Meanings behind songs that people don't seem to know...

[Arlanymor]

Do you remember the Real Fires advert with the dog kissing the cat and the cat kissing a mouse? My mum brought it up the other day as one of their neighbours has just got a dog that looks identical to the one in the advertisement. Awww!

I couldn't quite remember the song that was the soundtrack so I looked it up later... it's Will You Love Me Tomorrow by The Shirelles and I brought it up on YouTube to listen to it. It's about a one night stand isn't it? I had no idea until now... there I was thinking it was a lovely warm anthem for chaste kisses between pets!

By the way, not remotely making a judgement about the topic, I've a had a few 'Shirelles' nights of my own in the past... I just never knew what it was about before. Have you had any similar revelations?!

No they were 14 - 15, 4th Years, as we called them then. Hence our swiftly organised session . We wouldn't of been aware of all the pregnancies, as some didn't result in births , but we were informed as part of the session.
The only other girl doing O Level physics quickly left due to pregnancy, and left me in a class full of bloody hooligans. She was a lovely, bright girl, but troubled home life, and had 3 children by 19. She didn't return to school.
We only had one other girl become a mother in my year. She disappeared, then turned up, very late pregnancy, to sit her exams. I was aware of abortions but only a couple.

This is a bit of a leap!

I can believe that of US Bible Belt types. Personally I love a one hit wonder!

Love the song but definitely has a deliberately melancholy air about it. I hadn't heard it before Trainspotting at all.

I read it was one perfect day when someone is in the midst of depression or life is not generally going well, whether through drugs or otherwise, when they actually were happy and felt good because of the other friend or lover (or because of a drug). I mean
you just keep me hangin' on is quite telling, and you make me forget myself,
I thought I was someone else, someone good. 😭

Elvis was blonde?!

And yes, I am listening to Black Velvet right now.

It’s about faith. It’s a vision of the end of the world and purple signifies a mix of red and blue blood in the sky. Prince was quoted as saying that the song was symbolic of a journey through difficult circumstances - the emotional and spiritual process of being with a loved one during turmoil and relying on faith to guide you through the rain.

And being bought drinks by our teachers in the pub - imagine that now. And didn’t think anything was wrong with it!

Yes. For some reason I thought the actor in the ad was his dad 😁

We had drug education classes in the early 1990s but still took drugs. But were at least better informed about it!

The best class was when we had an alcoholic come to talk to us. I've never forgotten what he said about how it creeps up on you (he was a journalist) and about functioning alcoholism. Before then I'd got the impression that alcoholics were people on park benches drinking from a bottle in a paper bag.

Again it didn't stop me from drinking to excess in my teens and 20s but it did help me realise when I was drinking too much at home with work stress in my early 40s.

There are some photos online of him before the black velvet days and hee was a sandy blond.

Tori Amos has said herself that it is about FGM, particularly in Africa, and those girls being betrayed by the women in their family, those who they most trusted, and this idea was inspired by the novel Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker.

Dark blonde to light brown. I loved that better.

It did inspire the name of a early human ancestor specimen of an Australopithecus - Lucy.

Have you listened to the podcast about Winds of Change, by Patrick Radden Keefe? It’s all about the theory that the song was written by the CIA as part of a conspiracy - it’s really interesting!

My Heart Is Broken by Evanescence is about victims of sex trafficking.

Bring Me To Life was written after Amy met her future husband and he twigged how unhappy she was in an abusive relationship.

(+www.mumsnet.com/i/contact)&ssv=bm91c2VyaWQ=&ssw= www.songfacts.com/facts/tori-amos/cornflake-girl

• This song is based on a book by Alice Walker called Possessing The Secret Of Joy, which details the practice of female genital mutilation in areas of Africa. In an interview with NME Classic Songs, Tori recalled discussing the issue with a friend:
• "We were talking about the fact that the women are betrayed, by a grandmother, a mother, or an older sister - that the women you trust the most are taking you into this butchery. And we had a term for those people, those girls that would turn on you, that wouldn't be there for you, that would maybe expose something you trusted them with, and really let you down - a complete wreckage. So those girls were called Cornflake Girls."

But I agree with them! I had no idea either, for the same reason. Not only have I never taken any drugs at all but I genuinely don’t know anyone who has! Not everyone is au fait with the seedy side of life!

My dad told me that when people first heard him on the radio, they assumed he was black. He was described as a white man who 'sounded black' apparently so it probably also alludes to that.

Vert clever song.

@ShiningforLeeBertie

She explains how the song came about here

He was brought up in the south and loved the black music that was around so that’s where he got his sound. He was shocking to the pearl clutchers because he was white but sang and moved in the ‘black style’ of the time.

I think I have a different attitude to this as I grew up in a non-English speaking country, but at 10 I was happily singing Like a Virgin

Songs were songs, I didn't pay attention to the lyrics.

And even now, I listen to Japanese music and so many of them have super dark lyrics while the song is a lovely pop song. for example - https://open.spotify.com/track/19Dk8XpEQzAdbqdIPkWuRe?si=99ca4e08625140aa

I have the type of mind that focuses only on the music and never the lyrics. SO many of these have totally passed me by 😳😂

I can understand people not getting lyrics like "...on the ship, tied to the mast" from Golden Brown as drug references...but what did you think 'Golden Brown' was?

"The needle tears a hole" from Hurt...what did you think he was singing about, his sewing kit?

None of the ones mentioned here are particularly subtle.

I am very old, and in my early teens I loved the music of Tamla Motown (still do). One day after school I was sitting on our stairs singing 'Hickory Hollow's Tramp' and my mother came out of the kitchen and said, 'do you know what you are singing about'? I said no, I was just singing. She said 'well, don't sing it again'. It was only when I grew up that I realised what the song was about:

"Oh the path was deep and wide from footsteps leading to our cabin,
Above the door there hung a scarlet lamp,
And late at night a hand would knock, and there would stand a stranger,
Yes, I'm the son of Hickory Hollow's tramp'.

It's a fab song and a very compassionate tale of how prostitution was his deserted mother's only choice.

I've never even heard of the song Golden Brown. But: "The needle tears a hole" from Hurt' would make me think of a girl losing her virginity/hymen. The penis being the needle. That would be my automatic first thought.