What are your favorite lyrics from Mayhem?

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 32,242]

I always thought “like a god without a prayer” was weird

It would make more sense if it was “like a prayer without a god” since the previous line says “You reach out and no one’s there” 

 

But to answer you question, I’ll probably give the most basic answer and it’s also Gaga’s but “It was cold in a summertime”. Gaga rarely paints images like that in her music.

Edited Thursday at 09:29 PM by AVeryGagaHolyDick

[dubstep111 785]

I can smell your sickness

[Cherry Blues 540]

30 minutes ago, ****oDanceFight said:

 really don't understand fans who say this album has some of her weaker lyrics when, imo, these prove how much stronger of a songwriter she's become since doing Joanne and her jazz records.

I think the songs manage the balancing act between cool lyrics and her feelings quietly good. The Killiah lyrics are just somethin' 🩷They are as good as on The Fame Monster, even better. For example i love Chromatica sonically very much - it is my taste , but there are some weaker lyrics like on Fun Tonight or Free Woman - but MAYHEM is lyrically mostly on point. 

Edited Thursday at 09:53 PM by Cherry Blues

[River 128,546]

two lovers regret their time.

It's a sentence that only couples with a big age gap can really understand and relate, there's 10 years gap between me and my husband and this gap sometimes feels like a lost time and as years will go by, it's going to be tough to see him getting older..

[gagacabana 8,415]

"bring me your desire" is my favorite part of all and any versions of disease. Poison/Antidote/Requiem live, etc, a masterpiece. 

"no return" for abracadabra to not quote "amor/morta" and "phantom of the dance floor come to me, sing for me a sinful melody"

"poisoned apple, take a bite" love the biblical metaphors of bisexuality all over garden of eden but this is the best part 

"hollywood's a ghost town" because ngl I love the whole selfmythology of perfect celebrity 

"eyes bleed from the smoke, angels appear/from her beauty, you choke, her lipstick you smear" can't stop the high and the gay! And the ever-present catholiqueer motif 

"like a ghost/when I die can I vanish into you?" I like my love morbid and melancholy, and a shout-out to my favorite LG quote ever, "we were happy just to be alive"

"if I get you alone under your skin and bone/I'ma try you on for size/about to wear you out like my favorite suit/wool's paralyzed" to not say "I'm a killah and boy you're gonna die tonight!" 

"I think about you in my dreams (see you in my dreams)/you're better off a fantasy" for zombieboy because it echoes queer themes

"the music's gonna bring me back from death" from the dead dance, a most dear to me

"my heart is in a bind/if I could bear it on my own" for lovedrug 

Nothing for how bad do u want me. But, for the sake of the prompt, "that girl in your head ain't real"

"we twist the knife too many times to say goodbye" and all of don't call tonight's bridge 

"you know what I am"/"I know what you are" another amazingly put queer theme by kill for love

"I don't wanna be the one to fall on the knife to come alive" shadow of a man just made me realize the knifemotif going on... hollup let her cook 

"you got your hands a little red, tick tock, you're out of time" ominous, eerie, the best of the beast

"this is the lawn of memories I mourn/I fall into your eyes, shelter from storm" the best of blade of grass

"I don't even wanna do this anymore" for die with a smile. Joking, it's "if the world was ending, I'd wanna be next to you"

[PartySick 174,136]

"My heart is in a bind, if I could bear it on my own, I wouldn't try so hard to numb what's left behind"

[NemoMyName 2,334]

We were happy just to be alive

[Defmix100 7,172]

find my clone she's asleep on the ceiling

[Cherry Blues 540]

5 hours ago, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

I always thought “like a god without a prayer” was weird

It would make more sense if it was “like a prayer without a god” since the previous line says “You reach out and no one’s there” 

It IS creepy, like a god without a prayer” implies there is a god/ a source, but there is no one who has a access to the source - because no one believes anymore. Like a prayer without god would be even more depressing because it implies there is no source/god at all but a prayer - like a drop in the desert, isolated from the source or rather, the ocean does not exist at all. 

[PornoDanceFight 2,441]

10 minutes ago, Cherry Blues said:

It IS creepy, like a god without a prayer” implies there is a god/ a source, but there is no one who has an access to the source - because no one believes anymore. Like a prayer without god would be even more depressing because it implies there is no source/god at all but a prayer - like a drop in the desert, isolated from the source or rather, the ocean does not exist at all. 

Exactly how I feel and interpret that lyric 

Imagine how lonely that god/person must feel, wanting that connection, but being unable to find it. A prayer unanswered is depressing, but wanting to hear a prayer only to hear silence? It makes the craving and desperation of Disease even more poignant, imo.

Edited yesterday at 03:21 AM by PornoDanceFight

[Apec 416]

8 hours ago, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

I always thought “like a god without a prayer” was weird

It would make more sense if it was “like a prayer without a god” since the previous line says “You reach out and no one’s there” 

 

But to answer you question, I’ll probably give the most basic answer and it’s also Gaga’s but “It was cold in a summertime”. Gaga rarely paints images like that in her music.

I've always seen it as a reference to early Greek mythology. In many stories, if you were a God/Goddess with a human-like body (so not the ones preceding the Mount Olympus family tree err...tangled mess with Zeus as the head so to speak; like Gaia literally being the Earth and Chronos being time itself), the closest resemblance to (actually agonizing) pain such a God or Goddess could feel was becoming transparent and ultimately invisible due to not being prayed to or forgotten about by mortals in their respective temples. In this state, they also could not transform or speak with, let alone touch other Gods. Hence, in a song about a whole lot of pain: Like a God without a prayer. 

It could be more metaphorical, this was just the first thing I thought of when hearing the lyric.  I love that line, by the way. Disease is phenomenal.

EDIT: Ooh, some juicy material from @Cherry Blues and @****oDanceFight! 

Edited 23 hours ago by Apec

[PornoDanceFight 2,441]

9 minutes ago, Apec said:

I've always seen it as a reference to early Greek mythology.

Oh I love your analysis. Adds an even richer layer to the song. 

[Blackout19 16,112]

I could be your girlfriend for the weekend
You could be my boyfriend for the night

[gagzus 24,747]

“I’ve become a notorious being, find my clone she’s asleep on the ceiling now, can’t get me down, you love to hate me I'm the perfect celebrity” is a good lyric to me and one of my faves from the album.

Her own mythology has become more notorious than her talents because she’s still enigmatic. It gives me visions of her “gaga self” hanging like a bat upside down, and also feels like she’s separate from her ego (the self on the ceiling) and people try to bring her persona down but can’t both physically and metaphorically. And because she has a two sided persona she makes the perfect celebrity because people have two types of person to criticise and debate over. The entirety of Perfect Celebrity is masterfully written imo.

“Don’t waste time on a feeling, use your passion, no return” from Abra is a great mantra for an artistic person tbh because the feeling of doubt or guilt sometimes can drive your passion and art in the wrong direction. She’s basically saying trust your art and your gut. And stick to it, never look back. Which is what Gaga does musically she never truly looks back with her music really. (Which is also why fans need to learn she’s never gonna do ARTPOP Act 2–that very lyric tells you that.)

“River in my eyes, I’ve got a poem in my throat, I hear the music and it takes me by surprise, pictures in my mind they come on faster than they go, another round hoping this one will make me blind” is about how she makes music.

Her feeling emotions, the lyrics and ideas coming to her fast and how she used to drink to dull her emotions a lot. Which then is followed up by the fact she states “I know this time, I won’t escape these thoughts in my head” because she’s accepting she needs to feel properly to make music and all she ever needed was Michael not alcohol or drugs. He’s her literal creative drug of choice (LoveDrug) instead of her self deprecating and destructive patterns of using drugs and alcohol in her creative process. It’s an anti-tortured artist song.

[princedeeblebleble 3,778]

14 hours ago, peggyhill said:

Unpopular opinion: Blade of Grass is lyrically strong, and it's a good song

 

edit: y'all would be salivating over this song if it was on JFAD

The writing is impeccable, I just wish the vocal delivery was softer and more warm. If I didn't understand any English I'd think she's singing about some disastrous life tragedy  I like the second half production vise as well with the synths coming in and some more elements, but the beginning is just direeee..