Are there songs whose lyrics simpy mae no sense to you - no matter how many times you’ve heard it? Just wondering if we can compile a list. The first one to come to mind is “Two Ouof Three Ain’t Bad” by Meatloaf. I get the gist, but I swear his lyrics are conflicting.
Howzabout Blinded By the Light by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band? A sentence or two pops out as sorta making sense, but the rest mostly comes across as giberish to me.
Like “Every Breath You Take” by the Police. Romantic-sounding songs that are, when you take a close look at the lyrics…not.
MacArthur Park.
There are many songs where the lyrics are meant to be evocative, not describing anything concrete at all.
Some include:
“A Whiter Shade of Pale,” as well as other of Keith Reid’s lyrics.
Many songs by Bob Dylan
“I Am the Walrus.”
I remember reading an interview with Elton John, many years ago. He said that Bernie Taupin would write the lyrics first, then he (Elton) would write music to fit the words. But… if he had a good melody going and the words didn’t *quite *fit, he’d chop out a word or two to MAKE it fit. And sometimes that led to the surviving lyrics making no sense at all. So there could be something like that going on with other songs, I suppose…TRM
Which is amusing because the writer of the song set out to make a simple song with that one: “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad”
Basically it’s a reply to the Elvis lyrics: “I want you, I need you, I love you”
For Jim/the singer of the story, he can only want and need the person. He’s not willing to admit that final step because he already loves another woman. And then the song switches back to where basically that woman (who the Narrator truly loves) goes on to leave him telling him those very same words, that she needs and wants him, but she doesn’t truly love him. Thus, the Narrator is only continuing the vicious cycle by doing the very same thing to the girl at the start of the song.
I was a huge fan of a lot of art-rock and prog-rock groups in the Seventies, so I’m quite used to listening to and enjoying songs whose lyrics make little or no sense to me.
Examples
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Pretty much ANY classic Yes song. What does “Roundabout” or “And You and I” mean? Beats the hell out of me. They still SOUND great, which is all that really matters. Now, when I was a teen, I USED to try to figure out what the lyrics meant, figuring they MUST be deep. That was before I first heard Jon Anderson interviewed, and realized he was… well, a bit dim, and probably doesn’t know what any of the words meant either.
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What does “In the Court of the Crimson King” mean? I dunno. Robert Fripp has claimed that the Crimson King was Beelzebub, and the court was Hell, but I’m far from convinced that’s true. And even if it is, the song as a whole doesn’t add up to much.
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I understand almost every verse of “American Pie,” but have no idea what it means as a whole. On the other hand, I don’t understand a single verse of “Hotel California,” but understand exactly what the song means as a whole.
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What does “Stairway to Heaven” mean? Half of Robert Plant’s songs are about sex, and half are mumbo jumbo with a stray Tolkien allusion here or there.
In Alabama’s “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas,” what does anything have to do with a Louisiana man?
Louie Louie by the Kingsmen
Tyr this without watching the monitor and see if you can figure it.
Then read the words, try it again without reading,
I too used to think that ALL songs actually meant something. Well, actually they do. They mean that the writer wanted another hit record and would put anything in there because it is really about the music first, lyrics second.
So can anyone tell me what “the low spark of high heeled boys” is all about? I get the part about “the man making a profit from all your dreams” meaning the music industry.
I always think of homosexuality back in the 50’s and 60’s when it was hidden and even against the law when I hear that song.
I know you gave these as examples and not direct questions, but I take a crack at them any way (all IMHO):
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I always thought Roundabout described the view from the tour bus on the way home after a long tour. Wiki explains that it really describes Jon Anderson’s car trip into the recording studio. The lyrics are loose and meant to evoke feelings and images.
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American Pie is obviously describing the plane crash with Buddy Holly, et al., but the larger theme is the loss of innocence as this is the generation’s first big tragedy.
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Stairway to Heaven doesn’t mean anything; just meant to evoke feelings and images.
From looking at the lyrics here, “Lousiana Man” is a song and it requires a fiddle.
Sorry for the serial posting…
This song could have been my answer to this thread. I thought the lyrics described the artistic spirits of the members of the band – each verse describing how these spirits interact with the world (how it is discovered, abused, its value,. etc.).
From Wiki the inspiration is not too far off.
The high-heels don’t refer to gaudy shoes that musicians might wear on stage (as I had thought), but instead to Pollard’s cowboy boots.
Regarding the OP: One song that always confused me was Athena by The Who. I finally searched out the meaning on Wikiand found it pretty straight-forward:
Solar Prestige a Gammon by Elton John.
No idea what it’s about.
For what it’s worth, I think the song is a reference to Britain and its decline from glory. Also, for some reason that’s probably unique only to me, it reminds me of Mervyn Peake’s “Gormenghast” novels.
MacArthur Park can be hard to understand, 'cause so many versions of it have chunks of it left out.
Mack The Knife is like that too
Olivia Newton-John had a beautiful song called Rosewater that was on quite a few of her compilations CDs. It was only after they re-issued all her Australian CDs that I found an entire verse was left out of the “Greatest Hits” packages. Well then the song makes sense.
Can I throw a modern one in?
I love the song ‘‘Miss Murder’’ by AFI but I have no idea what it’s about.
If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say he’s thinking about how the early death of rock legends immortalize them in time, and how he kinda wishes to be immortalized like that even at the expense of an early death.
But who the hell is Miss Murder? Wouldn’t it be Miss Suicide? I’m so confused.
How about Bush’s ‘‘Machine Head?’’ Do any Bush lyrics make sense ever?
Donovan. ‘There Is A Mountain’. I won’t paste all the lyrics but a sample will do:
Sarah McLachlan. ‘Good enough’. Lovely song, but very confusing as you’ll see if you go and look up the lyrics or listen to the song. Sarah says in interviews that she doesn’t mind changing the point of view of the singer mid-way through a song.