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Thread: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

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    Goober GAC's Avatar
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    Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    I'm sure we can all list examples. Maybe it's in a song title or lyric. Confused about a title (wondering what drugs they were doing when they came up with it)? Or maybe a particular lyric, like the classic "Blinded By The Light", and the singers garbled pronunciation, especially of the word "deuce" which has led many fans to interpret it as ******.

    I was listening to the Beatle's Let It Be on the way to work. Now I have always appreciated Lennon's sarcastic whit. But some of his songs have always had me scratching my head as to what was going through his mind. One of those is "I Dig A Pony".

    Lennon would later comment that he thought the song was "a piece of garbage", though he has shown similar scorn for many of his songs. It was supposedly written for Yoko. Yoko is many things; but I never saw her as a pony.

    Other examples of what many say was Lennon's poetic ambiguity ....

    And Your Bird Can Sing
    Hey Bulldog
    Everybodys Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey
    Last edited by GAC; 08-07-2008 at 08:05 PM.
    "In my day you had musicians who experimented with drugs. Now it's druggies experimenting with music" - Alfred G Clark (circa 1972)


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    Man Pills Falls City Beer's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    Quote Originally Posted by GAC View Post
    I'm sure we can all list examples. Maybe it's in a song title or lyric. Confused about a title (wondering what drugs they were doing when they came up with it)? Or maybe a particular lyric, like the classic "Blinded By The Light", and the singers garbled pronunciation, especially of the word "deuce" which has led many fans to interpret it as ******.

    I was listening to the Beatle's Let It Be on the way to work. Now I have always appreciated Lennon's sarcastic whit. But some of his songs have always had me scratching my head as to what was going through his mind. One of those is "I Dig A Pony".

    Lennon would later comment that he thought the song was "a piece of garbage", though he has shown similar scorn for many of his songs. It was supposedly written for Yoko. Yoko is many things; but I never saw her as a pony.

    Other examples of what many say was Lennon's poetic ambiguity ....

    And Your Bird Can Sing
    Hey Bulldog
    Everybodys Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey)
    "I Dig a Pony" comes from Lennon's Joyce/Beckett/Brecht absurdist associative phase, like "Come Together."

    Tons of puns and weird inside jokes, I'd imagine.
    “And when finally they sense that some position cannot be sustained, they do not re-examine their ideas. Instead, they simply change the subject.” Jamie Galbraith

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    Goober GAC's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    Quote Originally Posted by Falls City Beer View Post
    "I Dig a Pony" comes from Lennon's Joyce/Beckett/Brecht absurdist associative phase, like "Come Together."

    Tons of puns and weird inside jokes, I'd imagine.
    I actually found this on the 'net about the song....

    http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=178

    The Beatles recorded this on the Apple Records rooftop. It appears in rooftop sequence of the movie Let It Be.

    The false start was caused by Ringo caught mopping his brow.

    In the 1988 film Imagine: John Lennon, home video footage reveals Lennon being asked about several lines from this song by a young man who was found hiding on the property surrounding Tittenhurst, Lennon's home in Ascot, England. Lennon assures him that the song refers to no specific person and that the lyrics are "nonsense," a lyrical technique he also attributes to unspecified Bob Dylan songs. (thanks, Nick - La Crosse, WI)

    This was one of John's only contributions to Let It Be.

    He was very depressed at the time and he and Yoko were both using heroin. They kicked their habit several months later with a "Scream Therapy" method. (thanks, Adrian - Wilmington, DE)

    Lennon wrote this as 2 songs: "All I Want Is You" and "Dig a Pony."

    Producer Phil Spector cut out 2 lines for the album version. The unedited version is in the movie.

    This song was listed as "I Dig A Pony" on the album (though that error was corrected for the CD). People thought that the line "Hi, hi hi, hi hiyeeee.... dig a pony" was "I, I , I , I Iyeeeeeeeee.... dig a pony." You can still find tabs online for "I Dig A Pony." (thanks, Loretta - Liverpool, England)

    The line, "I pick a moondog" refers to how The Beatles were Johnny And The Moondogs for a few days for a talent show in the very early '60s. (thanks, Coleman - Richmond, VA)
    "In my day you had musicians who experimented with drugs. Now it's druggies experimenting with music" - Alfred G Clark (circa 1972)

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    Class of 2023 George Foster's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    "blinded by the light....wrapped up like a duche?" what does he say here? I have never figured it out.

    "If you want to ride...come ride the white pony..." what?

    "She blinded me with science" never got that one but it was a good song.
    1st pick of the 2023 baseball amateur draft

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    Baseball card addict MrCinatit's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    Sometimes, the mental imagery inspired by I Am The Walrus makes my eyes bleed.
    Goo-Goo-Ga-Choo.

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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    Quote Originally Posted by MrCinatit View Post
    Sometimes, the mental imagery inspired by I Am The Walrus makes my eyes bleed.
    Goo-Goo-Ga-Choo.
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    Hot Stove Season HotCorner's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    Anything by Pink Floyd.

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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    Quote Originally Posted by HotCorner View Post
    Anything by Pink Floyd.
    Yes but they were still Oh so good!
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    So long old friend rotnoid's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    For the record, I believe the lyrics are "revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night. "

    I've always struggled with the chorus to "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys. I'm a knucklehead, I'm making real good friends?
    I'm just like everybody else. I have two arms, two legs and 4,000 hits."

    -Pete Rose

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    Plays The Right Way Hap's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    Journey -- Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' (What's with all the NA-NA's? What the heck are they supposed to mean? Is it the unnamed girl crying because it's now her turn?)
    .

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    Churlish Johnny Footstool's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    Quote Originally Posted by Hap View Post
    Journey -- Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' (What's with all the NA-NA's? What the heck are they supposed to mean? Is it the unnamed girl crying because it's now her turn?)
    I always though it was the former boyfriend taunting her. "Now it's your turn, girl, to cry. Na na na na na..."
    "I prefer books and movies where the conflict isn't of the extreme cannibal apocalypse variety I guess." Redsfaithful

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    Charlie Brown All-Star IslandRed's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    Quote Originally Posted by rotnoid View Post
    I've always struggled with the chorus to "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys. I'm a knucklehead, I'm making real good friends?
    It was:

    I'm a real cool head
    I'm making real good bread

    I assume that in L.A. in 1964, that made sense.

    Quote Originally Posted by Johnny Footstool View Post
    I always though it was the former boyfriend taunting her. "Now it's your turn, girl, to cry. Na na na na na..."
    That's exactly what it is.

    As for me, CCR's "Lookin' Out My Back Door" is a song I loved as a kid and I still have no idea what he's talking about. Supposedly Fogerty swears it's not about being on drugs, which would have at least explained some of it.
    Reading comprehension is not just an ability, it's a choice

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    My clutch is broken RichRed's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    "Silk Pyjamas" by Thomas Dolby

    Silk pyjamas, silk pyjamas
    She was wearing silk pyjamas
    Usual outfit, big pith helmet
    Dr. Martens and silk pyjamas

    Said it was driving her round the bend
    Just sitting and waiting for the phone to ring
    She should have been back around half past ten
    Has anybody seen my friend?
    She's so lovely in her green and red

    Silk pyjamas
    Can't have gone far
    Where's the high street?
    Where's the river?
    How's the bugger going to manage?
    Doesn't speak a word of Spanish

    Said it was driving her half insane
    To live in a city with no underground train
    She took her umbrella and her biscuit tin
    And she wandered off into the smog
    For a slurpy and a tofu dog, singing...
    hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo
    hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo
    hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo
    hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo

    Silk pyjamas, silk pyjamas
    She was wearing silk pyjamas
    In the daytime
    In the night
    She was wearing silk pyjamas
    Silk pyjamas, silk pyjamas
    She was wearing silk pyjamas
    Usual outfit, big pith helmet
    Silk pyjamas, no elastic
    Big pith helmet that she came by
    Somewhere on the Bakerloo line
    Have you seen her silk pyjamas?
    She was wearing silk pyjamas
    "I can make all the stadiums rock."
    -Air Supply

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    Plays The Right Way Hap's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) -- Meat Loaf
    Last edited by Hap; 08-08-2008 at 02:16 PM.
    .

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    Be the ball Roy Tucker's Avatar
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    Re: Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

    James Joyce's "The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly"
    She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning


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