| The Shouting Matches – Gallup, NM Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I agree. He's lost his lady because of a lie (probably about drugs). It's song about that long, lonely road of denial, regret, and pain---when you know your woes are all your fault and all you can do is keep on keeping on, mainly to keep from remembering. | |
| The Black Keys – These Days Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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i think you nailed it. there's also an "irretrievably lost" aspect to the song. there's no redemption for bad/wasteful/reproachable deeds. there's also a warning aspect, but that warning hints at even more complicated issue: how do you judge, in the moment, whether your actions will lead to regret? certainly everybody has regrets, the narrator does, but i get the sense that (and i may myself be projecting) acting without significant consideration for not only yourself but the people around you, your loved ones, and your place in some future reality plays an important role in the narrator's warning. this is refuting the popular carpe diem sentiment. if you act only in self-interest, and even more than that, your present-self-interest, you will regret it. it is important to consider your future-self and how your surroundings influence your perception of yourself. do you want to be happy and satisfied with you life? think before you act. take away point: drop the narcissism. you'll feel better in the end. |
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| The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I agree with the above posts. This song is about living without fear, embracing all aspects of life, including the fact that it will inevitably end in death. But more than that, it's about overcoming superstition, or embracing the facts that mythes enshroud. For instance: I left a nervous little boy out on the trail today He's just a mortal to the shoutin' cavalcade The shouting cavalcade is the "Wild Hunt," and supposedly, if they catch you out on the road, they will sweep you up into a kind of death. I took "the nervous little boy" as referring to his younger, more superstitious self. It is also his more innocent, vulnerable self. By leaving him out to the trail, he is demonstrating both his fearlessness and his vulnerability---his fearless vulnerability. In another sense, he is refuting the notion that the Wild Hunt does in fact exist and can in fact kill you. Another example: "Let's open up the windows have satan departin' now And we'll be even when the blues fall down like hail" The present action in the song takes place during March, when the Wild Hunt descends (or departs) screaming from the mountains. He is saying, open up your windows and let the supposed Hunt come on in, let the devil, let death, let it all in. If he invites death in now, when the narrator does eventually meet his end, death will be obliged to return the favor, maybe even kindly. Also in that stanza: "Hell I don't even care no more about cadejo now If he's a white one or a black one on the trail" Cadejo refers to a superstition about death from another culture, and it is not something worth worrying about, according to the narrator. In other words, live in the moment. If you going to die in a second, you better enjoy the present one. |
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| Wild Beasts – The Devil's Crayon Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| if i "implied a certain level of distaste," it was aimed at the situation. the simple fact is unrequited love is distasteful, regardless of its subject or object. | |
| The Black Keys – Unknown Brother Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I kind of want to know how his baby-brother-in-law died (nevermind "in-law" if they're not married). He died as a young kid apparently, since they "smile like pictures of [him] as a boy." I kind of figure it was an accidental death, since leukemia or any other long-term disease would leave its mark with the suffering---suffering deserves mention in a song as sad as this. But I guess the point of the song is the author's empathy for his brother-in-law's short-lived life. I'm just pandering for the drama. | |
| The Black Keys – Everlasting Light Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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i think it's interesting how this song is about the man's love---apparently it's everlasting...or he thinks it is, wants it to be. still there's nothing said about how the lady feels. although i would presume his sentiment's reciprocated, given the upbeat presentation. some musician could really turn some heads by playing this with a heart-break vibe, like a guy pleading his case to a cold heart. merry listening. |
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| Wild Beasts – The Devil's Crayon Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Reading these lyrics, I picture a dude, a gay-dude, in an art class doing one of those nude model sketches of a not-gay-dude, and he totally has a hard-on for the model. In this case, "devil" is a reference to desire, lust, the unequivocal exhalation of physical longing. The gay-dude goes through some wishy-washy philosophical ponderings, saying everyone knows the devil (lust, longing, desire). But, in this case, the model is straight, so the gay-dude, the "romancer", realizes he's not getting any: the straight-dude says "her" name in a way that the gay-dude wants ("her" just being a reference to women). Because of the inevitable rejection, the gay-dude gets pissed: The straight-dude's in league with the devil---"your arm drapped around [the devil's shoulder] ten times over"---"your" referring to the object of the gay-dude's affection. The gay-dude, knowing his love/lust is unrequited, that his longing will end in rejection, reasons that the straight-dude deserves to have some "loads" thrown on him. Take that explicitly. The END. |
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| Wild Beasts – She Purred, While I Grrred Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| too deep for me. maybe the fruit is? idk. the fruit is too deep. inside. | |
| Iron & Wine – Lovesong of the Buzzard Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I don’t think this song has any specific meaning or purpose, other than to express a sense of religious skepticism, and very poetically, I might add. It draws on several Christian stories, maxims, and beliefs, but adds sinister twists to them. There is a stark juxtaposition of idealistic religious dogma against secular realism. For instance: “Lucy in the shade of the dogwood blooms Yesterday the solace of a poison fish” The dogwood fable, as explained above by Beam92, specifically alludes to Christ. Sitting under the dogwood blooms could be listening/understanding his teaching, it could be mourning his crucifixion. I prefer the former because during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus fed the masses with one fish–but the fish in this song is poisoned, a twist to traditional dogma, a hint of skepticism. The fish, perhaps an image for the sermon itself, feigns solace. People listen to Jesus and are comforted, but there is something not quite right about what they are hearing, something beneath the surface is not quite healthy–while they are taking in the idealism, they are dying. The body is in pain while the “spirit” soars towards something hopeful and chimerical. “No one is the saviour they would like to be The lovesong of the buzzard in the dogwood tree” Despite all Christ’s good intentions, the world is still full of shit. Terrible stuff still happens. Things die, other things eat the dead things (like the buzzard). The buzzard could also be Christ, which I think is a pretty shocking image. He preaches about life after death, an eternity of happiness, all wishes fulfilled. Almost like a buzzard feeding on carrion, his message gains strength on his “afterlife” assertions. People want hope, they want something greater, better than reality; they are more likely to abide by his teachings if they are promised a cushy seat in heaven. Jesus gains strength and followers by feeding on their fears and notions of death. The horses and the “cradle’s unimaginative sense of time” also juxtapose worldly and heavenly life. Horse laughing: “Yes this world sucks; sucker them in by offering better.” The cradle plays the obvious, “unimaginative” eternity card to sway a mass of mortal followers. “Springtime and the promise of an open fist A tattoo of a flower on a broken wrist” Jesus rises on Easter, opens his fist to show where the stakes hung him to the cross, but in this instance he is very worldly and contemporary, having a tattoo instead of a hole, and despite having risen from death as the son of God, he still has a broken wrist, a very mortal thing to sport when associated with God. The "flower tattoo" also substantially links Christ to the dogwood image. Anyway, all of this puts his "godhood" into serious doubt: what diving being has a tattoo and broken wrist? These descriptions are framed by the scene of two people, man and woman, sitting on a hill beneath a tree in the late afternoon. The song's religious skepticism is superbly amplified by the last two lines: “Lucy tells me jokingly to pe her brow With a pocket map to heaven and the sun goes down” To wipe your brow with a map to heaven doesn’t put much faith or importance in the map. It’s like she’s saying, “Yes, Christ’s promises about eternity are nice, but right now my brow is sweaty and I’d like to clean it. I’ll deal with that other stuff later--if ever. Right now, the sun’s setting and I’d like to watch.” |
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| Red Hot Chili Peppers – Slow Cheetah Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| About the above post: I referenced a version with different stanza breaks. Sorry if it's confusing. | |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers – Slow Cheetah Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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readymade423 mentioned earlier that “Slow Cheetah” was inspired by a girl Anthony knew named Yohanna. That makes perfect sense and no one else has mentioned it again. I think I’m going to have to share my interpretation, even though most of it was already covered by more in depth posts. This song has two themes. One: Anthony is addicted to heroin; he knows it will kill him and he’s tried to quit, but he can’t. Two: Anthony is trying to turn his new friend Yohanna on to heroin, which is a ploy to continue his own addiction. The first stanza is about waking up with a heroin hang over. “There is no med / No medicine to take,” may either indicate that he’s out of heroin or that there’s no cure for his addiction. I prefer the latter. The second stanza is an indication that he went to rehab, either succeeded or failed in cleaning himself up, but eventually relapsed: “I’ve had the chance to break.” The third introduces Yohanna. “It’s so bad it’s got to be good” is one of the reasons why “misfits” or, more precisely, a “mysterious girl” that is “misunderstood” may turn to heroin. I love the line “Dressed like a wedding cake.” I can imagine a wedding cake with that statuesque bride and groom sitting on top. The girl (Yohanna) is trying to conform to a stereotype (the prom queen who gets married and has a big wedding with a big wedding cake) to which she can never fit. The fourth stanza is about buying more heroin. If it were any other day in which he wasn’t trying to corrupt his mysterious girl, he would stop, or so he tells himself. Maybe he needs the girl just so that he can have his excuse. Anyway, the chorus: The “slow cheetah,” in my opinion, is Yohanna. A slow cheetah cannot keep up with the pack (or whatever a group of cheetahs is called), just as Yohanna (the misunderstood girl) cannot conform to or keep up with societal standards. “Come before my forest” is Anthony’s way of saying, “abandon what you can’t have and come to what’s unfamiliar yet more comfortable.” A slow cheetah can’t survive on the plain where speed is a necessity to catch prey, as someone else pointed out, just as Yohanna can’t survive in mainstream society. In other words, come shoot up with me cause it’s not what the pack would do and you don’t belong to the pack: “Looks like it’s on today.” The revised chorus: “It’s so euphoric / No matter what they say.” If that’s not heroin talk, I don’t know what is. The first stanza after the chorus describes how Yohanna came to be in the position that she’s in: taking up heroin. Her life is empty because she doesn’t fit in, etc. After that, Anthony shows that society has actively pushed her. “They” gave her a reason to shoot up, saying that she will never have such commercialized happiness as the doll on the cover of the mag. She must resort to something outside of society to achieve that happiness. I interpret the “it” in the last line of this stanza to stand for heroin, not the magazine. She finally gives in and Anthony has the reason he needs to continue his addiction. The second to last stanza simply states that “they” (society) keep on talking while ignoring those they harm. Yohanna has turned to drugs, and society doesn’t even notice, it “Do[esn’t] even hesitate.” The last stanza describes Anthony heading back to Bonnie Brae to re-up. He’s got to grab the juice to fuck Yohanna and himself up. The funeral imagery introduced in the fourth stanza is reintroduced here to help make the connection with Bonnie Brae. It also shows that Anthony knows he’s deteriorating because of the heroin, but that it’s still a merry old sound as he gets his fix. It’s a double-edged sword, of sorts. On the one hand, heroin makes him feel euphoric. On the other, it’s killing him. THE END Yeah, that’s my 650 words on a song that fucking rocks. Feel free to accept or reject it. And I hope it made sense. |
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| The Band – The Weight Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| allmusic.com has a good review that helps in understanding this totally and completely awesome song. Hit that junk up. | |
| Modest Mouse – 3rd Planet Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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It took me a while, but I think I’ve made sense out of this song, which is awesome, by the way. And the guy who posted the lyrics fucked up the stanzas. So, here goes: Everything that keeps me together is falling apart/I've got this thing that I consider my only art of fucking people over. My boss just quit the job, says he's goin out to find blind spots and he'll do it. The writer is becoming disillusioned: the world for him is "falling apart." And he is sharing his feelings, "fucking [other] people over," which is evidenced by his boss quitting "the job," losing his grip on the world, going crazy, "goin out to find blind spots." The 3rd Planet is sure that they're being watched by an eye in the sky that can't be stopped. When you get to the promise land your gonna shake that eyes hand. Here he presents the object of his troubles. The whole world is convinced that God is an invincible presence in the sky, watching over everything, uninvolved, and the only way to meet him is through death. Your heart felt good, it was drippin' pitch and made of wood. And your hands and knees felt cold and wet on the grass to me. Outside naked, shiverin' looking blue, from the cold sunlight that's reflected off the moon. Baby cum angels fly around you reminding you we used to be three and not just two. The "you" here is probably not an individual, but a plural you: humanity. The heart/soul of humanity is separated/hidden/protected from its environment, the Earth (pitch on wood keeps water out). And while the grass and the water (the Earth) feel cold and we (humanity) are naked and shivering because of the cold, the heart (our soul/God) is unaffected; it’s simply “good.” The heart is isolated. The author is presenting humanity and Earth as alone, without God, blah, blah, blah: a further explanation of his troubles. When this scene is taken as a couple having sex under the moon, which is illuminating the two, the baby (whose soul is in angel form) seems to float down from the moon. And let’s not forget that God is the “eye in the sky.” The baby’s soul/heart comes from God. The use of cum and angel (“Baby cum angels”) tells us that the baby is also apart of Earth. God (angels) and the Earth (cum) come together to form a baby. Taken as a whole (including the next stanza), the message is that we are not alone on the Earth. God is with us, contrary to what he, the author, feels is the common point of view. And this is the answer to his problem. And that's how the world began. And that's how the world will end. The three were together in the beginning (either the beginning of time or the conception of a new life), and they will be together in the end. A 3rd had just been made and we were swimming in the water, didn't know then, was it a son, was it a daughter? When it occurred to me that the animals are swimming around in the water in the oceans in our bodies and another had been found another ocean on the planet given that our blood is just like the Atlantic. And how. In the beginning, before we had our identity as male or female, everything was one big blob, together. The Earth, humanity, God—all came from the same place, as big as the Atlantic, all encompassing, blah, blah, blah. We are not alone; everything’s connected The universe is shaped exactly like the earth. If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were. Everything’s connected. |
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