| Leonard Cohen – Chelsea Hotel #2 Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This is, for me, the ultimate sad love song. Cohen pretends as if he doesn't have feelings for Joplin, as if she was just another woman, but this song quite frankly makes it clear that he does. I believe when he says "I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best," he really DOES mean to suggest exactly that. This song is, quite simply, about meeting your true love at a young age and then losing them, and never being able to find anything close to that again. Maybe because you poisoned yourself against meeting anyone because you compare everyone to the one that got away. Or maybe just because that's life. (As a sort of postscript, I just wanted to mention that this song reminds me a lot of Cersei and Jaime Lannister's relationship in Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire, especially when Cersei says in the books "It was no use. It had never been any good with anyone but Jaime.") |
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| Of Monsters And Men – Yellow Light Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I always thought is song is about loneliness, and how the person is tired of being alone but is also afraid of falling in love. The first verse is, I think, about the lonely person falling in love, but she is afraid, because she wants to be in love but loneliness is all she's ever known. I always took the last line "as the soft walls eat us alive" to be a metaphor for how small you feel when you're lonely, so small your loneliness could swallow you up. Or, on the flip side of this coin, the "soft walls" eating them alive could be their love for one another. I never saw this song as anything darker or anything more than that. |
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| Of Monsters And Men – Dirty Paws Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I think this song is actually a pretty straight-forward fairy tale or fable. But I also think it could be interpreted in any number of ways, and I think that's where Of Monsters and Men really wanted this song to go, that it is open-ended and can be just a myth or it can have some deeper meaning for someone who chooses to read into it. | |
| Of Monsters And Men – Sloom Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I forgot to add this: I think the last line is about the abandoned child finally finding a person that actually loves her, and who eventually takes the place of the family that never loved her. |
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| Of Monsters And Men – Sloom Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I think this song is about being rejected or pushed away by your own family. "So make all your last demands, for I will forsake you. And I'll meet your eyes for the very first time, For the very last." My mother was pretty much disowned by her mother when she married my father, and I think this verse is about a mother forsaking her child, meeting their eyes "for the very first time" when they were born and then meeting their eyes "for the very last" time when they send them away. My grandmother, the one who disowned my mother, passed away last week, and I've revisited this song. It seems to fit my situation well. And that's my interpretation: a mother that pushed her child away, a grandmother that never could bring herself to love her grandchildren because she pushed away their mother long ago and never liked their father. In my mind, this is a song about a family that abandoned you. |
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| Of Monsters And Men – Love Love Love Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I am not setting out to explain why Of Monsters and Men wrote this song, but only what it means to me and how it corresponds to my own personal life. To me, this song sounds as if it is written from an older man's perspective with whom a young girl has fallen in love. "Well maybe I'm a crook for stealing your heart away, Yeah maybe I'm a bad, bad, bad, bad person, Well baby, I know" I take this to mean that he feels guilty for allowing a young girl to fall in love with him, and he feels like a bad person for possibly having feelings for her as well. Now, it is suggested that he doesn't have feelings for her when it says, "not caring" about stealing her heart, but this verse contradicts this: "And these fingertips will never run through your skin And those bright blue eyes Can only meet mine across a room Filled with people that are less important than you" That makes me think he does actually care for her. However, because she is underage, he is upset that she "love, love, loves" him, but he "can't love [her]." Again, I don't think this is what Of Monsters and Men intended, but I think my interpretation fits pretty well, and this is what the song means to me. I do think, however, that the song is probably about a person who feels bad because they can't understand love and can't love anyone. |
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| Rilo Kiley – The Good That Won't Come Out Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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"Oh, you're almost home I've been waiting for you to come in. Dancing around in your old suits, Going crazy in your room again." I think this verse is about a ghost, actually, or a dead person. I think Ms. Lewis is, in fact, the one dancing around in "your old suits," not the person the suits actually belong to, because they are "your old suits," not the suits they wear now. "You say I choose sadness, That it never once has chosen me (Maybe you're right)." I think this is about depression. Our brain chooses sadness, even though maybe nothing has happened in your life that would cause you to be sad. Anyway, beautiful song. It really means a lot to me. |
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| Concrete Blonde – Tomorrow, Wendy (Andy Prieboy cover) Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Sorry gordtaylor, I meant to give you an up-vote instead of a down-vote :( I don't understand why your post was flagged, I found it uplifting and nice. Why flag something just because it goes against your own opinion? | |
| Concrete Blonde – Tomorrow, Wendy (Andy Prieboy cover) Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Yes, I've heard the story of Wendy, the woman diagnosed with AIDS who decided to commit suicide, giving meaning to the whole "tomorrow Wendy is going to die" by way of Wendy having already decided that, indeed, she will die tomorrow by her own hand. However, I think this song can be seen in a different light. There's a saying that yesterday is gone forever and tomorrow never comes, because we are always living in "today", if somebody asked us "what day is it" we would never say "tomorrow." So, in a way, Wendy will never die, because she is going to die tomorrow, and tomorrow never comes. |
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| The Mountain Goats – Dance Music Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| "But then the special secret sickness starts to eat through you, what am I supposed to do? I follow you down your twisting alleyways, find a few cul-de-sacs of my own, there's only one place this road ever ends up, and I don't wanna die alone"...could the "sickness" be alcoholism? Drug use? Depression? I think it must be one of these. And Darnielle "follows" her in the sense that he doesn't want to be alone or feel like he's left out, or maybe he's trying to cover up pain of his own, so he drinks or does drugs with her. Just my interpretation of those lines. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Pale Green Things Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Also, I love how he says "...sometimes I'll meet you out there", as if, even though his stepfather is dead, he still goes out to the racetrack and still feels as though his stepfather is there with him, despite having passed away. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Pale Green Things Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| With the violins and the soft way Darnielle sings lyrics like: "...Casting your gaze way out to no-man's land, sometimes I'll meet you out there...My sister called at 3 a.m. just last December, told me how you'd died at last, at last, that morning at the racetrack was one thing I remembered, I turned it over in my mind like a living Chinese finger trap, seaweed in in Indiana sawgrass, pale green things, pale green things..." make this easily one of the saddest songs I've ever heard. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Love Love Love Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Also, I don't think suicide is mentioned as being "unforgivable" or even as being a sin in the Bible. I might also be wrong about King Saul. I can't quite remember the story, but it seems as though that was the way it went. | |
| Bright Eyes – I Watched You Taking Off Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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"This is the dream I am dying in" That line perfectly sums up everything that is going on in my life. I dream of reuniting with my old best friend who pushed me away after her mother died; I dream of a relationship with a man who is married and much older than me; I dream of returning to the time when my old boyfriend loved me, before he went away; I dream of writing a novel that I can put all of myself into. They are so faraway and unattainable, yet I cannot stop thinking of them or trying to reach them. Certainly, these are the dreams I am dying in. |
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| Bright Eyes – At the Bottom of Everything Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This song has become very personal to me, as my best friend's mother died recently in an airplane crash. After the crash, my best friend was never the same and pushed me away. Anyway, the bit about "when we get down there, way down to the very bottom of everything, and then we'll see it, oh we'll see it" makes me think of dying, how once we "get down to the very bottom of everything" (i.e., in the cemetery), we'll see what it all meant and why it all had to happen. |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1 Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Yeah, reminds me of my old best friend. | |
| Neutral Milk Hotel – The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1 Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I agree with some of what you said, but having sex with his brother? That I very much disagree with. | |
| The Smiths – Reel Around the Fountain Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This has become a rather personal song for me recently. I guess you could say I'm in a quasi-relationship with a much older man. He, however, insists on waiting until I'm older before he can have a relationship with me. So we're both waiting, I guess, until I'm older, and then we can (hopefully) be together. Anyway, the verse "'take me to the haven of your bed' was something that you never said" hits me really hard, because I really love this man and I'm very attracted to him, but he would never even think of sleeping with me until I'm older. I guess this makes him a good person, but still. So I guess my interpretation of the song is of a relationship with someone much older than you. The whole "slap me on the patio" thing makes me think that the narrator loves the person so much that he would let them do anything, including abuse him. Well, that's just my interpretation. Probably wrong, but still. |
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| Editors – An End Has A Start Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I know you wrote this a long time ago, but I completely agree with you. Their lyrical styles, and their voices are so similar it's frightening. Or completely awesome. It's different on any given day. | |
| Arcade Fire – Crown of Love Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Well, Regine helped write this song, so that could be the source of the feminine aspect. | |
| Arcade Fire – Crown of Love Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| @Leesaenz, that was rude. Zaknafein88 has a right to say what he did, and in this case, I'm pretty certain he's right. | |
| Arcade Fire – Crown of Love Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I think this song is about being in love with someone, and eventually becoming obsessed with them. As time goes on, however, and their love is not reciprocated as strongly, the feelings begin to fade. But eventually the other person begins to love you, and now you feel obligated to begin another relationship with them. Basically, you were in love with someone that did not love you back. You moved on, but then they decided they wanted you. And because you were so attached to them that you think you can't live without them, you begin a relationship, even though you don't have feelings for them anymore. I hope that makes sense. |
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| Bright Eyes – At the Bottom of Everything Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| It's such an upbeat song, but I can hardly stand to listen to it now. It used to be one of my favorite songs. But my old best friend's mother died in a plane crash, and now I just think of that whenever I hear this song. Oddly enough, I think it just makes me love it more. | |
| Bright Eyes – Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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"You said you hate my suffering, And you understood, And you'd take care of me. You'd always be there, Well where are you now?" That bit makes me so sad. It reminds me so much of the guy who found me after I attempted suicide and basically saved my life. He told me that I shouldn't ever try to kill myself again because even if I felt like no one cared about me, he always would. Now he never speaks to me anymore. It also reminds me of my best friend at the time, one of the only people I confided in, and she told me she loved me so much and if I killed myself it would kill her too. But then her mother died, and she pushed everyone away and we grew apart. Anyway. |
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| Bright Eyes – A Perfect Sonnet Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I guess I'll classify this as a memory, since something in this song specifically reminds me of something. Even though I know he's likely referencing a book that he talks about throughout a lot of his songs that is basically the book of his life, when he sings this line: "But as for me I'm coming to the final chapter, I've read all of the pages and there's still no answer" It reminds me of reading the Bible over and over again, trying to decide if I could still be a Christian, and coming to the end and realizing how can I never know if it's true or not? An awful feeling. |
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| Bright Eyes – The Difference in the Shades Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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These are the correct lyrics: "And this apartment could not be prettier Than as we dance up there alone" .... "An outline of the one you loved in a life that was, but no longer will be, Stands above you as you sleep." |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2 Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Well, I just found out Peter Wessel (whose real name was Lutz Peter Schiff) died in Auschwitz. So there goes my interpretation. Oh well. | |
| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2 Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I said before I don't really have an explanation for this song, and I still only barely do. But when viewed as a sort of "partner" song to Two-Headed Boy, I think this could be about the second half of the Two-Headed Boy that I picture, Peter Wessel. Peter Wessel was a boy that Anne loved before she had to go into hiding, and once in hiding she virtually replaced Peter Wessel with Peter Van Daan. This could be about Peter Wessel's life after the war. As far as I know, not many people know what happened to Peter Wessel after he knew Anne (I will have to look this up). I think this could be about him trying to return to life as it was before, and remembering Anne in light of the news that she did not survive the war. Though if viewed in context with Jeff's brother's suicide, it makes so much more sense that it is jointly about his brother AND Anne Frank. |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I agree with the people who have said the 'two-headed boy' is Peter Wessel and Peter Van Daan (his real name is escaping me at the moment), the two Peters that Anne Frank loved. This song, I think, is about Peter Van Daan, the boy she lived with while in the secret annex. The first verse takes place after the war, where the singer (who could be a person Peter Van Daan met while in the concentration camp) is thinking of his dead friend. I think the imagery of something "floating in a jar" obviously comes from fetuses displayed in jars, but also from brains that belonged to concentration camp inmates that Nazis kept in jars for experimentation. A few years back they discovered rooms filled with brains from Jews and mentally disabled people that were murdered under the Nazi regime. The bit about "Sunday shoes" and "accordion keys" could be a memory of Peter from before. "Catching signals that sound in the dark" could be a forbidden radio broadcast, such as the BBC. The chorus is about living in the concentration camp itself. "We will take off our clothes" relates to how inmates were forced to strip naked and stand in front of the guards in the freezing cold for hours. "Placing fingers through the notches in your spine" could actually be about Anne Frank, seeing as Mangum described her as having "wings in her spine" in earlier songs; as in the Nazis are examining holes in her spine where her wings used to be. The next verse, about the radio and the parlor, is about the time Peter spent with Anne in the annex. The final verse is about how Peter died in the "death march" from Auschwitz in January 1945, just weeks before its liberation. He could very well have died from freezing in the snow. Also, the "Christmas" part could be about how all he needed was to be a Gentile, as in someone who celebrates Christmas instead of Hanukah, or it could be about the hope that Christmas brings to people during the winter when everything is bleak. Also, if thought of in a more personal context, I definitely think the two-headed boy could very well be how Jeff thinks of himself and his brother who committed suicide. (Or was it a friend's brother who committed suicide? I was never clear on this.) |
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| Regina Spektor – Lulliby Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Does anyone know why it was misspelled as "Lulliby"? Did she do it on purpose, or was it an accident? | |
| Bright Eyes – Lime Tree Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The bit about the limes sounds very similar to a passage in Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, in which she imagines herself sitting in a fig tree. Also, the "so pleased with a daydream that now living's no good," is one of the best lines I have ever heard. |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2 Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| The lyrics were originally "sister please with those wings in your spine," but when it was recorded it was changed to "blister please." | |
| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2 Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I honestly don't have a coherent explanation for this song, but I have to say I think this is the saddest song I've ever heard. Just the way he sings it, with so much emotion...it kills me every time, even if I can't entirely understand it. | |
| Bright Eyes – Soon You Will Be Leaving Your Man Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I took this to be about a divorce. My parents threaten to get a divorce every few years, my grandmother has been divorced twice, and almost every set of my great-grandparents got divorced. Divorce is in my blood, and I guess that's why I saw it in this song. | |
| Neutral Milk Hotel – Angel Eyes Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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How strange; I wrote a poem entitled "Angel Eyes" once. Jeff Mangum is a musical genius, just saying. |
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| The Mountain Goats – Love Love Love Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| King Saul didn't literally kill himself. He indirectly did by asking one of his soldiers to kill him. | |
| Arcade Fire – Suburban War Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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When kids grow up, they leave the suburbs, hence "the war on the suburbs"; also, urbanization is constantly trying to make the suburbs more like the cities, more technology, more transportation, more people, less personality. My town has recently begun building a new freeway and a new high-speed railway, and I can really understand what the singer means when he says his town is disappearing. I am leaving for college in the next two years, and my town is changing all around me already. I can't imagine what it will look like when I finally come back. And about the friends - they are childhood friends, the ones you said you would be friends forever with, but you grow up, and you lose touch. My friends and I all go to different high schools and we are too different now. We're growing apart. And this is what he means. Now that he's growing older, he sees that the drive to escape the suburbs is gone, and the suburbs seems like a much nicer place to live than the large, impersonal cities preferred by young people. |
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| Arcade Fire – Rococo Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I only want to interpret one line: "They build it up just to burn it back down." I think this refers to all the new technology of today: they are always coming out with something new. If something is broken, you fix it; you don't throw it away, you don't replace it, but that idea has faded away in this modern culture. |
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| Arcade Fire – The Suburbs Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I think it's about growing up. I am currently growing up in the suburbs, finding that soon I'll be going away for college, and I can relate to this song so well. To me, it's about friends growing apart and growing up, and finding that the suburbs, while safe and nice when you are young, are full of corrupted things. The singer wants a daughter to show all the beautiful things before the beautiful things fade away in the singer's mind. "And all of the walls they built in the seventies finally fall, And all of the houses they built in the seventies finally fall." That to me is about leaving your house, built in the seventies, to go live on your own when you're finally grown. "Under the overpass In the parking lot we're still waiting It's already passed So move your feet from hot pavement and onto the grass Cause it's already passed, it's already passed!" That to me is about tangible memories of growing up in the suburbs, as I have many memories of those same things myself, and being stuck in the memories. Now the singer is saying he's grown up and has to let go of the past, "so move your feet from hot pavement" meaning hot pavement is painful, holding on to the past will eventually hurt you; "and onto the grass" meaning cool grass, the future; "it's already passed, it's already passed!" meaning childhood is over. |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| "Anna" is Anne Frank. "Anna" is how you pronounce "Anne" in Germany and Holland, the former being where she was born and the latter where she lived much of her life. | |
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