# Real Meanings Behind Pop Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2001, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689 "2001-03-12T19:06:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/61 "2001-03-13T21:51:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jadailey \* > \*\* > Then there are the songs people use at weddings without ever really listening to the lyrics: > > \ > > C’mon, folks - if it’s good enough to play in your wedding, it’s good enough to really listen to at least once. I had a cousin walk down the aisle to the strains of “If I should stay/ I would only be in your way/ So I’ll go…” At least find the refrain! \*\* I have heard that some young couples have chosen to play Pearl Jam’s “Betterman” at their weddings. As anyone who has ever listened to the words of the song knows, it is about a woman who is afraid to leave a bad marriage because she thinks she can’t do any better (Eddie Vedder wrote it about his mother and stepfather). Not exactly the sentiment I’d want at my nuptuals. ---
**Author:** ![ThisYearsGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@ThisYearsGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisYearsGirl)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/62 "2001-03-13T23:43:46Z")
As for a song _not_ about drugs, I always figured (well, for the past two years or so) that “Rainy day Women #12 and 35” (you know–“Everybody must get stoned!”) is referring to the biblical version of stoned, as in "He who is without sin. . . " ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/63 "2001-03-13T23:59:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pldennison \* > \*\*I would like to see a cite for this, please. I have read just about every inch of copy ever written on the Beatles, and I have never seen anything stating that this song was ever titled “Knowing She Would,” or contained lyrics to that effect. Not in Lewisohn’s _Recording Sessions_ book, not in any lyrics book, not in the _Anthology_, not in Coleman’s comprehensive _Lennon_, not anywhere. \*\* A search turned up [this link](http://www.rockument.com/Sonic_groovyfolk1.html) which supports the “Knowing She Would” story, and [this](http://beatles.cselt.it/rmb/miniFAQ.html) link which lends a more likely story, that there is no historical evidence whatsoever to document it. The second link states that the working title was actually “This Bird Has Flown”. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/64 "2001-03-14T00:17:54Z")
I’m so sorry about the quadruple post. When I hit submit, I got the “Connection time out” window. Instead of exiting the window and and reloading the whole SDMB, I just kept hitting the refresh button, and apparently, kept posting. Sorry. =( In other news, “Knowing She Would” _is_ within the realm of possibilities, but in five years of reading/researching, I have never heard that explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/65 "2001-03-14T00:33:20Z")
The Violent Femmes song “Blister in the Sun” is supposedly about masturbation. Of course, their song “Kiss Off” is about suicide. “Crash” by the Dave Matthews Band…come on…it’s sex. Allegedly, “Happiness is a Warm Gun” (the Beatles) is about heroin addiction. I’ve always heard that “Hotel California” was about cocaine addiction. Anyone know for sure? Does anyone know what the Live song “Pain Lies on the Riverside” is talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Spookythecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@Spookythecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spookythecat)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/66 "2001-03-14T00:35:38Z")
Shock the Monkey was supposedly Peter’s try at a Motown song!!!.. and against animal experimentation, which makes more sense. Don’t like it but I guess I’m learnin’ refers to mastrubation? ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/67 "2001-03-14T01:20:56Z")
Damn! Teach me to jump to conclusions. When I see the name Spector associated with a girl group song of the 60s, I make the logical (and totally incorrect) assumption to infer it was our man Phil. In checking my sources, **Bigstar303** was dead on right again. Abner it is. And no, I’ve never heard “Snowman, Snowman, Sweet Potato Nose,” or “Chicken, Chicken, Crane or Crow” or “Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar” or “Winky Dink,” other reported Jaynetts singles. Maybe we should start a thread for the worst rock song titles… And as far as the \*\*Norweigan Wood/Knowing She Would \*\* thing, I’ve seen that somewhere in Spider Robinson’s work. I’ll try to look that up at home tonight and pass on the cite tomorrow. Anyone have a clue as to who “The man from Tennessee” is in **Please Come to Boston**? It’s been driving me nuts for years. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/68 "2001-03-14T01:27:54Z")
> [@](#): > > * * * > > ## Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except me and My Monkey: Basic teachings of the Maharishi, if rephrased a bit. > > Nope. In the Playboy interviews (1980), John said “[This] was just sort of a nice line that I made into a song. It was about me and Yoko. Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love.” On the anthology tapes, there’s a piece of an interview with John (I think, but possibly George) in which he says that the lyrics for “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide. . .” (“The deeper you go, the higher you fly,” etc.) were all pretty much what the Maharishi had been telling them. Doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s what the song is about, per se, but that’s all I meant to imply. In any event, John was always rather inconsistent with his explanations and opinions about his music. In spite of this (or perhaps because of it) I’m a die-hard John person. > [@](#): > > . . . the original title of the song was “Knowing She Would”. I too have never heard it, but it’s certainly not inconceivable. In any event, I don’t think that it would change the meaning of the song much (it’s obviously about a guy being led on). “This Bird Has Flown” wasn’t just the working title. The full title is always listed as “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” > [@](#): > > Not sure what you caught on to (would love an explanation). . . Throughout the song, John describes the cabin by saying “Isn’t it good norwegian wood.” The closing stanza of the song is: _And, when I awoke, I was alone This bird had flown So I lit a fire Isn’t it good norwegian wood?_ Taken by itself, one assumes that the wood he refers to is kindling for the fireplace. In the context of the rest of the song, however. . . > [@](#): > > “She’s Leaving Home” is about, well, someone leaving home. I did hear once that it was about abortions, but many, many books on The Beatles debunk that legend. I concur. Besides, that sounds like it would be way too overheated a topic for Paul. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/69 "2001-03-14T01:29:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Cynical \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by pldennison \* > > \*\*I would like to see a cite for this, please. I have read just about every inch of copy ever written on the Beatles, and I have never seen anything stating that this song was ever titled “Knowing She Would,” or contained lyrics to that effect. Not in Lewisohn’s _Recording Sessions_ book, not in any lyrics book, not in the _Anthology_, not in Coleman’s comprehensive _Lennon_, not anywhere. \*\* > > A search turned up [this link](http://www.rockument.com/Sonic_groovyfolk1.html) which supports the “Knowing She Would” story, and [this](http://beatles.cselt.it/rmb/miniFAQ.html) link which lends a more likely story, that there is no historical evidence whatsoever to document it. The second link states that the working title was actually “This Bird Has Flown”. \*\* That first link doesn’t really say that, though; it says “One might even speculate that, given Lennon’s flair for amusing wordplay as demonstrated in his two books, _In His Own Write_ and _A Spaniard in the Works_, he made up the term ‘Norwegian Wood’ to stand for the phrase ‘Knowing she would’.” It certainly doesn’t claim that that phrase was ever in the song or was a working title. This is, quite literally, the first time I have **ever** heard this asserted. I have never come across this in anything, and anyone who knows me knows I am a meticulous freak about Beatles lore. I’d be dumbfounded if it were true. The [Internet Beatles Album](http://www.getback.org) doesn’t say anything, nor does the [rec.music.beatles](http://rmb.simplenet.com) archive. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/70 "2001-03-14T02:19:13Z")
Haven’t you heard that “Hey Jude” was about shooting up heroin? You haven’t? Just listen: > [@](#): > > _The minute you let her under your skin > then you begin to make it better_ It’s obvious, isn’t it? Well, anyway that’s what a girl told me on a date once. She seemed convinced. I read the “knowing she would” interpretation on “Norwegian Wood” in a book years ago – it might have been _Twilight of the Gods_ by Wilfrid Mellers, I can’t really remember, it might have been _Creem_ Magazine. How come no one has mentioned the drug interpretation of “Norwegian Wood”? When he sings “I lit a fire” that means he lit up a joint. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/71 "2001-03-14T02:26:35Z")
The song I’ve always wondered about was “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” by **Traffic**. I know it sounds sort of gay, but what does it really mean? I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/72 "2001-03-14T02:30:18Z")
According to Paul McCartney (Who has no reason to lie) “Hey Jude” is about John’s son Julian Lennon. I always thought, and John thought too, that it was really about John. John claimed that it was Paul “giving him permission” to be happy with Yoko. Paul has never verified that. FTR, Paul was never a herion addict, though John was. (That’s what “Cold Turkey” is about.) Paul’s drug of choice was either pot, or during those crazy days of 67/68, cocaine. That is verified in “Many Years from Now”. “Norweigon Wood” is a very straight forward song. It is semi-autobiographical, he has an affair. At the end of the song, he sets the house on fire. Paul has stated (I’m not sure where. There are so many Beatles references scattered around this house) that it is not about drugs. I pretty much accept Paul’s and John’s word. They were always pretty up front about any drug use/references, and really had no reason to lie about it. ---
**Author:** ![BigStar303](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@BigStar303](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigStar303)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/73 "2001-03-14T03:00:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jomo Mojo \* > **I read the “knowing she would” interpretation on “Norwegian Wood” in a book years ago – it might have been _Twilight of the Gods_ by Wilfrid Mellers, I can’t really remember, it might have been _Creem_ Magazine.** It seems very unlikely that it would have been Mellers, as he was concerned, IIRC, strictly with the music of The Beatles, relating it to classical motifs, etc. If he started messing with lyric interpretation, I would think it would have been out of his league. But then it’s been many years since I read the book. Has anyone read it more recently? ---
**Author:** ![BigStar303](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@BigStar303](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigStar303)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/74 "2001-03-14T05:50:45Z")
Here’s what “The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders” has to say about it: "'Sally Go ‘Round the Roses’ is a timeless wonder of a song, featuring an odd, hypnotic rhythm and soft voices seductively rising and falling. The lyrics seem to portray Sally in an alluring field of roses, catching an eyeful of her lover with another. "But differing interpretations abound. Some listeners read the roses and the hushed throbbing of the music as expressions of a young woman’s troubled acceptance of homosexuality. Others think that the song is about a religious experience, or possibly a mental breakdown. Still others remember ‘Sally’ as nothing more than a silly nursery rhyme. “Zell [Saunders, who owned the label it was released on] and Abner [Spector] are gone now, so we’ll never know what it all meant, or even if ‘Sally’'s creators knew what it all meant.” ---
**Author:** ![bwanasimba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/53a042/32.png) [@bwanasimba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bwanasimba)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/75 "2001-03-14T09:29:00Z")
Sorry not for replying sooner, but work has a habit of getting in the way of my posts! I think the other posters have pointed out some useful sources already, but I heard the “Knowing She Would” hypothesis somewhere different again. A DJ on BBC’s Radio 2 was interviewing this guy 3-ish weeks ago (and if I’d have known this thread was coming up, I would have remembered his name). However, I remember it was a man (good start)and he had worked with the Beatles on the production of records. The DJ is a guy who prefers to answer e-mail questions and his details can be found [here](http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/johnnie_walker/index.shtml0), including his e-mail address. I’ll contact him if you like, or if you prefer you can do it direct. I think you can listen over the internet too, so you could even hear him give his explanation. His show goes out between 5pm and 7pm (approx) English time. Either way, just let me know. ---
**Author:** ![BigStar303](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@BigStar303](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigStar303)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/76 "2001-03-14T14:09:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hometownboy \* > **Anyone have a clue as to who “The man from Tennessee” is in Please Come to Boston? It’s been driving me nuts for years.** This is purely a guess on my part, but I always took “I’m the number one fan of the man from Tennessee” in this song as a reference to Elvis (who was actually from Tupelo, Mississippi, of course, but moved to Memphis before his teen years). The singer wants her to move to Boston, Denver, and L.A. – relatively exotic locales – to be with him, while she’s more of a down-home girl who says “No…boy, would you come home to me?” I just figured the Elvis reference was a way to identify her as a more down-to-earth person who would not feel comfortable with the glitz of these other places and the pace of the singer’s life. But I could be totally off about this. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/77 "2001-03-14T14:40:04Z")
Thanks **BigStar303**. It’s a better explanation than anything I’ve been able to come up with. By the way, I looked through my Spider Robinson collection last night, but my son’s been reading them, so I couldn’t locate the one I wanted with the specific Norweigan Wood/Knowing She Would reference so that I could cite it. IIRC, Spider wrote a short story in which Paul, George & Ringo had John cryonicly (sp?) preserved and reawakend some years later (when he would be chronologicly 64). The story is laden with Beatles references of all sorts, so much so that Spider provides an afterword which explains them all. I think that is the source for my “knowing she would” belief. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/78 "2001-03-14T14:57:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nocturne \* > Allegedly, “Happiness is a Warm Gun” (the Beatles) is about heroin addiction. Actually, according to John Lennon, the song was inspired by seeing a hunting magazine in a friend’s apartment that actually _had_ “Happiness is a warm gun” as a _slogan_. I’ll get the exact source later tonight; I’ve got a huge book where the Beatles explain (through interviews with them and with associates) exact what inspired all of their songs (as well as hidden meanings), and I’m kind of annoyed that I’ve missed most of the other discussion on the Beatles songs here. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/79 "2001-03-14T15:21:51Z")
Couldn’t the “Number 1 fan of the man from Tennessee” mean the narrator? The narrator is asking her to come to all these places, and she’s saying “No, I wanna stay here. I wanna be with you, I’m your number 1 fan, but I’m not traveling all over the country.” I thought that was just the writer’s way to identify to the listener where the narrator is from, and how much he means to her. ---
**Author:** ![BigStar303](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@BigStar303](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigStar303)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689/80 "2001-03-14T15:47:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hometownboy \* > **Thanks BigStar303. It’s a better explanation than anything I’ve been able to come up with.** Pepperlandgirl’s alternate explanation, which I’ve also considered, is equally viable, assuming the singer really is from Tennesse, which we have no way of knowing from the song. > [@](#): > > \*By the way, I looked through my Spider Robinson collection last night, but my son’s been reading them, so I couldn’t locate the one I wanted with the specific Norweigan Wood/Knowing She Would reference so that I could cite it. > > IIRC, Spider wrote a short story in which Paul, George & Ringo had John cryonicly (sp?) preserved and reawakend some years later (when he would be chronologicly 64). The story is laden with Beatles references of all sorts, so much so that Spider provides an afterword which explains them all. I think that is the source for my “knowing she would” belief.\*\* I have this story and know it well. It was entitled “Rubber Soul” and appeared in one of the Beatles magazines sometime in the 1980s. In the story, it is Paul alone who undertakes to preserve John until such time as technology finds a way to bring him back to life. Though the premise is admittedly outrageous, the story itself is quite movingly written, and presents a John and Paul I think we all in our hearts would like to believe were/are the way they’re portrayed. You’re right about all the footnotes explaining the various references throughout the story. I don’t specifically remember the “knowing she would” bit being a part of it, but I’ll try to scare up my copy tonight and double check. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-meanings-behind-pop-songs/57689.md?page=5)