Song meanings you didn't pick up the first couple listens

x65943 · Jan 16, 2021

Some songs have a meaning you don't pick up on the first listen, or sometimes ever really pick up on

Maybe the most famous is the song "Born in the USA", an antiwar song that somehow became a patriotic song due to its chorus "born in the USA" and even used in Reagan's presidential bid despite lyrics such as

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

Other songs maybe you thought were wholesome like "Come on Eileen" despite lyrics like

"With you in that dress, oh my thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty...
Ah come on lets take off everything"

So anyhow, any of you realize a song you like has a meaning you never picked up on before?

I have listened to the song Sabrina by Einstürzende Neubauten for months now, and just now due to a youtube comment realized the song was about Germany grappling with its nazi past

FAST6191 · Jan 16, 2021

Born in the USA being a dubious choice was pointed out at the time as far as I am aware. Still amusing to see people pick it for the hook and not pay attention to anything else though.

I can decipher most of the deepest rural accents from anywhere in the UK but can't do more than about three words of come on Eileen. Fortunately I and everybody I know harbours an intense dislike of that song
The following is amusing if you were unaware of things though

Anyway
Korpiklaani - Old Tale.

I thought it was the normal old song played with heavy metal instruments, then I cleaned my ears and heard the lyrics properly. Still one of my favourite songs of theirs though.

VashTS · Jan 16, 2021

Prison Sex by Tool.

I had Undertow when it came out but I was maybe 9 years old. I loved and still do love that album as a whole, even if just for the music because my grandmother purchased a censored copy which had no lyric booklet. All these years, I kinda just mumbled the words along until maybe the past 8 years or so, I actually read the lyrics. Needless to say the title fits the theme

Megadriver94 · Jan 27, 2021

I used to think that Judas Priest's "The Ripper" was about a completely fictional character when I was younger.
Smells like teen spirit I don't even know.

Alexander1970 · Jan 28, 2021

Suicide Solution from Ozzy.

Megadriver94 · Jan 31, 2021

I used to think that the song "Rock the Casbah" by the Clash was about partying in general.
In addition, I used to think that "Rag Doll" was literally about some Rag Doll toy.

Jayro · Sep 30, 2021

"All of the boys, and all of the girls, are begging to if you seek Amy."
(Phonetically sounds like: "All of the boys, and all of the girls, are begging to F. U. C. K. me.")

It's very clever word play, and done on purpose, but I had to do a double take the first time I heard it on the radio.

AmandaRose · Sep 30, 2021

I at first had no idea the R.E.M song Orange Crush was about America using Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. I just thought it was a fun pop song about orange juice or something. It was only when I actually looked up the lyrics that I got what the song was all about lol.

And for anyone wondering what Agent Orange was well agent orange was used to devastating effect during the Vietnam war. An appallingly toxic mix of herbicides and defoliants, nearly 20 million gallons of the stuff was sprayed over forested areas by the US military over a nine-year period up to 1971. The idea was to root out guerrillas from rural communities and force people into American-controlled urban cities. Of the three million Vietnamese thought to have been affected by Agent Orange, it’s estimated that 400,000 were killed or maimed and it caused 500,000 children to be born with severe defects. Veterans on both sides of the conflict, meanwhile, have shown increased rates of cancer and nerve disorders. Returning US soldiers were also subject to accelerated instances of their wives having miscarriages or infants born with abnormalities.

Veho · Oct 1, 2021

x65943 said:
So anyhow, any of you realize a song you like has a meaning you never picked up on before?

Hooo boy... all of them, pretty much. Unless it's a song where lyrics are the main point, like parodies (Weird Al) or singing comedians (Bo Burnham) or such, I don't pay proper attention to the lyrics for... years, really. Add the times when I mishear lyrics and I can go decades without getting it.

g00s3y · Oct 1, 2021

My ex's mom loved Nickelback, she never realized most of their songs were about sex & drugs.

Still liked them after, just was "disappointed" lol.

There's a song a lot of people play at weddings, I forget the name, and yet the whole song is about cheating on your significant other I believe.

Deleted member 397813 · Oct 1, 2021

DARKIE STILL CANNOT RAP pt 2 by lil darkie. i dont know how but i thought it was just a hype song until i realized he was genuinely telling a story about lord krishna

M7L7NK7 · Oct 1, 2021

Mmmbop was about communism

Song meanings you didn't pick up the first couple listens

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