submissions

Elliott Smith – Twilight (Somebody's Baby) Lyrics

5 years ago

Tempting though it may be to interpret all Elliott Smith songs as if they are ONLY about drugs, I think there's a clear double meaning here. When the narrator sings about his baby ("I'm already somebody's baby"), he is talking about a girl with whom he is a relationship. The girl he is singing to in the song is not his girlfriend; she's someone he hangs out/does drugs with/is friends with, but there's a mutual romantic connection between them. When he sings about this girl's baby ("you're already somebody's baby"), there he is talking about her drug addiction, and saying that her drug dependency IS her relationship. The main reason I think the song is not solely about drugs is the last few lines, where Elliott sings "And if I went with you I'd disappoint you too." I feel that he has to be referring to a relationship he's in, because I don't see how this line makes sense otherwise. (Is he saying he'd disappoint the drugs? That doesn't work.)

submissions

Elliott Smith – Bottle Up and Explode Lyrics

5 years ago

The girl the narrator is singing to is in love with another guy: "You look at him like you've never known him/But I know for a fact that you have/The last time you cried, who'd you think was inside?" Either the girl's feelings for this other guy are not reciprocated or things didn't work out between them for whatever reason, and she can't get over it. But she attempts to bottle up her feelings and see other people, e.g. the narrator. The narrator is trying to avoid "becoming" her, or ending up in the same situation she's in. He is trying to avoid falling in love with her in the same miserable and unrequited way that she loves this other guy. I think that only someone who has a keen, deep understanding of human feelings and relationships can write lyrics like this.

submissions

The Rolling Stones – Stupid Girl Lyrics

7 years ago

I get that the narrator is calling the girl stupid partly because she gossips, complains, and gold-digs, but he also seems to be implying that her "feminine" interests, like fashion and makeup, are stupid. So it's not entirely unreasonable to call these lyrics sexist, although if they are, they were written in the sixties and it was a different time. Most male rock stars in the sixties and seventies were pretty misogynistic tbh, although that's not what the older generation wants to hear.

submissions

The Beach Boys – I Just Wasn't Made For These Times Lyrics	7 years ago
@[RalfJustin:18482] A "fair-weather friend" is someone "who is friendly, helpful, or available only when it is advantageous or convenient to be so." Basically, not a true friend. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fair-weather_friend

submissions

The Beach Boys – I Just Wasn't Made For These Times Lyrics

7 years ago

As modestmaus pointed out, one of the "layers" in the chorus is "Cuando sere? Un dia sere. (translation: 'When will it be? One day it will be.')" wolfpup also quoted Brian Wilson in an interview: "It's about a guy who was crying out because he thought he was too advanced, and that he'd eventually have to leave people behind." So if you like this song because you feel like you should have been born in the '60s or whatever, I hate to break it to you, but that's not what the song is about. The narrator isn't looking to the past, he's looking to the future.

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