Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Alternative song meaning interpretation - what's yours?

13 replies

DiscordandRhyme · 25/08/2020 14:52

I'm interested in other people's ideas on different/not often shared song lyric meaning interpretations.

I know songs are just entertainment but I do love delving into messages behind them.

I always see In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins actually what the protagonist of want of a better word, imagines a certain person is thinking. They can see he's going to get what he deserves / they wouldn't save him if he was drowning and that they saw what he did.

He's seeing someone looking at him in a certain way and he thinks they know exactly what he did.

Bohemian Rhapsody is about how Freddy Mercury feels about his HaiV diagnosis and how others reacted to it.
My he part about killing a man, ruining there life he's referring the man being himself as he gave himself this illness.

When it comes to the middle section he's battling with self mercy and accepting it will/is taking him over.

At the end he's referring to those he loves abandoning and judging him. Then coming to the conclusion it doesn't matter because he will die from the illness anyway.

Creep by Radiohead in essence is someone with social anxiety, depression and possibly a cluster C personality disorder likely avoidant. They want to fit in but they just can't because they aren't good enough.

I also see the song Bitch as someone with bipolar or BPD as it shares a lot of the duplicate that comes with both.

Sorry that was longer than expected - curious what alternatives to others you have.

OP posts:
The80sweregreat · 25/08/2020 15:39

I didn't realize that Princes ' little red corvette' was about sex and a ons and not about a car , until the other day when my son pointed it out to me!
I agree with you about bohemian rapsody and Creep ( although I love that song it is disturbing and I think of a serial killer in his room surrounded by pictures of his next victims !)
Many songs have different meanings and imagery.

SleepingStandingUp · 25/08/2020 15:44

I think the Bohemian rhapsody one is quite a popular interpretation

Your Song makes me think of my son not my husband. It seems weeks when people have it as their wedding song (yes Katherine Middleton as was, I'm taking about you)

DiscordandRhyme · 25/08/2020 16:26

Yeah I think Bohemian Rhapsody makes sense especially post queen era. That man was a legend in my eyes.

I think Creep embodies everything about obsessing over someone. It reminds me of the very duality of someone stalking you re: calling you beautiful, saying they love you then resenting you for not reciprocating.

OP posts:

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Manolin · 25/08/2020 17:27

I always see In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins actually what the protagonist of want of a better word, imagines a certain person is thinking. They can see he's going to get what he deserves / they wouldn't save him if he was drowning and that they saw what he did.

One of my favourite songs, but this is not my take on it. It is a man coming to terms with who he is, no longer a boy or a man-child. Someone who finally gets what he and his place in this world is all about. It puts his past failures all into perspective. We are all searching for it, mostly we get it when we are ready, and I think this is a spur of the moment song about just that. That brooding sense of realisation fits the mood of the song, the lyrics too.

Namara · 25/08/2020 17:31

I didn't know until the other day that the song Ebenezer Goode is about taking Ecstasy Confused Confused.

I thought it was genuinely about a fictional Victorian man.

And I'm not young or naive !!

Granted I'd never seen the video.

Manolin · 25/08/2020 17:33

I am sceptical about Bohemian Rhapsody. It was released in summer 1975. HIV was not clinically observed until at least five years later. The disease may have been in circulation some while beforehand but in isolated communities and FM would not have been diagnosed with it in 1975 much less the emergence of public condemnation which I think was around 1981 or 1982.

KitMarlowesCodpieceOfthigh · 25/08/2020 17:44

Bigmouth Strikes Again, by The Smiths.

Everything I've seen about it just takes it as an apology from someone who just mouthed off in the head of the moment.

I always hear it as a sarcastic song about someone who behaves like a twat and then plays the victim - so 'I've got no right to take my place in the human race' is the martyred reaction of the dick who 'was only joking' when they said 'by rights you should be bludgeoned in your bed'. 'And now I know how Joan of Arc felt as the flames rose'. Actual martyr.

The80sweregreat · 25/08/2020 18:23

Most lyrics baffle me ; it was mumsnet that interpreted the ' chimney on her ' song for me as I had no idea what that was about until then and if anyone does rapping I'm completely lost.

VioletCharlotte · 25/08/2020 18:45

@The80sweregreat

Most lyrics baffle me ; it was mumsnet that interpreted the ' chimney on her ' song for me as I had no idea what that was about until then and if anyone does rapping I'm completely lost.
What does this mean? I've always wondered about that too!
The80sweregreat · 25/08/2020 19:36

Apparently the 'chimney ' reference is about a black eye! It's not a nice song but it is catchy. I used to hum it all the time it if I heard it on the radio!

FOKKYFC · 25/08/2020 19:59

Given that Bohemian Rhapsody was written in the mid 70s, and AIDS was unknown to all but a handful of people until the early 80s, I think not.

DiscordandRhyme · 26/08/2020 12:19

@Namara I'm going to watch the video never seen it.

I have always got it but that's as it sounds like Es are good - plus I know a fair bit about drugs (interest, not user) so recognise the high description.

Awesome song though!

OP posts:
DiscordandRhyme · 26/08/2020 12:21

@Manolin perhaps then his sexuality itself is what's being referenced to here - accepting and struggling to be accepted for his bisexuality.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.

Swipe left for the next trending thread