| Saul Williams – 1987 Lyrics | 14 years ago |
|
I don't even pretend to understand most of this, but here is what I gleaned: frequent mentions of water: water is a powerful poetic symbol, and also essential for maintaining life. It is fluid and malliable, able to adapt to the form that someone puts it in while still maintaining its basic structure and properties. It is able to penetrate seemingly inpermiable spaces, able to navigate the spaces between man and woman, spiritual and physical. When it is taken from the whole it becomes a seperate entity, yet returns to the whole without maintaining properties of individuality. As far as the last lines, I presented my feminine side with flowers She cut the stems and placed them gently down my throat And these two lips might soon eclipse your brightest hopes The thing that stands out most to me here is the act of penetration by the feminine rather than the masculine. Here we have two acts of violence performed out of love: the cutting of the flowers and the placing of them down his throat. It makes sense that he should act as a recepticle for the cut flowers, as our bodies are 75% to 80% water. The organic matter in his body feeds the flowers. An act of violence is nessicary in order for life to continue, and it is essential that he submit his will to the feminine in order to gain this wisdom. I'm not arguing for female supremacy here...notice he says "feminine side." We are fluid, we each contain elements of both the masculine and the feminine. Sometimes it is essential that the feminine submit to the masculine. The relationship is symbiotic. |
|
| Lady GaGa – Poker Face Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
I'm ashamed at how much I love this song. Is she going to get with the dog in the end of the music video? I really like how she is totally OWNING her sexuality. Shes like "yeah I'm sexy, but my body is not YOURS to objectify! I turn my sexiness against you and bite you in the ass with it, bitch!" I remember the first time I heard this song. I was in a bar on a college trip, and my friend told me that it was about pretending to want to go home with a boy and then going home with a girl instead. Later that night I wound up flashing three guys for $10. I went back to the hotel, bought a book on resistance to oil drilling in Nigeria with the money, and later had sex with my hotel roommate, who I had had a crush on for the past 3 years. My friends told me they would never take anything feminist related that I said in class seriously again, but it was worth it. |
|
| of Montreal – Id Engager Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
I don't think this is what this song actually means to Kevin, because it is far too cynical, but here is what it means to me: (It is uncanny how Of Montreal manages to meet me EXACTLY where I am with the release of each new album!) This really goes along with the feminist theory that I have been reading lately, as well as my own actions. The "phallocentric tyranny" is the idea of monogamy and marriage. It is possible to have wonderful amazing earth shattering sexual connections with people without wanting to get involved any further. Monogamy is more about possession than connection. I guess he still acknowledges patriarchal desires by saying he wants to "play with you," as if the woman is a doll or object, but honestly it just sounds like they want to have fun! The language he uses is so interesting "my self concept is awaiting your invasion." Usually the man sees himself as the penetrator, and the woman is the one who is penetrated, but with this line the roles are reversed. I guess he is doing his part to dismantle the "phallocentric tyranny." I love of Montreal because they are really the only band that I would really call a queer band. They are not gay, but queer in that they challenge traditional gender roles and meanings surrounding sexual experience. |
|
| of Montreal – Sleeping in the Beetle Bug Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I love how they have a song for every occasion. Most of the song doesn't make sense, but I can't help but be reminded of the time that my friends and I went to the School of Americas protest in Georgia and were incapable of pitching a tent, so all three of us slept in my beetle bug. Lana slept on the dashboard. | |
| M.I.A. – Jimmy Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
Writing a song about going on a date to a genocide tour is sort of quirky, but really disturbing. I'm sure it was written with a hint of irony, about how activism so often becomes about the image that someone portrays more so than the work that they are actually doing, but I'm sort of disgusting with myself for finding the idea so appealing. I am sort of obsessed with Africa, and this song made me really think about the fact that if I were at a party and had been drinking a bit and if I started talking to some guy who revealed that he had worked in Rwanda as a journalist, I would be very interested to hear about his experience, but I would also be focused on getting him "somewhere warm" (aka my bed). I think I would be thinking about the fact that I was turned on by his activism more so than the actual work that he was doing or the lived experiences of the individuals in Rwanda. I still think this song is basically the sexiest song ever written and I am somewhat in love with the mild irony, but it has made me seriously question my motives as well |
|
| of Montreal – So Begins Our Alabee Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| As far as his daugher's name, Kevin said that he named her alabee simply because he wanted her to be named something compltely orginal. | |
| of Montreal – We Were Born the Mutants Again with Leafling Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
can we please stop arguing about Kevin Barnes' sexuality? First of all, it is irrelevant to the song. Second of all, it really just doesn't matter! I think it is sad that a man cannot decide to wear makeup and dresses in public without being considered gay. it is just something he likes to do! It doesn't mean that he's gay! As far as his daugher's name, he told me that he named her alabee simply because he wanted her to be named something compltely orginal. |
|
| Iron & Wine – Passing Afternoon Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
I first heard this song while taking a cross country road trip through South Africa and since then I have been able to think of nothing else while listening to this song. It was one of those beautiful contemplative days, with the bright blue sky stretching endlessly across green pasture, marked by the occasional colorful mud round house, usually surrounded by vinyards, or pastures with goats and sheep. Very appropriate scenery for listening to Iron and Wine. I started thinking about the stories of the women living in the round houses and this is the story I came up with to accompany the song: All of this is sung from the point of view of her husband, who only gets to see his family once a year because he has taken a job in the city. She was born as a servant to a wealthy white land owner during apartheid. During the youth uprisings of the 1970s, she and some other radical youth from the African National Congress (including the husband) burned the landowners estate, but she felt great remorse for it afterward (and she chose a yard to burn, but the ground remembers her) Despite the fevor of their youth, she has been forced to settle down to a traditional, quiet life. Like most of the other women, she only gets to see her husband once a year, but she chooses to stay in the country and dedicate her life to raising children. She is devoutly christian, as many South Africans are, (and she's chosen to believe in the hymns her mother sings) and uses her faith to comfort her through her dissapointment in life. She was hoping that at least one of her children would stay with her to comfort her in her old age, but all of them get scholarships to the university with the fall of apartheid and leave her alone. To comfort herself, she takes a lover. (lost her wedding ring) The last two verses are her husband lamenting that she cannot be near him. He has no remorse over the fact that she has taken a lover, because he has taken lovers as well, but he still pines for the quiet, intimate country life that he cannot have, and curses the capitalist system that prevents poor Africans from building lifelong intimate relationships with their families. When the line "there are names across the sea" came up, it gave me chills. I live in America, and South Africa is about as far as you can possibly get from the United States. But I am sure that this has been the life story for so many African women, and I was glad that this song could connect me to them, even if I will never know their names. |
|
| The Decemberists – The Island: Come and See; The Landlord's Daughter; You'll Not Feel the Drowning Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
I know this is not what the song is actually about, but to me, "You'll Not Feel the Drowning" is about abortion. This morning I woke up to this song, and I was still in that half-dream state and this really vivid music video type image went through my head: "I will dress your eyelids With dimes upon your eyes" A girl is emptying her bank account to pay for an abortion "Laying close to water Green your grave will rise" flashback: she is bent over the toilet with her first morning sickness "Go to sleep, little ugly Go to sleep, you little fool Forty-winking in the belfry You'll not feel the drowning You'll not feel the drowning" She is in a hospital and there are doctors and nurses talking around her, but not to her. Everything starts to get fuzzy and goes black by the end of the refrain "Forget you once had sweethearts They've forgotten you" She is holding the pregnancy test in her hand, crying and desperatley trying to get in touch with her boyfriend. The scene cuts to him with another girl as he sees her call and turns the ringer off "Think you not on parents They've forgotten too" Her mother is sitting crying as her father yells at her to get out of the house second refrain: Dream-like images of her as a mother with her child, going on a picnic, playing on the playground, holding hands etc...images dissolve as she wakes up The rest of the song shows her leaving the clinic alone, getting in to her car, getting on the highway and driving to an unknown destination |
|
| Stars – The Beginning After the End Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I think it is sort of funny that this band is canadian yet they are making such a strong political statement. | |
| Stars – One More Night Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
This is a really hard song for me to listen to because I have been on both sides of the story. An ex-girlfriend once told me that "while I was breaking her heart, I still fucked like a tease," which really hurt. It also reminds me of this really unhealthy friends with benefits relationship I was in for a really long time. This song perfectly describes the last night we were together, the night before he started dating my best friend. This song perfectly describes what it is like to sleep with someone you despise. It seems like such a ridiculous contradiction, but this song perfectly portrays the emotions that make people do things that they know will emotionally damage them in the future. |
|
| Devendra Banhart – Chinese Children Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I wonder if it has anything to do with a myth that he just decided to turn in to a nonsensical song? I know he was talking about China, but there is this Yourba (Nigerian) myth about this woman who gives birth to a baby through her thumb, and his name is ZURRJIR and basically he eats everything in the house so his parents decide to kill him, but he comes back as a half-baby and affixes himself to his mothers head. Yeah, this is sort of trippy and unrelated, but interesting nonetheless. It was just like, as soon as i read that I was like "Out of my thuuuuuubs, my little red baby runs, and thats another fact!" | |
| Architecture in Helsinki – The Owls Go Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
Whenever I hear this song I think of going to my grandmother's house and looking at old pictures in the closet. I think its about someone who wants to hide something very important to them that they want people to find after they are gone the "i'll forget you" part reminds me of how I love looking at old old pictures of dead relatives who's lives have been forgotten I like the line "And you won't make a sound or be nervous around piles of pictures So old that it feels like it is ending It shouldn't feel like it is ending" Although I love looking at these pictures, I get scared when I think about the fact that one day I will just be a collection of old forgotten photographs |
|
| Broken Social Scene – Backyards Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
I thought this song was about going through a really old dusty library because i thought the first line way "broken books look good sitting on their shelves sideways with spines exposed to fear" I thought the people who "lost their lives in the backyard" was referring to an outdated newpaper archive that everyone had forgotten about or a fictional character even though I know the right lyrics, I still like this interpretation because I just love going to bookstores and libraries and sitting in the sheleves and reading and this song reminds me of that feeling |
|
| The Decemberists – Sixteen Military Wives Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
This song made me realize how ridiculously politically correct I have become. I mean, it is obviously a protest song, not only about the war, but the vapidness of our culture, but all that was going through my mind was "16 military wives? what about the military husband? women go over there too! And what about the gay couple that have to keep their love a secret because they would get kicked out of the military? And what if they choose not to get married? Does that make their death any less sad? At least the anchorperson is genderless..." I should just stop analyzing everything to peices and enjoy the song while being disgusted at the message I went to see these guys in Memphis last night, and it was amazing. They had the audience divide down the center and shake our fists at each other as we competed to see who could sing "la de da de da de da de da de da" the loudest |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think that the line "and he takes and he takes and he takes..." refers to the fact that while Jesus took his loved one away from him, he also takes away his sins. | |
| Modest Mouse – 3rd Planet Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I found the meaning of the analogy of the eye. Obviously, as it has already been said, the line "the third planet is sure they're being watched by an eye in the sky that can't be stopped" is referring to our belief in God. The line "my boss just quit the job, says he's going out to find blind spots and he'll do it." is referring to arguments against creation. The eye is one of the biggest arguments for and against creation. Creationists aruge that the eye is such an irreducibly complex system that is could not have possibly been created by evolutionary chance. Many evolutionists, such as Kenneth Miller of Brown University, say that if there had been an intelligent agent that designed earth, they would have made everything perfect. The eye has several design flaws. To quote Miller, "A more serious flaw occurs because the neutral wiring must poke directly through the wall of the retina to carry the nerve impulses produced by photoreceptor cells to the brain. The result is a blind spot in the retina-a region where thousands of impulse carrying cells have pushed the sensory cells aside." There is literally a blind spot in our retina! When he says "my boss just quit the job," he is referring to the fact that science, to most people, has replaced the need for God. | |
| of Montreal – Tim I Wish You Were Born a Girl Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I know Kevin would not be afraid to admit it if he were gay, but I bet this is a good song for those people that secretly pine after their best friends but are too afraid to say anything | |
| of Montreal – The Repudiated Immortals Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
This song helped me come to grips with letting to of christianity. I felt as if God had abandoned me, but I remembered that life is about beauty and love, neither of which the christian God can offer. I love that...the creator of what's now cliche...I think about that a lot. I still believe in a God, and I think of how incredibly awe inspiring creation must have been, even if it was evolution, setting everything in to place and letting it go...and then I think of the first chapter of genesis: "In the first day God created heaven and earth...' that does not even begin to do justice to God. |
|
| of Montreal – The Problem with April Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| what a happy sounding song for such a depressing subject. i thought it was weird because my boyfriend broke up with me in april and I discovered this song in july. | |
| of Montreal – Springtime Is the Season Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This song makes me extremley happy because it is impossible for me to be happy in the winter, and the bright colors, warm weather and sunshine just make me explode with joy. | |
| of Montreal – The Party's Crashing Us Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
This song is my guilty pleasure. I have done a lot of things i regret at parties, but this song makes me remeber those moments of fleeting exctacy, and I don't regret one moment of it. I especially like the line "you free me from the past you fucked the suburbs out ot me gone are those ugly days that made us so sick they are just fossils now we learned the elevated tricks" I grew up in a really conservative suburbian house and at school no one would even look at me. Then I get to college, and it's a whole different world from what I had known. Eventually I came out of the closet and found myself a girlfriend, and let's just say...my eyes were opened to a whole new world. |
|
| of Montreal – Nickee Coco and the Invisible Tree Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This song makes me so happy because I am glad for Nickee every time she is found. I like to think that, if I was lost in an invisible tree, the entire city would stop what they were doing to search for me and then hold a giant parade when I was found. | |
| of Montreal – Little Viola Hidden in the Orchestra Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I wish my thoughts were this eloquent whenever I go to the orchestra. I bet he was on something though. | |
| of Montreal – It's Easy to Sleep When You're Dead Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I can just picture the evolution of this song: the lead singer is trying to thing of good and bad things about dying. The bad list is full, and he still has not thought of anything good about dying, which is when he was like....ummmm....I guess it's easy to sleep... I wonder if the artists ever check this site and laugh at how ridiculously off we are when we interpret these songs... |
|
| of Montreal – I Was Never Young Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think this song is ironic because of montreal is one of the most childlike (in a good way!) bands I have ever heard. Maybe they are writing about how they would like to affect someone else. | |
| of Montreal – Chrissy Kiss the Corpse Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| only of monreal could write a happy song about a mother at a son's funeral | |
| of Montreal – Happy Yellow Bumblebee Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Ahhhh this song is just so darn cute! Before I went off to college, I painted and fired this small box with a bumblebee thumbprint on it that says "I am a happy yellow bumblebee" around the sides. Now I use it to store my pot. Whenever I get stoned I always say "where's bumblebee?" | |
| Rent – La Vie Boheme Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
This is from a report I wrote on RENT for Sociology thru Film: “La Vie Boheme” is probably the most unfortunate number of the entire musical. It is a 10 minute raunchfest, designed only to shock Benny’s business partners. It is full of gay stereotypes that the gay community has worked so hard to overcome. Trying to shock and disgust conservative businessmen does nothing to help homosexuals and people living with AIDS gain acceptance in the larger community. When Maureen and Joanne are seen making out, Maureen exclaims “Hey mister, she’s my sister!” Near the end of the song, the entire chorus sings “to sodomy is between God and me, to S&M!” They will never be accepted or taken seriously by mainstream conservative culture if they make a huge scene and pay tribute to such juvenile things as marijuana and “mucho masturbation” in their manifesto. The businessmen do not see when Collins takes care of Angel and stays with him until his dying breath. They do not see the love that these friends have for each other. Their only glimpse of the countercultural society is this immature, lewd spectacle. They should not be expected to have very much pity on a group that they see as a bunch of pleasure seeking hedonists. The main characters do nothing to make the businessmen feel bad about evicting them from their homes. Many people interpret this song to be making fun of existing stereotypes. The main characters know that the businessmen are set in their ways, so they decide to have a little bit of fun and embarrass Benny in the process. However, if homosexuals, AIDS victims, and other countercultural individuals ever expect to be accepted into mainstream society, they should portray the more positive aspects of their culture instead of falling back on the existing stereotypes that they themselves choose to perpetuate. They end their celebration at Life Café with an impromptu salon where they display their work, doing ridiculous performances such as “Maureen Johnson will sing Native American tribal chants backwards through her vocoder while accompanying herself on the electric chello, which she ain’t never studied.” These bohemians seem to think that anything that is out of the ordinary or could be considered avant garde should be deemed high art. Earning a living would be considered selling out, so these are the kinds of things they do to occupy their time. Please don't hate on me! I really don't dislike this song, I was just looking at the more critical aspects of the film for the sociology paper, and I think it is important for everyone to look at their favorite work thru a critical perspective every once in a while :) |
|
| Evanescence – Listen to the Rain Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| haha...iv'e got an original copy...:) | |
| that dog. – She Looks At Me Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This song means a lot to me because That Dog. has been there for a lot of different stages in my life. I got this CD when I was a freshman in high school, and I refused to listen to this song because I thought homosexuality was evil, and I was struggling because I knew I had feelings for girls. Now I am a freshman in college, and I have recently come out. i remember singing this in harmony with a friend who was also bisexual (the only other one of my friends who knows that dog of course) and for some reason in that moment I just really felt like I had found my place, I no longer had to lie about my identity. | |
| that dog. – She Looks At Me Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This song means a lot to me because That Dog. has been there for a lot of different stages in my life. I got this CD when I was a freshman in high school, and I refused to listen to this song because I thought homosexuality was evil, and I was struggling because I knew I had feelings for girls. Now I am a freshman in college, and I have recently come out. i remember singing this in harmony with a friend who was also bisexual (the only other one of my friends who knows that dog of course) and for some reason in that moment I just really felt like I had found my place, I no longer had to lie about my identity. | |
| Rent – La Vie Boheme Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
This is from a report I wrote on RENT for Sociology thru Film: “La Vie Boheme” is probably the most unfortunate number of the entire musical. It is a 10 minute raunchfest, designed only to shock Benny’s business partners. It is full of gay stereotypes that the gay community has worked so hard to overcome. Trying to shock and disgust conservative businessmen does nothing to help homosexuals and people living with AIDS gain acceptance in the larger community. When Maureen and Joanne are seen making out, Maureen exclaims “Hey mister, she’s my sister!” Near the end of the song, the entire chorus sings “to sodomy is between God and me, to S&M!” They will never be accepted or taken seriously by mainstream conservative culture if they make a huge scene and pay tribute to such juvenile things as marijuana and “mucho masturbation” in their manifesto. The businessmen do not see when Collins takes care of Angel and stays with him until his dying breath. They do not see the love that these friends have for each other. Their only glimpse of the countercultural society is this immature, lewd spectacle. They should not be expected to have very much pity on a group that they see as a bunch of pleasure seeking hedonists. The main characters do nothing to make the businessmen feel bad about evicting them from their homes. Many people interpret this song to be making fun of existing stereotypes. The main characters know that the businessmen are set in their ways, so they decide to have a little bit of fun and embarrass Benny in the process. However, if homosexuals, AIDS victims, and other countercultural individuals ever expect to be accepted into mainstream society, they should portray the more positive aspects of their culture instead of falling back on the existing stereotypes that they themselves choose to perpetuate. They end their celebration at Life Café with an impromptu salon where they display their work, doing ridiculous performances such as “Maureen Johnson will sing Native American tribal chants backwards through her vocoder while accompanying herself on the electric chello, which she ain’t never studied.” These bohemians seem to think that anything that is out of the ordinary or could be considered avant garde should be deemed high art. Earning a living would be considered selling out, so these are the kinds of things they do to occupy their time. Please don't hate on me! I really don't dislike this song, I was just looking at the more critical aspects of the film for the sociology paper, and I think it is important for everyone to look at their favorite work thru a critical perspective every once in a while :) |
|
| Architecture in Helsinki – The Owls Go Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I finally get what this song is about! It is about childhood heirlooms and how they are so easily forgotten over the generations | |
| The Moldy Peaches – Who's Got the Crack? Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
OK I can't believe i'm actually making a serious comment on a song called "who's got the crack," but I wanted to comment on the line "I wanna be a hippie But I forgot how to love" I think they are saying that back in the 60's hippies thought they were going to change the world and they used a lot of drugs because they thought an altered state of conciousness would actually help them to acheive their goals. Nowdays, the recklesness and freedom of being a hippie has stayed, but everyone has fogotten the ideals that they stood for, and its just sort of an iconized fashion statement. |
|
| The Moldy Peaches – These Burgers Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think it is a critique of consumerism and mass production, moldy peaches style of course. Not to mention it is a great vegetarian manefesto | |
| of Montreal – Art Snob Solutions Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| ok who wants to feel like a total pretentious bitch? I do! I believe that what Of Montreal was trying to say instead of Arto Parv was Arvo Part, a most excellent estonian composer. I really don't know what "a feast of repetition" was referring to, but it made me think of one of his peices, Fur Elana, which repeats the same minimalist composition 3 times in different octaves. Quite a breathtaking peice if you ever get a chance to listen to it. I don't know that much about 12 tone compositions, I just know it is this extremley formulaic, very hard, terrible form of music that spawned from the 20th century mentality of "we've done everything else, we might as well do this..." mentality. All I know is that you have to play a bunch of random notes and then the inverson of those notes in a minor fifth or something like that...and then do it again with a third i think, but i dont really know much about that. If you know any of the other allusions of this song, please post, I don't want to be the only art snob! | |
| The Rentals – The Cruise Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think that this song might be referring to a extremley hard to find documentary called The Cruise. It is this documentary about this this new york tour guide, Anthony Speed Levitch, (you might know him from the bridge scene in Waking Life.) And...it's sort of hard to explain. I will get some quotes from it up here soon. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part 1: The World's Columbian Exposition; Part 2: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| the only part of this song that has not been anazlyed, as far as I can see, is the "I was hypnotized, I was asked, to improvise, on the attitude and regret of a thousand centuries of death." Which I think is the most important line in the song. I think it is talking about how man first started using agriculture 10,000 years ago, and as a result, the earth has been dying ever since. | |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.