# Lines in Your Favorite Songs that You Can't Explain **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 22, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636 "2018-05-22T22:16:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/21 "2018-05-23T23:26:07Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > A few years ago, I saw Jon Anderson doing a one-man Unplugged/Storytellers show here in Austin. After he did “Yours Is No Disgrace,” someone yelled out, “What does that song mean?” Anderson grinned and said, “People always ask what my songs mean. I don’t know what they mean.” He then giggled and puffed on an imaginary joint. I remember reading somewhere that it has to do with Vietnam. “Shining flying purple wolfhounds” being some kind of fighter plane. Probably just some fan’s interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/22 "2018-05-24T01:17:06Z")
A nonsensical lyric, like Yes or Psychadelic Era Beatles, doesn’t bother me. I think because in those songs we’ve voluntarily stepped into a worldview where nonsense reigns. It’s like how a Sci-Fi/Fantasy story is running by a different set of rules than a detective novel. Where the lyrics are grating is when you’re presented with a more linear song that isn’t that crazy, that’s utterly logical… until someone needs something to rhyme with “Every day a little sadder, a little madder…” and asks for a ladder. ---
**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:** [May 24, 2018, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/23 "2018-05-24T01:21:21Z")
I nominate Cream’s entire catalog! White Room is actually less nonsensical than most… _In the white room with black curtains near the station. Black-roof country, no gold pavements, tired starlings. Silver horses run down moonbeams in your dark eyes. Dawn-light smiles on you leaving, my contentment._ > [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > In the Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers song \*Islands in the Stream \*there is one line that I always thought I was just hearing wrong: > > _I set out to get you with a fine tooth comb_ > > But apparently that is the lyric, whatever it means. That line always brings me back to elementary school…and the nurse using a fine-tooth comb on kids with lice! But I interpret it to mean that he had to be careful or she would have slipped through the comb/away from him. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/24 "2018-05-24T01:25:06Z")
Missed the edit to add a Deep Purple cut (“Knocking At Your Back Door”). Another classic case of “I would never use these words if I didn’t have to make a rhyme”: “Sweet Lucy was a dancer But none of us would chance’er…” It’s tough when it’s a band you originally had respect for. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/25 "2018-05-24T02:00:30Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > In the Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers song \*Islands in the Stream \*there is one line that I always thought I was just hearing wrong: > > _I set out to get you with a fine tooth comb_ > > But apparently that is the lyric, whatever it means. Makes a lot more sense than “Eyeless Industry, that is what we are”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/26 "2018-05-24T02:27:40Z")
im told that one person you don’t ask what a particular lyric means is elvis Costello ……his peevish answer was “half the time the words don’t mean a damn thing in a song and if you like the song what the hell does it matter anyways?” ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/27 "2018-05-24T02:36:48Z")
_Keep on…til the bookstores close Don’t stop til you get enough_ Ok, I might not be hearing this Michael Jackson lyric correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/28 "2018-05-24T02:37:59Z")
> [@digs](#): > > A nonsensical lyric, like Yes or Psychadelic Era Beatles, doesn’t bother me. I think because in those songs we’ve voluntarily stepped into a worldview where nonsense reigns. It’s like how a Sci-Fi/Fantasy story is running by a different set of rules than a detective novel. > > Where the lyrics are grating is when you’re presented with a more linear song that isn’t that crazy, that’s utterly logical… until someone needs something to rhyme with “Every day a little sadder, a little madder…” and asks for a ladder. Agree. Lyrics can be nonsensical (or oblique, or cryptic, or quirky); and lyrics can be stupid. But it’s not just being nonsensical that makes them stupid. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/29 "2018-05-24T02:53:26Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > A few years ago, I saw Jon Anderson doing a one-man Unplugged/Storytellers show here in Austin. After he did “Yours Is No Disgrace,” someone yelled out, “What does that song mean?” Anderson grinned and said, “People always ask what my songs mean. I don’t know what they mean.” He then giggled and puffed on an imaginary joint. Yet things didn’t change even in their post-prog years: Here is my heart, waiting for you Here is my soul - **I eat at Chez Nous** 😕 ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/30 "2018-05-24T17:20:07Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Yet things didn’t change even in their post-prog years: > > Here is my heart, waiting for you > Here is my soul - **I eat at Chez Nous** > > 😕 I wish we had ribbons for Thread Winners. Man, that is embarrassingly awkwardly horrible. I mean, I fired up the ol’ powerbook to drop in and mention VH’s “Only time will tell if we pass the test of time”, but “eat at Chez Nous”? Oh, gahhhhhd… ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/31 "2018-05-24T18:06:39Z")
I should mention that I didn’t mean nonsense lyrics specifically. The nonsense lyrics in **Blinded by the Light** and **American Pie** are the whole point of those songs. What I meant was a puzzling line that didn’t really go with the song. In my opening example, Kristofferson sings before and after that yesterday line, make perfect sense: (About his lover’s fingers) _Wiping out the traces of the people and the places that I’ve been, **Teachin’ me that yesterday was something that I never thought of tryin’.** Talkin’ of tomorrow and the money, love, and time we had to spend._ For comparison, try this excerpt of a new version of Rod Stewart’s _Maggie May_ that I just made up: _…All you did was wreck my bed, and in the morning kicked me in the head. Oh Maggie, a taxicab is nothing to die for. You led me away from home, just to keep you from bein’ alone._ See? Stands out like a sore thumb because it doesn’t make sense. Songs that have lyrics open to interpretation are one thing. But lyrics should fit the internal logic of the song. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/32 "2018-05-24T18:50:27Z")
Pretty much the entire catalogue of R.E.M. until _Out of Time_. Even when they printed lyrics in the liner (and they didn’t always), and you could see the lyrics RIGHT THERE, they made only the faintest hint of sense. Not entirely “lyrics as just another instrument”, but close. Also accidentally close to the Zen concept of “breaking the mind”. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/33 "2018-05-24T19:15:58Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Yet things didn’t change even in their post-prog years: > > Here is my heart, waiting for you > Here is my soul - **I eat at Chez Nous** > > 😕 Was Jon writing the lyrics at that point, or was Trevor Rabin? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/34 "2018-05-24T19:33:19Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > I’ve read that Paul Simon said that “_Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you_” has no specific meaning, and it was just something that sounded good to him at the time. I’ve read the Mickey Mantle once peevishly asked Simon what he didn’t use _his_ name instead. The response: “Syllables, Mick, syllables.” Yeah, sometimes things just get thrown in to fit into a line. OTOH, it encouraged DiMaggio to be more public by doing those Mr. Coffee commercials. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/35 "2018-05-24T19:47:13Z")
Source of that story seems to be Simon himself, [here](http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/sports/dimaggio-perfect-fit-song-simon-article-1.820331). Problem with that is that the song was written in 1967 and Mantle played through the 1968 season. So it wouldn’t have made sense to ask where Mantle had gone or to say he had “left and gone away”. (Simon himself says Mantle wouldn’t have worked metaphorically, but he offers a different reason - because Mantle was eventually corrupted, unlike DiMaggio. That’s something that he couldn’t tell Mantle, of course. But beyond that, it wouldn’t have worked time-wise, as above.) ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/36 "2018-05-24T19:52:40Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Was Jon writing the lyrics at that point, or was Trevor Rabin? The song’s entirely credited to Rabin (I think he uses those same lyrics in an early demo but I can’t be sure) so no matter who came up with that dumb line, it’s all on him. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/37 "2018-05-24T20:29:20Z")
“E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)” is one of my favorite Blue Öyster Cult songs. Great lyrics, except for this bit in the chorus: _“All praise He’s found the awful truth Balthazar, he’s found the saucer news.”_ Who the f— is Balthazar??? ---
**Author:** ![Major\_Major\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@Major\_Major\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Major_1)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/38 "2018-05-25T03:48:01Z")
Oingo Boingo - “Reptiles and Samurai” Pretty much the entire song. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/39 "2018-05-25T05:23:14Z")
“The Best is Yet to Come” First line: _ **Out** of the tree of life I just picked me a plum._ 😕 WTF? You don’t pick plums _out_ of a tree; you pick them _off_ of a tree… ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636/40 "2018-05-25T13:05:07Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > “The Best is Yet to Come” > > First line: _ **Out** of the tree of life I just picked me a plum._ > > 😕 WTF? > > You don’t pick plums _out_ of a tree; you pick them _off_ of a tree… I think you may have missed the second level of meaning here. At its simplest, the lyric is saying that he picked a plum off the tree. But he’s also using the term plum as in “plum assignment”, i.e. something preferable to other choices. He’s saying that there were many possible choices available but he picked the best one. In that context, the phrase “picked out” makes more sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-in-your-favorite-songs-that-you-cant-explain/814636.md?page=3)