| Jamaica – I Think I Like U 2 Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
I see that first line everywhere, and it's pretty clearly incorrect -- it doesn't make sense, so I'm going to change it! Before: since mine i will never have to leave him AFTER: I see him smile and I would never have to leave him... |
|
| Pavement – Angel Carver Blues/Mellow Jazz Docent Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Beautifully done, toodle! | |
| Pavement – Rain Ammunition Lyrics | 14 years ago |
|
Horses? Hunting? Militia? Labor laws? Oh, SM...what a feast, as always. Not sure about the "Fort Ham" lyric, but 1) that's what it sounds like he's saying, more than "fore-hem" -- which is what I initially had down (and is, I guess, vaguely sartorial) -- and 2) in an abstract, cartographic vision, it makes sense, sort of. Fort Ham(ilton) is a military outpost at the far south end of Brooklyn, NY. If a woman is the Fort Ham of her dress, her dress is the rest of Brooklyn (seen upside down), and her head is the Fort, guarding (as it were) her chastity ("No one will lay it..."). Shandy Town is the geographical name of a few towns in the world, rather than "shantytown" (which I'm fairly sure he *doesn't* say, because of the hard "D" sound he makes). It's also the name, apparently, of an old Southern California horse farm. |
|
| Pavement – Conduit for Sale! Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Yeah, I pretty much thought it was leaning towards some kinda social scandal in 17th-18th century Europe. Sometimes I think I can read SM's mind...hyulk! Others, I have no fucking idea what he's on about. That's the fun of it, I guess. I made said changes; let me know if you have anymore. :-) | |
| Pavement – Give It a Day Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Hey, prettyrad...sorry it took me so long to get around to correcting the "CAN'T make us quake" error -- there's ALWAYS some nuance in an SM lyric that goes (sometimes badly) misinterpreted, until the day you're mashing avocados to make guacamole, then accidentally get jalapeno juice in your eye, which causes you to suddenly, inexplicably make sense of some Pavement lyric that had baffled you for years. It's just the way it works, you know what I mean. Anyways, thanks! :-D | |
| Polvo – When Will You Die For The Last Time In My Arms Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Amazing tune. But, unfortunately, I think the title is incorrect here...isn't it "Dreams," not "Arms"? | |
| Pavement – Fin Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Well put, ljh204! | |
| Pavement – Unseen Power of the Picket Fence Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| Another breathtaking example of Stephen Malkmus's very important place in rock history. As leader of Pavement, the band that singlehandedly transformed the "alternative/college rock" era into the era of indie-rock and lo-fi slack, he had his finger on the slow pulse of rock music's ironic mellowing into meltdown art and commercial non-potential. "The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" gives a highly important homage, a passing of torches of sorts, to their predecessors in the lineage of "alternative music," Athens, GA's own R.E.M.. Pavement were *so* alternative, they up and shattered and re-collaged a whole quasi-genre, with songs like this one, which appeared (folding irony onto itself to achieve a kind of earnestness which pure irony cannot seek to deliver) on the 1993 AIDS benefit compilation, "No Alternative." Ten years after "Chronic Town" changed a new wave landscape into an alternative vista, Pavement takes their indie-rock ancestors through a historiophilic tilt-a-whirl, comparing their impact on music history to General William Sherman's historic march through Georgia, to the Atlantic Ocean, at the time, nearly 130 years before. | |
| Pavement – Shady Lane Lyrics | 22 years ago |
|
This song, in my opinion is one of the finest examples of Stephen Malkmus's narrative brilliance. In fact, it is one of the few examples of the use of straight narrative, in a Pavement song. SM doesn't normally tell stories; his songs are usually oblique meanderings on various moods. However, in keeping with the general "maturity" of SM's songwriting style on "Brighten the Corners," it makes sense. Here's a brief exegesis of the story of "Shady Lane," as I see it unfolding: 1) A sort of unwashed slacker hick decides to go on a blind date with some high-class fancy new girl in town, at a fancy resturant in the town's five-star hotel. 2) They go on the date, and when the check shows up, the mostly broke and ambitionless slacker decides it would seem most egalitarian if he proposes they go dutch (i.e. both members of the party pay). 3) During this potentially terse moment, the slacker reminisces back to earlier in time before the date, as he regarded his shabby visage in the mirror ("A redder shade of neck on a whiter shade of trash"), and prepared his grubby fingernailsfor the big endeavor ("this emory board is giving me a rash"). 4) Finally, after sitting around in uncomfortable silence, the slacker admits to the girl that he's totally broke ("I'm flat out")! 5) The girl starts bawling her eyes out. He tells her she looks beautiful when she cries, in a shallow attempt at making amends for the growing embarrassment of the scene. He sticks his foot further into his mouth by joking about her being captured there, in the moment, "as an extra in the movie adaptation of the sequel" to her life. 6) The chorus has the slacker singing about how much he wishes the world were easier, and less high-maintenance. 7) The scene grows more terrible. The waiter waits, the girl sobs, and the slacker gropes empty pockets. "Glance, don't stare," he thinks in the direction of the perplexed and embarrassed onlookers. The girl begins to scream, "Fuck you!" to the slacker, and then to the onlookers, pissed that she's in the situation. Therefore, as the slacker predicted they soon would, he and the onlookers are both being told to "recognize [their] heirs"! 8) In his mind, the slacker thinks, "Fuck me?" and mentally rebuts in a bored and matter-of-fact way, "No, not me...I'm an island of such great complexity." Basically, in the face of humiliation and defeat, he'd rather put on an air of blase nonchalance. 9) "Stress surrounds / in the muddy, peaceful center of this town" is pretty self-explanatory at this point. I imagine the girl throwing down all of her cash, and storming out of the restaurant, into the hotel lobby, where (predictably)... 10) ...she tells the slacker off in the hotel lobby, "right in front of all the bellboys and the over-friendly consierge". A brilliant tune from a brilliant album, and my favorite songwriter in the world. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.