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| Electric Light Orchestra – Hold On Tight Lyrics
| 2 months ago
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Another thing I should add is some context of when the song was released. In the early 1980's, the economy in many places was tanking. We were in a deep recession at the time. Part of the problem was that businesses were going computer and laying off people because with a computer, more can be done with fewer people. ELO was saying this rough spot we were in was temporary and don't give up your dreams. Also, if you've ever wondered, the French verse is just a French translation of the first verse. |
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| Righeira – No Tengo Dinero Lyrics
| 6 months ago
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The title translates into English as "I don't have money" The verses translates thus:
The Modern luxuries live here.
In the highest place in my city
They feed on images and relays
I would like to be there more.
The new Italians create here
Dauntless and fierce of speed
Neo psychico is the synthetic Eden
I would like to be there more
Neo Psychic
Kissed by the day you are
Homeland* of these they believe you
Neo Psychic
Kissed by a day you are
Homeland* of these they believe you
* Can also be translated as Fatherland. |
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| Diesel – Sausalito Summernight Lyrics
| 9 months ago
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I recently saw a video featuring the band talking about it. They said it was inspired by an incident in 1979 when they were touring California and their tour bus broke down in Sausalito, California when they had a gig that night in San Francisco. It was summertime and pretty warm. |
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| The Like – Walk of Shame Lyrics
| 10 months ago
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It's about waking up in the bed of a stranger and not remembering what happened the night before. You just get the feeling you've done something bad, but you don't know what, and now you're ashamed of it. |
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| R.E.M. – Pretty Persuasion Lyrics
| 10 months ago
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Like many R.E.M. songs, this is one that can be read on so many levels. One level that hasn't been discussed much so far is about the use of sexuality in advertising. They trying to put something in your face and say "A beautiful/handsome person is touting this, you should buy it." The singer, however, is saying that's not always true, and the advertisers are confused by his reaction. Another more talked about thing was the view of being queer in the 80's. mindsets of the time were slowly starting to change from "homosexuality is wrong" to "homosexuality is just a different lifestyle." It was a bit confusing of which to say was right at the time. |
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| The Vaccines – Teenage Icon Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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On other levels, this can be seen as realizing you're no longer young and have to accept that you're getting old. Also it can be interpreted as a guy realizing he's never going to be the legend he his in his mind. |
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| The Bangles – Angels Don't Fall In Love Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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The singer is telling a guy that the woman he wants doesn't really want him. He's too consumed by lust to see how much that the woman doesn't love him. That woman is also probably using him. |
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| Devo – Too Much Paranoias Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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In addition to the above, I think that the singer also thinks he has to keep too much straight. The hold the pickles line was actually from a Burger King slogan. |
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| R.E.M. – Ages Of You Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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FWIR this song was originally recorded for the Chronic Town EP. I think the lyrics not making sense was somewhat intentional. |
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| Sarah McLachlan – Into The Fire Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I must say this can be interpreted in two ways: One is fame, as the
singer is embracing her trek to stardom. The other, is love, I think the video doesn't really make things clear; fame can be fraught with dirty people out to exploit, and love can go every which way. |
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| Oingo Boingo – Country Sweat Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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There is an urban legend associated with this song. I'm pretty sure it's not true though. On the Dead Man's Party tour, they played in a club known as the Longhorn Ballroom. This is a country & western bar in Dallas, Texas, but it occasionally had other types of bands. They adapted this song for that show. |
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| Oingo Boingo – Good For Your Soul Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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It's really about giiving in to one's basic urges and doing things like sex and drugs. One time is not going to kill you, but it can send you on a slippery slope to doom. |
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| Kajagoogoo – Magician Man Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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A nice song about a magician trying to entertain someone. The singer is humoring the magician but is aware of the things he's doing. |
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| Kajagoogoo – Ergonomics Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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A song about having things designed to work with the human body is better than not. Ergonomics was a very new concept then, and they wanted it to suceed. |
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| Kajagoogoo – Frayo Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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Frayo is, of course, communism. This song is a tell-it-like-it-is about life under communism and how the working class is exploited and bullied into obeying. |
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| The Go-Gos – This Town Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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It's all about Hollywood/LA and the image of how it's the ideal town. The stereotype is all the people are glamorous and good looking, but reading between the lines, the lyrics really show that it isn't. |
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| Peter Schilling – The Different Story (World of Lust and Crime) Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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The wise man in the graveyard is the one who really understands things here. He's trying to get people to stop being in a superficial, image-is-everything world and trying to get people to put substance behind the image. This is the world of lust and crime. |
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| 10,000 Maniacs – The Big Parade Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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This is about war and how it can hit home. At the time a new memorial to the victims of the Vietnam war had been built, and this is the son of someone who was killed there going to the memorial to find out more about a father he never knew. |
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| The B-52's – Deadbeat Club Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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This one really is mocking people who think that they can get away with partying all the time and not working. It's also mocking those who live in nostalgia and not the present. They'll do anything to avoid responsibility, and that isn't good. |
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| The B-52's – Deadbeat Club Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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This one really is mocking people who think that they can get away with partying all the time and not working. It's also mocking those who live in nostalgia and not the present. They'll do anything to avoid responsibility, and that isn't good. |
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| Hoodoo Gurus – Hung Out to Dry Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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A song that was inspired by Donald Trump and how he dropped the ball when it came to the pandemic, according to an interview I saw with Dave Faulkner. The band had not been fans of his to start with, but they felt that he mishandled the pandemic and other things, and wanted to encourage Americans to vote him out. |
submissions
| Falco – Vienna Calling Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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I\'m not really sure what the 210 thing is about - googling it says this calling code only covers San Antonio, Texas, and they got it in 1992. One other thing I want to say is the song is quite delightful but a lot of one-hit wonder makers seem to conveniently forget it, despite it hitting the top twenty in many countries, and making it to #18 in the USA in 1985. |
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| Ultravox – Reap The Wild Wind Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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To quote Midge Ure: "\'Reap the Wild Wind\' is all about the melody and the rhythm of the song. We used the words and the voice, as a rhythmic sound, almost like an instrument itself. But actually, most of my old songs is a canvas of words. One line does not necessarily connect to the next. Take "Reap the Wild Wind" - it\'s really not about anything at all!" \n\nAnother possible interpretation is it could be about the economic scene of the early 1980\'s. Much of the world was in a recession and finding a stable foothold was near impossible. Then again, it can also be interpreted as being about the music industry and how unstable it is. You\'re hot one day, the next you\'re replaced by another face. |
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| The Police – Someone To Talk To Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Well, the song is a continuation with the fight Andy was having with his family about being a musician and the stress he was under. |
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| The Police – Masoko Tanga Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Apparently, there's some legal issue that prevents the official lyrics from being shown here. I think it's a song about a reggae artist waking up after a night of using some drug (possibly a Rastafarian using "the herb") Another point about the Japanese lyrics: releases from the time weren't very accurate with the lyrics then. I remember another artist had a song with the line "Living in the cocoon core" that appeared in a Japanese release as "licking the cartoon corpse." This also may be way those lyrics aren't there. |
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| Oingo Boingo – Louise Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Before forming Oingo Boingo, Danny played in Jérôme Savary's Le Grand Magic Circus, an avant-garde musical theater group in France. Rumor has it he composed this song with them for a girl they met named Louise. It's also been speculated this is about Richard Elfman's relationship with his then wife Marie-Pascale Elfman. |
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| Danny Elfman – Cool City Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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It's a commentary about Los Angeles 1984. A city of hopes, dreams, ambitions and people standing in the way. The ones who know the right people will get into the good stuff; everyone else won't. "snort a line" is a reference to how fashionable it is to do drugs. |
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| The Rumjacks – Good Night & Make Mends Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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A song saying farewell. To what depends on how you look at it. On one level, it's about how Covid-19 destroyed their local scene. Another level could say the local scene was destroyed by other methods. A third would be that the scene was not destroyed, but the parting of someone from it is going to leave a large vacuum in the scene. |
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| The Rumjacks – The Black Matilda Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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It's a warning about a woman that lives in Canada named Matilda that seems to fixate on ruining sailor's lives. Although in every version I've heard, in the last part the ultimate line's first part ("Enough to make you cry") is repeated several times, although that apparently is not apart of the official lyrics. The singer got tempted by her and ended up ruining his life so much he committed suicide. |
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| INXS – Beautiful Girl Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Well, I think it's really a commentary about how Andrew was worried that he brought into this world (Grace,) a girl who is, in his mind, beautiful but she will be subjected to all this propaganda that her body is just not good enough and she needs to jump through an ungodly amount of hoops to be considered even halfway decent. Even worse, it is happening to every female on this planet... and male as well. |
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| The Call – Everywhere I Go Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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A really fun song about how he's missing his lover and wishes he could be with him/her. Fun fact: backup singers on this song were Peter Gabriel and Jim Kerr. |
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| Concrete Blonde – Free Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Urban legend has it the song was originally supposed to be on Free but it got cut at the last minute by accident. It was then suggested that they put it as the B-side to God Is a Bullet. I doubt it's true, but this song joins the ranks of the Who's "The Kids Are All Right" and Elvis Costello's "Almost Blue" of being great tracks that were accidentally left off the album. |
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| Concrete Blonde – Debbie Don't Do Dicks Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Well, it's obviously about a guy who falls in love with a lesbian. However, I'm a bit of a loss of trying to find where this song is available. I don't see it listed as a track on any of their official releases, and a search for an MP3 of it comes up blank. |
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| Concrete Blonde – Debbie Don't Do Dicks Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Well, it's obviously about a guy who falls in love with a lesbian. However, I'm a bit of a loss of trying to find where this song is available. I don't see it listed as a track on any of their official releases, and a search for an MP3 of it comes up blank. |
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| Concrete Blonde – Dance Along The Edge Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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In addition to the above, the verse about temples crumbling is a reminder that we all live in a temporary mortal coil that could, at any moment, could expire and we die. Part of the fear is wanting a love that lasts, but knowing that life is but temporary. |
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| Concrete Blonde – Roses Grow Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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One could argue that this is a somewhat autobiographical song of the band in that the band is from LA and grew up there. The band's guitarist, James Mankey, was the son of a noted producer, Earl Mankey. Despite the people around them, they were able to come together and produce the band they had. |
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| Concrete Blonde – Jonestown Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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November 14, 1978 is a day that will live in infamy because the cult leader Jim Jones ordered his followers to drink poisoned flavor-aid (not Kool-aid as some say.) Jones had wanted to build a utopian community in a remote section of Guyana, however, it was far from that. The song really is about how people seem to be following the charismatic leaders blindly, and then when the mighty fall, the followers scramble to find the next svengali. |
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| Concrete Blonde – Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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The origin of this comes from an incident that occured in a hotel in Austin, Texas. In an interview Johnette said she had just finished showering and came out of the shower clad in a towel to see a ghost there. After Johnette screamed, the ghost vanished. While I can see why he'd want to do that, I should also say the way he went about doing it was very inappropriate. |
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| Concrete Blonde – Darkening Of The Light Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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The mandolin player on this song is Pete Buck of R.E.M. fame. Johnette said she always wanted to do a song with him in it, and Pete agreed to it. IIRC he said he liked working with her. |
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| Concrete Blonde – City Screaming Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Pretty much a description of Los Angeles at the time. I understand it hasn't gotten much better. Back then there were cases of people dying from the pollution, although they were said to be sensitive to that. |
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| Concrete Blonde – Bajo La Lune Mexicana Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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It's a pretty accurate translation of the title track of this album. I'm not really sure though why in the title they say lune and the lyrics themselves say luna. As I understand it, the translator was from East LA and it may have something to do with that. |
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| The Go-Gos – Daisy Chain Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Basically this song is about the original rise and demise of the Go-Go's and what happened to cause it. The line "Been brought down by a broken heart" probably refers to drummer Gina Schock, who had some heart problems and had to undergo open heart surgery, which sidelined the band from touring for a while right before their demise. |
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