Thank you A4Ever for this idea...I think we can have a lot of fun with this. Feel free to post your own songs, interpretations, whatever.

This is Bjork-

she touched
my arm
and smiled

one of these days soon : very soon

©love you til then
©love you til then
feel my breath
on your neck
and your © h e a r t will race

don't say no to me
you can't say no to me
i won't see you
denied

i'm sorry you saw that
i'm sorry he did it

an echo

a stain...

a s t a i n . . .

i can't say no to you
i c a n ' t s a y n o t o y o u
say nothing

f
r
e
e
f
a
l
l
i
n
g

complete

Rape?, maybe?

I think rape.

I would say that the new boyfriend is talking to the victim. He loves her. He understands her pain. He is willing to wait to explore the sexual aspect of their relationship.

She wants to have a physical relationship, cause she loves him. She can't say no to him, but something stops her: the echo, the memory of what happened.

He can't really help her. The only thing he can do is understand and be loving. She knows he is this kind of person, but still her feelings are confusing her. She doesn't know how to handle the situation, being torn between two opposite feelings: love and fear.

H.
----
What's coming through is alive.
What's holding up is a mirror.
But what's singing songs is a snake
Looking to turn this piss to wine.
They're both totally void of hate,
But killing me just the same.
The snake behind me hisses
What my damage could have been.
My blood before me begs me
Open up my heart again.
And I feel this coming over like a storm again.
Considerately.
Venomous voice, tempts me,
Drains me, bleeds me,
Leaves me cracked and empty.
Drags me down like some sweet gravity.
The snake behind me hisses
What my damage could have been.
My blood before me begs me
Open up my heart again.
And I feel this coming over like a storm again.
I am too connected to you to
Slip away, to fade away.
Days away I still feel you
Touching me, changing me,
And considerately killing me.
Without the skin,
Beneath the storm,
Under these tears
The walls came down.
And the snake is drowned and
As I look in his eyes,
My fear begins to fade
Recalling all of those times.
I could have cried then.
I should have cried then.
And as the walls come down and
As I look in your eyes
My fear begins to fade
Recalling all of the times
I have died
and will die.
It's all right.
I don't mind.
I am too connected to you to
Slip away, to fade away.
Days away I still feel you
Touching me, changing me,
And considerately killing me.

-Tool.

Now, who knows what all the symbolism stands for? What's the story about? I really don't know and would very much like to know. :)

I was almost done with an insanely long, drawn out analysis of this song and the problems with objectively looking at song when my crappy computer, affectionately named 'Billy' spazzed. I even made references to Igor Stravinsky and other big smart people. Needless to say, I'm pissed. To save myself the anger, I will post this in a 'quick list' form.

1. Initially-snake bad
2. Eventually- he enjoys relationsip with snake
3. Snake sings
4. With Snake, he would be more negatve
5. The snake is, by nature, considerate.

A. The snake is celebrity.
B. It is also a false happiness that is, by nature, wrong to the writer of this song.
C. He appreciates what he sees in the snake.

THEREFORE.....He doesn't enjoy being a celebrity, and the snake is the temptation of eternal money, eternal women, eternal attention. Eternal happiness. The negativity towards the snake then is channled into a contentment that, while the snake has stolen this guy's normality, he has a new appreciation for what he has lost. He has then, in a sense, triumphed over celebrity becasue he has incorported it's falsehood into its purpose.

Thanks for that interpretation!

It sucks that you lost your insanely long analysis, cause it is a really really interesting view! I never thought of that, cause what fame can do to you is talked about in the previous song on the cd (sort of). I always look for trauma inside the person, without considering a 'simple' cause for it.

If you can bring it up or find the time, I would love to read the references and stuff you talked about. Maybe next time start with a word document and copy paste from there. Could be safer.

Damn you, Billy!! :)

I looove the incorporation part and the realisation of what is lost. You're good! :)

I hope someone gets really inspired and starts interpretation booms all over the thread :)

It hasn't had much succes, people are not interested...

I hope it can still be kept alive.

Yeah...I was just saying how that song was so heavy that if you read into it too far, you ended up knee-deep in this blind area of not knowing what it is, just that it's big. That happened to me with The Rite of Spring (By Stravinsky) because I had not bothered to read the summary that came with the score. I was thinking it was some sort of statement on the laziness of modern society, when in fact it was very specific (basically just the story of a pagan girl being sacrificed.)

Here's a tough of one, one of which I have no clue to its meaning.
Morning Bell, radiohead.

The morning bell
The morning bell
Light another candle and
Release me
Release me

You can keep the furniture
A bump on the head
Howling down the chimney
Release me
Release me
Please
Release me
Release me

Where'd you park the car
Where'd you park the car
Clothes are on the lawn with the furniture
Now I might as well
I might as well

Sleepy jack the fire drill
Round and round and round

Cut the kids in half
Cut the kids in half
Cut the kids in half

I wanted to tell you but you never listened
You never understand
I wanted to tell you but you never listened
You never understand
Cos I'm walking walking walking...

The lights are on but nobody's home
Everybody wants to be a
The lights are on but nobody's home
Everybody wants to be a slave
Walking walking walking...

The lights are on but nobody's at home
Everybody wants to be a
Everyone wants to be a friend
Nobody wants to be a slave
Walking walking walking...

The first thing I think about when reading this is 'divorce'.

Tom is desperate. He wants to leave his wife. He told her, but not in a straight forward way. He is not 100% sure. He needs his wife to agree with his thoughts, so he can be sure about them. He is very insecure. It's not that he doesn't love her anymore, it's that it just doesn't work anymore.


You can keep the furniture

He is thinking about what will happen after the decision is made. Something quite trivial is coming to mind, cause that's all he can say something about for sure. It's his call.


Release me

He needs his wife to react. And he wants her to say she agrees that separating is the best thing they can do. But for now, she just sits quietly, totaly chocked about what she has just found out.


Where'd you park the car
Clothes are on the lawn with the furniture

That's what happens in such cases. The wife or man gets all raged an throws the others belongings out of the house. Tom comes home. The wife has made a decision. He finds his clothes and he can have the furniture.


Cut the kids in half

The kids are always the biggest problem. Neither of them wants to give them up. Since the situation is quite emotional at this stage, cutting them in half comes to mind. As a figure of speach of course.


I wanted to tell you but you never listened
You never understand

That's always the biggest cause for divorces: the feeling that the other person doesn't listen to what you have to say. Even when he tried to explain why things were going wrong, she wouldn't listen.


The lights are on but nobody's home

This is after the separation. Tom walks by the house. It used to be a part of him.


Everyone wants to be a friend

Now that he is alone, everybody tries to comfort him, they do the best they can, but nobody can help him. He made he decision and must now start over on his own, or with someone else. Friends can even be more annoying than helping.


Nobody wants to be a slave

A marriage should be very balanced. When one feels opressed by the other, it doesn't work.


Walking walking walking...

He is alone, walking literaly by the old house, and in another sense walking towards a new future. Notice how he didn't start walking until he was convinced she would never listen and would never understand.

The song does not speak about who is guilty. Tom might have another girlfriend. I don't think he has :)

I speak about Tom and his wife, but you can replace that with everybody of course. Boyfriend/girlfriend, man/wife, he/she,...

I hope I am not stating the obvious for you.

Nice song. I'd like to hear it.

We must keep this thread on the top of the queue...and spread ads...so people will respond!

Here's a song:

La Cienega Just Smiled
By: Ryan Adams

"ah the night... here it comes again"
it's on with the jeans, the jacket and shirt
how'd I end up feeing so bad
for such a little girl

and I hold you close in the back of my mind
feels so good but damn it makes me hurt
and I'm too scared to know how I feel about you now
La Cienega just smiled... "see ya around"
and I hold you close in the back of my mind
and raise my glass 'cause either way I'm dead
neither of you really help me to sleep anymore
one breaks my body and the other breaks my soul
la Cienega just smiles as it waves goodbye

"ah the night... here it comes again"
it's off with the jeans, the jacket and the shirt
how'd I end up feeling so bad
for such a little girl
and I hold you close in the back of my mind
feels so good but damn it makes me hurt
and I'm too scared to know how I feel about you now
how I feel about you now
la Cienega just smiles and says, "I'll see you around"

Is La Cienga some sort of alcohol?
I don't know why he'd be calling himslef just a little girl- unless it's alcoholism from a different perspective-
or maybe- the little girl is his lover and he is her alcohol?

• Pray Your Gods (Toad the Wet Sprocket)

i will give the secrets you request
and you will be the one to sacrifice
so lay your olve arms across my breast
and sing the poems, free the butterflies

pray your gods who ask you for your blood
for they are strong and angry jealous ones
or lay upon my altar now your love
i fear my time is short
there are armies moving close
be quick, my love

i feel my body weakened by the years
as people turn to gods of cruel design
is it tht they fear the pain of death
or could it be they fear the joy of life

pray your gods who rule you by your fear
for they are quick and ruthless punishers
or lay upon my altar now your love
i fear my time is short
there are armies moving on
be quick, my love

• Feel Good Hit of the Summer (Queens of the Stone Age)

Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol (co-caine!)

•*•*•*•*•

The first track is a tough one for me. I've spent a few years debating theories about the album fear from Toad the Wet Sprocket. Initially, from amid my rock-and-roll tower lined with Kilroy Was Here, Streets: A Rock Opera, and any number of King Diamond albums, I was quite familiar with the narrative album, and at first thought fear followed a character through life; it's still possible. But, by and large, I've taken the album to be a pageant of fears, each individual and not necessarily connected. At the time I heard the album, though, it almost described a human drama I was witnessing in life, give or take a couple of poetic notions. Technically, I think this song is a love story, set somewhere in late youth (it doesn't fit my story theory as well as I would like it to), before marriage, and definitely amid some inner conflict. Star-crossed lovers seems too simple an interpretation.

The second track ... well, I couldn't think of any other songs off the top of my head. It would take me hours to explain a Floater song to my satisfaction; for instance, Persecutor ... I could not explain this bit
Little girl has learned a lesson today,
She has a value.
Get up and change the sheets again,
Late night with Gallo.

Many people run away from her,
She makes them angry.
They don't like the way she moves,
She is reminding ...in any less than several hours. And I have to golf at some point tomorrow.

In the meantime, I think the QOTSA song is self-evident. I'll put up a couple better ones tomorrow sometime.

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

Sorry for the late reply, I had exams.


Is La Cienga some sort of alcohol?

I can't find what it means. Hotels are named after it. :)

But I think we should look in the direction were a girl and the drink are interchangable. Like White Russian. (I'm not into drinks, so this is a bad example :) )

I don't think he says he is a little girl. How I end up feeling so bad for such a little girl to me means that HE feels bet BECAUSE of a little girl. But my mothertongue is not English, so I may be wrong.

Sooo... we have this guy who goes out drinking cause he is broken hearted. And indeed, I do think that the drink and the girl become one as the alcohol takes over the man.

Hope to refire this thread!

Hey, this must be just about the most lackadaisical thread ever made here at sciforums.:D




I don't think he says he is a little girl. How I end up feeling so bad for such a little girl to me means that HE feels bet BECAUSE of a little girl. But my mothertongue is not English, so I may be wrong.

then-


"ah the night... here it comes again"
it's off with the jeans, the jacket and the shirt
how'd I end up feeling so bad
for such a little girl
and I hold you close in the back of my mind
feels so good but damn it makes me hurt
and I'm too scared to know how I feel about you now
how I feel about you now
la Cienega just smiles and says, "I'll see you around"

Makes sense. Actually, you have the point exactly. 'La Cienga' is like his other lover when his human ones reject him. The drink is immeaditely more accesible than the memory of 'her'.

Nice late responses from both of us on this thread. I like 'em.:D