Liesbeth wrote:
Hell, I can't even quote the LW coherently. Rice don't grow at home is bad grammar so I should have known better. Or it points to a plural form of rice, which could be very deep indeed.
Nooo that wasn't what I meant... ah nobody understands me :( ('xcept that guy who's currently doing the dishes in my kitchen, but he's biased, so he doesn't count)
I was referring to the now bolded parts in your statements:
"Even though I'm dead curious where 'Rice won't grow at home' comes from"
vs.
"I still don't want to know about Rice don't grow at home, though.
So if you cannot decide whether you wanna know or not, I'll just have to tell you :)
Last edited by Moni on Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
It's a very clear home gardening reference, and that's all I need to know. It reminds me of how in school we had to plant to a dried bean, and lo-and-behold, with some care and attention it turned into an actual plant. It never yielded any new beans though.
All right, now I can't resist! I'm going to tell, Liesbeth, so run and hide your eyes!
"Rice won't grow at home" is a good-natured challenge to the narrator's friend, a pseudo-anti-globalization "activist" who believes that because she grows chard in her backyard garden she's living "off the grid", even though the staples of her diet are all imported from Vietnam. Likewise, "The Moon doesn't favor girls" addresses her proprietary feelings about the lunar tug and her frequent assertion that, because she has a menstrual cycle, she has a closer relationship with astronomical bodies that gives her some moral authority. "Giant fork and spoon..." is the narrator noting, in a visit to her parents' house, that she comes from a stereotypically suburban environment to which her "environmentalist" affectations seem to be an overreaction, thereby giving him permission (...the game is on) to start challenging her core, and superficial, beliefs, ie: he wants her to throw more than shapes.
All gender-specific pronouns are subject to revision.
I'd like to note that, while I already appreciated both of these songs for their lyrical and melodic content, the explanations of them create entirely new facets to them.
I think we all have our own ideas about what the songs are about, but after reading what John wrote about 'Shapes' and 'Stupid', I listened to them both thinking, "Yeah...YEAH!"
yay my theory was wrong! cause if it was it woulda been cruel.
harvey winters, that is my sentiment exactly! my theories are now defunct, and i feel better cause that had been nagging me and wondering, ever since the first time i heard it.
does menstrual cycle have anything to do with lyrics like baby running down in mimi?
another question: in medicine cabnit pirate, who is katie and why did they think something about her death? whats a romulin? (i know john likes starwars, or is that a star trek reference?)
what does unsalted butter taste like? or is it a metaphore? sorry i grew up on margarine.
The giant spoon in our house was my mum's weapon of choice for instilling order amongst us seven kids. I always had a mental image when John sings "The game is on", of my mum in hunting pinks grabbing the spoon and setting off after us as we scrabbled for cover. Now that's ruined. But you may have saved me a few quid in therapy.
I think most people go about it the wrong way (no offense to anyone reading this, I swear); that is, they try to figure out the intentions of the artist instead of just trying to make their own interpretation and understanding of the song. For me, having the artist illuminate the meaning of the lyrics doesn't ruin my interpretation even when mine is different than the intention. It's like looking at a painting and asking, "What was the artist trying to convey?", instead of asking, "What does the painting convey?". I think it's worthwhile to ask both; there's nothing wrong with being both objective and subjective when it comes to art.
I guess it depends of how psychotically "skewed" your opinions are...
I'm embarrassed, because I thought John was challenging someone to a fight:
"If I see you again, there's not going to be a pantomime, we're throwing fists!!!
"You think you can kick my ass, because you saw "Billy Jack" a few times???
I got a sword, so back off, I'm not just a lyricist, I'm a badass mofo!!!
Me and my friend are gonna beat you up, then steal from you"!!!
I'd explain it in detail, but I'm thinking I've already said too much...
