We’ve had threads about misheard/misunderstood lyrics.
We’ve had threads about lyrics you can’t make out.
What about songs where the words are perfectly clear, you just haven’t a clue what it means?
Example. I’m not a die-hard Sheryl Crow fan, but I think she’s done some good, listenable stuff. I like ‘A Change would do you good’, but no matter how often I hear it I haven’t a clue what half of it means or what the song is supposed to convey. Extracts:
“He’s a platinum canary, drinkin’ falstaff beer
Mercedes rule, and a rented lear”
“God’s little gift is on the rag
Poster girl posing in a fashion mag
Canine, feline, Jekyll and Hyde
Wear your fake fur on the inside
Queen of south beach, aging blues
Dinner’s at six, wear your cement shoes”
“Chasing dragons with plastic swords
Jack off Jimmy, everybody wants more
Scully and angel on the kitchen floor
And I’m calling Buddy on the ouija board”
First off, thank you ianzin for reminding me of my favorite Sheryl Crow song, giving me the unexpected pleasure of listening to it after I had forgotten all about it
Second, I was going to say, I was pretty sure that “Mercedes rule” was actually “Mercedes Ruehl(sp?)” the actress, but when I took my copy of the cd down off the shelf, I found that your version was correct. WTF??? I’m just as confused as you. Damn.
He’s a successful singer at a platinum-selling album level; his excessive merry-making (a la Falstaff) makes him popular in the short-term and despised in the long-term; his lifestyle is ruled by material items like Mercedes’ and rented LearJets.
Given enough imagination, I’m sure you can come up with an interpretation of ANY lyric, a la Nostradamas. But how can you be sure this is the particular meaning intended?
Maybe the lyric writer had no intention other than stringing together cool-sounding words or syllables?
When I was in college creative writing class, after listening to the professor’s weird interpretation of some weird verse, I once wrote a short poem as a personal exercise. I rewrote and rewrote it, changing any word or line that SEEMED to make some sense. I felt my final version could not be interpreted in any way at all; it was total gibberish.
The only line I can remember was,
“Among the leaves in the kitchen,
I sat down to observe the race.”
I showed it to the instructor for critique. After reading it and much “Hmmm”-ing, he said,
“It seems to have something to do with sex.” :rolleyes:
I guess the moral of the story is, “Interpretation is in the mind of the beholder.”
Surely the classic example is early REM. Nobody could understand Stipe’s singing, and even when the lyrics were finally published they didn’t make any sense.
Speak to me of summer
no winter’s longer
than time can remember.
Setting off on other roads
to travel on in old accustomed ways.
I still remember
the torch by the water
the proud sons and daughters.
That knew the knowledge of the land
and spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways.
All of it sounds great and rhymes beautifully, but can anyone tell what the flock it means?
I know what you mean, but that’s not what this thread is about. I’ll try again.
You can understand every word the singer is singing. You can tell what is being said. But the meaning of the words is elusive to the point of utter bewilderment.
There’s a Pogues song, “Five Green Queens.” Don’t have all the lyrics handy, but here’s a sample refrain:
Clearly I remembered,
Before it slipped away,
When five green queens
On a black bean bag,
Meant all the world to me.
They also can do the reverse: “Waxies Dargle” has lyrics that make perfect sense, but is sung in such a thick, drunken Irish accent that you can’t understand more than one word in ten.
Well the first bit can be easy enough to interpret… “God’s little gift is on the rag Poster girl posing in a fashion mag Canine, feline, Jekyll and Hyde” Is refering to some model (or actress) chick who of course is really hot and seen as God’s gift to man (which she quite possibly has come to believe herself) is… well to put it simply having that time of the month and is being both a bitch and catty one moment being all sweetness and light the next being a monster.
“Wear your fake fur on the inside Queen of south beach, aging blues Dinner’s at six, wear your cement shoes” Can be a little harder… the first line is basically you’ve taken the outward superficiality and fakeness and turned it inwards to believe in it. The second part… is south beach a place in Cali where movie starlettes retire to? That’s how I would interpret it as… she’s retired from the limelight bitter over her declining beauty. Perhaps the last line refers to the fact that though she is no longer in the limelight she still throws parties and all the best people come… and if you make a social faux pa (sp?) your as sunk as if you wore cement shoes to go swimming.
“Would you like to play
With a fool holding hands
With a one-eyed jack of spades
While on the deck they sing
All of the captain’s cards are kings
Still he and the queen are lost at sea
I hope it isn’t you and me.
And I’ll be back 'round again
Yes I’ll walk in time with you old friend
And we’ll find that place
That we had danced in so long ago.
And in plays to write the wire in
I’ll come back again
Torching time and talking rhymes in
I’ll come back again
With this resigned
The letter I sign.”
Try listening to some post-1985 Wire lyrics, or anything from Colin Newman’s solo albums. The lyrics are usually not hard to understand, but as to what they mean it’s anyone’s guess. And Wire are super famous so it’s not just some weird nonsense band! Heh.
On Whiskeytown’s new album Pneumonia the first verse of the song “What the Devil Wanted” starts " I dream the dream of wounded sheep, that jumped the fence , but are too weak"…errr what???
I always thought it was pretty clear that she is describing people who are living empty, superficial lives–basically the fakes who wish they were anything but themselves. And the change that would do them good is to simply stop pretending.
I’ll attempt the last bit:
Wanna-be knights. You could make up a bunch of explanations for it. I think she could be talking about the general case here… dragons being fantasy problems, chasing them with plastic swords being not only stupid (because there are no dragons) but impractical (because a plastic sword would get you killed).
Obviously something to do with masturbation… replacing real sex with fantasies.
Not sure on this one. Scully from X-Files and Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Perhaps this is Jimmy’s little fantasy…
Buddy… Holly? She’s looking for songwriting inspiration from long dead singers? Sound to me like she’s criticizing lack of originality. (ie. fakers)
