The Song Fight Bulletin Board

So, there's that song on the radio, called "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles, which after several cursory listens appears to be a song written about a lover who wants a love song from his songwriter girlfriend. Which I thought was kind of interesting, but not terribly memorable. Then I heard somewhere that the song isn't to a lover at all; the song is written to record execs who wanted her to write a single for the album, something more upbeat and poppy and shit. Ha! Now I kind of like that song. Sure, it's still a song about songwriting, but now there's kind of a big middlefinger in there.

Know of any other songs that have meanings that are hidden just below the surface? Not necessarily songs that you have to do homework to understand all the subtext, but songs that sound like they're about one thing but then turn out to be about something else?

Well, tell me some.

I'm thinking of running a sweepstake until the first mention of a song that's really about masturbation. Will it be Prince? Will it be Cindi? Will it be The Vapours? The suspense is killing me!

:)

The day I learned what Orgasm Addict by the Buzzcocks was really about; that was the day I lost my innocence forever.

bz£ wrote:The day I learned what Orgasm Addict by the Buzzcocks was really about; that was the day I lost my innocence forever.

Damn, and I was hoping to win obscurity's challenge.

But I'll meet your Buzzcocks song with Green Day's <a href="http://www.lyricsondemand.com/g/greenda ... cs.html#04" target="resource window">Long View</a> and raise you Jackson Browne's <a href="http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/jackson+br ... ">Rosie</a>.

Although, I don't think any of these three songs' meaning is exactly 'hidden'.

/I'm Turning Japanese

obscurity wrote:I'm thinking of running a sweepstake until the first mention of a song that's really about masturbation. Will it be Prince? Will it be Cindi? Will it be The Vapours? The suspense is killing me!

You mean the first song written about it? I'm thinking John Dowland and others of his age probably stroked a few...I mean strummed a few tunes about that.

Plus the Divinyls' song...


As for songs about other things, Sexy Sadie is my favorite.

My Ding-a-ling--- who wrote that song? It's like from the fifties or something.

My Ding A Ling is by Chuck Berry, 1972 or so. His ONLY number one hit.

"Cherokee Louise," Joni Mitchell.

Charles (KA)

There is a Devo song called "praying hands" that I've always thought was about strumming the mule.

Well, I meant the first mention of a song about it, not a mention of the first song about it. It just seemed kinda inevitable :)

But while I'm here, I appreciated Enola Gay (OMD) a lot more when I found out that was about the dropping of the first nuke. I liked Shopping (Pet Shop Boys) a lot more when I found it was about the privatisation of national industries.

But my absolute fave is the album 'Gift' by The Sisterhood, which is pretty much in it's entirity a big 'fuck you' to The Mission (who were, at that time, using the name 'The Sisterhood' themselves - it gets a bit complicated I guess).

obscurity wrote:I appreciated Enola Gay (OMD) a lot more when I found out that was about the dropping of the first nuke.

That's a good song and all, but what did you think it was about at first?

Any number of They Might Be Giants songs.

"I'm your only friend, I'm not your only friend, but I'm a little glowing friend, but really I'm not actually your friend, but I am."

A nightlight! Yay!

"Make a hole with a gun perpendicular to the name of this town in a desktop globe. Exit wound in a foreign nation showing the home of the one this was written for"

He's never met his girlfriend in person! Yay!

"Clearing my throat and gripping the lectern I smile and face my audience clearing his throat with a smile and his hands on the bathroom sink."

Suicide by ODing on painkillers! Yay!

erik wrote:So, there's that song on the radio, called "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles, which after several cursory listens appears to be a song written about a lover who wants a love song from his songwriter girlfriend. Which I thought was kind of interesting, but not terribly memorable. Then I heard somewhere that the song isn't to a lover at all; the song is written to record execs who wanted her to write a single for the album, something more upbeat and poppy and shit. Ha! Now I kind of like that song. Sure, it's still a song about songwriting, but now there's kind of a big middlefinger in there.

Know of any other songs that have meanings that are hidden just below the surface? Not necessarily songs that you have to do homework to understand all the subtext, but songs that sound like they're about one thing but then turn out to be about something else?

Well, tell me some.

A similar song is "Blood from a Clone" from Somewhere in England by George Harrison. He had written and recorded an entire Somewhere in England album, but was told it was too mellow and needed a "hit," so he had to head back into the studio. most of the resulting album is new recordings of hte same songs, but "Blood of (from?) a clone" is new. Teh original album is relatively widely bootlegged, and the original cover now adorns a rerelease. The other new song is "All those YEars Ago" - John died in between the recordings.

"Into the Night" by Benny Mardones.

For years, I always referred to this as the creepy pedophile song, because of lyrics like "She's just 16 years old, leave her alone". But then one day, someone told me that it's a song about a girl whose parents are having a nasty divorce and Benny wants to take her in and show her what it means to have a real family. Much, much better than what I thought the song was about.

Not quite the same thing - but I was really impressed when I learnt what REM's Cuyahoga was about. The song meant nothing to me for years, but when I learnt about the Indian and environmental references, and how it sort of weaves 2 stories together - I liked it a lot more

obscurity wrote: But my absolute fave is the album 'Gift' by The Sisterhood, which is pretty much in it's entirity a big 'fuck you' to The Mission (who were, at that time, using the name 'The Sisterhood' themselves - it gets a bit complicated I guess).

Not sure if that's a meaning of the song thing, but the music's a heck of a lot better than what those other folks were doing at the time, too. Also, "Gift" is poison in German, and I bet that has something to do with it.

Tonamel wrote:Any number of They Might Be Giants songs.

"I'm your only friend, I'm not your only friend, but I'm a little glowing friend, but really I'm not actually your friend, but I am."

A nightlight! Yay!

That was the one I was going to mention, since I posted it on my song-a-day a couple of days ago. Awesome.
-bill

bz£ wrote:

obscurity wrote:I appreciated Enola Gay (OMD) a lot more when I found out that was about the dropping of the first nuke.

That's a good song and all, but what did you think it was about at first?

I have no idea any more, I just remember reading that the name of the plane was Enola Gay, and thinking 'that's a coincidence---oh, waitaminute! Cool!'.

HeuristicsInc wrote:

obscurity wrote: But my absolute fave is the album 'Gift' by The Sisterhood, which is pretty much in it's entirity a big 'fuck you' to The Mission (who were, at that time, using the name 'The Sisterhood' themselves - it gets a bit complicated I guess).

Not sure if that's a meaning of the song thing, but the music's a heck of a lot better than what those other folks were doing at the time, too. Also, "Gift" is poison in German, and I bet that has something to do with it.

Yeah, the album was basically intended to poison the well for the other lot, preventing them from using the name or collecting the £25,000 (Jihad!) publishing advance that was, so the story goes, payable to the first one of 'em to deliver an album.

The first time I heard "Big Balls," by AC/DC, I thought it was actually about social gatherings, but mainly because 1.) I was like nine years old, 2.) I was naive enough to believe that serious musicians wouldn't be able to get away with writing a song about testicles, and 3.) The line "She's got big balls" is kind of ridiculous.

Generic wrote:The first time I heard "Big Balls," by AC/DC, I thought it was actually about social gatherings, but mainly because 1.) I was like nine years old, 2.) I was naive enough to believe that serious musicians wouldn't be able to get away with writing a song about testicles, and 3.) The line "She's got big balls" is kind of ridiculous.

UH... I don't know how to tell you this. That song IS about the social gatherings. Its called entendre ... double entendre. I suspect you already know this and that I'm not catching the joke...or that I'm catching the joke but I'm not one hundred percent on it being a joke.

Thats why she HAS big balls. This is why they swing to the left and to the right... simply because you dance at balls. oh nevermind.

Hoblit wrote:

Generic wrote:The first time I heard "Big Balls," by AC/DC, I thought it was actually about social gatherings, but mainly because 1.) I was like nine years old, 2.) I was naive enough to believe that serious musicians wouldn't be able to get away with writing a song about testicles, and 3.) The line "She's got big balls" is kind of ridiculous.

UH... I don't know how to tell you this. That song IS about the social gatherings. Its called entendre ... double entendre. I suspect you already know this and that I'm not catching the joke...or that I'm catching the joke but I'm not one hundred percent on it being a joke.

Thats why she HAS big balls. This is why they swing to the left and to the right... simply because you dance at balls. oh nevermind.

Are they on fire? She could just be a Jerry Lee Lewis Fan.

Jerry Lee Lewis was singing about a serious medical condition. In fact, I'm pretty sure he hosts telethons for the victims.

I always thought Tool was too creepy to enjoy until I looked up the meaning of the word "schism". Now I like almost everything they do.