song interpretations

lostdog · Post by **lostdog** » Sun May 01, 2005 5:18 am

johnfoyle wrote:http://blogs.salon.com/0001137/2005/04/29.html

Elvis vs. Reality (TV)
by
Dave CullenI refused to direct you to someone who spelled the freaking title wrong. In the title and throughout the song. (You won't normally find me playing the spelling nazi, but this is Allison, for God's sake.)

Priceless! Where do these people crawl from....?

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Wed May 04, 2005 7:20 am

David Cullen's blog wrote:(Hey, sort of the theme of the bible, too, isn't it? Man, I've got God on the brain this morning. But isn't that the big tension of that book: the angry, spiteful God always threatening to smite you at any moment, and the kind, loving earnest God, whose intentions are always true?)

What a dorkus.

Pidgin · Post by **Pidgin** » Wed May 04, 2005 10:45 am

Dorkus?

Bamboo, you're entire image is changing.

millen · Post by **millen** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:25 pm

so lacklustre wrote:Apart from Kinder Murder .

Funny you should mention this one.

Isn't this one about a girl-meets-boy in a bar.
They have sex, followed by pregancy, denial from the father, abortion.
The abortion being the kinder murder.
And it's all the girls fault, because she could have kept her knees together, could have kept her mouth shut

?

Gillibeanz · Post by **Gillibeanz** » Wed May 04, 2005 3:02 pm

millen wrote: And it's all the girls fault, because she could have kept her knees together, could have kept her mouth shut

Bloody typical - blame it on the woman!!

millen · Post by **millen** » Thu May 05, 2005 5:06 am

Gillibeanz wrote: Bloody typical - blame it on the woman!!

Yea, man are such bastards.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Thu May 05, 2005 6:14 am

Pidgin wrote:Bamboo, you're entire image is changing.

Yours too... my how you've changed!

Pidgin · Post by **Pidgin** » Fri May 06, 2005 3:40 pm

Gosh,... I didn't think anyone would notice.

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 5:08 pm

As we are now ranking Mighty Like A Rose, one question that has always bothered me about CCIU lyrics : is it
a) I can't believe , I'll never believe ...
or
b) I can't believe I'll never believe ... [no comma]

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 6:11 pm

There's a comma in the booklet lyrics, but I'm not sure that's Elvis' choice. I think he wants an open end and that plays a big part in it being one of my faves of his. I hear it differently at different times.

I used that as an example in class once when I was a teacher to illustrate the difference between song lyrics and written poetry, that you have to listen (because there were some Dylan lyrics in their text book - a few of them didn't 'get' Subterranean Homesick Blues until I made a rap out of it). That and Just A Memory, where the tone of voice negates the words in the chorus. they thought it was interseting, so for the next lesson I played some of Pads Paws & Claws in a minor key arrangement I made up for the occasion and then the original to show how the musical background is often as important as the voice for the lyrics. (sort of what Bruce did with All The Way Home and Born In The USA)

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 8:08 pm

I seem to remember reading Elvis saying that he meant no comma, and wanted the song and album to end on an optimistic and hopeful note.

Extreme Honey · Post by **Extreme Honey** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 9:28 pm

Complicated Shadows is 'bout Cash (and gangster life)
How to be Dumb is 'bout Bruce,
WIWC is all 'bout the bitch (O'Riorden) lol (xcept 45 and tear off your head)
After the fall is 'bout their relationship
Monkey to man is a response to the original "Monkey" and Darwin's theory of evolution
Pidgin English is about slang
Brilliant Mistake is the story of an Immigrant to america (and americanisation)
I know a part of Tokyo Storm Warning says other countries couldn't give a damn about what's happenin in the west (argentina and japan for example)
God's Comic was written as a repsone to his trip to Greenland
Kinder murder is a story about a murder (it must mean more that that though)
this year's model is well, about models and their fakeness in general
North is about his lost marriage and recovery with Krall
The Other Side of Summer is a parody regarding the beach boys

And that's some I can remeber, other I just get bits and pieces about them as I'm hearing them. Every Costello song means something, mostly about love and his own misfortunes, sometimes about other things. North was the most straightforward thing he's ever done. Interesting subject!

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 4:01 am

I don't think Kinder Murder is necessarily about a murder, really. Think little death.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 4:13 am

I think it's important to set that kinder murder is its setting if you want to analyse it. It's not a straightforward boy meets girl in a bar story (this is Elvis after all!) as Jimmy is in the Forces. It gives the song a different twist.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 2:52 pm

Have you all forgotton that Kinder Murder is a cryptic song about a famous english racehorse called Red Rum (anagram of murder).

Extreme Honey · Post by **Extreme Honey** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 9:41 pm

Is it really? That's odd. In the song lyrics it mentions Jimmy (an army soldier) and a girl he met in a bar, which he eventually beat her sensless (to death?). I think it's gotta have a meaning to it (like murders in America or soldiers and their social wreck). Whatever the song is about, I tihnk it fits very well in Brutal Youth. Great album!

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 10:03 am

so lacklustre wrote:Have you all forgotton that Kinder Murder is a cryptic song about a famous english racehorse called Red Rum (anagram of murder).

Don't start that one again!

thomasso - this relates to a thread we had a little while ago about Kinder Murder but is now lost (I think) because the old board crashed.

Gillibeanz · Post by **Gillibeanz** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 10:42 am

Can anyone enlighten me as to the meanings of 'Last Boat leaving'? I did ask Elvis on the old site but alas he ignored me- a bit like my family when im asking them to do a chore!

lawngnome · Post by **lawngnome** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 11:09 am

I vaguely remember reading that it was about his grandfather's trips to America...

LittleFoole · Post by **LittleFoole** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 11:49 am

thomasso wrote:Is it really? That's odd. In the song lyrics it mentions Jimmy (an army soldier) and a girl he met in a bar, which he eventually beat her sensless (to death?). I think it's gotta have a meaning to it (like murders in America or soldiers and their social wreck). Whatever the song is about, I tihnk it fits very well in Brutal Youth. Great album!

Dunno, am leaning towards "other" interpretations on that one.... when EC performed the song in Knoxville TN this past March, he substituted a very deliberate word for the original....... original "left her senseless".....live in K-town "f***ed her senseless" with extra emphasis on the f***ed. The abortion slant sounds like a good probability.....the "little death" I hadn't thought of before, but am now gonna have to relisten to it with THAT in mind...hehheh.....

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 3:44 pm

The little death is an old metaphor for an orgasm, which I think EC first used in Kid About It. So as an extended metaphor, murder would be rape, or very close (kinder).[/i]

Extreme Honey · Post by **Extreme Honey** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:48 pm

Wow this song just gets worse and worse. First she's brutally beaten, now she's raped. I wonder what inspired this song?

MistakenForLilies · Post by **MistakenForLilies** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:46 pm

thomasso wrote: I wonder what inspired this song?

Well apparently Elvis doesn't believe in abortion, so a strong belief like that could definitely inspire him to write about it...if that's even what it is about, which I thought it was. I didn't really see any evidence of her being beaten.

I wanted to ask, what is a "ram-rider"? In context, I assumed it's a baby carriage, but I can't find anything on the subject.

lemo · Post by **lemo** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 11:44 am

plus, isnt kinder german for child, which would give the title a double meaning?

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:02 pm

MistakenForLilies wrote:
thomasso wrote: I wonder what inspired this song?
Well apparently Elvis doesn't believe in abortion, so a strong belief like that could definitely inspire him to write about it...if that's even what it is about, which I thought it was. I didn't really see any evidence of her being beaten.

I wanted to ask, what is a "ram-rider"? In context, I assumed it's a baby carriage, but I can't find anything on the subject.

A ram-rider is someone who drives his (or her, I suppose) car through the front window of a store to loot it--just the sort of thing the thuggish Jimmy might do!