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Original poster

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

605 replies

Arlanymor · 28/10/2025 21:38

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?!

OP posts:
Anyusernamewilldo8963 · 29/10/2025 08:03

Cotton Eyed Joe is all about an STI

UncleHerbieIsBack · 29/10/2025 08:03

Kingsleadhat · 29/10/2025 00:52

Afternoon Delight... blatantly obvious ditty about the joys of an afternoon shag but no one seemed to notice at the time

Nope. Everybody knew it was about afternoon sex! 😂

Katemax82 · 29/10/2025 08:04

InjurySolicitor · 28/10/2025 23:59

Pumped up kicks. What a jolly bop! Literally years later a friend pointed out to me it was about a American-style school shooting. 😱😭

Yes! My daughter told me!

Shakeyourwammyfannyfunkysong · 29/10/2025 08:06

Cheese55 · 29/10/2025 07:54

'Nothing really matters to me' ???

Show quote history

Yes! Freddie has hinted at times that it is about his own struggles with his sexuality etc which I can see. However the band have also alluded that their main aim for that whole album and especially bohemian rhapsody was to create a ridiculously ellaborate rock opera. I think a lot of it was them just experimenting and goofing around but man did they do it in style!

Myblueclematis · 29/10/2025 08:07

BarryKentPoet · 29/10/2025 08:01

My kids told me that Cake by the Ocean was about sex on the beach but I'm not convinced!

I'm quite old and left school in 72 so a lot of the previous mentioned lyrics to songs passed me by especially the references to drugs but I did realise once I heard the words that Cake by the Ocean was about sex. I quite liked singing along to that one. 😆

firstofallimadelight · 29/10/2025 08:09

Blow my whistle
candy shop
my dingaling
men do like to sing about their penises

Cheese55 · 29/10/2025 08:10

Shakeyourwammyfannyfunkysong · 29/10/2025 08:06

Yes! Freddie has hinted at times that it is about his own struggles with his sexuality etc which I can see. However the band have also alluded that their main aim for that whole album and especially bohemian rhapsody was to create a ridiculously ellaborate rock opera. I think a lot of it was them just experimenting and goofing around but man did they do it in style!

Show quote history

Yes I think I saw him say that he was starting to love opera more than pop/rock so was experimenting and lots of radio stations wouldn't play it as so long

firstofallimadelight · 29/10/2025 08:12

BarryKentPoet · 29/10/2025 08:01

My kids told me that Cake by the Ocean was about sex on the beach but I'm not convinced!

It is! Apparently it came from a mix up from someone the band was working with (I think they were Scandinavian) and they said cake by the ocean meaning sex on the beach!

Bonjovispyjamas · 29/10/2025 08:12

Wherearemysunglasses · 29/10/2025 07:01

Love this!

I have two to add

Relax by mika - about the 2005 London bombings. I love this song but never noticed the lyrics until fairly recently. Think I am even more fond of it now with the careful lyrics and meaning although bittersweet.

Growing on me by the darkness. This is a hilarious one about an STI.

Edited

I always knew what Relax was about as I'm a huge Mika fan. He was on the London underground at the time of the bombings and got caught up in the chaos. He wrote Relax when he got home.

Also, his song Ice cream is about his love of giving blow jobs 😁

Shakeyourwammyfannyfunkysong · 29/10/2025 08:13

Cheese55 · 29/10/2025 08:10

Yes I think I saw him say that he was starting to love opera more than pop/rock so was experimenting and lots of radio stations wouldn't play it as so long

Show quote history

I think Freddie was an extremely complex and in lots of ways private man though. I love the film Bohemian Rhapsody but it makes me feel very sad for him too

Kittyfur · 29/10/2025 08:15

FilthyforFirth · 29/10/2025 00:30

Golden brown, texture like sun... I had no idea initially it was about heroin. Makes me a bit sad how many songs I liked turned out to be about drugs.

Wow I didn’t know!!😮😮

thanks for educating me! 😃

Cougarintown · 29/10/2025 08:16

SriouslyWhutNow · 29/10/2025 01:36

What it says to me is that posters like you paid zero attention at school during drug education lessons and didn’t bother educating yourself about it all either, letting yourself and your future children down by being unable to keep them safe.

So not the “I’m so amazing and well-brought-up” look that these faux naive posters were going for. I feel the same way about adult women who pretend they don’t understand contraception. Anyone of childbearing age absolutely got told all this stuff at school multiple times and none of it should be surprising to anyone who was paying attention so they only have themselves to blame.

Show quote history

To be fair, as a person who did do an awful lot of drugs, I very much didn't get the song references either. But I'm one for taking things at face value and hated English lessons where we had to infer meaning from text. But I am autistic!

Cheese55 · 29/10/2025 08:17

The Grace Kelly song by Mika is about trying to get a record contract and they all hated him.

AntikytheraMech · 29/10/2025 08:18

Listen to the lyrics of perfect 10 with a smutty mind and it's pretty clear it's about sex

SleepingStandingUp · 29/10/2025 08:18

emilysquest · 29/10/2025 00:43

Oh come on @nomorehothols this isn't really the thread for your holier than thou attitude. You are not better than anyone else because you don't understand drug references in a song.

Edited

It doesn't make someone holier than thou to not know lots about drugs. It's clearly a response to the "how could you NOT know?" comments.

NippyNinjaCrab · 29/10/2025 08:21

We all put our own interpretations to songs and I've definitely been educated this morning 😂

I had to look up FGM not because I wasn't aware of it, but I didn't know what the abbreviation meant. Horrific

Muffsies · 29/10/2025 08:21

I remember when "flip reverse it" by the Blazing Squad was top of the charts, and popular with preteen girls. It was played a lot by the bbc on kids shows. "flip reverse it" is about talking a girl into doing it doggy style, it's an absolutely vile song. Gangnam style has a similar vibe, but not nearly as bad.

ohdannyboy · 29/10/2025 08:23

Jump by Val Halen - one of my fave songs of the past - David Lee Roth wrote it after hearing about a man threatening to jump from a building. The word “jump” took on a dark double meaning.

Alittlefrustrated · 29/10/2025 08:27

WinterFrogs · 29/10/2025 06:19

PS I was school in 70s/80s and there were no drug lessons at my school. Very little in the way of sex education too.

I left in 1985. Our sex education for boys was only in Biology. There was a never done before session put on for girls only, due to the year ahead of us having had 14 pregnancies.
There was no mention, ever, of drugs.
No "relationships" lessons.
No safeguarding led lessons.
I know of 3 student/teacher relationships, in the time myself and my sisters attended.

Ruggerlass · 29/10/2025 08:31

I remember my 7 year son wondering around singing She’s got the Jack, from AC/DCs song The Jack. Oh the innocence of children!

Silene · 29/10/2025 08:31

I hate the song Every breath you take...it gives me the creeps!

Zempy · 29/10/2025 08:33

Hallelujah is about orgasms.

I always feel very uncomfortable watching a child sing it.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 29/10/2025 08:33

Regardless of what Lou Reed ever said about Perfect Day, being used in Trainspotting didn’t do it any favours in the “it’s not about drugs” stakes.

Disturbia81 · 29/10/2025 08:35

Most people just enjoy the tune and singing.

TheQuirkyMaker · 29/10/2025 08:37

NoMoreHotHols · 29/10/2025 00:37

With reference to the song about drugs: how were you supposed to know these were wbout drugs if you’ve never been near them and have no experience? I can only relate to things that I know of, I’m not sure how I was ‘supposed to know’. I’m pretty crap at hearing lyricw correctly as well. :-)

Not drugs but mishearing: I always wondered what "manchiros" were (in Golden Brown). I Googled and I'm not the only one who heard "lay me down with my manchiros", when actually the words are "(when) I lay down in my mind she runs".