| Silversun Pickups – Well Thought Out Twinkles Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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All of this should be taken in the context of me talking about Zooey Deschannel, or rather any character she's ever been. First I'll just assume it's a man's point of view. No guarantee it's about a woman straight away, but that's where I'm going. I believe the singer is directly involved with the object, rather than as an omniscient teller of a story. The first characteristic of Zooey's heroines is always a push everyone away super independence. But the cause is usually twofold, 1. Some horror of the world has wounded our heroine, but usually not the cliche (sexual) abuse, but rather a thought of the world being such a bad place. Rooted maybe in all the suffering and her deep compassion. A scar she wears put on her from afar. 2. As a character her joie de vivre is independent and a declaration of her brilliant idea ("light") to always live to the fullest. A light she integrates into her mind. Zooey's modus operandi is freespirited love so long as there's no attachment. Unless, there's a sign. When she knows she's in love, she always is. I'd be stretching to make the third line fit exactly, but actually I'm OK with it standing just as it is with no interpretation and fitting this analysis. The following line is exactly her mantra "there will be a sign, and you will pass it naturally in time." Now that we have a heroine for the song, she is invited to join what (we'll find out soon) is to be the end of the world, with all her flaws (sores) exposed and to speak, sing and scream freely ("open jaw"). All flaws but one. This is where our character becomes like so many, if not all, people. Certainly I identify with it. There is a giant emotional risk in such attachment that you give up all your flaws; all your secrets. Our heroine can't take that final step to give up every last piece of herself that is only hers. I'd argue she does so correctly. Honesty, trust and sharing are cornerpiece to relationship, but should our selves be lost? "Find one last flaw and keep it safe and free from harm" I should mention this line is the basis of my entire interpretation. It seems to me the best line in the song, just ahead of the first two, and these three as such seem to be most important to making our first assumptions. I can find no other reasonably appropriate and consistent explanation to these lines. In an emotionally charged part of the song, the idea of protecting a flaw, and not just from discovery, but to keep the flaw itself safe is strongly suggestive to me. Again, especially due to it's repetition I'll leave "what have you done it's too early for everyone" basically alone. I think it should be interpreted as a direct question from the singer to the heroine. The context of the question seems to me to be a reprimand or at least a warning about falling in love too soon. He follows by telling her not to worry, relax, there is no sign, because truly, though our heroine wants to fall in love, and in some ways is desperate for her sign; in many others finding it is terrifying. Finally we see our lovers in love. Now here they are revisiting the ancient time and ancient place, the ancient industry of love. But this is to be the "last hurrah" and their "apocalyptic views" mean they believe they're leaving soon, and they promise only that their love will last until then. In this way a commitment is made, and it is real and true and deep, yet our fatalistic heroes still promise to cling to the qualifier "but we'll be dead soon anyway." Of course it's "comforting" to each that the other "feels it too." But who are our heroes to promise the end of the world? This is their acknowledgment that they do mean forever, though are too scared to say so. The last verse is entirely repetition of earlier lines. (With minor modification to the last line.) Their meanings, though very similar, are changed by coming after the heroes' love. I'm not actually sure what they change to. Option 1) True love realized. Their last harrah lasts a full lifetime, sores exposed and all and still they sing joyously. Love is now what's integrated in her mind. The question "what have you done?" is now asked mocking the question itself, and the sign is love that spills over and over and over and over. Option 2) The relationship has fallen apart and has found the conclusion that is so often inevitable with the incredible, beautiful, deeply self aware, loving but always still just a little crazy woman. This is now all bitter. It becomes the words screamed at an already closed door. The emotion and tenor of the song suggests option 2 to me, but I personally am an almost eternal optimist, and should love to believe that the promise in the third verse is upheld and this is a great love story. Perhaps the real meaning should is "is this crazy fatalistic WHATEVER-THE-FUCK-IT-IS really love?" As a disclaimer, I know absolutely shit about this. Any interpretation, by anyone, is just as likely to be wrong as it is right; and nearly infinitely more. Well written music (poetry) is always open to multiple interpretations. It is written in a way that is evocative, and will necessarily draw a lot of different emotions and situations out of its listeners. In this way no interpretation is ever really wrong. To my reading, I have described what I believe the most likely analysis of the song but can declare no real meaning. Lastly, I'd like to thank Ms. Deschannel for playing the role of "Heroine" in this. She's a wonderful actresses. |
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| Taking Back Sunday – Number Five with a Bullet Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think the title allusion should lead us to a breakup. The breakup then that I've always seen in this song is the one that is so typically the result of the defect of women. I suppose it's unfair to call it a defect (it sure feels like it) but so often they can't decide whether they want some kind of a long term relationship or a straight up breakup. (Said it makes you want to fall in love; or be smart enough to keep your distance) The scene I see then is Adam and this woman getting ready to go to (let's say) the Grammys. He's already ready, but she (even though she still hasn't even decided what to wear) brings this up. The inevitable fight begins and he begs "just get dressed, don't do this." She argues long term relationships don't work. He answers "well yeah you've been there once or twice; but I say you just never gave it a chance. (Give me a chance)" and why does it have to be one or the other, things are GREAT RIGHT NOW, "Besides did you ever stop to think that we could keep this up, living like thieves?" She gets mad and says they're breaking up and he asks "are you positive, absolutely sure?" because he knows she will change her mind another dozen times at least, she hasn't really decided anything. (But you can't decide, no you can't decide) So they eventually leave and he knows that making it with this woman is "hit or miss" and "in spite" he's not going to let fate, if you will, decide. He tells her "just so you know, when we get home we're through." |
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| Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Lead Belly cover) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| It's true Kurt says in his goodbye letter that he didn't love it anymore, especially the the crowds and being the performer, but I have to think this equates fairly well with heroin use. The first of the music he played would have been like the first time on heroin--being kissed by God. After that you chase the feeling, but can never get it back, at least not like that first time. I tend to think of this performance like getting really really good heroin; sure it may not be a kiss from God, but maybe like a hug from an angel instead. I think most of the time he's enjoying it, and in this song particularly I doubt the release he feels is from being through with the show; it's the release that comes from being totally free in the moment of overwhelming accomplishment. | |
| Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Lead Belly cover) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Ridiculous. Kurt Cobain had to read the lyrics/music? This is just about the most incredible piece of music ever performed and you think he was reading it like some 8th grade music student? Leadbelly was his FAVORITE performer; Kurt could play this song blindfolded and with his arms tied behind his back. | |
| Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Lead Belly cover) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I'm not sure it matters, the why and the what of Kurt's performance of this song. We all agree it's incredible, haunting, the most amazing performance we've ever witnessed. The synergy of the conversation beforehand, Leadbelly being his favorite performer, the $500,000 for the guitar, all of that, then followed by a performance that eclipsed Leadbelly as a performer, and in some way brought Kurt's guitars up to the millions they sell for now. It all comes together in a way that is just fucking moving. I don't know if Kurt intended any personal meaning to the song. Maybe it was a blast at Courtney. Maybe it entails all of his depression and suicidal thoughts, to say as the first line of his goodbye note, the "experienced simpleton who obviously would rather be an emasculated, infantile complain-ee." But maybe, and this is what I think most, and for his sake I hope it's true, maybe for his final performance for the world (whether he committed suicide, or just intended to walk away and was murdered for it, I think he knew this was his farewell) he just wanted to play a song he loved the best from a musician who was his "favorite performer." He said himself afterward that he could never top it. I think from the perspective of a musician that's the power of the song and the performance. I have no musical ability, but an intense love for it. The look, the moment when his eyes open was overwhelming when I saw it first, also the first I'd heard the song. I think I'd most have to call that look freedom and love. Love of music, and freedom, the feeling, the total deep down inner emotion more powerful than any other that he and so many others find in music. His goodbye note talks of how it wasn't the crowd he loved. There is no doubt though that he loved music as much as any man ever has. You don't get to be that good, you don't have that emotion in your songs without an absolute love of it. He lost that love at the end, but I'm all but certain that instant his eyes open he's feeling again the freedom in music that had been absent as his life spiraled out of control. I think having lost that feeling is what caused the spiral. I don't know. I can't know. To know the mind of that great a man must require an equal mind, and I'm not sure such a thing has ever existed. No, the why and the what of this song don't carry any meaning at all, at least not any that can compare to the meaning of a man capable of such amazing performance and such raw emotion. That's what makes us all shiver. |
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| Sudsonbleeker – Blue October - Foiled Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Indigo Girls leaves just violet out of the colors of the rainbow, but maybe we'll let Deep Purple substitute. | |
| Madness – Bed And Breakfast Man Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| WOW! I'm commenting here just to make you feel better. I've never heard the song, or of the artist for that matter. | |
| Bright Eyes – Road to Joy Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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/No one ever plans to sleep out in the gutter/ Sometimes that's just the most comfortable place/ I wanted to hit this one separate from the war lyric cause it's one of my favorites. We all know Conor is basically God at figurative plays on language, but I think we're missing the literal a lot of the time. Sleeping on the streets the gutter may well be the most comfortable place to sleep. Something to prop your head up on. Seems to me every time I see someone sleeping in the streets they're doing it someplace they can lean their head. I think a literal and figurative meaning together amount to something roughly akin to "even if life is completely fucked off we'll still find the most comfortable place we can." |
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| Bright Eyes – Road to Joy Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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If there's one thing I've learned from listening to Bright Eyes it's that I should never assume to know what Conor is trying to say, cause the guy is a fuck of a lot smarter than I am. Still, I keep trying to interpret just because the guy is so mad genius that there's no way not to take something from almost every song, even if you're completely wrong about what HE MEANT. /So when you're asked to fight a war that's over nothing/ It's best to join the side that's going to win/ How do you know what side is going to win a war? Don't join any side. Don't fight in a war. /But we're going to make them goddamn certain how it's gonna end/ It's gonna end with dead boys and girls, men and women, soldiers and civilians. |
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| Muse – Take a Bow Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| knightofcydonia FOOL. WHAT OTHER IMAGES FLASHED? It's today, it's the past it's the future. You scapegoat Bush all you want, but when he's gone the problems will still be there... who will you blame then? | |
| Muse – Knights of Cydonia Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I don't know it for sure, but I'm pretty sure it's "come ride with me through the VEINS of history" It's not really meant to be about the horses at this point, I mean, it ties in, but the actual meaning is fairly anit-religious if you ask me, and being that the band members are atheists I think I'm right. It's saying if you look throughout history there are times where God (if one existed) wasn't doing his job. Allowing war and famine and destruction on nearly unfathomable scales. The rest of the song isn't a call to arms exactly. Anyone that believes the only way to fight for your rights and survival is to actually physically fight has the wrong idea. There are crazy right wing militias all over the US like that. Terrorism would not seem to be Muse's call. More likely, the fight is within each of us, fight to do what's right at every turn in your life. Let go the comfort and familiarity of the world we've always known and make it better. Don't be party to your own destruction. I have every faith that the day we all stop participating in the downfall of the world our leaders will take notice and do so as well. |
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| Muse – Take a Bow Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I have done no research as to how Muse themselves define this song so I may be completely wrong. I don't think I am though. I think the type of person motivated to make a song like this is not the type of person to judge the efforts of the individual. I say this because it is my own personal opinion, but also because it is the opinion of every higher minded person I know. The simple fools believe that it's Bush's or Blair's problem; that without them there wouldn't be these senseless wars. But they did not create the terrorist. The terrorist was created long ago. He will be around long after both Bush and Blair are gone. A song like this gets written by people who are smart enough to know that it's not this leader or that one that has caused our plight, it's all of them. I don't doubt Muse may be making a statement on present leadership, but a song like this is written to be timeless, and it's written because the writer understands the future holds only more of the same. Know this: Your grandchildren or theirs will one day learn of presidents and prime ministers the world came to think of as great, and surely they will be more repressive and more war mongering than today's. That is of course unless the small minded come to realize that problems are not solved with a new president. A new President is only an excuse for 8 more years of apathy from the simple minded while they wait for the next guy to come along and be better than the last. None ever will though. These old white guys that keep coming to power are smarter than you. You ignore who they are, what system they belong to and continue to hand them your vote, which they continue to believe is mandate. Revolt against the vote. When less than 1% comes out to vote they will know they have reached their end. They will know they will never be able to claim a majority again, and then their entitlement will end. They will know if they want to steal our countries and our freedoms we will not condone it, and revolution will be upon us. And we won't have to lift a finger. |
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| Blue October – Hate Me Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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It's surely a credit to the band, and Justin as the writer, that so many people can find so many things to identify with in Blue October's music. The ability to convey pure emotion beyond just the lyrics allows anyone to connect with the feeling of the song, and perhaps lose sight of what is really a personal struggle for Justin. /I have to block out thoughts of you so I don’t lose my head They crawl in like a cockroach leaving babies in my bed Dropping little reels of tape to remind me that I’m alone Playing movies in my head that make a porno feel like home/ I think this is about memories of all the things he's done to hurt the woman in the song. No matter how great some of his memories are of times with her any thought eventually leads to the things he did wrong, lies told and his sort of double life during his addiction. “Make a porno feel like home” is a reference to a fake or hollow version of what should be an incredibly emotional scene, his memories seem perverse because of the lies behind them. /There's a burning in my pride, a nervous bleeding in my brain/ This is doubt, pure and simple doubt over everything to do with her. /An ounce of peace is all I want for you. will you never call again? And will you never say you that love me just to put in my face? And will you never try to reach me? it is I that wanted space/ A continuation of doubt, except about specifics. People who are looking for something to identify with in this song without forgetting that it is ultimately written for the author and not them should take the lesson of “never say that you love me just to put it in my face.” This is possibly the most hurtful thing someone could do to someone they love, and it happens all the time. To feel loved is to feel blessed, and to have that blessing thrown in your face, to know that it's caused the person you love incredible pain is unbearable. It's an emotional lesson that doesn't distort any specific events that are key to the song. /Hate me today Hate me tomorrow Hate me so you can finally see what’s good for you/ Haunting /I’m sober now for 3 whole months it’s one accomplishment that you helped me with The one thing that always tore us apart is the one thing I won’t touch again And in a sick way I want to thank you for holding my head up late at night While I was busy waging wars on myself, you were trying to stop the fight/ It's impossible to say without actually asking the author what the one thing is. It's possible it's addiction in general. For reference though the band was heavily into drugs from their own words. Justin very definitely used cocaine. I assume heroin from a reference to 'not putting things in my veins' but then that's not to say it couldn't have been something else, it's just the most common. I doubt it's alcoholism, as it's never discussed by the band that I've seen. I don't doubt it's possible that he drank as well, but there's nothing I've seen which suggests that drinking was a major problem, at least compared to his drug use. It seems disrespectful to the struggle to suggest 'merely' alcoholism. (I know the struggle of both well, and I don't mean to make light of alcoholism, but everyone that says “I know what he's feeling exactly because I have experience with alcoholism” doesn't have any clue what he's feeling.) /You never doubted my warped opinions on things like suicidal hate/ Not sure who's hate it is, but probably his own for himself. Those are what suicidal thoughts are. /You made me compliment myself when it was way too hard to take So I’ll drive so fucking far away that I never cross your mind And do whatever it takes in your heart to leave me behind/ It's so embarrassing to be at one's worst in front of the people that care enough save your life. It feels like such a disappointment knowing that they've always believed the best and you can't convince yourself that they're right. It's enough to save your life, but it's also enough to make you want to never have to face it again. /Hate me today Hate me tomorrow Hate me for all the things I didn’t do for you Hate me in ways Yeah ways hard to swallow Hate me so you can finally see what’s good for you/ This whole song is a premise for why it's best for her to leave, to hate him. It's his request, what he feels is the only thing he can give her which is equal to what she's given him, her freedom from all the pain. /And with a sad heart I say bye to you and wave Kicking shadows on the street for every mistake that I had made/ Just the feelings of leaving, knowing it's your own damn fault. /And like a baby boy I never was a man/ A great line for everyone that's always known they were just so mature. In moments where maturity is formed old feelings of maturity feel like little more than being a baby. /Until I saw your blue eyes bright and I held your face in my hand And then fell down yelling “make it go away!” Just make a smile come back and shine just like is used to be And then she whispered “how can you do this to me?”/ One of those moments of realization of just what maturity is. The realization of knowing that we've been nothing, that'd he'd been the cause of so much pain. Everyone should reevaluate just how mature they are if they've never been faced with the feeling that there is someone in the world that you realize you care about way more than yourself. /Hate me today Hate me tomorrow Hate me for all the things I didn’t do for you Hate me in ways Yeah ways hard to swallow Hate me so you can finally see what’s good for you/ I haven't been to the depths of where I believe Justin has been. I often question if I'll ever hit rock bottom, and sometimes I think I'm trying to. Sometimes I think life must be there on the ocean floor. I feel like there answers that only lie in things getting worse. Other times though I realize that there's something above the surface that is better. Songs like this have helped me realize that people who have been down to the bottom have chosen fresh air and it's got the answers they were looking for. This is an incredible song, and for people to identify with it is a tribute to the band, but identify with lessons learned, and not that the lyrics are your situation. They don't need to be, he's not speaking to you he's learning and expressing himself. Do the same and hopefully you'll find yourself in the place it seems Justin is now. “My mom called the other day,” he tells me. “She’s just like, ‘How you doing?’ And it was really good to tell her for once, ‘I’m doing really fucking good.’ There’s a point in life that I was always dreaming of, and it’s this point: Getting my shit together, and concentrating on this business and this band, and lay off the drugs…for Christ’s sake. I found out that when I did that, all of a sudden I realized that most of my depression stemmed from that. It’s not like, ‘I’m so crazy.’ Lay off the coke, dude. Come on. It’s simple. And then all of a sudden you’re four months, five months, six months clean and you see the light at the end of the tunnel and you’re just like, ‘So that was the problem the whole time? Holy shit.’ I still get depressed and I still hear things when I get stressed that aren’t there, but that’s something that I’ve always had since I was a kid, and now I can balance it. I’m not putting things in my veins or in my nose.” |
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| Fall Out Boy – I've Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I want to say right off that any interpretation of poetry/lyrics has the obvious chance of being completely wrong. I don't mean to state my views as the ultimate truth, rather they are my interpretation of the song, and they hold power to me. My apologies to FOB if I got all or any of this wrong. Misunderstanding powerful emotion isn't something I take lightly. This song to me is a suicide note mixed with the experience of a suicide attempt and a little reflection after the fact. I think if that's kept as a central theme the analysis of this song could show a good deal of depth to the band. /Joke me something awful just like kisses on the necks of "just friends"/ "Joke me something awful" seems like nothing more than an expression for the rest of the line. Tell me something awful, except joke is used to relate "just friends" to being a joke which is supported by "just friends" being quoted. Who the "just friends" are is debatable. The opinion that a girl had said she was "just friends" with someone that she cheated with seems wrong. Kisses on the neck are emotional, it's a poor metaphor to use for meaningless sex. It's unlikely that a woman whom the writer loved would also have a strong emotional and sexual tie to another man she referred to as 'just a friend.' Furthermore the writer in this scenario is suicidal because of these kisses on the neck. He'd have to be deeply in love with the woman cheating on him. No doubt then that the woman would be ripped apart loving and sleeping with two men knowing that it could hurt both of them so much. If the writer loved her enough to be suicidal his first feelings and thoughts wouldn't be his own hurt, it'd be hers and how to make it better. No, almost certainly to be suicidal she couldn't also be hurt, that in and of itself is a reason to live for a man deeply in love. It leaves only the first scenario discussed and disregarded. I think a better case could be made for this as unrequited love spurred by moments of intimacy--friends with benefits. That it's the writer's joke with himself to call her just a friend. That it's him doing a terrible job of deceiving himself. Interpretation is a deeply personal thing. The listener should find identification with the writer, even if the interpretation is wrong it shouldn't face direct contradiction. My identification with this song though is in the case of what could well be mutual love left unexplored. The joke becomes two people convincing themselves they're just friends, even in the face of having had at least one strongly emotional physical encounter. To me it's the woman I know I care about that's with a best friend, or already married to another man. With so much on the line, not the least of which is an incredible friendship with the woman, we choose not to become more, to make sure we stay just friends. This also offers an explanation to the possibility that 'just friends' is sung as 'best friends'. It should be just friends, which is what the joke is, but would mean it was a Freudian slip to sing 'best' in the recording. /We're the kids who feel like dead ends/ As tied to line 1 I think this would suggest my final analysis as well, it's the true dead end. A road to be traveled that one knows won't go anywhere. I think it ties more to line 5 with the repetition of kids. That this is just another source of the despair that leads the writer to be suicidal. If this is a suicide note it should contain quite a few reasons the author is suicidal. It's foolish that people think one thing causes suicide just because one thing is normally the final straw. /And I want to be known for my hits, not just my misses I took a shot and didn't even come close At trust and love and hope/ To me this one long line. It's possible that hits is meant to refer to music, but it seems superficial as a motivation for suicide and the writer doesn't appear to be superficial. His shot then was at two separate things, trust and love as one, and hope as the other and as the result of finding trust and love. If this is a song of despair than hope is what the writer was in search of. Anyone can know the failures of love and trust--the misses, but only the people whom you actually love and trust will know you for it--the hits. Hits isn't more important than misses, love and trust are more important than being known. /And the poets are just kids who didn't make it Who never had it at all/ It's important to know that the writer is a musician in this part. In the world of music if you don't make it at all you're nothing more than a poet. If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it does it make a sound? If you write music and no one ever hears it was it music at all? Even if not it was still poetry, and words are forever. This is just another moment of despair, a moment wondering if he'll die a poet, never having had it at all. /And the record won't stop skipping And the lies just won't stop slipping And besides my reputation's on the line We can fake it for the airwaves Force our smiles, baby, half dead From comparing myself to everyone else around me/ The first line of the chorus is well documented, coming from the CD the writer listened to during his suicide attempt. It's not hard to find despair in the second line. The third is the most superficial of the whole song and seems to be addressed with a bit of disgust and sarcasm. "fake it for the airwaves, force our smiles baby" can be taken at face value without losing anything in the interpretation of this song. The last of the chorus note that half dead is left at the end of a line for emphasis rather than forgotten as the first words of the last line. Also it is the author comparing himself to others, another line of despair and doubt over himself. It has nothing to do with how others compare him. Suicide is internal despair, and I'll never understand why people think it has to do with how other people look at the person in despair. It's far more painful knowing how one feels about oneself than wondering how other people feel. It's self-importance by those that think their opinion could cause someone to kill themselves. /Please put the doctor on the phone because I'm not making any sense/ A cool line that shares part of the experience of the suicide attempt itself. /Blame everyone but me for this mess/ An obvious statement that he is to blame for the mess, just as we all our for our own /And my back has been breaking from this heavy heart/ Just in case you needed a sledgehammer line to tell you this is a song of despair. /We never seemed so far/ I think this ties to the final line of the song and will discuss it as such. /I'm hopelessly hopeful, that you're just hopeless enough/ Many people assume the 'you' is aimed at someone the writer knows, perhaps the woman from the first verse. I think it's the audience. I think the author wants us to understand him from this song. His hope is we'll understand his desperation, and he's convinced, and probably rightfully so, that we can only do so if we're at least a little hopeless ourselves. How do you understand suicidal despair when you've never felt helpless? /But we never had it at all/ We seems to involve everyone, not just the band, or the author and any other group of people. No matter how close any of us are to thinking we've got it all we never actually will. I mentioned at the outset that there's some reflection, and on a whole the song is all reflection. The goal of good poetry is to be communicative and evocative. I know I found at least some of Pete's despair in this song, and it's left me reflecting on my own. It meets my marks for good poetry. |
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