| Silverchair – The Greatest View Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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it's always nice to see that there are some people out there who're as obsessed with this group as i am. i think everyone who's posted has the right idea about the song, but here's my interpretation.. (and keep in mind I just smoked a spliff) : this is one of my favourite songs because its an especially good hybrid of Daniel Johns' style of telling the story of the song through his (amazing, supernatural, other-worldly, godlike) voice, as well as through the music. Just take the opening riff for example - it's typical old-style Silverchair, hard and angry. Also, the video is full of chaps looking through peepholes into other doors, people looking around ("turning their heads whilst they wait for no one") to look at someone or something else, and some awesome CGI effects of Daniel and the rest of the group in a sort of X-ray effect. What it all hints at is looking closer, looking further than just the surface. But back to the opening riff - at first its heavy-metal, but then out of nowhere Daniel begins what seems to be a "cheesy" (and believe me I don't mean any discredit with the use of that word) love-song. The contrast between the riff and the verse suggest something hidden within something else... and finally I can move on.. The "Greatest View" that Daniel has, ladies and gentlemen, is in fact a a grand realisation, a threshold revelation that this person in whom he has placed so much fondness is, in reality, the antithesis of everything he wants. Thus the true meaning of the song is hidden within itself. I agree with most of what dearest helpless said above about the first verse... and I do think that the "when you want no one, and you got someone" line is a reference to 'the person's' frame-of-mind in their relationship with the Singer (note the capital "S"). But I'd like to point out an error in the above lyric sheet... In the first verse he says "and finally I know why you feel like letting go" ... but in the second he actually says "and finally I know why I feel you're letting me go" ... so he receives closure since he's realised that they're the "fungus in [his] milk"... The second verse's lyrics really are incredible - clearly he's talking about moving on, learning from his mistakes. And dearest helpless, as far as the "tactic toes" bit goes... packing one's toes is probably metaphorical of walking, leaving. The "winter" is also a metaphor, for the unknown. Winter represents difficulty, and literally it represents the cold. And then there's the best part.. "Chain a waterfall to burned and withered skin no one else will ever see" Again it's all metaphorical. Nothing about frozen waterfalls I think. He's saying cover up ("chain a waterfall") your wounds from this relationship ("burned and withered skin"), and bury them in your mind for no one else to see... This man is a poet. So yeah. That's what I think. Daniel - I love you. |
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| Silverchair – The Greatest View Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
it's always nice to see that there are some people out there who're as obsessed with this group as i am. i think everyone who's posted has the right idea about the song, but here's my interpretation.. (and keep in mind I just smoked a spliff) : this is one of my favourite songs because its an especially good hybrid of Daniel Johns' style of telling the story of the song through his (amazing, supernatural, other-worldly, godlike) voice, as well as through the music. Just take the opening riff for example - it's typical old-style Silverchair, hard and angry. Also, the video is full of chaps looking through peepholes into other doors, people looking around ("turning their heads whilst they wait for no one") to look at someone or something else, and some awesome CGI effects of Daniel and the rest of the group in a sort of X-ray effect. What it all hints at is looking closer, looking further than just the surface. But back to the opening riff - at first its heavy-metal, but then out of nowhere Daniel begins what seems to be a "cheesy" (and believe me I don't mean any discredit with the use of that word) love-song. The contrast between the riff and the verse suggest something hidden within something else... and finally I can move on.. The "Greatest View" that Daniel has, ladies and gentlemen, is in fact a a grand realisation, a threshold revelation that this person in whom he has placed so much fondness is, in reality, the antithesis of everything he wants. Thus the true meaning of the song is hidden within itself. I agree with most of what dearest helpless said above about the first verse... and I do think that the "when you want no one, and you got someone" line is a reference to 'the person's' frame-of-mind in their relationship with the Singer (note the capital "S"). But I'd like to point out an error in the above lyric sheet... In the first verse he says "and finally I know why you feel like letting go" ... but in the second he actually says "and finally I know why I feel you're letting me go" ... so he receives closure since he's realised that they're the "fungus in [his] milk"... The second verse's lyrics really are incredible - clearly he's talking about moving on, learning from his mistakes. And dearest helpless, as far as the "tactic toes" bit goes... packing one's toes is probably metaphorical of walking, leaving. The "winter" is also a metaphor, for the unknown. Winter represents difficulty, and literally it represents the cold. And then there's the best part.. "Chain a waterfall to burned and withered skin no one else will ever see" Again it's all metaphorical. Nothing about frozen waterfalls I think. He's saying cover up ("chain a waterfall") your wounds from this relationship ("burned and withered skin"), and bury them in your mind for no one else to see... This man is a poet. So yeah. That's what I think. Daniel - I love you. |
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| Silverchair – Tuna In The Brine Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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If you close your eyes and listen to this song from beginning to end, you'll start to see the 'Diorama colours' flashing before your eyes. I swear. That's what Daniel can do. This song is in typically-cryptic Johns-style, where the lyrics make no sense at all and yet you can still feel (sort of) what he's singing about. Remember the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Their song was a warning about over-indulgence. I think that's what this song is about... it does allude strongly to drugs ("take another pill") but I don't think he specifically means like ecstasy or anything.. it's like anything indulgent, be it chemical, sexual, edible, etc. He's saying that if you choose to over-indulge then you best be prepared to live with the consequences.. "Don't lose your heart, don't lose your heart" he sings, over and over again.. he's just saying to keep your wits about you, don't let this thing suck you in completely.. because if you do, you'll have to "take and take and take and take.." - i.e. keep having more, it'll never be enough. At the end of the song though, the image of the tuna in the brine (which to me is like complete saturation, literally like a little tin of tuna that is smothered in oil - what a f*cking brilliant analogy) changes from something haunting to something hopeful - "it's my time to shine like a tuna in the brine" (amazing double meaing - oily tuna looks shiny..! ) "for my pregnant paws aren't changing anything" - the best line in the song for me. Comes from the expression "To take a pregnant pause" which is a brief pause y'know... he's saying his hands are idle, because he's been doing nothing but over-indulge until this point, but he knows that he's "not changing anything" so he has to give it up. Again the "paws" or pause allude to a kind of inertial, saturated state-of-mind... and also.. right at the end "you're making me ill and i can't get enough" - even though it's making him sick, he still needs more... I await their new album with glorious and dubious anticipation, because at the same time as i can't wait to hear new stuff, i also don't know how they're going to top Diorama. But i'll leave that to Daniel. Bless him. |
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| Silverchair – Across The Night Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This song, to me, sums up what Diorama is all about. It's epic and completely over-the-top - ON PURPOSE. I have listened to this album for two years now, and after so long you start to realise how Daniel manages to let the music tell the story of the song as much as his lyrics do. The first part of the song is a dream in a deep, deep sleep - at first he can't fall asleep ("it was the moon that stole my slumber", "i fell in love with [other] people sleeping") - but then finally he falls asleep as the first lines of the song show... I'm always amazed at the chorus... How can you sing so high, so loud? These melodies could only exist in a dream - they're too crazy otherwise! The second part of the song is him waking up... (listen to the music after the second "man's arthritic shoulder"... it sounds like a sunrise) and in his disdain with reality compared with the dream, he takes solace in this person sleeping next to him.. But of course that's just my crappy interpretation. Daniel John's is too much of a genius for anyone to be able to REALLY know what he was thinking. God I love this man. |
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