While poking around to double-check the lyrics for several of the songs in the previous post, I stumbled across SongMeanings.net, which turns out to be fairly entertaining.
As the name suggests, it's a site where you can find a pretty comprehensive list of song lyrics by different artists, with notes attached regarding the meaning of the lyrics. The thing is, these are basically comment threads, so most of the people posting are just throwing out wild-assed guesses, not drawing on any particular knowledge.
This leads to some interesting discussions when applied to famously inscrutable artists like Bob Dylan ("Tangled Up in Blue"), or the "soaring vagueness" of U2 ("Ultraviolet (Light My Way)"), or songs that I've always vaguely wondered about like "Oliver's Army". The real genius is in seeing people discuss ephemeral pop songs-- to choose a few suggested by the 80's shuffle, there's "Little Red Corvette" or "Jump" or, God help me, "Putting on the Ritz" by Taco (which, I hasten to add, I don't actually own, but couldn't resist looking at....).
This is either absolutely brilliant, or kind of sad, and I'm not quite sure which.
- Log in to post comments
Oh, dear.
I do actually own a copy of Taco's "Puttin' On The Ritz."
Regarding the commentary, it was rather sad that nobody seemed to know that the music and lyrics were by Irving Berlin (from the 1930 movie "Puttin' On The Ritz").
The British Army, which is not "Royal", was established as a standing force by one Oliver Cromwell as an executive arm of Parliament, which funded it.
This was a major constitutional bedrock, and one which the US inherited in its framework.
FIrst change is that there was a standing army, rather than a gathering of militias and private household retainers (including royal household); second that it was funded directly by Parliament from revenue, not royal reserves; and thirdly that they answered to the elected representatives, not an executive commander. Shifted the balance of power "permanently" from the executive to the legislature.
The song itself is very straightforward, and was written at a time of high unemployment and international political tension in the 80s.