| Bob Dylan – Lay Lady Lay Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| ha ha ha lol this is hilarious! | |
| Bob Dylan – From a Buick 6 Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| he's writing from the buick not about it. He probably went on the road in one, saw the truth and realised he needs his woman to keep him alive. Without women wouldn't men be screwed? While he's off living out his illusory life, she's there behind him keeping it real. Without her he couldn't do it. | |
| Bob Dylan – Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| women are more in touch with reality than men. Every now and then man thinks "shit, my whole life's a lie." Thats what this songs about. Man constructs an illusion for a life, woman lives life at one with nature and reality. | |
| Bob Dylan – Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Compare this song to Desolation Row - its the same song just developed. Same format - narrator watching lots of weird things happen whist he is stuck in some place (Desolation Row/Mobile with the memphis blues) Both pretty surreal songs, a surreal world being watched over by an outsider. Compare it to Albert Camus 'The Outsider' or read his stuff on 'the absurd' in the myth of sisyphus |
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| Bruce Springsteen – The Rising Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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In born in the USA he specifically mentions vietnam, place names, people etc, which he doesn't in the rising. I'm not saying its not about the WTC but im saying its not literally an account of a fire fighter, because the description is too vague and abstract. I agree about the everyday stories but surely this isn't an everyday story? the firefighters that went into the WTC were pretty unique in what they did and when i say corny i mean i think it would be corny to try and talk from the point of view of these people because of the uniqueness of their experience. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Paradise Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Its certainly not about any individual suicide bomber, and its not an account of any suicide bomber's experiences - how would Bruce Springsteen know about that? Its an incredibly emotional song, the kind Springsteen does best. There is a girl involved but it is hard to tell who, the line "i take the schoolbooks from your pack" made me think his daughter, but he then talks of her lips so maybe its his girlfriend or lover. He is comparing the real and concrete experience of this girl - her humanity, her lips, her hair, her smell, her touch to the abstract, ideological thought of paradise. How could someone give up an experience of paradise on earth, such as love, to try and find the promised paradise which supposedly awaits after death. At the end of another day (see references to the myth of sysiphus in The Rising) he has a dream (the water is a metaphor for the dream state) about the same girl, in which he and her are together in paradise - but this time, as they are both dead, there is no humanity in her, there is a void in her lips and her eyes are as empty as the paradise they have found. The song ends as he wakes up from the dream ("I break upon the waves") and returns to life with the sun on his face - aren't we in the only paradise we will ever find on planet earth? Can we not see feelings of love and humanity towards and from other people are the closest we will get to heaven. Can we not learn to love each other? Beautiful song, even more so in the wake of the events which inspired it. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – The Rising Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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He's not the kind of guy who would write something so corny and embarassing as an account of a firefighter going into the towers, especially not so soon after it happened. Xrandy is right to mention existentialism - wearing the stone on his back is a reference to the myth of sisyphus. He was forced by the gods to carry a stone up a mountain only to see it fall back down everytime (hence the line "i came rolling down hill") Albert Camus compared this myth to the feeling of "absurdity" or the sudden realisation that life is meaningless. Both The Rising and Paradise are obviously written post 9/11 in the sense that they are written after the world realised for sure that American attitudes were being questioned, to say the least, in other parts of the world. Going back to Sisyphus, 9/11 made a lot of people express solidarity with America and its principles, but Springsteen, as any truly great thinker would, takes a much more broad-minded view: is it possible that America was wrong? NB - he doesn't say "America was wrong" he asks "is it possible that everything we have been taught to believe in isn't necessarily right - is it possible the alternative point of view is right? Or even are they both wrong?" He says: "Cant see nothing in front of me Cant see nothing comin up behind Makin way through this darkness Cant feel nothing but this chain that binds me Lost track of how far I\'ve gone How far I\'ve gone and how far I\'ve climbed" - this reflects Sisyphus' feelings of absurdity - suddenly everything seems meaningless and the truth which was once so sure is suddenly questioned. As he leaves his house and comes symbolically rolling down the hill he is painfully aware of his existence but is now unsure of its meaning. (what was the point of pushing the stone up the hill if its just going to roll back down again?) Obviously The Rising is a reference to the collapse of the towers, but he is, in this song, concerned with what will take their place metaphorically - ie - how will 9/11 change the world. Chasesq77 is right, it is a very Christian/Catholic song, but he is not talking about a firefighter's resurrection he's talking about American resurrection; he hopes that religions such as his can achieve some kind of unity with others with the line "lay your hands in mine." He hopes the towers (symbol of american capitalism) can be metaphorically resurrected to be at one with the world, to promote understanding: he hopes for the resurrection of the human race as one. It has been torn apart by differences which, going back to Sysiphus, mean nothing - the human race is united in its struggle to get the "sixty-pound stone" up the mountain again and again. |
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| The Stone Roses – Bye Bye Badman Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| or the kisses of the stones hitting the police | |
| The Stone Roses – Bye Bye Badman Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| its ironic - french kisses, he probably means the kisses of the police truncheons | |
| The Stone Roses – Made Of Stone Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The whole album is inspired by the french student riots in 1968: the french flag is on the cover, and the lemons are there because the students used them to help with the effects of tear gas. This song of all the ones on the album sounds like the most likely to be about a riot. The streets are cold and lonely because they have been cleared by the police, the cars that were set on fire are just left burning. Obviously the whole song is about the contrast between the fire and the cold, the warmth and the emptiness, being alone and together. The riots of 1968 were seen as a perfect opportunity for a revolution, but the French communist party failed to act and order was restored - this song is about the cold and loneliness after the riots once order was restored: "sometimes i fantasize" and "don't these times fill your eyes" (as in tears). The fire could also be a metaphor for his desire, the rioters desire for change and revolution, a desire which was quashed by the cold of the French government. |
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| Billy Bragg and Wilco – Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| so true as well, male self-confidence vs female naivety | |
| Bob Dylan – It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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lol! i like it, i think its ballad of a thin man too that sounds extremely sexual in places. Seems to me its a song in a similar vein to "To Ramona," he's talking to a girl in both songs and appears to be advising her on how not to get lost. It comes just after "Like A Rolling Stone" on the album too, a song in which the girl's train clearly has got lost. The first verse implies he is making a journey (perhaps life) and the last implies that the girl is following/wants to follow him. The moon through the trees and the sun going down over the sea also imply perhaps a transition? Perhaps generally of time. He is trying to help the girl keep up with time maybe, when the girl in "Like A Rolling Stone" failed to do so. Its also a very 'On The Road' style song and reminds me of 'Its All Over Now Baby Blue' - the ideas that everything is temporary, the importance of being able to adapt and move on and re-invent yourself. |
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| Manic Street Preachers – You Love Us Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Simply put, its an ironic song about the media. The manics were famous for winding up and manipulating the media for their own purpose. "We are not your sinners Our voices are for real" The manics deliberately dressed themselves up as 'sinners' who provided the headlines for hysterical journalists (such as Steve Lamacq at NME). But the irony is that they are not these sinners, they are for real. So in a media sense they aren't for real as their 'sin' is fake, but in every other sense they are for real as it is the media which is false. The 'you love us' lines in the chorus, are directed at the same people, the media loved the manics because they provided a source of hysteria, headlines and a focus for people to idolise. What the manics knew ("we realised" "we won't die of devotion") was that they were idolising something which wasn't real (a "statue" or a "uniform"). Interesting that if you throw acid in the face of a statue it would disfigure it, ironically making it more real as it is fake in the first place. |
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| Arcade Fire – Intervention Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| sorry for the really long posting as well! | |
| Arcade Fire – Intervention Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The lyrics sound very Blake influenced to me, he wrote a lot about religion and also the body and soul. The line "lift me up and take me out of here" reminds me of Blake's idea of the body as a cage (coincidentally or not the title of another song on this album) and the pure soul leaving it. The lines about the church sound a lot like lines from Blake's songs of innocence/experience. And the soldier's groan reminds me of "the hapless soldier's sigh" from Blake's poem London. Whoever mentioned the second coming is onto an interesting line, the song certainly seems to express fear and reluctance with the present 'situation' in the world and the idea of death (lift me up and take me out of here) seems appealing. They are perhaps suggesting that the world is in need of the second coming (who's going to throw the first stone?) or a revolution to lift its pure soul out of its currently evil/ruined body. The lines "you're fighting as a soldier on their side, you're still a soldier in your minds" imply that we are being used as a means to an end without our own permission - we may not agree with what is being done in the world, but it is being done in our name. Yet in our heads (our souls) we know what is right and we must lift this out of our bodies so to speak. "Say its money that we need as if there were only mouths to feed" - we have souls to feed as well, on the surface the problem we are faced with seems a fairly simple one: just feed people and we'll be fine. But there's more to it than that, the debts you'll never pay are the debts you owe to your soul, which according to Blake's ideas was the only thing that remained constant as it passed through different bodies. So the impurities we have caused our soul will haunt us forever. Blake also saw churches as equivalent to bodies: materialistic and man made, what really mattered was what was inside (the worshippers) same as with the body & soul. So the church is a metaphor for authority: we all work for the system, the state and we let this take over our lives & we let our love for other humans slip. Probably because we are scared of the consequences of not doing so. So the lyrics say we need to leave the church, we need to leave our bodies and we must respect our souls. We need a huge change to make this happen. The constant references to soldiers imply that we (soldiers) are being used for the wrong things & we need to go it alone. Our souls need to escape our bodies so we cannot be used. Amazing song and great lyrics. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Dancing In The Dark Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| amazing song, anyone who's ever had a shitty job working for an arsehole will know what this is all about. The feeling you get when you turn up for work and its dark, and then you leave and its dark again. You're knackered, frustrated and it seems like there's no way out. | |
| Bright Eyes – Ship in a Bottle Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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lots of phallic symbolism - a ship in a bottle, a knife into a body, a worm in a heart. Seems he's trying to get in, a sweet song, playful kind of thing, kind of tone you chat up a girl with. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Downbound Train Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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yeah the long whistle bit is amazing song writing, fits the tune perfectly, Springsteen is one of the best writers when it comes to expressing emotion! I always thought the whistle was something to do with being called back to work: i saw it as another song written about the contrast of work / love, and certainly one of the best. He loses his love and is left with just his depressing job. The line about the long whistle sums it up perfectly; you can tell he's writing about personal experience. |
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| Radiohead – Exit Music (For a Film) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I can't get over the bit about the Black Box recorder thing used in the background. even if it isnt true it scares the crap out of me. I'm listening to the song while reading this and its scary as fuck! As far as i can hear its on a loop of people screaming and you can hear a women in the foreground shouting "fuck me!" in a really weird way. I see what you mean about it being tasteless but it really tips the song over the edge as far as the emotional side goes. It also adds a lot to the fact that its a very chilling song as it is, it always reminds me of 1984 when winston & his bird (can't remember her name) are hiding upstairs in the loft from O'Neil (i think that was his name) and they don't realise that the guy who is sheltering them is O'Neil himself: the bit when he says "before your father hears us." The fact that they are hiding from what presumably is a pretty nasty death and the anger they clearly feel at the end towards this fact make it a really scary song. Try listening to it in the dark on full volume when your on your own, and especially listen to the background noise bit and the way the woman says "fuck me." Now i seriously am going to go find my mummy |
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| Bob Dylan – Temporary Like Achilles Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Ive only just been getting into this song, but i reckon its one of the best on Blonde on Blonde. There's a lot of contrasts in it between masculinity and femininity. The girl being "hard" for example, and her "guard" who is presumably Achilles. But Dylan sees these two as temporary and fake, whilst his love for her and the fact that they should be together as true and permamnent. Like in Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat and Just Like A Woman and a lot of his other songs, like To Ramona, he's criticizing/helping the woman by telling her she should be living her own life, not doing what masculininty (achilles, the guard, + the hardness) is telling her to do. |
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| Bob Dylan – Like a Rolling Stone Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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yeah its not about Edie as he met her after Highway 61 had been released. Has no one read On The Road by Jack Kerouac? you can relate almost of all Dylan's lyrics to it + he mentions it on No Direction Home as being one of his biggest influences. Although you can relate most of Dylan's songs to pretty much anything, Like A Rolling Stone can be read as an abstract about life on the road. Living like a rolling stone as someone has already said means you pick up no moss, you live a humble and poor life and your wealth is the experiences you accumulate rather than your money. The song is also very symmetrical, as the protagonist falls from the top, Dylan himself, who is also the subject of the song, rises - the protagonist relied on herself being "visible" so she could make money, sell herself, be popular etc. Dylan on the other hand, living his life in the style of the lonesome traveller on the Road, thrives on being "invisible" and of course the chorus especially is addressed to himself as well as the protoagonist: How does it feel? To be on your own? A complete unknown? he is contrasting the life of the lonesome traveller he chose to the life of the capitalist and is feeling pretty triumphant. |
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| Bob Dylan – Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Like A Rolling Stone isnt about Edie, they didn't meet until 1966 after Highway 61 had been written and released. [check out wikipedia!] | |
| Lauryn Hill – Lost Ones Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| but isn't she also arguing that the human race in general is far too dominated by masculine principles which so far have just ruined it? | |
| The Crimea – Baby Boom Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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i love the pun on "slaughtered" this dude is a genius! i think this song is like a masculine equivalent to the feminine "White Russian Galaxy" the bloke in this song is the tarzan that the girl from WRG is looking for - but the whole point of WRG is Davey is saying the girl is going wrong. ie - an impressionable young girl going astray because she's idolizing the alpha male |
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| The Crimea – Lottery Winners On Acid Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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anyone reckon the she could be a popstar or an actress or some hot model in an advert? that would make it a great critique of consumerism etc and also maybe give an explanation for the if your momma could see you now lines? |
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| The Crimea – White Russian Galaxy Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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really really great song. I read an interview with Davey where he said he wrote it when he used to work in one of the big parks in London and always used to have to chuck out teenage girls who were pissed and bumming around. It does really capture the modern phenomenon of 'the waster' - lines like "you kick like a mule short of an oscar", and when he says "get in the space ship and stop bleeding" and "why won't you ever go all the way?" he's wondering what the could achieve if they put their minds to it. Not necessarily in a self-righteous way, but more like how many people are there in this country who like living in "a white russian galaxy" "light years away from reality" because they are turned that way through disillusionment with society? and what could they all do if they put their minds to it? they could raise hell! (hell being heavenly as Davey says) |
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