| Bright Eyes – Poison Oak Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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If it's so obvious that he's singing about his brother, makeartnotmath, then please explain "my clothes are soaking wet from your brother's tears." Unless it's purposely ungrammatical, then it doesn't make any sense that he's singing to his brother. Unless "your brother's tears" is his own tears, which doesn't explain why he'd refer to himself in first person in the beginning of the line ("MY shirt"). Or maybe the brother with the tears is a third brother? But then why would he say "YOUR brother's tears" and not "OUR brother's tears?" According to two different people, Conor has claimed that the song is about two different people. One person said his cousin Ian and the other said his brother Justin. So who should we believe? Well, I think it's about his cousin Colin, who committed suicide a few years ago. I don't really know anything about Colin, so I won't try to make up facts to explain the song, but when you read the following lines, keep in mind that Conor had (at least) two cousins, Ian and Colin: And I'm glad you got away, But I'm still stuck out here. My clothes are soaking wet from your brother's tears. Colin "got away" by killing himself, and after the death, Ian cried on his shoulder. Makes sense, no? To me, the song is about questioning the purpose of life. Conor wanted to get away from everything like his cousin was trying to do--he loved his cousin for slamming the door and stealing a car and driving to Mexico because it seemed like such actions had purpose and vitality. Conor was in a state of "paralysis"--unable to understand what the hell everything is about--he "still believed in war," even. But the death has awakened him--it's the "yellow bird that he's been waiting for." He's still "stuck out here" and "drunk as hell," but he realizes that he wants to keep living because the suicide has only resulted in a muddy field where the garden was ("A Difference in the Shades" reference, maybe?) The sound of loneliness makes him happier, after all, he can be happy and content with himself. He "never thought this life was possible"--that he could be happy with life, at all, and not want to kill himself, but having witnessed the suicide of someone he was close to, he's realized that'd he rather just make music and try to work through his sadness than run away, use heroin, or kill himself. And maybe his cousin had sexual identity problems--"dressed in women's clothes, made ashamed..."?? I readily admit to the extreme possibility that I'm wrong, and I feel awkward writing about Conor and his brothers and cousins as if I actually know them... |
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| Bright Eyes – Poison Oak Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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If it's so obvious that he's singing about his brother, makeartnotmath, then please explain "my clothes are soaking wet from your brother's tears." Unless it's purposely ungrammatical, then it doesn't make any sense that he's singing to his brother. Unless "your brother's tears" is his own tears, which doesn't explain why he'd refer to himself in first person in the beginning of the line ("MY shirt"). Or maybe the brother with the tears is a third brother? But then why would he say "YOUR brother's tears" and not "OUR brother's tears?" According to two different people, Conor has claimed that the song is about two different people. One person said his cousin Ian and the other said his brother Justin. So who should we believe? Well, I think it's about his cousin Colin, who committed suicide a few years ago. I don't really know anything about Colin, so I won't try to make up facts to explain the song, but when you read the following lines, keep in mind that Conor had (at least) two cousins, Ian and Colin: And I'm glad you got away, But I'm still stuck out here. My clothes are soaking wet from your brother's tears. Colin "got away" by killing himself, and after the death, Ian cried on his shoulder. Makes sense, no? To me, the song is about questioning the purpose of life. Conor wanted to get away from everything like his cousin was trying to do--he loved his cousin for slamming the door and stealing a car and driving to Mexico because it seemed like such actions had purpose and vitality. Conor was in a state of "paralysis"--unable to understand what the hell everything is about--he "still believed in war," even. But the death has awakened him--it's the "yellow bird that he's been waiting for." He's still "stuck out here" and "drunk as hell," but he realizes that he wants to keep living because the suicide has only resulted in a muddy field where the garden was ("A Difference in the Shades" reference, maybe?) The sound of loneliness makes him happier, after all, he can be happy and content with himself. He "never thought this life was possible"--that he could be happy with life, at all, and not want to kill himself, but having witnessed the suicide of someone he was close to, he's realized that'd he rather just make music and try to work through his sadness than run away, use heroin, or kill himself. And maybe his cousin had sexual identity problems--"dressed in women's clothes, made ashamed..."?? I readily admit to the extreme possibility that I'm wrong, and I feel awkward writing about Conor and his brothers and cousins as if I actually know them... |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2 Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I wrote an earlier analysis of this song a long time ago, but now I think I endorse whereisjeff's. Not completely, maybe, but it seems pretty accurate. Good job. | |
| Bright Eyes – Feeling It (For Ian) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Justin is his brother. Ian is his cousin. | |
| Neutral Milk Hotel – Naomi Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Unlike most NMH songs, this song really creeps me out. I think it's about a stalker who has somehow obtained the dress of the woman he adores and obsesses over. I could be completely wrong, though. But still, it's pretty creepy.... |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – I Will Bury You in Time Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| Umm.. he says "Me and a rockstar in a hole by the beach... and can't get out." Not in a home by the beach... making out. Quite different, I think. | |
| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2 Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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First, a disclaimer: I cannot say with authority that I have any idea what this song is really about. All I know with certainty is that on the "Live at Jittery Joe's" album, Jeff Mangum introduces this song by explaining that it's about a family in Europe in the 1940s that he obsesses over, particularly one individual in the family who he frequently dreams about. He doesn't say anything else about the family or which individual he dreams about, but we can probably assume that he's talking about the same girl that most of the other songs on The Aeroplane Over the Sea album are about. There are also some minor lyrical changes in the original version of this song, such as "sister" instead of "blister" and a reference to the year being 1945, but nothing too major. Anyway, I must say that I don't agree with blurppi's comments at all. That's not to say that he's wrong (remember my disclaimer... I have no idea what the song's really about... I think only Jeff Mangum really knows what the song is about and I agree with subverted0's comments that NMH's songs mean whatever the listener wants them to mean...), but I can't see many of the connections that he's listed in his explication. Like, how does "tongue in his teeth" refer to a boy wishing that he could fight with his father? And what does being fed tomatoes have to do with being raised by a mother? I think the line "The title implies that there are two boys raised the same way and very alike are treating the same situation differently, giving them one body but two heads, metaphorically" would be wonderful, but I don't see how he's really made any clear points that justify this explanation. Also, I don't think this song is about incest. Here's what I think it's about (take this with a grain of salt, mind you): The "Daddy" in the first stanza isn't a literal daddy. Instead, it is God. The "boy ... long ago wrapped in sheets warm and wet" is Jesus, who "loved all [God has] left" The speaker, a girl, pleads with God to bring another individual to earth who will be nearly as wonderful a person as Jesus was. This new person won't be a second coming of Jesus or a messiah or even a completely perfect person, but in the eyes of the speaker, this person will be "perfect." Throughout the rest of the song, I think the speaker changes at random (because of NMH's tendency towards surrealism and stream-of-consciousness). The second stanza is spoken by an objective outsider, completely different from the speaker in the first stanza. This outsider explains how the original speaker will yearn to make love to this perfect individual, who is like a "brother," but not literally. That explains the "tongue in his teeth" line... they're making out, basically. And, as usually happens when one gives herself sexually to another, the other person learns (or at least tries to learn) of the "secret songs that [the original speaker keeps] wrapped in boxes so tight, sounding only at night as [the original speaker sleeps]." The girl gives herself both sexually and emotionally to the lover. But then, after having met this person, he is taken away from her. The next three stanzas are from the perspective of the original speaker, who (in the third stanza) still dreams about the boy that was taken away from her. The fourth stanza explains how he left. He died, presumably in the war (or possibly as part of the Holocaust?). If he died in the war, we can assume that it was WWII, because of the references on the album and by Mangum to the year 1945. I'm pretty sure he was shot in the head, which would explain "you left with your head full of flames" (I imagine getting shot in the head would burn tremendously... which would be equivalent to having your head on fire) and "you watched as your brains fell out through your teeth, push the pieces in place" (imagine the bullet would being severe that blood and perhaps brain matter are just spilling out of the head). But even though he dies violently, he tries to die with a smile, perhaps because, like Jesus, he is so perfect that, even during an horrific death, he tries to see the beauty in the world. And she still longs to be physically close to him... to have her face on his cheek, even though his cheek may not necessarily exist anymore ("don't you take this away" ... don't take away the memories...). The fifth stanza is just a general statement about death and God. It may be spoken by the girl, or it may be spoken by the objective outsider. Basically, death is the equivalent of breaking (like how the boy was broken into pieces that needed to be pushed back into place), God and Heaven are one entity, and death isn't exactly death since we wait in God (read: Heaven) for "the rest of our lives." Life and death, therefore, are all part of one "life," just on different levels. Now, the last stanza definitely returns to the voice of the objective outsider. I don't think the other stanzas really have anything to do with the "two-headed boy" or with the events in the first "Two-Headed Boy" song. I think of it like this: maybe the outsider is narrating the story of the girl and her lover to the two-headed boy, and the point that the narrator is trying to get across to the two-headed boy is "You'll find people who you think will be perfect for you, and you will love them immensely, but eventually they will leave, either because of death or because of other reasons, but even after the person has left, you should remember the good memories and not dwell on the bad ones (like memories of a violent death or an aggressive break-up)." So that's my interpretation. It's not a perfect one, I know. There are some things I still don't fully understand. I'm not quite sure who or what the two-headed boy is exactly, yet. But, in any case, that's what the song has always meant to me. I absolutely love this song. It's the one song that consistently evokes a very emotional response from me. It's probably my favorite song of all time, even if I don't fully understand it. Anyone who would like to elaborate on or challenge my thoughts, feel free to do so... I encourage it. |
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| Bright Eyes – A Spindle, a Darkness, a Fever, and a Necklace Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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onlyindreams, this clip is a part of the mp3 "a spindle, a darkness, a fever, and a necklace." If you download that, you should be able to hear the clip. And the kid is reading from Mitchell's Moving, a book about two dinosaurs that I read in kindergarten. |
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| Bright Eyes – No Lies, Just Love Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| I can understand why someone might hear this song and assume that Conor is gay. The ambiguousness of the verse about "Justin" makes it seem as though Justin could be his boyfriend. That's not the case, though. Justin is the brother whose child he references in the last verse. It's safe to assume that Conor Oberst is straight... especially since most of his songs are about being in love with girls. | |
| Bright Eyes – No Lies, Just Love Lyrics | 22 years ago |
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I'm almost positive it's about suicide. He "bought the things he thought he would need." Pills? A gun, perhaps? He wrote a letter to his family. A suicide note, most likely. So why was he going to kill himself? Perhaps because he was disillusioned. Maybe he had been really happy as a child, but he thought he was losing all of his potential as he got older. He was no longer a "smiling face," he was becoming a "fucking wreck." He tried to hide his depression for as long as possible because he didn't want people to feel sorry for him, but he didn't think that he could hold it inside any longer. That's why he's embarassed by the withering flower. The flower's natural reaction to a bad situation is to wither. He's been in lots of bad situations, but he doesn't want people to realize that he's withering. Anyway, it's March, it's winter, he's decided he's going to kill himself. But then spring comes and suddenly it's sunnier again. The "persuasive rays" (fantastic line, btw) convince him that not everything in life is unhappy, there are some things to live for. The thing that finally makes up his mind, though, is when his brother Justin basically tells him "If you kill yourself, I'll be so devastated that I'll die, too." He realizes that, yes, things have been going bad, but people still love him and there are still things to live for. The last verse is a dedication to his brother's unborn child (haha, this is where I start to cry). It's a parallel to his own life. The womb (childhood) is warm and deceiving, but sometimes, when you get older, the world can be cold and cruel. But he wants to show his nephew that not everything is horrible, not everything is a lie. Sometimes there's just love. He promises this to his nephew, and to himself. Absolutely beautiful song. Easily the best song about suicide ever. Allow me to restate that Conor is pure genius. |
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| Les Miserables – Fantine's Arrest + Come To Me (fantine's Death) Lyrics | 22 years ago |
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Would've been more logical if whoever had posted this had put the song where Fantine dies AFTER the song where she is arrested. I like this, though. Bamatabois is a jackass. So is Javert. But Javert's pretty cool. |
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| Bright Eyes – No Lies, Just Love Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| This is the first song that has ever made me physically cry. This song is absolutely beautiful. Conor is pure genius. | |
| of Montreal – Let's Do Everything for the First Time Forever Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| This song is wonderful. So innocent and childlike and sweet... Now this is a great love song. | |
| Bright Eyes – Going for the Gold Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| The last verse ("I know a girl who cries when she practices violin 'cause each note sounds so pure it just cuts into her and then the melody comes pouring out her eyes. Now, to me everything else, it just seems like a lie.") is one of my favorite lyrics ever. Beautiful song.... | |
| Eminem – Stan Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| Yes, that is Devon Sawa as Stan. | |
| Bright Eyes – An Interview with Conor Oberst Lyrics | 22 years ago |
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This clip is hilarious... I love the way the radio announcer is portrayed as an idiotic jackass, what with him interrupting Conor at the beginning and then pretending to understand what Conor is talking about by saying things like "I see" and "It does, it does" when it's clear he has no clue what Conor is saying. Also, I like the way that Conor makes himself out to be a lunatic. By the way, can anyone understand what the people are talking about in the background? |
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