As an example, Paul McCartney wrote “Hey Jude” to comfort Julian Lennon during his parents’ divorce. However, John Lennon thought the song was about himself and Paul wrote it to comfort him for being the “Judas” and divorcing Cynthia.
I’ll start with Angie Baby. The writer insists that yes Angie is a witch and shrunk the neighbor boy. He’s wrong. Neighbor Boy tried to assault Angie and she killed him and buried him in the backyard. The whole thing about the radio is a reality she has made up because she is crazy AF.
Horse With No Name and the H.R. Pufnstuf Theme are both about using heroin. Riding a “horse” across the desert? Doesn’t even make sense but being high on “horse” does when you listen to the lyrics. As for HR (HeRoin), The magic flute? His heroin pipe.
H.R. Pufnstuf
Who’s your friend when things get rough?
H.R. Pufnstuf
Can’t do a little 'cause he can’t do enough
OMG that is crying out to be recognized as heroin and drug addiction.
Sara Bareilles’ Gravity. She says it’s about a crush she had on a boy in the 7th grade. Those ain’t the lyrics you think of when remembering your middle-school puppy love. Mia Michaels got it right - it’s about addiction.
Roger Waters can keep telling us that Comfortably Numb is about not feeling well before going on stage and a doctor giving him some tranquilizers, but in my mind, it’ll always be about heroin.
Not marijuana, heroin. “Chasing the dragon” is a heroin/opiate thing. (It could be done with marijuana/hash, but in general, it’s referring to heroin, at least that’s always been my understanding)
Without quoting the lyric further here, let me say that in my mind, as the writer, I knew exactly what happened to this horny little pervert! Angie, it turns out, had more power than he or the listener expected; she literally shrank him down into her radio, where he remained as her slave whenever she desired him to come out.
I’m not the expert on drug references, but I always heard that it was supposedly a reference to marjuana, that being the drug that is canonically smoked (“puff the magic drag in”).
As a wanna be songwriter, I deny that the writer has a monopoly on meaning. Just because I wrote the song and it means something to me doesn’t mean I should impose my interpretation on everyone else. Others’ interpretations are just as valid.
Melanie Safka said she did not intend “Brand New Key” to be about sexual intercourse and I believe her. That doesn’t mean it isn’t. It obviously is.
The only exception to this rule is when you think a song is about drugs. Assuming everything you don’t understand is about drugs is just lazy.
I always thought that the Byrds’ “Chestnut Mare” is about a sex. “She’ll be just like a wife” gives it away, and lines like “I land right on top of her” and “and she takes off runnin’.” She’s spooked by a snake (phallic), then there’s a section where they’re flying and land in a splash of liquid. There’s just too many ways the metaphor fits to make it just coincidence.
Interesting thought about “Chestnut Mare”, I’ve never thought about it, as a (former) horse rider myself I always took it literally, as describing the joys of being in full flight on a horse.
A horse song that that surely is all about sex though is “New Pony” by Bob Dylan.
I got a new pony She knows how to fox-trot, lope and pace (How much longer?) Well, I got a new pony She knows how to fox-trot, lope and pace (How much longer?)
She got great big hind legs Long black shaggy hair hanging in her face (How much, how much?) (How much longer?)
The desert is his sexual drought. Could be years, but with young people it could be a week. Still, a desert.
“No pain” is relationship angst. Controlling women, Whatever.
His “skin began to turn red” from, er, beating his meat.
His river bed than went dry was his penis. Sad. Very sad.
After “nine days” he got laid.
And the rest of the lyrics, that don’t apply to sex? Well, they don’t apply to heroin, either, but that doesn’t stop anyone,
As a musician who has written songs and worked with many songwriters: 99% of lyrics are about sounding cool. Looking for deep and/or hidden meanings in rock lyrics is, frankly, a complete waste of time. The words are meant to evoke a mood, a feeling. There’s very little actual information in any set of lyrics.
