“I hate top forty music because it always has the stupidest lyrics. [singing] ‘Wasn’t it yesterday we used to laugh at the wind behind us?’ …What in the fuck does that mean? Or how about: [singing] ‘I am! I cried/To no one there/And no one heard at all, not even the chair.’ …I AAAAAAAAAM! [addresses chair] Did you hear that?”
-Lea Delaria
Hmm, maybe it’s songs you only thought you knew the words to and still didn’t understand. I guess maybe it is another mondegreens thread, after all.
I was going to look up the Three Doors Down lyrics on that site provided, but it’s very slow, and when it finally pulled up, it doesn’t have Three Doors Down.
http://lyrics.natalnet.com.br/html/main_index/
xizor, how sure are you of that lyric? That seems to not make complete sense either. Where does the kryptonite fit in?
Hmm, I notice that site doesn’t have any description for the veracity of the lyrics. They’re just what people send in? Any check to the actual artist/record label/ album covers?
THespos has that lyric right (according to this site).
Here’s a Third Eye Blind lyric from How’s It Going To Be?:
I heard something like “salt of Earth, clear the air.”
AHA! According to the site, I was right about the lyrics for Never Let You Go. It is “that girl is like a sunburn I would like to save.” So either AudreyK has it wrong, or that site can’t be trusted. Tell me which Audrey, please!
(It took me a while to figure out the “Superfluous H” line. I kept trying to think of a song lyric. 
)
The Verve Pipe lyric is
“Stop a baby’s breath and a shoe full of rice”, having something to do with abortion and I assume the rice is a reference to a wedding, maybe that didn’t happen? There’s a note at the end from whomever sent the lyric to the site metioning the events are true events from the band’s life.
Ruffian, your Paul Simon lyrics are on my list. The “You can call me Al” ones always got me. Not all that familiar with Paul Simon to know the rest of them.
Let’s see, this site has “choke me in the shallow water” for the Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians song. Hmmmm. I kinda thought that was “shove me in the shallow water”.
How about Goo Goo Dolls, Black Balloon:
“I saw the world spin beneath you, and scatter like ice from the spoon that was your womb.” ?
Okay, enough for one night.
Well, I’ll be…
You’re absolutely right. I checked the CD jacket to be sure. I think I know what it means, though. Sunburns have playfully been dubbed souvenirs of summer vacation; they’re painful reminders of the fun you had. I think he means he wants to hold on to the girl (and their relationship) because she reminds him of the good times.
Oh my god, no one has mentioned They Might Be Giants? Of course, maybe it was thought unnecessary, since ALL of their lyrics are strange, but I currently have some lines from “Purple Toupee” stuck in my head:
“Purple toupee is here to stay
Purple toupee and gold lame.”
Makes sense to me! Yeah! This is, of course, the band that wrote a song about James K. Polk.
Now I have the lyrics to “Cowtown” stuck in my head.
“I’m going down to cowtown,
the cows are friends to me,
lives beneath the ocean, that’s where I will be,
beneath the waves, the waves, that’s where I will be,
I’m gonna see the cow beneath the sea.”
Xizor is absolutely right about the lyric from Kryptonite by 3 Doors down. Quoting the lyrics directly from the CD booklet (bless their little hearts…It’s not often we GET lyrics nowadays!) :
If I go crazy then will you still
call me Superman
If I’m alive and well, will you be
there holding my hand
I’ll keep you by my side with
my superhuman might
Kryptonite
The odd line breaks are theirs, not mine.
Tentative interpretation: He’s trying to hold on to the girl, even though she is his greatest weakness.
K.
From Dire Straits’ It Never Rains :
Mark Knopfler himself has admitted he has no idea what it means: it just sort of appeared on paper as he was writing the lyrics. Maybe this is the case for a lot of these examples?
I think that’s from the Verve Pipes Freshman
“Stomping baby’s breath with a shoe full of rice.”
I always thought he waws talking about a wedding.
I think “Freshmen” refers to a couple who doesn’t use birth control. “When I was young I knew everything/she’s a punk who never took advice,” and they accidentally get pregnant, “now I’m guilt stricken sobbing with my head on the floor,” so they decide to have an abortion “stopping baby’s breathe and a shoeful of rice.”
He refuses to believe that he was responsible for this “can’t be held responsible/she was touching her face/I won’t be held responsible/she fell in love in the first place,” and he just can’t believe that this happened to him, “for the life of me/I cannot remember/what made us think that we were wise/and we’d never compromise/for the life of me/I cannot believe/we’d ever die for these sins/we were merely freshmen.”
Apparently, the girlfriend has complications in the abortion and dies. “My best friend took a week’s vacation to forget her/his girl took a week’s worth of valium and slept/and now he’s guilt stricken sobbing with his head on the floor/thinks about her now and how he never really wept before,” which tells me that the friend took off of school for a week. The friend’s girlfriend is so distraught she overdoses with Valium, and the cycle begins again, now the best friend is guilt stricken sobbing with his head on the floor. I believe that the “baby’s breath” refers to the life of the girlfriends in this verse, and the fact that they were so young still.
“We tried to wash our hands of all of this/we never talk of our lack in relationships/and who we’re guilt stricken sobbing with our hands on the floor/and how we fell through the ice when we tried not to slip we’d say it/I can’t be held responsible/'cause she was touching her face/and I won’t be held responsible/she fell in love in the first place/for the life of me/I cannot remember/what made us think that we were wise/and we’d never compromise/repeat chorus/”
This last verse is an indictment of the lack of blame we place on ourselves for failed and shallow relationships, “we never talk of our lack in relationships.”
He just can’t believe that someone so young could be responsible for something so horrible, or how they were so cocky as to think nothing could happen to them.
Good song.
Gravity, the line breaks in that song are where he pauses to breathe, and they do make sense if you’ve heard the song (I’m assuming you haven’t…?).
I don’t believe I hold the same interpretation as you. I think he’s unsure about himself as a man and a person, hence “If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman,” or, if I fail, will you still believe in me? And, “If I’m alive and well will you be there holding my hand,” meaning, will you stay with me even if I fail you?
Kyla, don’t bother with TMBG.
–Tim
PS - I have a knack for figuring out what songs are about. Maybe it’s not a knack so much as it is a sickness.
Sounds a lot like “Brick” by Ben Folds Five.
Aah, xizor. If you’ve never had a nice, refreshing Ham and Mustard shake, then you’re missing out on one of life’s great pleasures!
My person “huh?” is also a STP song. I believe this is from “Plush”: “And when the dogs do find her/ Got time, time to wait for tomorrow/ To find it, to find it, to find it.”
And there’s always the old standby when maximum confusion is called for: “Blinded By the Light,” written by Bruce Springsteen and covered by Manfred Mann: “Blinded by the Light/ Wrapped (ripped? revved?) up like a deuce/ another runner in the night/ Bummers, Drummers, Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat/ In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat/ With a boulder on my shoulder, feeling kind of older, I tripped the merry=go-round.”
I’m sure some symbolism can be found here. Cecil actually did a column on this very song, but even he knew better than to try to figure out what it meant.
Ruffian, I thought it was ‘I will call you Eddy’.
I always thought that Red Hot Chili Peppers song (I can’t remember the name) was ‘whisper the shed its a lonely view’ but apparently its ‘with birds I’ll share…’
Shure.
What about ‘Down Under’ by Talking Heads?
We come from the land down under
Where women glow and men plunder
Can you hear can you hear that thunder
Better run, better take cover.
I guess a head full of zombie will make you write lyrics like that! :0
My fave group is Crowded House, and I definitely do NOT understand Pineapple Head. Does anyone know what this song is about?
Um, Iksova, I think it was Men At Work who did “Land Down Under”, not Talking Heads, although T.H. had their share of incomprehensible lyrics. I am still not sure what “Burning Down the House” is about…
I always thought it was “within the shed i’m alone with you”, and later I was told it’s “with purple shades it’s a lonely view” …
The song, Scar Tissue, has lyrics posted here http://lyrics.astraweb.com/display.cgi?red_hot_chili_peppers..californication..scar_tissue
I think the word bird in the phrase “With the birds I’ll share” is used the like the slang term for a woman or girl. That sheds some light.
Sorry to make two posts in a row, but the song I shall never understand is “Sugar” by System of a Down. It’s a good thing that I love this song.
The chorus is:
[sings]
The kombucha mushroom people,
Sitting around all day,
Who can believe you,
Who can believe you,
Let your mother pray, (sugar)
[/sings]
The other lyrics are equally weird.
Men at Work…oh, oops.
I always get those two mixed up.
I like The Offspring. Now THEY have some comprehensible lyrics.
What about Peter Gabriels ‘Games without Frontiers’? Does anyone know what that song’s about?
The band: Nirvana
The song: All Apologies
The lyric: I’ll take all the blame / aqua sea foam shame
the more I listen to it, the more I am convinced that he’s singing aqua sea foam shame. I know that Kurt was never know for this enunciation, but c’mon!
What the hell does this mean, or what the hell is he really singing?
It IS aqua sea foam shame. Sinead O’Connor did a remake of the song and thats exactly what she sings.
Don’t know what it means though. I think its just supposed to sound good. I mean, what about ‘everyone is gay’? I’m not. He wasn’t. So whats THAT all about??
'Sunburn with freezer burn. Choking on the ashes of her enemy. In the sun I feel as one. In the sun I’m married, buried. WTH?
I’m actually surprised you only picked the one line from that song…
It struck me as the weirdest line, I guess.
All Apologies is an anti-homophobic/gay rights song.
“Aqua-seafoam shame” is just a reference to the stereotype that gay people (who “should be ashamed of themselves” in the eyes of homophobes) appreciate nature more than “real mean.”
Sunburn with freezer burn… Used to know what that meant… Still don’t really care, never was a big Nirvana fan, but I kinda like that song. I think Kurt Cobain was an idiot though, and did not cry one bit when he killed himself. I never tale pity on rock stars who kill themselves, it’s selfish and ridiculous.