# Songs you finally understand
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 28, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362 "2012-05-28T18:52:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2012, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/41 "2012-06-02T12:22:32Z")
“My Little Town” by Paul Simon. Sort of half-listening to it when it came out, I thought it was an American Penny Lane. No. He hated the place. Phony patriotism, fake piety (“I grew up believing/God watched over us all/And he would lean on me/As I pledged allegiance to the wall”), stifled intellect (the black rainbow), ecological degradation. “Nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town” indeed.
“Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. I knew it was a break-up song and gradually understood it to be a gay break-up song. But Elton always sang it so melancholy. It was written as a very _angry_ gay break-up song. “Mongrels who ain’t got a penny/sniffing for tidbits like you/ON THE GROUND.”
---
### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/42 "2012-06-02T19:03:10Z")
> [@Krokodil](#):
>
> “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. I knew it was a break-up song and gradually understood it to be a gay break-up song. But Elton always sang it so melancholy. It was written as a very _angry_ gay break-up song. “Mongrels who ain’t got a penny/sniffing for tidbits like you/ON THE GROUND.”
I never realized it was a breakup song. And would it be a gay one? I don’t think he was out of the closet at the time.
---
### Author:  [@dataguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dataguy)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/43 "2012-06-02T19:34:06Z")
Aint No Way by Aretha Franklin
The lyrics:
Stop trying to be something you’re not.
Hard, cold, cruel is the man
Who paid too much for what he got.
I was a teenager when I first heard this song.
But it wasn’t until I was many years older
that I fully understood the meaning of those lines.
I still think they are some of the most profound lyrics on popular music.
---
### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/44 "2012-06-02T19:34:29Z")
> [@Pandoranoid](#):
>
> I always thought that ‘No Woman, No Cry’ was a bittersweet song with Bob singing to his heartbroken male pal about how at least now that he has no woman, he’ll have no further reasons to cry. Kind of a bromantic, you’re-better-off-without-her, love-hurts-but-friendship-rules thing. And ‘everything’s gonna be all right now’ was them sort of trying to shake off the break-up blues and celebrate life in spite of the pain. No, I obviously did not pay close attention to the verses.
> When I finally realized the truth, it seemed somehow less poignant.
Same here.
---
### Author:  [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/45 "2012-06-02T19:43:10Z")
> [@Nobody](#):
>
> I never realized it was a breakup song. And would it be a gay one? I don’t think he was out of the closet at the time.
Taupin writes the songs, Elton just sings them (Taupin’s straight AFAIK)
---
### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/46 "2012-06-02T19:48:32Z")
> [@etv78](#):
>
> Taupin writes the songs, Elton just sings them (Taupin’s straight AFAIK)
I’m aware of that. I’ll rephrase. Why would Bernie write a gay breakup song for a still in the closet Elton?
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### Author:  [@AqualungBats5th](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AqualungBats5th)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/47 "2012-06-02T20:43:57Z")
> [@Nobody](#):
>
> I’m aware of that. I’ll rephrase. Why would Bernie write a gay breakup song for a still in the closet Elton?
Also curious about this. And wondering, unless the genders of the people involved are mentioned, how can any love song be inherently gay or straight? I mean, a lot of them are vague enough lyrically that the listener can insert themselves as appropriate, so…
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### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/48 "2012-06-02T21:12:29Z")
> [@AqualungBats5th](#):
>
> Also curious about this. And wondering, unless the genders of the people involved are mentioned, how can any love song be inherently gay or straight? I mean, a lot of them are vague enough lyrically that the listener can insert themselves as appropriate, so…
Except for one or two songs Michael Stipe said he didn’t use pronouns or mention genders for just that reason.
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### Author:  [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/49 "2012-06-02T21:53:26Z")
> [@Pandoranoid](#):
>
> I always thought that ‘No Woman, No Cry’ was a bittersweet song with Bob singing to his heartbroken male pal (…)
> When I finally realized the truth, it seemed somehow less poignant.
I’m not exactly sure what the song means, but it’s one of the most poignant songs I know. My own take is that Bob’s getting a little famous and is going on tour -leaving his woman behind- and while that’s sad it’s part of fulfilling their dreams. “In this bright future, you can’t forget your past.” It’s a bittersweet continuation of their bittersweet lives. His recounting of simple joys in the midst of oppression and poverty is poignant in a way that a broken heart is not.
But maybe I’ve got the meaning all wrong.
> [@dataguy](#):
>
> Aint No Way by Aretha Franklin
> The lyrics:
> Stop trying to be something you’re not.
> Hard, cold, cruel is the man
> Who paid too much for what he got.
I don’t know the song, but read the lyrics and can’t figure out what the above quote means.
---
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/50 "2012-06-02T22:19:31Z")
I learned that the pyramids WERE built by Irishmen!
(“The Irish Were Egyptians Long Ago”)
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2012, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/51 "2012-06-03T04:54:33Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#):
>
> I’m not exactly sure what the song means, but it’s one of the most poignant songs I know. My own take is that Bob’s getting a little famous and is going on tour -leaving his woman behind- and while that’s sad it’s part of fulfilling their dreams. “In this bright future, you can’t forget your past.” It’s a bittersweet continuation of their bittersweet lives. His recounting of simple joys in the midst of oppression and poverty is poignant in a way that a broken heart is not.
>
> But maybe I’ve got the meaning all wrong.
>
> .
I’ve always interpreted this song to be about the universal oppression of women. Kind of like “Keep Yo Head Up.”
---
### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2012, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/52 "2012-06-03T05:13:01Z")
> [@Nobody](#):
>
> [TV Dinners?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1nMC6kLOYA)
I was thinkin’ bout the unreleased rarity _ **Jizz on Your Tits** _
😃
---
### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/53 "2012-06-03T06:41:58Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#):
>
> I’ve always interpreted this song to be about the universal oppression of women. Kind of like “Keep Yo Head Up.”
I never heard the song, but according to Wikipedia:
> [@Wikipedia](#):
>
> The song is about growing up in the ghetto and persuading a woman that things will get better.
> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> I was thinkin’ bout the unreleased rarity _ **Jizz on Your Tits** _
>
> 😃
Oh, of course. Nothing sexual about that. 🆒
---
### Author:  [@BluePear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePear)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/54 "2012-06-03T13:43:09Z")
I didn’t realize until a few years ago that the Prince and the Revolution song “I Would Die 4 U” was about a God as savior conveyed through Christianity.
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### Author:  [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/55 "2012-06-03T14:11:01Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#):
>
> I’ve always interpreted this song to be about the universal oppression of women. Kind of like “Keep Yo Head Up.”
I think it’s no woman, nuh cry. As in don’t cry girl.
Hmm, seems like \*\*Nobody \*\*knows.
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### Author:  [@coolbyrne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coolbyrne)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/56 "2012-06-03T15:32:42Z")
While I always knew what the lyrics were to Pink Floyd’s “Time”, it wasn’t a song that I really “got” until I got older.
_You are young and life is long/And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find/Ten years have got behind you_
Ain’t that the truth.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/57 "2012-06-03T19:47:15Z")
Elton John’s “Nikita” is about a homosexual imprisoned in the USSR, where, yes, you could be locked up for being “different”:
\*Do you ever dream of me
Do you ever see the letters that I write
When you look up through the wire
Nikita do you count the stars at night
And if there comes a time
Guns and gates no longer hold you in
And if you’re free to make a choice
Just look towards the west and find a friend
\*
---
### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/58 "2012-06-03T20:11:56Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#):
>
> I MAY be wrong about this… but I finally last year understood the song “You’re So Vain”
>
> I could never reconcile why a VAIN person would ever think a song bashing them was about them, so why would she say “you probably think this song is about you, don’t you?” A vain person isn’t going to believe a song saying bad things about someone is about them.
>
> Then one day it hit me. The song is about HER. Yes, she talks about all the wrong stuff he did, blah blah blah, but at the end of the day, she’s singing about her thoughts, feelings and emotions, and the guy probably isn’t getting ANY of that. He’s just hearing the song being about him.
>
> Anyone else agree with this interpretation?
It could only be about her in a couple of ways. Perhaps she’s lamenting dating so many rich douchebags that no one really knows which douchebag she’s singing about. Or unless she’s schizophrenic, and one of her personalities is singing about another one.
> [@wheresmymind](#):
>
> That’s an interesting interpretation. There has been [considerable speculation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You're_So_Vain#Subject_of_the_song) as to who the subject of that song is. Carly Simon has claimed that the subject in the song is a real person, possibly a composite of several people. She even revealed who it was to someone who won the privilege at a charity auction. But there are two people implied in the song: the person who’s “vain,” and the person the song is actually about. I’ve never heard anyone speculate as to who the latter person was, and your explanation makes perfect sense.
No, I go with my explanation above. She’s dated tons of rich douchebags who are all egotistical enough to believe that she wrote a song about them.
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#):
>
> Maybe I’m misunderstanding. Are you saying that:
>
> 1. The vain guy wouldn’t think the song is about him because it’s not flattering, and…
> 2. The vain guy thinks the song is about him even though it’s really about Carly…?
>
> Aren’t those two notions contradictory? And if someone flew their Learjet a long way to watch a solar eclipse, that person will understand that the song is about them even if it isn’t totally flattering. (Which, BTW, sounds like something Warren Beatty would do, but not Mick Jagger.)
> …
I generally agree with this. She never explicitly says that the person who thinks the song is about him is wrong.
---
### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/59 "2012-06-04T02:20:12Z")
In Piano Man by Billy Joel
Now Paul is a Real estate novelist
Who never had time for a wife
He’s talking with Davy, who’s still in the Navy
And probably will be for life.
It wasn’t until recently that I suspected that it wasn’t Davy that would remain in the navy for life but that Paul and Davy would be talking for life.
---
### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2012, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-finally-understand/623362/60 "2012-06-04T02:22:15Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> In Piano Man by Billy Joel
>
> Now Paul is a Real estate novelist
> Who never had time for a wife
> He’s talking with Davy, who’s still in the Navy
> And probably will be for life.
>
> It wasn’t until recently that I suspected that it wasn’t Davy that would remain in the navy for life but that Paul and Davy would be talking for life.
I actually heard an interview with Billy Joel about this song, and he said Davy was a real guy who probably would be in the Navy for life.
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