| Justin Nozuka – Save Him Lyrics | 5 years ago |
|
For those saying this song is a true story about his foster brother's family: FALSE. This is a fictional story prompted by his own mother, while Justin was looking for song ideas that would leave an emotional impact. He describes the creation of the song for a crowd in this video… www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jzyiIj5itw …ryan |
|
| The Antlers – Bear Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
i would say it's likely one of two scenarios… 1. one couple gets pregnant twice, aborts the first time so they can stay young and dumb, but keeps it the second time, even though it costs them their love 2. one couple contemplating one pregnancy. at first they decide let's abort and live our free life, but then they decide to keep it, which still costs them that same love they were trying to preserve in the first place. i think either interpretation is a powerful message and a cautionary tale for young couples and how "real" it gets when there's a bear inside your stomach. i am inclined to reject the idea that it is simply just about an abortion, as the second verse really seems to undermine the first. just my opinion of course. ...ryan |
|
| The Antlers – Bear Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
My interpretation... Verse 1 contemplates aborting their unborn child. Who knows, maybe she's underage? In any case, this is all told in the future tense. It implies to me that this is a potential choice, not a done deal. Verse 2, to me, resets the story back to the beginning, only this time the choice has been made. They will not have the abortion. They know it's probably wrong for the child to bring her into this world, but they do it anyway. "Cut from beneath" I take to mean cutting the umbilical cord. "Fucked and not getting unfucked" tells me they're having the baby, and now they're fucked. You will notice that verse 1 infers that an abortion would have solved the "we're fucked" syndrome. I also assume that in the end, she and the child are leaving him. They're worlds apart now. He was the one who wanted the abortion. She was the one who wanted the child. There she is, suitcase packed, staring at a snowy television. It's over. He knows it. Maybe it's backstory about the caretaker, which led him to that hospital room in "Kittering", and he sees a young girl with bone cancer. He has an unpayable debt for his mistakes as a young man. Further, maybe it is his daughter in that bed. She may not know it, but it might explain his duty and deeper connection to her. Just some thoughts. ...ryan |
|
| Sun Kil Moon – Carry Me Ohio Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
"Carry Me Ohio" by Mark Kozelek Sorry that I could never love you back. I could never care enough in these last days. Her tears fell on her pages found me well. On her words I don't know what to do or say. Wading through warm canals and pools: clear blue. The Tuscarawas flows into the Great Lakes. Right in back, where the highway met dead tracks, the ground is now cement and glass, so far away. Heal her soul. Carry her, my angel, Ohio. Green, green youth, what about the sweetness we knew? What about what's good, what's true, from those days? Can't count to all the lovers I've burned through. So why do I still burn for you? I can't say. Sorry that I could never love you back. I could never care enough in these last days. Heal her soul. Carry her, my angel, Ohio. Children bless, gather round the bed, she rest. So pull and go to her Midwestern moon and sun. Flashes bringing on, my open eyes to lighting storm. The touch of mist fell soft, felt warm on my face. Graven dreams, a million miles ago, you seem. A star that I just don't see anymore. Words long gone, lost on journey's we walked on. Lost her voices heard along the way. Sorry for, never going by your door. Never feeling love like that anymore. Heal her soul. Carry her, my angel, Ohio. I am pretty sure these are the correct lyrics. You can listen to the live version on his "7 Songs Belfast" live CD for a very clear rendition of these lyrics. He changes a couple of words in the live performance which I changed back to reflect the LP recording. I'm also feeling like this is a NOT love song about a girl, but instead about a hometown that he didn't appreciate enough when he had the chance, and can't love the same way now that he's older and that childhood place is gone. First of all, the town is not how he remembered ("Right in back, where the highway met dead tracks, the ground is now cement and glass, so far away."). Second, there is a clear "distance makes the heart grow fonder" undertone to the lyrics. But distance not just geographically, but across time. This is evidenced here: "Graven dreams. A million miles ago, you seem. A star that I just don't see anymore." There is also the sense that he wants someone, somehow, some way, to fix her. Make her how she used to be ("Heal her soul. Carry her, my angel, Ohio."). But the tragedy is that it is probably too late. He's remorseful that he didn't visit home more often, I believe ("Sorry for, never going by your door. Never feeling love like that anymore.") Along this line of thinking, other lines take on a new meaning when placed into this context ("Can't count to, all the lovers I've burned through. So why do I still burn for you? I can't say."). It actually feels like he is talking about all the places he has lived and been to. Maybe he wonders why, given all of the places he has experienced (ugly and beautiful), he should long for this barren hometown that time forgot? He doesn't seem to have the answer. If you follow his catalogue and his lyrics, Mark loves to sing about geographical places: "Neon signs and Silver Lakes"; "Going past Golden Gate, elementary every day"; "I don't need a house on Lake Michigan"; "Saltwater taffy, the Jersey Shore", "A rare and blistering sun shines down on Grace Cathedral Park". I could go on and on. The nostalgia for his hometown memories is palpable at times in this song ("Green, green youth. What about the sweetness we knew? What about what's good, what's true, from those days?"). Innocence lost is probably another valid sub-theme here. What is very "Kozelek" about this interpretation, and why I think I am correct in my assumption, is that this wouldn't be the first time he has made a love song about an unexpected thing. Remember when he tricked us into thinking a song was about a girl he loved but it was really about his cat ("Wop a Din Din"), where a line like "She's got big green eyes, and a long Egyptian face. She moves across the floor, at her own pace," is flipped upside down after you realize this isn't a typical love song whatsoever. That is my interpretation though, and could be off base. Just here to share my feelings. Hope they helped. I will share one last fun fact. The Tuscarawas doesn't actually flow into any of the Great Lakes. At least not directly. It flows into the Ohio River. ...ryan |
|
| Josh Ritter – The Curse Lyrics | 14 years ago |
|
@robandrew I like that view of the song. I have been so wrapped up in the literal storytelling of it, that I miss some of the subtler metaphor. For instance, I'm still convinced this is about a Mummy who falls in love with a beautiful Paleontologist, and that the mummy turns out to be Moses. Consider: "Then he talks of the Nile and the girls in bulrushes." Now consider: http://kids.christiansunite.com/Bible_Stories/Bible_Story_022.shtml Plus Ritter has been quoted in an interview as wanting to write a love story about a mummy, and that he researched as much stuff about mummies he could get his hands on. ...ryan |
|
| Josh Ritter – The Curse Lyrics | 14 years ago |
|
I will say, however, that there is plausible theology which names Moses an Egyptian Pharaoh. I'm just saying. ...ryan |
|
| Josh Ritter – The Curse Lyrics | 14 years ago |
|
@sracole You have this right, I believe. It is a bit of an absurdist's tragedy. He gains her strength, and she withers away. With lines about chaos ensuing when he gets out of the glass case to find her; the dust storm of flashbulbs; his heart starting to beat under scarab and bones; reanimation; etc. it seems this is a miracle in manhattan, some impossible love story between a curator and a mummy. also, it is told largely from his POV which would be weird if he's just in her imagination. Also, an I throw one wrench in the interpretation? "then he talks of the nile and the girls in bulrushes" It's worth noting that Moses was found in a bulrush ark, amidst bulrushes on the Nile, by a Pharaoh's daughter who was bathing with her handmaidens. They would certainly be girls in bulrushes. I'm just sayin'. Personally I think she finds her lover under a pyramid, which ruins the Moses mythology unless Ritter chose to put Moses as a mummy in Egypt. An interesting note either way. ...ryan |
|
| Jason Molina – Get Out Get Out Get Out Lyrics | 14 years ago |
|
i'm pretty sure it's: "Something must have told you burn the bridges then the maps." He's telling someone else that after they got out, they must have burned the bridges and maps, because now he doesn't have any way of getting out. He's lost (no map to find his way)... and stuck (no bridge to get out if he tried). Such a tragic song, hits very close for me. ...ryan |
|
| Fleet Foxes – Innocent Son Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
i believe it is: Run, sullen leaves, Falling beside me on the ghost, Of a morning. Riding in sorrow... but i could be wrong. he says "leaves" for certain, which means it's not "suddenly". i'm not sure if it's sullen leaves or not. for a second i thought it was rust-sodden leaves, but that is stretching it. i think he says "run" to the leaves, because then he says "riding in sorrow to the harbor.." which would then be the leaves blowing toward the hanging bodies. right? ...ryan |
|
| Fleet Foxes – English House Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
the first verse is Brighton, yes, but not later. "A cold wind blows, back into the coast for me." meaning: the cold winds are changing direction and coming back for him. and i would argue it could be "fragile lakes" rather than "fragile legs" but either seems plausible. you could make a case for "legs" because it's definitely "tongues of the creatures", and i can see tongues being drawn toward "legs". but those same creatures could be drawn to the lake. i think it's "lakes" because he mentions the coast right after that. and a cold wind, implying winter, and a frozen lake, and hence someone walking upon thin ice. |
|
| Sunset Rubdown – Us Ones in Between Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
@justicehawver, maybe that end line about the wedding rings could imply that hillary clinton and barack obama secretly got married? ...ryan |
|
| Sunset Rubdown – The Taming of the Hands That Came Back to Life Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
oh, also, probably one of the best songs of 2007. period. ...ryan |
|
| Sunset Rubdown – The Taming of the Hands That Came Back to Life Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
"don't get to close, you'll detect the west coast air, and the way i hold it in there" is correct i believe. who cares where he's from. ...ryan |
|
| Sunset Rubdown – Up on Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
sounds to me like the narrator saved a wild woman from execution by accusing someone else of her crime, but she reciprocates by running off with the king (or someone of royal blood, "kissing your captor's hand" and then "your highness is holding your chains"). there are some lyrics errors also. esp in the first part, where it should be "wild hide will weather, in the weathering days to wear leather made soft so princes can lay . . ." (same with later on in the song). she was planning to kill someone, but then she was captured with a trinket and a name (they told her they knew someone she knew, maybe had one of that person's possessions? maybe the narrator on both counts?). ...ryan |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.