| Neko Case – Red Tide Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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It's a bit of a long shot, but I wonder if the "red tide" stands for communism and/or socialism. Snails (i.e. "mollusks") were a medieval symbol for moneylenders, so Neko could be alluding to the takeover of big banks/business and extreme capitalism in modern society. On the other hand, she refers to tentacles, which snails don't have... so this is probably wrong. |
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| The Orb – Slug Dub Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I think the character at the end is Thrush, no? | |
| Joanna Newsom – Only Skin Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I wonder if there are more than the two lovers singing or being sung to. A mother? a son? Some lines make more sense to me that way, but it's still a little hard to interpret. Also, is this the album's title track (onlYSkin), or is it Sawdust & Diamonds, with its Ysian themes? Maybe they both are? :) |
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| MGMT – Metanoia Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The "Mystic Referee" is Carl Jung. http://thereisonlygod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/carl_gustav_jung.jpg Thoughts? I'm still working this song out, but I love it. The outro gets me, especially. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Kingfisher Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Yeah! I'm usually terrible at figuring out songs, but this one clicked with me somehow. Joanna is the genius! :D | |
| Joanna Newsom – Kingfisher Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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My theory is that it's a tragic love story that took place during World War II. The religious references are not the focus of the song, I think. It took me a long time to see it, but the context speaks of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. First, Kingfisher was a bomber in the air force, or perhaps a fighter pilot. The stanza that illustrates that best is: "I can bear a lot but not that pall Kingfisher, cast your fly O lord, it happens without even tryin' When I sling a low look from my shuttering eye" Other things like rations, "sounding the alarm" and "preparing for when the bombs hit" keyed me in to war at first, and there's more evidence later in the song that she's talking specifically about Pearl Harbor. I think Joanna does switch narrators several times during the song. She sometimes sings as Kingfisher him/herself, but other parts are his/her lover addressing or observing Kingfisher. The "quiet" part at the end is more historic, and definitely speaks to me of the persecution of the Japanese after Pearl Harbor: "We came by the boatload And were immobilised Worshiping volcanoes Charting the loping skies The tides of the earth left Us bound and calcified and made as Obstinate as obsidian Unmoving, save our eyes" The stanza: "I know you; you know me Where have we met before, tell me true? To whose authority Do you consign your soul?" Clinches the relationship between Kingfisher and the other character; S/he was a Japanese immigrant, and they were lovers before the war. S/he might have even been an actual Japanese spy, but that's not stated very clearly in the song. Now s/he is imprisoned on a military base (in Hawaii?), where Kingfisher sees him/her again. "To whose authority / Do you consign your soul?" is a reference (almost a joke) about the Japanese' devotion to their emperor versus Americans' to the flag. What they did to the Japanese after Pearl Harbor was pretty atrocious.... The "dream" where Kingfisher kills the lover as if by an atom bomb (a basically undeniable Japan reference) is the final stroke. All hope is lost for the him/her, and s/he expresses his/her regret in the final stanza for the choices they each made. They rest of the song, while beautiful and fully up to Newsom's poetic standards, says more about their love and less about what actually happened. It's still a love song, but with a historical context and a tragic outcome! |
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| The Knife – The Captain Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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it's probably not that accurate, but this song makes me think of the end of the world, if the ice caps were to melt and flood the planet. the singer is one of a small group of people who were strong/smart/rich enough to survive (maybe on a boat?). they didn't bother to solve the actual environmental problem ("turn[ing] the other cheek"), but they still "won". maybe she's showing some regret or weakness/loss of hope in the "out of wind"/"pock-marked chin" lines. that only covers the chorus, though! the image doesn't really make sense with the rest of the lyrics. on the other hand, the minimalist sound, the plaintive vocals (almost seagull-like), and the long, searching intro all mesh pretty well with the image of a single boat on a water-covered planet. it's kind of a sideways interpretation, but it makes the song scary, sad, and beautiful to me. |
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