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| Pulp – Pencil Skirt Lyrics
| 4 months 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
| 4 months 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
| 8 months 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
| 1 year 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
| 1 year 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
| 1 year 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
| 1 year 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
| 1 year 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
| 1 year 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
| 1 year 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
| 2 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.\r\n\r\nYeah, 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
| 2 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
| 2 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
| 2 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
| 2 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
| 2 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
| 2 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
| 2 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
| 2 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
| 2 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
| 2 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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| Leonard Cohen – First We Take Manhattan Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[Achillesponders:38353] Maybe. Or maybe he's saying his cover story is that he's an organ-grinder, which is a very dismissive reference to his career as a musician. As another great songwriter put it: "I'm just a song and dance man." |
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| Leonard Cohen – First We Take Manhattan Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[mirelg:38350] -- your writeup of the Protocols is an impressive piece of work, as is your tutorial on circumcision. This circumcised goy approves.
I know that Cohen always wore his Jewish identity with pride, so references to Jewish culture and religion are not to be discounted. And I agree that the "birthmark" is not circumcision--not least because it's a mark that's applied after birth. LC's use of language is too exact for that kind of imprecision.
I interpreted the birthmark line to refer to the old tradition that birthmarks are marks of the devil. Or maybe the mark of Cain? That would give a nicely Dostoyevskian Notes from Underground spin to it, consistent with Cohen's comments about the song depicting the terrorist mind set.
The sign in the heavens is another omen. Fanatics are always seeing signs everywhere, and interpret them as reinforcing their destiny.
As for the line of people moving through the station, I recalled old films from Poland where people were being forced into cattle cars. I'm still trying to see how that fits into the rest of the song, though. Maybe "that's what they'll do to me if I don't overthrow them."
And "twenty years of boredom" suggested to me the straitjacket of straight life. "Twenty years of schoolin' and they put you on the day shift."
It also struck me that Cohen might be mocking artsy people who regard their bohemian lifestyle as being revolutionary. The whole bit about the fashion business fits with that.
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| Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[tim278:38164] It doesn't always work out badly. Sure, "wherever you go, there you are," but that restless discontent and wanting to move on to something better is quintessentially American. Best thing I ever did was leave the dull blue-collar suburb I grew up in. But the tricky part is to know when to stop running. I ended up happily settled in a small city in another country, where my kids wanted to escape the routine, and so the cycle continues. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[anthony29:38163] What's your beef with gay people? A lot of derelict city centers have been revitalized by gay people moving in. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@tramps like us Having grown up in the 60s/70s Whittier Blvd cruising and streetracing scene in the Los Angeles suburbs, this song has always resonated with me. Car culture, suburban anomie and discontent, big dreams. Springsteen really captured the combination of desperation and big aspirations. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[fastfingerz:38162] The older hemis from the early 50s were smaller. Chrysler started with a 331 and then kept scaling it up until it got to the 426. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[nagromnai:38161] The Chrysler Hemi was a V8 engine with hemipheric combustion chambers (hence the name). Very solid design, popular among hot-rodders and street racers. |
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| Tom Waits – Hold On Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[River:37797] Wolf Monte Rio's small but not shitty. It's along the Russian River in Sonoma County, CA. It's a really nice spot. Definitely small, though. Not a place to enjoy young adulthood unless you're into hooking up with tourists. |
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| Tom Waits – Hold On Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[revolutionofone:37796] Spoon rings have been around forever. I made some in the early 1970s. Thought it would be an earner, but gave most of them away to girls. Tom Waits always seems to know those micro-level obscure cultural references. |
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| Blind Faith – Can't Find My Way Home Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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"Come down off your throne" means to me that the person being addressed should stop thinking it's just about them. There are others in the world who are affected by their behavior.
"Somebody must change." You.
"Somebody holds the key." You.
"I'm near the end and I've just not got the time." I'm not in great shape myself, either. It's now or never.
"And I'm wasted" etc. We're both lost in this world.
General note: this makes a good companion piece to the Kinks song Strangers. |
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| The Pogues – The Old Main Drag Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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A couple random bits:
The Dilly - Piccadilly Circus and vicinity. He later also mentions Leicester Square. The hustling was more likely done in Soho.
The metal doors at Vine Street - there was a police station there for a long time, now closed and replaced by a new property development. |
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| Leonard Cohen – Anthem Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[neptune235:36557] Nice story, but Spike Milligan, a decade or more before Cohen wrote Anthem, said "Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light." I think Cohen adapted and improved that. |
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| Ian Dury – Billericay Dickie Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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Between her rum and her Ribena - common drink for less-discerning women, also between her bum and her vagina.
Mandy - A Mandrax, methaqualone, known in the US as a Quaalude. Not MDMA, which is now called mandy in some quarters.
Bandy - bow-legged.
Isle of Thanet - The eastern end of Kent where Ramsgate and Margate are. Hasn't actually been an island since the Middle Ages.
Prannet - a nitwit.
Shaped up tricky - when a footballer appears for a match in an unfit state. So, he was always in prime condition for his women.
Shoeburyness - Essex estuary town not far from Southend. |
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| Ian Dury – This Is What We Find Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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Jubblified - wobbly.
With only half a stalk - not well-endowed either.
Omo - an old brand of detergent.
Frankie Vaughan - a bland early-60s teen idol, sort of like Pat Boone.
Giving herself a scratch - self-pleasuring.
Laid a cable - shat.
Claggy on the waggy - something sticky that's dried onto the dog's hindquarters.
O Vanitas vanitatum - "O Vanity of Vanities!" from the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Another gentleman's kippers in the grill - implying his wife is serving breakfast to another man.
Winkle - as in Wee Willie Winkle. |
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| Bob Dylan – Desolation Row Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[Alex_kx3:35085] The Duluth incident is only one of many lynchings that were accompanied by the sale of souvenir postcards, though I can see why that one in particular would be particularly resonant to Dylan. |
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