| Dire Straits – Tunnel Of Love Lyrics | 7 months ago |
| @[majordomo1:48602] A "One Arm Bandit" is British slang for an old slot machine with the single arm/lever that you pull to mechanically make the reels spin (rather than modern slot machines that spin the reels at the push of a button). The "Bandit" part refers to the gamblers feeling that machine is robbing you when you put a lot of coins in to play, but don't get any payouts. The "Fever" is the gamblers addiction to putting coins in the slot machine in the vain hope of a jackpot payout. | |
| Sinead O'Connor – Black Boys On Mopeds Lyrics | 9 months ago |
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@[GuanoLoco:47873] Thanks for replying. I appreciate that some songs on Astral Weeks allude to places outside of NI & Ireland, like Ladbroke Grove in London, but I don't think Madame George does. For me, Madame George seems to be about Van being at a party in Belfast and feeling out of place and having the need to walk away and move on from the people and places he that shaped him. I love the line on the song Astral Weeks: "Ain't nothing but a stranger in this world", that also reflects this feeling. Admittedly, the album is famously a stream-of-consciousness, so time and place and memories get mixed up. I've often though that if I was ever fortunate enough to have met Sinéad O'Connor, the first thing I'd have asked her is about her Madam George reference in Black Boys on Mopeds. I'd also have told her that I agree with her that Van's album, 'Veedon Fleece', is equally as good, if not better, than Astral Weeks. (I've read that Veedon Fleece was Sinéad's favourite album). Sadly, recent events mean that my fantasy will never happen. Rest In Peace, Sinéad. |
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| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Blabber 'N Smoke Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| This is one of Beefheart's more straightforward and accessible songs. A simple environmental warning against pollution, damaging the planet, animal cruelty etc. | |
| Van Morrison – Cyprus Avenue Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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@[JohnDunn87:3275] Van Morrison was born on Hyndford street, a working class street of terraced houses. Cyprus Avenue, although it's only a half mile away, is much more middle class detached housing set back from a wide tree lined avenue, the sort of homes built for professional classes, doctors, dentists, headteachers and the like. Such areas can get rundown over time, and change demographic as larger detached houses get converted into flats etc., but as Van (b. 1945) was writing about his childhood, it represented back then the posher side of the tracks. Look for yourself on Google Maps Streetview. |
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| Frank Zappa – Trouble Every Day Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| IMHO, this brilliant song is the most seriously political one FZ wrote. It's also one of the rare few where he doesn't use humour or satire, as that might dilute the importance of the message. It's up there with Dylans finest. | |
| Frank Zappa – Be In My Video Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I think the lines: "Then it cuts to outer space With its billions & billions & Billions & billions and" must be a reference to the famous words of Carl Sagan from his Cosmos series. I wonder if Zappa and Sagan ever met. |
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| Frank Zappa – A Pound for a Brown Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| @[zing1:1325] I'm British and I've never ever heard of "a brown" being slang for mooning. I've checked the online urban dictionary and neither has it. The urban dictionary does say "brown" can be slang for heroin, although FZ was anti-drug so the title probably isn't advocating drug use, more likely satirising it. | |
| Frank Zappa – Baby Snakes Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I think 'Baby Snakes' is a metaphor for audio tape hiss. Snakes hiss, and audio tape hiss (i.e. tape noise) is an ever present phenomenon with that technology, especially during very quiet or silent parts of audio tape recordings. (Loud volume recordings overpower the tape noise to our ears, even though the noise is still present, it isn't noticeable). The lyric "They live in a ho-ho-hole (Tiny hole) That is usually empty" is saying the hissing baby snakes emerge during the silent or quieter parts, which must have been a great frustration to FZ, so he's giving the problem a humorous personality - like gremlins in the machine. |
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| Sinead O'Connor – Black Boys On Mopeds Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I absolutely adore both this song by Sinéad O'Connor, and also the Van Morrison song Madame George, to which Ms. O'Connor alludes to in the lyric "England's not the mythical land of Madame George and roses". However, what I don't understand is why Sinéad associates Madame George with England or englishness (roses). The location of the rather impressionistic events in Van Morrison's Madame George is firmly around Belfast, Morrisons's birthplace, with its mentions of Cyprus Avenue, Ford and Fitzroy (Avenue?) and Sandy Row, although Dublin is also mentioned "On that train from Dublin up to Sandy Row". There's nothing in the rest of Van's lyrics to indicate that the character Madame George may be English, either. Would love to get an explanation for this. |
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