| Snow Patrol – Starfighter Pilot Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I thought about that too, but if Andrew is associated with drugs, why would the narrator stay sober for him? I imagine this song as being a lot younger; nerdy pre/early-teen hero worship (On this note, I also think Andrew is a character, not an actor). The lines "i would raise my drink to you but i'll stay sober just for you" are a bit like he's correcting himself, like he's just heard that saying, but he remembers that Andrew would disapprove, "real heroes" are brave and honest and don't drink or do drugs. Batman or someone says "stay in school" and you snap to attention and say "Yes, sir!" I think one big question is about the change in listener (when it switches from talking about Andrew to talking to You): i cradle his picture at night you know i'll think of you your picture on the wall Now, is he adressing the listener throughout, shifting his adoration from Andrew to the listener, or is he shifting his attention from talking About Andrew to talking To Andrew? I personally think it's the latter, adding a third character and a second relationship to the song doesn't seem to make sense. Plus, everyone slips into those fantasies sometimes, imagining you really know or can have conversations with big celebrities or heroes. |
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| MGMT – Kids Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I don't know, I still think that interpretation is too literal. The focus on natural things, trees and insects, I think is more an a appeal to the primal than the modern. They could have talked about littering, or styrofoam or lumber if it was about the environment, or they could have talked about strollers or gameboys or Hogwarts if it were about today's society, but those are so narrow in scope. Gameboys and Divorces and Environmentalism are about this era. Every kid ever born anywhere has poked bugs. It's what kids do. It's not destructive on any cosmic scale, it's not creative. Its just the kind of stupid timekill that sucks us in when we're little and have nothing to worry about. | |
| MGMT – Kids Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Why thank you. | |
| MGMT – Kids Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Look, I don't know why everyone's fighting over whether its about the environment or drugs or childhood or divorce. It's about all of them. Its all the same thing, human nature, just in different perspectives and scales. Any fight between our selfish, excitable, inexhaustible child mind and our cool, logical, responsible adult mind can fit this song. I'll take it apart from the childhood perspective as vaguely as I can, you can apply it to anything else, yourself. You were a child Crawling on your knees towards it What's 'it'? No way to tell. I'm a firm believer in the "Intelligent Writer" theory. If we were supposed to know, we would. As kids, we are unexperienced. We really have no idea what we're doing or what we're moving towards. It's there, it's exciting, and we want it right now. Making Mama so proud But your voice is too loud There are people telling us what the consequences are, what's good and what's bad, but we won't listen. It's not in our nature, we have to find out for ourselves. No time to think of consequences We can only ever know retrospect Control yourself Take only what you need from it This is the pressure from others. Grow up. Think before you act. Do the right thing. It's kindly meant, it's wise advice, it's constantly buzzing around the back of our mind, (which is why it's the chorus), and one day soon we will be forced to own up to it. But we don't want to be trapped. There's everything we'd have to give up: A family of trees wanted to be haunted People get too caught up in literal and double meanings, and symbolism, and they forget the imagery. Haven't you ever been a kid in a forest, running just far enough to pretend your parents aren't breathing down your neck? Trees are so massive and fascinating and infinite! What if you could leave this whole dilemma behind, and just stay there, and be as outrageous as you want? Haunt the forest, live in a thriving, infinite, passionate world that cares for you like a family, forever. That's only 90% of all children's stories ever written. Maybe we can pretend for just a little while longer that that's the world we live in, or that if we wait it will find us before we have to leave it behind. But of course, that makes us ghosts. We'd be frozen in place, just as trapped. The water is warm But it's sending me shivers Contrasts; warm is a positive, it's pulling me in, but shivers, it's also frightening. Again, it's mostly indecision, aprehension, we're not willing to move ahead, but we can't just stay where we are forevermore. a baby is born crying out for attention More contrasts: having a kid is great, and being a baby is wonderful and innocent. On the other hand, caring for a baby is exhausting, being a baby is scary as hell and dangerous. You can't have innocence without experience, or good without bad, can't take without giving. the memories fade like looking through a fogged mirror pretty straight forward. Time passes, passions are dulled, lessons distorted and forgotten. Our memories are fallible, so history repeats itself. decision to decisions are made and not bought This bit's clever, it would normaly be decision to decision/ decisions are made and not bought. By condensing the two bits we get decision to decisions, plural, as we go from making a one choice to making more and more, (might be growing autonomy or repeat offences. Or both). Decisons are made and not bought, I thought was a play on words, you usualy 'make' things with the intention to sell them, someone else decides what they're worth, gives you what you deserve, and takes them off your hands. You make all of these decisions and they don't go anywhere, no one keeps track of them, rewards/punishes you for them. They just keep piling up in your head, defining you as this big jumbled mess of good and bad, right and wrong. Which leads into the next few lines, by theme and by rhyme. But I thought this wouldn't hurt a lot I guess not Life is nowhere near as simple, safe, and easy as the white lies our parents tell us. It's like the Doctor Who quote "When you're a kid, they tell you it's all... grow up. Get a job. Get married. Get a house. Have a kid, and that's it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It's so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better." |
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| The Killers – Bling (Confession of a King) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I diagramed this song for a music video set to a tv show. Mine is based on a hero, defending his optimism When I offer you survival You say it's hard enough to live It's not so bad, its not so bad Is him talking, trying to cheer up/comfort a friend ////////////////////// How do you know that your right? Is the friend, who's new; overwhelmed and confused by the suffering they see ////////////////////// I awoke on the roadside, In the land of the free ride Is the hero's flashback, and sort of a description of his life, just wandering through life with out understanding why or where he's going (bit hazy stil, feel free to comment) Awoke on the roadside, meaning movement is constant, no beginning or end. Land of the free ride may mean everyone is in motion, but free rides are arbitrary, they don't go anywhere we choose, or anywhere in particular at all. ////////////////////// I can't pull it any longer Note switch to present tense. Also fuzzy, but could mean the hero has recently stopped trying to run destiny/the world. He can't force life to go where he wants it to, can't save everyone. ///////////////////// The sun is beating down my neck He's tired. Very straight forward. 'Pulling" doesn't seem worth it. /////////////////////// So I ran with the devil Left this trail of excuses Switches back to past tense. Also straight forward. He's done lots of things he isn't proud of. /////////////////////// Like a stone on the water The elements decide my fate Watch it go Present. Could mean two things. One, stones sink like stones, drowning reference; fate is against him. Watch it go, control is slipping away from him Second, the one I'm choosing for my specific purpose, is more zen. He's letting go more, like the smaller stones smoothed and carried by the river, he's letting life shape and guide him. Watch it go is more positive now, he gets to experience life by watching and admiring it, rather than fighting against it. ////////////////////// When I offer you survival ... Poor and tired but more than this Repeat of intro, with a more earnest tone. Life is not perfect, or even great, but it is worth it. /////////////////////// How do you know that your right? If you're not nervous anymore I'm going to say that this is the friend's retort, because I can't even fathom what it would mean if it was the optimist saying it. PLEASE COMMENT IF YOU MIGHT KNOW IT'S DRIVING ME NUTS! Anyways, in mine the friend is saying, how can you believe life is so great if you're so unafraid of you're own death? If life is so wonderful, even in the face of all the dark things you've seen, shouldn't you be afraid of dying? //////////////////////// It's not so bad, It's not so bad exactly what it says //////////////////////// I feel my vision slipping in and out of focus but I'm pushing off for that horizon I'm pushing on again, could mean two things One, he's dying, and either waiting to see what's on the other side, or trying to finish his mission here. My first impression, since your vision starts to blur as you lose consciousness, but it doesn't fit my story. Two, much more general, he sometimes loses sight of where he's really going or what's most important, but he knows he's going somewhere. Any direction is toward the horizon if you walk with enough determination /////////////////////// now I've got that blowing wind against my face could mean adversity, being pushed back, but I think it's a positive, like the rush of air you feel as you pick up speed. also, a counter to the hot sun beating down his neck. ////////////////////// So you sling rocks at the riptide Am I wrong or am I right? an accusation, (I'm not sure on which side, but I'm saying that it's the friend talking) that the other person is wasting angry efforts, almost like shouting at a hurricane. ////////////////////// I hit the bottom with a huh quite strange I get my glory in the desert rain watch it go Some people are interpreting the third line as "I get glory when hell freezes over". These people have never been a small child in Arizona. Summer monsoons are the most gobsmackingly spectacular things you could possibly experience. They may be rare, but i would go three days without air conditioning in July down here to just stand there in a half hour summer storm. Each and every plant that struggles through the rest of the year explodes into life literally overnight, like spring condensed into an evening I think this means that the hero has seen the best and worst of times, that hitting rock bottom was an experience that has changed him, but he clings to those moments of every now and then, when something incredible happens that makes everything worth while. Watch it go, again, just means enjoy it. all the complexity and beauty and texure of life. ///////////////////////// ... And I'll tell you when it's over Shut up, Poor and tired but more than this getting more desperate, he's determined to pull his friend through, because he's seen all this before, and knows that it gets better if you hold on ///////////////////////// How do you know that you're right ... It's not so bad, it's not so bad see above. ////////////////////////// Higher and higer Basically, we can get through the rough times. If we keep on going til the very end, down to the wire, we can find those desert rain moments, and make it out. ////////////////////////// It ain't hard to hold when it shines like gold you'll remember me Anyone can be good when times are kind. Our misfortunes define us as much as anything else. The hero accepts all of the hardships that he's come across, the mistakes he's made, and takes pride in the fact that he's become a person worthy of remembering. It's Doctor Who, if anyone cares. Everyone does videos of him being tragic and angsty, but I don't think that's how he would put if he were telling his own story. The point is that he keeps going. |
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| The Killers – Bling (Confession of a King) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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It ain't hard to hold when it shines like gold You'll remember me Seems obvious to me. Whatever context you put it in, religious, epic or domestic, this is a song about heroes, people who fight through odds that seem impossible, even to them. Its easy to hold on and keep going and be a good person when everything is shiny and perfect. Heroes are forged in the difficulties they over come, and those people are remembered. |
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