| Billy Joel – Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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So while I'm not a superfan of Billy Joel (mostly because all of his music lacks any sort of hard edge and I'm kind of an angry, cynical malcontent) I think this is a good song generally. I also love the message of this song on the surface, but it does contain a major oversight. For the guys Billy is singing about, all the back-breaking work isn't really done for a "house in Hackensack" or a "Cadilac-ac-ac-ac-ac-ac", but rather, it's about attracting a higher caliber of woman. Most of us men don't give much of a crap about the actual things we are trying to afford, we are more interested in the WOMEN that will desire us because we have them. That's not to say that all women are money-grubbing hos, but a large percentage of the best looking, most fertile ones are (because they know their biological value to men, and they often feel short-changed if they feel a man isn't offering enough in return). With all of Billy Joel's success, he got to mate with Christie Brinkley while she was America's It Girl. THAT'S what it's all about Billy, be thankful you had the talent to enjoy that incredible privilege (since he seems like a nice enough fellow, I don't doubt that he is). |
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| Tears for Fears – Pale Shelter Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| @[Zegonite:33315] I forgot to mention an obvious reference, looking back it's amazing that I neglected it in my original post because it's so obvious: "You don't give me love, you give me cold hands." Why does he have cold hands? Because he's praying!! He is looking for God's love but feels like the only result of his kneeling with his hands clasped together in the traditional manner out of his pockets is that his hands are just getting cold, both literally and figuratively. | |
| Ween – The Mollusk Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| Aw damn I knew I was going to screw something up. No edit option, lame. I meant that Gene, Dean, and the listener are the "three things that spur the Mollusk from the sand" (i.e. create the impetus to make the album in the first place), not the Trinity (though that could be a subsidiary reference also). | |
| Ween – The Mollusk Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This might seem kind of obvious, but I think there's a possibility that this song is about the album itself. Ween rented out a house on the beach in New Jersey and stayed there for weeks to write until they finished the album. The little boy I think represents Ween, finding the Mollusk through inspiration by the sea: "does it emulate the ocean sound?" Yes, this album does. The second verse is the tough part though, here's my best stab at it: "does it speaketh of the Trinity" I believe asks if this album feels divinely inspired. Because it is based on a creation of God (the sea) and because it includes some very grandiose music, I would say yes again, this album does (the exuberant synth solo near the end of this song is a good example of what sounds to me like divinely inspired music, it is an aural rendering of the beauty, joy, and wonder of life). "Casting light at the sun with it's wandering eye" is the toughest nut to crack, my only guess is that the sun is almost like a God to men because it provides the light and energy to make life possible, and so the Mollusk is a reciprocal creation of that light, casting a reflection of life using music back at the life-giving creator. The" three things that spur the Mollusk from the sand" is also a tough one, as the song only lists one, the "waking of all creatures that live on the land." I think this might be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the supposed "awakening" or "enlightenment" the listener will experience upon hearing the album. Ween probably doesn't actually believe that their music is as profound as all that, but given that this song is sort of a take-off of ELP, who came across as enormously self-important back in the prog era, I think this is part of the joke. Ween generally likes to screw with our heads for the sake of humor, so to leave the other two things unspoken is not a huge departure from their modus operandi, and makes the joke of mocking the pretentiousness of prog even funnier. If I had to guess what the other two parts of the Trinity are, it's Gene and Dean (making the Trinity Gene, Dean, and the listener). The "wandering eye" could either refer to Ween's predilection towards emulating a diverse array of genres, or maybe just suggests that Dean and Gene are horn dogs (which wouldn't be a huge surprise if you consider the subject the subject matter of many of their songs). Some of this analysis is potentially way off-base but this is the only way I can make sense of it. Who knows, it could mean nothing whatsoever. |
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| The Rolling Stones – You Can't Always Get What You Want Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| My Dad always used to sing this song to us when we wanted something as kids that he thought we shouldn't have. It used to annoy the hell out of me, but looking back it was kind of funny. It's still not a message I like much though- what's the point of getting what you need in life if you can't get what you want most of the time? That is like meaningless survival without joy. Easy for Mick to sing it too, as a huge rockstar he usually did get what he wanted as far as his pick of any of the millions of beautiful girls who wanted to sleep with him (including, apparently, Hendrix's girlfriend, whom I do believe this song is primarily about), not to mention the vast quantity of material assets available to him with his abundant wealth. If it was him on the losing edge of the equation, I'm sure the lyrics would have read something like "I wish I could get what I want, but when I try sometimes, I usually find, I only end up with what I need." Then instead of the angelic chorus cue a sad trombone sound. | |
| Nirvana – School Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| @[I:3499] was shamed I'm sure Kurt would've approved of Trevor's rousing of your defenses, it seems you are so indoctrinated and dogmatic that you can't appreciate a harmless joke. | |
| Tears for Fears – Pale Shelter Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Just realized something that reinforces the interpretation I wrote two years ago- the "cold hands" line could well be referring to unanswered prayers, the only provable result of taking your hands out of your pockets to clasp them together in prayer. | |
| The Cars – Just What I Needed Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Hey everybody, Ric Ocasek himself has revealed to us real meaning behind this song!!! ...is what I would say if I was a gullible moron. | |
| Tears for Fears – Pale Shelter Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Regardless of what Curt and Roland say about this song, I think essentially it is meant as a direct appeal to God. Let's take a look: "How can I be sure? When your intrusion is my illusion..." The first line is just a question of whether or not to have any faith at all. How can we be sure there is a God? The intrusion/illusion line sort of suggests that his experience has led him to believe that God is merely an illusion. The next couple of lines reinforce this idea: "How can I be sure? When all the time you changed my mind..." Changed my mind meaning that while he might have started out with faith, repeatedly witnessing the darker side of life on Earth makes it difficult to keep believing. I asked for more and more (repeated throughout the song) is probably a reference to our never-ending dissatisfaction with what we have, regardless of how much we have been given. Also, it's possible that this dissatisfaction makes it difficult to believe that God is really looking out for us in the way we hope. "When you don't give me love, You gave me Pale shelter, You don't give me love, You give me cold hands..." Again this sort of references the entire first part- God just puts us on Earth and puts the burden of "free will" on our heads, leaving us feeling alone and without real guidance. We are struggling to make our way in the world, surrounded by all of the unavoidable pain and suffering that comes with reality, just trying to get by, and we don't even know why. "And I can't operate on this failure, When all I want to be is... Completely in command" This could mean several things. One possibility is that he's saying that God is a failure for leaving us in this situation and he himself would like a chance at "calling the shots" of the Universe instead. A more likely possibility, I think, is that while he'd like to help the souls on Earth to solve their problems, due to the inherent greed of humanity, he instead just wants to have ultimate control like everyone else (which, fittingly enough, is actually a root cause of many of the these problems). Notice how the drawn out note here gets kind of atonal and creepy too, as if to reinforce this point. From here on, I can see that the point just seems to be rehashed again and again in new ways. "For all you say you keep me waiting" - God has left us an undeniable moral compass that we are internally aware we are supposed to follow, but we are still left waiting for convincing evidence of God's existence. "When all you do is see me through" - again, similar to the idea behind the chorus. "I've been here before, There is no why, no need to try" - this might suggest a belief in reincarnation, and wondering the point in putting forth any real effort in life when we're just going to be thrown back into the cycle again anyway. "I thought you had it all" - it's God, he's supposed to be all-knowing and all-seeing, so why is God putting us through this existence, what else does God want from us, again what is the point?? Then my favorite part of the song "I'm calling you, I'm calling you" - this is our desperate call to God, please, please give us a sign, some answers, a path to follow, ANYTHING!! The harmonized vocals are just perfect here, and really sort of emphasize our deep longing for acknowledgement from God. All of this, in a funny way, actually sort of fits in with what other people mentioned about the "rebellious teen" theory, in a general sense - humanity is basically like a rebellious teen, and God is sort of our virtual parent/authority figure. What's so great about this song is that the music fits the lyrics so well, there's a sort of bittersweetness to it, and an epic, vast quality about it (which fits well in an appeal to the creator of the entire Universe). To me, the bass and guitar parts almost remind me of the mechanical passing of time, cycles repeating over and over, stretching into the infinity of this mad mystery of existence. The harmonic analysis is actually quite interesting also, with the character of of the E changing from a maj 7th to an added 6th from the F to the G, and the nice switching between the root minor and relative major. I don't know if there's as much genius in this song as I've mentioned in this review, but for me this is just pure music magic, all the way. It's a shame we don't really get songs like this anymore from the current group of "pretend musicians." |
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