Hidden Meanings in Song Lyrics

[Lisa0315]

So, I am listening to Hootie and the Blowfish right now. The lyrics are, "Everytime I look at you, I go blind", and I think to myself, "WTF? Is he masturbating to porn?"

You know it was only very recently that I realized Cindy Lauper's She-Bop was about masturbation.

Anyone have other lyrics that you think have hidden meanings?

Lisa

[Mediancat]

"I'm stranded all alone at the gas station of love, and I have to use the self-service pump."

Weird Al, One More Minute.

Rob

[Lisa0315]

Oh, GAWD!!! :D

[Joykins]

<insert dissection of American Pie here>

[Christina]

Jackson Browne's "Red Neck Friend" is his dick.

[David B]

I find it hard to interpret both Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day' and The Stranglers 'Golden Brown' as anything other than hymns to heroin:(

David

[darjeeling]

<insert dissection of American Pie here>

Please don't. :(

[Garnet]

ZZ Top's Pearl Necklace. :evil:

[Lisa0315]

ZZ Top's Pearl Necklace. :evil:

Dirty minds think alike! :D

[dancer_rnb]

Don't know how hidden the meaning actually is, but I just looked up Strange Fruit on YouTube for the first time.

[Cath B]

Streets of Kenny (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89SrxcZf4yo) is also supposedly about an attempt to score heroin.

Looking at the lyrics written down it's fairly easy to spot, but I hadn't realised before.


The masterpiece, “Streets of Kenny,” comes right in the middle of the album. Here’s where Head’s addiction problems come into play. “Streets of Kenny” has drugs written all over it, namely heroin. In fact, this song could be The Velvet Underground’s classic “Waiting for the Man” updated for the 1990s. Both deal with the same topic – trying to score heroin. “Streets of Kenny” is anchored by a dirge-sounding drum beat, and then the song explodes into a fury of guitar riffs before coming down. The music is the perfect match to the topic of the song.

From http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/1999/09/07/ArtsFeatures/Beautiful.Lyrics.Place.Shack.Above.Others-16473.shtml

[Goldie]

Green Day - Longview - Lyrics

Bite my lip and close my eyes
Take me away to paradise
I'm so damn bored I'm going BLIND!!!

Not sure that it's hidden....

[Goldie]

Not hidden at all - The DeVinyls

"When I think about you, I touch myself."

[hecaterin]

If you see Kay? Or the newest incarnation, If You Seek Amy...

[David B]

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes

Full of fish and finger pies

David

[Goldie]

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

[Free in Freeport]

How about the Doors' Road House Blues?
"That's for the people who like to go down slow" is pretty in your face.
Then there's the not-quite-intelligible mumbling
You gotta eacha puna
Eacha bop aluba
Eas sum kunk, Yea right!

etc

Sounds pretty suspicious. :evil:

[Goldie]

The House of the Rising Sun -

[David B]

The House of the Rising Sun -

Well the Animals version was a bowdlerised version of the original, in which the meaning was pretty clear.

The use of the herbs in the lyrics of this song is a rather nice traditional way of telling maidens not to get pregnant by folk song, rather than the religious platitudes of the then ruling class.

Also, I love the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwT0COKXFMM

David

[Garnet]

I just looked up the House of the Rising Sun. I knew it was about a brothel. What I didn't know is that it is based on an old folk song. Very interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Rising_Sun

[Joykins]

Country music is full of double entendres if this is what this thread is about.

"...if I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?"

[Goldie]

My Ding a Ling!

That's one that we knew by heart as kids. It was really rather cute.

My Ding-a-ling!
Everybody sing!
I want to play with my ding-a-ling.

(It's a toy...Silver bells hangin' on a string...She told me it was my Ding-a-ling-a-ling... :) )

[Brianna]

I suppose Dirty deeds done dirt cheap is a bit obvious.

[Goldie]

My Milkshake (brings all the boys to the yard)
They're like.... Its better than yours
Damned right, it's better than yours
I could teach you, but I'd have to charge...

[Brianna]

My Milkshake (brings all the boys to the yard)
They're like.... Its better than yours
Damned right, it's better than yours
I could teach you, but I'd have to charge...

ooooooo. Burn. :D

[BWE]

Don't know how hidden the meaning actually is, but I just looked up Strange Fruit on YouTube for the first time.

Not hidden. :p

[Cath B]

[QUOTE=Goldie;13499]

The use of the herbs in the lyrics of this song is a rather nice traditional way of telling maidens not to get pregnant by folk song, rather than the religious platitudes of the then ruling class.

David

If the guy concerned was single, lived locally and was of the same social class pregnancy would I think generally be followed by marriage.

That's what my family history research seems to imply! :D

Entanglements with soldiers or members of the ruling class could cause more problems.

And if the interested party was also your employer it could be hard to say no.

[Moriah Conquering Wind]

Anyone have other lyrics that you think have hidden meanings?
You really don't want to point that loaded question in this direction.... :evil:

Short answer: Yes. Nearly all of them, at least those with significance. The rest don't matter. And Moriah knows the hidden meanings of them all.

[Moriah Conquering Wind]

So far most of what has been discussed in this thread would not be hidden meanings at all.

[Oolon Colluphid]

"Sufficiently obscure to get past censorious radio bosses", then :D

[Lisa0315]

"Sufficiently obscure to get past censorious radio bosses", then :D

Yeah, I should change the thread title. :D

[Oolon Colluphid]

Turning Japanese, obviously.

[Oolon Colluphid]

There's a deep seam of this to mine in David Bowie's pre-1981 output, the obscurantist bastard.

[Brianna]

how about "turn the radio up" :D

[Ronin]

Rock Me Right (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xigwtXcrXBA&NR=1)

Well your stomach starts growling, I know what you need baby

Oh, fix me up something salty and sweet

Oh, now homemade cookin always does the trick

Oh, your cotton aint rotten just needs to be picked

Oh now, your mama sure done raised you right

When it comes to home cookin you eat every bite

Take your sweet time... got all night...

I'm gonna show you how to rock me right

Come on and rock me right...

Oh, rock me right...

Rock me right...

I'm gonna show you how to rock me right

Oh, come on and rock me right lord...

Oh, rock me right now...

Yeah, rock me right...

I'm gonna show you how to rock me right

Show me how you do it darlin...

Show me how you do it baby...

Rock me all night...



:cool:

[Cath B]

Variations in traditional songs can lead not only to to ambiguities but also to changes of meaning to satisfy more sensitive tastes.

Here is an extract from a nineteenth century broadside:-

O, whaur gat ye that bonnie blue bonnet,
O, silly, blind body, canna' ye see;
I gat it frae a bonny Scots callan',
'Atween Saint Johnstone and bonny Dundee.

But in an earlier version from Rabbie Burns collection the gift is a more poetical Scots equivalent of a "bun in the oven".

O, whaur gat ye that hauver-meal bannock?
O, silly blind body, o, dinna ye see?
I gat it frae a brisk sodger laddie,
Atween Saint Johnstone and Bonnie Dundee.

The meaning is subsequently spelt out, and it's good to see a version where the young mother is delighted in her baby.

My blessings upon that sweet wee lippie!
My blessings upon that bonnie ee-brie!
Thy smiles are sae like my blythe sodger laddie,
Thou's aye the dearer and dearer tae me.
And I'll big a bower on yon green bank sae bonnie,
That's lave'd by the waters o' Tay wimplin' clear,
And cleed thee in tartans, my wee smiling Jonnie,
And mak thee a man like your daddie dear.


http://www.carterhaugh.co.uk/lyrics/scotscallan.html

The Cast do a lovely version of this song, but it isn't on youtube.

[Joykins]

I lik Carew's "Rapture (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/carew/rapture.htm)" as a masterpiece of double entendre.