27 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Your Favorite Songs

Sometimes songs aren't about what they're about.
27 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Your Favorite Songs

Do you listen to song lyrics? No, of course you don't, you big poser. You're happy just banging your head to the banging beats, completely unaware that the song is about, say, banging.

Then again, what a song is saying isn't always clear, no matter how much attention you pay. So we put together a team of musicryptologists (that's totally a thing), who deciphered several chronically misunderstood lyrics for you:

CRACKED.co I SHOT THE SHERIFF isn't just Bob Marley saying f*ck the police. Every time I plant a seed He said kill it before it grow It's a song against birth control. Marley was opposed to his girlfriend using birth control pills. The sheriff was meant to be her doctor,
27 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Your Favorite Songs
TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART is clearly about love. Once upon a time there was light in my life But now there's only love in the dark Love between vampires. Jim Steinman wrote the song for a musical based on Nosferatu. The word forever is meant to be taken literally.

Manic Monday

It's just another manic Monday 1 wish it was Sunday The Bangles MANIC MONDAY was written by Prince. The band's first hit was credited to one Christopher- which was a pseudonym for none other than T himself.

The Grateful Dead

CRACKEDCOr So you think The Grateful Dead's CASEY JONES is for getting high? It's pretty much against it. Driving thattrrain Highoncocaine oncocaine It's clearly an anti-coke song, Jerry Garcia said in an interview. The words aren't light, good-time words.

Nirvana

CRACKED.COM What does SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT mean, exactly? Not even Kurt Cobain was too clear on that. Nirvana's frontman took the song's title from a joke by singer Kathleen Hanna, unaware that Teen Spirit was a deodorant. He thought the phrase was some revolutionary slogan.
CRACKED We were young and restless We needed to unwind Bryan Adams' SUMMER F'69 isn't about 1969. It's about... yes, that. A lot of people think it's about the year, Adams has said, but actually, it's more about making love in the summertime. It's using 69 as a sexual reference.
CRACKEDcO COM The Village People's MACHO MAN was intended to be serious. The French songwriters had no intention at all to be funny. The group took the high camp route when they realized the material couldn't possibly be taken seriously.
MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION was Paul Simon's first solo hit. And it's based on a Chinese food menu. Simon was browsing a menu for a Chinese restaurant when he first came across the song's title- it was the name for an egg-and-chicken dish.
CRACKEDcO COM Paul McCartney wrote HEY JUDE to comfort John Lennon's son, Julian. You have found her, now go and get her Lennon. thought it was about him. Paul meant, It sucks your parents split up, just hang on in there, buddy. John took it to mean, Good job hooking
CRACKEDcO A girl can do what she wants to do And that's what I'm gonna do Joan Jett's BAD REPUTATION isn't simply an anthem for outcasts. It's about sexism in rock 'n' roll. Jett had been rejected by 23 record labels - according to her, due to her reputation as a former

Pink Floyd

CRACKED CO Pink Floyd's WISH YOU WERE HERE is thought of as a tribute to founder Syd Barret. Did you exphange A walk on part in the war For a lead role in a cage? It's Roger Waters' pep talk to himself. All my songs are about encouraging me, Rogers said.
CRACKEDcO Martina McBride's INDEPENDENCE DAY is a staple in Fourth of July celebrations. They said he was a dangerous man But mama was proud and she stood her ground' Even though it's about domestic violence. The song tells the story of an abused woman burning her alcoholic husband alive a
CRACKEDGOM This one goes out to the one I've left behind A simple prop tO occupy my time R.E.M.'S THE ONE LOVE is often dedicated to loved ones. But it's about emotional abuse. Songwriter Michael Stipe has described the song as incredibly violent, and clarified, it's very clear that
CRACKEDCON But Rosie, you're all right (You wear my ring) Jackson hen you hold me tight (Rosie, that's my thing) Browne's ROSIE is a very sad ballad. And it's about masturbation. Browne fessed up to it in an interview. Y'know, Rosie Palm and her five sisters? People have listened to
27 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Your Favorite Songs
CRACKEDco Sly Fox's LET'S GO ALL THE WAY has to be about doin' it, right? Ah, we can make a better Way Let's go all the way NOPE. According to songwriter Gary Mudbone Cooper (left), the song is about not letting anything get in the way of your dreams.
CRACKEDCON Lady Gaga's POKER FACE isn't about seduction (or playing poker). It's about hiding her bisexuality. No. he can't readmny poker face She has decribed it as pokerfacing with your sexuality -hiding that she was fantasizing about women while having sex with men.
Hall G Oates' RICH GIRL isn't about a girl at all. You can rely on the old man's money' It's about a guy. The spoiled brat in the lyrics was an ex-boyfriend of Daryl Hall's girlfriend. They changed the gender because it sounded better that way.
Kendrick Lamar's SWIMMING POOLS (DRANK) instantly became a party anthem. Some people wanna fit in with the popular that was my problem But it's against the party lifestyle. The song talks about diving in liquor to criticize drinking, not to celebrate it. It's about how alcohol and peer pressure
CRACKEDGO You have heard Chic's LE FREAK with its clean lyrics. Aaann freak out! ee ireak, c'est Chic Originally, it went fxck off! In New Year's Eve of 1977, Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were rudely turned away from Studio 54. They were so pissed off that they wrote

Phil Collins

CRACKED GON Phil Collins' TAKE ME HOME isn't about going home. There's no point escaping I don't worry anymore It's about a patient in a mental hospital. Collins took inspiration for the song from the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Barracuda

Is Heart's BARRACUDA about fish? No, it isn't. No right no wtong, you're selling a song, a name Whisper game It's a response to a sleazy publicity stunt. The band's record label started the rumor that band members (and sisters) Ann and Nancy Wilson were in lesbian a relationship.
Theard that were talking shit you And yo didn't think that would hear it Gwen Stefani's HOLLABACK GIRL is a response to Courtney Love. Love had dismissed Stefani as a cheerleader in an interview. Stefani replied, You want me to be a cheerleader? Well, I'll be one then. And

Metallica

CRACKEDcO Metallica's THE GOD THAT FAILED isn't a call to Devil worship. Lhear faith in your cries Broken is the promise, betrayal It's about James Hetfield's mom. Frontman Hetfield's mother passed away from breast cancer after refusing any medical treatment due to her religious beliefs.

Woody Guthrie

CRACKEDCO COM Woody Guthrie's THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND is taken to be a patriotic song. As they stdod there hungry, I stood there asking Isthisland made for you and me? It's a protest song. Guthrie THIS MACHINE. wrote it after getting sick of hearing Irving Berlin's 'God Bless America

Lorde

CRACKED.co The title of Lorde's ROYALS comes from baseball. No, the song is not secretly about sports- Lorde just saw the word on an old photo of baseball legend Royala George Brett and liked it enough to use it.
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