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| Kyle Craft – Pentecost Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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It's focused on this Todd character and he seems to have turned to conservative Christianity as a remedy for drug addiction and mental illness.
The narrator seems to be an old friend who sees Todd as sort of brainwashed and by the end of the song is persuading him to go back to the reckless way he used to live. |
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| Throwing Muses – Hate My Way Lyrics
| 8 years ago
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The second to last verse is about the 1984 San Ysidro McDonald's massacre, as someone mentioned earlier. They lyric about the boy tangled in his bicycle refers to a famous picture from that incident, which showed a boy who was killed by the gunman in front of the McDonald's and whose body was awkwardly tangled up in his bike. Very sad picture, very sad song overall, but interesting that Kristin Hersh thought to include the McDonald's massacre in this song. It occurred long before mass shootings became commonplace, and even though so many people (20+) were killed, it seems to have been mostly forgotten, even in San Diego. |
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| R.E.M. – I Believe Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Guess I'll add- I think this is the REM song that actually is about losing your religion. |
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| R.E.M. – I Believe Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I've imagined that it's about losing your religious faith and needing to affirm that you still believe in something after the traditional explanations have failed you. It was the first few lines that led me to this: when you're young you happily embrace the beliefs that are handed down to you, but then you may begin to interrogate those beliefs... then it's uncertainty, randomness, and change as the only true eternal thing. Yet you still want to believe, to find meaning somewhere.
Obviously personal experience colors my interpretation, but I think that's what's great about Stipe's lyrics. You can graft your own meaning on to them. It used to annoy me that they were so abstract, but I guess I've completely gotten over that. |
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| Flipper – Ever Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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"Ever take control of a dream
And play all the parts and set all the scenes?"
Just noticed this reference to lucid dreaming. |
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| The National – Abel Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This song makes me imagine somebody who's with a friend and who has just taken drugs of some sort. And these drugs are beginning to kick in, and the high is a bit more intense than he expected it would be, so he's really not enjoying it. So this guy, the narrator, is talking to his friend Abel, saying, help me regain control, help talk me down or whatnot because my mind has totally run amok on these drugs.
I don't think this is the exact situation that the song is suppoused to be describing, it's just what I'm led to imagine. for some reason. |
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| Hüsker Dü – It's Not Funny Anymore Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This is Grant urging punks, artists, people in general to follow their own desires and embrace the possibilities of freedom. The title is suggesting that people grow up and stop limiting themselves by trying to fit in, stop playing their immature, small-minded games. The lyrics seem very plain but they carry a ton of weight: "do what you want to do," "be what you want to be," very liberating words. Grant is more interested in helping people open their minds than he is in telling them off (as most angry punks would do). This song is a massive statement of purpose for the Huskers. As a band they definitely lived these words. |
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| Afghan Whigs – Congregration Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song is colossal. Very demonstrative. Some lines suggest heroin addiction but I think there's a lot more to it than that. These could be Dulli's feelings on the relationship between he and his audience, and the transformation that he undergoes before the audience. |
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| Hüsker Dü – Keep Hanging On Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song is about having something perfect in your hands and wanting to hold on to it forever. I think it's also about the struggle to maintain this feeling of excitement in a long-term relationship, with all of the trappings of everyday life flooding in to the picture.
Grant is so on the mark here, it might be my favorite song ever. |
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| Hum – Stars Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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If songs were people, I'd set this one up on a date with "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star. |
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| The Waterboys – The Whole Of The Moon Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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The "too high, too far, too soon" part is what sends the shivers down my spine here... seems to suggest that whatever contact this person had with something transcendent eventually brought about their decline, perhaps their death. Like a tragic artist who senses things too strongly to survive for very long in this world.
I think this song expresses genuine admiration rather than jealousy. But I wonder whether the person he's singing about really does live a life of effortless clarity, or if the singer has idealized this person, romanticized him or her. I mention this because there are people I've met who I could apply this song to, but I also know that on the inside they're probably a lot more normal than I sometimes imagine them to be... Is any person really closer to something divine than anyone else?
Incredible, incredible song, great lyrics, and I only heard it for the first time last week! |
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| The Waterboys – Fisherman's Blues Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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You have got to be kidding me. Where are the drug references? Maybe I'm not cool enough to notice them.
This song is about the distance between our ideal lives and our lives in reality. Its about wishing to be freed from our constricted, problem-filled lives and to get in tough with something transcendent.
Drugs could be one of the problems to escape from, but they're hardly implied by the song.
Beautiful song, BTW. |
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| Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Timorous Me Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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One of my favorite songs to have been released so far this decade...
I like how this song moves forward chronologically. First verse about a childhood playmate, second about a girl he briefly met when he was younger, and the last one is a perfect portriat of two people who are in a long-term relationship. That last verse especially reminds me of something from a Springsteen song. Very wistful. |
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| Ben Folds Five – Jackson Cannery Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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BF has said this song was inspired by a guy he vaguely knew who had a crack-up episode while taking the bus to work. This guy demanded that the bus stop in the middle of the street, then abruptly wandered off to someplace like Ireland...
Seems he's mostly talking about how against human nature it is to spend most of your life working in a factory (or wherever).... so here's this guy who just says, "fuck it, I'm outta here!" |
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| Toad the Wet Sprocket – Nanci Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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It's about two people (close friends?) who have some ongoing argument or disagreement, but instead of addressing the real, serious issue, they work out their tension by bickering over which country music singer they prefer (Loretta Lynn or Nanci Griffiths). And all the while they have an unspoken agreement that the real issue will remain unmentioned. |
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| Toad the Wet Sprocket – All I Want Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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The song is about hanging on to one elevated moment, and knowing that it won't last, that there will be a letdown, but not caring.
I think the post-break up sex scenario that Jag suggested is quite likely. |
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| INXS – Don't Change Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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The song is just about being at the peak moment of your life, every problem resolved, and wanting to remain in that space forever. A very powerful song for a very powerful feeling. |
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| Paul Westerberg – Love Untold Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I echo every sentiment expressed by winker, including the ones about tearing up over the video and Paul Schaeffer being annoying. |
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| Guided by Voices – Choking Tara Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Both the original and "creamy version" of this one are just excellent.
...yeah definitely possessive impulses and domestic violence perhaps. |
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| Guided by Voices – Teenage FBI Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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yeah I read about the nose-picking thing too... still feel that this song perfectly captures teenage self-consciousness. Also funny how 40+ year old Bob sounds like an earnest teenager singing it. |
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| Sebadoh – Brand New Love Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I've always felt that this song was very hopeful, but at the same time I could understand if somebody felt the opposite way. Lou kind of equates love with suffering here, so I guess any optimism is dampened by that. |
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| Pavement – Spit On A Stranger Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I agree with warsaw. The first half of the song seems to be about the disillusion of a relationship, and when it's over, "I could spit on a stranger," meaning, I could go out and hook up with somebody else just for the hell of it. I see the second half as being about the beginning of a new relationship and thus the perpetuation of the cycle... |
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| Pavement – Grounded Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Wow, it really is about doctors. I've listened to this one several times and not really noticed that. And I'd say SM really nails it with the point he brings up. You imagine that people become doctors because they want to get rich, not necessarily because they want to help people... and yet their job is to help people when they need it most, so they must get pretty disconnected from any sense of purpose.
Some Pavement songs are weirdly topical. Like how Elevate Me Later is about political correctness. |
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| The Replacements – Little Mascara Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I love this song, and I seriously think that if some country musician covered it, it would be a hit. Ya know, slow it down a bit, add some fiddle and pedal steel, have somebody with a dopey voice like Tim McGraw do the vocals. Get Nashville on the phone, this one could make PW the riches he deserves. |
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| Pavement – Elevate Me Later Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Yeh it's a great skewering of PC, saying how it basically wastes progressive energy on hairsplitting ("forty different shades of black/so many fortresses and ways to attack"). I gotta agree with him there.
Also like how he mockingly refers to protests as "complaining". |
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| The Clash – The Prisoner Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Weird song. Listening to this while high was the greatest experience I ever had while in that state... On the surface it sounds like a straight up punk song, but listen closely and there's a lot of strange noises in the mix.
Indiemonkey seems about right... Also the title is referring to the bizzaro British 60s tv series of the same name. |
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| The Clash – Spanish Bombs Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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If anybody is still following along this far in... This is my favorite Clash song. I still recall the very first time I heard it, years ago, and just being transfixed because I had never heard a song so hauntingly beautiful before.
--I think of these lyrics as poetry, as a series of impressions resulting from Joe's meditation upon the Spanish Civil War. Though he sympathizes with the doomed anti-fascists, he's not really making a statementor anything, he's just presenting a series images and thoughts. But it's still very powerful and just fucking brilliant.
--I always thought that "They sang the red flag/They wore the black one" was speaking of the leftist (red) forces who fought the fascists and were mostly killed, and thus wrapped in a black burial shroud.
--Joe was in a relationship with a Spanish woman when he wrote this song, which probably inspired the love sotry elements here.
--What is Mockingbird Hill?? |
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| The Replacements – Bastards Of Young Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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"Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function"
...having custody of a child allows the guardian to claim a deduction on their income taxes. Maybe this is obvious to everyone else, but that line never made any sense to me until a friend explained it. |
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| The Replacements – Androgynous Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I think this song is partially a tribute to Prince and his crowd who were also on the scene in MN at the time ("same hair, REVOLUTION"?). Anybody who has seen Purple Rain knows that, in terms of dress, there's not much to seperate the guys and girls in that movie.
And, I was only born in 1981, but I get the sense that in the 80s it was much more of a fad for people to dress androgynously. I think we've actually regressed since then to become less accepting of this. |
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| Modest Mouse – Interstate 8 Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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When I saw MM once in San Diego they opened with this song and I guessed it was because they had just driven into town on the I-8 from Arizona.
I like the "I spent the same 18 hours in the same damn place" line, because when you drive, you're moving but you're in the same place the whole time, sitting in your car. |
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| Jawbox – Cooling Card Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I used to get a lot out of this song for some reason but not so much anymore. The lyrics are pretty cryptic. As far as I can tell it's about having regrets, indecision, frustration and destructive urges. But that's about as specific as I can get. Great melodic/abrasive tune though. |
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| The Replacements – Can't Hardly Wait (Tim demo version) Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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This version is a bit more clear about being the lead-up to a suicide. I can only guess that Paul changed the lyrics for the PTMM version to avoid redundancy with "The Ledge", though the PTMM version is still a suicide song, no doubt about it.
This version was produced by Alex Chilton and kicks major ass. Love the charging beat and Bob Stinson's great, restrained lead. The other version is nice too, but this one is definitive to me. |
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| Wipers – Telepathic Love Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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This is one of my favorite Wipers songs even though I guess it's kind of a throwaway track...
Just makes me imagine a very shy and self-conscious person looking on at somebody they desperately want to communicate with but are unable to. Telepathy would be the cure for social isolation, a way to express hidden feelings without making a public display--if only it worked.
Knowing what a sci-fi nut Greg Sage is perhaps he was thinking of telepathically conversing with the aliens or whoever when he wrote this, but then why the title?
Also, I hear the repeated line as "telepathic affair" rather than "telepathic band". Though I have to admit when I first heard this song I thought it was "telepathic cafe", so what do I know? |
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