| Elvis Costello – Tokyo Storm Warning Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I adore this song and feel like it's under appreciated. I listened to it quite a bit last spring during one of the worst classes I've ever taken and then constantly this summer because even though it shouldn't have fit an absurd class where they could read a book on Ella Baker and practically never discuss gender or race and instead talk about "spaciality", "What do we care if the world is a joke... We'll give it a big kiss. We'll give it a poke" seemed very appropriate because their research didn't seem to care about inequality or anything really. All the while they, particularly one or two individuals, would decry my department for its "disciplinary" ways and "proving points with numbers." (For the record, I'm a sociologist, not exactly controversial.) Then over the summer I just listened, fantasizing about how I would dismantle that department, and as an early birthday gift, the dean closed it, "Now dead Italian tourists bodies [they even made a little headstone for their department] litter up the Broadway. Some people can't be told, you know they have to learn the hard way." And they're protesting now. I felt like I willed it into being through listening to this song hundreds of times. I just wish I could take the credit for the closing, could have felt like I had real role in making my university a better place. There should be a last line about Christmas coming early. |
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| Elvis Costello – Watching the Detectives Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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"Red dogs under illegal legs" I finally figured it out. My mind went to the underage girl or general vixen like everyone else, but I had an epiphany after listening to this song a solid 200 times. It's security dogs, hound dogs to be exact, and they're often considered "red" in dog coat terms. Someone is trespassing and there are security dogs under (illegal) trespassing legs. As far who is trespassing (to kill, based on the song), I think it's the female. I think she's getting revenge for what a male did to her, but I'll leave that interpreting to others. |
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| Mumford & Sons – White Blank Page Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Listening to this song I think it's about an unequal relationship. Based on the beginning of the song I feel like maybe one of the two people involved might be unavailable physically (and entirely) emotionally because they are involved with someone else. However, they could have just built up a wall for other reasons. It seems like the narrator is in love with the object of his affection and is completely available to her (or him) to support them and love them, and the other person took and took and then left him alone, destroyed, and desperate for his love, wondering what he did wrong. I'd argue he didn't necessarily do anything wrong, but when someone deserts you that you cared for so deeply, even if it's illogical, you feel like you must have done something, otherwise, why would they abandon you. |
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| Belle & Sebastian – I Could Be Dreaming Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This is how I've interpreted the song, less literal and more about being courageous in life. "who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in the dictionary" For what it's worth when, I listen to the song I just long to be undaunted by the most insurmountable odds and go forth fearlessly, and I think there's something be said about what a song makes you feel. |
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| Elvis Costello – Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution) Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I have to disagree with both of you. Especially considering Costello's history of writing songs that may sound like they are some how misogynistic when they are quite the opposite, I feel like the song is about a female struggling within the classically feminine role (think of the imagery invoked, dolls, kitchenette, pink ribbons, painted nails, high heels: they're all things subjectifying women) and the other parts of her that do match this idea. Admittedly, she controls/manipulates the male(s) in her life as part of that struggle, making them feel what she feels. However, she has to manage this duality on her own: "Who dries your eyes when you cry real tears? Who knows or cares what an imitation is? Only you do." And in the end it kind of closes the narrative of the struggle with "You could make somebody a pretty little wife, But don't let anybody tell you how to live your life. Broken pieces." | |
| Elvis Costello – Night Rally Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I think it's also about how people are developing blind allegiances to various things, particularly related to consumption. I think this song is one of his best. |
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| Elvis Costello – No Action Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Oh, I so don't think he's over it in the end. I mean, ending with "Sometimes I phone you when I know you're not lonely, But I always disconnect it in time" seems like he's ending it still wanting her. I just think it's about being in agony because of really wanting to be with someone and hating a) that she's with someone, b) the guy she is dating both because he thinks he's wrong for her and because he's with her, and c) the girl herself because, well, don't you just hit a certain point where you hate the person making you like this? I also think that because of the "no action" bit, I think he hates not being able to do something and instead has a sick relationship with his phone. |
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| Elvis Costello – 45 Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| "Nine years later a child is born" In general it's telling a story, but considering Costello was born in 1954, this part seems to be referring to him considering 45+9=54. | |
| Cake – Pretty Pink Ribbon Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I'm curious how many of the above posters have been male, esp those discussing women have it so much better? I, for one, have always felt like it's about how women are very much constrained by the feminine roles they are supposed to fulfill, and it describes what those roles are and the societal results of fulfilling those roles. I mean, "Without the pretty pink ribbon, you'd say just what you pleased." I feel like basically the pretty pink ribbon symbolizes the intense constraints/ribbon of femininity/pretty pink. I think it a situation with this song that Elvis Costello faced earlier in his career in which people thought he was misogynistic because of his songs talking of the vapid roles women were in, but the reality was that he was complaining about them having to be in such roles and was really more of a feminist than a misogynist. |
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| Tegan and Sara – Northshore Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I think it could also be about sickly enjoying the misery of being alone. Like, as a human you want to be with someone, but you've also come to perversely enjoy the misery of being alone and thus you may bristle at people's attempt to date you even if may have liked them until the moment that they show an interest. | |
| Marty Robbins – El Paso Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Does anyone else wonder if Felina is the one that shot him? I mean, he did shoot a man she seemed to have fancied. | |
| Wilco – Candy Floss Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| It's make a rhyme, not fake around, btw. | |
| Elastica – A Love Like Ours Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I love how this song begins with music that sounds like an animal (shark probably) on the prowl for its victim. I think it is about a not the most healthy relationship. I'm curious what others think. | |
| Wilco – Candy Floss Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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"www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/candyflos" Was your point the second definition? I've only ever known the first and kind of wondered its place in the song, though the only way, to me, that it would fit in the song is of 'that punk'. To me the song is as exactly as it seems. I love it. It's dominated my iTunes basically because I am the Candy Floss girl. They seriously got some lyrics wrong. It's not "fake around" or "dick around", it's every time I make a rhyme. It's clear in the song, and say at http://www.bemydemon.org/songs/candyfloss.htm which I think is the best Wilco site around. |
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| Pernice Brothers – Number Two Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I think this song is about missing someone, even if part of you feels very bitter towards them now, they were a part of your life. I think it's incredibly honest, and all the honesty culminates in the final line, rather than "It would feel so good to see you cry," it's just "It would feel so good to see you." | |
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