# Deconstructing songs I don't understand. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 10, 2002, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859 "2002-04-10T16:46:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/1 "2002-04-10T16:46:07Z")
After listening to Spandau Ballet’s True and Earth Wind and Fire’s Reasons many, many times, I find that I cannot make heads or tails of what these songs are trying to say. Here is my attempt to take these songs apart and glean the True and deep Reasons. **True** > [@](#): > > \*So true, funny how it seems > always in time but never in line for dreams > Head over heels and toe to toe > This is the sound of my soul > I bought a ticket to the world > but now I’ve come back again. > Why do I find it hard to write the next line > Oh, I want the truth to be said - After trying sanity and being dissapointed by it, the singer discovers he likes to fight and listen to Soul II Soul while writing lyrics. This distracts him. > [@](#): > > \*With a thrill in my head and a pill on my tongue > dissove the nerves that have just begun > Listen to Marvin all night long > This is the sound of my soul. - So he (the singer) turns to Marvin Gaye and drugs-- yet he still hears the club music. > [@](#): > > \*Always slipping from my hands, > sand’s of time on it’s own > Take your seaside arms and write the next line > Oh, I want the truth to be known - You (the listener) need to bathe and finish doing your homework because time is short. My conclusion: People who listen to this song need to take a bath, listen to some R&B and do drugs. **Reasons** > [@](#): > > \*Now, I’m craving your body: Is this real? > Temperature’s rising, I don’t wanna feel > I’m in the wrong place to be real. > I’m longing to love you just for a night > Kissing and hugging and holding you tight > Please let me love you with all of my might. - I want to have sex with you. > [@](#): > > \*Reasons, the reasons that we are here. > The reasons that we fear our feelings wont disappear - I’m afraid I’ll be horny forever. > [@](#): > > \*Oh, after the love game has been played. > All our illusions are just a parade. > And all our reasons start to fade. - After we have sex, let’s go down to 5th Ave and watch the St. Paddy’s day parade. > [@](#): > > \*And, in the morning when I rise > no longer feeling hypnotised. > I find my reasons, my reasons, my reasons > Have no pride. - Do you wake up with morning wood? > [@](#): > > \*After all the reasons why > All the reasons were a lie. > After all the reasons, love was pushed aside - Can’t we just have sex? My conclusion: I want to have sex with you, then I want you to go away after we watch the parade. I dunno. These songs seemed so much deeper before. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/2 "2002-04-10T16:55:09Z")
I think it’s “Head over heels _when_ toe to toe,” and while I don’t understand the song any better for that information, I’ve always admired the courage of any writer, song or otherwise, to put down on paper the line, “Why do I find it hard to write the next line?” I think it’s about a guy who’s in love but doesn’t want to say the words, even though he wants to tell the truth about how he feels. ---
**Author:** ![auntie\_em](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/3 "2002-04-10T17:09:37Z")
Slight hijack: I took my E W & F album for Show and Tell in kindergarten, and played _Reasons_ for my class. My teacher must not have understood it either, because she only played the first verse before she took the needle off the record, handed it back to me, and never let me Show and Tell again. ☹ Now, with all due apologies for not being able to help you, **Big Girl** , I’d like to throw another song into the Deconstruction Mix for your consideration, one that’s been driving me crazy for years… > [@](#): > > Waiting for the break of day > Searching for something to say > Flashing lights against the sky > Giving up I close my eyes > Sitting cross-legged on the floor > Twenty-five or six to four > > Staring blindly into space > Getting up to splash my face > Wanting just to stay awake > Wond’ring how much I can take > Should I try to do some more > Twenty-five or six to four > > Feeling like I ought to sleep > Spinning room is sinking deep > Waiting for the break of day > Searching for something to say > Twenty-five or six to four > Twenty-five or six to four Never mind the sounds of a cat being tortured towards the end of the song… what the hell does it MEAN??? ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/4 "2002-04-10T17:19:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by auntie em \* > \*\* > Never mind the sounds of a cat being tortured towards the end of the song… what the hell does it MEAN??? \*\* It’s a song about writing a song. Or rather, being up in the middle of the night but being unable to write a song. So, he’s trying to stay awake, trying to get the song down, and he’s really frustrated. ---
**Author:** ![auntie\_em](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/5 "2002-04-10T17:27:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Green Bean \* > \*\*It’s a song about writing a song. Or rather, being up in the middle of the night but being unable to write a song. So, he’s trying to stay awake, trying to get the song down, and he’s really frustrated. \*\* OK, I can get with that, but: a) Sounds like he’s having a HELL of a time (sounds, in fact, more like a bad trip or the flu than like an attempt to write a song), AND b) What does “25 or 6 to 4” mean? ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/6 "2002-04-10T17:36:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by auntie em \* > \*\* > b) What does “25 or 6 to 4” mean? \*\* Doesn’tit refer to the time? 25 or 6 to 4 in the morning? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/7 "2002-04-10T17:48:37Z")
Yep. It’s easy to misunderstand because the rhythm of the song creates a false division. It sounds like he’s singing, “twenty-five … or … six-to-four,” but it is indeed “twenty-five or -six … to four,” as in 3:34 or 3:35. The same way you might say, “He was middle-aged, forty-five or -six.” ---
**Author:** ![auntie\_em](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/8 "2002-04-10T18:00:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tretiak \* > \*\* > > Doesn’tit refer to the time? 25 or 6 to 4 in the morning? \*\* I’m still a little lost. If 6 to 4 means that it’s currently 3:54 a.m., OK. If it means he’s been awake from 6 pm to 4 in the morning, OK. If it means he’s been awake from 6 _am_ the previous day to 4 am today, poor sucker, but OK. But the 25 fits nowhere in any of those equations. Maybe I’m just bad at math. Now I’m feeling guilty for hijacking this thread, so **Big Girl** … I think the bit about illusions being a parade has something to do with an acid trip. When they start “coming down” from it, each suddenly realizes the other is butt-ugly, thus the reasons they had sex in the first place (because while they were hallucinating, each saw the other as a beautiful, magical princess) “start to fade”. All the reasons were a lie, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/9 "2002-04-10T18:09:19Z")
Well, **auntie em** , what do you expect the teacher to do when the first verse asks her to have sex with you? Twenty-five or Six to 4 are the odds that Mike Piazza will get hit in the head at any given moment. (It is either twenty five minutes to 4 or twenty six minutes to 4. It’s late, his eyes are blurry, he can’t see the clock too well.) Nights in White Satin, a Klan orgy? > [@](#): > > \*Breathe deep in the gathering gloom > Watch lights fade from every room > Bedsitter people look back and lament > Another day’s useless energy’s spent > Impassioned lovers wrestle as one > Lonely man cries for love and has none > New mother picks up and suckles her son > Senior citizens wish they were young > Cold-hearted orb that rules the night > Removes the colors from our sight > Red is grey and yellow white > And we decide which is right > And which is an illusion? - I think the lonley man, the senior citizen and the bedsitter are all the same guy, upset that he has to do the one-handed love lube all alone yet again. ---
**Author:** ![auntie\_em](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/10 "2002-04-10T18:11:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KneadToKnow \* > \*\*Yep. It’s easy to misunderstand because the rhythm of the song creates a false division. It sounds like he’s singing, “twenty-five … or … six-to-four,” but it is indeed “twenty-five or -six … to four,” as in 3:34 or 3:35. The same way you might say, “He was middle-aged, forty-five or -six.” \*\* OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH my God… I get it now. I really GET it! Holy crap, I feel like a new woman! I have a new outlook on LIFE! My rebirth has begun in the blessed warmth of The Light!!! Still, I would have been spared A LOT of wasted brain power had the motherfucker just sang, “It’s a-bout quarter to foooo-OOOOO-OOOOOOOOOUR!” It works rhythmically, and my life would be so different now. ---
**Author:** ![Gundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Gundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gundy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/11 "2002-04-10T18:40:06Z")
Regarding the Chicago song, the Master covered it [here](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m25or6to4.html). It’s not any different than what’s been said here, though…but that’s the first time I’ve gotten to do that! Whee! ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/12 "2002-04-10T18:50:41Z")
First person to mention **American Pie** gets a visit from “Knuckles” if you know what I mean. Wait a minute? I mentioned it! Ow. Hey. Stop that. No, I didn’t mean me! Ow. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/13 "2002-04-10T18:57:48Z")
“Nights in White Satin” a Klan orgy? Ummm…no. First of all, you’ve listed the spoken-word outro from the Moody Blues’ _Days of Future Past_ album. While “Nights” did appear on this album, and just before the spoken word outro, it is important to remember that there was a spoken intro to the album as well–remember such lines as, “Wake up your steeds. Bring the warmth the countryside needs”? The spoken intro and outro “bookend” the concept of the album. _Days of Future Past_ is a concept album–it is (to me, anyway), the Moody Blues’ rendering of an ordinary day, told musically. Other songs on the album include “Peak Hour” (morning rush hour), and if I recall correctly, "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)), which is about the afternoon. In this context, “Nights” is about night. What about night? Listen to the lyrics: _Nights in white satin, never meaning to end, Letters I’ve written, never meaning to send… And I love you…"_ My take is simply that the songwriter is lamenting a lost love. The spoken outro (again, this is my impression) lists things people do at the end of the day: feed the kids, make love, think and reflect on what might have been had the day (or one’s life) been used more wisely. Maybe some are doing the “one-handed love lube,” but this is not explicitly stated. The word “bedsitter” does not refer to a person; rather, a bedsitter is a kind of apartment: a bed-sitting room, or more commonly in my neck of the woods, a bachelor apartment. Thus a bedsitter person is one who lives in a bedsitter, or more likely one who lives alone in a small apartment because they have nobody with whom to share their lives. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/14 "2002-04-10T19:12:23Z")
I’ll give 25 or 26 to 4 that someone will take my silly deconstructions seriously. For a more recent song, what about Feel It, which contains this chorus: > [@](#): > > \*What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her? > What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her? > What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her? > What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her? - I think the singer is threatening to knock a chimney on the “other woman”. Or she’s inviting her to dance across the English rooftops with Dick Van Dyke. Either way, I don’t understand it. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/15 "2002-04-10T19:41:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gundy \* > \*\*Regarding the Chicago song, the Master covered it [here](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m25or6to4.html). It’s not any different than what’s been said here, though…but that’s the first time I’ve gotten to do that! Whee! \*\* I hate to be picky, but “mailbag” reports are _not_ written by Uncle Cecil, but instead come from specially deputized assistants to The Master, in this particular case “SDSTAFF Songbird”. ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/16 "2002-04-10T20:11:03Z")
Well, last semester my roommates and I seemed obsessed with making fun of “Africa” by Toto. I dug up the lyrics and posted them by the phone, and we wrote our comments all over them. I’ll try to remember as much as possible: > [@](#): > > I hear the drums echoing tonight > But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation > She’s coming in, 12:30 flight **who’s coming?** > The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation > > I stopped an old man on the way > Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies > He turned to me as if to say, > “Hurry boy, it’s waiting there for you” **what’s waiting there for you?** > > (Chorus) > > It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you > There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do > I bless the rains down in Africa **we found other lyrics that say “miss” or “pass”. WTF is it?** > Gonna take some time to do the things we never had, oooh > > The wild dogs cry out in the night > As they grow restless longing for some solitary company > I know that I must do what’s right > As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like a Olympus above the Serangetti **that takes the grand prize as the stupidest line from a song _ever_** > I seek to cure what’s deep inside, frightened of this thing that I’ve become **what have you become?** > > (Chorus) > It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you > There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do > I bless the rains down in Africa, I bless the rains down in Africa > I bless the rains down in Africa, I bless the rains down in Africa > I bless the rains down in Africa > Gonna take some time to do the things we never had, oooh **why are you blessing the rains, because they seem to be delaying the 12:30 flight?** There was more too it, but I can’t remember. I guess we had a bit too much time on our hands. ---
**Author:** ![Gundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Gundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gundy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/17 "2002-04-10T20:41:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by whitetho \* > \*\*I hate to be picky, but “mailbag” reports are _not_ written by Uncle Cecil, but instead come from specially deputized assistants to The Master, in this particular case “SDSTAFF Songbird”. \*\* Ah, the hell with it then. Jeez, and I noticed the signature, too. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/18 "2002-04-10T20:52:33Z")
**Biggirl** wrote: > [@](#): > > What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her? > What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her? > What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her? > What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her? …I don’t understand it. I’ve always taken this to mean that: > [@](#): > > She’s a brick > house > She’s mighty mighty, lettin’ it all hang out YMMV ---
**Author:** ![riserius1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@riserius1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/riserius1)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/19 "2002-04-10T23:41:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by auntie em \* > \*\* > > OK, I can get with that, but: > > a) Sounds like he’s having a HELL of a time (sounds, in fact, more like a bad trip or the flu than like an attempt to write a song), AND > > b) What does “25 or 6 to 4” mean? \*\* Okay, here’s the scenario: A guy(the author/narrator) is tripping on acid. He has been grooving on said acid most of the night and is overwhelmed by the experience. He looks over at the clock; because his vision is askew because of the acid, he cannot tell if it says 3:35 or 3:34a.m. In other words, it’s 25 0r 6 to 4(if you read it as 25 or 6 'TIL 4 it makes more sense). This is the explanation I read in an interview with Robert Lamm, the songs author. Hope this helps Chris W ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859/20 "2002-04-11T00:23:58Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Spoons \* > remember such lines as, “Wake up your steeds. Bring the warmth the countryside needs”? The spoken intro and outro “bookend” the concept of the album._\* No matter how you slice it, it’s not as (dare I say corny) as **“In the Beginning”** , from On the Theshold of a Dream…the intro to “Lovely to See Again” > [@](#): > > First Man: I think, I think I am, therefore I am, I think. > > Establishment: Of course you are my bright little star. > I’ve miles > And miles > Of files > Pretty files of your forefather’s fruit > And now to suit our > Great computer > You’re magnetic ink. > > First Man: I’m more than that, I know I am, at least, I think I must be. > > Inner Man: There you go, man, keep as cool as you can. > Face piles > Of trials > With smiles. > It riles them to believe > That you perceive > The web they weave > And keep on thinking free." I have a hunch Chicago wasn’t the only band doing acid back then. Everytime I hear it, I’m reminded of some really bad dialouge from an off-off-off-Broadway play. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deconstructing-songs-i-dont-understand/102859.md?page=2)