submissions
| Ian Dury And The Blockheads – My Old Man Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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A "three-piece whistle" is a suit (Cockney rhyming slang - "whistle and flute" = "suit") comprising matching trousers (US: pants), waistcoat (US: vest) and jacket - more formal than a two-piece suit. |
submissions
| Ian Dury And The Blockheads – Clever Trevor Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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The correct spelling of the title of this song (yes, I know that it LOOKS wrong!) is "Clevor Trever". The implication being that the character is so stupid that he can't even spell his own name correctly... |
submissions
| David Bowie – Andy Warhol Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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"Andy walking, Andy tired..." is a sarcastic reference to Andy Pandy, a children's puppet show on 1950s/1960s British TV. The world-famous artist is being likened to a marionette of a toddler in a clown costume... |
submissions
| Desmond Dekker – Israelites Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This was used in a very funny 1980s ad for Maxell cassettes - a man was shown standing in the street holding hand-written cards with lyrics on them, Ã la Bob Dylan. The written lyrics were as follows:
"Get up in the morning
Sleeping for bed, sir
Sold out to every monk and beef-head
Oh! Oh!
Me ears are alight!
"Why find me kids?
They buck up and a-leave me
Darling cheese-head
It was yards too greasy
Oh! Oh!
Me ears are alight!"
and finally
"At least I think that's what he said.
But I'll have to hear it on Maxell to be sure!" |
submissions
| Status Quo – In The Army Now Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This is The Quo trying (for reasons best known to themselves) to play prog-rock and failing at every clod-hopping step of the way. It was a huge hit, possibly because it sounds totally unlike any other Quo song. As previously mentioned, it is a cover (so at least Messrs Parfitt and Rossi didn't actually WRITE this piece of mammoth poo), and it dates from more than 10 years after the END of the Vietnam war, so clearly that's not it. The best bit is the drum fill immediately after the "hand grenades flying over your head" line. Subtle as a sledgehammer... |
submissions
| Donovan – Barabajagal Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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That is the sublime Nicky Hopkins on piano, along with the Jeff Beck Band. Hopkins officially joined Beck's band briefly in 1968, just long enough for them to appear together on this classic track and play a few gigs. Touring proved too much for Hopkins who had suffered from medical problems since childhood, and he returned to session work. |
submissions
| Sade – Smooth Operator Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Has to be said, the line "Coast to coast, LA to Chicago", while sounding sophisticated and cosmopolitan is actually meaningless. Chicago is in the American Midwest, thousands of miles from the nearest coast! Maybe the Smooth Operator got stranded at O'Hare airport en route to the East Coast. Who knows. Who cares... |
submissions
| Status Quo – Pictures Of Matchstick Men Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This was the Quo's only US hit, dating from about 1968, and shortly afterwards they radically changed direction, abandoning psychedelia and bubblegum (and their organist) for hard-rock boogie with a twin-Telecaster attack. In this format (and despite countless jokes about the band only knowing three chords) they have had literally dozens of UK hits. If you only know the Quo from this one song (as is likely for most Stateside listeners), you will have missed the bigger picture. |
submissions
| The Kinks – Sunny Afternoon Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Nicky Hopkins (the subject of the Kinks' [i]Session Man[/i]) played piano and Melodica (the accordion/clarinet-sounding thing) on this song. |
submissions
| The Kinks – Session Man Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This was written as an affectionate jibe at the famous British session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, who actually played on the track. Hopkins' distinctive piano playing appeared on records by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, Donovan and many others. |
submissions
| David Bowie – Round and Round Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This is a cover version of a Chuck Berry song that was intended for the [i]Ziggy Stardust[/i] album until replaced by the more relevant "Starman". |
submissions
| Paul Simon – Baby Driver Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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A throw-away piece of neo-rockabilly, although you've got to love the honking baritone sax and the Wurlitzer piano trills. Don't think the lyrics are particularly profound... |
submissions
| Paul Simon – Mother and Child Reunion Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Regarding the musicians on this track, Paul Simon was so embarrassed at the feeble attempt at "white reggae" that he had previously written in the form of "Why Don't You Write Me" that he decided to go to Jamaica and record this track using genuine reggae musicians. Only the piano and backing vocalists were added afterwards in the USA. |
submissions
| Groove Armada – At the River Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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The vocals are a sample from a late-50s pop song called "Old Cape Cod" (nothing to do with a river!) recorded by multi-track legend Patti Page - she was one of the first artists to record all her own backing vocals. The first two verses go:
If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air,
Quaint little villages here and there,
You’re sure to fall in love with
Old Cape Cod.
If you like the taste of a lobster stew,
Served by a window with an ocean view,
You’re sure to fall in love with
Old Cape Cod.
So now you know. Mmmm. Lobster stew... |
submissions
| Billy Bragg – From Red To Blue Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Surely it can only be an "open letter" to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He was elected as a Socialist, but has largely abandoned traditional left-wing values and policies, to the dismay of many grass-roots socialists, including our Mr Bragg. |
submissions
| Lou Reed – Wagon Wheel Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Gotta love the "Spoke! Spoke!" refrain in the first verse! But the meaning of the song? It just sounds like somebody out of their tiny head on some drug or other, and who doesn't give a damn about reality. |
submissions
| Lou Reed – Satellite Of Love Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Apparently back in the Velvets days (when Lou wrote the song), the names were "Winken, Blinken and Nod" from the famous children's song "A Dutch Lullaby". Lou used those names to avoid accidentally offending real people. Later he decided that "Winken, Blinken and Nod" sounded stupid and substituted "Harry, Mark and John". |
submissions
| Randy Crawford – Street Life Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Has anyone checked out the lyrics to this song? The music and arrangement sound exuberant and optimistic, but the lyrics are all about homelessness, drugs, prostitution and a short and unhappy life. It's not just another disco singalong! |
submissions
| Sting – We Work The Black Seam Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This was written at the time of the coal miners' strike, which culminated in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's deliberate decimation of the British coal industry. Sting was an opponent of nuclear energy (and of Mrs Thatcher's Conservative government) and would have largely sympathised with the miners, but recognised that times had changed. The song is about his anger at the way the change came, and his concern at a nuclear-powered future. |
submissions
| Dire Straits – Sultans Of Swing Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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MookieBomber: Harry is playing an old, slightly out-of-tune upright piano - that's what it means. And by all accounts playing it well... |
submissions
| Sting – Children's Crusade Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I just realised that many (non-British) readers will not have realised that the song refers to "Soho", a notoriously seedy part of central London and not "SoHo", a similarly-named area of New York. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soho for more information. |
submissions
| Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the U.K. Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Well, I always thought that the line "I use the enemy..." was a pun on NME, the New Musical Express, which is a weekly British music newspaper and was, in the '70s at least, very much a barometer of popular culture.
Incidentally, look at the threats Mr Lydon (J. Rotten) actually makes in the song:
"I wanna destroy the passer by..."
"maybe I give a wrong time stop a traffic line..."
Ooh - he's going to foment anarchy by giving the wrong time or holding up the traffic? Methinks he is taking the piss somewhat. By the way, in the UK, "get pissed" means to get drunk rather than to gat angry (get pissed-off). So that's his anarchist plan... get drunk and "destroy" passers-by? Very dangerous. Not. |
submissions
| Madness – It Must Be Love Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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It's a cover version. The original was written and performed in 1972 by Labi Siffre. If you haven't heard the original version, you should. Very quirky instrumentation - ukulele, electric piano, electric sitar, bassoon and what sounds like the world's smallest bass. Better by far than Madness' version in my opinion. |
submissions
| Wamdue Project – King of My Castle Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Well, it doesn't APPEAR to mean ANYTHING. It's boring, repetitive and quite literally meaningless. WHAT "must be the reason..."? "Ahum, ahum" indeed. This song is a prime example of what is wrong with huge amounts of "popular" music these days - sampled snippets of lyrics that mean nothing in the context of the song. Meaning is sacrificed to the god of Pro-Tools... |
submissions
| Sting – Children's Crusade Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Furthermore, there is another reference to Poppy Day in the Beatles' "Penny Lane" - "...a pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray". Definitely NOT a drug reference, but (at a certain time of year) an everyday site in Britain.
Also, the line "The children of England would never be slaves" is a reference to the famous patriotic anthem "Rule, Britannia", whose refrain is:
"Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never will be slaves!"
Simon Beck
London, UK |
submissions
| Sting – Children's Crusade Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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There's a bit more to it than just drugs - the poppy in the UK is a symbol of remembrance of the dead from all wars:
"Poppy Day - Remembrance Day - is the day when the dead of two World Wars and other armed conflicts are remembered in the UK. The Armistice at the end of the First World War of 1914 - 1918 was signed on November 11th at precisely 11 am - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For this reason, Remembrance Day is on the 11th of November each year although church services and many parades are held on the Sunday nearest that date.
The Poppy was adopted as the symbol of remembrance because it was so widespread on the sites of the battlefields of Europe after the First World War : the seeds of the common Field Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) germinate best in newly-cultivated soil, which is why it was such a common weed of cornfields until the widespread use of selective weedkillers relegated it to a wayside flower. The soil disturbances caused by trench-digging and shellfire produced ideal conditions for poppies to grow, and they appeared in vast numbers bringing a delicate beauty to areas which had seen such terrible scenes only a short while before."
So we have poppies of remembrance, and (opium)poppies themselves bringing death to the youth of Britain seventy years later.
Oh, and the REAL Children's Crusade was a medieval fiasco in the year 1212 in which 30,000 children, led by a shepherd boy, set off to capture Jerusalem. After boarding boats in the South of France, the entire "army" vanished without trace, although there is some evidence that they were shipwrecked and the survivors captured and sold as slaves.
Field Marshal Earl Haig (1861 -1928), commander of the allied forces on the Western Front, founded the Haig Fund to assist ex-servicemen disabled during WWI. This fund is now administered by the Royal British Legion and supports ex-servicemen and their dependents, and the Poppy Appeal continues to raise funds for this cause by selling small paper or fabric poppies, which are worn in November by the vast majority of the British public to signify their support and as a memorial to the victims of all wars. |
submissions
| The Clash – All the Young Punks (New Boots and Contracts) Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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"New Boots and Contracts" is an obvious reference to Ian Dury and the Blockheads' debut album "New Boots and Panties!!". Dury and his band were seen as classically-trained or art-school types (which they were) jumping on the punk/new wave bandwagon. Although undoubtedly musically talented, they lacked any significant political agenda, and that's probably why the Clash took a dig at them. |
submissions
| The Clash – The Guns of Brixton Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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The reference to "Death Row" has me puzzled, as the UK (unlike many of its former colonies) has no death penalty - it was abolished in the early 1960s. |
submissions
| Talking Heads – Psycho Killer Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Apparently the "fa fa fa..." was a nod to Otis Redding's "Sad Song (Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa, Fa Fa, Fa Fa)" - Byrne simply wanted to portray the "psycho killer" as being sad in a bizarre way. |
submissions
| Nena – 99 Red Balloons Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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"neurotic chick" is quite right - the song was re-recorded with the above lyrics after the German version was shown on British TV and became a surprise hit. As "Rodman1977" correctly pointed out, it IS a bad translation (as far as being a literal translation of the German lyric is concerned), but it's what British pop fans in the 1980s heard, know and continue to interpret. Several of my friends at the time commented on how significant it was that they were RED balloons (= the perceived Communist threat). I pointed out that the original song said nothing about their colour and that the word "red" had probably been simply added to make the lyrics scan (German "Luftballon" = English "balloon"). That deflated them. |
submissions
| The Clash – London Calling Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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The intro was "borrowed" from "Dead End Street" by the kinks, but played on bass rather than French Horn... |
submissions
| Phil Collins – A Groovy Kind Of Love Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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It was originally recorded in the 1960s by Wayne Hontana and the Mindbenders - much more up-tempo and, in my opinion much better than Ol' Baldylocks' smarmy, slushy version. How dare HE even use the word "groovy"? |
submissions
| David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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So "Lady Stardust" and "Ziggy Stardust" are the same Bolan-inspired character? Makes sense, in that the Spiders "were all together". But it still makes Bowie an outside narrator. |
submissions
| The Velvet Underground – I'm Sticking with You Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Oh dear. Mo Tucker's only vocal number with the Velvets. She should have stuck to hitting the drums - apart from the token reference to Vietnam, this is a nursery rhyme and a rather twee one. Can this really be from the band that gave us "Heroin" and "Venus In Furs"? |
submissions
| David Bowie – The Jean Genie Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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The title may have been a take on Jean Genet, but the imagery was definitely inspired by proto-punk lunatic genius Iggy Pop. |
submissions
| Ultravox – Dancing With Tears In My Eyes Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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The video for this song showed an impending nuclear attack - the end of life on Earth - and the first verse (after the opening chorus) seems to reflect this. When the end is nigh, what can you do but dance? |
submissions
| Prefab Sprout – Moondog Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Whoa - strange one here! The literal meaning seems to be that Elvis isn't really dead at all - no, he's floating in space and about to stage a comeback gig on the moon. But there are references to the Cold War, the Space Race, "Colonel" Tom Parker (Presley's manager) and "Moondog"; either pioneer rock 'n' roll DJ Alan Freed or an eccentric neo-classical busker from New York whose name Freed borrowed. Maybe it's all a dream. The American Dream? |
submissions
| Prefab Sprout – Machine Gun Ibiza Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Jimi Hendrix. No doubt about it. "Rollmo'" is a made-up word, but it seems to fit nicely with the imagery. It's ALL Jimi - Delta blues; voodoo; Machine Gun, US Marines, burning guitars. And what a clever idea NOT to make the song itself sound like typical mock-Hendrix. |
submissions
| The Smiths – Panic Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I'm reliably informed that the "DJ" referred to was the superannuated tosspot Tony Blackburn, who during the mid-80s insisted on playing third-rate records that unfortunately gave soul music a bad name. Anyone remember "Sexual Therapy"? No, not the sublime "Sexual Healing" - just a bad imitation. "We Don't Wanna Die (Keep the Missiles From the Sky)"? A crap imitation of "War". "Jazz Rap"? An embarrassing bit of not-jazz-and-not-rap by George Melly and friends.
Hang the blessed DJ. Amen. |
submissions
| Moby – Run On Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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The vocals were sampled from a recording of a gospel-blues a capella group from the 1940s - Moby just added the instrumentation. He is very open about this process, giving full credit to the original artists on his albums. |
submissions
| David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I am reliably informed that the name "Ziggy Stardust" was an amalgam of Iggy Pop and a notoriously untalented country singer who called himself "The Legendary Stardust Cowboy". But (here's a thought) was Ziggy really played by Bowie? His band at the time was indeed the Spiders From Mars, but Bowie didn't play guitar with them - he was only the vocalist. Therefore Ziggy (although obviously based on Hendrix) must have been Mick Ronson. Weird and Gilly were the bassist and drummer. So who was Bowie meant to be if not Ziggy? The Starman, of course... |
submissions
| The Beatles – Get Back Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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Er... "themancky", the Beatles' Apple Corps HQ wasn't in Liverpool - they'd all moved to London years earlier! No, it was in the very conservative and upmarket bespoke tailoring district of London's Savile Row. I can imagine all the "City Gents" getting their suits made and complaining about the noise from the rooftop. |
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