| Tom Waits – I'll Be Gone Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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It's all a dream. The imagery is completely dreamlike, and look at that refrain: in the morning I'll be gone.. How much more obvious does it need to be? A great song, in my opinion one of his best, and the accordion, trombone, xylophone and guitar accompaniment is genius. |
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| Tom Waits – Blue Valentines Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| Definitely one of my all-time favourite songs. Totally haunting - he's running from memories. The arrangement is just about perfect - the guitar solo, by Ray Crawford, is exceptional. I can listen to this song on repeat for hours. | |
| Tom Waits – Walk Away Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This song was written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Waits-Brennan, not by Bill Janovitz and Chris Colbourn - they may have written a song called "Walk Away" but this isn't it. See http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits%20library/www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/orphans-brawlers/walkaway.html Anyway, this is an amazing song. Great rhythm, arrangement, and Tom's inimitable voice, putting into words and song that feeling that you get when you've screwed up - you just want to walk away, leave it all behind you and start over again. If only it was that easy. |
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| Southside Johnny – Walk Away Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I don't believe Southside Johnny ever recorded this song - it's by Tom Waits. Southside Johnny did a song called "Walk Away Renee", but that's totally different to these lyrics. | |
| Tom Waits – In the Neighborhood Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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1. I think it's "pigeons" - those rats on wings type birds that infest towns and cities. 2. I assume "Big Mambo" is just some character who lives in the neighborhood. |
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| Tom Waits – Temptation Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Waits' voice just gets weirder and weirder. | |
| Pluto Shervington – Dat Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I think yabba has it right. There's an error in the lyrics - it should be "Sell I a pound o' dat thing there", not "Sell I upon a dat thing there". |
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| Tom Waits – More Than Rain Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| He's pretty depressed. | |
| Tom Waits – Telephone Call from Istanbul Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Seems pretty straightforward. His girlfriend's been abroad, in Turkey. She's coming home - he knows because he had a phone call from Istanbul. And he's got to tidy up, get some clean clothes, and a bunch of flowers for her. | |
| Tom Waits – In Shades Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Great follow-on from Heart Attack & Vine - it's like an extended instrumental version of the same theme. Sleazy night-club atmosphere. | |
| Joni Mitchell – Dreamland Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Joni and her man are on holiday somewhere tropical. With the references to the explorers Raleigh and Columbus, samba beat, rum, sand, etc. I guess perhaps the Caribbean. In the final verses they're on the plane home. Great arrangement with just drums, percussion and backing vocals - no regular instruments. |
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| Joni Mitchell – Shades of Scarlett Conquering Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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If you've not seen "Gone Withe The Wind", you will miss much of the symbolism in this song. "Scarlett" is one of those women who believe "A woman must have everything", yet they must portray themselves as frail, delicate creatures. For me, the most telling lines in the song are these: "Cast iron and frail With her impossibly gentle hands And her blood-red fingernails" Is that nail varnish on ther hands, or real blood? Either way, she's out to dominate. It's a kind of woman I see quite often, and I like to give them a very wide berth. It's odd though, how some men are drawn to them. |
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| Elvis Costello – Almost Blue Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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This is sheer poetry, as indeed are a great deal of Costello's lyrics. The words in this song are overloaded, double meanings exploited and hidden meanings deftly stitched into what has in this case become pretty much an acknowledged jazz classic. There have been so many covers of this song, but I've yet to hear one that improves on the original. IMO Tracey Thorn of Everything but the Girl comes closest, but ultimately fails through a less than stellar arrangement. So what's it all about? As I see it, he is singing to his ex-lover, about a narrow escape he's just had with a different girl, who in many ways was almost like his ex. He flirted with this girl, but caught himself in time, realising that he was well on the way to making a fool of himself, by trying to repeat his affair with the ex - an affair that we must assume ended in tears, or at least ended with him (and her) being blue. |
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| Everything But the Girl – A Piece of My Mind Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Pretty straightforward lyrics here. Father and daughter arguing. "she's sixteen and now she hates him". Teenage rebellion. "he don't like her boyfriends or her politics". It's been his habit to lecture her, to give her "a piece of his mind". But frankly, she's had enough and she turns on him to give him a piece of hers. Because he still harks back to the days when she was a little girl asleep in her bed, and he just hasn't accepted that she has grown up, which shows him up as the more immature of the two of them. As the father of grown-up kids, I can really relate to this, and I would imagine that these days Tracey can also see it from the parent's point of view, though at the time she wrote this she would have been in the girl's position, and was probably talking to her own father. |
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| Everything But the Girl – Little Hitler Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Rediscovering EBTG. Such great songs. Here Tracey is remonstrating with a young chap who thinks he's hard. She's not necessarily blaming him for behaving the way he does - he's likely a product of his environment (Glasgow? - note the references to the Clyde) and as such he has some typical misconceptions about the importance of being tough -- "Every woman loves a fascist". But she's pointing out that it's a childish way to behave, and warning him that he's already a "little Hitler", and things will only get worse for everyone if he continues to behave as he is. I love the arrangement after the final chorus, where the strings suddenly cut off, and we're left with a rather quiet and peaceful fade out. Perhaps this is what she hopes could happen if her little Hitler sees the error of his ways? |
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| Joni Mitchell – The Last Time I Saw Richard Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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One of the things I really like about this song is the way the lines vary in length and don't really follow the rhythm of the music. It's like she has so much to say that she can't let herself be hemmed in by the metre. There are no bad songs on "Blue". |
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| Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Best comment on this song was in the movie Wayne's World. Wayne is trying out a guitar in the store when the assistant stops him and points to a sign on the wall: "NO Stairway to Heaven". Says it all. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD1KqbDdmuE | |
| Frank Sinatra – I've Got You Under My Skin Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The idea that this is about some chick he's in love with is just the surface meaning. What this is really all about is drugs, and specifically, injected drugs such as heroin. "I've got you under my skin". Does it have to be spelled out? "I would sacrifice anything" - we know that addicts will stop at nothing to get their fix. "wake up to reality" - under the influence of the drug, he is detached from reality. "So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me" - the addict is so far gone that he identifies with the substance. Just all so obvious, really. |
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| Counting Crows – Hard Candy Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Pretty much the only Counting Crows song I can relate to. Makes me think back to evenings I spent with early girlfriends. | |
| Rickie Lee Jones – Tell Somebody (Repeal the Patriot Act) Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Amazed that no-one has commented on this. I guess the meaning is pretty clear. A song for George W Bush. | |
| Elvis Costello – Motel Matches Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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What I like about this song is the denseness of the double meanings that Costello packs into the lyrics. "This is my conviction, that I'm an innocent man" - it's what he believes, but he juxtaposes "conviction" with "innocent" so you might think he's been convicted of some felony. "I struck lucky with motel matches" - to strike lucky, Lucky Strike cigarettes, you strike a match, motel matches like those little cardboard books of matches that such places (used to?) give away, .. it just goes on and on. "Falling for you…" "Falling out…" Top stuff. Sheer poetry from Elvis Costello. I wish he still did stuff this good. |
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| Roxy Music – Virginia Plain Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The weird thing about this song for me, is that around the time it first came out, I was going out with a girl whose name, believe it or not, was Virginia Plain. Her parents must have been mad. | |
| Roxy Music – Avalon Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The background vocals are by Yannick Etienne, a Haitian singer. | |
| Radiohead – Separator Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Lovely dreamy track. My immediate favourite from King of Limbs. | |
| Steely Dan – Charlie Freak Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| In the act of returning the ring (3oz? gotta be a frat ring or something like it), the singer attempts to atone for taking advantage of the addict. But it's too late. | |
| Steely Dan – Fire In The Hole Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I think it's coming from someone who is in a dead-end job, like serving in a McDonalds or something, and inside he's full of ideas about what he'd rather be doing; he's seething, but he knows he just has to knuckle down and do the job because he has no other choice. | |
| Gorillaz – White Flag Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| To me the instrumental introduction sounds really Chinese - though I'm not sure how that relates to any possible meaning. | |
| Stereophonics – Could You Be the One? Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I wonder if this song's as simple as it seems - it's quite possible that it's someone talking to themself, feeling self-satisfied at finally having developed a persona that they are happy with. | |
| Elvis Costello – Hoover Factory Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The Hoover factory on the A40 Western Avenue out of London (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Building) has an iconic Art Deco facade, and there was a serious danger that it would be demolished after Hoover moved their production lines out (late '70s?). There was a campaign to get the building "listed" as being of special architectural merit, and I believe Costello wrote this song in support of that campaign. As vittoriovampire says, it's now a Tesco supermarket, but the essence of the building remains, perhaps in no small part thanks to Elvis Costello. |
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| Steely Dan – Charlie Freak Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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One of my favourite Steely Dan songs. The bleak and spartan arrangement perfectly complements the lyrics.. I've always thought the line in the final verse was "Round his arm a plastic tag waved me away" And the ring - three ounces is a pretty damn big one, so perhaps it's a college or frat ring? Was the singer at college with Charlie Freak? |
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