| Arctic Monkeys – Secret Door Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Is the phrase "fools on parade" inspired by the Rage Against the Machine song Bulls on Parade? | |
| Prince – Raspberry Beret Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Is it true the raspberry beret he's singing about is the clitoris? | |
| Arctic Monkeys – Cornerstone Lyrics | 14 years ago |
|
Is it just coincidence that the backward guitar intro at the start of this song is extremely similar to that of "She Said She Said" by The Beatles - and that the last line of Cornerstone starts, "She said..."? Or is that reading too much into it! |
|
| Arctic Monkeys – Dance Little Liar Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| The verses of this song are musically very similar to Climbing Up The Walls by Radiohead. | |
| Arctic Monkeys – Dangerous Animals Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| The "Sharpen the heel of your boot" line reminds me of a similar line in Father To A Sister Of Thought by Pavement - "No place to shove your sharpened heel." And in fact the opening few seconds of the whole Humbug album are almost identical to those of the Pavement album Terror Twilight. | |
| Happy Mondays – Loose Fit Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Was the line "Gonna buy an airforce base, gonna wipe out your race" censored at the time this song came out as a single, as it was just as the first Gulf war was starting? | |
| Joy Division – Isolation Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think musically and structurally, this is Joy Division's most upbeat song, the one that most resembles what one might think of as a "normal" song, and the only one that sounds like what other bands were producing at the time(post-punk, electronic), albeit still sounding utterly like JD. I don't say that is a good or bad thing, just that to my ears, it's Joy Division at their most mainstream and tuneful... which makes it all the more ironic that it's called and is about Isolation | |
| Joy Division – Atrocity Exhibition Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
This is the song that got me into Joy Division. I had owned Unknown Pleasures for about five years, and never got into it, couldn't understand what the fuss was about. But then, hearing Closer for the first time, expecting to not like it and expecting it to be similar to UP... and then being assaulted by THIS as the opening song - wow! Like much of the album, it really surprised me, because rather than the gloom I was expecting, there is just this incredible energy and purpose that to my ears, just wasn't there on Unknown Pleasures. The drumming, the screeching guitar, the utterly CONFIDENT vocals that grab - no, BITE - the song by the neck. And the lyrics - poetic disgust, the evil banality of the modern world expressed in a way that is both beautiful and utterly chilling. But there is an irony to the words which stops them being just a miserable commentary - we are all complicit in this obscene circus, the singer included, so much so that he can act as tour guide while still being horrified by the whole thing. Having said all this, there's no way of knowing what Ian Curtis really meant in this song, but it's incredibly tempting to transpose it onto the here and now, and the way that we are all morbidly fascinated by reality shows, despite (or because of) knowing that they often ruin the lives of those taking part. Regardelss, there is so much furious certainty in the lyrics and Ian Curtis's delivery of them, a certainty that just wasn't there in the first album, and it's matched perfectly by the insistent and savage musical accompaniment, an energy which continues through Isolation, Colony and A Means to an End. Whether you take this song (and album) in the context of Ian Curtis's death or not, it is propelled by a glorious rage and conviction that exhilarates far more than it saddens. |
|
| Joy Division – Isolation Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think musically and structurally, this is Joy Division's most upbeat song, the one that most resembles what one might think of as a "normal" song, and the only one that sounds like what other bands were producing at the time(post-punk, electronic), albeit still sounding utterly like JD. I don't say that is a good or bad thing, just that to my ears, it's Joy Division at their most mainstream and tuneful... which makes it all the more ironic that it's called and is about Isolation! | |
| Pet Shop Boys – This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Obviously all about school. The line "Someone had blundered" is from the poem "Charge of the light brigade" by Tennyson. | |
| Coldplay – Violet Hill Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Funnily enough, I walked past Violet Hill the other day.... I don't know if it's the one Chris Martin refers to, but it's just off Abbey Road in London, near the studio and famous zebra crossing (complete with Japanese tourists walking across four at a time). Seeing as the song is a bit Beatlesy, in a rocking kind of way, maybe that's what it refers to. Also a bit of a similar title to Strawberry Fields, and again, quite a Lennon-y song (almost quotes his lyrics, as people above have noted.) | |
| Radiohead – 15 Step Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
Re why 15 Step and not 15 Steps - probably to make the title sound like it's a type of dance, like the two-step... only in this case, if the gallows theory is correct, the 15-step is the dance of death. I think the gallows and being hung thing is a metaphor for giving up in life, because no matter how hard you try, you always end up "where you started" - so in the end, you just give up trying and settle for what you've got. It's the sad realisation that any dreams or idealism you had when younger are going to come to nothing - and I think this is what Thom's referring to when he says "It comes to us all, it's as soft as a pillow", rather than death itself. |
|
| Morrissey – The Never Played Symphonies Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
I'm possibly interpreting it too literally, but might it not be about Beethoven on his deathbed? The line "Black sky in the daytime" certainly ties in with the description of the day Beethoven died: "That day was tragic. There were heavy clouds in the sky… around 4 or 5 in the afternoon the murky clouds cast darkness in the entire room." And Moz has mentioned the great man in an album title before! |
|
| Radiohead – All I Need Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Yes! I did until I read the lyrics. I think there's some clicking noise throughout the song, and it happens to click just after he sings "car". | |
| Radiohead – All I Need Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This song is remarkably similar lyrically and in mood and tone to The Bottom Line by Depeche Mode from their Ultra album. Both songs about obsessive desire, both intense and somewhat creepy and sexy at the same time. Both have a first line about an animal (DM: "Like a cat dragged in from the rain..."), both mention a moth (DM: "Like a moth that only knows bright light, I will get burnt each and every night") and both have a similar repetitive lyrical structure to convey the obsession through simile - RH: "I am the..." DM: "Like a..." - followed by an affirmation of their love - RH: "You're all I need", DM: "I follow you". And although the tunes are different, there is a kind of similarity in the feel of the music. I'm sure Thom Yorke must be aware of the Depeche song, and consciously or subconsciously drew on it. | |
| Madness – Michael Caine Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I'm sure I read ages ago that it's actually about an IRA supergrass living under a new identity. | |
| Morrissey – Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I always thought this song referred to the same "little thing" as Madness's "party poppers that pop in the night" - as they do make a big difference! And "fumbling politeness" is a good way of describing putting one on... | |
| Morrissey – Come Back To Camden Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I could be wrong, but I'm sure at the end of the song, he sings "I'll be good" three times, but the fourth and final line is actually "I'll be gone". Which kind of makes it even more heartbreaking. | |
| The Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| In fact, so good is this song that I think it's played twice in The Departed... not to mention the CD cover of Exile On Main Street being used in the film as well. Martin Scorsese really loves the Stones! | |
| Thom Yorke – Analyse Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| It is brilliant at the end of The Prestige, and fits perfectly with the film's theme of constantly trying to unravel secrets, always trying to find out more. | |
| Thom Yorke – Atoms For Peace Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
I was listening to this yesterday, and suddenly it occurred to me that it might be about drugs - specifically, someone who's taken lots of them in the past, but is trying to become clean, and Thom is trying to encourage him to do so. Hence no more "going to the dark side", "flying saucer eyes", "falling down a wormhole", "leaky holes in your brain", all of which are pretty good descriptions of being on drugs. "No more talk of the old days" is a plea not to think back nostalgically to the days of drug use - instead, optimistically, "it's time for something great". "i want you to get out" - self-explanatory. And the title, Atoms for Peace - it's like the atoms that make up the person's body have had anough of being abused through drug use, and are going on a march in protest - enough, no more, peace! |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.