| Kate Bush – Houdini Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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The song is about Houdini's wife talking to a medium after Houdini's death. "I wait at the table, And hold hands with weeping strangers Wait for you to join the group The tambourine jingle-jangles The medium roams and rambles Not taken in, I break the circle I want this man To go away now" This part is about the seance. People are sitting in a circle and the medium is claiming to be in contact with Houdini's spirit. His wife is not buying it ("not taken in") so she "breaks the circle" thus breaking the connection. I always interpreted this part as Houdini's wife being in denial and/or being afraid of the medium. I don't think the medium is a fake, I think his wife doesn't want to believe the medium because it's too creepy/painful for her to deal with. "With a kiss I'd pass the key And feel your tongue Teasing and receiving. With your spit Still on my lip You hit the water" This is Houdini's wife thinking back to the day he died. She kissed him and passed the key (that would allow him to unlock his chains) moments before he entered the water. "Him and I in the room To prove you are with us too He's using code that only you and I know This is no trick of his This is your magic" She's alone with the medium because she doesn't trust the strangers and wants the medium to prove to her that Houdini's spirit is really present. He uses their code "Rosabel, believe" and she realizes that Houdini really is there. "This is no trick of his" - the medium. "This is your magic" - Houdini. "I'd catch the cues Watching you Hoping you'd do something wrong" She's saying "You" because she now believes that the medium is indeed possessed by Houdini's spirit but she still hopes he'll "do something wrong" and be revealed as a fake. "Everybody thinks you'll never make it But every time you escape 'Rosabel believe, Not even eternity Can hold Houdini!' She now referring to his escape acts. People always thought every stunt would be his last but he escaped every time and even now, he has escaped the afterlife (if only temporarily). "Through the glass I'd watch you breathe Bound and drowned And paler than you've ever been With your life The only thing in my mind We pull you from the water" This is another flashback to the day he died. She's remembering watching him fail to escape. All she could think of was whether or not he was dead, if he could be resuscitated, etc. I may be incorrect about the interpretation that she is afraid/creeped out by his spirit, not wanting to believe the medium, etc. I just know that I would be skeptical and afraid if I was doing something like that myself. This is such a beautiful song, I love everything about it. The lyrics, the music, her voice, the drama. It's one of my all time favourites. Kate Bush is a genius. Up there with Bowie for me! |
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| Belly (US) – Low Red Moon Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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i always thought this song was about having sex outside at night? i thought the lyrics about the "horses" was a reference to condoms ("Trojan" was the number 1 condom brand in america in the late 80s / early 90s) like when she sings "So what, you think this is usual?" she's talking about how she has never done this before, just a lot of the lyrics suggest a sexual encounter of some sort ("So now, I say this is beautiful.) |
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| Pixies – Hey Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| also its annoying how casually everyone in the comments are just throwing that word around like maybe you should ask yourself why you're so comfortable with referring to women as whores. | |
| Pixies – Hey Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| this song is SO GOOD but every time he says "whores" i cringe, its so misogynistic and just unnecessary. it makes the song an awkward listen in my opinion. | |
| Sleater-Kinney – I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I think this song can be interpreted in three ways. 1) She wants to be one person in particular's "Joey Ramone". Meaning that she wants this person to worship and admire her. 2) Its a song about musical appreciation. Whenever I hear this song I'm taken back to being young girl listening to a record in her bedroom and feeling like she's just discovered a new world ("Its all mine, its on my wall its in my head, memorize it 'til I'm dead") and suddenly feeling like her own life sucks compared to all of these crazy situations in these amazing songs ("I'm yours, now I'm so bored") Its pure fantasy, dancing around your bedroom, imagining yourself as a rock star ("I'm the queen of rock and roll!") 3) Its about wanting to have the same influence and legend status as Joey/Thurston. Its about wanting a woman to finally be called "the voice of a generation" and wishing that girls would idolize a female musician like they do male musicians. Its about wanting girls to say "I want to be in a band!" instead of "I want to date a band member." |
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| Bikini Kill – Capri Pants Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Kathleen wrote this about Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz of the Beastie Boys. She's now married to him but when they first started dating she felt she had to keep it a secret and felt that their relationship was wrong and was angry at herself for loving him considering the fact the Beastie Boys sang things like "girls, do my laundry" etc. etc. She talks about this in The Punk Singer. | |
| Bikini Kill – Thurston Hearts the Who Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I know this song is probably about how Capitalism, ahem, capitalizes on pop culture by getting bands to endorse things and by using popular artists as living breathing billboards BUT sometimes I like to pretend that Kathleen wrote this song about Kurt. Hear me out, Kurt was open about his adoration of Sonic Youth, and Kathleen used to hang out with Kurt before Nirvana blew up. Pretty much every fan knows that Kathleen gave Kurt the inspo for Smells Like Teen Spirit after they "stayed out all night" and got wasted and talked for hours. I like to think that Kathleen sensed Kurt's insecurity and how he longed for acceptance and this song is kind of a reference to the fact that Kurt maybe placed too much significance on other people's opinions of him. Of course, this is a total long shot and I pretty much just made up an entire scenario in my head but I think it adds a totally different aspect to the song - instead of it being about brainwashing and choosing not to think for yourself, it could be about insecurity and being afraid to think for yourself. Either way I don't think its really about Thurston Moore at all. | |
| Bikini Kill – Rah! Rah! Replica! Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| @[supervixenPgrrl:4960] is so right, I never thought about the song like this but it makes so much more sense. I was always flummoxed by the "sizzlelean" line because its unlike Kathleen to diss another girl but now I totally get it. Basically the song is about letting a man change you beyond recognition (but really the situation can apply to any gender). She made herself "nice and sweet" to fit his standards and by doing so "doused out the fire" inside of her, the very thing that makes her who she is, which is why this Replica is not "bacon" but "sizzlelean", she's a lousy version of herself. "Now I live on a new street baby, address double zero and the place is nowhere" is referencing the fact that her true self has pretty much disappeared. Such a smart song! For so long I've been dancing along to these songs without ever really analyzing the lyrics and wow, Kathleen Hanna is so smart and poetic and criminally underrated! | |
| Bikini Kill – Don't Need You Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| This song speaks for itself really. It is so powerful, her vocals give me a real Johnny Rotten vibe on this song. Amazing. | |
| Bikini Kill – Alien She Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I think this song is about the struggle that women go through to find out who they actually are and not who society is telling them they are, what they really like and not what society tells them they like. Shaving, waxing, dresses, makeup, high heels - these are all things that women are told to do/wear, there's no real reason for them except to act as a constant reminder that "You are woman, woman different to man" and to remind you that there are an endless list of contradicting rules you must follow in order for your existence to be accepted. Instead of just existing as you please, like a man generally would. There is actually also a set of rules that you must adhere to in order to "Be A Man", but since this song is about women I'll leave that subject alone. Girls are taught to perform "Sexy" before they even understand their own sexuality (if they ever even discover their own sexuality at all). Girls are taught to be accommodating, self-sacrificing, to just "give him a chance", by doing this we teach them to ignore their self-preservation instincts and ultimately send them straight into harm's way. "Siamese twin connected at the cunt" is referencing this head on, pointing out that the "pretty" girl mold society tries to squash her into is so far removed from her true self that the only possible connection between the two and the only reason they're being forced together is because of her vagina. The "heart, brain, heart, brain, lung, gut" line is a more metaphorical way of saying the same thing. Her true self (heart = feelings/emotion, gut = true nature/instincts) is fighting with the stereotypical femininity society is forcing on her and which she knows may be the smarter choice because it will be more socially accepted (lung = survival, brain = logic). I, in equal parts, love and hate the ending because although I wish the song could end with her embracing her true nature, it is sadly true that a lot of women never do and struggle for the rest of their lives with the conflicting identities forced onto her. But that's just what the song means to me, and of course, songs can mean different things to different people. |
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