Lyrics That Sound Nice, but make no sense- Page 2

[PRFRMR20]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:00am

I like all three interpretations... also, the smoke from her political controversy (including the literal smoke of violence from the Peron's to gain power and from the people against the Peron's power). I just always find the line to stand out in the song as having no strict interpretation and being open ended as opposed to the pretty clear rest of the song.

We should ask Tim Rice, do we know if he is on BWW?

[Square Peg2]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:09am

Elaborate Lives makes sense to me, too, I don't see how it doesn't make sense...

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:46am

Purple Summer is a flower and the song is about re-awakening so the blooming of a flower is similar to the re-awakening. Makes sense to me.

Although I do agree with Mirror-Blue Night being somewhat nonsensical.

[PRFRMR20]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:48am

and... blue wind?

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:50am

Blue Wind: I always assumed was to mean regret.

Updated On: 11/26/08 at 12:50 AM

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:52am

I totally agree with you! What they hell was all the hype about? It was incomprehensible and pointless!

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:53am

ALW's collaborators are CLASSICS at this. Phantom of the Opera's Music of the Night is a bucnh of random phrases basically--so is All i Ask of You which is just Hallmark cliches randomly strung together--though I much prefer it as a song so that's ok. Memory is up there too. These make Tim Rice look brilliant.

Posted: 11/26/08 at 12:55am

Interesting thought about the Evita lyrics. that is a hard song to make sense of. I have a friend who did a national tour of the show back in the 80s and he said they would stand there every night wondering what in god's name that song was talking about.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:08am

I think "Memory" kind of makes sense. Maybe not when a cat sings it, but it does have a throughline and an arc.

~Steven

Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:18am

Well I guess it was based on a very abstract (and bleak) TS Eliot poem--I think why it always seems weird to me is the Cats poems are so clear and narrative and all that--very diff style of Eliot's and then you have these vague lines for Memory stuff like

"Every street lamp
Seems to beat
A fatalistic warning
Someone mutters
And a street lamp gutters
And soon it will be morning"

and "Burnt out ends of smoky days
The stale cold smell of morning"

as for Evita's line about the smoke clearing--I thought that was a British expression (which Rice loves to use) I swear i've heard it used--smoke sorta meaning that when the crowd, the noise, the mourning, all the bustle and everything clears the smoke will have cleared and we'll see the truth revealed--when the hype's gone.

What always bugged me about All i Ask of You is that the lyrics could be shuffled around with no real bearing on the song--I had a freind who said it was hard to memorise when she had to perform it cuz every line was so vague and generic. Updated On: 11/26/08 at 01:18 AM

[cello_dude]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 1:19am

"There are bridges you cross you didn't know you've crossed until you cross"

This one is kinda opposite. You think it sounds stupid and crazy but it makes sense. Even though its horrible
Updated On: 11/26/08 at 01:19 AM

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 2:15am

One of the many cringe-worthy lyrics in Wicked in my opinion. Glinda has some of the worst lyrics. Sorry, Mr. Schwartz. Working a bit too hard there.

~Steven

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 2:23am

Eric, the actual Eliot verse gives a little more insight into that line.

Every street lamp that I pass
Beats like a fatalistic drum,
And through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium.

[strelimyn]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 3:59am

"There are bridges you crossed you didn't know you crossed until you crossed."

I mean - isn't that just like ... anything? Like, "there are sandwiches you ate you didn't know you ate until you ate them." Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like an attempt to be deep that didn't quite achieve said goal.

[Eastwickian]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 4:14am

But they're making money off of the gossip...so...

So it makes perfect sense, surely?

And I also took 'smoke clearing' line to mean that, after all the hubbub and hysteria surrounding the death (and funeral) has died down, everyone will start to see Eva in a new light...
Updated On: 11/26/08 at 04:14 AM

[Fan123]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 4:57am

IMO, The Light in the Piazza has a few.

" 'Twas a dawning day unfurling..." "From the HEART!"

[Weez]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 5:29am

I'd rather have a pretty lyric that doesn't appear to mean anything (and this thread proves that you don't have to take lyrics literally for them to make sense; as a kind of poetry, it's surely only fitting that they take a little analysis and thought :P) than a lyric that makes perfect sense but is ugly, ugly, UGLY.

"The parlour roof still leaks a bit where the gable meets the eave,
You always said you'd get to it, but I know you had to leave"

Yuck. XP

[jasonf]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:30am

Someone questioned "It's our funeral too." Why is that hard to understand? Funerals aren't just for those who died, they're for the mourners as well. Makes perfect sense.

The one that bothers me is from Carousel:

When you're working at your loom
And you stare absent-minded at the roof...

OK, so it rhymes with woof, but if she's inside working on her loom wouldn't she stare at the ceiling?

[StockardFan]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:37am

LOL, Jason!

[Pianolin717]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:40am

well... they mean the same thing lol
roof is the covering of a building, it has two sides... we call the inside part the ceiling but it is still part of the roof

[jasonf]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:42am

Actually, they don't.

Dictionary.com defines roof:

1. the external upper covering of a house or other building.


It defines ceiling as:
1. the overhead interior surface of a room.


So it's close, but she stares at the ceiling, not the roof.

[Pianolin717]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:45am

ok, well, when i looked it up, this is the definition that I got

"the structure forming the upper covering of a building or vehicle; the top inner surface of a covered area or space; the ceiling"


so... it says ceiling and it makes sense

[jasonf]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:52am

Moving on...

I always had a problem with this from West Side Story (it it's needed, SPOILER below):

"A boy who kills cannot love
A boy who kills has no heart"

Does Anita not know that Bernardo killed Riff? If not, then I guess it makes sense, but how she'd find out part of the story never really makes sense to me. Those lyrics specifically say someone who kills cannot love. I understand speaking in the moment there, but she's in effect denying Bernardo's ability to love her as well.

[boyfromoz2]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:52am

So maybe Carrie should sing:

When we work in the mill, weavin' at the loom
You gaze absent-minded at the ceiling
And half the time your shuttle gets twisted in the threads,
Till the yarn becomes very unappealing

That's the exact reason I don't write lyrics!!

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 8:56am

We could fill up an entire 6 pages with Wicked lyrics.

"I ask forgiveness for the things I've done, you blame me for..."
"As someone told me lately, everyone deeserves the chance to fly" - someone told you LATELY? What?