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| World Party – Is It Like Today? Lyrics
| 1 month ago
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@[meggybears:50445] Indeed. Karl says he was inspired to write the song by reading Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy". |
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| Nick Drake – Three Hours Lyrics
| 1 month ago
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@[Psyillogy:50336] That looks like a plausible clue. If the song is about dreaming, the words kind of make sense. |
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| Leonard Cohen – One of Us Cannot Be Wrong Lyrics
| 4 months ago
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@[Visions_of_edie:49495] It's about Nico, apparently. Right milieu, wrong femme fatale.
I wonder, by the way, if the "Eskimo" is Warhol, another one notorious for his dispassionate demeanour. Nico starred in his "Chelsea Girls" and Cohen wrote the song in the Chelsea Hotel... |
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| Siouxsie and the Banshees – Israel Lyrics
| 4 months ago
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@[feufollet:49478] The swastika is an Indian religious symbol which the Nazis stole in perhaps the worst act of cultural appropriation ever. You can still see it on Hindu and Buddhist temples all over India. So it's not entirely correct to say it will always mean death and destruction. Siouxsie, Sid Vicious and a few others weren't wearing it as a nod to eastern religions though, more as a stupidly immature attempt to shock mainstream sensibilities. |
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| Donovan – Season of the Witch Lyrics
| 5 months ago
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@[OpinionHead:49117] Led Zeppelin (minus Plant) were actually the session musicians on at least one of Donovan's hit singles. |
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| Siouxsie and the Banshees – Love in a Void Lyrics
| 6 months ago
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I think this song is actually about the music industry and not romantic love as such. The word "bigots" was originally "jews" by which Siouxsie claimed she meant businessmen in general, but note also the lines about critics, stars and making money. I think "love in a void" refers to all the pop songs about romantic love, which the punks disdained and felt were fake (see also John Lydon's remarks about "two minutes of squelching", various Gang of Four songs etc). |
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| Siouxsie and the Banshees – Love in a Void Lyrics
| 6 months ago
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@[life1179:48791] Actually the original lyric was "too many Jews for my liking". She got a certain amount of stick for it at the time, particularly when combined with the black shirts and nazi armbands. Clearly a bit of rewriting of history going on here. Not that keeping the original lyric would have been acceptable. |
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| The Monochrome Set – Golden Waters Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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The first lines are from The Song Of Solomon in the New Testament; Jesus Christ referring to himself. Bid never had problems with low self-esteem ;-)
It goes somewhat off-piste in later verses though. |
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| Elvis Costello – (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[smollcial1:38487] Chelsea was never a red light district. That was always Soho. Chelsea was the centre of the fashion industry in the 1960's. The song is clearly about models and photographers and the sexual exploitation involved in that industry. (With maybe a nod to Edie Sedgwick in the second verse). |
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| The Monochrome Set – Ici Les Enfants Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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This is about the Louis Malle film "Pretty Baby" starring Brooke Shields as a child prostitute in New Orleans. Shields' first modelling job prior to entering the movie business was in an advert for Ivory soap. |
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| Was Not Was – Walk the Dinosaur Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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So the song appears to be drawing a parallel between the extinction of the dinosaurs by the Chicxulub meteor and the potential extinction of humans by nuclear war (the "two big silver trees" being nuclear missiles). "Open the door, get on the floor" is a reference to the old civil defence advice to 'duck and cover' I think.
The earlier verses set up the narrator and his lady friend as living in a naive state of nature, like the dinosaurs or (anachronistically) cavemen. The final "kill the dinosaur" verse could be a plea for disarmament or it could be an ironic cheerleading of destruction.
Don't ask me what the Elvis verse is about though :-) Maybe "roasting blue pork" suggests eating a policeman post-apocalypse because there's no other food?
Compare & contrast with Captain Beefheart's "Smithsonian Institute Blues". |
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| Steely Dan – Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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I think the implication of:
"Driving like a fool out to Hackensack
Drinking his dinner from a paper sack
He says I gotta see a joker
And I'll be right back"
is that he's been the subject of a hit.
Small time gangster, senses dulled by alcohol overuse, overconfident, either gets doublecrossed or his associates decide he's more trouble than he's worth. |
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| Steely Dan – Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[roaddog73:36593] I don't think "Saturday night" is a reference to the Jewish Sabbath.
"Celebrate Sunday on Saturday night..." surely refers to a lapsed Christian, probably Catholic, who prefers going out drinking and partying on a Saturday to attending church on a Sunday morning (when he's presumably sleeping off the previous night's excesses). |
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| Bob Dylan – All Along the Watchtower Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[blthompson:28393] I think you're right. I always saw the "thief" as a reference to the crucifixion, (which it may also be), until I saw Neil Young cover the song in concert. The music industry interpretation suddenly jumped out at me.
In fact several of Dylan's songs around this time appear to refer to his professional situation - "Maggie's Farm" is another, and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". |
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| Bananarama – Robert De Niro's Waiting Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[Romanticstud:19710] However the band say it IS about rapte: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/24/people-wet-knickers-bananarama-80s-trio-return |
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| Steely Dan – Reelin' In The Years Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[SRV:17022] Blues I agree with that, but furthermore I think it's about the guy's own confusion and self-delusion. He can't understand or accept that she prefers someone else, and he can't see that it's because he's a controlling and over-critical asshole. |
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| Steely Dan – Only A Fool Would Say That Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[waybackmachine:17021] Yes, I've always seen this song more as a lament than as an attack on idealism. In this reading the first person 'voice' is that of a character, not Becker & Fagen, The world could be a beautiful place, but we're so shackled by cynicism that we can't even see the possibilities and assume the rat race is the only way to be. (Many of the comments on here bear this out). |
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| Television – Venus de Milo Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@SuperstarTradesman. I agree - of course Venus is the Roman goddess of love. But I think it may be more about love for another man - what Hollywood likes to call a "bromance". Getting so caught up and involved in a close friendship that it's almost like being in love. Then finally he decides Richard Hell is just too wild and crazy for him and he kind of snaps out of it.
Of course the statue of the Venus de Milo has no arms, which adds kind of a twist... |
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| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Frownland Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Isn't this just a manifesto for the counterculture, where "frownland" is conventional society and Don is counterposing a different way of life? 1969 was kind of the peak of the hippie dream, after all. Isn't it as simple as that? |
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| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Dachau Blues Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@[FatsFats:3557] - You're making 2 + 2 = 5 there. The "three little children with doves on their shoulders" represent the peace movement, nothing to do with Israel. The perceived threat at the time was of world war between the USA and USSR. |
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| Television – Little Johnny Jewel Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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I heard somewhere that this song was about Iggy Pop (real name James Jewel Osterberg). No idea if that's true, but the apparent drug references would make sense in that context... ;-) |
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| Robert Wyatt – Stalin Wasn't Stallin' Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Written in 1943 by Willie Johnson and originally recorded by the a cappella gospel group Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet. At that time the USSR and USA were allies and Stalin was routinely referred to as "Uncle Joe" in the western media. |
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| Robert Wyatt – Sea Song Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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I think it's about being in love with someone changeable and 'moody', and also touching on Wyatt's own immaturity, as he sees it. The sea is used as a metaphor for the woman's changing moods. Not exactly a new idea, but a very beautifully expressed one here. |
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| Echo and the Bunnymen – Read It in Books Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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The Teardrop Explodes used to perform the song as well.
The band Cope & McCulloch (and Pete Wylie from Wah! Heat) were in was called The Crucial Three. I don't think they ever played any gigs though. |
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| Belly (US) – Feed the Tree Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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“A metaphor for commitment and respect” according to Tanya Donnelly in interviews, apparently. (Courtesy of Tom Robinson on BBC6 music this evening). |
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| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Flash Gordon's Ape Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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No, I think it's a deeply sceptical song about scientific arrogance and the cluelessness of the human race. "Flash Gordon's Ape" references science fiction but points out that for all our pretensions we're still only monkeys, and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. |
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| Bob Dylan – One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I don’t know who this is about but I’m pretty certain what it’s about.
The narrator is addressing an ex-girlfriend with whom he had what he thought was an ‘open’ relationship, and expressing his sorrow that he inadvertently hurt her. There is a mistake in the first verse here — it should read “when I saw you say goodbye to your friend and smile” — he thought she was in an ongoing relationship and just wanted an affair with him, whereas in fact she was leaving her previous partner to be with him.
The second verse refers to their failure to communicate, where each makes an assumption about the other’s intentions (he that she knows he isn’t ‘serious’ about her, she that he is serious about her). The second part of the verse refers to an incident where the two of them are at a party and he leaves with someone else and breaks her heart. “Young” here means innocent, as opposed to the worldly sophisticate he took her for.
The third verse is slightly less clear, but suggests that he couldn’t see how the relationship could continue, whereas she claimed to know what she was doing. “The farm” probably has a literal meaning but to me the metaphor suggests sex without commitment — again he’s saying she posed as a person who was in control of the situation and comfortable with casual encounters whereas in fact she was extremely vulnerable behind that façade. “Clawed out my eyes” refers to her jealous bitterness at the end of the relationship.
The chorus says that he did love her in his own way, even though he didn’t want to spend his life with her, and that in the end she took refuge in the conventional, wanted a traditional marriage rather than ‘free love’ and became jealous and angry when this wasn’t on offer.
I think it's one of Dylan's most heartfelt and beautiful songs. |
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| Toni Basil – Mickey Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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This was always my interpretation. She says "Any way you want, I'll even take it like a man" - misquoted above - which I understood as her offering him anal sex in an attempt to win him over. |
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| The Only Ones – The Beast Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Just 12, Peter Perrett wasn't someone "who'd used" drugs. He disappeared into addiction for decades after this, which is the main reason there's so little Only Ones music out there. It was written in the midst of his drug use, and as far as I'm aware the rest of the band's also. So one must assume he knows whereof he speaks. |
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| Iggy Pop – China Girl Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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I think mostly this song is about heroin addiction. "China White" is a brand of heroin (see also Dee Dee Ramone's "Chinese Rock" and Tom Waits' "Heartattack and Vine". There are plenty of songs where a woman is used as a metaphor for a drug ("Another Girl Another Planet" is another).
Towards the end it maybe veers off into a comment on western cultural imperialism though. Women in China and Japan are actually getting eye surgery these days to make themselves look more 'European'. |
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| The Cure – Just Like Heaven Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Apparently this is about Smith's wife, Mary Poole. I don't think the drowning part is supposed to be taken literally. The 'disappearing woman' motif is also present in the much earlier "A Forest" - lyrically speaking this is practically a rewrite of that song, over the chords from "Another Girl Another Planet". Brilliant, brilliant pop song, mind you. |
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| Wire – Outdoor Miner Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Thanks Cynothoglys. I've always loved this song and I always thought it was about a caterpillar but I was never quite sure abuot the leopard bit...
This also illuminates: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpentine_leaf_miner |
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| The Modern Lovers – Pablo Picasso Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I love this song! Not only does it only have one chord, also it's about the greatest artist of the 20th century and entirely fails to mention painting even once. Jonathan Richman is a genius. Respect! |
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