@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
The cash machine, is blue and green
For a hundred in twenties and a small service fee
I can spend 3 dollars and 63 cents
On diet Coca Cola and unlit cigarettes
I wonder why we listen to poets and nobody gives a fuck
How hot and sorrowful this machine begs for luck
All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
I want a good life with a nose for things
A fresh wind and bright skies To enjoy my sufferings
A hole without a key if I break my tongue
Speaking of tomorrow, how will it ever come
All my lies are only wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
I'm down on my hands and knees every time the doorbell rings
I shake like a toothache when I hear myself sing
All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
I would like to salute the ashes of American flags
And all the falling leaves filling up shopping bags
For a hundred in twenties and a small service fee
I can spend 3 dollars and 63 cents
On diet Coca Cola and unlit cigarettes
I wonder why we listen to poets and nobody gives a fuck
How hot and sorrowful this machine begs for luck
All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
I want a good life with a nose for things
A fresh wind and bright skies To enjoy my sufferings
A hole without a key if I break my tongue
Speaking of tomorrow, how will it ever come
All my lies are only wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
I'm down on my hands and knees every time the doorbell rings
I shake like a toothache when I hear myself sing
All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
I would like to salute the ashes of American flags
And all the falling leaves filling up shopping bags
Lyrics submitted by jonesth
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More Featured Meanings
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Midnight
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Midnight” is a song about finding a love that is so true that it provides a calming feeling through every storm. Ed Sheeran reflects on his good fortunes in landing someone with such peace and support and speaks of not fearing the dark days because he knows they’ll all end in the safety nets of her arms.
“Well, good morning there / What a way to start the day / With everything laid bare,” Ed Sheeran sings in the first verse, enthusiastic to be waking up beside his woman. He apologizes for missing her calls in the second verse and promises to return them because for him, speaking to her is the most important thing. “Well, I get lost inside my head / In this chaos, you’re my calm / And I will find my feet again / ‘Cause еven the worst days of my life will always еnd / At midnight in your arms,” sings Ed Sheeran in the chorus, revelling in his good luck.
Sunglasses at Night
Corey Hart
Corey Hart
In the 1980s, sunglasses were a common fashion for people who wanted to adopt a "tough guy" persona (note all the cop shows from that era -- Simon & Simon, Miami Vice, etc. -- where the lead characters wore shades). So I think this song is about a guy who wears shades as a way of hiding his insecurity after learning that his girlfriend is cheating on him. He's trying to pretend that he's a "tough guy" to hide the fact that his girlfriend's affair is disturbing him.
There are two prevailing trends of meaning in this song. 1) Materialism or consumer culture. The lines about buying cigarettes and Coca-Cola represent consumer culture and their obsession with buying things (note how Jeff knows the exact amount of his purchase). Also the "cash machine" and "service fees" evoke this sentiment of money replacing any spiritual values in America.
2) Mortality. Obviously the lines about wanting to die and come back new are a desperate plea for Jeff to remake himself, and right his wrongs. This is impossible when humans are mortal by nature. "Speaking of tomorrow / how will it ever come?" articulates a sense of being stuck in time, in other words doing nothing with your meaningless life.
The last lines refer back to the themes of capitalism in America. The flag is being burned because it has no real value, there is no substance to American culture other than the desire to aquire more and more material wealth: "fallen leaves filling up shopping bags." The last line evokes hollow consumers who will buy anything, filling up shopping bags with dead, lifeless things such as "fallen leaves." Alternatively it could indicate the familiar image of the abandoned shopping bag drifting aimlessly and filling up with dead leaves a-la "American Beauty." This is simply my take on the song, there really is a ton of stuff going on here and lyrically it is quite fascinating.
Jeff Tweedy reminds me so much of Bob Dylan on this song.
This seems to me to just be about how empty life can become, hece ashes of american flags. He just wants something new and different.
The part where he signs "I know I would die if I could come back new" just says it all. Great song.
in an interview, he said that ashes of american flags had nothing to do with anti-patriotism. he said that it was about him admiring people who have the balls to burn american flags.
first how have only two people commented on this song. second this song is awesome, lyrically its amasing the lines : All my lies are only wishes I know I would die if I could come back new are just... i dunno universal i would think. beautiful, just so good
If any one out there can understand this: I listen to this song and it makes me think of being in a dream-like state, and in this dream-like state I am waking up from actually being asleep, with no worries. I think that's what Jeff's sayin he wants too, in a way, iguess. If that's what he was goin for...I would like to salute the ashes of his american flags
Just going off all the previous, tying together the loose ends: I'd say its a dead song, longing for passion. Something to do and feel like doing. Waking up in a dream-like state with no worries... that would be a peace found in the good life the singer desires.
This song reminds me of summers with me and my best friend; driving around aimlessly. Broke. Wanting good things to happen to us and come our way. Wanting to make something of ourselves. Something better. But still just driving around and hoping for something to fall into our lap.
I think that this song has to do with how life is so simple and boring, no one cares. Almost like his life and the people around him are meaningless. He's dreading everyday so he would die to come back a new person... to start over. I think that he is being unpatriotic even if what SUGARXSPICE08 says is true (he might not want to admit that he was being unloyal to his own country). Not to say that he's dissing the country, but almost like he would like to see all the fake and meaningless shit of our country burn away.
I think that this song has to do with how life is so simple and boring, no one cares. Almost like his life and the people around him are meaningless. He's dreading everyday so he would die to come back a new person... to start over. I think that he is being unpatriotic even if what SUGARXSPICE08 says is true (he might not want to admit that he was being unloyal to his own country). Not to say that he's dissing the country, but almost like he would like to see all the fake and meaningless shit of our country burn away.
I gotta agree with Fypast on this one.
I don't think the song really has any political meaning. He's just wants to feel passionate enough about something to fight for a change. He wants to feel excited about things again.
Also, ashes of American flags and falling leaves both (to me) represent a kind of circularity. Something that does die only to come back new.
Flags burn because we live in a country where they can. And leaves fall but return anew every year.