Lights

Got any interesting thoughts on a set of lyrics? Any that don't involve the word "indeed"? Find yourself struggling to decipher all those obtuse references Von makes? Read "1959 And All That" and still no clearer? Nope, us neither. Postcards found lying in a skip around the back of the Chemists can be found here... Don't say you weren't warned.
Post Reply
User avatar
pearson
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 375
Joined: 23 May 2004, 17:10
Location: In a small apartment

tell me some stories about this fantastic song!
:notworthy:

great lyrics and an amazing atmosphere...i love this track! :D

what the truth of this song?
drugs?
find a new way in your life?
there's too much blood in my vodkastream

----------------adam pearson------------------
nick the stripper
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1732
Joined: 16 Dec 2004, 01:02
Location: Somewhere between Athens and Jerusalem.
Contact:

It's all about speed.

Ignore the voices discard the day. Could the voices be his conscious questioning whether "discarding the day" is a good idea?

For the brand new darkness for the bright new way. He's changing lanes, going into a darker yet more exciting lane in his life.

well there have been better plans but none that I could ever understand. These have to be among my favorite lines Von has written. The plan is probably just going wherever the lights tell him and not thinking about it.

I see the emerald signal see the green on black. The emerald signaling is obviously speed calling to him and the green on black is a traffic lights, a metaphor for how he's going to move through life.

I see the light say move say never look back. Obviously the traffic light metaphor again.

Red turns green is an obvious reference to traffic lights. Red means stop, green means go, go, go ala speed.

And so I find another place where I’ll never been seen. A private place to do a line or two without being interrupted by anyone you wouldn't want to see you doing what you're doing?

Find another place where the red turns green. Evidently yes, a place to do a few lines and go, go, go.

The lights shine clear through the sodium haze. Even though he's in a disoriented mental state caused by too much, he's still going.

But there’s a voice in the distance quiet and clear/saying something that I never ever wanted to hear. Is this a sign of things to come? Psychosis? It's interesting how it's a voice, instead of voices as in an earlier line.

Where the emerald glistens through the darkness again
Where the emerald glistens through the rain rain rain
And I’m happy here


These last three lines seem dark compared to the "enthusiasm" found in the other lines. It reminds me of the lines "life is short and life is cruel, but we have beer and we have fuel" in driver but with an ounce of pessimism or depression.

This is all off the top of my head, so forgive me if I've gotten anything wrong.
Dark
Underneath the Rock
Posts: 6605
Joined: 27 Oct 2004, 21:26
Location: People's Republic of Glasgow
Contact:

Traffic lights and streetlights.
User avatar
James Blast
Banned
Posts: 24699
Joined: 11 Jun 2003, 18:58
Location: back from some place else

It's about being extremely pished/stoned and walking home from the pub/club on a foggy winter's night.

Next!
"And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what's after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it's a frightening thought to go nowhere".
~ Peter Steele
Elfeyth
Road Kill
Posts: 31
Joined: 05 Feb 2007, 21:05
Location: sotto le stelle

great lyrics and an amazing atmosphere...i love this track! :D

Sorry - I don't want to spoil the song for anyone - but I've always the lyrics to 'Lights' a bit irritating, despite being a huge fan of most other Sisters tracks.

What I didn't like was all the traffic light imagery - I guess it just seems such a mundane, even obvious metaphor to use. I do like the atmosphere of the song though - and the tortured vocal and the fact that it is open to interpretation. All about 'speed' eh?

Traffic lights - I just hate sitting at the damn things.

x X x
User avatar
eastmidswhizzkid
Faster Than The Light Of Speed
Posts: 9709
Joined: 24 Mar 2005, 00:01
Location: WhizzWorld
Contact:

James Blast wrote:It's about being extremely pished/stoned and walking home from the pub/club on a foggy winter's night.

Next!
...and on speed. :von: :wink:
Well I was handsome and I was strong
And I knew the words to every song.
"Did my singing please you?"
"No! The words you sang were wrong!"

:bat:
User avatar
Dead_Rock
Road Kill
Posts: 53
Joined: 14 Dec 2006, 17:14
Location: Berlin
Contact:

James Blast wrote:It's about being extremely pished/stoned and walking home from the pub/club on a foggy winter's night.
This whole thing with the lights sounds just like what I've experienced often when drunk and on my way home alone...
And so I find a place where I've never been seen
Puking / pissing? Again, been there, done that... :D

Dunno, that song's far too slow and moody for a song about Speed... :D
User avatar
James Blast
Banned
Posts: 24699
Joined: 11 Jun 2003, 18:58
Location: back from some place else

just posting from my own experience of many a stagger home where I ended up in some odd places that I knew the scene but knew not a soul

allas made it back tae ma scratcher BTW
:wink:
"And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what's after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it's a frightening thought to go nowhere".
~ Peter Steele
User avatar
eastmidswhizzkid
Faster Than The Light Of Speed
Posts: 9709
Joined: 24 Mar 2005, 00:01
Location: WhizzWorld
Contact:

for some reason (nothing to do with the enormous-but-dwindling-fast bag of speed or being very drunk) i suddenly had the urge to sing "the lights shine clear through the marlboro haze"....thought i'd share that with you. :lol:
Well I was handsome and I was strong
And I knew the words to every song.
"Did my singing please you?"
"No! The words you sang were wrong!"

:bat:
User avatar
mh
Above the Chemist
Posts: 8055
Joined: 23 Jun 2003, 14:41
Location: A city built on rock 'n' roll

Aye, if you've ever staggered home when it's raining, completely out of your head, with no idea whatsoever where you are or where you're going, but totally obstinately reliant on the beer (or whatever) compass to get you there, then you know Lights pretty intimately.
There have been better plans
But none that I could ever understand
Like getting a taxi, for starters! :lol:
If I told them once, I told them a hundred times to put 'Spinal Tap' first and 'Puppet Show' last.
User avatar
Little_Sister
Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 202
Joined: 10 Feb 2007, 00:35
Location: my heartland ^_^

hehe you all knew long before ^^ today in school it occurred to me for the first time that he sings about traffic lights xD (maybe it's because I dind't have my driving licence yet at the time I listend to the song for the first time)
User avatar
Silver_Owl
The Don
Posts: 7498
Joined: 27 Sep 2003, 18:52

Here's the original lyrics used on the demo...
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights,
No matter where they've been.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights,
But only when they're green.

He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights,
No matter where they've been.

He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights,
But only when they're green.

I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
That is what I said.

I Like traffic lights
I Like traffic lights
I Like traffic lights,
But not when they are red.

He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
That is what he said.

He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights,
But not when they are red.

I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights,
Although my name's not Bamber.

I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I-- Oh, God!
We forgive as we forget
As the day is long.
centurionofprix
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 538
Joined: 25 Jun 2010, 18:44
Location: Finland

I don't know if it's an intentional allusion on Vons part, but the use of the green light imagery to signify having to continue somewhere in life is a bit reminiscent of The Great Gatsby:
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning----

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Vs
Well there have been better plans
But none that I could ever understand
I see the emerald signal see the green on black
I see the light say move say never look back
And so I find another place where I’ll never be seen
Find another place where the red turns green
Where the emerald glistens through the darkness again
Where the emerald glistens through the rain rain rain
And I’m happy here
In the rain
etc.
Desmond
Road Kill
Posts: 4
Joined: 26 Sep 2011, 06:55
Location: USA

Nice lyrics,.
Can anybody share the lyrics of the songs of titanic,.
Post Reply