Oh Lord, Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

By sammymaudlin on Aug 4, 2008

I think I'm pretty well on record here as not being a lyrics guy. I have difficulty deciphering them and if I do, I could often care less.

So I'm sure we all have misunderstood lyric stories. I had a friend in high school that was certain Hendrix was singing "'scuse my while I kiss this guy." I've heard that's a common one.

I've got one that goes beyond just misunderstanding and goes to a complete lack of understanding.

A fraternity brother of mine, a few years older, a jock and huge and manly (I think I remember people saying that he almost played in the NFL) was a super nice guy but hardcore guy all the way.

We were sitting around drinking Old Style in the can one night and someone asked the question, What woman sung about in a song would you most like to do? Some answers I recall; "Farmer John's Daughter", "Gloria", the lady that has the "line that runs up the back of the stockings" and my big macho friend says "Lola".

Follow up:

We laugh. He looks confused. We explain. He thinks we're giving him the business. We put it on. He gets furious, storms off to the bathroom, rips a sink out of the wall.

We scurry away.

Got any misunderstood lyric stories? Got a girl in a song that you'd like to tap?

Tags: lyrics
Comment from: mac [Member] Email
I was in high school before I caught the "Now I'm not the world's most masculine man...." line I laughed my ass off in the car.

Forever and a day I thought Damon in "Country House" was singing, "Caught in a rat race, TOO MANY NEEDS." rather "then TERMINALLY." And "I'm a professional SINGER" rather then "CYNIC." (my favorite line from that song is "He's reading Balzac, and knocking down Prozac")

Regarding girls in song who do it for me:

E from Eels has always had his finger on girls I would like to meet.

"Dirty Girl" and "My Beloved Monster" are two which come to mind immediately.

The "Soldier Girl" from Polyphonic Spree.

The "Side-walk Surfer Girl" from Supper Furry Animals

And of course "The Girl From New York City," "Surfer Girl," the girl who's "Not The Little Girl I Once Knew, and the girl who gives off "Good Vibrations" from The Beach Boys.
08/04/08 @ 09:18
Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]
It wasn't until I was in my mid-30s that I realized that Van Morrison is NOT singing "one Mormon dance with you" at various points in "Moondance", including the end of each chorus. This despite the fact that the song is entitled "Moondance". For some reason I always figured a "Mormon dance" was some kind of illicit, sexual activity. Sexy!

As for women described in songs whom I'd like to sleep with... That's a GREAT question. I've been thinking about this and being a bit of a depressive sort who usually objects to songs with girls' names in the title I keep coming back to some of Lou Reed's failed objects of desire, such as the figure in "Pale Blue Eyes" or the object of hatred in "Sad Song". I really think I could work it out with these women, or whatever they are.

Then I think about the women on that slave ship in "Brown Sugar" and the "slant-eyed lady" in "Every Picture Tells a Story"...and I know they're way wrong to consider as answers to this question!

I've gotta think about it. Given my initial options, the "chick" in "Lola" isn't that bad a choice. It is a very romantic, visceral description of innocent lust.
08/04/08 @ 10:07
Comment from: Oats [Member]
Elvis Costello's "Tears Before Bedtime." I know he's singing, "I know that accusing look," but it always sounds to me like "I know they're accusing Luke."
08/04/08 @ 10:30
Comment from: alexmagic [Member] Email
I don't know if I ever actually thought this was the case, but I really wanted the "your house was very small, with wood-chip on the wall" in Pulp's Disco 2000 to be "your house was very small, with wood shit on the wall."

I did think that the line "the Likely Lads are picking up the uglies" in Blur's It Could Be You was "the Lightning Lads are picking up the uglies," assuming it was a reference to some kind of 2000AD thing I'd never heard of instead of what it seems to be, a reference to a '70s British sitcom.

Re: the second question, the girl from "Girl". What? How dare you judge me?
08/04/08 @ 10:36
Comment from: sammymaudlin [Member]
Hey mac: I'm with you on E's ladies as well. He describes that kind of misunderstood, outcast girl I've always gone in for. The 2-D version of which is Ally Sheedy in Breakfast Club.
08/04/08 @ 12:03
Comment from: hrrundivbakshi [Member] Email
Just once, I suppose I'd like to make it with a distant, slightly freaky, no-strings-attached, totally hot chick like the one in "Norwegian Wood." But I never will, uptight guy that I am.
08/04/08 @ 12:51
Comment from: sammymaudlin [Member]
hr: Take it from me, after a few hundred of those, it gets kinda old.
08/04/08 @ 14:00
Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]
As I ponder this "Norwegian Wood" type and listen to the new Paul Weller album (more on that, I'm sure, later this week), I'm thinking of The Jam's "Liza Radley". I've always dug women like her. I'd also like to do that "Girl from the North Country" that Dylan and others have sung about.
08/04/08 @ 14:56
Comment from: sammymaudlin [Member]
I always thought Pale Blue Eyes was about a man, man.
08/04/08 @ 16:33
Comment from: meanstom [Member]
'Punk Rock Girl' always turned me on.
08/05/08 @ 14:01

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