| Iron & Wine – Carissa's Weird Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[Fever_Dream:37700] So did Sam Beam write this song in honor of the band Carissa's Wierd? The lyrics clearly aren't about the band. It all seems strange. | |
| The National – I Need My Girl Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I'm pretty sure that "45 percenter" refers to conservative trope that 45% of Americans have lost their job since Obama became president. For example, see the following links, where the same piece of writing is quoted underneath the title "Are you a 45 percenter, & what's your impression of Obama’s economy compared to income & livelihood under Bush?" http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120406190432AAGbzCC http://www.ihav.net/vb/politics/you-45-percenter-whats-your-impression-obama-s-economy-compared-1597257.html Incidentally, I have no idea if this claim is true or whether such a number is atypical of recession-stricken economies. I think it's a nearly totally irrelevant number. Seems to me that the only important factors are the unemployment rate and the quality and pay of the jobs people are taking. 100% of people could lose their jobs over a five-year period, but if the unemployment rate is low and they are taking satisfying, fulfilling, high-wage jobs, it's not clear that there's any problem at all. |
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| Blitzen Trapper – Lady On The Water Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Pretty sure these lines are incorrect: Line 6 should be "graft my heart upon the vine" Line 9 should be "for to wake my lady on the water" Line 13 should be "whip this wind into a flame" Line 17 should be "oh, to make it rain" Line 20 should be "weave a song no one has sung" Line 29: "through countless deserts, dreams, and jests" |
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| Elephant Micah – Twenty-Third Turn Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| One of the greatest. The way the broken chords seem as if they are struggling to emerge from the guitar recalls the 5th line reference to "the pain of childbirth." I would love to know if there is any significance to the term "twenty-third turn" of if it's simply a random number that refers to our ever-repeating revolutions on "the wheel of human suffering." | |
| J. Tillman – No Occasion Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Awesome, thanks for the info, PorterPotty. I've got that Daytrotter and should've listened to it. Good to know though. | |
| J. Tillman – New Imperial Grand Blues Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I was the one who posted these lyrics, but I gotta say I'm not sure on some of the lines. No matter how many times I listen to them, I can't tell what he's saying. The lines in question: "Florin's hanging under the window" (is Florin a name, or am I just hearing this wrong?) "Daddy sang in" or "Daddy's hanging" in the second line (probably the second one is right) "So leave your wine and soul in a mansion" (not certain about these words, plus they don't entirely make sense) "Oh, piece no mush American taint" (I doubt these nonsensical words are right, but that's what it sounds like) "Doesn't make you a man, Jane" (again, it's unclear what he's saying) "Siccin' purple shales on the altar" (another line of nonsense that is impossible to transcribe) |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Seven Island Suite Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Anyone have any idea what islands he's referring to in this song? | |
| J. Tillman – Crosswinds Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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"Tide" not "tied." "When the lives we LEFT are gone forever," not lived. Other than that it's spot-on. |
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| J. Tillman – Earthly Bodies Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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It's "let me lie across your crescent spine." And I think it's "the wine-skin and my eyes are dry." It's definitely not "I love you" between the "oh"s. It sounds like "I am you knew/new" but that doesn't make much sense. Hard to say. Also, I'm pretty sure it's "Without joy, AND left without recourse." It makes more sense and sounds more like that. It's definitely "I can conjure up a soundless VOID" not voice." Also, I think it's gotta be "We begin AND end" not an. You can't hear the "D," but that's just how people talk. Plus, if he meant to say "an," he would've pronounced it like "un" not "Anne." |
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| J. Tillman – Vacilando Territory Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I think most likely it's "breaking BOWLS over our railroad." Also, it's definitely, "through the panhandle morning." How do you edit a song's lyrics? I know it used to be simple, but now I can't figure it out. |
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| Thee More Shallows – 2 AM Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I think it's pretty clear that this song is about a college student living in a dormitory. The guy that lives next to him is having a party and he's pissed about it because the noise is keeping him awake. Later things get weird. I think that either the college student in question is drunk or high on some sort of drug (not an unlikely scenario for a college student) that makes him hallucinate or he eventually falls asleep and starts dreaming about the problem he had just before he fell asleep. No matter. The images and feelings that the last two paragrapsh evoke are great. Oh, and thanks for the link 1664. I'll have to check that out. |
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| Thee More Shallows – Pre-Present Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This entire CD is incredible. I'm not normally a fan of puns, but the double-meaning of the word "present" in this song is brilliant. On one hand, it can literally mean a gift that one is about to open. But I think the deeper and more meaningful interpretation is of the "present" as an experience or moment in time in the life of someone. So he says that this "present," or experience, has already been unwrapped and used. In other words, the experience that the narrator many other people have already had. He then speculates about what this means. Does the fact that other people have had this same experience worry you that it has gone bad? Is the experience less meaningful because so many others have had the same experience? Or does the relatively commonplace nature of the experience make it better and more valuable("filled with magic pennies"). Because other people share this experience with you, you can all talk about it, relate to others about it, and enhance your life by doing so. ("They will Roll all over the floor and past your feet and give themselves away to everyone they meet!") In the end, it seems the narrator decides that it is better to keep the experience to yourself and that there is greater pleasure to be had that way than to share the experience with others. ("Grab the pennies off the floor...buy everything you could afford and don't tell anyone.") |
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| Radiohead – Electioneering Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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About the whole "I'll go forwards and you'll go backwards" line: "I'll go forwards" means the politician is gaining power. "You go backwards" means that not only does the citizen lose power, but he also becomes a degraded human being because of the type of society that the newly empowered politician helps to create. "Somewhere we will meet" refers to the relative positions of the politician and the citizen. The politician has always been a lowly life form, much lower than the citizen, but as he gains more power and the citizens become deplorable automatons they become closer in stature and eventually will meet. |
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| The Decemberists – The Gymnast, High Above the Ground Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I was just listening to this song, and I think it says "limbers up and falls tender down." | |
| The Decemberists – The Gymnast, High Above the Ground Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I don't think the gymnast falls. It says "timbers she falls." In other words, she knocks down timbers. I have no clue what this song means, and I don't see how anybody could. It's way too vague. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Palmcorder Yajna Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Thanks for the info Jaspermax. I never would've figured this song out without it. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Chicago Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| By the way, his name is a Islamic. I heard that on a radio interview with him one time. I guess his parents were in some kind of Muslim spiritual thing around the time he and his siblings were born, so they all have Islamic names. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Chicago Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Yeah, Soof-Yon is correct. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Super Sexy Woman Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Has anyone else seen the tracklist to Sufjan's new Illinois album? Just judging from the titles, he may be regaining some of his sense of humor. The titles are extremely long, but very funny. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Size Too Small Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Yeah, I never thought about A Size Too Small metaphorically representing the awkwardness of adolescence, but that's gotta be right. Awesome. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Dress Looks Nice on You Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| No problem, wooki and NightNeverSleeps. Yeah, that first part took me forever to listen to and type, but I figured I since I was lucky enough to come across that live recording of Sufjan that I ought to share it with others. I just hope I get a chance to see Sufjan live sometime. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – To Be Alone with You Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Walty, Sufjan works a lot with another Christian band called Danielson Famile. He's also got a record label called Asthmatic Kitty that has a couple other Christian type artists, including Half-Handed Cloud. I've never listened to any of these artists, so I can't vouch for how good they are. I just know they are not like most Christian bands and they are affiliated with Sufjan in some way. I'm not even Christian myself. Nice, Gummi. Sufjan's coming out with another album this summer, this time on the state of Illinois. If you want to hear a song from it go to www.pitchforkmedia.com and click on the free downloads link in the upper right. The song Chicago from his new CD is available for download there. I think it's great, though it's not like anything from Seven Swans. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – The Dress Looks Nice on You Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Wow, Canadianeh, that's a very well thought out theory. I don't know whether it's right or not, but it doesn't really matter, I suppose. I think the lyrics in this song are the most vague of any of Sufjan's songs. Very tough to decipher. This is the kind of song where I wish Sufjan (and other artists for that matter) would give us some kind of clue in the liner notes or on their website. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Your Belgian Things Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Maybe the bes Mountain Goats song ever. It almost made me cry when I first reall paid attention to the lyrics. Parts of the song are cryptic, but it's clearly about the death of a close friend. I'm not sure what "Belgian Things" are, but maybe they simply refer to the corpse of the deceased. (After all, they are refered to in one line as "bones from deep down in the fertile crescent.") The best lyrics are late in the song. My favorite line: A tiger's never gonna change its stripes. I guess, I guess, but Jesus what a mess." Something about the way he sings that line is so heartbreaking. |
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| The Mountain Goats – The Young Thousands Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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All the songs on the album "We Shall All Be Healed" are about John Darnielle's youth. Apparently he was pretty big into drugs. I think that in the first stanza, the line "things that you've got coming will consume you" refers to the drugs he is about to acquire. Then the person "waiting out there in an alley with a chain" is either the police (waiting to jail him) or a drug dealer (whose drugs are a metaphorical chain on the user). The "Dull pain" in the second stanza refers to the pain that you get any time your addicted to something and have to go without it for a while. Later on, I think the narrator desperately needs to have his drugs, and so he drives (past Garden Grove) and as he gets closer to acquiring the drugs he gets excited (the pleasure index rises). Diamonds are a metaphor for the drugs as well, I think, while "the ghosts that haunt your building" are the feelings of addiction that come from withdrawal from a substance he is addicted to. I have no idea what the chorus means. Who or what are the Young Thousands? |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I really wish there were more analysis of this song, as there are parts I really don't understand at all. I'll give the last four lines a shot, however. And I will take you and leave you alone Watching spirals of white softly flow Over your eyelids and all you did Will wait until the point when you let go I think there is someone who is leaving the two-headed boy to die in the snow. The spirals of white would be snow falling over his eyes. The line "all you did will wait until you let go" I think means that all his memories will stay with him until the point that he gives up and dies. |
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| The Mountain Goats – No Children Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Yeah, this song is definitely about a happy couple. I think fromthehouseoflords was right on. All the lyrics make sense if you think of this song as being about an old loveless, drunk couple who don't even want to change their ways despite what the bottle is doing to them. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Size Too Small Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I have a Live version of this song. Before he plays this song, Sufjan tells about what it is about. To understand who Robin is, click on the song "The Dress Looks Nice On You." I posted what he ways before that song. It kind of explains it. Anyway, here's what he says before this song: The next year, Robin got a little smart, and she thought, well, she was interested in getting a husband, and she thought, "Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place." We just decided to be friends, and she put her name in this computer dating service, they match you up according to your personality. This was really popular back then too. It wasn't internet dating, because we didn't quite have the internet back then, but it was, you go into this office and they match you up with your likes and your dislikes. So that's how she met her fiance Rob. So, which I was very happy for her, but it all happened so fast, within five months she was engaged and she was married and she invited me to the wedding, to be in the wedding. So, that was fun. (Sarcastically) You know it wasn't so much that I was devastated, but , you know, when you're 14 it's just all sorts of chemical things going on in your body, and you don't really know how to process everything, so. So, I found it really hilarious, but also kind of really devastating too, so I was kind of a little bi-polar at the time. But I went to the wedding, and, uh, it was very surreal. It was very hot. There was no air-conditioning in the church, and it was August. My tuxedo was a little too tight. This song is called "A Size Too Small." (Laughs) Let's see if I can do this one. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – The Dress Looks Nice on You Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I have a live version of this song that Sufjan did in Belgium. Before he plays this son he says this: So when we moved up north we lived here in Pickerall Lake. We took I-75, me and my 2 brothers and my 3 sisters, and we also took a Pommeranian dog, my brother had a california king snake, and we had a dog called a bouvier, bouveitus flanders, which, is a, as you probably know a french sheep-herding dog. They're very beautiful, it was my mother's favorite dog. So we all went in the station wagon we moved up here, into my grandmother's home. It was a summer home, so it was kind of cold in the winter, 'cause the winters up north are very terrible. Anyway, that's where I went to middle school and high school, up there, out of the city, in the country. And there wasn't a lot going on. It felt like going back in time, from moving out of Detroit up there. So there wasn't a lot to do until I hit puberty. And then I met my friend Robin, and she was 18 years old and we went to the same high school. She was a senior and I was a freshman, my first year there. She was really nice, and she had these really big glasses which were popular then, tortoise-shell types. And she had curly hair, which was popular then as well. And anyway, she had a car, which was really kind of cool. Uh, so I was climbing the social ladder, 'cause I had a girlfriend with a car. And I didn't even have a summer job or my driver's license. So we would go driving around sometimes and we'd go to the lakes and the rivers, sometimes we'd go fishing, sometimes we'd go waterskiing. But what she liked to do the best was to go shopping. And there wasn't much shopping up here. 'Cause there's just, uh, K-mart from the last song. There's a lot of K-mart and strip malls and things like that. So we would go down to this, which was the nearest kind of big city, called Travis City, and she had collected these porcelain plates, they were collector's plates, and they had famous people on them, she had one with Mickey Mouse and she had one with Muhammed Ali. She had one with Princess Diana, and things like that. So she would go down to the mall, 'cause there was a store that just had those, she would get those. And she also bought clothing. She bought a lot of dresses, so she tried on this one, and she came out of the dressing room and she says, "Well what do you think of this?" I was only 14, and I wasn't very mature or gracious yet. I didn't know how to open doors for women or buy flowers and things like that. So I said, "Well, it looks kind of complicated." Because this was a time when fashion was really going downhill, and people were mixing kind of paisley and floral and tweed and denim and things like that so it was just all over the place, 'cause I think at that time Madonna was kind of like the fashion role model for most women. So anyway, uh, she said, "No you're supposed to say, 'The dress looks nice on you.'" So, that's what she told me. She taught me a lot of things about that, about how to talk to a woman and what to say and what not to say. So years later I figured this out, and that's when I wrote this song about that. (Applause) |
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| The Mountain Goats – Cotton Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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It seems like he's addressing a number of different things in this song. I think the first one might be about people who commit suicide when it seems like some unavoidable tragedy is about to occur in their lives. The one about toxic soil might be about the place or society where someone grows up. It's about the kind of places where it's impossible to make something of yourself becaues of your surroundings. Dropping your seed there represents giving up on your dreams. The car stanze is about people who have no guidance and have lost control of their lives (hence there's nobody driving). I'm not so sure about the rest of the song. The line about stick pins and cotton I find baffling, unless it's about people he once knew and will probably never see again. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Also, I have a live version of this song that Sufjan performed in Belgium on March 10, 2004. In it he explains the origin of the name of the song. I'll just quote what he says here: "Let me do a song really quick about a small town up here called Paradise. Michigan has Paradise as well as Hell Michigan. It's kind of interesting. And, Um Paradise is a place...I noticed when we went up there to play a football tournament in high school, I noticed that there was all these single mothers and women and grandmothers but there weren't any men, and so I had sort of devised a story in my mind that they had all died in the war and that they were all widows. But they were really a very happy and optimistic community and they all seemed to be working together, and it was, like, women of the world take over. This is for the widows in Paradise." It's an amazing concert. I love that guy. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Beulahrawk is right; there are definitely religious undertones to this song. It seems like Jesus in the narrator. I don't understand some of the lines, but then again, I don't know much about Christianity. I'm mostly fascinated by the lines "If you have a father, or if you haven't one. I'll do anything for you." This is very similar to the lines in another song of his, Vito's Ordination. In that song he sings "If you haven't one (a father), rest in my arms, sleep in my bed." I think both of these lines mean that even if you don't believe in God (father), God will still care and provide for you. A nice thought. Apparently Sufjan believes in a benevolent God, unlike certain proclaimed Christian government officials, who shall remain unnamed.........George W. Bush. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace! Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Also the lyrics posted here are not complete. They continue on like this: "All good thoughts is not the act of doing What we want but what we should improving Properties, ideas, a woman's pleasure is empowered by love, a perfect measure!" |
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| Sufjan Stevens – All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace! Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think this song, as the title suggests, is about working together to change a community or government. "All good thoughts in spite of righteousness, is not the kind of thoughts in spite of greatness" means that it is not enough just to think good thoughts, no matter how "great" those thoughts might be. "Often not the State is advocation, if we form a power of recognition." This means that if we work together we can change things even more so than the government (State). He then laments our materialistic capitalistic outview on life. "All we praise is all we want in commerce. All we praise is parties, foreign commerce." The second line there refers to our reverence for political parties who will not make the kind of changes we want. "Entertain ideas of great communion, shelter not materials in union. All we praise is not the kind of commerce. That's the right solution!" These lines say we must work together (communion) not for capitalist purposes (not materials) but for something other than "commerce," something greater and more important. That's the right solution! Right on Sufjan! |
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| Sufjan Stevens – That Was the Worst Christmas Ever! Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Does anyone know what album this song is off of? I never knew Sufjan did a song like this. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Vito's Ordination Song Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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It diefinitely seems like God (ot Christ) is the narrator in this song. I'm fascinated by the last six lines. I think Pemberley Tea is pretty much right about the religious aspects of the song, but he didn't address the last six lines. "We should be father and son" probably means that God will take care of him. In saying that he should be God's son, he means that he should be God's disciple. But then he goes on to say that even "if you haven't (a father), rest in my arms, sleep in my bed." To me this means that even if you are not religious (and hence don't have a father) God will take care of you anyway. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I'm clueless as to what the first three lines of both stanzas refer to. "Mine is about as good this far"? "I heard from the trees a great parade"? "Will I be incited to the sound?"? Does anyone know what any of this means? |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Restore! Rebuild! Reconsider!) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| It seems like this song is mostly just an account of the decline of Detroit. I'm confused by the chorus os "From the trembling walls. It's A Great Idea!" as well as "Everything you want..." and "Throw them all away" and "From the Renaissance." Any ideas anyone? | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Upper Peninsula Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This seems to me to be a story of lower-class citizens of Michigan, though it could probably describe those of any state. It describes a man who lives in a crappy trailer and doesn't have much, but he's still human; he drove all night to find his child, who was presumably lost somewhere. The man is probably uneducated because he says his son has been revived in "strange ideas." This can mean one of two things, that his son was literally revived in a hospital that used some equipment or method that is foreign to the man (hence the strange ideas) or it could mean that his son was "revived" from a life of property by being educated. His education consisted of "ideas" that are "strange" to the man, since he is unfamiliar with them. Finally, he admits his confusion with the "strange times" we live in. The world is complicated and sometimes we just don't know what's right. Are the "strange ideas" right? There's no way for him to know. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Romulus Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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A tear-jerkingly beautiful song. It's definintely about some siblings growing up who want nothing more than to be loved and cared for by their mother, who neglects them and lives far away. Early in the song the narrator feels inadequate when talking to his mother on the phone. "I was ashamed" Later, after he grows up he realizes what a deplorable, reprehensive person his mother is. Now he's ashamed of her. What an incredibly poignant song! |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think the narrator must be feeliong guilty about not having a job. He says he'll "pretend to cry" and "pretend to try" even if he does these things alone. Usually pretending to try and cry are only done for the benefit of others. You pretend to cry to gain sympathy. You pretend to try so others think you are doing your best. But here he says he'll pretend even if he's alone. This suggests to me that he is trying to prove to himself that what has happened (losing his job and room) is not his fault, because he's pretending to try. He is also trying to prove to himself that he really wants a job by pretending to cry. If he didn't cry that might mean that he really is a lazy bum who enjoys not having a job. I think the line "use my hands to use my heart" means that working was this man's way of life. It is not simply something he does with his hands, it was central to his life. However, he says he has "forgot the part" suggesting that he no longer feels this way. His work is no longer as important to him as it used to be. Perhaps he notices this and it bothers him, and that is why he feels the need to pretend to cry and try: because he wants to convince himself that work is still as important to him as it used to be. Wow! If that really is what Sufjan was trying to convey then his economy of words is miraculous. Of course, I could be wrong. |
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| Modest Mouse – Life Like Weeds Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think the tone of the song acts as a guide to the interpretation of the lyrics. I think the narrator's views on the world change throughout the song, and even between lines. I think the narrator is on his deathbed and is thinking about how he lived his life and the way the world works. Notice that at the beginning of the song he sings in two different voices, one voice states facts coldly ("you're a rock to me," "you'll see the place where you're from," etc.). The other voice shouts angrily "I could have told you all that I love you." Later in the song the voices don't alternate, but the thoughts and worldviews expressed by him do. On the one hand he regrets that he did not tell everyone that he loved him. He cares about them and is angry at himself for not letting them know that. At other times, though, he says "you're the dirt I breathe" and "you're a rock" both derogatory statements about other people. Another contradiction also arises. He says "eyes need us to see" and "hearts need us to bleed." This implies that our organs are subjugated to our conscious mind. In other words, we have control over our destiny. Eyes cannot see without "us." We control them. But later he says that our hearts and minds are "made out of strings to be pulled." In other words we are just robots who do what our environments tell us to do. We have free will. Our circumstances determine everything we do. The last lines are just what they sound like, a lament. We're just talking until the air fills up and we die. He has no point to make here. He just says it sadly, a poignant observation before he dies. Of course, I could be wrong. |
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| Modest Mouse – I Came as a Rat (Long Walk Off a Short Dock) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think Honkyfire was pretty much right about this being a song about reincarnation and how cruel it would be since you would have to continue living mostly crappy lives. There has been a lot of good analysis on this song, but I haven't heard much about the first part of the song. It seems to me like there are a lot of songs that describe the miserable amd meaningless life the narrator lives now. He talks about breaking bottles, walking barefoot, prattling on about unimportant things, and justifying one's own immoral actions ("washed the dirt off our intentions"). That's my take. Take it for what it's worth. |
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| Modest Mouse – Dark Center of the Universe Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"You can't see the thin air so why the hell should you care?" I think thin air might refer to some sort of heaven or afterlife. He's saying that since you can't see any evidence for heaven or an afterlife why should you bother thinking about it or worrying about what happens after tou die. It's preceded by the line "Well and endless ocean landing on an endless desert, well it's funny as hell but no one laughs when they get there" I think the merging of the desert and ocean might represent the merging of your body after death with the earth (in other words, the decay of your body). He then says that this death is funny as hell, but nobody laughs when they die. That's some deep shit for a pop song if you ask me. |
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