Songs I Wish I Understood
Submitted by AJDaGreat on Thu, 08/28/2003 - 10:52
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- Jigsaw Puzzle - Rolling Stones - The verses kinda make sense by themselves, but why string them together into a song? What's the common thread between these strange people and the man doing the jigsaw puzzle / having sex with his girlfriend? And furthermore, why can't he do either of those things while it's raining?
- The Tourist - Radiohead - What does "it" refer to in this song? The lyrics are just baffling.
- Live and Let Live - Love - "Oh the snot has caked against my pants / It has turned into crystal." Enough said.
- The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite - REM - The most baffling song on Automatic for the People. Why write a song about a sidewinder, which is a small rattlesnake? If it's a metaphor, what could this rattlesnake represent, and why would one have to call the singer if one tries to wake her up? And even if there was a logical explanation, the verses are even more baffling.
- (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea - Elvis Costello - I actually thought I had this one. I thought it was about a man who hooked up with women and then killed them, and he's sent to jail. But then the second verse makes absolutely no sense.
- Black Maria - Todd Rundgren - Then again, in the Something / Anything? liner notes, Rundgren himself confesses, "I wish I knew what this song is about."
- Warehouse - Dave Matthews Band - I'm guessing the warehouse represents something about a relationship, like the singer's commitment or his heart. That still doesn't explain most of the rest of the song.
- Mellow Yellow - Donovan - (head explodes trying to contemplate meaning of this song)
- Elevate Me Later - Pavement - My favorite song on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain still leaves me baffled as to the meaning of the lyrics.
- Black Angel's Death Song - Velvet Underground - Beautiful imagery, but what does it all mean? It keeps talking about choosing - what is the choice?
- Rain King - Counting Crows - Riiiight...
- The New Pollution - Beck - Help me out here, I got nothing.
- Video - Ben Folds Five - I'm guessing the "living in the video" in the chorus has something to do with the establishment of a routine. Maybe when their struggling becomes so routine, it won't bother them as much? But the verses don't really follow that path.
- Grey Seal - Elton John - Some of the lyrics seem to be about a guy who isn't too smart, a simple farmer. But the rest of the lyrics confound me. What does the grey seal represent?
- Ball and Biscuit - White Stripes - I decided this one confused me more. I have some idea as to what the "ball and a biscuit" part means, but as to the rest, I'm lost. Especially the "third man" and "seventh son" part.
- The Bewlay Brothers - David Bowie - This song seems to have been made for my list. It has complex lyrics and hints at so much depth. If only I knew what it all meant.
- Faron - Prefab Sprout - According to the AllMusic Guide, Faron Young is a 50's country singer with a few big hits. Which certainly doesn't explain what "You give me Faron Young, four in the morning" means.
- I Am Trying to Break Your Heart - Wilco - Ya know what, I'm not even talking about the bizarre lyrics like "Let's forget about the tongue-tied lightning" or worse, "Take off your Band-Aid 'cause I don't believe in touchdowns." I'm confused as to how the singer feels about this girl. Most of the lyrics seem to be yearning for the girl, but he tells us in the very title that he is trying to break her heart. I would think that he is lying to her through the rest of the song, but it seems like he's talking to himself more than to her ("What was I thinking when I let go of you?"). P.S. The lyric "I assassin down the avenue" reminds me of my 8th-grade English teacher. During grammar lessons, if someone suggested that a word which was not a verb was a verb (let's say, "brown"), he would say, "No, brown's not a verb. Can you brown down the street?" I could imagine Jeff Tweedy suggesting to his English teacher that "assassin" was a verb, to which the teacher responded, "Can you assassin down the avenue?" That's the only way this lyric makes sense, in my mind.
Author Comments:
These are all songs whose meanings I am baffled about. I like some of them and I dislike some of them. What do these songs mean, exactly? If you have any insight, feel free to post it.
I'm still thinking of a Bob Dylan song. I'm trying to stick to one song per artist, and I can't decide which Dylan song baffles me the most.
I am at work and have finally snuck away to a computer for a few seconds. I have stuff to say on many of these, but since I am in a huge hurry, I'll just very quickly say that if the Sidewinder is a metaphor for the coiled phone cord, the song makes more sense...
Great idea for a list. Here's hoping I have the chance to catch up here soon... (And I assure you, I will be absolutely no help on Black Maria)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Hmm... interesting. The coiled phone cord metaphor at least explains the first two verses and the chorus... kinda.
As for "Black Maria", maybe I should exclude songs in cases when the songwriter isn't sure about the meaning. After all, that's mainly why I didn't include TMBG's "It's Not My Birthday" (Then: The Earlier Years's liner notes: "The lyrics for It's Not My Birthday have defied simple interpretation, probably out of irresponsibility or laziness on the part of its young author"). Ooh, if I could only find out the meaning of "It's Not My Birthday", I'd achieve total spiritual enlightenment.
Yeah, here's hoping! Only five posts in the entire month of August... very disappointing. Of course, you're still beating jgandcag. ;-)
I eagerly await your further commentary on this list. And if anyone else out there has any insight as well, I'd love to hear it.
I should probably have known this, but watching a rerun of I Love Lucy, I realized that Black Maria is another name for a paddy wagon. I've ran across this several times since.
Not that that helps much...
I'm not sure I'm any help on I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. There's a tragic sense of a doomed affair that ends while the city continues on and a futile attempt of the singer to make the other party give a damn, maybe, but boy don't quote me on any that. Please.
Maybe it means like Dylan often means. I'm not sure yet. I'm still absorbing this album. I only have it on vinyl, so I don't get the time to listen to it as much as I'd like.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
I might have had a revelation on "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart." I think some of what you said is right-on. If I may:
The singer's girlfriend starts giving the singer the talk, the talk that means she wants to break up with him. They discuss their relationship, but the singer is absolutely unwilling to let go, and will try any means necessary to hold onto their relationship. He talks in enigmas in an attempt to delay, or maybe he's just flustered and babbling, which explains the weird, seemingly nonsensical lines (though I am sure that each one has an individual meaning). These are interspersed with lines of apologetic regret that he did not do more to hold onto his relationship; he even gets to the point where he wonders if he should have never said "Hello." But most of all, he's trying to distract the girlfriend with sorrow, to make her realize that what she is doing will break her own heart. "I am trying to break your heart" is an act of defense and retaliation against the talk. "But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't easy" - thus, it is easy, the girlfriend is heartbroken as well, and they both collapse in a weeping pile.
You may have been driving at all this as well, but I just wanted to flesh out my own thoughts.
I don't mind so much if lyrics make no sense when a song appears to be written as a stream-of-conciousness; sort of a free-flowing thought-poetry. Bob Dylan is a master of this, along with some other songwriters. Still others attempt this style and come across as banal and pretentious. I guess it helps to be riding the right stream.
Good point. When I said certain lyrics don't make much sense, I didn't necessarily intend that as criticism. I love most of these songs, I just wish I understood their meanings. Also, just because I don't understand something doesn't mean it makes no sense. You're going to be sorely disappointed if you're using me as a yardstick for the difference between sense and nonsense, and ironically, that statement doesn't make much sense either. :-)
I'd also like to add that my favorite Barenaked Ladies music video is the one for "Alternative Girlfriend", which is apparently a parody of the video for "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" I don't remember it all that well, but at one point, there are three successive shots of people doing something random and weird. The first one has text on the screen saying, "ARTSY", the second one says, "VERY ARTSY", the third one says, "NO MEANING."
I think the Bewlay Brothers is a veiled rambling on Bowie's relationship with his own troubled brother. Jump, They Said certainly is, reacting to his brother's death from heights. I'm not sure I have much more to offer there.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
White Stripes- Ball and Buscuit has an allusion to the Seventh Son. In the late 40's Willie Dixon wrote a song called Seventh Son, here are the lyrics and this should clarify what he's talkin' bout.
Well now everybody cryin' 'bout the seventh son
But in the whole round world there is only one, and
I'm the one, yes, I'm the one
I'm the one, I'm the one,
I'm the one they call the seventh son
Well I can tell your future before it comes to pass
And I can do things for you that make your heart feel glad
Look at the skies and predict the rain
I can tell when a woman's got another man
I'm the one, yes, I'm the one
I'm the one, I'm the one,
I'm the one they call the seventh son
Now I can hold you close and I can squeeze you tight
And I can make you cry for me both day and night
And I can heal the sick and even raise the dead
And make you little girls talk out of your head
I'm the one, yes, I'm the one
I'm the one, I'm the one,
I'm the one they call the seventh son
Now I can talk these words that sound so sweet
I can make your little heart even skip a beat
I can take you, baby, hold you in my arms
And make the flesh quiver on your lovely bones
I'm the one, yes, I'm the one
I'm the one, I'm the one,
I'm the one they call the seventh son
Well now everybody cryin' 'bout the seventh son
But in the whole round world there is only one, and
I'm the one, yes, I'm the one
I'm the one, I'm the one,
I'm the one they call the seventh son
I'm the one they call the seventh son
I'm the one they call the seventh son
tallyho
:?)
Hmm... interesting. Thanks!
Concerning your question about the Faron Young reference. Faron Young's biggest hit was a song called "Gone". That's what they got at four in the morning. I love obscure lines like that.
Oops! Enjoying Mother's Day a little too much ;^) Disregard the Faron Young thing. It was Ferlin Husky that did "Gone".
Maybe it's Young's "Your Old Used to Be", but with country music it could be just about any song.
AJ, you and all involved are making Ball and Biscuit much too hard. It is really pretty simple and obvious.
Jack White is Jimmy Stewart.
Well, Jimmy Stewart as Macauley Connor in The Philadelphia Story. You see, the film is over, and Macauley is still rearing to nab Tracy Lord. Sure, he is is her third man, after C.K. Dexter Haven and George Kittredge, but he won't let that stop him. He will have Katharine Hepburn, and I for one can't blame him.
Naturally, the final proof is in the scene where he picks up the telephone and says, "Your days are numbered, to the seventh son of the seventh son!" He was rehearsing for Tracy!
Gee, you guys make these things so tough, and they are so obvious...
;)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Jeez, I feel dumb. I should've realized that. Man, I am kicking myself now!