| Faithless – Mass Destruction Lyrics | 2 months ago |
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@[sabresfanwp7:50160] "My story stops here, lets be clear this scenario is happenin' everywhere" |
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| Mr. Bungle – Goodbye Sober Day Lyrics | 1 year ago |
| @[MrBroadhurst:45381] although anonymous was more "Duane Denison's album" in that case. One of those albums Mike added the vocals to after everything else was largely done. | |
| Kristin Hersh – Gazebo Tree Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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This is one of of those songs where she's actually just recounting things said to her by someone she met in her travels. She put them in a logical order, but not even Kristin knows what the person met. I believe this is the same "Parrot Lady" she mentions in other songs, like "Under The Gun" Like the parrot lady at Lake Michigan Troubled by a troubled life We hover blurry and glassy-eyed |
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| Kristin Hersh – Defying Gravity (ft Idina Menzel) Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| Kristin Chenoweth | |
| Ellis Paul – The World Ain't Slowin' Down Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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It is a break-up song, but I see it a little differently. Half the songs for the album were written in an almost direct reaction to the disillusionment of his first marriage. This represents a friend (imagined or an amalgamation of friends- if you listen to his first Live album you hear him talking about friends trying to cheer him up)... The friend is trying to get the subject of the song (somewhat autobiographical) to stop moping about his supposed failure and get back to enjoying life in its highs and lows. The subject still has some cynicism but see the point. He has to get back on the carnival ride. |
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| Ellis Paul – The World Ain't Slowin' Down Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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This one time.... I think it was during the only time I went to a concert... maybe recorded somewhere? I think he had just played this, and it was a small venue, and while he's tuning or something someone asked "what's the lyric about rain?" and he answered "you mean 'Like being caught by a tropical rain'?" and there's an audible murmur... and he follows "Why? what did you think it was?" and someone answers (what I always sing myself) "Like being caught by a drop of cold rain!" ..."huh, that's actually better than mine." |
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| Billy Bragg and Wilco – Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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It's a wonderful song, except there's one really annoying aspect that really bugs me. It's not sung in a minor key! He and Natalie are singing in major fifths! When I sing along, I always tune it down to fit. Not hard to do. |
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| Throwing Muses – Buzz Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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If you've ever heard Kristin explain her lyrics, it's almost always the same type of explanation. There AREN'T the deepest of meanings hidden in the lyrics. They're usually descriptions of things that have happened to her, mixed with interesting observations and phrases taken from conversation. So... She has lived in many places, but mostly New Orleans. Marshy, swampy land... So, this is story of some weekend. She's cutting Lemons and Limes, her husband or kids or a friend call her "pretty as a picture", they're in some marshy land and someone's clothes won't dry be cause they didn't wear an appropriate outfit. And please don't bother the bees. |
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| XTC – Statue Of Liberty Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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Andy says he came up with the song at home when his girlfriend was at the ironing board and kept raising the iron above her head with one hand to untangle the cord. The image struck him, it was a rainy day, his mind wandered, and he wrote the song. BTW, I think one reason people don't comment on XTC much is that between the books "Song Stories" and "Complicated Game," various interviews, exhaustive fan interaction, and liner notes most songs have been given an explanation somewhere already. Most basic explanations can be found on the Chalkhills website. |
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| Danger Doom – Space Ho's Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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@[biblo:33719] only twelve years late, but maybe whosampled.com didn't exist back then. It's a combo of two. Keith Mansfield - Morning Broadway Harry Nilsson - Rainmaker (drum) |
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| Emmylou Harris – Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| @[WLC001:30130] Problem is that the lyric is actually "the sugar don't stock"- an odd phrase that I believe is the complete opposite of "Sugar don't stop". I believe it means there is no sweetness to be had. | |
| Emmylou Harris – Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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@[RyanLester:30129] there are many versions of folk songs, happy and sad according to the version. But it's safe to imply that THIS version is a dark one, implied by the tone of the movie it was adapted for. The protagonists are white prisoners, the women are sirens leading them astray, the setting is the great depression in the impoverished Appalachian South, land of Murder Ballads. A small but notable grammatical quibble: To "lay" something is an action a person does to something else. "Lie" is the action one does to themselves. "Come lay your bones on the alabaster stones" means you put bones on stones. If it were "Come lie your bones on the alabaster stones" that would be a direction to someone else. Not that songwriters haven't gotten that wrong (Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay") |
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| Emmylou Harris – Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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Most here are offering one interpretation of a folk song as if every version of it has the same lyrics and the same meaning. These old songs were passed from group to group with varying meanings whether sung by slaves or prison work crews or the white folks who took it for their own. But if we are talking about one version, the one adapted by Emmylou and T-Bone, we should focus on what THIS version means. And this version takes more from a prison work song and what the three antagonists of O' Brother might relate to. Rather than a spiritual, it's more akin to a "murder ballad" than anything else. @[mysong25:30128] and others offer an "optimistic" interpretation (relative to the pessimistic version) of a caring caregiver explaining hardship to a baby. This is a much darker take. with slight meaning and/or lyric changes that this version reflects. It is a version of a poor white man with a runaway wife. If you leave the lyric as "daddy's gonna stay" or "daddy's gone astray" (as some write it) both imply that daddy's no better than mommy, and probably worse. An important mostly accepted change is "The honey in the Rock and the sugar don't STOCK" which implies that the sweetness is missing from the honey. "The devil" is the devil, and daddy is being influenced by him. The "alabaster stones" are not healing stones, they are grave stones. The song, as these girls sing it, is about a man who can see no way he can take care of a baby alone so he is poisoning it ("Gonna bring a bottle to the baby". The only way he can see out of an impossible situation. |
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| Faith No More – Malpractice Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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@[sokorny:21769], Looked around, tried to remember what I was reading- Creem Magazine July 1992 (pre- release). "Faith No More's Savage Democracy" BG: Tell her about "Malpractice." MP: Alright, there's this one song I wrote about a lady who goes to a surgeon and she's getting operated on and she realizes she likes the surgeon's hand inside of her. She doesn't even care about being cured, she just wants someone's hands inside of her -- she gets addicted to that. http://www.faithnomorefollowers.com/2017/07/faith-no-more-july-1992-creem-magazine.html |
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| Faith No More – Malpractice Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| I vaguely remember a very early interview with FNM where the guys are talking about each others contributions and one of them describes Malpractice as being about a person being partially awake during surgery and becoming sexually aroused and obsessed with the idea of their surgeon and the team working on their insides. If you read it that way you can see that it's pretty straightforward. | |
| Tom Waits – Please Call Me, Baby Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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@eingluciofulc As I mention in aseparate comment. Your criticism is technically correct- EXCEPT- there is no separate page for the different album versions. If you go to the album page for "Heart of Saturday Night" and click the link, it brings you here. As the studio album is the more popular version- this really should be labeled as being from that album. |
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| Tom Waits – Please Call Me, Baby Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[SpasticMinnow:8196] it is unfortunate that I can't remove or edit my previous comment that has been rated down. The criticism is accurate if you are indeed looking for the lyrics from "The Early Years v.2"-as this song is classified. HOWEVER- Go to "The Heart of Saturday Night"(album) and choose this song from there. It will bring you here. There are not separate entries for the different versions. So, my lyric correction was correct for the more popular version of the song. So, this either needs to be recategorized as being from "The Heart of Saturday Night" or two versions with differentiated lyrics should be included. | |
| Ween – Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down) Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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Aaron Freeman (Dean): “There’s some really dark shit going on in Ween. I consider Ween to be dark, crackwhore, fucking hell. We’ve always been like that, and that’s what has brought us together,” Aaron explained. “We’re fucking really—we don’t go out and do horrible things, but in our minds—” I interrupted Aaron to tell him about how one of my friends, an otherwise thick-skinned grown man, refuses to stay in the room whenever someone plays “Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)”. “That’s good, and that’s what I want, because it’s fucked up for us, too. That’s why we do it. That song didn’t come out of any kind of making fun of. That song came out of fear of death, fear of needles in the spine, and that’s not cool at all. That’s really bad news. There is a lot of psychological terror going on in Ween, and there always has been." Pop Matters, "Taste the Waste: A Conversation With Gene Ween" http://www.popmatters.com/feature/ween-030819/ |
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| Ween – Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down) Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[oldgirl:8036] -all Meningitis is extremely deadly if not caught immediately. I had viral that acted a bit like bacterial. Paralyzed for a week, hospital for two months and had to relearn how to walk. The song is disturbing to me but still brilliant IMO | |
| Iron & Wine – Grace for Saints and Ramblers Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Yes, the more I've listened to it the more I'm convinced it's quite intentional. The song is largely a collection of contradictory things and strange pairings that make as much sense as a grammatically incorrect pairing. |
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| Iron & Wine – Grace for Saints and Ramblers Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Yes, the more I've listened to it the more I'm convinced it's quite intentional. The song is largely a collection of contradictory things and strange pairings that make as much sense as a grammatically incorrect pairing. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?) Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Mackinaw City and Mackinaw Township are spelled with a "w." They're largely interchangeable. This coming from a former employee of Mackinac Parks. | |
| Monty Python – All Things Dull And Ugly Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| It's obvious to many, but in case you didn't know, this is a direct spoof of an Anglican Hymn originally written for children, "All Things Bright and Beautiful". | |
| Kristin Hersh – Me And My Charms Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I believe Hail Artemis is partially correct. (with mistakes about the relationship she had his her son's father). My educated guess is that this is about her failed fight to keep primary custody of Dylan, her first son. In interviews she has described this as just about the worst thing that has happened to her. Although she had been together with Dylan's father they were never married (although I believe he wanted to be) but when she left him to be with the man who is now her husband he sued for custody. She has said that it was easy to make her look bad in the eyes of the court comparatively. She had a history of mental illness and was a heavily touring member of a rock band, He had a "regular" job and a steady home. Eventually she only got partial custody, with the stipulation that she keep a residence in the New England area that his father lived in, but it was far from what she wanted. So her saying that she only has "Me and My Charms" is in contrast to Dylan's father being able to say he had a steady job, home, and family support to use as evidence to claim custody. The begging not to leave and the promises that she's still here would be addressed to her son in assurance that she hasn't voluntarily left him. I'm guessing that the "kissing the angel" part is a little less figurative than it seems. Kristin often integrates real events and aspects of her life into songs that seem abstract and symbolic but are descriptions of a story she has lived through. So I imagine something like this... There is really some angel figure, like a Christmas ornament or religious figurine, it's something she can keep with her and it symbolizes her son to her. It's probably something special to both her and her son and he knows that she keeps it near to remind her of him. The "drive her out" verse is also probably in reference to something that actually happened during the custody battle. Maybe "she" is a court or social services officer that was being difficult... maybe Dylan's grandmother or other relative trying to keep Kristin away. |
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| Kristin Hersh – Candyland Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| About losing custody of her first child. | |
| Lo Fidelity Allstars – Battleflag Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I have a love/hate relationship with this song. I love the mix the All-Stars gave the Pigeonhed song, it really does improve the song, which was originally a bit slow and features some clunky low-tech dance accompaniment and discordant guitar. I HATE the added lyrics- absolutely pointless. I really wish there was a version that was only a Pigeonhed song remix and left out "lawn-duh muh cah-mah" and "bwuon to the maxim" bullshit. |
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| The Sundays – I Kicked A Boy Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Isn't it a shame you kicked that girl Isn't it a shame she kicked you back, Jackass |
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| Iron & Wine – Grace for Saints and Ramblers Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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What a lovely song. But I wonder how much my enjoyment of the song will be negatively affected now that I realized that the chorus is grammatically incorrect. It should be "But it all came down to you and me." The simple trick to see that it's wrong is to the remove the "You and" from the preposition... No one would say "It came down to I". Oh well. It's one in a long line of good songs with bad grammar, including more than a few that make this same mistake... but I'm not sure there's ever been a song where it's repeated so many times. |
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| Cut Chemist – What's The Altitude Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Corrections: Said I Was One Among Others (Now We Are One Among Others) .... Her Man Goes Out Of His Head .... She gave me headphones |
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| XTC – Senses Working Overtime Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I know this is a very old comment, but the writer of the song, Andy Partridge, has said that he has synesthesia and it does in fact affect his song-writing. | |
| Blind Melon – Car Seat (God's Presents) Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Huh... It's probably well know by most fans, but it should be noted on "Song Meanings" that.... This song, at least the first section, is about Susan Smith, a South Carolina woman who killed her two sons in 1994 by rolling her car into a lake, drowning them both. The second part seems to be a prayer for the children, or anyone who has passed on. In any case, a haunting song. |
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| John Denver – Prisoners Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| If I remember a anecdote I heard about it correctly, it's actually a song about a Vietnam POW and his wife at home. | |
| P.O.S. – P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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some of my thoughts on disputed lyrics I agree with "It was buried under a flask AND I CAUGHT IT PEEKING from the bottom of a glass" "Everybody want the consequence BUT IN DEFENSE Everybody's got shit luck" "We can't stand to wake up with the sun, But can't sleep in the moonlight" definitely: "EVERYBODY HATES ME" (not 'hex") "I'D GIVE YOU TWO CENTS but everybody seems to have the same change but can't break my five up" "We all live alone The only difference is we don't seem to know WE'RE frozen and lonesome. (WINTER's cold) In the summer GOT AWAY FROM the loathing" |
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| Nirvana – I Hate Myself and Want to Die Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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One of my worst misheard lyrics> "Every Sunday, 'What's the hot song?'" So I figured it was all about the music business. |
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| Kristin Hersh – Elizabeth June Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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It's a song about Kristin's unlikely best friend in college, the old movie star Betty Hutton (AKA Elizabeth June Thornburg), written after she had heard of her death. Fascinating stories of their friendship can be found in Kristin's memoir Rat Girl (AKA Paradoxical Undressing in the UK and elsewhere) |
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| Santigold – Disparate Youth Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Nice catch. Maybe Santi has been listening to Andy's Dub Experiments, you might say there's a bit of "New Broom" in there too (which is Andy's avante garde dub mix of Nigel). And Alex has to be pretty damn ignorant or deaf not to recognize how much Santigold is influenced by 80's music. The video for this song is practically a tribute to Duran Duran videos. |
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| P.O.S. – Savion Glover Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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The problem with ghalladay's interpretation is that the song is a remix of the same track from a Doomtree album in 2007 and even this version was released weeks after Obama's inauguration, so I see as a much more clear-cut anti-Bush and GOP policy song. The final line "Then they dance away clean like Savion Glover" refers to Bush and company being able dance away off-stage without any repercussions for the damage they did. "this one's ours, let's take another" could just as easily reflect their desire for another Republican presidential term. |
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| Santigold – I'm A Lady Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| It's almost definitely not what the song is about but I was just thinking it's just about a perfect song for a transgendered woman. He's made his mind up, "I'm a Lady." | |
| Tom Waits – Hell Broke Luce Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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The most addictive song on the album so far. Military March/Blues Stomp/Work Song... and that ferocious growl... quite a combination. It was said in passing during one of the interviews I read (I think in the NYT article) that Tom claims he took the title from a line of graffiti written on an Alcatraz Prison wall after a riot, but I guess the real question is whether or not "Luce" is the nickname of the character in the song (Something like Geoff Luciano perhaps?). It certainly tells stories of soldiers 'broken' by hellish war experiences so it's plausible. |
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| Faith No More – Mouth To Mouth Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I believe "tying the knot" refers to "tying your own noose" or sealing your own fate. The "you" does this by fully embracing the message given to him. I think it's interesting that the "I" in the song is fully aware that his message is false, a legend that the subject believes is completely true. He gives "water"/ "a wet noodle" to the subject that he believes is "wine"/ "my tongue". Both verses refer to the subject fooling himself into believing something that isn't anything special is really something intoxicating and revelatory. The line about peeling his skin and exposing the nerves is about how sensitive the subject becomes, completely thin-skinned. There seem to be two analogies associated with "Mouth to Mouth". The first verse refers to the subject spreading the message by mouth, person to person. In the second verse, by pairing the reference to the messengers tongue, seems to make it analogous to CPR, the subject believes he's receiving new life but CPR is just breathing hot air into another's lungs. The "dead man" is either the subject, a person who has no life, only a hollow message, or if we're talking religion it's about beautifying the religion's messiahs and prophets without being able to truthfully speak for them. While the song has the obvious religious allusions of "water into wine" and bringing a dead man back to life it doesn't necessarily have to deal with Christianity. The music is middle-eastern so it could deal with Islam but it could really be about any dogmatic belief, spreading false messages to the masses |
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| Mr. Bungle – None Of Them Knew They Were Robots Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I've always considered this one of my favorite tracks but the truth is I have NEVER paid attention to the lyrics. The lyrics convey interesting thoughts and philosophy but they are also really quite pretentious and obtuse, if some prog rock band of the 70's or 80's did a song with these lyrics even the band's fans would think they were going a bit far into intellectual wankery. It's the combo of the words and the brilliantly irreverent deconstructionist musical that makes the song. The message is the music, they are well aware they are full of themselves so they take every opportunity to subvert that message make sure that they aren't taking themselves too seriously. "Lindy hop around the truth," They're distracting you precisely so you don't pay attention to the lyrics |
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| Kristin Hersh – Rock Candy Brains Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Kristin's songs often tend to be about specific events interpreted in enigmatic verse to a point that they become symbolic of larger ideas. So this could very well have a genesis from a story from her willfully homeless teenage days (read Rat Girl/Paradoxical Undressing) in which she refused shelter in a rickety house and camped out with a friend under a porch. But it also seems, to me, to be about not being able to rely on an unreliable friend (possibly a junkie) who instead relies on her and she's not going to be that persons source of amusement (plaything), pleasure(gin) and life support (water). |
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| Everything Everything – Suffragette Suffragette Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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These aren't official lyrics? hmmm, they're certainly very incomplete. the fact that at the 3 minute mark these lyrics are heard (not transcribed here). "and the ball's in your court in the court, your balls" (followed by the chorus) makes me think that they are at least aware and just as amused by their own unclear lyrics. |
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| Tom Waits – Please Call Me, Baby Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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crucial lyric mistake there... "I'm selfish and I'm cruel and I'm blind" should be "I'm selfish and I'm cruel but you're blind" |
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| Animal Collective – The Purple Bottle Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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On it's most basic level the song is about a crush on a girl and the high you get when you are first in a relationship. The last part is about when the intial crush wanes and the subject's attempt to keep that high feeling even though things are starting to feel "real" and the "crush high" is lessening. The subtext is pretty vague though. Could be comparing the initial high of drugs to the initial high of a relationship... or replace the word "drugs" in the previous sentence and choose your subtext. |
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| Animal Collective – The Purple Bottle Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The immediate impression of the purple bottle/purple finger lyrics I got is that in Iraq a citizen votes by dipping their finger into a bottle of purple ink and using that to mark their choices on a ballot. It was a very common image in the news after their first elections, an Iraqi citizen happily showing their purple finger to a camera to show that they had voted. I guess it also fits with Khalana being a city or region in Iraq... if it is, doesn't show up in Wikipedia. But I really do not see this song as being a topical song about Iraq, or at least not completely. If it is I think I'd rather not think of it that way. It's a great song about a giddy relationship, I don't know how it could be reference to the Iraq War. |
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