| Cake – Race Car Ya-Yas Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I know John McCrea always says he just writes these simple songs without lots of deeper significance, but I think that's just part of his style. His lyrics are always slapping America in the face, and part of the fun is getting his fellow Americans to love it with awesome, catchy music that they enjoy listening to with only a vague inkling that the songs are so critical. This song is making fun of America's car culture. The US is peculiar in it's obsession with NASCAR, car-ownership, fast cars, and cars in general. The US is the land of race car ya-yas in that sense. The line about not being able to change lanes refers partly to the fact that people are selfish A-holes on the road, and partly to how fiercely opposed Americans can be to change, refusing to give up their "right" to drive when there is everything wrong with the idea that everyone should have a car. The line about the dice is again just kind of mocking our car consumer culture, making it laughable, ridiculous, and ultimitaly stupid. CAKE tends to write a lot of songs which are caricatures of some type of person (ie rich, shallow & self-serving = Italian Leather Sofa). I think of this song as a caricature of the kind of person who drives a pick up and cuts people off on the road to feel like a man, and has dice on their rear-view and semi-hateful, conservative views that are "American" in the most pejorative sense. That interpretation seems to mesh well with a lot of what's been said here, too (j.enslow, XeroxCat, backupdork, canrocks) |
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| mewithoutYou – The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I have an alternate interpretation of this song. When I hear this song, I think about the literal story as well as the metaphorical one. There is, I think, a reason why this song was written in such a way that there is also a more banal interpretation of the events: The hired hands on a coconut plantation or something rake up some leaves and burn them, which they apparently do periodically. The beetles do not understand the fire, but believe it to be of great spiritual importance. Some go to try to explore it and bring some back but cannot, then one flies into it and burns to death. The other beetles believe that he lives on, spiritually transformed. I think it is intentional that it is possible to interpret the events in the song as saying that the beetle is incinerated to oblivion while others mistakenly believe he is not gone. When listened to this way, the song conjures that tension that almost everyone feels at least at some point, the fear that they will cease to be at death, and an anxiety that we are all just tiny, insignificant creatures putting a glorious veil of spiritual metaphors between ourselves and the unknown, represented by the fire in the song. The song takes on a whole new level of meaning when you listen to it thinking about this interpretation, which, by the way, I think can coexist completely with the one offered by most people here - they enhance one another rather than conflicting, I think |
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| Tokyo Police Club – Tessellate Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Dead lovers salivate is something that dead lovers can actually do and also usually means a super strong craving. Broken hearts tessellating means that they are fitting together perfectly with no spaces in between (how squares and hexagons do, but circles don't) I think the lines together mean that of two lovers, one died and is yearning for the one still living. The other, meanwhile, has moved on with life and gotten a new lover, perhaps who has also lost someone, and they are perfect together. And I think this song is about US life/politics on a wider scale. When the boys called their mothers to say that secrets were drowned as pioneers were flooded from the town was when Watergate happened. The scandal was uncovered, but the speaker feels the politicians who did it were pioneers and that it takes nerve to say that that was the end of the secrets in Washington (this town). They should have gotten out earlier which would have minimized damage. The next verse is the rich people, the man, beating down and lording it over the ordinary people and getting away with it. Then they sneak off in the night and have a good time in the chorus, though that could apply to either the politics or the lovers and still be bad. I don't know how the politics fits in with the dead lovers part, though, except that they both show people being untrue. I think that's what the song is saying mostly, that people are untrue with love and politics as examples |
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| Tokyo Police Club – The Harrowing Adventures of... Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| So, the line two wrongs make him right. I think that means like when someone's a stupid jackass, but then you're a stupid jackass back then you're no better. And it's definitely spit, not spear. The fact that it's more out there than spear makes it make more sense that it would be in this song, because that's how TPC rolls lol. But isn't it "let your blood in the dim moonlight," not light? Letting blood is what they used to do to people who were sick, because it was supposed to get rid of all the diseased blood. Needless to say it actually helped people die not get better | |
| Cloud Cult – 2x2x2 Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This album came six years after Craig Minowa's son died suddenly at the age of two. Listen to the album with that in mind and the "meaning of the number 8" will blow your mind, even more than before. This song is about how he has come to terms with the the past eight years, the life and the death, thinking of how his son would be turning eight if he were still alive. Much of the album does the same. It's incredible how much strength it would take to turn an event like that in to music like this, absolutely amazingly intelligent and beautiful | |
| Dispatch – Open Up Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I always hear "on the other side of the road" when I listen to this song. As in the police have a building surrounded and the criminal is trapped inside. "We got the place covered from head to toe" seems to support that idea. I guess "other side of the row" works for that too though. And I never see any evidence that the persecuted person is definitely innocent. He says he's just a victim, but to me he sounds desperate to escape and he'd say anything. He's a little crazed. He says the man they're looking for doesn't exist so they shouldn't be looking for him, and then he denies that he'll die at the gallows, and he's running and hiding. The police, or whoever the law is here, are just doing their job determinedly and are relentlessly pursuing him because it is their duty and it doesn't matter to them what he says. I think the song is just about how the authorities just want to bring em in and how whoever they come after just wants to get away, both are determined but the authorities have the power. I don't think the lyrics make a judgment on which is good and which is evil. That's one reason why I can in no way see this as being remotely about Jesus. Maybe the persecution makes the story related, but the story here is definitely still different. Also, Jesus wasn't a desperate escapist like this victim. And whatever you think it means you gotta admit, this song kicks all the ass a song can kick |
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| Jimmy Eat World – Big Casino Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think this song is about success, specifically with his example in the music industry. At the beginning he still waiting for the light, as in he's unknown and not inspired yet. He's stuck in a place full of "kids and drunks" and doesn't know that much and isn't real smooth with the ladies. Then in the pre-chorus, he starts to do what he's meant to do, which is music in his case. He turns the ignition and starts playing his part, both his role in the world and the parts he plays for the songs (ie drum part, guitar part etc). Then the chorus is saying how he's made it, become a New Jersey success story, and gotten away. He's famous and successful and confident about the future and how he's gonna handle it, and everyone is dying to shake his hand. The 2nd verse is about what all the rest who didn't make it will say, the other path he could have been lead down. In it is someone who has had their dreams disappointed and has given up - they'd let someone buy their guitar which has fallen into disuse. Then Jimmy tells the current young dreamers to "get up" so they don't go down that road and not to give up on their hopes. Even though it sounds crazy or impossible, you've got to keep going and do it. Btw, I personally think that New Jersey is just supposed to be the epitome of a boring place to start from (sorry New Jerseyers, it's the same with Ohio where I'm from) They're awesome lyrics, and the song just all together rocks |
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| M. Ward – Color of Water Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| The guitar part at the beginning of this song is one of my favorite acoustic riffs. It lasts a while but I love listening to it the whole time. The lyrics are a nice story where a boy (or girl, I suppose) leaves home far up in the mountains to go into the world, leaving family behind | |
| Guster – Backyard Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This song is my favorite Guster song. Honestly they probably all are, but this is the best one for just laying back and jamming a little. I love how he says "key change" at the end when they change key | |
| Cake – Never There Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Cake is delicious. This song especially | |
| Beirut – Postcards from Italy Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Man, this song is oh so saucy. I love the vibe it has. It's a shame that no one has heard of it (as far as I've seen) | |
| Johnny Nash – I Can See Clearly Now Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Oh man this song gets stuck in my head all the time. It's one of those things where you hate it, but at the same time it's fantastic lol | |
| Andrew Bird – Cataracts Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This song is stunning. It reminds me of all the crap settlers do to natives, but it also just in general really gets to the heart of all the tragedy in life. The words seem so simple just to look at but the music takes them way further and the song as a whole has a LOT of meaning | |
| Holiday Parade – Success Story Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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There are a zillion song references in here: The Konstantine one everyone looks like they got lol "wouldn't change ... a thing" like Spin by Lifehouse "watching TV in your room" like All We Ever Needed by Early November "the city who loves me" like the Chili Peppers with Otherside love this song |
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| Deftones – Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Oh and another thing! Bars and places with "gold lights" are the kinds of places you'd find a prostitute (not that I would know lol) | |
| Deftones – Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I was told this song was about the anniversary of the death of a prostitute he was in love with and how that felt. It seems to fit. It is an uninteresting event because no one would care that she was dead but him because she was a prostitute. All of the ways people have interpreted this song as being an ending and pertaining to death and love/relationships/sex would all be true. The rain on the deathbed to me means keeping her memory (wet might be a sexual memory) fresh with tears. I think it's the Deftones best song |
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