submissions
| Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
Almost any song lyric about leaving childhood behind makes me cry. I think it's the worst tragedy that most children can't wait to be adults, then reach adulthood and realize it's much worse than childhood. (For most people, anyway. Perhaps adults who had abusive families would say otherwise.) |
submissions
| The Andrews Sisters – Rum And Coca-Cola Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
|
I guess I used to ascribe innocence to my grandparents' generation 9 years ago when I wrote that comment, but you're right, a person would have to be pretty unworldly not to know what the lyrics were about. My grandmother used to sing this to me so I find it amusing that she thought the subject matter was fine for a toddler. |
submissions
| Elvis Costello – The Other Side of Summer Lyrics
| 2 years ago
|
|
I get strong Manson family vibes from this song, perhaps because so many lines evoke southern California and the reality, or other side, of what is advertised about it. Burning forest, poisoned ocean, a shallow teenager, an addicted pop star, the takedown of John Lennon and Roger Waters... all to a very upbeat, Beach Boys-esque tune. Elvis has so many brilliant songs that this one (the whole album, in fact) evaded me for a really long time, but it's come to be one of my favorites. |
submissions
| Mike Watt – Against The 70's Lyrics
| 3 years ago
|
I am so surprised that nobody else has commented on this great song. I will give it a shot.
I think these lyrics have a true punk message: reject and rebel against what came before you. Don't believe adults or the Establishment. They're lying to you, even if they don't realize they're lying to you. Baby boomer culture is still incredibly prevalent, even in 2020, and when this song was released in 1995, boomer culture was downright dominant. (There are more of them, and they have money, so pop culture caters to them.) "Speakin’ as a child of the 70’s," Mike Watt wants you to know that his generation is mostly full of it, and will be harmful to the progress of humankind if kids buy that bull. "Stadium minds" are whatever can attract an entire stadium full of people there to hear the message, whether that's music, sports, or some megachurch pastor. Be wary of anybody who can take in that many people. You have to defend yourself because that's the only way to make sure your mind is open. |
submissions
| Deer Tick – Baltimore Blues No. 1 Lyrics
| 3 years ago
|
|
@[societiespliers:35268] Maybe they were watching The Wire and singing from the POV of one of the characters. (I live in Baltimore too.) |
submissions
| Greg Brown – Canned Goods Lyrics
| 3 years ago
|
|
This is a beautiful paean to grandfilial gustatory nostalgia. It makes me think of Christmas Eve when I was a child, when my grandmother would serve the Maryland crab soup she made the previous summer. I think this song also has something in common with "That Summer Feeling" by Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, although that is more about pre-adolescent memories of summer with friends. |
submissions
| Don Henley – The Last Worthless Evening Lyrics
| 3 years ago
|
|
I have always heard that it's about Don Henley seeing Michelle Pfeiffer at a party after she broke up with Peter Horton, and Henley trying to hit on her, with no good result. He told the story when he played the song live, although he didn't mention Pfeiffer by name -- people figured it out from context clues. |
submissions
| 10cc – I'm Mandy Fly Me Lyrics
| 3 years ago
|
|
Mandy Rice-Davies was a model in the UK, who was involved in the Profumo affair in 1963. I only know that from a Phil Ochs song. (And then it was also on The Crown, but I can't remember if Mandy was in that episode or just Christine Keeler.) |
submissions
| Talking Heads – (Nothing But) Flowers Lyrics
| 3 years ago
|
|
I think the crux of the song is, "And as things fell apart / Nobody paid much attention." Only a tiny fraction of humanity is paying attention to what we're doing to the natural world. This song shows the irony of how people WOULD pay attention if all the stores and restaurants and conveniences for driving cars went away. |
submissions
| Wang Chung – Dance Hall Days Lyrics
| 3 years ago
|
|
"True" by Spandau Ballet also has allusions to Lolita. Maybe UK kids read Lolita in secondary school in the 70s and then became songwriters in the 80s. |
submissions
| The Rutles – Cheese And Onions Lyrics
| 3 years ago
|
|
Every time this song comes up on random, I laugh out loud at, "Be a has-been / Like a dinosaur." So good. I also love singing along with C-H-E-E-S-E-A-N-D-O-N-I-O-N-S. |
submissions
| Graham Parker – You Can't Be Too Strong Lyrics
| 4 years ago
|
"It's a deeply emotional song that is not making any rules for anyone at all. But people do see it that way." --Graham Parker on whether this song is anti-abortion.
I've always loved this song, because it's not glib, not prescriptive, and has the line, "You decide what's wrong," which implies that you also decide what's right, i.e. the choice is yours. Graham Parker is progressive/liberal, incidentally, much to the consternation of people who hold this up as an anti-choice song. It's definitely a song about conflicting emotions, and I think that's what makes it so profound. It always affects me when I hear it. |
submissions
| Phil Ochs – Love Me, I'm A Liberal Lyrics
| 4 years ago
|
|
I love this song as a historical document. Yes, he's singing about hypocrisy, and that will always exist, and will always be worth pointing out. But I specifically enjoy the 1960s allusions, and the audience laughing their asses off. |
submissions
| XTC – The Mayor Of Simpleton Lyrics
| 4 years ago
|
|
Echoes the great Sam Cooke song "Wonderful World," but with a brilliant patina of irony, since the lyrics of "Mayor of Simpleton" could only have been written by an extraordinarily clever lyricist. Truly one of the best pop songs of the 1980s. |
submissions
| John Prine – Sweet Revenge Lyrics
| 4 years ago
|
|
These lyrics have puzzled and delighted me for decades. The singer is an outsider and provocateur who isn't welcome in "decent company," nor would he want to be. Beyond that, I'm not entirely sure! |
submissions
| Dar Williams – The Babysitter's Here Lyrics
| 4 years ago
|
|
Just a little comment about an allusion from the song - the movie they're [probably] watching on tv is called Fantastic Voyage, "a 1966 American science-fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby. The film is about a submarine crew who are shrunk to microscopic size and venture into the body of an injured scientist to repair damage to his brain." [source: Wikipedia] |
submissions
| Leonard Cohen – Night Comes On Lyrics
| 4 years ago
|
I've always wondered why LC used "terrible" in subsequent lines:
There was this terrible sound, my father went down / With a terrible wound in his side.
In almost any other writer, I'd call using the same adjective again lazy, but because LC was a true poet, even in song lyrics, I think there has to be a profound reason for that repetition. I wish I could have asked him, because I always find it jarring... and perhaps that was the point.
This is one of my favorite Leonard Cohen songs. I get something new from it almost every time I've listened to it in the past 20 years. I particularly love the final verse. |
submissions
| The Tragically Hip – Thompson Girl Lyrics
| 5 years ago
|
|
The CBC true crime podcast Someone Knows Something is using the song as its theme song for season 4 about Kerrie Ann Brown, raped and killed in 1986 in Thompson, Manitoba. |
submissions
| Engineers – Home Lyrics
| 6 years ago
|
|
Little correction -- the original theme was the Beach Boys song "God Only Knows," not "Wouldn't It Be Nice." But that's how I know this song, too, from Big Love. I like your interpretation, txnuke1201. |
submissions
| Tony Carey – A Fine, Fine Day Lyrics
| 6 years ago
|
|
This is one of the first singles I ever bought with my own money, at Richway (kind of like K-Mart) in Charlotte when I was 9 years old. |
submissions
| Michael Penn – Walter Reed Lyrics
| 6 years ago
|
|
I don't think it's literally about a vet; the protagonist of the song is comparing himself to a veteran or soldier because he has "lost the will for fighting," weary of his life in Los Angeles. I agree that Walter Reed means the army medical center, but it's a metaphor for someone who has given up and needs "treatment." |
submissions
| Neil Diamond – Red Red Wine Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
This version is about 8 billion times better than the UB40 version. At least 8 billion. (I hate the UB40 version, in fact, although I knew it for years before I knew this original version.) |
submissions
| Tarkio – Helena Won't Get Stoned Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
Helena seems to be a woman in this song, but Helena, Montana is Colin Meloy's hometown, so it's a metaphor. Maybe a comment on the contradiction of drinking too much being okay, but smoking weed being too "out there" for straitlaced, Catholic Helenans.
Our Lady of the Rockies is a large statue of Mary overlooking Butte, Montana. (Talk about a hard-drinking town.) |
submissions
| Tarkio – Save Yourself Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
I agree with all of this, and would like to add that the Hi-Line also has a large, impoverished Native American population due to nearby Reservations, miserable weather, and the nation's deadliest Superfund site (Libby asbestos). It's an incredibly depressing place to try to eke out a living. Tarkio has captured the feeling of the place very well. |
submissions
| Harry Nilsson – Down by the Sea Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
I always feel sorry for Jenny because she's "one too many." (Unless he's not listing these fictional children in chronological order, of course.) |
submissions
| Animotion – Obsession Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
The lyrics always make me think of Lolita, as though Humbert Humbert were thinking about Lolita and singing it to himself. The "like a butterfly" part especially makes me think so, because Nabokov was a lepidopterist in addition to his other many talents. (I don't think the song was actually written about Lolita, though.) |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Green-Untitled Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
I read an interview (on somebody's blog) with Michael Stipe where he said it was really cool to put hidden tracks on albums back then, and it doesn't have a title because they were pretending like it didn't exist. He said he wrote it for his parents, who he missed while the band was touring.
It's one of my favorite REM songs. |
submissions
| Bishop Allen – Butterfly Nets Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
I just found out that a close friend of mine died suddenly from the flu, and then this song came on. "Up and up you go / for to steal the secrets of the heavens / will you share them with me / my bright and brilliant spy?" is making me bawl my eyes out. RIP Bryan. I love you. |
submissions
| George Michael – One More Try Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
It's a sad song that is ultimately about the hope and optimism that comes with new romantic love. In a nutshell, the singer's heart has been broken repeatedly, but he knows that if he doesn't take the risk of new love, his life will be meaningless.
This song came out when I was 13 and I remember, still being a somewhat literal child and missing the metaphor, thinking it was gross that he was singing about his teacher. |
submissions
| The B-52's – Trism Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
Extraordinarily unlikely that they were referring to the imported beer brands. |
submissions
| David Wilcox – The Kid Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
When I was in high school we had to choose a song we related to and play it at our retreat (it was Catholic school -- we went on religious retreats once a year). I chose this one because I've always gotten in trouble for my day-dreamy nature and tendency to live in a fantasy world. |
submissions
| The Cowboy Junkies – Misguided Angel Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
It's the myth of the bad boy with a heart of gold -- and he is a myth. I loved this song when I was an adolescent. Women who grow up realize that this kind of man (physically abusive or not) just isn't worth it. It's still a beautiful song, but I no longer want to relate to her point of view. |
submissions
| Son Volt – Tear Stained Eye Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
I agree that it's about the July 1993 floods in Missouri, and that's what Ste. Genevieve (a town in SE Missouri) refers to here.
But I also think it's interesting that the historical woman Genevieve (patron saint of Paris) urged the Parisians not to evacuate when Attila the Hun was on his way to attack them. She told the people that they should fast and pray for God to protect them. The Huns never showed up in Paris -- they went to Orleans instead because they got word that the Romans were staging a counterattack.
If you've ever watched coverage of natural disasters, particularly in the Bible belt of the midwestern U.S. (where there are often floods and tornadoes), the residents often cite their faith in God as a reason why they won't evacuate, even against common sense. So I think the confluence (no pun intended) of those two elements (the person Saint Genevieve and the town Ste. Genevieve) adds an interesting dimension to the meaning of this song.
It's a beautiful song, and my very favorite by Son Volt. |
submissions
| Lionel Richie – All Night Long (All Night) Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
I read this online and thought it was bizarre. Regarding, "Tam bo li de say de moi ya, Hey Jambo Jumbo." Lionel Richie called his friend at the United Nations to get some "African phrases." His friend was incredulous that Richie seemed to think there was one African language, when of course there are many, many languages and dialects spoken on the continent. So since he didn't have time to hire a translator, Richie made up his own gibberish "African" language phrases.
This is one of those songs that makes me feel really nostalgic for elementary school, when it was always on the radio and MTV. |
submissions
| Woody Guthrie – This Land Is Your Land Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
Kate Smith is the lady you're thinking of. Her version of "God Bless America" was very, very popular, and although Irving Berlin wrote it, people thought of it as "Kate Smith's song" back then. She was a staunch conservative and a racist. So you can see why Woody was annoyed by her and moved to write an answer song. |
submissions
| Grant Lee Buffalo – Rock of Ages Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
I agree with ratanx. The "you" and "Father" in the song are the Judeo-Christian God and the singer wants to know how this supposed god can sit idly by while the world falls apart.
The most famous "Rock of Ages" is a hymn written in the 18th century by a Calvinist preacher. In the hymn's lyrics, the rock is an allusion for faith, a never-moving object to which the worshiper can cling. In the GLB song, the singer cannot cling to the rock because it has been loosened by an avalanche. |
submissions
| Luna – California (All the Way) Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
"He asked her please stop quoting Rod McKuen in your postcards..."
Rod McKuen wrote a bunch of songs and translated the songs of Jacques Brel, but he is probably most well-known for his schlocky books of romance poetry, very popular (especially with women) in the 1970s. |
submissions
| Robbie Fulks – The Scrapple Song Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
This song is a hilarious send-up of scrapple, a breakfast meat you may not be familiar with if you live outside of the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Although his implication is that it's a favorite of inbred PA hicks, the truth is that most carnivorous fans of low-brow food delight in the taste and texture of scrapple. It has a mainstream relative in SPAM, but it's not the same thing, and it's a little hard to describe. If you come to Baltimore, head to Jimmy's on the Fells Point square and order some.
I think the lyrics here are so clever. Fulks is a master songwriter. He manages the humor here as well as he manages pathos and drama in other songs. |
submissions
| Gram Parsons – Love Hurts Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
I know most people are more familiar with the overwrought Nazareth version, but I knew this beautiful version first, so I am able to ignore that heinous one and still love the song. The Everly Brothers version is nice, too, but Gram and Emmylou recorded the gold standard. |
submissions
| Kenny Rogers – Love Will Turn You Around Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
|
I guess it's not cool to like Kenny Rogers, but I can't help it -- I think so many of his early 80s songs are really catchy and have fantastic production values that make me happy. The lyrics aren't anything special here -- typical pop pablum -- but the music is fantastic. |
submissions
| Prince – I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
Prince (or the song's protagonist) really comes across as a sweetheart in this one, doesn't he, refusing to take advantage of a woman on the rebound?
The lyrics are sad but the tune is very dancy and upbeat, which is a juxtaposition I always enjoy in pop music. One of my very favorite Prince songs. |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.
