| Jackson Browne – The Road Lyrics | 1 month ago |
|
The lyrics currently posted here are wrong; they belong to a different (and lesser) Jackson Browne song called "The Road and The SKY." The correct lyrics for this song (2 words) start with "...Highways and dance halls, A good song takes you far..." Song Meanings, please restore the proper lyrics. Thanks! |
|
| Danny O'Keefe – The Road Lyrics | 1 month ago |
| Danny's song became a huge hit for Jackson Browne. Touring musicians everywhere recognize this limbo of transitory fame. | |
| Tracy Chapman – Fast Car Lyrics | 1 month ago |
|
@[micheleb:50582] People tend to think this is about her alcoholic father, but she's actually singing about her alcoholic boyfriend who's following in her father's footsteps. I don't see her as "alone and defeated" at the end of this song, but we all know she's on her way. Hope and dreams will only take you so far when it's life on the streets. So sad. The best I can envision is that she's the exception that proves the rule. Thank you, Tracy, for making us feel a world we hope to never inhabit. |
|
| Roy Orbison – Beautiful Dreamer Lyrics | 4 months ago |
|
Goosebumps. Singers like Raul Malo and Roy Orbison make this soar in spite of the quaintly lightweight lyrics. Check out the album "Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster." Many artists, many loving treatments. Don't miss Mavis Staples doing "Hard Times Come Again No More." |
|
| Jackson Browne – For A Dancer Lyrics | 1 year ago |
|
@[jswjr:46212] Thanks for the link. I hope others visit it, too, but the original URL was malformed. It should read... "https://archive.org/details/wz1976-12-08.sbeok.flac16" In the original link, the ":" was missing and it had two "http" prefixes... probably the result of SM trying to 'convert' the link into an approved format. |
|
| Jackson Browne – For A Dancer Lyrics | 1 year ago |
|
@[jswjr:46211] Thanks for the link. I hope others visit it, too, but the original URL was malformed. It should read... "https://archive.org/details/wz1976-12-08.sbeok.flac16" In the original link, the ":" was missing and it had two "http" prefixes... probably the result of SM trying to 'convert' the link into an approved format. |
|
| Jackson Browne – Call It a Loan Lyrics | 1 year ago |
| @[jamiescryin:45127] Yes, that's it. You said it so well. Thank you. | |
| Jackson Browne – In The Shape Of A Heart Lyrics | 1 year ago |
|
For years, I assumed this was about an anonymous girlfriend leaving Jackson. But only recently did I realize that she did more than just walk out the door -- this is apparently about Phyllis Major (JB's first wife) committing suicide... sorrow turned doubly dark. JB's lyrics clearly say he had no clue what was really going on in her head, which is true for so many people in relationships, even when they're trying to understand. This song makes me think of "Bea's Song," by the Cowboy Junkies... "John's at my side, But he's not noticing that I'm drowning The slightest move and this river mud Pulls me further down..." It sounds like both John and JB saw their partners' pain and wanted to help, but ultimately couldn't comprehend the full depth of despair at work. I can't quibble with anyone's interpretation here. This song is about the most massive disconnect possible in a relationship. Deep depression in one partner can negate everything the other partner tries. I think JB tried his best to 'fix' Phyllis but was powerless against the inner demons that drove her to fatal despair. This song is all that remains of their doomed love. |
|
| Fats Waller – Ain't Misbehavin' Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[tml:42158] - Yes, Fats was a major deity of early Jazz, I love him and still listen to him regularly. | |
| Fats Waller – Ain't Misbehavin' Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[tml:42157] - Yes, Fats was a major deity of early Jazz, I love him and still listen to him regularly. | |
| Kate Earl – Tongue-Tied Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| I love this song. Too bad her career was sidelined by motherhood. I hope she makes a comeback. | |
| Katzenjammer – Demon Kitty Rag Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[AnnieLang:42152] - I think you nailed it, especially if "kitty" and "pussy" are synonyms. And then there's the fact that with age, many men experience certain items shrinking to thumb size. ;-) | |
| Koop – Koop Island Blues Lyrics | 2 years ago |
|
"...Now you're looking for me / Or anyone like me..." So they're looking for that one unique love & person? But then go on to say that anyone with a close resemblance will do?! ;-) I haven't seen the video and the lyrics seem like throwaways but do add to the campy tone of this obviously retro song, a la Kat Edmonson. However, I absolutely LOVE the languid jazzy treatment with the clarinet, trombone, and drum whisks blending so smoothly. The mix is superb. Bravo. |
|
| Emmylou Harris – Beachcombing Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| The meaning is elusive… What, exactly, is broken and irretrievable? What mistake of his triggered this? "Beachcombing"? Is that his habit of moving on in relationships when things get too intimate? The vagueness makes it more universal. | |
| Norah Jones – New York City Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| The song writer listed here, Winnifred "Blue" Lovett, was a successful black Soul/R&B singer in the 70s and 80s, now dead. These lyrics just don\'t seem like they come from that era.\n\nI read elsewhere that Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics, but that doesn\'t sound right either!\n\nCan anyone shed light on this? | |
| Paul Simon – American Tune Lyrics | 2 years ago |
|
@[UWDawgfather:37716] - Yes, you are correct, it is "tragic" in the same sense that the Greeks intended for "tragedy" -- A fall from grace, generally due to hubris. Yes, I'd say that's the sound of our "American Tune." |
|
| Paul Simon – My Little Town Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| Bruce Springsteen's "Hometown" bookends this song. | |
| Paul Simon – Slip Slidin' Away Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[vainer:37714] - Our assumptions & fervent wishes for Life slip through our fingers. That's not a defeat -- it's the bittersweet nature of being human. | |
| Paul Simon – Train In The Distance Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[EnochRoot1:37711] - A very insightful comment. Thank you. It adds to my longtime appreciation of this song. | |
| Paul Simon – Kodachrome Lyrics | 2 years ago |
|
@[tjphoto:37706] I agree; this is about the unmatched color saturation of Kodachrome film. If you grew up with Kodachrome prints (as I did), you'd understand. Few things in real life ever seemed to match the intensity of a vivid Kodachrome moment. The gold standard of our best moments, the images that would make you smile on your deathbed. |
|
| The Cowboy Junkies – Bea's song Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| @[SLYcrafts:37075] Yes, exactly. Deep depression is, in part, losing so much contact with even your most loved one that your suicide's impact on that person doesn't even occur to you... it's so removed from the need, the drive to resolve your life, by taking it. | |
| Madeleine Peyroux – Half The Perfect World Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| An evocative, poetic, coming-of-age-in-1950s-Manhattan song. Madeleine Peyroux's slow, tender pacing is perfect. | |
| Mark Knopfler – River Towns Lyrics | 4 years ago |
|
This seems fairly straightforward: A lowly deck hand spends another lonely night in one of the many anonymous 'river towns' along the Ohio River. Could be modern, but it feels 50 - 100 years back. Things haven't changed that much. After some bar food and a beer, he's headed back to the flophouse when a young streetwalker invites him into the alley, where he lets her 'work him over.' The quick transaction awakens his loneliness and he impulsively invites her to spend the night with him at the flophouse, which scares her. He's crossed a line and she flees back to her familiar routine of the additional 15-minute 'dates' awaiting her down the road. Back at the flophouse, he pours a drink and finds himself 'looking in the mirror at the face that [he] deserves' -- eroded by years of hard work, pain, and loneliness. Why did he make that momentary slip of seeking emotional intimacy with a hooker? It's a mistake he won't repeat as he goes back to the ship on his way to the next faceless rivertown... |
|
| Mark Knopfler – Everybody Pays Lyrics | 4 years ago |
|
@[deshack:32599] Interesting. Do you see the primary connection to Frank Sinatra as being the fact that both he and Mark Knopfler have "saloon" in their vocabulary? That seems like a stretch, but then I don't know much about Sinatra... And then there's that curious line about "...With your greasy little pork pies and your shoestring hands..." Is that a Las Vegas or Sinatra reference? Don't get me wrong -- I love the many cynical snippets in this song, but don't ask me to explain it !! |
|
| Mark Knopfler – Cleaning My Gun Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| I wonder if this guy is the flip side of the burnt-out vet in "Donkeytown." | |
| Mark Knopfler – Punish The Monkey Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
@[jorbru:25204] Actually, the phrase IS "You've drunk your poisoned cup," a reference to the death of Socrates by drinking a CUP of highly poisonous hemlock, as decreed by of his Athenian critics. Socrates was an ancient (~300 BCE) Greek philosopher famous for telling the truth at all costs, so when his critics brought him up before a kangaroo court and demanded he recant his heresies, he chose the other option offered to him -- drinking from the poisoned cup... |
|
| Daniel Lanois – Jolie Louise Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
I don't understand the French, but this song has nonetheless torn me up over the years. His longtime job in the mills -- the source of his personal identity & pride -- is gone and the deep shame of that loss and the resulting depression drive him to drink and abuse his wife. When she leaves with the children (as she should), he loses everything. Physical abuse is never right, but here it says more about desperation and narrow, traditional male roles. His drunken lash-out triggered his personal tragedy. He may have been a decent man before, perhaps even exemplary, but his legacy is devastation. I doubt that he lived very long after this. |
|
| Daniel Lanois – The Maker Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[PauletteDubois:25089] My thanks to all of you who have commented here for illuminating the biblical and historical references in this song. You've broadened my horizons! | |
| Chris Smither – Winsome Smile Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[AFSouth:25088] Yes, so many of us know this heartbreak story. It's a song can make us laugh (with recognition) and then learn... we hope! | |
| Roger Miller – Husbands and Wives Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Insight & heartbreak. Beautiful, but that doesn't make it hurt any less. | |
| Randy Newman – Harps and Angels Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
Like so many of Randy Newman's darker songs, almost no other singer covers them... Any attempt to soften the original song would result in saccharine. And as for trying to one-up Randy's biting lyrics and viciously snarky delivery... well, good luck with that! Joe Cocker came close with his loud, gruff version of "Pants," but it was still 'kindler & gentler.' Of course, Randy's personal fortune and reputation is based on his instrumental work as a soundtrack composer. His melodies are as rich & satisfying as his lyrics can be acid & edgy. In "Harps & Angels," the conveniently repentant sinner is dripping with situational ethics and irony, all captured in Newman's multilayered, sneering intonations. The voice of a Master Bastard, the guy you never should turn your back on. In real life, I think Randy Newman has always had a very nasty brat inside him, fueling his immense creative engine. I don't think he would deny that. How could he? |
|
| John Mayer – Stop This Train Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
@[nwc13:25086] You said "the line 'so scared of getting older, i'm only good at being young' hits [you] the hardest" and you posted that as you were entering college, presumably in your 20s. Well, I'm here to tell you that it also hits me hard, and I'm 66! I still think of myself as young, still exploring, and still growing... even though the rest of the world assumes I'm waaay past that! I've shared this song with my two adult sons, age 31 and 34, and asked them if they related to the line "I don't want to see my parents go / One generation's length away / From fighting life out on my own." They really don't sense that yet, but I know I may only have a decade left, when that will hit them. I remember how my life changed when my parents passed ~12 years ago. It was a mixed bag of emotion, but the break in my sense of continuity and security was undeniable, as JM tells us in this song. This song can sometimes make me mist up, which surprises my sons. To them, it's just another kinda interesting song among the thousands that flit across their thoughts. Some day it may boomerang back into their consciousness and make them realize they've also crossed the generational divide and that the passage of time is relentless... Truly, "we'll never stop this train." |
|
| Danny O'Keefe – Magdalena Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
Magdalena was a high-voltage redhead of a sex bomb! She was also an entitled & schizophrenic mindf@#k of a princess. For most men, she would be the most alluring form of erotic suicide. Has she mellowed over the decades? I have no idea, because I prefer her as that world class fever dream of a lover! (P.S. - some of the posted lyrics are wrong. For example, the first stanza should read, "Speaking of the mass" and "She laughs like breaking glass." A big difference.) |
|
| Rickie Lee Jones – Chuck E's in Love Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
Chuck E. Weiss is a Colorado-born singer/songwriter who gained fame in Los Angeles with his oddball mix of beat poetry, blues, and rock and roll. He connected with Tom Waits in the 1970s and their styles influenced each other. In 1979, Chuck was back in Denver where he introduced Waits to Rickie Lee Jones, an emerging teenage talent. Jones and Waits were an item at the time, and the 3 of them terrorized the local bars with their over-the-top antics. However, Jones eventually drifted into heroin and her career faded away, but was resurrected in the 1990s. I think Tom Waits' album "Nighthawks at the Diner" -- one of his best early works -- mentions Weiss in the lyrics as well as another album with some Denver backdrops (the bad "Five Points" neighborhood, for example, in "Romeo is Bleeding"). In any case, I think this song is a fictional account of how dorky, rumpled Chuck E. Weiss cleaned up his act ("Christ, he even combed his hair"!) to impress Rickie Lee. The listener is meant to believe that he fell for her, and she for him, and this song was the result. Across all these decades, this song still makes me smile! |
|
| Mark Knopfler – Prairie Wedding Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
Sigh. Metrolyrics, AZlyrics and all the other top lyrics-related sites list Mark Knopfler as the songwriter, pre-dating KR by 3+ years. Go to one of these lyrics sites and search for all occurrences of "Prairie Wedding," then search those individual pages for the "writer" credit. Even the pages under a "Kenny Rogers" heading list Mark Knopfler as the writer. |
|
| Mark Knopfler – Prairie Wedding Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
The farmer singing the song describes Mary, his new mail order bride, almost entirely in terms of her (blond) appearance -- "guaranteed she looked like an angel," "sittin' up there with the gold in her hair," "I gave my golden thing a gold wedding ring," and at sunset, "the gold in her hair is aflame." However, we never hear Mary say anything. The farmer only mentions a few gestures on her part -- "When we got to the farm, she laid a hand on my arm," and she "stood there as still as could be, then turned around and looked at me." What I find unusual here -- and so masterful -- is that MK avoids any clue about what Mary is thinking in reaction to this strange place, this strange man, and what must seem initially like the bleakest and most uncertain of futures. Did she recoil in horror at the first sight of his tiny, dark and grimy cabin? Or at the sight of him?! Was she ready to flee? Or to commit to a long, hard and potentially tragic lifetime of busting the sod? Was she trying to imagine bringing children into this grim-looking void, probably cutting all ties to her previous life in the process? The lyrics don't hint at ANY of her thoughts or reactions. We're left solely with the farmer's whispered fear & vulnerability at this crossroads moment -- "Do you think that you could love me, Mary? Do you think we have a chance of a life?" She's a complete unknown to him, yet holds his hopes and entire future in her hands. How will she answer him, now and in the years to come? That's what I find so masterful in his storytelling. 99% of the world's songwriters would not be able to resist the temptation of at least hinting at her answer... perhaps she would give him a shy smile. Or show some hesitant resolve to bring her "woman's touch" to this isolated & primitive homestead. Or some other tidy, Hollywood-style narrative device that would at least leave the door open to a happy ending. Instead, we're left with 'only' their hushed, intense, raw uncertainty -- a moment that will shape them forever, and the start of their most intimate memories. An uncommon theme, uncommonly well done. Bravo, Mark. |
|
| Delbert McClinton – When Rita Leaves Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
Speaking of "masterful," how many authors would spend pages trying to convey the story captured in just these few lines? "She left a lipstick letter on the mirror, Shattered on the bathroom floor All I could put back together was '...never see me no more.' Took all her clothes but one red dress, The one she knows I like the best..." |
|
| Delbert McClinton – When Rita Leaves Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
Another sorrowful, bluesy broken-heart ballad from Delbert McClinton! The Mexican theme here is also front & center in his "Down into Mexico" tale of deadly double-crosses. So much plot packed into so few words. Masterful. |
|
| The Cowboy Junkies – Bea's song Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
Yes, I've always heard this song as a tale of hidden depression... hidden from John, who knows about her plight and is vigilant, but the deeply depressed can hide it so deep that even the vigilant can't see it. It's possible that after the events described in this song, Bea kills herself, leaving John grief-stricken and wondering why he didn't see it coming. He might never make peace with this. |
|
| Lucinda Williams – Lake Charles Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
This song is so sad. It's about a guy who tried to create a more fitting identity by moving the story of his life to Lake Charles, Louisiana (instead of Texas, his actual birthplace). His relationship with Lucinda sounded like it was on a good arc, but then he died suddenly, in the dark, in a tangle of twisted metal and gasoline, in pain, alone. Let's hope those angels brought him his well-deserved release. |
|
| Lucinda Williams – Greenville Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
Wow. This is one of those songs that you would NOT want written about you! Joni Mitchell wrote quite a few of such songs, but this is waaaaay grittier. Lucinda takes a bullwhip to this guy. Of course, the guy Lucinda's writing about here is so totally narcissistic that he'll never sense these razor slashes of criticism... he'll just see this song as validation of his immense celebrity! |
|
| Jackson Browne – The Road Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
Yes, Danny O'Keefe wrote "The Road" in 1973, and Jackson Browne had a huge hit with it a few years later. Jackson's version is great, but Danny O'Keefe's is more powerful... more of the lonely intensity somes through. Do yourself a favor -- listen to Danny O'Keefe's music from the '70s and '80s. "The Road" is just one example of his superb songwriting. |
|
| James Taylor – Her Town Too Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
I agree with (and paraphrase) those who have said: "The subject of "Her Town, Too" is the aftermath of a breakup of a long term relationship. James Taylor described it as "a tender, well-meaning song about how difficult it was to be friends" with both parties after the breakup.[...] Taylor also said that the song was about "the ex-wife of a mutual friend," [presumably] Betsy Asher, who had then recently divorced from Taylor's long-time manager and producer, Peter Asher. "...The Rolling Stone Album Guide called it a "gently incisive divorce song" that was "among [Taylor's] finest pieces of writing." [...] Montreal Gazette critic John Griffin praised "...the way lyrics such as "she always figured that they were her friends but maybe they can live without her" resonates with people who have had friendships with one or the other partner disintegrate after a relationship ends." (On a personal note, this song certainly resonates with me after my 33 year marriage ended in divorce. The man I counted as one of my two very best friends in the world dropped me after 25+ years, explaining that he had to choose between a continuing friendship with me or my ex, and he chose her due to her greater 'emotional need' for such a friendship. That wounded me almost as much as the divorce itself, which had already cut me off at the knees...) |
|
| Mark Knopfler – So Far From the Clyde Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
Yes, the ship is a living creature in the process of being butchered. It's such a sad song that I often have to skip past it despite the masterful songwriting. Too heart-breaking. So much human genius put into the creation of a big ship like this, only to have it 'put down' in such a heartless & detached manner. Inevitable, perhaps, and maybe even necessary, but always painful. |
|
| John Prine – Illegal Smile Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
@[bellablue2:14489] - JUDGE Julius HOFFMAN presided over the trial of the "Chicago 7," a group of '60s radicals that disrupted the 1968 Democratic Convention... and this song was written not too much later, in 1971. One of the more flamboyant of the Chicago 7 was Abbie HOFFMAN (no relation). And, yes, Dr. Albert HOFFMAN was the Swiss researcher who synthesized and ingested LSD for the first time. His mid-1960s book on the topic made me want to try it out. All three of these "Hoffman" references make songwriting sense in the context of the times! |
|
| John Prine – Illegal Smile Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
C'mon, folks, don't get hung up on the "pot vs. LSD" thing, 'cause that's not the point. Consider that this song was released in 1971 and put it in the context of the times. Also, consider the Wikipedia article that sez... "... In the same essay, Prine explains that... the album opener "Illegal Smile" was "not about smokin’ dope. It was more about how, ever since I was a child, I had this view of the world where I can find myself smiling at stuff nobody else was smiling at. But it was such a good anthem for dope smokers that I didn’t want to stop every time I played it and make a disclaimer..." |
|
| Mark Knopfler – Prairie Wedding Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| @[jogrobler:14481] - I agree about the American Old West setting. Theirs may have been an arranged marriage, or perhaps she was a mail order bride. | |
| Mark Knopfler – Nobody's Got the Gun Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
This song is about the issues that made my marriage fail -- my perception that there was a domestic power struggle I was losing to my wife, so I eventually came to treat our blowups as the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Don't get me wrong -- my ex brought her own boatload of dysfunction to the marriage, and that manifested differently -- but this song describes the ways I blew it even while thinking I was 'fixing' it. What a blind idiot I was... |
|
| Mark Knopfler – Don't Crash the Ambulance Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
Nah, this is about a retiring CIA 'spook' handing the reins over to the next generation, the 'young lions.' All the actions mentioned are CIA Operative-type activities, not president level stuff. And then there's all the military/macho slang from front line spies, nowhere near as lofty as the garbage politicians spout. And when it says, "you've even got a whistle in there for attracting attention," it's referring to WHISTLEBLOWERS (like E. Snowden) who expose the dirt, the skeletons, and the end runs around the Constitution. Again, politicians would talk in power-broker terms, but this song is the voice of working class spies and ex-military 'dirty tricksters' who exist independently of any one president or party. I see this song as more "Jason Bourne" or "3 Days of the Condor" than it is "All the President's Men." |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.