Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
I closed the door and stepped into the city
The city stepped right back to me
There's cracks on every sidewalk of this city
Like licking lips to swallow me
This is a sea of cars on the road
Lined up like bottles, shook up, ready to explode
With feathers and string and wax I made wings
I climbed up a building, crossed my heart, and took a leap
One single voice makes a deafening sound
You can be anything this time around
I flew across the sea and to an island
I wrestled down an old King Kong
I rescued maidens captive on that island
Hero in a uniform
My conscience was clean and taking control
A model American just doing what he's told
And dusty old crates, and my father's tapes
But Timothy Leary said the words which led the way
One single voice makes a deafening sound
You can be anything this time around
You can be anything this time around
I won't go quietly this time around
The city stepped right back to me
There's cracks on every sidewalk of this city
Like licking lips to swallow me
This is a sea of cars on the road
Lined up like bottles, shook up, ready to explode
With feathers and string and wax I made wings
I climbed up a building, crossed my heart, and took a leap
One single voice makes a deafening sound
You can be anything this time around
I flew across the sea and to an island
I wrestled down an old King Kong
I rescued maidens captive on that island
Hero in a uniform
My conscience was clean and taking control
A model American just doing what he's told
And dusty old crates, and my father's tapes
But Timothy Leary said the words which led the way
One single voice makes a deafening sound
You can be anything this time around
You can be anything this time around
I won't go quietly this time around
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Spirit Within
Bertoldi Brothers
Bertoldi Brothers
The Spy
Doors, The
Doors, The
Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
Battle Royale
Word Alive, The
Word Alive, The
This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
Step
Ministry
Ministry
Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
I think this is about Learys influence on the counterculture of the 60s. His "one single voice [made] a deafening sound," in their culture. He's basically the one who turned on all the artists and consequently, their fans, to acid. He thought acid could change people's lives and thought it was important for famous people to get a hold of it. When artists were on acid, they felt like they were having some kind of deeper understanding of life, and therefore wrote incredible things. Yes, sometimes artists on acid wrote songs that made absolutley no sense, but others wrote some that were incredible. Anyway, I think Guster is crediting Leary with influencing some of the greatest artists of all time.
"but timothy leary said the words which led the way i won't go quietly this time around" These lines, I think, are talking about how Leary had such a BIG influence, and he wasn't going to "go quietly" through life, but rather make a big splash. It's probably also refering to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which was Leary's philosophy on how acid could help people. He was basically saying Become aware of the different levels of consciousness through LSD (tune in), interact with the world, and express your internal perspectives (turn on), and detach yourself from societal conventions, and create your own identity, committed to change (drop out).
"with feathers and string and wax I made wings i climbed up a building, crossed my heart, and took a leap" This could be about how Leary took a big chance with the whole acid thing, because he knew that the drug would soon be illegal, but he decided to perform expirements with it anyway. He knew the whole thing was a risk, but took it anyway because he truly believed that acid could better man kind.
As for the imagry in this song, such as "there's cracks on every sidewalk of this city like licking lips to swallow me" and "i flew across the sea and to an island i wrestled down an old king kong i rescued maidens captive on that island hero in a uniform," i think that these are sort of the description of someone on an acid trip. I mean, it could be more than that, but sidewalks with licking lips is kinda psychadelic.
So, thats my 2 cents.