| The Slip – Paper Birds Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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Probably my favorite Slip tune, which is saying a lot. I remember when they started playing it and it was called "My Landlord" on bootlegs. Once it was published, it was called "Paper Birds," which I think hints at the meaning more directly. It starts with a description of time spent with a woman who was probably the narrator's ex, and I imagine that the crying lady in the later verse is the same person, and that he ended the relationship ("second guesses"). I picture the landlord as a sort of beautifully eccentric loner, possibly an addict, who has a habit of making origami figures and then destroying them. The narrator identifies with this person, both their loneliness, and the need to create things. The narrator has his own paper birds, which I take to be his art. They are how he expresses himself emotionally to the world ("better way to bleed" / "for all my friends to see") and also how he views his legacy ("before I'm old or even dead"). But they set him apart from people in a way that dooms his relationships. And he acknowledges in a self-deprecating way that these things are as ephemeral or trivial as paper birds, and that destruction is part of creation. PS. The last section of "Paper Birds" is similar to the last half of Broken Social Scene's "Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl," and IIRC the original lyrics were similar enough to that song's that they ended up revising them to what they are now. The first half (which didn't show up in "Paper Birds") goes "Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that," which seems relevant. |
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| Jellyfish – Joining a Fan Club Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| "you've paid your money, now watch that money grow" sounds like a reference to the prosperity gospel -- i.e. the idea that if you donate to the church, God will reward you for it financially | |
| Jellyfish – Joining a Fan Club Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[salada:38586] regarding it being a particular star -- the song's glam rock feel and the mention of a crash make me think of Marc Bolan, who died young and was somewhat idolized. (I don't think the song's about him, just that you're supposed to picture a kid idolizing someone similar while their mom gets taken in by a televangelist) | |
| Steely Dan – Kings Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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@[jmc1:29573] ...and I also just read that Nixon was actually named after Richard Lionheart. That cements it being about Nixon for me. But I definitely think this song is, in addition to being a criticism of him, a criticism of the folks who thought a potential defeat of Nixon in '72 would somehow bring about utopia. And it *is* hard to see how things would have gone much differently, at least in Vietnam, since the peace accords were signed not long after Nixon's re-election. I've already written too much about this song, but will also add this: if McGovern is in some sense "Good King John" -- it's interesting to note that he did have a huge part to play in the reforming of the DNC process, and that in 1972 those reforms created seats at the table for the anti-war movement, gay rights' advocates, and others. So maybe it's not fair to compare the US to a monarchy after all. |
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| Steely Dan – Kings Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| also, while it's still on my mind, another theory: Imagine that you're Fagen in '72. You consider yourself a beat, but in the music scenes of NYC & LA, you're surrounded by hippies who are anti-Nixon and hoping he'll lose the election. "Kings" is the rebuttal -- in essence, who cares who sits on the throne? You'll still be a serf. | |
| Steely Dan – Kings Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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@[Stone:29551] Free are you sure "good" isn't used sarcastically in the song? @[Shampoo:29552] "blue blood and rain... bugle playing" being about JFK ... and the idea that both Nixon and Kennedy are "King Richard" ... that's genius. I hope you're right. |
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| Steely Dan – Kings Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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Maybe my favorite Dan song. No, it isn't as epic or experimental as "Aja" -- it's radio-ready soft rock, maybe even a little Laurel Canyon-ish. But between the percussive piano, dramatic background vocals, and amazing fuzz guitar playing, it has a throbbing, manic tension that I can't help but (gently) bang my head to. As to the meaning: Richard Lionheart might be there in the verses, but I think we all assume that "King Richard" is allegorical. I'd be surprised if it was *directly* about Nixon, in the way that Kid Charlemagne is about Bear Stanley. Don't forget that JFK preceded Nixon, with LBJ in between. But perhaps he did inspire it. Richard Daley, on the other hand, didn't start his six-term run as mayor of Chicago until 1989. I doubt even Fagen is nerdy enough to have written a song about a DNC backroom boy running for Illinois state government. (Robert Hunter, on the other hand...) And when had he "plundered far and wide?" Anyway, since so much of the song is about the narrator's experience, no one person strikes me as the subject -- his "subjects" are. More than once, we're shown a group of people pretending to praise a ruler who doesn't deserve it. Richard obviously doesn't, because he let people starve. And "Good" King John has only been king for a day, tops. So I think it's mostly a song that's about how folks are obliged to carry water for a leader or idea that doesn't warrant it, as with groupthink, or the "The Emperor's New Clothes." Moreover, and I think this is the true point of the song, there's a sense of resignation about all this, like it's just another day at the office. "Roll out the bones!" Wheel that damn corpse out here so we can toast him and go home. These arrows aren't going to fletch themselves. (Or, if you like, "Pick up my guitar and play / Just like yesterday"...) So, in my view, even if it was about Nixon running for re-election in '72, it's still not so much direct satire as an ode to political malaise. |
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