submissions
| Billy Squier – The Stroke Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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I don't get the people who think this song is about a man and a woman. The song's about the recording industry, sure, but the metaphor it's couched in is clearly about a MAN picking up a MALE prostitute. |
submissions
| Jethro Tull – Locomotive Breath Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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I originally thought one line was "he hears the sirens howling" instead of "he hears the silence howling," which to me provides a more compelling narrative - while the initial story elements are the same (the main character taking his children to stay with relatives before he goes to confront his wife, only to catch her with his best friend and kill them both in a fit of rage), the former has him preparing for a shootout with the police which he doesn't expect to survive, whereas in the latter, he's just going to kill himself. |
submissions
| Coldplay – Viva la Vida Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Anyone who can't figure out that this song is about the ephemeralness of fame and celebrity is a moron. |
submissions
| Modest Mouse – Satin in a Coffin Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Actually, I would like to partially retract my earlier statement and say that the song criticizes social inactivism in general. Those who simply lie down and let history pass them by are no different from the dead except in their capacity for hypocrisy. "Do you believe what you're saying?" criticizes unquestioning acceptance of mainstream ideals; "are you dead or are you sleeping, honey?" criticizes unwillingness to stand out, and "God, I sure hope you are dead" indicates the extremity of the circumstances under which Isaac is willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt for their mindless silence and conformity. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Das Alte Leid Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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It's about the depravity of youth culture, driving itself to destruction with drugs and liquor and casual sex while attempting to drive back the fear and sorrow associated with death and decay. |
submissions
| Modest Mouse – King Rat Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The language of the piece seems almost Dickensian, which indicates the subject would be either gangsters of the mid-1800s to possibly as late as the 1930s, or the almost mercenarily amoral sailors (even those associated with non-privateer navy or trade fleets) of the early end of that period. |
submissions
| Days of the New – Shelf In The Room Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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It's about an addiction he wants to kick, but can't - even though he wants to move beyond it and go on with his life, kick himself out of his rut, the addiction keeps dragging him back in, and he can never quite work up the will to wrench himself free because he can "hide" from his real-world concerns in it. |
submissions
| Funker Vogt – Black Market Dealers Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Alien - uh, no, it isn't. It's about the United States occupation of Japan following World War II, since the black market was one of the most dominant features of the social landscape of those trying to survive the aftermath of the war, and the lyrics "the first black men they ever saw were among the foreign soldiers" are a clear Kenzaburo Oe reference - long before the war, the German citizens and children saw black athletes at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - but the Japanese had never seen black men before the invasion, and the Oe story Prize Stock details Japanese children's first encounter with a black man, an American soldier stranded behind enemy lines. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Beat A Drum Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Sometimes, on those beautiful summer evenings, you can't help being too aware that science doesn't explain things all that well, and that nothing fills in the gaps like spirituality. It sounds like he's seeking the meaning of life by combining both ("A doctorate in science and a theologian's dream"). |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Bad Day Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Right, right. In the context, "please don't take a picture" does more likely mean that we're too aware of the kind of political shit that's going on (I went for the more cynical interpretation first, true to form); however, I tend to think of the reaction less as media overload than that we want to be able to put said shit behind us when it's over, rather than having the "picture" as a continual reminder of the mistakes we're striving to correct. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Sehnsucht Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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It's funny because the song sounds so hardcore, but it's really about a guy who's missing his ex's company... in bed. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Hallelujah (English) Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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"The young man is allowed to stay with him
the sin nests above the leg
so he gladly helps to exorcize it
to music and candlelight"
So yeah, it's definitely consensual pedophilia. Hilarity and scandal ensues. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Links 2 3 4 (English) Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Maybe I just say this because of living under the Bush administration, and because of the recent goings-on in Iraq, but this isn't just about Rammstein. It has a more broad meaning about the soldier as an archetype, and the importance of feelings and protective instincts in war. Basically, it portrays the soldier as noble and good (though even good men can be caught up in the atrocities of war, as Feuer Frei indicates), and stresses that they are not to be particularly associated with the politicians whose demands they must follow. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Asche Zu Asche (English) Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I'm not a big fan of this one, personally. It sounds like what the Crazy Motorcycle Chase theme from FFVII would've turned out like if it had been made to accompany the Rob Liefeld comic in which Jesus takes on the Greek gods. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Mutter Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Of course, that's if one doesn't wish to go with the patently obvious interpretation that this is a commentary on cloning. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Mutter Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Because of its place among the militarily-themed tracks on the album Mutter, I'm going to go out on a limb and say this song is, under all the metaphors, about a field hospital. The line "Die Tränen greiser Kinderschar" ("The tears of a crowd of very old children") provides something of a clue; war can age you decades in even a few months. "Der Mutter die mich nie geboren" ("the mother who never gave birth to me") could be the mother country (though Germany is the "Fatherland," so the line "gezeugt in Hast und ohne Samen" - "fathered in haste and without sperm" - might be more important to the interpretation).
Actually, that's probably kind of off-base, but my next best guess is a weapons system, due in part to the lines "hab ich heute Nacht geschworen/ ich werd ihr eine Krankheit schenken" ("I have sworn tonight/ I will send her a sickness") - war can be compared to a cancer, and the proverb goes that weapons are enemies even to their owners. This relies more on the "mother country" interpretation, however. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Sonne Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This song is so amazing and eerie, it seems like no interpretation suits it better than that it's about the bombing of Hiroshima; the verses are from the perspective of the Enola Gay flight crew. At the very end, you can almost see the shadows on the pavement... it's creepy. The line "Und wird nie vom Himmel fallen" also notes that Hiroshima represents the dawn of the atomic age; the threat of nuclear war will thus hang ever-present over future world relations, and "never fall" or cease to exist. It also fits with the military themes in much of Mutter, though it's something to ponder as to why Links 2-3-4 (which is all about portraying the soldier as a noble character) leads directly into this song. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Hope Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I think this song is about the process of becoming your own, independent person that generally comes along with going off to college. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Chorus and The Ring Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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This song reminds me so much of the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion... I wonder if Stipe's seen it?
"That's when the insults start to sting/ You can't remember anything, the chorus chime in/ The Greek chorus, the machine of god singing" - This is rather evocative of the Evas, more specifically in their berserker mode... |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Bad Day Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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See, I have to disagree with you two. I think it's about how America is suffering a political "bad day," and how we'd really rather not have it brought to our attention - hence the "please don't take a picture." |
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