FOFC Lyrical Interpretation

[QuikSand]

Okay, this idea has flickered with me for a while... put the great minds here at FOFC to work on something important, for a change. Not sure why this song came to mind for me, but I confess until I pasted them here, I had little idea what was being said in this song anyway.

Here is today's case study:

Boz Scaggs - Lido Shuffle


Lido missed the boat that day he left the shack
But that was all he missed, he ain't comin' back

At a tombstone bar in a juke-joint car he made a stop
Just long enough to grab a handle off the top
Next stop Chi-town, Lido put the money down, let her roll
He say, "one more job oughta get it
One last shot 'fore we quit it"
One for the road

Chorus:

Lido, whoa-oh-oh-oh....
He's for the money, he's for the show
Lido's a-waitin' for another go
Lido, whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh....
[1: He said] one more job oughta get it
One last shot, [1: 'fore 2: then] we quit it
One more for the road

Lido be runnin', havin' great big fun 'til he got the note
Sayin' "toe the line or blow it" and that was all she wrote
He be makin' like a beeline, headin' for the borderline, goin' for broke
Sayin, "one more hit oughta do it"
This joint, ain't nothin' to it
One more for the road"

[repeat chorus]

Instrumental break

[repeat chorus; fade]

So, fellow students of the world. What is Mr. Scaggs saying here?

[KWhit]

Don't drink and drive?

[rkmsuf]

Don't miss your boat, asswhite.

[Butter]

Lido's a hit man?

[albionmoonlight]

It would not suprise me to learn that Lido has a tatoo.

[Ksyrup]

I've always assumed the song was about a petty criminal who got run out of town by a rival (or the mob), and before he left, he he made one more quick hit on his way out. Now, whether the references to "hit," "job," and "shot" are supposed to refer to a hitman as opposed to some generic criminal activity, I don't know. Either way, the general gist I get is a guy committing one last crime on his way out of town.

[cartman]

'Lido Shuffle' focuses on Lido, an impoverished student who formulates a plan to kill and rob a hated pawnbroker, thereby solving his money problems and at the same time ridding the world of her evil. Exhibiting some symptoms of megalomania, Lido thinks himself a gifted man, similar to Napoleon. As an extraordinary man, he feels justified in his decision to murder, since he exists outside the moral constraints that affect "ordinary" people. However, immediately after the crime, Lido becomes ill, and is troubled by the memory of his actions. 'Lido Shuffle' portrays Lido's gradual realization of his crime and his growing desire to confess. Moreover, Lido's attempts to protect his sister Dunia from unappealing suitors, and also his unexpected love for a destitute prostitute demonstrate Lido's longing for redemption.

[Ksyrup]

I guess you won.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I guess you won.

Really took the air right out of the thread with that.

[cartman]

I guess no one figured out what I plagiarized to come up with that.

[QuikSand]

It's the Crime and Punishment plotline, at the very least.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

It's the Crime and Punishment plotline, at the very least.

DING DING DING! I figured leaving the sister's name unchanged would tip off someone.

[Ksyrup]

I guess this thread will take off when the great minds of FOFC bother to show up.

[Crim]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I guess this thread will take off when the great minds of FOFC bother to show up.

He started the thread. The rest of us are just bit-players in this ongoing production of his.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, but he called out the "other" great minds of FOFC, and apparently none of them bothered to show up.

[QuikSand]

We're bound to wait all night
She's bound to run amok
Invested enough in it any how
To each his own
The garden needs sorting out
She curls her lips on the bow
I don't know if I'm dead or not
To anyone

Come on and get the minimum
Before you open up your eyes
This army has so many heads
To analyze...
Come on and get your overdose
Collect it at the borderline
And They want to get up in your head

Chorus
Cause they know and so do I
The high road is hard to find
A detour to your new life
Tell all of your friends goodbye


The dawn to end all nights
That's all we hoped it was
A Break from the warfare in your house
To each his own
A soldier is bailing out
He curled his lips on the barrel
And I don't know if the dead can talk
To anyone

Come on and get the minimum
Before you open up your eyes
This army has so many hands
Are you one of us
Come on and get your overdose
Collect it at the borderline
And They want to get up in your head

Chorus
cause they know, and so do I
The high road is hard to find
A detour to your new life
Tell all of your friends goodbye

It's too late to change your mind
You let loss be your guide
(repeat)

Ladies and gentlemen. Shall we try again?

I absolutely cannot get this song out of my head. (I am apparently the precise individual that this Danger Mouse guy makes his shit for, since pretty much everything he touches is complete gold as far as I'm concerned)

As far as the lyrics...I have a theory, but no real confidence in it. Any takers?

[whomario]

maybe it´s that the basic gist is what´s in the last chorus and the rest of the song is just different examples. Once you let "loss" (disapointment, anger, grief or similar) dicatate your actions, it´s virtually impossible to "take the high road"/do the right thing.
And after you´ve done the wrong thing you can´t take it back (while you often wish you could) .
Just because sth negative happens to you it doesn´t mean you have to react negative and neither does it excuse you when you are´t doing the right thing.

sth like that ...

love that song/album as well btw.

[QuikSand]

Well, to be honest, I didn't really know/remember all the words to the song when I got to thinking about the story/meaning. I was really just stuck on the *obvious* hook lyrics in this song (especially with the urgency in the delivery):

Come on and get the minimum
Before you open up your eyes

At first the sense I got with that (and the later presence of the word "borderline") had me thinking about illegal immigration. But I kept thinking about situations where someone is getting or settling for too little (kept thinking "minimum wage") and started thinking about the military.

Then, pasting in the full lyrics, it's fairly obviously loaded with military references...army, soldier, warfare. And all that fits, too.

So, my basic theory is that the theme is something connected to the recruitment of young, dumb kids to get into the military, where we go on to overuse them, underpay them, and subject them to lives all too full of psych and medical problems.

There are a number of things in the lyrics that seem to superficially fit... and that's often enough with too-clever-by-half genre of "smart guy music" like this. And, admittedly, there's also plenty that seems nominally to be more mundane relationship-type stuff, so this might be completely red herring style stuff, too.

Still a great song, and album, in my book.

[Shkspr]

I proably need to listen to this song thirty or forty more times to really start to get some ideas percolating on it but...

...for starters, I believe the extended military motif of the song is an extended metaphor rather than an explicit callout. The lyrics strike me as far too elliptical to support such a direct connection to the way an army does business. I look at those lyrics and see references to "They", a group with "so many heads[...and] hands"...a legion that seeks to entrap and query "Are you one of us"...I think it's society as a whole. A mainstream of conformists, who in their narrow vision and lockstep approximate an army on the march, and once you choose the low road and settle for the minimum, you're subsumed into the beast.

I see it as a lament for those who have made the decision to grow up, assimilate into society and take the uniform (the suit and tie) of the army of Responsibility. You lose something vital in this transition, and you lose it before you even realize it's lost, and you can't go back and find it again. You are left dead inside, having settled for the spouse and the mortgage and the college fund.

[QuikSand]

Very plausible.

[QuikSand]

Okay... I seem to be listening to a fair amount of (non-contemporary) music that is, lyrically, just about incomprehensible.



Anyway, if you're game...

Cold hands touching my face
Don’t hide - the snake can see you
Old friends you might not remember
Fading away from you
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory

And we looked
And we passed
Through the hallways of shatterproof glass

She runs through the night as if nobody cares
She screams and she cries and ignores all the stares
She wants me to come, but I’m never going there
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Okay... I seem to be listening to a fair amount of (non-contemporary) music that is, lyrically, just about incomprehensible.



Anyway, if you're game...

Are you sure that isn't just a song for a white/yellow pages ad?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Okay... I seem to be listening to a fair amount of (non-contemporary) music that is, lyrically, just about incomprehensible.

Anyway, if you're game...

Not really sure on this one. Definitely one of my favorite GBV songs. A good friend of mine in Brussels absolutely loves this band, seen them dozens of times or more, and introduced me to them about 6-7 years ago.

As for the meaning, I always sort of thought it was about some crazy woman he might of loved once or was still in love with, but was in an asylum, but that really only explains about half the lyrics.

[Karlifornia]

Great song choice with Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory, Quik.

-The mentioning of "hallways of shatterproof glass" makes me think of some sort of mental institution. A girl is locked up and this guy won't go visit her

-The line that holds things up (besides the title) is "don't hide- the snake can see you". Obviously it seems allegorical.

-I googled things like Goldheart, Heart of Gold, etc., to see if any of those were names of hospitals or mental health care centers. No real luck.

-Guided By Voices is from Dayton, Ohio. I looked up Dayton on Wikipedia to see if there were any clues. I checked out the highest elevation. It was a cemetary. Close, but no.

-I randomly googled "mountain top mental health". There is a place called Mountain Top Mental Health Associates in Oakland, MD. Probably nothing.

[Karlifornia]

The video is pointless, but I've always enjoyed this cover of the GBV song.

[Shkspr]

I'm also drawn to the image of a woman with dementia, locked away in a mental ward.

"Cold hands, touching my face" - these are the hands of the woman, gently taking the face of the singer in her grasp as she gives her (incoherent) advice: "Don't hide - the snake can see you." Cutting to the singer's POV, the "Old friends" she "might not remember, fading away from [her]" represent the memories of those she's lost track of.

The phrase "Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory" is either nonsensical or so esoteric as to be an inside joke to Robert Pollard. In my mind, among the things the woman in the song is screaming while behind her walls of shatterproof glass is the title phrase. The clues given in the lyrics identify it as a place, as the singer refuses to go 'there', but I suspect it is a place only in the fractured mental landscape of her mind.

[lighthousekeeper]

this has always been my favorite gbv song.

trivia question: my fofc handle is from a gbv lyric. which song?

[lighthousekeeper]

dola - i never try to make much sense from gbv lyrics. i think they just paint a picture with great one-liners that may not actually tie together. for example, with a line like "Old friends you might not remember / Fading away from you" do you really need a rest of the song? it's such a great line by itself and universal.


there's a live version of them doing this song with different lyrics.

[CU Tiger]

Ive had an image in my mind of that song for some time....hard for me to explain but I will try.

Cold hands touching my face
The 1st person is dead and speaking from the afterlife. Lieing in the casket like at a visitation/wake feeling hands touch their face, this breaks down a bit because they shouldn't really be cold, but maybe from tears, etc. not sure.

Don’t hide - the snake can see you
Advice from the afterlife. Snake=Satan is a pretty easy Biblical connection...maybe calling out from the grave for repentance

Old friends you might not remember
Fading away from you
These are the mourners at the voices services

the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
How many times are the deceased remembered as having a heart of gold?
The Goldheart is the deceased...described as a Mountaintop Queen...the directory could be her advice. the aforementioned repent.

And we looked
And we passed
Through the hallways of shatterproof glass
A journey into a "Heaven" where you can still see your loved ones but unable to communicate.

She runs through the night as if nobody cares
She screams and she cries and ignores all the stares
She wants me to come, but I’m never going there
Possibly the deceased looking down on a mourning loved one who has gone over the edge from their loss or perhaps the voice is changed now to a mortal who communicates with the deceased and this action i actually that of the voice from the first verse..

[QuikSand]

Okay, shall we?

Originally Posted by Vampire Weekend

"Hudson"

[Verse 1:]
Hudson died in Hudson Bay,
The water took its victim's name
The river's rise told Riverside
To change their names again

A stranger walked in through the door,
Said all apartments are pre-war
We laughed and asked him for his name
He stayed until the end

We watched the Germans play the Greeks
We marked the 99 year lease,
Our fathers signed
Which I declined to try and comprehend

[Chorus:]
Over and over again, all these never-ending visions
Over and over again like a prize that's changing hands
The time has a come,
The clock is such a drag
All you who changed your stripes can wrap me in the flag

The legendary wooden gate
The first established real estate
Is lost in time like all the crimes that won this pleasant land (land, land)

[Chorus]

Hudson died on Hudson Bay,
But I was born on Sudden Place
The rising tide helped me decide to change my name again
Some tend to linger on and some may case from Babylon
Some will roam their ruined home, rejoicing 'till the end

[Chorus:]
Over and over again, all these never-ending visions
Over and over again like a prize that's changing hands
The time has a come,
The clock is such a drag
All you who changed your stripes can wrap me in the flag

The lines are drawn,
The map is such a drag
All you who changed your stripes can wrap me in the flag

Lyrics pulled from website, I suspect/detect some inaccuracies, FYI (surely that's Sutton Place, frex)

Really liking this album... This song very interesting but not really a standout. Their whole album could land in this thread, I think.

I have one reference that I'm confident in, but almost ashamed to point out...I'll sit on it for now.

[Passacaglia]

This song is on David Byrne's radio station this month, so I've been hearing it a lot. 99 year lease is probably Hong Kong? Germans playing the Greeks I figured to be a soccer match? Just my initial impressions of lines that have jumped out at me while listening.

[cartman]

Possibly a song about NYC and how history repeats itself? The 99 year lease and wooden gate/real estate could refer to the first Dutch settlement where they got the land for a handful of beads.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Germans playing the Greeks I figured to be a soccer match?

I'm fairly certain this has to be a reference to a Monty Python sketch, where the great philosophers from Greece and Germany face off in, yes, soccer. I guess it fits with these guys being foo-foo Columbia types.

Overall, I guess the main issue is that it's indeed about NYC, with the reference to colonization and so forth... and some jaded/ironic view of history viewed from the islands and rivers of the city.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I'm fairly certain this has to be a reference to a Monty Python sketch, where the great philosophers from Greece and Germany face off in, yes, soccer. I guess it fits with these guys being foo-foo Columbia types.

My favorite Python sketch.

...carry on

[QuikSand]

Another entry, spurred by a song getting some airplay in alt circles of late:



"The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness"

Maybe I listen more than you think
I can tell that somebody sold you
We said we've never let anyone in
We said we'd only die of lonely secrets

The system only dreams in total darkness
Why are you hiding from me?
We're in a different kind of thing now
All night you're talking to God

I thought that this would all work out after a while
Now you're saying that I'm asking for too much attention
Loss of no other faith is light enough for this place
We said we'd only die of lonely secrets

The system only dreams in total darkness
Why are you hiding from me?
We're in a different kind of thing now
All night you're talking to God

I cannot explain it
Any other, any other way
I cannot explain it
Any other, any other way

The system only dreams in total darkness
Why are you hiding from me?
We're in a different kind of thing now
All night you're talking to God

I cannot explain it
Any other, any other way
I cannot explain it
Any other, any other way

I cannot explain it
Any other, any other way
I cannot explain it
Any other, any other way

[QuikSand]

bump

[stevew]

The National are way past my ability to interpret. But I do appreciate how they have about 30 people on stage with them. Vs. someone like Ed Sheeran (obv different genre) who tours solo and records loops before each song.

[Suicane75]

Maybe I'm over simplifying things, but to me it's about a friendship or relationship where one of the people has suddenly found religion, and bafflingly become someone completely different from who the other knew. The system only dreams in total darkness perhaps being an admission that the person who found god must have been so low that the songs protagonist can't even comprehend. Like, he's saying you don't need god, but at the same time saying, how did I not know how empty you were inside. That's just a cursory analysis.

[QuikSand]

[Verse 1]
Nice girls, not one with a defect
Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct
Red dogs under illegal legs
She looks so good that he gets down and begs

[Chorus]
She is watching the detectives
Ooh, he's so cute
She is watching the detectives
When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot
They beat him up until the teardrops start
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart

[Verse 2]
Long shot at that jumping sign
Invisible shivers running down my spine
Cut to baby taking off her clothes
Close-up of the sign that says, 'We never close'
He snatched at you and you match his cigarette
She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet
I don't know how much more of this I can take
She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake

[Chorus]
She is watching the detectives
Ooh, he's so cute
She is watching the detectives
When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot
They beat him up until the teardrops start
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart
[Verse 3]
You think you're alone until you realize you're in it
Now fear is here to stay, love is here for a visit
They call it instant justice when it's past the legal limit
Someone's scratching at the window; I wonder who is it?
The detectives come to check if you belong to the parents
Who are ready to hear the worst
About their daughter's disappearance
Though it nearly took a miracle to get you to stay
It only took my little fingers to blow you away

[Chorus]
Just like watching the detectives
Don't get cute, it's just like watching the detectives
I get so angry when the teardrops start
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart
Watching the detectives
It's just like watching the detectives

[Outro]
Watching the detectives
Watching the detectives
[repeat until fade]

[Qwikshot]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

[Verse 1]
Nice girls, not one with a defect
Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct
Red dogs under illegal legs
She looks so good that he gets down and begs

[Chorus]
She is watching the detectives
Ooh, he's so cute
She is watching the detectives
When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot
They beat him up until the teardrops start
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart

[Verse 2]
Long shot at that jumping sign
Invisible shivers running down my spine
Cut to baby taking off her clothes
Close-up of the sign that says, 'We never close'
He snatched at you and you match his cigarette
She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet
I don't know how much more of this I can take
She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake

[Chorus]
She is watching the detectives
Ooh, he's so cute
She is watching the detectives
When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot
They beat him up until the teardrops start
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart
[Verse 3]
You think you're alone until you realize you're in it
Now fear is here to stay, love is here for a visit
They call it instant justice when it's past the legal limit
Someone's scratching at the window; I wonder who is it?
The detectives come to check if you belong to the parents
Who are ready to hear the worst
About their daughter's disappearance
Though it nearly took a miracle to get you to stay
It only took my little fingers to blow you away

[Chorus]
Just like watching the detectives
Don't get cute, it's just like watching the detectives
I get so angry when the teardrops start
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart
Watching the detectives
It's just like watching the detectives

[Outro]
Watching the detectives
Watching the detectives
[repeat until fade]

I just assumed Elvis had been watching a lot of noir films.

[korme]

QS, just discovered your post about The National that is now 5 years old. Great band, great tune.

[Ksyrup]

This thread reminds me of my 11th grade English class. I had a real professor - a doctor - teaching English at my high school, and she was very difficult to deal with. I loved her, she made me a better a writer, but most kids hated her. Anyway, we were talking poetry and interpretations one day and some girl, completely straight-faced, asked if what we were talking about was similar to "every rose has its thorn" by Poison.

I believe she's still repeating 11th grade to this day.

[QuikSand]

we can do Poison next