| They Might Be Giants – See The Constellation Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I always took it as a straight forward song about Orion. | |
| Pink Floyd – Green Is the Colour Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| love the flute/piccolo riff about 2:30 into the studio version. clearly done in one take. | |
| Foster the People – Pumped Up Kicks Lyrics | 12 years ago |
|
Here are a few interview snippets: ================= KROQ: But the lyrics about a kid with a 6-shooter gun walking into school is surprisingly dark territory especially for a pop song. Is this an issue you feel close to? FOSTER: I kind of wrote the song to bring awareness to the issue. That sort of thing keeps happening more and more in our country; it’s kind of turning into an epidemic. To me the epidemic isn’t gun violence; the epidemic is lack of family, lack of love, and isolation kids who don’t have anywhere to go or anyone to talk to and that’s what makes them snap. When a 13 or 14-year-old kid brings a gun to school and does something, sure, you blame them for making that choice... But at the end of the day, he or she is still just a kid and there’s a lot of other things that led up that moment that should have changed. -------------------------- One of your hits, "Pumped Up Kicks," is all over The Current right now, which is one of our big radio stations here in Minnesota. The subject of the song, a loner child who is contemplating shooting other kids, is a unique and daring choice. What’s with that? I write in character a lot. So, I decided to write in character and really try to psychologically get inside the head of the kid that would be going through strategies about doing something like that. And really break down what his thought processes were like, and what his world was like. I wanted to convey the isolation the lack of love. -------------------------- APYS: On the subject of Pumped Up Kicks, it’s been described by a lot of people as a ‘summer anthem’ but yet its lyrics are quite dark, what was the inspiration behind the song? Mark: Well I mean I write in character a lot, and that song was written through the eyes of a teenage kid who was isolated and outcast, and I really wanted to kind of get into the psychology of his head. In the States over the last ten years kids are going on these killing sprees and it’s becoming more and more common, and I really wanted to dive in and figure out why: what’s happening to our society to cause this, why is our life deteriorating the way it is, what’s the problem socially? And so I told the story through his eyes. |
|
| Bob Marley and the Wailers – Time Will Tell Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Sorry "Saw my sycamore tree.", not "Oh my sycamore tree." | |
| They Might Be Giants – Turn Around Lyrics | 12 years ago |
|
"We were waving our arms out the window of a fast-moving passenger train acting in an irresponsible fashion until the engineer whose back had been turned and who we thought would find us highly amusing quickly swiveled his head around and his face which was a paper-white mask of evil sang us this song." Just wanted to point out what might be the longest sentence ever committed to lyrics. |
|
| Bob Marley and the Wailers – Time Will Tell Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
Yeah, there's a whole section missing...here and everywhere else. I think it goes like this (at least this is the way I sing it): Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Saw my kid and my woman, thrown onto the ground. Saw them take my pride. Oh children weep no more. Oh my sycamore tree. Saw the freedom tree. Saw you settle the score. Oh, children weep no more. Weep no more. Children weep no more. FWIW, I've heard live versions too where he includes other lyrics like: Saw you take my pride. Took them for a ride. Drove them for a ride. Saw Jah settle the score. Saw Jah open the door. Saw the open tree. Saw the open country. |
|
| Pearl Jam – Black Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
"Five horizons" is a reference to the female body. He even says "laid spread out before me as her body once did". From the male point of view, a nude female laying there "ready"--knees, breasts, and nose pointed skyward--creates a landscape with "five horizons". Of course, the more common interpretation about the five senses is logical too. |
|
| Sean Kingston – Fire Burning (On the Dancefloor) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
red card is a card u play to justify going out even though you shouldn't black card is the amex card for high rollers |
|
| Peter, Paul and Mary – Puff (The Magic Dragon) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
This site (SongMeanings) is slowly losing its legitimacy--way to many morons chiming in with "its about drugs dude..." Hey, here's a thought: STFU. |
|
| The Who – Behind Blue Eyes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
Wow...a remarkable set of interpretations: hitler, homosexuality, pedophilia...where's the drug crowd with the "it's about an acid trip" interpretation? Anyway, like most songs, the interpretation is more grounded than people hope. Practically speaking, it's the first-person soliloquy of "Brick" from the aborted Lighthouse project. However, even that character (as in all writing) was inspired by experiences from writer's (Townshend's) life. Those experiences include some from his personal relationships, the music industry, and just just life in general. If you think you can relate to it--you can. In some form, the thoughts are familiar to us all. |
|
| Eagles – Hotel California Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
The following passages by Glenn Frey and Don Henley come directly from the liner notes of The Very Best of the Eagles (2001): HOTEL CALIFORNIA GLENN: The song began as a demo tape, an instrumental by Don Felder. He'd been submitting tapes and song ideas to us since he'd joined the band, always instrumentals, since he didn't sing. But this particular demo, unlike many of the others, had room for singing. It immediately got our attention. The first working title, the name we gave it, was "Mexican Reggae." For us, "Hotel California" was definitely thinking and writing outside the box. We had never written any song like it before. Similar to "Desperado," we did not start out to make any sort of concept or theme album. But when we wrote "Life In The Fast Lane" and started working on "Hotel California" and "New Kid In Town" with J.D., we knew we were heading down a long and twisted corridor and just stayed with it. Songs from the dark side -- the Eagles take a look at the seamy underbelly of L.A. -- the flip side of fame and failure, love and money. "They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast" was a little Post-It back to Steely Dan. Apparently, Walter Becker's girlfriend loved the Eagles, and she played them all the time. I think it drove him nuts. So, the story goes that they were having a fight one day, and that was the genesis of the line, "turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening" in "Everything You Did," from Steely Dan's The Royal Scam album. During the writing of "Hotel California," we decided to volley. We just wanted to allude to Steely Dan rather than mentioning them outright, so "Dan" got changed to "knives," which is still, you know, a penile metaphor. Stabbing, thrusting, etc. Almost everybody in my business can write music, play guitar, play piano, create chord progressions, etc., but it's only when you add lyrics and melody and voices to these things that they take on an identity and become something beyond that sum of the individual parts. I remember that Henley and I were listening to the "Hotel California" demo tape together on an airplane, and we were talking about what we would write and how we wanted to be more cinematic. We wanted this song to open like an episode of The Twilight Zone -- just one shot after another. I remember De Niro in The Last Tycoon. He's got this scene, and he's talking to some other people in his office. He speaks to them: "The door opens...the camera is on a person's feet...he walks across the room...we pan up to the table... he picks up a pack of matches that says 'The Such-And-Such Club' on it... strikes a match and lights a cigarette...puts it out... goes over to the window... opens the shade... looks out... the moon is there... what does it mean? Nothing. It's just the movies." "Hotel California" is like that. We take this guy and make him like a character in The Magus, where every time he walks through a door there's a new version of reality. We wanted to write a song just like it was a movie. This guy is driving across the desert. He's tired. He's smokin'. Comes up over a hill, sees some lights, pulls in. First thing he sees is a really strange guy at the front door, welcoming him: "Come on in." Walks in, and then it becomes Fellini-esque -- strange women, effeminate men, shadowy corridors, disembodied voices, debauchery, illusion... Weirdness. So we thought, "Let's really take some chances. Let's try to write in a way that we've never written before." Steely Dan inspired us because of their lyrical bravery and willingness to go "out there." So, for us, "Hotel California" was about thinking and writing outside the box. DON: We were enamored with hotels. Hotels were a big part of our lives. The Beverly Hills Hotel had become something of a focal point -- literally and symbolically. I've always been interested in architecture and the language of architecture, and, at that time, I was particularly keen on the mission style of early California. I thought there was a certain mystery and romance about it. Then, there are all the great movies and plays in which hotels figure prominently, not only as a structure, but as a dramatic device. Films such as Grand Hotel, The Night Porter, and even Psycho -- motels count too. There are plays like Neil Simon's Plaza Suite and California Suite, which Glenn and I went to see while writing the song. We saw it as homework or research. We were looking for things that would stimulate us and give us ideas. Sometimes it was just driving around. We would still take trips out to the desert. At one point, Glenn and I rented a little red house up in Idlewild -- way up in the San Bernadino Mountains. We'd drive out there sometimes just to clear our heads, sleep on the floor in sleeping bags. We didn't have any furniture. We were just on the quest. |
|
| Eagles – Hotel California Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
angiekinnnnns on 02-26-2008 @ 11:14:58 PM "...they stab it with their steely knives..." I do not get this part. CAN ANYONE HELP? ==================================== It's giving props to Steely Dan--who had mentioned the Eagles in one of their songs. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.