The Official 'What Do These Lyrics Mean?' Megathred- Page 3

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 9:20pm

haha no problem... I've always wondered that too... I knew a mandarin was some sort of Chinese official in government, but I still didn't get how it's relevant... and honestly it still doesn't make much sense, but that is probably the best explanation out there

[BroomstickBoy]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 9:32pm

Quick Shrek lyric question :

"There are rules and there are strictures"

What the hell is a stricture?

A cross between a scripture and structure?

[chiuptown]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 9:35pm

i love this thread, and laughed so hard, and also am so impressed by the insight of the answers. i remember reading the lyrics of early Sondheim stuff when i was 17. i didn't know alot of the references or meanings of the words. i looked up, say "acquiese" (A Little Night Music), "abolutions" (Sweeney Todd), and asked my older relatives about tons of references from Follies, e.g. Major Bowes, Brenda Frazier, etc. This was way before computers or google. But my long winded point is, that when I "learned" the meaning of the lyrics I was enriched.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 9:36pm

A stricture is another word for restriction.

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 9:57pm

I think that Elaborate Lives does make sense, but the wording is horrible and when you listen closely to it you realize how bad it is and how certain phrases are so bad that they could be taken as something completely different than what they mean. Tim Rice is really not good with lyrics, how he had such a career in lyric writing is a mystery me.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 10:06pm

Tim Rice's lyrics go very well with the music to which they're written. They sound really expressive and poetic in an abstract way... until you think about them. Then they stink. That's what makes them so well-suited for pop musicals.

I still love his lyrics for a lot of songs like "Circle of Life," but I have to contend that they make no sense. He has done some pretty clever lyrics for certain songs in Evita and Joseph, but others that are just terrible.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 10:12pm

I actually think "The Circle of Life" has good lyrics that make sense. But maybe you just mentioned that one randomly, not as an example.

Haha, I googled "stricture" for that same reason.

[Weez]

Posted: 5/12/09 at 3:53am

Re: 'Elaborate Lives': this is a thread about lyrics that don't make sense, not a thread about lyrics that make sense but are clumsily phrased or just plain terrible. :P

[sofiestar93]

Posted: 5/12/09 at 2:08pm

"I closed my eyes
Drew back the curtain
To see for certain
What I thought I knew
Far, far away
Someone was weeping
But the world was sleeping
Any dream will do"

Well, isolated from the rest of the song, this part works well enough. It would mean that he has been shutting himself off from reality for a long time, but now he realizes that he must face the horror of what's really happening in the world. And so he forces himself to "draw back the curtain" and see. When he does, though, he finds that the "world is sleeping" just as he was, and that nobody is doing anything about the injustice in the world.

Within the song though? Who knows. :-P

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 5/12/09 at 8:47pm

What the heck is 'fondle the pearl of your distant dreams?'

[jeniferrenepatricia]

Posted: 5/13/09 at 12:34am

Send in the clowns?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/13/09 at 5:40am

Don't bother, they're here.

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 5/13/09 at 5:38pm

^ LOL

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 5/13/09 at 5:44pm

But why would anyone close their eyes and THEN draw back the curtain? Wouldn't you open your eyes before looking out the window?

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 5/13/09 at 8:35pm

This is a total stab in the dark, but I think that line refers to sleeping and then dreaming. Like, closing your eyes, "drawing back the curtain" is to see the dream, "to see for certain what I thought I knew" -- aka, the dreams he has that are prophetic.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 5/13/09 at 10:49pm

"Good-bye to blueberry pie".....?


Wow. I kinda feel like a heathen for questioning Gypsy.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 5/13/09 at 10:53pm

She's saying goodbye to average domestic life, which I guess includes blueberry pie.

No offense to Sondheim, but any time I get pie is definitely exciting and not average.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 9:40am

^ Ha, totally agree. Whenever the cafeteria has blueberry cobbler, I feel like doing a dance.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 9:44am

I wonder if it's not a coincidence that the lyrics are "Good-bye to blueberry pie" and "I'm as normal as blueberry pie". since when is blueberry pie the go to symbol for normal?

[morosco]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 9:53am

SUNSET BOULEVARD "Let's Have Lunch". Wouldn't "Let's Do Lunch" be more appropriate?

Myron
We should talk
Joe
Gotta run
Both
Let's have lunch
Mary
Hi, Mr. Gillis
Joe
You look great
Mary
I'm up for an audition
Joe
Sheldrake is driving me insane
Mary
Don't forget me when you're casting
Joe
We should talk
Mary
Gotta run
Both
Let's have lunch

[joeybiltmore1]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 9:58am

My guess is that "let's do lunch" sounded too modern, while "let's have lunch" keeps it squarely in the 40's.

[morosco]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 10:06am

My guess is that "let's do lunch" sounded too modern, while "let's have lunch" keeps it squarely in the 40's.

Ah. That would make sense.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 10:10am

what about "With One Look"

"Silent music starts to play". I've yet to figure out what silent music means.

[morosco]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 10:17am

The only way that I can make that lyric work in my head is to think that "silent music starts to play" refers to the style of music that a piano/organ player would play live in the theater to accompany a silent picture.