Many people believe (but it’s apparently an Urban Legend) that Phil Collins’s song In The Air Tonight is based on Phil’s witnessing a “Bad Samaritan” standing by and doing nothing while a friend of his drowned.
It could be true, and arguably should be true, and isn’t that the sort of can-do, why-not idealism and belief-above-rationality intensity this country was founded on?
[QUOTE=Askance]
Similarly REM’s The One I Love, which is definitely creepy if not more than a little obscure.
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I read an interview with Michael Stipe in which he said the song was about nothing. He said the line “A simple prop/ to occupy my time” explained the whole song.
[QUOTE=Malienation] One Night in Bangkok, which is about chess playing.
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..Are you sure? Its from the musical Chess (it was recorded as a single to help finance the musical production) and from what I understand it is exactly what it sounds like…I believe the chess tourney in the musical takes place in Bangkok.
[QUOTE=pinkfreud]
Before someone posts that Barry Manilow’s Mandy is about Barry Manilow’s dog, I’d like to point out that this is not the case.
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But the Martha in The Beatles’ “Martha My Dear” is Paul McCartney’s sheepdog.
[QUOTE=alice_in_wonderland]
Wacking off, of course. It always amuses me when they play these songs in family restaraunts.
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There was a PBS multi-part documentary about Japan in the early 90’s that used Turning Japanese throughout as their between-scenes music.
And Kyle’s Mom Is A Bitch, in D-major is not a song about days of the week, despite the fact that someone at NTV (Nippon Television) a few years back apparently thought it was perfect background music to announce the daily program schedules.
[QUOTE=alice_in_wonderland]
Wacking off, of course. It always amuses me when they play these songs in family restaraunts.
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Now you’ve got me imagining Chuck E. Cheese and his band playing these.
I’m certain that the assertion that “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” is about venereal disease is a load of bollocks. In the 33 years since it came out, you’re the first person I’ve ever heard make that claim. Got a cite on that story?
FTR, Randy Bachman wrote it originally as a lounge-type song, which Burton Cummings covered on one of his albums in exactly that style. The stuttering part is reference to Randy’s brother Gary, who stutters.
[QUOTE=tiltypig]
Along the lines of “Every Breath You Take,” isn’t Sarah McLachlan’s “Sweet Surrender” also about a stalker? Specifically, written from the point of view of a man who was stalking her?
I heard somewhere that some or all of The Magnetic Fields’ “Charm of the Highway Strip” songs are about vampires. For instance:
My boyfriend tells me “Cracklin’ Rosie” is “obviously” about wine. I had no idea, and sulked for a while because I didn’t think it was obvious at all.
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I was all ready to point and laugh at your boyfriend, then provide a cite to show that the wine was introduced by some plonk-marketing outfit in the '70’s but I found this page, instead.
Not exactlly what I’d call obvious, but interesting, nonetheless.
[QUOTE=fishbicycle]
I’m certain that the assertion that “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” is about venereal disease is a load of bollocks. In the 33 years since it came out, you’re the first person I’ve ever heard make that claim. Got a cite on that story?
.
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Obviously if I had a cite I would have provided it.
[QUOTE=kurahee]
Can anyone out there tell me that George Michael’s *Father Figure * is NOT about pedophilia?
That song just skeeves me.
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This is just a WAG, really, but I never took it to be about pedophilia. I see what you’re getting at, but I always thought it was more of a “I’m your first-” song about a guy introducing another guy (possibly younger) to homosexuality. But that’s just me, I just didn’t take it to be so literal.
[QUOTE=Hail Ants]
I’ve heard tell that Stone Temple Pilots’ Plush is about something rather gross…
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Umm, could you elaborate on that? I’ve always suspected it had something to do with a murder, or at least a girl dying.
Also, I’ll add to the list The Beatles’ Helter Skelter, which isn’t about armageddon no matter what Charles Manson says – it’s a British term for a playground slide, and the lyrics don’t mean much of anything.
Then of course there’s Chuck Berry’s My Ding-A-Ling, a perfectly innocent song which has been wildly misinterpreted over the years by people with dirty minds.
Jim Stafford’s My Girl Bill is intentionally misleading. As it starts, you think it’s actually about a gay love affair:
Bill walked me to my door last night
And he said, 'Before I go
There’s something about our love affair
That I have a right to know
I said, “Let’s not stand out here like this
What would the neighbors think
Why don’t we just…step inside
And I’ll fix us both a drink”
It goes on in an increasingly misleading way, until the last verse it becomes clear that Bill isn’t ‘my girl’, but that the discussion is about how they both want the same woman, but she’s “My girl, Bill”. It’s actually done pretty cleverly, but it’s no “Cows with Guns”.
