What are the most MISUNDERSTOOD songs of all time?

[battleknight24]

I don't mean mis-heard lyrics...

... I mean songs that sound like they are about one thing but are really about another...

My choices...

1. Every Breath You Take- The Police- This song is really about dangerous obsession, not love...

2. We've Got Tonight- Bob Seger- About a one night stand...

3. Ironic- Alanis Morissette- None of what she mentions in this song is 'Ironic' at all... (I still like this song though...)

4. Hotel California- The Eagles- Many people think this song is about Satanism, Hell, Purgatory, etc... but the general consensus among many music critics is that its about the dark side of the music industry (or the dark side of fame in general...), i.e. the alcohol, the drugs, the pressure to keep producing hits, etc, etc,

http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/hotel.htm

5. Peg- Steely Dan- This song is really about an adult film star. The lyrics sung in the verses is the director trying to convince the first timer to take off her clothes and do her first scene. The lyrics sung in the chorus is Peg's mind; she's telling herself that this will come back to haunt her some day.

6. Puff the Magic Dragon- This song is NOT about marijuana.

http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/puff.htm

7. In the Air Tonight- Phil Collins- This song was written out of the bitterness and frustration Collins had after the break up of his first marriage.

UNRESOLVED...

8. Goodbye to Romance- Ozzy- Is this song really about suicide?

9. Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin- What the hell is this song about? (Still love it though)

10. Heart of the Sunrise- Yes- I cannot make heads or tails out of these lyrics.

SPECULATION

11. I'm With You- Avril Lavigne- I am still convinced that this song is about prostitution. Okay, seriously, I don't hear any LOVE in the lyrics... that's why...

12. Steely Dan- Aja- A coded reference to the birth of jazz?




Peace,

[Dookus]

1. Born in the USA

Reagan even tried to use it as a pro-US anthem.

It's not, if you listen to the lyrics.

[WilliamPitt]

8. That's what I was going to say, too

NOT a happy song.

[lastliberalintexas]

14. Yep

Overall, I'd say Born in the USA is the most misunderstood well-known song of all time.

And as for the close second Every Breath You Take, I think I read that Sting said this song was actually about a Big Brother type gov't. :shrug:

[underpants]

15. I thought "Every Breath" was sort of a dark joke about stalking

or desperate hopeless love.

Sting once said something about how he really wrote it about someone with no self esteem who HAD to have this person and that no one really got it. "If you love someone..." from his first solo album was written and the direct antithesis.

[ButterflyBlood]

2. let's see, obviously Rape Me

Puff the Magic Dragon, frequently rumored to be about pot

Phil Collins - The Air Tonight, you know the old urban legend about the drowning guy...

and Counting Crows - Mr. Jones, of which Adam Jones has constantly denied rumors that Mr. Jones is his penis.

[SmileyBoy]

7. Definitely "Rape Me".

My father wouldn't let me buy the In Utero CD when I was 12, because the title of one of the songs was "Rape Me". I tried explaining to him time and time again that the song was about a guy who raped women, went to prison, and got poetic justice in prison. The song IN NO WAY advocated rape towards women. But, it's my father....

[LincolnMcGrath]

21. Rape Me

My SO at the time flipped out when she heard Nirvana perform rape me on tv.

Rape Me was about stolen ideas, because so many bands tried to sound like Nirvana and the Seattle gang,I thought Kurt said!?

[Blue_Chill]

31. Rape Me

is easily the most misunderstood song of it's time. I damn near got suspended from HS for listening to it. They wanted to send me to a head medic to make sure I wasn't plotting to attack a cheerleader.

[Systematic Chaos]

3. About "Heart of the Sunrise"

All I've been able to figure about Yes is that almost none of their lyrics have any discernible meaning. The words and music are often designed to take the listener on an emotional journey with no particular destination.

This is the band that got me so heavily into progressive rock, back in the mid 80's when I was in high school. From there I researched other bands the respective members of Yes have been in, then the members of those bands, and before long I had a ton of great music, and I'm still acquiring more.

[Michael Daniels]

10. Going even further.....Classical-based Art rock from the 70's in general

Of the Yes, King Crimson, ELP ilk basically had lyrics that meant absolutely nothing in general...unless perhaps you were under the influence of something and even then you were probably wrong :)

Having listened to a good share of that stuff during high school and college I came to the conclusion that the only art rock bands that had lyrics that on occasion had some sort of discernable meaning were some of the Peter Gabriel-era Genesis songs and Jethro Tull.

Perhaps without coincidence those are pretty much the only groups I still listen to from that era with any regularity.

[Squeech]

28. Meaningful prog lyrics?

Steve Howe once said, back around the Fragile/Close to the Edge era, that Jon Anderson's lyrics were "rubbish."

I don't think that's completely true. I have this hazy notion that Close to the Edge is an allegory about the quest for self-knowledge, although I'm certainly sensitive to the idea that lyrics like "And rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace" don't advance the narrative in any useful way :-)

King Crimson's book includes some really good, sensitive lyrics. My favorites include "Happy Family," a cryptic history of the Beatles, and "The Night Watch," a meditation on Rembrandt's painting of the same name. Peter Sinfield, who wrote "Happy Family" and all the other lyrics on Crimso's first four albums, then went on to write some of ELP's most novelistic songs (e.g. "Pirates," "An Officer and a Gentleman"), which are pretty far over the top IMHO. It should be noted that the original theme of King Crimson was (post-)adolescent frustration, and when Sinfield was no longer frustrated (for example "Formentera Lady"), Fripp fired him.

I agree about Gabriel-era Genesis. I firmly believe they were trying to grapple with The Big Issues, and were quite good at it.

In another thread I said I was big into RIO these days. Henry Cow's lyrics are seriously meaningful, in an allusive sort of way, and really easy to discern as seriously leftist, man-the-barricades stuff. Whether you can tolerate their strident delivery is another matter :shrug:

[Outvoicer]

4. "Ben" by Michael Jackson ...

Most people think it's a song of friendship between two guys (or a secret song about gay love), but really it's a love song to a rat.

[izzie]

5. Their are a number of war songs.

Names? One from Australia. I can hear it in my mind but name will not come in. Chopin wrote about his country and we all love the songs but they were not about love but about his country and war. I also believe their are WW1 and WW2 songs that were used by different countries and they ment different things to each. Some were not to be song by each country. When I went to camp (7 summers) and most in WW2 times we used to sing every night. So we used to do all those type songs. I wish I could recall all of them. Just to many years ago.

[phrenzy]

6. Moz

Just about everything by Morrissey and The Smiths

[Loonman]

9. "Got To Get You Into My Life"

Paul McCartney's ode to marijuana(not a girl, silly).

[underpants]

11. "Time of your life" by Green Day (or whatever it's called)

It's not a song for proms and weddings it is a f**k you/dumping you song.

[Sticky]

12. Have I Told You Lately That I love You

Van Morrison's song made popular by Rod Stewart is not about romantic love - it's about God and daily prayer.

[Aristus]

53. True, but still a great song. The cello at the end of the song

just goes right THROUGH me.

On edit: this was supposed to be a reply to the "Time of your Life" post.

[mac56]

13. "Illegal Smile" by John Prine.

Everybody assumes it's about smoking weed. Prine insists it's not. He says that when he'd get into trouble for anything as a kid, and would get scolded, he'd respond with a silly-ass grin on his face. It became known as his "illegal smile".

Now, you need to decide if you believe that story or not...

[Sick of Bullshit]

29. So just what is his "key to escape reality"

that "doesn't cost much but lasts a long while"?

[mac56]

33. Not sure.

That's why we're all free to decide if we believe Prine's explanation or not...

[StaggerLee]

16. Blister in the Sun- Violent Femmes

Masturbation

[blondeatlast]

17. Woops--I thought it waas about heroin addiction!

Back to the lyrics . . .

[bicentennial_baby]

63. Who did'nt know that?

What did they think it was about?

[blondeatlast]

18. "Lust for Life"--my rebel hero, Iggy Pop

This is the one played on the cruise commercials (gakkkhhh) :puke:.

Bet he's just waiting for his embarcation now:

Here comes Johnny in again
With liquor and drugs
And a fast machine
He's gonna do another strip tease.

Hey man, where'd ya get that lotion?
I've been hurting since I'm up again
With something called love
Yeah, something called love.
Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens.

Well, I'm just a modern guy
Of course, I've had it in the ear before.
I have a lust for life
'Cause I've a lust for life.

I'm worth a million in prizes
With my torture film
Drive a GTO
Wear a uniform
On a government loan.

I'm worth a million in prizes
Yeah, I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk
No more beating my brains
No more beating my brains
With liquor and drugs
With liquor and drugs.

Well, I'm just a modern guy
Of course, I've had it in my ear before
Well, I've a lust for life (lust for life)
'Cause I've a lust for life (lust for life, oooo)
I've got a lust for life (oooo)
Got a lust for life (oooo)
Oh, a lust for life (oooo)
Oh, a lust for life (oooo)
A lust for life (oooo)
I got a lust for life (oooo)
Got a lust for life

Well, I'm just a modern guy
Of course, I've had it in my ear before
Well, I've a lust for life
'Cause I've a lust for life.

Well, here comes Johnny in again
With liquor and drugs
And a fast machine
I know he's gonna do another strip tease.

Hey man, where'd ya get that lotion?
Your skin starts itching once you buy the game
With something called love
Love, love, love
Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens.

Well, I'm just a modern guy
Of course, I've had it in the ear before
And I've a lust for life (lust for life)
'Cause I've a lust for life (lust for life)
Got a lust for life
Yeah, a lust for life
I got a lust for life
A lust for life
Got a lust for life
Yeah a lust for life
I got a lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life.

[Squeech]

23. That's "Johnny Yen"

As in, the craving.

This was written when Iggy had finally kicked his heroin addiction, with the encouragement and support of David Bowie (who'd recently kicked his cocaine addiction, so he knew what he was talking about).

Iggy was doing really good stuff for a while there, up through New Values. (I choose to hear his song "I'm a Conservative" ironically.)

And yeah, it is pretty thoroughly ridiculous to hear "Lust for Life" advertising a cruise line.

[mac56]

19. "Rosie" by Jackson Browne.

A song about masturbation - the guy sings a love song to his right hand!

"Rosie, you're all right
You wear my ring
When you hold me tight
Rosie, that's my thing
When you turn out the light
I've got to hand it to me...

Looks like it's me and you again tonight, Rosie."

[Sick of Bullshit]

30. That's what I have always suspected about "Hey, Jude"

"So let it out and let it in
Hey Jude begin
You're waiting for someone to perform with
And don't you know that it's just you
Hey Jude, you'll do
The movement you need is on your shoulder"

[mac56]

34. LOL!

"And any time you feel the pain
Hey Jude, refrain..."

Puts that line in a whole new context!

[blondeatlast]

35. OHMICLOD! I think you may be right!

LOL, but really, I will never hear it the same way again.

[LincolnMcGrath]

20. STP; Sex Type Thing

I am, I am, I am
I said I wanna get next to you
I said I wanna get close to you
You wouldn't want me have to
hurt you too?

I ain't, I ain't, I ain't
A buyin' into your apathy
I'm gonna learn ya my philosophy
You wanna know about atrocity?

I know you want what's on my
mind
I know you want what's on my
mind
I know it eats you up inside
I know, you know, you know

I am a man, a man
I'll give ya somethin' that ya won't
forget
I said ya shouldn't have worn that
dress
I said ya shouldn't have worn that
dress

Here I come, I come, I come

[SiouxJ]

22. "(Arms of the) Angel" by Sarah McLachlan

it's about musicians addicted to heroin. I thought it was kinda funny that when JFK Jr. died, they picked that song to play over and over and over for all the intros and memorial stuff on all the news programs.

in the arms of an angel
fly away from here
from this dark cold hotel room
and the endlessness that you fear
you are pulled from the wreckage
of your silent reverie
you're in the arms of the angel
may you find some comfort there

[peekaloo]

24. "The One I Love' by r.e.m.

a simple prop, to occupy my time.......romantic love song it ain't.

[catpower2000]

26. Okay, that was fucking WEIRD...

Look at the post times, I was writing mine while you were posting yours! Great minds, eh?

Cat

[peekaloo]

27. even weirder

I ALMOST posted the same comment from the band on the audience reaction to this song!

[GOPisEvil]

39. Sorry peekaloo...I have to give you equal credit!

You and Cat BOTH beat me too it! :-)

[catpower2000]

25. The One I Love by REM...

Michael Stipe said in an interview that it used to make him sick to sing that song and look out into the audience at all the couples kissing.

"This one goes out to the one I love
This one goes out to the one I left behind
A simple prop, to occupy my time
This one goes out to the one I love"

Cat

[GOPisEvil]

37. This was my suggestion!

Ya beat me to it, Cat!

Yeah, this is anything BUT a love song.

"A simple prop to occupy my mind"? Yeah, I say that to people I love all the time. :eyes:

[Capn Sunshine]

54. A SIMPLE PROP

IS THE SONG....to occupy his mind while he goes on about his life while separated from his love of all time....
FIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANN

[mitchum]

62. that's always been my take also

I see him all of the time, but I'm certainly not gonna ask him to clarify the meaning of his lyrics

[Kat45]

32. Louie Louie

The granddaddy of all misunderstood songs. Absolutely everybody thought it was a song with "dirty" lyrics, but apparently it was not.

[GOPisEvil]

42. Yeah, it's about a guy who misses his girl...

...and his plans to go to see her.

[soupkitchen]

36. The Lady is a Tramp Rodgers and Hart

The refrain, That's why the lady is a tramp, means: that's why people are jealous of her.

[opiate69]

38. When a Man Loves a Woman

By Percy Sledge... it is not, contrary to popular belief, a nice little romantic song....

[BurtWorm]

40. Station to Station

I have no idea what it's about. Does anyone here? I think it's got some very specific references to the occult.

[RandomKoolzip]

43. It's about doing cocaine on a train

and having brainstorms about wanting to move to Germany. Who knows? The parts about throwing darts in lovers' eyes is gibberish, I think, designed to shock the listener.

[BurtWorm]

46. I read an intense analysis of it online a while ago

and I can't remember the thesis exactly, but the author made a plausible case that Bowie, who is an avid reader, was making specific references to occult literature. I mean using language that is astonishingly similar to the original. The author's thesis was that the song is about eternal life, an expression of Bowie's belief at the time that he was an elect being.

But maybe it really is just about snorting coke on a train.

[Ramsey]

67. Well, here are the lyrics

I am huge Bowie fan, and I don't pretend to understand what any of his siongs are about. I think he is like Eliot, his songs are strewn with both obscure personal and literary references. There is no doubt that Bowie is very well read and has dabbled in the occult and eastern religions.

In the song, the phrase "Kether to Malkuth" is actually Hebrew for "crown to kingdom/royalty/kingship". Both of these terms are Cabbalistic terms for the Sephiroth on the Tree of Life, originally a Hebrew mystical symbol that was co-opted by Western magicians and occultists in the Middle Ages. The picture on the back of the Rykodisc CD version of the Station To Station album shows David drawing the Tree of Life on the floor (the circles are the Sephiroth, with Malkuth at the bottom by David's right hip).

That may also be a reference to Bowie's drug taking days; he often made reference to drug-addled deeds, such as in Breaking Glass, in which he sings: "Baby, I've been, breaking glass in your room again. Listen. Don't look at the carpet, I drew something awful on it. See. " This supposedly refers to some act of vandalism he perpetrated on a friend's house while doing coke.

So without further ado, Station To Station:

The return of the Thin White Duke
Throwing darts in lovers' eyes
Here are we, one magical moment, such is the stuff
From where dreams are woven
Bending sound, dredging the ocean, lost in my circle
Here am I, flashing no colour
Tall in this room overlooking the ocean

Here are we, one magical movement from Kether to Malkuth *
There are you, you drive like a demon from station to station
The return of the Thin White Duke, throwing darts in lovers' eyes
The return of the Thin White Duke, throwing darts in lovers' eyes
The return of the Thin White Duke, making sure white stains

Once there were mountains on mountains
And once there were sunbirds to soar with
And once I could never be down
Got to keep searching and searching
Oh, what will I be believing and who will connect me with love?
Wonder *who*, wonder who, wonder when
Have you sought fortune, evasive and shy?
Drink to the men who protect you and I
Drink, drink, drain your glass, raise your glass high

It's not the side-effects of the cocaine
I'm thinking that it must be love
It's too late - to be grateful
It's too late - to be late again
It's too late - to be hateful
The european cannon is here

I must be only one in a million
I won't let the day pass without her
It's too late - to be grateful
It's too late - to be late again
It's too late - to be hateful
The european cannon is here

Should I believe that I've been stricken?
Does my face show some kind of glow?
It's too late - to be grateful
It's too late - to be late again
It's too late - to be hateful
The european cannon is here, yes it's here
It's too late

It's too late, it's too late, it's too late, it's too late
The european cannon is here


Personally, I think it's "European canon", not "cannon", but these things are always open to interpretation. Bowie was heavy into coke in the era leading up to this album, so the drug culture surely infiltrated the superficial tenor of his songs. But I really think of him as a poet. You could study these lyrics and eke out the references therein, but it would still be open to interpretation, and you'd still never know what he was really thinking. But like any great poetry, it can mean something completely different to you. Bowie's songs touch me intellectually, but they grab me emotionally, in a not-so-rational way, and they just work to pull my strings.

[Sinistrous]

41. RE: 6. Puff the Magic Dragon- This song is NOT about marijuana.

Yeah, and "Proud Mary" is about a steamboat.

[RandomKoolzip]

44. Dave Marsh thinks "I Heard it thru the Grapevine" is about slavery.

It's not.

Dave Marsh is a grumpy old doofus and Springsteen's buttboy.

[mitchum]

64. I recall that Marsh actually said that it's about 400 years of black paran

(and slavery is certainly a factor in that that sense of dislocation and distrust)

[classics]

45. Suicide Solution

A pretty popular one, about drug abuse but often cited as being about satanism, having backwards messages, etc.

Stairway to Heaven is about consumerism and how people have replaced thier souls with bank accounts.

[ze_dscherman]

47. Don't let me be misunderstood

SCNR

[RandomKoolzip]

48. Sisqo's "The Thong Song" is a about the Spanish-American War

I'm not entirely kidding.

[RandomKoolzip]

49. And 50 Cent's "In Da Club" is about the Skull & Bones Society

No, really!

[RandomKoolzip]

50. Oh, yeah, and "Wind Beneath my Wings" is SO about Napster.

I swear.

[Capn Sunshine]

55. and dont forget THE MACARENA is about Pearl Harbor

I swear! I read it on Napster
:nuke:

[SPICYHOT]

58. You gotta be kidding!

:puke:

[NightTrain]

51. Randy Newman's "Short People"

It's a satiric song that speaks out against bigotry; it is NOT a mean-spirited attack on people of diminutive stature! After all, the bridge goes, "Short people are just the same as you and I/All men are brothers until the day they die."

[RandomKoolzip]

52. Actually, Newman himself said it wasn't against bigotry.

It was meant as an attack on Short people 'cuz he doesn't like them.

[Aristus]

56. Well, Newman's "Rednecks" is very easily misunderstood.

It's nominally about Southern racist rednecks, but if you listen closely, it castigates the North's sub rosa racism as well. This song is not for the easily offended.

[SPICYHOT]

57. ironic

yeah!
Hotel California I knew that one
another one: living la vida loca with the queer guy.

[lanlady]

59. "Everything I Own"

by David Gates & Bread (circa 1975?)

People assume it's a song about losing a lover but in reality, it's about the losing a beloved parent. Gates wrote it the night that his father died. Which makes it, I think, that much sadder:

"Is there someone you know, you're loving them so, but taking them all for granted? You may lose them one day, someone takes them away..."

"I would give everything I own, give up my life, my heart, my home, just to have you back again, just to touch you once again."

[RandomKoolzip]

60. Wow! Really?

I never liked that song, but after having lost my father at 17, now it takes on a bitter poignancy. Jeez, there sure aren't many songs teaching males how to deal with the grief of losing their fathers.

[alaine]

70. "Nothing Compares to You" by Sinead O'Connor

Prince wrote it about a lover, but Sinead sang it about her mother, and the ambivalence of her feelings about her mother since her mom was so mentally ill and so abusive that Sinead's dad was the first father in Ireland to ever be awarded full custody of his children; that's why it is so damn moving and was such a big hit. Until I found this out I would not even listen to it because Prince is alleged to have assaulted her once while she was at his house. When I got the new take on it I could see it in a whole new light; it's about how she feels now that her mother is dead despite the horrible abuse.

[Norbert]

61. Puff the Magic Dragon

was rumored to be about getting high from smoking pot or hash.

In reality it is a poignent song about the passing of childhood.

[Ein]

68. its easy to see how:

when you just look at the chorus... Puff, Magic Dragon, Autumn mist. But you seem to be very right, after I looked up the complete lyrics.

PUFF, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal PUFF,
and brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff.

OH PUFF, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,
PUFF, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,

Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on PUFF's gigantic tail,
Noble kings and princes would bow whenever they came,
Pirate ships would lower their flag when PUFF roared out his name

OH, PUFF, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,
PUFF, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,

A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And PUFF that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.

PUFF, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,
PUFF, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
PUFF no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his life-long friend, PUFF could not be brave,
So PUFF that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave.

Oh! PUFF, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,
PUFF, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

[mitchum]

65. "Camptown Races" is NOT about shooting smack with transvestites

I don't know how that one ever got started...

[LewisJackson]

66. This Land is Your Land

by Woody Guthrie.

Otherwise, I would say Born in the USA by the Boss.

[Shanty Oilish]

69. Memphis

and the Naughty Lady of Shady Lane.