I remember Bono saying anything that “One” was supposed to be about an AIDS victim trying to reconcile with his parents, who loved him but disapproved of him.
The message seems to be, “You SAY you love me, you SAY you want us together again, but your disapproval is killing me… and it’s making it almost impossible for me to come back to you, even though I need you desperately.”
I’ll weigh in on the Lola lyric. What I thought it was:
I’m not the world’s most passionate man
But what I know what I am and what I am is a man
And so was Lola.
Yeah, I went the Popeye route.
I’m surprised that noone has mentioned this one yet.
A lot of people get warm fuzzies at a Green Day song whose refrain ends with the line:
“I hope you had the time of your life”
And they’re apparently not tipped off by the fact that the song’s title is Good Riddance.
Oh wow. I never knew that. Re-reading the lyrics with that in mind it makes sense. It’s very good at conveying someone who’s bitter about their relationship. I just thought it was lovers, but both work.
The nicest, sweetest break up song ever, that’s Good Riddance.
Mary J Blige does a cover of it with Bono and she interprets it as being about her relationship with her estranged father, and that works too. Part of the reason I like the song is it can be taken more than one way.
**olivesmarch **
I first took it as just a guy trying to seduce a girl too, taking a nice walk around the lake. It gets creepier and creepier as the song goes on.
Don’t be afraid
I don’t mean to scare you
Do you wanna die, etc.
What’s funny is it took me playing Guitar Hero to realize how disturbing it could be.
People, have you tried listening to the song? To me the lyrics are really quite clear.
“…I’m glad Im a man and so is Lola.”
youtube link if you don’t have it:
Surprised you both never realised. Not only are the lyrics fairly clear and simple but they even acted out the scenario in the video clip. I remember seeing it every week until it left the charts, so I never had any doubts about what the song was trying to say!
Hahaha, seriously? That’s beautiful. A song that starts out the very first verse with the lines:
Love of mine
Someday you will die
But I’ll be close behind
is never going to make my list of Top Wedding Songs of All-Time. On the other hand, I had Every Breath You Take played at my wedding reception because it amused me to play a stalker-song that so many other people had mistaken for a love song over the years.
I have a feeling that Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love For You” was probably thought of as one of the most romantic songs EVAH. Never mind that it’s about a woman who’s having an affair with a married man.
My girlfriend in high school once made a mix tape for me, with “liner notes” about each song. One was
"Unanswered Prayers", Garth Brooks - You’re my unanswered prayer, … * [ blah blah something sappy here ] *
The song is about a guy that meets his old high school girlfriend many years later and realizes that they weren’t right for each other after all. It actually described our relationship pretty well, but I don’t think it’s what she meant.
Which made it all the more horrifying when Jeanie Boulet sang it to Anspaugh’s son after he died under her care in that episode of ER.
I just listened carefully to “Lola” and confirmed that I hear:
Well, I’m not the world’s most masculine man
But I know what I am
And I’m glad I’m a man
And so is Lola
I thought it was the ambiguity that makes the song brilliant. Well, it’s much less subtle in the earlier portions of the song, but still… It’s a great song.
Also seconding or thirding Linda Ronstadt. She carried off “Different Drum” with no problem at all. Love her.
I took that song to mean it was the WOMAN that was struggling with something such as alcoholism. Constant drunkenness was the “angry all the time.” “Loving a man shouldn’t have to be this rough” meant he somewhat blamed himself and felt partly responsible for his wife’s shortcomings. “Splitting image of you when you were young” referred to his kids and how vibrant the wife was when they first met, before the alcoholism took over.
Adding my own…my mom always thought the David Lee Murphy song was Dust on the Bible. In that respect she thought it was a good God fearing song about someone rediscovering God…
It wasn’t until a good 2 years after the song was released she found out that the lyrics were “Dust on the BOTTLE!” 
A friend of mine who is a DJ once told me he had a couple request the Beatles’ Oh Darling at their wedding. I asked him if they had ever heard the song before.
Re Lola, I hear “I know what I am, I’m a man, I’m a man, and so’s Lola.” I think it’s one of the greatest songs of all time, and the lyrics have a lot to do with that.
What version of the song do you have? I’m listening to the version on Lola vs Powerman and the Money-go-round, and it is really obvious that he sings “glad”. He sings it rather clearly with a long L-sound. 
I’m afraid I am also guilty of that misunderstanding. But, you know… I was 12 or so.
Perhaps you should take a gander at either kissthisguy dot com or misheard lyrics. Not everybody hears the same things. In fact, that’s what this whole thread is about-- misunderstanding the meaning of songs. And honestly, is there that much of a huge difference in meaning between “I’m a man, I’m a man” and “I’m glad I’m a man”?
Granted, “I’m not the world’s most masculine man” is a heck of a lot more consistent-- and funnier-- than “I’m not the world’s most passionate man” but since many, MANY people heard it different it could be that these particular lines are not the most clearly sung lines in the history of music.
What I hear in Lola:
I know what I am and I’m glad I’m a man
and so is Lola
The beauty of the line rendered that way is the double meaning. Is Lola also glad the singer’s a man? Or is the singer telling us that Lola is also a man?
And the humorous double meaning is what confirms for me that’s the way Davies wrote it.