| The Kelly Family – Nanana Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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I think this song is about a (young) man falling in love with a (beautiful) girl; however, the odds are not in their favour ("grey grey world where nobody sings"; "in a place where hell is around the corner"; "if you wanna live you better not touch"): this could hint at a situation close to a civil war - either "small", like Catholics and Protestants in Belfast, or "big" like during the American Civil War, where you could get killed by your own people when they saw you with "the enemy". Instead to fight for his relationship with the "human doll" he leaves the country ("I left the one that I loved behind"). He returns after some time, only to find out that he cannot get back to the girl. The "Black Swan" could either refer to another man, or - what I think is more likely - it's a symbol for death, meaning the "human doll" has died meanwhile. The song she sang to him is played in the radio (probably because he turned it into a "suitable" song), and since many people listen to it, she won't be forgotten. |
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| Garmarna – Min man Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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The lyrical ego of the singer is basically confessing an affair with another man; it starts with dancing, the other one follows her home, she gets pregnant by that other man, but ultimately she stays with her husband, because her husband is still virile, while the other one is old and grey. While she does not say "the other one is more attractive, because he has more muscles/more hair/more beautiful eyes" she brings up his clothing: the other man wears golden (I guess here: bright yellow) leather-pants, while her own man wears green pants;the other man wears black tight leather boots, her own man wears brown shoes; the child from the other man has an almost epic name: "Maja of the mountains" while the child she has with her husband is just called "Stina", implying that the affair is a rich man (bright yellow pants and black boots are sure more expensive than green pants and brown shoes), while her own husband is less wealthy. But ultimately her own husband is the better match, because he won't die so soon, thus he's able to care longer for her (and the children). |
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| Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – Sebastian Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I once listened to this song after I got my wisdom-teeth removed; the night after I was released from hospital, balancing on the edge between excrutiating pain and being so high it did not matter at all; I guess I was what people call "high" - and suddenly I grasped the meaning of every line, every word of "Sebastian". I WAS Sebastian, travelling between worlds, raising from the dead with a new identity everytime, lovers from centuries and dimensions passing by... I fell asleep with the thought of "The next morning, once I feel better, I will write an interpretation, I finally understand!" But when I woke up.... everything but a few glimpses of what I experienced was gone, and I felt such a great loss that made me sad although I still do not know why... |
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| Aqua – My Oh My Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Always found it a bit of a shame that the Pirate-video was cool, but the song is CLEARLY Robin-Hood-related. For whatever reason - I listened to it a lot while I was raiding Icecrown Citadel (probably because I needed a cheer-up), and now I always see Jaina and Arthas in a totally exaggerated 90's video ^.^ |
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| Blackmore's Night – Play Minstrel Play Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I think it's fair if people think "Play Minstrel Play" is connected to the Pied Piper of Hamelin ("[...] leading them away to a foreign land" and "has he come to save us from Satan's hand" could both indicate at the rat plague and that the Pied Piper lead the rats away, and "he held the answer to our prayers/yet it was too good to be" can indicate at the "price" he is taking after they do not want to pay him). However - I think the story is a different one: We are in a village, troubled by something serious (as indicated in "Satan's hand"), and - for what it's said later in the song - I think it's the fear of the Plague (or a similar desease), which has been spreading over the land but not gotten into this settlement yet. Usually only bigger settlements had a doctor at hand; people on the countryside had to rely on either "Wise women" (which often were mistaken for witches using black magic, thus they got burnt) or on "travelling people" who sold them "remedies" (the most famous one is "Snake oil" - which is still a synonyme for "something that promises wonders, yet is very expensive and does not do anything; in the best case it only hurts your wallet"). Also Minstrels often were the only people who brought news to those villages - if a king (or a lord) did not send out messengers to deliver a "special order" (or something like that) each village was basically an island. Maybe the "has he come to save us from Satan's hand?" does not even hint at a "real remedy" he is selling, but either at the news that "somebody found a cure", or just the news "the plague is over!" - which would be a relief for people who were (until now) spared by the plague. "Leading them away in a foreign land" compared with "and take away our sorrows [...] and we'll follow" sounds to me like everyone in this "town" (which is probably just a village anyway) comes to see the Minstrel. Like we turn on the TV for distraction people attended travelling artists, because it was something that took them away from their daily (and often hard) life. No wonder that the "enchanting melody" weaves "a spell around you". They all WANTED to be taken away. Yet the "realizing of the truth" comes within the verse: "Danger hidden in his eyes / we should have seen it from far away / wearing such a thin disguise in the light of day." The Minstrel comes at night ("underneath the harvest moon"), thus nobody could see that he is sick. He is the bearer of the plague (or disease) that spared the village until then. If he would have come by day probably they would have stoned him to death before he stepped over the town's borders. But now they spend one night in his company, and he might have spread the plague to anybody close to him by sunrise. The large instrumental part at the end of the song can be seen in an even wider array of interpretations. One of my thinkings is: the townsfolk hunts the minstrel, trying to kill him for what he's done, and he barely escapes (or they even get him; depends on my mood ^^). The other: the "Minstrel" itself is "the plague in human form" (like e.g. the Plague appears as humanoid in "the Mask of the Red Death"), and once he is revealed he starts to play his tunes, and everybody infected by the plague has to dance, faster and faster and faster - until they finally all drop down dead. |
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| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Lovely Creature Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Since this song is from the "Murder Ballads"-Album I guess it's pretty fair to assume the narrator meets a pretty girl, spends some time with her, then kills her and buries her body in the desert. My mind always set this "story" in Las Vegas - I guess because of "over mountains, over ranges / by great pyramids and sphinx / we met drifters and strangers" rather made me think of scenes I saw in CSI (now CSI Vegas) than of Egypt; also - and I hope that does not sound wrong - a "lovely creature" with "hair full of ribbons and green gloves on her hands" sounds like THAT kind of "exclusive company" you can find easily along the strip. So both go on a trip through Las Vegas, ending up somewhere outside in the desert - where something happens and he kills her. But when I heard the song for the very first time (admidetally I was quite young back then and English is my second language, so it was far from being perfect) I thought it was about a vanishing hitchhiker. A guy sees that beautiful girl that is dressed a bit old-fashioned (I mean, ribbons in the hair and gloves made me think of Southern Belles) and he offers her a ride. She takes the offer and leads him very chaoticly around, even into a sand-storm, and when he finally makes it home - she's gone. Somewhere later he finds out that the "lovely creature" is dead, buried in the desert, and she probably tried to lead him there so that finally somebody discovers her body. |
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| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I discovered the song only recently (and did not watch the video), but immediately the following sprang into my mind: I saw a woman standing at a window, looking into a heavy snow-storm, her lips move according to the lyrics as she wonders about the children, where they are, if they have put their mittens on; you can see that she really is "moved" - and from her facial expression you think it's worry; during the time, when the music gets "faster" she starts pacing through the room, passing a man who's sitting in an armchair, silently watching her (next to him a phone). Her movements get more irratic, her facial expressions turn into panic; she still moves her lips, so it looks like she's talking to the man in the chair, and although he does not make a movement she yells at him not to pick up the telephone. When she raises her arms you see scars, indicating failed suicide attempts. On the walls and desks you see pictures of children - all from baby-age to about maybe 5-6. When the lyrics change to "doctor, doctor" and "where's my nurse" you see open pill-packages, the label indicating that it's against depression (or something related). You also see strong sleeping-pills. At "Is there anyone here who does not know?" the picture slowly fades into another - you see the same woman, now dressed into one of those shirts you get in a hospital, pacing through a padded room while she's watched through one-way-window by the same guy we already saw sitting in the chair. Now he's dressed like a doctor, even having a clipboard with notes. Next to him stands a police officer. In front of them, on a little table, you see files. On each file is the picture of one of the children (the same pictures that we saw standing/hanging in the "normal" room), only that those kids are definitely dead, and you all see them "bedded" in molten snow. So my "Story" for this song is: There's a mother, falling into a deep depression once winter settles in, and because she's so depressed she kills her kids to "save" them from this evil world and buries their bodies under the snow, before she attempts to kill herself. But she is always found (probably by her neighbour, hence the lyrics "but my neighbour is my enemy"). Maybe - as a teenager - she had one of those "episodes" already, killing her younger siblings she was responsible for, going already under therapy, then being released... so the story repeats itself with her own children. That is just my own interpretation, something that sprang into my mind while listening to the song. I consider any piece of art - song, poem, music, picture... - "good" when it makes you create your "own thing", even when it's far from what the artist actually thought. |
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