| Vampire Weekend – Ya Hey Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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The song is questioning the possibility and nature of God, of the idea of God and the difficulty of having faith in God, of believing in such an idea in a world that is often chaotic and apparently without direction or purpose. I think trying to paste anything more definitive or complicated over it is reading conclusions into it where there are none. It's more about the questions than the answers. |
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| Gogol Bordello – Through the Roof 'n' Underground Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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This song is about the decline of individual cultures under the homogenizing force of globalization and corporate-driven consumerism (mostly emanating from the worst corners of the United States but it is by no means the only culprit in this atrocity). Wal-Mart (under that name or any other) or Starbucks on every corner, every country. It's a depressing thing, when you think about it, that something could be the same everywhere like that. The whole thing reminds me strongly of what David Bowie mentioned in an interview once about his song "I'm Afraid of Americans": "I was traveling in Java when [its] first McDonald’s went up: it was like, “for f*ck’s sake.” The invasion by any homogenized culture is so depressing, the erection of another Disney World in, say, Umbria, Italy, more so. It strangles the indigenous culture and narrows expression of life." Gogol Bordello is all about global exchange & sharing of cultures, not just one manufactured commercial culture degrading, dominating or eradicating everything around it. This song is about escaping that stultifying, soul-sucking force, by going "through the roof and underground" if necessary. |
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| Einstürzende Neubauten – Haus der Lüge Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I think this song is about tearing down old idols to create new ones. Death & re-birth. I have heard people make all kinds of very detailed interpretations about destruction of Christianity & the church and so forth and all kinds of references to Nietzsche, but I don't know that it's even that specific. The whole album this is from is very theatrical and probably purposely quite vague & symbolic, so it sort of defies exact interpretation anyway. Maybe the band have explained things more in interviews or something that I simply have not seen, but I think I prefer not knowing every detail anyway, mystery is half the fun. |
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| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – New Morning Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Basically a sort of hymn or benediction. The music itself mimics an Afro-American spiritual. But, of course, with that unique Bad Seeds touch... | |
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Weeping Song Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I think a lot of people are reading too much into this - organized religion or war or whatever. I think it's a lot more basic than that, though. If you want to live your life, have relationships, love other people, well it's inevitable that you will just end up weeping for your trouble at some point. Everything ends sooner or later - relationships go sour, children grow up, friends lose touch, loved ones die, and then so do you. "I won't be weeping long" So I guess it's okay to weep, to mourn, but you have to stop eventually and live your life too, or you'll miss all the good bits in between the sad bits? I dunno. I don't think this song is "depressing" just a... pleasant melancholy. :) |
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| The Smashing Pumpkins – Glass + the Ghost Children Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The whole Machina album is a sort of fictionalized, dramatized version of the Smashing Pumpkins itself. Billy was sort of taking the piss out of the public's and media's portrayal of the Smashing Pumpkins, its fans and himself. I think a lot of the imagery in this song is lifted straight from David Bowie's song "Glass Spider" (on his Never Let Me Down album) and I doubt it's by accident. Machina II has a few Bowie/Ziggy Stardust references as well, Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars being the ultimate fictionalized rock band of course. Like Ziggy Stardust, Machina was just pure theatrics. |
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| David Bowie – The Width of a Circle Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I think you all are WAY overanalyzing this thing. It's just a typically human struggle between doing what's right but difficult (god's path) and what's pleasurable but easy (satan's path), and facing the less-than-divine aspects of yourself (the monster). In this case, the figure in the song ends up in Hell-oops... The imagery of the lyrics is pretty bog-standard rock-n-roll-religious stuff. Not too far removed from the stuff coming out of the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, etc. Good song, though, one of my favorites of Bowies, on one of my favorite Bowie albums. |
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