| Bad Religion – The Devil In Stitches Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I see it as a story of two people in love who decide to take off on their own, leaving everything they know behind. The beginning, obviously, introduces this girl who blows the young man away. This part: "So don't look homeward angel from that rumble seat I can strum twice and make it all go away," as well as the repeated mention of dancing/running across the yellow sun, evokes images for me of the two of them driving through the desert together, yellow sun in the sky, not wanting to look back (for those unaware, a "rumble seat" is the fold-out back seat that cars used to have in the 1930s, probably used with some creative license here). He's head-over-heels for her, and wants to escape whatever their lives were previously and find something new and different and better. The last stanza I'm not entirely sure of, but to me it suggests that at the end of their journey, they reach a cliff: "I know he drove her out out to the brink That's where they stood and looked down" My interpretation of what happens next (and this may be pretty contentious) is that they jump. "Right then he made a decision That's where they made a division Declaring war on the weather A reckless pact with forever So come on and sing Sing hallelujah Right now." He makes the decision that they can't go back to where they were before. "That's where they made a division" may be a playful way of saying they separated themselves from the cliff they stood on (or perhaps something greater, like dividing themselves from the rest of society) and made "a reckless pact with forever" (which may be death, or whatever you think happens next). "Sing hallelujah" sort of fits in with the suggestion that they gave themselves up to death, or whatever else. Ironically, the one thing I don't get a clear meaning from is the "devil in stitches" bit. It evokes a bit of Americana imagery for me, which is enhanced by the musical feel of the song, but I don't have a concise literary explanation for it. |
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| The Bronx – Inveigh Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Gather your strength, believe everything you say Never break down, follow, or blindly obey Inveigh! Look at us now, up in your skies! We taught ourselves! We taught ourselves! We taught ourselves! We taught ourselves to fly! |
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| Thrice – The Messenger Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Yeah, that pretty much didn't answer my question at all. If anyone else can help, it'd be appreciated. | |
| Thrice – Digital Sea Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I love this song and parts of its lyrics, though other parts bother me a bit. To clarify Descartes' philosophy, his original catchphrase was "Cogito ergo sum," meaning "I think, thus, I exist." His assertion was that all scientific learning must begin from a basis of doubt. That is to say, doubt is the only thing that cannot be negated by doubt (because, obviously, if you doubt doubt, you are still doubting :-) So, when we seek scientific knowledge, we begin from the basis that nothing exists until it is empirically proven to exist, and because I am able to doubt, think, or consider my own existence, I must exist. I think; therefore, I exist. This idea has become the basis of our scientific knowledge, and can be used pretty easily to squash the ideas of agnositicism and organized religion, since the essence of "faith" suggests that what you believe in can't actually be proven to exist (or it would not be "faith"), and thus, from a scientific perspective, it does not exist. I think this is why Dustin paints a picture of Descartes as full of regret and screaming, "Oh, how could I have been so wrong?" A lot of older Thrice material expresses a disdain for scientific understanding, and some sort of inexplicable, overarching "knowledge" that science and logic are wrong or are somehow lying to you. Thus, my own distaste for that part of the song; it seems like a stab at a guy who's been dead for hundreds of years, which is a bit silly. |
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| Thrice – Genie in a Bottle (Christina Aguilera cover) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| They covered it because they have a sense of humor. Lighten up, for fuck's sake. | |
| Thrice – Carol Of The Bells Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Great cover, but I wish I could find it somewhere for download. I was only able to listen to it on their MySpace last Christmas. | |
| Thrice – The Messenger Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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One thing I'm a little unclear on: "Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." - Isaiah 6:10 If you just read this quote, it sounds like he's saying that he doesn't want the people to be healed, for some reason.. I.E. "Do this and this, otherwise they might understand with their hearts and be healed" -- why would this be the case? Is there a greater context needed to understand the situation for those of us who are not Christian? |
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| Thrice – The Messenger Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Small correction: "How can they bear me when their hearts are hardened?" Should be "How can they HEAR me..." as is printed in the lyrics booklet. |
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| Thrice – Motion Isn't Meaning Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This song is about war protests. "What a beautiful way to fake it This sort of graceful defeat We found a pattern out on the pavement Sound the siren out through the streets" The people who hit the streets (sound the siren, form patterns out on the pavement) to protest every war that comes around use it as an escape of sorts; in essence, they've already lost, since the truth is that the people do not directly control the military actions of the government, and that war is an inevitability. In that sense, Dustin sees these people as "faking it" through their defeat. "Advance in perfect nonchalance Do it together with a rifle report Don’t marvel at our confidence It’s troubled, bottled, and above-all deformed" The protesters advance with a group sense of confidence, like soldiers in a platoon. But again, it's not the confidence of a group taking effective action that will mean something in the long run; it's a group that has already been so betrayed by their leaders that they know of nothing more to do than move. Their "confidence" is "troubled," "bottled," "deformed." "Tell me that you wanna stop the war But baby you can't dance if there's no floor Motion isn't meaning It’s just another drug But it's all we've got..." The protesters say they want to stop the war, but the truth is that the people who lead them and who have declared war in their name really just don't give a shit. There is no "floor" upon which their voices will be heard or channel through which their actions will make a difference. Their motion (i.e. their marches, activism, and speech) does not carry an implicit meaning in the grand scheme of things. It may not even matter at all. Dustin does make one important and interesting realization at the end of the chorus: that even if all of this movement and motion is for nothing, it's the only thing many people feel like they have left, and it's the only way for them to deal with the betrayal of their government. In that sense, it becomes a drug for them. This ties in to the next section: "What a way to keep it together A black box, a prescription for speed We found a freeway that goes on forever Drown the demon in the deep black sea Shield your eyes It keeps burning to the rhythm of the rifle repeating Paralyzed But I gotta keep movin' if I wanna keep breathing" The need to fight, to move, to say something consumes these people and becomes the only thing sustaining them in a way. We are reminded again of the rhythm of the rifle report as the protesters march on. The last stanza is written with a sense of irony: "I'll take the life on the easy ship We have our guns for the moment I’ll take the life on the easy ship We have our guns!" Hopping aboard the war machine with gun in hand suddenly seems like a pretty easy alternative to the inescapable defeat of opposing war. Your enemies are made clear to you, and you have the weapons to take them down. The same cannot be said for the protesters, who are left with no alternative but to take motion without meaning. |
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