I guess there were plenty I never really “got.”
One that comes to mind is Deuce, by Kiss.
The only reference to “deuce” that I’d ever heard was in cards: as in “all I got is a pair of deuces.” I thought the song was about poker or something. 
The line I snicker at the memory is from Papa was a Rolling Stone —
Papa was a rolling stone.
Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
(And when he died) All he left us was a loan.
A LOAN? Geez, Dad. He gets this loan at the bank, gave us the money, then he ups and dies — and now we have to repay it!
I guess I “got” the song all right, but it amuses me that I thought it was some sort of financial comment instead of all he left us was alone.
I was in the first or second grade when I first saw the video for Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s “Last Dance With Mary Jane.”
Not only did I completely not get the point of the song, I didn’t understand the video.
In the video a guy robs a morgue and dresses up the body etc. That music video weirded me right the hell out. I didn’t know why it did, all I knew was there was something about it that wasn’t right.
“Walk on the Wild Side” by Lou Reed.
“Walk This Way”, Aerosmith
“Bad Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce. Now when I listen to it, it’s all vice and crime and a dangerous world. When I was a kid, it sounded very upbeat.
I had some confusion over “Lola”, by the Kinks when I was a wee young boy.
When Ray Davies sings “…I’m glad I’m a man and so’s Lola”, I wasn’t sure if he meant that A: Ray is glad that he is a man, and Lola is ALSO glad that Ray is a man, or B: Ray is glad that he is a man, and that Lola (despite the girly name) is of the male gender as well.
As a kid I never knew that “Afternoon Delight” was about sex. And there were plenty of other songs that used imagery or metaphors, or in some other way didn’t say directly what they were talking about that went straight over my head.
That’s funny because Afternoon Delight was probably the one song that I GOT.
I just thought it was about being in a nice park watching fireworks :o
:smack:
When I was six, I had absolutely no idea that “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” was about betrayal, infidelity, and murder.
I was freaked out by an animated video of Cher’s “Dark Lady.” There’s no way I could have handled the Dixie Gothic Horror of Vicki Lawrence.
I was really into Madonna in the 80s, but I had no clue what “Papa Don’t Preach” was really about. When she sang about how she was “gonna keep my baby,” I thought she was talking about her boyfriend. I must have looked pretty funny as an 8-yr-old, dancing around and singing along to this song about a teen who gets knocked up.
You’re supposed to realize that either explanation would be possible. That’s what makes the song so clever.
I had a vague idea it was about airplanes because of the sound effect after “skyrockets in flight”. Truthfully, I wasn’t paying much attention to song lyrics at that point. However, I went to a private Christian school, and one day they had an assembly to tell us all about how Satan was getting to us through the radio. Was I ever surprised!
So, am I the only one who still doesn’t know what the “deuce” in the OP is?
You don’t have to be a kid either. Sometimes older people have funny takes on a song, too.
In my 20’s I was working in an outside sales job. The new manager was a much older guy who had retired from his first corporate career. He was also very much a born again Christian who loathed expletives or anything risque.
One day we were going on a sales call together. He was driving with the radio going very low in the background. We were making small talk about this major home remodeling project he had been working on for years. (And he talked about that a lot! He was doing all the carpentry, plumbing, HVAC, etc.)
Suddenly he got all excited, turned up the radio and yelled, “I love this! I heard it for the first time on the way to work this morning!” He was humming and kind of singing along with Marvin Gaye, and I was more or less cringing and very confused by his love for this particular song. Then he got to the part about…
“When I get this feeling, I need sectional heating.”
And to this day, I believe he sincerely thought that’s what the song was about.
I thought lunch was involved, too, what with the references to “working up an appetite” and “nibbling a little afternoon delight”. A hearty lunch and fireworks; sounds like a delightful afternoon!
No, you’re not (raises hand).
As for Papa Was a Rolling Stone, I always assumed both meanings (“a loan”, “alone”) were intended. Not only are we now fatherless, but now we have to pay back the vig, with interest!
Gene Simmons is not exactly Ray Davies, is he?