I’m often wondering what a song is about as well (R.E.M. is a prime candidate in this area, 'specially the early stuff. I love “Harborcoat,” but what the fuck does it mean?). There’s a website out there that presents the “official” meaning of songs by the writer, and also allows users to add their 2 cents. Anyone know what it’s called? songstories.com or something?
A song by The Band was once notorious in this regard - “Chest Fever”. Robbie Robertson, who wrote it, and the ones who sang it, Levon Helm and Rick Danko if I remember right, all claimed to not remember what had been written and sung, and also claimed they couldn’t decipher it when they heard the recording.
Naive schoolboy that I am, I never would have dreamed that Steve Miller could just make up * a word and stick it in a song. If left to my own devices, I would have gone my entire life trying to figure out just what the fck the _______ of love was.
Vomitus?
Papa bus?
Ohhhh, *pompatus. * Of course! :rolleyes:
I’m a little unsure. Is the OP talking about lyrics whose meanings are hard to decipher, or lyrics themselves that are hard to understand by ear?
Mountain always caused head scratching. But maybe I’m just thick, cause for a number of years I had no idea a Nantuket Sleighride was about whaling.
Even if I could literally understand the words to Jack Bruce’s “Theme From An Imaginary Western”, it still makes absolutely no sense to me, from either a homesteader’s - or prospector’s point of view.
I don’t have any reference books handy at work, but “pompatus of love” is a phrase used in a mid-'50s doo-wop / R&B record. Steve stole that one. And he stole a bunch of Johnny Nash’s song “Lovey Dovey” for “The Joker”, too. “Lovey dovey lovey dovey lovey dovey all the time…” and “You’re the cutest thing that I ever did see…” are in the Nash song.
No plagiarism lawsuit yet. Hmm, curious.
Uncle Cece on “The Pompatus of Love”:
There was usually one line in the closing theme of TV shows that eluded me:
Flintstones:
Someday, bladda-dadda-dubba-die
And that cat will stay out for the night…
All in the Family:
G-R-O-va-san-da-frey
Those were the days!
Littlest Hobo:
Just grab your hat, we’ll travel lat (?) za-zabba-da-pile…
Years afterward, somebody would be quoting the lyrics and I’d finally understand them.
“When the Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin. Got what it takes to make a what?? leave his home?
Also, I admit I had to google the lyrics to “Levi Stubbs’ Tears” by Billy Bragg to work out what he was singing in the middle 8.
mm
I don’t find anything to obtuse about the Happy Mondays, or even Brown Sugar.
But I listened to and liked “Debaser” by the Pixies for years without getting “I am a chien andalusia”.
I don’t think anyone figured out what the B52’s were yelling in Love Shack until somebody told them.
Tiiiiiiiiinnnnnnn Roof… rusted.
Or try to figure out the words to Rock Lobster.
“Somebody wiped under a rock,
and there they saw a rock.
It wasn’t a rock.
It was a rock lobster!”
I’m talking about lyrics themselves that are hard to understand by ear. Meanings of lyrics are a whole different can o’ worms.
Loser by Beck - I could never make out the first line of the chorus
Finally I looked it up: Soy un perdador - Spanish for “I’m a Loser.”
Well, duh. Now I hear him saying that quite easily.
btw, I seem to be gifted at speaking Mick Jagger! 
I figured out the lyrics to Jumping Jack Flash on my own! woo-hoo!!
There was a cuddlecore punk trio from Vancouver called Cub. I was lucky enough to see them once just a few months before they broke up. It took some searching over the next few years, but I eventually found all their CD’s. One of my favorite songs is Magic 8-Ball, but there’s a line just after the bridge that I never could make out. I had searched for it one the web, but even though there were a couple Cub sites, the lyrics weren’t posted anywhere.
I don’t remember what inspired me to look again, but a few weeks ago I found that one of the members of Cub has a new project/site, and has some of her old lyrics.
In case anyone else is as stumped as I, the line is “My four-leaf clover’s going right into the trash.”
Vanity 6, a Prince-created trio of camisole-wearing cuties, had a song called “3 x 2 = 6.” I challenge anyone to accurately interpret the words (without cheating by looking at the lyrics, that is).
A fair bit of Radiohead’s catalogue is hard to interpret. I reckon Dollars and Cents is right up there. Thom sings it more clearly live, but of course he changes the lyrics. :smack:
Also, Come on Eileen by Dexy’s Midnight Runners.
“Mmmm…Bop” by Hanson.
Go on, you figure out what the hell they’re saying.
Dollars and Cents? That’s pretty easy to understand compared to stuff like Climbing Up the Walls and Like Spinning Plates. I still can’t figure out parts of those two, even with the lyrics right in front of me when I listen. Part of Like Spinning Plates is backwards, though, if I’m not mistaken,
Quite a few Tori Amos songs are difficult for me to figure out.
Even knowing the lyrics doesn’t help most of the time.