| Rod Stewart – Broken Arrow Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| You are not Mistaken. It was written by Robertson and has been covered by several people including Stewart and the Grateful Dead (that i know of). | |
| Neil Young – Cowgirl In The Sand Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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oops ... sorry beaches are NOT known for women in cowgirl outfits. Same can be said about "Ruby in the Dust", dust (something useless and dirty) is not usually the setting in which you would find a ruby (something beautiful and of value). |
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| Neil Young – Cowgirl In The Sand Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I always took this song as the singer being in love with a married woman that is unhappy in her marriage. Several points: "Hello Cowgirl in the Sand", the woman (cowgirl) is completely out of place in her marriage ... like a cowgirl would be standing on a sandy beach. Beaches are known for women in cowgirl outfits. She's not happy in her marriage (is this place at your command). It's the person inside her that makes the singer feel an inability to stay away from someone he has no right to be with (it's the woman in you that makes me want to play this game) of unrequited love. Has your (wedding) band begun to rust? Is her marriage no longer of any real use to her. After all the sin (Adultry) we had. Not really sure on the "Purple words on a grey background" probably a reference to his words of love not really having any impact because after all Purple words would not really show up on grey paper, being difficult to see since the colors are somewhat close in the spectrum. This is how i always interpretted this song. |
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| Sublime – Scarlet Begonias Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I'm not sure who the grateful dead are but they kept following me around the country from 1988 through 1995. | |
| Keller Williams – Not of This Earth Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Without a question this song is a Tribute to the Late Michael Hedges. Wonder were i got my login id?? Keller Williams has said that Michael was one of his biggest influences. The influence of Michael's slap happy guitar style and strong use of not only open tuned guitars but "harmonic fills" are very evident in Kellers own style. I've often described a Michael Hedges concert as a room full, half with guitarist, and almost all of them with their jaws sitting in their lap. Hedges was on the Windham Hill label that is mainly a New Age label. But Michael was so different from the rest of the lot because he added a lot of "funk", rock, boogie to his style while also adding a "new age" melodic solo "acoustic guitar" style to his playing. When Keller says he "always wanted to be like him" (personally i think he is very close with a lot of hippieness in breed in him) "except for that day in the car" which is a reference to how Michael died in a one vehicle car accident in which his BMW swirved off a Northern California mountain road. Michael's favorite guitar was an old "Martin". "Live on the Double Planet". "Watching my Life go By", "Aerial Boundaries", "Breakfast in the Field", "Taproot", "Tourched", "Oracle" and "The Road to Return" are all Michael Hedges releases. Personally i highly recommend "Live on the Double Planet" and "Taproot" for all those who might be curious. "The Impossible Harp thing" is a refernece to several Harp Guitars that Michael owned and played on CD and Concert. The Harp guitar is guitar that looks like a distored two neck guitar on steroids. The top part is plucked and not fretted, like a harp. The lower part is a six string acoustic guitar. They were midly popular in the 1800s in one man bands. The "drum on a bouncing ball" is Keller reference this gigantic ball that Michael would occasionall sit (bounce) on his last few years while playing guitar. There is a video of him doing this while playing a slow version of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone". I'm not sure what Keller is referring to with the "Spike Collar/Rabies Tag". These are things i never noticed in any of the Michael Hedges shows I atteneded which was probably around 15 of them (1989-1997). I think the last stanza is a reference to a time when Keller might have met Michael but i'm not sure. i thought i read somewhere that Keller did meet him but not sure, just a guess. The last line could be a Keller joke on a frequent comment made by Deadheads about Jerry Garcia. Some would freak out that "Jerry looked up and we definately were looking at each other". My guess is Keller either experianced the same thing with Michael or he is using Michael to replace Garcia in the joke. Personal Note: Michael Hedges was the most charismatic performer, and (i love ya keller but i think you'd understand) by far the most amazing guitarist i ever saw or heard. Nothing can explain Michael more then this paraphrased William Ackerman quote: "My skull just got ripped apart as I watched the guitar get reinvented". "No angel ever flew me throught this Heaven" -- Michael Hedges |
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| Keller Williams – Freak Show Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I should mention that my take on this Ani tune is yet another example of her using a whole song as one gigantic metaphor. In this case i believe she is using the "circus" as her metaphor for life on the road. | |
| Keller Williams – Freak Show Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| This is not a Keller Williams song but an ANI DIFRANCO song. | |
| Ani DiFranco – Your Next Bold Move Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Although it does make the Reagan-Bush reference, I feel it is more of a slam at the whole right wing side of government and how it is controlled by corportate money. The whole second stanza group, is just another fine example of how she is queen of the written word. |
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| Ani DiFranco – So What? Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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First off for those who only have one version ... Go to Ani's Website. Her second release of her Bootleg series has an amazing version of this song. She plays the guitar and sings it so beautiful, in perfect cordination, that it will leave you amazed. I have the studio version but never really "heard" the song. I have issues were I just can't get into studio music so it often takes live music to get a real feel for a song. Anyway, when i heard the version on her bootleg series i instantly fell in love with it. her site: www.righteousbabe.com Now for my analysis. This song reminds me a lot of "Both Hands" were she is watching a relationship come crashing to an end. However this one has a far more bitter outlook in that she almost could care less. Ani is an expert in metaphors, few if any can match her, and this song is loaded with them. You have the image of Wiley E Coyote in "the roead ahead is painted on the wall". The useless in "Turned up to top volume while you're sitting there in pause", gives me a feel of how she is looking at her relationship, sort of like ..."i've given it my all and now nothing is what i now have. What I love most is the differences in the chorus. Her manipulation of the two stanzas and how she turns them inside out in front of the reader is outstanding. "Subtract out the impact and the fall is all you get" is an outstanding play on words and actions but it also reflects the "mathmatics" part in the first chorus. Then you get to the beer part, first it is "two beers to remember and five to forget", but she messes with math in the second stanza to get, "two beers to remember and three more to forget" both of which add up to the fifth beer that leads to the forgetfullness. This song is pure Ani, both from his harsh beauty, and the delicate way she handles the guitar and vocals to the song. I almost get the feel like she is going to drop an F-You bomb in striking comparison to "Untouchable Face". Make no mistake about it .... Ani is the queen of the written word. |
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| Bob Dylan – Silvio Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| For the record, these lyrics are actually written by Grateful Dead lyrist Robert Hunter who gave them to Bob and was shocked and honored that he used them. If you ask me it goes to show how strikingly alike these to masters are at their art, and proof of why few, if any, can touch either of them. | |
| Grateful Dead – She Belongs To Me Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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A classic Bob Dylan tune (why are covers in here). A great tune about a very independent woman whose men almost have a subserviant role to her. The classic part of the whole song is the title which displays it's true irony. |
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| Grateful Dead – Looks Like Rain Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| A song about the sudden realization of the end of a relationship with the singer realizes that the immediate future is not so pleasant. | |
| Ani DiFranco – Both Hands Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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My few takes ... I don't think the song was written for any one particular sex although it's certain it involved one particular sex, but she left that open for interpretation because why should sex matter. The metaphor of "Both Hands" to me is seems more like "Hold On to the Wheel with Both Hands" because this ride is going to come to a certain, sudden end, so brace yourself. AS far as "Writing on the Wall", i've always interpretted that as simply when you live in a place the scuffs and marks you make on the walls and corners are from your personal existance there. But when you move out someone else is going to come in and and fix up the holes and repaint it to remove the "history" of you being there. Sort of like leaving a relationship and entering a new one, eventually the new person is going to remove all (ok not all) hint of the previous relationship, because a new one can't truly begin with the presence of the old one still around. "In each of our shadows we grow less and less tall", is a great lyric to me. |
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| Ani DiFranco – 'Tis of Thee Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| I look at it as another one of her fine social, anti-right, songs. Against conservatives who feel the need that anything different then their middle-class, white outlook is unacceptable. | |
| Grateful Dead – Friend of the Devil Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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For the record there is a final verse that Garcia decided to ommit: You can borrow from the Devil You can borrow from a Friend The Devil will give you Twenty When a friend's got only Ten Set out running ..... |
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| Grateful Dead – China Doll Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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A song about Suicide. Never a real huge fan of this song but i heard the Dead do it in the summer of '03 with Joan Osborne and she had my arms infested with goosebumps. |
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| Grateful Dead – Stella Blue Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I heard once that this song is about a guitar. If you get a chance you need to hear the version from Richfield Coliseum 03.21.94. I'm not a fan of the vince years (especially the last two) but Garcia rips this one apart at the end. |
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| Grateful Dead – Standing On The Moon Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Hey i'll be the first to comment on this Great song. To me it's about wanting to get away from all the crap in the world (war, children starving etc) and dreaming about standing on the moon and being happy to be away from all the garbage. Then the singer realizes that the person he loves is still on earth, and despite all the uglieness of the world, he wants to be back there (despite the lovely view of heaven) because that is where the person he loves is. it's sort of a hidden love song. Just another example of why the man is one of the best at what he does, Robert Hunter only gets better with age ... like a fine wine. |
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| Ani DiFranco – Dilate Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I always look at this song as Ani using her life on the road as a metaphor for her relationships. Life on the road is a completely evolving, always different at each turn and she sees her relationships as being the same while wishing for some kind of stability. "every key works differently and i forget everytime" btw/ i love playing this song on guitar (to bad i can't sing it). Her dropping the low E string down to an A to form an amazing resonating, strong bass note ... i love it. This is a beautiful song. |
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