| Alanis Morissette – The Couch Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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God..I can't believe it's been years and I still love this song... It is mos def about sitting with a shrink and alternates between first the shrink, her dad and then Alanis at the end. Who knows, they could have had a group session. The first line is the shrink or Alanis talking to the Alanis's dad telling him about his childhood. If you've ever been to a therapist, that's what you do; we are who we are because of past experiences. "You hadn't seen your father in such a long time, he died in the arms of his lover, how dare he. Your mother never left the house, she never married anyone, as you took it upon yourself to console her." So we're getting into an issue of a boy having to take on the role of husband and a support for his mother at a young age (later we learn that she was an alcoholic too, so that sucks). No doubt, he probably had been in this role for some time as "you hadn't seen your father in such a long time" shows us that his dad wasn't there much. She took out her anguish and anger on him because he looked like his dad. God, already such an effed up childhood: "You reminded her so much of your father so you were banished and you wonder why you're so hypersensitive and why you can't trust anyone but us?" Now the dad talks: "But how...can I begin to forgive her so many years under bridges with dirty water, she was foolish, and selfish, and cowardly if you asked me." He needs to forgive her to be able to let go and he knows this. "I don't know where to begin in all of my 50-odd years I have been silently suffering and adapting, perpetuating, and enduring. Who are you younger generation to tell me that I have unresolved problems, not many examples of fruits of this type of excruciating labor" He's been around for awhile, and he's lived this long with this baggage so what difference does it make if he sees a shrink to realize it? Am I going to reap some reward for going through all of my personal details with you? The dad continues to talk about the shrink "terminology" like grieve and heal and mourn. Which leads me to believe that Alanis pushed her father to see a shrink because maybe his mother (her grandmother) died recently and he didn't show any emotion whatsoever? "I feel fine we, may not have been born as awake as you were. It was much harder in those days we had paper routes uphill both ways We went from school to a job to a wife to instant parenthood" He's giving excuses.."I'm fine..that's just the way it was back then." And probably using the term "awake" sarcastically (that's just my take). "I walked into his office; I felt so self-conscious on the couch, he was sitting down across from me, he was writing down his 'hypothesis', I don't know. I've got a loving, supportive wife who doesn't know how involved she should get. You say his interjecting was him just calling me on my shit?" He's in another session now talking about the present and what's going on in his life with Alanis's mom. The dad is telling Alanis about it and asking questions. He continues talking with her "Just the other day, my sweet daughter, I was driving past 203, I walked up the stairs in my minds eye, I remember how they would creak loudly; she was only responsive with a drink, he was only responsive by photo, I was only trying to be the best big brother that I could.." I think he's talking about driving past the old house and remembering and finally understanding and realizing that yeah, my mom was a drunk, my dad was never there, and it was not my fault that they were that way; I just wanted to be a good big brother. He's saying this to his daughter and would probably be considered a "breakthrough." "I've walked sometimes confused sometimes ready to crack open wide Sometimes indignant sometimes raw. Can you imagine I pay him 75 dollars an hour? SometimesIt feels like highway robbery, and sometimes it's peanuts. I wish it could last a couple more hours" He uses past tense to say that before, he walked around angry and didn't know how to work through it; he just wanted to crack open because of all he had been through with his mom and family (now he realizes). And he's realizing that therapy is a good thing; sometimes indispensable, sometimes not (which is so true). And then it comes to Alanis who says: "So here we both are battling similar demons (not coincidentally) You see in getting beyond knowing it solely intellectually, you're not relinquishing your majestry. You are wise, you are warm, you are courageous you are big and I love you more now than I ever have in my whole life" She's saying do you see how your problems are my problems too? It's not coincidence; we're blood and whatever happened to you in your past affects me today. But because you know now on a deeper level about what your childhood meant and how it was affected by how you grew up, does not make you less of a man or lesser of the great man that is my father. |
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| Alanis Morissette – I Was Hoping Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I think this song is one about growth as a person in 3 vignettes, so to speak. I'm almost positive it is autobiographical like most of Alanis's writings. Like most of what she has done you can see a sort of spiritual enlightenment... In the first scene of the song, she is meeting up with a married guy who is recalling a time when Alanis told him that wouldn't it be terrible if right before he died, he realized that he was this great person? And how he would be so regretful in his life. She then says "you're willing to tell me this, now?" ...because his wife is in the next room. And she quickly changes the subject... She then says "hey..I haven't been eating chicken or meat or anything" and he responds almost talking down to her "but you've been wearing leather." And then laughs it off to say that "we (humans) are still on top of the food chain" despite her vegetarianism, and lays down the condescension heavy when he says "and yes, you're still a fine woman." She cringes because it's like he's saying.."hey, don't get down on yourself though...you tried." Like an adult speaking to a child. The chorus says she had hoped that he had the capacity/maturity to heal or at least share in her happiness and not berate her for trying something new and the capacity to speak truthfully (be "raw") to each other without flippant chuckles devised to fill the void between awkward comments. In the next scene, she's out with a guy who's getting shmoozed on by the old head waiter as they're leaving, and when saying "bye" to Alanis, calls her "dear." She reflects on that experience as now a wiser person who once would have pulled the "Don't you know WHO I AM?!" - card, considering that the waiter made such a big deal about her date and he's a "nobody." It's just not part of who she is now; it's petty and wasteful to spend so much time trying to convince others of your worth/point of view. The next chorus part seems pretty self-explanatory. "I too once thought that when proved wrong, I lost somehow." This follows a lot of what Alanis talks about in the song and sums it up. That so much energy is wasted when we spend much of our time defending our own points of view. When you cease defending your points of view, you don't have a reason to argue. No fighting and no resistence means you are free to fully experience the present. She says "it's a cycle...I'm withdrawing and guilt-tripping you." It is truly a cycle because she chooses not to argue a point of view. She then gives us an example of him pointing out someone in the emergency room caught in an altercation after beating up his child, the child then causes their dad to bleed because she threw a shoe at his head. And that he(Alanis's man) "would have had a hard time feeling compassion" for the man that beat up his own child, and she's quiet because she says that she didn't believe in revenge, right or wrong. She doesn't want to reiterate and keeps her mouth shut because she knows he'll feel judged and looked down upon. We all want to be creamy with someone - I love that phrase that she uses. It's the ultimate in a relationship, to share with someone so much that you become one. |
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| Tool – Parabola Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Mos def. If you're familiar with eastern theology and/or Deepak Chopra, he talks about this a lot as "the law of pure potentiality" or "the law of unity." And that even on the quantum level, all we are is a mass of energy, as a tree or the grass...we're all made of the same elements, and when you really look at human beings, we're like squiggles of energy, waves in the mass of energy that make up everything. Bill Hick was taken far too early from this earth.. |
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| System of a Down – Chop Suey! Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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The song is about suicide. Another commenter noted that the song was originally called "Suicide" but the record company made them change it. I was thinking about that... So what did they do? They "chopped" the word in half so you just had "Sui" or "suey" for phonetics sake. The exclamation point, in my opinion, was icing on the cake saying to the record company, "look, we did what you told us, we made a happy! song...eff you." Even right before the song starts, you know how one person in the band tells the other members what song they're playing next? You can hear either the drummer or lead say "okay..Suicide" like he's giving the cue,"okay, we're going to play this song now." With that said, I agree with the commenter who quoted the lead singer "the song is about how we are regarded differently depending on how we pass. " Suicide will not get you into heaven. But any other way that you can die, is okay. Why can't someone be saved AND commit suicide? So you have this guy, putting make-up on what I think, are cutting scars on his arm. The first stanza describes what he goes through to keep this hidden. Maybe he uses a swiss army knife on his keychain or the keys themselves to cut. Second stanza, he's replaying what he does and other's responses over in his head like: Other: Why are you using make-up? Him:..I wanted to Other: Why are you putting it on your arms? Him: I wanted to Other: Uh why did you leave your keys on the table? Him: Shit, I have to think of a reason for me to have left them there (create another fable). The next part, he's being a little sarcastic when he says "trust in my self-righteous suicide" and that it makes him cry to think that just because "I'm depressed, why does that make me deserving to die and not go to heaven?" Other than wanting to kill himself, he is an angel in every other aspect. At the end, I think he's praying. He's asking God to save him "I commend my spirit." But he feels God has forsaken him by creating him, giving him feelings, and ultimately, depression. He feels forsaken because the Creator will let everyone else into heaven, who commends their spirit to Him as long as they don't kill themselves. That's the only caveat...be saved, you're okay. Be saved and commit suicide, you're screwed. That's just me personally...I'm interested to see what other people think of my interpretation. |
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