Now explain "All Star"...
February 18, 2020 5:53 PM Subscribe

The Mary Sue asks Which Songs Are Definitely Not About What People Think They’re About? Starting with the not-so-patriotic "Born in the U.S.A.", "American Woman" and "Fortunate Son", moving on to the not-so-romantic "Every Breath You Take", the no-so-religious "Hallelujah" and the not-semi-positive "Semi-Charmed Life" and so on... What songs do you love in spite of or because of the mismatch between their image and their actual lyrics?
posted by oneswellfoop (303 comments total) 46 users marked this as a favorite

People who use Garth Brooks' The Dance as their wedding song are clearly confused.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:10 PM on February 18, 2020 [17 favorites]

Macarena at a wedding or bar mitzva...
posted by sammyo at 6:16 PM on February 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

I was a maid of honour at a wedding where the wedding song was "Every Breath You Take". When the bride told me, I said in horror, "The stalking song?" and she laughed and said cheerfully, "That's right, the stalking song," so I said no more. She is a very controlling and emotionally abusive person who always expected her significant other to spend every waking moment with her and to do whatever she wanted him to do, so even though she was certainly aware of how that song is viewed, she didn't genuinely understand just how disturbing and unhealthy its sentiments are. (No, we're not friends anymore.)

Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" is often regarded as a love song, but actually it's a song about being with a woman who is constantly seeking reassurance and how exhausting the vocalist finds it.

And I gather there are Christians who think Hozier's "Take Me to Church" is a Christian song, and it is... so not.
posted by orange swan at 6:18 PM on February 18, 2020 [34 favorites]

I remember reading an article once about people using Adele's "Someone Like You" at funerals (usually because the deceased loved the song) but boy, what an inappropriate sentiment to play at that moment. Not so much people misunderstanding the lyrics but just not thinking things through...
posted by acidnova at 6:20 PM on February 18, 2020

“Lyin’ Eyes” has such a lovely vibe compared to how bitter (hateful, even) the lyrics are.
posted by sallybrown at 6:23 PM on February 18, 2020 [9 favorites]

I was once at a wedding reception where Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad from Meat Loaf was played as the bride/groom dance song. I was actually horrified.
posted by hippybear at 6:26 PM on February 18, 2020 [40 favorites]

Well...

The night my wife and I got married, we went to the only local club, and, White Wedding came on...

But, She's Like the Wind was the other song I remember from that night. So, which is "your wedding song"?
posted by Windopaene at 6:30 PM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

People use Pur ti miro as a wedding song.

It makes me curious about prenuptial agreements.
posted by clew at 6:30 PM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

Glad they mentioned Lou Reed's Perfect Day. When Susan Boyle's (admittedly freaking gorgeous) version of it came out, the ominous bite of the "you're gonna reap just what you sow" ending really got overlooked. One that I feel like should have been on the list is the Stones' Under my Thumb -- I'm not sure people mistake it as being a love song but holy moly is it an ugly song, especially in contrast to the rather chill and upbeat musical vibe.
posted by treepour at 6:32 PM on February 18, 2020 [17 favorites]

Practically all of Springsteen's Born in the USA is a massive downer, not just the title cut. "I'm on Fire" has this: "Sometimes it's like someone took a knife, baby/ Edgy and dull and cut a six inch valley/ Through the middle of my skull", and "Downbound Train" has one of the most depressing stanzas in music history:

I had a job, I had a girl
I had something going, mister, in this world
I got laid off down at the lumber yard
Our love went bad, times got hard
Now I work down at the car wash
Where all it ever does is rain
Don't you feel like you're a rider on a downbound train

Nebraska usually gets more credit as a downer album--and it is--but Born in the USA's music is brighter and poppier and sort of disguises the despair and ugliness. I love it, of course.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:33 PM on February 18, 2020 [58 favorites]

When Susan Boyle's (admittedly freaking gorgeous) version of it came out, the ominous bite of the "you're gonna reap just what you sow" ending really got overlooked.

Well, Linda Ronstadt skipped the "I met a girl at the Rainbow Bar/She asked me if I'd beat her......" verse in her Zevon cover, too.......

I was once at a wedding reception where Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad from Meat Loaf was played as the bride/groom dance song. I was actually horrified.

Speaking of Zevon, I always thought it would be fun to cause "Looking for The Next Best Thing" to be played at a wedding

I appreciate the best/I'm settling for less
posted by thelonius at 6:40 PM on February 18, 2020 [8 favorites]

A lot of people think American Pie is about pies but really it’s an allegory about baked desserts in general.
posted by dephlogisticated at 6:41 PM on February 18, 2020 [184 favorites]

Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" is often regarded as a love song, but actually it's a song about being with a woman who is constantly seeking reassurance and how exhausting the vocalist finds it.

That’s not how I interpreted the song. The lyrics sound to me like a legitimate love song.

Anyway, the song I’d add is Escape (also known as “The Pina Colada Song”).

The chorus of which sounds like two fun-loving people trying to meet for fun times together, but which really is a terrible song about two terrible people who try to cheat on each other, deriding their significant other as stupid and boring, and then end up meeting each other on a blind date while trying to cheat on each other, and eh, decide to stick together for a while longer.

So, in the end, they’re terrible, terrible people who deserve each other. But by all means, play it at your wedding.
posted by darkstar at 6:42 PM on February 18, 2020 [57 favorites]

I'm kind of shocked that people don't recognize Fortunate Son as being about young men who escaped the draft. One of my favourite not-what-people-think-it's-about songs is Bliss by Th' Dudes, which is an anti-drinking song that became a drinking song.
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 6:43 PM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

In happier news, Smash Mouth's song "Walking on the Sun" is approximately about global climate change.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 6:46 PM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

I always felt like everybody who thought Paula Cole's "Where have all the cowboys gone" was a love song had only listened to the chorus.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 6:48 PM on February 18, 2020 [13 favorites]

Oddly, Happy Together really is supposed to be about, well, being happy together, and not some kind of weird stalkerish thing.

Robert Hazard's original of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is creepy as fuck coming from a bloke.
posted by scruss at 6:48 PM on February 18, 2020 [9 favorites]

As I read these, I'm reminded of how much I don't know pretty much what any songs are ever about. I have this thing where I can hardly ever make out what the lyrics are in songs when I listen, and I think that subconsciously I just run with whatever it feels like. So, when I can make out a few lyrics (like, Born in the USA), my mind is filling in the gaps with the general feel of the song.
posted by SpacemanStix at 6:50 PM on February 18, 2020 [32 favorites]

"Closing Time" by Semi-Sonic (not really about a bar closing)

"Brick" by Ben Folds Five, the FX TV Show "You're the Worst" had a running gag featuring Ben Folds as himself promising people he would tell them what the song was really about, and everyone correctly said abortion. So maybe that one is kind of obvious
posted by inthe80s at 6:55 PM on February 18, 2020 [11 favorites]

Oh, except for most Police songs. I've been pretty surprised to find out that later, it's not what I thought. Not only Every Breath You Take, but also Don't Stand So Close to Me. I have another theory that my habits for interpreting songs were instilled when young, and unless I try to unlearn it, I don't always treat music like a literary piece to be interpreted; say, like a book. Rather I'm feeling it, because there's no other habit there. It also reminds me of times that words may have obvious meanings as I get older if I were to think about it (usually related to politics), but my younger self still somehow controls my limited understanding of it when I first heard it, and I have light-bulb moments later in life that make it seem so obvious if I had re-filtered it through an adult understanding. I think I do this with songs sometimes, and also unhealthy relationship patterns that I grew up with.
posted by SpacemanStix at 6:56 PM on February 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

Build me up Buttercup.
posted by sciencegeek at 6:57 PM on February 18, 2020 [6 favorites]

You periodically hear or hear about children or children's choirs - sometimes at Christian religious events of various types - singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and it makes me extremely uncomfortable.
posted by mhoye at 6:58 PM on February 18, 2020 [29 favorites]

I remember being pretty astonished when I found out the alphabet song is actually about astronomy.
posted by 7segment at 6:59 PM on February 18, 2020 [32 favorites]

but also Don't Stand So Close to Me

"This girl is half his age", "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov", I feel like this one's kind of a gimme.
posted by mhoye at 7:00 PM on February 18, 2020 [39 favorites]

"Closing Time" by Semi-Sonic (not really about a bar closing)

Actually, yes, but also about something else.
posted by BrashTech at 7:00 PM on February 18, 2020 [9 favorites]

I remember being thoroughly disappointed that the Pixies’ Gigantic was... not about a intense and overwhelming innocent love.
posted by zamboni at 7:02 PM on February 18, 2020 [15 favorites]

I'm not a fan of whatever band it is, but I thought that that 'pumped up kicks' song was pretty catchy until my wife told me it was about the Columbine Massacre. It's not as catchy any more.
posted by jwest at 7:06 PM on February 18, 2020 [28 favorites]

You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party is literally true - both the title and everything in it - and people don't think about that enough. It is about what it's about and people forget that. Not me.
posted by bleep at 7:07 PM on February 18, 2020 [54 favorites]

When DFM500 JR was about two, he was into trains. He was really into trains. I made a playlist for him. The first song on the list was the Yardbirds' version of "Train Kept a' Rollin'" I had been listening to it for almost 20 years. It was about trains, it says so right there in the title.

I was listening to it... about the girl, Train Kept a' Rollin'... all night long, all night long... all night long.

It wasn't until after my two year old was listening (and hooked) that I made the realization:

This is not a song about trains.

Call me slow on the uptake.
posted by dfm500 at 7:15 PM on February 18, 2020 [32 favorites]

Someone convinced Lawrence Welk that "One Toke Over the Line, Sweet Jesus" was 'a modern spiritual song' to quote his segue out of that performance on his TV show.
posted by gregoreo at 7:15 PM on February 18, 2020 [24 favorites]

One, With Or Without You - U2
Good Riddance - Green Day
Always - Bon Jovi
November Rain - GNR

Playing these at weddings completely misses the point. My sister had the DJ play "Good Riddance" as the closing song of my wedding. I walked up to her and said "you do realize that song is about breaking up, right?"

God Only Knows by the Beach Boys. Jesus it's fucking creepy when you sit down and think about the lyrics.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:15 PM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

We played Blood Wedding by Oysterband at our wedding. It's so romantic.
posted by jb at 7:20 PM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

I was amused to discover that when Justin Bieber sings "Love Yourself" he actually means "F**k Yourself." It's such an upbeat song, and doesn't sound angry at all.
posted by Umami Dearest at 7:20 PM on February 18, 2020 [5 favorites]

Similar to "Every Breath You Take," I've long thought that a video for Alison Krauss's (w/ Union Station?) "Baby, Now That I've Found You" should just be a continuous shot from the bottom of a well as Buffalo Bill sings it to you.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:22 PM on February 18, 2020 [10 favorites]

I was at a wedding reception with live violinists and they played a beautiful version of Eleanor Rigby for the first dance. My friend and I were looking at each other making faces going wtf?
posted by gemmy at 7:23 PM on February 18, 2020 [15 favorites]

The final twist of "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) was amazing".

Also, I was way too old figuring out the Love Shack was a literal fucking orgy.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:24 PM on February 18, 2020 [16 favorites]

"The Pusher" by Steppenwolf goes both ways... simultaneously condemning the drug dealer and confessing to using drugs.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 7:25 PM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Imagine, if you will, a younger, dumber Ghidorah, sitting with the soon to be Mrs. Ghidorah, trying desperately to come up with a cd of songs to be played at our wedding. That vague playlist I'd built up over the years in my head, the one that would be filled with deeply meaningful songs that captured exactly how I imagined a great wedding playlist would be? That vanished. I couldn't think of a single one of them, and even better, we'd been so distracted by all of the other things that needed our attention, and we were trying to make this playlist at the last minute. We were going through our music, trying to find anything that would be decent background music, but also we needed to have a song playing over our entrance to the banquet hall, and for a couple different occasions. So, I suggested First Love by Utada Hikaru.

The rapid succession of looks on soon-to-be Mrs. Ghidorah's face were hilarious, going from a "my god, you're dumb" to "oh my god, I'm marrying this guy" pretty damn quickly. I said, hey, the song is sayin (in the English parts that I understood) all sorts of romantic stuff like "You are always gonna be the one" and stuff! She explained to me, giant idiot that I am, that the song (which really is awesome) is a breakup song about how the person never got over their first real love, and as such, would be terrible for a wedding.

And that's how, utterly embarrassed and defeated, I gave in, and we entered the reception hall to Coldplay.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:28 PM on February 18, 2020 [23 favorites]

"Hey Ya!" by OutKast is brutal when you listen to the lyrics as well.

It's literally about a couple who have fallen out of love with each other but neither has the courage to end the relationship.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:28 PM on February 18, 2020 [15 favorites]

Oh yeah, Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way” is being used to sell an asthma medication, because the chorus sounds very liberating (you can go your own way!), but it’s really a breakup song.
posted by darkstar at 7:28 PM on February 18, 2020 [9 favorites]

As far as wedding songs, I enjoyed reading an interview with John Darnielle where he talked about the ridiculous number of people that tell him gleefully that No Children was their wedding song.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:29 PM on February 18, 2020 [11 favorites]

I was totally entranced by "Every Breath You Take" when it was new and I was four. My experience of love consisted of my parents and grandparents, at least one of whom was watching me all the time, because that's what you're supposed to do with little kids. So it was many years before I realized that it was a threatening song, and even now I can't help but be calmed by it.

At the same time, I loved "Jolene." Kids, man.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:44 PM on February 18, 2020 [10 favorites]

"The One I Love" by R.E.M.
posted by spilon at 7:45 PM on February 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

"Centerfold" by J Geils Band features the presumption of sexual access and ownership of a woman's body and her image--oh, and also her car--all on the basis of "I sat next to her in school."

Yeah the melody is great but sometimes I wonder if anyone has ever paid any attention to the lyrics.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 7:45 PM on February 18, 2020 [12 favorites]

Well, what kind of an orgy did you think it should be?
posted by gauche at 7:47 PM on February 18, 2020 [10 favorites]

There was just a great post here about her album, so let's savor this being played at a wedding. I once knew someone in a wedding band....
posted by winesong at 7:49 PM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

live violinists and they played a beautiful version of Eleanor Rigby for the first dance

What were they dancing to it?
posted by clew at 7:50 PM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

I nominate "every song by Imagine Dragons"
What people think it's about: the end of the world or something? Maybe as a metaphor?
What it's actually about: Spider Man
posted by Pyry at 7:53 PM on February 18, 2020 [37 favorites]

Kids, man.

My childhood jam was Red, Red Wine by UB40. Kid me would have no concept of drinking your sorrows away.

My best friend is a musical theatre person and when he'd tell me about the songs he was practicing for auditions I'd look them up & they were almost always a weird combo of Super Bleak Lyrics with Super Upbeat Music.
posted by divabat at 7:57 PM on February 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

As far as wedding songs, I enjoyed reading an interview with John Darnielle...

A bit tangential but I have come to realize that if I want a romantic partner to listen to one of my favorite Mountain Goats songs, it should not be me introducing said song. It has never gone well and has always led to some kind of fight. (In retrospect, go figure considering the subject matter and raw emotional intensity of so many Mountain Goats songs!)
posted by treepour at 7:57 PM on February 18, 2020 [5 favorites]

"Hey Ya!" by OutKast is brutal when you listen to the lyrics as well.

What’s more, in the middle of the song there’s the line “Y’all don’t want to hear me, you just want to dance.” After this line it’s just call-and-response and bad instant photo advice, which makes this at least partially a song about people not caring what the song’s about when it’s a banger.
posted by q*ben at 7:58 PM on February 18, 2020 [60 favorites]

I just figure every song is about heroin on some level.
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:00 PM on February 18, 2020 [21 favorites]

One of my favorite David Bowie anecdotes is that, apparently, "Boys keep swinging" was a hit, doing really well...until the promo video came out and made it really, really clear the song is satire.
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:01 PM on February 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

I just figure every song is about heroin on some level.

With one exception.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:01 PM on February 18, 2020 [20 favorites]

I'm pretty convinced Foo Fighters Learn To Fly is about heroin.

I remember reading fairly recently what Beds Are Burning is about, I think aboriginal land restoration? But I don't remember. I had thought it was about global warming for the longest time.
posted by hippybear at 8:02 PM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Many people think "Summer of 69" is about boomer nostalgia or is a sly reference to oral sex, but it's actually about a summer that was exactly 69 days long.

Additionally, there are many people who don't know that "My Heart Will Go On" is based on the story of a heart transplant that Celine Dion read about in People Magazine.
posted by betweenthebars at 8:08 PM on February 18, 2020 [10 favorites]

In a weird subversion of this general trope, "Turning Japanese" is not about masturbation.
posted by capricorn at 8:10 PM on February 18, 2020 [11 favorites]

In a weird subversion of this general trope, "Turning Japanese" is not about masturbation.

That's Blister in the Sun by The Violent Femmes.

I just figure every song is about heroin on some level.

Run to Paradise by The Choirboys. It's basically a pub rock allegory to heroin addiction.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:13 PM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

dj assault's "ass n titties" is actually about the peloponnesian war
posted by poffin boffin at 8:16 PM on February 18, 2020 [106 favorites]

GM's use of "Like a Rock" to sell trucks back in the '90s may have missed the mark a bit.
posted by clawsoon at 8:22 PM on February 18, 2020 [5 favorites]

Someone convinced Lawrence Welk that "One Toke Over the Line, Sweet Jesus" was 'a modern spiritual song'

They weren't completely wrong...
posted by clawsoon at 8:22 PM on February 18, 2020 [6 favorites]

People who play Angel by Sarah McLachlan at funerals.
posted by aclevername at 8:22 PM on February 18, 2020 [5 favorites]

Robert Hazard's original of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is creepy as fuck coming from a bloke.

Oh, there are an absolute ton of these female empowerment anthems that are just yikes to the max in their original male-penned form. The biggest one, of course, is Otis Redding’s original “Respect,” but my favourite (which, while, yes, ew, but also, it honks, so) is the Buck’s Fizz original of “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” It’s the bass. The bass makes it.

(It doesn’t fit the brief, but here’s the original ”No More I Love Yous” because it also honks because bass.)
posted by Sys Rq at 8:24 PM on February 18, 2020 [6 favorites]

People who play Angel by Sarah McLachlan at funerals.

You’ve reminded me of McLachlan’s “Possession”, also on the “every breath you take” end of the love song spectrum.
posted by mhoye at 8:30 PM on February 18, 2020 [6 favorites]

People who play The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as the first dance at their weddings ugh
posted by oulipian at 8:32 PM on February 18, 2020 [22 favorites]

Okay, I'll ask. I did hear that Turning Japanese was about masturbation. If it's not, what's it about?
posted by wittgenstein at 8:34 PM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Not unexpectedly, Trump never made it past Rockin' in the Free World's hook
posted by pullayup at 8:34 PM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

My husband says songs are either about drugs or love and nothing else. Now off to see if the article proves him wrong.
posted by vespabelle at 8:37 PM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

Oh what about all the yobbo Aussies that love Midnight Oil but when it comes to conservation, the social contract, and land rights they become cruel fuckers. They'll sing Blue Sky Mine, Forgotten Years, or Beds are Burning but completely miss the meaning.

Midnight Oil is kind of like Rage Against the Machine in that they are overtly, obviously political and will absolutely not shut up about it. Their lead singer was elected to Cabinet.

I remember reading fairly recently what Beds Are Burning is about, I think aboriginal land restoration? But I don't remember. I had thought it was about global warming for the longest time.

The original is about reparations for indigenous Australians, but there was a reworked version about climate change - it turns out that chorus works for basically any kind of affluent guilt, not just white guilt. (I'm Australian, Beds are Burning is part of my heritage, but it is very white.)
posted by Merus at 8:38 PM on February 18, 2020 [16 favorites]

I'm pretty convinced Foo Fighters Learn To Fly is about heroin.

I've just been thinking it's about suicide but that fits too!
posted by bendy at 8:40 PM on February 18, 2020

(I'm Australian, Beds are Burning is part of my heritage, but it is very white.)

It was all over MTV and music channels and radio in the late 80s both in the US and in Europe (well, maybe just West Germany which was my direct experience)... it felt very present and urgent and it continues to feel thus. It's a great song, really. But it's easy to lose its meaning if you aren't following along closely.
posted by hippybear at 8:41 PM on February 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

My husband says songs are either about drugs or love and nothing else.

Tiny Fish for Japan is about tiny fish for Japan.
posted by clawsoon at 8:42 PM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Okay, I'll ask. I did hear that Turning Japanese was about masturbation. If it's not, what's it about?

It's really not clear, but the band has maintained it's not about masturbation (when asked, they usually say it's a metaphor for angst turning you into something you don't recognise). No-one's really sure, but the explanation I find most plausible is that the cultural stereotype of the Japanese in the 80s was that they were obsessed with taking photos, and the song's protagonist is similarly obsessed with a photo.

This would also explain why the band refused to clarify what it meant. I mean, if you only hit's most famous hook was a short-lived racist stereotype, would you want to remind people?
posted by Merus at 8:50 PM on February 18, 2020 [13 favorites]

When I was younger and my grasp of pop culture (American) vernacular English wasn't the best, I used to be utterly confused by Ace of Base's All That She Wants, because I literally understood "all that she wants is another baby" to be just that, but how does that work if she wants another baby tomorrow? Preteen!me legitimately thought the song was about a kid-napper.
posted by cendawanita at 8:52 PM on February 18, 2020 [20 favorites]

What were they dancing to it?

Everybody get on the floor and do the Sermon No One Will Hear!
posted by thelonius at 8:54 PM on February 18, 2020 [10 favorites]

But it's easy to lose its meaning if you aren't following along closely.

Really? I mean, I don’t mean to be a scoldy-pants, but...really?

The time has come to say fair’s fair
To pay the rent, to pay our share
The time has come, a fact’s a fact
It belongs to them, let’s give it back

They say that four times. It’s most of the song. It’s both the sing-along prechorus and the sing-along bridge. Seems like it’d take a conscious effort to avoid the message, frankly.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:08 PM on February 18, 2020 [25 favorites]

People who play The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as the first dance at their weddings

Wait, what? Why? How is that ever a wedding song? It’s overtly about people drowning in a shipwreck for pete’s sake!
posted by Secret Sparrow at 9:10 PM on February 18, 2020 [21 favorites]

Is this where I get to mention that Bill Clinton should’ve thought his campaign theme through a little more?
posted by Tiny Bungalow at 9:12 PM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

I used to sing my daughter whatever would come to mind, but she is now of the age where she is asking what everything means, so out went Nirvana, Sublime, and a whole bunch of other stuff. We still do Sublime's Boss DJ, since it isn't as obviously about drugs as some others.

I think deniability is key. My mom used to sing/play John Denver to me, and I really believed Rocky Mountain High was only about mountains... "Friends around the campfire and everybody's high"
posted by CostcoCultist at 9:17 PM on February 18, 2020 [5 favorites]

Wait, what? Why? How is that ever a wedding song? It’s overtly about people drowning in a shipwreck for pete’s sake!

Well, hey, at least it’s not “Sundown.”
posted by Sys Rq at 9:18 PM on February 18, 2020 [26 favorites]

People think American Pie is about 60s nostalgia, but it’s most likely about a reactionary who loved the 50s and hated the 60s.
posted by panama joe at 9:38 PM on February 18, 2020 [10 favorites]

I was once at a wedding reception where Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad from Meat Loaf was played as the bride/groom dance song. I was actually horrified.

I recall hearing a that couple I knew had gone with What's Love Got To Do With It? She was visibly pregnant at the time. The 1980s were a strange and difficult universe.
posted by philip-random at 9:46 PM on February 18, 2020 [12 favorites]

I think it'd be a lot of fun to have a playlist for a reception that is only these kinds of songs, and Ironic by Alanis Morrisette.
posted by Merus at 9:55 PM on February 18, 2020 [15 favorites]

A playlist of all these songs, and see who, if anyone, notices.
posted by mogget at 9:58 PM on February 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

Many people think "Summer of 69" is about boomer nostalgia or is a sly reference to oral sex, but it's actually about a summer that was exactly 69 days long.

Bryan Adams disagrees.

"When Adams appeared on The Early Show in 2008, he was asked about "Summer of '69" and its lyrical meaning. Adams said the song was about sex and making love in the summertime. "69" is a reference to the sexual position, 69."
posted by Dysk at 11:27 PM on February 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

Why is it folks always say "Fortunate Son" was about Al Gore? A senator's son, he famously *did* serve in Vietnam, albeit mostly out of harm's way, and at least partly to aid his father's reelection bid.
posted by St. Oops at 11:28 PM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Gangnam Style is a criticism of hip Korean style, not a celebration of it.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 11:42 PM on February 18, 2020 [19 favorites]

Dave Dobbyn’s Loyal, a song unambiguously about the breakup of a relationship featured at two weddings I attended. It was also used in a campaign to stir up national loyalty when several New Zealanders switched to a different country’s Americas Cup team.

That said, this is one of those topics where I subscribe to the idea that “perception is reality”. Just cos something is supposed to be one way, doesn’t necessarily mean the other way is wrong.
posted by Foaf at 12:13 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Not quite in this category but I can't resist saying that I hate "From a Distance", a song that explains how the horror and pain of life on earth can exist alongside a loving omnipotent god by suggesting god is short-sighted and lazy and can't actually see any details at all.

I can't understand how religious people like this song, it implies God is like a drunk babysitter.
posted by BinaryApe at 12:17 AM on February 19, 2020 [38 favorites]

I dunno... First dance at my wedding was Dan Deacon's Crystal Cat, which I think is a song about dancing to Dan Deacon songs.
posted by kaibutsu at 12:27 AM on February 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

Apparently a lot of people tell John Darnielle about how much hope his song Never Quite Free gives them, which is *weird* if you pay any attention at all to the lyrics or read the title of the song
posted by JDHarper at 12:33 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

In the same vibe as "Fortunate Son", everyone for whatever reason says that "For What it's Worth" is about the Kent State massacre, which happened over three years after its release.
posted by St. Oops at 12:39 AM on February 19, 2020 [11 favorites]

Oh, there are an absolute ton of these female empowerment anthems that are just yikes to the max in their original male-penned form.

‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin’’ was written by Lee Hazlewood for himself to sing, but Nancy Sinatra persuaded him that “One of these days these boots / are gonna walk all over you” sounded less terrible coming from a female vocalist.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 12:44 AM on February 19, 2020 [38 favorites]

I'm gonna sort of disagree with the premise that seems to be operating here, which is that what a song is "really" about is determined by its lyrics alone, as if there aren't understood conventions to music that also informs what we take from a song. Take Born in the USA as an example, Springsteen sings the song by adopting a persona of someone who's lived through the mostly depressing events described in the lyrics, but in the music he adopts a triumphant or anthemic acceptance of that life as a "cool rockin daddy in the USA". This creates a tension between the music and lyrics that isn't sufficiently answered by referencing one over the other, but asks instead for the two to be mutually accepted as informing each other.

This could just be claimed as a simple irony, the persona adopted expressing his own bitter awareness of the distance between the chorus and the events of his life, but the music doesn't quite seem to support that with its exuberance, there is no real bitterness in the chorus, it sounds "felt", which gives an alternative possibility where the person relating his life both accepts the bad parts but nonetheless is proud to be born in the USA, which does indeed fit the lives of many who support conservatism despite what it does to their lives.

The song in that sense is more a comment on the disparity than either a condemnation or celebration alone, where those who accept the hard life and still are proud to be "Born in the USA" aren't necessarily wrong in hearing the song fitting that framework, while those who hear it as an ambivalent comment on that tension wouldn't be amiss either. Springsteen changed the way the song is sung for his unplugged album and choose to highlight more of the desperation and implicit bitterness of the ironic counterpointing to make the song read more uniformly.

Or on a simpler note, Centerfold too expresses its own sense of awareness of the hypocritical attitude of the person relating the events which can be heard both in the lyrics as sung by Wolf where he switches from despair over a part of him that's just been ripped to I guess I gotta buy it with a quick light switch in tone, the music's light buoyancy serves to discredit the alleged pain and the back ground singers nyah, nyahing him makes the distance between his "hurt" and reappraisal all suggest hypocrisy, which doesn't necessarily make the song better or less chauvinistic overall, but it isn't quite just able to be understood by scanning the lyrics alone.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:56 AM on February 19, 2020 [49 favorites]

My parents and I LOVE the B-52s and we regularly rocked out to Love Shack whenever possible. My dad thought the Spice Girls were the best when they released their first CD and will still load up Wannabe whenever I come to visit so I can perform it in the living room. Aqua's Barbie Girl and the rest of the songs from Aquarium have tons of innuendo. How my prudish parents let that go blows my mind.

There were two major exceptions: Afternoon Delight, and the Pina Colada song. My parents loathe the lyrics, the meaning behind them, everything. Somehow those were too raunchy and made them really uncomfortable. Amazing.
posted by Kitchen Witch at 1:27 AM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

Apparently 22% of people think that when Meat Loaf sings "I will do anything for love but I won't do that" he means anal.
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 1:50 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

I have to say, I've paid pretty close attention to the lyrics of Cohen's Hallelujah and I find it to be a deeply religious song. It's not a straightforward Christian praise song like some choirs sing it; but because it's deeper than that, and, yeah, definitely written for adults.

Love is not a victory march, it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah.

(Fans of the song should check out a lovely Yiddish rendition; not a literal translation but relevant.)
posted by bertran at 1:55 AM on February 19, 2020 [13 favorites]

Filter's Take a Picture. I remember reading an interview with lead singer Richard Patrick about a bereaved father asking him to sing the song to a photo of his deceased son before a show. The lyrics had taken on a completely different meaning for that man.
posted by bfranklin at 1:57 AM on February 19, 2020

In the 80s I remember being in a club and watching people dance and party down to a song called "19". The lyrics were a man talking about the particular horrors of the Vietnam war, 19 being the average age of a soldier who served (in contrast to the average age of 26 in WWII, according to the song.) The song did have a dance beat, but it was just so weird to see these young adults grooving along to it without a care in the world, seemingly oblivious. Girls holding up their hair all sexy-like, pouting their lips, shaking their asses, guys digging it. Just another club song.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 2:28 AM on February 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" is often regarded as a love song, but actually it's a song about being with a woman who is constantly seeking reassurance and how exhausting the vocalist finds it.

That’s not how I interpreted the song. The lyrics sound to me like a legitimate love song.

You're both wrong
posted by Chaffinch at 2:29 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" is often regarded as a love song, but actually it's a song about being with a woman who is constantly seeking reassurance and how exhausting the vocalist finds it.

No it isn’t. It’s about a man with a very limited vocabulary.

By the way as a professional musician this thread is killing me.
posted by spitbull at 3:28 AM on February 19, 2020 [27 favorites]

In a weird subversion of this general trope, "Turning Japanese" is not about masturbation.

That’s Whitney Houston‘s “The Greatest Love of All.”

“You Are My Sunshine” is really dark.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:32 AM on February 19, 2020 [12 favorites]

Also you don’t know inappropriate until you’ve played “Daddy’s Hands” for the father/daughter dance.
posted by spitbull at 3:32 AM on February 19, 2020 [11 favorites]

spitbull... kilking you in a good way?
posted by kokaku at 3:32 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

masturbation

It took me embarrassingly long to really notice the lyrics to "He's My Best Friend"
posted by thelonius at 3:38 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Killing him softly.
posted by flabdablet at 3:55 AM on February 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

F’ing hell for some reason that song is back and I’ve had to do killing me softly repeatedly in the last few months.

Although at least the chord changes are interesting.
posted by spitbull at 4:01 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

When I was 10 my best friend and I knew every word of Afternoon Delight and did a killer a capella rendition. I do think we vaguely knew what it was about.
posted by Cocodrillo at 4:09 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

"Little Bunny Foo Foo" is totally about scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head.
posted by Cocodrillo at 4:10 AM on February 19, 2020 [38 favorites]

Midnight Oil is kind of like Rage Against the Machine in that they are overtly, obviously political and will absolutely not shut up about it. Their lead singer was elected to Cabinet.

And then his Labor Party made him sell all these compromises that were diametrically opposed to everything he had stood for as an activist, until he quit.

I can't imagine Tom Morello in the US Government, short of there having been a successful Communist revolution.
posted by acb at 4:13 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

The Black Key's "Lonely Boy" is actually about Ed Gein.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:13 AM on February 19, 2020

I though OutKast’s Hey Ya! was just a positive, upbeat ear worm....but then I watched this YouTube explainer and actually it belongs on a loop at the Pepsi bottling plant cause it’s just soda pressing
posted by interogative mood at 4:21 AM on February 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

Yeah, the thing with Hallelujah is there are two big ways of getting it wrong. You can mistake it for a hopeful song. Or you can make the mistake that a lot of people make who grow up around mainstream American Christians, assume that a really religious message has to end up someplace positive, and mistake it for a secular or an anti-religious song, or at least one that's using religious imagery ironically.

The actual point is that it's deeply religious, deeply and painfully pessimistic, completely sincere, and very, very Jewish — which is a religion where devout pessimism set to a hopeful melody isn't a contradiction.
posted by nebulawindphone at 4:33 AM on February 19, 2020 [51 favorites]

“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” is a tune whose lyrics really are dark yet it still turns up at weddings. Check out the end of 45 Years—in that context the song is heartbreaking.
posted by kinnakeet at 4:34 AM on February 19, 2020

It's probably on nobody's playlist, but XTC's Pink Thing — first verse being:

Anytime you rise, I'm here,
And I'm crazy for you pink thing.
You make me want to laugh,
You make me want to cry,
When I stroke your head I feel a hundred heartbeats high,
Pink thing.

— is about the joys of being a new father. No, really.
posted by scruss at 4:40 AM on February 19, 2020 [17 favorites]

This American Life has a story about two people singing “Desperado” at the third wedding of Rufus Wainwright’s father and then realizing live that it sounded like an indictment of him.
posted by little onion at 4:48 AM on February 19, 2020 [12 favorites]

Lots of people think the Divinyls' "I Touch Myself" is about masturbation, and it is.
posted by jackbishop at 5:01 AM on February 19, 2020 [11 favorites]

It’s kind of a jerk move but I’ll admit that I like to amuse myself by asking people I happen to be listening to any random song with (the more absurd the song the better) ‘did you know this song is really about heroin?’. Usually it’s pretty easy for people to believe. I bet I’m even right sometimes.
posted by soy bean at 5:01 AM on February 19, 2020 [15 favorites]

Merus's comment nailed it on Turning Japanese--both in terms of what the band has said publicly and what appears to be the correct interpretation.

Your Childhood Pet Rock: That's Blister in the Sun by The Violent Femmes.

I could have sworn I read somewhere that not even the Violent Femmes know what Blister in the Sun is about, because Gordon Gano was high out of his mind when he wrote it. I can't find this source again, however, so it's possible I made this up.

Relatedly, despite Paul McCartney's recent statements otherwise, I still believe John Lennon on the point that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds wasn't meant to be about LSD. This is mostly because he was never shy about saying which Beatles songs were about drugs (Doctor Robert and Tomorrow Never Knows both were; and both the backwards tape loop section of Rain and the first verse of I Am the Walrus were composed under the influence).
posted by capricorn at 5:03 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

A lot of Leonard Cohen's music is very deeply rooted in Judaism, and yeah, Hallelujah is, but it's also deeply rooted in the nookie.
posted by wellred at 5:10 AM on February 19, 2020 [10 favorites]

I don't know if this is quite the right category (maybe it's more like "this is not what this song is about, but it should be") but I like this take on Gnarls Barkley - Crazy.
posted by smcameron at 5:15 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've always enjoyed the fact that Savoy Truffle is about Eric Clapton's teeth.
posted by valkane at 5:19 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Cue glass shattering sfx as I realize "Can't Smile Without You" was a terrible wedding dance. I blame my (still) husband.
posted by smb0626 at 5:22 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

I still believe John Lennon on the point that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds wasn't meant to be about LSD

No, it was supposed to be about three year old Julian's nursery school drawing. The reason it has such a strong psychedelics vibe is that little kids are tripping all the time. This is why it's so important to be kind to them.
posted by flabdablet at 5:25 AM on February 19, 2020 [28 favorites]

Once went to a wedding with the theme of In the Air Tonight, which is a song about divorce. My table at the reception made merry over that.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:35 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

My aunt and uncle's first dance was Mack the Knife and that's pretty much perfect.
posted by East14thTaco at 5:37 AM on February 19, 2020 [12 favorites]

When I was younger and my grasp of pop culture (American) vernacular English wasn't the best, I used to be utterly confused by Ace of Base's All That She Wants...

Ace of Base is a double whammy too, as their band name and members are almost certainly nazis.
posted by lazaruslong at 5:40 AM on February 19, 2020 [16 favorites]

Primus' Wynona's Big Brown Beaver is really about a porcupine.
posted by fregoli at 5:41 AM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

the Pina Colada song

TBF, this song is about two awful people being awful to each other, in the guise of a love song.
posted by bonehead at 5:42 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

the Pina Colada song

TBF, this song is about two awful people being awful to each other, in the guise of a love song.

An AM radio friendly Babooshka basically
posted by gusottertrout at 5:52 AM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

people believe zeppelin's 'whole lotta love' is about sex, but they frequently underestimate just how much sex it is about. no, more than that. keep going. oh. oh. perhaps you simply cannot comprehend that much sex.

it is a whole lotta sex.
posted by logicpunk at 5:57 AM on February 19, 2020 [15 favorites]

Apparently 22% of people think that when Meat Loaf sings "I will do anything for love but I won't do that" he means anal.

I met two of my best friends in college late at night in the campus diner, when I walked by a table full of loudly-arguing 19-year-olds getting increasingly agitated about the subtextual meaning of "that." (Alcohol may or may not have been involved) Meat Loaf's early works being my forte, I quickly corrected the table's misapprehensions vis-a-vis butt stuff, but I was nearly scoffed out of the diner for my troubles. No not like that

This was before smart phones, so to settle the argument, I paged through the juke box looking for the extended cut of "Anything For Love" so they could hear the last verse (which is inexplicably missing from the trimmed-for-time radio edit, thus making the song indecipherable to your average Meat Load n00b), then deposited my 50 cents to prove my point. As the song rolled into that fateful stanza, I realized my mistake, as the rest of the diner did not seem to appreciate a full 12 minutes of the Loaf, so I had to beat a hasty retreat before the crowd got ugly.

Anyway, Meat Loaf, yeah!
posted by Mayor West at 6:07 AM on February 19, 2020 [16 favorites]

People who play The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as the first dance at their weddings

I maintain The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald should be the first song for everything; weddings, funerals, bar/bat mitsvahs, store openings, kid's birthdays, proms, parades, everything. It is that awesome a ballad.

I'm only half kidding here. It may well be my favorite song ever.
posted by allandsome at 6:08 AM on February 19, 2020 [16 favorites]

the rest of the diner did not seem to appreciate a full 12 minutes of the Loaf

Shoulda stuck with Tom Jones.
posted by flabdablet at 6:19 AM on February 19, 2020 [11 favorites]

Took me way too long to realize that "There She Goes" is about heroin.
posted by SPrintF at 6:25 AM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

Serge Gainsbourg's Les Sucettes. France Gall had no idea what it was about until after she had recorded it.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 6:28 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

"The One I Love" by R.E.M.

I remember in an interview where Michael Stipe was wryly amused because a lot of people played that song at their wedding.
posted by mcmile at 6:33 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

Puff the Magic Dragon, to my huge disappointment, is about neither heroin nor cannabis.
posted by flabdablet at 6:33 AM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

I had no idea about Ace of Base but I will gladly share that fun fact far and wide. If it makes The Sign fall off every karaoke list forever thwt would be a nice bonus.
posted by East14thTaco at 6:41 AM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

Every Breath You Take puzzles me in that I find it hard to imagine anyone thinking:
A) ah, this is a sentiment that must be expressed in song!
B) it calls for a light, upbeat, poppy treatment!
posted by Segundus at 6:45 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Tiny Fish for Japan is about tiny fish for Japan.
posted by clawsoon

And Lies is a sweet song about life and love.
posted by jb at 6:54 AM on February 19, 2020

Fastball's late '90s hit "The Way" is (loosely) based on the true strory of an old couple in Texas with dementia who went for a drive and were never seen again. They got as far as Arkansas and accidentally drove off a cliff.
posted by AgentRocket at 7:15 AM on February 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

Every Breath You Take puzzles me in that I find it hard to imagine anyone thinking:
A) ah, this is a sentiment that must be expressed in song!
B) it calls for a light, upbeat, poppy treatment!

Well I think Sting was getting divorced when he wrote it. And it was crap until it got the guitar part, which is probably what you mean by "light, upbeat, poppy treatment".

believe the guitar players!
posted by thelonius at 7:20 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

All That She Wants always struck a sour chord for me. It seems like they overplayed their hand on that one, where even the poppy, catchy chorus line is really gross and hateful. It’s a defective dog-whistle, audible to humans.
posted by gelfin at 7:20 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

I just figure every song is about heroin on some level.

Except There She Goes!!!

Took me way too long to realize that "There She Goes" is about heroin.

Not about heroin!
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:27 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Iunno, I think interpreting "baby" as "boyfriend" was totally plausible at the time — especially knowing the band were Swedish or whatever and might not phrase things exactly the way a US English speaker would.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:27 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

killing me softly

Oh, god. It's a tangent, but I hate that song so, so much. It just goes on and on and on, and it gets to a couple of places where you're all "Oh, thank god...it's over", and then here comes "STRUMMING MY PAIN WITH HIS FINGERS" again. ARRRGH.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:27 AM on February 19, 2020 [14 favorites]

Every Breath You Take isn't about straight up stalking though, right? Sting meant it to illustrate the concept of synchronicity. It's imagining you have power/control over your lover through some kind of mystical connection, thus sounding to me like obsession metastasizing upon itself. It seems as much caution over excessive obsession as creepy love letter.
posted by blue shadows at 7:27 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

But... But... Here's a video of John Darnielle covering The Sign, which is great, and which I feel obligated to share with all of you about once a year, and I WILL FIGHT YOU.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:30 AM on February 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

The Every Breathe You Take takes are interesting because the lyrics can translate differently depending on who sings it and how, which kinda goes back to why using lyrics alone to say what a song means doesn't work well. Okay, easy for me to say, but you can judge for yourself if this is still the crazy stalker song in any of these versions.

Every Breathe You Take - (Gospel cover) featuring Vonzell Solomon

Every Breathe You Take - Karen Souza

Every Breathe You Take - Postmodern Jukebox

Lyrics are just building blocks to interpretation and expression of meaning, in the case of this song, it is essentially like many love songs with its amplified exaggeration of emotional state, but when the Police did it, they tamped down how the emotional longing was expressed giving the emotions an unbalanced feel to the emotions, which is further emphasized by it being a man singing instead of a woman, lending more of a stalker vibe due to what we bring to the song about male stalker types. The song can feel entirely different given other singers and treatments.
posted by gusottertrout at 7:31 AM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

This American Life has a story about two people singing “Desperado” at the third wedding of Rufus Wainwright’s father and then realizing live that it sounded like an indictment of him.

They could have just done this song his daughter wrote about him, which, if you read the lyrics carefully, is actually about a man who is not very nice
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:31 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

Yeah the melody is great but sometimes I wonder if anyone has ever paid any attention to the lyrics.

Given that he named a serial killer with a penchant for targeting girls after the song/band (depending on the version), I'd have to say that JJBA creator Hirohiko Araki did. (Then again, given that the theming of the various Stands has become "what's currently on his playlist", this isn't that surprising.)
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:40 AM on February 19, 2020

Any love for the poppy and upbeat "we will become silhouettes", about nuclear holocaust?!
posted by meows at 7:40 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

I mentioned this in an AskMe once, but Prince's 1999 is actually about the countdown to nuclear war ("party's over, oops out of time") with some surprisingly dark lyrics: War is all around us, my mind says prepare to fight/so if I gotta die I'm gonna listen to my body tonight

Maybe this was more obvious to the 70s and 80s kids? I grew up in the 90s and as a kid I felt it was an overplayed "woooo new millennium!" song but I love it SO MUCH MORE now that I know what it's about.
posted by castlebravo at 7:41 AM on February 19, 2020 [19 favorites]

Oingo Boingo's "Change" sounds lovingly nostalgic and is... not.

In the vein of transformative covers -

The Sisters of Mercy cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" is pretty fantastic, I was listening to a bootleg and all of a sudden there's Uncle Andy begging Jolene not to take his man. I also do interpret the original as being a love song to Jolene and not competition between two women, because you just don't say someone's name that many times if you're not into them. What's the man's name? No idea, because Jolene is the important one.

Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots" becomes a delightful punk anthem when interpreted by Operation Ivy.
posted by bile and syntax at 7:42 AM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

There's a rumor, which I've enthusiastically spread even though Black Francis denies it, that "Here Comes Your Man" by the Pixies is about the bombing of Nagasaki.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:54 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Maybe this was more obvious to the 70s and 80s kids?

It was not.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:55 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

I always thought Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O'Connor was about giving up smoking. Not sure if that's true or where I got it from. The line "I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant" is probably what did it.
posted by Acey at 7:57 AM on February 19, 2020 [10 favorites]

Maybe this was more obvious to the 70s and 80s kids?

It was for my cohort, the Class of 1990. It was released in 1982, when I was 10, and at that exact age I probably didn't instantly get it but I suspect late-teens and college-aged kids did. At that point, it just as easily meant that the actual year of '99 was SO FAR AWAY who could even imagine being alive then*! And then one day when we were old enough to grasp the concept of dancing while the bombs fall and it wasn't any real epiphany, maybe because songs like 1999 were the ones that built the trope in the first place.

*See also 2020, 2030, and even 2040 which I will very likely live to see. How is that even a year?? There's not even years after that, probably. (Actually...for real probably not, unless maybe it's Thunderdome.)

But there was never a point where I didn't understand "party's over oops out of time". We also pretty easily understood Centerfold, which was maybe my first encounter with "oh...ew" but it was also catchy and pervasive. Songwriters do that stuff on purpose, even in the Extremely Earnest Eighties.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:11 AM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

Ace of Base being Nazis is certainly making me :O and I'm glad I shared my anecdote or else I wouldn't have known.

Now this though:
I think interpreting "baby" as "boyfriend" was totally plausible at the time — especially knowing the band were Swedish or whatever and might not phrase things exactly the way a US English speaker would.

Was totally the story Max Martin gave to explain Hit Me Baby (One More Time). According to him, he thought 'hit' was also American slang for 'to call/phone'.
posted by cendawanita at 8:13 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

Which is true right, if you're talking about 'hitting (someone) up'? But not just 'to hit', right?
posted by cendawanita at 8:14 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

I think interpreting "baby" as "boyfriend" was totally plausible at the time — especially knowing the band were Swedish or whatever and might not phrase things exactly the way a US English speaker would.

There was a Swedish indie band at the same time called Blythe (not famous/obscure) and they have equally unique English phrasing, so it is very plausible.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:16 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Black Sabbath's Paranoid is actually about depression.
posted by MrJM at 8:18 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

It's really not clear, but the band has maintained it's not about masturbation (when asked, they usually say it's a metaphor for angst turning you into something you don't recognise). No-one's really sure, but the explanation I find most plausible is that the cultural stereotype of the Japanese in the 80s was that they were obsessed with taking photos, and the song's protagonist is similarly obsessed with a photo.

This would also explain why the band refused to clarify what it meant. I mean, if you only hit's most famous hook was a short-lived racist stereotype, would you want to remind people?

Turning Japanese is for sure about masturbation. It's based on a very racist joke, which explains why the band would never own up to it.
posted by ThoughtCrimeSpree at 8:22 AM on February 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

Ooo, do "Baby Shark"! What's the hidden meaning there?
posted by eviemath at 8:24 AM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

Yes, Lyn Never, me too. Also class of 1990. I remember thinking right away about what nuclear war would mean, and how exhilaratingly brazen it was to refused to be paralyzed by that thought, but to dance all night instead. It's funny to think that my 11 year old brain went there. The processed kid voice of "mommy, why does everybody have a bomb" seemed like such a delightfully flippant response to what had up to that point only terrified me.

I also remember being taken aback that my music teacher would bring music for adults to our in-class dance party. Or that the other kids would physically pick me and Ana Gomez up and stick us together, mortifyingly making us dance with each other. Just because David Duvall asked us both if we wanted to go with each other, and we said yes, didn't mean we actually wanted to interact face-to-face. But that's a story for another time.

In so many of these cases, commenters are framing these cases as "people think it's about x when it's about y" in a way that precludes that it was written to be both, or purposefully open-ended in a way that would make it possible to imagine a wide range of possible interpretations.
posted by umbú at 8:27 AM on February 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

especially knowing the band were Swedish or whatever and might not phrase things

a-ha kind of ruined/fixed it for everyone with "Take On Me". Probably equal blame can be put on the translated German pop hits of the 80s that flung a lot of English around in random order and still expressed big concepts so it was okay.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:35 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

everyone for whatever reason says that "For What it's Worth" is about the Kent State massacre

Yeah, knowing it's about the Sunset Strip curfew riots kind of makes it seem a bit silly. Not letting underaged kids hang out past ten o'clock in an area known for its drug activity and nightly ODs? (And, it came out later, was rife with sexual predation.) Gosh, how terrible. Let's write a song about the injustice of not letting children have easy access to hard drugs.
posted by LindsayIrene at 8:45 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

trivia: 'Killing Me Softly' was inspired by the guy who wrote 'American Pie'.

more trivia: the guy who wrote the lyrics for 'The Piña Colada song' also wrote the lyrics for 'Timothy', one of few pop songs on theme of caniballism.
posted by ovvl at 8:50 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

the Pina Colada song

TBF, this song is about two awful people being awful to each other, in the guise of a love song.

I mean, maybe. Or maybe it's about two people who finally discover the problem in their relationship is a lack of open communication about their needs and desires, and now that they know they don't have to cheat after all.
posted by dnash at 8:54 AM on February 19, 2020 [19 favorites]

Speaking of David Bowie, if you only heard the final refrain of "I'm Afraid of Americans" you'd possibly come away with a completely wrong idea about the meaning of the song. As it is I'm wondering how it hasn't been co-opted as a maga-ite anthem.
posted by fuse theorem at 8:54 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Discussion of nuclear war imagery in music reminds me of what may be my favorite example of this phenomenon: the popular Christmas song “Do You Hear What I Hear” was written in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. ‘A star dancing in the night with a tail as big as a kite’ refers to both a nuclear missile and the star of Bethleham; ‘a song high above the trees with a voice as big as the sea’ describes both a shockwave and a worldwide call for the end of war.
posted by soy bean at 8:55 AM on February 19, 2020 [10 favorites]

I mentioned this in an AskMe once, but Prince's 1999 is actually about the countdown to nuclear war ("party's over, oops out of time") with some surprisingly dark lyrics: War is all around us, my mind says prepare to fight/so if I gotta die I'm gonna listen to my body tonight

posted by castlebravo at 9:41 on February 1

Very apropos.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:56 AM on February 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

Surprised that no one's mentioned Timbuk 3's "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades". The band was totally taking the piss out of 80s cool bro, master-of-the-universe culture, but the same people that they were making fun of adopted it as their anthem.

also, that Cracked article about Ace of Base is just a whole lot of horseshit. The only real thing in there was that one of their members used to be in a neo-Nazi band, which he's acknowledged and denounced.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:58 AM on February 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

which is a religion where devout pessimism set to a hopeful melody isn't a contradiction.

well, I certainly end up feeling more pessimistic about everything every time I hear it. Please, everybody, everywhere. Just. Stop. It.

The man has other songs.
posted by philip-random at 9:04 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm surprised that I'm first to mention Gwen Stefani's "The Sweet Escape". Despite its catchy hook and glittery, summer pop vibe, it's an apology for being terrible, while wishing she could be better for her partner:

If I could escape, I would, but first of all, let me say
I must apologize for acting stank and treating you this way
'Cause I've been acting like sour milk all on the floor
It's your fault, you didn't shut the refrigerator
Maybe that's the reason I've been acting so cold

If I could escape and recreate a place that's my own world
And I could be your favorite girl, perfectly together
And tell me boy, now wouldn't that be sweet, if I could be sweet?
I know I've been a real bad girl, I'll try to change
I didn't mean for you to get hurt, whatsoever
We can make it better, and tell me boy, now wouldn't that be sweet?

My wife pointed this out to me, and it was so striking to her that she recorded her own version that better aligns the music with the lyrics.
posted by LooseFilter at 9:07 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

"Hey Ya!" by OutKast is brutal when you listen to the lyrics as well.

(The Obadiah Parker cover of "Hey Ya" is a similar resetting to better match lyrics & music.)
posted by LooseFilter at 9:10 AM on February 19, 2020

Ooo, do "Baby Shark"! What's the hidden meaning there?

Immanentizing the eschaton, obviously.
posted by solotoro at 9:16 AM on February 19, 2020 [14 favorites]

People who play The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as the first dance at their weddings ugh

When my little brother and I shared a room (so he was probably 3 or 4), my dad burned him a CD of ship and train songs to listen to while he fell asleep. And that is why I think of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as a lullaby.
posted by ChuraChura at 9:17 AM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

Prince's 1999 is actually about the countdown to nuclear war ("party's over, oops out of time")

It was a pretty common motif at the time. 99 Luftballons was the year after. Wargames was the same year. The early 80s Regan period was not very optimistic.
posted by bonehead at 9:32 AM on February 19, 2020 [17 favorites]

I always thought Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O'Connor

Nothing Compares 2 U was written and composed by Prince. Sinead O’Connor‘s version was a cover.
posted by interogative mood at 9:42 AM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

Many people do not realize that "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" is not about hiking.
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:45 AM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

The band was totally taking the piss out of 80s cool bro, master-of-the-universe culture, but the same people that they were making fun of adopted it as their anthem.

Fifty thou a year will buy a lot of beer.
posted by tclark at 9:47 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

Same kind of thing happened with Valley Girl.
posted by flabdablet at 9:50 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

My bff played and quoted a Lil Ugly Mane song, "Bitch I'm Lugubrious" at his wedding, the quote adapted to be more wedding-friendly so that you'd only know if you knew. "Turn my heart into gooey shit" is about the best spin-around for a threat to shoot someone's face into gooey shit I've heard!
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:57 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

You know sometimes these misunderstandings work for the better....
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:01 AM on February 19, 2020

I always interpreted “Here Comes Your Man” as about capital punishment.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:07 AM on February 19, 2020

But apparently it’s about hobos and earthquakes. Who knew?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:09 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Twas a fun evening when I had to explain why Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" might be a bit inappropriate in a playlist for a Grad Alumni evening event.

(Its about a kid shooting up his school)
posted by Snuffman at 10:11 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Maybe this was more obvious to the 70s and 80s kids?

I grew up on SAC bases - the nuclear bombers were literally in my back yard. The idea that the world could be vaporized in the next 90 seconds was sort of background noise to life. Nobody that I knew obsessed about it or even talked about it - you just went on with daily life and partied like it was 1999; because it might be.
posted by COD at 10:15 AM on February 19, 2020 [10 favorites]

Ah, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, I have a weird sentimentality for a certain weak-tea shitty misinterpretation of it.

The last time I was ever together with both my parents before my birth family exploded into 100% mutual estrangement was xmas 2013ish. We were watching a CBC special featuring the Four Tenors, or the Canadian Tenors, or the Tenors, or whatever the fuck they were then.

The Tenors covered Hallelujah in the usual way, as a horseshit generic spiritual feel-good superficially reverent christian worshippy song, and they excised all the spicy bits.

they suuuuuuuuuuuucked.

Their cover was not interpretation, it was vandalism. It was like that Happy Days Hallowe'en special where a mad scientist removed all of Fonzie's cool, creating the annoying Dougie.

And everyone in my family agreed on this! Those trifling sonsabitches were hardly through the first verse when we all started talking shit about them.

My birth family is better off exploded but I will forever treasure those final moments of scornful togetherness. Sometimes I will watch the tenors (briefly) on youtube while remembing the sour look on my dad's face. Thank you, idiot tenors, for being the surprise source of an actual no-shit christmas miracle.
posted by Sauce Trough at 10:24 AM on February 19, 2020 [17 favorites]

With the 1999 discourse, the funny thing is that the album version includes a loop of kid voices asking, "Mom / why does everybody have the bomb?" but that's not on the single, and it changes the complexion of the song pretty drastically.

Can't believe no one's addressed the shocking fact that "Purple Haze" isn't about Hendrix asking for a moment's pardon so that he can kiss this guy.
posted by COBRA! at 10:26 AM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

...or the equally shocking fact that CCR's "Bad Moon Rising" is somehow not about telling you that there's a bathroom on the right.
posted by COBRA! at 10:27 AM on February 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

Oh don't get me started about "Bingo Jed had a light on" by the Steve Miller Band
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:31 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

This is misinterpreted lyrics. Mondegreens are down the hall.
posted by holborne at 10:32 AM on February 19, 2020 [35 favorites]

As I read these, I'm reminded of how much I don't know pretty much what any songs are ever about. I have this thing where I can hardly ever make out what the lyrics are in songs when I listen, and I think that subconsciously I just run with whatever it feels like. So, when I can make out a few lyrics (like, Born in the USA), my mind is filling in the gaps with the general feel of the song.

I suspect a big part of the reason I enjoy French rap is because I don't know very much French.
posted by srboisvert at 10:33 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

Yeah, not matter how logical and rational we may think we are, at our core we're emotional beings. One of the powers of music is that it touches us on those emotional beats.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:35 AM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Amazing as it may be to some, Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” does not make me proud to be an American.
posted by TedW at 10:46 AM on February 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

Kenny Rogers' The Gambler is about masturbation. I mean, just a few examples from the lyrics:

"Train bound for nowhere" cf. "Train Kept a' Rollin" except there is only a caboose, if you see what I'm saying
"Crushed out his cigarette and faded off to sleep" Could the imagery be clearer?
"Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em" The conflict being being horny af and having to wait until you're in an appropriate location to attend to your needs

I think the fact that Rogers opened a fried chicken restaurant chain is the final word on this subject. In this paper
posted by maxwelton at 10:50 AM on February 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

Okie from Muskogee, Merle Haggard

For an epic analysis of the song and the context check out the Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast episode:
https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/merle-haggard-okie-from-muskogee
posted by cron at 10:54 AM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

I think that I use the same part of my brain to process music and language, which makes it very hard for me to notice the semantic meaning of song lyrics while they're being sung. I get caught up in the musical texture and totally lose access to the text. Even if I concentrate on the words it takes a lot of effort to figure out what they mean. So I have a lot of these misunderstood songs.

For example, the aforementioned Ace of Base "All That She Wants Is Another Baby." I have never heard a native English speaker use the word "baby" to mean "romantic partner" except in the vocative case ("love you, baby"). Which is very strange, since English mostly doesn't have noun case distinctions. I thought until a couple years ago that it was a catchy nonsense song about wanting a second child, and I found its popularity baffling.

I was at the beginning of a breakup when I first noticed the lyrics to Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." The cover I was listening to was totally relaxed and cheerful, with the barest hint of regret but without any malice or anger --- like the breakup I was hoping to have, not like any breakup I had ever heard of. I was driving. I had to pull the car over to cry.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 11:06 AM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

The god of "Dear God" is not dear at all
posted by Sauce Trough at 11:06 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

When Lana Del Rey covered "Heart Shaped Box", Courtney Love tweeted her "you do know the song is about my Vagina right?"
posted by agentofselection at 11:13 AM on February 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

Courtney Love tweeted

Christ, I read the comments
posted by thelonius at 11:18 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/merle-haggard-okie-from-muskogee
It doesn't count as irony if you play it 100% straight and then say that people missed your meaning, and then play it to an audience of Green Berets about "burning draft cards and being free" and send them cheering.

Not only that, ingroups vs outgroups most definitely includes categories of drugs (illegal and not) and clothing, and if you don't realize that, then you don't get to tell the rest of us what is satire and that we are mis-interpreting songs incorrectly. In other words, Okie from Muskogee is about what it is about.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:22 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Ooo, do "Baby Shark"! What's the hidden meaning there?
posted by eviemath

Shark embryos will eat each other in the womb until just one is left. That last shark sings a happy song.
posted by Splunge at 11:22 AM on February 19, 2020 [12 favorites]

I have never heard a native English speaker use the word "baby" to mean "romantic partner"

I made my baby cry
He tried hard to help me
You know, he put me at ease
And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
posted by oulipian at 11:23 AM on February 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

For the most part I am successful in refraining, when someone is happily rocking out to Brown Sugar, from saying “You know this is about slave rape, right?” I did say it once but the person was a real asshole so I’m not sorry. Okay I’m a little sorry. They looked so crestfallen.
posted by HotToddy at 11:26 AM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

Ooo, do "Baby Shark"! What's the hidden meaning there?

I was staying at a party hostel in Máncora, and the bar DJ put on a dance mix of Baby Shark. WTF?? I mean, not even a real shark would do that. They're predators, not total monsters.
posted by panama joe at 11:30 AM on February 19, 2020

This is reading like some sort of ideal 'form' of a MeFi thread.. equal parts train wreck, cute-takes, kernels of startling information.. a gift that keeps on punishing and giving.
posted by elkevelvet at 11:36 AM on February 19, 2020 [16 favorites]

There's also a song by Tool that sounds like a Hitler rally but is actually a recipe for cookies without eggs.
posted by bile and syntax at 11:38 AM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

Brown Sugar, from saying “You know this is about slave rape, right?” I did say it once but the person was a real asshole so I’m not sorry. Okay I’m a little sorry. They looked so crestfallen.

not just slave rape ... according to the wiki

"Brown Sugar"'s popularity indeed often overshadowed its scandalous lyrics, which were essentially a pastiche of a number of taboo subjects, including slavery, rape, interracial sex, cunnilingus, sadomasochism, lost virginity and heroin.[14]
posted by philip-random at 11:40 AM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

I've always felt uncomfortable about joyously dancing to Oblivion by Grimes, since its about being violently assaulted, but I think that tension is part of the genius of the song.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 11:41 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

There's also a song by Tool that sounds like a Hitler rally but is actually a recipe for cookies without eggs.

All Tool songs sound like angry new age music.
posted by antimony at 11:41 AM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

You guys know what Macbeth and Othello are “about,” right?
posted by spitbull at 11:53 AM on February 19, 2020

A now-closed Native American Casino used to license the song "Spirit in the Sky" for their TV and radio commercials (a line from the chorus only).
posted by tilde at 11:55 AM on February 19, 2020

METAFILTER: like angry new age music.
posted by philip-random at 12:03 PM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

Metafilter: essentially a pastiche of a number of taboo subjects
posted by hanov3r at 12:06 PM on February 19, 2020 [14 favorites]

Amazing as it may be to some, Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” does not make me proud to be an American.

Apparently I am a tangent machine today, because you just reminded me a of a thing. See, last year Mrs. Example and I went to visit her parents in their retirement community in Florida. On one of our last nights there, we attended a country-and-western-themed sort of concert/talent show at the community center.

The entire evening closed with, no word of a lie, every single person in the audience standing up, joining hands, and singing "God Bless the USA". (I stood out in the lobby, having been warned beforehand.) It was deeply creepy in any case, but even more so for us because we'd spent the last decade-plus out of the country and thus not being steeped in the performative patriotism that's so much of the background music of America.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:22 PM on February 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

Prince's 1999 is actually about the countdown to nuclear war ("party's over, oops out of time")

It was a pretty common motif at the time. 99 Luftballons was the year after. Wargames was the same year. The early 80s Regan period was not very optimistic.

Ultravox - Dancing with Tears in my Eyes being the classic if you are not American (where it strangely had little success).
posted by srboisvert at 12:26 PM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

What were they dancing to it?
A slow dance, swaying too and fro. It was weird....

We weren't really there for the reception. We just happened to be working, prepping for a conference, in a board room that also opened into the reception room. So it was made all the more weird by it being strangers getting married.
posted by gemmy at 12:30 PM on February 19, 2020

Can't believe no one's addressed the shocking fact that "Purple Haze" isn't about Hendrix asking for a moment's pardon so that he can kiss this guy.

It's Twenty Twenty and we now hear the request for a moment's pardon as "axe cues me"
posted by srboisvert at 12:33 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

People who play The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as the first dance at their weddings

Lightfoot is a great singer/songwriter but...it is important to remember his life was a mess, he hit women and wrote and sang about it. So if you love some of his songs you'd probably do well to dig into them a bit because many come from darkness.
posted by srboisvert at 12:43 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

The "romantic" standard "More Than Words" by Extreme is, in my ears, just a guy trying to guilt his reluctant girl into sleeping with him.

Upon a closer listening to the "cheery" tune "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves, I find it to be really depressing. She's deluded herself into thinking this dude is going to finally send her a letter when he's obviously abandoned her.

And I've always found the song "Fire," when sung by Bruce Springsteen instead of the Pointer Sisters, to be uber creepy.
posted by cross_impact at 12:59 PM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

I can't find a link, but I read an article once claiming that the lyrical clumsiness of so many Swedish-penned pop songs stems from the relative English fluency of so many Swedes, who nonetheless are not native speakers and are less embarrassed by clunky phrasing forced into rhythmic hooks. Seems legit.
posted by St. Oops at 1:00 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

I can't find a link, but I read an article once claiming that the lyrical clumsiness of so many Swedish-penned pop songs stems from the relative English fluency of so many Swedes, who nonetheless are not native speakers and are less embarrassed by clunky phrasing forced into rhythmic hooks. Seems legit.

I can buy this, seeing a lot of the same patterns and tendencies (though often subtly differently expressed) with English-language lyrics by Danish artists.
posted by Dysk at 1:01 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

I've always assumed that "Closing Time" is more or less conflating being kicked out of a bar with being kicked out of the womb, otherwise the line about "until your brothers or your sisters come" doesn't make sense. Is it supposed to be something else?

That's it exactly; there was a recent Song Exploder on it, where Dan Wilson, Semisonic's lead singer/ songwriter provided a number of other interesting tidbits, including that he wrote it after his bandmates asked for a new song to close their sets with and that he was in a phase where every lyric had to have a double meaning to be deep, man. While they were writing and recording the song, his wife gave birth 3 months prematurely to their first child, who spent an entire year in the hospital.

The day his daughter could come home from the hospital, the ambulance driver recognized Dan from Semisonic, and said that just before they had got in the ambulance, the radio had played the band's new single. Their record label had released Closing Time as a single that same day.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 1:23 PM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

Baby Shark is a jammin’ polka and you can act out being sharks of various sizes while you do it. Plausibly a one-step, in which animal representations are common.
posted by clew at 2:02 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

I always got a chuckle out of Apple using The Pixies’ Gigantic in an iPhone commercial. Though, I have to think everyone involved actually knew what the song was about.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:13 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

I wonder if the ad agency that put Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit in a cruise lines commercial considered what the lyrics are about.
posted by jvbthegolfer at 2:17 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Can't recommend Homeboy Trouble's Song Exploder link enough. It got right dusty in here.
posted by sjswitzer at 2:22 PM on February 19, 2020

I always interpreted “Here Comes Your Man” as about capital punishment.

That was the song I walked in to at my wedding!

(my wife walked down the aisle to the wedding march from The Sound of Music)
posted by nickmark at 2:27 PM on February 19, 2020

Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" is often regarded as a love song, but actually it's a song about being with a woman who is constantly seeking reassurance and how exhausting the vocalist finds it.

Wow, I really find that read on it a stretch. I mean, the lyrics don't support that. She only asks once, and then she asks him if he feels OK, and he's tired because "it's time to go home" and he's drunk ("I give her the car keys"). It seems pretty definitely a song of mutual love.

everyone for whatever reason says that "For What it's Worth" is about the Kent State massacre

I'm confused because CSNY did record a song about Kent State, bit it's actually Ohio. If you know people who think that about FWIW perhaps they are just mixing the two up, both
posted by Miko at 2:34 PM on February 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

Puff the Magic Dragon, to my huge disappointment, is about neither heroin nor cannabis.

Huh, Hank was right
posted by chrisulonic at 2:37 PM on February 19, 2020

https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/merle-haggard-okie-from-muskogee
It doesn't count as irony if you play it 100% straight and then say that people missed your meaning, and then play it to an audience of Green Berets about "burning draft cards and being free" and send them cheering.

Not only that, ingroups vs outgroups most definitely includes categories of drugs (illegal and not) and clothing, and if you don't realize that, then you don't get to tell the rest of us what is satire and that we are mis-interpreting songs incorrectly. In other words, Okie from Muskogee is about what it is about.

Well I'm not sure that the meaning of the song has anything to do with this kind of gatekeeping about who 'gets to tell who' what. The great thing about the analysis on Cocaine and Rhinestones is the examination of the historical context, a close textual analysis of the lyrics, the history of the Okies and the language used about them and attitudes toward them, and Merle Haggard's other songs and narrative techniques.

It's one thing to criticize the way Haggard used the song once he understood how it appealed to different audiences. It's another thing altogether to suggest that the song means something that it doesn't.
posted by cron at 2:44 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

It's one thing to criticize the way Haggard used the song once he understood how it appealed to different audiences. It's another thing altogether to suggest that the song means something that it doesn't.

Of course gatekeeping (who gets to say and do what) matters. We are dealing with its effects today. And Haggard has said in plenty of interviews it is about what is about to whit:
"Haggard told The Boot that he wrote the song after he became disheartened watching Vietnam War protests and incorporated that emotion and viewpoint into song. Haggard says, "When I was in prison, I knew what it was like to have freedom taken away. Freedom is everything. During Vietnam, there were all kinds of protests. Here were these [servicemen] going over there and dying for a cause—we don't even know what it was really all about. And here are these young kids, that were free, bitching about it...We were in a wonderful time in America, and music was in a wonderful place. America was at its peak, and what the hell did these kids have to complain about?"
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:55 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

I knew this topic was perfect MeFi comment fodder when I posted it.
But I was more aware than most people of the true meanings behind song lyrics ever since I started trying to break into radio at the time Harry Chapin's "WOLD" spent 15 minutes on the hit charts; he was considered the master of the "story song" and his meanings were seldom camouflaged (except for his novelty piece "30,000 Pounds of Bananas", which was a statement on agricultural mass production disguised as a runaway truck song).

And I was aware of the mix of song storytelling, irony and cruel humor hidden behind the very pop-music-friendly voice that was Rupert Holmes 4 years and 3 albums before "Pina Colada". His first two albums included "Our National Pastime", a pick-up song to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner, "Second Saxophone", about a frustrated musician who by the end of the song reveals himself as very bad at the sax, "Brass Knuckles", a 'noir' song whose protagonist is killed at the end, and many more oddities. By the time he got his big hit, he had narrowed his focus to romantic ironies (one follow-up single, "Answering Machine", was a technological upgrade of his previous "Letters that Cross in the Mail"), and used that way to getting into writing for Broadway musicals.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:58 PM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

Lee Mavers insists that There she goes (pulsing through my veins, racing through my brain) is not about heroin. He tried it once and didn't like it. Or something.
posted by farlukar at 3:11 PM on February 19, 2020

I wonder if the ad agency that put Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit in a cruise lines commercial considered what the lyrics are about.

Remember when a major cruise line used Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” in their ads?

Or, hell, you know how “Margaritaville” — about a drunken asshole gradually coming to realize he’s a drunken asshole while marooned among a bunch of dumb old tourists in Florida — is now a chain of resorts for dumb old tourists in Florida?
posted by Sys Rq at 3:16 PM on February 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

there was a beer commercial in Canada in the eighties that had a hideous cover of "Piece of My Heart."

"You're inattentive but I'm codependent, drink beer" is a weirdness.

_{The commercial climaxed with a slow-mo spray of water over some cottage partiers as not-Janis shrieked that woooooooooawwwww at the end of the chorus. that hideous yowl will be with me to the grave.}
posted by Sauce Trough at 3:27 PM on February 19, 2020

Mercedes used Janis Joplins song for a commercial more than once.
posted by lkc at 3:29 PM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

It's been my experience that advertisers use songs in ads as much for the associations folks have for the song, the cultural identifiers, the generational signifiers and the feels as they do for the lyrics. Same, i assume for those who choose wedding dance songs and funeral songs.
Deep dives into lyrics are only for a subset of pop-culture consumers, not necessarily for every toe tapper/head bobber that happens to like a song.
posted by OHenryPacey at 3:34 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Thank you, idiot tenors, for being the surprise source of an actual no-shit christmas miracle.

So last year as my wife and I were driving to my parents' house for Christmas, I was sleeping as she drove. Christmas music was playing on the radio. A song came on as I woke up, telling the story of a kid who walks into an alley and sees Santa Clause; the song then transitions into the chorus which is from that tediously famous singing-hippies Coke commercial.

The song went on like this; see Santa, then Coke ad.

Eventually, I opened my eyes and pulled out my phone to Shazam the stupid thing. And sure enough, it was The Idiot Tenors.

My wife said, "I'm glad you're awake. Didn't the start of that song sound like..."

"Batman," we said in unison.

So yes, the Tenors are agents of family togetherness.
posted by suetanvil at 3:44 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

You're So Vain lyrics say 'You probably think this song is about you' implying it isn't, but I suspect it really is.
posted by Marticus at 4:19 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

As another '80s kid with nuclear anxiety, I knew at the time that "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes," "99 Luftballoons," and "1999" referenced nuclear war ... but I only recently learned that Modern English's "I Melt with You" was actually about it too. All those movie montages where it's used as a straightforward love song (or later, to illustrate melting cheese in a commercial) kinda obscured that.
posted by lisa g at 4:20 PM on February 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

I wonder if the ad agency that put Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit in a cruise lines commercial considered what the lyrics are about.

Remember when a major cruise line used Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” in their ads?

Remember when McDonalds used The Shins “New Slang” in their commercials?

The song literally contains the line “the dirt in your fries”.
posted by chainsofreedom at 4:21 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

I understand that no one is misinterpreting "Put a Ring on It", but for the life of me, I don't understand why any woman could she the song as anything short of insulting to women.
posted by she's not there at 4:23 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

I remember driving in my car a little while ago and hearing I Want Candy on the radio, and actually listening to the lyrics for the first time as an adult. The first thought through my head was "Wow, this song is the horniest song ever" and the second was having a flashback to remembering hearing it in ads for kids stuff when I was little. Needless to say, I was immediately skeeved right the heck out.
posted by Zalzidrax at 4:55 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

For example, the aforementioned Ace of Base "All That She Wants Is Another Baby." I have never heard a native English speaker use the word "baby" to mean "romantic partner" except in the vocative case ("love you, baby").

Baby Got Back? Everybody Loves My Baby? My Baby Just Cares For Me? Probably it's just dated as the latter two are jazz standards...
posted by BungaDunga at 5:11 PM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

Once I had a friend post on FB "I love the optimism of Float On by Modest Mouse."

I guess optimism is one word for it.
posted by wildblueyonder at 5:23 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Of course gatekeeping (who gets to say and do what) matters. We are dealing with its effects today. And Haggard has said in plenty of interviews it is about what is about to whit:

I gotta come in and defend cron here. If you listen to the Cocaine and Rhinestones episode, which is nothing short of a dissertation on the topic, it's just not possible to come back with "But Haggard said in an interview..." Because part of the dissection in that episode - and the focus of the entire podcast - is that country music storytellers are always and ever unreliable narrators, who contradicted themselves through forgetfulness, addled-ness, and conscious and unconscious efforts to stoke their own myths. That's what makes it wonderful listening - it's interrogation of the text all the way down, by someone knowledgeable enough to call BS.
posted by Miko at 5:35 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Wait, what? Why? How is that ever a wedding song? It’s overtly about people drowning in a shipwreck for pete’s sake!

Well, hey, at least it’s not “Sundown.”

It's my recollection that if you listen closely, all Gordon Lightfoot songs fall into 1 of to categories:
1. Songs involving a ship sinking
2. Songs involving infidelity in some way
posted by some loser at 5:37 PM on February 19, 2020

As opposed to Springsteen, who writes
a) the song about the girl
b) the song about the car
c) the song about the girl in the car

Float On by Modest Mouse
takes me back to the Another Round podcast (RIP) and Heben mocking the opening lines as peak white boy privilege:
I backed my car into a cop car the other day
Well, he just drove off - sometimes life's okay
posted by Flannery Culp at 5:49 PM on February 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

MetaFilter: where devout pessimism set to a hopeful melody isn't a contradiction
posted by kirkaracha at 6:24 PM on February 19, 2020

My husband says songs are either about drugs or love and nothing else. Now off to see if the article proves him wrong.

Boxing
posted by thelonius at 6:30 PM on February 19, 2020

My husband says songs are either about drugs or love and nothing else.

Oops, he spelled "fucking" wrong.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:37 PM on February 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Coming late to the party, but what the hell..

It's very interesting to hear 'Fortunate Son' in the context of a video game: Bioshock Infinite

For those who haven't played the game, this song is sung by a girl in the slums of what apparently seemed like paradise. When you first arrive to the city, everything is clean, everything is bright and you hear of the many virtues of the city, its citizens and its founder. Later, as it often happens in this kind of dystopia, you see that the clean front is built on lots and lots of dirt.

I won't spoil the whole game (you should try it at least once) but at least give this cover a try. The style alone is enough to make one stop and think about what the lyrics actually say.
posted by andycyca at 6:51 PM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

Kinda disappointed no one here mentioned me and my wife having Tom Waits "Christmas Card From A Hooker in Minneapolis" as our first dance. Oh wait, the title doesn't really leave much room for misinterpretation.
posted by toddforbid at 7:11 PM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

“You Are My Sunshine” was mentioned midway down the thread, and I just have to mention it again because it’s the lullaby my mom always sang to me. And she’s a codependent mess so it seems fitting to me now, knowing all the words the lullaby leaves out:

I’ll always love you and make you happy
If you will only say the same
But if you leave me to love another
You’ll regret it all some day
...
You told me once dear, you really loved me
And no one else dear, could come between
But now you’ve left me and love another
You have shattered all my dreams
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 8:02 PM on February 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

CSNY did record a song about Kent State
But "For What It's Worth" was recorded by Buffalo Springfield (OK, yeah, same difference). Wikipedia confirms that it's a common misconception.
posted by St. Oops at 9:18 PM on February 19, 2020

everybody knows For What It's Worth concerns the riots on Sunset Strip.

don't they?
posted by philip-random at 9:34 PM on February 19, 2020

I know we've seen that Loudon isn't the best person, and this song proves it, but, I've asked that it be played at my funeral.
posted by valkane at 10:06 PM on February 19, 2020

I recall reading or being told that "For What It's Worth" was about the Century City antiwar demonstration which happened in LA about not long after the Sunset Strip curfew riots. But I see that demonstration occurred in June 1967, several months after For What It's Worth was released in Dec 1966.
posted by JonJacky at 10:30 PM on February 19, 2020

I watched episode 2 of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, and they did I Wanna Dance With Somebody, and really made it about Loneliness. Whitney Houston's version is much cheerier.

My hearing impairment was not diagnosed until I was 40, have never been able to understand lyrics, so this is all enlightening.
posted by theora55 at 10:52 PM on February 19, 2020

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as a wedding dance?

It's not just the lyrics, it has a pretty fast beat. What kind of dance step would you do? I imagine couples just rocking back and forth but basically staying in the same place.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 11:10 PM on February 19, 2020

I'm pretty sure that James Brown's "Mother Popcorn" is not actually about mothers or popcorn, but rather refers to some sort of dance step. But who can tell, really?

Ya got to have a mother for me...
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 11:22 PM on February 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Wow, 200-plus comments in.. one of the most popular songs in country music, "Independence Day," celebrated as a patriotic anthem, but really about a woman escaping domestic violence by burning down her home with her husband inside.

Written by the stellar Gretchen Peters (a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame), and popularized by Martina McBride.

When my brother graduated high school (1996) his class chose Independence Day to be sung at the commencement ceremony. Not a group of country fans, they were declaring their independence from school. I was a country fan, and spent that portion of the ceremony in the audience with my head in my hands.

On another note, I sing "You Are My Sunshine" to my toddler. But only the first verse so hopefully not on my way to becoming a codependent mess? Maybe I need to come up with a different song.
posted by weathergal at 1:56 AM on February 20, 2020

For example, the aforementioned Ace of Base "All That She Wants Is Another Baby." I have never heard a native English speaker use the word "baby" to mean "romantic partner" except in the vocative case ("love you, baby").

Be My Baby by The Ronettes

Which is very strange, since English mostly doesn't have noun case distinctions. I thought until a couple years ago that it was a catchy nonsense song about wanting a second child, and I found its popularity baffling.

While the horrible Heart song All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You sounds very romantic until you realize it is about a woman sleeping with a man for the sole purpose of getting pregnant (unbeknownst to him) since her own lover is apparently sterile. Then she brings the kid around a couple of years later and informs him of what she did, and the song implies that she wants him to knock her up again. So she really does just want another baby.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 2:55 AM on February 20, 2020

For example, the aforementioned Ace of Base "All That She Wants Is Another Baby." I have never heard a native English speaker use the word "baby" to mean "romantic partner" except in the vocative case ("love you, baby").

Pretty sure Ace of Base are using "baby" to mean child, not partner. It's a pretty odious song.
posted by Dysk at 3:55 AM on February 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

It’s about a big ass.

I have no idea which comment this is a reply to. Maybe all of them?
posted by Cardinal Fang at 4:27 AM on February 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

Pretty sure Ace of Base are using "baby" to mean child, not partner. It's a pretty odious song.

It's a song about a woman who ditches work for a day of sunning herself on the beach and picking up a guy for a "night of passion," possibly by professing a romantic interest she does not feel. The band, for some reason, feels compelled to warn her target that she is only looking for a one night stand and that she will be gone in the morning, presumably to temper his expectations so he won't take it seriously and get hurt. Nothing about the song suggests her intent is either maternal or criminal.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:44 AM on February 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

It's ambiguous, where baby can mean both a man she has an affair with and a child. The song supports either depending on how you want to hear it. There's a sternness to the singing that suggests an importance to the warning that might just be of the Hall and Oates Maneater sort, but then with the opening of the song being about how the woman is comfortable skipping her responsibilities, or at least work, one can hold that image as important, where the desire is to have a baby for the support and to continue avoiding work. The man in that scenario is being used for his potential support of her lifestyle after getting her pregnant and being dumped.

That the song begins with that imagery provides a bridge for connecting the ideas of wanting another "baby" and her lifestyle, but doesn't insist on it. The way the song is sung suggests the warning is important, which an unexpected one night stand might fit for some men only looking for commitment, but could also be seen as excessive in its condemnation for men who would have no problem with a quick hook up without commitment. One doesn't have to choose as the song can be heard as supporting either or both possibilities, where "baby" means a man and a child alternatively as a way where both options are potentially true.

The Britney Spears version is less ambiguous, where the "she" is singing in first person and giving complaint about the man she is with, wanting another in his place. And the music/singing is changed to suit that perspective.
posted by gusottertrout at 7:09 AM on February 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

Mansun - An Open Letter To The Lyrical Trainspotter is actually about the allegorical interpretations of a woman named Mavis and her opinion of her local vicar. No really, it's the theme of the album.
posted by Eleven at 7:22 AM on February 20, 2020

I assume that anyone who believes All That She Wants is about an actual baby also subscribes to the Actual Viking theory, and can safely be ignored.
posted by zamboni at 7:57 AM on February 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

I assume that anyone who believes All That She Wants is about an actual baby also subscribes to the Actual Viking theory, and can safely be ignored.

What exactly is the Actual Viking theory?

(Also, the early 90s Scandinavian context in which the song was produced gives credence to the literal interpretation - it was a time of much public hand-wringing about the supposed issue and saw the introduction of significant restrictions on the welfare available to single mothers as a result.)
posted by Dysk at 8:20 AM on February 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

The thing is, there is no "true" answer to be had. There is only the lyrics and the music or images and sounds or words on a page. There isn't anything else but that and how those elements make you respond once you give them full attention. The demand for "an" answer is just weird, like it somehow makes a song better to think of it as Courtney Love's Vagina instead of Heart Shaped Box. Curt Kobain, for whatever reason, chose to write Heart Shaped Box in those terms and his personal associations to the words remain his and are likely multifaceted as the song and lived history of the kind we all have suggest.

All That She Wants can be about a women who uses and disposes of men, a woman who wants to live on the dole, or a woman hoping to get away from her current man and find another who she will then move in with and laze about among other possibilities. There is no ultimate answer as the song doesn't provide one and doesn't need to, having an open set of possibilities is what art does and why the search for one right answer misses the purpose of the arts.
posted by gusottertrout at 8:34 AM on February 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

the early 90s Scandinavian context in which the song was produced gives credence to the literal interpretation

... the unasked decades-long validation i never looked for!
posted by cendawanita at 8:47 AM on February 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

What exactly is the Actual Viking theory?

Back in the mysterious days of 2007, all we had to argue about on Mefi was whether a cartoon character thought he was a literal or metaphorical Viking.
posted by zamboni at 8:52 AM on February 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

I have never heard a native English speaker use the word "baby" to mean "romantic partner" except in the vocative case ("love you, baby").

Been around the world, and ai-yi-yi, I can't find my baby.

My baby and I like to sing this song sometimes. We find that it is a lot more enjoyable if you think of the baby in it as a human infant. Where'd she lose the baby? Maybe she left it in Spokane! Maybe Dunedin. Maybe Rome. Could be anywhere: she's been around the world.
posted by Don Pepino at 9:08 AM on February 20, 2020 [13 favorites]

Another Mountain Goats song: Romans 10:9 from The Life of the World to Come.

"...It's been really, really amusing to see, you know, you can tell how hard somebody listens to a song depending on how they feel about this one, right. This is a new song; it's called 'Romans 10:9'. Some people think that it's a devout expression of faith in the benevolent God. Um, I'm taking it those people just heard the chorus and skipped the part about the guy whose mind is, is contracting on himself and who is grasping in the darkness for some small sign of hope and pretending to himself in the chorus that he's been able to find it instead of just ambling through..."

Although honestly, I feel like sometimes a little cheerful self-delusion is the proper response.

And jumping on the nuclear war bandwagon, Every Day is Like Sunday, my favorite Morrissey song. The lyrics are pretty clear but it's easy to miss on a casual listen.
posted by dgr8bob at 9:49 AM on February 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have never heard a native English speaker use the word "baby" to mean "romantic partner" except in the vocative case ("love you, baby").

My Baby Does the Hanky Panky
Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby
Baby Got Back
Too Busy Thinking About My Baby

Not going to go on as examples are way too numerous to mention.
posted by Miko at 10:00 AM on February 20, 2020

While testifying before Congress Dee Snider clarified that the song "Under the Blade" was not about BDSM (as Tipper Gore asserted) but was about a surgical procedure. "I can't help it if Ms. Gore has a dirty mind."

During the same proceedings (this is when the PMRC wanted to put warning labels on music) John Denver lamented that many people interpreted "Rocky Mountain High" as being about getting high on drugs when he sincerely meant loving the natural world while up high in the mountains. (of course he may have said this to stop radio stations from banning the song from airplay.)
posted by Patadave at 10:10 AM on February 20, 2020

And then, of course, there are some songs which start with no meaning, but end up laden with nefarious coded messages thanks to a combination of paranoia and industriousness, such as The Kingsmen's “Louie Louie”.
posted by acb at 10:30 AM on February 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

Back during the previous election season, someone released a very clever cover/remix of Fortunate Son with a chorus of "yo no soy". The video alternated scenes of the band singing with a little girl dragging a Trump pinata around the street before shoving it in a trash can.

I wanted to post a link the video, but couldn't track it down.
posted by yohko at 12:36 PM on February 20, 2020

acb: “The Kingsmen's “Louie Louie””

Famously — or should I say previously — "Unintelligible at any speed."
posted by ob1quixote at 1:47 PM on February 20, 2020

bfranklin: "Filter's Take a Picture. I remember reading an interview with lead singer Richard Patrick about a bereaved father asking him to sing the song to a photo of his deceased son before a show. The lyrics had taken on a completely different meaning for that man."

Must have been a real weird vibe for Patrick given the vaguely inspirational lyrics are actually about the time he got black-out drunk on an airplane and stripped naked and started fighting with the flight attendants.
posted by Rhaomi at 7:08 PM on February 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

solotoro: Immanentizing the eschaton, obviously.

why yes, I too watched the 2019 World Series
posted by capricorn at 7:12 PM on February 20, 2020

I understand that no one is misinterpreting "Put a Ring on It", but for the life of me, I don't understand why any woman could she the song as anything short of insulting to women.

Are you white? I'm white and had a hard time for a bit with getting why Beyoncé was seen as a feminist for singing about... marrying a man and having kids, since I'm white and an anti-assimilationist lesbian. Then I thought about it a bit more and realized that looking through the lens of black women's experiences made all the difference because of the ways black women are so often devalued and treated as disposable (something I really relate to as a queer person tbh) and that "put a ring on it" is, in that context, all about her valuing herself as a person, valuing her sexuality, and being able to make clear what she is ultimately looking for. That context is everything, and while there's definitely stuff by Beyoncé that is just too straight to be meaningful for me and certainly her relationship with Jay-Z hasn't been perfect, the feminism of her work is unquestionable. I'd suggest giving it another go from this perspective, it makes all the difference.
posted by bile and syntax at 6:16 AM on February 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I don't know anyone else who listens to Parker Millsap, so I don't know if it actually gets misinterpreted or not, but I imagine that if one simply heard Truck Stop Gospel on the radio, without the context of the rest of the album it is on (such as his version of Old Time Religion) or some of his other work (eg. Heaven Sent, which has a similar theme to Hozier's "Take Me to Church"), that one would come away with a very different understanding of the song.
posted by eviemath at 2:23 PM on February 21, 2020

The Beatles' "Please Please Me" is a pretty pointed plea for oral sex, to my ears at least.
posted by wabbittwax at 2:34 PM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I remember hearing “Please Please Me” as a teen and thinking that I must just have a dirty mind, that they couldn’t possibly have given it airtime and sung it for those young audiences if it was what it sounded like to me. Howsomever.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:44 PM on February 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

The early Beatles songs are, from a lyrical point of view, pretty terrible. A half-hearted defense would be that most pop songs of the era were and they were just going with that. But they were still pretty terrible. (And I say that as someone who will gladly stan for them.)
posted by sjswitzer at 3:30 PM on February 21, 2020

I suppose we all know what Tutti Frutti was about?
posted by sjswitzer at 3:37 PM on February 21, 2020

I suppose we all know what Tutti Frutti was about?

It depends on who you ask.

Pat Boone: ice cream

Little Richard: fucking
posted by kirkaracha at 4:01 PM on February 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Came for the lulz, stayed for the exceptional critical analysis by gusottertrout.
posted by hilaryjade at 6:12 PM on February 22, 2020

→ Where'd she lose the baby? Maybe she left it in Spokane! Maybe Dunedin. Maybe Rome …

I think the late Caroline Aherne provided the best deconstruction of Lisa Stansfield lyrics.
posted by scruss at 7:51 AM on February 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

They didn't intend it but "All star" is about climate change
posted by The Whelk at 2:09 PM on February 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

> but also Don't Stand So Close to Me

"This girl is half his age", "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov", I feel like this one's kind of a gimme.

Oh yeah, it totally is, when you pay attention to all the lyrics. Or if you have any idea who Nabokov is when you are 6. For me, this was definitely one of those "catchy lyric" songs that was a bug-eyed eye-opening experience when I slowed down and started to pay attention. And got past high school. "Don't stand so close to me" has a totally different semantic filter depending on whether you are primarily worried about cooties versus adult predators.
posted by SpacemanStix at 7:07 PM on March 5, 2020

that was a bug-eyed eye-opening experience when I slowed down and started to pay attention

Well yeah, and that's because he set you up. Sting cheated. A-fucking-gain.

That lyric is the most annoying cheatiest cheat of all Sting lyrics, surpassing even the huge cowflops of irritating bullshit in Synchronicity or, god help us, "Dream of the blue turtles" or whatever the fuck it was oh my god Sting gets on my last nerve.

"That book by Nabokov," as if anybody knows any other goddamn book by Nabokov. What? Pnin? Please.

As if anybody in history has referred to Lolita by its author's name rather than by its titular character's name.

Sting needs to learn but never will learn to kill his babies.
posted by Don Pepino at 7:00 AM on March 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

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