All three of my examples are soft rock songs from the 70s. In all three cases I didn’t know any of the lyrics until 10 or so years ago, because while I liked them, I didn’t like them enough to find out more about them.
They laid down a very smooth, easy-going 70s light rock vibe that doesn’t seem to comport well with the lyrics:
What a Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers. If I had known the title I may have guessed the lyrical content, but I didn’t even know that. The only lyric I thought I knew was the ending of the chorus which I thought went “anybody else would surely die” (rather than “know”), which I took to mean that their love was stronger than anything else in the universe that would oppose it, when in reality there wasn’t any relationship at all to begin with. I’m not sure I totally dislike the song upon knowing the lyrics, but it’s a totally different song now to me.
Handy Man as covered by James Taylor. I didn’t know any of the lyrics that were actual words, only the “comma comma comma comma come come” part. The lyrics don’t seem to fit well with the vibe laid down by the music. Granted, it’s not unsexy. You could pick worse songs to put on during a romantic evening. But the music doesn’t seem to fit the boasting of a prodigal sex machine.
Slip Slidin’ Away by Paul Simon. Before I knew the lyrics, it sounded like a perfect bittersweet song that still sounded vaguely like 70s sunshine and breeze. Now that I know the lyrics, I definitely like the song less because it’s straightforwardly sad, and furthermore, the ambiguousness in itself was part of the draw, where you could feel fully sad yet fully happy at once. (The only words I knew were the ones in the title. I didn’t even know the rest of line about “the nearer your destination the more you’re slip sliding away”. I thought it was something like “you know the neery destination, oh, is” but wasn’t sure especially since “neery” isn’t a word.)
This is somewhat different from a song in which you only know most of the lyrics, or knew them but never fully processed the implications. I’m somewhat embarrassed that I knew of these songs for decades before I knew any of the lines in them. But feel free to post other songs in which you only knew some of the lyrics instead of just a word here or there like my examples.
“All Mixed Up” by 311. I was sure it was about e.e. cummings!
“Smells like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. According to some sheet music from circa 1992, the lyric was “She’s over-bored and self-assured, and all I know are dirty words.” That made sense to me and was a formidable sentiment. All the online sources now say “…Oh no, I know a dirty word,” which makes Kurt sound like a toddler impressed with his own poops (which may be a fair estimation of his state of mind, I dunno).
Tom Jones’ “She’s a Lady.” Great sound, great voice, but the whole song describes a woman who “always knows her place” and pleases the singer in various ways, whereas he brags that he “never would abuse her.” What sexist crap.
As a kid, I really liked the song “Bad Bad Leroy Brown”. I later realised as an adult that it’s basically just a list of '70s-era stereotypes about Black criminals.
Paul Anka wrote that song. Hate it. Always have. The lyrics, though seemingly in praise of the lady’s virtue, are sexist and demeaning. That may have been able to fly under the radar in 1971 but now they’re just in bad taste. I’ll bet that’s one of Donald Trump’s favorite songs.
Huh, I had never really pondered Leroy Brown’s race before, but I think you’re right. Damn.
I’m not quite sure this fits the OP, but I think it’s funny, so I’ll post it anyway. The first time I heard Life’s Been Good to Me So Far, I was a pretty sheltered fourteen-year-old, living a nice normal suburban life. The decadent rock-star lifestyle described in the song was so far out of my realm of experience that I just assumed it was written in the voice of a character who was delusional. I pictured him as some homeless guy sitting on the curb and ranting to passers-by about his mansion and his limo.
I still maintain that this is a more interesting story than the one Joe Walsh actually set out to tell!
Ambrosia, How Much I Feel.
Beautiful yacht rock song, I’ve loved it all my life. But this verse is upsetting:
How’s your life been goin’ on?
I’ve got a wife now, for years we’ve been goin’ strong
But there’s just something that I’ve got to say
Sometimes when we make love
I still see your face
During my radio days I worked for a station that included a version of that in the Christmas rotation. I emailed my supervisor and said “Listen to the words. It’s totally inappropriate.” But they kept on playing it because they got a lot of calls for it, obviously from people who weren’t listening very carefully and only heard the Hallelujah part. I was only on weekends so what did I care, but I turned down the monitor every time it came up.
I had to look up the full lyrics after reading this, because I couldn’t figure out what could possibly be offensive about a biblical king finding pleasure in a series of chord changes.
Speaking of whom, I remember those days of what I call “hairy chested music” that also included Engelbert Humperdink and Neil Diamond. I remember hearing Paul Anka’s “Having my baby” but it wasn’t until later that I started thinking about the lyrics and realized how sexist they were in the context of women’s liberation.
