submissions
| Tom Waits – Big Black Mariah Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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It's a paddy wagon - what we would call the police van, rather than the car.
Man's on the run - "cut through the cane break". He's got a lot of serious charges against him, and he's going away for a while when they get him: "Got a wooden coat, this boy is never coming home". |
submissions
| Sonic Youth – Skip Tracer Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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This is one of SY's most beautiful songs. It's obviously about a specific event, in part, but it's also about how a lot of us have lived, outside of the holding pens, and how some of us didn't make it. Still, hopeful.
I've always particularly enjoyed Lee's songs. |
submissions
| Walter Becker – Down in the Bottom Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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He's not talking about a friend, he's not talking about a bear, he's not talking about Owlsley (good lord). He's talking about...well, anyway, "have you got the bear or has the bear got you" is hipster slang for "are you in control or are you an addict?" That's all.
You're right about Kid Charlemagne, though. |
submissions
| Lotus Plaza – Jet Out Of The Tundra Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I agree that it's about coming out of something. The songs on the cd have a theme; seems to be about getting over something or leaving it behind, but not sure it's about depression. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Mutter Lyrics
| 11 years ago
|
Obviously about Nazism, rejected and disavowed by the nation that gave it birth.
Duh. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Engel (feat. Bobo) Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Karl Marx's friend Friedrich Engel played a significant role in the formulation of what we now call Marxism.
The members of Rammstein grew up in East Germany.
Just something to think about. |
submissions
| Rammstein – Engel (English) Lyrics
| 11 years ago
|
Karl Marx's friend Friedrich Engel played a significant role in the formulation of what we now call Marxism.
The members of Rammstein grew up in East Germany.
Just something to think about. |
submissions
| Guided by Voices – Bright Paper Werewolves Lyrics
| 11 years ago
|
It's obviously about being somewhere like a 7-11 with a hang-over (I'm guessing11am-noon on a Saturday) and staring at women and also noticing how quietly desperate the lives of the people around you are.
I'm trying to help you guys but you gotta meet me half-way. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Charlie Freak Lyrics
| 11 years ago
|
Really a simple song, relatively speaking, for the Dan. The speaker cynically gave a homeless addict "chicken feed" for an item of great value, materially and emotionally - perhaps even imagining that he was doing the guy a favor. The addict proceeded to overdo with whatever he bought wiht his new-found wealth, and died. The speaker found out, and returned the item. The song ends with his real attempt at atonement: he takes the hand of another unfortunate - "my friend", to whom the song is addressed - to "take him home". To his home, or a shelter, or whatever. Doesn't matter. Very "real spirit of Christmas" - I don't mean that ironically.
This is actually one of the Dan songs that brings me close to tears. "Any World That I'm Welcome To" is another one. |
submissions
| Lou Reed – Doin' the Things That We Want To Lyrics
| 11 years ago
|
I thought he was making fun of Sam and Martin, because I thought Lou was always kidding.
Then I grew up, and learned more about Lou's life, and now I know that he really does think that they, or their characters, are the best friends he's ever had (in a way). |
submissions
| Lou Reed – New Sensations Lyrics
| 11 years ago
|
I used to think that he was making fun of a yuppie or something.
Then I found out more about Lou's life, and now I see that it's about him. And if I can't handle that, well, that's my problem. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Deacon Blues Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Someone on the verge of trying to get clean (not for the first time). Or maybe just kick a major vice. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Aja Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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"Time Out Of Mind" is, of course, about dope - "chasing the dragon", or smoking, rather than shooting (also referenced here - "throw out the hardware, let's do it right"). |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Bad Sneakers Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Oh yeah - sorry - "white tuxedo", "beat the heat" - dressing inappropriately (or perhaps incorrectly telling someone that white clothing is bad in warm weather) - sign of derangement. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – The Fez Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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There have always been good reasons to use a jimmy cap. They didn't start selling them in 1982. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Bad Sneakers Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
Kind of thought it was about someone basically losing his mind, and probably already institutionalized; in particular, experiencing paranoid schizophrenia. The chorus is plain enough, I think...in the schizophrenic mind, objects become invested with extreme (delusional) importance - those sneakers, they're very bad! Also, the "fearsome excavation" - could be simple construction of some sort, but the schizophrenic mind invests it with menace and dread. Walking around with a transistor refers (perhaps) to the common delusion of having your thoughts monitored and/or broadcast into your head (see e.g. Clean, Shaven). And the paranoid perception that everyone's scheming about you, just out of eyesight/earshot - and that they're out to kill you - "do you take me for a fool...that ditch they're digging..."
Not sure about the white suit. I like to think I'm pretty on top of drug slang, including terms specific to the 70s and earlier, but I don't hear cocaine here - unless it's what's driving the madness.
Regarding the pina colada, I got nothing. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Your Gold Teeth II Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
Always thought it was sort of a love-song, or at least make-peace song, with the hippie culture that Fagen and Becker, true hipsters from an earlier era and culture (by choice), never seemed to have much patience for.
At least, the first stanza.
Also the chorus. |
submissions
| Genesis – Home By The Sea Lyrics
| 12 years ago
|
Uh it's about someone breaking into an old house and being confronted with ghosts who live there, and forced to hear the stories of their lives, and perhaps to join them as well.
Did someone already say that?
Second Home By The Sea is spooky and etc. |
submissions
| David Bowie – TVC 15 Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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This is a song about a drug-induced hallucination that Iggy Pop had wherein it appeared that his TV devoured his girlfriend. |
submissions
| David Bowie – Slip Away Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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John Lennon (Bowie has said) told him about Uncle Floyd. Song seem to be about their friendship. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Chain Lightning Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Always thought it was about two dopers copping from a really good connection, and then reminiscing about that magic bag some time later.
Of course, even if it's about the SS, it cab still be a metaphor for narcotics. |
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