Top 30 Song Meanings That Everyone Gets WRONG
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- čas přidán 12. 06. 2024
- If you failed to understand the true meaning behind these iconic songs, don't feel bad. You're not alone. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for those songs that many listeners think mean one thing, but in actuality mean something quite different. Our countdown of song meanings everyone gets wrong includes “The One I Love”, “Hotel California”, "Closing Time", “Wake Me Up When September Ends”, "Like a Virgin", and more! What song do you think has been misinterpreted? Let us know in the comments!
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What song do you think has been misinterpreted? Let us know in the comments!
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Events in Ironic are not tragic but bad luck.
Explaining “Born in the USA” broke my heart…
My little brother was KIA in South Viet Nam…and our family was contacted by an unknown female…asking if we were happy to have killed my brother?
The reality is that NONE of us will ever heal…and we have never “been the same…”💔
Man after this depressing shit I got to clean my ears with some real music
Songs I did not know the mean as a kid
1.Strange love with Candy
2.Cameo with Candy
3. SWV with Rain
Metallica's Master of Puppets. Most people don't realize it is about drug addiction. Once you know, You can't unknow, if you know what I mean. :)
There is no lyric "every bone you break" in "Every Breath You Take." It's "every bond you break" and "every vow you break."
A list of songs with misinterpreted lyrics featured a song with a misinterpreted lyric. Isn't it ironic?
@@jordancrane2590 My, my. Aren't we clever.
@@jordancrane2590 Doncha think?
@@jordancrane2590 you’re confusing misinterpreted lyrics and misheard lyrics. They’re completely different. Still ironic but you’d have at least been patronising correctly. 🤷♀️
@@kirstybrown1185 I appreciate your comment.
I always interpreted Hotel California as pretty straightforward.
He falls asleep at the wheel and wakes up in Hell. "Relax said the nightman, we are programed to receive, you can check out any time that you like, but you can NEVER leave."
@the Bubbaclaw Totally agree 👍; the dude was in Hell !
Well this is now my interpretation of it forever and always
Someone please like this comment so I can revisit this interpretation later.
Someone said it's about vampires, how they stab the beast and never leaving.
I think people get the following wrong:
Otis Redding - Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay. It's not about passing time relaxing, the singer is broke, unemployed and homeless so has nothing to do.
I Will Always Love You. Whitney Houston's cover sounds like a profession of romantic love, when Dolly Parton wrote the song as a dedicated thank you to her mentor Porter Waggoner when she was moving on to bigger things.
Woody Guthrie - This Land is Your Land. Not a patriotic anthem, but calls for the abolition of private property in the United States.
Psy - Gangnam Style. This is obvious to Korean speakers, but it's a takedown of spoilt rich kids from the rich area of Seoul.
Ed Sheeran - The A Team. Sounds like a love song, but it's about a drug addict who eventually overdoses and dies.
"99 Lufballons" by Nena. It's about a series of miscommunications, fueled by Cold War emnity, that results in mutually assured destruction.
They always take the most important stanza out of "This Land is Your Land"
Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen, sang wrongly even by religious choirs. The thing is, added to the name, the MUSIC is highly spiritual and cathartic.
I always took Puff the Magic Dragon as a story about growing up and losing interest in childish things.
Your interpretation was right!
This. It was always a very sad song to me.
@@gregr28 Ditto! The very last part of it gets to me, especially the lyric "Without his lifelong friend / Puff could not be brave."
Funniest meme I’ve ever seen was “He’s just rode through a whole desert. You think he would’ve named the horse by then.” 😂
My answer to that is: it wasn't his horse to name. At the end he lets it go. If he named it he'd have to keep it.
😂😂😂
If he thought he wasn't going to make it through then having a name would be pointless
R.E.M.s "The One I Love" always made me sing "This one goes out to my one eyed love.." I liked to imagine the singer is singing the song to his cyclops girlfriend..
😂😂😂
How about "You Oughta Know"...cross-eyed bear? 😅
😂😂😂
@@queenboudicca31😂😂😂😂😂
🤣🤣🤣
I think pumped up kicks should be on here too. Seems obvious but people have no idea 🤦🏾♂️
Yep.
Seriously? How could anyone misinterpret it? The lyrics don't leave any room for misinterpretation.
@@borntogazeintonightskiesit just sounds like a happy song and people don’t pay attention to lyrics
@@stevo0009 THIS! THIS is why the song was banned anytime I was on my lunch break during my school days. Most of the teachers eventually figured out what the lyrics were, others were oblivious. Once it got out what the song was actually about, the school banned the song entirely within my school.
Also Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" and Boomtown Rats' "I Don't Like Mondays", same subject, more or less clear about it depending on how close you listen to the lyrics.
I was young when Puff the Magic Dragon was released. So I knew well it was about a magical dragon that existed in childhood and disappeared with adulthood. The song used to make me cry haha. The tale is a bit like My Dog Skip, but imaginary - the loss of magic and innocence as we move from wide-eyed wonder to the loony teens until we reach the neurotic world of adulthood.
It still makes me cry…
“Used to?” You’re lucky!
at least one!
one half
have you?
i haven't i never will.
mit was hat man dich bestochen?
@@riikkaalanen3429 it makes me happy
Gosh, so glad to see the Willie Morris classic, "My Dog Skip," mentioned here.
Basically this list is teaching us we need to read the whole lyrics of a song and not just listen to the catchy chorus. Also we need to stop overthinking things by thinking everything is an innuendo.
😊😊
WatchMojo should have done this with Ironic. I guess they were part of the "everyone" who got it wrong. And, yes, they are right about the stuff in the song being tragic and not ironic. But that's because the "ironic" part is not in the chorus. It's not revealed until the last line of the song. The rest is just building up to it.
Except for the one that really was innuendo that most everyone (I know I did) missed.
I think the way we interpret songs has a lot to do with what’s in our hearts. If you have filth in your heart, that’s probably the way you’re going to interpret the song.
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a romantic song with the characters exchanging in playful banter in flirtatious nature, reflecting the longing for each other and warmth during cold weather. It portrays a consensual back-and-forth dialogue typical of courtship in the time it was written (1944). It’s not some date-rape song.
I do like Key & Peele's parody of that song though. 😂
ONE OF THE LINES IS "THE ANSWER IS NO" AND THE GUY PERSISTS.
@@NinjaDav3 This was written back when the context of something being said was relevant.
Not the point. The people who are critiquing the song aren't talking about how it might have been perceived back in 1944 when all of society was considerably rapier than it is now. We're saying that it's a relic of the past that is inappropriate today because it perpetuates exactly the stereotype that you're espousing: that a woman's refusal of sexual advances should be taken as "playing hard to get" or playful banter, when in fact it should be taken as an unequivocal denial of consent and should be reacted to with immediate cessation of said advances.
@@NinjaDav3 Well, that’s definitely cancel culture.
In the same vein as "Born in the USA" there's John Cougar Mellencamp's "Pink Houses" which keeps being used by politicians at rallies - when it's a song about how the American Dream is complete B.S.
"Mr. Working Class" (not!) and "Mr. Small Town" (not!) certainly are quite familiar with their own BS tales.
Good one. Reagan also tried to co-opt Born in the USA and Springsteen went on record as objecting, but it keeps being used as a patriotic anthem.
@@EvelynBaron In the late 90s, excited about the interactive possibilities of the internet, David Bowie cited the artist Marcel Duchamp and said "a piece of art is not finished until the audience adds its own meaning."
In 1984, massive audiences showed up for the Born in the USA tour, and then went to the polls and re-elected Reagan.
I can’t believe that not everyone knows that “Every Breath You Take” is about a stalker
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you
It’s right there
And what is scary, i have a neighbor who plays that song when she's thinking about her daughter who passed away 4 or 5 years ago. That song has always bothered me and now I know why.
This one and Radiohead Creep are completely obvious, and the amount of people that play those songs in wedgings is baffling :D
I know, it’s not as though the lyrics are in any way vague. I hate to think what passes as healthy relationships for them??
thought it was about big brother.
It seems to be one of the more obvious ones on the list. But just read the comments.
i thought most people knew the meaning of Wake Me Up When September Ends. Billie Joe Armstrong has said multiple times that it’s about losing his father to cancer. he’s said in interviews that, after his father died, he told his mother to “wake me up when september ends”
Yeah, but I remember the fact that it was released so soon after 9-11 was stronger than anything Billy could've said. People just want to associate the two. That whole album is otherwise a scathing commentary on politics at the time, so easy connection
@@CMStrawbridge eh, good point
I wonder how many people know the meaning of Billy Holiday's Strange Fruit.
Yes, I do.
I do! 😔
I grew up in the fifties and sixties I knew about lynchings
@dawnietothemax. WE'VE known & understood what "Strange Fruit" was about for decades. If one paid attention to the lyrics , & heard the key words throughout, it would be hard to NOT know it was a song lamenting the southern lynchings of black men throughout history. " 🎶 🎶 Southern breeze, Very Strange Fruit , Blood on...leaves , blood....at....root, black bodies swinging.. in the Summer breeze, Strange Fruit hanging from the Poplar trees " 🎶 🎵 " . Mostly Blues/Jazz aficionados understood it. Your "average " music listener didn't & doesnt get it bc the lyrics were not popularized OR overlooked bc the subject matter & lyrics are so raw. Billie Holiday , " Lady Day " , gave it soul & meaning. I'm not sure if Nina Simone had a rendition of it as well but I wouldn't be surprised if she did .
@@colettahussey9571 So did I . Powerful lyrics . Your non- Blues, average music listener doesn't have a clue . And we're white folk .
I saw a David Bowie interview from 1999 where he's excited about the interactive possibilities of the new cyberworld unfolding, and he cites the artist Marcel Duchamp: "The piece of art is not finished until the audience comes and adds their own interpretation."
You should have added the outcast "Hey Ya!" Witch is a song that talks about a marriage where the partners don't really love each other.... and the song even points out saying "Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance" speaking how the song has a upbeat vibe to the song
The Police "Every Breath You Take"
"Every BONE you break"...?
Are you sure it's not -
" Every BOND you break"...?!
right? bond & vow are the 2 words in those break lines ....not sure where they got BONE from, though my autistic ass still hears CCR's Bad Moon Rising's lyrics as "there's a bathroom on the right" so who knows lol
Back in the late '80's, the gossip was that "EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE" was about a stalker. NOT SO. At the time of the song's creation, Sting was in a dark place; he had just divorced his first wife and the band had infighting and it was a struggle to complete their album and this song in the turmoil. We songwriters often write from inspiration of events at that time, like a snapshot. This song is about Sting's view of post-divorce and how it may relate to the band's break-up; "I'll be watching you" comes from hurt and jealousy., esp. "every bond you break," etc. Not "every BONE you beak," yes.
She was thinking of the horror movie version.....(that apparently plays in her mind)
The saddest song I've ever heard, 'Cats In The Cradle' by Harry Chapin is clearly about the "The Sins of the Father Visited Upon the Son.
"and it occurred to me, he'd grown up just like me"
Chapin wrote that song about his step-son(whom he raised) and his sons relationship w/his p.o.s. biological father.
I love that song. So beautiful and so very sad.
NO. The song is about a Dad that was just to busy for his son, and when he's older and wants to spend time with his son, now it was his turn to feel "abandoned", because his son grew up to be just like him. Way to busy for his own family!
@@charliem.7492 thanks for telling us we're wrong only to 'correct' us by repeating exactly what we said but with less detail ?
My mother was a single MomCat and worked very hard to make sure I had every opportunity I wanted to take advantage of. She HATED this song because it reminded her of all the things in my life she wasn't able to witness.
"You can get away with anything if you give it a good melody"
-Sting, probably
Or Paul McCartney. Brilliant on melody, lyrics sometimes not so much. Yesterday e.g. started out as a song about scrambled eggs (seriously).
I dedicated " wake me up when September ends" to my sister passed away in 09/08/ 2006 ... 😢
It don't matter. Your sentiment also matters much. Don't focus on the original meaning too much. Things change meaning all the time in human history.
@@yentasnivla I don't think it matters what the writers or singers say what the song is about or represents, it's how you feel when you hear it in your heart. My ex-husband would start crying for his brother who was hit by a train when he heard a certain song. I can't remember the name of the song right now but when I hear it I think of my ex-husband and his brother.
@@conleykat yeah. some of them probably made the meaning up at the interview considering the state they were in when they sang the song in the first place.
"Suicide Solution" by Ozzy Osbourne has been completely misinterpreted. I remember in the 80s when the Karens of the time said it promoted suicide, but it is actually a song about addiction being a form of killing yourself, and the powerlessness addicts feel.
Another Ozzy song that gets misunderstood, Thank God for the bomb, Off the Ultimate sin album, people think that "who would thank God for nuclear weapons that's insane?", well, what if America's enemies had the bomb and we didn't, yeah, thank God for the bomb. Alice Cooper "Only women bleed" too, there's quite a few women think it's about him makin fun of "their time of the month" it's not, Alice was singing about how jacked up domestic violence is, and he's actually on the women's side.
“Puff's just the name of the boy's magical dragon.”
"Greg, how come you don't like cats?"
And moving away from childhood and it's " magic."
what do you mean by "just"
While the lyrics aren't as heavy, the song Baby Baby by Amy Grant is not about a lover but about her feelings when she gave birth to her daughter. She has said in interviews that she wrote that song about giving birth and the joy she feels is a new mother.
As a songwriter i can attest; if someone misinterprets your song as something deeper or more poignant than what you intended you just go "oh ya, tottally what i meant"
Yeah sometimes I can write a song and years later when I really keep listening I can hear a much deeper meaning and totally different message from the way I intended it to be or remember......I’m like “did I write this”??? 😂
@@Megatron_James_Brady8121 I still play a song I wrote 20 years ago that sounds like I'm deep, and pondering life and stuff. It started as a joke I wrote in 30 seconds after a squirrel ran in front of my car while I was high.
Oh hell yeah, it's the same for visual artists, too! That and coming up with a ✨deep✨ meaning for a specific element when asked about it, even if the real reason for doing it was simply "I thought it would look cool". Knowing how to bullshit about your own work is an art in and of itself. lol
@@williamdixon-gk2sk Oh god that legitimately made me laugh. Thanks for that!
@kriscynical "knowing how to bullshit your own work.." is a great qoute, it's truly the hallmark of an artist.
When I was a kid, I thought "Hotel California" was about Purgatory.
So did I
It sort of is.......
Remember when I went on holiday to Spain and when I got out the car i noticed there was an actual hotel California of course hotel California by the eagles came into my head instantly always thought that was so cool
@therunawaykid6523 Similar situation, diff country lol . 1981 : 18 yrs old. I Just left a "Borough" of NYC , was pkd up at Paris Airport , going to friends' apt to freshen up for a night out on the town. 6 hrs later, we were en route to a popular, tri-level, upscale disco called "Le Colony Club" . While driving down ? Rue St. Ann? I noticed elevated flashing lights on a low bldg, left side of street. I thought the lites were spelling out Le Colony Club. We got close to the bldg , & to my pleasant shock & surprise , the flashing lites spelled out , "The Bronx". There was a plaque on the bldg's wall near the entry which read , "The Bronx - AmericAIN Bar & Cafe " . It was one level, low key, a mahogany bar, cafe-type tales Aaand, my favorite part was......a pin ball machine ! THAT'S NOT the same as being in Manhattan & seeing a bar , boutique etc called " Gay Paris " or "Parisienne Cafe" ! I flew 7 hrs from The Bronx, NYC, to Paris, only to be "back" in The Bronx , 😆 🤣😂 . True story. Both venues were really great to experience - just different ! .
are you still there?
Always thought Sting wrote 'Every Breath you take' about his first wife after they divorced. He even described the meaning of the song as sadness and jealousy resulting from a messy break-up, not a stalker.
His ex-wife did stalk him, though. He combined that experience with 1984's Big Brother.
Exactly! A stalker rarely speaks to his intended victim!
@@KittyKatt_Luna80s Actually she did not (I checked). It was according to Sting about a dark emotional period following the disintegration of his 1st marriage and in the context of the toxic atmosphere in the Police at that time, and that the song was indeed told from the point of view of the toxic possessiveness and jealousy of the singer's 1st person character.
Where is the mention to "Pumped Up Kicks"?
Supposedly Sting wrote that song as a way to deal with the pain of his own divorce.
YES! Back in the late '80's, the gossip was that "EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE" was about a stalker. NOT SO. At the time of the song's creation, Sting was in a dark place; he had just divorced his first wife and the band had infighting and it was a struggle to complete their album and this song in the turmoil. We songwriters often write from inspiration of events at that time, like a snapshot. This song is about Sting's view of post-divorce and how it may relate to the band's break-up; "I'll be watching you" comes from hurt and jealousy., esp. "every bond you break," etc.
@@RancidRembrandt yeah I saw him say that in a VH1 interview years ago
@@Geek37664 Then he wrote if you love somebody set them free as an antidote.
How does anyone mistake Every Breath You Take as a love song?
I don’t know why.🤣
How does anyone confuse "You're Beautiful" as anything but a song about stalking?
@@Volumixen I just looked at the lyrics…totally agreed.
@@connorconant1957 I can understand if you aren't actually listening of the lyrics, or not really understanding what exactly is being said, I can see it. Though, James Blunt has gone on record to say that the song is, "a man, high out of his mind, stalking an ex through the subway". There is an explicit version, but it only changes one word. Instead of "flying high", it's f**king high.
I always thought it was about probation… I mean it is literally The Police saying “I’ll be watching you”
I’m big into knowing things that will never come up
I know...right?😅
How does anyone not know what "Born in the USA" means when it is in every list about lyrics people get wrong?
They only hear the chorus. The verses are quite sad.
It also seems "More Than Words" seems to be pointing to the phrase "actions speak louder than words.
Imo that is one of the most beautiful songs ever written
@@therunawaykid6523 It was the undoing of the band though. It was not what Extreme was about just like Take My Breath Away undid Berlin, which should have been a Terri Nunn single, not a Berlin song. It was not what Berlin was about. The rest of Count Three and Pray was quite good and nothing like that song. They had some high-profile guitarists from Ted Nugent to David Gilmour. The latter played on Pink and Velvet, a sad tale about two heroin addicts. Eliot Easton from The Cars also played on the album.
I thought everyone knew that puff the magic dragon wasn't about drugs
It really doesn’t astound me at all that people can misinterpret the lyrics to Pearl Jam songs…I mean, with Eddie Vedder singing it, how can anyone understand the words 🤣
You have to be a mega fan. Lol, I never had a life, so I'd sit and listen to Pearl Jam and interpret each line until I got it right. Evenflow was the hardest.
@@roxannemoser Evenflow! Cutter up of butterflies 🎶🎶
Whoever says Adam Sandler isn’t funny, should look at him doing Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen
As a Vietnam veteran the first time I heard "Born in the USA" i knew it was about the Vietnam war and how the country treated veterans of that war:
I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off all the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
For those unfamiliar with the war, two US Marine regiments, supported by the US and South Vietnamese armies soldiers, stood off over two divisions of the North Vietnamese Army for almost six months until relieved the the US 1st Cavalry Division. Shortly after the battle was over, the US left Khe Sanh, which the North Vietnamese took over. It was a tactical victory for the US but in the end meaningless. Springsteen sums up the battle in three lines.
🫂
3262peterhobson Thank you for that explanation . I didn't know that Born in the USA" was about how our govt treated the Viet Nam returnees so poorly.
@@salgaltrixie8265AND the “peace & love” generation. 🤦♀️
Kind of like what we have now, the tolerant and inclusion generation that is tolerant of anything but someone who disagrees with them!
Fun Fact: The lead singer of Filter, Richard Patrick has a famous older brother. Robert Patrick, who is most known as the T-1000 in Terminator 2 and in Wayne's World where the character made a cameo.
yup, I remember his brother's role in Terminator 2 very well.
Didn't he play on the first NiN album also?
@@p.d.l7023 Yes, yes he did! 😁 He was in NiN from 1989 to 1993, he left though because of Trent telling him to "get up off his ___ and go write a record." in response to Richard asking for more money as he was not only in the band but was working a second job to support himself.
Hallelujah makes me smile every time it's performed as a Christmas/religious piece, especially if they leave in the line that literally contains a minor bondage scene :P
It makes me laugh (in a sorrowful way) when people revere that song. "Hallelujah" in those lyric might as well be replaced with "OMG! OMG! OMG!! OMG!!! O! M! G!" Sorry.
I remember an interview where Don Henley said Hotel California was about addiction. He specifically pointed out the line you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave.
This is one of those _hey, let me update my Spotify playlist_ video lists.
There are so many misinterpreted songs out there, it's hard to list them all. Good job.
the thing is once a artist lets thier art go they have no controol of how people interpret it.
Many years ago I was listening to a talkshow talking about stalking. At the end of it they played “I’ll be watching you”. it was only then I realised how creepy that song is despise its nice tune.
Yes. I can't stand it. It's way too creepy. Try telling that to my silly mom. The goose thinks it's a cute love song.
I caught onto the meaning of Cohen's "Hallelujah" when I was searching for a "theme song" for my novel series. It's perfect, the lost love aspect. And the performance by k.d. Lang at the 2005 Juno Awards is top notch. I write vampire and angel novels and the angels are there trying to find a rogue vampire at the concert (unseen, of course). My male protagonist is one of them. When she starts to sing, he just is entranced. Later, the song becomes about his lost love (he's now a vampire) and it literally has gone through five books and is in the manuscript for book 6. The pain of loss, the fear of never loving again, it's all in there. I love that song.
And I'm glad to hear we were right on the song "Imagine". There's just too much imagery from the old Soviet Union in it.
Cohen's "Hallelujah" is actually about breaking through a bad case of writer's block. The makers of this video got it very wrong.
#12 - Cohen's "Hallelujah" is one of the most covered songs I can think of. Powerful lyrics. Everyone wants a go at it.
The best rendition, IMO, is K.D. Lang's version, especially the performance at the 2005 Juno Awards. That woman can sing that thing like nobody else. Even Cohen said it was her song.
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
If this was your wedding song or anything like that you really just don't get it. L. Cohen has a very dark perverse side that is dramatically expressed in that song. nuf said.
Then the Republican party decided to use Hallelujah as a campaign song....Without really listening to it! Tone deaf!
I like songs
Songs good
Same
Good songs good times
Me too
I like kongs
Try to reply with a rhyme people
I never misinterpreted the meaning of More Than Words. I never thought it meant sex. I thought it implied things like holding hands, hugging someone, showing the outside world what the person meant to you. Lines like “Hold me close. Don’t ever let me go.”
I soooo agree ... I can't understand how anyone could even think the song "more than words " is about sex. It is saying it takes more than just words to show someone how you truly love them as it is too easy to just say the words when being there for someone, holding them when they are scared or feeling sad or just doing small sweet things for them to brighten their day would means so much more. Sex has never been the way to show someone you love them except in teen rom-coms and the jerks who used those lame lines on their girlfriends to pressure them. Not once does it even mention sex or even kissing. I know people who didn't even kiss until their wedding day that like this song and think it is sweet .
What kinda psychopath thinks More Than Words is about sex?!?
In today's society, there's probably quite a few.
Exactly what I was thinking!
I always thought it was saying that just saying "I love you" is not enough because actions speak louder than words, and you have to show/demonstrate your love, not just tell someone about it. People have been known to lie like rugs all throughout history.
Isn't it about a porn star that killed herself?
@@jacklow9611 Bingo, that's exactly what it's about. "You couldn't make things new just by saying 'I love you'" means, you can't just say the phrase and smooth everything over, expecting forgiveness, you have to SHOW you mean it.
2:20 impossible to get this song meaning wrong if you bother to listen to more than the title 😅. Same with “born in the USA”, “ rockin in the free world”
And 20 songs on this list
So Shrek's use of 'Halleluya" was very much in touch with the original meaning, right?
At no point in the song “Every breath you take” does Sting sing about breaking bones. He does sing “every BOND you break.” Definitely NOT the same thing.
Love Song by Sara Bareillis is NOT a love song of about a break up with a guy.It’s a catchy fuck you to her record company who wanted her to write a love song to be more marketable. ‘I’m not gonna write you a love song cause you ask for it/cause you need one’
Many people attribute Céline Dion’s hit Because You Loved Me’ to being about her manager/husband who remortgaged his house to finance her first 3 albums when she was starting out. While the lyrics can be applied to a couple, Diane Warren (songwriter) actually wrote the song for her dad, who was the first person to support her interest in and talents for music.
I love lists like this because I learn so much. I love music and most of these songs are among my favorites…definitely love learning more about them
For about 40 years people have known that Every Breath You Take is a stalker song. Back then, There was the existence of a print media called Magazines. Rolling Stone called it out for what it was. Right away. Probably even did interviews with band members 😎😎
And yet the vast majority of people get it wrong. Sad but true.
It was a popular prom and wedding reception song at the time...
I really think that Alanis Morissette wrote Ironic with the intention of including examples of what she mistakenly thought were irony, and that the idea that she cleverly, and ironically, included things that were not ironic in a song called Ironic was thought up after people pointed out that nothing she sung about in the song were actually examples of irony.
Are you the woman that Elaine Benes (from Seinfeld) ran into on the subway on her way to the lesbian wedding?
I remember they also pointed that out on "Pop Up Videos" in the 90's
I don't know how Imagine can be misinterpreted. It's a slow song and all the information is in the lyrics. And if you even have some basic knowledge of John Lennon, you know he was big on equality.
I always thought Puff the Magic Dragon was about the mild heart break of the moment you knew you grew up.
I always thought that PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON was about the toys and often pets that are left behind when a child grows up and goes away to school.
How does one know when one is grown up? Asking for a friend.
@Davesworld7 I am 73 and in many ways, I still haven’t grown up!
My HS graduating class picked good riddance SPECIFICALLY for the true meaning. When we submitted it to our school we told them the name was “time of your life” not “good riddance” lol
😂
😂
“I’ll be watching you”
~ The Police
A little on the nose isn’t it?
Fun fact: Who let the dogs out by Baha Men is actually about cat-calling.
Yep. Another one people constantly get wrong
Anyone who thinks "Born in the U.S.A." is patriotic has never listened to a single word other than "Born in the U.S.A.". This is an anthem for Viet Nam vets who came home to get spit on. It is a big, well deserved F.U. to the USA
Well Brucie boy should’ve considered that it was the big peas and love hippies that were the ones doing the spitting and the hating! But then again he can’t figure out what gender should be in a gender specific bathroom
I've seen it cited in multiple sources that Hotel California refers to the historical California State Mental Hospital in Camarillo, but I've never seen them actually explain how it references it. Would be pretty cool if it was though, we tend to get overlooked here.
Love this content!
I think of Hotel California as a story about a guy who died in an accident while drunk but isn't aware he died, and the hotel is Purgatory/Hell. It would explain the monster in the second-to-last part of the song, and why he can never leave the hotel.
Anton Levay's "church" in Cali = Hotel California. So you're on the right track for sure.
I always thought it was about alcoholism
Hotel California. Popular song during my teenage years. Like the video said, it was never about a hotel. I always thought it was a metaphor about not being able to leave your own head.
It's an elite whore house.
Can't leave addiction.....
I thought it was about the lure of fame and fortune in CA and the inability to leave it behind.
I always thought of it as a song about death and a warning about making poor choices in life. Basically, Hotel CA is hell.
@@libertarianguy5567 Yep, hence the lyric "And I was thinking to myself this could be heaven or this could be hell."
Bon Jovi’s “Always” is also about a stalker
When September Ends hit me hard in 2006, became a part of my playlists, because my husband, fiance at the time, was coming home from Iraq in the first week of October that year.
Every Breath You Take was on a stalker episode of Hunter (cop TV series in the 80s for those unaware). It played in the original airing and later syndication during the 80s and 90s at the beginning of the episode "Avenging Angel". I always associated it with being a stalker song.
Fascinating stuff & super fun listening !❤
I knew the song Puff The Magic Dragon was from a story . I saw Peter Paul and Mary do a mini concert at my elementary school like once a year for a few years when I went to the school .
So few songs after the 2010’s, storytelling with good songs was an art form lost thanks to the fast food musicians that we have today
Missed out on Lord Huron's "The Night We Met," which became wildly popular after being featured in the TV series "13 Reasons Why."
People have remarked that it's their favorite song and have it played at weddings. In an interview in which this was revealed to him, lead singer and songwriter Ben Schneider looked at the interviewer incredulously, and responded, "Have they actually LISTENED [or read] the LYRICS??? I think its more suitable for funerals maybe..."
Apparently, and i agree based on Schneider's morbid lyrical content in other songs, the song is about a guy who lost a significant other or posdibly a close friend/family member in a car or motorcycle crash, and that person may have lingered in a coma before passing. The chorus seems to fit this theory:
"I had all and then most of you,
some and now none of you,
take me back to the night we met...
I don't know what I'm s'posed to do,
Haunted by the ghost of you.
Oh, take me back to the night we met."
Other clues in the verses hint that he either survived the crash (and has survivor's guilt) een searching for a trail to follow, again.
Take me back to the night we met.
Then i can ask myself, what the hell am i supposed to do?
When i can tell myself, not to ride along with you."
The second verse hints even more strongly at a tragedy...
"When the night was full of terror, and your eyes were filled with tears,
When you had not touched me yet,
Take me back to the night we met..."
Of course, it's a gorgeous, but hauntingly sad melody. And Schneider usually introduces it as "Here's a song you all can make out to..." when the band plays it as the final song during the encore. Given his sense of humor, I'm pretty sure he's placing his tongue firmly in his cheek...
However there is an unconfirmed story which may also be the inspirationfor the tune, one that i have not been able to track down, that he did lose an older brother in a motorcycle crash. Ben does tend to keep his private life exactly that: private. Which of course is his business and his prerogative.
"Semi Charmed Life" is so upbeat that it was used in the trailer for "The Tigger Movie."
It's not a wonder Kidz Bop had been fooled by it because of the song being used in the trailer for The Tigger Movie.
Back when I worked for a hotel that had a reception hall, we'd book a lot of weddings, and I can't tell you just how many times I would hear "I'll Be Watching You" or Dolly/Whitney "I Will Always Love You.
I just wanted to go to the DJ every time and go "You know that's NOT a love song, right?"
I’m starting to wonder how many people actually listen to lyrics in songs, “I Will Always Love You” has I’m not what you need right in the song, how can anyone not understand it is about a breakup or in Dolly’s case an end of a partnership.
Reminds me of the time the song I Will Always Love You was played over and over and over one Christmas because they didn't get the actual meaning and wouldn't listen. Urgh!!! Bet some really felt stupid when the penny dropped.
I don’t why some people think that
“Every Breath You Take” is a love song.🤣
A stalker's anthem.
People are idiots that’s why
Same people who think The Notebook is romantic and not about two people with personality disorders torturing each other.
I don't either but my silly mom does.
Because some people think "You belong to me" is romantic.
What great songs. Loved this video. ❤️
Another one that people always assume is about drug use and it's totally not is Lookin' Out My Back Door by Creedence Clearwater Revival. John Fogerty wrote it for his three year old. It's still weird as heck, but actually kinda sweet once you know that.
Along the same lines, Proud Mary wasn't a boat but the cleaning woman on Fogarty's military base.
I never could figure out how anyone could miss the stalker theme of ‘Every Breath You Take’.
People seem to think Billy Joels Always a woman is a love song - I'm not so sure.She sounds a nasty piece of work to me.
Hadn't thought of that, but you're right. Ofc BJ realized later when they broke up how much "she can ruin your faith with her casual lies" or that "she can take you or leave you..."
So informative...and sometimes sad and or shocking…WOW!! ❤️🎶
"Love Song" by Sara Bareilis is a break up song to her label, because she LITERALLY wouldn't write them a love song. It's a little on the nose.
Yeah I got the joke
Toni Braxton's You're Making Me High is not about a man who is wants and craves. She smoked a joint and got a little high. That song is about her experience smoking it and how it made her feel that one time.
Also, Foster the People's Pumped Up Kicks. I mean, if you read the lyrics, you can gather what the song is about. However, when the it came out, we vibed with the song, without paying attention to what was being said. And then when we learned the lyrics, after playing the hell out of the song, we started to uh....we started to realize what it was about.....
Yep.
“Pumped Up Kicks” isn’t what
people think it is.
Wrong about You're Making Me High.........................Toni herself has said it's about masturbation.
yeah, pumped up kicks is about a shooting right? from what I could gather from my memory.
Great songs!! I Don't Like Mondays is another song with such a sad back story that many don't know
I aways love the song " I don't like Mondays" and I always knew the real story behind it , and it was probaly one of the main reasons why I was into true crime at a young age. but when it came out it was just one rare case of a school shooting that barely anyone even heard about and was very uncommon. Sadly these type shootings are way to common now for anyone to put with such a memorable tune that people would sing along too without even realize what the song is really is about.
I've heard people think Meatloaf's 'I would do anything for love (but I won't do that)' as holding back from giving the full love that could be given, but the lyrics actually tell the story of a generous, selfless and faithful love even when she doesn't expect him to be faithful to her. The key thing he won't do is betray her ('Sooner or later you'll be screwing around'. 'I won't do that').
I think “ every breath you take “ is a very sinister song, always have thought that.
It is, it's about a stalker really.
"Hard Candy Christmas" is one of the most misinterpreted songs I know
The one I always think of is Love Song by Sara Barellies. Everyone always thinks she’s talking to her partner when really it’s a dig at the record label she was apart of because they kept asking her to write a love song to make money and get on the charts and she wasn’t having any of it so she wrote Love Song as an “f you” to the label
I remember growing up in the early 2000s with more then half of these songs. Rediscovered a majority of them just now as well
Love it I remember some that was beautiful songs back in the days now look how music changed..
Hook by Blues Traveler is basically a big middle finger to the music industry. It shows how easy it is to write a pop song as long as it has a great "Hook."
They literally made a move called "Born in the USA" about a disabled vet after he comes back from war, I don't know how that song has been elevated to its current status. People are dumb I guess.
I'm surprised no one had mentioned "I Will Follow" by U2. While it has some spiritual references, it was written by Bono about the death of his mother when he was a young adolescent. "I will follow" is a reference to his passive willingness to follow her into death. It is one of the early chapters in his memoir.
It’s so funny whenever politicians use “Born in the USA”
I wouldn't expect kids to get it but one year in elementary school for our spring program the music teacher had a few girls do a baton routine to this song. Looking back that was so weird.
I laugh every time.
And all the people who don't get it singing & cheering. "went down to see my VA man, he said- son don't you understand?"
I've listened to half of these songs before and I've almost translated the deeper meanings behind the lyrics. But upon learning the meaning behind each one, it either blow my mind or left me speechless. I appreciate WatchMojo for sharing this with us all.
Maxwell's Silver Hammer by the Beatles is actually about a serial killer.
True...this one's pretty obvious if you listen to the lyrics, even though the tune makes it sound like a child's song. There are some Beatles tunes that aren't so obvious, in addtion to the 2 songs Mojo mentioned:
1) Hey Jude: not about drugs, it was Paul's attempt to comfort Julian Lennon (Hey Jules became Hey Jude) who was pretty young when his parents broke up.
2) Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, briefly mentioned by mojo, also not actually about LSD. John's inspiration came from a child's drawing.
3) Let it be: not Biblical. Paul actually saw his mother, Mary who had passed away, in a dream.
4) Got to Get You into my Life: WAS actually about drugs. Paul has stated this was his ode to marijuana.
5) Norwegian Wood: John has said this was literally about a one-night stand that didn't happen: a bloke who thought he was going to get some, but ends up getting rejected and crawling out to sleep in the girl's bath. When he found the girl gone in the morning, he lit her place on fire. No hidden meanings, but pretty twisted stuff. Speaking of twisted stuff:
6) Helter Skelter: Paul's attempt to "write the baddest, raunchiest" song ever after hearing the latest song by the The Who. I think he did a pretty great job. The kicker? The lyrics are about playing on a child's playground.
7) Martha, my Dear: Paul's ode to his childhood sheepdog, Martha (no joke)
8) Penny Lane: While the song itself is a lovely bit of nostalgia, Paul injected some subtle "naughty" innuendo: "A four of fish refers to four pence worth of takeaway fish and chips but a finger pie young man’s finger inserted somewhere you’ll have to use your imagination for. There are also references to condoms (the banker never wears a mac), masturbation (it's a clean machine) and selling drugs on the street - a pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray."
They loved such innuendo, seen in other songs like "Why Don't we do it in the Road?" (not that subtle), Happiness is a Warm Gun, Please, Please Me, Daytripper.
A couple of other non-Beatles songs that don't mean what you think: 3AM, Matchbox Twenty was about Rob Thomas's mother's battle with cancer (like Let it Be and Drops of Jupiter...interesting!) Faith, George Micheal. Just listen to the lyrics and you quickly realize this is *not* a religious song. The Freshmen, the Verve Pipe is about abortion. "A Team", Ed Sheeran: not sure if people really even have any idea about the meaning of this song, but it's about a sex worker addicted to cocaine.
And finally, I don't see how these last 2 didn't make the list, but "You're Beautiful", James Blunt, about a bloke who saw a girl, but commits suicide because he can't have her. Watch the music video. And "Dancing with Myself", Billy Idol, a metophor for masturbation.
@@Rickywwx Thank you for such a response. The Beatles certainly did throw in some innuendo in there. But when they don't, people think they do. It always amazes me how people get the LSD from Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds when it's really LITSWD... sheesh, lol.
Crazy Horses by The Osmonds is about car pollution. The horses are the cars.
The Beatles did a lot of cheating on girlfriends and wives and it was obvious they find it not an issue from their songs.
The Beatles - Another Girl -- He is telling the one he is supposed to be monogamous with that he has a new one, after having had several others before finding this one.
The Beatles - If I Fell -- He is trying to get a girl to commit before he has dumped his current one -- "And that she will cry, When she learns we are two"
@@tommissouri4871 just because you wrote songs about breaking you must not have cheated on your girfriends and wifes, i find that a strange conclusion since one can claim all songwriters write songs about this topic and of course braeaking a relationship is certainly something near to everbody knows.
i guess from a love song should be nothing concluded except that it is a love song.
we put often far to much weight in the words and the dude with the dark glasses said... no he can get literally upraged about it "it's nothing more as to put some words in a shaker and then to see what comes out of it" that is songwriting.
sure some have a sense but most is exactly what dylan stated.
the main condition is that it has to rhyme
the reason is one can claim unimportant.
and you see some have no sense at all they aren't even love songs it's just beautiful to listen.
The Beatles wrote many songs without reason or sense, but nonetheless they are good.
Independence day by Martina McBride is not about the holiday, it's about domestic abuse.
I think anyone who has heard that song knows that the lyrics are pretty clear the song is about a wife getting abused by her husband, and we are seeing it through the eyes of their kid, I don't see how anyone can misinterpret it unless they aren't paying attention to it.
@@saphiramystique2086 I agree with your thoughts, 100% CORRECT!!!!
It is clearly about child abuse.
Hey man, nice shot...I remember watching the LIVE newscast of R. Budd Dwyer offing him self. Brutal to watch. Poor bastard was acquitted of guilt years later.
Electric BOOBS??? LOL!!!!!
This isn't a misunderstood lyric, but a misheard lyric, but it's my favorite. The song "Young Hearts Run Free" by Candi Staton. It came out they year I turned 12 years old, and I always heard the line "My man and me" as "My man Lee". That in and of itself isn't so funny. Fast forward about 6 years. I met my husband...whose name is Leigh (pronounced "Lee")! The funny thing is, I hadn't heard that song in years. I first heard it again about 10-ish years ago. I heard it and my mind automatically defaulted to "my man Leigh". That's when it hit me.
🎵 Wow, these interpretations blew my mind! 🤯
Lady Gaga has explained at length the meaning behind Poker Face many times during TV interviews. You would have to be living under a rock not to know that one.
That’s me: living under a rock because I haven’t watched any of her interviews.
@@Jeremiah_Rivers76Me too!
And I must be the only one who hears "poke her face." Track down some old video & listen to Bob Dylan's responses to questions about the meaning of his songs.
Some of my all-time favorite songs are on this list. Great music, such talented artists. I believe heaven smiles when amazing music is made!
Love the background music