Analyzing lyrics
Noam
Litman Ph.D Music and Performing Arts.
So today we are going to look at several different lyrics and examine the meanings of them. HEHEHE This is where I butcher EVERYTHING including my own songs. So if this offends you then I would like to explain that I am trying to prove a point here.
The first song we shall use is in the genre of ska. Ska is short for Skater board music or in other words: The kids who can't do ollies so they do this senseless shit just to get chicks. So when that fails they revert to playing this so they can "look" badass for the chicks and THEN they will get the chicks. OK so onto business.
Unwritten Law- Seein Red
I'm seein red
Don't think you'll have to see my face again
don't have much time for sympathy
Cuz it never happened to me
You feelin blue now
I think you bit off more than you could chew
And now it's time to make a choice
And all I wanna hear is your voice...
So follow the leader down
And swallow your pride and drown
When there's no place left to go
Maybe thats when you will know
What does this song symbolize? what metaphors can we get from such....music?
Well I can tell you. What he is stating in this song is. *chorus tune of Seein Red* I CANT OLLY AND FROLICK NOW CUZ I HAVE NO CHICKS! MAYBE IM JUST A HICK! I HATE MY LIFE! AND MY PARENTS HATE CUZ I AM RICH BOY NOW!
So obviously this kid wants some uhh chicks.....and to olly. Alot.....Or kick flip something skate board related. What does this say about our society? We're all going to be teeny boppin little SHITS IN LESS THAN A YEAR!
Ok next genre is EMO
Finch-Without you here
The storm is bad tonight so how could I awake without you here?
Your pictures on the wall you haven't called but I will wait for you.
To her own reflection she said.......I will hold on. To her own reflection she said. I will be strong.
So in its entirety it is about another guy who can't get back with this chick. So both of them probably sooner or later are going to slit their wrists. and well I guess somehow thats supposed to make things better. The girl is talking to herself...Obviously she is becoming schizophrenic from listening to this. Now when you start talking to your self that is not normal. That is SCHIZOPHRENIC or just plain Narcissistic. Next song.
Hardcore Punk
Black Flag-What I See
this feeling haunts me. behind these eyes, the
shell seems so empty. does anything live inside? i want to live. i wish i was
dead. i don't even want to think i'm stuck here. and i know it. i don't want to
see. make me close my eyes. i want to live. i wish i was dead. i look in your
eyes and see it's always this way. live the lie and take a dive just to make it
die. i've just got to close my eyes. i've got to close my eyes. i've got to
close my eyes.
So this guy just bitches and bitches and bitches.......SHUT UP! Jesus CHRIST! NO ok I must remain OBJECTIVE. So this man is talking about the nothingness that is not in him. Like his life.....So he keeps going on about how he has to close his eyes and flip floppin between wanting to be alive and wanting to be Dead. Hmm flip flopping who does that remind you of? Anywayz what does this mean metaphorically. It means he is just another white kid with problems and he like everyone else is going to go watch THE OC AND SMALLVILLE AND WRITE IN HIS GODAMN DIARY AND WHEN HE'S HAD ENOUGH HES GOING TO SCREAM AND SLIT HIS WRISTS!!!!!!!!!! JUST DO IT ALREADY ITLL BE GOOD FOR US! I mean you because you will be happy.....when your not here....ever.
The Clash- Train in Vain
Say you stand by your man
Tell me something I don’t understand
You said you love me and that’s a fact
Then you left me, said you felt trapped
Well some things you can explain away
But my heartache’s in me till this day
Chorus
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way
This song deals with the problems fixated among Americans today. The British are taking over and well we have to do something about songs that seem to repeat over and over and over with the same 4 notes. This person obviously wants his lover to stand by him so that could be a guy or a girl. I dont know the sexual preference of kids these days. Or the british for that matter. So we can say that this is another version of 80s angst because he wants CHICKS and well he needs to have a band to get CHICKS and he needs to skate or dress all rebel like. So the way the song sounds we can denote that he hates his parents.......with a passion so much that he and his buddies made a sissy 80s monotonous beats that make you wanna jump up and down on the beach like the 60s. The 60s are over fuck face.........your about 20 years too late. Go back to england with your satanic Rock and Roll and let us Christians live in peace. We don't want you kind here. Sorry Rurik sad but true.
Next genre
Heavy Metal
Machine Head-Descend the Shades of Night
Sitting in the empty black
The last slivers of dusk have passed
Accept the dawn to ease the fear
One day I will not be here
Death she comes and with her thread
Upon me ties a mask for dead
Its tears of blood begin to seep
And bleed the sky
Descend the shades of night
Death shines her golden light
Across a blackened sky
All our hate is a product of a world...
We created
The narrator is waiting for Death and the shades of night which are a symbolism for....Death and NIGHT. So he goes on singing about the same thing.....over and over. This is what the depressed kid you know talks about. So Johnny what are you up to today? "Im sitting in the empty black..........death death all around me.....destruction. Fire. I want to die" "" uhhhhhhh ok Im going over there *points to the otherside of the room* I hope that works out for you I mean you work it out......." So theres obviously kids who hate their parents. They are very angry at the world and well they listen to this. and then one day they are pushed to far and kill ppl at school. Obviously at these concerts they sacrfice animals and kill humans for the demon gods of the druids. CUZ EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT THEM!
80s Rock
Scorpions-Still loving you
Time, it needs time
To win back your love again
I will be there, I will be there
Love, only love
Can bring back your love someday
I will be there, I will be there
I'll fight, babe, I'll fight
To win back your love again
I will be there, I will be there
Love, only love
Can break down the wall someday
I will be there, I will be there
If we'd go again
All the way from the start
I would try to change
The things that killed our love
Your pride has built a wall, so strong
That I can't get through
Is there really no chance
To start once again
I'm loving you
So we have another metaphor for love. The man has lost someone so he is trying
to sing her a ballad to get her back. O how cute........Thats so sweet. So what
connections can we make between this and the way love is viewed today? Well once
you love you tend to make really long boring SONGS ABOUT NOT BEING OVER SHIT
GODAMMIT OK! SHIT HAPPENS PPL DEAL WITH IT!
NO shes not comming back and being a famous rockstar is just the same as skateboarding. So from this I gather that I hate my parents and uhhh I do lots of drugs adn slit my wrists to 80s synthesizers. Its cuz those synthesizers and electornic stuff its real deep and well.....its depressing. Look at nightmare on Elm Street. That was the deepes movie I have ever seen. I cried when Johnny Depp got sucked into the bed and spewed out all over his room in a massive wave of blood that No human can hold within their body. I thought what would have made that moment perfect is if he recited the part from Titanic where Jack dies and confesses his love for the umpteenth time to Rose.
So we have maybe a few more genres
NU Metal
Godsmack - Spiral
Sometimes we only live for the here and now.
Sometimes we're lonely.
Sometimes we feel we need a place to be grounded,
or fly away again
I will fly away again.
I feel rain pouring down. I wait to rot away,
live again, here forever, the spiral never ends.
Why are we feeling something's familiar around us?
Are we just dreaming?
Always we search for the answers but nothing is found.
We fly away again.
I will fly away again.
So this song is in the D chord. I think that says enough. RAR RAR IAHHH WERE GOING TO KILL YOU! ANGER IS BUILDING> I HATE MY PARENTS BECAUSE THEY DIDNT BY ME A FUCKIN G-I JOE FOR MY 8TH BIRTHDAY! So I am going to fly away. Once I get some wings.....and when I get some Tattoos and a motorcycle. YEA CHICKS WILL DIG ME THEN. THEN Ill get laid. and well then YEA Ill be so hot then.
Next genre
Alternative
Staind-Epiphany
Your words to me just a whisper
Your face is so unclear
I try to pay attention
Your words just disappear
'Cause its always raining in my head
Forget all the things I should have said
This should more or less read. Cuz Im just a whinny kid today. Cuz everyone hates me and the things I say. This person is talking about a girl........again. This would symbolize that half our country is going to SHIT because half the guys DONT HAVE A GIRL IN THEIR LIFE SO WE GOTTA SLIT OUR WRISTS OVER IT AND PLAY EMO LOVEDUBBY SONGS TO GET SOME GOD DAMN CHICKS! ITS ALL ABOUT CHICKS OK!?!!?!
Cold-Sad Happy Song
She was only seventeen
and forced to blame it on herself
as she hides away to tame the pain she feels
she was thrown to a scene
a drunken man without a will
and a God that makes mistakes
and still pretends
and I'll be strong
and I will sing
and I will take your pain away
and I'll be strong
and I will sing
and I will take your pain away
She was only trying to breathe
her broken nails had sliced his skin
as he bruised her face she fades away again
when she came to at the scene
A fevered wind and a match in hand
as she watched the flames she felt alive again
So this is symbolic for the great fire of 1861 in New England. Yea The uhh I
will sing part means that he sings for the people that died. No it means simply
to the great Lyrical council. ANGST ANGST ANGST THE GIRL IS GOING TO DIE I HATE
MY LIFE PARENTS I AM GOING TO SLIT MY WRISTS FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME AND AND I
HAVE NO LIFE AND I WEAR EYELINER AND PAINT MY NAILS BLACK. GOD IS EMPTY JUST
LIKE ME AND I AM IN A METAL BAND WITH A PUSSY FIRST NAME. SCOOTER. asdkjalskjdl
kajsdl k
Jazz: No.....No one can follow jazz Nah. not worth it. It is a metaphor about how the south fucked up somewhere.
Orchestra: No lyrics so we can't discuss. I would like to add that the notes trills and various instruments indicate that we are trying to achieve some type of pretentiousness and that well we cannot follow that because well I like hearing decibels above the threshold hold of Deaf and NEVER GOING TO HEAR AGAIN. That is why I like music better than orchestra. Such as the other bands mentioned.
Summmary: AMerica..........is going to hell. O wait Im sorry its been there after Vietnam. Im sorry were going to Canada. or something. I didnt add rap because........it wasnt worth looking at. So from all this one can discern that all ppl want are chicks, slitting their wrists, love, more chicks, and that we all have Angst and love to skate board and were all going to be Teeny Boppers soon HEHEH GREAT! I LOVE THE WAY THIS IS GOING!