A lot of songs have had people misinterpret the message of them. They might think it’s about one thing, but it’s actually about the opposite.
I’ll start with an obvious one, Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen.
Helter Skelter
- Any Breath You Take* by the Police. A song about a stapler that’s misinterpreted as a love song.
Someone once told Lyle Lovett they played “L.A. County” at their wedding. He asked “Don’t you know what that song’s about?” They said they changed the lyrics a bit.
I hope so. It’s about a psycho ex-boyfriend who kills the bride and groom at the altar.
I guess there’s Every Breath You Take? Interpreted as a song of devotion and protection - and therefore used as a wedding song numerous times - but actually intended to be about some refusing to let go and obsessively stalking an ex. Maybe not the opposite meaning - more overstepping the mark - but a very different feel nevertheless!
Ninja’d!
Yeah, but at least you got the song title correctly.
No, it’s their lesser-known song, Any Breath You Take, about a man who wants to make his stapler come alive.
And it had the lyrics that went:
When you kiss me, my lips stay together
and
Swingline my swinger, your red curves make me hot
Revolution by the Beatles got very misinterpreted.
Love Will Keep Us Together was really about a short pamphlet and a stapler aptly named ‘Love’.
“Crash Into Me” by Dave Matthews Band. It’s about a peeping Tom.
“Semi Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind is about meth heads and meth benders. It’s not really the happy upbeat song people interpret it to be.
Leonard Cohen’s song “Halelujia” is sung in churches. With words changed or left out. Maybe not misinterpreted but misused.
Baby It’s Cold Outside. It has several threads here.
Sarah McLachlan’s Possession is another stalker song sometimes misinterpreted as a love song. And I’m assuming those Humane Society commercials did little to explain that Angel is a song about heroin addiction.
Rubblebucket’s Carousel Ride is about getting sober/clean but the guy who wrote the lyrics said he worried about people interpreting it as a “Getting fucked up” anthem. Speaking of, a lot of drunk people at parties seem to miss the point of Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville.
Music adjacent, but I remember reading about Roger Waters being dismayed to see fans dressing as the fascists depicted in the film “The Wall” for that “cool Pink Floyd look”.
And of course there is all those people using Born in the USA in their “America, fuck yeah!” rotation.
Goddamn staplers!
(“Every Breath You Take” and I assume “stalker.”)
Oh, just thought of one. “The One I Love” by REM. It seems like it should be pretty clear that it’s a biting, cynical song, but apparently not.
I always call bullshit on this one. Bruce was making a pop album and I’m sure that he knew that screaming “Born in the USA” over and over again would get the type of reaction that it got.
Another song that’s been discussed in several earlier threads on this board: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.”
In particular, the verse which mentions “the governor” (segregationist George Wallace) is commonly seen as being supportive of him and his policies; the band insisted that it was misinterpreted, and that it was meant to be critical of Wallace, and that listeners mis-heard the “boo, boo, boo” lyric as “ooh, ooh, ooh.”
The fact that another lyric, “where the governor’s true,” also seems to be supportive of Wallace added to the likelihood of misinterpretation.
John Prine’s Illegal Smile is quite often misinterpreted.
Popular songs are like SDMB threads:
Some people pay attention to the words (of the OP); others just respond to the title.