Elvis Costello’s “God’s Comic” and Jim Stafford’s “My Girl, Bill” both change the meaning of their titles midway through the song.
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Dani California features the term “simultaneous release” at four or five different points, each time meaning something different (Sexual release, release from prison, a suicide pact the guy chickens out on, etc). I may be reading too much into it, though.
Wilco - She’s a Jar. I don’t want to spoil it for those that haven’t heard it.
At first, Everclear’s Pale Green Stars seems to be about a girl and her growing pains. As the song goes on, the real meaning becomes clear…
So your first instinct to an Everclear song was that it wasn’t about marital strife or divorce?
I love me some Everclear, but 95% of Art Alexakis’ output is him dealing with his parent’s divorce when he was 5 or his own multiple divorces as an adult.
Gotta boogie!
(Gotta boogie)
I said boogie!
(Gotta boogie)
I gotta boogie!
(Gotta boogie)
Gotta boogie on my finger,
And I can’t shake it off.
“Good Life” by Francis Dunnery.
Begins by talking about a breakup, where the singer has found love again, while his ex is struggling to move on. The singer is just hoping that his ex eventually finds happiness. In the second verse, the singer’s marriage is still going strong, and the ex has just begun to find love again. By the end of the song, the singer’s marriage has ended, while the ex has the life the singer wishes he had, and he intimates that he screwed up and never should have broken up with her in the first place.
The arc doesn’t follow where I expected it to go. The first few verses resonated very much with me after I broke up with my longtime college girlfriend. I ended up getting married within a year, while she was in and out of a poor relationship. (though she’s married now too).
Then the third verse came, and I thought “Dear lord I sure hope this isn’t what my life ends up being about.” It was kind of a shock when I first heard the whole song.
Chuck Berry’s “Memphis” is about him trying to find the phone number to return the call from his sweet Marie. You probably change your thinking about their relationship when you find out she’s only six.
Gilbert O’Sullivan’s ‘Clare’ and Brotherhood of Man’s ‘Kisses for Me’ - same ‘shock’ ending.
Basia (a Euro-jazz-pop singer) has a song called “How Dare You (Talk To Me Like That)”. In it, she describes her relationship with her boyfriend:
By the last chorus, it’s become
This is seriously one of my favorite “Kiss off” songs.
Someone Else’s Story from “Chess.” I could leave you and you wouldn’t care, but in the end I’m me so I won’t.
At the beginning:
Jesse, I won’t cut fresh flowers for you
Jesse, I won’t make the wine cold for you
Jesse, I won’t change the sheets for you
I won’t put on cologne
I won’t sit by the phone for you
The last chorus:
Jesse, I’ll always cut fresh flowers for you
Jesse, I’ll always make the wine cold for you
Jesse, I will change the sheets for you
Put on cologne
And I will wait by the phone
for you - Oh Jesse!
you seem to be implying that the speaker in “Memphis” is a pedophile. He’s not; he’s a father who wants to see his daughter but is prevented by her mother, who is his ex.
If pedophilia not what you meant to imply, I apologize for thinking ill of you.
Assemblage 23’s “Let Me Be Your Armor” starts out as the typical “let me take care of you” love song:
Let me take the fall
Let me take the blame
Let me carry you from hell
To home again.
But as the song progresses to the end, the message changes:
Let me stifle you
Let me have control
Let me smother
Every aspect of your soul
Very creepy song. I love it (as I do most of A23’s stuff).
The ultimate…“Paradise by the Dashboard Lights.”
*St. James Infirmary Blues *begins as a lament for the singer’s dead girl friend, but by the end is a complaint that she never appreciated him.
*Poor Judd Is Dead *(from Oklahoma !) begins as a paen to good old Judd and ends by describing what a creep he was.
In the 1929 song “Mean to Me” by Fred Ahlert and Roy Turk, the chorus, repeated several times, goes,
You’re mean to me
Why must you be mean to me
Gee honey it seems to me
You love to see me crying.
Midway through, the meaning of “mean to me” changes:
It must be great fun to be mean to me
You shouldn’t, for can’t you see
What you mean to me?
Here’s a delightful recording of Annette Hanshaw singing it.
“You Are My Sunshine”. The first verse sounds wonderful. Then you learn the guy is all bummed out because his woman left him.
Speaking of Carly Simon, I always thought ‘You’re so Vain’ fits the bill.
I mean, in the first verse, the guy is actually pretty vain. Who other than the truly vain wears an apricot scarf anyway? But then, he’s going to horse races and flying to Canada to watch eclipses. That’s not really all that vain; it’s just the kind of stuff rich people do. And then, we find out that guy is making time with his pals’ wives and hanging around with underworld spies. That’s not vanity, that’s just being a lowlife.
‘My girl Bill’