The story of the lyrics say what?!

[Globules]

I was today years old when I realised Upside Down by Diana Ross is her singing about a man who's cheating on her.

And the bottom line is that because she likes the way he makes her feel, there'll always be a place in her heart for him.

I'd never actually heard that in the song before! Shocked in the shower!

I informed my friend yesterday that Watermelon Sugar is about cunnilingus.

Pina Colada - was always a favourite with the boyfriend and I, until i looked up the lyrics during a long car journey 😳 The song's story is that I'm bored with my partner, so I look for a new one in the personal ads. I meet them, and it turns out it was my partner who placed the ad. Essentially, they're both looking to cheat on each other. Very unexpected story for such a breezy song!

We all know Every Breath you take is actually a stalker song.

Any other stories in songs that are really not what you expected?

I agree with the pp. Don't take it so seriously, it's just a song.

Oh these are hilarious!

In that case whatever you do, don't listen to 'Perfect 10'! In Paul's first verse he sings about a woman who's a perfect 10 who wears a size 12 dress, and that he wouldn't care if she was busting out of a size 16.

Jacqui Abbott continues the numbers theme in her verse. I was just 14 when it came out, but I was slightly confused as to what she meant when she sang about loving her partner equally whether he was "At her gate with a big fat 8", or "At her door with a poor, poor, 4".

It certainly gives the chorus duet of "We love our love, in different sizes" a bit of context!

Slightly different but I remember my mum going mad one day after accidentally playing the original, uncut version of Boom Boom Boom by The Outthere Brothers at a family party. You couldn't go anywhere at the time without a kid shouting Boom Boom Boom and everyone replying WAY-OH! Good, clean fun.

But most people had only heard the radio edit they'd used for all the radio/TV promo when it got big. The full version makes it explicitly clear that the Boom Boom Boom is one of them taking a woman from behind, and the WAY-OH is said woman reaching the point of no return 😅

Today years old... Thank you!

I love that song and have sung every lyric for years.

Now that I've actually processed... You're so right!

Just because you know stuff, it doesn't mean everyone does. What a bizarre outlook to think everyone knows something just because you do.

My family are into beats, tempos and the enjoyment of songs more than discussing the meaning of lyrics. We dance and sing rather than analyse.

This one - mind blown.

Thank you.

I remember being miffed to find out that the lyrics to Phil Collins 'In the Air Tonight' were not about him confronting a fan in the crowd at one of his gigs that he'd previously witness fail to help a drowning man.

That used to be repeated as gospel.

I love that song but can't make out a word the lad is singing apart from the chorus.

I thiught that track was about his ex wife and the man she’d been unfaithful with (possibly a tennis coach?).

@Thatannoyingadvertsongstuckinmyhead , Britney didn't write the song. The writer was Cathy Dennis.

"When you're in love with a beautiful woman, it's hard". He very clearly meant 'hard' as in it's a lot to emotionally process and mentally reconcile your feelings........

Dr Hook had another less well-known and less radio-friendly song called Freakin' At The Freakers' Ball, which is... interesting...

" I can hear through these walls" by Phil Collins. Very dark and creepy.

Now THAT’s a bizarre outlook! That people who are into music don’t dance and sing and just sit around analysing the lyrics?

I was making an observation that some of the songs on here are very well known and it’s common lore what they are about - but as I said, maybe you are young and haven’t garnered this knowledge yet.

“were into beats and tempo”! 🤣🤣🤣

Why so touchy? Chill out and enjoy the beats and tempo maaaaan!

No it isn't: it's literally right there in the lyrics, where he talks about pitying fools, refusing to travel by aeroplane and urging the object of his song to quit they jibba-jabba.

The Bob the Builder song is very clearly about drugs, although many people make the common mistake of assuming that "Can we fix it?" is referring to remedying shoddy construction projects, rather than Bob simply asking his dealer if he currently has a supply available for retail.

I still have memories of my mum playing Tony Orlando and Dawn when I was a child in the 70s. 😁 Also Neil Sedaka... 🎶"Oh Carol, I am but a fool..."🎶 She loved Joan Baez too. We had a Pye music centre that could play 78s as well as LPs and singles. When my parents were out, DB and I would make much mirth abusing the stylus by playing LPs at either 45 rpm - so the singer sounded like a cartoon character - or even better, 78rpm, which just turned everything into a very fast, very high pitched "weeweeweewee...." 😂 It was the 70s, you had to make your own entertainment... Small things amuse small minds... 🤷‍♀️ 😂

Mind, R2 played Alison Moyet's "Love Resurrection" this morning. How do they get away with such filth? Scandalous!

I was going to mention You're Gorgeous. I've even heard adults singing it to tiny children and it makes me recoil sharply. I wonder if there are people who grow up with fond memories of being sung to and told as a toddler that they're gorgeous and later looking up all of the lyrics as an adult?!

The same happens with Sit Down by James. It's about protesting and explores some dark and very serious themes, but some nursery workers simply sing it to mean 'it's time to sit down for story time, now, children'. I do sometimes find myself changing the lyrics slightly, though, to "If I hadn't been called Richard, I could live with being Paul"

I get that some lyrics can be ambiguous or sometimes not easy to make out, but I'm surprised at adults who never listen to any lyrics - especially in songs that they share with little ones. There are a lot of songs out there that sound jolly and upbeat, and are thus popular with children; but if you spoke them to a child rather than singing/listening to them being sung to a jaunty tune, people would seriously question your motives.

He's said that he doesn't really know what it's about, just that he was going though the divorce that took him out of Genesis when he wrote the music and all his anger and sadness came out in it. He claims that the vast majority of the lyrics were improvised on the spot. Pretty cool.

Well yes, the main lyric of the chorus is London in the summer time.

Terrific song by terrific singer. A bit naughty though 😉 Love resurrection is my favourite Alison Moyet track 🥰

It seems to pass a lot of people by that House Of Fun by Madness was about a 16yo who was about to lose his virginity.

People hear Rod Stewart's Tonight's The Night and often assume that it's about a young couple who are both of a similar age and both equally consenting to a night of mutual passion, but it's actually about an older predatory man trying to coerce a much younger woman/girl who seems to be resisting his 'charms' by emotionally blackmailing her. It's a romantic-sounding song, but it's actually horrible.

@UnctuousUnicorns very recently I found out something that I had never had any inkling of: that Neil Sedaka wrote Is this the way to Amarillo.
I had no idea !! 😆

@Politicians247UnderwearExtinguishingService

"It seems to pass a lot of people by that House Of Fun by Madness was about a 16yo who was about to lose his virginity"

Yes, I think I was too young (11) at the time to get it, but it was so obvious later as I grew older and wiser. 😅

I can't speak here for Phil, but I think some artists are deliberately vague about the true meanings of the lyrics of their very commercially successful songs. Maybe they figure that it can gladly mean any of a hundred different things that speak deeply to different listeners, as long as they're generating revenue by listening to it!

Either that or they just don't want to admit that they just came up with some random nonsense that seemed to come together and 'click' to make a very popular song!

Mind you, I often think about the children's book The Tiger Who Came To Tea. There have been so many people over the years trying to analyse what Judith Kerr was truly angling at and what esoteric symbolism she was employing to explore tropes of Naziism amongst other things. A few years ago, she finally spilt the beans about what the true meaning was: it turns out that it was actually just a children's story about a tiger who comes to tea!!