 Genius Lyrics
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The Magnetic Fields – Come Back from San Francisco
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“Come Back from San Francisco” is a desperate lament from The Magnetic Fields, an art form composer Stephin Merritt frequents.
Shirley Simms sings this track to a man from the
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The Magnetic Fields – Abigail, Belle of Kilronan
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[Click here to read Stephin's account of the making of "Abigail, Belle of Kilronan"] / [Verse 1] / Abigail, can you feel my heart in the palm of your hand? / And do you understand
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The Magnetic Fields – Roses
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Shockingly sparse, track 1 from volume two of 69 Love Songs is a good piece of advice wrapped in a solitary man’s trembling vocal.
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The Magnetic Fields – The Things We Did and Didn’t Do
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Ending off volume one of 69 Love Songs is a ballad of suddenly reminiscing over a past relationship. Track 23 has no percussion but a full performance from the group with
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The Magnetic Fields – Xylophone Track
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To my dear, dear mother / I leave my only shoes / To my dear, dear mother / I leave my only shoes / By the time you read this / I will have died of the blues / Scream, little choo-
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The Magnetic Fields – Acoustic Guitar
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Acoustic guitar, I'm gonna make you a star / Get your picture all over the world / Acoustic guitar, you can have your own car / Just bring me back my girl / She always loved the
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The Magnetic Fields – Love in the Shadows
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[Verse 1] / The woman with no nose / I know where she goes / The old guy with the gold eye / We go back, he and I / Don't smile / We don't do that here, baby / [Chorus] / Love in
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The Magnetic Fields – Washington, D.C.
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[Hook] / W-A-S-H-I-N-G-T-O-N, baby, D.C / W-A-S-H-I-N-G-T-O-N, baby, D.C / [Verse 1] / Washington, D.C., it's paradise to me / It's not because it is the grand old seat / Of
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The Magnetic Fields – Reno Dakota
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Reno Dakota is track 5 of the first volume of The Magnetic Fields’s 69 Love Songs. Claudia Gonson sings these brilliant lyrics over a sole banjo.
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The Magnetic Fields – Strange Eyes
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An extended metaphor about an ex-lover’s blue eyes.
Ordinarily in writing love songs you try not to specify eye color, to make it more universal. This hits you over the head with
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The Magnetic Fields – My Only Friend
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He’s lost his love, so he’s drowning his sorrows in sad Billie Holiday songs. Possibly not the wisest move.
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The Magnetic Fields – Blue You
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The moon was singing the blues / The stars in the sky harmonized singing it too / And I, far below was singing low and slow for you / And I know all the world was singing the blues
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The Magnetic Fields – Queen of the Savages
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My girl is the queen of the savages / She don't know the modern world and its ravages / Instead of money she's got yams and cabbages / She lives in a dome / I don't care if I never
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The Magnetic Fields – I Think I Need a New Heart
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“I Think I Need a New Heart” is track 11 on the first volume of The Magnetic Fields’s 69 Love Songs. Like an argument put into song, the instrumentation is like a country song with
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The Magnetic Fields – Boa Constrictor
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Track 18 of volume one of The Magnetic Fields’s 69 Love Songs is another showcase for Shirley Simms, the on-again off-again vocalist for the band. She sings over an intricate
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The Magnetic Fields – Experimental Music Love
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[Repeated and overlapping 23 times] / Experimental music love
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The Magnetic Fields – I Don't Want to Get Over You
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“I Don’t Want to Get Over You” is the much-beloved track 6 from Vol. 1 of The Magnetic Fields’s 69 Love Songs. Featuring a full band, Merritt sings lyrics that nail the sensation
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The Magnetic Fields – For We Are the King of the Boudoir
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On 69 Love Songs, Merritt worked in a remarkable breadth of musical styles; this track is a harpsichord-driven post-Baroque art song, of the sort that might have been composed by
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The Magnetic Fields – Kiss Me Like You Mean It
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[Verse 1] / He is my Lord, he is my savior / And he rewards my good behavior / My secret soul, I know he's seen it / [Chorus] / He says, "Come here baby and / Kiss me like you mean
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The Magnetic Fields – Bitter Tears
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[Chorus] / Bitter tears keep me goin' / Through the years, freely flowin' / What have you done? / Only a gun could stop these bitter tears / [Verse 1] / The endless streets I walk
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The Magnetic Fields – Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits
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Track 9 of volume one of The Magnetic Fields’s magnum opus 69 Love Songs features a very lo-fi synth-heavy composition detailing the carnal desires a man has for a lost loved one.
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The Magnetic Fields – Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long
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“Fido” is a classic, cliché name for a dog, dating back to ancient Rome. It means “Faithful” and in fact the most famous Fido was famous for his loyalty.
However, to have a long
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The Magnetic Fields – Asleep and Dreaming
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I've seen you laugh at nothing at all / I've seen you sadly weeping / The sweetest thing I ever saw / Was you asleep and dreaming / Well, you may not be beautiful / But it's not
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The Magnetic Fields – Underwear
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A pretty girl in her underwear / A pretty girl in her underwear / If there's anything better in this world / Who cares / [Chorus] / La mort, c'est la mort / Mais l'amour, c'est l'
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The Magnetic Fields – The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing
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[Verse 1] / So the sun goes down and the world goes dancing / And the stars come out and they all go dancing / And there is nothing I'd like more / Than a twirl across this rickety
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The Magnetic Fields – Very Funny
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Everybody knows but me / When you go where you shouldn't be / Everybody knows but me / Where you go when you're feeling free / Everybody knows but me / So you go there for a laugh
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The Magnetic Fields – Nothing Matters When We're Dancing
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The sweet “Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing” is track 21 on The Magnetic Fields’s 69 Love Songs, Volume 1. Stephin Merritt sings a soft ballad over ukelele and dimmed background
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The Magnetic Fields – I Shatter
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Bang, there was you / Too gold, too blue / You took the truth / I cried, you flew / [Chorus] / You called me mad (And I am mad) / As a hatter / Some fall in love (Some fall in love
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The Magnetic Fields – The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure
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[Verse 1] / I met Ferdinand de Saussure / On a night like this / On love, he said, "I'm not so sure / I even know what it is / No understanding, no closure / It is a nemesis / You
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The Magnetic Fields – Zebra
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So we got married in Venice in June, so what? / We circled the earth in a hot air balloon, so what? / And the rest of our lives / Is one long honeymoon / Well, that doesn't mean we
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The Magnetic Fields – The One You Really Love
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[Verse 1] / I do believe our love's in danger / I might as well be loving air / You look at me like I'm a stranger / You look at me like I'm not there / [Chorus] / I gaze into your
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The Magnetic Fields – Grand Canyon
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A song about losing love with someone and trying to salvage it. The narrator could change for his partner, but he knows that would be inauthentic.
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The Magnetic Fields – Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget
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Stephin Merritt’s tribute to the Scots poet Robert Burns, described as “Highland Dialect Transformation Ballad Showdown”.
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The Magnetic Fields – It's a Crime
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[Chorus] / It's a crime to fall in love / Heart and mind, and soul in love / It's a crime to fall in love / So hard, so hard / [Verse 1] / I shouldn't have bothered, 'cause you're
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The Magnetic Fields – Parades Go By
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[Verse 1] / I'll linger here / Your ring upon my finger, dear / And sing till dawn / A song of you and me and what and why / For time is all / I have to keep between these walls
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The Magnetic Fields – The Night You Can't Remember
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Before you left your garrison / You'd had a drink, maybe two / You don't remember Paris, hon / But it remembers you / It's true, we flew to Paris, dear / Aboard an Army jet / The
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The Magnetic Fields – When My Boy Walks Down the Street
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“When My Boy Walks Down the Street” is the third track on the second volume of The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs. The song is characterized by upbeat, driving verses and chorus
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The Magnetic Fields – Two Kinds of People
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There are two kinds of people / A: My love and I / B: other / Two kinds of people / One, the gray / And two, me and my lover / All people fall into two camps / That ever twain
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The Magnetic Fields – World Love
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Use of the label “world music” reached its peak in the 1980s and ’90s, with albums like Paul Simon’s Graceland and the launching of record companies like Putumayo World Music. As
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The Magnetic Fields – Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin
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It makes you blind, it does you in / It makes you think you're pretty tough / It makes you prone to crime and sin / It makes you say things off the cuff / It's very small and made
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