# Songs with incorrect basic premises **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2015, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371 "2015-12-26T04:35:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/61 "2015-12-28T19:08:32Z")
There is apparently no room for poetic license in lyrics… Paul Simon really isn’t a rock or an island. Octopusses don’t have gardens in the shade or anywhere else. And crocodiles don’t rock. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/62 "2015-12-28T21:42:59Z")
> [@Spiff](#): > > [M.T.A.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.T.A._(song)) or “Charlie on the M.T.A.” is a song about Charlie, who can’t get off of a Boston subway train because he doesn’t have the nickel exit fare surcharge. > > So, as the lyrics go, he’s lost forever on the M.T.A. > > But, also according to the lyrics: > > “Charlie’s wife goes down > To the Scollay Square station > Every day at quarter past two > And through the open window > She hands Charlie a sandwich > As the train comes rumblin’ through.” > > For f\*\*k’s sake woman, put a nickel in the sandwich bag! I think everybody has that reaction to the song. But to go a little deeper, I found a site once that discussed the history of the song, and a bit of analysis. Taking a guess at Charlie’s age when he boarded the train, and looking at the fares charged over the years, Charlie may have eventually qualified for a senior citizen fare, which didn’t require the nickel surcharge to exit, and would have been free to leave in the late '70s. And the Scollay Square station is now Government Center. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/63 "2015-12-28T21:50:21Z")
Lee Hazlewood apparently had some trouble with unit conversions (in\* Pray Them Bars Away\*): > [@](#): > > Four years down and twenty one to blow > Ten thousand more breakfasts to go > Fourteen million seconds of living this way > And I guess it’s time I started to pray them bars away 21 years equals 7670 days or “breakfasts” (I could accept a round number of 8000) or close to 663 million seconds (again, I could go with an estimate of “half a billion”, which would fit nicely in the meter). Otherwise it’s a beautiful song! ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/64 "2015-12-29T13:52:01Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > No. The Southern part of Detroit. That’s the thing; Detroit doesn’t have a “South Side.” It has an East Side (actually northeast), a Northwest Side, a Southwest side, and Downtown. (There is no Southeast side, that would be Windsor, Ontario 🙂 ). ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/65 "2015-12-29T16:19:06Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > That’s the thing; Detroit doesn’t have a “South Side.” It has an East Side (actually northeast), a Northwest Side, a Southwest side, and Downtown. (There is no Southeast side, that would be Windsor, Ontario 🙂 ). Yeah. I saw that from the link that someone posted earlier. I mentioned that I am from West L.A. Los Angeles has West, East and South Central. If a song had “North L.A.” It wouldn’t make sense either so I retract that. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/66 "2015-12-29T16:28:45Z")
> [@botsgotme](#): > > “Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry”…um, aren’t levees supposed to be dry? and what is “American Pie”? I have had cherry pie, apple pie, pecan pie…but never American Pie. Hasn’t he sold the original song now? Where the meanings of the various lines and his thinking was recorded ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/67 "2015-12-29T19:33:04Z")
> [@Find\_Friends](#): > > I’ve always assumed the second line was whimsical. Well, if you’re in the Moon and want to calculate something like sunrise/sunset times, the easiest calculation would involve placing the Moon in the center and the Sun (and Earth) circling about it. Or, as one of my teachers used to say, “we’re engineers because we can convert coordinates!” I wouldn’t expect a songwriter to be either an engineer or an astrophysicist, but you never know 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/68 "2015-12-29T20:36:15Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Taking a guess at Charlie’s age when he boarded the train, and looking at the fares charged over the years, Charlie may have eventually qualified for a senior citizen fare, which didn’t require the nickel surcharge to exit, and would have been free to leave in the late '70s. Forget that…where is he pooping, if he’s somehow stuck on a train? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/69 "2015-12-29T20:48:02Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Hasn’t he sold the original song now? Where the meanings of the various lines and his thinking was recorded I never heard that, theres an outtake with exegesis? It’s a little picky to pick on levee for being dry. It’s predicated on water pushing against it. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/70 "2015-12-29T23:43:13Z")
[UnderstandingAmericanPie.com](http://understandingamericanpie.com/chorus.htm) explains it as: > [@](#): > > “Drove my Chevy to the levee” alludes to a drive “along a levee” mentioned in a series of popular 1950s Chevrolet television commercials sung by Dinah Shore: > > Drive your Chevrolet through the USA, > America’s the greatest land of all > On a highway or a road along a levee… > …life is completer in a Chevy > So make a date today to see the USA > And see it in your Chevrolet > > and which serves as a signpost to that era—just as the Chevrolet itself is a familiar icon of 1950s America. Also, given that a drive to a levee carries the suggestion of romance in a car, we can almost see him on a date here. But the date is over, the levee is dry—someone he once loved has betrayed him; something that once gave him sustenance has evaporated. ---
**Author:** ![HowSoonIsThen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@HowSoonIsThen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HowSoonIsThen)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/71 "2015-12-30T00:23:31Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > So your best evidence of Warren Beatty’s vanity is that he’s accurate and sensible? Not to mention, that song is totally about him. There’s nothing wrong with him probably thinking the song is about him. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/72 "2015-12-30T00:35:15Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > …I wouldn’t expect a songwriter to be either an engineer or an astrophysicist, but you never know 😉 I don’t know about engineers but there’s at least one astrophysicist rockstar out there. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/73 "2015-12-31T10:11:24Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > I never heard that, **theres an outtake with exegesis**? > > It’s a little picky to pick on levee for being dry. It’s predicated on water pushing against it. Sorry - your england beats me here, can dumb it down a bit? [But yes, the original composition has indeed been sold](http://wgntv.com/2015/04/08/don-mcleans-american-pie-lyrics-sell-for-1-2m-include-alternate-ending/) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/74 "2015-12-31T10:32:36Z")
> [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](#): > > Forget that…where is he pooping, if he’s somehow stuck on a train? :eek: Never ridden the T, have you? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/75 "2015-12-31T10:41:47Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Billy Joel’s _The Ballad of Billy the Kid_ is full of them. First, he mentions that Billy was from Wheeling, W. Va., when he really was born in New York, N.Y. Then he says Billy robbed a bank in Colorado. Billy the Kid never robbed a bank. Then finally Joel says: > > _Well, one cold day a posse captured Billy > And the judge said, “String 'im up for what he did!” > And the cowboys and their kin > Like the sea came pourin’ in > To watch the hangin’ of Billy the Kid_ > > He wasn’t hanged. He was shot by Pat Garrett. > > That’s what you get for falling asleep in history class. In Bill’s defense, the liner notes for _Songs in the Attic_ admit that this is 100% historically inaccurate. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371/76 "2015-12-31T11:52:47Z")
> [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](#): > > Forget that…where is he pooping, if he’s somehow stuck on a train? :eek: He isn’t eating, so he doesn’t need to. > [@Nava](#): > > I wouldn’t expect a songwriter to be either an engineer or an astrophysicist, but you never know 😉 Engineer: [Tom Scholz (Boston), BSME, MSME, MIT.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Scholz) Astrophysicist: [Brian May (Queen), PhD, Imperial College.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May#Astrophysics) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-incorrect-basic-premises/741371.md?page=3)