| Arcade Fire – Neon Bible Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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A lot of those lyrics are wrong. Here are the correct lyrics: A vial of hope and a vial of pain In the light they both looked the same Poured them out on into the world On every boy and every girl It's in the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible Not much chance for survival If the Neon Bible is right Take the poison of your age Don't lick your fingers when you turn the page What I know is what you know is right In the city it's the only light It's the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible Not much chance for survival If the Neon Bible is right Oh God! Well look at you now! Oh! You lost it, but you don't know how! In the light of a golden calf Oh God! I had to laugh! Take the poison of your age Don't lick your fingers when you turn the page It was wrong but you said it was right In the future I will read at night It's the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible Not much chance for survival If the Neon Bible is true ----------- This is certianly a criticism of commercialism, capitalism, and greed. The light of the golden calf (a false god made of the wealth of a nation--america) is the light of a "neon bible." |
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| Arcade Fire – The Well and the Lighthouse Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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A dramatization of death and resurrection: the death, in the well, that is doubt where "heaven is only in my head" and the resurrection of faith, what "he desires" to be true not what he "fears to be true." Hence the speaker is resurrected and hopes for the Kingdom of God where the lamb and the lion lie down together (dwell together/sleep in the same field) without violence. See Isaiah 11:6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." Without this hope of "the lighthouse" "ships are gonna wreck." Ships here being the oft used symbol for the soul/person on the chaotic ocean of life. But wait, there is irony: "Can you see the funny side? The ships are gonna wreck" Even with the light of the lighthouse, people are still going to wreck their ships. This communicates the tension between faith and actuality: one keeps hoping for the Kingdom, even though the "lions and the lambs ain't sleep'n yet," even though we aren't there yet and bad things are still going to happen. This is an artful song about going through trials of doubt and coming through to the other side with a renewed hope in the Kingdom of God. The end. Now for some speculation: Anyone else think Neon Bible, may be alluding to the "neon gas" that gets free and turns into the walking dead in the magnetic feilds song "Born on a train?" It is after all, the song that Win claims he was obessed with and eventually made him want to go with Merge Records. There seems to me to be a lot of life and death/resurrection/walking-dead sorts of themes on the album. Anyway, its a far-fetched connetion, but I like the image of neon gas being the "walking dead" and that image seems to fit really well with Neon Bible and this song in particular with the "light" of resurrection. |
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| Arcade Fire – Keep the Car Running Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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"They know my name 'cause I told it to them / But they don't know where and they don't know when / It's coming" The second coming?? "can't swim across a river so deep" sounds like an allusion to the River Styx, the boundary between life and the afterlife. So maybe the "it" that is coming is simply "death." This seems more likely, since he fears the "it" whose name he "knew . . . before [he] could speak." Of course, "fearing God" is also possible here. A little ambiguity makes for great lyrics. |
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| Thee More Shallows – House Breaks Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"Certain kinds of anxious dreams are incomplete, they lack a key You only get when you go back to sleep" I love those lines. I love the whole darn thing. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Vito's Ordination Song Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| The lyric is not "I've made amends / we should be father and son"--it's "I've made amends / between father and son" | |
| Sufjan Stevens – All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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actually the title comes from Isaiah 55:12. "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| This song gave me goosebumps. Beautiful song about loss. | |
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