| Angus and Julia Stone – Just A Boy Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I always heard the first line as "I bid my time in the art of conversation". I think I like it better that way for some reason... | |
| Jeffrey Lewis – Anxiety Attack Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| To the point, that's for sure. I guess there's something to be said for anti-folk after all, it's not all "I want to ride bikes with you". Still plenty of that nonsense though. | |
| Radical Face – Wrapped in Piano Strings Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Okay, these lyrics and vocals remind me of Sparklehorse and we all know how that turned out... | |
| Emmy the Great – First Love Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Snippets of her lyrics can sound moronic and cutesy to me, but with Emmy you always have to pay attention to the line before and the line after, and realize some of those lyrics are pure poetry. "And you left me in the light and you met me in the light and we only had a night between the two." |
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| Emmy the Great – Dylan Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I also definitely think it's about a guy who's searching for meaning to life in the wrong places, not in human connections but just in forms of art. I personally think it's a natural reflex on account of the amount of idiots on the planet. | |
| Sparklehorse – Hundreds of Sparrows Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Most of the sparklehorse's words are pretty messed up and non-sensical, cryptic or just randomly put together. This one's pretty messed up as well but it's the best lyrics they have in my opinion. "my spirit's rarely in my body it wanders through the dry country looking for a good place to rest" that's just a great image to fit the haunting melody and whispery vocals. |
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| Sparklehorse – Homecoming Queen Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| That's exactly what I thought too Willboe, and I think you're right. It's sort of an introduction of the band I guess. I think from the up tempo songs "Cow" is their best one and for the slow burners nothing hurts quite as much as "Most Beautiful Widow in Town". | |
| The Decemberists – The Mariner's Revenge Song Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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randomRANCOR, I completely agree. As much as I love simple Decemberists songs such as O Valencia, this song and The Engine Driver are hard to be denied as their best tracks. I wonder if many bands in the near future will try to imitate this "folk opera" style. I wouldn't mind, as long as it aren't all watered down copies. The backing vocals are great here, I always love Rachel Blumberg's work for The Decemberists. Another great two-vocal track is "We Both Go Down Together". |
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| Billy Bragg and Wilco – Remember the Mountain Bed Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Sorry to double post but the previous comments comes from my secondary account on which I only have two comments and I want people to find all of my comments with the click of a button in my profile. For those not in the know, Woody Guthrie was one of Bob Dylan's heroes growing up and you can really see the influence. Although written all the way back in 1944, these lyrics still resonate strongly as the themes are timeless and universal. "Remember The Mountain Bed" is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the quintessential poems about love and life, taking on the whole scope of life and loss of it, moments op passion and the memory of it, pain and the passing of it,... ...and add to that whatever other images this dreamy melody and melancholy lyrics awaken in you. This is one of those lyrics that's so objectively good it should be on a lot of people's tip of the tongue when they try to name the best lyrics ever entrusted to paper. |
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| Wilco – Less Than You Think Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Sorry to double post but the previous one is my secondary account on which I only have two comments. I think this song is a duo with Theologians; that one talks very straightforward about the idiocy of organized religion without denouncing living spiritually and trying to figure out if there's "more to life" than atheists seem to think. "In So Many Ways God Is With Us Every Day" "Less than you think" picks up where the "Theologians" lyrics left off. Although there are clear references to his migraines, most Tweedy songs can be intepreted in more than one way, more than a couple of ways often even. I think he's very aware of mixing several ideas that aren't necessarily directly related in his lyrical poetry. I think "Less Than You Think" is an expression of the frustration he feels trying to convince someone of the existence of God. He'd like to punch a hole in the sky if he could, an incredibly haunting lyric set to dark, dense, brooding music; as we so often find in the masterful A Ghost is Born. One of my favorite Wilco lyrics goes as follows: As your spine starts to shine You shiver at your soul Especially in the context of the sonic blizzard that is “Less Than You Think”, it somehow gets a world of meaning. I guess shining spines come from the land of cherry ghosts, where people assassin down the avenue, pretty war is a term of endearment for a sweetheart, and liquor gets served in aquariums. Keep giving us those Electronic surgical words Mr.Tweedy. |
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| Wilco – Company In My Back Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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OT: this song is the end of perfect string of songs on AGIB. Muzzle of Bees-Hummingbird-Handshake Drugs-Wishful Thinking-Company In My Back On Ashes of American Flags, Tweedy talks about songs as sonic landscapes, how the best songs can create entire, detailed, yet ever-changing landscapes and images in your head. Well, this song always conjured up a soldier who's close to enemy lines, the rhytm suggests (to cooky old me) he's slowly shuffling through the snow trying not to make a sound, since there's a "company" in his back. It's night and there's a soft light glowing in the wooded area, possibly from a far away search light. Now, actually reading the lyrics it takes on a different dimension, several sentences hint at two lovers spooning, cuddling, and exploring each other in bed, possibly the morning after. "I curl my lips and crawl up to you"...."I attack with love"..."Hide your soft skin, your sorrow is sunshine Listen to my eyes"..."I move so slow, a steady crushing hand". If it's not rated very high, it's absolutely an underrated masterpiece of a song. |
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| Wilco – Far, Far Away Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The lyrics are great, to the point and I wouldn't change a letter. I had to look it up but CTA means Chicage Transit Authority bee-thee-double-u My favorite moment on "Being There" is the Jeff's singing of "Deep in my heart" in this diddie. There's a kind of texture to Jeff's voice on "Being There" I miss on the last two albums, his voice trembles with genuine emotion. Luckily that emotion's only lacking on the studio versions, live it still seeps through thankfully. |
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| Billy Bragg and Wilco – California Stars Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Certainly because Tweedy didn't write it this contains none of the trademark anxiety, frustration, longing or self-loathing. However, he does make the words his own. For me this lyric boils down to this: two young people in love are laying on a grassy meadow on a summer night, warm breeze blowing, and they're looking at the stars dreaming of the future. Their thoughts drift of in this idyllic setting. It's the beginning of the 20th century and the guy's got a thankless, low-pay job but he's willing to endure it just as long as he's got these magic moments every so often with his sweetheart. The desire to "rest their head on california stars" feels like a longing for a vacation, and consequently a more financially stable life, but for now they can just look at them and they're happy. Or you know, I could be wrong lol. just to dream a dream with you On a bed of California stars |
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| Wilco – Blasting Fonda Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I always thought the line was "this waking dream", unless "this walking dream" is a play on that expression. | |
| Wilco – At Least That's What You Said Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Jeez, I can't believe a song of such epic proportions contains so few lyrics; it's been said before but the Wilco guitars roar like never before in this song, what a way to open their best album. The meaning's pretty straight forward, it's about a guy getting dumped and never getting a decent explanation why. She's telling him the classic 'let him down easy' lines but he ain't buying it. Or vice versa, the perspective of the songwriter (dumper/dumpee, girl/guy) really confuses me. |
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| Wilco – Ashes of American Flags Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I have (mild) migraines from time to time myself but I don't think that's all this song's about. As often with Tweedy it's bi-themed, the impersonal theme is a criticism of consumerism and American capitalism, the personal theme relates to capitalism as it deals with being unhappy and suffering despite a sufficiency of material goods. "A fresh wind and bright skies To enjoy my sufferings" I also think it's quirky how Tweedy buys "unlit" cigarettes, further implying how useless bought possessions can be. "Fallen leaves filling up shopping bags" adds to this interpretation. We all know how fast dead leaves rot and whither away completely but they can sure fill up the void in your shopping bag. The power in this song is left unmentioned though, the chilling sadness with which Tweedy sings the following lines leave me stunned every time I hear this song (and I've listened to it religiously for years). "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" |
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| Wilco – A Shot in the Arm Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This track always brings back "Off he goes" (by Pearl Jam) from the depths of my mind. There's a line that's in the same vein (pun not intended) as "You've changed, What you once were isn't what you wanna be anymore", namely "He's been taken...where, I don't know Off he goes with his perfectly unkept hope There he goes". Additionaly the "we fell again into the sea" signifies recidivism. I also really like how Tweedy tackles the murderous effects of hard drugs: "something in your veins, bloodier than blood". On a purely aesthetical level I digg the lines "And you finally slept While the sun caught fire", this simply sums up insomnia for me, simply put but purely distilled truth. |
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| Wilco – A Magazine Called Sunset Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I also associate this song with the process of songwriting and writing in general. Especially the line "I'll stay in the riddle and watch your books cave in" indicates every serious artist's struggle to decipher a little piece of the enigma called being human, the books can't help him (cave in), he has to stay in the riddle and fit the pieces together himself. Luckily he's got a map out of his maze namely his muse. "Oh I'm a future fallout standing In the present erase our phantom" signifies for me the immortality of his work when his phantom (physical presence)'s long been erased. "There's a magazine called Sunset And a tape machine that won't let Me ever forget this impossible longing for you", and this is a free interpretation, talks about the impossibility to ever completely connect with your lover intimately ("impossible" longing), the tape machine are demo's for songs he's recording and the magazine could possibly be a photo album or diary, two things that remind him of her. |
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| Wilco – (Was I) In Your Dreams Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| The lyrics "This dreamer died when his dreamed died too." really puts a confusing spin on the song, it vaguely suggests the songwriter's dreaming about his deceased loved one, which is a paradox if you combine it with the lyric "Try to understand while I've got you on the phone."; a clear indication she's still alive. Maybe when he talks about his dreamed that died, he means the love she once felt for him and their life together rather than the person herself. | |
| Wilco – Via Chicago Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is the best song on "Summerteeth", I think the chaos going over into harmony signifies the "coming home" theme in the song. They opened a show with this recently and it's the perfect opener because of it's whispering intro and chaotic, noisy bridge (saying 'wake up people the concert's starting). The first paragraph is my favorite of any wilco poetry, especially the way the dark, borderline disturbing words clash with the beautiful slow melody. I dreamed about killing you again last night And it felt alright to me Dying on the banks of Embarcadero skies I sat and watched you bleed Buried you alive in a fireworks display Raining down on me Your cold, hot blood ran away from me To the sea |
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| Wilco – Jesus, Etc. Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I'm pretty sure Norah Jones sings it wrong in her dubious cover: "our love is all we got honey", instead of "our love is all of god's money". My favorite part of the song is when Tweedy sings 'everyone is a burning sun'. P.S. I find about half the lyrics on the net state it's "strum" and the other half are certain it's "strung". Is there a way to get closure on this confusion? |
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