| U2 – City of Blinding Lights Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This is a beautiful and inspirational love song to New York City. It's a song about how New York with its "neon heart and dayglo eyes" is an inspiration to artists and immigrants all around the world moved by her idealism, creativity and her open arms to different races, cultures and creeds. This is what "they're advertising in the sky for people like us" refers to. New Yorkers are the fireflies--alive at night, glowing with spirit. As they dance in the moonlight other people are intrigued and drawn in. They want to join. This imagery is evocative of Dionysus' satyrs who drink, dance, sing, fight and fuck to their hearts' content. Artists, dancers, musicians, lovers--they are all alive during the nighttime and this place of freedom and creativity, NYC, is mecca to many people in the world. But after 9/11, the singer feels that she may abandon all that made her beautiful, authentic and loved. Hence the lines about how she should not fear "looking ugly in photographs" and dismissing the doubts about whether she is in fact still beautiful. The lines about the "clothes (she) made" refer to the doubt that might arise about whether being unique and harboring creative individuals is still a virtue. The singer believes that it is. I believe that the line "I'm getting ready to leave the ground" means that after the attack and all of the lives lost, it made him requestion his own morality and the meaning of life. This is why at the beginning he says "the more you see the less you know" and also "i knew much more then than i do now". However, despite all that has happened, the singer reaffirms that "time can't take the boy out of the man" meaning he still has hope, still has optimism still holds ideals, despite what he's seen humans can be capable of. Whenever he sings "Oh you look so beautiful tonight" I believe he is singing directly to the live audience, and I think it holds particular meaning to New Yorkers, or just anyone in the world who still believes she's a haven for artists and lovers of freedom. Many immigrants hold that New York is not just an American city, it's the world's city and Irish immigrants have been coming for decades. I'm sure Bono holds the same feelings as his ancestors and relatives. I've been trying to figure out if the "City of blinding lights" refers to an earthly city, like NYC, or to heaven itself. I concluded that he believes that the earthly city (not necessarily NYC, but it is of course, a direct influence) is a heavenly city itself, even with its dark rough edges, her seedy night life. And even with her poverty and violence she is a petrie dish for originality and art. The last lines: “The more you know the less you feel. Some pray for others steal. Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel… luckily” Are about what the singer thinks he has learned from his experiences post 9-11. He knows less about the world, in that he is less certain about what’s right and what’s wrong. The world isn’t black and white. It’s complex and layered. He cites examples of behavior that people believe are praiseworthy and blameworthy–prayer and stealing–neither act, he seems to be stating, are easy to judge as right or wrong, what we need is to understand underlying causes. The very last line “Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel… luckily” is, to me, highly optimistic. There’s many ways to take this line. Some people will read it as “you can do anything you want, we’re all getting into heaven” or “people can be moral without believing in God”, but I take it as this: Human beings are the creators/authors of blessings, not necessarily a god who may or may not exist. We are capable of our destruction or our success. This is “lucky” because it means we are not doomed to failure by fate. We can write our own histories. |
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| Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This is about doing harder and newer drugs to escape boredom and depression. The character thinks he's found a new way out of his painful existence and is delirious with the idea, but inevitably he crashes. The drugs are not as effective and he is just as depressed if not more than where he started. He'll never get "home" because he's not Ulysses. Home here means a place of happiness, contentment and comfort. | |
| Maroon 5 – She Will Be Loved Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I find the scenario in this song so annoying. The guy sounds like a little bitch boy getting strung along by an immature brat who wants attention. He's sounds so needy and pathetic. Get over her, Christ. I know too many people like this and it's so irritating and juvenile. I also hate that people think it's "so romantic" that this guy will love her no matter what. It's not romantic. It's just sad and pathetic. | |
| U2 – One Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think there are clear allusions to Christian hypocrisy about not following through on the ideals of love and brotherhood/sisterhood. We all say love is our highest value, yet some of us will go out of our way to prevent others from having that happiness. To me, the scenario in the song is clearly about coming out to one's parents. But the general message, that is, we should stop fighting one another over our differences in light of the fact that we all have the same fundamental needs and are all subject to death, is a universal one. | |
| Ben Folds – Still Fighting It Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think this song is about how when you have kids you are inevitably going to disappoint them. Hence, the "I am a bird" line, as in, I might not always be there when you need me. And he's sorry that they're so alike and the cycle's going to continue even when his son has children of his own. But there is almost nothing either can do about this situation. He's already anticipating the heartache and pain that comes with fatherhood, but also the good times. He's seeing their future ahead of them--including the fact that one day they won't be as close as they once were. The "we're still fighting it" refers to these inevitabilities. | |
| U2 – With or Without You Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think this is a song about unrequited love. In this case, the singer loves the woman more than the woman loves the singer. He can, and has given his whole heart to her, but she cannot to him, no matter what either of them try. The singer is aware of this tragedy, but cannot do anything about it. He won't leave her, because to lose her would destroy him as much as it destroys him to be with her, knowing his love is not totally returned. So when they are together, and when they are not together, he will always be waiting for her to reciprocate his love, even though he knows that it's futile to do so. Here's my line by line interpretation: See the stone set in your eyes (this woman appears certain in whatever decision she has made, hence the “stony” look, perhaps leaving him for someone else, perhaps a refusal to commit to him) See the thorn twist in your side (but he can tell that something is torturing her. She’s not as certain as she thinks and is torn about her decision.) I wait for you (he’ll wait for her to make up her mind, even though the healthy thing would be to move on and forget her. And he does this because he’s totally in love with her and is unable to stop feeling this way) Sleight of hand and twist of fate (he’s saying that when she entered and disappeared from his life it changed him forever.) On a bed of nails she makes me wait (beds are supposed to be restful, but not his. His dreams are tortured, and every waking and unconscious thought revolves around her) And I wait without you With or without you With or without you (he’s saying he’s going to wait whether she comes to him or not. Essentially, he has no choice in the matter. his heart has made up his mind for him.) Through the storm we reach the shore (after their hardships she comes to him, perhaps after leaving the other man and deciding she belonged with him instead) You give it all but I want more (she gives all she is capable of giving but perhaps she still can’t give her whole heart to him. It seems she is incapable of completely loving and committing to him. It seems he loves her more than she loves him.) And I'm waiting for you (and so, he is still waiting for a conclusion that he knows will never come) With or without you With or without you I can't live With or without you (he can’t live knowing she’s not as in love with him as he is with her, but letting her go would totally destroy him) And you give yourself away And you give yourself away And you give And you give And you give yourself away (I feel like this line could be about either of them. He’s given himself away totally and she gives too but it’s not perfect reciprocation. I think it’s more tragic to think that the singer feels he’s given himself away, all the while knowing the futility of his actions, because she’ll never completely be his.) My hands are tied My body bruised, she's got me with Nothing to win and Nothing left to lose (being with her has stripped him of everything. There’s nothing more he can get from her. And because he’s given everything of himself, there’s nothing left but sorrow. So that even if he did manage to leave her, he couldn’t love someone else, because he’d given everything to her.) And you give yourself away And you give yourself away And you give And you give And you give yourself away (Again, I think this refers to himself. He’s bemoaning the unfairness of unreciprocated love.) With or without you With or without you I can't live With or without you With or without you With or without you I can't live With or without you With or without you (He reiterates that a scenario where she is with him or not with him is a painful one. And even when she is with him, he is still waiting and will never be sated) |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – Soul Meets Body Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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My line by line interpretation: I want to live where soul meets body [he wants to live in a place where his mind is at peace with the things that happen in his life--a place where reality and perception match. He wants to stop "living in his head" and live in the world instead.] And let the sun wrap its arms around me [he wants to live in the moment unburdened by his thoughts] And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing And feel, feel what it's like to be new [he's reiterating that he's tired of what he's been and wants to be different and new] Because in my head there's a Greyhound station Where I send my thoughts to far-off destinations So they may have a chance of finding a place Where they're far more suited than here [this stanza is about self-hating thoughts, self-doubt, inadequacy issues--destructive thoughts that he wants to be rid of] I cannot guess what we'll discover When we turn the dirt with our palms cupped like shovels But I know our filthy hands can wash one another's And not one speck will remain [here he’s talking about someone he loves who he thinks it won’t work out with because of their troubled pasts, their emotional baggage, and his self doubt. But he also thinks that their past experiences, though scarring, will have taught them how to cope and make their love work. Perhaps they were together before, and they hurt each other, and he believes they can learn from their mistakes and go forward together.] I do believe it's true That there are roads left in both of our shoes [he believes there’s many things they still have yet to do together and their time is not yet finished] But if the silence takes you Then I hope it takes me too [My guess here is that silence means a place where there is no music. I don’t think it means “I would rather die if you don’t take me back” which seems out of place and melodramatic, given how sane, contemplative and grounded the song is. I guess it means, that he thinks he’s emotionally dead inside without her. She’s the music in his life, so without her, all is silent and dark.] So, brown eyes, I'll hold you near Because you're the only song I want to hear [he believes she’s the only one for him so he clings to her regardless of whether they work things out or not] A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere [she’s the melody that managed to sneak past the barriers of his tightly sealed bubble, penetrating his defenses, getting into his head and haunting him] So in summary, I think the song is about living in the world without overanalyzing everything to the point where you're paralyzed by things you've done in the past and by the fear of what that might bring you. It's about finding that medium of healthing thinking/living--a place where soul meets body. He wants to be there so he can get past his insecurities and flaws and be with the girl who brings music to his life, the melody soaring through his atmosphere. But because he's so fucked up in the head can't do anything about it. |
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