# Ordinary songs that no one notices are actually creepy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 11, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639 "2004-03-11T04:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![BabaBooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@BabaBooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BabaBooey)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/181 "2004-03-19T01:35:27Z")
Tim McGraw’s _Red Ragtop_ is about a relationship that ends because the two decide to have an abortion: \*"Well the very first time her mother met me her green eyed girl had been a mother to be for two weeks I was out of a job and she was in school and life was fast and the world was cruel we were young and wild we decided not to have a child"\* ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/182 "2004-03-19T01:52:22Z")
> [@Bren\_Cameron](#): > > I think it might be a bit less disturbing when you realize it’s “they call Alabama the Crimson Tide.” Phew I was about to Google the lyrics because I thought I’d had them all wrong all this time. ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/183 "2004-03-19T06:58:35Z")
A guy at work pointed this one out. From Jailhouse Rock: _Number forty-seven said to number three: You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see._ Were prisons ever co-ed? ---
**Author:** ![epepke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de0a6/32.png) [@epepke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epepke)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/184 "2004-03-19T07:26:01Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > I still don’t understand why they have played **YMCA** at every wedding reception I’ve gone to. I mean, it’s a song about picking up guys at the YMCA. I like the song, but… > > “Dear, at the wedding reception, I think we should play this song. It’s a celebration of having gay sex with strangers.” > > “That would be lovely, darling!” Actually, it’s about having sex with other men in the YMCA. The YMCA used to function like a gay hostel/bath house. They rented bunks, cheap. Hence the line, “Young man, there’s a place you can go, I say young man, when you’re short on your dough.” I’ll add The Foo Fighters’ _Walking after You._ It’s as much a stalker anthem as _Every Breath You Take._ ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/185 "2004-03-19T13:30:30Z")
> [@Patr100](#): > > Lou Reed’s “Pefect Day” was covered with various artists (and Reed) for a BBC Children’s charity record a few years back, it’s not really explicit from the lyrics but there were reports that the “inspriration” for the song was Reed’ s fondness for Herion at the time, which was kinda ironic. I think the jury is still out on whether “Perfect Day” is about heroin or not. On the one hand, it’s not exactly a far-fetched interpretation, but on the other hand, when Lou Reed wanted to write a song about heroin he came right out and called it “Heroin!” Still, heroin or not, the “you’re gonna reap just what you sow” towards the end is enough to make it more than a little creepy. If it is a love song about a person rather than a drug, I’d have to class it as one of those “love songs” in which the narrator is a psycho stalker out for blood. That said, the BBC charity version was creepy primarily because it sucked so much. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/186 "2004-03-19T15:24:04Z")
I can’t believe this thread has gotten this far without those two great love songs from the 80’s (every couple’s love songs) - Wrapped Around Your Finger \* and - Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad \* The first is pretty much self-explanatory and why couples adpopted this and the previously mentioned \* Every Breath You Take \* I’ll never know. They also adopted the Meatloaf tune, which always creeped me out more when a couple referred to it as their song: I want you I need you But there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you Now don’t be sad, Two out of three ain’t bad. What were people thinking?!?! There is a great Judy Collins song from the 60’s that is supposed to be creepy called \* Pretty Polly \* Where a girl is taken out into the woods by her fiance and murdered – it is a chilling combination of music, lyrics and performance that always made the hair on the back of my neck stand up: Willie, oh, Willie, I’m a-feared for my life Willie, oh, Willie, I’m a-feared for my life Let me be a single girl, if I can’t be your wife. Very worth a listen. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/187 "2004-03-19T15:25:09Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > That said, the BBC charity version was creepy primarily because it sucked so much. And while we’re on the subject, so did the All Saints cover of Under the Bridge. They didn’t even know it was about trying to score heroin. ---
**Author:** ![TommyTutone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/188 "2004-03-19T15:28:10Z")
I’ve been looking for a cite on the **Possum Kingdom** story, but I all have is this: [http://www.musicfanclubs.org/toadies/toadies/ripart.txt](http://www.musicfanclubs.org/toadies/toadies/ripart.txt), in particular: > [@](#): > > It,like most of Toadies’ tunes, are stories, as Umbarger explains while Lewis > excuses himself to grab a tissue. “They’re just these silly stories he’s > heard his family tell. Like ‘Tyler’ and ‘Possum Kingdom’ are just like > stories…In Texas, there’s just this big storytelling thing - whenever your > family gets together, they sit and talk and tell all these stories. ‘Possum > Kingdom’ is a ghost story.” > “Possum Kingdom is a lake. One of the ten best fishin’ spots in the > U.S.,” Lewis says upon returning. > Is it a about a ghost or vampire at the lake? > Everyone laughs. Man-of-mystery Lewis replies: “I don’t know.” > “It’s not about vampires,” Umbarger insists. “Even though we have a big > underground vampire following in Florida. … So we have this big vampire underground following, and ‘Possum Kingdom’ has > kind of stirred it up.” > So what’s it really about, then? > Not missing a beat, Lewis replies: “Vampires.” > Laughter breaks out yet again. “It’s just a story I heard long ago; > it’s just a really cool, eerie lake, and some stuff I heard and some stuff I > just make up. I tend to do that,” Lewis explains about the watering hole > where his family used to hang out and barbecue. “They dammed up this big > river up there, and it’s got all these spooky names like Hell’s Gate. It’s > really cool.” The only other thing I could dig up was that they got very tired of playing the song, so I don’t know how much else there is out there. I tried looking up crime info or lore on Possum Kingdom itself, and came up empty. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/189 "2004-03-19T16:10:23Z")
This isn’t a song in English but it more than deserves mention. In 1966 Serge Gainsbourg wrote a song for then-teen singer France Gall called _Les sucettes_. The song talks about a girl who likes lollipops. France Gall sung the song and made it into a hit thinking it was a song about lollipops. Pretty much everyone else put 2 and 2 together and figured out what the “lollipops” really were. She was pretty pissed off when she finally figured it out. > [@](#): > > Annie aime les sucettes > Les sucettes à l’anis > Les sucettes à l’anis > D’Annie > Donnent à ses baisers > Un goût anisé > Lorsque le sucre d’orge > Parfumé à l’anis > Coule dans la gorge d’Annie > Elle est au paradis Which comes out more or less as: > [@](#): > > Annie likes lollipops, > Aniseed lollipops > Annie’s aniseed lollipops > Give her kisses > An aniseed taste. > And when the sugar, > Perfumed with aniseed, > Trickles down Annie’s throat > She’s in paradise. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/190 "2004-03-20T01:34:24Z")
> [@Evil Death](#): > > That you automatically turned “So I lit a fire” into “So I burned down her house” worries me in the extreme. > > BTW, guys, can we actually listen to the mods for once and stop posting complete lyrics? Actually, I read this somewhere as a valid interpretation of the lyrics: “She showed me her room isn’t it good, Norwegian wood” “So, I lit a fire, isn’t it good, Norwegian Wood” The book was titled something like “The Poetry of Rock Music” and it was published sometime in the dark ages of the 70’s. So, you see, Evil Death, that it predates SDMB and is an accepted interpretation of the song. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/191 "2004-03-20T02:25:34Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > Actually, I read this somewhere as a valid interpretation of the lyrics: > > “She showed me her room isn’t it good, Norwegian wood” > > “So, I lit a fire, isn’t it good, Norwegian Wood” > > The book was titled something like “The Poetry of Rock Music” and it was published sometime in the dark ages of the 70’s. > > So, you see, Evil Death, that it predates SDMB and is an accepted interpretation of the song. I have to admit that I’m somewhat surprised that there are people who _don’t_ get that impression of the meaning from the lyrics. It’s the very first one I thought of when I first heard the song back in my teens. Honestly…what other interpretation can one come up with. The apartment is made of “good Norwegian wood”. The fire is made of “good Norwegian wood”. She’s just led him on all night, then told him nothing was going to happen, why don’t you sleep in the bathtub? What did he do, lay a fire in the fireplace and patiently wait for her to come home from work? ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/192 "2004-03-20T05:48:18Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I have to admit that I’m somewhat surprised that there are people who _don’t_ get that impression of the meaning from the lyrics. I believe John said he wanted to write a song about an affair he had without letting his wife, Cynthia, know about it. I’ve always listened to that song in this context. “I crawled off to sleep in the bath” sounds more like it’s said in jest.Especially considering “when I awoke, I wasn alone”. Doesn’t that imply that he _wasn’t_ when he went to sleep? The last line _is_ confusing but the “burning down the house” interpretation just doesn’t fit with the rest of the song. ---
**Author:** ![Diane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2acd7d/32.png) [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/193 "2004-03-20T07:35:58Z")
> [@Gundy](#): > > I’m surprised that anyone can listen to that song and not get what it’s about – the end is all guitars crunching and the singer screaming, “DOOOO YOU WANNA DIE?!” > > What _is_ creepy is that I find that song sexy in the extreme. Hey creepy, I think it is sexy too! BTW, I always thought it was a song about a vampire because of these lines: I can promise you You’ll stay as beautiful With dark hair And soft skin…forever Forever ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/194 "2004-03-20T08:01:15Z")
A bit of an oldie: _Good Night Irene_ Good ol’ suicide comtemplatin’ song-- by drowning, or overdose, depending on the version you’re listening to. Not quite so old-- (and apologies if it’s been mentioned, I skimmed over the last coupla pages…) Tom Waits’ _I Don’t Wanna Grow Up_. Tom set it to such a rollicking tune that I didn’t notice what the hell it was about until I heard Holly Cole’s melancholy version on _Temptation_. I took it as an ode to stubbornly prolonged youth for _years_ – somehow glossing over the line _“Open up the medicine chest – I don’t wanna grow up.”_ I’ve come to prefer Holly’s version, but now both of them make me want to crawl under my bed and sob, while the original used to just make me want to drink more and be raucous. I guess it’s pretty much 50/50 odds on whether it’ll be Holly Cole or Leadbelly in the CD player when my people find me cold in the tub. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/195 "2004-03-20T11:41:37Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > Actually, I read this somewhere as a valid interpretation of the lyrics: > > “She showed me her room isn’t it good, Norwegian wood” > > “So, I lit a fire, isn’t it good, Norwegian Wood” > > The book was titled something like “The Poetry of Rock Music” and it was published sometime in the dark ages of the 70’s. > > So, you see, Evil Death, that it predates SDMB and is an accepted interpretation of the song. I don’t _see_ anything, because all you’ve done is quote lyrics. If you want me to believe people interpreted the lyrics the same way you do back in the 70s, please cite them saying so. > [@jayjay](#): > > She’s just led him on all night, then told him nothing was going to happen, why don’t you sleep in the bathtub? What did he do, lay a fire in the fireplace and patiently wait for her to come home from work? Whereas I interpreted the lyrics thusly: _I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me_ He went head over heels for this girl. _She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere, So I looked around and I noticed there wasn’t a chair._ She actually wanted him to sit on the bed, with her. Hint, hint. _We talked until two, and then she said, “It’s time for bed” She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh_ She wasn’t laughing at him because she’d successfully led him on - she was laughing because she’d planned to go to bed with him, but he’d quite literally talked himself out of it. _I told her I didn’t, and crawled off to sleep in the bath_ Don’t see her telling him to do it here, sorry. As to the fire being in the fireplace as opposed to everywhere else, McCartney listed that as the meaning in his biography. I think I’ll side with the Beatle until you provide something more definitive … like a quote from John Lennon. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/196 "2004-03-20T20:09:42Z")
First of all, I’m not saying that burning down the girl’s house is what the Beatles intended in the lyrics. I’m saying that there was a book published in 1969:\* Richard Goldstein’s Poetry of Rock\* that discussed several songs of the day in terms of poetry and meaning. In that book, Goldstein posited that a valid interpretation of the song was that after being left in the morning, he torched the place. He also spends some time discussing the double ententre of “Norwegian Wood” vs. “Norwegian would.” I’m also not saying that it is the only viable interpretation of the song – just one, set forth a little over three decades ago, and so, just because someone goes there, doesn’t make them particularly odd, as it is an easily worked through interpretation of it. I don’t want a flame war, but poetry can be interpreted many ways, and most of the Beatles catalog can be considered poetry as well as song. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/197 "2004-03-20T20:12:14Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > First of all, I’m not saying that burning down the girl’s house is what the Beatles intended in the lyrics. I’m saying that there was a book published in 1969:\* Richard Goldstein’s Poetry of Rock\* that discussed several songs of the day in terms of poetry and meaning. > > In that book, Goldstein posited that a valid interpretation of the song was that after being left in the morning, he torched the place. He also spends some time discussing the double entendre of “Norwegian Wood” vs. “Norwegian would.” > > I’m also not saying that it is the only viable interpretation of the song – just one, set forth a little over three decades ago, and so, just because someone goes there, doesn’t make them particularly odd, as it is an easily worked through interpretation of it. > > I don’t want a flame war, but poetry can be interpreted many ways, and most of the Beatles catalog can be considered poetry as well as song. see typo correction above ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/198 "2004-03-20T20:15:10Z")
FWIW - when I first noticed hearing the song in the 70’s, I didn’t really understand it all, but I sure thought it was the guy talking about burning it down after sleeping in the tub. Not saying it was intended to be interpreted that way, just that I don’t see it as all that improbable an interpretation, either. ---
**Author:** ![epepke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de0a6/32.png) [@epepke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epepke)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/199 "2004-03-20T21:03:28Z")
> [@pugluvr](#): > > After their early hit _Psycho Killer_, about a psychopathic murderer, I guess it should come as no surprise that the Talking Heads wrote about a baby torturer later on in _Stay Up Late_. I never took this one seriously. I always thought of it as a comic revenge fantasy based on having one’s sleep cycle **utterly destroyed** by a baby for a couple of years (which is what babies do). ---
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639/200 "2004-03-20T22:10:54Z")
> [@LtningBug](#): > > Another Beatles song: Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. It’s a catchy tune, but wow, a lot of people get killed by Maxwell. Haha, I thought I was the only one who thought Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was creepy. Great song, but it’s about killing people. There was this old Blink 182 song, back on their first CD I think…anywhoodles, it wasn’t really creepy just depressing. Made me want to cry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-songs-that-no-one-notices-are-actually-creepy/233639.md?page=11)