# Songs you liked less when you found out what they were really about **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 16, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464 "2010-06-16T20:43:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/21 "2010-06-17T11:29:36Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > You could NOT tell a lil’ chunky 16 year old black girl speeding down the street in her beat up hooptie that she wasn’t rocking OUT when this song came on! The station to catch the good grunge was called the Nerve, and I would always listen to that for a while before popping in my hiphop tapes. > > But I gotta beat you up a bit, WordMan. By the end of that song, they are repeatedly shouting “DO YOU WANNA DIE?!” over and over. You have to really be zoned out to miss it. > > On the other hand, I went my whole childhood without realizing the real meaning to songs as obvious as Rick James’ Superfreak. So I’m sure we both could have used a visit from Obvious Man. Oh, I needed a smack with a clue stick, to be certain. But, I dunno, I kinda numbed myself to quasi-menacing rock as a kid. Angus with a bloody guitar through his back; Paul Stanley telling you to put your finger on the trigger of his Love Gun - just mindless provocative crap with a beat. So I go in assuming they are after a certain feel, but am not expecting much in the way of coherence, if that makes sense. I knew it had a menacing feel and lyric - that’s part of the feel that’s creepy-cool - but hadn’t fully appreciated how far it went. I don’t need to be that far inside a killer’s head, thankyouverymuch. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/22 "2010-06-17T12:33:38Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > I used to think “Like a Virgin” was about a sensitive girl who meets a nice guy and falls in love. > > The a friend told me that it’s actually about a girl who’s a real fuck-machine, I mean: morning, noon, and night, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick. That’s a lot of dicks. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/23 "2010-06-17T13:35:57Z")
Obligatory “Every Breath You Take” reference It’s about a stalker. Ann Rule used it for the title of a [book](http://www.amazon.com/Every-Breath-You-Take-Obsession/dp/0743202961) about a woman who was stabbed by a killer hired her ex while she was home alone withher two year quadruplets (by her second husband.) Children were left home alone with her bloodied body for four hours until their older sister came home and found the carnage. That’s really a song killer. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/24 "2010-06-17T14:26:13Z")
Sarah McLachlan’s song “Possession” sounded like a very intense love song. Nope. It was inspired by letters from majorly obsessive fans, including one that was a confessed stalker of hers. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/25 "2010-06-17T14:49:31Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I was grooving to the Alkaline Trio’s “Hell Yes” for a while, thinking it was some kind of spurned lover song. > > Turns out the Alkaline Trio is a Satanist band, and it was all about feeling rejected by god! Is the last part of this a whoosh? Hell Yes certainly is about being rejected by God but that’s pretty much the only one of their songs I’m aware of that gets close to being Satanic (in the religious sense rather than the generic, hedonistic, sense.) ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/26 "2010-06-17T15:36:49Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > it was just a fun-groove song with a non-standard time (what is it 5/4? 7/8?) that had cool guitar parts. You could say roughly that it’s “in 15.” I’d count it as 3 bars of 4/4, a bar of 2/4, and four bars of 4/4. Basically a 4-bar pattern with the fourth bar shortened every other time. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/27 "2010-06-17T15:46:58Z")
When I first heard the song Closing Time, I thought it was drawing an analogy between closing time at a bar on the last day of Spring Break and graduating college and going out into the world. Then the band said it was about being born and I stopped liking the song as much. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/28 "2010-06-17T15:52:36Z")
I must confess there are a lot of songs that I really like and don’t really know the lyrics to (except for a few phrases). Since learning the guitar, I’ve had a few experiences of deciding to learn a song, looking up the lyrics, and finding that they’re just not all that cosmic. One example I can think of offhand is the Rolling Stones’ “Child of the Moon”. I still love the song, but it just seems like it should be about something more consequential than driving down the road at dawn in a convertible in the rain. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/29 "2010-06-17T16:06:00Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > When I first heard the song Closing Time, I thought it was drawing an analogy between closing time at a bar on the last day of Spring Break and graduating college and going out into the world. > Then the band said it was about being born and I stopped liking the song as much. _blink_ Are you talking about Leonard Cohen’s [Closing Time](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVt6vhRAu3k), or a cover of it, or another song entirely? Because I am trying to wrap my head around the idea of a Cohen song that could be about Spring Break, and I just keep giggling… ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/30 "2010-06-17T16:10:19Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > _blink_ > > Are you talking about Leonard Cohen’s [Closing Time](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVt6vhRAu3k), or a cover of it, or another song entirely? Because I am trying to wrap my head around the idea of a Cohen song that could be about Spring Break, and I just keep giggling… No - different song by the band Semisonic - [youtube link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdmLmIArqWM) I don’t recall the “being born” reference when I read the [book written by the drummer](http://www.amazon.com/Wanna-Rock-Roll-Star-Machine-Gunned/dp/0767914708)about falling into a one-hit wonder band and the state of the music business… \*\*Biffy \*\*- thanks for the rhythm analysis. Hmm, a 15-count foot - just like Black Dog… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/31 "2010-06-17T16:16:29Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > (what is it 5/4? 7/8?) Did I hear someone a callin’. Although not relevant to the OP, since you asked, it’s four bars: 4/4 + 3/4 + 4/4 + 4/4. ETA: Incidentally, the same rhythm sped up can be found in the Pretenders’ Tatooed Love Boys. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/32 "2010-06-17T16:23:19Z")
Incidentally, [this guy agrees with me](http://dkap.info/oddtime.php): > [@](#): > > (1995) “Possum Kingdom” by The Toadies is not really in an odd time, per se. It’s 4/4 + 3/4 + 4/4 repeating for most of the first half of the song. (although I assume he is leaving out the last four 4/4 beats there, since the time signature doesn’t change.) You can also call it 15/4, if you want, but I definitely hear it as bars of 4/4 - 3/4 - 4/4 (x2). ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/33 "2010-06-17T16:28:30Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > I used to think “Like a Virgin” was about a sensitive girl who meets a nice guy and falls in love. > > The a friend told me that it’s actually about a girl who’s a real fuck-machine, I mean: morning, noon, and night, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick. > Then she meets this John Holmes Motherfucker. This guy is like Charles Bronson in _The Great Escape_, he’s digging tunnels. All of the sudden she’s feeling things she ain’t felt since forever: Pain. When this cat fucks her it hurts. It shouldn’t hurt, because of all the fucking she’s been doing, but it hurts. It hurts just like it did the first time. The pain is reminding a fuck-machine what it once felt like to be a virgin. Hence, “Like a Virgin”. “It’s about love, not dicks.” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/34 "2010-06-17T16:39:35Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > since you asked, it’s four bars: 4/4 + 3/4 + 4/4 + 4/4. On second listen, I agree that this is probably a better way to count it than the double-time interpretation I posted. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/35 "2010-06-17T16:41:51Z")
I loved “Father Figure” until someone pointed out the glaringly obvious pedophilia overtone. Now it squicks me out. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/36 "2010-06-17T16:49:56Z")
The songs I liked less when I found out what they were really about would be almost everything I ever heard and liked in a foreign language. I’m a songwriter, and I dislike talking about my songs. I never talk about my songs during a performance. I think it’s the most boring thing a musician can talk about. I seldom write oblique or strictly evocative lyrics, but I do sometimes, and they mean exactly whatever you think they mean. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/37 "2010-06-17T17:22:24Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > When I first heard the song Closing Time, I thought it was drawing an analogy between closing time at a bar on the last day of Spring Break and graduating college and going out into the world. > Then the band said it was about being born and I stopped liking the song as much. That honestly sounds too ridiculous for words. Plus, the claim was made by their drummer, so he was probably just fucking with people. > **[Closing Time (Semisonic song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closing_Time_(Semisonic_song))** > > "Closing Time" is a song by American rock band Semisonic. It was released on March 10, 1998, as the lead single from their second studio album, Feeling Strangely Fine, and began to receive mainstream radio airplay on April 27, 1998. The ballad was written by Dan Wilson and produced by Nick Launay. > The single reached number one on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and entered the top 50 in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It was nominated for the Grammy Award fo... ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/38 "2010-06-17T17:34:38Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > That honestly sounds too ridiculous for words. Plus, the claim was made by their drummer, so he was probably just fucking with people. > > [Closing Time (Semisonic song) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closing_Time_(Semisonic_song)) Hmm - they reference the book I read by the drummer - I must just not remember that reference. Well - Axl Rose claimed that the song I Used to Love Her But I Had to Kill Her was about his dog, but that doesn’t change the fact that it comes across as a sick, misogynistic attempt at black humor. If they want to claim it started off as about birth but they futzed with the lyrics so it was more vague and broadly applicable - well, heck - that’s what songwriting is all about: capturing feelings that folks can apply to their lives… ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/39 "2010-06-17T17:58:37Z")
Slayer’s “_213_” was one of my favorites of theirs. In a weird way, I innocently thought it was a love song about having a very close, trusting relationship. One day when I was older, it finally hit me that the song was about necrophilia. I still like the tune, but not nearly as much. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464/40 "2010-06-17T17:59:50Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > When I first heard the song Closing Time, I thought it was drawing an analogy between closing time at a bar on the last day of Spring Break and graduating college and going out into the world. > Then the band said it was about being born and I stopped liking the song as much. Well if it’s any help, I had a similar interpretation to yours. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-less-when-you-found-out-what-they-were-really-about/543464.md?page=3)