Song meanings (2 Viewers)

[snakybus]

I'm loving working out what songs are about, lately.

here's a web site http://www.songmeanings.net where people put in their tuppence worth about what a song's about, really makes listening to stuff more enjoyable, rather than demystify them or whatever

for example: what's Perfect Circle by REM about? American football, some people think. I always thought it was about a family gathering in the US, with two misfits at the centre of the otherwise perfect circle. (Yeah whatever, says you.)

thread for analysing songs and stuff

 

[Froog]

what do ya reckon "if you wannabe my lover" by the spice girls means?

 

[snakybus]

Man's search for eternal truths. In many ways, a song about epistemology... how hard it is to obtain knowledge (represented by zig-a-zig-ah), and how when you get it, it often isn't as satisfying as you thought it would be.

 

[lympog]

what do ya reckon "if you wannabe my lover" by the spice girls means?

it's a piece by piece dissection of the communist era in eastern russia and siberia - i might be wrong though

leigh

 

[timbot]

Off topic a little but I always like when you are reading a book for the first time and listening to an album for the first time and the 2 mesh in your head. Anyone else get this?

 

[Lolo]

Off topic a little but I always like when you are reading a book for the first time and listening to an album for the first time and the 2 mesh in your head. Anyone else get this?

Yes, and the same with food and smells - sometimes all 4 (falafel + Ultra Vivid Scene's first album + Body Shop Mostly Musk + Sandman comics = summer of 1989)

 

[Mitchum]

Off topic a little but I always like when you are reading a book for the first time and listening to an album for the first time and the 2 mesh in your head. Anyone else get this?

Frequently.
First impressions of both become forever entwined in the memory.

Just thinking about 'Perfect Circle' above reminded me of the day I bought Murmur and played it constantly while reading Ian McEwan's 'The Cement Garden'.

Anyhoo back on-topic, I've never tried to figure out what 'Perfect Circle' is about.
(Eleven gallows on your sleeve?!?)
I figured it was an oblique reference to perfection through repetition.

 

[pissypants]

Off topic a little but I always like when you are reading a book for the first time and listening to an album for the first time and the 2 mesh in your head. Anyone else get this?

Yeah, but it happened to me with Donnie Darko and Boards of Canada's Geogaddi. Saw / heard both in same month. Whenever I thought of seeing that movie it always had Geogaddi as the soundtrack.

 

[Pantone247]

Yes, and the same with food and smells - sometimes all 4 (falafel + Ultra Vivid Scene's first album + Body Shop Mostly Musk + Sandman comics = summer of 1989)

very good about about your brain and music

http://musicophilia.com/

only a bit through it at the moment, but stuff like "fella is hit by lightening, 4 weeks later starts hearing piano music, 10 years later totally changed man, leave his wife, spends time writing buckets of concerttos and stuff" lots about epilespsy and folks thinking they hear music building up to attacks, etc, etc...

all very bizzaro and deadly

 

[righteous harmony]

phil collins - in the air tonight

the truf!!! ask eminem lol everyone knows this! lol this song is about>>>> phil bein on vacation on a cruiseship n seeing a fight between two men...one of the guys pushed the other over board...bein shocked phil did nuthin to help as the guy was drowning....about a month later phil sent the man that pushed the other over board...a private invitation to sit front row at one of hes shows where he then staired the man straight in the eyes and sung IN THE AIR TONIGHT to him....2 let him know he saw everything....scary huh....read the lyrics !!!

i thought he drowned in an icy river

 

[timbot]

phil collins - in the air tonight

i thought he drowned in an icy river

I thought the guy raped his wife and Phil Collins came home and he ran out the door and fell into a pool and Phil watched him drown and then he bought the body on stage for a weekend at Bernies type scenario the next time that he played live.

Its all there in that third drum hit people...

 

[Lili Marlene]

ridicule is nothing to be scared of


Adam Ant maintains that Prince Charming is a very serious song

 

[karljacuncha]

I thought the guy raped his wife and Phil Collins came home and he ran out the door and fell into a pool and Phil watched him drown and then he bought the body on stage for a weekend at Bernies type scenario the next time that he played live.

Its all there in that third drum hit people...

no way - that song is all about nitrogen - just look at the title

and btw, whatever you do - don't read the entries for nirvana on that site - painful reading

 

[travispickle]

according to one of those Classic Album series, it's about his painful divorce from his wife at the time; as are most of the songs on that No Jacket album.
I'm ashamed to know this.

Also - I don't really like knowing what a song is "about"..usually it's always pretty disappointing. I like songs that are about 3 minutes.

 

[Goodbye]

Arn't most songs either about fucking or Jesus anyway

 

[timbot]

Arn't most songs either about fucking or Jesus anyway

But the Venn diagram of song themes shows oh too few in the intersection...

 

[Froog]

all songs are about love, ridin', drugs, pain, bridges and overcoats.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Private Idaho is about radioactive clocks and finding yourself in your own private idaho

 

[rettucs]

according to one of those Classic Album series, it's about his painful divorce from his wife at the time; as are most of the songs on that No Jacket album.
I'm ashamed to know this.

I'm ashamed to know that you're actually incorrect. Its that Face Value album, not the No Jacket Required one. Some parts of it actually aren't that bad. Well I mean it does a good job at being heartfelt and you actually feel sorry for him at times. Then you realise that later in life he did his fair share of dumping burds and that sympathy goes out the window.

anyway, feel free to derep me for any of the above.

 

[Pantone247]

and btw, whatever you do - don't read the entries for nirvana on that site - painful reading

I generally find any rubes guessing on a songs meaning to be painful, that song meaning site, and worse again They Might Be Wiki, which invites reader opinions on TMBG songs... good christ, it's awful

according to one of those Classic Album series, it's about his painful divorce from his wife at the time; as are most of the songs on that No Jacket album.
I'm ashamed to know this.

I actually secretly really enjoyed that episode

*shush*