45
The moon revolves around the Earth at the exact same speed at which it rotates, due to a phenomenon having to do with the uneven weight distribution of the moon itself. Because of this, on Earth, we only can ever see one side of the moon. The other side of the moon is sometimes referred to as the dark side of the moon, as it is never visible to us. There is ...
37
This is quite certainly intentional. While the double negative used as an intensified negative is considered ungrammatical in "standard" English, it is very common in many English dialects, particularly those associated with lower socioeconomic class levels (see my answer to a similar question in ELU).
Song lyrics are typically written in conversational ...
answered Nov 25 '15 at 19:06
Chris Sunami supports Monica
15.3k1 gold badge15 silver badges61 bronze badges
17
The way I heard it, one of the guys on their road crew, who was Latino, told Henley and Frey that "colitas" meant "little buds" in Spanish. As in, marijuana buds. So, in that lyric they're describing driving down the highway smoking weed.
17
"Speculation that the song's lyrics are drug related has been largely dismissed. Lamm himself says that the title is "just a reference to the time of day" and that "the song is about writing a song. It's not mystical." The time of day in reference is 3:35 AM (or 3:34 AM), which would then be 25 (or 26) minutes to 4 AM."
From the Wikipedia entry
17
"Bohemian" in the title doesn't refer to the region in the Czech Republic, but rather to what is known as the the bohemian lifestyle.
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people and with few permanent ties. It involves musical, artistic, literary, or spiritual pursuits. In this context, Bohemians ...
16
This song is an example of what one might call "effectively instrumental" in that the song has no lyrics that are particularly meaningful. The vocal elements are, for the most part, just another instrument. Such songs are happy, often danceable songs meant to be fun and entertaining.
The line that you were interested in "Uptown funk you up" is mostly a pun, ...
16
I've been unable to find any comments directly from Roger Waters (writer of the music and lyrics of the song) on the meaning of those lines. Looking at the lyrics on Genius.com, the annotation for the first line says that if you read it as a double negative, it could mean two different things
"We do need education"—A call for education
"We don't need this ...
15
It's an intentional play on words.
When we hear the opening lyrics:
Du
Du hast
Du hast mich
It's unclear if they're saying "Du hast mich" ("You have me") or "Du hasst mich" ("You hate me").
It's not until the later text:
Du hast mich gefragt
Du hast mich gefragt
Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt
That we actually get the real meaning: "You ...
13
In a quote reproduced on Wikipedia, Anthony Kiedis states that the track is
"... about surviving, starting fresh. I've made a mess of everything, but I have a blank slate—a canvas of snow—and I get to start over."
The use of snow to depict a blank slate ties into the behavior of snow covering tracks,
Running through the field where all my tracks will ...
12
"Big-legged" was the original celebratory code phrase for the female backside. Obviously, if you had big legs then they must culminate in an upper thigh/backside of similar proportions. The term "Big-Legged" was used in many songs, from Jerry Lee Lewis to Albert King. Eventually it just became the style to use the more obvious/crass description, which ...
12
And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon
During the moon explorations and moon landings - the first landing only occurred four years prior to this album's release - viewers of these historic events came ...
12
Here's something from the Def Leppard FAQ:
These four words that you hear at the start of "Rock of Ages", mean
nothing, though the band sometimes jokingly claims it means "running
through the forest silently". It's actually just German sounding
gibberish, said by producer Mutt Lange during one of the later takes
of the song. Lange was a ...
11
The "numbers" were indeed the lottery, but this was back before the government decided to get in on the action, so it was an illegal lottery run by gangsters.
Basically, it was a common, but illegal activity, so it has a slightly naughty feel to it, like drinking during prohibition. Many, many grandmas did in fact play the numbers.
There's a fairly ...
answered Nov 20 '15 at 14:21
Chris Sunami supports Monica
15.3k1 gold badge15 silver badges61 bronze badges
11
It's to refer to his lover. The whole section is actually:
If I'm a pagan of the good times
My lover's the sunlight
To keep the Goddess on my side
She demands a sacrifice
It can be viewed as him saying the care for his lover is outside the typical church values, and could be considered "worshipping false idols" in the context of the church....
10
It's about space, plain and simple. It's literally just a description of space - its colors, planets, stars, supernovas scaring Dan Dare.
It's typical Barrett - something very, very simple wrapped in fantastical storytelling. That aspect of his songwriting really didn't change much in the 'aftertime'. Though his depression is showing through, the tunes ...
10
Sir Walter Raleigh is credited as the one who introduced tobacco to the UK from the (then) colony of Virginia. So the reference is to the cigarette in the lyrics, and the love-hate relationship with smoking that the character in the song and John Lennon the writer of the song both had. There's a reddit post on this theme.
At the time of writing the song, ...
9
The literal meaning of uptown is usually the more northward part of the center city, but it has connotations (via New York City) of an urban area that is more "upscale", wealthy, classy and sophisticated. Funk is a style of music pioneered by black American artists such as James Brown and George Clinton, it was most popular in the 1970's and features a ...
answered Apr 29 '15 at 15:56
Chris Sunami supports Monica
15.3k1 gold badge15 silver badges61 bronze badges
9
25 Or 6 To 4
should be interpreted as:
Twenty five or [twenty] six [minutes until] four [o'clock, AM]
9
As always, genius is a good source for analyzing of song meanings. This particular song has been extensively analyzed by multiple users. Having said this, most of the time a song's meaning is subject to interpretation.
To start with, linoleum is a type of floor covering. The whole song is playing around with this floor theme. It starts with the first few ...
9
Prokofiev referred to the bird in Peter and the Wolf as simply 'the little bird'.
"Of course we shall have the flute as a little bird." [†Schlifstein, p.450.]
Although parakeets are smallish - especially the ones we in the UK call 'budgerigars' - as you say, they're not native to Russia.
He doesn't try to imitate the actual sound of any of the animals ...
8
Wikipedia is rather vague:
Guns N' Roses' lead guitarist, Slash, states that the song was written
in the back of a rental van as they were on their way back from
playing a gig in San Francisco with the band Rock N Riders. He says
that the band was in the back of the van, drinking and playing
acoustic guitars, when he came up with the intro. Duff ...
8
Genius has a cool feature which lets users interpret song meanings cooperatively. It also allows you annotate the meaning of smaller blocks of the lyrics.
As it happens, Aerials has been interpreted quite extensively:
http://genius.com/System-of-a-down-aerials-lyrics
This is the main interpretation of the song:
The overall theme of the song is our ...
8
Below I've listed out the different people you see, with the corresponded line in the song in parenthesis. I don't know everyone, but I think this is at least a good start. Everyone who might be a politician, military officer, or public figure and whom I don't know is bolded.
Starts with shots from wars
Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Former U.K. ...
8
This is one of my favorite songs, it means so much to me.
The meaning is this:
It has to do with being neglected, mistreated, overlooked and taken for granted by people you care about. They might mean much to you but you get the feeling that you don't mean as much to them. So the chorus says that:
''I am not your rolling wheels I am the highway'' I am not ...
8
Billboard seems to have a summary of each of her (sometimes just rumored) relationships, and the songs that sprang from their fall-outs. I also found additional songs from a Suggest.com listicle, the List of Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriends page on the Taylor Swift Wikia, and I'm not sure how accurate any of these sources are, but they each seem to provide at ...
8
There are multiple possible interpretations according to contributors on Genius:
The metaphorical x’s (hugs) and o’s (kisses) of the relationships
haunt her, symbolizing her running away from any actually feelings
developed in the process. “XO” is a common way to sign off in love
letters, or if you’re gossip girl.
Her ex’s and oh’s spark ...
7
The meaning of Brain Damage can only really be guessed from inferences in the actual lyrics..as no one but Roger Waters truly knows what it means. I'm not sure he has publicly stated that meaning either.
However, the inferences suggest it is about some form of mental illness or psychosis; perhaps schizophrenia or other mental disorder. That pretense helps to ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
