| Augustana – Boston Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This hauntingly beautiful song is anchored by the repetitive phrase "...where no one knows my name". I love the ironic twist on the old theme song from "Cheers", a place "where everybody knows your name". I also admire, "I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of Sunset". The line's loaded with symbolism. First, there's the literal meaning of someone making a drastic life change that will take her all the way across the country, to another coastline. Second, a sunrise is a metaphor for hope, optimism, and a new beginning. Third, "Sunset" refers to Sunset Boulevard, the Sunset Strip, and everything else about the subject's miserable life in California, soon to be left behind. |
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| Steely Dan – My Old School Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song isn't referring at all to the venerable College of William and Mary in Virginia. Bard College, located in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, is sometimes nicknamed "the William and Mary of the north". The Wolverine is a passenger train that once ran from Boston-New York-Detroit-Chicago and stopped close to Bard College. The song's about a marijuana drug bust. The drug references are subtle: "smoking with the boys" and oleander (a plant that doesn't grow in New York's climate unless under an ultraviolet growth light). The bitter narrator had an equally culpable female accomplice who turned state's witness in return for leniency. |
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