| Ray LaMontagne – All the Wild Horses Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[wildhorses:26459] I hate you. | |
| Live – Horse Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[KethrynQ:5250] Yes! This site is great for getting consensus opinion on songs that are obviously metaphorical and elusive, but some songs are very straightforward and the people picking apart every word are completely missing the point. | |
| The Weeknd – D.D. (Michael Jackson cover) Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Michael Weeknd Jackson | |
| Youth Lagoon – Seventeen Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I think its "one-ton carriage" and "my brain thinking faster than I can" | |
| Youth Lagoon – Posters Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I love the lyrics, but holy mother of god, when the instrumental starts and then the beat kicks in, I'm shattered. | |
| Bon Iver – Minnesota, WI Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Might be somewhere between our interpretations, but from what I have read, the Three Gorges valley was where the Hmong culture originated, so even those who had been in Vietnam and relocated during the war would have still had history in that valley and perhaps still felt a loss in its flooding. Who knows. Regardless of the details, I think the core of the song is about not letting anything break you - which is a beautiful sentiment. Thanks! |
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| Joanna Newsom – Jackrabbits Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Also, I think the "water runs deep where it don't run wide" is saying "My love for you is deep even though when it doesn't seem so" I love that line too. Might be my favorite of hers overall. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Jackrabbits Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Huh? Sun sets to the east? Not on planet Earth. Now if you meant sun rise, then I would fully agree. She's taking about a new dawn/day/start. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Jackrabbits Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"Squinting towards the East" has nothing to do with your geographical location. The sun rises in the East regardless of what side of the USA you reside on or are from. The line refers to the sun rising - a new day - a new start, etc. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Jackrabbits Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Thank you! You said it perfectly. I swear some people can find religious ties to toast (oh wait, they do that too). Despite a few religious references, the song is pretty clearly about human love. Glad I'm not the only one to see that! |
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| Bon Iver – Beth/Rest Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Regardless of the sound/style of this one, I find it the hardest song on the album to unravel (lyrically). All the other songs I get some of the meaning or metaphors, but this one... I got nothing. Not a clue what he's referring to except the vague reference to a boat |
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| Bon Iver – Calgary Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Aquarius - I think your close on these. Digging a little too deep on some, especially your metaphorical take on what I am pretty sure is a literal reference to swimming. I think the only metaphorical element of that section is "the fire going out" - that being the fire of their waning relationship - and "really nothing south" which I doubt references Hell. South generally references warmer climates. Sort of saying, despite the storms (fights, perhaps) there's nothing better. I dont think it is so much about old people as it is about young people realizing that is what the future holds. That it won't always be romance and passion and sunny days. I think the song represents the process of accepting that and eventually embracing that fact and realizing that a relationship requires work and, sure, there will be anger and fights and pain, but all that will subside. |
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| Bon Iver – Calgary Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Oh my, get a grip. You are so far off. I bet you see Christian references in a a lot of things, don't you? | |
| Bon Iver – Wash. Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| A lot of references to not being able to grow because of the winter freeze, but then, when things do finally warm and thaw... well "over havens fora full and swollen morass, young habitat!" sort of says it all. | |
| Bon Iver – Hinnom, TX Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Seems to be about secrets of one's past - skeletons in the closet. Talks about "vetting" the process of checking out someone's background, knowing about their past. I think La Grange refers to town in Texas with a nearby whorehouse (on which the film "Best LIttle Whorehouse in Texas" is bassed). The one line that really sticks out to me is "pennant tension ring" because it sounds so much like "penitentiary" which fits in really well with "strangers scattering" "passage in the wind" and the whole concept of a dirty past and not being judged for it "armor down... not to vet it". "Pennant tension ring" is the official lyric, but I wouldn't put it past Justin to make a play on the sound of the word, rather than the meaning. Or not - maybe the whole things about a musical. Haha! |
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| Bon Iver – Towers Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Definitely about young love, but there does seem to be some sense of forbideness to it. It is certainly his most erotic song. I don't get the posters trying to find a metaphor or spiritual meaning for every line, its pretty clearly about drunken sex with a young woman. "what a mischief you would bring young darling! when the onus is not all your own" (meaning the girl is not fully responsible for her actions - a minor) "when you’re up for it before you’ve grown" (not yet an adult) "from the faun forever gone" (innocence lost) "in the towers of your honeycomb... when you’re filling out your only form" (sexually active while still in puberty) "break the sailor’s table on your sacrum" (sacrum is the pelvic bone, not a fucking chakra) I love how he uses the allusion of Rapunzel (a tale of forbidden love) and then says "fuck the fables!". This has that feeling of a boy throwing pebbles at a girl's window and then climbing up to her window. Wouldn't be the only thing on the album with a John Huges feel to it. :) I also love the juxtaposition of "now you’ve added up to what you’re from" and then "build your tether rain-out from your fragments". talking about how adults are a culmination of their experiences and "where they're from", but that she's tied (to him - via the Rapunzel allusion?) with the pieces, not the whole. "well, youʼre standing on my sternum don’t you climb down darling" Another great line. You're standing on my heart - don't move! |
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| Bon Iver – Minnesota, WI Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The song references the experience of the ethnic Hmong people who were "relocated" when the Chinese built the Three Gorges dam. The dam flooded the valley where they'd lived for many generations: "water’s running through in the valley where we grew" My guess is that Justin met some Hmong refugee(s)... "fall is coming soon, a new year for the moon and the Hmong here" (Chinese new year?) ...and befriended them over a period of time: "settle past a patience where wishes and your will are spilling pictures" The rest of the song I feel speaks of Justin's surprise at their resiliency... "never gonna break" ...and the (spiritual?) effect it had on him: "armour let it through" "had the marvel" "be kneeled" (refers to the chorus as "this scripture") There could be some other bits about the Hmong people having to adjust to city life (most of them were farmers before the dam): "sat down in the suit, fixed on up it wasn’t you by finished closing" I don't think the "stack's" refers to Re: Stacks, but does refer to a book (literal or metaphoric) - as "annex" can refer to an book's appendix... "doubled in the toes annex it, it minute closed in the morning" ...which might refer to someone writing of their experience? There's plenty more that remains a mystery to me (and perhaps anyone but Justin), but I think the core of the song is just about being moved and humbled by his experience with some Hmong people he met. Also, my guess for the title is perhaps that what his Hmong friend(s) mixed the names of the states & cities up? |
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| Alex Winston – Locomotive Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Not sure what the actual lyric is, but I'm fairly certain it isn't "your grill" Really digging this song though. |
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| Bright Eyes – A Machine Spiritual (In the People's Key) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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There are a few key lines I'd like to point out as they relate to my interpretation above... "Form some kind of code of flesh and bone" Consider how our interactions can be expressed like a computer software code interacting with the hardware (the earth). A computer chip is a series of on/off switches (good/evil? light/dark?) by which the software and the hardware speak. "History bows and it steps aside" "another from another we grow" In previous songs, Conor speaks of the innate instinct most animals have to let themselves die so that others may live and at the time he pondered the purpose. I think he expands on that idea with this song - that the cycle of birth to death and the progress made between each is part of that spiritual machine. "The theme repeats, thinner than the galaxy" This is particularly important, because while it initially appears as a contradiction or contrast, if you listen to songs like "Singularity" or are familiar with the concept (as well as quantum theory), the galaxy can be viewed as something very 'thin'. "Papa Hobo don’t hide your eyes Mother Mountain don’t kill your unborn child" I'm not sure about 'Papa Hobo', but I'm fairly certain that "Mother Mountain" refers to the theory that life originally began from volcanic vents during the early stages of earth's existence. If I'm correct, he's basically saying that the 'unborn child' is mankind and that our day is coming when we will be enlightened or 'born' and then, having finally heard that 'voice', fully aware of the depth of our existence. These are some huge concepts he's working with, and I marvel at his ability to write about them in simple human terms, but that's always been Conor's specialty. You look at his body of work and there's a whole library of philosophies within, but this one really is a masterpiece. |
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| Bright Eyes – A Machine Spiritual (In the People's Key) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Cyberghost - you are all over the place and reading a little to deeply into individual lines, imo, but I think you are in the ballpark regarding 'emptiness/nothingness' as a theme here. The song does refer to the inherent destructive nature of man, be it inward (self-destructive: drowning yourself in water, emotional imprisonment) or outward (mass destruction: like Hitler and those tyrants who've followed and preceded him). Both regard a goal or motivation of nothingness. The first verse refers to a piano (black machine) or rather the pianist at the piano, playing a tune without feeling, but I think the song (and really the album) is about the literal earth and all living things as a collective machine (which, scientifically, it really is) and the spirit (or 'voice') that inhabits it, even when we try to shut it out. If you consider that voice as the People's Key - something which we all hear, most noticeably through music - it really ties everything together. How many fans of Conor (and countless other musicians) find some sort of connection with a song even when the words don't make sense? There is some subconscious connection/understanding we all share in all things good and evil. That would be the spirit in the machine that we know as life on earth. |
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| Bright Eyes – Firewall Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I don't think Madeline is a spiritual/cultural figure, but a real person he was seeing at the time. The album has a strong spiritual/religious theme, but this song to me is simply about distancing yourself from human relationships. He's tired of the pretentious art scene, preferring the company of a parrot named for a kitschy sci-fi writer. He's fawning over a computerized hologram of a woman Then the song shifts to a placid relationship with a woman who's trying to rid him of the demons he carries, but he's cautious of getting attached - sensing that things are already 'sinking'. The firewall into heaven tying the two together (and possibly referring to intercourse?) As for the 'spins in a slow bang', I think he just means she's falling apart slowly. Some combination of 'going out with a bang' and 'a downward spiral'. His references give the impression that she may become depressed/neurotic. |
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| Bright Eyes – A Machine Spiritual (In the People's Key) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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He mentions "light in the jungle" several times on this album. Any idea what its a reference too? There are many repeated themes on the album "starting over", but the light in the jungle seems like a specific thing. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Go Long Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Heh. Don't be too hard on yourself. Joanna's songs are so deeply layered that even the cleverest of the clever must work to "get" them. Thats what makes this such an amazing album. You get deeper and deeper with every listen. |
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| Kanye West – So Appalled Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Its "Plus a Trojan in my pocket, Matt Leinart" | |
| Kanye West – So Appalled Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| It is "Hammer" and he's referring to MC Hammer who blew his fortune and going into bankruptcy. | |
| Future Islands – Walking Through That Door Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| this song captures that nervous excitement of new love so well. can't get enough. | |
| The Black Keys – Tighten Up Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| this song is just filthy in all the most wonderful ways. love the bridge. love the album. love the band. | |
| Bon Iver – Big Red Machine Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Justin - thanks so much for posting this. Funny how off we were. Makes a bit more sense now. Gorgeous song. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Baby Birch Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Probably not abortion, but definitely the loss of a child. Both this and On A Good Day sound to me like a woman mourning a miscarriage, not wanting to abort a child. I agree that the image of a skinned bunny, held "upended, kicking and mewling, unsung and blue" evokes a baby, but I think the "unsung and blue" is key - the baby dying before birth. ~told her "wherever you go, little runaway bunny, I will find you."~ I think she's saying here that she won't be able to let go of this lost child. That's the theme here - imagining what the baby would have looked like as it grew up. Walking around lake, etc. She can't let go of this child that never came to be. The following song "On A Good Day" she talks about still being frozen by this loss, but she has made progress. She can see the end (on a good day). HOWEVER, I don't think this is from Joanna's perspective, but her sister's. The song "Esme" has a verse: And I do not know If you know just what you have done You are the sweetest one I have ever laid my eyes upon And... The phantom of love moves among us at will Each phantom-limb lost has got an angel So confused like the wagging bobbed-tail of a bulldog Kindness, kindness prevails I think these allude to her sister Emily's losing one child, but finally having Esme - who doesn't replace Baby Birch, but still brings joy and life back to her. A lot of people talk about the album being about relationships (which some songs are), but I think the core of the album centers around this. I imagine her going back home to Nevada City and helping Emily deal with this loss, then a new birth, all while taking into account everything that has changed in her life and that of her loves ones. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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the blackguard being an insult makes sense. Someone lost their head for the attempted assassination. Do we know for sure there was no attempted poisoning on the king? There was certainly a change of power. Its not a stretch. I don't think Lola wanted the poisoning, but I do think she loved the lifestyle more than the king himself. Lola fled Bavaria when the revolution started (possibly by the failed posioning). My guess is the king wanted her to stay by his side, but... "And the old king fell from grace, while Lola fled, To save face and her career" |
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| Joanna Newsom – Autumn Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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She paints such a beautiful portrait of returning to Nevada City and being overwhelmed by the changes there and in her own life - as if her hometown was a mirror into her soul. I think Good Intentions alludes to some of the same emotions - as does In California and perhaps Occident. This verse says it best: I may have changed. It's hard to gauge. Time won't account for how I've aged. Would I could tie your lying tongue, who says that leaving keeps you young. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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the first verse refers to a coup on the king. From the courtyard, I floated in and watched it go down. Heard the cup drop; thought, "Well, that's why they keep them around." (What they keep around is a food taster. Someone tried to poision the king) The blackguard sat hard, down, with no head on him now, (The king's guard gets his head cut off) and I felt so bad, cause I didn't know how to feel bad enough to make him proud. (She feels bad for not feeling bad about the coup and ensuing revolution) |
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| Joanna Newsom – Jackrabbits Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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It's not about being born again, but is about coming out of a dark depression and finally finding oneself able to love again. I imagine its about a man who lost his wife and drank away his sorrows until he finally found his way through it. He wasn't able to let go of his old love for a long time, staying faithful to her long after she'd passed. There may be tangents with this and "Go Long" - also about a man struggling to let go of past loves. Almost every song on the album has a "pair". |
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| Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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At night, I walk in the park, with a whip, between the lines of the whispering Jesuits, who are poisoning you against me. "after reading a bad review in The Ballarat Times, she attacked the editor, Henry Seekamp with a whip." (from wikipedia) great verse (amazing song) |
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| Passion Pit – To Kingdom Come Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| any ideas on what "now I hide in piles of princely orange peels" is referring to? | |
| Röyksopp – Vision One Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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this song is just sick. i love it. the music, the message, the lyrics, the cadence - fantastic. |
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| John Mayer – Who Says Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Mayer does smoke weed. He's stated so before and doesn't care if you think less of him for it. The song is about being burnt out by touring and being a celebrity. It can be overwhelming, but he is comforted by the idea that he can step away from it at any time. He can turn his phone off, smoke a bowl and dream up a new life for himself or spend the night in the arms of some women he slept with years ago. Just being someone else for a moment of reprieve. Feeling free from fame. |
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| Bon Iver – Big Red Machine Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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a valiant effort, but a few mistakes: we're safe when love will join us* we read my mind so many times the earth is only sand fucked up and puked up in his men you resolve to slowly run in circles so slow the fence that you sent me rolling along the bottom jesus for I'm feeling sad so many killed you're running the engine just like you ought to be to me, my heart could i quit to dawn (or don?) my body the sorry might come long with one line big red machine *not certain of "join us", but certain its NOT "would come in". |
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| Little Dragon – Swimming Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I believe its "And not so many years have passed" | |
| Kevin Drew – Love Vs. Porn Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think its: Ladies on the screen can never replicate All the fat in a line with skin doctors hate We must fold eyes before we even kiss Talking about plastic surgery and women feeling ugly compared to those on the screen? |
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| R.E.M. – Let Me In Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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~I've got tar on my heels...~ Being stuck in a slow death a la the dinosaurs who got stuck in tar pits ~And I can't see all the birds look down and laugh at me~ Being buried, in a coffin, ostracized from the world above you. Both are about being stuck in death - unable to get to the heavens above (Let me in) |
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| Conor Oberst – Lenders in the Temple Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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some of these explanations are hilarious. ABookOnAShelf nailed it: "When you love somebody wild and dangerous they're going to leave you alone eventually, it's a certainty, but you do it anyway for the experience. It's your fault, you knew it would turn out this way, but it still shocks you when it happens." I also think juggernautheart is right about "parrot blues" |
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