submissions

Chris Garneau – Island Song Lyrics

12 years ago

I think the speaker in this song is talking about having to leave certain people behind who have failed to understand or accept him. He has expressed his rage about something and feels bad about that ("all the sorries begin"). He has made a choice and is starting to come to terms with it ("the drinking has thinned") but he still "wrestle[s] within". The people he has left behind accuse him of being selfish ("to you, I don't look so good / Like I did what I wanted. Like I did what I would") but he points out that he has lost a great deal by making this choice. Saying that he doesn't have his dog and doesn't make a sound suggests that he is isolated and silenced. Though he is in the "middle of town," he essentially "live(s) on an island" because he is cut off from the "mainland" of society.

submissions

Chris Garneau – Hands on the Radio Lyrics

12 years ago

I think this song is about something that happens during a performance tour. He's promising the "boys and girls" that he will "come back" because "this town in [his] favourite." His performance is a form of love ("I loved you underneath the moon") but he must continue on to another town and must leave "in the afternoon" even though he knows it's "too soon." The title of the song suggests that "the radio" (the popularity of his music?) is a kind of vehicle for moving from town to town: "With hands on the radio, we'll get there soon..." I love all of Garneau's songs and this one is a favourite. I'm sure that when he performs this, each "town" thinks he's singing to them. It would be a great song to sing at the end of a performance.

submissions

Chris Garneau – Dirty Night Clowns Lyrics

12 years ago

The "dirty night clowns" can also be generalized to refer to any and all child molesters. The chorus ("I can't clear the leaves from here; they're too far under the brush this year") refers to how the "dirty night clowns" have "trees to shade the moves that they made." The "fallout" of those trees are leaves that pile up under the "brush" (another word for "bushes"). I think this refers to the psychological damage of such abuse and the difficulty of facing and finally overcoming it.

submissions

The Smiths – Girl Afraid Lyrics

12 years ago

I just finished re-reading John Fowles' great early novel, The Collector, and I am convinced that this song is based on that novel. It is about a man who collects butterflies and when he wins a lottery, decides to buy a house in the country and "collect" a girl he's "in love with" (they made a film of it, too, which I believe Morrissey mentions in another song). The "collector" imprisons her in his basement ("in the room down there / she sat and stared") and claims to be in love with her. The novel explores both perspectives and we come to understand both of them on various psychological and social levels. The first part of the novel is told from his perspective and the second part is from the girl's perspective (girl afraid / boy afraid). It fits so well, and this song has to be one of the most succinct and insightful adaptation I've ever heard/read. He's summed the novel up in two stanzas and two verses while still remaining true to its essence. Brilliant!

submissions

Regina Spektor – Daniel Cowman Lyrics

12 years ago

I notice that no one has mentioned that the part where HB (Heroin Boy) sings, "A man destined to hang can never drown," is sung to the tune of "Strangers in the Night." I get the sense that the "memory" of HB is speaking to Daniel and/or Daniel is remembering that when HB was sentenced to hang, he found a way to create his own death by drowning himself in the bathtub. "Strangers in the Night" is about a sudden meeting that is unexpected, yet life-changing and I think that is what the memory of HB is conveying here. The "shhhhhhh" suggests that HB is about the share a secret and that secret is that the man who sentenced Daniel to hang may be wrong if it turns out he dies by drowning. ("Shhhhh....a man destined to hang can never drown..), so when HB says "lucky that I'm dying by hanging and not drowning," he seems to suggest that his freedom has been taken from him ("How can I possibly drown when the powers-that-be have sentenced me to hang?) and then he wants to be given his freedom of choice: "Now that we've got that clear... I wanna take a fuckin' bath!" It seems that Daniel has remembered that and perhaps only now fully understood why Heroin Boy did that: as a way to have final control over his destiny within the limits of how he has been treated by society. He was sentenced to die ("I don't exist") and therefore had all freedom of choice taken from him ("doesn't mean that I can go do whatever I want"). In order to free himself, he chooses to die by drowning instead of by order of the system that has killed him. Whether either of them actually died by drowning seems a moot point since the focus of song is a memory that offers a kind of epiphany for Daniel. I love all the ideas here. Great song. I am in awe of Regina Spektor's genius.

submissions

Regina Spektor – My Man Lyrics

14 years ago

I think this song is a comment on those "I love my man no matter how bad he treats me" kind of songs that billie holliday and others used to sing. In the chorus ('he loves me, he loves me, he really really loves me') has a definite parodic sound when it is sung, as though she is suggesting that these women are really stupid for staying with men who abuse them in this way. If love hurts this much, it's not love. I don't see Regina encouraging love for someone who "don't treat me right".

submissions

The Feeling – We Can Dance Lyrics	15 years ago
I love this song. Anyone who loves music should love this song. It's just about being free to move to the music of life and not concern oneself with religion, romantic ideas, and so on. Life is the dance and the dance is life. (Like in W.B. Yeats' great line: "how can you tell the dancer from the dance"). Love it!!

submissions

Regina Spektor – Mermaid Lyrics

15 years ago

I haven't heard this song but would love to if anyone is willing to send it to me. I just commented on "Prisoners" which also mentions mermaids and I think this song supports my reading of that one. A mermaid is a beautiful, unique being and--in the original fairytale--the little mermaid chooses to sacrifice her existence for someone who does not know her or recognize her. I think Regina is speaking as the mermaid and suggesting that she made a horrible mistake by giving up her individuality for the sake of love. The verse with the broken flower pot is so moving because the speaker recognizes that the flower has been thrown out of it's element and she returns it to the soil and nurtures it. It seems to represent her lost voice as she names it "Mozart". Gotta love Regina!!

submissions

Regina Spektor – Prisoners Lyrics

15 years ago

I realize that my interpretation of "I'm really just little" doesn't work because it's referring tot he speaker and not the "Christian" prisoners. So, I would change that and say that she is longing to remember that she is a mermaid and still little (and so interested in exploring other worlds but not changing herself to fit into it as the little mermaid did). Does that make sense? In any case, I LOVE this song and Regina Spektor's body of work. Her influence on music will be huge even if -- sadly -- she is not because she's not mainstream enough.

submissions

Regina Spektor – Prisoners Lyrics

15 years ago

Like many of her songs, this one seems to me to be a criticism of Christianity or certain Christian beliefs. From a Fundamentalist Christian point of view, we are all prisoners awaiting God's judgment. When God judges us, "the earth [will] suddenly shake / ... the walls [will] somehow suddenly come crumbling, tumbling / And...the bars [will] somehow magically break" and then the "saved" will be free and the "sinners" will all be dead. It also makes me think of the Wall of Jericho that came "tumbling, crumbling" down because God gave the Israelites the power to break them down without weapons. Again, it suggests that the prisoners are waiting for God to free them. I think that the speaker is mocking this idea, and saying that Christianity is a means of being parented and not really growing up: "My mama thinks I'm grown, but I'm really just little." I think that the prisoners who are "cussing like cavemen" and tattooing stones with "Your mama was here" represent Christians who feel superior and judge others (referring to the biblical story where Christ saves the woman about to be stoned by the crowd -- so they're insulting one another by suggesting that these stones "have their mother's names on them" kinda thing). That the point-of-view changes in the last stanza suggests that the speaker has been referring to other prisoners and that she is different than they are. She's tattooing her own body rather than stones to throw at others. Both the mermaid and the swallow are creatures able to live where we cannot (water and air), and often represent a higher consciousness. The reference to Hans Christian Anderson seems to be connected to the mermaid image (as he wrote to original). "Someday I will remember" may refer to this part of the story: "When first the sisters had permission to rise to the surface, they were each delighted with the new and beautiful sights they saw; but now, as grown-up girls, they could go when they pleased, and they had become indifferent about it." The older sisters realize that they are free to go where they want and so rising to the surface is no longer appealing. Their own realm is far more beautiful to them. The youngest sister, however, wants to gain a soul (which mermaids do not have) by being loved by a human being. She ends up sacrificing herself, though, so that the prince will keep his soul and she is changed into sea foam as all mermaids are when they die. I think that the speaker of this song identifies with the sisters who chose to remain in their world and live happily. If Hans Christian Andersen had had his way, the speaker would follow the example of the little mermaid and be willing to sacrifice her existence in one realm to "escape" to another. I think that the speaker is willing to remain in her "cell" (this life on earth with no hope of immortality) and remember that she is a mermaid and therefore tattoo a mermaid on her body to represent her desire to say where she is). I'm not sure how the swallow fits in, so that might mess it all up :-)....Sorry this is so long -- I got carried away in my research!

submissions

Regina Spektor – Baby Jesus Lyrics

15 years ago

I've only just learned about Regina Spektor and have become a HUGE fan of her music. I read somewhere that she is Jewish (not sure if she's a practicing Jew), so it would make sense to read this song as a criticism of Christianity. She criticizes Christianity and Christian beliefs in many of her other songs, such as "Hero" and embraces human imperfection (for example, "Your Honour"). The last verse of this song suggests the power of Christianity and how it induces fear and judgment. The speaker is "scared for her life" and runs out to buy the baby Jesus and nourish it (as if to make up for the fact that he was killed by the Jews). I love that she gives him bread, water, and a first aid kit! I'm quite sure she's being quite critical of fundamentalist Christians who are always on the lookout for "sinners" to judge and condemn.

submissions

Regina Spektor – Hero Lyrics

15 years ago

I see this song as making a statement about Christianity from the viewpoint of wither a Jew (which Spektor is) or an atheist (which I am). Though the speaker in the song believes in the myth of original sin (Adam didn't see what was coming but Eve gave him the fruit and he ate it), she does not believe that we need to be saved from it or that Christ was a redeemer of humankind. The "hero" of the myth is not Christ (as argued in the New Testament), but Eve, who first ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When she gives the fruit to Adam, she soothes him by saying "it's alright-its alright-its alright," that he should give into pleasure. "Power to the people" suggests that Adam and his descendants (hence "we" and "I") have the power to redeem ourselves by seeing the true distinction between "good" and "evil" (good = pleasure / evil = pain) "We don't want "it" (salvation) because "we want pleasure" (the pleasure which Adam and Eve discovered once they had eaten the fruit). We have been confused by the Christian myth of redemption and now believe that pleasure is bad but we want it anyway ("we're tryin' to be faithful but we're cheatin' cheatin' cheatin'). The speaker claims that sins should be forgiven by each one of us ("let he who is free from sin cast the first stone"). Jesus spoke truth, but was not the son of God. He was a prophet only, but his prophecy should be honoured. If you're a Christian, then you might see the speaker of the song as a dangerous temptress. If you're a Jew, you might see the speaker as someone exploring the New Testament in relation to the Old Testament. If you're an atheist, then you might see the speaker of the song as speaking a profound truth.

* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.