What are some of the great mysteries of popular music?
The most famous ones I know —
Who is so vain they probably think this song is about them? I know there’s speculation, and Carly Simon has been so kind as to give out a couple of letters of the person’s name… this is the big one now that Deep Throat’s been outed.
A twofer — Why did Billie Joe McAllister jump off the Tallahatchee Bridge, and what were they throwing into the water?
What did the Mama saw Me and Julio doing down by the Schoolyard that caused such a commotion?
Why did Freda Payne and her husband sleep in separate rooms on their honeymoon in Band of Gold?
She’s dropped an awful lot of hints that it’s about Warren Beatty (and he apparently thinks it’s about him, too), but I guess people will keep bothering her about it until she croaks.
Years ago I asked OK, I shot the Sheriff, but who shot the deputy? Someone here put forth the theory that the Sheriff shot the deputy in order to frame me - and then used that as an excuse to come shoot me down.
That was probably me. I sorta feel obligated to have at least a theory about that song and I like the backstory created by that interpretation.
Okay, I guess I undersatnd why doesn’t the horse in “A Horse with No Name” has no name - it’s just a rented nag the narrator needs for one trip, and he’s not much with names anyway (“rocks and things”). But what about the streets in “Where the Streets Have No Name?” Unnamed streets would make driving VERY complicated in that area. How would you get from one place to another? “Take that one street about a mile, then turn left on some other street, near the Arby’s, then when you come to the four-way intersection, go right until you reach some other street.” Yeah, that’ll work. So why is this situation allowed to persist? Is there a problem with the planning commission? Is the city council awaiting a special election and unable to get a quorum to take a vote on the names?
These kinds of things didn’t used to bother me. Then I joined the Straight Dope.
I know who wrote the Book of Love:
It was an idiot!
It was a fool!
A slobbering fool with a speech defect and a shaking hand!
And he wrote my name
Next to yours…
–Robyn Hitchcock
I don’t have an exact quote, but I once read Paul Simon commenting on what “me and Julio” did down by the schoolyard. His approximate statement was: I don’t have a clue, something sexual I suppose.
I remember watching a documentary about John Lennon. They interviewed the producer/engineer (I forget which) who worked with Lennon on what turned out to be his final recording session on the evening of December 8, 1980. The producer said that, before leaving the session, Lennon told him something. Moments later, of course, the ex-Beatle was shot to death outside his apartment. The producer said he will never, ever reveal what Lennon told him that night. WTF!?!
The mind boggles. Was it something cosmic? Mundane? Jaw-droppingly scandalous? I guess we’ll never know…
I always thought this one was pretty much answered. He was impotent. He couldn’t “love [her] like [he] tried before”. So she was crying in her own bedroom while he sulked in shame in his.
The real mystery in that song is how he could have possibly taken her from a mother she’d never known.
One theory I’ve heard is that it’s about one of Simon’s early lovers, from back before she was famous. Simon based the song on his personality and added in some surface details about later lovers like Beatty. The reason Simon doesn’t want to reveal his identity (in addition to promoting the song by the mystery) is that the man is not a public figure like Beatty, Jagger, or Taylor.
