# Songs that have been misinterpreted.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 4, 2020, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049 "2020-04-04T12:27:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CastletonSnob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CastletonSnob)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/1 "2020-04-04T12:27:38Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/2 "2020-04-04T12:37:04Z")
Helter Skelter
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/3 "2020-04-04T13:01:18Z")
- 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.
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### Author:  [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/4 "2020-04-04T13:08:05Z")
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!
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### Author:  [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/5 "2020-04-04T13:09:10Z")
Ninja’d!
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/6 "2020-04-04T13:23:42Z")
> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#):
>
> Ninja’d!
Yeah, but at least _you_ got the song title correctly.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/7 "2020-04-04T13:25:36Z")
No, it’s their lesser-known song, _Any Breath You Take_, about a man who wants to make his stapler come alive.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/8 "2020-04-04T13:41:56Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> 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
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/9 "2020-04-04T14:27:21Z")
**Revolution** by the Beatles got very misinterpreted.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/10 "2020-04-04T15:05:11Z")
_Love Will Keep Us Together_ was really about a short pamphlet and a stapler aptly named ‘Love’.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/11 "2020-04-04T15:05:51Z")
“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.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/12 "2020-04-04T15:11:59Z")
_Baby It’s Cold Outside_. It has several threads here.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/13 "2020-04-04T15:22:06Z")
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZPc6WNmjgw)_ 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”.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/14 "2020-04-04T15:58:24Z")
And of course there is all those people using _Born in the USA_ in their “America, fuck yeah!” rotation.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/15 "2020-04-04T15:58:42Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> - Any Breath You Take\* by the Police. A song about a stapler that’s misinterpreted as a love song.
Goddamn staplers!
(“Every Breath You Take” and I assume “stalker.”)
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/16 "2020-04-04T16:03:11Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@LoneRhino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LoneRhino)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/17 "2020-04-04T16:11:25Z")
> [@CastletonSnob](#):
>
> I’ll start with an obvious one, Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen.
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.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/18 "2020-04-04T16:47:24Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/19 "2020-04-04T16:58:30Z")
John Prine’s [_ **Illegal Smile** _](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/john-prine/illegal-smile) is quite often misinterpreted.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2020, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-have-been-misinterpreted/851049/20 "2020-04-04T17:16:42Z")
Popular songs are like SDMB threads:
Some people pay attention to the words (of the OP); others just respond to the title.
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