Not quite, in England a ‘bedsit’ is a combined ‘bedroom/sitting room’, and every time I’ve seen one it also had a mini kitchen. It might even have a separate little en-suite, or it might share a bathroom with a neighbour.
It’s really a step above a simple ‘room’ in a house, which would be just a bed and normally a chair, but bedsits are typically rented by someone a bit older who really wants their own space and more privacy but can’t afford it.
‘Bedsitter’ isn’t really a word outside that song though. It sounds like someone who you get to look after the bed so you can go out for the night.
Funny you should ask that. My wife recently had ankle surgery, and at times it’s been very helpful to her for me to tie her shoes for her. The first time, of course, I had to sing
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When I bent down to tie the laces
Of her shoe
Tangled up in blue
I love Zappa. But some songs have lyrics that are sophomoric and very perverse. I would love to play these songs for my 15 year old son (he also likes Zappa), but I just won’t do it.
Do you remember any other lyrics from the song or know about Clapton’s past with Pattie Boyd? He was a binge drinker. In the song, they’re at a party. She asks if he feels alright. At the end of the night he has an aching head. He hands her his car keys and she drives him home…and then he apparently needs help getting into bed.
It could be a particularly bad headache. And not all songs are biographical. I tend to think you are doing the writer of a song a disservice if you read something into a song in this manner. But again, I must emphasize that when you drink enough to have a headache, you get the headache in the morning, not while you are drunk. Why not? Because you are drunk! Therefore it makes no sense to attribute the headache to drinking.
Oh brother. The lyrics are clearly implying having too much to drink, and if they weren’t, interpreting a song incorrectly doesn’t so anyone a disservice.
No, not all songs are autobiographical. Being at a party doesn’t always mean one has had too much to drink. Asking if one feels okay doesn’t mean one has had too much to drink. Nor does getting a headache, handing keys over to have someone else drive or getting help to bed. Putting all those together in a song?
You can emphasize it all you like. You’re wrong. I, and several other people I know, have gotten headaches at the end of a night of drinking. It’s enough of a trope for an author to put the two together regardless of when the headache usually occurs.
Fair enough, some people get headaches soon after taking a drink. But who said there was a *night *of drinking anyway? Or are you reading something into the lyrics in order to support your point? And from your link you can get these headaches after just a little to drink. The evidence simply isn’t there to suggest the writer was drunk.
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool, boy
Nobody who plays or watches baseball even somewhat regularly calls it a “speedball.” It’s a fastball. (Yes, “speedball” sounds better in the verse. Still!)
Funny, I think that lyric is perfect. Totally conjures up an alcoholic lost in his drink, blind to the world.
So true. A friend and I were returning from a “Dweezil plays Zappa” show a few years ago, enjoying an early Mothers CD in the car, but cringing during the Susy Creamcheese passages.
Love the band but, man, a lot of Billy’s lyrics do make me cringe. I actually don’t mind “fashion victims chew their charcoal teeth” all that much. I’m not entirely sure what it means, but the images and sounds are quite nice. For me, what annoys me is when Billy ventures into adolescent angst poetry with obvious imagery and rhymes. Stuff like “despite all my rage/I am still just a rat in a cage.” That sounds like something any 16 year old would write in the margins of his high school notebook while going through their “the world doesn’t understand me!” phase. Or even the “cleanliness is godliness and God is empty … just like me!” from the song you just quoted. Grrr… I guess they’re not total clunkers, but the teenagery quality of those type of Billy lyrics sets me on edge.
But he also has a lot of stuff that I do like lyrically, and it’s when he stays away from the angsty stuff.
I’m a lifelong atheist, but I still love the musical Godspell. Even when I was nine years old, I could tell there was one line in it that clunked – the last line of the last song (other than a couple reprises):