| Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Okay, it only took me like a hundred years, but I think I got it. He plans on having sex with a hooker and then killing himself. What he doesn't plan on, though, is falling in love with the hooker. That's why, 'he woke up the room was bare/he didn't see her anywhere/he told himself he didn't care, pushed the window open wide/felt that emptiness inside to which he just could not relate' fits. When he goes to jump out the window he doesn't relate to the emptiness that he felt before. He doesn't kill himself and instead tries to find her, waiting for a simple twist of fate. | |
| Bob Dylan – Going, Going, Gone Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| From Live at Budokan 1978, released 1979. But I'm fairly certain it's still "I'm going", not your suggested "I ain't going". | |
| Tom Waits – Foreign Affair Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Well to be most original, Wow! I can't believe no one's commented on this song! But seriously, pardoning the somehow cliche statement, this song is great. The 'most vagabonds' verse is phenomenal, so telling in so few words, great poetry throughout the song. I think in this case we are all vagabonds where our obsession is in the chasing and not the apprehending. Obviously the idea that the grass always longs greener, etc. but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's hope that keeps us going, not to raise the topic that the subject of heaven (per se) is only an invention based on the fear of dissolution and the end of life. Life is a 'long relentless quest', but what's interesting is the only ones who have quit it seems are the homeless, which is whom he chooses to chronicle. The homeless and trains would obviously be a major factor into much of Tom's later work (Cold Water is his greatest song as of yet, to name one of many). This song is strong because it takes on so many themes. The last verse is also great; as many may have noticed the rhyme scheme is weak in this song, but that 'weakness' becomes somehow (how the fuck does he do it!?) an offshoot of the inexplicable that the song aims to capture. I think. Because life can never offer firm resolve or certainty in any sense, this song serves to reimagine the always on the run image and equate it with a story that everyone is familiar with. Great song. | |
| The Beach Boys – Sloop John B Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| No, it doesn't compare with Sgt. Peppers, but it most certainly does with not only the most overrated Beatles album, but the most overrated album of all time, Revolver. The only Beatles album worse than Revolver (yes, including Beatles for Sale and Please Please Me) is obviously Yellow Submarine, which doesn't really count. Revolver sucks. | |
| Bruce Springsteen – The Angel Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Fallenchief and cataractbabe are def the same person who just created a second account b/c no one was commenting. 'Omg yeah I totally agree!' Good song btw |
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| Bob Dylan – World Gone Wrong Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I always dismissed this album, then I gave it another listen and what do I find? Another forgotten gem of an album, underrated, unappreciated, great collection of songs. What can I say? Always the master. | |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers – Even You Brutus? Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Ok, the song's fine, but this is Anthony's weakest album (imo). I don't hate the album, but with some of these lyrics (a drink and I don't mean tea.... come on) and the (incredibly notable) absence of Johnny, no wonder its reviews are so poor. The song's kinda catchy and the album does have some good tracks, Meet Me at the Corner and the stand out track Police Station. The narrator of Dante's Inferno encounters Brutus and Judas, among others, but I suppose that's merely coincidence. As for the meaning, well it's pretty fucking obvious, no need to say anything rly. The first verse is the best and the first line is the best of that, God is good and fate is great. It kinda gets worse from there, oh well. | |
| The Rolling Stones – I Am Waiting Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Pretty self explanatory, 'waiting for someone to come out of somewhere.' That's pretty much it...And it's not about LSD, cuz when (66' rly) LSD hit you saw it in music, it wasn't speculative, like maybe, no, it was there. Magical Mystery Tour, Sgt. Pepper's, the extremely overrated Revolver, the abysmal Majesties Secret Service or w/etf it was, etc. Jagger was never Dylan, or even Lennon. He was like McCartney but less pop more awesome lol. | |
| Bob Dylan – Wedding Song Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Aww, love. Wait, this came at the end of Dylan's marriage. On an album with songs like Dirge. After a seven-year disappearance from real music. Living with his family. Happily. Maybe not such a love song. And if you listen to what he's saying, he's pleading with his wife not to leave him. Like the Desire song, Sara. Welcome back to music, Bob. But it comes at a cost. | |
| The Beatles – Birthday Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| ...I don't get it | |
| Bob Dylan – Sara Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Well what do you say? The man who never wrote a song explicitly about ANYONE in his entire career. (You who are so good with words and with keeping things vague.) A career that's spanned, well Jesus, forever, thousands of songs. One song. One. If this isn't a song that affects you I don't know what would? This is a man begging his wife not to leave him. Simple. The worst period of Dylan's songwriting career was when he was happy. From '69-'74 Dylan was gone, disappeared. The music was awful. But he was a man living in Woodstock, NY with a wife and two children. Them playing leap frog and hearing about snow white... But then what? Now what? Now the beach is deserted except for some kelp. Many Dylan fans will argue that the only woman he ever truly loved was Sara Lownds. Maybe Ruth, maybe Joan, but when Joan asked Bob years later (80s?) why they hadn't married when they were in love, he responded by saying that he married the woman he was in love with. This song is heart-wrenching. On an album (following BOTT!) where he's taken up song-writing in an entirely different way, this song doesn't fit. It doesn't fit with the story-telling-ballad theme of the album, it doesn't fit with the mysteriousness of Blood and it doesn't fit with the anger of the (underrated) Planet Waves, where he was attempt a song like Dirge, a pivotal song in his career. This song, obviously at a time where his career would drastically change and he'd tour endlessly (no really, endlessly), and he'd be divorced and he'd take up faith in a way that astounded the music world, this song is unique in every dimension. It hurts to listen to. | |
| Arcade Fire – We Used to Wait Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Def the best Fire album. Obviously the whole album is about time, modernity, convention, and childhood. As many great writers and songwriters spend their years trying to find the meaning of life, to access the world that seemed so joyous when they were children, so too does Arcade Fire. But that's just what we think, how our brains work. When you're in your twenties you may long to be a child again, but when you're in your late thirties you long to be in your early twenties. And it's not just, 'Oh i wish I was young'. As they say, youth is wasted on the young. But that's not exactly accurate since everyone is young. The biggest problem is not death but aging. Time seems unreal. This is the oldest you've ever been, and while that may seem obvious, when you think about it it really subtracts meaning from our world. There's no, next time I'm in Kindergarten, next time I'm in highschool, next time I lose my virginity, etc. The suburbs represent convention. They represent what we're 'supposed' to do. But real happiness seems almost inaccessible in our world (through anything short of a lobotomy), and so while we're told to raise a family and move to the suburbs, what we really want is the past because the past represents a better time, an almost perfect unreal time. Obviously ppl like Dylan and Cohen and Jeff Buckley have devoted their lives to this problem, as have great writers like Thomas Wolfe, and obviously there is no answer. And although we 'used to wait' with 'all those wasted hours', when we look back on it now it's a shame, but in reality, 'if I could have it back, all the time that we wasted, I'd only waste it again.' In regards to the Eliot quote well it also greatly troubled Eliot. And it is most definitely a nod in his direction. Prufrock was his first major accomplishment about a world of being alone in a big city, of being alone even though you're surrounded by people. Although everyone (I think :S) suffers from very similar problems in life, it hurts because sometimes we can be alone and have to deal with the problems alone, even though everyone that passes by is likely (or has likely) gone through something similar, despite what are preconceptions of those ppl may be. And the line chosen is important because it was one that essentially birthed postmodernism. Where poetry before was all 'she is the more beauteous immaculately...she is like a flower to mine eye' bullshit, all of a sudden Eliot compares something to a patient etherized on a table. And it gave us questions, it allowed us to question meaning, as does this album, or as it attempts to anyways, I can't speak to how it was received throughout the world. | |
| The Beatles – Honey Pie Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite was John. As far as this song goes, it's fun, it's different, it's interesting, it's obviously Paul. It's not like Paul's songs were bad, they were just more bleh (normally). But like ppl have pointed out it was all four Beatles that made them. Like with A Day in the Life. It's a great, great Lennon song, but when Paul comes in with the 'Woke up got out of bed' bit it's just great. And by the end you could see how John's music was drifting rapidly away from the previous stuff, as could be seen with the first solo album, whereas Paul's first solo album was extremely bleh. Plastic Ono Band remains one of the greatest albums ever. And in comparing the White Album sides, it seems that for every song on the second disk there's a better one on the first. Top songs on the album go something like this: 1. Happiness is a Warm Gun 2. Yer Blues 3. Back in the USSR 4. Helter Skelter 5. While My Guitar Gently Weeps 6. Sexy Sadie 7. Rocky Raccoon 8. Revolution 1 (the Hey Jude version is better) 9. Blackbird 10. Savoy Truffle 11. Julia 12. I'm so Tired 13. Cry Baby Cry 14. Dear Prudence 15. I Will 16. Everybody's got Something to Hide 17. Obla Di 18. Martha My Dear 19. Don't Pass Me By 20. Honey Pie 21. Glass Onion 22. Bungalow Bill 23. Mother Nature's Son 24. Birthday 25. Long, Long, Long 26. Good Night 27. Wild Honey Pie 28. Why Don't we do it in the Road 29. Piggies 30. Revolution 9 |
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| Bob Dylan – Blind Willie McTell Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Well, God is in heaven And we all want what's his But power and greed and corruptible seed Seem to be all that there is I'm gazing out the window Of the St. James Hotel And I know no one can sing the blues Like Blind Willie McTell I'd comment, but there's nothing I can say that would add anything to this. In fact whatever I'd say would only take away from it, even this. |
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| Bob Dylan – Dark Eyes Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| They always say 'Where did Dylan go in the 80s?' Well that's a good question, where did Dylan go? To some land where he could write incredible songs and they'd go completely unrecognized, I guess. These must be the same people who didn't 'get' Dylan when he went electric and didn't 'get' Dylan when he went country and didn't 'get' Dylan when he converted. Wake up, Dylan never went anywhere. So his songwriting changed, but it never changed for the worse. Just because it's different doesn't mean it's automatically terrible. Of course there were bad songs and of course there were bad albums, but there were always great ones too. This is in my top 5 for eighties songs along with I and I, Blind Willie McTell, Brownsville Girl and Foot of Pride. Oh and Man in the Long Black Coat. Top six, I guess. Anyways this is a brilliant song. These lyrics are phenomenal, could only be written by Dylan. There's a very interesting live version by him and Patti Smith, highly recommended. | |
| Joan Baez – Diamonds and Rust Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| This is the best song Joan Baez ever wrote. I'm not that big a fan of Joan but I happen to be rather familiar (very very much so) with Bob Dylan. This song is obvz about Dylan, there's no point even considering otherwise. Their relationship, despite what ppl may say, was very much a deep one that most ppl won't ever understand. To claim that Dylan never loved Joan is absurd, if there's two people Dylan ever loved in his life it was Sara and Joan. Unfortunately these women came at rather interweaving times. Dylan of course was an asshole to Joan as evidenced very frequently. Anyways, when Dylan's marriage was falling apart in '74, '75 he took up songwriting like he hadn't in quite some time. Beginning with Planet Waves, Dylan was 'reborn'. Not that kind of reborn. Following Planet Waves he went back to NY and wrote a bunch of songs that would become Blood on the Tracks. There are some great outtakes that didn't even make the album but that's another story. He recorded the album and then went to his brother's in Minnesota. There his brother convinced him to re-record the tracks and he did so. Amongst the re-recordings he added some more songs, one of which was Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of the Hearts. Bob called Joan (whom he had spoken to since their relationship ended obviously but not all that often) and he read her the entire lyrics for that song. That's the phone call referenced. The album was put together mixed with the NY sessions and the Minnesota sessions. Baez would join Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue and although they had a number of differences (the main reason for their breakup was that Baez wanted to change America and Dylan thought it was impossible and wanted no part of it) managed to get along quite well. The end. | |
| Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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And once more just for the hell of it. Concerning the switcheroo in narration, this album is indeed very peculiar. They walked along by the old canal A little confused, I remember well Prior to the actual switch in narration on the last verse, he writes this. Well if it wasn't you but you remember well, what were you like creeping behind them? And as a side-note, some of the songs on this album are from the New York sessions, and the others from the Minnesota sessions. You can sort of tell which are which, the New York ones are more acoustic sounding. For the version of Tangled Up in Blue, it's the Minnesota recording, but if you have the New York version (it's on one of the Bootlegs as well as the obtainable New York Sessions themselves) he sings it third person, "She was married when *they* first met", etc. Very interesting. |
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| Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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It just occurred to me to comment on specific parts of the song. Two in particular. He told himself he didn't care, pushed the window open wide, Felt an emptiness inside to which he just could not relate Brought on by a simple twist of fate. Pushed the window open wide, to jump I suppose, quite the imagination I've got. But felt an emptiness inside to which he just could not relate. Do not understand. Opening the window causes an emptiness to which he could not relate. How would opening a window cause an emptiness? I see no metaphor or analogy by the window that makes sense, on top of it, wouldn't he most certainly relate to that emptiness. ISN'T THAT WHAT THE SONG IS ABOUT? Had he planned on killing himself before he met her and wanted to go out after a simple fuck? And then everything changed and he no longer felt that emptiness and desire for suicide, like he now has a purpose? Is that too far fetched? I can't make much sense of it otherwise. Also, She was born in spring, but I was born too late Question mark. What does? I don't... It's a petty difference that keeps them from being together? Born too late. Born too late. Born too late. How can you be born *too late*? What does that mean? Does this girl have an expiration date? Honestly, these lines trouble me more than than the entirety of John Wesley Harding. It's not a house said Judas Priest, it's not a house it's a home. |
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| Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| This entire album gives me the shivers. The imagery is unbelievable throughout. His first major comeback came with more poetry than any other Dylan era, and this time it was because of how love moved him (obviously nearing the end of his marriage, Dylan went from songs like Dirge on the previous album to Sara, the most blatant song he ever wrote, essentially begging his wife not to leave him). Jakob Dylan put it best saying something along the lines of he can jam to Dylan's stuff like Subterranean Homesick Blues, but when he listens to BOTT he hears his parents talking. Dylan re-re-invented music with this album, lines such as "Like a corkscrew to my heart" to "The priest wore black on the seventh day/and sat stoned face while the building burned". Phenomenal. But this song outdoes all of them (of course tomorrow my favourite will again change, it's tough not to call Idiot Wind one of the best songs ever written). But back to this one. The thing with song lyrics, particularly Dylan's, is that it isn't always essential to pinpoint exactly what the circumstances are, but rather how the listener perceives them. I think the general message in this song is obvious, whether or not she's a prostitute is rather irrelevant. I think everyone can relate to this song. Everyone. That feeling after you met someone (maybe talked to her for ten seconds or even had a one night stand, it doesn't matter), and then after she's gone you realize that that was what you've been searching for, but it's too late. A simple twist of fate, you never plan to fall in love the way you do. Like what Lennon said, Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. I know I've had that feeling before, like I didn't realize something until it was too late. Maybe you even went back to that same spot and looked for her like he does in the song, 'How long must he wait, one more time, for a simple twist of fate'. This song gives me shivers because it rings so true to something personal to me, as I'm sure it does to a hell of a lot of people. Great great song. Dylan was always the master of putting un-expressible thoughts into words. "You who are so good with words/And with keeping things vague." | |
| John Lennon – Woman Is the Nigger of the World Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Enjoyed this on multiple levels. (Getting Better is McCartney's tune, as are the majority of the weaker songs from Peppers, but nevertheless). While your finely tuned explanation may be correct in itself, it's not necessarily the most compact explanation of the song (IMO) Lennon isn't directly saying "Woman is the slave to the slaves", it's just, well, I believe the simplest way to put it would be that Woman is the nigger of the world. Segregation, although not necessarily dead in terms of race, at least gave a voice to blacks, whereas women are the, if you will, 'silent' nigger of the world. If you don't believe me take a look at the one you're with. My original thought wasn't me being facetious, I did actually enjoy it, you're right, and for the record, hmm I wonder if I've heard the word nigger in a modern song. It's implications, however, at the time were much more substantial (such as Dylan's use of the word in Hurricane), as a force to draw attention where attention need be driven. | |
| Bob Dylan – The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I like to rank my favorite Dylan albums, but when I listen to know album I don't know where to put it because I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK HE'S TALKING ABOUT. Is it good? Maybe? I don't know. This is probably the best song on the album? Or is it? I have no idea. | |
| Bob Dylan – Brownsville Girl Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Both of you are dead on. A great Dylan song, and in response to Street Legal, which is maybe my second favorite Dylan album next to Highway 61, after puzzling for a long time over its lack of praise, I realized that the choruses are rather weak, and that's what it's judged on. But with countless, rather, endless, brilliant verses in songs like Where Are You Tonight, True Love Tends to Forget, Changing of the Guards, We Better Talk This Over, Is Your Love in Vain and No Time to Think, I don't see how it's not regarded as one of his best. Also one of his few post-60s albums not to have a weak song. Maybe the only. | |
| Bob Dylan – Brownsville Girl Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Brilliant. This song is a masterpiece. A story of confusion and the path that life takes you on. A path that you have no say in. The line, "Way down in Mexico you went out to find a doctor and you never came back. I would have gone on after you but I didn't feel like letting my head get blown off" is particularly troubling to me. The Kerouac-On the Road comparison is dead on, a book and man that proved to be a significant influence on Dylan in his early years. I actually think there's more Ginsberg in this than Kerouac. Great lines like "You always said people don't do what they believe in, they just do what's most convenient, then they repent. And I always said, "Hang on to me, baby, and let's hope that the roof stays on" and "But I'm too over the edge and I ain't in the mood anymore to remember the times when I was your only man. And she don't want to remind me. She knows this car would go out of control" depict struggles in life and confusion when looking back on the past. Time has always been troublesome to Dylan (and Cohen alike) and this song brings out the same themes seen in earlier ones like Simple Twist of Fate. The feeling of having fallen in love but not realizing it until after, when it's too late. All in all this song shows that Dylan never 'lost it', rather his expansion to greater themes and multiple types of music have led him to areas that devoted Dylan fans aren't necessarily impressed by. It was like when Dylan went electric and pissed off all his earlier fans, but most Dylan fans are fans of albums like Highway 61 and Blood, so it shows that ppl shouldn't be excommunicating Dylan for his various eras (Reborn) and should be appreciating all of the prophet's music. Bit of a rant. | |
| The Rolling Stones – Sister Morphine Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I lol'd a good lol at kingmikeking's comment. He's dead on. The Stones have said that they never wrote songs about drugs, and for some of them you could make the case that they're not about drugs, even though they are (Before They Make Me Run, Rocks off to name a couple), but for Sister Morphine for the love of god, come on, what else could it be? It's not a couple lines, it's every line. And what's worse than all the ppl who say every Stones song, every Doors song (although true lol), every Beatles song, every Dylan song is about drugs, is all the people that say none of their songs are about drugs. Lol, wake up. This song is as blatant as possible. | |
| The Doors – The Celebration Of The Lizard Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| There are some good ideas thrown around here (discounting the dick proposal), but has anyone noticed any of the ridiculous similarities to the Manson murders that would take place in the coming months? | |
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