submissions
| The Minus 5 – Cemetery Row Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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The song's narrator could be an elderly person in a nursing home, i.e., the old house where life is wearing thin and its numbness is causing the person to anticipate moving to Cemetery Row. |
submissions
| Greg MacPherson – The Company Store Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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According to an interview with the singer aired on CBC Radio 3, this song is about the singer's grandfather who worked in a coal mine in Glace Bay, Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia) at the turn of the twentieth century. Working up to 70 to 80 hours a week under horrible conditions with no safety standards for incredibly low wages, miners had to pay back most of their wages to the company for their rent, food and clothing. The story goes that in the 1920s a group of miners got together in opposition to the company in protest and burned down the store. In response, the company basically held them over a barrel with wages until the union got strong enough that they could fight back and organize to the point where they got decent wages and decent working conditions. But it took 30-40 years for that to happen.
The song's message is applicable for today and resonates with audiences seeking to make the world a better place through strength in numbers. |
submissions
| Fembots – Good Days Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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It's all a matter of perspective. Are you going to believe the doom and gloom or are you going to believe that things are good? |
submissions
| Radiohead – Nude Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Even thinking about success is dirty (like pornography, which is a metaphor here) in a world where failure is the accepted norm. |
submissions
| The Dø – On My Shoulders Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I think it ends with "How long will I sit and wait like a soldier How many summers will I wait"
This seems to be about sacrifices people make or are expected to make in life. Whether it's for a family member, a friend, a lover, a corporation or one's country, the sacrifice does not seem to be reciprocated or appreciated. |
submissions
| Mother Mother – Polynesia Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Pretty simple really. It's about realizing your dreams, even if it means taking a leap of faith off of solid ground. |
submissions
| The Weakerthans – Civil Twilight Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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The bus driver's job requires him to pay attention to the road where guided during the rush hour commute by the civil twilight. So it's ironic that the civil relationship with his ex ended abruptly since clearly the cracks had started to show before she told him she had to go, but he was far less observant and failed to heed the warning signs and basically missed the bus at a chance to fix things. |
submissions
| Jill Barber – Hard Line Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I think the hard line is the line dividing those who live a life without compromise and those who know true love. The protagonist has chosen to cross that line by ending a relationship with someone who couldn't compromise. |
submissions
| Menomena – Evil Bee Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I think yr right, muzak: marrying man with machine to produce an army of cyborg soldiers |
submissions
| Menomena – Boyscout'n Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I think it's about a kid who's life was messed up until he joined the boy scouts which led to him becoming a soldier which led to him killing a helpless man which led to his life being messed up |
submissions
| Spoon – The Underdog Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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forgot to add.. the mainstream is the record industry is the middleman that will be cut out! |
submissions
| Spoon – The Underdog Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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A mainstream record industry that eats its own by cheating its artists and suing its customers will not survive! |
submissions
| Tokyo Police Club – Your English Is Good Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Maybe the song should be re-titled to "Your CanLit is good"?
This song includes an obscure reference to a book by Robertson Davies, who is one of my favourite authors. |
submissions
| Dog Day – Oh Dead Life Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Carpe diem and all that. The "spend my time as soon as I can" is a cool way to say that when opportunity knocks, don't hesitate. |
submissions
| Great Northern – Home Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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someone has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and there's nothing more the hospital can do so the patient is sent home with enough medicine to ease the suffering |
submissions
| The New Pornographers – My Rights Versus Yours Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Could this song be about DRM ("complex notes inside the chords","dangerous levels" of medicine) and the RIAA (the "packs of dogs in charge") trying to pit the artists against the consumers in the courts? |
submissions
| The Cliks – Oh Yeah Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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My interpretation is a little different. I think it's written from a mother's point of view. Her son is grown up but in her heart he'll always be her baby (girl). |
submissions
| The Cliks – Oh Yeah Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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My interpretation is a little different. I think it's written from a mother's point of view. Her son is grown up but sin her heart he'll always be her baby (girl). |
submissions
| Immaculate Machine – Dear Confessor Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song is a religious metaphor and the clue is in the title of the song. Sheep who have no purpose in life other than to blindly follow other's plans for salvation will be unprepared to defend that the life they led had purpose when pleading to the final Confessor that they followed the map to get there. |
submissions
| Voxtrot – Steven Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song's theme is that childbirth marks the beginning of a single life (Steven's), but the end of shared life (mother and foetus). It's a mixture of joy and sorrow for the mother. |
submissions
| Rufus Wainwright – Going to a Town Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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The singer is Canadian but the town is NYC (post 9-11), where he now lives. The song pretty much sums up how 75% of Americans feel about their current administration, i.e., let down. |
submissions
| Basia Bulat – Snakes and Ladders Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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No taxi towns here:
"What a perfect accident. Oh we danced around them all"
No divorce either:
"You've been listening to voices in your head. Helpless when they go."
It's about how sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind and embrace the risk of failure in order to taste success. |
submissions
| Idlewild – No Emotion Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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the skeleton that surrounds is the shell used to hide oneself from the world of emotion. But the inner soul has wilted away to nothingness surrounded by an empty shell. |
submissions
| Apostle of Hustle – National Anthem of Nowhere Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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The national anthem of nowhere is the song of the sea. This personification of the sea is a woman that men cannot conquer "float through her veins/she sends her sailors in/they don't come back/the sea don't care." |
submissions
| Kirsty MacColl – A New England Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I don't normally like it when cover versions change the lyrics of the original version, but I make an exception for this one just because of the new part at the end. Does anyone know if Kirsty wrote the following lyrics herself or did Billy Bragg supply them?
"Once upon a time at home
I sat beside the telephone
Waiting for someone to pull me through
When at last it didn’t ring, I knew it wasn’t you"
Of course before the phone didn't just suddenly stop ringing since it was never ringing all night. It's a great analogy for how she finally comes to the sudden realization that the man she thought was hers was not, as she had thought before. He was just space junk that she was wishing was a shooting star. |
submissions
| M. Ward – Chinese Translation Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Yep... although the tree has aged from a sapling to a weeping willow, so at least there is a progression there (or if not, at least the periodicity of the cycle of life is different for the tree). |
submissions
| Grandaddy – Elevate Myself Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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It's about why he writes songs. It's not for stardom or fame. It's not to keep busy. He does it because he loves music. Making an honest sound is what he does to elevate himself and if it's not honest, he'll be on his way and do something else with his life. |
submissions
| Calexico – Bisbee Blue Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Bisbee is a small city in Arizona, home of a formerly copper and turquoise-rich mines.
The narrator appears to be bemoaning the loss of something beautifully found in nature (the blue turquoise gems from the mine) which has now been lost forever due to short-term commercial mining priorities ("Some say this way's the only one that's true/bring me back bisbee blue) |
submissions
| Cursive – Dorothy at Forty Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Telling Dorothy (i.e., the average American) that what started off as an American dream will become a nightmare unless Dorthy (each and every American) wakes up, grows up, and acts to make a difference to improve the lives of this and future generations |
submissions
| Pilate – Barely Listening Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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From checking other lyrics sites, I think the lyrics of the last verse submitted here are wrong. The last verse should be:
You can't shape love with a hammer
You can't shape love with a will
What horror lies in knowing
There's no fate that chaos can't kill.
-- With those lyrics, I think the song is saying that while religion ultimately cannot provide any answers about life in a universe which in truth we all know to be horrifyingly chaotic, prayer is necessary because it fulfills the need of providing temporary solace and relief ("smiles and looks the other way") until we die (or until the afterlife in a different universe where prayers are answered). The reasons answers to prayers are illusive now is because even if a godlike entity is listening, it has no powers in this universe other than the inner strength that faith provides to help you get through life, e.g., for Christians part of that strength is provided by belief in the afterlife. |
submissions
| Warren G – Regulate Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Can you hear the beat of my heart? Bump-ba-bump-ba-bump-ba-bump-ba-bump-ba-bump-ba-bump-a-bump! |
submissions
| Grandaddy – Rear View Mirror Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Agreed. The rear view mirror metaphor is used to say that despite the pioneering band's breakup, its members will boldly go forward and continue to achieve great new things without dwelling on what's behind them in the rear view mirror. |
submissions
| Calexico – All Systems Red Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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The first half of the song fills me with tears as the chimes of freedom fade away. The second half sends a chill up my spine as the chimes of freedom are only a memory.
I see parallels between this song's lyrics and various contemporary events, e.g., 9/11, the war on terrorism, the Iraqi war, wiretapping Americans, etc. Personally, the song takes me to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga with Frodo's mission to stop the encroachment of the Shadow of Mordor on Middle Earth. |
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