submissions
| Kim Richey – The Circus Song Lyrics
| 7 months ago
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The narrator is someone who repeatedly makes bad choices, even though she knows better. "Fool me twice, I like it that way . . . can't get enough of what's bad for me." |
submissions
| Al Stewart – The Dark and Rolling Sea Lyrics
| 7 months ago
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The lyrics displayed on the page are to "Apple Cider Re-Constitution." They should be:
Oh you slipped away from the harbour side
In the morning bright and clear
And your sails were filled with the rising wind
And you laughed for all to hear
But you never glanced at the ragged dance
Of your lovers on the quay
Don't call on them when the winds rise high
On the dark and the rolling sea
Oh you set your course for the furthest shores
And you never once looked back
And the flag you flew was a pirate cross
On a field of velvet black
And those landsmen who you but lately knew
Were left stranded on the lea
Don't call on them when the storm clouds rise
On the dark and the rolling sea
"Oh I have no need of a chart or creed"
You told your waiting crew
"For the winds of chance, they will bear us straight"
And you spoke as though you knew
So you paid no mind to the warning signs
As you gave your words so free
Don't change your tack when the timbers crack
On the dark and the rolling sea
Now the thunder rails in the great mainsails
And the stars desert the skies
And the rigging strains as the hands of rain
Reach down to wash your eyes
And your oarsmen stands with his knife in hand
And his eyes spell mutiny
Don't call my name when your ship goes down
On the dark and the rolling sea
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submissions
| Alan Jackson – Freight Train Lyrics
| 10 months ago
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Unlike a lot of train songs, he uses correct railroad terminology.
A "stoker" is a device for automatically feeding coal into a steam locomotive boiler--a mission-critical piece of equipment for larger engines like the UP "Big Boy."
Locomotives also have a "sander" that puts sand on the rails to combat wheel slip. |
submissions
| Judy Garland – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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This song was originally written for the musical film "Meet Me in St. Louis," released in 1944--right in the middle of World War 2. Everyone in the audience during its first run would have either been in the military, or had friends and family in the military, and would have at least known people who were overseas, and who had lost someone in the war. The lines "Someday soon we all will be together/If the fates allow/Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow" would have hit them emotionally in a way that we can't really appreciate 80 years later. |
submissions
| Tom Petty – Refugee Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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In my younger days, I conducted a rigorous series of controlled experiments that proved to a statistical certainty that playing "Refugee" on the car stereo reduced my 0-60 time by a full second. |
submissions
| Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul – Solidarity Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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About (or at least inspired by) the Solidarity movement in 1980 which led, ultimately, to the collapse of the Soviet empire and the liberation of much of Eastern Europe. My kind of political protest song! |
submissions
| Al Stewart – Year Of The Cat Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I was 15 when this came out, and I wanted to be the character in the song: travel to a distant land, meet an exotic and alluring girl, and stay there with her. |
submissions
| Donald Fagen – Walk Between Raindrops Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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In the third verse, I think it's actually "farther shore"--a reference to the afterlife. He's remembering a day with his now-deceased love, looking forward to the day he dies and they are reunited. |
submissions
| Chicago – 25 or 6 to 4 Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Hilde:49657] If you can't think of anything because you have writer's block, write about writer's block! |
submissions
| Carbon Leaf – One Prairie Outpost Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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A few years ago I was on a train going from Chicago to Denver- and this song was playing in my head the whole time--"alone in a flatland 'tween the dream and the real." |
submissions
| The Waterboys – Long Strange Golden Road Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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It's a "*Long* Strange Golden Road" all right, over 10 minutes long! (Worth the time, however.)
Best line: "She was Venus in a v-neck sweater/She was all that ever mattered." |
submissions
| Daisy Jones & the Six – Regret Me Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Daisy Jones & the Six are deliberately designed to resemble Fleetwood Mac, and this is the most Fleetwood Mac-like song of the bunch; has the same angry edge to it as "The Chain." |
submissions
| Jason Isbell – 24 Frames Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[1063266265:49195] The "pipe bomb" that is God destroys "everything you built that's all for show," leaving you to deal with what's really important. |
submissions
| Jim Stafford – My Girl Bill Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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A clever bit of misdirection--it's not clear until the very last verse that there's a comma between "girl" and "Bill." |
submissions
| Solas – Sorry Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Whoever he is, and whatever he did, he's used up all his second chances and gone over the moral event horizon. "Sorry won't save you this time." |
submissions
| Tami Neilson – Holy Moses Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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I originally thought it was "Time stretches on, a blues marathon", which, come to think of it, works just about as well as "fool's marathon." |
submissions
| The Big Wu – Kangaroo Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Air Supply was an Australian pop/soft rock band that had two or three hits in the US in the late 70s and early 80s. |
submissions
| Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – 666 Conducer Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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It's about people who mislead or do evil to others. "Conducer" means someone or something that leads to a specific result. "666" is, of course, the "number of the Beast"; that is, a reference to the Devil. A "666 conducer" would be someone doing the devil's work. The narrator asks if the conducer has a conscience: "How do you do the things you do, sir?" |
submissions
| Quarterflash – So Who's Lonely? Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Performed in a 1982 concert in Tulsa, Oklahoma that was broadcast on the "King Biscuit Flower Hour," but AFAIK never released on an album or as a single, and not available on any streaming service. (Unfortunate, as this may well be their best song.) The King Biscuit performance is available on YouTube, however: https://youtu.be/wVriIL_uGJc?si=bntCTyMNl3uApEg0 |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.
