There are more than a handful of websites that proclaim to deconstruct the meaning of the song "American Pie". I've read through the following website and it makes sense to me

http://www.understandingamericanpie.com/

KS 361
"Love, Honor, Truth"

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that "We are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You" are about Soccer.

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most Steely Dan songs were about drugs

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That's a stretch. Some of their songs contain obvious drug references, like Hey Nineteen and Time Out of Mind. But to say that Most of their songs are about drugs is to say you don't really know them that well. You would have overlooked their songs about prostitution, advances towards girls that are too young for older men, and homosexuality.
Don't sell them short.

It was a joke. I know them plenty well. It came up between me and my wife when we heard "Glamour Profession", which is, well, about drug dealers.

Without a doubt, the drug references are there on every album...they hit their quota you might say.

"You aint seen nothing yet" is making fun of someone the band used to work with that told them they would never be successful. The guy had a stutter so that is why they say "b-b-baby you just aint seen nothing yet"

On a related note, Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" album title was based on the fact that they were for years financially supported by a benefactor that finally cut them off after a series of flops.

They then cut the "COTC" album, knew it would be a hit and they had a moneymaker and then titled the album "Crime of the Century" to reference the benefactor missing out on their eventual success. Whether or not they reimbursed the benefactor an of his money I do not know.

Our forefathers had civilization inside themselves, the wild outside. We live in the civilization they created, but within us the wilderness still lingers. What they dreamed, we live, and what they lived, we dream. -T.K. Whipple form The Study of the Land.

Resurrecting this thread...

Once, I swear I read an interview saying "Lifetime" by Better Than Ezra is based on a true story, but I can't find it now. It's subject is obvious, but it's a very emotional story.

[This message has been edited by CDub06 (edited 12/16/2008 4:37p).]

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I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that "We are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You" are about Soccer.

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I thought this as well.

i've always heard that 25 or 624 by Chicago is about acid.

I honestly thought "Lola" was about a GIRL named Lola. Until I paid attention to the lyrics.

The BTE song Lifetime is about a friend of theirs from HS who died. At least that was the story they told on MTV a while back.

REM has some great stories to go along with most of their songs... someone already mentioned "What's the Frequency Kenneth" but "Nightswimming" has a good story too.

i never realized til my wife told me that "Pickin wild flowers" (country song) was about goin at it. I just never picked up on that. Can't think of the singer.

I don't know if anyone answered what was the meaning behind "Our Lips Our Sealed", but anyways the song is about the secret relationship bewteen guitarist Jane Wiedlin and Terry Hall, lead singer of The Specials. I think he was married when he and Jane were involved. The song was written by both Wiedlin and Hall



[This message has been edited by Matt788 (edited 12/16/2008 7:18p).]

Speaking of American Pie, "Killing Me Softly With His Song" is about Don McLean.

"Blinded by the Light" is about a man that is startled by a feminine hygiene product, but he gets wrapped up in it.

[This message has been edited by Big 12-0 (edited 12/16/2008 7:47p).]

WAS HE LIT UP LIKE A DEWSH?

That Summer is about some horny old lady

maybe that one wasnt such a big secret.

I think "Only the Good Die Young" is a good example of a song that I never bother really paying attention to, and the one day did and was somewhat shocked.

I also always laugh when girls think "More Than Words" is a romantic song.

Anothering stuttering song was My Generation. Daltrey and Townsend were making fun of guys on speed.

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Anothering stuttering song was My Generation. Daltrey and Townsend were making fun of guys on speed.

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They could have been trying to mimic guys on speed, but I doubt they were trying to make fun of guys on speed. It would kind of go against the whole meaning of the song.

I wanna know what the hell Kodachrome by Paul Simon is aboot, budday!

The Darkness - Growing on me, beautiful love song... or actually about an STD?!

I can't get rid of you
I don't know what to do
I don't even know who is growing on who, (yeah, yeah)
'Cos everywhere I go you're there
I Can't get you out of my hair
I Can't pretend that I don't care - it's not fair

I'm Being punished for all my offences
I wanna touch you but I'm afraid of the consequences
I wanna banish you from whence you came
But you're part of me now
And I've only got myself to blame

You're really growing on me
(Or am I growing on you?)
You're really growing on me
(Or am I growing on you?)
Any fool can see

Sleeping in an empty bed
Can't get you off my head
I won't have a life until you're dead
Yeah, you heard what I said

I wanna shake you off but you just won't go, ohh
And you're all over me but I don't want anyone to know
That you're attached to me, that's how you've grown
Won't you leave me, leave me alone

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I've heard "Shades of Gray" by Robert Earl Keen was about the hunt for the Oklahoma City bombers.

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Partially true. He had written most of the song long before then, but couldn't finish it. He needed a reason for the cops to be looking for someone that wasn't these three guys, and wanted it to be something people would know. When the OKC bombing happened, he had his event and finished the song with "on that morning in late April, Oklahoma '95".

And since someone else mentioned Alan Jackson, the song "Don't Rock the Jukebox" is about a jukebox with a missing leg, literally making it rock when you lean on it, not the playing of rock music.

Fleetwood Mac - Landslide.

cocaine addiction.

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I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
till the landslide brought me down

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"Alive" by Pearl Jam is about a man's incestuous relationship with his mother.

That one blew my mind.

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Son, she said, have I got a little story for you
What you thought was your daddy was nothin but a...
While you were sittin home alone at age thirteen
Your real daddy was dyin, sorry you didnt see him, but Im glad we talked...

Oh i, oh, Im still alive
Hey, i, i, oh, Im still alive
Hey i, oh, Im still alive
Hey...oh...

Oh, she walks slowly, across a young mans room
She said Im ready...for you
I cant remember anything to this very day
cept the look, the look...
Oh, you know where, now I cant see, I just stare...

I, Im still alive
Hey i, but, Im still alive
Hey i, boy, Im still alive
Hey i, i, i, Im still alive, yeah
Ooh yeah...yeah yeah yeah...oh...oh...

Is something wrong, she said
Well of course there is
Youre still alive, she said
Oh, and do I deserve to be
Is that the question
And if so...if so...who answers...who answers...

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Sting has nothing on the sorts of effed up that Eddie Vedder is.

"American Pie" is both a song about the plane crash (although the name of the plane was not American Pie) and a history of rock from McLean's perspective in which he laments the loss of danceable music. "Marching band" and "The Jester" (Dylan) and "Eight miles high and falling fast"(The Byrds) and "Satan" (Mick Jagger) are all slights at successful musicians who took rock away from where he thought it was best and purest.

Ben Folds Five - Brick - abortion

Eric Clapton - Layla - George Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyde(sp?)

George Harrison - Something - Said he wrote it thinking about Ray Charles, but his wife said he wrote it for her.

John Lennon - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - Said it was the name of a painting his son Julian had done and shown to him.

Led Zeppelin - The Ocean - About the crowds of fans at their concerts. The lyrics 'Girl who won my heart, was only 3 years old, thats a real good way to start' is reference to Plant's daughter, and he would update the song to her age when he played the song live.

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"Alive" by Pearl Jam is about a man's incestuous relationship with his mother.

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Even more interesting than that is "Alive" is part one of a 3 song trilogy. "Alive", "Once" and "Footsteps" follow this same man as he goes crazy and eventually ends up in jail.

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"Blinded by the Light" is about a man that is startled by a feminine hygiene product, but he gets wrapped up in it.

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false.

when springsteen wrote it, the lyric was "wrapped up like a deuce" as in a deuce coupe.

of course you may have been kidding, but after some of the things said on this thread, i couldn't let this go.

This doesn't really fit into this thread, but I thought I'd admit this.

In "Everything Zen" by Bush, the part of the song:

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There must be something we can eat
Maybe find another lover
Should I fly to Los Angeles
Find my a**hole brother

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I thought was about finding himself a gay lover. Specifically, I thought "my a**hole brother" was slang for his gay soulmate... That was my understanding growing up, then one day I said, "Why the heck did I ever think that?"

When I was a kid I didn't know that Puff the Magic Dragon was about drugs..

Puff is just the name of the boy's magical dragon... You a pothead, Mel99?

"Knockin on Heavens Door" by Dylan is about Pat Garrett's hunting and eventual killing of Billy the Kid.



edit: posted picture

[This message has been edited by TresPuertas (edited 12/17/2008 9:40a).]

the song was in that movie, but that is not what it is about. its clearly about a lawman dying. not an outlaw.