submissions
| Bob Dylan – Spanish Harlem Incident Lyrics
| 28 days ago
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Bob Dylan had a knack for getting the words wrong, probably while stoned, and coming up with imagery that somehow works better than what he was aiming for. I always reckoned he meant to say he was riding on the crests of her whitecap charms, because you can't ride on cliffs but you can surf on waves. Affair with gypsy girl = wild, exhilarating but precarious |
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| Toto – Africa Lyrics
| 1 month ago
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According to Google maps, Kilimanjaro is just over 150 miles from the nearest point of the Serengeti reserve. Even the very lowest part of the Serengeti would be below the horizon seen from the summit of Kilimanjaro. |
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| Duran Duran – Rio Lyrics
| 1 month ago
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Rio de Janeiro is not much nearer to the Rio Grande than it is to Birmingham, UK. Just sayin' |
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| Johnny Horton – The Battle of New Orleans Lyrics
| 1 month ago
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I first heard Lonnie Donegan's version of this song, in which (to me ear) it is Pakenham who tells his men to hold fire until they see the enemy's faces. But Pakenham was the British commander, so this doesn't really work.
Another one for the "errors in songs" anthology along with Rio and Africa |
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| Dire Straits – Tunnel Of Love Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I noticed that some comments from the US point out that there are references to American amusement park locations as well as those in the Newcastle UK area. This is because the song is set in two periods, which I don't think anyone has commented on.
The narrator is an itinerant fairground worker in the present day hoping to break out and make it big ("money for muscle"). This life takes him everywhere. These sections are intercut with flashback verses recounting the day with the girl at Spanish City when the narrator was a teenage boy. When he says he's been riding on the ghost train, he means he has been revisiting past memories that are gone forever. It is a lament for lost love, lost youth, a home town as it was in childhood, failed dreams. And all that yearning is, as plenty have said, so beautifully evoked as the final guitar solo builds to its crescendo. |
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| Iggy Pop – I'm Bored Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[koolkitties:45756] Funnily enough I always heard it as "Lincoln monologue", which would be unfair because Lincoln's Gettysburg address has just 271 words, compared with Edward Everett's oration on the same day that droned on for hours and hours |
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| Loreena McKennitt – She Moved Through The Fair Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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McKennit's version is on an album recorded two years before that, so I doubt it. It's a ttaditional folk song, first version I heard is Alain Stivell's from 1973. It's a ghost story - the narrator's fiancee dies just before they are married then appears by his bed and scares the living daylights out of him by saying it won;t be long ... In Stivell's version she touches him: once at the fair whle she's alive and then once more as a ghost. |
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| Elvis Costello – Alison Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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I took the wedding cake referene more literally - I thought he had turned up uninvited at his ex's wedding reception and made a scene. Turn out the big light means clear the room, finish the party. |
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| Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Everyone has more or less got it, I like gabrieldivine's summary the best, and I would add just one thing which I don't think anyone else has mentioned:
The innocent child looking up at the sky in wonderment and seeing ice-cream castles is looking at clouds from down below; later on in life you might fly over them in an aeroplane and by this time, being a bit more grown up, understand that they are just a weather phenomenon, there is no magic kingdom on the other side. Now you are looking at them from up above. So you have seen clouds from both sides - from down below as a child, from up above in an aeroplane. I think that sits nicely with the song's theme of innocence and excitement giving way to disappointment and cycnicism. And Joni has form when it comes to writing reflective melancholy songs about aeroplanes (This Flight Tonight) |
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| Van Morrison – Astral Weeks Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Surely "leatherette" shoes? Too poor to afford leather (this is the late 50s/early 60s Belfast of Van's childhood) but his Mammie is making sure he gets turned out smart and clean anyway.
The intermingling of working class Belfast with American blues/country references is what gives these songs their unique imagery ... like the cherry wine that appears on Cyprus Avenue of all places |
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| Wham! – Club Tropicana Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Heard this on the radio today and it reminded me I always thought exactly the same thing: sea or no sea, come on George make your mind up. I reckon he realised what a terrible lyrical gaffe he had made, broke up the band, then went into a period of self-destructive substance abuse ... all because of a simple piece of lazy editing. Deserved to get arrested. |
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| The Verve – Lucky Man Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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It's the slightly bewildered reflections of an ordinary guy who finds female fans throwing themselves at him since he became a rock star. He is going to enjoy this while it lasts, but he is concerned about their feelings. He has "fire in his hands" because he could abuse this stardom and break a lot of hearts; he is aware of that, but just for a little while he is going to do it anyway, because he has earned it: he hopes you understand, because you'll be getting dumped in the morning. And yet already, as he reaps the hedonistic fruits of celebrity, he recognises that it is all shallow and temporary. How many times does he have to learn? He is the one who will end up lonely and loveless if he isn't careful. Find a nice girl and settle down before it's too late, he tells himself. |
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| Kaiser Chiefs – Never Miss a Beat Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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... and "tea" is what we call the main evening meal in England. Not to be confused with dinner, which we eat at lunchtime. So these kids don't eat properly, they hang around the streets and live off crisps. And they don't talk to coppers. |
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| Sting – Every Breath You Take Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I thought it was pretty much accepted that the song is a spiteful rant aimed at an ex-lover by someone who feels bitter and aggrieved about the break-up. The narrator is threatening to make her new life a misrey with his jealousy and clinginess. Sting later said he regretted it and wrote "If you love somebody set them free" to make amends.
The best example of this kind of sarcastic and bitter outpouring is of course Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone". Sting is a pussycat by comparison. |
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| Snow Patrol – Run Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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It is a song to a loved one who is dying - either a partner or a child. If I may be a little unkind, I think the song can be summed up as "I wish I had written 'The Drugs Don't Work' ... Hey, wait a minute: I WILL write it!" |
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| Van Morrison – Madame George Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I agree that it is a mistake to try to pin anything too specific on the Madame George character, but I do think, whoever he/she is and whatever s/he and the narrator are up to, it is something at least highly embarrassing and quite possibly illegal. There is some kind of bust, and as the narrator tries to melt away into the street the tactless George starts bellowing for all and sundry to hear that he has forgotten his glove. George knows that this will put the narrator in a bit of a spot, but the narrator still cannot help but look on him/her fondly. The episode happens towards the end of an era: the ageing George cannot carry on like this and the narrator is probably not going to come back, but the memories are still happy.
I used to have my own over-specific interpretation of what exactly was going on - I saw George as a transvestite brothel-keeper - a "madam" in that sense, but probably not actually a hands-on trick-turning prostitute himself. When the cops arrive, the narrator/Van is maybe passing time in the lobby chatting to George after a session with one of his girls. But as I say, that is over-specific I think. |
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| Van Morrison – Cyprus Avenue Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Agree that the girl is 14 and the narrator isn't. But I don't think he realised this until today. Perhaps their relationship to date has been conducted in clubs and bars and he imagined that his "lady" was a young woman or older teenager at least. But now here he is sitting in a traffic jam, when his daydream is interrupted by the sight of his "lady" ... in a school uniform. Oops. |
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| Jethro Tull – For A Thousand Mothers Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I agree with lefty. I think you could sum up the song like this:
"You pushed me to achieve well at school, you were desperate for me to be successful in a conservative way that matches your aspirations, I rebelled but look at me now. I turned out OK didn't I? But actually, when I think about it, it was your support and encouragement that gave me my intelligence and creativity and my lucky start in life so I guess you aren't such a bad set of parents after all. I might sulk and shout, but I do appreciate you. And I know that you are proud of me too" |
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| Jethro Tull – Big Dipper Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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You are right and this is explained in the cartoon story on the original album sleeve. The Big Dipper is a punning nickname: "They used to call me the Big Dipper - used to pull a lot of birds" |
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| Jethro Tull – Velvet Green Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Not difficult to interpret and all comments are broadly correct. But one or two English expressions that I think you might have overlooked. I believe it is August's "ready lass" who may be April's fool (i.e. a girl who is willing to let this man have his way with her). She is also the "poor maid" (not old maid) who has been seduced by the country man who knows that he is attractive and glamorous to girls like her and cyncically lies to them about it being "love and not just lust". They get to the remote spot on a horse - his horse - because it's an hour's ride away, but she ends up walking back. He's gone and she won't see him again ... but he might have left something to remember him by come next April. Some of the sexual imagery is quite crude, but combined with the bucolic setting and the summer twilight it very successfully conveys a lustful atmosphere of youthful sap rising. And as ever with Jethro Tull, especially on this album, you have the impression that the action is set about 200 years ago without it specifically being mentioned. The shame of the pregnancy will therefore be that much more damaging - the "poor maid" is probably living a harsh rural existence and this will not help matters. Clever stuff. |
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| Bob Dylan – It Ain't Me Babe Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Nick the Bastard has it right. I am not entirely convinced about the Statue of Liberty thing; but it is certainly a dual-level song about trying to dump a partner from whom he is growing apart and who is starting to get on his nerves on the one hand; and about the fact that he is growing tired of the whole protest song movement and certainly does not want to be its public leader. In fact I would suggest an interpretation that combines both of those aspects but is also much more specific - is this not about Joan Baez, whose earnest warbling must have really started to grate? How ironic she covered it - Bob must have chuckled about that. |
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