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After the popularity of my previous article about songs with surprising meanings, we decided to hit you up with some more. I included some of the ones you suggested in the comment section, but I also wanted to surprise you all as well. Let’s see how I did!
Maxwell – “Pretty Wings”
Maxwell graced us with a hit of melodic proportions with “Pretty Wings.” It not only was a success commercially, but also won a Grammy for best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
Regardless of the acclaim, Maxwell still had people make this song an ode to their loving relationships, when the song was about letting someone go.
Telltale lyrics: “You toyed with my affliction / Had to fill out my prescription / Found the remedy / Had to set you free”
Winston Churchill once said: “Tact is ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.” Well, Maxwell apparently has a lot of tact… in the key of C!
Chic – “Le Freak”
No one likes to be excluded, it’s like putting Baby in the corner, you just don’t do it! So when Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards were turned away from Studio 54 on New Years Eve (even though the iconic Grace Jones invited them), they penned this lyrical middle finger to Studio 54, the doormen, and the whole mother-effen-crew.
The original lyrics were “F*ck Off,” but they later decided to make it more public friendly.
Telltale lyrics: “Now we freak, oh what a joy/ Just come down to the 54 / Find a spot out on the floor.”
Being rejected from an institution that would later go on and blast your song that was originally a lyrical middle finger to them? Now THAT’S revenge!
Wale (ft. Rick Ross and Jadakiss) – “600 Benz”
Wale got a lot of flack for signing with MMG, and was accused of being a trap rapper; however, none of his songs have included the trap lifestyle, and 600 Benz was one of those songs that got the short end of the public’s perception.
According to the rapper, the song isn’t just about a car, but it’s about having ambition, and working hard to get the things that you always aspired to get.
Telltale lyrics: “Hope you heard that intro / This that I’ve been grinding because I’ve been saving that that Benz flow”
The boy’s got ambition, AND he’s gifted! But, more about nothing though…
Lady Gaga – “Poker Face”
Lady Gaga has never been shy about giving people a view into her intimate life, and “Poker Face” was no exception.
In a live performance, Lady Gaga announced to the crowd that the song was about dealing with her feelings of bisexuality.
“You know this song is actually about when I was making love to this guy that I was dating a long time ago,” she said, adding “I was thinking about chicks every time we had sex.”
Telltale lyrics: “I won’t tell you that I love you / Kiss or hug you / Because I’m bluffin’ with my muffin.”
Cold world, man!
Tupac – “Me and My Girlfriend”
Courtesy of your fabulous comments!
Tupac was a man of many talents: rapper, actor, modern day Nostradamus, and before his untimely death he recorded “Me and My Girlfriend.” While people took this song as an ode to a ride and die chick, the girl that he held close to his heart was his gun.
Telltale lyrics: “Watch ’em all fall screamin’ / Automatic gunfire, exorcising all demons.”
’96 Bonnie and Clyde, y’all.
John Lennon – “Imagine”
After the success of The Beatles, the band ventured off to pursue solo projects, and this was Lennon’s most successful single.
“Imagine” encouraged the audience to imagine a world of peace and unity. These are great things, things that have also been encouraged through the teaching of Communism.
John Lennon was a Communist sympathizer, and if you’ve read Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto then you can tell that it’s almost (according to Lennon’s own words): “virtually the Communist Manifesto.”
Lennon had other songs (“Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” and “God”) that also dealt with communism, but once people ran with “Imagine” he chalked it all up to: “Because it’s sugarcoated it’s accepted. Now I understand what you have to do—put your message across with a little honey.”
Telltale lyrics: “Imagine no possessions / I wonder if you can / No need for greed or hunger / A brotherhood of man. / Imagine all the people / Sharing all of the world.”
It really is the lyrical Reader’s Digest of Marx’s manifesto.
Woody Guthrie – “This Land is Your Land”
Doesn’t this song just bring up feelings of clicking your heels in an open prairie?
“This Land is Your Land” seems to be the anthem for all cross country road trips; but in actuality, it was a song about Communism.
Woody Guthrie, who was also a communist sympathizer, wrote a rebuttal to “God Bless America” that he hoped would appeal to Americans like him.
He actually did a bit of editing, removing more telltale lyrics, those you can read on Cracked.
Telltale lyrics: “There was a high wall that tried to stop me, / A sign was painted said “Private Property” / But on the backside, it didn’t say nothin’ / This land was made for you and me.”
A whole lot of red in this article…
Nirvana – “Heart Shaped Box”
From hipsters to posers to gangsters, there’s a good amount of people who still like Kurt Cobain. Nirvana is still pretty relevant today, so when Lana Del Rey did a cover of this popular Nirvana song, she got a shock of a lifetime from Courtney Love.
Courtney Love, who was married to Kurt Cobain before his death, tweeted at Lana: “You know the song is about my Vagina right?”
Telltale lyrics: “Cut my hair on angel’s hair and baby’s breath / Broken hymen on your highness I’m left back / Throw down your umbilical cord so I can climb back in.”
So if you pick this song to sing for karaoke just know that you’re singing an ode to Courtney Love’s nether region.
Noel Regney & Gloria Shayne – “Do You Hear What I Hear?”
I know. I know, you’re thinking: “This Christmas song?!” But songwriters Noel and Gloria wrote this song as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 60s after seeing babies being pushed in strollers on the sidewalk in NYC.
Fearing that America would be attacked, Noel penned the lyrics while Gloria developed the melody that would later be on most Christmas albums, particularly the Bing Crosby cover of it.
But while it brings you great memories of Christmas, Gloria was interviewed saying: “Noel wrote a beautiful song,” Baker told an interviewer years later, “and I wrote the music. We couldn’t sing it, though. . . . Our little song broke us up. You must realize there was a threat of nuclear war at the time.”
Telltale Lyrics: “Do you see what I see? / A star, a star dancing in the night / With a tail as big as a kite.”
A tail, like the ones that nuclear blasts tend to create. Think about that next Christmas.
Bob Marley – “I Shot The Sheriff”
I could pretend to tell you that I always knew that this song, told from the perspective of a murderous fugitive, had a deeper meaning, but I didn’t.
But I will tell you that it’s actually a song Bob Marley wrote in anger when he found out that his girlfriend’s doctor prescribed birth control to her.
Telltale lyrics: “Sheriff John Brown always hated me anyway / For what, I don’t know. / Every time I plant a seed / He said kill it before it grow.”
Is it ironic that the same doctor ended up being a sheriff?
U2 – “One”
U2’s “One” is another song whose meaning is lost due to a nice melody and the word “love” peppered into it.
“One” is about a tumultuous relationship where one person feels as though they are giving more than what they’re getting.
The band is horrified each time a person tells them that it was their marriage song.
Telltale lyrics: “Will it make it easier on you now? / You got someone to blame” and “You act like you never had love / And you want me to go without.”
Chile…
The Police – “Every Breath Your Take”
Dear People, could you PLEASE research songs before you walk down the aisle to them?
While many people made this their marriage song, Sting was actually going through a really painful divorce when he got inspired to write this song. While going through the divorce he felt feelings of obsession and anger and they inspired the song.
One night he woke up with the chorus in his mind and penned the song.
Telltale lyric: “Oh can’t you see / You belong to me”
There was such a disconnect that many people asked him why he looked so angry in the music video. Sting’s response was: “The lyrics are sinister.”
Let’s see you diddy bop to that!
Erykah Badu – “On and On”
It’s very common for people to put references of their beliefs in their art, and this was true for Ms. Badu.
As a member of “The Nation of Gods and Earth,” also known as the Five Percent Nation (Five Percenters), Erykah went on to include some of her religious beliefs in the song.
To my understanding, the Five Percent Nation believe that the Black man is god (individually and collectively, meaning that he is god, and that we were god). The community tries to teach awareness and empowerment and refer to themselves as god, and this went into “On and on.”
Telltale lyrics: “Peace and blessings manifest with every lesson learned / If your knowledge where your wealth comes from then it would be well earned. / If we were made in His image then call us by our names / Most intellectuals do not believe in God but they fear us just the same.”
Semisonic – “Closing Time”
The song that you play at the end of the night to let everyone know that you don’t have to go home, but you gotta get the *bleep* outta here!
But while most people thought that the song was about the horrible moment when the bar closes, the light comes on and you see your equals, it’s actually about child birth.
Dan Wilson, the band’s lead singer, wanted to celebrate his newborn, but didn’t want it to be cheesy. So he wrote this song essentially saying: “Hey baby, time for you to be delivered!”
Telltale lyrics: “Time to go out to the places that you will be from / Closing time / It won’t be back open ’til your brothers and your sisters come.”
Awww!
