| Heaven 17 – Let's All Make a Bomb (New Version) Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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M.A.D. stands for Mutually Assured Destruction, a military doctrine that assumes that stability can be ensured when both sides know that they can completely destroy the other side. In this case, it obviously refers to the nuclear policy held by the USA and USSR during the Cold War. As Heaven 17 wryly note, we might as well take the "M" out of M.A.D, since the reality of this situation is that everything will be destroyed. |
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| The Stranglers – Always The Sun Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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It's amusing but unsurprising that so many people find optimism in this song. The Stranglers' whole career is based on snark, after all, and I don't think this song is an exception, though perhaps exceptionally there some truly genuine warmth in it that almost eclipses the cynicism. I'll make three points: 1) The sun is so far away from all the social ills mentioned in the lyrics. The fact that there is a sun out there everyday has absolutely no consequence on our very real problems down here. 2) This is a Cold War song (1986). Many of us had the feeling at the time that nuclear holocaust could happen in our lifetimes. We really thought the sun might not shine through Earth's fragile atmosphere much longer. "Always the sun" is ironic. 3) And of course "always the sun" is simply not true. We know that the sun will fade and die some day, long after we're gone. If anything, the lyrics mock people who are optimistic about the future despite there not being any grounding in reality for that optimism. Looking at how the world turned out after this song was written, I have to agree -- which is why I love the Stranglers so much. |
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| Slowdive – Machine Gun Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| I always thought the name of the song referred to the fact that when Neil sings "Son of Sheba" it sounds like "saw a machine gun". I can imagine that in early rehearsals that's what people said, and the name stuck. It's quite suitable and striking considering the suicidal theme of the song. | |
| Sun Kil Moon – Glenn Tipton Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I'm amused by the argument going on in the comments as to whether "buried my first victim" refers to a literal murder or a metaphor about a relationship gone sour. Why not allow for both meanings, and perhaps even more? Also, people are overly identifying the "I" in the song with Mark himself. You're not allowing for "I" to be a more subtle context created in the song. Why can't "I" be you, dear listener, who is listening to these gorgeous lyrics and have them repeat in your head? This is art, people. As others have noted, there's a context to the album, and a general obsession with the lives of boxers: Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston here, and many others in other songs on this album (Duk Koo Kim, Slavador Sanchez, Pancho Villa) and in other Kozelek songs. It's hard not to see parallels between boxing matches and cotentious romantic relationships, and Mark does seem equally obsessed with both. "Buried my first victim" speaks to me of winning a boxing match, and the kind of overly violent language sometimes used in boxing. I can envision the 19-year-old protagonist reading his girlfriend's private letters, finding hurtful things, and breaking up with her, thus "winning" in the sad, sad game of relationships, pride and manliness. But did he really win? He seems to truly regret and wonder about alternate endings. Did he act too pridefully? If it sounds like a literal murder to you, so bet it. The end result is that he has erased her, as a person, from the world as he knows it. If you enjoy this and other Mark Kozelek songs, I strongly recommend you buy the (expensive, out-of-print) book "Nights of Passed Over" in which he talks frankly about the pain of his past relationships, and also his love of boxing. The album "Among the Leaves" is also more frankly (to the point of discomfort) autobiographical than any of his previous albums. |
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