| Robbie Williams – Radio Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Obviously, there's some sinister HE that the narrator fears, perhaps paranoically. Is this HE the one who may deal out "Divine retribution"? Why is HE living in the basement but choosing the attic? "Listen to the Radio, And you will hear the songs you know. Make it effervescent here, And you might have a job, my dear." This chorus seems pretty clear to me, especially if remember the primary definition of effervescent is bubbly or fizzy--like pop. My opinion: This song is Robbie's "scathing satire" song, the one where he takes a look at the pop music machine. The HE is the Radio: HE's in both the attic and the basement; HE profits from and takes credit for Robbie's every award and soundbite, and HE can strike the singer down as easily as HE has buit him up. The second verse, about "looking for meaning/where nothing is demanding", becomes a search for something the substantial stuff among what one might call the Usual Pop Dross. Maybe the OUCH is biting the hand the feeds him (or shooting himself in the foot). |
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| The Housemartins – Five Get Over Excited Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This is one of those songs with upbeat music and sinister lyrics. The exact nature of those lyrics eludes me, but I think the general gist is: "Five killed in a car crash": Fifi is a Scandinavian girl who caused a car crash for a family of five and dumped their bodies in a river; "Five poisoned over dinner": Jeremy is a London guy who poisoned the five members of his family; "I am Mad from Scandinavia/I want a guy in the London area": Jeremy and Fifi meet through lonely hearts ads; "You've got to conclude she just hasn't a heart": there's a media circus once they're accused, and the viewing public doesn't know how to react. Beyond this outline, other references and contexts may have to be filled in. I know the title "Five Get Over Excited" to be a parody of the titles of Enid Blyton's whizzo jolly good 'Famous Five' novels about four kids and a dog who solve mysteries. I feel a connection may be made to Jeremy Bamber, a man accused of shooting and burying his five family members in the months before this song was released. But the name Fifi doesn't ring any bells for me, and neither verse sounds like the Bamber case anyhow. |
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| Sparks – Something For The Girl With Everything Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I always thought this was about a guy being blackmailed by a girl. "She knew you way back when you weren't yourself." The guy had some kind of past life (perhaps something to do with how he got all this money to spend on her). The girl found out about this past life, and she's going to tell people about it unless he buys her nice things. "You can breathe another day Secure in knowing she won't break you yet" Like a mortal appeasing an angry goddess, the guy makes offerings to the girl so that she may stay her hand. "Here's a really pretty car I hope it takes you far I hope it takes you fast and far" The thing that caps his suffering is that he has come to despise his girl, but he must continue to buy her gifts for fear of her telling his secret. "Three wise men" and "partridge in a tree" symbolize how every day is like Christmas for her now. "Hey, come out and say hello Before our friends all go But say no more than just hello Ah, the little girl is shy You see of late she's been quite speechless, very speechless She's got everything" The only enjoyment he can ever have these days is the satisfaction that his money can keep the girl quiet for another day. |
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| The Divine Comedy – The Frog Princess Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| In case there are some fellow American fans unaware of the usage: it is common for the Brits to refer to the French as frogs. This is why the song repeatedly uses La Marseillaise and ends with a guillotine. Perhaps it all started with Neil finding a clever pun on a fairy tale... | |
| Madness – Michael Caine Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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In THE IPCRESS FILE, Michael Caine plays an army sergeant who becomes a spy in order to work off a black-marketeering background. Through the film, his loyalty is torn between two department heads, he accidentally kills a CIA agent, and he becomes brainwashed to become a mind-controlled sleeper agent, meant to kill one of the department heads upon hearing a trigger word. So his loyalties are complicated, to say the least. "Michael Caine" the song concerns informers within the Provisional IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a hot subject at the time--a major news story was about Sean O'Callaghan, an informer who foiled an IRA bomb plot to injure Princess Diana at a Duran Duran concert. As I see it, the song's "He" is the informer. By the second verse he has done his doublecross ("sacrifice his pride"), and by the third verse is a paranoid wreck living under an assumed name. And Michael Caine is used as a representation of the informer's questionable, distrustful nature. |
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