I saw some clickbait listicle recently about songs that people heard a bunch of times before figuring out that they had “dark meanings” and one of the entries was “Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks (here in case you’ve never heard it or just feel like listening to it again).
Of course, that song isn’t exactly subtle. You’d almost have to listen to it without any lyrics at all to not get the gist. I figure it was included in the list just to get people to click in order to comment something to that effect. But it got me thinking:
What songs do you know where the meaning is completely obvious? No muss, no fuss, just the story or message?
What about ones where it isn’t? Where people disagree on the meaning or you need a whole annotated booklet to interpret it?
For the purposes of this thread, I’d prefer to stay away from songs from musicals, which are generally (more or less) about what’s happening on the stage. And also songs about simple romance or partying. The thread will get real boring real fast if we list out every song where the obvious message is “I like a girl and we danced” or “Woe is me, my lady left me” or “Woohoo, I like music!”
There is a song by Pinback called Penelope, which is about a sick goldfish. I thought there was some subtle hidden meaning about the lyrics, like maybe the song was about someone going through alcohol or drug addition issues or something. Nope. It really is just a song about a sick goldfish. One of the band members had a sick goldfish and they wrote a song about it.
Wait - you mean Dead Skunk isn’t about the sorry state of poupular music, and the post-Woodstock ennui of the early 70s? “dead skunk in the middle of the road” is obviously about MOR genre, And it was “stinking to high heaven” at the time.
An I kidding? I can’t tell.
For obvious songs, how about Without You, which is so precise the writer later committed suicide.
I’m in Love with My Car isn’t a metaphor (though it isn’t a sexual love).
A lot of of people look for a deeper meaning in the song “White Wedding” that isn’t there. Billy Idol has said that his little sister got married and this inspired him to write a song about weddings.
