Songs (and Lyrics) That Have You Scratching Your Head

[GAC]

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

[Falls City Beer]

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.

[GAC]

"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)

[George Foster]

"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.

[MrCinatit]

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

[Sean_CaseyRules]

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

"Yellow-mattered custard, drippin from a cat-dogs eye!?!?"

[GAC]

"Yellow-mattered custard, drippin from a cat-dogs eye!?!?"

That's "dead dog's eye"

Lennon made sure the lyrics didn't make sense so he could confuse all the people trying to analyze his songs. He got the idea for the oblique lyrics when he received a letter from a student who explained that his English teacher was having the class analyze Beatles songs.

When Lennon decided to write confusing lyrics, he asked his friend Pete Shotton for a nursery rhyme they used to sing. Shotton gave them this rhyme, which Lennon incorporated into the song:
"Yellow matter custard, green slop pie, all mixed together with a dead dog's eye. Slap it on a butty, ten foot thick, then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick."

The idea for the Walrus came from the poem The Walrus and The Carpenter from Alice in Wonderland. In his 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon said: "It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist and social system. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought, Oh, s--t, I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it?"

James Joyce's "The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly"

Lennon got the line "Goo Goo Ga Joob" from the book Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce.




I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.
I'm crying.

Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody tuesday.
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.

Mister city policeman sitting
Pretty little policemen in a row.
See how they fly like lucy in the sky, see how they run.
I'm crying, i'm crying.
I'm crying, i'm crying.

Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye.
Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess,
Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your knickers down.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.

Sitting in an english garden waiting for the sun.
If the sun don't come, you get a tan
From standing in the english rain.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob.

Expert textpert choking smokers,
Don't you thing the joker laughs at you?
See how they smile like pigs in a sty,
See how they snied.
I'm crying.

Semolina pilchard, climbing up the eiffel tower.
Elementary penguin singing hari krishna.
Man, you should have seen them kicking edgar allan poe.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob.
Goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob g'goo.

[HotCorner]

Anything by Pink Floyd.

[RedsFan75]

Anything by Pink Floyd.

Yes but they were still Oh so good!

[Will M]

Anything by Pink Floyd.

A lot of Pink Floyd's more famous songs ( from Wish you were here - Dark side... - The wall ) were about their original leader developing schizophrenia in early adulthood. Knowing this a lot of the lyrics and imagery make more sense

[rotnoid]

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?

[Will M]

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

I can't believe those are the correct lyrics. I hear "wrapped up like a ******, you know the ruler in the night"

[Hap]

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?)

[Johnny Footstool]

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..."

[IslandRed]

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.

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.