# Well, duh! Suddenly realizing what a song is really about **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 20, 2011, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820 "2011-12-20T04:58:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/21 "2011-12-20T22:59:04Z")
I can’t think of any of my own revelations off the top of my head (though I know I’ve had many), but I do recall a friend whose school almost made _Every Breath You Take_ the theme song for a dance of some sort, not realizing it’s about a creepy stalker ex before someone pointed out a few choice lyrics. [Apparently](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Breath_You_Take), it’s pretty common for people to miss this fact. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/22 "2011-12-20T22:59:35Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Good thing it’s not. Oh, it’s about a lot more than that, but that’s in there, too. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/23 "2011-12-20T23:02:52Z")
> [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](#): > > I can’t think of any of my own revelations off the top of my head (though I know I’ve had many), but I do recall a friend whose school almost made _Every Breath You Take_ the theme song for a dance of some sort, not realizing it’s about a creepy stalker ex before someone pointed out a few choice lyrics. [Apparently](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Breath_You_Take), it’s pretty common for people to miss this fact. Even in the same thread. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/24 "2011-12-20T23:14:27Z")
Oops. How’d I miss that? ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/25 "2011-12-20T23:20:56Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Good thing it’s not. True. [In The Navy](http://youtu.be/MTwq1_9VH68) is their gay hook-up song. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/26 "2011-12-20T23:37:21Z")
It was many years before I realized that the woman in “Lying Eyes” is lying to her lover as well as her husband. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/27 "2011-12-20T23:56:58Z")
Not me–I inspired the revelation in someone else–but the memory of the moment still makes me laugh some 25 years later. My younger sister was arguing with our father about his criticisms of her choice of rock music, you see. When she tried to enlist me to support her argument, she got more than she bargained for … Dad: I just don’t like you listening to songs about drugs. Sis: But it’s _not_ about drugs! [turns to me] Huey Lewis’s _I Want a New Drug_ isn’t about drugs, is it? Me: No, of course not. Sis: See?! Me: It’s about sex. Sis: It’s … what? Ohmigod, it is! :eek: Dad: :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/28 "2011-12-21T00:05:01Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I myself have pondered the hidden meanings buried in the lyrics of “Inna Gadda Da Vida”. The song was supposed to be “In the Garden of Eden”, baby! > **[In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida)** > > "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (derived from "In the Garden of Eden") is a song recorded by Iron Butterfly, written by band member Doug Ingle and released on their 1968 album of the same name. > At slightly over 17 minutes, it occupies the entire second side of the album. The middle of the song features a two-and-a-half-minute Ron Bushy drum solo. > A 2-minute-52-second 45-rpm version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was Iron Butterfly's only song to reach the top 40, reaching number 30, while the album itself reach... ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/29 "2011-12-21T01:03:06Z")
As an innocent preteen I adopted what at the time seemed like a wholly nonsensical line from a Kingston Trio song, “En El Agua”, as a personal non sequitur to accentuate any moment that seemed to require an added bolus of hilarity. The song is sung in call-and-repeat English-Spanish, with the lead singer singing a line in English, then the backups repeating the line in Spanish. It’s all about the magic of young love, with jumpy verses about walking along the coast side, playing in the sand dunes, going to parties, etc. Each verse ends with the surpise line “I throw you in the water,” to which the backups repeat, in thoroughly bewildered Spanish “¿En el Agua?” But that was not the line in question. That one comes at the end of the song, after all the verses and choruses are over and the song is starting to fade out, while everyone is trilling and whistling and laughing, someone utters, in an exaggerated faux Mexican accent, the “nonsense” line, followed immediately by a squeal of falsetto laughter. I adopted the whole bit, the accent, the line, the laughter. Other kids loved it, and the reactions it got from any adults in earshot ranged from puzzled aprehension to slightly scandalized concern. (Which, of course, made it all the more appealing). So, when the hijinx reached a proper crescendo, I would summon my Speedy Gonzales voice and intone _“We’re sorry, Senor, but ze border is closed to all sailors without raaaaaaincoats!! Wee hee hee hee hee hee hee!!!_”. That was decades ago. It wasn’t until recently, as in last Fall, as I was strolling along and that song and that line were once again gently wafting through my otherwise absent mind, that it suddenly hit me, what that line meant. Did it? Really? That? No. Really? hmmmm…… ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/30 "2011-12-21T03:11:27Z")
I was still little when Olivia Newton John’s “Physical” came out, so I thought it was just about doing physical (i.e., athletic) activities. ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/31 "2011-12-21T03:36:21Z")
[Mary Jane](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZEtGS9XFo), by Major Lazer. Took me about a year before I made the connection to marijuana. Not as long a time as some of the other responses in this thread, but shit, the lyrics practically beat you over the head with it. :smack: In my defense, I pay more attention to beat, tune, etc., than lyrics anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/32 "2011-12-21T10:57:23Z")
Back when I was a wee shaver, it was a long time before I found out what was going on with the lyrics to the Pixies song **Here Comes Your Man**. Namely that, apart from being all weird and disjointed and stream-of-consciousness-y, it’s also chock full of references to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki: \* Outside there’s a boxcar waiting\*: The B-29 that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki was called “Bockscar” (a pun on “boxcar” and “Bock’s car”, after the name of the pilot, Frederick C. Bock). _A big, big stone fall and break my crown_: The bomb dropped on the empire of Japan. And, course, the chorus itself: _Here comes your man._ The Nagasaki bomb was called Fat Man. Etc. Blew my tender, young mind, that did. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/33 "2011-12-21T11:23:38Z")
Apparently Skin Up’s 1991 techno classic “[Blockbuster](http://www.backtotheoldskool.co.uk/index.php/audio/rave-history-archive/71-skin-up-ivory-ebony-mix)” - with its refrain of “_give us an e_” - was _not_ intended as a paean to the [popular daytime quiz show](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbusters_%28UK_game_show%29) hosted by Bob Holness and had a whole other meaning. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/34 "2011-12-21T11:27:45Z")
I listened to Dylan’s _Ballad of a Thin Man_ for years before I learned what was happening that I didn’t know what it was. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/35 "2011-12-21T13:41:23Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Back when I was a wee shaver, it was a long time before I found out what was going on with the lyrics to the Pixies song **Here Comes Your Man**. Namely that, apart from being all weird and disjointed and stream-of-consciousness-y, it’s also chock full of references to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki Holy shit, Batman! I don’t really like quoting myself like this, but I just realized that some chick called Meaghan Smith covered the song on the soundtrack for \*500 Days of Summer. \*Heve a look at [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vVDyceJurM) and tell me just how much more fucking creepy it seems when you realize that she’s actually singing about impending nuclear doom. ---
**Author:** ![ballardfam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8797f3/32.png) [@ballardfam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ballardfam)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/36 "2011-12-21T14:10:15Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Heh. A cousin of mine did the “our song” dance at their wedding to “YMCA” – see, they’d met at the local Y, and they had no idea it was a gay hookup song. I had an “a ha” moment several years after The Village People became popular. Just never got the gay references. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/37 "2011-12-21T14:24:11Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > Not an entire song, but in Simon & Garfunkel’s “Cecilia” I was about 30 before it dawned on me why the guy had to get up and wash his face. :eek: I just realized that NOW! > [@](#): > > Ponch8 I was still little when Olivia Newton John’s “Physical” came out, so I thought it was just about doing physical (i.e., athletic) activities. I was about 8 years old singing this in the car and my mom said “Stop singing that, it’s rude.” I was like “😕 But it’s about exercising!” I thought “Dancing with Myself” by Billy Idol was about a guy who liked to, well, go to the bar and dance whether he had someone to dance with or not. One day I was all “Waaaiiiit a minute…” ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/38 "2011-12-21T14:29:44Z")
“You Oughta Know” is about Dave Coulier. As an avid Nickelodeon watcher in the '80s, finding that out was…disturbing, to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/39 "2011-12-21T14:39:40Z")
There was a peppy little song some years ago, Cherry Hill Park, by Billy Joe Royal. About a girl who used to ‘give a thrill to all the guys way after dark’. In Cherry Hill Park. When I got a bit older, it dawned on me all those guys merrily taking a ride on the town pump revealed she was such a sad sexual abuse victim acting out. And all those guys just lining up to take their turn, happy as can be, no one thinking anything strange about this girl putting out for the sheer joy of it?. All of them were sad when she met a guy with money and left town. Just…ick, such dysfunction. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820/40 "2011-12-21T14:50:04Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Holy shit, Batman! I don’t really like quoting myself like this, but I just realized that some chick called Meaghan Smith covered the song on the soundtrack for \*500 Days of Summer. \*Heve a look at [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vVDyceJurM) and tell me just how much more fucking creepy it seems when you realize that she’s actually singing about impending nuclear doom. Well, I just looked up the full lyrics and they don’t seem to have anything to do with the bombing of Nagasaki. I don’t buy most of these “hey, this song is actually about _x_” stories. Vague lyrics + people’s imaginations lead to all sorts of interpretations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-duh-suddenly-realizing-what-a-song-is-really-about/606820.md?page=3)