| Wilco – Less Than You Think Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Great post! You said almost everything I was going to say. Right on! There was one thing I interpreted differently, though. "Your spine starts to shine And you shiver at your soul A fist so clear and climbing Punches a hole In the sky So you can see For yourself If you don't believe me" I think the "spine starts to shine and you shiver at your soul" line is the dawning of a realization that there's likely no god. The "fist so clear and climbing" is that realization, and to me, I think the "fist" is reason. When you take the time to apply reason to the notion of a god, I think the whole idea crumbles or "punches a hole in the sky". Then the line "so you can see for yourself if you don't believe me" means that we all possess the ability to reason things out, so you don't have to take someone else's word for it. To me, he's saying just think about it for yourself if you don't believe. I didn't realize that the drone at the end was supposed to be a migraine, but I like that. The first time I listened to it, it gave me a little bit of a headache. I don't know about Jeff's spiritual views, but from all of his music that I've heard, he sounds at least skeptical, if not an atheist. Maybe experiencing such pain made him question the existence of a god. Having said all of that, what I love about this song (and all of Wilco's music, really) is how it can be interpreted in such personal ways. After reading about the migraines, I think this song is much more narrow in focus than debating the existence of god, but I hear a lot of atheistic themes in his music. I admit this could be because I'm an atheist and my spirituality is very important to me, so I'm hearing it through the filter of my own meaning. But either way, I love that I can read what he meant a song to be about, but then take away my own personal meaning, too. My Morning Jacket is another great band that does this really well. |
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| My Morning Jacket – Steam Engine Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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It's been said, but I'll say it again...what a beautiful and powerful song. I like the first comment about being a robot. This really is a moving song. Possibly MMJ's best. I love what Jim had to say about it, too. One of the things I love the most about these guys is the spirituality that comes through in their lyrics. No one would ever mistake these guys for a christian band (I'm not aware of any christian bands using the phrase 'god damn' in their songs, but I could be wrong), but I think Jim definitely feels a strong sense of a connection to something more universal. A lot of his lyrics ('Thank You, Too!' & 'Look at You' from Evil Urges, and 'Wordless Chorus' & 'Gideon' from Z come to mind) deal with spiritual themes. I'm not a christian, but I can see where people get references to Jesus and his religion in some of the music. Obviously, this song has a pretty direct one. But I think Jim's spiritual themes are bigger than one guy or belief system. As someone mentioned earlier, one of the great aspects of this song is how it provides a 'mirror' for people to interpret it in their own way. I try to understand songs on their own, in their own context before exploring their personal meanings to me, so this is what I take from it: "So, I do believe *That anywhere it goes* It's always with me." Man, this line just floors me. He doesn't say, "Anywhere *I* go, it's always with me." He says, "Anywhere *IT* goes, it's always with me." That's just such an incredible idea to me. That whatever *it* is, it's dynamic and changing, but it's omnipresent. He's found something that transcends the physical world and that's always with him, even as it changes. Maybe he feels it stronger some days than others (as it comes and goes), but it's always with him. "But it's a voice. And it's a choice. To call you out. Or stay at home." I love this. Whatever this thing is, it either speaks to you or it doesn't. What I really like about this line is that it's a voice AND a choice. Like this thing decides to speak to you or not. "It's not the beast. It's not the sheets. So soft and warm. All over me. But it's the touch you need so much To move around on this green earth." I think this is where the song really starts to make sense. This seems like a reference to physical love. With the line about the sheets, I read 'the beast' as being desire or lust (or really any physical vice), and how it's not the physical joy of something that drives us. It's the touch - the connection to another person - that's so vital to bringing fulfillment and meaning to our lives. When you really understand what that means, you don't need money or drugs or anything else to make your life meaningful. I think the second part of the song is about that connection in its different forms. Some people find it in religion. Some find it in the beauty of nature. (I'm guessing the "red Patoka Sea" reference is a reference to Patoka Lake in southern Indiana, which makes sense with MMJ being from Kentucky. Someone mentioned maybe Jim had a profound moment at the lake, which would make sense.) Some people find it through contemplating the wonders of the universe. Some find it through an intimate connection with someone else. (All of us probably find it in all of these and more, to varying degrees.) But as long as our hearts are beating, we're all capable of finding that connection in something, and this connection is the Steam Engine. It's an ethereal, but powerful, driving force. As the comments show, we all have our own personal steam engines. But I think they're really all the same...a connection. I think this connection is true, genuine love. You love something - be it people or places or things or feelings or experiences or whatever it is - because something about it makes you feel deeply connected to it. It transcends just a physical feeling. You feel it in your soul. You feel it throughout your being. It makes you catch your breath and it can bring a smile or a laugh or a cry out of you that you can't control. It's the most beautiful and simple thing you can experience. Once you've felt it, you want to feel it again and as much as possible. For me personally, I feel it when I think about my tiny nothingness of an existence in a universe that I can't comprehend, and I feel it when I'm sitting around the fire with my friends. I feel it when I'm tickling my nephew and when I'm petting my dog. I feel it when I'm the only car I can see on a long stretch of road, and I feel it when I listen to great music, like this song. |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – A Diamond and a Tether Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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One of the things I love about DCFC is how I can hear a song of theirs several times and never really notice it. Then one time, it'll just floor me. This song did that last night. Ben can write some pretty powerful stuff ('Tiny Vessels' from Transatlanticism is another great example). Admittedly, I wasn't listening closely enough, and was hearing the choruses as: "From a boy who won't swim Who won't dip his toe in Just to keep you here with him" "From a boy who won't fly Who won't take to the skies If he thinks you're about to say goodbye." I'm kinda bummed, cos I really dug that sort of tragic idea of a guy that just can't bring himself to take that leap, even when he loves the girl he's with (omg that's me! XD). But I like the actual lyrics, too. |
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| The Who – 905 Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I just discovered this song, and these lyrics are what stuck out to me (shelly talked a little bit about these earlier): And everything I know is what I need to know. And everything I do's been done before. Every sentence in my head, Someone else has said. At each end of my life is an open door. While I definitely get the mechanistic future ideas and the robot mentality, I actually felt like these were some really positive lyrics, because they have that idea of the oneness of everything. I don't NEED to know more than I already know, although I may WANT to know more. I can't do or say anything that hasn't been done or said before, but just because it's been done or said doesn't mean it's less meaningful to me when I do or say it. The last line is my favorite because of that idea of a continual existence, and that it underscores the fact that really, our lives don't matter at all in the larger picture, but they have all the meaning to us because they ARE our lives. There's a certain comfort and freedom in that to me. Great song! |
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| Rilo Kiley – Does He Love You? Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This is one of my favorite RK songs. I love how clever it is, with the narrator trying to help her friend with a broken marriage while she knows she's the woman that he's cheating with. I like how, at one point, she's reassuring her friend that her husband loves her, then she's reassuring her that she'd be better off for leaving, but in the end, she's reassuring her friend that he won't leave her, even though she knows it means her and the man will never be together. Such a subtle and clever song. | |
| Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians – Circle Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I heard this song on XM today and was like, "I've heard this before, but where?". I was still trying to remember when I started reading the comments, and I realized how long ago this song came out. I would've been...7? Wow. Crazy how you remember a song from your childhood and hear it as an adult with a whole new understanding. | |
| My Morning Jacket – Off the Record Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This is such a great song. I hear it has him reprimanding a girl for getting too serious about a relationship, when they were trying to keep it "off the record". They knew all along that it was just a fling, but one of them started getting attached. I love this line: "In a crowded room near the box of boom To an artifical tune, I see you swoon Well you knew all this would turn to mist If your idea wasn't kissed - Why're you so pissed?" |
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| Everlast – Ends Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I know it's been said, but "Ends" = "making ends meet" = making enough money to live on = making money. Not drugs. Unless making money for drugs is part of your ends. I like this song, it's got some subtlety to it. I liked the Wetlands/Apollo reference, I'm glad someone explained it above. I also like the how he ends the chorus; after talking about what people do to make ends, he says he wants his, which I thought was pretty clever. Like he knows he might have to do some of this shit if he wasn't getting paid. Good song. Great album. |
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| Soul Coughing – Down To This Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I've seen somewhere that Doughty was tripping balls and hallucinated himself throwing himself off the roof of a building, hence the 'you get the ankles and I'll get the wrists.' Doughty is awesome. | |
| The Beatles – A Day in the Life Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This is the greatest song ever written. | |
| Damien Rice – Me, My Yoke and I Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I didn't even need to understand the lyrics the first time to know this song was about sex. "Cause my god, my god, my god Gave me a rod My god, my god, my god Gave me a rod For fishing, fishing, fishing Fishing, fishing, fishing, yeah" Some of the most primal lyrics I've ever read in my life. |
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| My Morning Jacket – Librarian Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I'm in love with the librarian. | |
| My Morning Jacket – Into the Woods Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Well, not to project my own neuroses onto this song, but to me, this is a song about being so tied up in your own head that you can't actually find the person you're looking for. It starts out really sarcastic with the baby/kitten/surrender analogy, like someone saying that they'd rather set a kitten on fire or stick a baby in a blender before they'd let their guard down and surrender. The second verse is advice to open yourself up and give more of yourself to people and relationships, even if you might not get it all back. The second, third, and fourth lines are about how he's tired of hearing the person he's singing to talking so much (maybe rationalizing why they're like they are and why they shouldn't be so open), and he's about to lay it out flat for them, whether they like it or not. The riddle is a clever little play on words about how this person might spend all their time conceptualizing the perfect person or relationship, or maybe being jealous/envious of people who found their 'person', thinking that they're lucky, when they actually might be miserable ("Another fool's dream"). The last verse is just pretty blunt: If you think you're shower nozzle masturbation or jerking off is better than an actual lover, then you need to get your ass out and let someone in your head. | |
| My Morning Jacket – Thank You Too! Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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What a beautiful love song, regardless of who the subject is! Such a vulnerable and intimate love. There's one line in this song that makes me think it's about God and not a girl, though: "You'd devised a simple plan/That would change the fate of man/You'd thought of everything". "Look At You" from this album has some religious context, too, and there are quite a few of Jim's songs that refer to God, either directly or slyly. Either way, this is a beautiful love song. |
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| My Morning Jacket – Look at You Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This seems like a religious song to me, as well, although I can definitely see how it refers a poltical leader ("Such a fine citizen!") as well. But he also sings of the "You" being "Not about, in some tower/But here-right down here-/With us/In this world" and being "Everywhere at once", which really makes me think it's about God. "Thank You Too" from this album has some religious overtones, too. | |
| My Morning Jacket – Gideon Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This is such an incredible, if enigmatic song! The first verse seems to be an indictment of religion in general. What did this Sunday school lesson really teach us, when you look around and see how fucked up everything is any way. Even if it's based on a Judeochristian story, still, religion seems to do a lot more harm than good in our world. All over the world, horrible, bloody wars have been/are being fought in the name of some religion. So it seems like Jim's questioning this. Plus, his repetition of "Animal" makes it seem like he's saying that, despite our creation of all these religions, we're still just animals. More specifically, that second verse seems to refer to the war in Iraq, or a general criticism of the Bush doctrine in general: "Truly, truly we have become Hated and feared for something that we don't want Listen, listen. Most of us believe that this is wrong" But that one line "What does this remind you of?" is just genius. So ambiguous, but you can use it to support just about any interpretation of this song you have. Reminds me of "I'd love to turn you on" from "A Day In The Life" by The Beatles. It's a sly little line. |
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| Modest Mouse – Whenever I Breathe Out, You Breathe In (Positive/Negative) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I love this song for it's perfect description of the absence of feeling. I think most everyone has spent some time in a place like that. But despite the fact that it's such an 'indifferent' song, does anyone else think this would a great song to have sex to? Especially the "positive/negative" part. | |
| Mike Doughty – Rising Sign Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Yeah, I have to say, although it does look like a pretty sweet love song, it's about heroin. Mike addresses his addiction several times on Skittish, and there's several obvious references in here..."With the answers in the fluid in the stem of the spine", "It's all inside the wrist/It's all inside the way you time it". The second verse seems to be about withdrawal; his shot nerves, his thoughts drifting back to his addicition ("The match you lit and dropped and set the dial to slow yearn"). Mike has an incredible way with words. Best track from Skittish, IMHO. | |
| Mike Doughty – I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This song is ridiculously addictive. GD is definitely picking up where Haughty Melodic left off. Admittedly, I was, at first, a little put-off by the poppiness, and also the, umm, filler(?) lyrics of this and a couple of other songs (e.g. Put It Down), but the more I listen to the album, the more it grows on me. I really hope this song can turn some people on to Mike Doughty, and esp. this album, cos there are some real gems on this album. | |
| The Streets – Empty Cans Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I agree with what was said above about him running to return the DVD, which was the first thing he had to do in "It Was Supposed To Be So Easy". What a record! I think this is the best track on the album, and one of the better songs that I've heard in a long time. I completely relate to wanting to be bitter and just drown your misery and fuck all, but forcing yourself to give people a chance to right their wrongs, and letting karma do the rest, as it were. I love the way the second half begins, with the beat coming in first, as opposed to the first half. I'd like to know that he laid out Dan (his mate that was screwing Simone behind his back.) |
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| The Streets – What Is He Thinking Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| By itself, this song is pretty good, but in the context of this album, this song is just killer! What a story this record is! I love how Dry Your Eyes follows this. Scott has to tell Mike the truth, but then the next thing we hear is Mike trying to keep Simone around. Very gritty and real. | |
| Caedmon's Call – Love Is Different Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| This song is really incredible to me. I'm going through this right now with the love of/in my life, where she's questioning her feelings. She knows she loves me, but she can't reconcile her feelings of confusion. She's asked me several times if this is what it's supposed to feel like, and I'm so happy to have found this song, because hopefully it will help her see that nothing's gonna feel perfect all the time. No one's happy all the time. We go out looking for love, expecting it to be this perfect, comfortable thing, until you really find it, and you realize that it's so complex. It scares you, but comforts you; it confuses you, but gives you clarity; it upsets you, but it makes you happy. Great song! | |
| Modest Mouse – The Cold Part Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Awesome song, if wholly depressing. I see a couple of interesting angles here. First, the track placement on the album with A Different City and Alone Down There. ADC is really chaotic and a real attempt to escape from everything and everyone to solitude. The Cold Part is complete hopelessness; there's nothing for it but to kill himself. (I love how TCP is so hollow and echoing, with that dripping sound.) ADT is the other side of that; he's thinking ahead to what it would be like after killing himself, and starts to reconsider. Then he goes from his lowest point with ADT, to a wider perspective with The Stars Are Projectors, which is a sort of cynical revelation he has had from almost dying. These 5 or 6 songs in the middle of the album tell the story of slipping down a self-destructive spiral, only to come through the other side with perspective about how the world works. Very evocative of The Divine Comedy. The other angle I see in this is a heroin overdose. The more I listen to this part of the album, the more I hear this. It really doesn't seem like he intends to kill himself, but that he comes close to dying. Especially if you think these songs all tell part of a story. For the same reason, I don't think it's about leaving a woman, because all of these songs are really introspective and are more about the subject's thoughts and feelings toward himself and his world, not so much just one person. |
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| Modest Mouse – One Chance Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This is definitely one of my favorite MM songs, although every time I try to declare one song my favorite, I end up finding another I like better. I agree with what all of you guys have said (very insightful!), but there's a little detail I'd like to get your thoughts on. During the second "I'm just a box in a cage." refrain, there's a specific change to the lyrics that caught my attention: "I'm just a box in a cage. An OPEN box in a cage. I'm just a box, just a box in a cage. I'm just..." This is pretty interesting to me, because my interpretation is the same as some of yours: We get this one great chance at life, but we have to spend it trapped within a trap, implying a sense of futility that no matter how much we make of our one chance, we're still bound by the "cage". But this variation, "An open box in a cage" sort of feels like a more personal statement. I'm not terribly familiar with his personal life, except for the bits and pieces I've read in researching their music, but many of their songs - present one included - have this sort of frustrated sense of release to them, as if being able to write this music gives his thoughts and emotions an exposure to others (the open box), yet he's still trapped within in the limitations of the "cage", be it mortality, the Universe, what have you. There's definitely an underlying sense of futility and mortality in this song, which is why I think it connects so well with people. Or I'm I just REALLY bored and looking into this too much? |
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