submissions
| Yes – Wonderous Stories Lyrics
| 2 months ago
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Well I know what this seems to be about although it doesn't seem to be close to what Jon Anderson says about it! It's probably influenced by what I was doing at the time.
Okay, so to my mind it seems to be a celebration of classic science fiction stories. The title, 'Wonderous Stories', sounds like a Golden Age SF pulp magazine such as 'Amazing Stories'. The mention of "fusion captured high" and "the gate" sound like references to interstellar travel and starships to me. It seems to me that what he's saying is that certain SF, and perhaps fantasy, stories are captivating and one feels the urge to return to them repeatedly, perhaps for escapism purposes.
All that said, I've never heard of anyone else with this take on it and he says it's about something completely different! |
submissions
| Wham! – Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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All it means is that the guy wants to go dancing with his woman rather than have her go out on her own, even if he's asleep when she has the whim. |
submissions
| Against Me! – True Trans Soul Rebel Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[amanda1020:36050] I am indeed trans and do have internalised transphobia to a considerable degree. However, that isn't all that's going on. It's also about punk. I've seen a lot of almost deliberate flakiness in political activism and community projects which I believe stems from a lack of respect for virtuosity and skill which basically means the establishment can walk all over alternative society with no effective opposition. This is why I'm so angry with punk as a genre. It's led to an organised establishment being effectively unopposed by anything progressive. |
submissions
| The Who – I'm a Boy Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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This song is about a boy whose parents wanted and expected a girl. The trans interpretation is practically opposite to what this is about. As a trans woman, I find it mildly offensive because it's much more likely that a trans child would be harassed by their parents in this way, but that's just to do with attitudes changing. I think it's supposed to be funny. |
submissions
| The Smiths – Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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I've recently noticed something impinging on the medial surfaces of my upper arms and it's slightly awkward reaching around these obstacles. Apparently this is what this song's about, but back in the day my understanding was that some women make a bigger impression on you and are harder to get over emotionally when you develop a fixation on them. But that was before I had boobs and when the environment between my legs was rather different than it is today. |
submissions
| The Bangles – If She Knew What She Wants Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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Reminds me of someone I was completely besotted with for four and a half years, then just as I was about to give up this song came out and it summed up the situation perfectly. |
submissions
| The Bangles – If She Knew What She Wants Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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Reminds me of someone I was completely besotted with for four and a half years, then just as I was about to give up this song came out and it summed up the situation perfectly. |
submissions
| Against Me! – True Trans Soul Rebel Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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It's okay as a song but it really bugs me that she doesn't seem to even bother to try to sing at a higher pitch. If you're a professional musician who take pride in your craft, you should put some effort into it. This just sounds like a man singing. Then again, punk has always disrespected virtuosity. |
submissions
| Space – Female Of The Species Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[WeCouldTalkForever:31709] Double comparatives and superlatives are just rare, not ungrammatical. Shakespeare uses them, e.g. "the most unkindest cut of all". |
submissions
| The Police – Synchronicity II Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[fanofoldies:31302] absolutely, the last possible date for the rise of environmental concerns would be 1962 with the publication of Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' and probably earlier with the foundation of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. |
submissions
| Randy Crawford – One Day I'll Fly Away Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[claddagh1956:30409] He chose you though, and it doesn't mean he doesn't love you. I can't imagine doing that, but sometimes people do, sadly. I'm sorry you're hurting. |
submissions
| Siouxsie and the Banshees – Happy House Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[valnmu:28982] Not disagreeing but there are just so many drug-based interpretations of lyrics which have nothing to do with drugs that the chances of this being so are small. |
submissions
| Joni Mitchell – Chelsea Morning Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[starlight:28634]&moonshine It's the Chelsea Hotel, not Chelsea in London, although is there a district of a US city called Chelsea where the hotel is situated? |
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| Genesis – Land Of Confusion Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[JayCeezy:28615] Solidarnosc and the Pope were pretty significant in ending the Cold War as well, and the Soviet Union wasn't really sustainable once the old guard had died and Gorbachev got in. |
submissions
| They Might Be Giants – Dead Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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This is just my thing and I understand there's nothing in this song or the intent of TMBG to suggest this, but the line "Now it's over I'm dead and I haven't done anything that I want or I'm still alive and there's nothing I want to do" always reminds me of swapping terms over in an equation, where a negative on one side of the equals sign becomes a positive on the other, division becomes multiplication and so on. It's like death is the equals sign, life is one formula and death is the other. Yes I know it's nuts. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Mission (A World Record) Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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I associate this song with Iain M Banks's 'State Of The Art', which is about aliens visiting our planet in the 1970s and decide not to intervene and reveal themselves to us but instead just to watch us as a kind of control group experiment to see what will happen if a species like us isn't contacted. It's not that far-fetched that it was a source of inspiration for this novella as the author does refer to rock quite a lot in his writing, such as 'Clear Air Turbulence' by the Ian Gillan Band. |
submissions
| ABBA – The Visitors Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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I'm pretty sure this is about Agnetha wanting her privacy and feeling her personal space being invaded by obsessive fans. |
submissions
| The Smiths – Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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The missing verse clinches that this is about breasts but it's only just occurred to me that this is so! My interpretation has always been that when one feels something for another person, it can be a passing phase which doesn't have a major influence on one's life, but if you meet someone who is supposedly "the one" in your mind, they are "bigger", i.e. harder to get over if your affections are unrequited or if you split up.
But apparently it's about boobs. Weird! |
submissions
| New Musik – This World of Water Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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It's not exactly about the meaning but I first heard this song when I was reading Larry Niven's 'Ringworld', where there's an ocean millions of miles across with replicas of various planets, including Earth, and it always reminds me of that. As to what it actually means, I have no clue. |
submissions
| Culture Club – Church of the Poison Mind Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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@[percodanny:24992] I can see what you're saying and the lyrics have always puzzled me. It's like 'Karma Chameleon' in that the mood of the lyrics clashes with the mood of the style. I think you're right, but what's odd is that the gospel choir on it is genuine and it makes me wonder how conservative they were and if they knew what they were doing at the time.
Culture Club do my head in sometimes! |
submissions
| Peter Gabriel – Red Rain Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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I understand that this is not Gabriel's intention, but I've always thought of this song as being about environmental damage which would cause rain to turn red like blood, and quite similar to acid rain. Of course this only works for the chorus. |
submissions
| The Associates – Club Country Lyrics
| 8 years ago
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I have an idiosyncratic interpretation of this song which I realise has no connection to authorial intention.
I see this song as being about a farm for physically perfect people who have been kidnapped and kept alive, into which rich people's brains are uploaded when they die, and which are harvested for organs when they are still alive, so to me it has a kind of edgy, horrific, science fictional vibe. To go through the lyrics:
The fault is, I can find no fault in you - physically perfect people.
Alive and kicking - the people are still alive when their organs are harvested or their personalities wiped and replaced by the rich people's.
We're old and sickening at the Country Club - the old rich people are unhealthy and pay to have their bodies repaired by transplants from unwitting donors.
A drive from nowhere leaves you in the cold - the farm is in a remote place where it can be kept secret.
Refrigeration keeps you young I'm told - people are frozen so their organs can be kept fresh after they have had too many organs removed to survive.
Your limitations are our every care - The limitations are what they can no longer do due to the ageing process.
Every breath you breathe belongs to... someone there - the inmates of the farm are owned by the rich and also the rich have stolen the lives, i.e. the "breath" of the victims.
Therein lies the perfect pseudonym - Pseudonym is perfect because they actually are that person in a sense, either because they occupy their bodies or have taken their organs.
To think you've learned to know someone and find
That you don't know don't know them at all - because they are in fact a different person.
Sad to see that you're suffering - feigned sympathy to market the services of the club/farm and persuade the wealthy to use their services.
Work hard at being a something - at being a "something", i.e. a non-person. Don't be a person because you're just a commodity for the rich.
To me it's uncanny how well this interpretation fits the lyrics, but I'm fully aware there is no connection between my imagined interpretation and what the author meant. I've had this interpretation of it ever since it was released as a single in 1982. |
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