That Raspberries song is NOT called “Don’t Go Away”.
Really. Listen to it. It isn’t.
And, actually, I just remembered a skit (maybe on SNL, or a similar show) I saw back in the 1990s that depicted Rick Springfield attempting to revitalize his career by hitting the stage in a dress and singing, “I wish that I was Jessie’s girl …”
Did you perhaps “always” hear this from the same person? Because while I can certainly believe that individuals have come up with their own wacky interpretations of pop hits, I’ve never heard this one before and it doesn’t make much sense. The song is about the narrator’s interest in Jessie’s girlfriend. The lyrics refer to Jessie as “him”, but even if Jessie were a transvestite or a lesbian then “woman like that” would obviously be referring to Jessie’s girl and not Jessie.
Wikipedia tells me that Rick Springfield has revealed that the song was inspired by a real life situation:
Indeed. I think the song makes that pretty clear and unambiguous.
Yeah, but her method is free, and can be done without her husband’s knowledge. The idea is that her husband thinks the baby is his.
That’s hilarious, so did I!
Seven year old me always thought that the baseball part of Paradise By the Dashboard Light was about, well, you know…baseball.
I mentioned this one in another thread awhile ago. As a Little Miss in the 1970s, I couldn’t understand why she was telling him to “Please, go-oh away!” when the rest of the lyrics seemed to indicate that she liked him.
At least you figured it out; I had to have it explained to me.
Okay, I had t o revisit this thread, because “that guy’s” grandson showed up on American Idol:’
He played that awful “Hallelujah” on the piano, then picked up a guitar and nailed it.
Hee. I still wouldn’t know if my Mom hadn’t turned red when my brother mentioned this song. 
I thought they were listening to a baseball game on the car radio.
That wasn’t all they were doing. :smack:
When I was a kid, we always listened to and sang a lot of old Irish folk songs. At the time, I had no idea that most of them were about booze, death, sex, or some combination of those three.
“The Black Velvet Band,” for instance, was about a Belfast prostitute who plies a guy with liquor, gives him some stolen property, and gets him shipped off to a prison colony in Australia.
Perfect song for an 8 year old to be singing, right?
“Je t’aime.” It was quite a big deal at the time.
Maybe someone should revive the old “Gangster Rap or Folk?” thread. Those old folk songs are full of murder, rape, robbery, prison, drinking, objectifying women, glorification of material wealth, and bloody revenge. Makes “Straight out of Compton” look tame.
When I was nine years old, while we were listening to the Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women,” I asked my father why the woman was blowing the man’s nose. He laughed and told me he’d tell me when I turned twenty-one. Unfortunately, he passed away a year later.
So…fight my ignorance, folks! 
My parents had a couple of EPs by Nina and Fredrik. I didn’t need to become an adult to understand that The Worm Song was an earthworm trying to hook up with itself, but Little Boxes… wow :eek: Yeah, that’s one which didn’t just need the ability to understand each word, in order to truly comprehend it.
A lot of the songs my father liked praised things that he would have considered unacceptable in other contexts: those where the lovers are either married or intending to marry are a definite minority. Then again, his favorite movie was Seven Brides and I’m sure he was not truly in favor of kidnapping women, merely in favor of any movie featuring dancing, music and a certain tall brunette whose name I can’t find… (dancing with Mr Orange Shirt)
Because Mick is allergic to roses, of course.