| Conor Oberst – Common Knowledge Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| I don't know what this song is about but it's worrying because Hemingway shot himself, so to "go out with a bang" means to kill oneself. Sad to think that after all these years, and all the success, these dark themes still prevail... | |
| Bright Eyes – The Big Picture Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| There are other meanings to sand, too. Time, the Impermanence of Life (like the mandalas of sand that get washed away) We are made of stardust afterall :-) There is a kind of "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" feel to a lot of his songs... "circle of life"! | |
| Bright Eyes – The Big Picture Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I LOVE THIS SONG. But there are things about it that make me wonder if it's a joke. The end where he sounds like a hooked fish being "lifted" to the sky... aaah aaaah aaaaaaah But the sand imagery recurs in other songs of his, like The Center of the World: "I went and looked her in the eyes / And she turned me into sand. This clumsy form that I despise / It scattered easy in her hand." Turning into sand seems to be his metaphor for falling in love, which has even deeper roots if you consider Medusa the Gorgon who turned men into stone just by looking at them, or Lot's wife witnessing the destruction of Sodom&Gomorrah and turning into a pillar of salt-- to be turned into fragments just by seeing something /someone speaks of a devastating force, which is what is so subtly awesome, Conor never sings of the violence of love, except in its effects. |
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| Conor Oberst – White Shoes Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| yeah, it's definitely Bodhi and not "Bowdhi" (wth is that?) | |
| Monsters of Folk – Goodway Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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spoken word thing: Yeah, so we'll drive out in the forest and wait till the moon is up above, smear mud and pomegranate seeds on our faces, build a giant fire and wait for the sun to put it out. We'll be fed and nurtured back to health by our surrogate animal parents. You'll eat berries from the bushes. I’ll learn to fly and you’ll learn to fish, I’ll fly down to the river and join you. And when we’re strong and healthy. Then we’ll return to the human world with new skills and a new perspective. We’ll be free Yours always. CosmopolitanPap/williambleak transcription collab. :P |
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| Monsters of Folk – Goodway Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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cool, that sounds about right - I have a different take on the first 1/2. what do you think? Yeah, so we'll drive out in the forest and wait till the moon is up above, smear mud and pomegranate seeds on our faces, build a giant fire and wait for the sun to put it out. We'll be fed and nurtured back to health by our surrogate animal parents. You'll eat berries from the bushes. (the rest I hear the same) |
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| Monsters of Folk – Goodway Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| oh so that's what that voiceover is... does anyone have the transcript for it? if not I'll try and transcribe it myself - it's hella funny from what I can hear so far... | |
| Conor Oberst – White Shoes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| this song stands out on the album, one of the softest, most sincere, relaxed & heartfelt songs i have heard... it is deeply romantic to the point that it is just a mood- timeless | |
| Conor Oberst – To All the Lights in the Windows Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| my new favorite song! very fable heavy... | |
| Conor Oberst – Eagle on a Pole Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The last two verses... - this song is like an essay which brings the listener to the central question "what can you do?" if the world is so bad and you can't change it. it doesn't get resolved in the song. "El cielo es azul" is a true statement. But one can't go around telling the truth - in fact, the true statement of this song is disguised in that it's in a different language! It's kind of an anguished lament on the trouble with truth - life and truth, the world and truth, truth in relationships- the song is multi-faceted and many-layered, but i think that's the crux of the question. what can you do? how do you live your life when truth is at odds with the manifest world? |
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| Conor Oberst – Eagle on a Pole Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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People keep saying this song is ABOUT drugs or being back on drugs. Whether or not c.o. uses, I don't think that's what the song itself is about. Throughout this album and songs written around it, he has been playing with synaesthetic themes, even named one of his songs Synasthete. I think it's something he's exploring artistically (induced or not) and it has meaning in and of itself as an artform or breed or style of poetry. He's definitely been exploring deeper ways of seeing things (automatic writing & psychics in Cassadaga) and takes inspiration from mystical places like Tepoztlán. To be totally honest, I saw the eagle on the pole as the American eagle on top of a flag pole. I also don't think this song means anything - I think it's various thoughts, feelings and emotions juxtaposed in one poetically beautiful song, which is why it can mean anything you want it to mean. |
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| Conor Oberst – Milk Thistle Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Well, Oberst & Dylan are both kind of "beat" if you know what I mean, but there are significant differences. I think Conor is far and away more emotive than Dylan. I also think Dylan captured the popular imagination in a more significant way (i.e., more famous)(then & now) Anyway, it's kind of stupid to compare them just because they were both from the Midwest, short, slight, folk/poetic... I think Dylan was more of an actor with these things; I think Conor is more of the real thing. But I might be biased. Dylan was also more incisively political; Conor, when he is at all, it's sporadic. They are both very deep and have significant things to offer, but Conor is like a flower-child to Dylan, the radical. Well, maybe that's just what their respective generations needed... a voice in the wilderness telling us to resist and/or to love. It's a heavy mantle to be compared to Dylan, and I don't think C.O. completely deserves it, even though I'm the bigger Oberst fan by far! It's just that they have very different functions in society as we know it. I mean, you might as well say Zach de la Rocha is the "New Dylan" but no one's going to say that are they? hmm. | |
| Conor Oberst – Let Them In Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Alt.: The dark light of man... Synesthete, can I confide in thee? All of the paths combine |
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| Conor Oberst – Synesthete Song Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Just a couple of things, - I think it's "Harbor air," in the version I heard "watches my youth taken from me" & "the secrets of the world are at your doorstep" kudos for a pretty rockin' transcript ;-) | |
| Conor Oberst – Let Them In Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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(too many errors to count, so I'm posting this!) SYNASTHETE Harbor air, Take me as I am A flame reduced to ash Watches my youth taken from me Winter’s day Am I in your way? You press against my skin All the flowery speeches ended fast Clinking glass The champagne made my head feel light and overcast the stars Paper crane Tell me it’s okay An opera glass’s view Kaleidoscope of now or never God is love Schizophrenia The devil’s in my coat Mothership coming to pick me up Just my luck They got my house surrounded I’m the only one I trust The dark nightmare The dark nightmare The dark nightmare The dark… Let em in Synasthete Cannot confide in me The color is the sound The footsteps, orange My screams were silver Secret plan? Man, I’d tell you if I can The secrets of this world Are at your doorstep Let me enter, friend Understand We come to the convergence now All of the past combined |
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| Conor Oberst – Breezy Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| it's bus - not burbs "how we getting to the bus" | |
| Conor Oberst – Souled Out!!! Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| otoh, if it is about drugs, then it's incredibly depressing :-/ (that he could be so cheery only when on drugs/singing about drugs) | |
| Conor Oberst – Souled Out!!! Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| The video to this is incredibly cute... he seems to have dropped 5 yrs | |
| Conor Oberst – Lenders in the Temple Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| [img]http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/funny-pictures-hamster-is-slain-by-brutus.jpg[/img] | |
| Conor Oberst – Lenders in the Temple Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I guess this song is about betrayals and things going badly... and it's definitely on the obscurantist side. Money lenders obviously refers to that famous scene in the Bible when JC overturns the money lenders' tables because it's so immoral and corrupt and has no place in a space of worship, but CO is also drawing a parallel to our time, saying that all that we hold sacred is being corrupted and destroyed by money/power/empire. I think there are also underlying themes of revolution and the need for rapid change. (the starving children, flamingos in mall=decadence?, and obviously Jeanne d'Arc - but watch out if you're openly critical because they will burn you at the stake if they find out) I think that () word is mandala because it's a sacred image that is often drawn with colored sand. Tibetan Buddhists spend months drawing elaborate mandalas and at the end, they just blow it away because the mandala represents the universe and the erasure of it demonstrates impermanence. (And that's a theme we've seen before in CO's writing) |
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| Conor Oberst – Lenders in the Temple Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| could it be "mandala destroyed by the sea"? it's definitely "look out" and not 'look at her'... speaking of which, the Joan of Arc imagery really gets to me, anyone else? I love that part of the song, and I have no idea what it means! | |
| Conor Oberst – Lenders in the Temple Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| this is my favorite of the new set. it has a really haunting melody and the song seems timeless. quite refreshing after the prada suits and cassadaga... | |
| Bright Eyes – We Are Nowhere and It's Now Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Agh! Sundaykindagirl, you beat me to it :) I've wondered ever since I first heard this song whether there was a subtle sort of pun on "now here" I'm not sure, but it surely changes the meaning a lot. | |
| Bright Eyes – Motion Sickness Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| i have coal black hair =D | |
| Bright Eyes – Weather Reports Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I'm guessing this song is about Maria Taylor (just a guess, since she's from/lived in the South) And basically, I think in the song, he leaves her, loses all his money, gets lost, but then returns to her- i.e., he's "had (done with) his fun" but it's too difficult for her to deal with, she splits, and it looks like he follows - he could be going somewhere else in his car, but the whole song is about him and her, so... make of it what you will. |
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| Bright Eyes – Roosevelt Room Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| http : // www.youtube.com / watch?v=EEnUooiVMbY | |
| Bright Eyes – Roosevelt Room Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I heard him play this at Radio City MH and it was like nothing I'd ever heard b4, such intense energy! Before he sang it, he said something like "I don't even like talking about this... but the way things are going, it's enough to drive peaceful people to violence" - I know that wasn't verbatim, if somebody remembers this please correct me. Thx. | |
| Bright Eyes – Make War Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| A very loving person in love with a relatively selfish person. Ungiving and unfaithful. Despite poor defenses, loving person still feels love but realizes that said selfish person has changed. Loving person can't stand the thought of someone else "making love" to lost love, can only describe as "making war" on who she was before and describes her heart as rotten because he cannot fathom her giving away her pure heart to someone other than himself. Poor Conor. | |
| Bright Eyes – Messenger Bird's Song Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Hmm. The plaintive voice sort of gets stuck in your head. It makes you sad because, having been in a situation like it, it hurts to hear someone so sincere having to face that seemingly defenseless. fwiw, I think "Make War" is about the same girl. |
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| Bright Eyes – Amy in the White Coat Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| how about that part "and i saw you walking... " and his voice when he says " i tried to talk to you" WOW yikes! | |
| Bright Eyes – Soul Singer in a Session Band Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| what's the city of salt? does it have anything to do with Sodom/Gomorrah? | |
| Bright Eyes – Four Winds Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Pretty sure it's "Cast off the schools OF meditation built to soften the time.." Schools OF meditation for sure. [oh and btw, he pronounces Sanskrit right :-)] | |
| Bright Eyes – Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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the urbandictionary.com definition is SO TOTALLY BOGUS "Known in most South African cultures as a widely popular dish, especially during "Kalashkapa", the week long festival of mourning for that bitch of a girlfriend that cheated on you" ???? Kalashkapa doesn't even come up on any search engine............... don't believe everything you read people! Why would people in SA have a special festival to mourn "that bitch of a girlfriend that cheated on you" ??? ugh |
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| Bright Eyes – Easy/Lucky/Free Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Listening for patterns in the sound Of an endless static sea Conor writes frequently about trying to make sense of what's going on in the world - the thing is, he doesn't like using common nouns (like he uses "wheels that roll around" instead of CARS in We Are Nowhere and It's Now) To me, the "endless static sea" Clearly refers to TV (something that appears in the background of his other songs) - he's flipping through channels, news, whatever, just trying to gain SOME meaning but finding none... This connection is made even clearer in the next line where he refers to a "satellite's decease" (since the satellite feeds tv) It blows like garbage through the streets Of the night sky to infinity He's referring to the fact that we leave a lot of trash in space. Either from space shuttle debris or broken satellites, the stuff just sits there, circling the earth till infinity. Almost all his songs are about the alienating effect of modern society. All he's doing now is "dreaming of heaven" - because of all the horrible things he describes in the second verse... it sounds like he's having a bitter and hard time, and ultimately, "don't you weep" is a really ironic thing for him to say - because he's speaking to someone who is still innocent enough to Feel something, about anything, but for Him, there's nothing to weep about because the dead have it easy.. (I know a lot of people have said this, and it's a theme in many of his songs- Poison Oak comes to mind "And I'm glad you got away but I'm still **stuck** out here" where supposedly he's referring to his cousin who committed suicide...) um, yeah... I know that sounds bleak, and I do think that's where Conor is in relation to his understanding of death, the world, and his place in it- but I hope he doesn't always feel that way. I also don't think he's trying to convince anybody of what he believes. (as in, I don't think he's vehement about it) I think he just uses writing/singing to work things out in his head. He does it beautifully. and I'm glad he did. My 2cents... p.s., don't take it all to heart :) |
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