| The Sundays – Here's Where The Story Ends Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| I have been looking all over for confirmation of this, but I swear I heard somewhere that this song was about a relationship Harriet Wheeler had with a woman in her small town, or maybe it was fictionally about that. But the idea is that the whole town kind of knows about their rendezvous and, on account of the time in which the song was written and the size of the town in which the song takes place, she is judged harshly by her neighbors for it. The “shed” in question is a metaphor for a metaphor-the closet, which she wasn’t ready to come out of at that time. Even she wants to minimize the importance of the relationship to her, claiming she was only attracted to this woman because of the books they were mutually interested in. That’s as much as I remember; speculation on this thread further makes me wonder if she decided she was just curious and, combined with the pressures of her surroundings, she decides to end the relationship, though she continues to wonder what she really felt throughout. She tries to dismiss the whole affair and its sad conclusion as just the way the world is, but even in doing it she realizes that she broke a heart just as surely as her own was broken. In real life she’s apparently married with kids to her co-writer and guitarist, so this interpretation is probably incorrect, but this is what I always think about when I hear it. | |
| Beth Orton – I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| This song was written, if I’m not mistaken, by the husband and wife team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, who had several big hits in the Brill building era. They met while he was still married to another, and music brought them together in not the best of circumstances. So, as usually happens in those cases, the marriage came to an end, although their partnership continued for a while afterwards, and again if I’m not mistaken this song was written during that time. So the words contained about feeling complete misery at the loss of someone loved are very much a reflection of their lives at the time of writing. The song was considered among the most dramatic for the Ronettes and it’s a great version of course, but this one really seems to get at that just, like, utter depression in a way the original can’t. I’ve given it a lot of thought and this may be the saddest song I can think of. | |
| Tom T. Hall – I Love Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| I had an interesting experience with this song about a week ago. I went to do some karaoke at a bar with some friends and there’s this old timer there who flipped out when I did The Race Is On last time—I don’t think he thought a whippersnapper like me would appreciate the classics! So I opted to do this song partly for him and partly because I just love how innocent and pure it is. Well I got started but my voice was already kind of ragged so I had to sing it an octave higher, and it weirdly turned into a big sing-along for the whole room, almost like a drinking song. Honestly it was kind of affecting; after some conversations with different strangers that night it served as a reminder that too many people in this world live hard lives, find joy only in the weekly ritual of excessive drinking, and rarely if ever hear someone sincerely say that they are loved and are deserving of love. To hear all those people in various states of intoxication yelling at the top of their lungs that they love each other is powerful, not gonna lie! I listen to a lot of complicated, difficult music, but sometimes it’s nice to just have a simple reminder that there’s so much in the world to be thankful for and to love. | |
| Chet Faker – Gold Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| There’s an episode of Song Exploder, a really good podcast, in which Nick talks explicitly about the making of this song and the lyrics, which are indeed about good old fashioned monogamous love. There’s a comment above that says they feel this song and its accompanying video are “too sexy” to be about the kind of love he describes in the podcast, and I can see why someone might feel that way, but after having been married for twelve years and settling into contented routine over nonstop raw passion, I can safely say there are plenty of those sexy feelings all the time! They just manifest differently: when you’re young you think about physical sex a lot and how that expresses your passions, but as you get older the two of you find outlets for that in the simplest and seemingly most innocent of actions. That’s why “a physical kiss is nothing without it”; without love physical affection is almost meaningless once you’ve found that soul to fill the void. It’s nice, but real love is nicer, and it’s honestly kind of hard to describe in tangible ways, which is why “you close your eyes to see what it’s done”—that’s really the only way to understand it. I think some of the writing in this song is a little juvenile to be honest, but the sentiment described is so rarely referenced in pop music anymore that it really makes for a refreshing change. Also the beat THUMPS. | |
| Shai Hulud – Given Flight by Demon's Wings Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I think the choice of demons is brilliant. They started out as loyal angels, servants of God, but they were turned by, of all things, the appeal of humanity. Of course, in the song the narrator is just a person whose optimism and hope for the world has been run under by the crappiness of people in general. But when he says "I am not simply strong. I may very well be the strongest man that ever lived", it just kicks me in the heart. It'd be too easy for a cynic to say that if the worst you have to deal with is stupid idiots, you've got it posh. The fact of the matter is, the world's just fine. The people living in it are responsible for both nearly all the problems with it and a good chunk of what goes right in it, too. We need each other so much, even when it's tempting to draw away and hide. Good luck everybody! |
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| Radiohead – Life in a Glasshouse Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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A commonality with Radiohead fans is their diehard allegiance, and their inability to process any new product by the band as anything less than brilliant. They are, consistently, but the undying devotion is an unhealthy mentality, and to my own ears this song is addressing just that. The band's own musical and lyrical content has continued to experiment with, and heavily emphasize, the paranoia of everyday life. Papering the window panes is getting away from the eyes of society--originally about a woman Thom Yorke read about in the newspaper, but easily filtered through the eyes of an increasingly reluctant celebrity. When they speak of being packed like frozen fish and battery hens, I think of any show I've ever been to, with kids clamoring for the front row, desperate to catch a glimpse of their favorite band. But in the case of Radiohead, the fandom takes an unfortunate turn as their conversation shifts away from life in general into some higher plane, like, for example, the starving millions. The fans are constantly trying to read political or social meanings into a song that this band, most likely, wrote about a relationship and/or perhaps a smaller, more general social issue. Specific, hyper-literate lyrics rarely stand the test of time, and Radiohead realizes this. Their fans, by and large, unfortunately don't. (Don't talk politics, and don't throw stones, your Royal Highnesses.) It makes it very difficult to just enjoy a body of work when you insist on it making you feel guilty about some problem you have, really, no control over. If anybody posits an opinion that isn't just trolling the fans, the fans still interpret it as trolling. Once again, they are hungry for a lynching, and meanwhile the band is saying just turn the other cheek. What they make is art, capable of broad and widely divergent interpretation, and it's uncalled for to get so worked up over an opinion different than yours. Like all bands, Radiohead hits and misses over time, and even they acknowledge this. So the chorus, "Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat, well of course I'd like to stay and chew the fat, only someone's listening in"? By now it should be clear: Radiohead is saying it's perfectly acceptable to just enjoy a song, and that a song about a girl can still be a great song, even an "important" one, but there's always going to be that one buzzkill at the party who insists on making more out of whatever he just saw or heard than what it really was all about. How can you talk about how great the beat is in a song when you're obsessed with finding the specific literary touchstone it's referencing, and then mostly with the intention of regurgitating that knowledge to sound intelligent yourself? Radiohead is calling out their fans, and their fans don't even realize it, and that's what makes them the best at what they do. |
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| Jimmy Eat World – For Me This Is Heaven Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| @Onemoresong: Coming from somebody who almost tossed aside an amazing marriage and numerous friendships using that exact rationale ("If I can't let myself be happy now, then when?), I think you're totally right. I was going to leave everyone I knew and loved to just run around the country with one person I barely knew, and looking back I still can't tell you why. Everybody gets desperate, but nothing's ever going to be perfect all the time, so rather than running around trying to find some new star in the sky, why not "just wait for one more"? Finally, that line... "You can lose yourself in your courage"... I think that one gets glossed over, but it's the most cutting line, to me, of the whole thing. We pretend what we're doing is for the best, and we just have to sack up and do it, and when the tears and anger and pain come, that's when it's obvious we've lost ourselves to some realm of sanity outside courage and fear. It's one hundred percent Jim telling a girl he wants to make it work--why else would he have titled the song so? | |
| Jimmy Eat World – Firefight Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| It's interesting that this song works even if Jim is the one who did wrong in the relationship. It might even work better, because when he says "Except you and me, there's no one else alive", he's assuring the one he hurt so badly that he's finished looking for thrills or excitement with anyone else. This song plays really well into the overall concept of that record, I think, and it's really beautiful. | |
| Jimmy Eat World – Night Drive Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Sex IS romantic, silly rabbit | |
| Marvin Gaye – Let's Get It On Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Society puts such a taboo on sex, which seems counterintuitive given how prevalent it is in the media, advertising, etc... but what we are fed is a very different beast from what sex was always meant to be, which is an expression of two people's love for one another. Marvin says it right there: "I love you." And what a beautiful way to express that love! I feel like this song has always been a classic because it puts the emphasis in bump n grind exactly where it friggin needs to be... in the heart. | |
| Frank Turner – I Am Disappeared Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Bought this album largely blind... I heard the 30 second sample of this song and said "Nope, I'm gonna buy this record after all." I'm very glad I did. It feels like this song is about being in a relationship that is failing because of lack of ambition on both sides. The imagery is not incidental, I think. For example, Amy's dreams of Patty Hearst imply that she wants to leave, but feels a loyalty to him akin to Stockholm's Syndrome, while his dreams of Bob Dylan seem to be him desperately wanting to be a success in music, but he plays his songs to a room that reacts in the same way her depressed soul reacts to him when he gets home--a silence, a facing anything but him (the wall in this case). I have been on both ends of this interaction, and I can say that when the one who loves you and has very good reasons to leave you for not having any reality in your head, all you can say is "I'm still having dreams." He resents her for not wanting anything better, and she resents him for the same, but it's simply that she wants something more concrete and he wants pie in the sky. Neither is better or worse than the other, really, but it's awful when you can't head in the same direction as the one you have given your heart to. There's a lot going on this song, as there is in almost every one of his songs, but it seems like this is the one he gets to the root of why he released this particular collection--that hunger, that drive, that love for the country he calls home and the busy way of life they embrace, are all ever present throughout. It's so beautiful and a little sad. |
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| Simon and Garfunkel – The Only Living Boy In New York Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Whatever it's about (and I totally believe everyone when they say it's about the two of them, which is awesome and I just learned that today, thanks), it just makes me think about trying to keep smiling when someone you love dies. And you don't care about what else is going on in the world, you just hope that wherever your loved one has ended up is a nice destination. It's bad form to write your own epitaph, so I hope Paul Simon will allow me the luxury of using everyone's favorite line from this song as mine. Half of the time we're gone, and we don't know where, and we don't know where. I know you've been eager to fly. |
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