Lyrics with double entendres, metaphors, imagery & puns that tickle your fancy

I think I may have posted about this lyric in another thread but the Kacey Musgraves song "Merry Go Round" has some lovely Elvis Costello-level wordplay in its chorus:

"Mamas hooked on Mary Kay
Brothers hooked on Mary Jane
And Daddies hooked on Mary two doors down

Mary Mary quite contrary,
We get bored so we get married
And just like dust we settle in this town
On this broken merry go 'round and 'round and 'round we go,
Where it stops nobody knows,
And it ain't slowin' down, this merry go 'round"

The triple-entendre and puns on the name Mary form a pretty clever and astute picture of a small-town world. Add in the fact that Kacey Musgrave's East Texas accent makes the words Mary, married and merry into virtual homophones and you have one of the hidden gems of songwriting of the past ten years, IMHO.

 

One that always makes smile every time is Richard Thompson singing Why Must I Plead, (last line of the first verse) on Rumor and Sigh album;

All your bitterness and lies
Sting like tears in my eyes
And a thousand love-sick tunes
Won't wash away the wounds from my mind
You've been seen around, you're a new sensation
You got a better deal, and you took his invitation
You've been sitting on his lap and taking his dictation

I guess that line must have troubled him ever since as the version for Acoustic Classics 2 has changed to:

You've been licking his stamps and taking his dictation.

K

 

If you get a chance, listen to Jimmy Rogers and his band at his 70th birthday performance at the Chicago Blues Festival in 1994 or 1995. It features a killer Jimmy Vaughn on guitar.
The song is fantastic. JR sings great and plays the harp. He leaves very little to the imagination.

 

OK. But I can read this in another innocent way.

"But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man... And so is Lola"

I'm glad I'm a man. and so is Lola.

 

Right. In my first example, Lola could be a woman who is glad that the singer is a man.

 

Sorry, but I think this interpretation of the Dylan song is pure internet hearsay. It's a pretty banal interpretation, too, I'd say. Schoolboy stuff.
I think if Dylan wanted to talk about homophobia I think he'd have found a more interesting, inventive and meaningful or poetic way of doing it. I don't get the feeling Dylan would be so crass. And I'm not even a huge Dylan fan by any means.

 

Can also be my entry for misheard lyrics (especially when you don't know Clitares) But pretty much the whole thing.

Stranglers: Peaches

Strolling along minding my own business
Well there goes a girl and a half
She's got me going up and down
She's got me going up and down

Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches

Well I got the notion girl that you got some suntan lotion in that bottle of yours
Spread it all over my peelin' skin, baby
That feels real good
All this skirt lappin' up the sun
Lap me up
Why don't you come on and lap me up?

Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches

Well, there goes another one just lying down on the sand dunes
I'd better go take a swim and see if I can cool down a little bit
'Cause you and me, woman
We got a lotta things on our minds (you know what I mean)

Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches

Will you just take a look over there (where?) (there)
Is she tryin' to get outta that Clitares?
Liberation for women
That's what I preach (preacher man)

Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches

Oh ****!
There goes the charabang
Looks like I'm gonna be stuck here the whole summer
Well, what a bummer
I can think of a lot worse places to be
Like down in the streets
Or down in the sewer
Or even on the end of a skewer

Down on the beaches, just looking at the peaches
Down on the beaches, just looking at brown bodies
Down on the beaches, just looking at all the shot glasses
Down on the beaches, just looking at all the peaches

 

...but that kinda ignores the line 'girls will be boys and boys will be girls'

also, I don't think you should begin a sentence with 'and'


another funny line 'Well I'm not dumb but I can't understand why she walks like a woman but talks like a man' lol ...it was 1969 after all

 

I believe that Melanie is on record about being rather coy as to the meaning in the lyrics of "I've got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a brand new key."
"My idea about songs is that once you write them, you have very little say in their life afterward. It's a lot like having a baby. You conceive a song, deliver it, and then give it as good a start as you can. After that, it's on its own. People will take it any way they want to take it."

 

It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
Except for Lola.

 

Everything Warren Zevon ever did.

 

I think her meaning was VERY clear. And intriguing.

 

Well, thank you, Sir. One thing I really love about this forum is how everybody refrain from judgemental tones.

Then again, if you do not find the overall tone and the metaphores used in that lyric to be ever so slightly 'homphobic' as more easily offended minds than mine would say, you should perhaps not try your hands on this game of de-coding lyrical meanings. It wasn't that those phrases I quoted in themselves necessarily have to be interpreted that way, but really, man.

Let me underline every passage in that lyric that is a bit 'iffy' for you and maybe some switch will be flicked in your uncorrupted mind as well

You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked and you say, "Who is that man?"
You try so hard but you don't understand
Just what you will say when you get home
Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

You raise up your head and you ask, "Is this where it is?"
And somebody points to you and says, "It's his"
And you say, "What's mine?" and somebody else says, "Well, what is?"
And you say, "Oh my God, am I here all alone?"
But something is happening and you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

You hand in your ticket and you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you when he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel to be such a freak?"
And you say, "Impossible!" as he hands you a bone
And something is happening here but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

You have many contacts among the lumberjacks
To get you facts when someone attacks your imagination
But nobody has any respect, anyway they already expect you to all give a check
To tax-deductible charity organizations
Ah, you've been with the professors and they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well-read, it's well-known
But something is happening here and you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you and then he kneels
He crosses himself and then he clicks his high heels
And without further notice, he asks you how it feels
And he says, "Here is your throat back, thanks for the loan"
And you know something is happening but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

Now, you see this one-eyed midget shouting the word "Now"
And you say, "For what reason?" and he says, "How"
And you say, "What does this mean?" and he screams back, "You're a cow!
Give me some milk or else go home"
And you know something's happening but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

Well, you walk into the room like a camel, and then you frown
You put your eyes in your pocket and your nose on the ground
There ought to be a law against you comin' around
You should be made to wear earphones
'Cause something is happening and you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

If that last verse isn't a condemnation of a certain individual's lifestyle which is described in pretty explicit albeit poetic detal above, well, then his name isn't Bob Dylan

Edit: and I'm not saying mr. Zimmerman is condemning homophobia, quite the opposite. It is still a great song, tho.

 

I followed a sign; it said "beautiful chest".
It lead to a lady who showed me her best.

from "The Battle Of Epping Forest" by Genesis. Always makes me smile.

--Geoff

 

this is so fun! Next: The innocent lyrics of Lou Reed - Walk On The Wild Side.

Lola isn't mixed up, muddled up, or shook up, she knows who she is

If Lola was merely a strong woman there would be no need for the 'girls will be boys and boys will be girls' line, after all, she's not being a boy.

 

In the late seventies and all through the eighties, folks were just less assuming at crass intentions. It was probably easier to get away with it then. Hell, I just thought The Village People were a pop act with a great gimmick and Boy George was just a dude who decided to were flamboyant clothes to include the occasional dress. Granted I was raised very conservatively, but my whole church giong family was pretty blind to all those type things too.

 

Sorry to be judgmental – but I assumed that because this is a well-known internet interpretation – as quoted by writer Andy Gill – it was not your own personal interpretation and so I was not intending to judge you.

I agree that Dylan does criticise hypercritical beliefs and their owners in his songs, especially around that time. But the idea that a 'sword swallower' is a reference to a homosexual does strike me as a little crass to my ears and I think needs some back-up and evidence that this was what Dylan personally intended. I'm happy to be wrong, but it's still not clear that this was a criticism of homophobia or something else altogether.

 

If that's your way of looking at it, fine. Sure, in one interpretation she may just be a strong woman. They do exist, while girls pretending to be boys and boys pretending to be girls can exist at the same time.

Then again, Lola knows she's a man dressed as a woman. She's not mixed up at all.

This is fun.

 

Don't forget "Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand" either.

 

Or "Pictures of Lily."

 

She was stalking the guy for questionable purposes!

 

I guess ill think twice before I ask someone to "hand me a bone" ......
and who are the lumberjacks.....like 'bears' in todays parlance? I guess its possible, im pretty dense with these things though,
never even thought of it....it could just be Dylan playing with the lyrics like he always does and sometimes the words just come together
in a strange way. Wait....walk into the room like a camel, as in "hump"....nose on the ground...give me some milk....hmmmm

 

re: your first 2 sentences.
Yes, both can exist at the same time but it's a non-sequitur.
It would actually be really insulting to strong women to say they're trying to be boys.