| Pavement – Platform Blues Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I think there's a criticism of tourism and especially the self-satisfied, privileged attitude of (many) tourists. They go on eco-tours, drive around on autobuses checking out the local "fauna" and feel like they are immersing themselves in other cultures but really they condescendingly assume that their alleged sensitivity conveys upon them a right to do so. Everything is at the margins with them at the centre. I think it fits with the first verse, wherein the same attitude prevails. The "cardiac kid" suggests terminal illness, especially followed by "don't go chronological on all your friends" (i.e. don't die). But there is a distancing and a perverse voyeurism on the part of the observer, who kind of likes the suffering of others. It probably contributes to a sense of charity that actually translates to a feeling of superiority. They don't want the kid to die because it will make THEM feel tense. So perhaps this form of voyeuristic interest in tragedy is another form of "tourism". Everything serves to validate the observer. Knowing Malkmus and his nihilism this might just refer to human nature in general. They feel like they have a right to life even if others don't (a right to sit on the face, i.e. the face of the planet, but also on the face of others figuratively). Even the title of the song supports this. Platform suggests dealing from an elevated position, and the blues is the attitude of people who can only transfer the suffering of others into their own trite, self-absorbed narratives. Obviously there are holes in this interpretation but it's the best I could come up with. I think the final verse just follows up on the general argument by indicating the superficiality of most people. Their narratives sort of dissolve into incoherence. |
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| Del tha Funkee Homosapien – Mistadobalina Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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From this interview: http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/07/07/243715_music.html Speaking of which, what exactly does Mistadobalina mean, Del? ``Basically a dobalina is like a hipster,'' he explained, ``somebody who thinks they're so cool, that they're just so ultra hip, but they never get to the real meaning of these things that they latch onto. They just latch onto the outside style of it. ``They got all the styles down -- they're up on dubstep, they're up on the curly moustache, you know what I'm sayin'? But they never get to the meat of it. ``That's why a lot of people be offended by hipsters, because they try to be so hip and so in. That that's all they care about, is being in. ``So that's what a dobalina is, basically -- someone who thinks they're the sh-- but they really don't even know what the f--- is going on.'' |
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| Firehose – For the Singer of R.E.M. Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Found the following on this site: http://www.varmintcong.com/wattinterview.htm Seems like a great interview but I haven't read it all yet. Seems like the song was written in the style of early Stipe lyrics, I'm thinking of "Life and How to Live It" in particular for some reason. Jeff: Alright. What's with (firehose's song) Song for the Singer in REM? Watt: I wrote that for the singer of REM. Now I didn't say Mike Stipe … on purpose ya know. Jeff: Yeah cause when you guys were here last time Ed told us that Michael Stipe inspired him to play guitar. He said that when he saw the Minutemen play with REM, he talked to Michael Stipe, and Michael Stipe said he had a good face to be in a band. Watt: Well, Ed's kinda weird that way. I wouldn't, believe me, nobody ever told me I had a good face, that's why I played the bass. I knew I wasn't gonna make it on the face. I knew D. Boon, well D. Boon knew he wasn't gonna make it on the face. We both knew we weren't gonna make it on the face. Mike Stipe-we didn't even know what REM sounded like, man. We get this phone call, “You wanna tour, open up for us, homes?" And uh … so we buy a record and see what they sounded like (laughs). 'Cause we'd read about ‘em, but I never heard ‘em. Anyway, so we go and … the crew, no one wanted us on the tour. The only reason we were there is cause the REM guys really like the Minutemen. And we couldn't really figure, ya know, listening to ‘em, we couldn't figure what they liked about us. But the main point was that they liked us, sorta like Edfromohio, ya know, him likin' U2 and all these bands I don't even know of, some reason he wanted to come play with Watt, ya know. I tell ya, I couldn'ta moved out to Ohio to start a band, no fuckin' way. OK, so, me writin' that song for Michael Stipe, the man came to a gig in Athens-firehose with Edward. And of course Edward came over there and wanted to talk with him and stuff, but Michael … See, I don't know if you remember but I burned up in a fire. Do you remember last tour? Cause I was healthy by that time, but my whole head … oh no I wasn't in Florida. My head caught fire, this tour I'm talking about, when we were in Athens, (the) day before the tour my Volkswagen blows up in my face, and I'm all burned up. So, Mike Stipe's there and he gave me some stuff, some comfi, aloe, my whole nose and ear and face all burned, see, no scars, from that stuff he gave me. He goes, “Watt, I'm gonna come out in the spring of '88 and I wanna write songs with you." So I just wrote him a song ahead of time. No, usually I don't start with a title, like here's a song for the singer in REM, but that's the way I did that one. Jeff: Have you heard from him yet? Watt: No (laughs). But I have nothing but fatherly respect for Michael Stipe. Seriously, I think he's a regular dude. Ya know, I'd write my wife letters and he'd write little pictures on the outside of the envelopes and, he was a neat guy, man. His dad was military I think, an officer, but my dad was a chief. So in some ways we're kinda common. He don't work nothin', it'd be hard to be a singer, what do you do in the solo, ya know? Maybe that's why REM don't have many solos (laughs). What do you do? Twirl the mike like (Roger) Daltrey? |
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| Bat for Lashes – Winter Fields Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Great song but I don't find it particularly warm and cozy. There is definitely a sense of wonderment but it is accompanied by some unsettling lyrics. The image of the rabbit along with the idea of diving down in one's dreams strikes me as an Alice reference ("going down the rabbit-hole"). The singer is frightened but compelled to step into these dreams "where the wild things roam." As with Wonderland, this constitutes stepping out of perceived reality into an alternate reality with different rules, some of which are dangerous. This is not to say that the song is about Alice in Wonderland; but it is an apt metaphor for the winter, a time of transformation (of the landscape), hazard (especially for animals like the "skidding rabbits") and perhaps depression (seasonal affective disorder, for instance, another possible reading of diving down). The perspective is not necessarily only human; the beginning of the song seems to be narrated from the perspective of rabbits ("let your sharp teeth show"), but there is some conflation with the human ("hands") that makes me think the singer is thinking about what it would be like to be a wild rabbit in the winter. The image of the car, the wire post (wire fence?), and the skidding rabbits that "make good paper ghosts" carries some suggestion of death, as cars and wire would be hazards (more difficult to avoid in ice), but paper ghosts could also be a craft that a child might make. Again, the intersection of childlike wonderment and death is unsettling. The detail of licking salt off the Sussex coast probably refers to the salt marshes, a major ecosystem of that region of England; it grounds the song, balancing its impressionistic lyrics with a sense of the specificity of memory that can sometimes infuse or inform memory. Since an adult would likely (but not necessarily) be more aware of the geography and the reason why rabbits might be going there, the song seems to be more of a memory of childhood--another use of the diving metaphor (i.e., into the past). "Rows of white" may refer to actual fields which may appear to have rows of white (separated by furrows) when snow has fallen lightly on them, but it also evokes graves which also may be arranged in rows with white markers (crosses or tombstones). The escape may be that of the rabbits, or the dreams of the children, or that of the memory of adults. Death is also a form of escape. The need for movement in the second verse definitely evokes the running and playing of children. I love "colours of absence flooding hill," an inverse of "absence of colours" which could also be used to describe the white of the snow but to lesser effect. The "flooding" is imitated by the child who "spills" into the field. This flooding and spilling could also be occurring through the medium of dreams (imagination) or memory. The transition to the inside of the house suggests the distance between the singer and the imaginative world of the child. The metronome marks the steady passing of time; its position recalls childhood fears of monsters under the stairs. Ironically, time is less a monster to children than it is to adults, who are more aware of their mortality. The diver suit is a bit obscure to me. Since it has been outgrown by the singer and (presumably) her siblings, it locates the singer's perspective in the present as an adult. It can't be ignored that it also links with the notion of diving in the chorus, even if only as a conduit for memory. Does it also link the song to "Deep Sea Diver," the last track on the album? I won't bother hazarding a guess. Anyway, the desire to "get to where the wild things roam" suggests the wish to enter the world of the child (a "wild thing" when running and spilling into the winter fields) but also of the rabbits, as understood through both the child's and adult's perspective (paper ghosts/animals going to the salt marshes). My guess would be that this also represents a desire for a more "natural" existence, perhaps one that is not marked by the passing of time and knowledge of mortality. (In this sense, the "rows of white" makes more sense, as both a looking into the past to the fields of childhood memory and of the rabbit and child's "natural" existence, as well as forward to the impending reality of death.) Diving into memory is then more of a fearful activity for the adult than are the imaginative dreams of children (although these two may be unsettling). The singer's conjuring of her mother in this context recalls the comfort that could be obtained from her mother as a child, but does it also suggest that this is no longer possible? Time may have created too much of a distance between the mother and child, either emotionally or in reality, as, depending on the amount of time elapsed, the mother may actually have passed away. |
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