| Steely Dan – Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The whole song about a man who ran guns, drank a lot, and died in a car crash while driving under the influence. I have several reasons that point to this conclusion. Point 1: Look at the lines... Driving like a fool out to Hackensack Drinkin' his dinner from a paper sack He says "I gotta see a joker and I'll be right back" What was a routine run to a client, which he did while driving maniacally and drinking, turned out to be a fatal crash. Point 2: Steely Dan often uses music to help emphasize a point. Right after singing this line, there's a heavier guitar riff that appears nowhere else in the song. Point 3: Right after this line, the repeated lyric has an emphatic "no" added to it (*No*, my daddy don't live in that New York City no more"). Point 4: The whole song is mostly dealing with both his Eldorado (Cadillac) and his heavy use of alcohol. My case rests. |
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| The Statler Brothers – Flowers On The Wall Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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It sounds exactly like he is in an insane asylum. I keep hearin' you're concerned about my happiness But all that thought you're givin' me is conscience I guess (the person he is singing to is the one who committed him) If I was walkin' in your shoes, I wouldn't worry none While you 'n' your friends are worried about me I'm havin' lots of fun (they are worried about his mental health, but he is savoring his insanity) Countin' flowers on the wall (if you stare at a plain, smooth surface long enough you start to see a flower-like shape... it happens to me whenever I look out the window of a plane at the sky above the clouds) That don't bother me at all Playin' solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty-one (he's "not playing with a full deck of cards") Smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo (a nice calming program that might be allowed to show in a psych ward rec room back when people, including patients, could smoke in hospitals) Now don't tell me I've nothin' to do Last night I dressed in tails, pretended I was on the town (a strait jacket?) As long as I can dream it's hard to slow this swinger down (schizophrenia is often described as having a hard time separating reality from fantasy) So please don't give a thought to me, I'm really doin' fine You can always find me here, I'm havin' quite a time (Having fun or having fits of psychosis... you decide) It's good to see you, I must go, I know I look a fright (most psych ward patients do not groom themselves well) Anyway my eyes are not accustomed to this light (low light to keep patients from reacting) And my shoes are not accustomed to this hard concrete (padded room) So I must go back to my room and make my day complete (OCD rituals or routines like taking his pills) |
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| Steely Dan – Only A Fool Would Say That Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Two references to John Lennon, or at least the Beatles: "imagine" and "brown shoes" (although Old Brown Shoe was written by George Harrison, but who shared Lennon's hippie utopia mindset), as well as references deriding his vision in Imagine of everyone living freely and "You may say I'm a dreamer" in the line "A man with a dream". I think the gun reference - "unhand that gun begone, there's no one to fire it upon" replies to pointing fingers at others (as pointing at others tends to look like the gun position kids use when playing cops and robbers) and that there's no one who is deserving of blame (having the accusation targeted at them). Thus the "if he's holding it high, he's telling a lie" means if he's pointing it at those high up, especially someone who would hold a "bed-in" protest at the Amsterdam Hilton, like Lennon, (or as if he is higher and better than everyone else), he's a hypocrite. |
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| Steely Dan – Only A Fool Would Say That Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| What on earth does your parents' race and nationality have to do with understanding Spanish? It's not like you learn how to comprehend another language through genetic coding. | |
| Steely Dan – Dr Wu Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think Katy is his addiction, his drug. At first "Katy tried" to make him happy with that song she sang to him to make him. Then as he does the drug later (after the sax solo, or "A few years later...") it no longer brings him the same pleasure it did. Sure he still gets strung out on it, but it doesn't bring him the same level of euphoria as the old days. He's trying to find the "song" he used to sing. Dr. Wu is supposed to cure him of his addiction, but it seems a Herculean task ("or are you an ordinary guy"?). And because he is not the mythical superman DF believes him to be, he suspects that Dr. Wu might have also fallen prey (get it, praying mantis/katydid, an insect that kills her lover while he copulates with her) to "Katy". Kind of like how doctors back in the day would examine your lungs with their stethoscope while smoking a cigarette and having a hacking cough themselves. |
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| Steely Dan – Rikki Don't Lose That Number Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| IF this is true, that's awesome. | |
| Jack Johnson – Sleep Through the Static Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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My comments are in parentheses... I copied and pasted the song to make it easier to show individual line comments. The song is about war and people's complacency to go along with whatever the media feeds them which is whatever the government, in turn, feeds them and how America has gone into this whole bifurcation of American/un-American. Trouble travels fast When you're specially designed for crash testing Or wearing wool sunglasses in the afternoon (basically, it comes fast for dummies - who are designed for crash testing, and people who not only have the wool pulled over their eyes, but do so to keep them from the glaring truth) Come on and tell us what you're trying to prove Because it's a battle when you dabble in war You store it up, unleash it, then you piece it together (America is dabbling in war, some troops in Afghanistan, some in Iraq, we sprinkle soldiers all over the world to fight wars) Whether (should be "weather")the storm (might be a tongue-in-cheek reference to "Operation: Desert Storm" our first all-out war in Iraq) drain running rampant just stamp it And send it to somebody who's pretending to care (again, government sends pre-approved reports to the media who pretend that they care about the people dying - see JJ's song "The News" if you want to really see his disdain for new reporters stoicism when reporting even the most heart-wrenching horrors of the world) Just cash in your blanks for little toy tanks (war bonds) Learn how to use them, then abuse them and choose them Over conversations (instead of talking, we fight) relationships are overrated (our relationships with the rest of the world who turned their backs on us with the pre-emptive wars we started) "I hated everyone" said the sun (should be the "son", as in Dubya in not caring about the other countries' opinions in the first place) And so I will cook all your books (Bush's and Cheney's involvement with Enron or the burning of books for censorship) You're too good looking and mistooken (media feeding us what we want to hear -including compliments like "Because you deserve the best" rather than the truth) You could watch it instead From the comfort of your burning beds (we make the beds we sleep on and most people choose to get their information only from TV rather than researching it for themselves to get a less biased perspective because that takes more work than just plopping in front of Fox News or CNN and letting them do all the thinking for you) �Or you can sleep through the static (ignore the media, an option few choose) Who needs sleep when we've got love? (why ignore the media when they make you feel important) Who needs keys when we've got clubs? (why try to unlock doors when we can just bust them down) Who needs please when we've got guns? (why be polite when we have power) Who needs peace when we've gone above (why should we care about world peace when heaven is our final destination) But beyond where we should have gone? (when really we should go to hell for what we've been doing) We went beyond where we should have gone (we have overstretched ourselves by fighting on two fronts) Stuck between channels my thoughts all quit (can't decide who is right - the liberal media or the conservative media) I thought about them too much, allowed them to touch The feelings that rained down on the plains all dried and cracked Waiting for things that never came (his feelings of hope for peace or resolution of 9/11 falling onto despair - dried and cracked) Shock and aw(the term that Bush liked to toss around for his pre-emptive war that outlasted his presidency)ful thing to make somebody think That they have to choose pushing for peace supporting the troops (people being told they are not supporting their troops for wanting the war to end when really the truth is, people who support war also support troops being killed) And either you're weak or you'll use brut(e - "brut" is a cologne) force(limp-wristed treehuggers versus the real Americans)-feed the truth is we say not as we do (I love how he links up four collocations - brute force-force feed-feed someone the truth-the truth is... okay, the media forces their truth down our throats - the whole "Mission Accomplished" b.s. and not showing the bodies of soldiers coming home and the truth is even though we claim freedom and justice for all, our actions for the last nine years have been anything but) (another favorite linking verse...) We say anytime, anywhere, just show your teeth and strike the fear Of god wears camouflage, cries at night and drives a dodge (what "real Americans" do. They are Christian, ready to make their enemies fear for eternal damnation, using their teeth to intimidate them. The real American is a soldier and drives not just an American car, but a...) Pick up the beat (march in time, soldier... follow everyone else, Americans and stop marching to the beat of a different drummer) and stop hogging the feast That's no way to treat an enemy (the greedy opportunistic companies guarding the oil wells which happen to be plentiful in the countries we've attacked, keeping the locals from accessing them) Well mighty mighty appetite we just eat 'em up and keep on driving (after draining their resources, we'll just move on to another country like, oh say Iran...) Freedom can be freezing (giving up protection?) take a picture from the pretty side (don't look at the ugly side of what's happening) Mind your manners wave your banners (don't question what's happening, just be patriotic) What a wonderful world that this angle can see (everything looks good when you only pay attention to what the media wants you to see) But who needs to see what we've done? (All the atrocities, including reneging on the Geneva Conventions in order to torture prisoners and hold them indefinitely without trial, that the Bush administration tried to sweep under the rug) (rest of chorus repeats) |
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| Jack Johnson – Sleep Through the Static Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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My interpretation of the chorus - this song being about how people are happily lulled into not thinking about the unpleasant truth about war by willfully ignoring what is really happening and being satisfied with what the media tells them... "Who needs sleep when we've got love?" (why ignore the media when they make you feel important and of course, everybody loves America, right?) "Who needs keys when we've got clubs?" (why try to unlock doors like everyone else when we can just bust them down with force) "Who needs please when we've got guns?" (why ask when we have the power to just take things) "Who needs peace when we've gone above?" (why should we care about world peace when heaven is our final destination) "But beyond where we should have gone?" (when really we should go to hell for what we've been doing) "We went beyond where we should have gone" (we have overstretched ourselves by fighting on two fronts) |
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| Steely Dan – Everyone's Gone to the Movies Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The line is definitely "chinos". I've never heard it as "cheaters". Which one makes more sense - "take off your glasses and sit right down" (most people take their glasses off after they sit down) or "take off your pants and sit right down" (yep, pants have to come off before you sit down)? I like the sleazy saxophone blowing raspberries in the background and the minor chords while describing everything happening in Mr. LaPage's den and the lighter music playing as the parents say "Everyone's gone to the movies, now we're alone at last..." Further prove of the musical genius behind Steely Dan where even the music itself has a role in the lyrics. |
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