submissions
| Stevie Ray Vaughan – Tightrope Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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This song seems to be about SRV's struggle with himself in his fight against his drug habit. The first half up to the first chorus is really his struggle and the problems he was facing, the second half represents how he came to terms with himself. The album was called "In Step," in reference to the 12 Step programs he used to help himself move on. |
submissions
| Weird Al Yankovic – eBay Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I love Al's vibrato at the end of the song. It's the one actual poke at the Backstreet Boys, who already well past their prime when the parody was released. It's more of a parody of the EBay service than Backstreet. |
submissions
| Bob Dylan – Gotta Serve Somebody Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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Joshua 24:15 - "But if it doesn't please you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord." |
submissions
| Dave Matthews Band – Everyday Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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Personally, I'm a bigger fan of the live version he did at the WTC tribute. The album version is a pretty cheesy, you really get the full effect when it's just Dave on the guitar. |
submissions
| Harry Chapin – The Mayor of Candor Lied Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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Harry Chapin was an awesome songwriter, but he was also a terrific storyteller. While this song may not really have any meaning (and maybe it does), it is a very gripping and disturbing story. An interesting irony included in this song is that the lying mayor is mayor of Candor, which is another word for truth. |
submissions
| Weird Al Yankovic – The Weird Al Show Theme Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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From the short-lived "Weird Al Show," this song isn't supposed to make any sense. It's like "Oh Susanna", of which the second verse is "It rained so hard the night I left / The weather it was dry / The sun so hot I froze to death / Susanna don't you cry." Al's mostly making fun of the convoluted premises a lot of shows have. |
submissions
| Weird Al Yankovic – Bob Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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This is a great song. It's a style parody of Bob Dylan, using all palindromes. The really weird thing is that it sounds exactly like something Bob Dylan would sing. |
submissions
| Don McLean – Empty Chairs Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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I think this song is very interesting because it's about the loss of a loved one - the only thing unclear is whether it's to death or to a break up. I tend to lean towards the break up interpretation because of "A sympathy bouquet left with the love that's dead ." It's interesting comparing a break up to death, because sometimes it can feel like that. Either way, this is a song that covers acceptance and coping with loss. |
submissions
| Monty Python – Medical Love Song Lyrics
| 23 years ago
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Boy, if there was ever a raging endorsement of safe sex, this is it. Just listening to all those STDs is frightening. It's a funny song, it really is, but it's pretty poignant too (listen to me, psychoanalyzing Monty Python...what's wrong with me?) |
submissions
| Peter Gabriel – Don't Give Up Lyrics
| 23 years ago
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About a week after September 11, I heard this song on the radio. I had heard it before, knew it pretty well, but I never thought about it in that context. It's amazing how much one event can give new meaning to an old song. |
submissions
| Monty Python – The Lumberjack Song Lyrics
| 23 years ago
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This song is about the changing of society's values towards acceptance of transvestites. As the song so elegantly illustrates, we are almost to the point of finally accepting those whose style is a little different, but not quite. The background singers, Canadian mounties to represent the common man, make it through two and a half verses before faltering and stopping the song. Though they do come back and finish out the chorus (more a gesture of kindness rather than one of acceptance), it is their reluctance to accept the narrator's eccentricities that makes this song one of the most relevant, powerful, and moving depictions of life as a transvestite that this world has ever seen.
Ah, who am I kidding. It's just Monty Python at their goofy best. Great song. |
submissions
| Jimmy Buffett – Margaritaville Lyrics
| 23 years ago
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If you really think about it, this is a very sad song. I mean, the poor guy is obviously getting over some girl, and margaritas are his only escape. He's trying to escape reality by getting drunk. This song serves well as an expression of pain. It is a very good song. I'm not a huge Buffett fan, but this one is beautiful in its emotion. |
submissions
| Don McLean – The Grave Lyrics
| 23 years ago
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This is one of the most intense anti-war songs ever written. It's beautiful in its simplicity. It's a story about one man at one moment in time as he dies in battle. 20 years old, dying in vain for a fight that doesn't involve him. The music is so vivid that you can picture a scared young man, barely out of childhood, huddled in the trenches with bombs going off around him. Surrounded by gunfire in the pouring rain, he hides in the mud trying in vain not to die. I don't know about you, but the picture this song puts in my head is almost cinematic. The lyrics are poetic, the song is tragedy, the song is beautiful, the point is made. |
submissions
| James Taylor – Carolina In My Mind Lyrics
| 23 years ago
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This song is about longing for home. For those of us a long way from home, and especially those of us who call (North) Carolina home, this is a beautifully touching song. There's so much love and emotion packed into the lyrics...a silver tear appearing now, I'm cryin', ain't I...going' to Carolina in my mind. |
submissions
| Peter Gabriel – Big Time Lyrics
| 23 years ago
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To me, this song is about, quite literally, a man's ambitions as he moves from the small town life to the "Big Time". The way it's presented kind of evokes a certain naivete, with the singer expecting to be so great and so happy in his new life. It suggests that reality may come crashing down around him soon.
I too have felt this way. As a child, I moved from a rural area in North Carolina to Raleigh, the capital city. I was on my way up, and I was excited. I wasn't ready for reality, and I got a dose of it. But this song isn't about reality - it's about anticipation, and that's something we can all empathize with. |
submissions
| Weird Al Yankovic – Bohemian Polka Lyrics
| 23 years ago
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And Freddie Mercury wasn't strange looking? I realize that in the world of music, Al isn't terribly respected because he parodies other people's songs. However, like I said, half of his repertoire is original music. You're not liking Al because this particular song doesn't have any apparent changes when you read the lyrics. Listen to it sometime, then decide whether or not Al is worthy of your hatred. While you're doing that (which you won't), remember that Al gets permission from the original artists every time he does a parody, or a polka arrangement. Queen got a royalty check for this song. Does a leech pay its host for sucking it's blood? Al is a respectful parasite. |
submissions
| Weird Al Yankovic – Bohemian Polka Lyrics
| 23 years ago
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Starfish - you are right when you say that this is NOT a parody. It isn't. It's a setting of the Queen song to a polka beat. If you had heard the song yourself, I think you would see the talent in it. And to say that Weird Al has no talent is just wrong. He does parody popular songs, but he also writes a number of songs himself. It takes a certain amount of intelligence (and talent) to fit new words into existing songs (or in this case, to set existing songs to new rhythms). Haven't you ever heard that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? However, since I know that nothing I say will change your mind, let me invite you to try it yourself sometime and then we'll talk some more. |
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