I heard “Island Girl” recently after not hearing or even thinking about this song in many years. I was 12 when it came out, and had never really listened to the lyrics or understood what it’s really about: A girl from Jamaica has became a New York street hooker, to the lament of a certain “Black Boy” who wants her to come back home and be part of his “Island World.”
I used to find this song happy and peppy, but now I realize it’s a whole lot darker than the bouncy faux-Caribbean style would suggest.
And one line puzzles me: He one more gone, he one more John who make the mistake. Whoa. Is the Island Girl killing her clients? Is her Black Boy following her around and offing the dudes who hire her? That would be quite a bizarre twist ending to the song. I don’t think its anything that violent; more likely she’s the one who gets farther gone with each encounter. But then, why is it the John who made the mistake? I’m sure I’m overthinking it.
What other songs from long ago have taken on a new meaning for you after you’ve discovered what they were really about?
I remember a rock critic commenting that almost all of Carol King’s songs were peppy and upbeat, even when Gerry Goffin’s lyrics were not.
[QUOTE=Smackwater Jack]
He just a-let it all hang loose;
He didn’t think about the noose
He couldn’t take no more abuse
So he shot down the congregation
[/Quote]
[QUOTE=One Fine Day]
Though I know you’re the kind of boy
Who only wants to run around
I’ll keep waiting and someday darling
You’ll come to me when you want to settle down, oh!
[/Quote]
[QUOTE=He’s a Bad Boy]
He’s not happy working, he’s got no use for school
Never feels the least bit sorry when he treats me cruel
He’s a bad boy
But I’m a fool
[/Quote]
[QUOTE=He Hit Me (and It Felt Like a Kiss)]
He couldn’t stand to hear me say
That I had been with someone new
And when I told him I had been untrue
He hit me and it felt like a kiss
He hit me and I knew he loved me
'Cause if he didn’t care for me
I could have never made him mad
And he hit me and I was glad
[/Quote]
Athough it’s probably impossible to write a melody as dark as those lyrics.
Isn’t Goodbye Yellow Brick Road basically Midnight Cowboy. Guy hits the Yellow Brick Road of the city, ends up a rent boy of some sort and dreams of being back home?
I don’t see how Smackwater Jack was intended to be funny nor how you could interpret it wrong. The opening lyric is very clearly delivered and says he went and bought a shotgun. Did you originally think it was a happy duck hunting song?
I never really cared for this song for some reason and being back before you could easily find the lyrics, I never understood most of what Sir Elton is saying. All I could make out was “she’s a big girl,she stands 6’3” and “she’s black as coal”. As to the chorus, all I heard was something like “tell me that you want me watch you walk and swirl” :smack:.
So in my mind the girl in question looked something like this and the singer is sitting in a bar watching her dance under the disco lights and flirting with all the men. Very interesting to understand the lyrics and the true meaning now.
As into lyrics as I am, I surprisingly can’t come up with an example of my own but I’m interested to see what anyone else has to contribute.
“Island Girl” was, is, and always will be, a 6’3" transvestite to me. I never for a moment thought she was a hard-working ‘working GIRL’ from Tha Islands.
You think those songs have gloomy lyrics? Check out this Carole King tune, as sung by Helen Reddy(!). BTW, Gerry Goffin didn’t cowrite this one so maybe Carole was the dark one to begin with.
Back to the OP, I loved as a kid “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”. I mean it’s got “will you marry me” as its refain, so it’s got to be a romantic song right? Oh no it isn’t. Oh lord no it isn’t.
I never knew the lyrics outside the chorus until I looked them up today. Weird stuff, even for Taupin.
While I was looking I ran across this essay about Elton and its album, Rock of the Westies, by Robert Christgau. Everything I despise about rock criticism neatly laid out on a single page. Well, not everything. It could be written like Lester Banks.
Always thought ELP’s “Still, You Turn Me On”, was some romantic confection when I was a kid, but there’s necrophilia involved, so…
Someone said “Radar Love” is a gay pick-up song, but I checked out the lyrics and couldn’t see it.
Didn’t find out till much, much, much later that the eggman in “I Am the Walrus” is a nod to Eric Burdon’s penchant for coating his groupies in raw eggs.
**Originally Posted by Smackwater Jack **
He just a-let it all hang loose;
He didn’t think about the noose
He couldn’t take no more abuse
So he shot down the congregation
I was just listening to this last week and thinking about often this actually happens today. I don’t remember a lot of mass shootings in the 70’s.
“Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones has some really dark lyrics. I would have understood them when I was a kid, but they’re darn near unintelligible. The only reason I looked them up was because they were mentioned in an episode of The Wire on HBO.
I’m not big on lyrics. I just hear music and if I like it or love it, it’s more likely to disappoint me than to make me like it even more to analyse lyrics. XTC is my favorite band throughout my life and philosophically I see eye to eye with Andy Partridge, the main musical force of the group. His lyrics often say what I feel–like the song “Dear God”. He nailed it perfectly.
