Your Interpretations and/or Questions to Song Lyrics

[rico]

A certain situation in my life (to be disclosed soon) has prompted me to think about various songs and my personal interpretations of them. It has also made me reflect on lyrics to songs in which I've never been able to pinpoint the meaning.

I figure there are others who ponder this shit from time to time.

Do any of you have any unique and/or original thoughts in terms of what any various song may mean? Want to share your interpretation? Let's hear it!

Do you have any of your own questions pertaining to what a song could mean? Some of the most deep-thinking, intelligent people I've ever encountered are posters on this board (that's the absolute truth). I am sure they will be willing to answer any questions you may have...

[frankotank]

Originally Posted by loochy

I never understood "Row Your Boat"

Row, row, row your boat,
Why are we in a row boat? Does this implicate we are poor? Could this be us as we "row" through life?

Gently down the stream.
Is the stream a metaphor for time? A stream speeds up and slows down, much as time seems to do for us.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Is anyone really this happy?

Life is but a dream.
Or is it? What if we actually live in a Matrix-like construct? What if there is a Matrix inside the Matrix?

Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

Dude. This is sofa king uncool! What kind of ****ed up shit is this!?

I....am.....SERIOUSLY!

[frankotank]

man I love music
it's my favorite.
I hope this thread thrives. (alliteration bitches!)

I'd known the lyrics almost by heard for the longest time.....and I'd never really thought about it until I saw an interview with Sting, but the song Every Breath You Take, which is apparently played at many weddings.....well it shouldn't be. Sting's all.....good grief people, it's a total sinister stalker song and certainly inapropriate for a wedding!

you read the lyrics and you go....how did I not notice that?

[frankotank]

betcha don't know what The Rolling Stones song Brown Sugar is about.....

Spoiler!

slave rape....I shit you not.....

[KC-TBB]

nursery songs are the worst...rowing your boat...life is just a dream...rocking in a tree top and the cradle falls...ashes ashes all fall down. CRAP it's a wonder were not crazy...oh wait...

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by frankotank

I believe the spirit he is referring to is the spirit of freedom and the days of worry free living. the kind of hippie-esque notion of a world where it's everybody loving one another and we're all happy. he's saying those days are over.
same sentiment displayed in The End Of The Innocence.
just my opinion.

That's what I figured. He's got the balls to ask an authority figure to not only serve him (ah, the old days) but to serve him an intoxicating beverage.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Dayze

you can smoke marijuana backwards?

I did that once and spent 3 weeks thinking I was Alex P. Keaton...

[frankotank]

Originally Posted by Rausch

I did that once and spent 3 weeks thinking I was Alex P. Keaton...

[KC-TBB]

good song= take the money and run...bad lyrics though, forcing a ryme like:
Texas and Facts is...sad but true.

[rico]

Hopped in my Taurus today and my wife had the stereo cranked up the last time she drove it. She had been listening to "Goodnight Saigon" by Billy Joel. I freaking love that song.

It's a song about U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War.

Out of hundreds of guest speakers I have seen in school settings over the years, the one that sticks out the most was our former JH principal speaking to us about his experiences fighting in Vietnam. He said that with an exception of the movie, "Hamburger Hill," nothing comes even remotely close to capturing what the Vietnam experience was truly like, like Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon" did. He played the song for our class and he started bawling. I'll never forget it.

I know many vets do not like to speak about their experiences, which is understandable, but if there are any Vietnam vets or vets in general on this board, how close is this song in terms of accurately depicting that experience?

Billy Joel "Goodnight Saigon"

We left as inmates from an asylum
And we were sharp, as sharp as knives
And we were so gung ho to lay down our lives

We came in spastic like tameless horses
We left in plastic as numbered corpses
And we learned fast to travel light
Our arms were heavy but our bellies were tight

We had no home front, we had no soft soap
They sent us Playboy, they gave us Bob Hope
We dug in deep and shot on sight
And prayed to Jesus Christ with all of our might

We had no cameras to shoot the landscape
We passed the hash pipe and played our Doors tapes
And it was dark, so dark at night
And we held on to each other
Like brother to brother
We promised our mothers we'd write

And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

Remember Charlie, remember Baker
They left their childhood on every acre
And who was wrong? And who was right?
It didn't matter in the thick of the fights

We held the day in the palm of our hands
They ruled the nights, and the nights
Seemed to last as long as six weeks...

...On Parris Island
We held the coastline, they held the highlands
And they were sharp, as sharp as knives
They heard the hum of our motors
They counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive

And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by Dayze

I've never understood WTF Hotel California was about.

or Stairway to Heaven

Hotel California is simply a song about going from innocence to experience.

[big nasty kcnut]

I thought beyounce was saying i'm a cigarette i'm a stingray

[InChiefsHeaven]

Originally Posted by frankotank

betcha don't know what The Rolling Stones song Brown Sugar is about.....

Spoiler!

slave rape....I shit you not.....

My band covers that song, and when I first learned the actual lyrics...this shocked me as well.

[frankotank]

Originally Posted by InChiefsHell

My band covers that song, and when I first learned the actual lyrics...this shocked me as well.

it certainly brings this commercial into a serious question of taste. the big wigs who sat around a table and decided to use this song to promote their product must have absolutely known what the lyrics are talking about. yet....they said....yeah let's do it!

[frankotank]

Originally Posted by big nasty kcnut

It thought beyounce was saying i'm a cigarette i'm a stingray

my buddy (God rest his soul, lost his life in the line of duty in flood waters two years ago)....he lost a 5 dollar bet with me back when this song first came out...he was absolutely certain that the lines to the song Faithfully were....

I'm forever yours....Maybelline.

hahahaha! that would be a great commercial for the makeup giant.

[frankotank]

Originally Posted by rico

Hopped in my Taurus today and my wife had the stereo cranked up the last time she drove it. She had been listening to "Goodnight Saigon" by Billy Joel. I freaking love that song.

It's a song about U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War.

wow.
my Uncle Dan was there. he's only talked about a few things a few times in all these years. he's a ****ing mess still...to this day. he went a kid and came home a ****ed up man.

thank you, thank you....THANK YOU to all you folks who served and who serve. I'm an Air Force brat myself and I have many relatives who served. THANK YOU ALL.

now...back to the thread....

Born In The USA
no surprise to me....I know this song by heart. I get it. but many, who maybe DON'T know all the words....they miss it. this isn't a song all pro USA. I'm not saying it's anti USA....but it's very critical of the Vietnam involvement and the subsequent treatment of our boys when they came home.
Jesus...can you imagine sneaking around a jungle hunting human beings....and being hunted? many were just boys.
Thank you.



Born down in a dead man town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up

Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a.
I was born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a.

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the U.S.A...

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said son if it was up to me
Went down to see my v.a. man
He said son, don't you understand

I had a brother at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone

He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run aint got nowhere to go

Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., I'm a long gone daddy in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., I'm a cool rocking daddy in the u.s.a.