Lyric-Time again... TTOALOF

Hey, I need help again.
Not the words are the problem - but the meaning of the lyrics. :-)
Sure you can help me. Thanks! :-)

- "And if you plot your course on the window pane"?
- What's a blizzard blossom?
- Why do you say: And glory be?
- What's a Fly Boy Blue?
- "crash site love"?
- Lafayette (a place probably?)
- Burton Talyor?
- ringpip?
- First verse of TTOALOE
You have the time-worn shimmer of tarantella on a Tuscan plain
Patiently listen as dull reminiscences fall from my jaws in a jumble again
You hold a lamp to my slumber
I resurface just to do a new number on you

I'm sure different people may think different meanings but these are the visual images I get from these lyrics.
"And if you plot your course on the window pane" - when its raining on the window and drops start joining up, you can watch them to make a route, like mapping out your life, or navigating a certain way.

"A blizzard blossom" Guy talked on his radio show a while back of a time when he and Emma were driving in thick snow on the island of Mull and what a special moment it was. Snow falling, just like blossom is blown from the spring trees on a blustery day.

"Fly boy blue" He is a boy, feeling blue, and flying away to New York

"I resurface just to do a new number on you" - making love?

"You have the time worn shimmer of tarantella on a Tuscan Plain" I love the alliteration, combination and economy of words in this description, comparing somebody to a foreign traditional dance of a spider.
Holiday in Tuscany, a time for romance, a flirtatious, teasing dance in soft, flickering light, maybe like a mirage, viewed at a distance, and defying time.

I'll leave the others for someone else to.

Ok... so I wasn't that wrong with a few things... It's just hard guessing. And sometimes one thinks too much about it - though it would be so easy. :-)
Thanks a lot!

And what means G&T and Sympathy?  

G & T - Gin and tonic. A little play on words, referencing the lyric to Puncture Repair.

ElbowFreak wrote:

Lafayette (a place probably?)

Which song is "Lafayette" in?  I read the liner notes for the album and seem to have missed it entirely.

There are a lot of places in the United States named after the Marquis de Lafayette.  He was a French military officer who fought in the American Revolution against the British.  For instance, there's a Lafayette Square right outside the White House in Washington, DC.  There's also a Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan; Guy might've become familiar with it during his New York sojourn.

A portrait of Lafayette hangs in my bathroom, alongside some artwork of the Empire State Building.

ElbowFreak wrote:

Burton Talyor?

"You and I were for a Burton Taylor made"

To "go for a Burton" is English wartime slang for "die", it also has the meaning of "to break" or "to fail". If something's "tailor made" it's made to fit. But he's also referencing Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's on-off relationship. So, you and I were 'tailor made' to go 'for a Burton' (like Richard and Elizabeth).

TamedLamia wrote:

And what means G&T and Sympathy?

It's a play on the phrase "tea and sympathy" with G&T (gin and tonic, as heshofcheese says). Guy wants something stronger than tea with his sympathy

allyngibson wrote:

ElbowFreak wrote:

Lafayette (a place probably?)

Which song is "Lafayette" in?  I read the liner notes for the album and seem to have missed it entirely.

Honey Sun. I assumed he meant Lafayette the street in New York. In fact I had it in my head already that Lafayette was a street somewhere in New York, because of the Paul Simon song with the lyric "Well I'm standin' on the corner of Lafayette" - although in that case he was on about the city in Louisiana.

Holy moly... thanks again.

I would have never guessed what Burton Taylor means.

I thought that Lafayette is a place in Manchester or New York. So it's New York.

ElbowFreak wrote:

I thought that Lafayette is a place in Manchester or New York. So it's New York.

I'd sorta doubt that you're going to find anyplace named after the Marquis de Lafayette anywhere in Britain. It would be like naming a place after George Washington or John Paul Jones.

allyngibson wrote:

ElbowFreak wrote:

I thought that Lafayette is a place in Manchester or New York. So it's New York.

I'd sorta doubt that you're going to find anyplace named after the Marquis de Lafayette anywhere in Britain.  It would be like naming a place after George Washington or John Paul Jones.

We have streets and placed named after JFK, so everything is possible.

ElbowFreak wrote:

allyngibson wrote:

ElbowFreak wrote:

I thought that Lafayette is a place in Manchester or New York. So it's New York.

I'd sorta doubt that you're going to find anyplace named after the Marquis de Lafayette anywhere in Britain.  It would be like naming a place after George Washington or John Paul Jones.

We have streets and placed named after JFK, so everything is possible.

Yeah, but JFK wasn't a traitor to the crown, like Washington or Jones, or a general who took up arms against the British Empire like Lafayette.

*loool* Oh aaaallright. All that history timey wimey.

ElbowFreak wrote:

Holy moly... thanks again.

I would have never guessed what Burton Taylor means.

It's a very English British* lyric. I laughed out loud the first time I heard it. Genius!

*forgot Richard Burton was Welsh!

So, it's about colour fileds: what kind of girl do you think she is?

Thanks for this thread, cleared a few things up for me!

I have another song to ask about: Real Life (Angel)

This song has one line that has bugged me a bit with dodgy grammar:
1. You have never known dumbfounded (instead of dumbfoundedness)

After looking more there are a lot more odd uses of tense and grammar in this song, so I wonder if it's intentional:
1. Bring us in an indigo dawn with the lovelorn and renegade (lovelorn is an emotional state and renegade is a singular individual ... so I can't quite reconcile this sentence either)
2. You with the eyes of the men not forgotten
3. Blue and white the lights and sound surrounded (which is past tense while the rest is present)


I think there are a few more peppered around ... there's enough that I think it is perhaps intentional. Does anyone know anything about this?

Cheers,

I always thought of it as "You have never known (what it's like to be) dumbfounded (before)".

And one lyric website has it as "You I've never known dumbfounded" - rather than "have" - "I've never known you to be dumbfounded before", which is an unusual sentence construction, but makes perfect sense.

Edit: the official Elbow site also has "You I've never known dumbfounded", so that's settled then!

"Dumbfoundedness" would just sound silly

And "renegade" can be an adjective as well as a noun: "Of, relating to, or resembling a renegade; traitorous."

Phew! You don't get this with the Kaiser Chiefs, do you?  

ThatLeeBloke wrote:

Phew! You don't get this with the Kaiser Chiefs, do you?  

Hahaha! That made me laugh. No, WE don't. I think it's mainly a problem for those were english is not the mother tongue.
But with a little help from our friends we handle it.

Nile wrote:

2. You with the eyes of the men not forgotten
3. Blue and white the lights and sound surrounded (which is past tense while the rest is present)

2. The lyrics are actually "You with the eyes ever met not forgotten"
3. and "Blue and white the light and sound surrounding"

This is what I get for going on unofficial lyrics websites. You have rescued a song for me which I absolutely adored save this line which always irritated me!

Thank you!

Nile

Hi everybody. I am new here and I am Italian so my apologies for my english.
I find Guy's lyrics astonishing but sometimes very hard to undertsand.
Here are some examples. Hope some of you would help me:

title track of new album: it's not so hard to translate but really I don't get the meaning of the song. Who's is he talaking about? What does it mean to kiss the wrist of the hand that has twisted itself into the hair? Why the wrist?
What does it mean "leaving your lips as we took to the sky"? They both are leaving (dying?) but someone leaves the lips on the earth??? Sorry but I don't really get it   

Honey sun: danger lies behing the tape across the door...someone is spying him?
she and I would death defy and promenade...promenade is not a verb...so they defy death and then take a walk? Or defy promenade and death?
What's this song about?   Someone who wanna split with their girl?

the tarantella is a typical southern Italy dance so I think that dancing it in Tuscany is quite odd. Maybe the first sentence means that the person he's looking to seems strange and tired. Dunno.

Quote :

1. Bring us in an indigo dawn with the lovelorn and renegade (lovelorn is an emotional state and renegade is a singular individual ... so I can't quite reconcile this sentence either)

As ThatLeeBloke pointed out, renegade is also an adjective, so this is referring to those (people) who are lovelorn and renegade.

Quote :

title track of new album: it's not so hard to translate but really I don't get the meaning of the song. Who's is he talaking about? What does it mean to kiss the wrist of the hand that has twisted itself into the hair? Why the wrist?
What does it mean "leaving your lips as we took to the sky"? They both are leaving (dying?) but someone leaves the lips on the earth??? Sorry but I don't really get it No

I picture the hand twisted into the hair as him running his hand through her hair and she turning to to kiss the wrist -- there may not be any particular significance to the wrist itself; it makes for nice internal rhymes with "kiss" and "twist," although the inner wrist is kind of a sensitive area so perhaps it's also somewhat sensual.

I think the line about the lips is meant to be read with the line before it -- "a prayer to the take off and landing of everything leaving your lips as we took to the sky," in other words the prayer leaves her lips as they took to the sky. Same thing with the next two lines that follow, "a prayer to the take off and landing of everything I'll say for you and I will for all time" -- in everyday English, this would be "I'll say a prayer . . . for you, and I will say this prayer for you for all time."

Quote :

Honey sun: danger lies behing the tape across the door...someone is spying him?
she and I would death defy and promenade...promenade is not a verb...so they defy death and then take a walk? Or defy promenade and death?

Not sure what that first verse is about, perhaps it is referencing internal turmoil? The tape across his door being a metaphor for a facade he puts on to hide the feelings inside?

Promenade actually can be used as a verb meaning "to walk," often with a connotation of flaunting. So they defy death and they promenade, profligate (extravagantly) -- I picture them walking proudly and defiantly with chins held high. I do think this song is about a split-up.

I was just looking through the lyrics the other day to this album and others and was freshly reminded that Guy has SUCH a way with words. Lovely stuff.

erasure wrote:

Quote :

Honey sun: danger lies behing the tape across the door...someone is spying him?
she and I would death defy and promenade...promenade is not a verb...so they defy death and then take a walk? Or defy promenade and death?

Not sure what that first verse is about, perhaps it is referencing internal turmoil? The tape across his door being a metaphor for a facade he puts on to hide the feelings inside?

Promenade actually can be used as a verb meaning "to walk," often with a connotation of flaunting. So they defy death and they promenade, profligate (extravagantly) -- I picture them walking proudly and defiantly with chins held high. I do think this song is about a split-up.

I was just looking through the lyrics the other day to this album and others and was freshly reminded that Guy has SUCH a way with words. Lovely stuff.

"Danger lies behind the tape across my door" - I imagined this to be a reference to a crime scene. Like, this couple broke up, and now the house they used to share contains bad memories, so he feels unsafe staying there. And he's describing it as a crime scene where they put that yellow tape up to keep people away from the mess. Ties in with the line that comes a bit after that : "I cannot stay where all the broken plans were made". Just my take on it, but that was the immediate image I got when I heard it the first time.

As for the sentiment about Guy's amazing lyrics, I couldn't agree more. This album has some very lovely, powerful writing and I'm so pleased with the imagery and emotion Guy's managed to evoke with his words. Even when I'm just reading them! If I can look at them as words on paper, apart from the musical accompaniment, and still get something from it, then I know it's good stuff.