submissions
| David Bowie – Thru' These Architects Eyes Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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As it's from 95 the terrorist interpretation is unlikely...
Incidentally, the first named architect, Philip Johnson was pro-Nazi. Oddly, in 79 he won the first ever Pritzker prize, or Nobel equivalent in architecture. Odd because the founder of the prize was Jewish. Johnson was politically a seriously nasty piece of work. Bowie's politics too - in the 70s anyway - also left something tone desired. |
submissions
| The Teardrop Explodes – The Great Dominions Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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Enigmatic genius for sure.
I've never been able to figure out the lyrics, as they are oblique, perhaps he has spoken about their meaning.
But giving it a go, I'd say the first section is about a night of drug taking with one or more people, that starts off well and then turns a sour for him.
The second section seems more general, about being asked for opinions in the press maybe, and not wishing to be taken as any kind of spokesman for a generation. You have to remember how big the band were in the UK at this time.
That's my punt anyway. |
submissions
| Fields Of The Nephilim – Slow Kill Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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I'm sure there are a few errors here.
Are the lyrics related to Harmonica Man, which comes from Once Upon a Time in the West? That'd link to the title, Slow Kill.
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submissions
| The Sisters of Mercy – Colours Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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It conjures up a long retreat with that military drumbeat, and wow those synths. Reminds me of the French long walk home in War and Peace...
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submissions
| The Sisterhood – Giving Ground Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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It does look like a loss of faith in politics.
But could it also apply to a loss of faith in a lover, or ex-lover, I wonder...
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submissions
| The Psychedelic Furs – Sister Europe Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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Someone below comments it is about a euro girlfriend always travelling. Then the line about buying a car and watching it rust becomes literal - she's not there to drive the car and it just sits somewhere gathering dust. I saw this in blocks of flats in London, top end Mercs just sitting in the car park unused for months...
Beyond this, the song does sound metaphysical somehow, and makes me think of my sister, even if that's not what it's about. |
submissions
| Manic Street Preachers – Mausoleum Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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One poster comments there may be an autobiographical element in the lyrics - I'd like to think however depressed he was that Richey was too intelligent to be so crass as to equate his state of mind to the Holocaust. But there is one piece of the track that no one's pointed out and that is the JG Ballard quote on why he wrote Crash, along the lines, "I wanted to run the human face in its own vomit and force it to look in the mirror". |
submissions
| Monster Magnet – Nod Scene Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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The lyrics listed are so far off what was sung it's not true, not to say I've a better grasp of US 70s slang... |
submissions
| Blondie – Do the Dark Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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Amazed this has no comments.
Knowing Jimmy's fondness for Charlie, would seem a Bolivian theme is probable. References to candy and glass...oblique maybe.
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submissions
| Bob Dylan – Visions of Johanna Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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I had always thought the line in the second verse was, "She's delicate and seems like Vermeer". "Like the mirror" is not bad either. |
submissions
| Siouxsie and the Banshees – Night Shift Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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The differing interpretations are interesting.
When you realise she's singing from the man's point of view, not her own, that it's about Sutcliffe becomes much clearer. Although the clues are there: night shift sisters...cold marble slab...dissect...knife...
Truly harrowing song. Can't think of another that has its atmosphere to such an extreme, an unnerving listen. Shows her horror at his crimes and her sympathy with the victims. Would she have thought of the case as another example of the establishment letting women down? Undoubtedly...
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submissions
| Blondie – Look Good in Blue Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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How she describes the other person's depression and paranoia is both perceptive and oblique, why did lies dull his surprise?
The melancholy atmosphere of the song adds to the ambiguity. This and Rifle Range are the two best tracks on the debut album.
I could've bought a mint copy of the Indy vinyl - Private Stock label - for a tenner in about 1990. With inflation, now a ton. |
submissions
| Siouxsie and the Banshees – Spellbound Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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Reminds of a 70s film called Ghost Story, part set in a mansion, part in an asylum. A murderous ragdoll featured. Worth checking out.
Obscurely, the screenplay was cowritten by Rosemary Sutcliff, of the Eagle of the Ninth. It started Vivian Mackerel and Marianne Faithful. The former was Bruce Robinson's inspiration for Withnail. |
submissions
| Mazzy Star – Fade Into You Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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...also, from the same album, Into Dust seems a better song to me, more original, less sentimental, and with an otherworldly atmosphere.
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submissions
| Mazzy Star – Fade Into You Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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It's possible to project your own story on to this song, there are some impressionistic and ambiguous lines.
But basically it seems to be a basic message about unrequited love, at it's simplest level at least.
Also, has anyone pointed out the music completely rips off Dylan's Knocking On Heaven's Door? Mazzy Star are lucky he didn't sue... |
submissions
| Fields Of The Nephilim – Trees Come Down Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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The live version with just the second section is awesome and intense. The lyrics are oblique but seem to refer to the apocryphal gospels which include stuff about the Nephilim, the giant children of fallen angels on earth. Karl Ove Knausgaard, who when younger studied theology, wrote an odd novel about this stuff. Not very illuminating. |
submissions
| Charlotte Gainsbourg – Time of the Assassins Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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Impressionistic. Possibly about ignoring critics, moving forward. A lyric that can be interpreted in a general positive sense.
Great melody tune. The song that follows is angry and unforgiving, nice counterpoint, and refers to See See Rider, for what that's worth or means... |
submissions
| Siouxsie and the Banshees – Israel Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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It strikes me there must be some atonement for Siouxsie's wearing of a Nazi armband, and antisemitic references in Love in a Void. As she grew up she realised she'd been misguided or naive at best, plain racist at worst. We all do and say dumb things when we are young, maybe she saw a chance to seek make a statement that countered earlier perceptions. Also, she spent a year wearing the Star of David...
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submissions
| Leonard Cohen – Tower of Song Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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The line about being moved to a tower down the tracks is a reference to a concentration camp, if you think of the train lines that lead up to them, such as in photographs of the Auschwitz entrance. An oblique reference that opens up different layers of meaning to some other verses. |
submissions
| The Sisters of Mercy – Marian Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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Love this song, but had not thought about its meaning other than it being imagistic. That it's primarily about a real woman makes sense.
A second layer of interpretation is more tenuous. Marian is an anagram (version) of Marina, which is a TS Eliot poem. In turn, Marina is an imagining of a scene in the myth of Pericles who finds his lost daughter. In the poem, Eliot contrasts the fate of Pericles with Heracles, who killed his children in a fit.
Worth looking up the Eliot poem, which has a similarly dreamlike atmosphere to the Sisters track. |
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