Yeah, yeah, young girls… let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?
“Some little girl’s got a hold on me.
She’s only 13, but oh, so sweet.
Got me down on my knees.
She’s got a stranglehold on me.
Puts her arms around me like a vise.
It’s oh, so painful, but nice.”
UK Subs
"Blinded by the Light’ is an early Springsteen song made famous by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. Bruce’s line is “Cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night”. Manfred changed it for reasons known only to him. It’s a playful song, half nursery rhyme, half sexual innuendo, half Dylan-Lennon-style nonsense.
“It don’t rain in Indianapolis” is part of a list of admittedly false statements – listen to the song if you can stand it.
As for “never sinned”, John Mellencamp sings pretty much the same thing in “Crumblin’ Down”: “I never was a sinner.” Never could figure out why he put that line in there.
For a pretty dang funny list of “wrong” rock lyrics, check out this thread: Worst Rock&Roll Lyrics?
In the summertime when the weather is hot
You can stretch right up and touch the sky
When the weather’s fine
You got women, you got women on your mind Have a drink, have a drive
Go out and see what you can find
Used in the UK as the theme song of a road safety campaign.
If we’re talking about stuff that’s intentionally wrong, I guess I should go back to The Smiths, like I mentioned earlier…
*Poor old man had an accident
In a three bar fire
But that’s okay because he wasn’t very happy anway
Poor woman
Strangled in her very own bed as she read
But that’s okay, she was old and she would have died anyway
Don’t blame the sweet and tender hooligan, hooligan
Because he swore that he’ll never never never never never never do it again
No, not until the next time*
Hell, for that matter, we could include Country Death Song by Violent Femmes.
Well, I’m thinkin’ and I’m thinkin’
Till there’s nothing I ain’t thunk
Breathin’ in the stink
Till finally I stunk
It was about this time
I swear I lost my mind
Started makin’ plans to kill my own kind"
From there, he kills his youngest daughter, then, gets so overcome with remorse and guilt that he goes out the the barn and hangs himself.
Since the recent unpleasantness involving Pete Townshend, I’ve heard the theory that “Behind Blue Eyes” is an expression of his anger toward the person who molested him as a child, of his shame for his own paedophilic tendencies (I should state here that he asserts he has none), and of his frustration over being able to express none of this to anyone.
*No one knows what it’s like to be the bad man… behind blue eyes.
No one knows what it’s like… to be fated to telling only lies.
No one knows what it’s like to feel these feelings… and I blame you.
No one bites back as hard on their anger…
…my dreams aren’t as empty as my conscience seems to be…
My love is vengeance that’s never free.*
Maybe true, maybe not. But now I can’t hear that song any other way.
I’ve driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made.
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed.
And if you give me weed, whites, and wine
and you show me a sign
I’ll be willin’ to be movin’.
(from “Willin” by Little Feat)
Ah yes, loaded and overloaded truckers.
On that same note, howsabout a little ZZ for the ride…
Now just the other night with nothin’ to do
and a case of proof 102
I started itchin’ for that wonderful feel
of rollin’ in an automobile.
Now you could say we were out of our minds.
Let me tell you, we were flying while blind.
(from “Arrested For Driving While Blind” by ZZ Top)
Who was it who said “I miss Little Feat more than I miss being 16”?
*I got ten forward gears,
And a Georgia overdrive.
I’m taking little white pills,
And my eyes are open wide.
I just passed a ‘Jimmy’ and a ‘White’:
I’ve been passin’ everything in sight.
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight. *
Add another week and you get this gem from Mr. JJ Cale:
*Thirteen days on a gig down South.
We got enough dope to keep ourselves alive.
Birmingham to Mobile, then on to Baton Rouge.
We’re smoking cigarettes and reefer, drinking coffee and booze.
See the sun come up in Georgia and go down in New Orleans.
Never get to know a woman except to get in her jeans.*
from “Thirteen Days”
(Hats off the “The Grapes”, who covered both these tunes so excellently!)
I’ve got to throw an Ozzy tune in just because. “Devil’s Daughter” from No Rest For The Wicked:
*I’ll feel your creeping flesh
if you’re to be possesed,
then I will desecrate what you’ve become
I see through what’s inside you,
I’ll make you break down and cry
Break down, break down, break down and cry
Devil’s daughter, you don’t want a holy war*
That’s one way to score the girls, Oz. :rolleyes:
Also, “Mr. Tinkertrain” from No More Tears:
Close the curtains and turn out the lights
beneath my wing it’s gonna be all right
a little secret just for you and me, oh baby
I’ve got the kind of toys you’ve never seen
manmade and a bit obscene
little angle come and sit up on my knee
Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Whitney Houston has a question:
Oh tell me:
How will I know? (Girl trust your feelings - . . .)
How will I know if he really loves me? . . .
If he loves me - if he loves me not -
If he loves me - if he loves me not -
How will I know?
How will I know?
How will I know?
How will I know?
How will I know if he really loves me? . . .
How will I know?
How will I know?
How will I know?
How will I know? - I say a prayer -
How will I know?
How will I know? - I fall in love -
How will I know?
How will I know? - I’m asking you -
How will I know?
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, hey, I ought to leave the young thing alone.
