So, I heard this song on Jimmy Kimmel the other night and thought it was catchy. Without considering it any further, I found it on iTunes and bought it. This afternoon, I was listening to it and realized I couldn’t understand the words. So, I looked up the lyrics (found them here).
The video can be found here. I watched it, but it didn’t really help me understand any better.
Now, I’m even more confused. What is this song about?
Well, more than 500 views in 24 hours and not a single reply. I’m thinking The 1975 may not have a hit on their hands. Anyone have any idea what this song is about?
There are references to armed rebellion (or maybe just crime), but other than that…it’s art, man!
I’ve wondered how a song made up of nonsensical lyrics, but fun to listen to musically, would do. Maybe this is that song.
Mary Jane
That’s basically Beck’s entire musical career, isn’t it?
Judging by the music charts of the 1960s, very well.
It’s addiction to something, (“never gonna quit it”) which the Feds and the police are trying to stop them from getting. My first guess would be crack, but I have no idea what crack smells like.
Hashish is sometimes referred to as “chocolate”. Crack smells a bit like burning plastic.
I thought it was about a friend or relative with a drug problem.
Looks like a drug metaphor. Something smokeable. Guns, cops, etc.
I’ll go with the consensus and say “Drugs, man”. Probably more than one - the lyric “you’re never gonna quit it / unless you start smokin’ it” implied, to me, that the speaker in that verse is trying to get the singer off of heroin and onto crack. The whole thing has a weird Velvet Underground-ish vibe to it, which is what is making me think heroin is involved somehow.
I did think to check the Wiki article on the song, but it provided no insight whatsoever as to the meaning of the song.
At the bottom of this page, there’s a video of the writer of the lyrics (I presume) explaining “guns under our petticoats”. Apparently, petticoats symbolize the middle class, and middle class youth is treated suspiciously by authority figures who suspect they’re hiding guns under them. His lyric writing skills are somewhat underwhelming.
I’m old enough that I’m neither ashamed nor proud to admit that I don’t know Beck’s music at all (other than Jeff Beck, but I assume that’s a different animal).
Why is a bustle in my hedgerow just a spring clean for the May queen, and why I shouldn’t I be alarmed?
Here’s a bit of the first verse to his hit song, “Loser:”
That song sure appeals to me musically, but yeah, where in hell do the lyrics come from? Not that it matters a whole lot to me. I’d much rather listen to good music and lousy lyrics than the reverse.
I think it was Alan Freed who calculated, somehow, that his radio audience only needed to understand about 30 percent of the words in a song to connect with it. Bands like Beck and The 1975 seem to be trying reduce that figure significantly.
Yep. Word salad. Beck does it constantly. Cobain did it a lot: A mulatto, An albino, A mosquito, My libido…Yay
Lennon did it best with Walrus…
There’s certainly a rhythmic element to the lyrics of “Chocolate”, but if they’re trying to communicate some kind of meaning as well, they’re not doing a very good job of it.
Well, thanks everyone for reading and listening. I am so glad that it isn’t just me. I thought that maybe the meaning was just so obvious and the symbolism profound, but I was too stupid to get it. I thought that maybe the bit about “guns under our petticoats” referred to some British cultural thing that I wasn’t aware of.
I quite like this song, having heard it in a bar some time ago, and then having looked it up. I couldn’t understand a damn thing until I went and looked up the lyrics, and there are several people on the Internet who think they know what it means. Personally, I think it’s pretty clear that it’s about drugs in some way, but I have no idea what “guns hidden under our petticoats” could mean. Still like the song, but gave up trying to really get any meaning from it.
Chocolate is slang for heroin. “Guns hidden under our petticoats” references heroin syringes, which are commonly called guns. “You’re never going to quit it if you don’t start smoking it” references smoking heroin off of tinfoil (aka chasing the dragon) vs. shooting up, which is more addicting. “My car smells like chocolate” references smoking heroin in the car, which makes the entire car smell like heroin.
Hey, thanks. Welcome to the SDMB.