I saw Blade Runner last night. I always figured that White Zombie got their song "More Human than Human" from that movie. Too lazy to look it up.

Billy Joe is a big college football fan

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I always figured that White Zombie got their song "More Human than Human" from that movie.

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I hadn't ever seen it until this past year and when I heard that line a light bulb went on in my head and I thought the same thing.

The same thing happened when I re-watched Dune this year and heard the line "If you walk without rhythm, you won't attract the worm." I realized this is where Fatboy Slim got the same line for "Weapon for Choice".

Merry Xmas, Rep8903

This thread popped in my head during lunch. On the drive home I was listening to "Song I Hate" by the Toadies. The song is literally about the fact that Todd hated writing the song. He had all the parts but just couldn't get a subject/melody/words combination that he loved. He kept going back to the song over and over until he grew to hate it. So he decided to make it about the fact that he hated writing it.

Hilarious

Billy Joe Shaver wrote "Black Rose" about losing his virginity to a black prostitute.

Ray Wylie Hubbard's "Last Train to Amsterdam" is about death.

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Well I got me a one way ticket to get me from where I am
And the wheels are turnin' on the last train to Amsterdam

I'm standin' just south of Fate
There ain't no exit from the interstate
There's one way in, it's a long dirty road
Only one way out, Robert Johnson knows

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Robert Johnson was a blues singer and one of the best guitarists of all time. He died at 27, perhaps after being poisoned. Urban legend had it that Johnson sold his soul to the devil in return for his picking skill and the devil personally tuning his guitar. The similar scenes from O Brother Where Art Thou were inspired by that legend.

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"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.

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another obvious one that you forgot to mention is the lyric

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The quartet practiced in the park,
And we sang dirges in the dark

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obviously about the beatles

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Are you sure? I've always thought otherwise.

And can someone elaborate on the "American Idiot" about Musberger comment or was that a joke? I myself think Musberger is an american idiot but come on... we all know who it is about.

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I'm absolutely positive it's not about Musberger, but it makes the song a whole hell of a lot more hilarious if you think it's about him.

american idiot is about people who dont think for themselves and blindly follow

I think I'm stupider for reading this stuff.

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I think I'm stupider for reading this stuff.

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The proof is in that sentence.

Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton is about his son, who died from falling out of a window.

Michael Bolton's "I Wanna Touch You...There" is about wanting to touch you (her)... there.

A more definitive discussion of the Mamasan Trilogy (Alive, Once, Footsteps) by Pearl Jam:

http://www.fivehorizons.com/songs/dec99/index.shtml

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The trilogy is also explained in Cameron Crowe's 10/28/93 Rolling Stone article "Five Against the World" article as a tale of ...

one who is wronged and does wrong
Alive

"The story of the song is that a mother is with a father and the father dies. It's an intense thing because the son looks just like the father. The son grows up to be the father, the person that she lost. His father's dead, and now this confusion, his mother, his love, how does he love her, how does she love him? In fact, the mother, even though she marries somebody else, there's no one she's ever loved more than the father. You know how it is, first loves and stuff. And the guy dies. How could you ever get him back? But the son. He looks exactly like him. It's uncanny. So she wants him. The son is oblivious to it all. He doesn't know what the **** is going on. He's still dealing, he's still growing up. He's still dealing with love, he's still dealing with the death of his father. All he knows is 'I'm still alive' -- those three words, that's totally out of burden."

"Now the second verse is 'Oh she walks slowly into a young man's room... I can remember to this very day... the look... the look.' And I don't say anything else. And because I'm saying, 'The look, the look' everyone thinks it goes with 'on her face.' It's not on her face. The look is between her legs. Where do you go with that? That's where you came from."

"But I'm still alive. I'm the lover that's still alive. And the whole conversation about 'You're still alive, she said' And his doubts: 'Do I deserve to be? Is that the question?' Because he's ****ed up forever!"1

becomes a criminal
Once

"So now he doesn't know how to deal with it. So what does he do, he goes out killing people -- that was [the song] 'Once.' He becomes a serial killer." 1

and ends up in jail
Footsteps

"And 'Footsteps,' [the final song of the trilogy], that's when he gets executed. That's what happens. The Green River killer... and in San Diego, there was another prostitute killer down there. Somehow I related to that. I think that happens more than we know. It's a modern way of dealing with a bad life." 1

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These were also the first three Pearl Jam songs, with words by Ed layered on top of Stone Gossard's instrumental demos. It all happened before Ed had even met the rest of the band.

The Bryan Adams song "Summer of 69" is not making reference to the year 1969.

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]Michael Bolton's "I Wanna Touch You...There" is about wanting to touch you (her)... there.

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Where?

Tom Jones' "You can leave your hat on" is a song about a guy who wants to have sex with a lady. He wants her to be completely naked, but thinks it would be fun for her to leave her hat on.

True story.

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The quartet practiced in the park, And we sang dirges in the dark

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obviously about the beatles

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Right, yeah the quartet is the Beatles. "Dirges in the dark" is probrably a reference to the NY blackout back in the 60's. "The Jester sang for the King and Queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean and a voice that came from you and me" is real easy: Dylan, the 'Jester' wore a red jacket like James Dean's in Rebel, in an obvious James Dean reference, on an album cover, then famously played a private show for the Queen of England when he went across the pond on tour, and at that time in his early career he was singing folk-type music i.e. "the voice that came from you and me". I could go on, but if you learn to think of it in this way, and you know enough modern music history and trivia, you can see that almost every line is a reference to some band or musician or trend in music from Buddy Holly up to when he wrote the song. If you listen to the full version of the song (and not the truncated radio version) it's really pretty genius how he did it.

[This message has been edited by SwampFox (edited 12/22/2008 12:24p).]

I know that it is highly probable that this is just a rumor, but I have read that Pearl Jam is actually the name of a desert made by Eddie's grandmother. I think I saw that on NTN trivia or something similar.

You know where to find the really hard to decipher lyrics? 2 Live Crew. I just can not figure out what F*** Shop is about.

"pearl" is the name of one of the bandmembers grandmothers.

KISS's "Plaster Caster" is a tribute to some chick who makes plaster casts of famous celebrity's wangs...

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I know that it is highly probable that this is just a rumor, but I have read that Pearl Jam is actually the name of a desert made by Eddie's grandmother.

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That was the cover story - that Ed's grandmother Pearl had a hallucinogenic jam, Pearl's Jam, or Pearl Jam.

If you go back and watch or listen to the early videos where the band is telling this fish tale, they can barely keep straight faces.