Well, meth, not blow. “Doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break.” Also, it’s about the narrator’s girlfriend going down on him while they’re high.
Seriously, Winnie the Pooh?
Really? Is there a cite for this? It’s not indicated by Wikipedia.
I happen to be playing this song right now. And yes, the guy used to be in peak condition, but time has taken its toll on him. “Felt like a million, felt like number one” is indeed an accurate description of the US auto industry.
This song always reminds me of my father, who was hard and strong in his youth, but when he died, he was incredibly feeble. Still sharp mentally, but he was missing the lower part of his left leg, he had almost no kidney function left, etc.
“Every Breath You Take” was chosen as the prom song when I was in high school. I think I was only one of a handful of people trying to tell others how a creepy stalker song is a bad idea.
My halfhearted nomination is “Wonderful Tonight”. It’s only a halfhearted one since the song itself is fine but now that I know Clapton says it was written to be a sarcastic shout out to how long his wife took to be ready… kinda takes the shine off of it for me.
They also omitted “I’ve been running hot”.
mmm
Believe it or not, there IS a period American version of that song, titled “Free Ameri-kay” (I kid you not!) that probably would have been played by Continental Army musicians as they marched into battle.
The things that are supposed to hook the TV viewers are the fifes and drums, not the lyrics (to which you average American hasn’t a clue). Fifes and drums sound real Rev-Warry, regardless of which piece you’re playing.
This thread reminds me of a funny story: A guy I used to work with when I was in broadcasting (a Russian born and raised in Washington, DC, of all places) had an English-language show on Radio Moscow back in Soviet times. He got to play Monty Python’s “Lumberjack Song” on his program one night by telling the censors that it was a piece by a bunch of British subversives, ridiculing the Establishment for exploiting workers in the wilds of British Columbia. “Good, good!” said the censors. “Play more pieces like that in the future!”
True story; I did NOT make it up! 
A children’s choir sang that on TV at Christmas
I just about died.
Kelly Clarkson sang a song “Because of You” which was often mistaken for a romantic ballad.
Don’t know who sings “Band of Gold”, but a song about being jilted is not really suitable for a first dance at a wedding reception.
I found it pretty amusing when the Democratic National Convention featured “Let’s Get It Started,” which of course was originally entitled, “Let’s Get Retarded.”
I also don’t think “The One I Love” is about masturbation. Its use as a love song IS inappropriate, but only because it’s about the most contemptuous song ever written. If the lyrics didn’t give away the sarcasm of the opening line, the singing style surely does!
This was a one-time thing, but it was so funny I want to share. Back when I was Catholic, our church got a shiny new pipe organ, and they loved to show it off. They played that thing incessantly during each mass. One Sunday they chose “The Liberty Bell” by John Philip Sousa, otherwise known as the theme from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Well, if you really think about it, that’s true.
And I honestly had a hard time stopping laughing out loud about that.
Pet peeve rant: This misuse is Armstrong’s own damn fault. Read the lyrics sometime. They do not impart the above meaning very well, if at all. Given that, how are you supposed to tell how it’s “supposed” to be used?
The title? Nope, sorry, the title doesn’t appear in the song at all, so most people who hear it through the radio or peer made playlists will only see “Time of Your Life.”
Knowing the history, based on the writer’s personal life? Psh, yeah right, that’s completely reasonable.
Sorry, but as far as I’m concerned, the “real” meaning is too opaque for a reasonable, average listener to ever get, and the sneering at those who don’t “get it” is misplaced.
I’ll have to disagree, because even the very tone of voice of the singer has always struck me as sneering and belittling the “you” of the song. The lyrics matched with that singing style and the unceasing tempo of the song clearly indicate sardonic/ironic bitterness and dismissal to me. It might as well be subtitled “Fuck you.”.
And the videois hardly celebratory. It’s one messed up “how the hell did I get here; this is not where I thought life would take me” moment after another.
I don’t know about you, but I’m solidly Gen X. Irony is like mother’s milk. And the irony of my schools’ leaders choosing to play this song at graduations et al. was just too delicious for words.
It was the first tune played after Bill Clinton’s first inauguration speech. I thought it augured well for the entertainment value of the next four years and I wasn’t let down.
And that’s why a number of churches won’t allow the use of it as the processional for an in church wedding.