Ever heard a lyric and was left unsure of what it meant? Ever heard a weird lyric and figured out what it could mean? Then this is the thread for you!!
Post now!! Offer explanations. Serious, wacky… whatever. Do it now and we may throw in a teddy bear for a limited time (returnable bear though).
Let me start the ball rolling: In The Spin Doctor’s Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong there’s a line that’s always bugged me. he’s dissing her big time and then ‘takes it back’ and says “and if I had a dollar I’d give you 99.”
What does this mean?!? And how does it sit with the previous nastiness? awaits explanation and the opportunity to offer his humble interpretations
1929: Audrey Hepburn born (sigh). Wyatt Earp died. Martin Luther King Jr. and Anne Frank born. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Popeye and Tarzan appear for the first time as cartoon characters. Al Capone initiates the Valentine’s Day Massacre. Hollywood staged an experimental publicity stunt for the movie industry at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel that grew to become the Academy Awards extravaganza. The first Academy Awards were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The movie "Wings" won best production while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress. The first ceremony gave out a 2nd best award that went to F.W. Murnau's Sunrise. Babe Ruth hit his 500th major league home run against the Cleveland Indians. Great Depression begins.
“well the sun gets bloody
and the sun goes down
Ever since the Watermealon
and the lights come up
on a black pit town
Somebody say what’s a better thing to do
well it’s not just me and it’s not just you
this is all around the world”
All Around the World -Paul Simon, Graceland
I’m really not sure exactly what this is all about. i think it’s mostly just describing another day of slow death in a boreing little coal town where nothing moves. Then it’s night and there’s still nothing to do but hang out. And it’s not just like that in that one place, there’s alsorts of backwards little burgs like that all over the world
I have no idea what to make of the watermealon, but if you hear the song it’s pretty blatently stuck inthere so i assume it has some meaning.
Back to PO, in the SD song (coincidence? I think not!), right before that line, he says some nasty things to her, if I recall, “I hope them cigarettes gonna make you cough/ Hope you heard this song and it pissed you off.” Then he recants with “I take that back; I hope you’re doing fine/ And if I had a dollar I’d give you 99.”
I always took that to mean that if she gave him a dollar and he gave her a dollar, they’d be even. Since he harbors a bit of residual resentment, though, he’d only give her 99 cents back. Almost even.
Then again, I always read too much into lyrics. What can I say, I’m a Dylan, Robert Hunter fan!
Is a whole song ok?? Help me?? The song is “Astronomy” by Blue Oyster Cult, covered by Metallica on “Garage, Inc.”
Clock strikes twelve and moondrops burst
Out at you from their hiding place
Like acid and oil on a madman’s face
His reason tends to fly away
Like lesser birds on the four winds
Like silver scrapes in May
And now the sand’s become a crust
Most of you have gone away
Come Susie dear, let’s take a walk
Just out there upon the beach
I know you’ll soon be married
And you’ll want to know where winds come from
Well it’s never said at all
On the map that Carrie reads
Behind the clock back there you know
At the Four Winds Bar
Four winds at the Four Winds Bar
Two doors locked and windows barred
One door to let to take you in
The other one just mirrors it
Hellish glare and inference
The other one’s a duplicate
The Queenly flux, eternal light
Or the light that never warms
The clock strikes twelve and moondrops burst
Out at you from their hiding place
Miss Carrie nurse and Susie dear
Would find themselves at Four Winds Bar
It’s the nexus of the crisis
And the origin of storms
Just the place to hopelessly
Encounter time and then came me
Call me Desdinova
Eternal light
These gravely digs of mine
Will surely prove a sight
And don’t forget my dog
Fixed and consequent
“Silver scrapes in May”?? “Queenly flux”?? “Desdinova”?? “These gravely digs of mine”?? “…my dog Fixed and consequent”??
Sounds to me like an acid trip from hell…oh wait, its Blue Oyster Cult.
“So let the controller man in-
sert the token.
You wanna throw me away,
Well i’m not broken.”
-The One True Elvis (Costello), “Lipstick Vogue” from This Year’s Model.
It always seemed to me that the first line was just there to rhyme with the second (although he’s got no shortage of those; the next two lines also rhyme with the second line).
Actually, I’ve got a fistful of confusing Macmanus lines. Marvel, any ideas?
(Your sig, btw, puts me in mind of a line I like even better, from the same song:
“I said I’m so happy
I could die.
She said ‘drop dead’
Then left with another guy.”)
Biggirl:
I think the lyrics you quoted can be interpreted like this.
The speaker of the song seems to be reassuring himself that he exists and is important to the world around him, but since no one (not even the chair) hears him, he takes that to mean he really isn’t important because no one seems to listen to him.
Nocturne that has to be the most thoughtful interpretation of those lyrics I’ve ever heard. If only Neil Diamond could have found a better rhyme for “there” than “chair”, twenty years of utter confusion could have been diverted.
I was confused for ages about the Beastie Boys line “Never rock the mic with the pantyhose”
Then I remembered about pop shields, which are filters put between microphone and vocalist to dull plosive sounds ( “p”s and “t”s) which can drown the rest of the lyric.
Although you can get proper pop shields, most folks stretch a pair of pantyhose (or tights, depending on where you’re from) over a coathanger and attach that to the mic stand. Does the job just a treat. I assume from the sentiment expressed that the Beasties, with their customary lack of respect for correct microphone technique, scorn the use of such devices.
First, it’s “…and if I had a dollar, I might give you 99.” But that actually doesn’t change the meaning.
I figured this to be his way of saying that he doesn’t really mean to be as nasty as the preceding lines indicate. In fact, for no reason at all, he would give her his money. I’m sure there are (or have been) women in your life that generate this kind of effect on your pocketbook.
The reason it’s 99 cents instead of the whole dollar is not any kind of dig at her; it’s because “nine” rhymes neatly with “fine”.
Heh, thanks Upham. That’s a great compliment.