| Howard Jones – No One Is To Blame Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Since no one has said anything about potential meanings, I'm going to take a crack at it. For me, it's a song about impossible love - about two people who are in love but can't be together, for any number of reasons. The two people know how great it could be but they can't have each other. Hence, they can look at the menu (see the other person, perhaps) but they can't eat (be together). They have the last piece of the puzzle (the other person) but they're not able to put it where it goes (into their lives). I like all the metaphors he finds to describe this situation. I'm pretty sure the riff is done with a synth, but yes - it is great. I like his vocals, too. |
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| Barenaked Ladies – If I Had A $1000000 Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I find the song bittersweet, I guess... it's fun but it's a little bit sad, too. It makes tears roll down my cheeks for a couple of different reasons: 1) the gentle innocence of it. It's playful and sweet and there's nothing even remotely nasty about it. It's clever but almost childlike in the expression of desire for things like Kraft dinner or treeforts. 2) It reminds me of what it feels like to really love someone but to be unable to show it. The million dollars, and the objects that come with it, are in this sense only a metaphor for being able to give love in all its forms and in all the ways that it seeks its own expression. The harmonizing in the "I'd buy your love" section is so lovely it makes my throat catch. |
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| Rainbow – Since You've Been Gone Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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You know how sometimes you're in the mood for a really well-prepared expensive meal? And so you get dressed up and you go to a critically acclaimed restaurant and you order a $30 entree? But other times, you know, sometimes, you're like in the mood for, I don't know - a grilled cheese sandwich made with Velveeta and dipped in canned tomato soup, maybe. And man when you're in the mood for something like that it's deee-f'n-licious. This song, my friends, is a pasteurized process cheese food sandwich. And I wouldn't have it any other way. The opening riff, if we can call it that, sets the tone for an uptempo churning rocker. The chorus is catchy. The vocal is a bit overwrought but it fits the song perfectly. I cannot listen to this song without feeling happy inside. It IS about a break-up, but I think the guy's just trying to work through his issues. He loves her, but he's mad at her, too. I think he's going to be just fine. Can you imagine these lyrics coming from someone like Chris Cornell? Ha! |
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| Neil Diamond – Sweet Caroline Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Great, fun song. I love the way it builds into an explosion; from the very beginning there's a sense of moving toward something big that's just going to knock your socks off. It fits the words really well - something like a love affair begins in a small way and then before you know it it's just this big huge beautiful happy thing. "The hands, touchin' hands" part gives me the goosebumps because there's such a sense of anticipation that builds and builds and builds until BAM! Sweet Caroline, bum bum bum - he chorus is incredibly infectious. There's a cool little old place in NE Minneapolis called Nye's - it's famous if you're from around there. There's a piano bar where people sit and sing along to songs this little old lady who's been there for like 8000 years plays. I've heard this song done there and it's a lot of fun with a crowd. I'd love to be in Fenway to experience that some time. I can't listen to this song without getting a smile on my face and feeling happy. And yes - it's about loving someone who loves you back and you can be together for always and everything is perfect. *sigh* It doesn't always feel this way, but boy when it does...! |
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| Steve Miller Band – Swingtown Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I have to add something here because no one has said anything about "Swingtown" yet. I think this was my very first favorite song ever. When I was really little my dad used to play the 45 for me and I would dance along to it. I remember spinning in a circle to watch my dress billow out. Anyway, it's a great, fun song. Every time I happen upon it on the radio I listen to the whole thing. There isn't much meaning here, obviously; it's just a happy song about having good times. I love the immediately recognizable opening, the bassline, the groove, the instrumental section in the last third (with the kind of cheesy but fun drumming), and then the fade at the end. Dooby bom da bom bom |
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| The Beatles – In My Life Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This is quite simply a gift from the Beatles to the world. Such a beautiful, sweet, simple song. The opening riff is enough to make me start welling up inside and it just builds from there. The lyrics combined with the chord progression just make for something very sweet and lump-in-throat inducing. And listen to Ringo's off-kilter drumming - it's strange but somehow it works. This is definitely John's song but in some ways it seems like more of a Paul song in the way it looks back and reminisces. Maybe that's what made them such a great songwriting team - when they were most like the other they were at their best. (?) Anyway, there is a softness and a sweetness about John's vocal here. He is really emotionally connecting as he is singing because it's almost like he's caressing some of the words. You can especially hear this when he says "there is no one compares with you" and at the end when he says "I love you more." I love the last high-pitched "in my-y-y life" that leads up to the end, as well as the coda with George's guitar and the way the song ends so satisfyingly and so "up" by bringing us right back to the root of the chord. Flat-out good songwriting. The Keep It Simple Stupid rule really shows itself here. The Beatles sometimes took themselves too seriously and got too fussy and too overly artsy. This is not one of those times, obviously. |
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| The Beatles – Oh! Darling Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I agree planetearth. One of the ironies of this song for me is that it is definitely more of a John song but it's arguably my favorite Paul song. It might even be my favorite Beatles song, though "In My Life" is right up there too. (Another irony, that: "In My Life" is more of a Paul song than a John song even though John supplied the vocal and presumably had a bigger hand in writing it.) Anyway, I love the heavy triplety bluesiness of this one, along with the barn-burning ripped-throat quality of the vocal. I love Paul's voice and I'm not sure he gets enough credit for how good of a singer he is. It's such a great performance; I can't believe John would have thought it a bad job. PinkFloydrulez - there are indeed lots other songs that sound like this one. Lots of them. If you go back to earlier in the '60s and even into the '50s a lot of southern/black R&B artists did songs with this type of sound & rhythm. A famous example is Otis Redding's "These Arms of Mine." Listen to the rhythm and the steady *plunk plunk plunk plunk* sound of the piano and you'll see what I mean. Just a great song. Love to scream along with it. |
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| Norah Jones – Painter Song Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I always think of van Gogh's Starry Night when I hear this song as well. This is a real favorite. I love things that are sweet and simple and innocent like this. The song is kind of melancholy and yet it's not entirely without hope... the music and the lyrics in the "And I'm dreaming of a place/Where I could see your face" sound sort of happy. The accordion section makes me want to cry it's so pretty and sad-sounding. It's probably about someone who got away or someone you can't have... but it's not necessarily romantic. The lyrics could fit a dear friend or a parent or someone that you loved who is gone. I also love the drowsy, lazy feel to it that others have described. I picture green grass and sunshine and someone just lying there barefoot and daydreaming... lovely lovely lovely. |
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| Audioslave – Show Me How to Live Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Just because Chris Cornell wouldn't define himself as a Catholic or a Christian doesn't mean he can't sing a song with strong Christ-related references in it to question why he is on earth and why God created him. I know next to nothing about him or the bands he's been in, but I do know that seeking purpose in life is pretty much universal and if you've been immersed in a religious setting as a child that stuff stays with you in some way, even if you rebel. "Show me how to live" is a great thing to say to God, actually. |
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| Audioslave – I Am the Highway Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I agree with most people in that this song is about someone who is sick of the way he's been treated and he's ridding himself of those who have been treating him ill. I don't necessarily feel all that sorry for him, though. In some ways I think he's on a tremendous ego trip here; he's letting the person/people who wronged him know that he's big - huge - almost omniscient and omnipresent (essentially almost like God), and while he's going to do forget about them (or so he says) they will be unable to forget him. Who but God has the right to say they're a highway? I would almost say Chris Cornell is trying to portray the voice of God/Jesus, but Jesus wouldn't say some of these things. Maybe the songwriter thinks He would, though. Having said that, I love the sound and feel of it. It's spooky and mysterious and reminds me of driving down a dark lonely road at night - just you and your car and the wind. |
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