| Leonard Cohen – Suzanne Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I think that the first verse introduces the narrator's encounter with Suzanne and how he has such visceral feelings towards her at that moment, despite knowing rationally that she's "half crazy" and that he has "no love to give her." Like in Cohen's quotation from the interview, when Suzanne actually invited him down and they had that moment together, he had no intention to do anything because he didn't want to violate the relationship between Suzanne Valliancourt and Armand Valliancourt. He knew there was nothing and could be nothing there. But in spite of all that, he touches her perfect body with his mind. I'm not going to pretend I know what that means exactly, but I think in short it just means that they had a very special experience that he can explain in no other way, so special that he writes a song about it and gives it her name. It's not something he'll ever forget. (It's funny, recently I had an experience where I had a long talk in a Starbucks with a girl I had just meant a few weeks earlier, and I'm quite sure there was strong interest coming from both sides; only she had a boyfriend. I went in knowing that nothing could happen, and yet I, myself, had this experience (in spite of my rational disinterest) where I've never been so much on the same wavelength with a girl; it was an experience that was so special that it's not something I'll soon forget. I obviously couldn't articulate it as well as Cohen did in this song, but I think it's similar, and it might say something about Cohen's ability to discover and build on the poetry of an experience. And it's funny; I just realized that the girl in question did, in fact, share a few oranges with me that day.) I think that the second verse ties these feelings to religion, as Cohen often does. I've looked at all the comments thus far and have taken from them the idea of following faith blindly or not questioning your beliefs. I've gotten the impression that the second verse talks about _feeling_ that one's faith is right, despite rationally doubting it. Quite similar to the narrator's experience with Suzanne by the river. The third verse could be like a response to the second verse. They are both instances where the narrator feels a deep feeling of love while rationally doubting it; the second verse is like a moment where he questions his faith and isn't sure whether to follow his rational doubt or his feeling (shown by the ambiguous language "and you think maybe you'll trust him"). The narrator must be a strong believer of Jesus, because the third verse sounds like a decision to surrender to the latter; casting away all rational doubt and going with your feeling; in this case, letting Suzanne take your hand and lead you where she may. It's summed up in the last line "you know that you can trust her for she's touched your perfect body with her mind." Despite all the doubt, he knows that she can trust her because of the way she has touched him on so visceral a level. No amount of doubt can rid him of that perfect love. So yeah, that's what I think the song is about. Through the parallel examples of his special experience with the taken woman he's attracted to and the experience of questioning one's faith, it's about surrendering to what you feel is right despite doubting it rationally. I don't think this necessarily has any connotations of adultery (though Famous Blue Raincoat might be a significant argument for the opposite if we look at Cohen's work in terms of a canon); it just has to do with how the narrator decides to remember the experience. He was stuck trying to figure out if he decided that he loved her in that moment, or if he should tell himself that it meant nothing because she was already married. The third verse is him choosing to believe that they _did_ share something special that night by the river, and that it _did_ mean something. He did, after all, write an exceptionally beautiful song about it bearing her name. |
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| The National Lights – The Water Is Wide Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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the lyrics on the dead will walk dear become much, much clearer when you realize that they collectively tell the story of a man murdering his wife/partner. from last.fm: The National Lights is the primary song-writing project of Jacob Thomas Berns. Assisted by the arrangements Ernest Christian Kiehne Jr. (The Bland Allisons, Sonya Cotton), Jacob Thomas sets out on his full-length debut, The Dead Will Walk, Dear, to forgive the past while compounding its wrongs. Stirred by the fiction of the American Gothic, The Dead Will Walk, Dear roughly documents the passions, trials and regrets of a Midwestern murder. |
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| Porcupine Tree – Your Unpleasant Family Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Not sure about this song as a whole, but the line "Snaps of a life we had in the garden" seems another instance of a yearning or look back to a better time. | |
| Porcupine Tree – The Incident Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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If you see my comments on "Kneel and Disconnect," I think this song expands on that or is rather the consequence. The previous songs were very emotional, but the change to this song is very abrupt as it sounds very detached. Detachment is what I think "Kneel and Disconnect" is all about, and I think it's what this one is about too. "When a fuck is not enough you know you've slipped." - If you see my comments on "Time Flies" and other songs, I think The Incident is full of yearning for the past. In one sense, the narrator laments his loss of innocence and child-like spirit. At this point in his life he's become so detached and perhaps so corrupted that even sex, the single most taboo and exciting thing to a child as well as the most intimate and meaningful act to most emotionally stable people, has become meaningless. When a fuck is not enough you know you've slipped. |
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| Porcupine Tree – Time Flies Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Steven Wilson seems to come back to the image of trains a lot in his music; in the song Trains, obviously, in Deadwing, and in the title of the song preceding Time Flies. In the video for Time Flies that plays when they do it live, I noticed that there are also several images of trains, and so my interpretation is that trains symbolize youth for Steven Wilson. The song Trains for example is but the second track on an album that is arguably telling someone's life story; the lyrics are quite nostalgic as well. The nostalgia in Time Flies is pretty evident, and The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train seems to serve as an intro for the song. The prominence of trains in the live background video of Time Flies also leads me to believe that the two are supposed to be connected. I think the "you" in "can you stop smoking your cigar" is the same "you" as "that's still the way I see you now." Time Flies is like a longing to return to childhood innocence and a child-like spirit or sense of wonder, and I think the cigar in this song serves as a symbol for adulthood. Things like alcohol, drugs, cigars etc. are all things that could symbolize loss or lack of innocence, and I think that's the case here. Presumably, the narrator is talking to a long lost love of his (perhaps the same person in Trains?), and he still has that vivid image of her as this ambitious, imaginitive, enthusiastic youth, and the cigar is just another one of those things that reminds him that that's not who she is anymore. After Time Flies is the perfect place for Degree Zero of Liberty, because this idea of nostalgia and a lament of the loss of one's innocence is so strong that we need those monstrous chords to hit us over the head again and bring us back to The Incident, so the transition from this very emotional subject to the rest of the album isn't so awkward. Yearning for the past, regretting one's mistakes (see "I Drive the Hearse"), and LIVING with one's mistakes (see "Kneel and Disconnect") seem to be the overarching themes of the work. |
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| Porcupine Tree – Kneel and Disconnect Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The narrator is disconnecting from himself so that the shallowness of his life and routine of every day life doesn't kill him. He still recognizes that what he's doing is meaningless, hence the word "waste." "Time Flies" is all about childhood and wondering where it went, and perhaps the narrator doesn't want to lose his child-like spirit and sense of imagination. At the same time, unless they have an abnormally strong spirit, it's impossible for one to hold onto such artifacts as an adult and still have a career. That's what this one is about. "Waste another year" could also refer to hiding from one's problems. In this way, I think the lyrics to this song could be related to "I Drive the Hearse." "Hoping it will go away" "Living with my mistakes" "Getting through another day" etc. The narrator is wasting his life by hiding away his problem and his regrets. The lyrics to "Great Expectations" lead me to believe that there is a specific person involved. The narrator goes through year after year of constantly thinking about this, but he never acts on it or considers making amends because he's too scared to. There is an air of regret that seems to pervade the album. |
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| of Montreal – Oslo in the Summertime Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| The song has a really alienating feel to it imo. To me the narrator feels extremely uncomfortable in this unfamiliar and strange place. "the sun is up at 4am" "nobody can fall asleep" "just tell the american not to stare" "i practice my norwegian on poor befuddled waitresses who shake their head completely at a loss." The lyrics and sound of the song lead me to believe that the narrator really does not enjoy it. I was told that the reason for Barnes' depression during the recording of Hissing Fauna in Norway was at least partly due to culture shock, and that's what this song sounds like to me. I dunno, I was just lying down listening to the Sunlandic Twins by myself in that lethargic and tired mood where I was bored but at the same time didn't feel like doing anything, and the song seemed to match my mood perfectly. When I hear the line "staring out the window from my bed" I think of that. | |
| The National – Gospel Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Oops, I didn't mean to post that in reply to that post. Sorry. --- I was bored and decided to come here and see what people thought of this song. Wow, I don't agree with anybody here; but then again, the meaning I derived from this song comes mostly from a few key lyrics and kind of disregards the others or doesn't fully explain them. To me, this is one of the most heartbreaking songs I've ever heard. I don't claim to be right; I just want to explain why this song is so powerful to _me_. Basically, the following lines are the important ones: I've got two armfuls of magazines for you I'll bring 'em over So hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden Hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden then I'll I'll bring a nice icy drink to you Let me come over I can waste your time I'm bored Invite me to the war every night of the summer As with most of the other songs on Boxer, I came to imagine all the "yous" and "hers" to be an object of affection for the narrator. That's probably why I kept coming back to Boxer, and particularly this song. Simply put, I think of the above lines as the narrator deeply loving someone but the other not loving him back. He wants nothing more than to "come over" and be with her. I think of the holiday lights as the narrator's way of fantasizing about this person. If you're like me, your memories of Christmases always seem to have a quality of otherworldliness to them. The "holiday rainbow lights" represent a kind of otherworldly place, a place where everything is ok and there is no reason to be sad. Like memories of an especially good Christmas. In this fantasy, he's walking across the dimly-lit garden to his loved one and bringing her an iced drink, and they sit down together and lean on each other the way couples do. The fact that he says "Let me come over I can waste your time I'm bored" after already saying that he would come over ("I'll bring 'em over") shows that he is not invited. And the way the lines are repeated without any real resolution to them, and the fact that the narrator continues to ask something of her ("Darling can you tie my string") without resolution shows that he doesn't get to see her. He wants nothing more than to be with her, but he isn't. When he sings "let me come over I can waste your time I'm bored" the language sounds kind of playful, and it sounds kind of like he's trying to smile, like the idea of seeing her still fills him with such joy, but he is sad because he kind of already knows he's not going over since it's his second (or third) time asking. I just think the whole sound of the song and the lyrics are all really, really sad. I spent many nights alone listening to this song (and album) wishing I was with a certain someone. |
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| The National – Gospel Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I was bored and decided to come here and see what people thought of this song. Wow, I don't agree with anybody here; but then again, the meaning I derived from this song comes mostly from a few key lyrics and kind of disregards the others or doesn't fully explain them. To me, this is one of the most heartbreaking songs I've ever heard. I don't claim to be right; I just want to explain why this song is so powerful to _me_. Basically, the following lines are the important ones: I've got two armfuls of magazines for you I'll bring 'em over So hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden Hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden then I'll I'll bring a nice icy drink to you Let me come over I can waste your time I'm bored Invite me to the war every night of the summer As with most of the other songs on Boxer, I came to imagine all the "yous" and "hers" to be an object of affection for the narrator. That's probably why I kept coming back to Boxer, and particularly this song. Simply put, I think of the above lines as the narrator deeply loving someone but the other not loving him back. He wants nothing more than to "come over" and be with her. I think of the holiday lights as the narrator's way of fantasizing about this person. If you're like me, your memories of Christmases always seem to have a quality of otherworldliness to them. The "holiday rainbow lights" represent a kind of otherworldly place, a place where everything is ok and there is no reason to be sad. Like memories of an especially good Christmas. In this fantasy, he's walking across the dimly-lit garden to his loved one and bringing her an iced drink, and they sit down together and lean on each other the way couples do. The fact that he says "Let me come over I can waste your time I'm bored" after already saying that he would come over ("I'll bring 'em over") shows that he is not invited. And the way the lines are repeated without any real resolution to them, and the fact that the narrator continues to ask something of her ("Darling can you tie my string") without resolution shows that he doesn't get to see her. He wants nothing more than to be with her, but he isn't. When he sings "let me come over I can waste your time I'm bored" the language sounds kind of playful, and it sounds kind of like he's trying to smile, like the idea of seeing her still fills him with such joy, but he is sad because he kind of already knows he's not going over since it's his second (or third) time asking. I just think the whole sound of the song and the lyrics are all really, really sad. I spent many nights alone listening to this song (and album) wishing I was with a certain someone. |
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