# Songs you insist have a different meaning than the writer claims **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 26, 2023, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725 "2023-11-26T16:49:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/61 "2023-11-29T20:33:13Z")
No, it’s about punching a guy in the jingle-jangles. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/62 "2023-11-29T20:46:08Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > There’s very little actual information in any set of lyrics. That’s way too blankety a statement, crowned by the “any”. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/63 "2023-11-29T20:54:39Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > “The sex was great, but I prefer coke.” Has anyone ever said that? Uh…? Anybody/Everybody that’s ever done coke??? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/64 "2023-11-29T21:07:58Z")
I’ve always heard the best is sex _on coke_, but what does a mere stoner like me know? ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/65 "2023-11-29T21:23:34Z")
If you think sex on coke is the _best_ you really need to try it on Pepsi… ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/66 "2023-11-29T21:25:45Z")
RC for BJ! ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/67 "2025-05-18T17:55:34Z")
Robert Lamm says that Chicago’s _25 or 6 to 4_ is about trying to write a song in the middle of the night. That is bullshit; the song is obviously about drugs. And I’m the guy who always argues **against** songs being about drugs. But come on: “wondering how much I can take”, “should I try to do some more”, “staring blindly into space”, “spinning room is sinking deep”. These are at least intentional double entendres. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/68 "2025-05-18T18:01:30Z")
Actually it describes the writing process pretty well. I’ve never done drugs and I find all of that relatable. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2025, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/69 "2025-05-20T00:19:24Z")
Especially if you’re writing while also holding down a full-time job. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/70 "2025-05-21T04:11:41Z")
…and doing drugs. (At 3:34 am, so you can stay awake to finish writing before you have go to your day job.) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/71 "2025-05-21T13:25:17Z")
The story I heard on Siruis/XM was that he had a guitar riff that he liked, but he couldn’t think of any words for it, so he just started doing a stream of consciousness of what was going on at that time of the. . . (\*day? night?) as filler. He never did come us with any ‘real’ lyrics, so they just recorded the filler lyrics. \*Ray Bradbury in “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” I believe, referred to 3 AM as “too late to be called night and too early to be called day.” ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/72 "2025-05-24T02:59:23Z")
I for one can’t figure out how a song with the line “I’ll stay with you till my seeds are dried up” (NO, it is not “I’ll stay with you till the seas are dried up”) got on the radio in 1967! I’ve long heard that Sammy Davis’ “Candy Man” is about drugs. It could be, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/73 "2025-05-24T06:48:19Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I’ve long heard that Sammy Davis’ “Candy Man” is about drugs. It’s about Willy Wonka. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/74 "2025-05-24T12:37:25Z")
I think there’s this thing where an artist writes a song, it becomes successful, and then the artist tries to pretend the song isn’t about what everyone thinks it’s about. Maybe they believe the audience isn’t allowed to be on their level. Maybe they just like playing a joke at the audience’s expense. Regardless, pop culture is filled with songs that are about [this or that], for realzies, even as the writer steadfastly insists that it isn’t. Tony Basil has been pretty coy about it for decades, but let’s not kid ourselves: “Hey Mickey” is about anal sex. “Come on and give it to me any way you can. Any way you wanna do it I’ll take you like a man.” And “Hotel California” is absolutely about drug addiction. “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave” so succinctly and so poetically describes drug addiction. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/75 "2025-05-24T12:43:53Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Tony Basil has been pretty coy about it for decades, but let’s not kid ourselves: “Hey Mickey” is about anal sex. > > “Come on and give it to me any way you can. Any way you wanna do it I’ll take you like a man.” Hmmmm…how about “Any Way You Want It”? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/76 "2025-05-24T12:51:07Z")
Annnnd let’s NOT get started on “Brown-Eyed Girl”… ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/77 "2025-05-24T13:29:17Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Just for grins, I once spent several hours reinterpreting _American Pie_ from what Don McLean has explained was a look back at the 60’s musically and culturally, starting with Buddy Holly, Rictchie Valens, and the Big Bopper dying in an airplane crash. By the time I was finished it was ALL political metaphors stretching from “the day the music died” being the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated I always thought the last verse was about the JFK assassination. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/78 "2025-05-27T01:52:32Z")
_Mistral Wind_ is not actually about sex. Yes, yes it is. It uses intimate-sounding language to try to convince you that it is not really about sex but is alluding to something else. But it fails miserably. It is about sex. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/79 "2025-05-27T06:43:25Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Tony Basil Toni Basil didn’t write Mickey. She changed a few of the words and the gender, but it was originally [Kitty by the UK pop band Racey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQv7IgGPXLY). I’d say Toni improved the song, but she didn’t write it and she doesn’t get a writing credit for her additions. The line “Any time you want to do it I’ll take it like a man” is in the original, sung by a man to a woman, and highly unlikely to be a reference to anal sex. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725/80 "2025-05-27T13:41:34Z")
I’m not saying it’s the case with “Mickey” and Toni Basil, but I think gender swapping in lyrics was often done with the intention of creating sexual innuendo where it might not have existed before. “My Boy, Lollipop” was originally titled, “My Girl, Lollipop”. It was never recorded under that title though. But two older male producers independently swapped the lyrics and scored huge hits by finding adolescent girls to record the song. (Trivia: The second of these is recognized as the first International hit for a Ska recording.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-insist-have-a-different-meaning-than-the-writer-claims/993725.md?page=5)