| Ween – The Argus Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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I take it to be about the Enlightenment. The myth of the Argus is here joined together with the later proverbs that negatively comment on his many-eyed nature, ascribing an all-watchful, invasive quality to the giant. The Argus is the antagonist here, representing all the predatory old-world empires whose iconography his image comes from, the narrator's society bearing the burden of appeasing his paranoia and obsessiveness, the disease he searches the land for, the mountains and oceans he swats at. All they get in return is the empty, practiced compassion of a monarch ostensibly shielding his peasants from harm with walls and warning bells, leading his trusting children down the ruinous path of war, colonization, and slavery, their participation shedding their souls without their even noticing, transfixed by the Argus' warnings as they are, drinking from the empty eyes of the dark face which says it saved them. But the god-eye--the dice of fate, if you like--did not grant the Argus forgiveness. His death unfolds just as it does in his story, sleeping in a field, his many eyes finally closed, as if it was inevitable. The music shifts from ominous to joyful because the Argus is a relic of the old world, a parasite upon the people, and it is only without him that a future is possible. As the messenger of the gods takes his life, in his final moments the Argus admits to his nature, ironically enough, in attempting to diagnose man's. The Argus only ever thrived in fear, only lived to stir up fear and manipulate it, and with how watchful his eyes are described to be, in all likelihood he feared for himself always, feared being undone at the hands of the gods should he cease his vigilance even for a moment, which of course he is. It is this choice of fear over love which leads to the Argus' death, and even as he dies he cannot renounce it, just as history cannot be made to renounce itself. But the Argus is wrong. Mankind will carry on without him, for fortune smiled upon them, and the sacrifice of the Argus has helped them to see. Yesterday, we lost our lives. Tomorrow, we were born. |
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| The Pogues – Rainy Night in Soho Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I disagree that it's about alcohol. Alcohol is a presence in the narrator's life ("Ginger Lady"), because, well, Shane Macgowan wrote it, but I think the song itself is a relatively straightforward love song, albeit one of the best ever. | |
| R.E.M. – Man On The Moon Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| The chorus is an indirect reference to the people who believe Andy Kaufman is still alive, having faked his death in one final stunt. It's comparing those people to people who believe the moon landing was fake. | |
| The Kinks – Tin Soldier Man Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Another metaphorical social critique, I think. About how the average man, going through the same motions, day after day, is just as meaningless and empty as a toy soldier, and just as in control of his life, too. | |
| Neko Case – Behind the House Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I always thought this song had a narrator who was dead. | |
| Bob Dylan – A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I remember hearing somewhere that Dylan said that when he wrote this song, he thought it would be one of the last ones he ever wrote, because he thought that a nuclear war was coming, and everyone would die. So, the surreal imagery in the verses are all the ideas he had left for songs, all the songs he though he wouldn't live to write. | |
| The Who – Bell Boy Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| No, it's Keith. He's doing an exaggerated accent for most of it, but sings the "Some nights I still sleep on the beach.." part and the last line in his real voice. | |
| The Who – Bell Boy Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| No, it's Keith. He's doing an exaggerated accent for most of it, but sings the "Some nights I still sleep on the beach.." part and the last line in his real voice. | |
| The Who – The Punk And The Godfather Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I realize this post was made years ago, but for the sake of anyone who looks at these comments, I'm gonna have to say: you're wrong. Quadrophenia was a rock opera, and, unlike Lifehouse, it had nothing to do with politics at all.. The song is about the main character's meeting with a rock and roll band (Supposedly The Who themselves), and the band are rude to him. Also, the verses are said by the punk (The Main character, Jimmy), and the chorus is said by the godfather (The band's front man, which is why he says "I'm the punk with the stutter", it's a reference to "My Generation"). Maybe Pete Townshend intended some political metaphor as well; I'll grant you that. But looking at just the face value, it's about what Jimmy perceives as the death of rock. |
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| The Who – I Am The Sea Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| This is the introduction of each of Jimmy's four personalities, The Romantic (Is it me, for a moment?), The Beggar (Love Reign O''er Me), The Lunatic (Bell Boy), and The Tough Guy (Can you see the real me?). So it gives you the four themes, and if you listen closely to the album, you can hear each one of them repeated at different points, especially the "Is it me?" theme, since that's kind of the point of the album: Jimmy wondering who he really is. | |
| Tom Waits – Chicago Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I always pictured it as being about America after the apocalypse, when it's become a wasteland, and people live in small, scattered communities. And this is about one place being used up("The seeds are planted here, but they won't grow"), and the singer is trying to convince the others to move to a new place ("We won't have to say goodbye, if we all go"), namely, the remnants of Chicago. | |
| Randy Newman – Bad News from Home Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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What!? No comments on this, possibly the greatest murder ballad ever written? Please, please comment, there is SO much interesting discussion to be had from this song. Anyway I think it's almost certainly about a man whose wife or lover leaves him for another, and the kills them both. All I could find from the Great Randy Newman himself was "It sounds life the guy's gonna do something bad," and describing it as a "Little drama." |
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| The Who – Who Are You? Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| My Dad (A huge fan of The Who, a really smart guy by all accounts), told me his opinion of the song, which makes a lot of sense to me. He pointed out that the end of the last verse "How can I measure up to anyone now after such a love as this", doesn't really sound like he's talking to a girl, it sounds more like he's talking about religion, which we know Pete Townshend kindasortamaybe dabbled in. So that would explain the chorus, he's asking who or what is above him, what is outside this world. And then the rest of the song is about an event that became a religious epiphany, that makes him questions how he got here. | |
| The Weakerthans – Aside Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| When I was a kid, my Mom used to listen to this song all the time, and I used to think that the lyrics went "And I'm LEAVING, on this broken fence..." etc. So I thought that it was about a teenager who was running away, or just moving out, but in any case was going to be on his own for the first time. But even after seeing what the real lyrics are, I think the song still could be about that. Especially the "Spread those maps out on the bedroom floor" part. | |
| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I don't think this song is about Ann Frank, or sex. This might sound naive, but I think it's simpler than that. I think it's a picture, a picture of a boy, an outcast, someone who feels like a freak, who might as well be a two-headed boy. And the point of the song is, even he can find someone, someone who understands him. I think it means that people who aren't "Normal" people have their own world, so to speak, people who dance to accordion keys, and that within that world you can find everything you could in the rest of the world, even love. I know I'll probably get scores of people telling me I'm wrong, that they have much better theories that are better researched and better informed than mine, but that's what this song means to me, and it is why it is such a beautiful song to me, because I'm one of those people, and it's a hopeful message to us. | |
| Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The meaning of this song becomes clear if you think of it in context: Picture man who has been becoming steadily more alone and isolated all his life, and who some how ended up becoming a rock star. Now imagine that one day right before a gig he becomes incapacitated, so the manager has to send for a doctor. The doctor doesn't care about the rock star, he doesn't want to CURE him, he just wants him to last through the show. The song is made up of the things the doctor says, and the rock star's internal response. Being "Comfortably Numb" is not a drug reference, it's a description of what all these years of detachment have done to this man, "Comfortable" doesn't mean pleasurable, it just means not immediately painful. At the end of the last chorus, the recollection from his childhood shows a deep, innermost longing for the time before all the pain, before he had to be numb. The whole album is the story of this person, that is an undisputed fact. Whether of not it is also about members of the band on some level is debatable (Though Probably true), but this is obviously how it fits in with the story line. Listen to the song with this in mind and you'll see. I know everything I've said has probably already been said, but I think I'm the first to put them together. |
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