Results for “debt and consequence”

Songs

Runnin' Away

Sly & Robbie

A short, singsong warning wrapped in giggly, almost mocking laughter: the song watches someone flee their problems and points…

self-deception avoidance and escapism debt and consequence

Traveling Riverside Blues

Robert Johnson

A restless travelogue of the Mississippi Delta juke-joint circuit, this is Robert Johnson at his most physically direct — a…

itinerant desire sexual boasting bondage and debt

See No Evil

Television

The opening track of Marquee Moon works as a manifesto of pure appetite and willful blindness, its narrator declaring immediate…

desire and impatience willful ignorance denial of consequence

B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)

OutKast

A hurricane of a rap record built on breakneck triplet flows, gospel-choir-meets-drum-and-bass production, and a title that…

consequence and commitment excess and velocity fame and reinvention

Bloodbuzz Ohio

The National

A disoriented homecoming song built from fragments rather than a clear story: a man returns to Ohio broke, unmoored, and…

debt and economic anxiety displacement and homecoming emotional numbness

Matty Groves

Fairport Convention

This is the Fairport Convention electric-folk arrangement of the ancient English/Scottish ballad about adultery, betrayal, and…

class inequality adultery and its consequences honor and vengeance

Dance On a Volcano

Genesis

A driving opener built around the image of a lethal dance performed on the lip of an active volcano, where every misstep is…

risk and consequence performance under pressure mortality

There He Goes

Patsy Cline

A brief, plainspoken country ballad in which a woman watches the man she wronged walk off with someone else. There's no anger…

regret and self-blame lost love infidelity's consequences

All That You Have Is Your Soul

Emmylou Harris

A mother's warning becomes a hard-won personal confession, as the narrator traces her own failures to heed advice about…

inherited wisdom moral compromise self-possession versus loss of self

Blindness

The Fall

This is a plainspoken cautionary tale about romantic self-deception: a man ignores his own instincts, falls hard for a woman who…

self-deception romantic ruin pride and consequence

Didn't Cha Know

Erykah Badu

A meditation on getting lost as a form of self-discovery, built around a single wandering vamp that never resolves into a tidy…

self-forgiveness uncertainty as growth intuition over planning

Is This It

The Strokes

The title track of The Strokes' debut is a woozy, deadpan meditation on romantic and existential exhaustion, delivered in a…

disaffection romantic dishonesty generational ennui

Tearz

Wu‐Tang Clan

A grim, cautionary storytelling track built around two narrated tragedies -- a child's death from a street robbery and a…

mortality street violence consequence of recklessness

Big Time Sensuality

Björk

A euphoric, almost breathless meditation on giving in to a feeling too big to name, delivered as pure present-tense sensation…

surrender to the present moment intimacy without explanation courage as a precondition for pleasure

Folsom Prison Blues

Johnny Cash

A first-person prison lament in which the narrator, confined and hopeless, is tormented by the sound of a train he cannot board.…

confinement and freedom guilt and moral consequence class resentment

Light My Fire

The Doors

A direct sexual invitation dressed as a song about urgency and risk, built around a fire metaphor that doubles as both seduction…

desire and urgency risk/consequence of love carpe diem

We'll Sweep Out the Ashes In the Morning

Gram Parsons

A duet-style country ballad about an affair both parties know is doomed, built entirely around a single fire-and-ashes metaphor.…

forbidden love self-deception temporary pleasure vs. consequence

FloriDada

Animal Collective

A barrage of interrogative fragments and postcard-sized images collages the world into a single imaginary destination, half…

placelessness and utopian longing collage as method identity without borders

Moment of Truth

Gang Starr

Gang Starr's title track is a meditation on accountability and betrayal dressed as street philosophy, moving from meditative…

betrayal and loyalty accountability/karma paranoia at success

Ascension Day

Talk Talk

Ascension Day is a fractured, almost liturgical piece of wordplay built from gambling terms and religious imagery, where the…

fate and predestination gambling as spiritual metaphor guilt and judgement

Poor Man's Blues

Bessie Smith

A direct address from the working poor to the wealthy, this 1928 blues sides a plea for economic justice with an implicit…

class inequality economic desperation war and sacrifice

Atlantic City

The Band

A small-time narrator in a decaying Atlantic City weighs a desperate, half-criminal solution to his debts against a fragile…

economic desperation organized crime and violence romantic loyalty amid ruin