incapable of love. He also knows that the woman will hear what she wants to hear anyway, and he doesn't need to try all that hard to lie to her. She needs the fantasy of love even if none exists. When he tells her that he's really saying goodbye, she sings over his words and drowns him out. She's singing about the office, throwing herself back into her work. So that's the cycle. She's unhappy at work, so she sleeps with men out of desperation, then to hide from the shame of that she throws herself back into work. It's about the late nights she leaves the office and takes that lonely ride down the elevator. Perhaps the only moment in her life where she allows herself a moment of honest reflection. |
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| Electric Six – Gay Bar Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This is not a nice song. They specifically state they are going to a gay bar to "start a war." They are going there to beat up gay people. The "something" he has to "put in you" is a knife. | |
| Rogue Wave – Lake Michigan Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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And "sky is burning but at least we're warm" is about polluting the world long term for short term comforts. Like hey, the world is destroyed but at least we feel fine right now. Anyway, this song strikes me as very pro-environment. Ok, I'll stop now. |
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| Rogue Wave – Lake Michigan Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Oh, and the "same colored yellow uniforms" are chemical workers who dumped waste into Lake Michigan. They did so because of corporate greed. "Get off of my stack." | |
| Rogue Wave – Lake Michigan Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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First of all, let me first say that I 100% agree that this song "has nothing to do with anything" as one other poster put it. That said, the lyrics do make a kind of sense. "Leave a little window" is about shady dealings. You leave a window of time between criminal transactions to avoid scrutiny. "Get off of my stack" means "keep your hands off of my stack (of money)." It's not current slang, but you can hear this same idiom in Pink Floyd's song "Money." "Get off of my stack" roughly translates into "Don't mess with my business interests." |
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| Weezer – Beverly Hills Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I think is song kicks ass. I think all of you Weezer fans just let your expectations get in the way of appreciating a good tune. | |
| Anthrax – Bring The Noise Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Good write up, timothius. For a white guy growing up in the Cleveland burbs, I can tell you this cut was played often and LOUD when it came out. We were never into rap per se, but some groups found a way in our boomboxes. I can still remember pounding warm Miller Highlifes in my buddy's basement as this song played. Good times. Truly one of the most important genre-defining hybrid songs of modern times. |
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| Soul Coughing – Super Bon Bon Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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How official are these lyrics? Because it also works as: Will draw You in To hear. |
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| The Tragically Hip – Scared Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Actually, I'm kinda going on out on a limb, but I think this song is about Hollywood, or someone who makes scary pictures, like war movies or Jaws, etc. I mean, the guy says he gets paid to make people scared. He even says it's a business that uses of focus groups. The line "Clearly entranced, you're leaning back now" makes me think of people in a movie theater leaning back to watch the screen, completely absorbed in the images they're seeing. Also the idea that you can watch something dangerous without ever really being in any danger. "Their lives need not be shortened." |
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| Radiohead – Gagging Order Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| BTW, suicide by overdose, if that wasn't clear. | |
| Pearl Jam – Alive Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song seems to have a pretty straightforward history, so my intentention isn't anything other than to suggest this as an alternative reading. I've always viewed the song as a retelling of "Hamlet." It's about a young man coming of age first learning of his father's death, and the psychological impact that has on him. The lines: ""You're still alive," she said, Oh and do I deserve to be? Is that the question?" are an eerily similar paraphrase of the famous lines: "To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more..." Some versions of Hamlet do play with the Oedipus complex and the idea that Getrude is sexually attracted to her son Hamlet. Also, the mother in the song's vivid recollection of the "blood" can be compared to Lady MacBeth's guilt and her visions of blood in the play "MacBeth." Anyway, hopefully food for thought. |
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| Radiohead – Gagging Order Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Radiohead's lyrics are always spare. They give you a sense of things rather than a complete story. That said, when listening to this, I always think of a person using pills to escape an abusive relationship. Even if you've never used hard drugs, anyone who's been on cold medicine is aware is of that feeling of not quite being in your body as it goes about it's daily activities. "Just a body, pouring down the street" seems to be someone in that state of mind. The fact that the drug dose is "a couple" leads me to think we're dealing with pills here, which could be almost anything. "I'm not your property" almost has to be said in reference to a protective/jealous lover. It could be in reference to a policeman, but that wouldn't quite marry with the preceeding line of "I know what you're thinking." However, the "move along, nothing left to see" sounds like something straight out of a police movie. That leaves open the possibility that this song is actually about a body lying at suicide scene cordoned off by the authorities, with the narrator of the song being the vicitim. |
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| Radiohead – Gagging Order Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Radiohead's lyrics are always spare. They give you a sense of things rather than a complete story. That said, when listening to this, I always think of a person using pills to escape an abusive relationship. Even if you've never used hard drugs, anyone who's been on cold medicine is aware is of that feeling of not quite being in your body as it goes about it's daily activities. "Just a body, pouring down the street" seems to be someone in that state of mind. The fact that the drug dose is "a couple" leads me to think we're dealing with pills here, which could be almost anything. "I'm not your property" almost has to be said in reference to a protective/jealous lover. It could be in reference to a policeman, but that wouldn't quite marry with the preceeding line of "I know what you're thinking." However, the "move along, nothing left to see" sounds like something straight out of a police movie. That leaves open the possibility that this song is actually about a body lying at suicide scene cordoned off by the authorities, with the narrator of the song being the vicitim. |
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