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OT: songs you misunderstood in your youth


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One that I didn't understand as kid was Arlo Guthrie's "Coming into Los Angeles"... "bringing in a couple of keys". Always thought he was talking about car/house keys.

 

In the other category, there was "Walking in a Lake" by the Missing Persons. "Nobody walks in a lake"... still makes sense to me... :)

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"there's a bathroom on the right. . . ." (Bad Moon Rising)

Stan

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Actually, Bernie Taupin wrote most of EJ's lyrics so they indeed are about women. EJ didn't mind. And why would he? It's hard not to enjoy singing about love, after all. He just assumed people knew.

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I never knew "D'yer Mak'er" by LZ was meant to be a phonetic version of a particular pronunciation of Jamaica! I always thought it was about mutual sexual pleasure: "do" your "maker".

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"the algebra has a devil in a sidecar for me...."

 

"big old Jed in a lighthouse, don't carry me too far away..."

 

As far as tumbling to song meanings later in life, although I knew what "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" was about, I gave some thought to the title sometime later and got the meaning of "I can see paradise by the dashboard light."

Kind of like when Jake Blues said "Honey when you bend back I can see Christmas; when you bend over I'm looking straight into the New Year!" or something to that effect.

 

Muzikteechur is Lonnie, in Kittery, Maine.

 

HS music teacher: Concert Band, Marching Band, Jazz Band, Chorus, Music Theory, AP Music Theory, History of Rock, Musical Theatre, Piano, Guitar, Drama.

 

 

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I got majorly confused on the Doobie Brothers "Black Water" as a kid. "I like to hear some funky dixieland pretty mamma come and take me by the hand." I thought he was singing "I like to hear some funky dixie lampren mamma come and take me by the hand". I asked my parents, "what's a lampren?" Always wondered why they gave me that strange look.
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Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard... "went down to see the coroner".

 

Yep, I thought it was about a southern lynching and a white boy going down to give witness to what he saw go down...

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

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  • 3 years later...

Zombie thread alert. Sorry, had to resurrect.

 

Most of these examples are BI -- Before Internet. These days, you can find perfectly captured lyrics (although not chords!) and check out Urban Dictionary for those obscure cultural references you might have missed along the way.

 

For whatever reason, I was always clued into the drug/sex/gender references in songs when growing up in the 60s and 70s.

 

Must have been that I grew up a bit south of San Francisco, and I was surrounded by plenty of counterculturalists willing to enthusiastically share their interpretation of lyrics. And hand me a joint in the process at a tender age.

 

Including playing certain records backwards looking for deep hidden meanings, that was a thing. Turn Me On Dead Men.

 

Shamefully, it was only a few years ago that someone clued me in to what Steely Dan referred to. I just thought it was super-cool band name. Oh well.

 

I fear that in AI (After Internet) the fun of subtle innuendo in music might be lost.

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"there's a bathroom on the right. . . ." (Bad Moon Rising)

 

I just recently read that this is so misunderstood, Fogarty sometimes sings it live for fun.

 

For the longest time I thought Louis Armstrong, in What a Wonderful World, was singing ...and the dogs say goodnight instead of ...and the dark, sacred night. It STILL sounds like it to me.

The fact there's a Highway To Hell and only a Stairway To Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers

 

People only say "It's a free country" when they're doing something shitty-Demetri Martin

 

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I got majorly confused on the Doobie Brothers "Black Water" as a kid. "I like to hear some funky dixieland pretty mamma come and take me by the hand." I thought he was singing "I like to hear some funky dixie lampren mamma come and take me by the hand".

 

The first time I heard the Doobies sing "Listen to the Music," I thought he was saying "Talked of feeling girly, day by day."

 

 

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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Raised on Robbery -- Joni Mitchell

 

He was sitting in the lounge of the Empire Hotel

He was drinking for diversion

He was thinking for himself

A little money riding on the Maple Leafs

Along comes a lady in lacy sleeves

She says let me sit down

You know, drinkin' alone's a shame (It's a shame it's a crying shame)

Look at those jokers

Losin' that damn hockey game

 

For several decades I thought that this was just another Western Canadian taking a gratuitous cheap shot at Toronto :facepalm:

“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

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For the longest time I thought Louis Armstrong, in What a Wonderful World, was singing ...and the dogs say goodnight instead of ...and the dark, sacred night. It STILL sounds like it to me.

Wow, I had no idea... there's my learned something new today moment. I thought it was "dogs say good night" too.

 

Mine is No Doubts' song Spiderwebs.

 

And it's all your fault

I screen my phone calls

No matter who calls

I gotta screen my phone calls

 

I thought Gwen Stefani was saying "I scream my balls off"... wow, that's odd since she's a girl, but then maybe that's the point... I dunno?!!? My friends had a good laugh about it.

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"the algebra has a devil in a sidecar...me... for me.. for MEEEEEEEEEEE"

 

"Big ol' Jed in a lighthouse, don't carry me too far away..."

Muzikteechur is Lonnie, in Kittery, Maine.

 

HS music teacher: Concert Band, Marching Band, Jazz Band, Chorus, Music Theory, AP Music Theory, History of Rock, Musical Theatre, Piano, Guitar, Drama.

 

 

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When i was a kid, I thought Jackson Browne's "Rosie" was about a girl.

 

In fact, it's about how you really want to be the drummer ;-)

 

I always heard the line near the start of Life During Wartime as "Heard about some great sex out by the highway..." and pictured a roadhouse brothel in the post-apocalyptic world the song was obviously set in.

 

The Fez makes perfect sense as a duet for Akbar and Jeff.

 

-Z-

 

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"Senses Working Overtime" by XTC.

 

Hearing it on the radio, before I knew what the title was, I was singing along:

 

"I've got one, two, three, four five.

Six is working overtime"

 

I always felt sorry for Six. Why the hell did the first five numbers not have to work too?

 

:facepalm:

 

 

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