When I see a 6 year old singing Eminem or Missy Elliot, I inwardly cringe. Does that kid even know what he’s saying? And then I think back on the songs I used to belt when I was a wee little one. And I mean belt out because I loved to sing and I always sang extra loud. Still do.
The Who’s Squeeze Box. I have a very distinct memory of singing to my Dad, “Sqeeze me! Come on and squeeze me!” Ewwww creepy.
I thought The Starland Vocal Band’s Afternoon Delight was about candy. And Melanie Safka’s Brand New Key was actually about roller skates.
The one I’m most ashamed of not realizing how foward it is was Greased Lightning from the movie Grease. I was plenty old enough to recognize it for what it was, but it wasn’t
until I listened to a cast recording of the play that I realized it’s actually called a “pussywagon”. Did they say that in the movie?
What “is that what that song’s about” moment did you have?
When I was about ten years old, at Girl Scout Camp, one of the counselors taught us a bawdy song called “Roll Me Over in the Clover.” It was several years before I learned that the song wasn’t just talking about frolicking in the grass.
Yes, in the movie version of Grease they not only call it a pussywagon, they also sing that “we’ll be gettin lots of tit” and “the girls are gonna cream”.
(That was one of my “oh, man, that’s dirty!” moments, too.)
I found out what the line, “I’m like a one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store,” from Bill Haley’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll” referred to just last year. I’ve known that song for over 35 years, and was shocked when it was explained to me. How the heck did they get away with that, anyway?
One of my favorite childhood movies, The Chipmunk Adventure, has the Chipettes scantily clad in harem dresses singing “Getting Lucky With You.” :eek: That song sounded a lot different to my kid ears than to my adult ears.
Well, that makes more sense than what I heard on the radio: that it was about drug use. The DJ was commenting on how people thought 8 Miles High was a drug song and it wasn’t, and they didn’t notice Chestnut Mare. The only drug connection I could ever find was the Horse=Heroin angle. But that’s all.
Not from a song, but I didn’t know what it meant when someone “shot their wad”. I heard a lot of people use it in reference to running out of energy, usually during sports. So, one Sunday whenI was 12, as the family was watching football, a player breaks free and runs for the endzone. About 20 yards from the goal, he slows considerably, and a defensive player catches him and brings him down. “Ah,” I said waving my hand dismissively, “He shot his wad.”
My sister, about 17, gets flabbergasted. My step-father looks at me with a “I know I’m supposed to not think this is funny” look. My mom, not for the first time, chooses not to increase my slowly dawning embarrassment by not even acknowledging that I have spoken.
Hugh Jass, I think that phrase originally had the more innocent connotation of “Lost all the cash he had to gamble with.” Wad of cash, see? Although I suppose most people think of the other meaning now.
I grew up watching the version we taped off of TV in the early 80s… it wasn’t until the re-release and I saw it in the theater that I found out… That MOVIE IS DIRTY!
This isn’t a lyric, but I never knew what the word “spic” meant until I was in my late twenties-- thank God I never used it. It was my husband who finally explained it to me. I thought it meant someone who was compulsive about cleanliness. (You know, “Spic and Span.”)
When I was a kid, I loved the songs from A Chorus Line. (Still do, in fact.)
But I had NO idea what “But when I begin to dance/Guys are coming in their pants” meant. I probably figured, hey, a bunch of guys are arriving (coming), and are all wearing pants. Like, maybe, dancing pants?
Well, my brother and I thought that was the funniest thing since the wedgie was invented, and one day in the car we spontaneously burst into song. That song.
“What are you singing???” my dad yelled.
“EAT IT!” we yelled right back.
“If I ever hear you singing that again…”
“Nooooo, daaaaad, it’s not about that!”
“About what?”
“You know!”
“What do I know?”
::sigh::“Dad, it’s about a kid who won’t eat his food, and his mother tells him to eat it.”
“I thought I said not to…”
“Dad! Oh my God! I’m serious about this…listen, this is how it goes: How come you’re always such a fussy young man,
Don’t want no Captain Crunch, don’t want no Raisin Bran,
Well don’t you know that other kids are starving in Japan,
So eat…”
“All right, ALL RIGHT, you don’t have to sing me the whole God-da…Listen, I don’t care if you sing that stupid song, but don’t sing it around me, alright?”
<long silence>
“Heh…eh…hehheh…AHAHAHAHAH!”
“What the hell are you to snickering about?”
“What did you think it was about, dad?”
“Don’t push your luck.”
“Pffft. Dad. Think I’ve got a dirty mind…”
“DON’T MAKE ME STOP THIS CAR!”
For me it was listening to a Steve Martin record I had ever since I was in 3d grade. Martin says he used to date a girl who had “the cutest little pussy.” When the audience reacted predictably, Martin admonished them so: I was talking about her cat! Jesus! These days, you can’t say a damn thing without people thinking soething dirty! I can’t believe you people!
that cat was the best fuck i ever had, too.
I got the joke of the pussy/pussy confusion from the very beginning, but it wasn’t until 15 years later after I rediscovered the album lying in my closet that I picked up what he said at the end of the bit.
I didn’t realize what “Afternoon Delight” was about until I heard it for the first time since I was a kid a couple of years ago or so, and then I was left wondering a) why a song about this? Ooh…sex during the day, how dirty and scandalous! and b) why such a STUPID song?
It gets played on the “light rock” station around here all the time… You know, the one that’s always happy songs, so that the people don’t get depressed. All the people around me seem to think it’s a nice, clean, upbeat song…
It’s about getting really high on many different things, and his woman OD’ing… Or at least, that’s the impression I get from the lyrics.
Tom Waits’ rollicking, thumping, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up. I’d heard that song at least a hundred times and always took it as a feel-good song about maintaining a carefree, youthful attitude towards life.
Then I heard Holly Cole’s melancholy rendition of it, and for the first time, the actual meaning of the lyrics sank in:
“Holy crap, it’s about contemplating suicide.” :eek: