The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Oh, Suzannah's bedraggled but she
Still wears the locket 'round her neck
She's got a picture on the table
Of a man who is young and able
Oh, Suzannah's gonna cry
Oh, Suzannah's still alive
Whiskey or gin, that's alright
When there's nothing in her bed at night
She sleeps with the covers down
Hopin' that somebody gets in
Doesn't matter what she does
She knows that she can't win
Oh, Suzannah's gonna cry
She's got a doll with one eye
That always cries when it gets some sleep
She's waiting for a soldier to come home
But she'll cry and never die
Oh, Suzannah's gonna cry
Oh, Suzannah's still alive
Whiskey or gin, that's alright
When there's nothing in her bed at night
She sleeps with the covers down
Hopin' that somebody gets in
Doesn't matter what she does
She knows that she can't win
Oh, Suzannah's still alive
Oh, Suzannah's gonna cry
Oh, Suzannah's still alive
Oh, Suzannah's still alive
Still wears the locket 'round her neck
She's got a picture on the table
Of a man who is young and able
Oh, Suzannah's gonna cry
Oh, Suzannah's still alive
Whiskey or gin, that's alright
When there's nothing in her bed at night
She sleeps with the covers down
Hopin' that somebody gets in
Doesn't matter what she does
She knows that she can't win
Oh, Suzannah's gonna cry
She's got a doll with one eye
That always cries when it gets some sleep
She's waiting for a soldier to come home
But she'll cry and never die
Oh, Suzannah's gonna cry
Oh, Suzannah's still alive
Whiskey or gin, that's alright
When there's nothing in her bed at night
She sleeps with the covers down
Hopin' that somebody gets in
Doesn't matter what she does
She knows that she can't win
Oh, Suzannah's still alive
Oh, Suzannah's gonna cry
Oh, Suzannah's still alive
Oh, Suzannah's still alive
Lyrics submitted by planetearth
Suzannah's Still Alive Lyrics as written by Dave Davies
Lyrics © ALFRED PUB CO INC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
No comments? When this has been up here for over four years? gosh.
I'm not sure whether this has anything to do with the meaning of the song, but in Dave Davies other song 'Death of a Clown' there's a line that says, "I'm drowning my sorrows in whisky and gin" In this song there's a line that says, "Whiskey or gin, that's alright" I think this song is either about a woman 'Suzannah' who is extremely lonely and " sleeps with the covers down Hopin' that somebody gets in", or its about a woman who's partner went to war and every night she hopes he comes back. "She's got a picture on the table Of a man who is young and able" "She's waiting for a soldier to come home But she'll cry and never die"
I think it's a combination of what comedancing says.
Susannah's lover / husband / partner was a soldier who went off to war. Presumably he died. She's desperately lonely and has turned to alcohol to replace the lack of someone with her. She cries every night, and it seems that she'll never escape from the misery (by dying).
I interpret the title as emphasizing the fact that she's still alive, while he's died, and that she has no choice but to keep living and keep bearing the sadness - she can't win.
The song isn't explicit that he died, but I feel that's the meaning which fits best.
(btw the name of the song is actually "Susannah's Still Alive" with an 's'.)
The song is reminiscent of Oh Susanna to me. It seems like the title is challenging the listener by saying that while the character of that song (Oh! Susanna) might be dead, Susannah herself is still very much alive and has to deal with the death or absence of her loved one. It doesn't matter that the man from Oh! Susanna is constantly telling her "Susanna don't you cry" or trying to console her, she's going to cry regardless. Because of the nature of "Oh! Susanna", in that her character is completely unresolved and that the story is static, she's stuck in limbo and knows "she can't ever win" and "she'll cry and never die" forever.
It sounds like poor Susannah has also developed a drinking problem to a certain extent. It's interesting though to see how many times the phrase "whiskey and gin" have been used together in music. I was just listening to some Elliott Smith (who was a fan of the Kinks and Ray Davies) and heard the combination come up in his song "We're All Friends Now". I'm guessing a subliminal influence of the Kinks :)
I would think it's about Dave's first love Sue. They had a kid together when he was a teenager, but then they were separated by their families, and he didn't see her again for many years. He still loved her, though. Dave says in his autobiography that a lot of his songs in those days were about Sue.