lyrics

Rap Lyrics Explained With Charts and Graphs

If I knew where it was
I would take you there.

Tricia and I went to see The Cure on Sunday night at The Shrine. We had dinner at The Foundry on Melrose first and got to the show at nine, about an hour late but just in time to catch most of our favorite songs. Just Like Heaven was first, which was the song I played non-stop through most of high school and my absolute favorite Cure track, so that was awesome. I assume that the show started with mostly songs from the new album, because we got to hear almost all the classics. They played four two-song encores, including Tricia’s favorite song, the heartbreaker Plainsong, and the rocker Killing an Arab. I managed to get a few great photos, too.

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I have been a major Tom Petty fan for years and years. I have — I think — every CD he’s recorded. I know all the words to every song. I’ve seen him live almost a dozen times. I am absolutely astonished that it took me fifteen years to catch that “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” was about marijuana.

One of my favorite songs is “Radio”, by Alkaline Trio. (mp3, lyrics) My sister got me to start listening to this group a few years ago and I’ve since collected everything they’ve recorded. What’s really funny is that for the longest time I thought it was a beautiful love song. Part of the chorus is — I thought:

I wish you
Would take my radio to bed with you
Plugged in and ready to fall

“What a romantic line,” I always imagined. The rest of the song is so sad, and sounds so angry. But with that one line he’s saying that he wants her to listen to him singing to her as she falls asleep. I thought this for many, many months … until I actually read the lyrics one day. I was so wrong. He’s really singing:

I wish you
Would take my radio to bathe with you
Plugged in and ready to fall

He’s no longer in love with her at all. He wants her to get electrocuted! So. Yeah. Totally changed the song for me. Still a great song, don’t get me wrong. But completely different. Talk about misheard lyrics!

Again I’ll say it: Best line ever in any rock n’ roll song:

And dropping a barbell
He points to the sky, saying
“The sun’s not yellow.
it’s chicken.”

Somehow I managed to forget to write about this wonderful book. I read Miles Harvey’s The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime over a year ago and it is brilliant. I’ve been thinking about it lately because of the awesome song “Maps” by the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. You see, I have been in love with this song for months and I just can’t make any sense out of it. Let’s ignore the fact that I had heard the song a dozen times — and loved it — before I (a) knew the title and (b) realized that what she is singing in the chorus is “Maps / They don’t love you like I love you.” Maps? MAPS? What the hell does that mean?

So I’ve decided that she’s madly in love with this guy. She found a bunch of maps in his possession and now assumes he is going to leave her for someone else far away. The “they” in the song refers to the people at his destination. The “maps” is just an anguished exclamation. It works.

But a few days ago I started thinking that maybe she’d read this book. Maybe that’s what this song is. She’s madly in love with the main character in the book and is desperately trying to convince him to stop stealing maps and (re)turn his attention to her. The maps don’t love him. (He’s a little bit twisted.) Either way: Great song. Great book. I recommend them both.

She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh. Funny. Very funny. Keep laughing, sweetheart. You just go to sleep giggling your pretty little head off while I am stuck in the freaking bathtub. How is that fair?

From mefi: The 15 Most Outrageous Claims in Pop Music History. Hilarity abounds.

• Pour any amount of sugar on anyone.
• Think that a black fly in my chardonnay is ironic.
• Know that I am a shooting star.
• Call anyone — for whom I may or may not act as a bodyguard — by the name “Al”.
• Attempt any amount of tenderness.
• Know when to hold and / or fold them.
• Rock the Kasbah.
• Walk in an Egyptian manner.
• Get it on and / or bang a gong.
• Raise my hands in the air and wave them as if there are no consequences.

Contextless Content: A portion of a conversation, usually from an instant messenger platform.

Subtitled: “Everything I Own Is in a Box to the Left?”

He says: I don’t understand why she keeps mentioning “everything you own in a box to the left”. It doesn’t make any sense to me.

He says: What does the box’s orientation in relation to me have to do with anything?

She says: because she packed up all his s**t

He says: But why does it matter whether it’s on the left or right?

He says: She seems quite adamant that he understands that it is on the left.

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I‘ve decided that Goodbye in Gasoline has overtaken How’s My Driving, Doug Hastings? as my favorite Less Than Jake song. It’s a tough call to make. I’ve had How’s My Driving posted here for download since early 2000. That is a seriously long time to have been awake late every night, nervously waiting for the RIAA to take me away. My site actually continues to receive an R rating (from the sort of people that rate blogs) purely because of the F word in the lyrics.

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I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical. So I figured I should share with you. Download my Pirates of Penzance “Modern Major-General” random-lyric generator and you, too, will be able to tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin.

Add the function moderngeneral() where you want to print the lyric. I have mine in place of bloginfo(’description’) in my header.php file, but you can place it in your sidebar or anywhere you want.

from me on your big day, love, isn’t this sweet? I’m breaking out and running blinded into the street. This one can’t wait, I’m so ashamed. Sorry, I regret to say that you have made such a big mistake. Still, I’m in line to see the hit parade. I was late. Why? I went to the bar. That’s kind of fucked up, seeing how I don’t drink. It was then that I realized, I’m the poorest of sorts, far less than you hoped for. Swore to uphold and be there by your side on the day that you reserved. Forget and run, I couldn’t damn you to the life I’m dreaming of. Sorry, I regret to say that we have seen better days. Still, I’m in line to see the hit parade. I was late. Why? Who’s at the bar? That’s kind of fucked up and oh, by the way, it was then that I realized I’m the poorest of sorts, far less than you hoped for.