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| Līve – Freaks Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Right, it's not like there's any incest in the Bible or anything. |
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| Audioslave – Cochise Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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That's only what the title refers to. Cornell said Cochise's last stand was "the war path of all warpaths" and that this song attempts to capture the anger of that. He didn't say the song itself was about Cochise, and the lyrics pretty plainly have nothing to do with the chieftain. |
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| Tom Waits – Day After Tomorrow Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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While this is ostensibly a song about an American solider in Afghanistan (I don't think it's about Iraq, the reference to it being cold where the soldier is sounds more like Afghanistan), the themes this song explores are older than America's wars of the early 21st century, and connect to a long tradition about poor soldiers far away from home wishing to return. The existential recognition by the solider of his enemies shared humanity is one that's been asked repeatedly in artistic works on war since at least the first world war. The reference to "ol' Rockford Town" viscerally recalls the Irish folk tradition brought to America during the Civil War.
I first heard this song yesterday on A Prairie Home Companion as covered by Paul Appleby as part of their Memorial Day show. The contrast with the Waits version is very striking. As much as I love Tom Waits whiskey and cigarette voice, this song is really better served by the more traditional styling of Appleby (at first I didn't realize I was listening to a contemporary song; I thought it must be some old Irish war ballad until it got to "my plane will touch down"). The Appleby cover can be found here http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2011/05/28/ |
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| Tom Waits – Day After Tomorrow Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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It's also probably not about the war in Iraq, but the war in Afghanistan (since he mentions it being cold; while it can get pretty cold in Iraq, that's not what it's known for, while the Afghani winters are notorious). However, seeing it strictly as a song about America's wars in the last decade misses the point. (See my post) |
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| Bob Dylan – Tombstone Blues Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I would argue he's the best song writer of the 2010s, since many of his songs (this one in particular) have taken on new relevance in second decade of the 21st Century. |
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| Bob Dylan – Tombstone Blues Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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There are economic anxieties throughout the song. The entire chorus seems to be about a family who's fallen on hard times. While perhaps there is an echo of the Depression (a relatively recent memory in 1965), it more likely expresses the general economic unease of the second half of the 60s as serious questions about the future of the industries that had supported the American middle class began to emerge.
For what it's worth, these anxieties proved horribly prescient as the next decade saw the crash of the American industrial sector and rapid decline which has continued unabated up to the present and the effects of which are still being sharply felt across the nation. |
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| Bob Dylan – Tombstone Blues Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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It's absurdist wordplay. The sun is yellow. Yellow is also a colloquialism for cowardice. Another colloquialism cowardice is chicken.
The speaker of line is important to, being that he's The Commander-in-Chief. The song was written just as LBJ had ordered US forces into Vietnam, so this would seem to be directly aimed at by Dylan at LBJ. The idea of an arrogant and macho but ultimately deluded president who chases flies and picks a fight with the sun because he takes it for a coward fits perfectly with Dylan's feelings about the war and the general public image of LBJ. |
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| Bob Dylan – Tombstone Blues Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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In the original recording the line in the chorus "Daddy's in the alley He's lookin' for fuse". Although Dylan has recorded and preformed live the song with "food" instead of "fuse", "fuse" remains the original lyric, and IMO the more poetic one. |
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| 16 Horsepower – Hutterite Mile Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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"Hutterites (German: Hutterer) are a communal branch of Anabaptists who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century. Since the death of their founder Jakob Hutter in 1536, the beliefs of the Hutterites, especially living in a community of goods and absolute pacifism, have resulted in hundreds of years of odyssey through many countries. Nearly extinct by the 18th and 19th centuries, the Hutterites found a new home in North America. Over 125 years their population grew from 400 to around 42,000."
The song is about being a spiritual pilgrim. The bizarre and psychedelic imagery is all freighted with religious meaning. I don't know that there's much more to it than that. |
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| Okkervil River – The President's Dead Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The people who keep calling this song "non-political" need to learn how to use a dictionary. The term they're looking for is "non-partisan" but any song dealing with a political office holder and what his fate implies for the rest of us is inherently political. In fact, this song is an exhaustive examination of special relationship American citizens have with the Presidency, and how a martyred president can become a saint-like figure by their veneration.
The political illiteracy on display here is truly appalling. Just because something does not contain a partisan political agenda does not make it non-political or even a-political. Politics is far more expansive than parties or the increasingly irrelevant dichotomy of "left vs. right".
tl;dr: if you think this song is "non-political" you are functionally illiterate. |
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| Tom Daily – The Kids Are Not Alright Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Were you in high school when Columbine happened? Do you remember how right afterward every adult authority figure wanted to "talk" to you about it to "reassure" you, when what they were really doing was trying to reassure themselves. How they saw you and your choice in video games, music, clothes, as a sign that you might be a potential threat. How after that day in April every adult now saw you as a potential killer. This is a song, superficially from the point of view of one of those very concerned authority figures, but that in reality represents the internalization of the fear and loathing that those of us unfortunate enough to be of a certain age on April 20th 1999 underwent and the violence it did to us. |
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| East River Pipe – Helmet On Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I'm going to take a guess that this song is about a closeted gay teenager, and the resulting alienation he feels. The helmet not only represents him hiding his sexuality, but also putting on armor to defending himself against a world that hates him; it's game day, it's go time, put the helmet on and get on that field, quarterback, today's the big game. |
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| East River Pipe – Axl or Iggy Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I can dig what this song is about: you think you're a hard man, a rock star, and even though you're not you play the act pretty well. but then life kicks you in the balls and shows you just how soft and breakable you really are. and soon it becomes a vicious circle of clinging to your dream of who you wanted to be and having it slip further out of rich, going down and down, and there's no way out. because if you're not who you thought you were then you're nothing. |
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| Alanis Morissette – Hands Clean Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I wrote this as a reply to someone, but it deserves to be posted separately
The story I've heard is this song is about Alanis's relationship with Dave Coulier.
Basically, when Alanis was a teenager she had a relationship with Coulier, who I believe was in his early 30s at the time (and a star on family favorite Full House). This relationship remained more or less a secret until "Jagged Little Pill" was released. Coulier heard "You Oughtta Know" and was so convinced it was about him that like the egotistical jerk he apparently is he went and started blabbing in the press that he was the guy Alanis had gone down on in a theater, no longer caring if people thought he was a s sick puppy because, hey, who doesn't want to have a platinum single be about them?
Alanis has categorically said "You Outtata Know" is not about Coulier, however, this song seems to be (I can't remember if she's openly said so, or just strongly implied it). Basically, she was like "Okay ahole, you want a song about our relationship? It's go time" and this is what she wrote.
The lines "We'll fast forward to a few years later / And no one knows except the both of us / And I have honored your request for silence" Would seem to be a deliberate jab at the fact she kept her mouth shut about Coulier when it could have gotten him into trouble and probably ended his career, but then as soon as he saw a chance to profit he started telling the world about them.
After reading this, you will never be able to watch Full House the same way ever again. |
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| Alanis Morissette – Hands Clean Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The story I've heard is this song is about Alanis's relationship with Dave Coulier.
Basically, when Alanis was a teenager she had a relationship with Coulier, who I believe was in his early 30s at the time. This relationship remained more or less a secret until "Jagged Little Pill" was released. Coulier heard "You Oughtta Know" and was so convinced it was about him that like the egotistical jerk he apparently is he went and started blabbing in the press that he was the guy Alanis had gone down on in a theater, no longer caring if people thought he was a s sick puppy because, hey, who doesn't want to have a platinum signal about them?
Alanis has categorically said "You Outtata Know" is not about Coulier, however, this song seems to be (I can't remember if she's openly said so, or just strongly implied it). Basically, she's like "Okay ahole, you want a song about our relationship? It's go time" and this is what she wrote.
The lines "We'll fast forward to a few years later / And no one knows except the both of us / And I have honored your request for silence" Would seem to be a deliberate jab at the fact she kept her mouth shut about Coulier when it could have gotten him into trouble and probably ended his career, but then as soon as he saw a chance to profit he started telling the world about them.
After reading this, you will never be able to watch Full House the same way ever again. |
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| Neil Young – Powderfinger Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Red men could also mean American Indians, which supports the theory this song is about the Metis rebellion in Canada. |
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| Neil Young – Powderfinger Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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While you provide the first good explanation for what "powderfinger" means, that hardly proves this song could ONLY be about the American Civil War. The same sort of guns were being used in other countries, after all. |
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| Neil Young – Powderfinger Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Right, boats never made waves before at least the 1900s. Maybe not until the 1950s.
The stupid in these comments burns. |
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| Neil Young – Powderfinger Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This fits better than any historical examination of this song I've seen. Of course, there's still the fact Neil Young claims he doesn't really know what this song's about and that some of the key verses just came to him in a haze, but Neil Young is perhaps not the most reliable source on the origin of Neil Young's lyrics. |
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| Third Eye Blind – The Background Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I have always thought of this song as being inspired by the same situation that inspired "Wounded" (making Wounded a squeal). Both songs seem to be about some sort of sudden trauma happening to the women that throws the relationship with the narrator into doubt. I'm not sure why I connected these two songs so strongly before examining the lyrics, but I did from the first time I heard "Wounded", long before learning the women in that song is a recovering rape victim.
In spite of my emotional response to connect both songs, common themes tie them together as well. Common elements in both songs include indirect references to some sort of traumatic event, third parties inquiring as to the absence of the women, and a general sense of two formerly close people who's lives are drifting away from each other due to circumstances outside their control.
So, while there's a lot of room to interpret individual lyrics of this song, my money is on this being inspired by the same real life events as "Wounded." |
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| The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Ballad of Jim Jones Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Most cults have some ostensibly admirable beliefs. That's part of how normally rational people become involved in cults to begin with. The New Age cults of the 1970s and 80s were particularly bad in this regard since they pretty much all sold themselves as a path to a better, happier world free of violence or cruelty. |
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| The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Ballad of Jim Jones Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The line "I turned to Jesus and stayed there with him" is probably a refference to Jonestown as well. Many followers of Jones were devotees of other religions first (Islam, Buddhism etc.), finally becoming disciples of Jones, only to wind up "with Jesus" after the infamous mass suicide. |
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| The Decemberists – The Legionnaire's Lament Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Redlights is right about everything, since while the 1800s French/Algeria conflict is what obviously comes to mind when you think of a French legionnaire fighting in a desert, WWI makes more sense.
However, Redlights is wrong that there were no cars in the 1800s, since the word "car" originated as a term for horse-drawn carriages ("car-iage"). However, since horse-drawn carriages don't generally roar, the use of the word in this song would clearly seem to refer to motor cars rather than the horse-drawn kind. |
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| K's Choice – Old Woman Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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It took me an embarrassingly long time to get this song, when really the symbolism is rather obvious, glaringly so by K's Choice standards. The old woman in the wheel chair is attempting to kill herself so she can be with her deceased husband. The Pale Man in the Black Suit she speaks of is Death, who took her husband away from her. The cup of tea is still a mystery to me, but it may not have meaning, and may just be something kind of absurd and sinister to take in trade for a loved one. |
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| Tonic – Wicked Soldier Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I've long speculated that the soldier in this song is the father of the girl in Soldier's Dauther. In both cases, the songs deal with a soldier, who we're given the impression is something of a bad man. While this song doesn't give much of a clue to why that is or what he's done, it seems to suggest something bad that he's trying to hide, though it may or may not be his fault. |
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| Songs: Ohia – John Henry Split My Heart Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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"green line track" is almost certainly a reference to the Chicago L's Green Line, which runs from the far south side into downtown, and then out west into the near suburbs. Since I grew up near the green line tracks, I like this song a lot for that line. |
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| Rainer Maria – The Awful Truth of Loving Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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While I think Emo pretty well nailed the meaning of the song, I'll add a note about the interesting switch in gender perspectives this song does. In the first verse, we get the typically female relationship concerns ("it's a dilemma of girls and boys for centuries should I be with you? should I forget about me?). In the second verse, we switch to typically male anxieties (“it's a dilemma of boys and girls for centuries do I really know you? do you really need me?”). I think some people may assume that this song is sung from the perspective of one person, when in fact the story is told by both members of the relationship. |
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| Sonic Youth – Tom Violence Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Every rock song can be about heroin. That's the default guess when you have no idea what a song's about, and it usually carries 60% chance of being right. |
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| Lisa Loeb – Waiting For Wednesday Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I always suspected this song was about a girl waiting for her period, but since having that theory confirmed I havan't enjoyed it as much. Too anxity provoking maybe? I don't know. |
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| Lisa Loeb – This Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Loeb: "David is one of my closest friends. I've known him since I was a young teenager. We did plays together in high school, and even went to prom together. We went to college together and then moved to NYC at the same time. 'I told David I won't die' is a literal reference to the way I was feeling at the time - sometimes really depressed, but that, don't worry, I wouldn't let anything drastic happen to me. Many years ago when I wrote the song, I played music to help me get through depression, and to express myself, and work through difficult feelings. Also, it was almost like something I repeated - a mantra - to remind myself to get through the day. Like in Snow Day, 'You're not too tired for this life, and it's not gonna matter if you fall down twice.'
You'd never guess a song this upbeat sounding was about someone reassuring a friend she was't suicidial, but there you have it. |
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| Lisa Loeb – Lucky Me Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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pretty clearly this is a breakup song. Not just any breakup, but the kind that sends someone already prone to depression into a spin where they start thinking things like “I’ll jump off and take a drive” (I may be reading too much into that line, but not by much). It also has an attempt at optimism in lines like “Just think of what you’ll get when you’re past this,” but hearing the way this line is song, it’s clear that’s more of what she has to tell herself to keep going, rather then what she truly feels. The same goes for the first two lines (“How bad could it be, To be alone for now, To be free”), where she rhetorically asks a question the tone of the song answers. This gives the title line a bitter sarcasm.
A pretty dark song, on a pretty dark album from someone who’s not well known for singing dark songs because she usually sounds happier when she does it and most people don’t catch the lyrics (case in point, This, which sounds upbeat, but according to Lisa Loeb is, roughly, about reassuring a friend she wasn‘t going to kill herself). |
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| M. Ward – Helicopter Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I think the Sonic Youth reference (Tom violence has taken) the wind out of my sails makes perfect sense if you read the lyrics to the Sonic Youth song and compare, viewing them with an eye to this one. |
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| K's Choice – Already There Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This song almost falls into the category of depressing to the point of absurdity (the poor woman’s husband and son both die tragically), but the lack of any instruments and the ethereal quality of the vocals (which I only consciously realized after listing to the song a few dozen times) make it indescribably beautiful and sad.
The song clearly deals with someone who’s suffered an incredible lose and their response to it, which is one of true existential resignation (“and we’ll join you up there, we no longer care”). For a band who’s no stranger to existential themes, this song goes against the frequent invocations of religion in many other K’s Choice songs to suggest there is no God. The bitterness of the line “I no longer pray” and the conclusion “because if there was a God he would let you say” are striking when compared to the frequent references to God on prvious K’s Choice albums (which are noteably absent for most, it not all, of the other songs on this album). Weather this song represents a lose of faith by whichever Bettens wrote this song, or if it’s simply a character narrative of someone’s reaction to lose is something I can only speculate on. |
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