Yellow Brick Road

My OpinionAngus does a homage to 70's west coast country rock, right down to the epic guitar solo outro that wouldn't feel out of place on Hotel California. I have a feeling that Angus was born 35 years too late, but makes up for it on this track alone.

Gather the family around, put on your best corduroy flared jeans, and play spot the lyrical allusion. Angus has kindly filled in a few blanks to get you started.

Better yet, climb into a dusty gold '75 Camaro, crank up the stereo, and drive towards the setting sun.

Mr Stone, you've made me cry.

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General Commentthis is a massively underrated song on the new album. the guitar is amazing. at the end it is so crisp, reminds me of a dire straits solo in some respects.

as to meanings, most likely about love and getting hurt... or as a metaphor, life is like a road and experiences change the path that road takes. even if he didn't sing at all i could listen to the guitar on this track by itself.

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Song MeaningI think this songs has a lot of meaning to it. For one it's about a person's journey about career and love. "I lost my mind long ago, Down that yellow brick road" could means he left the common road that most people travels. Then he meets a girl fell in love "That skinny dippin' girl, Made the blue bird sing" and was heart broken "She shot me down with her revolver"

Thoughout the song he tells the story of her and his journey...the first verse is where is he is now, recovering from the lost love "A spoon full of sugar"...Love sick, he finally got through it and sees a rainbow.

I love how this song talks about an obsessive love or one-way love. Anyone who have love someone but never been love back would totally relate. The guitar and melody reflect his heart beating but fill with sorrow...

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General CommentOkay so it's definately set in the 70s.
"Then a heart of gold came on the stereo
Mr Young made me cry" - That lyric is more than likely referring to "Heart of Gold", a song recorded by Neil Young in 1971.

I've considered that maybe this song is a story of nostalgia and remorse, and perhaps the mention of drugs is explaining the kind of things he turned to once his heart was broken.
Another point to this theory is the straight out descriptive grace in the second verse, which soon turns to disaster - "She shot me down with her revolver, she got me high". But I don't think he means she LITERALLY shot him with a revolver, just broke his heart or pretended to love him back- I don't know, something like that. But this ofcourse would send the average person into a depression, and people can and do turn to drugs when depressed.

Nevertheless, this is an amazing and beautiful song. Definately my favourite on the entire album.

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Song MeaningAngus and Julia Stone grew up in Avalon in Sydney Australia, and the path that you take to walk to the local high school is known as the "Yellow Brick Road"...I figure that the drug allusions are meant to tie in with the fact this song is known to have been written about that Yellow Brick Road...referencing his early drug taking years in high school.

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General Commentpersonally, i can't believe no ones picked this up, i literally made an account just so i could say this ahha.

i think its about drugs. the first verse ALONE has soo many referances.
Just a spoon full of sugar
Makes the medicine<-- what medicine?
Sweet Mary-Jane <-- weed
Lost my heart in California, lost my mind
Shot me down with a revolver, got me high <-- obvious ha

such an amazing song. but i think theres a few obvious hints haha :)

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General CommentThe song is obviously a song about Nostalgia...

I won't take the analysis of the other posts (Neil Young, Hotel California, drugs, ...), but you may seem to forget the main 'thing' : the title. Yellow brick road is an obvious reference to The Wizard Of Oz, and by the way, all its symbols...

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General CommentI think the second verse is also some kind of tribute to Neil Young even though there's no obvious references like in the first verse.
'I took a train to the river' and 'She shot me down with her revolver' could refer to the song 'Down by the River' while 'Made the bluebird sing' is probably inspired by 'Beautiful Bluebird'.

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General CommentWow, what a beautiful song. I read it in a similar way to most other comments but I think there's a massive significance to the line 'I lost my mind long ago, down that yellow brick road' (as another commenter said previously) and 'just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down', which is pure poetry to me.

The way I interpret these metaphors is how dominant cultural narratives are fed into our psyches 'long ago' - when we are small children, the stories that keep us addicted to the endless pursuit for pleasure, which, as beautiful and romantic as they are, keep us separated from who we are (the way we feel) and actually bind us to the suffering of obsession (a bit like what Marx said about religion), having 'lost our minds' because addictions are destructive (it's in the definition) and the beauty of being high is an illusion.

I think in the second verse the line is:
'Took a train to the river/ where I dove right in'
Which refers to how we easily dive right in to the stories we are sold (because it's easy, as well as being a massive natural instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain). He personifies 'Hollywood romance' as the 'skinny dippin' girl', an end that will never be obtained (living happily ever after/permenance...), and true enough she breaks his heart, because the perfect life of pleasure that is being sold is a ruthless delusion.
Amazing!

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My InterpretationI think this an homage to artists and songs that influenced him. Though some lines can be seen as drug references, there are too many other specific hints. Yellow Brick Road by Elton John. Spoonful of Sugar from Mary Poppins. Heart of Gold by Neil Young. Weatherman by Delbert McClinton (check out the lyrics about making the sun come out). Janis Joplin famously skinny dipped at Woodstock and covered Somewhere Over the Rainbow wth Big Brother and the Holding Company ( that skinny dipping girl made the bluebirds sing). The revolver reference could be about The Beatles' Revolver album. All the colors of the rainbow line reminds me of the cover to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The high could just be his being high on music. The California sound and the LA scene were huge in rock music. That's my take! Brilliant song any way you slice it.

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