submissions
| R.E.M. – It's the End of the World as We Know It Lyrics
| 5 months ago
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@[strawberry81:49192] -- yes, this is correct (mostly). as a former high school competitive policy debater on the national circuit, i can confirm. (i cannot verify that Stipe was a debater, but that's of no moment.) the lyrics follow the form -- and micro-machine-gun speed spew -- of modern policy debate in high school. "team by team" and "tournament" and "end of the world" impacts and "offer me solutions, offer me alternatives' mimic the jargon of debate, whether of old-school policy style or the postmodern kritik. and after each debate round, i felt fine |
submissions
| R.E.M. – All The Right Friends Lyrics
| 5 months ago
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This is obviously about getting bored with your late adolescent friends and realizing they're dumb and do stupid shit, or about a gf/bf/partner who is co-dependent "you're the one!" but who doesn't like you for who you are but, rather, because you fit some Procrustean bed of pre-configured dimensions like a fill-in-the-blank. I think the tune is great, even if lyrics are sophomoric. |
submissions
| Phish – Free Lyrics
| 5 months ago
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@[PhishPhan420:49191] -- agreed. See my comment to "Aaronman" |
submissions
| Phish – Free Lyrics
| 5 months ago
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@[aaronman:49190] -- you're (unfortunately) right. I used to think this song was about the miracle of childbirth, and, as a father, I liked that myth and found lyrical support for it (the "blimp" of she who is pregnant; the explicit mention of "womb"; the "tiny cry" of a newborn; the "free!" exclamation of the chorus). But I now know, from the Dude of Life no less, that these lyrics are really describing being so fucking pissed off at your wife/partner/girlfriend/blow-up-doll that you fantasize about what it would be like to throw her overboard on a cruise ship: "in a minute, I'll be free/ and she'll be splashing in the sea/ We hear a tiny cry, as the ship goes sliding by." It gives me no comfort to confirm this interpretation, but, as Vonnegut wrote, so it goes. If you, like a new mother, must cling to the innocent interpretation, so be it, but now you know the truth, even if you choose to willfully ignore it. Parallel: "Silent in the Morning" is about wishing your wife/partner/girlfriend/blow-up-doll would shut the fuck up until you've had your morning coffee/bong-rip. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – So Fast, So Numb Lyrics
| 5 months ago
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"So Fast, So Numb" on REM's Hi-Fi album isn't a curt lament for a River that's run dry, or about a wasted or dead Cobain, or any Phoenix rising from the ashes. That's intentionalist fallacy and somesuch. No, this song tells you what it's about if you just pay attention to it and stop trying to engraft or super-impose tabloid fables onto it. This song stems from the same Stipe-y sentiment that penned "All The Right Friends," just more jaded, older, more cynical, more burned, more... yeah. One interesting interpretation that floats in the fringe is that this song is about the narrator (don't mistake that for Michael himself) sending a "Star 69" missive to a lover who spurned him. Explicate the lyrics to mine the golden truth: "I've been around, I've been your lover"; the late 90s sly "cum/come" references throughout the song; the late 90s closeted-gay, pre-nonbinary self-loathing of "you love it, you hate it/ you want to re-create it" (anticipating Brokeback Mountain's "I wish I knew how to quit you" quip); the milieu's club-drug references to "amphetamine" and "numb[ness]"; the spitting spite of Stipe at his most inimitable -- his cryptic cloaked version of Dylan's "Positively Fourth Street." |
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