songs you've heard a million times but still don't know what they're about

Psst, Barry: Berlin Wall, Pyramus and Thisbe, crossing over.

x-post

I! I can remember! (I remeeember) watching! kids fuck by a wall! (by the wall)

Yes, that's what it's actually about, but that's not necessarily what it means to me when I hear it.

It's not like Beck's "Loser", or Flaming Lips "She Don't Use Jelly", in which the lyrics contain a lot of nonsense and the song as a whole doesn't make a lot of sense. It's about not being able to pin down a single interpretation.

Maybe I'm overthinking it.

If your limbs begin dissolving
In the water that you tread
All surroundings are evolving
In the stream that clears your head
Find yourself a caravan
Like Noah must have led
And slip inside this house as you pass by.
Slip inside this house as you pass by.

True conception, knowing why
Brings even more than meets the eye
Slip inside this house as you pass by.

In this dark we call creation
We can be and feel and know
From an effort, comfort station
That's surviving on the go
There's infinite survival in
The high baptismal glow.
Slip inside this house as you pass by.

There is no season when you are grown
You are always risen from the seeds you've sown
There is no reason to rise alone
Other stories given have sages of their own.

Live where your heart can be given
And your life starts to unfold
In the forms you envision
In this dream that's ages old
On the river layer is the only sayer
You receive all you can hold
Like you've been told.

Every day's another dawning
Give the morning winds a chance
Always catch your thunder yawning
Lift your mind into the dance
Sweep the shadows from your awning
Shrink the fourfold circumstance
That lies outside this house don't pass it by.

Higher worlds that you uncover
Light the path you want to roam
You compare there and discover
You won't need a shell of foam
Twice born gypsies care and keep
The nowhere of their former home
They slip inside this house as they pass by.
Slip inside this house as you pass by.

You think you can't, you wish you could
I know you can, I wish you would
Slip inside this house as you pass by.

Four and twenty birds of Maya
Baked into an atom you
Polarized into existence
Magnet heart from red to blue
To such extent the realm of dark
Within the picture it seems true
But slip inside this house and then decide.

All your lightning waits inside you
Travel it along your spine
Seven stars receive your visit
Seven seals remain divine
Seven churches filled with spirit,
Treasure from the angels' mine
Slip inside this house as you pass by.
Slip inside this house as you pass by.

The space you make has your own laws
No longer human gods are cause
The center of this house will never die.

There is no season when you are grown
You are always risen from the seeds you've sown
There is no reason to rise alone
Other stories given have sages of their own.

Draw from the well of unchanging
Its union nourishes on
In the right re-arranging
Till the last confusion is gone
Water-brothers trust in the ultimust
Of the always singing song they pass along.

One-eyed men aren't really reigning
They just march in place until
Two-eyed men with mystery training
Finally feel the power fill
Three-eyed men are not complaining.
They can yo-yo where they will
They slip inside this house as they pass by.
Don't pass it by.

I've just tonight gathered that this is about a star being misrepresented in the press? I'm a little ashamed it's taken me TWENTY YEARS to get the message.

(OK possibly I have not heard this a million times)

I know the lyrics backwards, I get most of the references, but I still have no idea what Ferry's going on about.

It's a love song.

Rober E. Lee was a famous American Civil War general, from Virginia, who's surrender ended the war. So, I suppose, Bryan Ferry was pointing out the 'reality' behind the Warhol dream, the success of the urban glitterati depending on the success of the Yankees, etc, etc as well as hinting that to hit the big time you need a master tactician's instinct (as well as a knowledge of American (pop) culture).

It's about a girl who goes to the movies a whole lot.