Genius | Song Lyrics & Knowledge

Living on a lonely road
I will pull you out of there
We will go to Finchley fair David Bowie – Dirty Boys

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To help his friend out of a depression he will… take him London’s Finchley district, so he can live in a fancy house. Who says money can’t buy happiness?

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Marked this as a stretch ?

8 years

We don’t the gender of the person being addressed, or that the intention is for anyone to move permanently.

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Finch

11 years

Finchley is an interesting cure for depression!

Slight geographical faux pas here: Finchley Road and Frognal station is not in Finchley, but in West Hampstead. I guess Finchley Fair must be the funfair, which is normally held in Victoria Park. Near Finchley Central Tube ;-)

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The only reason that I'm fly
You stress me out I stay super high Passion Pit (Ft. Juicy J & Michael Angelakos) – Constant Conversations (Remix)

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Juicy J grounds the excess of Stay Fly (the Three 6 Mafia banger in this image. The only reason he’s fly is because he has to smoke weed to deal with the pressure of his relationship

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Exodus 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. Holy Bible (KJV) – Exodus 14

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Moses parts the Red Sea, as seen in the dramatic retelling of Exodus The Prince of Egypt

It was referenced by Kanye West on New God Flow

Picture this set to the voices of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston

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It's a mechanical bull, the number one
You'll take a ride from anyone
Everyone wants a ride
Pulls away, ooh, from you Metric – Black Sheep

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A mechanical bull doesn’t care who rides it. As it’s set “at number one” (the easiest setting) literally anyone can ride it, but nobody can stay. Sooner or later, all riders have to leave the ride.

The implication here is that her old friend is easy to meet, but impossible to know.

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249

2 years

I interpret it as that black sheep just accepts any person that comes along to make love, but then those people pull away when they’re finished.

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Raquelle

5 years

Maybe the situation here, is the representation of the mechanical bull, anyone can ride it, but in the same way they go down in one fell swoop, it´s difficult to bear, like a toxic relationship. You can enter it knowing that you will fall but let yourself be carried away.

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Raquelle

5 years

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291

6 years

Really I think the “number one” is saying the number one problem with being this person’s friend is how erratically they change, rather than an “easy setting”. Mechanical bulls shake around erratically, they seem fun, everyone wants to ride the bull, but eventually everyone is thrown off (pulls away), it’s inevitable.

It could be that being this person’s friend/partner is like riding a mechanical bull; they seem like a lot of fun until you’re actually their friend and they change frequently and dramatically (fitting the lyrical motif), which is when you pull away.

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6 years

I think she’s talking about making out with anyone.

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Beatrice

Marked this as restating the line ?

8 years

Is the lyric not “it’s a mechanical bull, and I’m the one who’ll take a ride from anyone?”

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Hello again
Friend of a friend, I knew you when
Our common goal was waiting for the world to end Metric – Black Sheep

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They bonded immediately because they were both outcasts, frustrated with their place in the world.

The fact that the speaker refers to the subject as a “friend of a friend” hints to the emotional distance that’s grown between them.

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1,281

4 years

It certainly hints to the emotional distance that’s grown between them.
What about the actual distance though ? With the later emphasis on the multiplicities of the psyche (Art of Doubt, Choir of The Mind), it’s tempting to interpret “it is friend of a friend that I used to know” as “it was me”.

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To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree Sufjan Stevens – To Be Alone with You

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Continuing the religious references, this time to Jesus' crucifixion. (Often euphemized as “nailed to a tree”)

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11,708

1 year

This annotation should be merged with the annotation for the bridge.

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105

4 years

could it be about Zacchaeus? maybe I just have very specific knowledge about bible stories and am seeing ghost because of it. but in Luke 19, while travelling through Jericho, Jesus meets a man named Zacchaeus who climbed up on a sycamore tree to see him through the crowd. Jesus decides to stay at his house for that night and Zacchaeus repents of his sins and gives up his wealth (he was apparently quite rich) and is therefore saved. it fits the theme of giving up earthly possessions to reach salvation and be closer to Jesus as that is in a very literal sense what Zacchaeus did.

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Marked this as missing something ?

6 years

where does “to be alone with me” play into this?

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Mullet hawk, what Yelawolf – F.A.S.T Ride

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In reference to his mullet mohawk.

“What? Got a problem with it?”

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I'd swim across Lake Michigan Sufjan Stevens – To Be Alone with You

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Sufjan grew up in Petosky, MI; right along Lake Michigan. (Which, surprisingly enough, is a big part of Michigan). He even dedicated a whole album to the state, titled Michigan.

Unlike Jesus, who was known to walk on water, Sufjan has to swim across the lake, which is over 300 miles long, almost 14 times the length of the English Channel, which in itself an impressive feat to swim across and is a challenge only serious swimmers attempt. Sufjan is willing to achieve the impossible to get closer to his religion.