submissions
| Red Hot Chili Peppers – Dosed Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I'm with you... it's mainly sex, but also that he can't get real love from from her too "All I ever wanted was your life" and "Take it away I never had it anyway"...
But why can't he hide in the canyon? Especially if it's deep? He's just not frig'n trying. I've stayed jammed in those dark, wet stank-pits for I-don't-know-how-long with little more than a six-pack of light beer and a can of non-stick PAM to keep me going. |
submissions
| Red Hot Chili Peppers – Dosed Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I'm with you... it's mainly about sex, but he wants love too "All I ever wanted was your life" and "take it away I never had it anyway..."
The part I don't get is why he can't hide in the canyon. Especially if it's deep! He's just not frigin trying. I've stayed jammed in those dark, wet stank-pits for I-don't-know-how-long with little more than a six-pack of light beer and a can of non-stick PAM to keep me going. |
submissions
| Warren Zevon – Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I cry "Bullshit!" In what way is the CIA more organized? Otherwise, I agree. Civilization is about individuals believing in something bigger than just themselves - it's about patriotism, and contributing to the welfare and security of your society/country. So every society has it's legends of heroism in battle... WZ notes how this stuff gets twisted to promote carnage in every diverse culture. |
submissions
| Warren Zevon – Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Good catch on Nobel Prize! Wow! And poem ! It seemed to me that WZ was pointing out how all these other countries get involved in these conflicts way outside their borders, and escalate conflicts . The US, Britain, Russia, China, etc are famous for it, but WZ points out that it's not just super powers jumping into these deals, but countries like Denmark and Norway too. Everyone loves a war hero, and everyone has to avenge a fallen countryman so fights go on from generation to generation- from the land of the Nobel Peace prize to Denmark to Congo to Johanasburg to Lebanon to Berkley where the hippies protested against Vietnam. |
submissions
| Warren Zevon – Desperados Under The Eaves Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I'm not sure about the Eagle's, but bravo regarding his song "Frank and Jesse James" ... connected at beginning by same music, and connected at the end by the "Look Away" lyric/music ode to fallen Dixie that the James brothers lived in.
Dizzoh notes that Gower is synonymous with "drugstore cowboy" and it seems like WZ feels this tongue in cheek sense of desperado in running out on his hotel bill, so he's contrasting his misdemeanors with the Jame's brother's legendary and heroic efforts to fight a corrupt/opportunistic authority. |
submissions
| John Hiatt – Perfectly Good Guitar Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Always makes me think of Pete Townsend/ The Who... those guys were smashing up their gear before they could afford it, I heard. I've heard Townsend defend it by saying that the point of smashing stuff was that it was the artist & message that were important in the show, not the gear. John Hiatt takes a deeper look at where it comes from: These guys are really just pointing to themselves and saying look at ME! I'm having a tantrum cuz mommy didn't give me what I want! - but that's one of the fundamentals of Rock n' roll, "Look at ME!!" That's Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis each with their own style & flare, but it's still a tantrum, a rebellion... Folk, Folk-rock, Grunge/Alternative don't have that immaturity, in general. |
submissions
| Warren Zevon – Desperados Under The Eaves Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Great call Pat1234, dizzoh, on the shopping center Gower Gulch !!! It's classic Zevon tongue in cheek!! The cemetery is another good call - it all references mortality. I think I missed a good bit in my original analysis: WZ has this great technique of zeroing in on a theme with visceral images (i.e. his "empty cup" - depression is a "coffee" cup - sobriety). While the angry sun through the trees is a higher power metaphor, it's also a very real and painful source of sunburn and dehydration to those "desperadoes" on the street - which WZ counters with Air Conditioning. Jeeze, I miss him. |
submissions
| Warren Zevon – Desperados Under The Eaves Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Sure - self-pity, maybe, but more a sense of desperation - isn't desperation the essence of a Desperado? - from guilt or at least judgement by the sun=God. One of the things I love about WZ is how he often uses the beat and chords to punctuate the story... the strings feel like such an ominous, heavy mood,...so yeah, he's tying his fate to that of Frank & Jesse with the melody. |
submissions
| Warren Zevon – Desperados Under The Eaves Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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The overall tone feels like it's about recovery from alcoholism - "...empty coffee cup", "Still wake up with shaking hands" allude to that; What ties the verses together is the sense of guilt and disorientation , and that there's a higher power judging him ("...the sun look angry at me")- that's sort of where 12 step programs take you.
I wonder if "the gypsy wasn't lyin'" is a reference to a rehab counselor, because a gypsy is very dubious, as is often the case with rehab counselors who tend have personal experience with addiction. In 12-step programs, a counselor would tell you that if you're an alcoholic, you're gonna keep drinking compulsively ("All the salty margaritas.. gonna drink um up") unless you keep working your 12-step program for life.
" ...sun look angry through the trees... crucified thieves, and Heaven help..." are all spiritual references. Sun represents all-powerful, always present, unassailable god/higher power; the crucified thieves are reminiscent of Jesus on the cross (per the Bible, Jesus was crucified along with two thieves) "Desperado under the eaves" seems to refer to the fact that he's sneaking away from creditors, but in the larger, poetic sense, it means guilty in the eyes of the higher power. Especially in the sense that alcoholism is often a form of escape from matters of conscience.
So he's left listening to the AC hum, but guilty before God (angry sun), awaiting his fate as a mortal.
"Look away down Gower Avenue" is interesting because at one end is Paramount Studios (on Melrose) which could represent fame and the world's stage, and at the other end is the towering church Hollywood Presbyterian which could represent spiritual transition (baptism or funeral)... which way is he looking? |
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