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| Idles – Exeter Lyrics
| 1 month ago
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"Poor George" refers to George Mortimer, a teenager who was raped and murdered in Exeter in 1999. |
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| The Pogues – A Pair of Brown Eyes Lyrics
| 3 months ago
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@[mycomment:54421] When the soldier was wounded, he was thinking of his girl back home, who subsequently dumped him when he returned disabled. The younger narrator later in the song says "I saw the streams, the rolling hills where his brown eyes were waiting" which makes absolutely no sense if it's the enemy the old boy was talking about. Both men were dumped, for different reasons. In the case of the younger narrator, the reason's unclear, but at the start of the song, it's implied he's out on the piss because of it. |
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| The Pogues – A Pair of Brown Eyes Lyrics
| 3 months ago
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@[sgmca:54420] Or maybe Ewan MacColl's lyric from Dirty Old Town: "I kissed my girl by the old canal, dirty old town, dirty old town." The Pogues covered it, and Ewan's daughter Kirsty collaborated with them on other songs.
And to me, "the sounds of long ago" are an echo of the old songs that the narrator heard on the jukebox while he was getting pissed. |
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| Madina Lake – Statistics Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[CallieFaye:52257] Knowing the sublety and nuance of many other Richard Thompson songs, the notion that this was a sign of the author's naivete is very unlikely. It's a song with an unreliable narrator, or at least one who's learned a lot since the events he's recounting.
Also, I don't agree that the "flower is faded" refers to menopause. He lists the causes in the next phrase: hard weather and hard booze. She's lost her looks to outdoor life and alcohol. And I don't think he's implying it's an excessive price. I think it's more that he didn't continue that life, but he respects her for it.
And I've known apparently delicate, fine-boned women who are incredibly tough. It's possible to be both. |
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| Richard Thompson – Beeswing Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Atman:52256] Excellent analysis, though I don't agree with the prostitution angle. That'd be too sedentary for her.
"Derby beat"-- there are well-known circuits that travellers follow when following seasonal work. Typical of RT to know that.
And while White Horse has been a popular brand of whisky for a long time, it's worth mentioning that one of its greatest selling points has been its low price.
He loved her for being free but he still tried to hold her, so she had to move on.
It's a bit like Bobbie McGee but with no assumption that she was looking for a home. And there's the wise observation that freedom doesn't come without a cost, and the acceptance that it's the path that she's chosen. |
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| Madina Lake – Statistics Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[seamusb:52255] One of the most famous images of the Vietnam was was of the napalmed girl running from an American attack. There's one burning baby for you. For another, during the Watts riots in Los Angeles in 1965, a "Burn, Baby Burn!" was a slogan popularized by a local DJ and later taken up by some in the Black Power movement. The Summer of Love happened during a period of intense social conflict (and it was a long way from a steam laundry in Dundee).
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| David Bowie – Diamond Dogs Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Mattorocks1:51833] Or it's just a hump like Quasimodo's. I recall in Ian Banks's Culture series there was a subculture who would do amputations and extreme cosmetic surgery for fun because it was all reversible and so why the hell not give it a go? They did gender changes too. I get the same feeling from these verses. |
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| Little Feat – Dixie Chicken Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[ledmandlin:51818] Dixie Chicken and Tennessee Lamb are both widely-advertised foods. Lowell George uses them in a humorous metaphorical context, like saying someone's his red-hot tamale or his key lime pie. |
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| Lou Reed – Vicious Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[exobscura:51543] I heard differently. John Lydon had a pet hamster named Sid Vicious. Lydon knew John Ritchie and thought Ritchie's attempts to act tough reminded him of the hamster. So John Ritchie became Sid Vicious.
Sadly, Ritchie was no intellectual heavyweight, had no ability to detect sarcasm, and took the moniker seriously. |
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| The Kinks – David Watts Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[sobot:51382] Likewise the line "he is so gay and fancy free." David's got more going on than just being the head boy, but the narrator seems oblivious about it. |
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| The Tragically Hip – Bobcaygeon Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[sevenstarwheel:51379] Yeah, except the Men They Couldn't Hang were as far from being Aryan/fascist as a band could be. So I think Gord meant something else, like the fact that the fascists were enjoying impunity while the police were busy knocking in the heads of those who opposed them. |
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| The Tragically Hip – Bobcaygeon Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[TGFM:51378] I think they're more London Irish: the band started in Camden Town in London. They were contemporaries of Madness and the Pogues, played in the same venues. I was living very near Camden Town at the time, the clubs I used to go to back then are one of the reasons I have tinnitus now. |
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| The Tragically Hip – Bobcaygeon Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Nick:51375] Chopper So let's consider alternatives. The Men They Couldn't Hang (the band) were very anti-fascist, pacifist too, and Aryan's not an adjective I'd apply to their accents. And as others have noted, "Aryan" is an adjective one might use for a fascist, but not a Communist.
So it makes better sense that Gord's referring to fascists acting with impunity, which they often do, since too often, many police sympathize with them. And modern fascism carries with it echoes of Nazism and its Aryan racial myths.
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| Buzzcocks – Whatever Happened To? Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[yewbarrow:51185] Perhaps a bit of overthinking in the other replies. "Cow" is a term for a woman who's not very bright. It fits with the superficiality that is criticised in other parts of the song.
Also Henry Cow is a band, not a person, like Pink Floyd. |
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| Buzzcocks – Whatever Happened To? Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[yewbarrow:51183] Perhaps a bit of overthinking in the other replies. "Cow" is a term for a woman who's not very bright. It fits with the superficiality that is criticised in other parts of the song. |
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| Pulp – Pencil Skirt Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@p117668627 It's easy, even lazy, to be skeptical on the internet. I spent the late 70s as a guitarist and songwriter in a band. Not a particularly successful one, but we toured regionally, opening for some acts you might have heard of. Even the roadies were getting action, it wasn't challenging. I did OK, was tall, thin and blond, though somewhat awkward and lacking in small talk. Alcohol helped with that, though it led to some longer-term problems I had to deal with later. The easy sex door slammed shut in the early 80s when people started getting the bug. But by then, I'd moved on, got a paying job and left the country. Hard to say more without revealing personal details. |
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| R.E.M. – What's the Frequency, Kenneth? Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@giantwhitebird When the song was written, Tager hadn't been apprehended yet, so the motive for the attack was unknown. I think Stipe's speculating that the attack was a form of cheap thrill-seeking, like benzedrine was for his (our) generation. At least that's how I try to interpret the song so that it makes sense. But as others have said, finding clear interpretations of REM lyrics is a bit of a losing game. They're more like impressionistic sound-collages with little pithy observations sprinkled in here and there. |
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| R.E.M. – Crush With Eyeliner Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[ZinbobDan:48110] Stipe's rumored to have been involved with a few women along the way as well as men. He once described himself as "an equal-opportunity lech." I have gay friends who don't mind crossing the line in exceptional circumstances. And, of course, a song doesn't have to be literally about the singer. He could be adopting a persona.
As to the relation between what Courtney Love thinks and reality, I will just note that, if it's true, "sad tomato" and "three miles of bad road" certainly fit. But it's hard to take anything she says seriously. |
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| Humble Pie – 30 Days in the Hole Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[ShempDavies:43103] Makes sense, though hard to tell for sure with Marriott's somewhat mushy enunciation on the versions I've heard.
The little man was one hell of a singer, regardless. |
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| Humble Pie – 30 Days in the Hole Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[drmorf:43102] I recall trying red (not black) Lebanese, as well as the blonde. Black Nepalese was a rarity in those days but quite lovely. And Durban Poison is weed. It was one of the first strong sativa strains to be cultivated. Not as nice as Humbold sinsemilla (which was already being grown back then) but still quite good.
So the song's about Steve's favorite road entertainments, and how some of them could get you busted back then. And the one involving the spoon still can. |
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| The Clash – Koka Kola Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[Bird:43098] On A Wire For a long time, I did work in Silicon Valley where part of the job was to interact and socialize with senior execs (CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, COOs, mostly). Some are names you'd recognize. Quite a large proportion of them were sociopaths, and quite a lot were cokeheads too. Where those groups overlapped, it was especially toxic. I went to after-work parties where there were bowls full of cocaine on coffee tables. These people were sharks when sober. They were even more obnoxious after a few lines. I share your sentiment: I despise cokeheads.
Now I work with scientists at a research facility. It no longer feels like I'm a handler in the venomous reptile house at the zoo. |
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| The Clash – Koka Kola Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[superviv:43097] The narrator of the song finds it funny that Coca-Cola ads also advertise cocaine. And high levels of the advertising industry, among others, runs on cocaine.
"So freeze!"-- referencing the numbing effect of coke. |
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| Bob Dylan – Shelter from the Storm Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood
When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud
I've always thought that this pointed back to the Civil Rights movement, which Dylan was closely involved with. |
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| Bob Dylan – Shelter from the Storm Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[Fourtoes:43005] There might also be some mingling of sacred and profane in "I bargained for salvation and she gave me a lethal dose." In the vernacular, a woman giving a man a dose is generally the clap. Talk about betrayal of his lofty needs. Other songs on Blood on the Tracks also allude to her adultery.
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| Can – Halleluhwah Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[yugedralya:42127] One minor correction: "Searching for my mainline" is from Sister Ray, not Heroin. The chorus of Heroin is "Heroin, it's gonna be the death of me. Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life."
The VU also performed a song live, never released on one of their albums, titled "Searching for My Mainline." |
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| Captain Beefheart – The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica) Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[SuccessStory:41690] As someone of a similar age to Don Van Vliet, and who also grew up in Southern California, I have vivid childhood memories of the Goodyear Blimp flying over. The blimps were (and maybe are?) moored in Carson. I couldn't say if they got as far as Lancaster, where DVV lived. Yeah, about those drazy hoops, I've still got no idea where that phrase came from, though I agree it seems to reference propellors. |
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| Sublime – Wrong Way Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[Sublemon:40558] I think you\'re underestimating how much the narrator is part of the problem. He wants to help her, he talks about it, but in the end he\'s just another scumbag exploiting her. |
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| Sublime – Wrong Way Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[savedbymusic:40557] Yeah, he\'s thinking of all these ways he can save her, including killing her dad, but all he ends up doing is running off with her and using her until she runs away. |
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| X – Los Angeles Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[CouchpotatoHero:40521] I was there. Had a nodding acquaintance witth Exene and John because I\'d go to the bar if an opening act sucked and they did the same. Exene was really funny and, I found out, very well-read. \r\n\r\nI never had blue hair. |
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| The Clash – London Calling Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[Venice_Queen:39873] When I hear the bassline, I expect the lyrics "There\'s a crack upon the ceiling, and the kitchen sink is leaking."\r\n\r\nKinks, Dead End Street. Simonon might have unknowingly borrowed that. |
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| The Clash – London Calling Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[lambretta006:39872] About how the music scene was becoming dead, but the cops were still out knocking heads. |
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| The Clash – London Calling Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[WouldItBeYou:39867] "Don\'t look to us, phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust." That\'s saying that the Clash reject being the next Beatles, next "voice of their generation."\r\n\r\nNot really a comment on the Fab Four. |
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| The Clash – London Calling Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[knockout000:39865] "Engines stopped running" -- there was an oil crisis in the late 70s engineered by OPEC. \r\n\r\n"Nuclear error," "meltdown expected"-- Three Mile Island. \r\n\r\nI think you\'re right about it being about the rumours going round. "You know what they said-- well, some of it was true." |
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| Frank Zappa – Let's Make The Water Turn Black Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[kid:39854]-44 As well as an airplane, "bomber" was 60\'s SoCal slang for a fat joint. I know because we used to say that. @[Daryl333:39855], I never heard it used for a hot rock. But maybe the slang was different in different places. |
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| Townes Van Zandt – Rake Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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It's a retelling of the legend of Don Juan. In the original, the Devil makes him pay for his dissolute life. In Townes's version, he carries in himself the seeds of his own destruction. The dual life of carousing by night and defiant regret by day is destroyed by the days merging with the nights, leaving him no escape from his pain.
Hogarth's Rake's Progress is another reference point.
This is a profound song. Leave the vampires for the kiddies. |
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| Townes Van Zandt – Nothin' Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[midnightcarousel:38416] Yeah, I've always thought "Echoes strung on pure temptation" is an exact description of how an addict feels when his/her poison of choice comes floating past.
And I kind of disagree about it being primarily about drugs. It's more about depression and the burden of life. Addiction is only one of many problems. It's an almost Puritanical message about life being full of snares and pitfalls from the minute you're born.
"Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
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