[QUOTE=Push You Down]
..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]
‘’
Yeah, right. Tim Rice and two guys from ABBA needed help financing the production?
The chorus is about the Bangkok tourist prostitute industy, while Murray Head’s vocals are about his not being interested in it (I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine).
[QUOTE=Winston Bongo]
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.
[/QUOTE]
[Principal Skinner Mode] We’ll have no filth like that in here young man! Off to
detention with you! [/Principal Skinner Mode]
Of course how could “Afternoon Delight” not be in this thread? In my wildly naive
youth I really DID think it was about model rocketry…
[QUOTE=robardin]
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.
[/QUOTE]
So it’s not about masturbation either?
“I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord.”
[QUOTE=kurahee]
Can anyone out there tell me that George Michael’s *Father Figure * is NOT about pedophilia?
That song just skeeves me.
[/QUOTE]
Okay, I’ll tell you. It’s about sex and dominance. It’s not uncommon for persons in certain sorts of relationships to use such nicknames for one another, whether or not there’s an age difference between the partners that justifies it. A few years ago I had a girlfriend–ten years OLDER than me, by the way–who always called me “Daddy.” (She also, for some reason, programmed her cell phone to identify me as such when I called, which called her no little embarrassment one day when I called and her daughter saw the readout first. “Um, mom–isn’t grandpa DEAD?”)
That said, I don’t think “Father Figure” is about a HETEROSEXUAL relationship, though.
There’s also a subset of this category – the surprise ending song. You think they’re about one thing, and the true subject of the song is revealed at the end. The best example I can think of is The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane.
I once heard Roger Clark (of the Byrds) on a radio interview show explain that “Eight Miles High” was actually about parachuting. The title is supposed to refer to the height at which skydivers jump out of the plane. It being the mid-60s, and the Byrds being early progenitors of psychedelia, the song is commonly thought to be a snarky reference to smoking hootch.
FTR, Clark stated that he knew that the real height that skydivers jump from the plane is actually much lower, but he thought that “Eight Miles High” just had a good ring to it.
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman]
I once heard Roger Clark (of the Byrds) on a radio interview show explain that “Eight Miles High” was actually about parachuting. The title is supposed to refer to the height at which skydivers jump out of the plane. It being the mid-60s, and the Byrds being early progenitors of psychedelia, the song is commonly thought to be a snarky reference to smoking hootch.
FTR, Clark stated that he knew that the real height that skydivers jump from the plane is actually much lower, but he thought that “Eight Miles High” just had a good ring to it.
[/QUOTE]
That explanation is news to me. My understanding is that “Eight Miles High” was about the group’s trip to London (i.e., the “rain gray town known for its sound”) and the disorientation they experienced from jet lag and being in a foreign country. (Of course, it is possible weed played a role in causing some of the disorientation.)
I don’t know how anyone could get confused, but my high school girlfriend once made me a mix tape with Garth Brooks Unanswered Prayers on it. Her note included with the tape said “You’re my unanswered prayer.” I don’t think it was meant as a hint.
When I could tell we would soon be breaking up, I thought about giving her a copy of Dan Hill’s Sometimes When We Touch and see how she interpreted that one.
One by U2. It’s an angry song, about putting up with a manipulative asshole that you nonetheless love:
*You say love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law.
You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl
And I can’t be holding on to what you got, when all you got is hurt.
*
People use this as a wedding song. :eek:
[QUOTE=alice_in_wonderland]
Shit - no kidding. Both of those are Uber un-romantic songs. Go figure.
Mind you, I know a lot of people who think Papa don’t preach by Madonna** is about her not breaking up** with her boyfriend. Never even occurs to them that shes pregnant, despite the fact that she says “I’m keeping my baby.”
[/QUOTE]
Bolding mine.
Where in the song does it say she is breaking up with her boyfriend?
