| The Doobie Brothers – What A Fool Believes Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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@[mloma:26829] - I disagree. These lines are about the man, specifically how the man felt long ago when they were together but also in how he would accommodate her in the future if she were to come back to him. "She had a place in his life" means he wanted her to be a part of his life, he saw a future together that she didn't want or take. "He never made her think twice" means he didn't waver or hedge he was fully committed to her. It was she who didn't care about the relationship. The next line after these two is "as he rises to her apology anybody else would surely know he's watching her go" - she's basically saying "sorry guy but I don't feel the same way" but he's a fool in love and can't accept she won't come back. |
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| Steely Dan – Kings Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| Wow I just realized this song was on the album Can't Buy a Thrill which came out in November 1972. That was the month and year of Nixon's re-election. My point is that it had to have been written and recorded even before his re-election and well before his resignation, before he declared an end to the conflict in Vietnam. So this negates some of my thoughts and changes some other thoughts about the song I wrote above. | |
| Steely Dan – Kings Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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@[Stone:26797] Free Nixon promised to get us out of Vietnam. Politically, he played both sides, promising the war protesters he would get us out of the conflict, and promising the anti-communists that he would get us out with dignity or victory. It took him a lot longer than the people expected. But he was re-elected on the same promise and by huge margins. A few months after his re-election he declared an end to the conflict and a deal reached at the Paris Peace Accords. About a year and a half later he resigned rather than face impeachment over the Watergate scandal. Lyrically to me it alludes to the British saying "The King is Dead, Long Live the King" e.g. the previous king died, so praise the new one. Or as The Who sang "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss". I imagine the speaker here is involved in some kind of political conversation, after Nixon resigned, and sort of commenting on how we/he went from JFK to Nixon. The references to blue blood, the bugle playing, the sad old men laying his body down has to be, imo, JFK. These are facts: Blue Blood refers to families of high social rank like the Kennedy clan but also all the high ranking politicians at the funeral. It rained the day of JFK's state funeral. There was a bugler who played Taps. And all the sad old men (be they sad at JFK's death, or as I prefer to think sad in the sense that the speaker sees the people who run the town as pathetic) assembled. The only thing it really says about JFK is how he led the charge and saved the day, I presume to be a reference to sending the ships to intercept in a bold showdown with Russian/Soviet Premier Khrushchev to prevent the USSR's nuclear missiles from being deployed in Cuba. So this verse is lament at his passing and some hero worship. The next verse is some contrast. It references plundering, and children crying, and even though he was praised they went hungry anyway. The praise could refer to the popular support he had in 1972 election, he won by a very big margin and everyone was very happy when he shortly after declared the end to the Vietnam conflict. The plundering could refer to the slush funds used to re-elect, and/or the allegations of financial impropriety and loans surrounding Nixon. Plundering could also refer to war profiteering. The hungry children, I think, refers to a general dissatisfaction at the lack of social and political progress. American youth during Nixon's terms agitated (starving) for a lot of change that never came, thus, leaving them "hungry" (dissatisfied). He meant to shine to the end of the line, Nixon as a man really wanted to do good for the country, - alas he didn't get to the end of the line he had to resign early, muddied and tarnished. |
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| Steely Dan – Only A Fool Would Say That Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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@[jaymeister:26464] - Pair this track from 1972 with the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again (1971). Both songs first verses included references to guns. IMO both songs are about the failure/failings of the counterculture from the late 1960s to accomplish their goals. IMO the 2nd verse on this song basically says "just put yourself in the shoes of the average working man who dragging around 9 to 5 all day, you get home, flick on the TV and see someone is propagandizing about how great the world could be, if only... and you, tired, just don't want to hear about it. Life is hard enough to listen to bad news, and you a working man knows nothing is free so the guy on the TV is a fool to say that." |
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| The Tragically Hip – New Orleans Is Sinking Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[wonderdog:26437] Colonel Tom could be a way to refer to any person who has influence to make a deal. You could humorously refer to any manager or booker as Colonel Tom. He can't commit or won't give them the time to negotiate a deal. "Hey North You're South" I take to mean "you're not from around here" or "you don't do things the way we do them" so just do your thing - but could be sincere advice "don't listen to everybody just do what you feel is real" | |
| The Stone Roses – Love Spreads Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[masterexploder:26362] It doesn't seem that complicated to me. Love is the subject. It's in the first line of the lyrics "Love spreads her arms waiting for the nails". It is about how we sacrifice (kill) love. Get in the picture (start to love and be loved) you'll see what he means. Love is the messiah, there is no king (nothing more important) just Love (the queen). Love will forgive you for sacrificing her. | |
| The Police – Shadows In The Rain Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[sillybunny:26360] I don't know why you got down voted. I voted you back up. Opening line of the version on Dream of the Blue Turtles, Branford Marsalis is heard calling out "what key is this in.. wait, wait!" | |
| The Tragically Hip – Three Pistols Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[icemachine:26355] @[edge24:26356] I don't know for sure but I sounds like an allusion to 3 men | |
| The Smiths – This Charming Man Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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@[waxinglyrical:9542] and others I say this with no judgement at all, emotions are universal regardless of whom you are attracted to, but I do think it is a man+man relationship of some sort or another, and I would say it does matter to the overall theme. The line that makes me wonder the most is "I haven't a stitch to wear". Sure, stitch means clothing but it also is what you close wounds with. So this makes me think of a few possibilities - either he can't go out and can't engage with this person at all because he is still wounded from a past trauma, or that this man or someone else in his life is physically abusive and he can't go out because he is embarassed by the bruise. Obviously the emotional wound is more generally human and it is the one I believe is alluded to here. But there is that line referencing his physical beauty and "why should someone so handsome care?". So this alludes to a literal scar of some kind as well. Doesn't make it so, but its there to be interpreted. FWIW I believe that even though songwriters, poets and authors have an overt reason for their words, they also have some meanings hidden or intended to have a double meaning, and sometimes even the author isn't aware of every meaning possible but is releasing it from his mind without even knowing - at least at first.. Of course, once it is out there its up to the reader who has his/her own filter through which it is interpreted. As we see in these comments, some people didn't understand "return the ring" to mean "call me back", its a turn of a phrase. Which brings me to my final point and how you can see greatness at work. The writer has to fit this into a song. Its not free prose or poetry, it generally has to have a symmetry to the music accomopanying it. So some phrases get truncated, or idioms are employed that are regional and not universal ('return the ring' or 'give me a ring' is uniquely British, Americans generally use the word "call" not "ring" but that's also what makes these interpretations so fun. It conjures up meaning to some audiences more than others. Return the ring also, to me anyway, has an almost Tolkien feel to it. Was that intended? Maybe, maybe not. But even it it wasn't intended doesn't mean that it isn't there to be read into). |
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| Alice in Chains – Your Decision Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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@[RockChickie:2337] I have not seen the video but from the lyrics I think it is very much about Layne and Mike. Perhaps the lyric you speak of is more to Layne though, who pretty much and single handedly 'broke the Chains' so to speak with his addiction and the way he decided to live his life. Though Layne died in 2002, it is written that he really fell into a hole of addiction many years earlier. He last performed with AIC in 1996, and hadn't spoken to any of them for several years before he died. So when I read the line "And here you stand before us all and say it's over" and "It's your decision" I think its ceding control to Layne. It's clearly a multiple layered meaning, its his decision how to live his life, its his decision how to handle his pain/problems, and there was nothing anyone else could do it was his decision and death that led to the AIC breaking up. "Nobody plans to take the path that takes you lower" (double meaning, bring you down and also lower into your grave) but the line "here you stand" line is powerful to me because it is not really him, it is him in his death standing there saying its over. Its him in his death, his eternal legacy and his persona and his importance to the band and all that. The band may have wanted to go on and make more music together but it was his decision and everyone else had to go along with it. They gave him the power to decide for them. That's how i read it at first, anyway with my limited understanding of events. You could be right about the "fears become your god" part going to Mike. Mike's death was very sad too, and I know less about it though I do recall he was on TV with that counselor from Thelonious Monster and Dr Drew etc. surely there are many parts of this song that goes over my head but my first reading I thought of Layne. |
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