| Gordon Lightfoot – Second Cup Of Coffee Lyrics | 4 months ago |
|
I've never understood the meaning of this line: "And if I don't stop this trembling hand from reaching for the phone I'll be reaching for the bottle Lord before this day is done" Is it that a woman has left him, he'd like to call her, but he's afraid that she'll reject him again and he'll start drinking again? |
|
| Yes – Siberian Khatru Lyrics | 4 years ago |
|
@[findsomepeace:36865] Well, in American culture, there's a well-known old song about the "blue-tail fly": Perhaps Jon heard it once. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Crack_Corn |
|
| The Guess Who – So Long, Bannatyne Lyrics | 22 years ago |
|
Follow up: Over on http://www.guesswhofans.com/songdiscussions/slb.html , there's some discussion of this song. One poster says the red Chevy belonged to band member Kurt Winter; another says "You all know the story about how it was a song about Kurt moving to a house in the Fort Garry area, right?" I checked some maps: There's a Bannatyne Ave. in Winnipeg. The Fort Garry campus of the University of Manitoba is also in Winnipeg, about 5 minutes from Chevrier Blvd. So it looks like the song was about Kurt Winter's move from an apartment on Bannatyne Ave. in Winnipeg, to a house on Chevrier Blvd. elsewhere in the same city. |
|
| The Guess Who – So Long, Bannatyne Lyrics | 22 years ago |
|
I did some online research: "Bannatyne" is the name of a campus of the University of Manitoba, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. "Chevrier" Blvd. is a street in Winnipeg, about 5 miles from downtown Winnipeg. I have the vinyl LP; the jacket has, on its front side, the words "So Long, Bannatyne" above the "red Chevy" with a Manitoba plate. In the background is a building labeled "Bannatyne Apartments". On the back side of the LP jacket is the red Chevy again, but this time it's in a residential neighborhood. I couldn't find any Canadian towns named "Bannatyne" or "Chevrier". So, I'd say the song is about leaving college, or leaving an apartment in the city, and moving out to a house in the suburbs. |
|
| They Might Be Giants – Pencil Rain Lyrics | 23 years ago |
| "Pencil rain" is not artillery. It's death by pencil-pushers, by mismanagement from desks far away from the battlefield. Pretty clear. "Awaiting the first lead" = lead pencil. "Number two" = No. 2 Pencil. "Splintering wood" = pencils again. | |
| Led Zeppelin – Dazed and Confused Lyrics | 23 years ago |
|
The line "Wanted a woman, never bargained for you" in the 4th stanza always sounded instead to me like "Walnetto Woman, never bargained for you". :) (A Walnetto Woman, of course, would have to be the frumpy character played by Ruth Buzzi in "Laugh-In", who repeatedly refused the Walnetto candy offered by Arte Johnson's dirty old man character.) |
|
| The Doors – The Unknown Soldier Lyrics | 23 years ago |
|
Breakfast where the news is read. Television, children fed. Unborn living, living dead. I've always heard the second line as "Television children fed", without the comma. Imagine a family at breakfast, with the mother pregnant, watching a morning news show on TV while they eat. Everybody at the table, both the adults and the children, are children of the television. They're alive, but they're brain-dead, not thinking for themselves, just staring at the television. The only truly living person at the table is the unborn child in the mother's body, but it will become brain-dead like the rest of them when it's born into that family. Sad. |
|
| They Might Be Giants – Cage & Aquarium Lyrics | 23 years ago |
| No, you're on the right track. Also, note that a cage and an aquarium are both transparent. You have no privacy, and the people who have imprisoned you can see everything you're doing, and can know everything about you ("somebody's reading your mind"). Scary. And there's nothing you can do about it... you're already trapped. As your life is destroyed ("goes down in flames"), you might just as well yawn. | |
| They Might Be Giants – Exquisite Dead Guy Lyrics | 23 years ago |
| Try a Christian interpretation (although I'm not Christian): the "exquisite dead guy" is Christ. He's on display in all the churches, and it wouldn't be too far a stretch to have an image of Christ rotating in a display case somewhere. The singer is imagining that Christ is appearing to him in unusual ways: he thinks that Christ is talking to him, and sees him floating in the air outside his apartment building. He imagines he hears Christ asking him, "How am I supposed to let you know the way I feel about you?", i.e. "I've been trying for centuries to tell you that I love you, but you people won't listen." | |
| Eagles – Hotel California Lyrics | 23 years ago |
|
Some of the interpretations on this page have been on the theme of drug addiction. A few years ago I wrote the following lyrics for "Hotel California", but they're about a different kind of addiction. Enjoy. :) The Taco Bell Burrito (Written in 1995 to the tune of "Hotel California" by the Eagles, and presented to the rather unusual Usenet newsgroup news:alt.fan.taco-bell.) On a dark desert highway Cool wind in my hair Warm smell of burritos Rising up through the air Up ahead in the distance I saw a bright yellow light My head grew heavy and my mind grew dim I had to stop for a bite There I stood at the menu Reading "Taco Bell" I was trying to decide Did I want bean dip wrapped in a shell? Then they took down my order And they asked me to pay There were voices in the kitchenette As I walked away Welcome to the Taco Bell Burrito! Such a lovely place! Stuff to feed your face! Plenty of food in the Taco Bell Burrito! Mild or hot with spice - tacos, beans and rice! Cameras on the ceiling You fill your cup with ice Some would call it hell on earth But for me it's paradise In their massive freezers There are tons of seasoned meat They slather it with sauce and cheese And they serve it up to eat! Last thing I remember I was ordering some more They had to bring in forty men To pick me up from the floor I've tried to avoid it But I can't stay away If I didn't have to sleep or work That is where I'd stay Welcome to the Taco Bell Burrito! Such a lovely place! Stuff to feed your face! Plenty of food in the Taco Bell Burrito! Mild or hot with spice - tacos, beans and rice!! (c) 1995 by Wayne Farmer |
|
| They Might Be Giants – Cowtown Lyrics | 23 years ago |
|
Overall, I see the song as one about disillusionment with the human race. (Not an unusual theme for TMBG.) The speaker is seeking to depart from the land where people live, to go as far away as possible: to a land populated only by benign vegetarian animals (cows), or a land beneath the sea, or BOTH, if possible. That's where he will find friendship ("Cow's a friend to me"). Reasons for his disillusionment: (1) We were once primates living in the trees, but we evolved "intelligence" that caused us to abandon that life of simple joy and exploration in the trees, and eventually create our present existence ("the ardor of our arboreality is an adventure we have spurned"). [Note the nice word here, "aboreality": rather like a joining of "arboreal reality".] "The yellow Roosevelt Avenue leaf overturned" is a symbol of leaving that aboreal world behind: like a leaf in Autumn, we fell from the trees at the end of a "summer" in our evolution, and the green leaf is now fallen and dead. Winter is approaching. We think we've made progress (turning over a new leaf), but in fact we've gone backwards. (2) "We yearn to swim for home, but our only home is bone." We're looking for a unity, a home, but can't find it. We left that behind us in the trees. Now all we see in our future is death (bone = the lifeless skeleton), at the end of life's futile existence. It's a troubling thought (sleepless), that even in our infancy (as eggs), where we'd like to think we're full of new possibilities, we are doomed to this end. Even though we think we're powerful and dominant, able to control our destinies by being tool-users and weapon makers, in fact we can see that death is the only thing waiting for us ("that which throws the stone forsees the bone"). This same theme is echoed in the Bible's Genesis, with our ejection from the Garden of Eden, and the subsequent slaying of Abel by his brother Cain. Christians believe that we're doomed to death by our original sin. However, they see hope through salvation; TMBG sees no hope. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.