# Alligator lizards in the air **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 11, 2004, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659 "2004-03-11T06:57:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659/41 "2004-03-15T19:47:20Z")
Man, the phrase **Death Cab for Cutie** was driving me absolutely batshit. Where have I heard it before? Why did I know it?! What the hell was going on?! Then it struck me like lightning! It was on **The Magical Mystery Tour**. Paul was a big fan of the Bonzo Dogs…and they played at the end when the stripper was doing her thing. That had nothing to do with **America** , but I just know how much **gex gex** loves everything to be linked back to the Beatles somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659/42 "2004-03-15T19:58:14Z")
> [@vibrotronica](#): > > Just because it’s on an oldies station doesn’t mean it’s not dreck. No, but if it has survived the test of time, then it’s \* beloved \* dreck. Sure, it’s easy to posture and claim that you’re intellectually above listening to it, but there’s some reason it’s still played. In the case of Horse with No Name, I’m gonna speculate that it’s the very inaneness of the lyrics (along with a catchy tune) that give it its longevity. The lyrics challenge you to come up with some sort of interpretation that doesn’t involve prior brain damage in the lyricist. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659/43 "2004-03-15T20:06:40Z")
If I want to find a monumental collection of stuck-on-themselves stuffed shirts, I’ll know where to go. You people make the dorm “wisdom” of decades past actually seem deep and thought-provoking. So some pop songs aren’t up to the highest standards of e e cummings’s work, so what? Get over it. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659/44 "2004-03-16T12:38:57Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > No, but if it has survived the test of time, then it’s \* beloved \* dreck. Sure, it’s easy to posture and claim that you’re intellectually above listening to it, but there’s some reason it’s still played. In the case of Horse with No Name, I’m gonna speculate that it’s the very inaneness of the lyrics (along with a catchy tune) that give it its longevity. The lyrics challenge you to come up with some sort of interpretation that doesn’t involve prior brain damage in the lyricist. Ah, the old Brain Damage Challenge … I’ll take “Those lyrics were written by someone who had a motorcycle accident compounded with serious LSD use” for a hundred, Bob! Sorry, Jim, it’s actually “Those lyrics were created by someone who hit himself on the head with a ball peen hammer every hour, on the hour, as part of an obscure religious cult.” Brain Damage Challenge – band name, ya think? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659/45 "2004-03-16T13:17:56Z")
I live in Los Angeles and I’ve driven down Ventura Highway, where in fact it is not uncommon to see alligator lizards in the air. They get lifted up in major storms then rain back down on the San Fernando Valley. It happens all the time. Paul Thomas Anderson addressed one such occurence in **Magnolia** except, for the purposes of the film, he decided to change the alligator lizards to frogs because he thought more people would be familiar with frogs. Anyway, if you’ve ever had to clean these fuckers off your windshield you’d agree that they warrant a lyric in a pop song every once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![gschiffman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8baadc/32.png) [@gschiffman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gschiffman)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659/46 "2016-06-20T20:19:38Z")
Alligator Lizards: Dewey Bunnell, the song’s vocalist and writer, has said that the lyric “alligator lizards in the air” in the song is a reference to the shapes of clouds in the sky he saw in 1963 while his family was driving down the coast from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, California where they had a flat tire. While his father changed the tire, he and his brother stood by the side of the road and watched the clouds and saw a road sign for “Ventura”. You can google Alligator Lizards, which are common in California and have an “S” shape. Purple Rain: n. A restless feeling. A non-descript feeling of boredom, restlessness and confinement. A feeling one has when wanting to escape from responsibility (chiefly emotional) by travelling. Sometimes synonymous with ‘wanderlust.’ The desire to travel in order to escape an emotional commitment. “Waiting for the early train, Sorry boy, but I’ve been hit by purple rain.” -America (Ventura Highway). Lyrics Chewing on a piece of grass Walking down the road Tell me, how long you gonna stay here, Joe? Some people say this town don’t look good in snow You don’t care, I know Ventura Highway in the sunshine Where the days are longer The nights are stronger than moonshine You’re gonna go I know ‘Cause the free wind is blowin’ through your hair And the days surround your daylight there Seasons crying no despair Alligator lizards in the air, in the air Did di di di dit … Wishin’ on a falling star Waitin’ for the early train Sorry boy, but I’ve been hit by purple rain Aw, come on, Joe, you can always Change your name Thanks a lot, son, just the same Ventura Highway in the sunshine Where the days are longer The nights are stronger than moonshine You’re gonna go I know ‘Cause the free wind is blowin’ through your hair And the days surround your daylight there Seasons crying no despair Alligator lizards in the air, in the air Did di di di dit … ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659/47 "2016-06-21T00:18:17Z")
When my husband told me those were the lyrics, I thought he was kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659/48 "2016-06-21T00:28:27Z")
As did I when I first read this thread 12 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659/49 "2016-06-21T00:39:01Z")
Agggghhh! ZOMBIE alligator lizards in the air! Too much acid!!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-lizards-in-the-air/233659.md?page=2)