| Dire Straits – Tunnel Of Love Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I've always kind of assumed this was an ode to the short-lived bliss that filling a gambling addiction (slots in particular) gives, and how that was reminiscent of the thrill of meeting a girl at a carnival when he was younger. The most obvious lyric is the one about grabbing the lever, letting it rock n roll, he had the one-armed bandit fever. But it goes on. The big wheel turning can be both a ferris wheel and the reels of a slot. The neon lights burning are the sirens that go off when you win, which is where the "high on the world" comes in, the "low ride" is what you experience as you constantly lose quarters to the insert slot. Finally at the end of the song he is told to go away. She left a single quarter in the prize tray (the keepsake in the pocket), which he manages to not spend despite wanting desperately to run back and do. He remembers how excited he was as a kid going to the carnival and riding the ride with a girl, but now he only finds such joy as the anonymous addicted loser planted in front of a slot machine. Probably not what the singer intended the song to mean, but you gotta admit the similarities are uncanny. |
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| The Lawrence Arms – Fireflies Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I'm not sure if this is a sick interpretation of me projecting my own personal feelings, but I have listened to this song for years and I just now got the feeling that this song is about his murder of his ex girlfriend. "Your cold dark face reminds me of the night we learned to smoke, fireflies at our lips" a very beautifully poetic line but is he reflecting over her dead body of the many memories they shared? "Thirty-seven years until I show my face again, steal this moment, make it worth saving." Either a reference to a jail sentence or his going into hiding after the action. So he takes this opportunity, as it will be the last action he takes before he must leave and remembers every second of the last moments of his dying love. "Light sleeper, what keeps you from waking?" as he hovers over her bed in the dark... "The clocks are flipping on their backs" a metaphor for the death of time, the end of a life, her time is up. "I'm brooding over broken nights, I break each sentence like a limb, like a limb" as he hacks apart the pieces to her body. The song closes with him screaming in a violent fit, maybe the actual thrust of the knife into her body. This might be a really twisted interpretation of a beautiful song, like I said I've listened to this song for years and this only just occurred to me. |
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| Modest Mouse – White Lies, Yellow Teeth Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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People talk in soda pop They talk it quite a lot thas line is in both this song and Spitting Venom. Usually I can piece together a plausible explanation for Isaac's lyrics, but I really can't figure what this one may mean. does anyone have any ideas? |
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| Modest Mouse – Out of Gas Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The lyrics of this song may be some of the most creative in all of Brock's writings. The first three lines are the most creative way I could think of to say that he is literally stuck in life, and has no where to go from there. Being out of gas, out of car, means even if he does obtain one, he still doesn't have the other to go anywhere. And in the event he can get those aspects figured out, he doesn't even have road to move on, and so he is still completely and utterly stuck. So where all roads in life end, in intoxication. he drunkenly is telling everyone around him that no matter how good it is at that moment, they are gonna fall back into the same position he is. And he is telling everyone, like one gives away kittens.... I dunno, that seems less insightful now that I've written it down. |
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| Modest Mouse – Dirty Fingernails Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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What's almost as interesting as this song is some of the comments made about this song, and how they reflect what is prominent on the author's mind. There were ideas that it meant suicide, death, sex, drugs (and specific ones at that, not just the general idea of narcotics), and the desire to be a little kid again. Lyrics like these are really what you want them to be, and I can tell what most of you want. But the truth is all of those make sense (except the little kid idea, that was just... should I say childish?), I like to look for meanings that are not the typical deeper meanings present in most songs, or that is interpretted in most songs. That is to say I don't like to think that it is like every other song that is about/interpretted as about sex, drugs and suicide. That being said, I can find several different meanings myself, but none of them are more valid than the previous ones, and perhaps prove only that I have too much time on my hands. If you take it on a semi-literal sense, one should ask "why are his fingernails so dirty?" well while some may answer with some kind of drug reference, I think a more common way to get dirt under your nails is by some kind of outdoors work. Perhaps this song is simply the daily routine of a lumberjack, presumably in Washington where there are a lot of trees. Perhaps the song is about some kind of traumatic event or personal baggage. You can't ever completely cleanse yourself of such, similar to dirt under your fingernails. He carries this baggage with him everywhere. "underneath the cassarole" symbolically showing how the dirt goes from his fingernails and into his food, which would metaphorically always be poisoning him. Why would he choose casserole? Was it just a random food that almost rimes with foor and outdoors? Perhaps casserole was chosen because traditionally casseroles are just kind a mix of all kinds of ingredients, strewn about in a pan and thrown in an oven. If each of these ingredients may represent what makes up his life or "him," but underneath it all lie "these dirty dirty fingernails." Perhaps the most perplexinb and least addressed line of this song is "It takes a lot of energy to make that sound." What sound could he be talking about? Is he referring to the sound of Modest Mouse? Perhaps the entire songs or the lyrics? Maybe this is simply a song of writer's block, as he looks around to figure out something to write about, he notices his finger nails are dirty. He is thinking about what to write in the shower, steps onto the bathroom floor, goes into the kitchen to grab breakfast (or lunch) and then steps onto the patio to find inspiration. All the while, it is explaining how hard it is to write a song, and shows exactly what goes through his mind when he's trying to. Shows the energy that goes into making that sound. Or perhaps sound is much more metaphorical. Sound can represent communication or some kind of emotional outburst, or perhaps some deed he is doing for someone else. I'm not sure how this could relate to the rest of the song though. It is true that after the lyrics, there is some barely audible Brock whisperings, that seem to start with "I woke up in Wyoming." I'm not sure if those are the correct words, how it may relate, or if it does at all. It is just an interesting little side note. |
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| Modest Mouse – I Came as a Rat (Long Walk Off a Short Dock) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| not really too sure on the meaning of this song, but I think how he slips "I came too soon so I came back" into the rest of that song is awesome. | |
| Modest Mouse – Bankrupt on Selling Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I think the most important part of this song is the last few lines involving his ex lover. Quite literally, it shows how he is heartbroken over a girl whom he was completely in love with, but because of a fairly big problem (alcoholism or drug abuse), it just wasn't working. This theme is actually rather easy to relate to. Stemming from that, trying to find happiness despite the depression from the heartbreak, (this is where my real speculation comes in) he realizes that absolutely no one is happy. He looks at the ones who everyone feels are the happiest, whether it's those promised eternal happiness (the angels), rich people (the businessers), or the smart intellectuals (the one who goes to college). However, none of those people are actually happy, just pretending to be as they might in a show (the actors). the angels aren't happy because they are still greedy and would sell out the one who has helped them the most. The businessers are obviously not happy because no matter how much money or "trash" they accumulate, they are "sick of it all." The college student can use his big words, but in the end that's all he does, use bigger words to say what other people say with smaller words, and such a display is also hollow. You can act smarter than someone else by using big words, but in the end that too is just an act. The point is that happiness is unachievable, no matter how hard you try. You can act like it, but none of us are truly happy. Depressing, but beautiful nonetheless. Which brings back to the title "bankrupt on selling." Selling implies that you are getting something back from it, but if you're bankrupt on selling, perhaps it suggests no matter how much you get back, you still aren't content. Either way, this part confuses me. |
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| Modest Mouse – Trailer Trash Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I went and listened to the extended version you guys were talking about. I couldn't decipher the whole thing, but what I did figure out was "You've spent most of your life looking for the adult that you are/ You've spent the rest of your life looking for the child that you were/(can't figure out the last lines). Either way, I figure the story of this song was fairly common among people where Isaac grew up. I guess the literal meaning of the song is that there is a couple of teens, one of them get pregnant, they're going to have to drop out of school and get married. but that marriage is short lived, and they get a divorce, but he still misses her. the first half of the song i figure refers to the actual act of it, and then the second half shows how he still misses her despite all that went on. the snowflakes line probably refers to some food that they call snowflakes, not really sure what; but since they are trailor trash and poor, they eat them off of paper plates and plastic forks. I really have no idea what "I shout that you're all fakes" has to do with the rest of it though, but the rest seems to follow that theme. |
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| Modest Mouse – Alone Down There Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I know that the "Lord of the Flies" is another term for satan, which isn't commonly known, but the novel and several other songs do include this refence. "My name is you" may be his explanation that the "me" and "you" are the same. so when he says "I don't want you to be alone down there" he is also saying that he doesn't want to be alone down there. I also figure "down there" is a reference to Hell, so connecting that to the previous point, he doesn't want to be alone in Hell. "The devil's apprentice/He gave me some credit/ He fed me a line, and I'll probably regret it" may mean he made a deal with satan, or something to that effect. As most deals with Satan go, it will ultimately end with him in Hell, thus leaving him "alone down there." I still am not sure what the line "you ask me what size it is, not what I sell" means. Perhaps it is a reference that he didn't truly consider the deal he made with Satan, as one who asks "what size it is" without any idea what the product is doesn't fully consider such a deal. That seems like a stretch to me though, but I can't think of any other better ideas. |
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