| Infected Mushroom – U R So Fucked Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| I believe this song is suggesting that you're fucked. | |
| The Handsome Family – Drunk by Noon Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| This is one goddamn hell of a song. | |
| John Cale – Fear Is A Man's Best Friend Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
What can you say other than that every word in this song is true? Fear is your best friend. |
|
| The Decemberists – We Both Go Down Together Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
Leave it to Colin Meloy to write an extraordinarily beautiful song that is obviously about a rape followed by a murder-suicide. I laid you down on the grass of a clearing/you wept but your soul was willing. Really? This is a classic Decemberists song in having not only an unreliable narrator but an utter psycho narrator. You WEPT but your soul was willing? The narrator of this song is obviously a rapist. The song is a mockery of bourgeois sentimentality. |
|
| The Decemberists – We Both Go Down Together Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
I love this song but it is clearly a parody of bourgeois sentimentality. It is about a rape followed by a murder-suicide. "I laid you down on the grass of a clearing You wept but your soul was willing" You wept but your soul was willing? Really? I'm not sure how that can be interpreted as anything other than a rape, even though the song is disguised as a romantic tragedy. It is clearly sung by a classic "unreliable narrator." |
|
| The Decemberists – Los Angeles, I'm Yours Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I think this song is about loving and hating somewhere at the same time. I pointed out Moz but another person notorious for loving somewhere and hating it at the same time was Baudelaire about 19th Century Paris. I'd not be surprised if this song was a conscious reference to Baudelaire. | |
| The Decemberists – Los Angeles, I'm Yours Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
God, I love this song. It reminds me so much of Morrissey's style of lyrics. You know that kind of Moz song. "I love you, but you're horrible. I hate you, but you're wonderful." Not a direct quote but you know what I mean. |
|
| Steely Dan – Cousin Dupree Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
I love this song. It isn't the only song where Steely Dan is ogling underage or nearly underage girls (in this case fairly close relatives), but it is one where the girl in question gets the only and best dialogue. "The dreary architecture of your soul." "What is it exactly turns you off?" Even for someone renowned for cruel, self-directed irony, this is about at the top. Wow. |
|
| The Rolling Stones – Dead Flowers Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Actually, not true. It's a Jagger/Richards tune. It is so good that it is often assumed to be a Townes van Zandt song, but Townes actually covered it himself. | |
| The Magnetic Fields – You Must Be Out Of Your Mind Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
As with so many Merritt tunes, this gets deeper with time. I had originally pegged this as one of his witty wordplay songs, because that part is so obvious. Instead, it's much more deeply witty, and much more sad. What does a song like this mean? It means love is horrible. Pain is forever. There's no rewind button. It actually speaks for itself, because it says all this in its lyrics. And it stabs you in the heart too. The incredibly harsh Santa Claus line reminds me of the equally harsh Santa Claus line from Dress Rehearsal Rag by Leonard Cohen. |
|
| The Magnetic Fields – Andrew In Drag Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Yet another brilliant Merritt song that is both hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. | |
| Black Sabbath – Paranoid Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
This song wasn't really by Ozzy, musically. It was by Iommi, who definitely did the music. In any event, God tier. |
|
| Weird Al Yankovic – Dare To Be Stupid Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Best Devo song ever! Even Mark Mothersbaugh said so. | |
| Nine Inch Nails – The Becoming Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
It won't give up it wants me dead Goddamn this noise inside my head These lyrics and the claustrophobic wall of sound that closes in at the end of the song as it repeats over and over again embody what it is like to have your own mind plotting against you. With me, that's ADD. I'm not sure whether Trent has some form of it, but he's certainly had his mental issues. There's something incredibly satisfying about the climax of this song, as horrifying as its subject matter is. In analyzing the meaning of songs from TDS, you really can't just look at the lyrics. A lot of the meaning is in the music itself. This is a song to listen to with the volume so high it hurts. |
|
| Nico – Janitor of Lunacy Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
What's funny in a sense about this song is that it may actually be the least depressing song on Desertshore, which is so unremittingly grim I can't stand to listen to it for more than a couple tracks. For a band full of geniuses, the greatest may have been Nico, who was consistently underrated largely because she was a beautiful woman. I believe she may at least in part have deliberately destroyed her looks out of self-loathing because of this. Unlike most of the tracks on Desertshore, this is actually somewhat accessible. I'd probably recommend this track to anyone unfamiliar with the album. (I'd also recommend anyone attempting to listen to the entire album straight through put away any loaded guns or razor blades.) |
|
| Elliott Smith – Sweet Adeline Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
Just the title has rich cultural references. My one note is that I don't think it's any coincidence that Elliott pronounces "Adeline" in a way that makes it sound exactly like "Outta Line." Out of line. He also throws in wordplay related to the era. "Brother can you spare sunshine for a brother" echoing "Brother can you spare a dime." More wordplay. "Told me not to worry, you're Just a shooting star" Ha ha. Because he's a star who shoots up, and also, someone who dies young. Elliott Smith was often drily witty about what he apparently already knew was his early demise. |
|
| The Velvet Underground – Oh! Sweet Nuthin Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| That solo is Sterling Morrison, one of the truly underrated guitarists of all time. | |
| The Velvet Underground – Oh! Sweet Nuthin Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| One of the truly rare true blues songs by a white man. | |
| The Magnetic Fields – Yeah! Oh, Yeah! Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
I love this song. It's incredibly mean and cynical, and breaks my heart, and at the same time, funny as hell. Genius. |
|
| The Magnetic Fields – You Must Be Out Of Your Mind Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
I believe he is talking to a younger lover who has mindfucked him, and his trying to sweep it all under the rug and hook up again. Not exactly a secret, but Stephin is gay. |
|
| Elliott Smith – King's Crossing Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
All in all, a great analysis. I just want to add this. "Open your parachute and grab your gun Falling down like an omen, a setting sun" I believe the "setting sun" phrase is a direct reference to Neil Young's song "The Needle and the Damage Done." "I've seen the needle And the damage done A little part of it in everyone But every junkie's Like a settin' sun." I also think this verse: "This is the place where time reverses Dead men talk to all the pretty nurses Instruments shine on a silver tray Don't let me get carried away Don't let me get carried away Don't let me be carried away" I think this verse quite literally refers to his own autopsy. Incredibly grim song and I can barely stand to listen to it. |
|
| Acid House Kings – This heart is a stone Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I think the song may have been originally intended for a male lead vocal, but when they changed the lead vocal, they didn't bother changing the lyrics. Even so, it's enigmatic. I love the song. | |
| Nick Drake – Day Is Done Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| This song is about the utter meaninglessness of life, how none of your accomplishments have any ultimate purpose and how everyone will forget you when you die. It's almost as despairing as most of the tracks on Pink Moon. | |
| Iggy Pop – Some Weird Sin Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Only three comments? This song is about feeling so alien in the world, so much like you don't even belong here, that the only way to tolerate existing in it is to commit some act that the world at large views as vile, just to feel anything at all. | |
| Traffic – Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I love that I really am still not sure about what this song means after 20 years of listening to it. It's about disappointment and regret. It's about a lot of potentially disturbing things. It doesn't give much away, though. Great song. Probably Traffic's best. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Then Came The Last Days Of May Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
You've all missed the central point of awesomeness of this song. It's pretty subtle. Who the fuck is the only person who could be singing this song? This song is sung from the POV of the guy who murdered the passengers. The driver is singing this song. He killed them all, took their money, and is now moving on to other things, and inviting you to be his next victim. I bet BOC is pretty disappointed how few people got this song. |
|
| Madonna – Like a Prayer Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Come on. It's about a blowjob AND a religious experience. They're the same thing. Madonna often mixes the sacred and profane. | |
| Nico – Afraid Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| This song means my heart is broken. | |
| Elliott Smith – Happiness/The Gondola Man Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| This is, perhaps, the saddest song called "Happiness" of all time. | |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.