| The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty in Pink Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Also, referring to bigvince's comment above, it's very possible that the "you" who's addressed by both Caroline and the narrator in the third verse reflexively refers to the narrator himself. If that's true, then the entire song does take on a tone of self-reproach (As in "You, you big idiot, why did you sleep with her?") | |
| The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty in Pink Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Going back to one of the lines discussed before - "Caroline talks to you softly sometimes / She says 'I love you' and 'too much'" - it's a very subtle bit of wordplay which hints at the overall meaning of the song. Presumably, we're hearing a secondhand account of an intimate moment between Caroline and one of her lovers (the "you" who's addressed by both Caroline and the song's narrator.) When quoting something that Caroline says, why separate two phrases which most likely go together ("I love you too much")? The line isn't necessarily focusing on the things Caroline says. Instead, it's focusing on how the lover hears what Caroline's saying. Separating the phrases highlights the notion that the this person is detached from Caroline, as if he isn't listening to what she's saying or simply doesn't care all that much. Rather to the contrary, Caroline is very much emotionally invested in her lover; we know this because of what she says. But the lover isn't. And so the phrasing of the line reinforces the sense that Caroline is an emotionally vulnerable girl being taken advantage of. In the context of the rest of the song, the line leads us to ask a question: how many times has Caroline said this exact thing or something like it to someone, and how many times have they blown her off? The idea that it has happened again and again make her words and sexual encounters meaningless, and the actions of her lovers craven. |
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| Drive-By Truckers – A Ghost To Most Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Well, the line "Saving everybody takes a man on a mission / with a swagger that can set the world at ease" certainly is. You can certainly take the whole picture painted by the song as a picture of the consequences of our electorate voting him into office twice. This song might be one of the most concise and and powerful interrogations of the American ethos and personal guilt I've ever listened to ("I don't know how much good it does a man to keep on telling him how good it is he's free / Free to wash his ghost down the drain, and free for them to tell him there's no such a thing.") There's an unplumbable well of meaning stretching back before 1776 in those lines of the bridge. |
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| Guided by Voices – Dayton Ohio - 19 Something And 5 Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This song (Pollard-penned, I suppose) is almost a clear rebuttal to Randy Newman's "Dayton, Ohio - 1903." Newman's song seems to be a commentary on the breakdown of the unwritten social codes which govern people's relations with one another. He wants to evoke a simpler time when "The air was clean and you could see / That folks were nice to you." Newman also links technological and industrial progress and its attendant liabilities with his suppositions that social mores are fraying. That tale, of course, is inextricably tied up with the history of Dayton, Ohio. Ostensibly, Bob Pollard rises to defend his hometown. The very first line of the song, "Isn't it great to exist at this point in time?" directly contrasts Newman's opener "Sing a song of long ago" I think the ultimate meaning of the song is more than a simple rebuttal of the acid-tongued composer who gave us the Toy Story theme, however. Pollard's lyrics focus on the negative realities as well as the positive, as the close proximity of the lines "Children in the sprinkler / Junkies on the corner / The smell of fried foods and hot tar" clearly demonstrate (In the mid to late nineties, I conjecture that the once-genteel Dayton neighborhoods of Grafton Hill and Five Oaks on the near West Side were lousy with drug trafficking. I heard somewhere that the Dayton P.D. eventually resorted to placing roadblocks on through streets, which helped them get a handle on the situation.) The coexistence of good and bad qualities is reinforced by the imagery of the "hazy day." Historical notes aside, I think the way Pollard really responds to Newman is that, even in the face of clearly malicious or evil realities, life is still a thing which is good an worth living. An attentive, peaceful observer and participant can still find meaning and fulfillment in the everyday facts of living, which is why the penultimate line is "Man, you needen't travel far to feel completely alive." No, you needen't not even in the Gem City. Hell, it was good enough to produce one of the great bona fide geniuses of rock and roll. |
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| Randy Newman – Dayton, Ohio - 1903 Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| cf. Guided by Voices, "Dayton, Ohio, 19 Something and 5" which clearly alludes to the Newman tune. | |
| Guided by Voices – Dayton Ohio - 19 Something And 5 Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| cf. Randy Newman, "Dayton, Ohio - 1903" | |
| Bruce Springsteen – 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I really like how the allusion in the first verse to "Pinball Wizard" by The Who triggers a double meaning in the "pleasure machines" line in the second verse. It's a very subtle parallel structure. | |
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