Have you ever been riding along in the car listening to the radio and a familiar song comes on? It sticks in your head for a while, sometimes becoming an unwelcome refrain that just won’t go away. Or you are at a concert (if you can remember that far back…) and you realize that people are singing a variety of lyrics to the same song. You’ve been playing it in your head with whatever lyrics you remember and some you create out of long buried memory fragments. Then you hear it again and discover some lyric you didn’t notice before. Eventually you remember to look up the lyrics or what the song is supposed to be about. That’s when you discover there isn’t a “Baboon on the right” (as opposed to a Bad Moon Rising) or that Sweet Dreams aren’t made of cheese, or that Starship hadn’t really Built this City on sausage rolls (as opposed to Rock and Roll).
Sometimes a catchy tune hides disturbing lyrics. The Police tune, Every Breath You Take isn’t a sweet little love song, more about someone who needs a restraining order. Then consider Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones. We all know the upbeat catchy tune and have probably sung all kinds of words to it. Hm hum hum hum Brown Sugar, you dance so good. Just like a bad girl should… Well no.
“Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields, Sold in the market down in New Orleans, Scarred old slaver knows he’s doing alright, Hear him whip the women just around midnight”. Whaaattt? How did I miss that???
One day driving along listening to classic rock (yes, I am old) a song came on that I hadn’t heard in ages. One Toke Over the Line was released in 1970 by Brewer and Shipley and it became an ear worm for a while – “Sitting downtown in a railway station hoping that the train is on time, take me home to sweet Mary. One toke over the line sweet Jesus ….” Then I noticed something about “my momma said, and strike me dead.” Huh, didn’t remember that so I looked up the lyrics. My lyric interpretation wasn’t perfect, but I had the point. Seemed pretty obvious.
But it’s meaning was not obvious to everyone at the time. Watch this performance on the Lawrence Welk Show; watch all the way to the end. That’s the best part. Brewer and Shipley heard about it and finally tracked down a recording and posted it on YouTube. Visualize stagehands and audio guys trying really, really hard not laugh their butts off. You can almost see the camera shaking…
Here are a few sites where you can check out some more misunderstood song lyrics:
https://stacker.com/stories/3387/lyrics-50-famously-misunderstood-songs-explained
Have a great week everybody!
Explorer Barb 