Songs that didn't mean what I thought they did.

I saw the video of Start Me Up. Charlie the drummer is laughing for just about the whole song.

 

Ha, I remember that.

 

One good thing about that video is that it featured my favorite Stone band member—Ron Wood—who had joined the band in the mid-70’s and brought an extra element of fun and stage presence to the band. Also, some nights, including the concert I attended, Keith was inebriated on something to the point he wasn’t anywhere near 100% or even 75%. Ron Wood, as the second guitarist, was the iron man who always carried the guitar work when Keith was having an off night. IMHO, Ron Wood was one of the greatest, lesser known rockers in the history of the genre.

 

Like the famous Led Zeppelin Live Aid, I think, Jimmy Page embarrassment on Stairway To Heaven. maybe at 40% that day.

 

HIC:

Not to overanalyze things, but...
overanalyze, overanalyze, overanalyze...

Maybe, what Mick was getting at in Start Me Up was one of those situations that you hear about on the news where the sex was so wild the man died of a heart attack in the act. Then the lyrics would make sense without being sicko.

 

Okay, let's go with that haha!

 

I always thought MM's song was "wrapped up like a douche", it's really "revved up like a duece". I finally realized it when I got better stereo equipment.

 

Jimmy Buffet once suggested to me “Why don’t we get drunk and spew?”
What exactly is a “snuff queen” anyway?

 

Sunglasses at Night.

I guess I missed the DJ giving the title of the song. For a long time I though Corey Hart was singing, "I wear my sunDRESSES at night...."

 

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

 

Well, it was written by the king of the douchecanoes himself, so I'll go with the douche lyric.

 

That would be true these days with so many emasculated "men".

 

I can't resist... I hope she did not leave because you could not live up to the song.

 

First, I had to go way back to see what you referenced. Secondly, did I mention, she was a sooner fan?

 

Worked splicing cable with an aggy one summer in College . Instead of "Big ol jet airliner...." he sang "Big ol jet had a light on..."

 

ZZ TOP - Tush

I used to think he was going downtown just looking for some "touch".

 

ZZ Top - Gimme all Your Lovin

Not sure if he's giving tips to his son or little brother on that first trip to the Mexico border, or what, in this song. It doesn't seem like he's singing/talking to a girl here.

 

Cardi B's WAP: I thought it was about a drowning kitten

 

So aggie...

 

Chop
Me too
I took touch to mean bootie so I kinda got it right.

 

Ok, here's a big one that I had NO IDEA about until very recently.

REM - "Shiny Happy People"

I had always thought this was a silly feel good song, or perhaps an ironic song about overly optimistic folks. Boy, was I wrong.

This is actually a political, anti-lefist song, digging at the Chinese Communist Party ("CCP") about Tiannaman Square. Around the time of the Tiannaman Square massacre in China, the CCP apparently had 1000s upon 1000s of posters plastered all around Beijing with "Shiny Happy People" written in Chinese and a bunch of 'shiny happy people' holding hands, clapping and showing Chairman Mao's little red book. Juxtapose these propaganda 'shiny happy people' Communist posters with civilians getting shot and run over by tanks in and around Tiannaman Square.

Per net sources: The "Shiny Happy People" Communist Propaganda posters below:

 

I think he's singing it acting as Chairman Mao/Deng/Xi talking to the people.

(the mandolin player is having none of this silliness...)

 

Is Michael Stipe in that poster? I knew they were lefty, but dang.

 

The Story Behind The Song: Exploring the tragic roots of R.E.M. hit track ‘Shiny Happy People’

https://aminoapps.com/c/grungeneeds...py-people/o3MR_EavuduQqGa2r7eNPmr6PLaaWG5m2JN

Shiny Happy People by R.E.M. - Songfacts

"The title and chorus are based on a Chinese propaganda poster. The slogan "Shiny happy people holding hands" is used ironically - the song was released in 1991, two years after the Tiananmen Square uprising when the Chinese government clamped down on student demonstrators, killing hundreds of them."
...
"The song was released in 1991, two years after the Tiananmen Square uprising when the Chinese government clamped down on student demonstrators, killing hundreds of people in the process in an event which has left a scar on humanity ever since. With the song using the phrase ‘Shiny Happy People‘, which they took from Chinese propaganda posters, there began an attempt to con the world into believing into a very different image of what was going on under the regime in the early 1990s."

 

"The track was supposed to be poking fun at the idiocy of the Chinese regime who, at the time, were spreading continuous lies and the dark truth behind ‘Shiny Happy People’ was an uncomfortable one for Stipe as the song developed into a pop radio-friendly hit. What it had become was somehow representative of the propaganda that the Chinese government were sharing as people digested the positivity oozing out of the track which hid the uncomfortable reality."

The Story Behind The Song: Exploring the tragic roots of R.E.M. hit track ‘Shiny Happy People’

 

Welp, another band is banned from playing in Red China...

 

That's super interesting, I never knew the story behind the song

 

I also agree with the assessment @Chop made of the mandolin player.

 

Then again, maybe REM wasn't taking a jab at the CCP. Maybe this song is actual Maoist propaganda directed towards the youth of America.




(the shiny happy people)

 

Just a theory.

The Cars
Bye Bye Love

This is an ode to Vincent van Gogh. "It's such a wavy midnight and you slip into insane" is a reference to Starry Night. Starry Night was painted during his stay at an asylum in Saint-Remy. "It's an orangy sky" is a reference to Olive Grove: Orange Sky. "Always it's some other guy" is a reference to Sien Hoomik, a pregnant prostitute and mother of a child born out of wedlock, with whom van Gogh had a romantic relationship. "lullaby" is a reference to the La Berceuse painting series of Augustine Roulin. "Bye bye love" is a reference to van Gogh's suicide. And yes, van Gogh had blue eyes, mass confusion, and was intensely illustrious.