Songs that make you go "???"

[Sonia_Montdore]

Can anybody explain America’s “A Horse With No Name”? It just always struck me as the unlikeliest song imaginable to become a hit. Lyhttp://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/america/a+horse+with+no+name_20007105.htmlrics here:

[Foldup_Rabbit]

You know, I have a passing understanding of French and a pretty decent understanding of French influence in the south. And yet, that whole “tout tout” thing never occurred to me. Thanks for clearing up something that has mildly bugged me for years.

[kaylasdad99]

While out driving with my daughter a couple of weeks ago, I heard Dance With My Father by the late Luther Vandross. It suddenly occurred to me that the ending is rather ghoulish. Consider:
Verse 1. Fond memories of a happy family with a much-loved child.
Verse 2. Bittersweet memory of the child’s last interaction with dear Papa
Bridge Ruminations on how loney the child’s mother is, now her man is gone.
Verse 3. Child prays for father’s corpse to be reanimated and returned to the world of the living as a zombie.

HUH?

[Mister_Rik]

@Sonia Montdore

Can anybody explain America’s “A Horse With No Name”? It just always struck me as the unlikeliest song imaginable to become a hit. Lyhttp://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/america/a+horse+with+no+name_20007105.htmlrics here:

I prefer This version.

Audio file here.

I notice the published lyrics don’t include the “Allah, bla, bla bla bla bla …”

[crowmanyclouds]

@Sonia Montdore

Can anybody explain America’s “A Horse With No Name”?..

How about Dewey Bunnell, the writer,
from the box set booklet,

…A tune as famous as this one deserves a detailed explanation, though Bunnell suggests that its meaning has evolved over time: “I was messing around with some open tunings–I tuned the A string way down to an E, and I found this little chord, and I just moved my two fingers back and forth, and the entire song came from basically three chords. I wanted to capture the imagery of the desert, because I was sitting in this room in England, and it was rainy. The rain was starting to get to us, and I wanted to capture the desert and the heat and the dryness.”

The imagery came from Dewey’s childhood: “I had spent a good deal of time poking around in the high desert with my brother when we lived at Vandenberg Air Force Base [in California]. And we’d drive through Arizona and New Mexico. I loved the cactus and the heat. I was trying to capture the sights and sounds of the desert, and there was an environmental message at the end. But it’s grown to mean more for me. I see now that this anonymous horse was a vehicle to get me away from all the confusion and chaos of life to a peaceful, quiet place.”…

CMC fnord!

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

or misheard lyrics (or both)

"Has anybody hear seen the [somethingsomething] loving cup explosion
I think we missed it
[something something something]… sky slipping into the ocean

[Three chords, two more chords, as if they’re supposed to sound like something]

Don’t give me your hand me down world…"

Or something like that. I have been hearing this stupid sound for maybe 30 years without actually hearing it. Don’t know who sang it. Don’t much care.

But . . . loving cup explosion? I have to be hearing that one wrong!

[Chum]

In Usher’s “Caught Up,” he says:

Her body was so tight
I’m lookin’ for her in the daytime with a flashlight.

What the heck? My mom thinks it’s some kind of vaginal reference, but that just seems so gross!

vivalostwages, I kinda think the beginning of “Chop Suey” is an homage to “I’ll Say a Little Prayer.”

[Greywolf73]

@vivalostwages

I have never understood System of a Down’s song “Chop Suey.”

I’ve never understood their “On the Radio” song. “I’m on the radio with Dannnnny and Liiiiiiisa, la, la, la la, la la…”

Repeat for 4 minutes.

What?!

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

@Hilarity N. Suze

But . . . loving cup explosion? I have to be hearing that one wrong!

Not just a loving cup explosion…but a fuzzy wuzzy loving cup explosion. And it was the Guess Who.

[Leaper]

Well, “Things That Make You Go ‘Hmm’” makes me go…

Oh, never mind.

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

@Biffy the Elephant Shrew

Not just a loving cup explosion…but a fuzzy wuzzy loving cup explosion. And it was the Guess Who.

Okay, I am here to confess that “fuzzy wuzzy loving cup explosion” was exactly what I thought I heard. But I was sure that it could not be (I mean in particular the fuzzy wuzzy part, because I actually thought I must have misheard all of it. Consistently. For decades).

[dotchan]

@vivalostwages

I have never understood System of a Down’s song “Chop Suey.”

Well, because my little brother is a SoaD fan, I got to listen to that song more times than I cared to. As far as I can tell, it seems to be about an emo teenager who’s into cutting himself.

I totally prefer Weird Al’s take on it in “Angry White Boy Polka”.

o/ Die die die die diediediediedie HEY! o/

[MsWhatsit]

Okay. The Killers. “Somebody Told Me.”

Well somebody told me
That you had a boyfriend
Who looks like a girlfriend
That I had in February of last year
It’s not confidential
I’ve got potential

Ready? Let’s roll onto something new
Taking its toll and I’m leaving without you
Cause heaven ain’t close in a place like this
I said heaven ain’t close in a place like this
Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight
Never thought I’d let a rumor ruin my whole life

WHAT RUMOR? His girlfriend had a sex change? What the hell is going on in this song?

[panache45]

When I saw this thread title, I immediately thought of “You’re So Vain.” (If this song’s not about me, then what do you mean by the word “you”?)

That song makes my brain hurt.

[Lucky_13]

@MsWhatsit

Okay. The Killers. “Somebody Told Me.”

WHAT RUMOR? His girlfriend had a sex change? What the hell is going on in this song?

As I understand it, his ex-girlfriend is now a (butch) lesbian, and is dating the girl he is now chasing. Hence the “rumor”.

So then why the hell is he breaking his back just to know her name?

Now someone please explain “Mr. Brightside”

[Marley23]

@panache45

When I saw this thread title, I immediately thought of “You’re So Vain.” (If this song’s not about me, then what do you mean by the word “you”?)

It’s humor, and she’s not identifying the “you” in question so that the real target of the song, in his vanity, will assume it’s about him.

[Sonia_Montdore]

@crowmanyclouds

How about Dewey Bunnell, the writer,
from the box set booklet,
CMC fnord!

Thanks, CMC! I appreciate your taking the time to type in that explanation from the booklet.

[Chefguy]

@Emily Litella

Surrealism was big back in the late 60’s, ala the Beatles Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club band. It was cool to sound esoteric, even if it didn’t make much sense and you could try to give meaning to the words when you were stoned. “Pressed between the pages” refers to pressing flowers between the pages of a book. Striped pants were in fashion at the time. When you iron your pants, they’re pressed. Take a bunch of randomly related sentences, put them all togher and you get…
I got nuthin.

I saw an interview with Richard Harris (the song was written by Jimmy Webb) wherein he was asked about the meaning behind the lyrics. His answer was “I’ve no freakin’ idea”, and intimated that it was written while the author was under the heavy influence of an hallucinogen.

[Sonia_Montdore]

The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” is a song I really like, but I’ve never understood what it’s actually about. The lyrics are here:
http://www.sing365.com/music/Lyric.nsf/Rock-the-Casbah-lyrics-The-Clash/6BC5F672F9AD8EC4482568AB00317382

Can anybody explain what this song means? I was also wondering, since the lyrics seems to be anti-Islamic, are radio stations afraid to play it nowadays?

[JThunder]

“Coast to coast, L.A. to… Chicago?”