i still maintain that song is about this...

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alternate readings of songs please

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought "Powderfinger" by Neil Young was about a suicide and even wrote a review implies as such on my site only to find out THAT night in the book Shakey that the character actually is shot by "marauders." I still think the song sounds heavier if you think the 22-what-to-do guy blows himself away to escape persecution, but evidently that's NOT what he meant when he sang "raised my rifle to my eye/ never stopped to wonder why".

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 21:52 (twenty-two years ago)

"Golden Brown" by the Stranglers -- about a lovely girl with tanned skin, or.....in fact.....about heroin (the latter).

Someone tried to convince me that Madonna's "My Baby's Got a Secret" (or is it just called "Secret"?) is also about heroin addiction.

There was a brief suggestion that the Manic Street Preachers' "If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next" was about Columbine, which -- of course -- was a tepid stack of crap.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 21:56 (twenty-two years ago)

"Seconds" by Human League has been read as both a tribute to JFK and a tribute to John Lennon

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

i like to thing Throw your arms around me by Hunters & Collectors is about a lunatic strangling someone (rather than a touching love song).

I will come for you at night time
I will raise you from your sleep
I will kiss you in four places
I'll go running along your street
I will squeeze the life out of you
You will make me laugh and make me cry

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 22:01 (twenty-two years ago)

"Rocket" by the Smashing Pumpkins is about suicide

Actually every song ever written is about suicide.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 9 April 2003 22:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I still say "The Monkey Song" is about the reification of rhetoric.

― Chris P (Chris P), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 22:14 (twenty-two years ago)

For a long time, the only version I heard of "Needle and the Damage Done" was of guitar shoppe folks picking it out on the acoustic w/no singing. SO from the title I assumed the lyrics were about accidentally scratching your record needle across your record and damaging it.
My (mis)interpretations tend to the innocent end of the spectrum...no one seemed to agree that "Squeezebox" was about an accordian on the thread I started a few weeks ago. However, a more sexually inclined reading of this song simply does not work, the main block being "wears on her chest." A woman does not wear "a tight coochie" (one of the give examples) on her chest except in the gruesome world of Photoshop Images I'd Rather Not See.
I wish I could think of some other examples. I continually assume songs are about terifically mundane things when their true meaning is obvious to everyone else.

― Fivvy (Fivvy), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 23:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Fivvy, now that song is gonna get in my head every time I accidently scratch a record. Great anecdote!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 23:54 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah! thinking that way might save a song i usually cringe at.

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 23:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Genesis' "Afterglow" is an interesting one. Sappy love song of search and longing....or despairing post-major catastrophe journal entry?

"Like the dust that settles all around me
I must find a new home
The ways and holes that used to give me shelter
Are all as one to me now
But I, I would search everywhere
Just to hear your call
And walk upon stranger roads than this one
In a world I used to know before
I miss you more

Than the sun reflecting off my pillow
Bringing the warmth of new life
And the sound that echoes all around me
I caught a glimpse of in the night
But now, now I've lost everything
I give to you my soul
The meaning of all that I believed before
Escapes me in this world of none
No thing, no-one

And I would search everywhere
Just to hear your call
And walk upon stranger roads than this one
In a world I used to know before
For now I've lost everything
I give to you my soul
The meaning of all that I believed before
Escapes me in this world of none
I miss you more..."

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 10 April 2003 00:50 (twenty-two years ago)

You mean Mirror in the Bathroom isn't about Coke?

― David Beckhouse (David Beckhouse), Thursday, 10 April 2003 01:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Someone tried to convince me that Madonna's "My Baby's Got a Secret" (or is it just called "Secret"?) is also about heroin addiction.

It's just called "Secret". I'm intrigued by yr interlocutor, because it was pretty much decided on the Madonna newsgroup, despite my massive protest which really should count for something, that it was a song about masturbation. I don't recall heroin ever coming into the picture, and these were like mad dog Madonna fanatics. Vic can vouch for this. They were insane! The Mariah-Madonna War of '98!

There was a brief suggestion that the Manic Street Preachers' "If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next" was about Columbine, which -- of course -- was a tepid stack of crap.

Odd, because the band has always maintained this obviously far more sensible explanation:

IT'S A RESPONSE TO THE IDEALISM OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR IN THE '30S, WHEN VOLUNTEERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD JOINED THE INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE TO FIGHT FRANCO'S FASCIST ARMY. HENCE THE LINE "SO IF I CAN SHOOT RABBITS, THEN I CAN SHOOT FASCISTS". THIS QUOTE IS ATTRIBUTED TO A WELSH FARMER. NICKY ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HE WAS ALSO INSPIRED BY THE CLASH SONG 'SPANISH BOMBS' WHICH HAD A SIMILAR THEME.

Cut and pasted from their FAQ. I maintain that it's in reference to the growing shortage of pies in the Bradfield and Moore households and its direct correlation to the likelihood of either man snacking on schoolkids.

― Ally (mlescaut), Thursday, 10 April 2003 01:49 (twenty-two years ago)

"Dancing on the Ceiling" = obviously about cocaine.

"Sweetest Taboo" = obviously about anal sex

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Thursday, 10 April 2003 02:07 (twenty-two years ago)

The thing is, Dancing on the Ceiling really is about cocaine.

― Ally (mlescaut), Thursday, 10 April 2003 02:14 (twenty-two years ago)

"Rikki Don't Lose That Number" is about a gay man trying to convince an undecided man that's he's really gay.

"I guess you kinda scared yourself / You turned and run"

"You tell yourself you're not my kind / But you don't even know your mind"

The Dan themselves have refuted this, but I think they're lying. Seems like a pretty solid reading of the lyrics to me.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Thursday, 10 April 2003 02:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Regarding "If You Tolerate This..." -- to further corroborate, the title itself comes from a poster that the Spanish Left had made up and distributed in Britain. A copy is hanging in the Tate Modern, where I saw it. Pretty graphic for its time -- it's a black and white photo of a dead baby -- and in lieu of WWII soon thereafter, all too apt.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 10 April 2003 02:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I have a certain fondness for the theories that XTC's "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" are about John Lennon, JFK, or Jesus.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Thursday, 10 April 2003 04:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought it was common knowledge that song was about Jesus.

― paul cox (paul cox), Thursday, 10 April 2003 05:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, the song was only written as a tribute to a rotting pumpkin in Andy Partridge's yard.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Thursday, 10 April 2003 05:38 (twenty-two years ago)

speaking of XTC, 'chalkhills and children' always seem to conjure up images of pedophilia. even just the title itself.

― JP Albin (John Paul Albin), Thursday, 10 April 2003 06:47 (twenty-two years ago)

OK, is "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" about masturbation, or not?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Thursday, 10 April 2003 07:47 (twenty-two years ago)

XTC in general always conjure up images of pedophilia, at least for me. And Shriekback song titles always have an air of bestiality about them. Huh. So what's up with Barry Andrews, anyway?

― justin s., Thursday, 10 April 2003 11:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I will freely admit that the reverse question can be asked: "what's up with justin s., anyway?" That post looks very weird now that I read it.

― justin s., Thursday, 10 April 2003 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

"Golden Brown" by the Stranglers -- about a lovely girl with tanned skin, or.....in fact.....about heroin (the latter)

I thought it was about hashish?

― T. Weiss (Timmy), Thursday, 10 April 2003 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)

speaking of XTC, 'chalkhills and children' always seem to conjure up images of pedophilia. even just the title itself.

Just because Partridge uses the word "children"? It's a song about age and experience, not sex with kids,......you sick little monkey.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

holy h crap !
sweetest tabboo is about *that* ?
well...that'd be robert elms' influence then
- she was her boyf at the time right ?

― piscesboy, Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:20 (twenty-two years ago)

"Not Such an Innocent Girl" by Victoria Beckham is really about all those "up the arse" rumours

― j0e (j0e), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I took a rather ridiculous "Philosophy of Art" course in college ("Am I sitting on this chair, or am I sitting on the chairness of this chair?" etc.), and our frankly ludicrous professor (Dr.Goldblatt, for those of you playing along at home) strenuously tried to suggst -- nay,assert -- that Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" was about a transvestite.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Happiness Is A Warm Gun is about clitoral stimulation, is it not?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 10 April 2003 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

What's the difference?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Thursday, 10 April 2003 14:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Is it the hands are busy working overtime bit that gives this idea?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Thursday, 10 April 2003 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Well what about "Pink Thing" from the same album? Written as both a masturbatory tale and an ode to his child? A weird but effective combination.

― Fivvy (Fivvy), Thursday, 10 April 2003 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought it was common knowledge that song was about Jesus.

I seem to recall Dave Kendall saying it was possibly about JFK back when they were showing it on MTV Post Modern and 120 Minutes.

― boldbury, Thursday, 10 April 2003 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Am I sitting on this chair, or am I sitting on the chairness of this chair?"

Oh. My. God. That is the greatest question ever.

In my class last night, we had a presentation on the usage of torture in medieval/Byzantine art, specifically in relation to saints and how these depictions are used in society of the time. The end of the presentation? A picture of Mr. T giving thumbs up, captioned "Discussion!". It was like ILX and Columbia became one.

― Ally (mlescaut), Thursday, 10 April 2003 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Two canonical rereadings:
Garth Brooks' "Friends In Low Places" is about gay oral sex. And, or course, Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" is on an anal tip. "Down in the hollow" indeed!

― Conor (Conor), Friday, 11 April 2003 03:59 (twenty-two years ago)

and Don't it make your brown eyes blue?

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 11 April 2003 04:16 (twenty-two years ago)

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