submissions
| Billy Joel – Allentown Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Wow - bumping an *old* thread, but really got to know this song over the past few car rides with a CD of Billy's best songs repeating. Couldn't agree more with Stoolhardy on everything except the American Flag line, and agree with Ivokent about the rah-rah patriotism we were all supposed to feel when times were pretty sh*tty for the common man when common work was disappearing like trees from the rain forest.
This song strikes me as lyrically one of Bill's Joel's very best and a true contemporary folk song. The fact that it's set to a cleverly pumping mechanical rhythm that belies entirely the very potent message of the lyrics seemed at first incongruous, but can you imagine the drunken dirge it would be if the meter matched the message? Leave it to Roger Waters to write stuff like that. :D I like Allentown plenty fine the way it is.
Thank you, Billy Joel! |
submissions
| Jethro Tull – Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die Lyrics
| 10 years ago
|
On it's own, it's a song about loneliness, loss, yearning nostalgia and suicide.
In the context of the album of the same name, the hero Ray Lomas feels that he and his music and style have been outmoded. This is what leads him to attempt suicide. The final refrain of the song "You're never too old" speaks to the theme of the album, that all music and style are eventually rediscovered, recycled and reincorporated into current trends. Ray's relevance is restored in the end. |
submissions
| Janis Ian – At Seventeen Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Probably over thinking this one, but could the small-town eyes be gaping at a suicide when the pain of loneliness and rejection far outweighs any acceptance and approval received? I always felt the line in that very dark and desperate way. |
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