Rock lyric trivia amnesty
Right, let's clear up a few things. This is the thread to ask trivial questions about song lyrics you feel you really should know the answer to but were always too afraid to ask. I'll start,
Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones - is that about heroin or is it about interracial lust?
What or who is a Wonderwall?
Who or what is a Beetlebum?
Is the House of the Rising Sun a brothel?
Is Stairway to Heaven about anything or is it just nonsense?
Two Little Boys by Rolf Harris, I always assumed it was about the Crimean war, am I right?
- More from Niks.
- Login or register to post comments








Wonderwall
is, I believe, a film with a soundtrack by George Harrison, and is one of many desperate attempts by Oasis to connect their dirges with the work of the Beatles.
Tall Wall......
....with a chimney. Crow on it. Singing.
I feel I should make some point or other here
But I don't know what it is and I'm not a massive Wonderwall fan anyway. Unless I'm drunk and at an Oasis gig in which case it's the best thing ever.
However, I believe that Wonderwall refers to a wall in the bedroom Liam and Noel used to share where they would put pictures of their heroes.
(Insert Noddy Holder, John Lennon, Rutles jibes here)
Wait a sec
Hmmm
Come off it ...
...Oasis were always thrashing about and trying to be the new Slade weren't they? And not quite making it.
Brown Sugar
Interracial lust every time, surely. And slaving. Try getting that on Radio One nowadays.
So are you saying then that 'You're Beautiful'...
isn't about interracial lust and slaving? I could have sworn it was...
Definitely Interracial lust.
'I've got a new one myself. No words yet, but a few words in my head - called Brown Sugar - about a woman who screws one of her black servants. I started to call it Black Pussy but I decided that was too direct, too nitty-gritty'
Mick Jagger, 2 December 1969 on the way to Muscle Schoals studios.
From Stanley Booth's True Adventures Of The Rolling Stones.
Filthy subtexts
OK, I guess this is the place to ask about lots of songs - primarily early rock 'n' roll, many of them by Leiber and Stoller - and what I perceive to be crafty sexual references. Or do I just have a dirty mind? Here are some - but not all - of the ones that have made me wonder:
Down In Mexico - is it a series of increasingly complicated metaphors that depict oral sex? Start with the laugh after "south of the border" and let your mind do the rest.
She's Not You - is it about trying to get over a woman by finding one that looks identical; possibly even by dressing her up?
Please Please Me - oral sex again?
Jailhouse Rock
'Little Jimmy's playing on the slide trombone'
Oh...
...my. I had no idea.
I'll stick with a wooden chair if it's all the same to Little Jimmy.
The Sopranos
Fans will recall the golf course scene where Tony pokes fun at Junior, after gossip about his oral preferences has leaked out, by singing "South of the border".
Exactly
I remember it well. The phrase itself is definitely a double entendre, but am I going too far by looking for similar content in the entire song? I mean, "a purple sash and a black moustache"...
This is getting more than a little disturbing ...
What about the song 'Red Cadillac & A Black Moustache'. Should I be worried?
That Is Rock 'n' Roll
You say that music's for the birds
And you can't understand the words
Well, honey, if you did,
You'd really blow your lid,
'Cause, baby, that is rock and roll
By Leiber and Stoller.
My Big 10 Inch....record
Chuck Berry
Is there a hidden message to "My Ding-A-Ling"???
Answers on a postcard.
It's about...
Chuck's fondness for pealing.
Ding a Ling
Whatever the hidden message is, Chuck didn't put it there. I believe it's the only one of his hits that he didn't write. I can't say I've ever listened to the lyrics that closely but I kind of thought it might be about a bicycle.
You must be playing with your own ding a ling
As the song says.
House of The Rising Sun
I think the answer is clearly yes, it is about a brothel.
Two Little Boys - who cares?
Stairway to Heaven - it's a retail experience.
But,
My only query about House of the Rising Sun is that there is no reference in the song to prostitution. But the fact that his father is a 'gambling man' and the reference to the house being 'the ruin of many a man' seems to suggest that it is in fact a gambling den of some sort.
The Animals version...
...changes to lyrics. In the version on Dylan's first album it's the ruin of many a poor girl in the house of the rising sun. The gambler was her sweetheart.
I care
2 little boys is set in the american civl war he sings about "ranks of blue and grey" if memory serves, it's aheart felt tale of internecine violence, it's a much better song than hairway to steven.
Indeed...
... a war often characterised as having brother fighting against brother.
Rolf's finest moment...
without doubt. Genuinely moving.
Coming right up. . .
Clive Dunn's "Grandad": a critical reappraisal.
I can appreciate the occasional drop of sentimentality in the right place as much as the next man, but first Gilbert O' Sullivan and now this?
Don't you think.......
.....the Word Irregulars are becoming increasingly identifiable as their counterparts in Dads Army? But who is Pike? Is it Mr Hatchet or Mr Crow?
What, pray tell, have I done to deserve this scorn?!
I could write at length on this site about all my cool records, about my impeccable taste. However I don't give a toss about being cool, so if I like something, I say it. I am rather prone to think that some people on this site hold back from admitting to liking unfashionable music for fear of damaging their cred. Well bollocks to that...
Fashionable? Moi?
I lap up Andy Williams B-sides, for Gawd's sake, but I'm afraid "Two Little Boys" is a bridge too far.
What about Bernard Cribbins?
Is admitting to liking his records a bridge too far as well? Messers Ellen and Hepworth don't seem to think so, as evidenced by the latest podcast. I mean I don't own 'Two Little Boys' - and probably never will - but I think it's a good record.
Not a patch on his masterpiece about the 'roo, Pat:
Nick me discs when I'm crisped, mate,
nick me discs when I'm crisped.
Take me albums and run, son,
take me albums and run,
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me kangaroo down
Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me kangaroo down
Keep me guitars all strung, son,
keep me guitars all strung.
Tune 'em right and then strum, son,
tune 'em right and then strum,
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me kangaroo down
Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me kangaroo down
Filthy subtext
perhaps someone should reveal the filthy subtext behind these words. I would but I must get back to work.
it turns out the original version
is about an Aussie stockman's dying wishes which explains the lines 'Let me Abos loose' and 'tan me hide when i'm dead fred'.
I wonder if the BBC Commissars...
...have listened to the "let me abo's go loose" version of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down"?
Seemingly such a harmless ditty
yet with that dark aspect to it
Jake the Peg
There's not even a subtext there, it's just brazen filth.
Sun Arise
Obviously about early-morning legovers:
Sun arise, fillin' up the hollow [...]
Sun arise, she come every mornin'
Two little joys
Rolf Harris's finest moment is, in fact, the final verse of "The Court of King Caractacus". The song "Wonderful Christmas Pig" is a close second. Rolf's "All Together Now" LP is one of the greatest live albums - an enraptured audience in the palm of his hand.
In previous posts I've directed people towards Bernard Cribbins' finest moment. Contrary to the opinion of Mark Ellen, it is not "The Hole in the Ground" but "Gossip Calypso".
Most of us on this website scorn the concept of guilty pleasures, so why deny yourself treats such as these? I'm not going to feel guilty for liking Rolf and Bernard when there are Snow Patrol fans walking the streets unchallenged.
Can I be Sgt Wilson? That'd be lovely.
One liner of the week
I'm not going to feel guilty for liking Rolf and Bernard when there are Snow Patrol fans walking the streets unchallenged.
SPOT ON.
Two little boys
The first record I bought with my own pocket money from the record shop on Eldon Arcade, Barnsley, still know all the words.
But there are far too many people on here who will try to persuade you that their pre-school years were spent listening to White Light/White Heat and reading the pop-up version of "On the Road".
Pre-school?
I was roadying for Link Wray before I went to school. That's why my hearing was so shot by the time I started buying records at 12 or so.
You are so right
far too many. Aren't there are any Richard Thompson and Beatles fans out there?
Wow,
That's interesting, thanks.
I was wondering how the context of Niks response to the earlier
....remark of PCs would go, by it subsequently following all the other responses. At last, I noted, it fits again.
and again
and again
And strangely again
:-0
There's your...
...t-shirt slogan, then.
You know
You might have something there. All Royalty cheques gratefully accepted.
Pull up to the Bumper
I'm sure thats not about parking your car.
"Pull up to my bumper baby,
In your long black limosine,
Pull up to my bumper baby,
And drive it in between".
Or is it ????
I remember when Max Romeo had a hit...
...with "Wet Dream".
The refrain went "lie down girl let me push it up".
I heard Max on the radio at the time claiming it was all about a hole in his ceiling (hence the wetness of his dreams) that he was trying to engage the services of his girlfriend to fix. This process necessitated her going into the attic and lying down so that she could peer through the hole to help him replaster the hole (hence the "lie down girl etc").
Right, so...
Brown Sugar is about interacial lust (of course it is, I just googled the lyrics and it's obvious).
A Wonderwall is either a film or a wall in the Gallagher brothers' bedroom with pictures of the Fab Four on it.
The House of the Rising Sun is a whorehouse.
Two Little Boys is set in the American Civil War.
Stairway to Heaven is about a 'retail experience' whatever that means.
...and along the way we discovered that Leiber and Stoller and Max Romeo were crafty, filthy buggers and its OK to like Rolf Harris.
BUT WHAT IS A BEETLEBUM!!??
I had this rather vague notion
that is was something against Oasis but reading the lyrics that doesn't make sense. Wake Up Bomb by REM has also been said to be about the Gallaghers but this has been denied by the band who say it's just about glam rock - they may just be saying that though. Who knows?
Does that help at all?
Probably not.
Beetlebum
Pet name for her out of Elastica, isn't it?
And it's about
their wacky adventures on skag
Stairway
"...and she's buying a stairway to heaven.
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for."
That surely is a retail experience. Today she'd be going to IKEA. In 1971 who knows where?
I suppose the next bit is about a relaxing walk in the country after the trials of shopping. As for the rest?
It's misquoted
What Percy actually sings is this:
If the stores are all closed
With The Word she can get
What she came for
Foreseeing the instant satisfaction afforded by the permanent accessibility of the Now Here This! CD, compared with the annoyingly limited opening-hours of record shops, a mere 30 years before it actually happened. Yes, that's just how ahead of their time Led Zep were.
Thats just cracked me up.
Classic.
Pass the Dutchie
Max Romeo's bluffing reminds me of Musical Youth's appearance on Blue Peter in 1982 in which they breezily declared that their big hit was all about passing a cooking pot to the left.
Possible, but... http://tinyurl.com/hsb7e
RELAX
according to Holly Johnson in 1984 was all about motivation and self *cough* improvement.
Arf!
One of the reasons why Ringo's nose is also so red.
(See under Bumfreezer jacket, accoutrements, fashionable, of swinging London)
Beetlebum
Beetlebum is mentioned in the Mickey Rooney film Quicksand. Mickey Rooney's character is walking along the beach with his girlfriend and points to a group of stars and says "we call that the beetlebum".
And wikipedia
has a load of unsubstantiated theories as well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetlebum
This filth in popular culture
knows no bounds - what about Muffin the mule and Dobbin the donkey?
And Captain Pugwash and
Master Bates.
But sadly...
...not true. And I believe the creator of Pugwash has received apologies in the past...
The secret history of glam
Chinn and Chapman addressed health issues in their songs. Mud's "the cat crept in" slyly referenced constipation and Suzi Quatro's "48 crash" was about the menopause.
SHAKE ;RATTLE AND ROLL
"One eyed cat peepin' in a seafood store".
And there's more
You wear those dresses, the sun comes shinin' through
Can't believe my eyes, all that mess belongs to you
Walk This Way.......
"Schoolgirl sleazy with a classic kind of sassy, lil skirt hanging way up her knees...."
Hello.....Is that Childline?
The Locomotion
Someone once told me that this song was about - how can I put this delicately? - receiving deliveries via the tradesmen's entrance.
Rachel Stevens
The lovely Rachel's I Said Never Again (But Here We are) is also about going up the Oxo tower, viz
I said no, no never
We don't go together
Oh, I really couldn't take anymore
Now it's two weeks later
I feel such a traitor
Oh, I let you in my back door
While further down the piece she's 'biting her lip'
The minx!
I believe
You are correct. And I don't think she knew what it was she was singing if what I heard is correct.
The minx!
Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter
I remember a Q interview where Bruce Dickinson admitted that Iron Maiden's classic number one was about hitchhiking on the Hershey highway. Giveaways include this couplet:
true love and lipstick on your linen
bite the pillow, make no sound
and a request to unchain your back door.
To think that was the first single I ever bought. Shocked, I was.
Rolf Harris has a paradigmatically tidy beard
So why are we discussing him at such unbelievable length?
Just thinking about this beard stuff.....
...has got me muddled. Tidy beard bad, rough beard good, right? So how come Devendra Banhart looks as if he has a monkey on his face? He is utter cobblers.
And Joanna Newsom.
Americans. . .
are a law unto themselves. It's a very British thing, you see.
But, yes, the basic hypothesis is that painstakingly neat facial topiary indicates inherent untrustworthiness, while cheeky messiness indicates a thoroughly good egg. (Hey, that's a point - where is that Oeufster?)
Eh?
Joanna Newsom has a beard?
For some reason
Until recently I thought Devendra Banhart was a lady. Thankfully not a bearded lady then.
I thought Devendra Banhart was. . .
a walk-on character in Coronation Street until I discovered the Word blog.
T-shirt slogan
That has to be a contender for a t-shirt slogan, surely?
Back to twinning
I always confuse him with Vashti Bunyan.
Neil Young
Carolina queen,
She's a walking love machine.
I'd like to make her scream,
When I bite the bullet.
The old goat...
Brown Sugar
.....yes interracial lust, unlike Perfect Day, Golden Brown and There She Goes
I thought all rock songs...
...were really about wanking.
Wanking, and drugs. That's it really.