| Silversun Pickups – Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings) Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I'm on board with those who think it's about a girl who grew up in an abusive home. The lines "See you laughing in a picture, but I know what's out of frame" refers to family pictures of her as a child, where she's seemingly happy, but the singer is saying he knows what happened when the camera wasn't there. The next part ("You barely cried, but you made it out alive") means she stoically endured the abuse, but when she was finally able to get free, she did. Then, "And I'm so proud that you're in my hands now," sounds kind of sinister at first, but it's really sincere, it's her husband saying that he really is proud of the fact that she survived her horrible childhood. The chorus talks about the depression and self-loathing that she has to deal with as a victim. "Bloody Mary" is a game kids play where they lock themselves into a dark room, in front of a mirror, and "summon" the ghost of Bloody Mary. Typically the point is to freak themselves out, like telling ghost stories around a campfire. The keys to that reference are the fact that it's a totally self-inflicted horror - kids do this to themselves and sometimes get worked up into hysterics; and also that the effect of the game is similar to sensory deprivation, where your optic nerve starts playing tricks on you in the darkness, giving the illusion that you're seeing things that you can't possibly be seeing. So the chorus is really saying, "If we dwell on the horrors of the past it leads into self-inflicted depression." In effect, because she gets into these bouts of depression and dwells on her childhood, she's terrifying herself for no good reason, and more to the point, since "Bloody Mary" is just an illusion or trick, it's not real, and can't hurt her, just like her past can no longer hurt her, but she obsesses over the past anyway. The other verses are expanding on the initial theme. "If we grew up together ... show you what you became" is saying he wishes he could go back into her childhood and tell her that no matter how horrible things are, her future is one of happiness. Then the next verse, "I'll never let them get closer, or shower you with any blame," is him saying he's there to protect her, and that her abusive family can't hurt her any more, while "Now we dance in our own picture where the rules have changed" refers to their wedding pictures (pictures of them dancing at their wedding), and that now that she's an adult and he's there to protect her, the rules have changed, and she's no longer subject to the rules and discipline that were used to terrorize her childhood. |
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| Vampire Weekend – A-Punk Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I agree with a good bit of your interpretation, but here are some of my own ideas. The problem is that I think the interpretations are too focused on the literal meaning and missing something as a result: "A thousand years in one piece of silver" --- Could have something to do with either a family heirloom, or perhaps something handed down through a secret society, like the Freemasons? This might make more sense of the honorific, "His Honor." "She took it from his lily-white hand" --- Could mean that he's dead, or just that His Honor is some kind of aristocrat, someone that's been rich, pampered and sheltered. I think it's more likely that this refers to her taking it from his dead finger, because of the line that says "she'd seen the thing in the young men's wing of Sloan-Kettering." I'm not sure why it's important that Johanna "showed no fear" though. What is she afraid of? The ring? His Honor? "Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh"" --- For some reason, before I'd really listened to the lyrics very carefully, the first image I had when listening to this song was from this line, and it was of FBI agents (they wear the windbreakers or raincoats that have "FBI" printed across the back). So it could be that it refers to the police or FBI coming after someone (probably Johanna). "his honor drove southward seeking exotica..turquoise harmonicas" --- Pretty much as confused as anyone on this. The "Pueblo huts of New Mexico" led me on a Wikipedia search, and I discovered that the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico is approximately 1,000 years old (I would assume that others in the area are similarly as old). So that gives me some additional thoughts/insight... southwestern American Indians are known for working with turquoise and silver, and a lot of the modern tourist trade they do is in these two materials. The "cut his teeth on turquoise harmonicas" part could just mean that they were a curiosity he found in that experience that set him on a more important course of events. The last stanza of lyrics before the chorus/bridge to end the song is just as confusing to me, because: * Half of a ring is a pretty useless thing. * Half of the ring "lies here with ME" - This means the person telling the story is neither Johanna nor His Honor, since they are both referred to in the third person. I'm assuming that this line also suggests that the teller of the story is dead, and half of the ring was buried along with him (assuming it's a "him"). * I have no idea why half of the ring "lies here with me" and the "other half's at the bottom of the sea." The song doesn't really suggest why the ring is in two pieces, how those two pieces got separated, or why one half is at the bottom of the sea (or who put it there). |
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| Propellerheads – Velvet Pants Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I'm assuming this song is all sampled from a movie (or more than one), for some reason I can't shake the feeling that it's from something out of the 60s, like a beatnik or surf movie. Anyone know where the samples are from? | |
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