# Songs You Don't Understand **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124 "2010-01-23T15:45:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/21 "2010-01-24T23:40:01Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > 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. It helps a little if you realize it was written by Bruce Springsteen. I always thought he was trying to mimic Dylan. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/22 "2010-01-25T00:31:38Z")
You’ve never heard of it, and there aren’t any written lyrics on the Web that I can find. I found it on one of the _Voices For Israel_ CD’s. It’s called “Thread Of Blue”, by Dana Mase, and it’s… weird. The general meaning seems to be that it’s a crazy world and her religion is the only thing keeping her sane. I get the [central metaphor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekhelet). The rest of it, I’m as lost as the rest of you goyim. I don’t think there are any videos online, either, so you’ll just have to imagine the trippy music and weird enunciation. It starts off something like this: Refrain (breathy chanting): [_Where have all the wildflowers gone? Where have all the butterflies flown? Why is it so hard to take? The sea is filled with acid rain The childen are at play I think we better start to pray_ A princess fallen and [male today? melted day?] A woman with three children stands in her way You take what you give, and you give what you take How many prayers, to love and shake? How many tears, to fill a lake? Like pieces of glass, we can easily break (chords) But I’m hangin’ on… by a thread of blue. Something like that. I can’t make out all the words because she butchers the stresses in order to make the lines scan. [e.i., mods, don’t don’t get upset about copyright because I may not have written down the actual words]. It took me ages to decipher “Deeper than turquoise, deeper than your eyes” because she says it Ter-QUOISE. Weird song. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/23 "2010-01-25T00:44:15Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > 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 gibberish to me. As previous stated it’s actually a Bruce Springsteen song, and seems to me a fairly clear description of a road trip with some friends and lovers, and a few drugs involved. > [@koufax](#): > > 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. Again I think this one’s fairly clear. Almost uniquely for the time, it’s a track with no guitar on it, and the lyrics are all about that: > [@](#): > > … your head is spinning from a loud guitar > And you just can’t escape from the sound > Don’t worry too much, it’ll happen to you > We were children once, playing with toys ie electric guitars being such a rock music cliche; surely, they are saying, there are alternatives? And they try to show it by constructing an 11 minutes track with no guitar. It goes on to comment on the rock business. The low spark refers to the lack of genuine musical creativity in rock at the time, and the high heeled boys are the glam rockers that they thought were perpetuating image rather than musical creativity. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/24 "2010-01-25T00:46:17Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > There are many songs where the lyrics are meant to be evocative, not describing anything concrete at all. > > “I Am the Walrus.” Fun fact: that song was deliberately written to confuse people trying to work out what it meant. Specifically, after a professor wrote to them telling them how he would task his students with literary analysis of the Beatles’ songs. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/25 "2010-01-25T00:55:13Z")
The Stone’s _Paint It, Black._ I think it’s about the funeral of a woman he loved. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/26 "2010-01-25T01:09:49Z")
I’ve mentioned it before, I’ll mention it again: Some Velvet Morning, which was in the Top 10 circa 1969 or so: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Sb-SVPJM4L4/hqdefault.jpg "Lee Hazlewood - Nancy Sinatra, Some Velvet Morning") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-SVPJM4L4) You figure it out…I can’t ---
**Author:** ![Endymion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3da27b/32.png) [@Endymion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Endymion)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/27 "2010-01-25T01:18:46Z")
I remember listening to Billy Joel being interviewed, and he said something along the lines of: sure, its great to have an important message but if the beat isn’t catchy then you aren’t going to reach anyone. I though that his idea made a lot of sense. Since then, and despite my degree in literature, I have put a lot less importance on the message in any song to which I listen. (for the record, I never really understood the lyrics in “Subterranean Homesick Blues” by Bob Dylan although I suspect its about being poor and doing drugs…) ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/28 "2010-01-25T02:36:18Z")
> [@lost4life](#): > > It helps a little if you realize it was written by Bruce Springsteen. I always thought he was trying to mimic Dylan. Yes, I believe so. Springsteen was very lyrically dense in his first few albums. A whole lotta words. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/29 "2010-01-25T04:00:28Z")
[Here’s](http://www.history-of-rock.com/shake_rattle_and_roll.htm) one of my favorite examples of early blues/rock code, “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”: now it seems quaint, but at the time was good code for what you weren’t supposed to sing out loud. The main raunchy phrasing was: > [@](#): > > I’m like a one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store > I’m like a one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store > Well, I can look at you and tell you ain’t no child no more Pretty brilliant for the time, coded in a way that passed. Lots of blues did that, and it got passed down to white folks, too, that good sly coding. Musicians keep it all going on. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/30 "2010-01-25T04:01:49Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > I’ve mentioned it before, I’ll mention it again: Some Velvet Morning, which was in the Top 10 circa 1969 or so: > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-SVPJM4L4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-SVPJM4L4) > > You figure it out…I can’t I always thought it was about drug addiction. Likely heroin from the references to flowers (i.e., poppies). ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/31 "2010-01-25T15:11:53Z")
Hell, it would be easier to list the Tori Amos songs that do make sense. A representative example, from “Caught a Light Sneeze”: The spire is hot and my cells can’t feed And you still got that Belle Dragging your foots I’m hiding it well Sister Ernestine But I still got that Belle dragging my foots So, yeah, it’s obviously about the role of the IMF in moderating 3rd world debt. Or something. The video is similarly trippy. But I do love her. Even if the words don’t always…well, usually…make sense, they still are very nice coming out of her lips. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/32 "2010-01-25T15:24:25Z")
I’m a lousy one to talk, since I frequently can’t understand the lyrics in the first place. Then, when I see them, they still don’t make sense. One example is **House of the Rising Sun** , in which many versions have changed the lyrics, so that it’s hard to understand. The most famous one, the Animals’ recording from the sixties, changed the POV to a guy, which really screws things up. > [@](#): > > The Animals’ version transposes the narrative of the song from the point of view of a woman led into a life of degradation, to that of a male, whose father was now a gambler and drunkard, as opposed to the sweetheart in earlier versions. > **[The House of the Rising Sun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Rising_Sun)** > > "The House of the Rising Sun" is an American traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the English rock band The Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and in the U.S. and Canada. As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been d... But the version sung by Andy Griffith (!!! – yes. You can find it on the first _Golden Throats_ album) removes any references to sex or brothels, and is surreal in its obscurity. Me, I have trouble even with unedited lyics. For instance, I’ve remarked before here about how I don’t understand the lyrics to The Doors’ “Touch Me”. Another Doper was incredulous, but: What _was_ the promise that she made? Why _won’t_ she tell him what _she_ said? And who is _she_? Why would we think that he was afraid? Seriously, the only part of the song I understand is the “stronger than dirt” coda. > **[Doors - Touch Me lyrics | LyricsFreak](https://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/doors/touch+me_20042756.html)** > > Read or print original Touch Me lyrics 2026 updated! Yeah! / Come on, come on, come on, come on / Now touch me, baby / Can't you see that I ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/33 "2010-01-25T15:36:16Z")
Bobbie Gentry’s\* Ode to Billie Joe \* seems to make sense until you realize it doesn’t. What did they throw of that bridge? Why did Billie Jo kill himself? 😉 Matters get more confusing thanks to a really bad movie based on the song. They threw in their own theories. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/CZt5Q-u4crc/hqdefault.jpg "Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billie Joe") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc) ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/34 "2010-01-25T16:54:00Z")
I’d have to nominate Beck’s entire catalog. I swear ever song is written by randomly pulling poetry magnets out of a bag. ---
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/35 "2010-01-25T17:03:51Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Bobbie Gentry’s\* Ode to Billie Joe \* seems to make sense until you realize it doesn’t. What did they throw of that bridge? Why did Billie Jo kill himself? 😉 Matters get more confusing thanks to a really bad movie based on the song. They threw in their own theories. > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc) oh my God, here we go again! The last line of the song is the girl picking flowers and throwing them off the Tallahachee bridge. She and Billy Joe were in love and used to sit together like young lovers do, just being together, and would drop flowers from the bridge. IT IS THAT SIMPLE. THEY WERE YOUNG AND IN LOVE. What did you think it was? A suitcase full of cocaine? A dead body? That fine young preacher Brother Taylor had a big mouth, y’all. He killed himself because he was young and depressed. The song is about her love for him and how nobody seemed to know about it. It is so simple it confuses many people. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/36 "2010-01-25T17:31:41Z")
> [@Endymion](#): > > (for the record, I never really understood the lyrics in “Subterranean Homesick Blues” by Bob Dylan although I suspect its about being poor and doing drugs…) Well, there are some poor folks and drugs involved, but mostly it’s a statement about the times as they were, with references to everything from the civil rights riots (“Better stay away from those / That carry around a fire hose”) to the life of the counterculture vs. life of the suburbs. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/37 "2010-01-25T17:32:31Z")
> [@koufax](#): > > oh my God, here we go again! > > The last line of the song is the girl picking flowers and throwing them off the Tallahachee bridge. She and Billy Joe were in love and used to sit together like young lovers do, just being together, and would drop flowers from the bridge. > > IT IS THAT SIMPLE. THEY WERE YOUNG AND IN LOVE. > > What did you think it was? A suitcase full of cocaine? A dead body? > > That fine young preacher Brother Taylor had a big mouth, y’all. > > He killed himself because he was young and depressed. The song is about her love for him and how nobody seemed to know about it. > > It is so simple it confuses many people. I wonder if people are conglating the song and the movie. I think the song is pretty straightforward just as you’ve explained it, but obviously a lot of stuff had to be added for the movie. So his suicide was due to his shame regarding his latent homosexuality and the thing the preacher saw them throwing off the bridge was her doll, in a not very subtle allusion to her lost innocence. What I really don’t get is how many people think it was a baby they were throwing off the bridge. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/38 "2010-01-25T17:40:42Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > I’d have to nominate Beck’s entire catalog. I swear ever song is written by randomly pulling poetry magnets out of a bag. I remember an interview years back in which he said that he only spends around 15 minutes on the lyrics of his songs. And, well, it shows. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/39 "2010-01-25T17:50:50Z")
> [@lost4life](#): > > It helps a little if you realize it was written by Bruce Springsteen. I always thought he was trying to mimic Dylan. > [@Askance](#): > > As previous stated it’s actually a Bruce Springsteen song, and seems to me a fairly clear description of a road trip with some friends and lovers, and a few drugs involved. Ah, thanks. I had no idea and although, even with the explanation, it still seems muddled to me, having _something_ to go on helps. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124/40 "2010-01-25T17:58:47Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > [Solar Prestige a Gammon](http://www.eltonography.com/songs/solar_prestige_a_gammon.html) by Elton John. > > No idea what it’s about. I’ve mentioned this before. This song (lyrics by Bernie Taupin) is intentional gibberish, meant to sound vaguely Italian. It’s in response to John Lennon’s Sun King which is intentional gibberish, meant to sound vaguely Spanish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-dont-understand/526124.md?page=3)