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Matt Good's Lyrics

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My favorite lyrics from Matt are the older ones, like Last of the Ghetto Astronauts, Waiting for the Great Destruction, South of Summer, etc. Though his music was alot "cruder" back then, I think the lyrics were better. By contrast, with the Avalanche or WLR&RR, the music seems to be more skillfully played and better edited, but the lyrics are kind of lagging.

Edited by HoboFactory
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Matthew Good has always seemed to have a thing for using animals in his lyrics. Think about how many songs have some kind of animal reference. It would take me quite a while to list every one, but I'm sure most of you will get what I'm talking about.

 

Does anyone here remember that whole "Maximum Traitor" story that he was writing a couple of years ago, with the animal society ruled by some megalomaniac tyrant bird? That was very interesting. I wish he had written more.

 

Possibly he was just using the animals as analogous for people, sort of like how Pink Floyd did as a theme in their album Animals. Remember the whole Animals "rip-off" fuss that there was about the idea with the panda and the cover of Loser Anthems? I don't think Matt was exactly taking a page out of Pink Floyd's book, but perhaps he thinks along the same kind of lines.

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just go with it anton, its awesome

 

 

 

when i try to write lyrics i somehow wander off and write about my cat walking around or of the objects in my living room.

 

yeah, writing lyrics in cool like that

 

see, the funnest thing to do is to just sit in a circle of buddies who like music, and just make up a riff, and have everyone make up a verse in their head about whatever comes to mind and just start singing, its so pro

 

p.s. i know funnest isn't a word

p.p.s. i swear that at one point i was going somewhere with this

p.p.p.s. and at some place in time it was gonna be about WWWHR, because i want to know what the lyrics mean as well... in fact i asked Anton at school toiday, and he gave me some BS answer that made me want to kick him in the face

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I recall Matt saying in an article in Chart I think, or possibly the magazine they give out for free at libraries that WWWHR was about music critics. I never really sat down and thought about that because I thought it was a joke, but it kinda makes sense. I always figured it was about him being an "asshole" and then realizing that he didn't have to be. The hunting rabbits bit can just be seen as attacking whatever you can. Then years of cloak and dagger (being a dick/"hunting rabbits) left him emotionally nothing, and he had his grand epiphany... why hunt rabbits (music critics, Chad Kraeouger, etc) when you cant hunt bears (the world).

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I've emailed him about it. I wanted to know if The Rat Who Would be King was about him/me going crazy and becomign the antichrist/ Darth Vader. He never responded, but I figured it out anyway.

 

I don't think the title "Tripoli" has anythign to do with the song. It was mentioned a lot in one of the manifestos so maybe he just threw it in. Where Has my Head Gone would have been too obvious a title.

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Umm... I would really like to know what town, place, or city Matt is referring to in "A Long Way Down? I'm pretty sure its probably about Coquitlam. But I'd still like to know for sure.

I can relate to this song somewhat because I've lived in Edmonton my entire life. And so far it has not done anything for me but handed out loads of misery. I'm not speaking just for myself either.

Anyways....

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I think you might be looking at Long Way Down the wrong way. "One horse town" and "circus town" are both figures of speach, so maybe they don't actually refer to a city. It could mean leaving behind a situation or a state of mind. But then again it might jsut be a happier sounding version of Suburbia and Coquitlam just really sucks.

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I'm one to avoid discussing the meaning of songs because I think that they mean something different to everyone...

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Does this mean all subject areas that do not have definitive, clear, provable, answers should be abondoned?

 

For example, literature. Is all scholarship on literature pointless, just because different people experience what they read differently?

 

In the interests of full disclosure, I am an english major. I whole-heartedly believe discussion of all forms of art is invaluable. While there is never one right answer, how "right" you are depends on how well you support your idea. So if someone were to say they think the song is about figure skating, while they are entitled to interpret it this way if they want, it would be an unsupported and therefore weak argument.

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I think this is a really interesting thread. In the hopes of inducing this thread to continue:

 

The following is a combination of my personal interpretation of, and what Matt supposedly said about "while we were hunting rabbits".

 

I've read that the song is about Matt's image. For years ("these years of cloak and dagger") he'd been portrayed in the media as an asshole. Yes, some things he said and did contributed to this image, but the media took it and ran with it, edited everything so that his personable, "nice-guy" attributes were absent in his public image. And it worked. He became famous, and made a lot of money.

 

Then when Matt's interests matured and changed, he became tired of putting on a front ("And I dance and I sing And I'm a monkey in a long line", "until now I was a soldier until now I dealt in fear") just to play into his public persona. He realized that when he acted mature, nice to reporters and fans, concerned about world events etc., the media and record company discouraged this as his "fuck-you-all" attitude sold more records. ("They've brought someone in to shut you up", as referring to the record company, his bandmates, promoters, media trying to convince him to act a certain way)

 

This realization inspired the song, and made him feel like "a ship lost at sea". Who he felt he really was, did not match the Matt Good persona. he had previously "dealt in fear" : antagonized the media, fans. What inspired the song was a realization that all he was, and all everyone is to some extent, are "all monkey's in a long line" and "we dance and we sing" according to how others expect us to behave.

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Thanks paranoid (not to be confused with pearanoid I guess). You actually reading what I wrote makes the writing of it worthwhile. You've proven it's not a dead thread after all.

 

By no means do I advocate a single interpretation of a song though, so I'd love to hear others.

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I apologize in advance if this has already been discussed elsewhere...

 

but the circus theme spanning albums has always been one of the aspects of his lyrics that makes me most curious. I have thought if I could ask him one question, that would probably be it (if I was assured that I'd get a genuine answer). (The question being: "what's up with the circus theme?")

 

A few of the circus references:

 

Carmelina: "i will picture us clowns"

 

My life as a circus clown : title (obviously, and throughout)

 

Running for home: "after this there's just the circus and every morning your carnie heart stops working"

 

I'm sure there's more...

Edited by summerbronze
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Not to mention when Matt wrote the Manifestos, one particular manifesto focused on the execution of Matt Good. Matt is sitting in a locked room and finds some makeup I believe... He proceeds to put the makeup on so he appears to be a clown when the executioners parade him around before his death.

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Awesome. Well the imagery I wouldn't describe as awesome, but your contribution is. Note to self: reread manifestos...

 

Edit: not that matt's use of imagery is not good, but it's not a particularly pleasant image. So it's good imagery, that is not uplifting.

Edited by summerbronze
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Not to mention when Matt wrote the Manifestos, one particular manifesto focused on the execution of Matt Good. Matt is sitting in a locked room and finds some makeup I believe... He proceeds to put the makeup on so he appears to be a clown when the executioners parade him around before his death.

The manifestos are a great insight into what Matt was thinking at the time he wrote each song. Like Tripoli made no sense to me until I read the book. And, for the meaning of "The Killing Of Matt Good" I think its pretty obviously an allagory for his problems with Regina.

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