A good list, and I’ll add “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” which is both funny and a primer on getting consent for sex about 40 years before it became a thing.
Yeah, that’s also a very funny song, and I didn’t catch the consent aspect before, a good observation. But it reminded me of another funny Dylan song in a similar setting, “Fourth Time Around”, which is an obvious parody of “Norwegian Wood”. John Lennon was intimidated and a bit pissed off by it. For me it’s a hilarious song about a piece of gum.
Yeah, I thought it was obvious (not to rub salt) from the repeated lyrics “They’ll stone you when you’re…” It didn’t sound like people would run up and offer you some weed.
Really, only the “Everybody must get stoned” sounds like a double meaning: both getting attacked for living your life and getting high because fuck the dudes attacking you.
Draft Dodger Rag by Phil Ochs, serious subject done humorously.
Well, in my defense, the oft-repeated chorus is:
So I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
So sharing some weed as a social activity was apparently one of the meanings, even, perhaps, the primary meaning. Just not the only meaning.
Quinn the Eskimo?
Tribute by Tenacious D.
Peaches by Presidents of the United States of America.
Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend.” The video and the tone-deaf singing both contribute to its silliness. Oh, snap!
“Quinn the Eskimo” on the surface is a silly song but it’s really a satire of organized religion.
Wait, what?
I did a bit of googling… there’s a case to be made that it’s about heroin.
And, is ‘cup of meat’ a thing, or did it just rhyme with something.
That’s just Dylan playing with words and being absurdist, like he often did at the time (compare the line “The sun’s not yellow, it’s chicken” from Tombstone Blues I already quoted earlier, or the “motorcycle black madonna two-wheeled gypsy queen” from Gates Of Eden).
It’s there for the rhyme. (That said, I think “cut of meat” makes more sense and keeps the song’s meter but who am I to question the writing abilities of a living legend and Nobel Prize winner?)
And I stand by my argument about “The Mighty Quinn” really being about religion and the overeagerness of people to embrace self-declared gurus.
The flip side of Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks is called Put the Bone In. No, it’s not about that… it’s a bone for a dog that got hit by a car.
Dead Skunk by Loudon Wainwright III
Except it appears to be actually about Anthony Quinn in a movie as an Eskimo.
Also from that period is "Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread and a song about being drunk and needing to use the bathroom “Please Mrs. Henry.”
BTW there is a movie called “Quinn the Eskimo” about a cop named Quinn on a Caribbean island. The only connection to the song is that some of the cast sing a verse at a bar.
Wow- I have no idea where you got that. The lyrics say otherwise.
Wiki doesnt mention anything liek that.
I can see it referring to all types of hopium, not just organized religion. Waiting for something that will save your life but will almost certainly never come. Then again it could indeed just be a silly song.
The whole oeuvre of the band Cake
One of the reasons I love Bob Dylan and Tom Waits lyrics is that they can be used to mean totally different things according to how the listener feels at the time.
Decades ago in a Tom Waits forum, a respected participant talked about a specific line in a song. He had met old Tom and asked about it. He shared Tom’s reply. Meanwhile, another respected participant had an old copy of an interview where a totally different meaning was given by Tom. It means whatever you think it means.
ETA: too busy to find cites, but Dylan has given multiple differing explanations about Quinn
I totally believe this. I heard Eddie Vetter in 3 different interviews give 3 different explanations for to origin of the name Pearl Jam. I’ve also heard Sir Paul give differing accounts of the meaning of Blackbird.
In my younger days I sought to be a famous artist. As such, I’ve had a few openings. One of my favorite things was to stand within earshot and listen to people assign meanings to my paintings that I didn’t intend.
I used to think that kind of thing was BS but I’ve come around to it.
I’m not arguing the point, would just love to hear your breakdown.