submissions
| Yo La Tengo – Shades of Blue Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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First line is clearly "Painted my room to reflect my mood" to my ears. And painted makes more sense than "laying in my room" in the context of the rest of the verse and song. |
submissions
| Sonic Youth – Swimsuit Issue Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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I always thought it was "us women" because of the nature of the song, but it probably is "I'm swimming", which also makes sense, albeit less on-the-nose (it is called Swimsuit Issue...). Fascinating song to listen to now, in the era of Weinstein and Trump; SY were always so far ahead of their time, both musically and lyrically. |
submissions
| The Velvet Underground – Cool It Down Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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About an Asian hooker and a client with premature ejaculation issues. Switches back and forth between their points of view. Pretty literal and obvious. |
submissions
| Yo La Tengo – Last Days of Disco Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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Andrea True's big hit was "More, More, More" (google it if it doesn't ring a bell). Which is echoed in the repeated line "...more and more." Maybe just a coincidence, maybe not. |
submissions
| Yo La Tengo – Season of the Shark Lyrics
| 8 years ago
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This is about a person suffering from depression, and the narrator (Ira) is trying to comfort them, help them through it, by telling them that everybody feels down sometimes too, that they're not alone and they have friends/family who are there for them. That it's only a "season" and things can get better. Seems pretty obvious to me, but I guess it's not that obvious, since nobody else interprets it this way (although thujone is pretty close to me). |
submissions
| Yo La Tengo – Big Day Coming Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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I like how the first verse makes you think that it's a typical YLT song about a personal relationship. But then the 2nd verse is clearly about YLT as a band, which makes you reassess the 1st verse...maybe the 1st verse is really about them as a band also. They've always been outsiders in the music industry, but Ira and Georgia (and James most of the years) stuck together and did it on their own terms.
And then the 3rd verse could be about either interpretation. Does the singer (Ira) have insomnia because he's worried about the status of the relationship he's in, or because he's excited but possibly also a bit worried about the future of the band he's in? Similarly, the chorus works either way. |
submissions
| Yo La Tengo – Drug Test Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Song is clearly about a guy who has to take a drug test, probably for work, and isn't happy about it. He might be worried that he's not going to pass it ("I'm not ready to face that..."). Regardless, there's nothing more that he wants to do than smoke a bowl and listen to a Dead album on his headphones, but he can't today.
It's not out of character for Ira to reference the Grateful Dead. They've covered the Dead before, and Ira namechecks them often at live shows. A few years ago at a show I was at he talked at length about how excited he was that he scored Greyfolded (a weird out of print Dead album) at the local record store. McNew recently did a concert with Bill Frisell consisting of only Dead songs. Clearly they're fans of the Dead, although the reference in this song is perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek (as many of Ira's early lyrics were). |
submissions
| Sonic Youth – Making The Nature Scene Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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I love all the deep interpretations of SY songs from you guys, but this one is about tripping on acid at Wrigley Field. At least according to the band members... |
submissions
| Bob Dylan – When I Paint My Masterpiece Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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My interpretation has always been the same as tobiaswitherspoon: art/paintings as a metaphor for finding love. By the time he wrote this song, Dylan had already created many masterpieces in the form of songs/albums that were both extremely popular and also artistically acclaimed, so I don't think that's what the song is about. But finding a true love is something that can be elusive to even the most rich, powerful or acclaimed; and it's something that can radically alter one's perspective ("everything's gonna be different..."). |
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