# Lyrics you wonder about
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** music
**Created:** [January 21, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184 "2022-01-21T18:03:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/1 "2022-01-21T18:03:37Z")
Some of the most memorable song lyrics are the ones that suggest a deeper meaning yet remain… enigmatic.
What are the songs you love whose lyrics you find intriguingly cryptic?
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/2 "2022-01-21T19:31:33Z")
Of course Bob Dylan is kind of the poster child for cryptic lyrics, but actually I get a lot of sense from some of his famous cryptic songs. Many are also just great lyrical wordplay, like for instance “Tombstone Blues”. But the song where I’m totally lost is “Gates Of Eden”. Could never make heads or tails of it, but I like the imagery, especially “The motorcycle black Madonna, two-wheeled gypsy queen”.
ETA: in the end, it really doesn’t matter. It’s a great song anyway. Not every great lyric does have to make sense or have some deeper meaning.
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/3 "2022-01-21T19:43:24Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> Of course Bob Dylan is kind of the poster child for cryptic lyrics
For sure. I’m still pondering a ton of his lyrics, including:
> Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
> Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
> With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
> Let me forget about today until tomorrow.
> Now your dancing child with his Chinese suit
> He spoke to me, I took his flute
> No, I wasn’t very cute to him, was I?
> But I did it because he lied
> And because he took you for a ride
> And because time was on his side
> And because I
> Want you
> Sundown, yellow moon
> I replay the past
> I know every scene by heart
> They all went by so fast
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/4 "2022-01-21T19:46:59Z")
Good examples, @Qadgop_the_Mercotan. But as I said, does it really matter? Isn’t that all great imagery nonetheless? It sure does evoke multi-faceted images and allusions even without knowing what it’s really about, especially in the case of “Mr. Tambourine Man”, one of Dylan’s lyrical masterpieces. It’s the stuff you get Nobels for.
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/5 "2022-01-21T19:48:05Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> does it really matter.
I just love to ponder it. Listening to that stuff just puts me in the moment, and part of what makes it a perfect moment is me pondering it. Not so much for what he meant, as for what it means to me.
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/6 "2022-01-21T19:48:32Z")
Ah, I see, and I totally concur.
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/7 "2022-01-21T19:50:13Z")
Especially now that I’m an old fart. That whole “I replay the past”, etc. just has the ability to invoke such powerful feelings. And he wrote that as a young man! Damn . . .
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/8 "2022-01-21T20:04:56Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#):
>
> Now your dancing child with his Chinese suit
> He spoke to me, I took his flute
> No, I wasn’t very cute to him, was I?
> But I did it because he lied
> And because he took you for a ride
> And because time was on his side
> And because I
> Want you
Actually, these lyrics allegedly are about Brian Jones. The hint being “and because time was on his side”, “Time Is On My Side” being a song famously covered by the Stones, and the flute, hinting at the multi-instrumental Jones.
---
### Author:  [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/9 "2022-01-21T20:07:30Z")
My namesake, “The Wind” by Cat Stevens:
I listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul
Where I’ll end up, well, I think only God really knows
I’ve sat upon the setting sun
But never, never, never, never
I never wanted water once
No never, never, never
I listen to my words but they fall far below
I let my music take me where my heart wants to go
I swam upon the Devil’s lake
But never, never, never, never
I’ll never make the same mistake
No, never, never, never
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/10 "2022-01-21T20:24:15Z")
_A Whiter Shade of Pale_ is about images and poetry, but no narrative.
---
### Author:  [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/11 "2022-01-21T20:58:52Z")
The Cars in general either have really simple concept lyrics, like **Shake it Up** , or they stray into a “what am I missing” category, like this excerpt from **Good Times Roll**
> If the illusion is real
> Let them give you a ride
> If they got thunder appeal
> Let them be on your side
>
> Let them leave you up in the air
> Let them brush your rock and roll hair
> Let the good times roll
> Won’t you let the good times roll, oh
> Let the good times roll
---
### Author:  [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/12 "2022-01-21T22:37:08Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#):
>
> Sundown, yellow moon
> I replay the past
> I know every scene by heart
> They all went by so fast
That’s cryptic?
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/13 "2022-01-21T22:44:27Z")
I found that song more memorable and evocative in that instance.
For true ‘cryptic’ lyrics, I long pondered what the Beatles were implying when they sang “Take the back right turn”. I imagined paths not taken, or forging ahead down rarely traversed roads, or taking one’s turn back in righteousness.
Turned out I was just listening to a song about a paperback writer. 😲
---
### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/14 "2022-01-21T22:58:26Z")
[Smelly tongues looked just as they felt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUxN4gyarEw).
What? What? I must know! 😛
---
### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/15 "2022-01-22T01:11:10Z")
> Yellow matter custard
> Dripping from a dead dog’s eye
That one always makes me ponder.
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/16 "2022-01-22T01:22:00Z")
I always think of the famous (cow)eye slitting scene from Luis Bunuel’s “Un Chien Andalou” when hearing that line.
---
### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/17 "2022-01-22T01:53:56Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#):
>
> My namesake, “The Wind” by Cat Stevens
Teaser and the Firecat…what an album! As I recall barely longer than 30 minutes but solid.
From “Make Me Smile” by Chicago:
Children play in the park they don’t know
I’m alone in the dark even though
Time and time again I see your face
Smilin’ inside…
What purpose do the first two lines serve? Sounds like a perv waiting to grab kids. Then the song’s really about being in love with someone.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDQon2oiq8M)
---
### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2022, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/18 "2022-01-23T17:27:28Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#):
>
> From “Make Me Smile” by Chicago:
>
> Children play in the park they don’t know
> I’m alone in the dark even though
> Time and time again I see your face
> Smilin’ inside…
>
> What purpose do the first two lines serve? Sounds like a perv waiting to grab kids. Then the song’s really about being in love with someone.
>
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDQon2oiq8M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDQon2oiq8M)
Pretty obvious to me. Children play, blissfully unaware that there is suffering in the world. Nearby, in fact.
Mention of children does not always equal perversion, ya know.
mmm
---
### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2022, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/19 "2022-01-23T18:08:57Z")
Michael Stipe is the poster child here I’d say. From Gardening at Night:
_We ankled up the garbage sound_
Your guess is as good as mine.
---
### Author:  [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184/20 "2022-01-23T18:48:55Z")
So true, especially in the early albums when he was writing for the sound and not the meaning. But wouldn’t everything be much more attractive inside the moral kiosk?
_Scratch the scandals in the twilight_
_Trying to shock but instead_
_Idle hands all orient to her_
_Pass a magic pillow under head_
_It’s so much more attractive_
_Inside the moral kiosk_
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-you-wonder-about/958184.md?page=2)