| Screaming Trees – Sworn And Broken Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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Er, that didn't post correctly. Sorry about that. Here ya go: Winter's setting in again, And it feels like the end is near, Sensless, insane and alone, Watchin' the seconds passin' by... |
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| Screaming Trees – Sworn And Broken Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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I don't know why but everywhere on the internet the first stanza is wrong. It should be: Winter's setting in again, And it feels like the end is near, Sensless, insane and alone, Watchin' the seconds passin' by... And RIP Mark Lanegan--you will be missed. |
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| Danzig – How The Gods Kill Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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This song is one of Danzig's chilling songs, because he is speaking directly to the listener and telling them how they can learn the secret of how the gods kill (basically, their power). If you want the power of the gods, it comes at a price. Danzig asks initially, "Do you feel alive in a darkened room?" In other words, do you feel most at home in the dark, reveling in your own black mind? Then he asks, "Do you know the name of your solitude?" Danzig then urges the listener to open themselves up to the darkness "if you want the power." There you have it. Danzig is confessing that he has sold his soul to the devil, or whatever darkness is responsible for giving him his power, fame and talent. If you want it, you too can have it easily . . . if you're willing to follow the same path. I don't know if I believe in any of this or not, but there is definitely something undeniably spooky, powerful and seductive about this song. |
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| M. Ward – For Beginners Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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So, this song is about the fact that when we're young we're optimistic and the whole world seems right and just and beautiful. But eventually we come to a valley, and to "hunters" (people who want to harm us for one reason or another) shooting their symbolic arrows at us. Ward compares this to the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. Before they disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve new no suffering, nor even death. This is in the Bible--it was by disobeying God that Adam and Eve brought their own downfall, which brought suffering into the world, very similar to how Pandora brought all suffering into the world by opening her box. Anyway, as youths we tend to enjoy a brief time when we are without a lot of suffering, but life inevitably brings misfortunes your way. It's just how it is, and there's not much we can do about it. However, Ward does give advice here. Essentially he says to the would-be hunters of the world, "Hey, if you've never experienced any misfortune, go ahead and shoot your arrows at other people." It's very similar to Jesus when he stopped the execution of an adulteress by saying, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." No one could cast a stone because everyone present had sinned. The idea here is asking us all to remember how others have treated us badly, and not to add to the pain of others ourselves. So basically, just be kind to others. |
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| M. Ward – For Beginners Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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So, this song is about the fact that when we're young we're optimistic and the whole world seems right and just and beautiful. But eventually we come to a valley, and to "hunters" (people who want to harm us for one reason or another) shooting their symbolic arrows at us. Ward compares this to the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. Before they disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve new no suffering, nor even death. This is in the Bible--it was by disobeying God that Adam and Eve brought their own downfall, which brought suffering into the world, very similar to how Pandora brought all suffering into the world by opening her box. Anyway, as youths we tend to enjoy a brief time when we are without a lot of suffering, but life inevitably brings misfortunes your way. It's just how it is, and there's not much we can do about it. However, Ward does give advice here. Essentially he says to the would-be hunters of the world, "Hey, if you've never experienced any misfortune, go ahead and shoot your arrows at other people." It's very similar to Jesus when he stopped the execution of an adulteress by saying, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." No one could cast a stone because everyone present had sinned. The idea here is asking us all to remember how others have treated us badly, and not to add to the pain of others ourselves. So basically, just be kind to others. |
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| Why? – The Hollows Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| This is not about Hitler or Nazis. The reference to gay sex and gypsies is entirely coincidental here. The song is a description of a nightmare (the first two lines sets the scene, and the music has a nightmarish tone), and by extension, it is a paean to those dark periods in our lives when we don't quite feel ourselves, or where we are just doing what we can to get by. At those times we can sometimes feel hollow and unreal, like we're just a shell of a human being rather than a full person, and that we're not really in control of our own lives. Moreover, while you're stuck in them, these times frequently feel nightmarish. The reference to 'shaky gums' and 'loose tooths' suggests this--the feeling of our teeth falling out is a common nightmare. The scenes Yoni sets are all indicative of this feeling: foolishly losing money to gypsies and being helpless to retrieve it, the embarrassment of being a non-consenting voyeur during a sexual tryst, viewing oneself as little more than a plant stuck in the ground, or pulled out by someone else. | |
| A Perfect Circle – The Doomed Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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@[BBeerman:23423] Well, first off, I never said APC were Christian. You only have to listen to most of their output to know they aren't. I said this may be the most Christian song they've ever put out. Not the same thing at all! Secondly, I DO think for myself. That's why I'm not blindly kissing Trump's behind like everyone else seems to be these days, at least where I live. I see him for exactly what he is: a fake demagogue and a fool who pretends to be for the people when he's obviously a lying, narcissistic, ignorant, bloated, racist piece of crap. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and a traitor on top of it all. Although they don't say it explicitly, this song is quite obviously about Trump and his followers, and yes, about the long stretch history where people just like Trump bulldoze over the true Christians (whether they call themselves by that name or not is quite irrelevant--in fact, most of the true Christians don't, I think)--the people who actually embrace and practice the values Jesus taught. I don't have to believe in God (I'm actually agnostic, though I think all religions have valuable things to offer the world) to see that Jesus was a truly good man who espoused values we should all embrace: peacefulness, loving each other, including those who are different from you, not hoarding wealth, and helping the poor and downtrodden. Those are all values I believe in, and clearly so do the members of APC. Hence, this is a song that endorses Christian values, which makes it a Christian message. Thus, you can call me whatever you like. I don't take any of it to heart. Have a good one. :) |
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| A Perfect Circle – The Doomed Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| This may actually be the most Christian song APC has ever put out. It condemns those fake people who calls themselves Christians while simultaneously ignoring or attacking the actual values Jesus taught. The new god in this song is clearly Trump, and people like him: demagogues who use the Bible to gain followers but twist the message of it to their own ends. Trump is far closer to the Anti-Christ than to anyone godly, and everything he represents is a slap in the face to true Christianity. And yet those people practically worship him. Meanwhile, the people really represents those values of peacefulness, helping the poor and downtrodden, etc.--some may call themselves Christian, but many do not--are doomed because they always get trampled by the hateful demagogues, the warmongers, the greedy wealth hoarders, etc. This is the perfect song for the Trump era. | |
| Xiu Xiu – Child At Arms Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| It's about child soldiers, obviously. | |
| Scarlet Grey – Mr. Sinister Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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I'm not certain but I suspect this song is about an abusive priest. "Grey girls, grey boys" I think refers to his victims. They're grey because their innocence has been compromised. "Beware gorgeous noise" makes me think he is talking about the church choir, to which his victims may belong. The line "This song's a smoke signal" has a double meaning. Smoke signals were often used as warnings in warfare, but here it also refers to the way a new pope is elected. When the papal conclave meets secretly, they communicate with the outside world by smoke signals. Black smoke means they haven't come to decision yet, while white smoke means they have elected a new pope. Ergo, this song is a warning about the Catholic church and the way it harbors and protects abusive priests. This echoes the song's suggestion to beware of gorgeous noise. But the most telling lines are, "He'll help you take off your dress, insist there's more to confess." He will "help" kids take off their dress so he can get them naked, and he insists there's more to confess. Catholics, of course, confess to their priest. One way an abusive priest can control his victims is by making them continually feel guilty, and telling them that only he can absolve them of their sins, the ultimate irony being that he's the one sinning in that situation. Mr. Sinister is thus a priest. |
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| The Veils – Pan Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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What I really love about this song is how it captures the raw emotion and sweaty, gritty desperation of struggling with oneself. My suspicion is that this is about a man attracted to/in love with an underage girl he knows he can't have. Let me break it down and explain why I think this: "I knew you'd starve in heaven and I'd pray for your release" The idea of starving is a perfect contradiction. Heaven, one would assume, is an endless banquet where one would never starve. And yet that is what's happening to the person the narrator is addressing, which in this case I think is himself. He's saying here, wow, I have everything I ever wanted right here in this one person (heaven), and yet I can't have her. He's praying for his own release, which is a double entendre. He wants the sexual release as well as the release from his self-imposed moral prison. In other words, he wishes he didn't have a conscience so he could just take the girl without remorse. Unfortunately for him, though, he does have a conscience. "There's an angel at my table and a devil up my sleeve With nothing on, nothing but a smile With nothing on, nothing but a smile" This is fantastic imagery. Again, right there in front of him is everything he ever wanted (an angel), and he wants her so badly--the naked, smiling devil, representing his id, which is up his sleeve, meaning he's keeping his desire hidden from the girl. "I knew your prize was empty And that they're waiting on your need Piano white and wide and empty I don't even want to know what that means" He is partly talking to himself here, and partly to the girl (well, in his mind). He knows her "prize" is empty, which is to say, there isn't much to the girl when you get down to it. This is because she is naive and shallow, as kids tend to be. And "they" (guys) are waiting on her need. That is, they're waiting for her to reach sexual maturity. The piano being white and wide and empty is, I think, just a way for the narrator to try to take his mind off his desires. Music is his escape, but it isn't perfect. He keeps seeing metaphors for the girl everywhere, including in the very piano he's playing to distract himself, and he's doing his best to deny it (doesn't want to understand the metaphors). "Why do you wanna know? You're still nothing but a child" This is the tip-off about what this song is really about. He's talking directly to the girl here, who is presumably asking him if he is interested in her. Maybe it's in his mind and he's practicing what he will say to her if she gets too close. Maybe he's actually saying it. It's hard to know for sure. My guess is, this is all in his head. "Will it come back to me? Will it come back...." This whole section has the feel of a ritual, or something like the Hail Marys in Catholicism--he's repeating these lines over and over to himself to try to get back to his senses, or a place of strength where he can easily reject his taboo desires. The ironic addition of 'my love' makes it seem like he's talking to the girl and calling her my love, but in fact, he's asking himself if his love will come back to him. In this case, "my love" is the embodiment of his sexual desire--Eros--and he's not asking if it will come back because he wants it to. He fears it coming back, as you can see in the next verse: "He'll not answer to your bidding I just buried him last night I'm still trying to force another Needle in the camel's eye" So, he buried his Eros, meaning he successfully killed his desire for the girl, at least for now. Again, he's talking to the girl (in his dead) and telling her that her girly charms will not work on him. Despite that, he is still trying desperately to figure out some way where this relationship could work, even though he knows it's impossible. The needle in the camel's eye is a twist of the biblical concept of the camel passing through the needle's eye, which Jesus explained was easier to do than for a rich man to get into heaven, essentially meaning it was pretty well impossible. The concept gets jumbled up as the narrator struggles with his desires, and because of his frustration, it manifests in the violent and scary image of him pushing a needle into a camel's eye. Yikes! "Oh, girl, you ought to know You are still nothing but a child You can't satisfy my heart Of its so called desire" This is pretty much the culmination of his struggle. He finally addresses his forbidden desires head-on and tells the girl (again, in his head) he can't be with her because she's still a child and can never satisfy his love for her, which is "so-called" because he is trying to convince himself that it isn't real, just an illusion born of temporary lust. |
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| Wye Oak – The Alter Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| This song is about a person who is contemplating marriage. On the one hand, the narrator is happiest being single and playing the field, so to speak. They like that freedom. But on the other hand, they are also terrified of being alone, and they know that the older they get the more difficult it's going to be to find that special person. Thus, the title is a pun. The altar spelled with an 'a' is the precise spot where one gets married, of course, but alter with an 'e' (as in the title) means "other" and thus the narrator is of two minds about getting married. Their one self wants to do it, but their other (alter) self does not. Quite the conundrum, eh? | |
| King Crimson – 21st Century Schizoid Man Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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This is a fantastic song that paints a direful picture of the future with very few words. Most of you have got it pretty much right on. The only thing I would like to add is that the first verse is a little confusing in the context. "Cat's foot iron claw" is a description of those old bathtubs--they're literally called clawfoot tubs and were often made of iron. At this point those tubs are antiques. You rarely see them anymore. I think here they are intended to inspire an image of something old and outmoded . . . like war. But they also suggest something violent--a cat's claw is its primary weapon and means of killing its prey. It's an incredibly effective image when you put it into the context of the rest of the song. The other thing wanted to point out was that the line "Innocents raped with napalm fire" is a direct reference to the Vietnam War, particularly that famous photo taken by Nick Ut of the naked little Vietnamese girl running down the road with Napalm burns on her body. It's arguably the most famous image from that war. |
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| The Stills – Gender Bombs Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| He is describing fights with his girlfriend, the perennial theme of male vs. female (hence, gender bombs), and he's basically saying that it's hopeless because you're bound to lose this fight, guys ("The girl will school you"), and logic will break your heart because either the girl is right and you have no real defense against it, or else you're right but it's not worth hurting the girl over. So in the end the girl is ALWAYS right, even when she's wrong. That's what this song is about. | |
| Zammuto – Idiom Wind Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| It's about someone who's all talk and no action. He has big dreams he likes to discuss with everyone but never carries through on. | |
| Captain Beyond – Frozen Over Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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I don't know what song those lyrics go to, but it isn't this. Here are the right lyrics: The lady say I just can't wait To see your face again The lady say Open the gate The man came up to my door, I said The lady say I just can't wait Close the door, The lady say Cant' you see The peasants catching up to you The lady say His own way You can't conceive a thing that you do The lady say Can't you see That death is moving on the door The lady say I just can't wait To see your face again Close the door Ah, your face is frozen over Ah, it's not the one I knew, no no Honey, your face is frozen over Frozen as could be Baby, your face is like a block of ice |
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| Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin' On Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| I'm not completely sure, but all the lyrics add up to this being about The Exorcist, or at least demonic possession in general: the levitating bed, the ectoplasm, the profanity . . . | |
| Timber Timbre – The New Tomorrow Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| This song is about Edgar Cayce, a famous Christian mystic and quack, as all mystics inevitably are. Gladys Davis was indeed Cayce's stenographer. Cayce predicted LA and San Fran would be destroyed sometime at the end of the 20th century. Obviously he was quite wrong. He also believed in Atlantis and a bunch of other nonsense, like that the Piltdown man was real (it was a hoax). | |
| Timber Timbre – This Low Commotion Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| This Low Commotion = This Locomotion. Nice play on words there. :) | |
| Donovan – To Try for the Sun Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| This song is about Donovan's friend Gyp David Mills (a.k.a. Gypsy Dave) and hints at a possible sexual liaison between the two. If so, it would make it an amazingly progressive song for its era (came out in 1966). That's in keeping with Donovan's personality (I mean, "Mellow Yellow" is about teenage girls using dildos, for heaven's sake). Donovan and Gyp were both the same age, so when the song says "Our years put together count to thirty," they would've both been fifteen years old. | |
| Muse – United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| This is about George Orwell's '1984'. Endless war is one of the themes of the book, as is being punished for unproven or false crimes. Eurasia is one of the three superstates in the book, the other two being Eastasia and Oceania (the one the book takes place in). Within that context the song places the current United States, which seems to be embroiled in an endless war against terrorism, and so on. I don't agree with the premise of the song that we've gotten that bad, but we're headed in that direction. | |
| Muse – Uprising Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[jeniferalmond:21627] Nah, fuck InfoWars. They're the Weekly World News of the Internet Age. | |
| Keane – The Frog Prince Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| This song is about Johnny Borrell of Razorlight, who apparently turned into a douche after his band got famous. | |
| Creedence Clearwater Revival – Lookin' Out My Back Door Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Best. Creedence. Song. Ever. | |
| Electric Six – It Ain't Punk Rock Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| It's basically an attack on all the pretentious people who need something to be a certain way before they respect it. We all have those friends who won't listen to anything popular or the least bit melodic because they see the musicians as sellouts. So, to them a band like Electric Six would never be considered punk (perhaps the only musical "genre" the punk aficionado in the ongoing debate truly respects), even though they definitely have some punk elements to them. Worse yet, so much punk is underpinned by hateful ideology these days. Ugh. The song asks why so many young white dudes are so full of hate. What do they have to be hateful about, especially compared the shit all the minorities have gone through? It's like Heterosexual Pride Day--the privileged majority whining about inequality is the ultimate slap in the face to minorities who have truly suffered. What a joke. | |
| Electric Six – I Belong in a Factory Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| His gold-digger girlfriend left him because she saw him as a lowly factory worker and she wanted more. Now he's somewhere between proud and resentful about his working class status. | |
| Electric Six – Graphic Designer Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| As a graphic designer by trade myself, I love all the references to the field here. We all know what Photoshop is, right? Cropping is a technique to trim edges off of an image. Pantone is a color system. Parsons and Pratt are both famous schools of design in New York. And so on. | |
| Superdrag – Sucked Out Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Ha ha, a wedding singer? No, guys. It's about protesting the way record labels want their musicians to conform to some standard, and thus they suck all the heart--the 'feeling'--from it. The concept marriage here is being presented symbolically. The band is, in a sense, married to their label (the "bride" in this situation). They have a contract, just like a marriage license. "45 minutes a side" is a reference to the fact that standard albums have this nice, carefully arranged time frame to fit its music into. When he says, "Look at me, I can write a melody, but I can't expect a soul to care," he's saying, yeah, I can write a poppy melodic song, but so what? What does it mean? It's vapid and empty. And "This was my dream, played out rocking routine" he's being sarcastic. It was NOT his dream to make "played out" and "routine" music. | |
| Dink – Green Mind Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Green Mind -- I mean, come on. Pretty obvious. It's about sitting at home, getting baked and watching 'Ren and Stimpy'. :) | |
| Bush – Everything Zen Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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This song is about Gavin's disgust with the commercialization of pop culture. "There must be something we can eat" is basically what capitalism does to us. There's this saying in reference to corporations: "Unchecked growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." In other words, if your only goal is to keep growing (as is the case with many corporations) then you are essentially a cancer on the system--you're not helping the whole body, only yourself. That concept is summed up in the opening line of this song. He talks of flying to LA, where his asshole brother is. But why? LA is the quintessential cultural mecca, the epitome of the crass commercialism and greed he's talking about. So of COURSE his brother who lives in LA is an asshole. It's pretty much par for the course there. His line "Mickey mouse has grown up a cow" is a direct rip-off from David Bowie's 'Life on Mars', a song that was about the same thing this song's about: commercialism run rampant. The next line, "Dave's on sale again," is a bit of a dig at Bowie for being the very sell-out he used to decry in his own music. And so on. But the big giveaway is actually the chorus and song title, which is a pun: "Everything Zen" = "Everything's in." Gavin is saying: Everything's in? I don't think so. In other words: Everything is for sale these days? I disagree. Voila! |
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| Bush – Swallowed Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| I believe this song is basically Gavin coming to terms with his newfound fame. This song comes from their second studio album, their first being a major hit. He says he's being swallowed/followed by the crowd, which makes sense for someone famous. He gives himself wholly to his fans, but inside he's far away, with his lover ("I'm with everyone and yet not") the only person who really keeps him grounded. | |
| Toadies – Dollskin Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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I'm reasonably certain this song is about a cheating husband and his mistress. It seems like a mundane topic for a band like Toadies, but that is their power as a band to make anything seem even darker than it is, LOL. Essentially this is told from the wife's point-of-view. The bodies gliding from room to room indicate lovers who are no longer attentive to each other. They're just there, but there's no longer any connection between them. The wife rightfully resentful of the younger woman, referring to her as a "doll" because, while dolls are pretty and have smooth skin, ultimately there's nothing there behind the eyes. This doll is "no friend of the family" for obvious reasons--she is a home-wrecker. And the sunlight coming through the window telling the cheating hubby and his mistress that their time is up for the day and he has to go back home and pretend nothing's happening. The whole thing about "when it's over" is actually a bit of a double entendre, as it refers both to the hubby and mistress's trysts and to the marriage itself. |
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| Mother Mother – Very Good Bad Thing Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[Starwatcher23:21381] Scratch that. It's definitely about using drugs, as Reapermane said. | |
| Mother Mother – Very Good Bad Thing Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| It's about a VERY dysfunctional relationship where they are very attracted to each other but are so at odds otherwise that they want to kill each other. We've all seen relationships like that. Maybe some of you have even been in one. | |
| Tune-Yards – Wait For A Minute Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Take it from someone who's been through it: this song perfectly captures what depression is like from the inside. In fact, it's so dead on that it makes me worry about tUnE-yArDs. | |
| Saul Williams – List of Demands (Reparations) Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| It's remarkable how brilliant this song really is. It's both the ultimate protest song and a bad-ass breakup song, and the way he uses both concepts to reinforce and play off of each other is genius. Favorite line: "God's just a baby and her diaper is full." Ha ha! | |
| Saul Williams – List of Demands (Reparations) Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[spinalgrail:21354] Yes, because we must all think in black & white terms and if we use products to survive at all we should never demand change from those companies, right? Oh, and we need to government to keep order, so fascism is likewise acceptable, eh? With all due respect, fuck that. We can rely on these institutions while at the same time demanding that they do better. In fact, I say it's our duty as Americans (or whatever country you belong to) to do precisely that. Things don't get better unless we, the people, demand change. Because the corporations sure as fuck aren't going to do it. | |
| Robin Thicke – Dreamworld Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Vango? It's Van Gogh (as in, Vincent Van Gogh, an artist who never sold a painting in his lifetime and ultimately took his own life). And Marvin Gaye's name has an 'e' on the end. Good Lord. | |
| Stevie Wonder – Black Man Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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All true facts, and well researched! "First man to die for the flag we now hold high" = Crispus Attucks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispus_Attucks "Guide of a ship on the first Columbus trip" = Pedro Alonzo Niño https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Alonso_Ni%C3%B1o "The railroads for trains came on tracking that was laid by the yellow man" = Chinese railroad workers http://web.stanford.edu/group/chineserailroad/cgi-bin/wordpress/ "Heart surgery was first done successfully by a black man" = Daniel Hale Williams (actually he was the second, but still...) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Hale_Williams "Friendly man who died but helped the pilgrims to survive was a redman" = Squanto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squanto "Farm workers rights were lifted to new heights by a brown man" = Cesar Chavez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez "Incandescent light was invented to give sight by the white man" = Thomas Edison, of course (No link necessary--I mean, really, if you don't know who Thomas Edison is...) "First clock to be made in America was created by a black man" = Benjamin Banneker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Banneker "Scout who used no chart helped lead Lewis and Clark was a redman" (actually a red WOMAN) --> Sacajawea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea "Use of martial arts in our country got its start by a yellow man" --> This is undoubtedly true, though no one knows for sure who brought Asian martial arts here first. The closest we can get is Kanō Jigorō, who invented Judo and was on the Olympic committee as early as 1909. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kan%C5%8D_Jigor%C5%8D "And the leader with a pen signed his name to free all men was a white man" --> Abraham Lincoln, obviously (Ditto what I said for Edison) |
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| Siouxsie and the Banshees – Little Sister Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| A priest or other high-ranking Catholic clergyman trying to talk a young nun into having sex with him; when she refuses he apparently kills her, but he is still haunted by her | |
| Ramona Falls – I Say Fever Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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Very simply, I believe this song is about a man who is in love with an underage girl. The clues are all there, but by his own admission he has purposely obscured them (because, let's be honest: the topic is controversial, to say the least). Okay, first off, the very first sentence is a bit of a red herring in context. The notion that this girl "took herself to wait five years" refers to the fact that she had already promised herself not to have sex until after she had graduated high school. It doesn't have much of anything to do with the song's narrator, as it was something she decided before she ever met him. Then we move on strictly to his point-of-view. He has fallen for a very young girl--13, I'm guessing, since it would take a 13-year-old five years to reach the age of consent. When the narrator says, "This is just code to decipher," what he's really saying is, there are clues to the girl's age in the song if you're paying attention, the first and most prominent being the five years that serves as the song's leitmotif. But there are other clues too. One of the biggest ones is the reference to the Piper. The most famous in all of literature is the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and if you know the story, then you know that the Piper wound up leading all of the town's children away from town after the townspeople refused to pay him for ridding it of rats. This is a pretty solid metaphor for the idea that it would be easy for the narrator to lead this girl (who probably has a major crush on him) down the wrong path. Kids are easy to manipulate and that's the point there. So, when he says he chased the Piper, he means he chased off the temptation to take this girl before her time. As for the Plowman, in The Canterbury Tales the Plowman was a symbol of great virtue. Thus, when the narrator "found his Plowman" he means that he found his virtue and resisted temptation. Thus, "Found my Plowman, chased the Piper" are really just two ways of saying the same thing. Another clue is, "hold my heart like a hot potato." Hot Potato is, of course, a game famously played by children. Thus, this girl has the narrator's heart in her hands, but she is too young to know what to do with it. Finally, the biggest clue comes in the form of one of the people advising him: her teacher. Who has teachers? Adults usually do not. This is a young girl still of school age. His final realization about all of this is that, five years after the fact, when the girl finally reaches maturity, she is no longer interested in him: "The first five years go by and we are no longer here." Thus, he decides, "I blame myself for not taking steps to draw her near. I try to decide what to do now based on love not fear." He's saying he should've seized the opportunity while he had it, struck while the iron was hot, so to speak. Instead of being afraid of the consequences, next time he will make his move based on his heart, not his head. Now, please keep in mind that this song is just a song. It deals with a difficult theme, and it's point is somewhat obscured, but it says nothing about Brent Knopf, okay? Just so that's clear. |
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| Death in June & Boyd Rice – Black Sun Rising Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| @[Starwatcher23:20743] It all balances out in the end. | |
| Death in June & Boyd Rice – Black Sun Rising Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| Life is full of paradoxes and contradictions. | |
| T.S.O.L. – Flowers By The Door Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| Suicide. | |
| Ramones – Wart Hog Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| Dee Dee's counselor asked him to write a love song, and this is what he came up with in response. It's essentially the ultimate anti-love song. It's full of hate and revulsion. Is this how he really felt though? I seriously doubt it. This was just basically Dee Dee's way of saying 'fuck you' to his counselor for trying to push him into a corner he didn't want to go into. I wouldn't read anything more into it. The punks were notoriously keen on being offensive for the sake of being offensive, and this song especially was a rebuttal to all those who wanted them to play 'nice' songs. There you have your answer. | |
| Ani DiFranco – Fierce Flawless Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This song is quite obviously about the rape of a prostitute. I'm a little shocked that the other commentators didn't pick up on this. The woman here is trying to report a rape, and instead the police are hassling her about being a prostitute. On the interrogation table lies "two ziploc baggies containing her eyes and her smile" referring to makeup she wears as part of her job, which is now to be used by the police as evidence against her. Then you have these lines: "meanwhile anguish was fingering solace, in another room down the hall; both were love's accomplices, but solace took the fall" - in other words, both the woman and her rapist were "love's accomplices" (they both participated in this illegal act), but it is solace who takes the fall, meaning that both the woman and her peace of mind are being sacrificed in the name of justice while the real criminal, the rapist, is getting off because the police believe she got what she deserved. |
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| The Beatles – Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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This is a clever little song about revenge, which seems odd for the Beatles, but the sly twist makes it more humorous than cruel. He sets up by saying he once 'had' a girl, meaning he had her where he wanted her, or so he thought. In fact, it was she who 'had' him, as in yanked his chain. She made him think he was going to get lucky, but all she really wanted was his company for a few hours. So, the girl invites him to her place, and he is expecting to get it on with her. Instead she prattles on and on until 2 AM, talking about irrelevant things and trying to impress him: "Look at this place, it's made of Norwegian wood. Isn't it good?" So he's been waiting all this time for her to put out, but she instead decides it's time for bed because she has to get up early. She does not invite him to sleep with her (thereby the song hints that they didn't do what he was there expecting to do--have sex); annoyed, he goes off to sleep in the tub, which is no doubt very uncomfortable. When he wakes she's gone; she didn't even have the decency to wake him up and say goodbye. So what does he do? Burns down her precious Norwegian wood house. :-) |
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| Black Sabbath – Planet Caravan Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| First off, I want to say to those who find the lyrics hard to make out: that is intentional. The nature of the vocals is meant to invoke the speech of aliens. The song is about a fleet of alien ships that travel through the universe, looking for others who are ready to do the same. The song explains that they have just discovered Earth, but they bypass it. Why? There a couple of hints as to why: first, the moonlight is describes as falling down like tears, invoking sorrow. The second and most important clue comes from the lines, "And so we pass on by the crimson eye - Of great god mars". Mars is described not as a planet but as a god, and if you know your Roman mythology, you will know that Mars was the god of war. Hence, humanity, which is still embroiled in war, is not yet ready to receive the amazing gift of advanced technology which would allow them to join the fleet of universal explorers, the planet caravan. The aliens are saddened by this, because of the distance they've traveled, only to find a species not yet evolved enough to join them. It is a sad, chilling and beautiful anti-war song. | |
| Tool – Lateralus Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Oh, and I like conjurinistic. To paraphrase a popular beer commercial, stay creative, my friend. :) | |
| Tool – Lateralus Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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You're welcome. No, I don't reject reason at all. Quite the contrary. Reason is necessary for advancement, but by the same token, surrendering entirely to reason would cause us to lose our humanity as well. We as a society and as individuals must strike a balance, but doing so is no easy process. In fact, I believe it's something we have to work for all our lives, because the moment we think we have all the answers, they collapse in front of us like a house of cards. Very Taoist of me, no? :) We cannot find all the answers in one source or another, one philosophy, one kind of thinking or belief system. That is why this song remains purposely ambiguous. There are no easy answers, and in the process of exploration and change we may destroy ourselves, or become something other than human, but we must press on, because to become stagnant as a culture (or as an individual) is a kind of death. We cannot allow simplistic or oppressive ideologies or philosophies to hold us back. |
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