In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Alcohol, my permanent accessory
Alcohol, a party-time necessity
Alcohol, alternative to feeling like yourself
Oh alcohol, I still drink to your health
I love you more than I did the week before
I discovered alcohol
(That's what I'm talkin 'bout)
Forget the cafe latte
Screw the raspberry iced tea
A Malibu and Coke for you, a G and T for me
Alcohol, your songs resolve like
My life never will
When someone else is picking up the bill
I love you more than I did the week before
I discovered alcohol
Oh alcohol, would you please forgive me?
For while I cannot love myself
I'll use something else
I thought that alcohol was just for those with
Nothing else to do
I thought that drinking just to get drunk
Was a waste of precious booze
But now I know that there's a time
And there's a place where I can choose
To walk the fine line between
Self-control and self-abuse
I love you more than I did the week before
I discovered alcohol
Would you please ignore that you
Found me on the floor
Trying on your camisole?
Oh alcohol, would you please forgive me?
For while I cannot love myself
I'll use something else
Would you please forgive me?
Would you please forgive me?
Alcohol, a party-time necessity
Alcohol, alternative to feeling like yourself
Oh alcohol, I still drink to your health
I love you more than I did the week before
I discovered alcohol
(That's what I'm talkin 'bout)
Forget the cafe latte
Screw the raspberry iced tea
A Malibu and Coke for you, a G and T for me
Alcohol, your songs resolve like
My life never will
When someone else is picking up the bill
I love you more than I did the week before
I discovered alcohol
Oh alcohol, would you please forgive me?
For while I cannot love myself
I'll use something else
I thought that alcohol was just for those with
Nothing else to do
I thought that drinking just to get drunk
Was a waste of precious booze
But now I know that there's a time
And there's a place where I can choose
To walk the fine line between
Self-control and self-abuse
I love you more than I did the week before
I discovered alcohol
Would you please ignore that you
Found me on the floor
Trying on your camisole?
Oh alcohol, would you please forgive me?
For while I cannot love myself
I'll use something else
Would you please forgive me?
Would you please forgive me?
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
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"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
"Beer - the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems"
-Homer Simpson
Well, I agree that the song's sarcastic but I don't think it's entirely anti-alcohol. There's nothing wrong with drinking in moderation. The song warns that it's easy to go too far and mess up on too much alcohol, but also makes the point that getting tipsy on occasion is damn good fun: it's all about finding "the fine line between self control and self abuse". I think the person in the song is developing a drinking problem but he is conscious of it and will probably seek help before he descends too far.
I didn't see anyone put this so I'm going to go ahead and throw this out there. First off, I'm not saying any of this is wrong, I subscribe to the belief that they are encouraging moderation but that's beside the point. Another view of this song could be about a longstanding relationship with a woman.
"I love you more, than I did the week before I discovered alcohol"
If the song establishes that the singer really loves alcohol and he's been drinking it for a very long time, and now, as he's singing, he loves the woman more than a week before he EVEN discovered alcohol, he must love the woman a hell of a lot. Also, he discovered love first, not alcohol.
Anyway, that's just me.
This is probably my favorite Barenaked Ladies song. On the surface it's a catchy party song about drinking & having a good time, but is actually a cry for help from a spiraling alcoholic who's unable to put his life together. Very much a tongue & cheek anti-drinking message.
A great party song. I think I wore this song out my cousin's birthday party. It just fit in with the celebration!
This song is about how distructive alcohol really is and what a bad idea it is to drink. This song is kinda sarcastic....but BNL are against alcohol.
When I heard this I was shocked. Then I read this line: "Would you please forgive me? For while I cannot love myself I’ll use something else " It does make the song about how alcohol is the easy way out and they are not actually endorsing drinking. PHEW!! (sigh!) BNL are my heroes! :)
yep, i had to explain that to my friend when i put it on a cd i gave her for her birthday. drinking is bad.
dude i used to listen to this song all the time on the way to parties. the beat just put me in the mood. honestly, the lyrics are pretty blunt, but goddammit theyre so true. thats the lifestyle of those who live to get drunk. i still remember those days and what it was like living for the times you were wasted and blazed off your ass
I forgot to add:
Steven Page for President