| James Taylor – Never Die Young Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| @[jimmypolecat:235] I could not have put it better. Thank you. | |
| Steely Dan – Jack of Speed Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| "Trading fours" is a music slang for when two soloists battle on stage, taking turns playing short, improvised, four measure solos each, attempting to get one up on the other performer every time. It's a frenetic, competitive point in the concert. Conversely, there is usually a time during the concert for relaxing or playing ballads. Using a performance metaphor, if you are going to leave an addict, it's best to get out during the ballads (quiet times), than to "trade fours" or battle with the addict. | |
| Steely Dan – Jack of Speed Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| "Trading fours" is a music slang for when two soloists battle on stage, taking turns playing short, improvised, four measure solos each, attempting to get one up on the other performer every time. It's a frenetic, competitive point in the concert. Conversely, there is usually a time during the concert for relaxing or playing ballads. Using a performance metaphor, if you are going to leave an addict, it's best to get out during the ballads (quiet times), than to "trade fours" or battle with the addict. | |
| Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I don't see this as a "boys will be boys" situation, nor someone making excuses for someone else, and definitley not a political position. In order to make excuses, you need to see that there has been wrong-doing. But the people in the story just gloss over the boy's behavior. I think Warren Zevon is making fun of the world and the very human condition of denial-turning a blind eye to things that make you uncomfortable. In particular, denial in the face of increasingly insane behavior. I mean, the boy should have been in for some pretty serious counseling, medication, and maybe even lock-up after he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest at Sunday dinner (definitely after biting the usherette) - LOL! The responsible people just said, "He ain't crazy, he's just high-strung, excitable!" The genious of the song is how he delivers a horror story without offending the listener. He was a master of his tools-irony, words & music. I don't think he's taking sides. Denial to a greater or lesser degree is part of all of us. I'm guilty. I would guess that Warren Zevon saw it in the world, as well as in himself. He seemed to be a very humble and aware man. Great songrwiters and comedians can show us show us who we really are, and how ridiculous we can be. Yes, he is laughing at the world, you, me and himself. Somethings are just funny. |
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| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Thank You! | |
| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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The song is about addiction. It uses 3 examples: addictions to anger, sex and gambling. They probably avoided a drug or alcohol reference in order to drive the point home that EVERYONE has addictions, not just drug addicts. It is part of being human. The bottom line: Verse 1: When we make poor choices, and we do not appreciate the full force of the consequences, we will put ourselves into the same situations again. Verse 2: Unless we admit that we don't know what we are doing, we will decieve ourselves into believing that next time things will be different. Verse 3: You can lie to others, you can lie to yourself, but you can't lie when that monkey on your back gets hungry. You want to know if the monkey is still on your back? Walk by the produce store. I'll be damned if you don't come home with bananas. You have and will continue to make the same stupid, yet dangerous, choices over and over again. |
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| Steely Dan – Dont Take Me Alive Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I would have to say it is a barricade situation. The true nature of his crimes are left deliberately ambiguous. The song-writer did not want people to get stuck on a situation, but to feel an emotion. The prime emotion here: desperation. His father is neither a robot or a 'bookie'. BTW: bookies are bookMAKERS (gambling odd-setters and bet takers), not bookEEPERS(low-level accountants). He says that he is a bookeeper's son as a way to say that he is NOT a tough guy. He comes from a safe and stable up-bringing. He's just an average guy in a horrible situation. Something went wrong back home, and he has come to the end of the line hounded and surrounded by angry pedestrians and lawmen. The mechanized hum is a reference to mental-illness. How else to truly good people end up commiting horrible acts? People in desperate situations or who have "snapped" and hurt someone will often "disconnect". They often say they heard voices or "ringing" or humming in their ears. They will say things had a very mechanical feel. They will later say that they were running on "autopilot". He is obviously desperate to get away from the mob, the police, justice, anxiety. So, he withdraws from reality into the dark recesses of his soul, by doing so, he realizes who he truly is, what he has done, and the true gravity of his situation. |
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| Steely Dan – Jack of Speed Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The "Jack of Speed" is an addict under the influence of speed, meth, crystal, etc. Very popular these days, and the downfall of many a good man and woman. Unlike many other drugs which are anti-social right from the beginning, speed seems to fool people into thinking they are productive, initially. Then, one day they're at a party, and spewing political hogwash (speed addicts often come across as arrogant, pompous blow-hards), or intimidating their loved-ones, or simply skating backwards at the speed of light socially, losing friends, property and time in the process. The shreik express represents the swift and unwavering progression of one's demise when under the drug's spell, as fast and predicatable as a speeding locomotive, and with his "new best friend at the throttle", Jack won't be the one deciding when the ride is over . The last verse is a warning to the loved ones to save yourselves, before it's too late. The attraction as well as the sure destruction of the drugs are so strong and bewitching, that anyone wishing to make it had better just plug their ears and run, as fast as you can, in the other direction. |
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| Steely Dan – Haitian Divorce Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I am inclined to almost totally with hubofhip, with a bit of a twist. In answer to mark36: My understanding is that a "Haitian Divorce" is actually another term for an uncontestable unilateral divorce which can be had in Haiti with a 24 hour waiting period (no joke). In the old days that was pretty rare. In most US locations, people had to wait several weeks to several months. In addition there was the issue of courts, lawyers and possibly meesy settlement issues. In California we used tohave what we called a TJ (Tijuana) divorce. ie: a quicky uncontestable divorce AND a cheap vacation for one low price. I don't see how issues as violent as theirs could be resolved by a few day break from one another. They have what we call out here "unreconcilable differences". I think the whole idea of "take me where the music plays" was an attempt to lift her spirits after the actual divorce. I think she came back unmarried, but pregnant with, presummably, Clean Willie's unborn child. But, suprise, those baby curls didn't staighten out over time at all, they got kinkier!!!! Now, that's irony. I don't know of anyone named "Babs" or "Clean Willie", except maybe high soicety preppy types. In social circles a bi-racial child would be, in my in my estimation social suicide. She thinks she putting on over on him, and it it turns out that she got stuck in a high-class situation with a bi-racial child. Hoo-rah!! | |
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