| Fleet Foxes – Your Protector Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| I think that her “protector” is the narrator, probably her husband, who isn’t at her deathbed. But he wants to be. He is promising her that he is on his way, and begging her to wait for him, so he can be her protector. \n\nI think the messages to the family are messages to his dead in-laws she is soon to reunite with. Or perhaps he is already dead, which is why he can’t be with her while she is dying, but he is “home” waiting for her (which explains why she “came” to him and not vice versa). In which case, these are messages to the living in-laws before she dies, which fits. Either way, it’s a beautiful concept that his father-in-law’s approval still means something to him, and that he aspires to be her protector. | |
| Fleet Foxes – Your Protector Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[tigertamer:41852] I don’t think it is, but it definitely could be. It fits. | |
| Fleet Foxes – Your Protector Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[elojas:41850] Could be. | |
| Great Lake Swimmers – It's Too Late Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Enchante, bon, oui = French for “nice to meet you, good, yes” | |
| Of Monsters And Men – Sloom Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
I agree with the general consensus that the song is about growing up in a dysfunctional family, and coming out of it with aspirations for something better. "The sea said good bye to the shore so the sun wouldn't notice the seaweed that wrapped its arms around you" seems to refer to a child growing up and leaving his parents. I suspect the sea is him, pulling away, and the shore is his parents, his "base" growing up. And perhaps the sun is just the world at large. Seaweed conjures imagery of being tangled up, and perhaps that's the first hint at dysfunction, which he hopes the world (sun?) doesn't notice. "The carpet on my cheek feels like the fall grass" (or "forest," on other lyric websites) I think refers to facial hair, and implies growing up into an adult. "And I run through the tall trees with your hands chasing me" I think refers to navigating adulthood, with the heaviness of his past haunting him the whole way. "The books that I keep by my bed are full of your stories" might mean the things that keep him up at night, or that he thinks about at the end of the day, all come back to how his parents taught him to perceive the world. "A little dream of mine, a little nightmare of yours" gives the first glimpse that what he wants in life is at odds with what his parents wanted for him. I think it just generally refers to the phenomenon of growing up and taking a different path, often controversial, and without parent approval. "To be asked to take this plunge, to forgive and forget, to be the better man, to be a better man..." all points to his decision to finally depart from the dysfunction of his childhood, forgive and forget his parents' failures, "be the better man" regarding their antagonistic relationship, and be a better man (than them) as a result. I think the reference to the cat's silhouette and street lights just illustrates how huge and sometimes scary things seem when you're a kid, versus how daunting they actually are. "So make your last demands for I will forsake you" seems to suggest a relationship where the parents are manipulative, and he is finally putting an end to it. He doesn't want that any more. All he will accept as his parents' role is for them to love their children. The last line, about the man smiling at him, seems to reinforce that his family dynamics were filled with negativity, and that smile gave him hope of forging new and better relationships now that he has made the split from his parents and childhood burdens. |
|
| Dido – Here With Me Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| It's a beautiful song, about being deeply close to someone, and then trying to hold onto that feeling after they leave. The faint beeping sound is reminiscent of a heart monitor, and to me, gives the added dimension that this person is recovering in the hospital. So perhaps that visit is all the more special to the person, because she's bedridden from an accident or illness, and bonding with a lover is the one meaningful part of her day that she longs to experience again. | |
| Lady GaGa – Bad Romance Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I took this song to be sarcastic. | |
| Blitzen Trapper – The Man Who Would Speak True Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
Perhaps the first stanza really belongs at the end. The "lonely place" is his grave, and the jawbone is what is left of his mouth after he is executed. (Thus the flower growing from his decaying remains.) Perhaps that is why he warns about "guiding the tongue." He was silent before the judge, somehow said something the free himself on the train, and was a free man after that. It was when he couldn't guide his tongue any more that he met his fate, and was "planted by the sea" by the authorities. In which case, the name of his lover (Grace) must have two meanings. The Grace he killed couldn't have dug up the flower that sprung from his corpse, so maybe he is referring to more a spiritual grace in the first stanza - followed by an account of how his tongue got him into trouble when he confessed to killing the woman Grace. I still think there's more that I'm missing. |
|
| Blitzen Trapper – The Man Who Would Speak True Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I follow the storyline, but I feel like there is some additional symbolism for the tongue that I'm missing. What does it mean when his tongue is replaced by a green and growing flower? What exactly happened to the police men escorting him by train, that he apparently killed? And there's got to be some meaning behind his lover digging him out with a jaw bone. | |
| Moby – Natural Blues Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I noticed that too. | |
| Moby – Natural Blues Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
My first impression of the song was that it was about addiction, which seems to come with an insurmountable series of hardships. "Went down the hill" could mean giving in or relapsing, with the expected initial outcome: "My soul got happy and stayed all day." The other stanza, "brother was dead," is the ultimate outcome of untreated addiction (an overdose). The stigma and illegality could shroud him in secrecy, and many of the consequences could be hidden from others, thus: "Don't nobody know my troubles but God." When I saw the music video depicting a very elderly, disabled man being wheeled through a nursing home, I thought it fit even better. The tolls of aging and disability are undoubtedly hard, complex, and spawn separate difficulties of their own. It can become hard to communicate these hardships, or isolating to succumb to age and disability, thus the line about how no one could fully understand his troubles but God. It could also account for the stanza about going downhill (dying) and finding peace in it all day (soul got happy), and then quietly dying the next day (brother was dead). |
|
| Moby – Natural Blues Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| That's a compelling idea. It could be about suicide. There is a music video depicting an elderly, very disabled man in a nursing home. The lyrics definitely fit into the context of that scenario as well. I don't think it has to be suicide... I think it is probably any series of "hard troubles" that are ultimately the death of you. | |
| Collective Soul – Run Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
I feel like this song is about retirement. "I've never been this bored before. Is this the prize I've waited for?" People spend their whole working lives looking forward to retirement, but often find themselves suddenly without a place in the world once it finally comes. It goes on to talk about the hours passing, having nothing left here to insure, and how he "weakens with each voice that sings." I know a lot of seniors who sit on their porches and just try to occupy their time, and I can definitely see how a person who is new to retirement might perceive life as just "hours passing." I also think that a lot of the things you need to function as a working person suddenly lose their importance in retirement; you no longer depend on having a daily commute, tools for your trade, etc. and the things you have accumulated become outdated (think of VHS, cassettes, records, polaroid cameras). So all those material things in life you strove to maintain no longer need to be, or even can be, if they've worn out or lost their utility. Hence, he looks around him and notices there's "nothing left here to insure" - a fairly creative way of putting it. I also think the fact he finds himself "weakening" gives a strong hint about his situation (aging). I think the lines about finding the messenger, buying back memories and awakening some old qualities abstractly depict his intent to reconnect with his past and revisit what had meaning to him... which is why he has a very good long way to run. |
|
| Blitzen Trapper – Furr Lyrics | 12 years ago |
|
This song is about the experience of growing up. He starts out the song as a seventeen-year-old, the last year of childhood. He has a vague sense of a calling, but it's not clear yet - "I could hear the angels whispering." So he "wandered aimlessly" in search of it. At first he's aware of his mother's direction - "I heard my mother shouting through the fog" (with the fog being his own fuzzy perception of his place in the world) - and then in his impressionable youth he starts to be aware of other influences. I think these are his peers, at first represented by a "howling dog" (not family, but still faithful human companions), then depicted as something much wilder, "a wolf to be exact." At first he is uncomfortable with this crowd - "the sound sent shivers down my back" - but peer pressure creeps over him and he is finally "drawn into the pack." Running around like a pack of wolves represents a group of teens stirring up trouble, especially as he notes that he "lost the taste for judging right from wrong." When he's a bit older (twenty-three, so possibly after college) he meets a girl who is also seeking her calling in life ("listening to the angels just like me"), but he realizes that she is not interested in him as he is: "She didn't seem to see [me]." So he reconsiders his lifestyle - "brushed the leaves off of my snout" - and suddenly hears the pleas of his mother again. I think "that girl go[es] shaky at the knees" when he proposes, because after that he "took her by the arm" [down the aisle?] and "settled down" and "raised our children." He speaks of his transition into family life ("my fur has turned to skin") and confesses that he's "been quickly ushered in to a world that ... I do not know." I think that's how every new parent feels: suddenly thrown headlong into a routine that is totally unexpected. Though enamored with their new families, most still reminisce about their carefree days: "I still dream of running careless through the snow." I have no idea what the chorus means. Don't be afraid to try new things? It is out of character for a person to wear fur, or for a river to be on fire, so maybe "making God a liar" means being something you aren't supposed to be. And perhaps he is saying to embrace it head-on, like "fuel on fire." Both the rattlesnake (chorus) and howling wolf (first verse) could represent music, and he mentions embodying them in his wild days of "join[ing] in and sing[ing] their song." |
|
| Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Southern Cross Lyrics | 12 years ago |
|
I think his journey on the sea represents his emotional journey of leaving a girl whom he has been with for a long time. The song seems to suggest that the physical and emotional journeys are happening together. He makes note of many landmarks, which describe a long nautical distance. I think in doing so he is emphasizing what a long emotional journey this is. In the hussle and bussle of life (represented by a "noisy bar in Avalon" he clings to her, but when he has time to reflect ("on a midnight watch") he knows it's time to move on. This certainty is elucidated by his description of the sea voyage: "sailing a reach before a following sea," which means he is going with the current, "nicely making way," and later references to "larger voices calling" him onward. I think the reference to the Southern Cross is a crucial symbol in the song. Sailors navigate by this constellation, and in the song it brings him emotional navigation too. Throughout the ages, people have felt a sense of awe looking at the stars, which make them feel like such a tiny piece of the universe ("the truth you might be running from is so small"), and for him it reiterates how small a piece of his life that relationship was, and it makes him feel like "larger voices [are] calling" him to another saga in his life: to "the promise of the coming day". Then he starts to view her as an anchor, holding him back from his resolution of following a larger calling. Despite this resolve, he makes it a point to remember her fondly ("what heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten," describing his ties to her as "a silver chain"), admitting that her loss leaves him feeling bereft nonetheless ("my dreams are a dying" and "she [the ship] is all that I have left"). It's a profound and eloquent song about moving on from a failed relationship. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.