I’m not blaming Oscar Hammerstein. I’m just saying that most people interpret the song the way Jerry Lewis: as saying, “You have loads of people who love you and you’re not alone in your struggles.” In reality, the song is saying that even when you SEEM to be alone, you can make it if you keep your pride and hope alive.
Not exactly the same thing. It’s about SELF-reliance.
If your discussion can only come up with one exception, that does pretty much confirm a general rule.
I think this may have been covered by Cecil Adams, but the principle is that if you haven’t found the actual rule, but you can find something that explicitly mentions that an exception is being made to the rule, then the rule must exist.
The words of Horace “carpe diem” are often rendered in English as “seize the day”. It’s an exciting motto, but the word “carpere” means more like “pluck” as you would do with a fruit or flower – a gentler, more contemplative idea of living in the moment.
I think one of the earliest examples of this might be Uncle Tom, a derogatory term for a servile black, but the character Uncle Tom from the book wasn’t an Uncle Tom.
Right, and I am adding that if you have no explicit mentions either way to work with, you can still establish a working rule by identifying (only) one exception. Few “rules” in real life are truly absolute, people understand–a single exception does not necessarily invalidate them. But many principles are generally strongly applicable. I believe this is what the expression captures.
Yeah, I’m with you here. I’ve heard that interpretation and, yeah, it can be read into the lyrics in the way that pretty much any rock song can be interpreted to be about sex or drugs, but I’ve always taken that song to pretty straightforwardly mean that words are kind of cheap and meaningless, and love needs to be shown through actions (not necessarily sex.) It’s not exactly a novel concept or sentiment.
Don’t know how I missed this before my post.
Right. For instance, Yao Ming is really tall. And he’s Asian. And it’s generally unusual for Asian people to be tall. Maybe you’ve never thought about that at all, but then you see Yao Ming, and the amount of surprise you feel at how tall he is is what makes you notice how unusual it is for an Asian person to be tall at all.
Yao Ming being tall is the exception that proves the rule that Asian people usually aren’t tall.
The KISS ballad “Beth” is widely seen as a love song, but it’s really about a rock musician blowing off his wife or girlfriend, because his band means more to him than she does.
Not really. The thread is about things that people routinely interpret in a way that’s the opposite of what the creator intended. People interpret the crucifixion as a great sacrifice - which is precisely the meaning intended by the Bible. If you think the bible is giving the wrong meaning, that’s cool. But it’s not what the thread is about.
Just to contradict a seven year OP, I don’t know anyone who thinks “Every Breath You Take” is romantic nor I have I ever heard it played at a wedding.
“Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)” is not primarily a song about being abandoned by some person. It’s from the musical “The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd”. The first appearance closes the first act. Cocky, the protagonist, has tried everything to achieve what he wants, including wearing a number of religious symbols and good luck charms. But he’s had all his hopes, dreams and prayers dashed to pieces by “Sir”. The last line, “Who can I turn to if you turn away”, is sung as he looks UP and tears off all the symbols and charms, meaning that he’s in despair because God has abandoned him.
In the second act, Cocky realizes he doesn’t have to take shit from Sir and goes his way (temporarily, as it turns out). Sir reprises the song, addressed to Cocky.
Not exactly pop culture, but I suspect that “Nessun Dorma” is among the best known operatic arias these days, especially given its popularity in televised talent shows. Most people probably assume it’s a fairly nice love song or something, especially if they bother to look up a translation.
In reality, it’s sung by a terrible person who is willing to let an entire city of innocents be massacred in order to force himself on a woman who wants nothing to do with him (to be fair, she is at least as terrible as him). That pre-pubescent girls have taken to singing this song on these shows is perfectly horrifying.
This one bugs me, and not just because the real title doesn’t appear in the lyrics. I really don’t see the “real” meaning in the lyrics or really hear it in the music (it could be there, but it’s not just interpretable in that one way). I really don’t see how you’re supposed to know, for sure, the “actual” atmosphere.
Bob Marley’s song “No Woman No Cry” is often misunderstood to mean “Single men are lucky, because they don’t have to deal with the hassle of having a woman in their life.”
Actually, it means “Hey, woman, don’t cry! Things will be okay!”
As for “We Can Work it Out,” it’s important to know that Paul wrote the verse/chorus, while John wrote the middle eight (“life is very short…”). So they convey two approaches to the problematic relationship. Paul was in the last stage of his relationship with Jane Asher, and his lyrics are, as others have pointed out, more “selfish” than many people think they are (people who just focus on the title phrase). John’s approach, however, IS more optimistic – or at least it’s a reminder that, whether the relationship ends or not, the decision should be made amicably.
Correct.
IF the Gospels had actually said, “Jesus, died, was buried, rotted in the ground, and was never heard from again,” then this would fit the theme.
As it is, Christians believe exactly what the Gospels say: that He rose from the dead.
Green Day’s “Good Riddance/Time of Your Life” doesn’t fit neatly into the “cheery” OR “depressing” category. It’s not supposed to.
It’s about looking back at a relationship that ended badly, that’s broken beyond repair, and trying to find the good things and happy memories that can still be cherished.
It’s about telling an ex-love, “I don’t regret what we had together, even though it didn’t work out.”
“The Ugly American” usually refers to fat, braying tourists abroad in cargo shorts and loud shirts, or to politically- and culturally-tone deaf diplomats. The ugly American in the novel was actually a plain-faced engineer whose bicycle-powered water pump and other handy tips immeasurably improved the lives of the locals.