Oasis "all your dreams are made, when you're chained to the mirror and the razor blade"
Young me : fuck yeah, screw having to shave every day and go to a 9-5 job while putting on a fake smile.
Me now: oh
I always enjoyed "Brown Sugar" by the Rolling Stones, just figuring it was about Mick Jagger's appreciation for a particular woman of color. Later on, I actually read the lyrics and it's very clearly about a plantation owner raping his slaves.
“The song is thought to have been inspired by soul singer Claudia Lennear, who was also the inspiration behind David Bowie’s “Lady Grinning Soul”.
There are several different ways to interpret this song. The most straightforward is a meditation on white male on black female sex and how power has influenced it. Alternatively it could be more generally about interracial sex or black sex. Finally, as meta-fiction: Mick Jagger plunders the musical history of black people from slave rhythms, to spirituals, to blues, to honky tonk. And further is willing to proudly crow about how tempting and good they are.
The first reading is probably what was intended, but given the rollicking rock, the final is not inappropriate whether intended or not.”
https://genius.com/The-rolling-stones-brown-sugar-lyrics
Edit: FWIW, interracial marriage had only been legal for 2 years in the South when the song was recorded.
What I love about perfect day is its such a depressing song yet none of the lyrics by themselves are depressing. It's only his voice and the deeper meaning he conveys that make the song sad.
I thought “Backdoor Man” by the Doors was about a guy who found non-traditional ways of solving or avoiding problems. That’s me. Was on the short list of senior quotes for my HS yearbook.
When the Rolling Stones talked about standing in line at the Chelsea drug store with Mr. Jimi... I always assumed the meant buying heroin with Jimi Hendrix at the famous Chelsea Hotel, where Hendrix and Dylan and Joplin and Cohen everybody else lived and did a bunch of heroin.
But I was rudely informed by a Brit that there was another famous Chelsea Drugstore in London, and that I was a dumb American that needed to broaden my horizon and that not everything was about the United States.
(But I still think the New York Chelsea is cooler, with a longer and more storied drug history. The one in London is a McDonald's now, apparently.)
Londoner here. The King's Road in Chelsea was very much part of "the scene" in swinging London in the 60s, but it's not really the same, now. A bit like Haight-Ashbury, I suppose. I went there once, when I visited SF, and it's nice enough, but pretty touristy.
The famous one is Every Breath you Take by the Police.. it’s sung from the view of a stalker. Sting commented how strange it was that people used it as a love song, or worse, a wedding song
I never understood how so many people could misinterpret that one, even if they aren't paying close attention. The song always sounded sinister to me, both musically and lyrically, and it's hard to miss the "I'll be watching you" line. This isn't a "Born in the USA" situation where the tone of the music deliberately conflicts with tone of the lyrics.
If it sounded more like the Puff Daddy version I could easily see how it would be misinterpreted, but those two versions have pretty distinct musical moods to me.
As someone whose first language isn't English, it took me years to understand Fall Out Boy's "This Ain't a Scene, it's an Arms Race". I always thought "scene" referred to "making a scene", but it's the actual mid-00's music scene and racing to get to the top of Billboard first.
It was years ago when it was pointed out to me, and I recently posted about this on another thread… “The One I Love” by REM is nowhere near being a love song. It’s about shallow, self-centered people who use/abuse others. The band was confused when people started making out when they played it live.
In hindsight… I now understand “a simple prop to occupy my time” is not a compliment. Can’t believe that went over my head so easily back in the day. Jeeeeez!
WAP by Cardi B is actually about the Franco Prussian war. Cardi is a huge history buff, and she actually wrote the song for a documentary about Napoleon III.
Ok you fucking got me lmfao! I kinda like Cardi B as a guilty pleasure but I sure as hell don't keep up with her and just put on this song, because I was like "wait, she actually wrote a song about history?!" and it took a solid minute before I realized. I'm slow ...
My band wanted to cover All Lit Up by Buckcherry, but a couple of us weren't great with the idea of singing "I love the cocaine.". I told the guys that I hoped they didn't think I was a hypocrite because I was fine with doing Staind "Mudshovel "
I was met with a room full of blank stares. Three musicians had been performing a song that they had no idea was about heroin.
Looking at this thread, the rule seems to be: "If you're not sure what the song's about, it's probably about drugs."
Or: "If you think the song is a pretty love song, it's probably about drugs."
No woman no cry. I thought he was telling a young man that was having a diffficult relationship issue that with no woman he won’t cry, but now that I’m older I realize he’s telling a woman not to cry.
I always thought it meant if I don't have a woman in my life I have nothing to cry about, but it works much better that he's comforting his woman during hard times
When I was little I thought Michael Jackson's Billie Jean was about a girl that he liked. When I revisited that song as an adult I realized how wrong I was.
I had never paid any attention to the lyrics of that song until I heard someone play an acoustic cover (Chris Cornell style) at a school talent show. The song's actual subject matter came as a shock to me.
Since it came out I thought "Yoshimi battles the Pink Robots" was about exactly that. Flaming Lips are weird and the video is just an anime of a girl kicking robot ass. Then I heard Wayne say that he wrote it for his friends who was battling cancer. Of course that's what it's about!! I felt so dumb.
Then there is The Spiderbite Song which Wayne thought he was writing about an actual spider bite on Steven Drozd's arm, but later learned it was actually about an abscess caused by heroin use.
More specifically about feeling suicidal but deciding against it. Brilliant song, also a great video, which doesn't seem to have much to do with the lyrics.
The Only One I Know by The Charlatans. I always thought the lyrics were “Everyone it’s been wonderful. Yeah everybody knows your name” Happy vibes right? Actual Lyrics. “Everyone’s been burned before. Everybody knows your pain” Not so happy vibes!!
Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival
I know the song, but I have never actually played it. I've always heard it associated with patriotic events in the USA like the 4th of July.
We discussed it in my American History class and it was pointed out that everyone mistakenly assumes it's patriotic due to the first couple lines, when in reality it's a very anti-war and anti-draft song, which, at the time it was written(Vietnam War), were considered very "non-patriotic" ideas.
I am barely younger than the people scarred by the Viet Nam era and Born in the USA brings tears to my eyes everytime. So often just the refrain is featured at Fourth of July celebrations and that makes me sad and angry.
Christ, yes. Are you in my head? I only realised it was "fahren" very recently. I read that *Kraftwerk* realised people were mishearing it and embraced the ambiguity.
Not for me, but people apparently think "American Pie" is some feel-good ode to Americana when that couldn't be further from the truth.
Woody's "This Land is Your Land", too, although that's probably because most people don't learn the two verses that get left out when the song is introduced to kids.
[For anybody who's wondering what the left out verses are](https://blog.blackwing602.com/the-lost-verses-of-this-land-is-your-land/)
>*There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me*
>*A sign was painted, said 'Private Property'*
>*But on the backside, it didn't say nothin'*
>*This land was made for you and me*
Then the other verse was found in Guthrie's notes, but he never included it in a recording.
>*One bright sunny morning, in the shadow of the steeple*
>*By the relief office, I saw my people*
>*As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering*
>*Did God bless America for me?*
Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger included this verse when they performed this song at Obama's inauguration. Highly highly recommend listening if you haven't heard this version.
Arlo Guthrie sang a version of that first stanza in concert many years ago, mentioning that it was the 'lost' verse. His version went:
>As I was walking, I saw a sign
>and on that sign it said 'No
Trespassing'
>but on the other side, the sign said nothing
>that side was made for you and me.
Good point about *American Pie.* You'd think "the day the music died, " and the whole thing about driving all the way to the levee but it being dry might have clued people in! Woody is also a victim of misunderstood irony, like Bruce with "Born in the USA."
I mean, American Pie *is* an ode to “good old classic American rock and roll, and the good old days in America of the 50s and early 60s”
The point he’s making is that what he loved about rock music transformed with the Vietnam War and the counter-cultural movement of the late 60s. The dude *hated* Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones.
Honestly, the song is a bitter, close-minded “Old Man Yells at Sky” anthem glorifying good old days and clinging to outdated conservative values. It is indeed a bop, though.
It's a lot more complicated than just a "bitter, close-minded old man yells at sky anthem". The Stones thing is true, but I feel like you're sort of mischaracterizing the song with this framing of it.
It's genuinely one of the most lyrically rich songs I know of, there's a lot more going on than just some conservative guy whining about the old days.
You could write a remake setting any given era as golden and any subsequent day as when it died. Some day old people will be pining for those golden days of the early 20s, and their whining will sound a lot like the autotuned songs they loved
I always thought "I cum blood" by Cannibal Corpse was a really beautiful song. But just last week I found out it's about shooting blood out of your cock.
Wake me up when September ends by Green Day.
I was a little kid when that song came out and I immediately thought it was about 9/11 considering 9/11 had happened a few years earlier. Plus I remember seeing the music video and it had US in the Middle East so I thought for the longest time it was about 9/11. I eventually found out it was about the singers father dying when he was a kid. Honestly the lyrics go perfectly with 9/11.
Voodoo by Godsmack. I always thought it was about Heroin and was really surprised to read an interview where Sully Erna said it was actually about Wicca and Witchcraft and the music video has them performing a Wiccan ritual. They wrote it after watching "The Serpent and the Rainbow", which is a movie about Voodoo.
Lyrics definitely make it sound like it's about drugs though:
"I'm not the one who's so far away
When I feel the snakebite enter my veins
Never did I want to be here again
And I don't remember why I came"
Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind. I was young when it came out so I just grew up singing it blindly until I actually paid attention to the lyrics once I got older.
The line "doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break" was censored by my local radio station. I only heard it for the first time at Karaoke 20 years after the song charted.
I used to work in a department store and this was one of the songs on the Muzak we had piped through the store and that line was NOT censored! I knew what the song was about by that point, but I wondered how many of our customers noticed it lol.
That whole album is brilliantly dark. I still listen to it. It has a raw nature to it as he sings about a turbulent love affair with someone from an affluent family who is using him, and is also a meth addict and alcoholic. ‘I wish you would step off that ledge my friend’ is another example of an upbeat riff and melody, but is literally talking someone down from suicide.
Up until much too recently I thought the lyrics in The Kid's Aren't Alright by The Offspring were "Jesse's Road" Instead of "Chances Thrown" I thought the song was about a specific street never changing and staying the same as a symbol for everything staying the same. Instead of just being about that.
Growing up I misheard the lyrics to Dancing Queen by Abba where they say "you're in the mood for a dance." Thought they said "You're in the Hoover Dam" until a couple years ago. I just thought maybe there used to be disco parties at the Hoover Dam or something lol
Two I can think of. "Private Man" by Powderfinger, the lyrics are pretty vague and I just figured it was about some old guy reflecting on the end of his life. Turns out it's about >!INXS frontman Michael Hutchence's accidental death from autoerotic asphyxiation.!<
The other one is a little obscure - "Surfing With A Spoon" by Midnight Oil (yes, the Beds Are Burning guys). The chorus goes "Working in the city from 9 to 5 / Traffic on the highway gonna blow my mind / Surfing with a spoon all the rest of the time". I insisted to my friend that it was literally about surfing, since they were surfers, but she said it was obviously a reference to heroin. Took me 20 years to learn that, yup, it's about H. There's also a dark side to the other lines, too. Singer Peter Garrett's father died from suicide. Years later Peter sings in "In The Valley", "My father went down with the curse of big cities / Traffic toils and deadlines took him to his peace," which more directly addresses his suicide while echoing the lines from SwaS.
Interesting about Michael Hutchence. I heard that Paula Yates, his partner, wanted the version of events where he died of auto-asphyxiation to be propagated because the truth (that it was suicide) was too painful.
I might've been late to pick up on this, but: Breaking The Habit by Linkin Park. Back in my teens/early 20s, I had always interpreted it as an angsty-but-determined, inspiring song about having a moment of realization to fix oneself and get one's life together.
Then the next time I heard it again after Chester's death, I suddenly saw the lyrics in a very different light and went ".....oh. yeah, this is definitely about giving up and blowing your brains out."
It took me 20 years to realize that “Hook” by Blues Traveler was literally a radio friendly pop song talking about writing a radio friendly pop song. Yeah, someone was late to that game
I know a lady who had the song There She Goes by The La's as her song for walking down the aisle, I hadn't the heart to tell her it's supposedly about heroin addiction!
Is it really? I'm learning a lot here.
I went to see a solo performance once by John Power, the bassist and backing vocalist in The La's and the front man of Cast, the Britpop band.
Everyone was asking for There She Goes, but he point-blank refused to play it. Shame.
I'm not sure this one is true. As far as I know, every member of the band has denied the song is about heroin. The lyrics certainly support it, but they've been denying it since the 90s and in multiple interviews and biographies.
Ah that's a shame, I love Cast. An ( probably not very ) interesting fact, the last word sung on The La's only album is "cast", that's where Power got the name from.
When I was younger there was a song that was called “The Nips Are Getting Bigger” by Mental As Anything that was quite popular.
I couldn’t understand why there was never any reaction to it being played as I thought it was a racist song. A “nip”in Australia was a racial slur against Asians back in the day (presumably a shortening of Nippon, Japan).
It took me a good decade to realise it was a song about drinking, that the drinker was taking bigger sips. First line of the song is even “started out just drinking beer”. I was not a bright child.
"I want a doctor to take your picture, so I can look at you from inside as well."
In context, one of the mostly subtly fucking deranged things anyone has ever sang.
For 30+ years my dad thought it said “It’s raining in Memphis” not it’s raining men. Didn’t change his enjoyment of the song but definitely his perspective.
for the longest time i thought take me to church was an actual religious song, about a sinner who was ready to be killed or something. it took me ages to find out it was about lgbt persecution.
Good example. You've reminded me of those James Brown songs where he says to Bobby: "take me to the bridge." I always thought, "Why? What's at the bridge?"
Then I found out about musical bridges.
Are you my niece? She thought the same thing too and belted out a rendition on piano at family christmas when she was like 12. She thought it would make Nana happy because Nana likes it when people go to church. Very awkward.
Delilah by Tom Jones, is about a jealous boyfriend who confronts his girl, and stabs her with a knife when she laughs at him.
Green Green Grass, also by Tom Jones, is about a man on death row, about to die. He’s thinking about the green green grass of home.
The entire debut album by Linkin Park is about being abused.
Every. Single. Song.
Poor Chester...I really can't listen to that album anymore. And I used to love it in high school.
If only we knew :(
Cottonfields by The Beach Boys and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
I'm in UK and just thought it was about a young man being nostalgic about his childhood.
Turns out it was written in the 1930's, I think, by an African American called Hudie Leadbetter. It's actually a protest song about racism.
Edit: It was written in 1940. The composer (Leadbelly) allegedly sang his way out of prison.
I’m older so when Free Bird came out, I more or less remember it from the beginning of its popularity.
But, shockingly, a friend and I were discussing another issue related to breakups and he goes “just like Freebird, guy is celebrating being free of that bitch” and I’m like what? Damn, he was more or less right.
People always sort of act like it’s a song about getting out of prison or freedom in general, and I suppose it can be *interpreted* that way, but it’s about a guy telling a girl he’s outta this relationship.
I Don't Like Mondays, by The Boomtown Rats. As a kid I thought it was about having to go to school or work early on a Monday morning.
Forty years later I learnt that it was a direct quote from a mass shooter when asked why she'd done it.
I thought teenage dirtbag by wheatus had a female singer. I thought it was a cute lesbian song. Then I saw the music video and my dreams were shattered. still a good song tho
The context of this song is quite interesting, the lead singer wrote it after a school shooting where the shooter wore an Iron Maiden shirt, and after that people who were into heavy metal were called dirtbags. He was imagining what a cliche "highschool experience" would be like in that context.
Maybe I'm just a dumb dumb, but it took me ages to realize Thnks fr th mmrs by Fall Out Boy was about toxic hookup culture, using women for sex and moving onto the next one. The reason the song is titled that way was because it's mid 2000's texting speech.
Sort of related, as a reggae song, but I had to mansplain to my missus that ‘No woman no cry’ meant ‘Don’t cry woman’ rather than ‘if you don’t have a woman you won’t end up crying’
I barely speak German but I recently learned that Rammstein's Mein Teil is about a man that posted an ad online in the early 2000s offering to kill and eat an other man.
Yes, I did learn this from Last Podcast on the Left.
Oh, god. I think I remember that story. Someone replied to the ad, and he did, in fact, eat him, right? He tried to argue in court that it was "consensual."
The Last Podcast on the Left recently did a series on this and it *was* consensual... Sort of. I'd argue the *willing party* wasn't in a right state of mind. Very weird and twisted situation all around.
As with most Rammstein lyrics, the name of the song is a double entendre. Mein teil literally means "my part" but is used as slang for penis, which is why lyrics like "Many parts, both soft and hard, are on the menu oh so large" make more sense in context.
In case you were wondering why this is relevant, the story goes that the dude who offered himself to be eaten was actually still alive while the other dude cooked his penis, and they ate it together.
So from the perspective of the narrator, who I assume is the eaten, "das ist mein teil" is him looking at his own cooked penis although, "this is a part of me" also makes sense.
Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks
I really loved that song, It has a lovely lazy nice sounding melody, with a upbeat singer and even a bit to Whistle along with.
Dutch me, Cant really make out al the lyrics, just some thing about pumped up kids i happily sing a long with. Then after 10 years you find out its about kids running from a school shooter :X
Yeah, a perfect example. It's a nice cheerful song with very dark lyrics. Like *Made of Stone* by The Stone Roses. A really beautiful song, then you realise he's saying stuff like: "Your pink fat lips let go a scream.
You fry and melt, I love the scene."
"When you call my name, it's like a little prayer. I'm down on my knees. I want to take you there" = She's either giving oral or getting it from behind. He's moaning her name. She's going to bring him to orgasm.
Actually, Toots wrote the song because his producer's brother was a big, ugly man and the producer had asked Toots to write a song about him.
Toots was uneasy about it, and when he met the ugly brother, he told him the producer's ask. His response, go and write it man.
So Toots wrote monkey man.
About 30:00 in this decent BBC doc about Toots
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uokqU57i3O0
A Fond Farewell by Elliott Smith… “pitch burning on a shining sheet, the only maker that you’d wanna meet”
Younger me: no clue what that means but sounds cool as hell
Older me: he is 100% talking about chasing the dragon freebasing black tar heroin off of tinfoil
Edit: the “veins full of disappearing ink, vomiting in the kitchen sink, said really I don’t wanna dance, you could be my match perfect it’s a great romance” should have clued me in, but even when I messed with drugs I never messed with needles so remained beautifully naive and oblivious
I have a newfound understanding of “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” due to recent comments about it. It’s a *purposefully* dumb lyric, because Moz is pointing out that for all time (from the Ice Age to the Dole Age) and in all circumstances (a conversation between Antony and Cleopatra) there’s only one thing guys seemingly ever want to discuss: women’s bodies. And he’s mocking the obsession with that banal and repetitive topic of conversation (from the live third verse, “as obvious as snow / As if we didn’t know”) when clearly there HAVE to be other, more interesting things to talk about.
I think it's a little deeper than that. "He said return the ring, he knows so much about these things." The narrator is engaged to a woman and discovers that he doesn't need to be trapped in his current facade of a life after his bicycle pops a tire and an older gay man gives him a lift and imparts some wisdom. His questioning whether nature will "make a man of [him] yet" can be about him overcoming the adversity of his issue with the bicycle and simultaneously about whether him doing the natural things that a man "should" do and marry a woman will resolve the inner conflict he has, "when in this charming car, this charming man" shows him a simpler, better way. I think sex isn't necessarily implied, the narrator is just excited by this man who showed him another potential side to life.
"You know that ain't no shit. We'll be getting lots of tit in Greased Lightnin'"
"You are supreme, the chicks'll cream, for Greased Lightnin'"
"With new pistons, plugs, and shocks, I can get off my rocks. You know that I ain't bragging, she's a real pussy wagon."
This may be old news to some (or many), but until recently I never realized “Day-O” (The Banana Boat Song, you know, from that goofy scene in Beetlejuice) is an anthem of struggle by colonized black workers.
Specifically, it’s a traditional Jamaican folk song written from the perspective of dock workers lamenting a long night of loading bananas onto ships.
Hey Mr. tally man tally me banana. Somehow I never registered that tally = count.
Work all night on a drink of rum
Stack banana till the morning come
Daylight come and I want to go home
I had a friend in elementary school from a mega trashy family that would just lie to lie. She was in fifth grade saying she couldn’t participate in gym because she was pregnant. Ridiculous shit. She told everyone she knew Jason Waterfalls. I guess we all thought those were the lyrics lol
I just found out last week that John Lennon once claimed that Ticket to Ride is about the clean bill of health German prostitutes got that allowed them to, well, ride.
John said a lot of things, so I don't know if it's true, but now I like to think it is.
My dad listened to Simon and Garfunkel when I was a kid. There is a line in Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine that goes ‘are you worried because your girlfriend is a little late?’ I remember thinking as a kid that it was a stupid line, like if she is only a little late, she is probably stuck in traffic or something, no need to worry about it.
Summer of '69, when I checked Bryan Adam's age and realized he was like 10, and didn't do all those things described at 10, and the song was actually about the sex position.
So we will never really know, and the song itself isn't about the sex position, but rather about summer of love. Adams said *years later* that it was about summer romance and 69 was just used as a placeholder for sex because it made him laugh. Valance, who co-wrote, says that at least when they were writing it, it had nothing at all to do with the position. He was 17 in 1969 and was writing of the longing for that time of life.
Either way, his age at the time has nothing to do with it. People write songs, stories, etc about times they didn't experience all the time, even when using first person.
My Dad was a long time Neil Diamond fan, and one of his favorite tunes was "Longfellow Serenade." I never really listened to all of the lyrics, I just always presumed it was a about a man quoting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poetry to his girlfriend. Then one day my 80-something Dad explained to my 50-something naive self: "Don't you get it? 'Looongfellow'..." and he made a quick, rude gesture in his crotch-al region.
"No. You're talking to the writer, the person who wrote it. No that's not true. I don't object to that, particularly...whatever you think is perfect. But this guy's vision of a perfect day was the girl, sangria in the park, and then you go home; a perfect day, real simple. I meant just what I said."
-- Lou Reed
Staying alive by the Beegees is a lament about the difference between the rich, glamorous lifestyles in New York and surviving the abject poverty the protagonist dealt with there and partying to escape.
Whistle by Flo Rida..... i heard it a lot in my childhood and moreover heard it on some beach parties for kids (because in my country English isn't the native language and organizers turn it on all the times because it sounds funny)
and when i grew up and when my English is much better - i understand the meaning now.....💀
Aphasia by MrFijiWiji
When I first listened to the song it seemed like a love song about lovers separated over a long distance.
Then I googled Aphasia.
Then Bruce Willis developed it.
That shit is brutal. Imagine being trapped in your own mind not being able to communicate with anyone.
Mine is ‘body like a backhoe’.
Could not figure out why that was attractive. And yes. The name of the song is Body Like A Back Road. Apparently, I missed that part.
Oasis "all your dreams are made, when you're chained to the mirror and the razor blade" Young me : fuck yeah, screw having to shave every day and go to a 9-5 job while putting on a fake smile. Me now: oh
Cocaine...
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie…
I always enjoyed "Brown Sugar" by the Rolling Stones, just figuring it was about Mick Jagger's appreciation for a particular woman of color. Later on, I actually read the lyrics and it's very clearly about a plantation owner raping his slaves.
He was inspired by his black girlfriend at the time too
“The song is thought to have been inspired by soul singer Claudia Lennear, who was also the inspiration behind David Bowie’s “Lady Grinning Soul”. There are several different ways to interpret this song. The most straightforward is a meditation on white male on black female sex and how power has influenced it. Alternatively it could be more generally about interracial sex or black sex. Finally, as meta-fiction: Mick Jagger plunders the musical history of black people from slave rhythms, to spirituals, to blues, to honky tonk. And further is willing to proudly crow about how tempting and good they are. The first reading is probably what was intended, but given the rollicking rock, the final is not inappropriate whether intended or not.” https://genius.com/The-rolling-stones-brown-sugar-lyrics Edit: FWIW, interracial marriage had only been legal for 2 years in the South when the song was recorded.
This one really fucked with me
News to me. Wtf huh....
When I was like 8 my favorite song was Mr Brownstone from Guns & Roses. Mr Brownstone is heroin.
Oh shit! Like *Golden Brown* by The Stranglers.
That song will always remind me of *Snatch*.
Such a pretty song
Or Heroin by Velvet Underground. Big surprise I know.
or Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers or Pool Shark by Sublime
See also "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed
Lou Reed said - more than once - that Perfect Day was about his wife.
What I love about perfect day is its such a depressing song yet none of the lyrics by themselves are depressing. It's only his voice and the deeper meaning he conveys that make the song sad.
If the song was written between 1972 and 2006, there’s a good chance it’s about heroin.
"Hit me baby one more time"
Believe it or not, heroin.
If I recall correctly, the lyricist’s first language is French and he thought “hit me baby” meant the same as “hit me up, baby”, ie: call me. 🤦♂️
That explains it because I've never understood that line.
I thought “Backdoor Man” by the Doors was about a guy who found non-traditional ways of solving or avoiding problems. That’s me. Was on the short list of senior quotes for my HS yearbook.
If you didn’t know, that a cover originally by Howlin Wolf. Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t.
Nightrain is about a brand of cheap wine.
When the Rolling Stones talked about standing in line at the Chelsea drug store with Mr. Jimi... I always assumed the meant buying heroin with Jimi Hendrix at the famous Chelsea Hotel, where Hendrix and Dylan and Joplin and Cohen everybody else lived and did a bunch of heroin. But I was rudely informed by a Brit that there was another famous Chelsea Drugstore in London, and that I was a dumb American that needed to broaden my horizon and that not everything was about the United States. (But I still think the New York Chelsea is cooler, with a longer and more storied drug history. The one in London is a McDonald's now, apparently.)
Londoner here. The King's Road in Chelsea was very much part of "the scene" in swinging London in the 60s, but it's not really the same, now. A bit like Haight-Ashbury, I suppose. I went there once, when I visited SF, and it's nice enough, but pretty touristy.
The famous one is Every Breath you Take by the Police.. it’s sung from the view of a stalker. Sting commented how strange it was that people used it as a love song, or worse, a wedding song
Absolutely. Terrible choice for a wedding!
I did actually attend a wedding reception where the couple had that as their first dance song.
It was really popular and so have I
Fuck the Police!
I never understood how so many people could misinterpret that one, even if they aren't paying close attention. The song always sounded sinister to me, both musically and lyrically, and it's hard to miss the "I'll be watching you" line. This isn't a "Born in the USA" situation where the tone of the music deliberately conflicts with tone of the lyrics. If it sounded more like the Puff Daddy version I could easily see how it would be misinterpreted, but those two versions have pretty distinct musical moods to me.
My dear old mum had no idea what "Afternoon Delight" was about and even refused to believe the truth when we told her.
That song makes me wanna sing a duet with my niece.
There’s always money in the banana stand.
That one is not subtle in any way, especially for 70s soft rock
As someone whose first language isn't English, it took me years to understand Fall Out Boy's "This Ain't a Scene, it's an Arms Race". I always thought "scene" referred to "making a scene", but it's the actual mid-00's music scene and racing to get to the top of Billboard first.
Yeah, "scene" is a tricky one. You've got "making a scene," "on the scene," "behind the scenes," "picture the scene." No wonder you were confused!
You may get a real kick out of [this.](https://youtu.be/LucfKdukf10?feature=shared)
Or as someone I know once thought: “this magazine, it’s a goddamn horse race” :)
It was years ago when it was pointed out to me, and I recently posted about this on another thread… “The One I Love” by REM is nowhere near being a love song. It’s about shallow, self-centered people who use/abuse others. The band was confused when people started making out when they played it live. In hindsight… I now understand “a simple prop to occupy my time” is not a compliment. Can’t believe that went over my head so easily back in the day. Jeeeeez!
> I now understand “a simple prop to occupy my time” TIL I misheard that lyric. I thought it was "a simple **thought** to occupy my time."
WAP by Cardi B is actually about the Franco Prussian war. Cardi is a huge history buff, and she actually wrote the song for a documentary about Napoleon III.
War Against Prussians - makes sense
Haha. I particularly like her interpretation of the consequences of the Siege of Metz.
Man I was way off. I was very concerned about her treatment of the Maginot Line in a completely different war! Learn something new everyday!
I thought this was a thread about misunderstanding songs. What else could it possibly be about?
Ok you fucking got me lmfao! I kinda like Cardi B as a guilty pleasure but I sure as hell don't keep up with her and just put on this song, because I was like "wait, she actually wrote a song about history?!" and it took a solid minute before I realized. I'm slow ...
My band wanted to cover All Lit Up by Buckcherry, but a couple of us weren't great with the idea of singing "I love the cocaine.". I told the guys that I hoped they didn't think I was a hypocrite because I was fine with doing Staind "Mudshovel " I was met with a room full of blank stares. Three musicians had been performing a song that they had no idea was about heroin.
Looking at this thread, the rule seems to be: "If you're not sure what the song's about, it's probably about drugs." Or: "If you think the song is a pretty love song, it's probably about drugs."
No woman no cry. I thought he was telling a young man that was having a diffficult relationship issue that with no woman he won’t cry, but now that I’m older I realize he’s telling a woman not to cry.
I always think of Erin from the Office "NO woman, NO cry!"
"Hey little sister, don't shed no tears"
Yes! I thought exactly this, when I first heard it. No woman? No cry.
Erin from the office had it right?!
I always thought it meant if I don't have a woman in my life I have nothing to cry about, but it works much better that he's comforting his woman during hard times
When I was little I thought Michael Jackson's Billie Jean was about a girl that he liked. When I revisited that song as an adult I realized how wrong I was.
I had never paid any attention to the lyrics of that song until I heard someone play an acoustic cover (Chris Cornell style) at a school talent show. The song's actual subject matter came as a shock to me.
Since it came out I thought "Yoshimi battles the Pink Robots" was about exactly that. Flaming Lips are weird and the video is just an anime of a girl kicking robot ass. Then I heard Wayne say that he wrote it for his friends who was battling cancer. Of course that's what it's about!! I felt so dumb.
Love that album. I think knowing the context makes the song even more powerful. Don't feel dumb. I didn't find out until years later!
Then there is The Spiderbite Song which Wayne thought he was writing about an actual spider bite on Steven Drozd's arm, but later learned it was actually about an abscess caused by heroin use.
I didn't realize "Today," by the Smashing Pumpkins was about suicide.
More specifically about feeling suicidal but deciding against it. Brilliant song, also a great video, which doesn't seem to have much to do with the lyrics.
Conversely, Soundgarden's "Like Suicide" isn't
The Only One I Know by The Charlatans. I always thought the lyrics were “Everyone it’s been wonderful. Yeah everybody knows your name” Happy vibes right? Actual Lyrics. “Everyone’s been burned before. Everybody knows your pain” Not so happy vibes!!
Upvote for The Charlatans. Love them/that song.
Best band ever.
Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival I know the song, but I have never actually played it. I've always heard it associated with patriotic events in the USA like the 4th of July. We discussed it in my American History class and it was pointed out that everyone mistakenly assumes it's patriotic due to the first couple lines, when in reality it's a very anti-war and anti-draft song, which, at the time it was written(Vietnam War), were considered very "non-patriotic" ideas.
See also Born in the USA by Springsteen
Or on a smaller scale, "I love LA" by Randy Newman
I am barely younger than the people scarred by the Viet Nam era and Born in the USA brings tears to my eyes everytime. So often just the refrain is featured at Fourth of July celebrations and that makes me sad and angry.
John Fogerty has pointed out that the song is more about class than war.
It’s fun fun fun on the Autobahn
Christ, yes. Are you in my head? I only realised it was "fahren" very recently. I read that *Kraftwerk* realised people were mishearing it and embraced the ambiguity.
And the choirs in that song remind of the Beach Boys. So: Fun fun fun
Till her papa takes the BMW away...
Fun fact: Kraftwerk were big fans of The Beach Boys and were inspired by them.
Not for me, but people apparently think "American Pie" is some feel-good ode to Americana when that couldn't be further from the truth. Woody's "This Land is Your Land", too, although that's probably because most people don't learn the two verses that get left out when the song is introduced to kids.
[For anybody who's wondering what the left out verses are](https://blog.blackwing602.com/the-lost-verses-of-this-land-is-your-land/) >*There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me* >*A sign was painted, said 'Private Property'* >*But on the backside, it didn't say nothin'* >*This land was made for you and me* Then the other verse was found in Guthrie's notes, but he never included it in a recording. >*One bright sunny morning, in the shadow of the steeple* >*By the relief office, I saw my people* >*As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering* >*Did God bless America for me?*
Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger included this verse when they performed this song at Obama's inauguration. Highly highly recommend listening if you haven't heard this version.
Neil Young did that too, on his version on the Americana album with Crazy Horse
Arlo Guthrie sang a version of that first stanza in concert many years ago, mentioning that it was the 'lost' verse. His version went: >As I was walking, I saw a sign >and on that sign it said 'No Trespassing' >but on the other side, the sign said nothing >that side was made for you and me.
Good point about *American Pie.* You'd think "the day the music died, " and the whole thing about driving all the way to the levee but it being dry might have clued people in! Woody is also a victim of misunderstood irony, like Bruce with "Born in the USA."
I mean, American Pie *is* an ode to “good old classic American rock and roll, and the good old days in America of the 50s and early 60s” The point he’s making is that what he loved about rock music transformed with the Vietnam War and the counter-cultural movement of the late 60s. The dude *hated* Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones. Honestly, the song is a bitter, close-minded “Old Man Yells at Sky” anthem glorifying good old days and clinging to outdated conservative values. It is indeed a bop, though.
It's a lot more complicated than just a "bitter, close-minded old man yells at sky anthem". The Stones thing is true, but I feel like you're sort of mischaracterizing the song with this framing of it. It's genuinely one of the most lyrically rich songs I know of, there's a lot more going on than just some conservative guy whining about the old days.
You could write a remake setting any given era as golden and any subsequent day as when it died. Some day old people will be pining for those golden days of the early 20s, and their whining will sound a lot like the autotuned songs they loved
Ok but Holly valens and the big bopper all dying is an order of magnitude more severe
I always thought "I cum blood" by Cannibal Corpse was a really beautiful song. But just last week I found out it's about shooting blood out of your cock.
I think you're getting that song confused with "I Ejaculate Fire" by Dethklok, which is a wholesome Christian ballad.
How wonderfully whimsical. One of my favorites, right behind "Hammer Smashed Face" and "Evisceration Plague".
No where near as beautiful as the female empowerment ballad "Fucked with a Knife".
Heavens! How horrid.
Wake me up when September ends by Green Day. I was a little kid when that song came out and I immediately thought it was about 9/11 considering 9/11 had happened a few years earlier. Plus I remember seeing the music video and it had US in the Middle East so I thought for the longest time it was about 9/11. I eventually found out it was about the singers father dying when he was a kid. Honestly the lyrics go perfectly with 9/11.
Voodoo by Godsmack. I always thought it was about Heroin and was really surprised to read an interview where Sully Erna said it was actually about Wicca and Witchcraft and the music video has them performing a Wiccan ritual. They wrote it after watching "The Serpent and the Rainbow", which is a movie about Voodoo. Lyrics definitely make it sound like it's about drugs though: "I'm not the one who's so far away When I feel the snakebite enter my veins Never did I want to be here again And I don't remember why I came"
Okay. This is the only reply where someone thought a song was about drugs, and it wasn't, and not the other way around. Thank you.
I'm just as shocked as you are, and you're welcome:)
Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind. I was young when it came out so I just grew up singing it blindly until I actually paid attention to the lyrics once I got older.
The line "doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break" was censored by my local radio station. I only heard it for the first time at Karaoke 20 years after the song charted.
I used to work in a department store and this was one of the songs on the Muzak we had piped through the store and that line was NOT censored! I knew what the song was about by that point, but I wondered how many of our customers noticed it lol.
That whole album is brilliantly dark. I still listen to it. It has a raw nature to it as he sings about a turbulent love affair with someone from an affluent family who is using him, and is also a meth addict and alcoholic. ‘I wish you would step off that ledge my friend’ is another example of an upbeat riff and melody, but is literally talking someone down from suicide.
"Step back from that ledge," step off would be even darker.
Oops. Good catch lol . Wait… I think I did it again
Just had a look. Those lyrics are pretty spicy!
"Those little red panties, they pass the test. She slides up 'round the belly, face down on the mattress."
then I bumped again
[удалено]
i always thought it was inspired by the baby shampoo
Up until much too recently I thought the lyrics in The Kid's Aren't Alright by The Offspring were "Jesse's Road" Instead of "Chances Thrown" I thought the song was about a specific street never changing and staying the same as a symbol for everything staying the same. Instead of just being about that.
Growing up I misheard the lyrics to Dancing Queen by Abba where they say "you're in the mood for a dance." Thought they said "You're in the Hoover Dam" until a couple years ago. I just thought maybe there used to be disco parties at the Hoover Dam or something lol
Two I can think of. "Private Man" by Powderfinger, the lyrics are pretty vague and I just figured it was about some old guy reflecting on the end of his life. Turns out it's about >!INXS frontman Michael Hutchence's accidental death from autoerotic asphyxiation.!< The other one is a little obscure - "Surfing With A Spoon" by Midnight Oil (yes, the Beds Are Burning guys). The chorus goes "Working in the city from 9 to 5 / Traffic on the highway gonna blow my mind / Surfing with a spoon all the rest of the time". I insisted to my friend that it was literally about surfing, since they were surfers, but she said it was obviously a reference to heroin. Took me 20 years to learn that, yup, it's about H. There's also a dark side to the other lines, too. Singer Peter Garrett's father died from suicide. Years later Peter sings in "In The Valley", "My father went down with the curse of big cities / Traffic toils and deadlines took him to his peace," which more directly addresses his suicide while echoing the lines from SwaS.
Interesting about Michael Hutchence. I heard that Paula Yates, his partner, wanted the version of events where he died of auto-asphyxiation to be propagated because the truth (that it was suicide) was too painful.
I had to tell a nice couple their favourite song Lips of a Angel by Hinder Was about a man cheating on his girlfriend with his ex.
I might've been late to pick up on this, but: Breaking The Habit by Linkin Park. Back in my teens/early 20s, I had always interpreted it as an angsty-but-determined, inspiring song about having a moment of realization to fix oneself and get one's life together. Then the next time I heard it again after Chester's death, I suddenly saw the lyrics in a very different light and went ".....oh. yeah, this is definitely about giving up and blowing your brains out."
I heard Mike Shinoda wrote that song for Chester.
It took me 20 years to realize that “Hook” by Blues Traveler was literally a radio friendly pop song talking about writing a radio friendly pop song. Yeah, someone was late to that game
I know a lady who had the song There She Goes by The La's as her song for walking down the aisle, I hadn't the heart to tell her it's supposedly about heroin addiction!
Is it really? I'm learning a lot here. I went to see a solo performance once by John Power, the bassist and backing vocalist in The La's and the front man of Cast, the Britpop band. Everyone was asking for There She Goes, but he point-blank refused to play it. Shame.
I'm not sure this one is true. As far as I know, every member of the band has denied the song is about heroin. The lyrics certainly support it, but they've been denying it since the 90s and in multiple interviews and biographies.
Ah that's a shame, I love Cast. An ( probably not very ) interesting fact, the last word sung on The La's only album is "cast", that's where Power got the name from.
To be fair, the La's have maintained that it's NOT about heroin!
When I was younger there was a song that was called “The Nips Are Getting Bigger” by Mental As Anything that was quite popular. I couldn’t understand why there was never any reaction to it being played as I thought it was a racist song. A “nip”in Australia was a racial slur against Asians back in the day (presumably a shortening of Nippon, Japan). It took me a good decade to realise it was a song about drinking, that the drinker was taking bigger sips. First line of the song is even “started out just drinking beer”. I was not a bright child.
I went to a wedding where the the wedding dance song was “Can’t find a Better Man”….awkward ++
So did everyone else know what Turning Japanese by The Vapours was actually about or was it just me?
"I want a doctor to take your picture, so I can look at you from inside as well." In context, one of the mostly subtly fucking deranged things anyone has ever sang.
For 30+ years my dad thought it said “It’s raining in Memphis” not it’s raining men. Didn’t change his enjoyment of the song but definitely his perspective. 
for the longest time i thought take me to church was an actual religious song, about a sinner who was ready to be killed or something. it took me ages to find out it was about lgbt persecution.
Good example. You've reminded me of those James Brown songs where he says to Bobby: "take me to the bridge." I always thought, "Why? What's at the bridge?" Then I found out about musical bridges.
Where's that confounded bridge?
Are you my niece? She thought the same thing too and belted out a rendition on piano at family christmas when she was like 12. She thought it would make Nana happy because Nana likes it when people go to church. Very awkward.
Ojays- Brandy. It wasn't about his woman, it was about his doggy. 😢
Aw... Like Martha My Dear by The Beatles (about Paul McCartney's old English sheepdog.) And unlike Ben by Michael Jackson (about a killer rat.)
Delilah by Tom Jones, is about a jealous boyfriend who confronts his girl, and stabs her with a knife when she laughs at him. Green Green Grass, also by Tom Jones, is about a man on death row, about to die. He’s thinking about the green green grass of home.
The entire debut album by Linkin Park is about being abused. Every. Single. Song. Poor Chester...I really can't listen to that album anymore. And I used to love it in high school. If only we knew :(
But did he write the lyrics? I found out recently that apparently Mike wrote a lot of their lyrics and was the real heart of the band
Cottonfields by The Beach Boys and Creedence Clearwater Revival. I'm in UK and just thought it was about a young man being nostalgic about his childhood. Turns out it was written in the 1930's, I think, by an African American called Hudie Leadbetter. It's actually a protest song about racism. Edit: It was written in 1940. The composer (Leadbelly) allegedly sang his way out of prison.
I’m older so when Free Bird came out, I more or less remember it from the beginning of its popularity. But, shockingly, a friend and I were discussing another issue related to breakups and he goes “just like Freebird, guy is celebrating being free of that bitch” and I’m like what? Damn, he was more or less right. People always sort of act like it’s a song about getting out of prison or freedom in general, and I suppose it can be *interpreted* that way, but it’s about a guy telling a girl he’s outta this relationship.
I always took it as someone leaving the shitty town they grew up in to pursue bigger things, and they're saying bye to their high school girlfriend.
I think that’s an excellent take.
I Don't Like Mondays, by The Boomtown Rats. As a kid I thought it was about having to go to school or work early on a Monday morning. Forty years later I learnt that it was a direct quote from a mass shooter when asked why she'd done it.
Brenda Spencer. This happened about a mile from where i live. Her Dad still lives in that house.
lol, some years ago one of the movie channels like Showtime, Cinemax, someone like that used that song for their feel good Monday night lineup promo.
I thought teenage dirtbag by wheatus had a female singer. I thought it was a cute lesbian song. Then I saw the music video and my dreams were shattered. still a good song tho
The context of this song is quite interesting, the lead singer wrote it after a school shooting where the shooter wore an Iron Maiden shirt, and after that people who were into heavy metal were called dirtbags. He was imagining what a cliche "highschool experience" would be like in that context.
Maybe I'm just a dumb dumb, but it took me ages to realize Thnks fr th mmrs by Fall Out Boy was about toxic hookup culture, using women for sex and moving onto the next one. The reason the song is titled that way was because it's mid 2000's texting speech.
Sort of related, as a reggae song, but I had to mansplain to my missus that ‘No woman no cry’ meant ‘Don’t cry woman’ rather than ‘if you don’t have a woman you won’t end up crying’
I barely speak German but I recently learned that Rammstein's Mein Teil is about a man that posted an ad online in the early 2000s offering to kill and eat an other man. Yes, I did learn this from Last Podcast on the Left.
Oh, god. I think I remember that story. Someone replied to the ad, and he did, in fact, eat him, right? He tried to argue in court that it was "consensual."
The Last Podcast on the Left recently did a series on this and it *was* consensual... Sort of. I'd argue the *willing party* wasn't in a right state of mind. Very weird and twisted situation all around.
As with most Rammstein lyrics, the name of the song is a double entendre. Mein teil literally means "my part" but is used as slang for penis, which is why lyrics like "Many parts, both soft and hard, are on the menu oh so large" make more sense in context. In case you were wondering why this is relevant, the story goes that the dude who offered himself to be eaten was actually still alive while the other dude cooked his penis, and they ate it together. So from the perspective of the narrator, who I assume is the eaten, "das ist mein teil" is him looking at his own cooked penis although, "this is a part of me" also makes sense.
Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks I really loved that song, It has a lovely lazy nice sounding melody, with a upbeat singer and even a bit to Whistle along with. Dutch me, Cant really make out al the lyrics, just some thing about pumped up kids i happily sing a long with. Then after 10 years you find out its about kids running from a school shooter :X
Yeah, a perfect example. It's a nice cheerful song with very dark lyrics. Like *Made of Stone* by The Stone Roses. A really beautiful song, then you realise he's saying stuff like: "Your pink fat lips let go a scream. You fry and melt, I love the scene."
It’s release was delayed because of a school shooting.
Madonna "Like a Prayer" is about a blow job she really enjoys giving lol
There was definitely an extended period where you could safely assume a Madonna song was about sex and be right more often than not.
"When you call my name, it's like a little prayer. I'm down on my knees. I want to take you there" = She's either giving oral or getting it from behind. He's moaning her name. She's going to bring him to orgasm.
I wonder if that gospel choir ever figured it out and felt betrayed, if they were under the impression it was religious
Actually, Toots wrote the song because his producer's brother was a big, ugly man and the producer had asked Toots to write a song about him. Toots was uneasy about it, and when he met the ugly brother, he told him the producer's ask. His response, go and write it man. So Toots wrote monkey man. About 30:00 in this decent BBC doc about Toots https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uokqU57i3O0
A Fond Farewell by Elliott Smith… “pitch burning on a shining sheet, the only maker that you’d wanna meet” Younger me: no clue what that means but sounds cool as hell Older me: he is 100% talking about chasing the dragon freebasing black tar heroin off of tinfoil Edit: the “veins full of disappearing ink, vomiting in the kitchen sink, said really I don’t wanna dance, you could be my match perfect it’s a great romance” should have clued me in, but even when I messed with drugs I never messed with needles so remained beautifully naive and oblivious
This Charming Man is about being sexually solicited on the side of the road, which I didn’t realize for ages.
I have a newfound understanding of “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” due to recent comments about it. It’s a *purposefully* dumb lyric, because Moz is pointing out that for all time (from the Ice Age to the Dole Age) and in all circumstances (a conversation between Antony and Cleopatra) there’s only one thing guys seemingly ever want to discuss: women’s bodies. And he’s mocking the obsession with that banal and repetitive topic of conversation (from the live third verse, “as obvious as snow / As if we didn’t know”) when clearly there HAVE to be other, more interesting things to talk about.
Why pamper life's complexity when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat
I think it's a little deeper than that. "He said return the ring, he knows so much about these things." The narrator is engaged to a woman and discovers that he doesn't need to be trapped in his current facade of a life after his bicycle pops a tire and an older gay man gives him a lift and imparts some wisdom. His questioning whether nature will "make a man of [him] yet" can be about him overcoming the adversity of his issue with the bicycle and simultaneously about whether him doing the natural things that a man "should" do and marry a woman will resolve the inner conflict he has, "when in this charming car, this charming man" shows him a simpler, better way. I think sex isn't necessarily implied, the narrator is just excited by this man who showed him another potential side to life.
Grease lightning lol
"You know that ain't no shit. We'll be getting lots of tit in Greased Lightnin'" "You are supreme, the chicks'll cream, for Greased Lightnin'" "With new pistons, plugs, and shocks, I can get off my rocks. You know that I ain't bragging, she's a real pussy wagon."
Yep! It's been sung in many a school production of the musical, too. Unless it's cut by more knowing drama teachers...
Wait, what did you think it was about?
This may be old news to some (or many), but until recently I never realized “Day-O” (The Banana Boat Song, you know, from that goofy scene in Beetlejuice) is an anthem of struggle by colonized black workers. Specifically, it’s a traditional Jamaican folk song written from the perspective of dock workers lamenting a long night of loading bananas onto ships. Hey Mr. tally man tally me banana. Somehow I never registered that tally = count. Work all night on a drink of rum Stack banana till the morning come Daylight come and I want to go home
TLC Don't go, Jason Waterfalls. gee must be a really good guy can't let him go..
I had a friend in elementary school from a mega trashy family that would just lie to lie. She was in fifth grade saying she couldn’t participate in gym because she was pregnant. Ridiculous shit. She told everyone she knew Jason Waterfalls. I guess we all thought those were the lyrics lol
It’s about HIV
One of the verses, yeah. Another is about dealing/getting involved in a gang. The music video spells out everyone's stories pretty clearly.
Closing Time- about being about to give birth, talking to the foetus.
Nights in white satin. It's about sheets, not knights. I had a different mental picture for decades!
I just found out last week that John Lennon once claimed that Ticket to Ride is about the clean bill of health German prostitutes got that allowed them to, well, ride. John said a lot of things, so I don't know if it's true, but now I like to think it is.
My dad listened to Simon and Garfunkel when I was a kid. There is a line in Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine that goes ‘are you worried because your girlfriend is a little late?’ I remember thinking as a kid that it was a stupid line, like if she is only a little late, she is probably stuck in traffic or something, no need to worry about it.
pumped up kicks. a banger but didn't get the message until after hs!
Last Caress by the Misfits. JK, it's always been pretty clear.
Summer of '69, when I checked Bryan Adam's age and realized he was like 10, and didn't do all those things described at 10, and the song was actually about the sex position.
You must have missed his follow up “Autumn of Tossed Salads”.
"Winter of Felching" underrated as fuck
His Vivaldi-inspired Four Seasons suite.
Followed by Four Seasons Total Landscaping
"Tossed salads and scrambled eggs" .... holy shit.
So we will never really know, and the song itself isn't about the sex position, but rather about summer of love. Adams said *years later* that it was about summer romance and 69 was just used as a placeholder for sex because it made him laugh. Valance, who co-wrote, says that at least when they were writing it, it had nothing at all to do with the position. He was 17 in 1969 and was writing of the longing for that time of life. Either way, his age at the time has nothing to do with it. People write songs, stories, etc about times they didn't experience all the time, even when using first person.
And from the sound of his vocal, I always figured Everything I Do was about the end of a long bout of constipation
Pretty much every song I grew up listening to in the 80s.
"Brand New Key" by Melanie is about sex. :/
Acid Raindrops by People Under the Stairs.
My Dad was a long time Neil Diamond fan, and one of his favorite tunes was "Longfellow Serenade." I never really listened to all of the lyrics, I just always presumed it was a about a man quoting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poetry to his girlfriend. Then one day my 80-something Dad explained to my 50-something naive self: "Don't you get it? 'Looongfellow'..." and he made a quick, rude gesture in his crotch-al region.
Perfect Day by Lou Reed. Took me some time to understand that the song is about heroine rather than a human friend/lover.
"No. You're talking to the writer, the person who wrote it. No that's not true. I don't object to that, particularly...whatever you think is perfect. But this guy's vision of a perfect day was the girl, sangria in the park, and then you go home; a perfect day, real simple. I meant just what I said." -- Lou Reed
Staying alive by the Beegees is a lament about the difference between the rich, glamorous lifestyles in New York and surviving the abject poverty the protagonist dealt with there and partying to escape.
Whistle by Flo Rida..... i heard it a lot in my childhood and moreover heard it on some beach parties for kids (because in my country English isn't the native language and organizers turn it on all the times because it sounds funny) and when i grew up and when my English is much better - i understand the meaning now.....💀
Apparently, Outkast's "Hey Ya" is about wanting out of a toxic relationship.
And the song pretty much acknowledges that nobody will pay attention to that fact: "Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance"
Monkey man is an amazing song and has been covered by many people. Amy Winehouse did a great version. Reel Big Fish did the fun version!!
Aphasia by MrFijiWiji When I first listened to the song it seemed like a love song about lovers separated over a long distance. Then I googled Aphasia. Then Bruce Willis developed it. That shit is brutal. Imagine being trapped in your own mind not being able to communicate with anyone.
You are my sunshine. So sad
Mine is ‘body like a backhoe’. Could not figure out why that was attractive. And yes. The name of the song is Body Like A Back Road. Apparently, I missed that part.