| Joe Jackson – Real Men Lyrics | 3 months ago |
| The shocking prescience of this, released in '82. | |
| Stevie Nicks – Edge of Seventeen Lyrics | 7 months ago |
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In my reply above, I said "Where do you go from there? I don't think this song really presents an answer." Actually it does. As I said - the clouds bring rain, the rain turns the sea grey. Stevie's reply to the reality of ageing, of "but inside, I'm still me!" was: "And so with the slow graceful flow of age I went forth with an age old desire...to please" To please - to bring pleasure. She tried to reply to the reality of her 20's being gone forever with sex. Sex, in fact, with someone a bit too young. Someone with the words of a poet, the voice from a choir. Just some young dude in some band at the time . No idea who. And it didn't work out. "Well then suddenly there was no one left standing in the hall". Oops. Yeah, Stevie - it happens. And it sucks. We all just have to deal. |
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| Stevie Nicks – Edge of Seventeen Lyrics | 7 months ago |
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Yes, the lyrics quite obviously are about sex with a 16-year-old, notwithstanding all the efforts to downplay that. But that's not what the song is about. When it rains, the sea changes color, but it does not change. What color does the sea become? It goes grey. The song is about aging. Edge of Seventeen was released in 1981. Stevie was born in 48 - she would have been 33. Her tumultuous 20's over, the Fleetwood Mac sex betrayal sagas becoming a thing of the past. The music scene full of babies doing New Wave. Fleetwood Mac and Stevie still very beloved artists, but their fans beginning to age. It comes earlier for women than for men. At 33, a woman is still a sexual person, still able to have a child. But the end is in sight. One day, it's mostly all over. The storms of life come and go, we go grey eventually. It comes as a surprise, even though we should expect it. Yet even so - the sea does not change. I'm still me, still the same person. Where do you go from there? I don't think this song really presents an answer. |
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| Stevie Nicks – Edge of Seventeen Lyrics | 7 months ago |
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Yes, the lyrics quite obviously are about sex with a 16-year-old, notwithstanding all the efforts to downplay that. But that's not what the song is *about*. When it rains, the sea changes color, but it does not change. What color does the sea become? It goes grey. The song is about aging. Edge of Seventeen was released in 1981. Stevie was born in 48 - she would have been 33. Her tumultuous 20's over, the Fleetwood Mac sex betrayal sagas becoming a thing of the past. The music scene full of babies doing New Wave. Fleetwood Mac and Stevie still very beloved artists, but their fans beginning to age. It comes earlier for women than for men. At 33, a woman is still a sexual person, still able to have a child. But the end is in sight. One day, it's mostly all over. The storms of life come and go, we go grey eventually. It comes as a surprise, even though we should expect it. Yet even so - the sea does not change. I'm still me, still the same person. Where do you go from there? I don't think this song really presents an answer. |
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| Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman Lyrics | 10 months ago |
| This is a song about a man who is stalking a woman by abusing his position as a county lineman. He "hears her through the wire" because he is tapping her phone. As is usual with these types, he reverses victim and offender by claiming that he "needs" her, even though he doesn't particularly "want" her. Unsaid is that this state of affairs is somehow all her fault. The contrast between the daily mundanity of his job and what is really going on when he is up there on the pole is signalled by some sort of key change/modal modulation. The music is wonderful. The lyrics are chilling. | |
| Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman Lyrics | 10 months ago |
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This is a song about a man who is stalking a woman by abusing his position as a county lineman. He "hears her through the wire" because he is tapping her phone. As is usual with these types, he reverses victim and offender by claiming that he "needs" her, even though he doesn't particularly "want" her. Unsaid is that this state of affairs is somehow all her fault. The contrast between the daily mundanity of his job and what is really going on when he is up there on the pole is signalled by some sort of key change/modal modulation. The music is wonderful. The lyrics are chilling. |
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| The Moody Blues – Blue World Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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Hippie political stuff. The world is blue from outer space. If you take the big picture, take a step back, so far back you can't even see all the politics and war, it's blue. It's a new world - age of Aquarius and all that. Yay: the old things are passing away, and peace, love, and freedom are going to take us all to a new era of … of … peace and love, I guess. Oh, and freedom. Everyone helping one another. Oh, and 'open doors' is a reference to hallucinogens. Why not actually do it, why not actually step forward into this brave, new world, rather than stay mired in cynical defeatism? It's easier to try that to prove it can't be done, after all. Then the soldiers bought back heroin addiction from the Vietnam war, and it all turned to sh*t. As Hunter S Tompson said: "With the right kind of eyes, you can see where the wave broke, and the tide pulled back". Some time in '73. But that was some ways in the future when this got written. This song was right in the middle of an age of optimism and hope. |
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| Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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It's been established that he was still in love with a woman who had married someone else. This gives context to "I hear you singin' in the wire I can hear you through the whine" As a linesman for the county, he has the equipment to hook up to her phone line and listen in to her conversations. He is stalking her. |
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| Joan Baez – I Gave My Love a Cherry Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| A cherry that is plucked while still a flower, a chicken still in the egg, are metaphors for premature birth. A baby that does not cry is stillborn. | |
| Martha and the Muffins – Echo Beach Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| This is one of those "Yearning for a faraway place" songs. I always find it bittersweet. I'm reminded of "Africa", by Toto. All of these songs are about lost childhood, or heaven, or something just over the horizon, or on the other side of the mirror. | |
| Gwen Stefani – What You Waiting For? Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"Look at your watch now" A hot female - even a super hot one - doesn't stay hot for long. Gwen knows it. They all know it. I see the HBs, and then I look over at the cougar rack and think "look at your watch, HB". Desperate to marry money, desperate to capitalize on their sex while it's still good. Like the devil, they know their time is short. Read more at http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858518034/#lmrMf07pYc2qK1WO.99 |
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| Gwen Stefani – Hollaback Girl Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Ooops - wrong GS song. Hollaback Girl is simpler. "Gimme an E!" "E!" "Gimme an F!" "F!" "I aint no holla-back girl" is a "rap boast" - she's the cheer *leader*, not just one of the girls in the chorus who hollers back. Im' reminded of Whoopi Goldberg's "Sister Act": "I was never a Vegas showgirl. I was a *headliner*!" |
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| Gwen Stefani – Hollaback Girl Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"Look at your watch now" A hot female - even a super hot one - doesn't stay hot for long. Gwen knows it. They all know it. I see the HBs, and then I look over at the cougar rack and think "look at your watch, HB". Desperate to marry money, desperate to capitalize on their sex while it's still good. Like the devil, they know their time is short. |
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| Robbie Williams – Kids Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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As to whatt the song means to me - Well, the chorus has a *wicked* chordal structure. The verse vamps A to D (basically), and the chorus is A... | C... | D... | F.G. C... | B... | D... | F.G. A |
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| Robbie Williams – Kids Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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And the "I'm going to give it all of my love" - the "it" is marriage. Once again, as the church requires. I suppose the song might be about some other person. But its about how sex according to the church - married and un-contracepted - can still be good. |
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| Robbie Williams – Kids Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Robbie is roman catholic, or has some sort of roman catholic influence. "Through it all, she offers me protection" - "Shee" is Mother Mary. The Catholic church forbids the use of contraception. The only legitimate purpose of sex is in order to procreate - anything else is the sin of Lust. But that's ok: he doesn't mind doing it in order to have children. So jump on board! |
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| Queen – Dragon Attack Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Gonna use my stack It's gotta be Mack Marshall speaker stacks, perhaps? Anyway - I love the bass on this one. |
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| Dexys Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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It's about a pair of young people that don't realise that they are about to fall into exactly the same trap that their parents fell into - getting pregnant young. They think they are young and clever, but they are no younger and cleverer than all those resigned, beaten down adults were when they too were young. Pretty soon it will be "I'm pregnant, Dexie. What are we going to do?" A hasty marriage, Eileen will lose her shape and sparkle, and he will be working 'down mill for tuppence a month for the rest of his life, just like his sad old dad. (Compare to my comments on Bohemian Like You - another song that uses a similar irony). |
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| The Dandy Warhols – Bohemian Like You Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Oh. since I didn't mention it earlier - there are a number of songs where the central irony is that the singer, the song's "narrator", is deluded or mistaken about something and doesn't know it, even though it's obvious to the listener. Another is "come on Eileen". | |
| The Dandy Warhols – Bohemian Like You Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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it's about a guy picking up a girl - thinks he's smooth, thinks he's playing the girl. Turns out, the girl is a complete maneater and he doesn't even realise it. In 2 months time, *he* will be the poor sap sleeping on the couch, not getting any, while this girl brings home a succession of guys and bangs them right under his nose. And the sweet thing is that he won't be able to complain or looked bummed - not even a little - when he is eaten up with jealousy, because of his own rules - Mr "Casual, Casual easy thing". Turns out love and sex is never really a casual easy thing. Someone always gets hurt. And Mr Smooth here doesn't realise that it's going to be him. |
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