Questions tagged [lyrics]
For questions about the words used in a song. Use with another appropriate tag, such as [meaning]. Note that questions asking to identify the lyrics in a song are off topic, as are questions about literary interpretation.
207
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Missing auxiliary in "What I got to do to make you care?" [closed]
Why doesn't the first line have an auxiliary to make it interrogative?
These lines are from Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, featuring Elton John:
What I got to do to make you care?
What do I do ...
0
votes
0
answers
54
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Phrase Request: Lyric Subversion [duplicate]
I've noticed this quite often from Disney sound tracks.
Lyrics are in a certain rhyming scheme - one line happens and the next line approaches the end of the line, but the last word subverts the rhyme....
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0
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1
answer
92
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Meaning of "get out" in "He gets out when he can" [closed]
In his famous hit Working Class Man, Jimmy Barnes sings:
He believes in God and Elvis
He gets out when he can
He did his time in Vietnam
Still mad at Uncle Sam
I can't make sense of the second line. ...
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8
votes
3
answers
7k
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"You can cream on me"
I was listening to "Let it Bleed" by The Rolling Stones, and the lyrics say
Yeah, we all need someone we can cream on //
Yeah and if you want to, well you can cream on me
On the Cambridge ...
- 1,267
1
vote
0
answers
78
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Conditional sentence in the song "What Makes You Beautiful" [closed]
A small part of the lyrics in the song "What Makes You Beautiful" is
If only you saw what I can see, you'll understand why I want you so desperately.
But according to the second ...
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0
votes
1
answer
151
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What does 'picket fence' mean here? [closed]
Today I was listening to a song from Fall Out boy called Miss missing you.
At one point in the song, they sing the line: "Baby you were my picket fence".
I know what a picket fence is, but I ...
10
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4
answers
7k
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What did Lady Gaga mean when she sang that she's heard a "sine" from above?
In Lady Gaga's song featuring Elton John "Sine From Above", she sang that she has heard a "sine" from the sky. Sine is defined as the very famous mathematical function in Cambridge ...
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1
vote
1
answer
109
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Meaning of "tint your wing" in the song Burning of Auchindoun
In the Scottish folk song Burning of Auchindoun appears the following lines:
Crawing, crawing, for a' your crouse crawin'
Ye burnt yer crop an tint your wings an oor before the dawnin
I'm interested ...
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1
vote
1
answer
151
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"Some may be from showing up" meaning in the Rose Tattoo by Dropkick Murphys
I am trying to get the meaning of the song. As far as I can tell, the man is describing his tattoos, or, rather, recalls circumstances where he's got them. I think I understand most of the verses, ...
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0
votes
3
answers
81
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Can someone explain to me the meaning of the verse "in over your chest is way too deep"?
I was listening to the song "Wetsuit" by the band "The Vaccines" when I met with these weird lines:
"Submerged, your vision's just obscured
You're a lot like me
In up to our ...
- 103
0
votes
1
answer
50
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Literary phrasing (gold-pressed)
Gold pressed temptress of silence
Let the morning call unanswered
And ransom the day off
Song: Good Love, by Zola Blood
What exactly is gold pressed? A fictional reference or some metalsmith ...
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0
votes
1
answer
68
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"Melts all your memories and change into gold"?
"Smooth Operator" song lyrics goes like this:
Face to face, each classic case
We shadow box and double cross
Yet need the chase
A license to love, insurance to hold
Melts all your memories ...
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1
vote
3
answers
856
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Meaning of the phrase "frog-walker" in reference to a horse
The Marty Robbins song Strawberry Roan describes the story of a cowboy trying to break an old horse, the eponymous Strawberry Roan (I'm unsure of any connection to the various films of the same name).
...
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3
votes
3
answers
315
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Looking for a word about writing lyrics for the purpose of fitting the music
There is a word that I'm desperately trying to remember. I think it is used in the context of songwriting but it could be more general.
It describes the act of writing words to fit music, or to rhyme, ...
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1
vote
1
answer
475
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If "Manners maketh man" as someone said
Can someone help me unpack this part of Sting's Englishman in New York?
If "Manners maketh man" as someone said
Then he's the hero of the day
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be ...
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0
votes
0
answers
35
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What is the term for the 'bastardisation' of common phrases and idioms? [duplicate]
Recently, I have been analysing lyrics to songs. Frequently, the writer inverts and 'bastardises' common phrases and idioms to play off of the established meaning.
I have been using the term '...
0
votes
1
answer
549
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What is the meaning of "I get wild on you"? [closed]
What is the meaning behind the phrase "I get wild on you, baby"?
I tried to find this kind of phrasal verb "get wild on..." , but I didn't find anything. In my head, this could ...
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2
votes
3
answers
108
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"All hazards and dangers we barter on chance"
This is from the lyrics of "Arthur McBride" by Paul Brady.
...“But,“ says Arthur, “I wouldn’t be proud of your clothes
For you’ve only the lend of them, as I suppose
And you dare not change ...
0
votes
2
answers
2k
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Meaning of "thread the needle through" and "beat the devil's tattoo"?
Lyrics from the song, Beat the Devil's Tattoo:
I thread the needle through, you beat the devil's tattoo.
Does anyone know the meaning of "thread the needle through" and "beat the ...
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3
votes
1
answer
674
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Meaning of "I shut my eyes to hold my breath"
From the folk song Oh! Susanna by Stephen Foster (presumably written in slave dialect):
De bullgine bust, de hoss ran off, I really thought I’d die;
I shut my eyes to hold my bref—Susanna, dont you ...
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0
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0
answers
690
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What does “white spade” mean in this context?
This is a lyric in the Tom Waits song Heart Attack and Vine - “white spades hanging on a telephone wire”. Does anyone know what this means? I found online that “white spade” refers to an old type of ...
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2
answers
110
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Generic word for a verse, chorus, or bridge of a hymn or song
I'm working on a project that involves breaking a set of lyrics into “sections,” by splitting on double line breaks. Later on in the process, each section will be categorized as a verse, chorus, or ...
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2
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0
answers
605
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What’s the meaning behind the lyric from Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy “and the ‘68 festival wallflowers are thinning? [closed]
Elton John/Bernie Taupin’s lyric line from Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy “and the ‘68 festival wallflowers are thinning” has continued to confuse me in its meaning. I understand “‘68 ...
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2
votes
1
answer
702
views
And the Sultans played creole? [closed]
Here are some lyrics from the great classic Sultans of Swing:
Then a crowd a young boys they're a foolin' around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles
...
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2
votes
1
answer
453
views
What does "beat the birds" mean? [closed]
Heard this phrase in Frank Sinatra's song.
Just say the words and we'll beat the birds Down to Acapulco Bay
Just wonder what that means. I have rough idea, just to go to Acapulco Bay. Want to ...
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0
votes
1
answer
547
views
What is the grammatical nature of "wrote" in the phrase "The Wrote and The Writ"? [closed]
In the song The Wrote and the Writ by British singer and songwriter Johnny Flynn, the title uses that phrase which comes from the the last verse of the song:
If you're born with a love for the wrote ...
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3
votes
1
answer
150
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Wordsmith, singer, Leonard Cohen was perplexed as what word rhymes with orange? [duplicate]
My first question was basically, "What word, or words, rhyme with orange?
The word "tinge" was not included in any of the answers, or words presented to me. Thank you for your patience ...
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2
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Name of this lyrical device comparing oneself to something that's described by the same word, but in another sense of the word?
Warning: The examples contain some offensive words, but I believe that is not against the rules here?
Lately I've been listening a lot to a certain hip-hop album, in which almost every track uses a ...
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1
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0
answers
124
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What does the noun "rosy" mean in these lyrics?
What does the noun "rosy" mean in the first line of this song ?
Well there's a ring around the moon a ring around the rosy
A ring around my socks that keep my feet so cozy
Well I'm a single ...
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2
answers
124
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Articles in the song of the Beatles [closed]
Why there’s no articles in the phase of the song Blackbird?
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Would it be more correct to use articles before “Blackbird” and “Night”?
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2
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1
answer
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Slang: "To have a twenty on me"
So I was listening to a song (bülow - Own me), and there's this one line that I can't really understand. Which is "Got nothing but a twenty on me", and I can't really understand what it's ...
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0
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4
answers
923
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"I've been decided"
Is it grammatically correct to say "I've been decided"?
The idea is that I want to stress that I have not decided to do something; instead, it has been decided without me that I would do ...
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0
votes
1
answer
620
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Understanding this lyrics in "all of me" (John Legend) [closed]
I do not see what is going on in this lyrics (John Legend, All of me). What does it mean "smart mouth", "pin you down", or "mystery ride"? Also, the whole scene in the ...
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1
answer
226
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Is "neither have I wings to fly" grammatically correct? [duplicate]
I came across this sentence "And neither have I wings to fly" in the lyric of the song "The Water Is Wide". Shouldn't it be "... neither I have ..."? Or it is ...
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0
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0
answers
291
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blessed be the mystery of love [duplicate]
Would you explain the lyric "Blessed be the mystery of love" in the song "Mystery of love" by Sufjan Stevens please? Why the song writer use the word "be" instead of &...
0
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0
answers
30
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What does "girls of the world" refer to in this context?
In the 1986 rap song "Girls Ain't Nothing but Trouble" by "DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince", the lyrics go like this:
Listen, homeboys, don't mean to bust your bubble
But ...
1
vote
0
answers
841
views
What does "it got twisted up" mean?
I've tried to translate the lyrics of one of my favorite English-language songs into Croatian.
A part of the lyrics is: The country that you died for, mate, you wouldn't know it now. The future that ...
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1
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1
answer
2k
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I popped one | I'm on one. What it mean? [closed]
On "Trust Issues" song, The Weeknd say it.
When he says "I popped one" it mean he ingested a drug or it mean he have no money?
When he says "I'm on one", it mean he have only one more drug or it mean ...
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1
vote
1
answer
85
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There *are* a house in New Orleans. Why "are"? Where many poor boys to destruction *has* gone. Why "has"?
On this 1933 recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=147kS8O59Qs
Clarence Ashley clearly sings
There are a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
Where many poor boys to destruction has ...
user6171
2
votes
5
answers
861
views
What does "dire is the horseman's wheel" mean?
This line comes from the Scottish patriotic song "Scotland the Brave".
Bold hearts and nodding plumes wave o'er their bloody tombs,
Deepeyed in gore is the green tartan's wave,
Shivering are ...
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0
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24
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A question on " But guess we'll cry come first of May " [duplicate]
In the lyrics of First of May, there is a line "But guess we'll cry come first of May". What is the meaning of it? Especially, what is the meaning of "come first of May"? What will "come first of May"?...
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1
vote
2
answers
934
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"One red light town" meaning
"We tore the roof off that one red light town" - from Thomas Rhett's Remember You Young.
What does "one red light town" mean? I've always assumed it's talking about how small the town is, but just ...
2
votes
0
answers
83
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Is it correct to use "you and me" in this Beijing Olympics song?
I know we use "you and me" in an object case. But I think in this song, "you and me " is a subject. Lyrics are as follow:
You and me
From one world
We are family
Travel dream
A thousand ...
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1
vote
1
answer
209
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What does "That stick through they man through the BS with" mean?
I'm concerned with the second line of the first verse of "By a Stranger" by Black Rob:
We came to give love to our die hearted real bitches
That stick through they man through the bullshit with
...
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0
votes
1
answer
214
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"Had me blind" and grammar in lyrics/poems
I'm looking at a line from the song "I Can See Clearly Now". It's the line: Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind.
I know that that line is in the passive voice ("the dark clouds that had me ...
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2
votes
1
answer
217
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The meaning of "April moon" [closed]
There are words in the song "Mad about You" by Sting
A stone's throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And though a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a ...
- 121
1
vote
1
answer
550
views
What is the actual meaning of these lines and what time (Past/Present/Future) it indicates?
These lines have been taken from Shakira's Whenever, Wherever song lyric,
"Never could imagine there were only
Ten million ways to love somebody".
Thanks in Advance.
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1
answer
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What is the meaning of 'lean all in my bladder'?
This verse comes from the song 'Old town roads' and I've never heard it before, can't find a definition/explanation online either.
Thank you !
- 141
0
votes
1
answer
12k
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Meaning of "Can you come through?" [closed]
Here are some lyrics from the song "comethru" by Jeremy Zucker
I might lose my mind
Waking when the sun's down
Riding all these highs
Waiting for the comedown
Walk these streets with me
...
- 103
1
vote
1
answer
2k
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Meaning of "whip" in a song by The Fold [closed]
My kids watch the "Lego NinjaGo" series and have been asking me about the title song, called "Weekend Whip" by The Fold. As much as I tried looking for the meaning of the word "whip" in the context of ...
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