I remember back in the day, we’d discuss all these mystical meaning behind songs. Now, we have the ability to use this information superhighway to instantly find the real reasons, often on cited sources.
I found quite a few remarkably mundane!
Losing My Religion by REM. No hidden religious meaning, it’s merely a Southern colloquialism meaning “losing your temper”
**Rock of Ages **by Def Leppard. That “Gunter glieben glauten globen” was not some mysterious German phrase, but nonsense words used instead of the count.
Puff the Magic Dragon, perhaps the one of the most famous examples, was about the loss of innocence, nothing else. Call me naive, but I tend to believe the hilarious song writer on this one.
What others did you discuss with your pals (aided by subtances no doubt) that turned out to be incredibly mundane?
That’s actually a very interesting factoid about Losing my Religion. I’m sure I’ve pondered the meaning in the past but don’t think I ever came up with anything.
I remember deciding to myself and then convincing anyone who would listen that Message in a Bottle is about Sting coming to terms with his homosexuality :smack: Hey, whaddya want; he wore an earring in the wrong ear!?
Now may we have a show of hands from all those that believed that Phil Collin’s *In the Air Tonight * is about him watching a friend drown?
Is that true? I remember lots of people on MTV pondering the meaning of that song at the time, and that explanation never came up. If it was really a colloquialism, you’d think that would be mentioned early and often.
I know that the quoted meaning is on urban dictionary, but I’m wondering if this is one of those cases where the meaning was invented after the song to explain it.
Does anyone remember hearing that phrase used before the R.E.M. song?
As I mentioned in a thread in IMHO, although I didn’t spend a lot of time wondering about the last verse of New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give”, I was very intrigued by the explanation. Songwriter Gregg Alexander wanted to see if a miniature political tirade or a humorous “Take That” insult (also brief) towards some other music figures would get more attention. It was the latter, as he suspected.
And yes, I remember being in elementary school and hearing a teacher read a passage from a story with a character stating they were “losing their religion.” Later, when the R.E.M. song was released, I took note of that phrase.
I must admit that there are a lot of songs that I truly love without really knowing the lyrics well. One example was the Rolling Stones B-side “Child of the Moon”. I’m sure part of the appeal was the difficulty in finding it back in the day, but there was something deeply special and emotionally resonant about the feel of it… to me, it seemed somehow to have the feeling of a loving farewell to the hippie era, the way you feel as you’re waking up from a really lovely dream and not quite ready to let it go and return to the ordinary mundane world, but you know you have to. Then I learned the lyrics so I could play it on guitar… and it’s basically about taking a drive in the rain at dawn. Still lovely to me, but I was expecting more depths.
“Losing my religion” doesn’t mean “I’m losing my temper” so much as it does, “I’m at the end of my rope, totally exasperated.”
The song is about seeeing an attractive person (could be male or female, since bisexual Michael Stipe is involved), trying to flirt, and going bonkers trying to figure out whether the other person is interested.
Think of Charlie Brown and the Little Red-Haired Girl. Charlie Brown obsesses over her, and is constantly wondering, “Does she like me? I think she likes me! But then again, maybe she doesn’t even know I’m alive. I’ll smile at her. Did she see me smile? Maybe she did, but if she didn’t…? Maybe I should do it again. She’s not responding. Maybe she hates me… or maybe she didn’t even see me. Or maybe she sees me flashing smiles and thinks I’m just weird… DANG!”
It’s about driving yourself nuts wondering if the person you have your eye on is getting your signals, wondering if you’re being too bold or too subtle. (Stipe isn’t sure whether he’s said too little or not enough to this person).
I remember a Rolling Stone interview with Stipe when this was still charting. Instead of a Southern Girl with the vapors, he mentioned hearing it from a diner waitress. Kind of puts it in a different light.
Before or after the song came out, I have never once heard the expression “losing my religion” used in real life. However I have loved the R.E.M. song since I first heard it and it always seemed, to me, to have a clear message.
I always interpreted the lyrics along the lines of being in a relationship but having the feeling the relationship is failing, not being sure about that (or not wanting to be certain) and the singer confused whether they themselves are the issue or their partner is. Or both. So clear confusion - or or that a self contradiction?
The phrase ‘losing my religion’ seemed straightforward within the context of the song:
Losing my religion means
Losing my faith means
No longer being certain about something, no longer trusting what I feel or know.
Poetic phrase. Neologism. Clear meaning either way - to me.
The way I understand it, losing one’s religion is swearing a blue streak when exasperated.
John goes to church/revival and gets saved.
Next day, wife burns his shirt while ironing it.
John cusses up a storm.
Wife: “Well, pa done lost his religion”.
From, IIRC, the 1970s.