Song Analysis

One of my favorite things to do, is analyze art. Any art. Music, movies, tv, literature, whatever. I learned in a literature course many years ago, that whether something was intentionally put into a story or not, if it's there, it's there. I took that and ran with it, and future literature professors led me to believe I had perhaps ran too far at times. But what fun it is to run into the great beyond.

I would like to invite anyone to contribute song analysis to this thread or opinion on the analysis offered by others. Or perhaps help in areas where one isn't sure. I hope we can have some in depth and even "alternate" ideas about some tunes. I want to see how "out there" we can get.

An old friend of mine once suggested that the 'Lady we all know' in Stairway to Heaven is the Statue of Liberty. And despite the fact that I can pick and sing the song all the way through, I couldn't come to any theories myself. Except that maybe it's about greed (as suggested by the main lyric/title)?

reply to post by notquiteright

A look into:
Mother Goose by Jethro Tull

As I did walk by Hampstead Fair, [?]
I came upon Mother Goose [one who is innocent, a virgin]
So I turned her loose [I took her virginity away (please don't make me explain this further)]
She was screaming. [Insert "violently" above]

And a foreign student said to me [?]
Was it really true [?]
There were elephants, lions too [?]
in Picadilly Circus [?] [talk of the many different criminal types in a previous jail term?]

Walked down by the bathing pond
to try and catch some sun
Saw at least a hundred school girls
Sobbing into handkerchiefs as one [mourning a tragedy, maybe the loss of their classmate?]
And I don't believe they knew
I was a schoolboy [an admission of guilt, I was the one who did it]

And a bearded lady said to me [from here]
if you start your raving and your misbehaving
you'll be sorry.
Then the chicken-fancier came to play
with his long red beard (and his sister's weird:
she drives a lorry). [to here, no clue]

Laughed down by the putting green
I popped `em in their holes. [no conscience, playing games]
Four and twenty labourers were labouring [search party]
digging up their gold. [looking for their treasure, the girl]
I don't believe they knew
that I was Long John Silver. [I was the one who buried her (the treasure)]

Saw Johnny Scarecrow make his rounds [a cop?] [reaching]
in his jet-black mac (which he won't give back)
stole it from a snow man.



Far fetched? Yes. Can you prove it's not about the rape and murder of a young girl?

reply to post by notquiteright


Ignorance is bliss, he took away her ignorance

The foreign student should be observing what is around him directly, that's why he's foreign, not his nationality. Picadilly Circus is near by and it is not a circus but a circular plaza or downtown area.


Hive mind, they think whats from the MSM. and/or they've gotten a poor self image and are unhappy with their appearence in their bathing suits.

A person who has had a hard time is giving him advice based on her unique worst case experience.

Chicken-fancier ? Some people look like they are awake but are just different?

He is playing while they are working and he is getting their money

Welfare state cynic or government agent?

I remember this song was on the FM album rock radio alot in the '70s.

Originally posted by notquiteright
I would like to invite anyone to contribute song analysis...

In my experience, the overwhelming vast majority of songs dont really have any deep *meaning* but were just thrown together from lines that sounded good with the music. David Bowie, as an example, sometimes used to write out lines of lyrics, cut them out separately, spread them out on the floor and mix and match and make a song that combined whatever works.

Other songs might start out with some kind of message, but are then finished off with padding.

Very few songs are worth analysing.

But of course you're not the first person to wish to do that. One website I often visit to get the meaning behind a song is
songmeanings

2000 people have commented about stairway to heaven.

Sometimes I like songs whose words are difficult (sometimes impossible) to discerne because they work like a rorsarch ink blot and have different words at different times. Sometimes after I read the lyrics the singing sounds clearly and unambiguously like the written lyrics and other times I still can't discern the sylables. Sometimes I liked the words better before I read the lyrics.

Athlete - Wires (corridor song)

I had listening to this song many times before realising he wrote it about his baby son in hospital. Amazing song
www.youtube.com...

You got wires, going in
You got wires, coming out of your skin
You got tears, making tracks
I got tears, that are scared of the facts

Running, down corridors through, automatic doors
Got to get to you, got to see this through
I see hope is here, in a plastic box
I've seen christmas lights, reflect in your eyes

You got wires, going in
You got wires, coming out of your skin
There's dry blood, on your wrist
Your dry blood on my fingertip

Running, down corridoors through, automatic doors
Got to get to you, got to see this through
First night of your life, curled up on your own
Looking at you now, you would never know

I see it in your eyes, I see it in your eyes
You'll be alright
I see it in your eyes, I see it in your eyes
You'll be alright

Alright

Running, down corridors through, automatic doors
Got to get to you, got to see this through
I see hope is here, in a plastic box
I've seen christmas lights, reflect in your eyes
down corridors, through automatic doors
Got to get to you, got to see this through
First night of your life, curled up on your own
Looking at you now, you would never know.

Originally posted by alfa1

Originally posted by notquiteright
I would like to invite anyone to contribute song analysis...

In my experience, the overwhelming vast majority of songs dont really have any deep *meaning* but were just thrown together from lines that sounded good with the music. David Bowie, as an example, sometimes used to write out lines of lyrics, cut them out separately, spread them out on the floor and mix and match and make a song that combined whatever works.

Other songs might start out with some kind of message, but are then finished off with padding.

Very few songs are worth analysing.

But of course you're not the first person to wish to do that. One website I often visit to get the meaning behind a song is
songmeanings

2000 people have commented about stairway to heaven.

Hmm, I think Bowie might be more the exception than the rule, in just about everything.

reply to post by Ozvaldo


Nice, thanks for the input.

Originally posted by Semicollegiate
Sometimes I like songs whose words are difficult (sometimes impossible) to discerne because they work like a rorsarch ink blot and have different words at different times. Sometimes after I read the lyrics the singing sounds clearly and unambiguously like the written lyrics and other times I still can't discern the sylables. Sometimes I liked the words better before I read the lyrics.

Interesting and probably true of a majority of people out there.

Also opens up the possibility of word play, how much of it is intended, says this but sounds like this...?

For me, it means way more for what it is about to me. Not necessarily the artist. You're often never going to know what the artist really was thinking when they wrote a particular song.

So what does it mean to you? How do the lyrics affect you? In you, I mean the listener.
Music is about as I can get to spirituality. So many many songs are sacred to me. Their meanings oft more so. Rarely, you can find out parts of what an artist was thinking when writing a song. Sometimes to me, that makes the words more relevant to me. Sometimes, less.

The lyrics I'm about to reference are:

My best friend died a lonely man
In some Palm Springs hotel room
I got the call last Christmas Eve
And they told me the news

I tried all night not to break down and cry
As the tears rolled down my face
I felt so cold and empty
Like a lost soul out of place

I know many people think they were a cheesy band, but that doesn't mean their music is always that way. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to talk to Bret Michaels of Poison about his song Something to Believe In. My best friend had just died a couple of years earlier alone of cancer. He had basically run off all of his friends for one reason of another the last few years he was alive.

I remember the day I got the phone call from another mutual friend who told me he had died. I relayed my story about "P" to Bret. He told me his story about "K." His view of the song, was the same as mine. But knowing his story when he wrote it, made it even more relevant to me. And he told me knowing mine made his song even more relevant to him.

But even if Bret's version had been about something completely different, it wouldn't have necessarily changed the way I felt about that song.

Continuing on my last post thoughts about song meanings though, let's take a look at one of the most often analyzed songs from popular music out there today. Hotel California.

Now I have very little real idea what Glen and Don were actually thinking when they wrote the lyrics for this, but I know how I interpret them. Even hearing an artist talk about their works, can sometimes be misleading, cause if something means that much to them to inspire them to write something as complex as Hotel California is, you can't always expect them to tell the truth or full truth about the meaning.

Since this thread is on song analysis, let's look for a moment at this one. I've heard all kinds of theories about it, but just what the hell is the hotel California? Some BS commentary has called it about Satanism. Some have thought it was about drugs.

Was it a real place? A real hotel? Maybe as some have suggested, it's about a mental hospital. My overall absolutely favorite explanation of at least part of the song came from something i read many years ago. There was this fireworks factory near a hotel in California. A guy who was from a small town in Greece called Colitas, named Wurn Snell was working there.

One day, there was this huge explosion at the factory. Don Henley saw the explosion from the hotel where he was staying and wandered over to the scene. He asked someone what had happened, and the response he got was this guy told his...."Well, I all saw was Wurn Snell of Colitas rising up through the air. And thus....the song was born.


Seriously though, to me, the song is about success and fame. The hotel itself is the music industry, and the "she" referred to throughout is fame. Now I know pretty much what the colitas reference is to, but I'm not gonna discuss that because it violates the ATS T&C. The line about steely knives is a little tribute to Steely Dan.
But,
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave...
Fame is fame. You can checkout of the music industry, but Glen Frey will always be Glen Frey. You're never gonna escape the fame you've already created.

Just my theories on what it means to me. Like I said though. To me, it's more important how YOU perceive the song, and what it means to you, than what I think, or what Don Henley thought, or Glen Frey.

reply to post by webpirate

Being from california, where the first marrage is recon by fire, I took it be about marrage, or more commonly, it is about true but alas, almost always transitory, love.

The hotel could be metaphore for a situation or emotional state that every one gets stuck in.

Originally posted by webpirate
Continuing on my last post thoughts about song meanings though, let's take a look at one of the most often analyzed songs from popular music out there today. Hotel California.

Now I have very little real idea what Glen and Don were actually thinking when they wrote the lyrics for this, but I know how I interpret them. Even hearing an artist talk about their works, can sometimes be misleading, cause if something means that much to them to inspire them to write something as complex as Hotel California is, you can't always expect them to tell the truth or full truth about the meaning.

Since this thread is on song analysis, let's look for a moment at this one. I've heard all kinds of theories about it, but just what the hell is the hotel California? Some BS commentary has called it about Satanism. Some have thought it was about drugs.

Was it a real place? A real hotel? Maybe as some have suggested, it's about a mental hospital. My overall absolutely favorite explanation of at least part of the song came from something i read many years ago. There was this fireworks factory near a hotel in California. A guy who was from a small town in Greece called Colitas, named Wurn Snell was working there.

One day, there was this huge explosion at the factory. Don Henley saw the explosion from the hotel where he was staying and wandered over to the scene. He asked someone what had happened, and the response he got was this guy told his...."Well, I all saw was Wurn Snell of Colitas rising up through the air. And thus....the song was born.

Seriously though, to me, the song is about success and fame. The hotel itself is the music industry, and the "she" referred to throughout is fame. Now I know pretty much what the colitas reference is to, but I'm not gonna discuss that because it violates the ATS T&C. The line about steely knives is a little tribute to Steely Dan.
But,
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave...
Fame is fame. You can checkout of the music industry, but Glen Frey will always be Glen Frey. You're never gonna escape the fame you've already created.

Just my theories on what it means to me. Like I said though. To me, it's more important how YOU perceive the song, and what it means to you, than what I think, or what Don Henley thought, or Glen Frey.

I think it's a really good analysis. I had heard that before about referencing Steely Dan with that line, and Steely dan referenced them (slightly more obvious) in" everything you did" saying, "turn up the eagles, the neighbors are listening".

Hmm, I think Bowie might be more the exception than the rule, in just about everything.

Hardly. The whole 'cut-up' technique of writing poetry and lyrics started with William S. Burroughs. The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, pretty much every late 70's electro-pop band and a whole lot more used it to write songs. I would hazard a guess that the Beatles even tried it seeing as they traveled in some of the same circles as Burroughs fans.

The truth is when there is a hidden meaning to a song it is almost always just bellow the surface and doesn't take much imagination. It is there to see with only minimal covering up. These are usually written in repressive societies and do not take much education or time to work out. Thumbing your nose at oppressors in this way in itself becomes a protest. A good example of this is Russian chanson folk from the 50's 60's and 70's.

Vladimir Vysotsky - Song about a scapegoat

In a game preserve - I forgot which one -
Once upon a time lived a Billy Goat.
Living among wolves didn't howl like one
He maaa'd goat songs like a goat ought.

He was grazing in the meadow growing rounder every day
Never getting into any troubled matter.
He was useless as a goat - as the Russians like to say,
However he was harmless, which is better.

He lived in the woods, by the little moat
Never treading the turf of his neighbors'
But - they noticed one day modest Billy Goat,
And elected him to be their Scapegoat.

For example Bear, local goon and cheat,
Would insult or hurt someone, like the bears do,
They would find the Goat, bring him in, and beat
Him between the horns till he couldn't move.

Poor Goat suffered daily never trying to protest
He endured all the beatings with a smile
Even Bear said: "The Goat sets example for the rest
He is a hero, I have noticed after while."

They protected him like a royal heir
Even sent patrols all along the road
To make sure that, even if he'd care,
From the game preserve couldn't go the Goat.

As far as the Goat, he was running free
However he started acting weird
Once he braded his dirty long goatie
And called Wolf a jerk from behind a tree.

Yet another day or evening, as he was routinely "scaped"
All because the Wolves bit more than their share
He, as though by mistake, began to growl like a Bear
But at that time no one seemed to hear or care.

While the predators fought their petty wars
The opinion grew in the game preserve
That more precious than Foxes, Wolves or Boars
Is the priceless old Billy-scaping-Goat.

Once the Goat heard that, all his manners changed
"Hey you, brown", he cried, "hey you, grey,
I will take away the Wolves' place in chain
And from Bears their rights to see light of day."

"I will show you what a Goat is like when he is really mad
I will poke holes in everything that moves
I will gore you to death and after that I'll hurt you bad
And I'll let the world know you died from my hooves."

More than one of you will eat dirt for food
You will rot in hell where it's really hot,
It is I who will decide if you were bad or good
There is no escape from the Scaping Goat!

In a game preserve - I forgot which one -
Goat runs the show, not like once before,
He lived among Wolves, and he howled like one,
Now he growls like Bear, so he scares more.

It doesn't translate perfectly but you get the point. Frankly I think the types of songs that people often try and analyze aren't really worth it. They are usually about A) being high or B) "getting your hand wet" to quote Lemmy. Sure you can think up all kinds of things they could be saying but Led Zepplin? Jethro Tull? The Eagles? Three bands which could have said anything they wanted. Because they were playing when some middle-class kids first tried the ganj they've been stretched into post-hippie chaucers.

reply to post by FEDec


In my opening post I stated that I do not care if the" meaning" is intentionally put there or not. I do NOT believe my analysis of mother goose is what was intended, I think it"s fun to see how far I can twist it.

That being said, there are some bands (yes even some rock bands) who had great lyricists and are worth analyzing if one likes that sort of thing.