Lyrics & their meanings Part 19- Stairway to Heaven

We tackle the big ones: What the hell is it all about?
PART 19
Stairway To Heaven (1971) Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin’s fourth album was released untitled in November 1971 with the only mention of the band being on the spine of the cover so much was their popularity at the time. Side One track four was the song Stairway to Heaven. A song though never released as a single went onto being arguably the most popular song of all time, winning countless polls over the last 30 years and voted for by people who actually care about this sort of thing.
An early review by the Connecticut Gold Coast Review said the song ‘builds gracefully from a beautiful acoustic backing to a fast moving electric finish. With each change you wait for the explosion and it very gratifyingly comes….Stairway to Heaven is the best musical representation of an orgasm I have ever heard.’
This author is prophetically announcing the wankery that the song was going to inspire through to the present.
The most played track in radio history, it began like most Zeppelin classics on a tape from guitarist/co-songwriter Jimmy Page’s home studio. Recording at Headley Grange in England, Page first played the track to Bassist John Paul Jones where both worked on the arrangement. During this, Singer/Lyricist Robert Plant sat down and proceeded to write 80% of the words on the spot. Plant concurs: Yeah, I just sat next to Pagey while he was playing it through. It was done very quickly. It took a little working out, but it was very fluid, unnaturally easy track. There was something pushing it, saying “you guys are okay, but if you want to do something timeless, here’s a wedding song for you.” ‘
In a Cream Magazine Interview Page said the song came so naturally in the studio it took Plant and himself half an hour to get the whole song constructed, which begs the question of how could something so spontaneous have so much meaning
Never once were the lyrics of the 8-minute opus actually explained by Robert Plant, odd due to the fact he has given detailed accounts in interviews for most other songs on the album. Going to California and Misty Mountain Hop were about Plants experiences from his first visit to San Francisco. Battle of Evermore was a period piece in the vein of Steel Eye Span, which is why Sandy Denny was asked to accompany. Rock ‘n’ Roll and When the Levee Breaks are what Led Zeppelin do best great blues based jams. Black Dog was a great riff with ad lib words named after a mongrel hanging around the studio.
It’s widely held that Plant now loathes Stairway to Heaven, though presumably he doesn’t mind the royalties, the sheet music alone selling in excess of one million copies the highest in Rock history. According to author Charley Cross in his Zeppelin bio, ‘Led Zeppelin: Heaven and Hell,’ Plant baulked at the thought of playing the anthem at the Atlantic Records Anniversary Concert in 1988. Corporate push came to shove, however, and Plant capitulated. It has been suggested that one of the reasons he shied away from the Zeppelin reunion was the spectre of doing a fifty-city tour in which he’d be forced to sing what he now termed ’that bloody wedding song’ fifty times.
But what does it all mean? Many fans try to break it into stanzas to the point it’s worked like one of Nostradamus’ Quatrains. Some think it’s just a general poetic ramble about hope in dark times. Others an excuse for Plant to distance himself from Pages Devil Worshipping rumours that plagued the band all through its existence. But the truly confused go to great lengths to voice their opinion. For example this very short extract by Dr Robert Walser, Professor of Musicology, Dartmouth College from his book Running with the Devil: Power Gender and Madness in Heavy Metal Music.
We might better understand the associate powers of the lyrics by breaking them into categories. We are presented with a number of mysterious figures: a lady, the piper, the May Queen. Images of nature abound: brooks, a songbird, rings of smoke through the trees, a hedgerow, wind. We find a set of concepts (that pretty much sums up the central concerns of all philosophy): signs, a road, meanings, thoughts, feelings, spirit, reason, wonder, soul, and the idea that “all is one and one is all”. We find a set of vaguely but powerfully evocative symbols: gold the West, the tune, white light, shadows, paths, a road, and the Stairway to heaven itself. At the very end, we find some paradoxical self- referentiality: “ To be a rock and not to roll”.The words provide a very often text, they invite endless interpretation. Yet they are resonant, requiring no rigorous study in order to become meaningful.
In other words I don’t know figure it out yourself. Chuck Eddy author of Stairway to Hell: The 500 best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe sums it up better but using a lot less words.
Stairway to heaven is tremendous. Also proof that words don’t have to mean anything to be meaningful. I mean, what’s this “if there’s a bustle in your hedgerow don’t be alarmed now? If I found anything bustling in my hedgerow, I’d get out my shotgun.

And the last word is left to an article written in Esquire for the songs 20th Anniversary in 1991.
The Lyrics to “Stairway to Heaven” are horrible, nothing more than nonsense words enlivened by cliché. If I ever wrote, “There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold,” my editor would cancel my contract.

(c)2000 shidot Prod

Rock Lyrics and their Meaning Bibliography

Bibliography
These works are all my own doing and I don't care who I upset with my opinions. I have tried to keep the information as factual as possible and believe most of it to be accurate. Some parts may be proven wrong for that I apologise in advance. In most cases people who can't accept the truth will scream blue murder that their heroes have been slighted. This book was created especially written for you.
Danny Nolan
The references I used are listed herewith, if a source is quoted during an article chances are it wasn’t listed below.
Bibliography:
Books
A Day In The Life- The music & artistry of the Beatles Mark Hertsgaard (McMillan) 1995
No Direction Home-The life & times of Bob Dylan Robert Sheldon (Penguin) 1987
JAGGER-Unauthorised Christopher Anderson (Simon & Schuster)1993
Bob Dylan Behind The Shades Clinton Heylon (Summit) 1991
Nirvana & The Sound of Seattle Brad Morrell (Omnibus) 1993
Rock 'N' Roll Babylon Gary Hermon (Plexus) 1982
Stairway To Heaven-Led Zeppelin Uncensored Cole & Trubo (Harper Collins) 1992
Rock-The rough guide Various (Rough Guide) 1999
Encyclopedia of Rock Hardy/Lang (McDonald & Co) 1987
Encyclopedia of Rock, Pop & Soul Irwin/ Stambler (McMillan) 1974
Springsteen Point Blank Christopher Sandford (Warner) 1999
The ultimate biography of the Bee Gees Bilyen,Cook,Hughes,Brennan & Crohan(Omnibus)2000
Magazines
Rolling Stone - Ben Gerson 22/6/72
Playboy October 1972
Trouser Press October 1972
And countless Websites to mention ...sorry

Lyrics & their meanings Part 18- American Pie

We tackle the big ones: What the hell is it all about?

PART 18
American Pie (1971) Don McLean

Don McLean released the American Pie Album in 1971, the same year as Led Zeppelins Stairway to Heaven and everyone’s had an opinion on what the hell they were about ever since.
American Pie was released in 1971 as a single from the album of the same name and reached Top 5 on the US, UK and Oz charts. Almost straight away it became sport to decipher the cryptic lyrics.

The only explanation the tunes songwriter; Don Mclean offered, was that he dedicated the album as a whole to Buddy Holly. (The Rock ‘N’ Roll idol of his youth).
He also admitted to the Holly reference in the opening stanzas.

In McLean’s own words “ I have never discussed the lyrics. You will find many ‘interpretations’ of my lyrics but none of them by me. Isn’t this fun?”

You think this would be enough for most people, but for some it has become an obsession.
In the majority of cases it has been assumed that the song is a running commentary of the history of rock since the death of Buddy Holly through the eyes of its creator. This would be fine if it was in some kind of chronological order and wasn’t so obtuse.

The most popular method is to break up every line from each verse and translate it into what they believe it be, with lots of little explanatory notes attached.

A good examples of this can been seen at http://www.urbanlegends.com/

Here’s a sample:

(Verse 5)
And there we were all in one place.
Woodstock

A generation lost in space
Some people think this is a reference to the US space program, which it might be; but that seems a bit literal. Perhaps this is a reference to hippies, who were sometime known as the ‘lost generation’, partially because of their particularly acute alienation from their parents, and partially because of their presumed preoccupation with drugs. It could also be a reference to the awful T.V show” Lost in Space….”

Either Don McLean is master of the ambiguous or these guys haven’t got a clue. I’ll go for the latter.

The most hotly disputed part of the song seems to be the Chorus. No one can come to terms why anyone would drive a Chevy to the Levy if it were dry? Who the good Ol’ Boys are and most importantly what’s an American Pie?

Two explanations commonly used have never been confirmed or proven. That McLean once dated a Miss American candidate (I believe McLean started this rumour himself) and the plane that carried Buddy Holly to his death was called ‘America Pie’.

Hopefully one day they’ll figure that out and the rest will follow, but don’t hold your breath.
Could it be McLean had a catchy tune some snappy lines thrown together to sound good? It’s an established fact McLean was a popular folk singer before the release of the album and the majority of his audience were hippie’s, maybe he was throwing them a bone?

A lot of the lines from the song are borrowed from the period it was written.
I.E; Lost in Space, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, I met a girl who sang the blues, Do you believe in Rock ‘N’ Roll , ..a pink carnation and a pick up truck, Helter Skelter and so on. I wonder what Procol Harum lead loony Keith Reid thought when he heard …caught the last train to the coast. A line he found in his pyjamas one night when he wrote the words to A Whiter Shade of Pale but that’s another story.

Maybe the song was never meant to mean anything and we should just stop analysing it, Don McLean apologised years ago to Chicago newspaper columnist Cecil Adams in a letter stating that he was sorry to lead every one on, but realised he should make a statement and move on, maintaining a dignified silence. The trouble was everyone else couldn’t shut up about it.
As an endnote Don McLean even though he denies it probably does have the best explanation of the story. When ask what American Pie means he replied:

“ It means I never have to work again if I don’t want to”.

(c) 2002 shidot

Lyrics & their meanings Part 15 -Ca plane pour moi

This continuing story of song lyrics and their meaning in some of the worlds best loved songs.

PART 15
CA PLANE POUR MOI (1977) PLASTIC BERTRAND

Plastic Bertrand was the name adopted by Belgian Roger Jouret.
Part of a musical family, Jouret made his first record in 1966 as part of a band named The Bisons in which he played drums; he was eight years old at the time. When things returned to normal again he settled down to classical studies and when finished school trained as a stage manager.
In 1975 Jouret formed Hubble Bubble the first Belgian Punk band and released one non- memorable album. During this period Jouret met producer Lou de Pryck and together they created the persona Plastic Bertrand, a satire on the safety- pin image of punk. (The name was derived from a punk journalist and singer popular in the Belgian music underground)
With Jouret’s good looks, ruffled hair and bright coloured pseudo punk clothes they had a huge hit in 1977 with “Ca Plane Pour Moi”. They did what many had failed to do by making Punk rock palatable to the unconverted.
With its big production, buzz saw guitars and frantic drumming it was perfect plastic pop. Having the song sung in French just added to the novelty value, (which is what this song was intended to be, a money making novelty song.) In actual fact Punks critics complained that the words sung by Johnny Rotten, Joe Strummer, Dave Vallum et al were unintelligible at the best of times.
The song itself translates very badly into English, which is understandable, as it has been described as nonsensical in French.
The title has been translated as meaning This life’s for me, All wells for Me and Come glide on Me but after my own investigations I believe it to be This Planes for Me. To see the English version of the lyrics is not a pretty sight and defiantly deserves to be sung in French much the same as Ninas 1980 hit 99 luft balloons sounded better sung in German.

A quick snippet of the words are as follows:

Go hop! The chick

What a Panard(?) What a vibration

To be sent, On the door mat

Filed, ruined, emptied, filled

“You are the king of the couch”

That she says to me in passing

Oooh-weee-ooh

I am the king of the couch

Contrary to rumours when it was realeased it is not a Belgian version of Elton Mortello’s UK hit “Jet Boy Jet Girl”. Mortello incidentally was a session player on the Bertrand Album.
Noted rock writer writes on the Trouser Press web site: “Ca Plane Pour Moi” is truly great dumbness – Bertrand singing verbose, seemingly nonsensical French lyrics over a classic three chord Ramones roar with Spectorish saxes and a winning falsetto “ oooh-weee-oooh” on toe chorus. It must have been truly inspiring dumbness because years later the Ramones did work with Phil Spector to record The End Of The Century album in 1980.
Described by one Pop music Encyclopaedia as “the laughing stock of the worlds Punk scene” (a tough ask that one.) The song ended up in Rolling Stone Magazines top 100 rock songs of all time.
As for Plastic Bertrand, he had minor hits in his native Belgium and Canada
In 1987 he was the Belgian entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest where he came second last.

© 2004 Shidot Prod.

Lyrics & their meaning Part 17- AHard Rain's A-gonna Fall

They sell by their millions, they become that special song for some people for the rest of their lives, and others are totally consumed by them; finding meanings and purpose that was never intentional. They are the Rock lyrics that accompany some of the biggest selling and best-known songs from the last three generations.

PART 17
A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall (1963)

When Bob Dylan released The Free Wheelin’ Bob Dylan hot on the heels of the success of Peter, Paul & Mary’s huge selling version of his Blowin’ in the wind Everybody wanted a piece of Dylan, the new prophet of protest. Even though Dylan mixed his repertoire with country blues, folk as well as his so called protest songs.
Because A Hard Rains A -Gonna Fall was on an album which contained such hard hitting songs as Blowin’ In the Wind, Masters of War, Talkin’ World War III Blues and Oxford Town It was automatically considered a song full of visions of the coming atomic apocalypse


Comparisons were made that the song was a literal version of such great war paintings and sketches by the likes of Goya and Picasso. Most of these were made due to the song following hot on the heels of the Cuban missile crises and the implications if things had of turned out different.
Dylan himself is quoted as saying the imagery came so fast that “every line in it is actually the start of a whole song. I thought I wouldn’t have time alive to write all those songs so I put all I could into this one”. So did Dylan just have a lot of good lines to make a song? It wouldn’t be the first or last time he would fill a song with this Dada kind of nonsense. When asked if it was about nuclear fallout Dylan replied, “ It’s not atomic rain, it’s not fallout rain… I mean some sort of end that’s gonna happen” And later: “ It was a song of terror. Line after line after line, trying to capture the feeling of nothingness.’ Could it be Dylan was the Jerry Seinfeld of his time?
The songs simple construction but haunting drone like melody has lent itself to many interpretations, notably by Bryan Ferry and Leon Russel. Both whom have kept the basic structure of the song but discarded large chunks of the lyrics, which is strange considering Dylan’s early work relied heavily on his lyrics due to his simple arrangements and very ordinary voice. No one really knows and Dylan would be the last person to ask. On a depressing note, this song is responsible for Canadian Poet/Singer/Songwriter Leonard Cohen to take up writing songs.

© 2004 Shidot Prod.

Lyrics & their meaning Part 16- Riders of the storm

Ever wondered what your favorite song was about? Probably not, which is good because a nice melody and tune are far more enticing than words. Church hymns have truly inspiring lyrics and meaningful messages but don’t really jump out of the record stores. At last a biased attempt is being made to determine what some of the best-loved tunes are really about. We will have a look at the background of these songs and see if history can tell us if any light can be shed on these cryptic verses, poignant prose or just Grade Two poetry.

PART 16
Riders On The Storm (1971) The Doors

The Doors and in particular Jim Morrison have for unknown reasons established Godhead status in some quarters, but since the majority of these people still think it’s the sixties explains a good chunk of that reasoning.
Riders on the storm was the second single lifted from the L.A Woman album in 1971.It was the last studio album the band would record together prior to Morrison’s death in Paris in July 1971.
Riders of the Storm is also believed to be the last song recorded by Morrison.
Riders on the Storm is a moody piece of music with sinister overtones mixed with thunderclaps and heavy reverb guitar passages. Then the cabaret brooding of Morrison with his inane lyrics add a touch of stupidity to an atmosphere that begs something dire.
 ‘There’s a killer on the road, his mind is squirming like a toad’.
It’s almost as if the band thought of a good line to start the song  and then totally lost interest.
There doesn’t seem to be anyone game enough of Morrisons fan base to stop praising his so called genius and explain what the hell he was singing about.
In fairness to Morrison, the song was created as a group composition and compared to the way Morrison was writing, it would be probably more apt to lay the blame on Robby Krieger, the one who stated the song was originally inspired by Ghost Riders in the Sky.
If we compare lyrics from the Doors first single from 1967 Light my Fire from their debut album The Doors with lyrics from “Riders”:

Light My Fire
You know that it would be untrue,
You that I would be a liar,
 If I were to say to you,
Girl we couldn’t get much higher.

Riders Of The Storm
Riders on the Storm, Riders on the Storm,
Into this house we’re born, Into this world we’re thrown,
Like a dog without a bone an actor out on loan ,
Riders on the storm

Typical Moon, Spoon, June drivel Kreiger had written before.

By the time LA Women was released Jim had had enough of the adulation of fans and being hassled by authorities he had moved to Paris to be in an artistic environment, not realising they all left decades ago.

Morrison’s early death made him a mythical figure as stories got twisted and the need for the devoted to keep the memory of their hero alive. The rumours that Morrison hadn’t died but had gone into hiding to concentrate on his art started before he was cold on the slab.

Thus starting a Morrison sighting spree that predated Elvis by 6 years. (One wonders if these people would spend as much time searching for their Nanna if they didn’t see her in the coffin) This in turn created a demand for more Morrison scribbles and the search for meaning in words that added up to nothing. Morrison was a good looking, passable singer with great charisma who believed his own publicity and it killed him. At the end of his career he was reduced to flashing his dick and ruining performances for the band. He wasn’t a mad genius he was just mad at the end and it reflects in his words, even the ones he probably didn't write..
© 2004 Shidot Prod.

Lyrics & their meaning Part 14 - In-A-Gadda-Da-Viida

This continuing story of song lyrics and their meaning in some of the worlds best loved songs.

PART 14
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968) - Iron Butterfly

Many people may have heard of the band and the song In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida but not many people would realise how big this band was. Like bands such as Vanilla Fudge and The Rascals. Iron Butterfly sold a lot of records while they were popular but just seemed to dissolve into obscurity as the seventies progressed. The 17-minute song that was one side of the album of the same name sold 8 million copies and stayed in the U.S charts for 3 years. It was the very first Platinum Record recipient. Most people these days would have heard it on the Simpsons, when Bart changed the sheet music at church and every one thought they were singing ‘In The Garden Of Eden’. Which by the way is what the song was originally going to be called. As history recalls, Band members Lee Dorman and Ron Bushy were paying a visit to song-writer Doug Ingle they discovered he was in the middle of a typical sixties binge and hadn’t slept for over 36 hours. When he played the others the new song he had written, he was so shattered when he tried to say In the Garden of Eden as was intentioned it came out In-A Gadda-Da-Vida. Bushy thinking this strange wrote it down phonetically and when the band met again the name stuck. As you may have guessed by now Ingle having written the song in such a state and agreeing to the wacky title the song doesn’t exactly reveal the Dead Sea Scroll secrets. Now you are probably wondering how a song that is 17 minutes long and has a drum solo in it got air play to sell so many records. The answer to that is it coincided with the birth of F.M radio who embraced it as thinking mans rock. The same F.M radio that evolved into the horrid Classic radio stations of today, who strangely don’t have In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida on their play lists.
© 2005 Shidot Prod.

Lyrics & their meaning Part 13 - Lucy in the sky with diamonds

This continuing story of song lyrics and their meaning in some of the worlds best loved songs.

PART 13
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (1967)
One of the great fallacies of Rock music is that the title of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was an intentional reference to the hallucinatory drug LSD.
Two weeks after the release of the revolutionary Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band, the Beatles publicly admitted to taking LSD and other drugs, but by this time the public “knew” that Lucy in the sky the song and its title were obviously more than mere coincidence. A song incorporating acid trip imagery, released on an album featuring psychedelic designs, at a time when LSD was very much in the news. Every one was in on this joke. The Beatles were well known for their very wicked sense of humour.
But this was where the public were wrong.
John Lennon while never denying that the song was inspired by countless acid trips (but then again so was the rest of the album.) He quickly explained the title was in fact a mere coincidence. The title was taken from a name Lennon’s 4 year old son had given to a drawing he made at school and proudly shown his dad.
But to no avail the people were no going to buy it. They knew Lennon better.
In Phillip Norman’s Beatle biography its recorded:
Even greater was the scandal arising from the discovery that “ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was a >mnemonic for LSD. In vain did John explain that it was simply the name his son, Julian, had given to a picture drawn at school.
To emphasize the point, In an Interview with Rolling Stone in 1970 Lennon stated:
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”…I swear to God or swear to Mao, or to anybody you like, I had no idea spelled LSD…
Lennon told much the same story during an interview in 1972 on the Mike Douglas Show and in September 1980, only a couple of months before his death, He was still offering the same story about the titles origin in an interview with Playboy Magazine.
This story has also been confirmed by the other Beatle members as late as 1997 for the Anthology series the most in depth documentary of the Beatles ever.
Paul McCartney tells his story”
What happened was that John’s son Julian did a drawing at school and bought it home, and he has a schoolmate called Lucy, and John said what’s that, and he said “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”….so we had a nice title.
There is no reason to doubt John Lennon. He was always open and honest, if not always careful of what he said. He admitted to using drugs, he admitted to taking over a hundred LSD trips. Why would he bother to deny one little story about the origins of a song unless it was true. He was more annoyed he didn’t think of it.
Update -- June, 2004:
In a new interview in Uncut Magazine, Paul detailed his drug use for the first time with the Beatles, which centered mostly around cocaine and that he had tried heroin once. In that interview, although Paul acknowledged that Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds had indeed been named for the drawing by Julian, he also said "it's pretty obvious" that the song is about an acid trip.

the picture by Julian Lennon

©2004 Shidot Prod.

Lyrics & their meaning Part 12 - I am the walrus

Rock Lyrics are not what they appear to be.
PART 12

I Am The Walrus(1968) The Beatles

The Beatles are arguably one of the most influential, popular, significant, innovative (just keep adding superlatives) Rock band that the world of popular music has ever known. The type of Messiah popularity they attracted was always bring out the lunatic fringe but in the case of the Beatles they didn’t need help from the loonies they had John Lennon.

The Beatles well-documented experiments with mind-altering drugs have explained their inventiveness in the studio and with the canny ability of their Producer George Martin the band managed to record them on tape. The drugs also help explain some of Lennon’s lyrics; in this particular case I am the Walrus.
The album Magical Mystery Tour in which it was contained was released in 1967 and was smack in the middle of the psychedelic period for the group in terms of packaging and content, it was also strangely enough involved in one of the Beatles few failures.
The television special, which followed the release of the record, was dismissed by critics and viewers alike, and rightly so because it was an amateurish piece of crap dominated in production and direction by Paul McCartney who should have left it to the experts.
The Album and its packaging as it was revealed later was a gold mine of clues for the unprovable practical hoax of Paul McCartney’s untimely death in a mythical car crash.
Songs like Fool on the hill’, Magical Mystery Tour & I am the Walrus were destined to be prime targets for the word analysers.
The song I am the Walrus is very drug influenced. The opening lines “I am he / as you are he / as you are me and we are all together” – came to Lennon during an acid trip. And so too did the songs phrasing. The lyrics follow the same sound pattern as the ‘Ee Ow Ee Ow’ of an English Police siren. Many of the other verses were triggered by a fan letter the band received from a student from John Lennon’s old high school. Lennon’s good friend Pete Shotton recalled how he and Lennon were taking ‘Lucky dips” into the fan mail bag one day when out came a letter from a lad describing how his English teacher was pontificating on the real meaning behind the Beatles lyrics.
Lennon already exasperated by the often mistaken analysis of Beatle songs by journalists, critics and fans was seized by a brain wave. Asking Shotton to recite their shared boyhood rhyme Dead Dogs Eye. A listing of the kind of gross things young boys find appealing. Lennon reconfigured the words into yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog’s eye. Likewise the words Semolina pilchard , a nice way to say sardine custard. After scribbling down these lines, Lennon looked up with a smile and said “ Let the fuckers work that one out Pete”
John Lennon has categorically stated he wrote the words for ‘ I am the Walrus’ to trip up the critics, they meant absolutely nothing at all. Lennon confused clue seeker even more when he wrote Glass Onions ’for the White Album a song he revealed was just a lot of phrases that were popular for there suggested hints. That he embellished in response to critics whom he felt over-analysed I am the Walrus and the Paul is Dead hoax.
Other lyrics were lifted straight out of Alice through the looking glass along with other snappy phrases were perfect catalyst to the off beat tune. You have to remember Lennon wasn’t partial to grabbing whatever was available for words; don’t forget he got the entire lyrics for the Benefit for Mr. Kite from an old circus poster.
As innocent as the song seems the BBC still managed to unofficially but effectively ban I am the Walrus from T.V and radio.
Maybe Lennon knew the song was going to attract so much attention that he put in his own little message.
At the end of the song there is a falsetto chorus of screams and whoops performed by the Mike Sammes Singers a group of hired session vocalists that builds as the song reaches its climax. Nice people say it sounds like “Oompa, Oompa stick it up your jumper”. If you listen hard enough I reckon their saying what Lennon was really trying to say to the critics: “Get Fucked, get fucked everybody get fucked”.
(c) 2002 Shidot Prod.

Lyrics & their meaning Part 11 - I started a joke

Ever wondered what your favorite song was about? Probably not, which is good because a nice melody and tune are far more enticing than words. Church hymns have truly inspiring lyrics and meaningful messages but don’t really jump out of the record stores. At last a biased attempt is being made to determine what some of the best-loved tunes are really about. We will have a look at the background of these songs and see if history can tell us if any light can be shed on these cryptic verses, poignant prose or just Grade Two poetry

PART 11
I Stated a Joke - The Bee Gees (1967)

A timeless classic that reminds us the Bee Bees really were good once and maybe that Disco period thing can be just seen as when they were possessed by evil spirits. Although the songs singer Robin Gibb has claimed that the melody was inspired by the sounds he heard in a jet engine, he has always steadfastly refused to explain the mysterious lyrics.
Brother Barry has been quoted: "there was a lot of that in those days. there was a lot of pschedelia and the idea that if you wrote something, even if it sounded ridiculous, somebody would find the meaning for it, and that was the truth".
In the monstrous 2000 Unauthorized biography The Bee Gees - Tales of the brother Gibb, The authors describe I Started A Joke as ".... (the) prime example of the pure abstract Gibb lyric that everyone can read something into and, it would seem nearly everyone did"
This must of been a sixties thing, I remember growing up and thinking the song was about Adolph Hitler, because he was the only person I thought who could make the whole world cry, and everyone was happy when he died. But after an exhaustive search through heaps of Bee Gee web sites I couldn't find one reference to the songs meanings ( with the exception of the melody/aeroplane link) anywhere.

© 2004 Shidot Prod.

Lyrics & their meanings Part 10 - Helter Skelter

This continuing story of song lyrics and there meaning in some of the worlds best loved songs.
Are they really as important as you make them out to be?

PART 10
Helter Skelter (1968) – The Beatles
Rollicking’ number that most people on first listen must of thought it was a John Lennon composition. But Paul McCartney took
a break from writing “about boring people doing boring things” as Lennon liked to call them, to write a gritty piece of music full of menace and kicked harder than anything The Who could do. But the words were exactly as Lennon had described earlier. They are about going down a large slide at a Carnival.
Makes you think Charles Manson picked the wrong song to base his racial cleansing and murder sprees.

© 2004 Shidot Prod.

Lyrics & their meaning Part 9- A Horse with no name

This continuing story of song lyrics and their meaning in some of the worlds best loved songs.

PART 9
A Horse With No Name- America (1972)
This is one song that the writer admitted at the time of release that it was about nothing, but changed it to a different kind of nothing years later.
The band AMERICA is full of contradictions. The bands founding members; Lee “Dewey” Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek were all sons of U.S Air Force personnel, who by the time they met in England were seasoned world travellers.
Here was a band formed in England by American citizens who were ineligible for the draft during the Vietnam war even though the U.S military were paying their parents wages.
They were no doubt a talented crew, being picked up by Warners Record Label while still teenagers. And in 1971 recorded their first album, the self titled AMERICA.
The band were not named after their country of origin but of an old Americana juke box in a coffee shop the frequented.
The album was critically hailed but didn’t shift many units, their live performances keeping the public interested. This lack of record sales didn’t deter Warners though and the label continued to push the band getting support gigs with such diverse acts as Elton John, Pink Floyd and The Who. They were the first band featured on the classic television show case “ The Old Grey Whistle Test”.
Five months after the release of the album, in a display of faith not usually attributed to record companies, the band was sent back to the studio to record extra songs to find a single to spark interest in the album.
One of these songs was a track originally titled “ the Desert Song” . It was changed to “ A Horse With No Name” after the band was asked to change it because it was the same title as an old musical.
The song was included as an extra track on the re-released album and as the next single to an unsuspecting world and what would be a reward for the faith shown by the label.
“ A Horse with no name” went onto become one of the biggest songs of 1972, and with it the album sales followed. It reached No.1 in the U.K and U.S in both single and album charts.
The song was unfavourably compared to something in the Neil Young vein, whose song Heart of Gold incidentally was knocked from the top spot on the US charts by the song.
When challenged about the songs meaning Bunnell the songs writer admitted it was about nothing the classic words , tune , melody mix was just what people were attracted to.
© 2005 Shidot Prod.

Lyrics & their meaning Part 8 - Smells like teen spirit

Part 8 of a 19 part series If your lucky!

PART 8
Smells Like Teen Spirit (1990) Nirvana
Nirvana’s impact on the youth of the early nineties is comparable to the Beatles of the mid sixties. Its just that kids in the 90’s didn’t express their emotions as extremely as their Mum’s & Dads (or should that be their Grandparents).
As analogies goes these two bands lend a strong argument that song lyrics contribute nothing in the grand scheme of things. In the end it boils down to the music wether it be energy or attitude and how the singers express themselves.
Do you really believe ‘She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah’ was responsible for the way the sixties were shaped. Just as “ A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido, yah” was instrumental in getting Generation X’s to dress up in baggy clothes and get all moody and mumble a lot.
Smells Like Teen Spirit propelled Nirvana to mega-star status in 1991 when it was the first single released from the Nevermind album. It was released at a pivotal moment that seemed right for the youth of the time and joined the ‘Circle of Life’.
The periodical renewal that seems to breathe new life into popular music that bought us Rock ‘N’ Roll itself, as well as the British invasion, Punk as well as Disco, Heavy Rock and the New Romantics.
Songwriter Kurt Cobain never wanted to change the world and definitely didn’t want to be a spokesperson for his generation.
But much to his dismay that did become the case and the pressure of this attention drove him to suicide. And in a strange twist to these events, the fans rather than start wondering if he was really dead started pointing the finger on who really did it.
Smells like Teen Spirit (named after a deodorant marketed at a youth audience) despite its anthemic title means nothing, Cobain’ s lyrics were typically random and using his unique voice he would make throwaway lines come alive by growling one minute and whispering the next. Late in 1992 Cobain has been put on record as saying:
‘At the time I wrote those songs, I really didn’t know what I was trying to say.
There’s no point in my even trying to analyse or explain it’
Jonathan Poneman Co-Owner of Sub-Pop the bands old record label added:
‘Nirvana are incredibly misinterpreted. Nobody is listening to what the band has to say. The songs subject matter and lyrics are meaningless. What’s meaningful is that they’re connecting with people, and saying, you make the decision what are we going to do now?’
Probably the most heartening thing to take from all this is the fact that the fans have all seemed to take heed of this advice and unlike their 60’s & 70’s counterparts don’t look for things that don’t exist.
In a case of actions speak louder than words, the ‘Seattle Sound’ or ‘Grunge’ as the music that Nirvana spearheaded was known, influenced much of the nineties.
In fashions; the dressing down from the ‘Greed is Good’ eighties. In music the re-emergence of guitar based rock. But it also had its down side with spectre of heroin making a big comeback. Coburn himself a victim of that scourge.
Coburn said his lyrics were meaningless, it’s sad he followed a life style which followed the same philosophy.

Lyrics & their meaning Part 7- Thick as a brick

More of the lyrics common sense forgot.

PART 7
Thick as A Brick (1972) – Jethro Tull

In April 1972 JethroTull released Thick As A Brick an album that was both revolutionary in both content and packaging. The album consisted of one song that lasted the whole record. Another unique feature was the albums packaging, which consisted of a complete small town newspaper as the album sleeve. The record sold by the truck loads and was the peak of Jethro Tull’s success with the album reaching number one in the United States and staying in the charts for 20 weeks The band then went on to reap the benefits of a successful headlining tour.
Thick As A Brick was the follow up album to Aqualung. This album had made good chart positions on both sides of the Atlantic and the band headlined a successful tour with support acts such as the likes of Led Zeppelin. Aqualung, which mixed good commercial tunes mixed with social commentary, supplied by front man Ian Anderson. Anderson at this stage had become the only original member of the group left and in the course of the bands existence had become leader, front man, songwriter and producer. Anderson with his ‘Mad Fagin’ appearance and wild antics on stage had become so synonymous with Jethro Tull that first time listeners often mistook Anderson the man as Jethro Tull the band. So strong was his presence. With success came artistic freedom but also pressure to follow up that success.
Lyrically the song has been described as wordy and ponderous as well as clogged and obscure. It contains vague reference to growing up and the English class system. It seems to have no structure and at the end starts to repeat itself.
There is good reason for this given the pressure to produce new material. Anderson would work on a piece of music the night before and bring it to the studio pretending it was something he’d been working on for weeks. The whole recording was constructed that way. In his own admission Anderson confessed that the album sleeve took longer to put together that the recording itself.
The record has been termed a concept album. But evidence points to the facts that the tunes and lyrics were hurriedly put together with not much thought for form and structure. Basically to try and explain what the whole piece was about, the label concept album was stuck to it. The very unfunny and loosely satirical newspaper sleeve cover was devised to help create this allusion. Moreover it was Anderson’s belief that since people were now discovering them, they’d only have an album or so left in the band before they would start lose popularity. So he decided Jethro Tull would ‘go out in a blaze of glory with some ludicrous album with a ridiculous cover, full of complex, abstract and contradictory ideas as it would probably be the last album they would make any way’.
In a strange twist of fate Jethro Tull attempted to do exactly the same thing with their next studio album A Passion Play. And were crucified by the critics. Anderson who by this stage had lost his ‘devil may care attitude’, was so incensed that he responded by cancelling half of the planned tour to promote the album and announcing Jethro Tull would no longer perform live. Anderson has also admitted that during this period he split up the band for a short time till he came to his senses. Despite all this the album sold very well but Jethro Tull- who still exist today- never reached the level of popularity the experienced in the early 70’s ever again.

Lyrics & their meaning Part 6- Power and the passion

“ Rock songs will not change the world, for starters no one can understand a word they’re saying…literally! ” …My Dad




PART 6
The Power & the Passion- Midnight Oil (1980)

(and Midnight Oil in general)


Midnight Oil long regarded as Australian Rock Music's Environmental and Social conscience.
Me , I consider them a good band with at best questionable lyrics. Midnight Oil for some reason have managed to get away with the reputation of being hard hitting word smiths with poignant and relevant messages. But a closer look at most of their lyrics reveal vague mentions of subjects and cryptic leanings towards others. For example: in the chosen subject song Power & the passion The song has reference to many iconic symbols but can anyone truthfully say they understand what these lines mean or represent?
Sunburnt faces around, with skin so brownSmiling zinc cream and crowds, Sundays the beach never a cloudBreathing eucalypt, pushing panel vansStuff and munch junk foodLaughing at the truth, cos Gough was tough til he hit the roughUncle Sam and John were quite enough
It is alright to go to form some intellectual theory that you think it may be about but keep in mind the core of Midnight Oils supporter base were the Suck more piss crowd that also followed The Angels & Cold Chisel. You would think plain English would have been more appropriate. Indeed how about for example instead of:
US Forces give the nod,
It's a set back for your country

Try

US Bases are no good
Don't let them in the Country

But if you go deep into the whole Midnight Oil lyric thing the album that the totally incomprehensible Power and; the passion is part of, you soon realise that most of the album struggles to make sense. Not only are the lyrics hard to understand, especially if you aren't aware of the subject matter they also make them very hard to read on the album by using distorted fonts and having them cut on edges of pages, so that one half of a songs lyric is diagonally split onto opposing pages making it even more difficult to understand.
I have researched many articles on Midnight Oil and discovered the lack of attention to their actual song meaning, the topic often moves towards individual protests or polular issues. This could explain Peter Garrets eventual entry in politics, he had great training in talking around a subject in writing song lyrics.



As for Power and; the Passion what's it about?
Don't know and I can't find out anywhere either. There is a short reference in Beds are Burning The biography by Mark Dodshon but it only goes on how Garret used to change Rob Hirst's lyrics if he didn't like them and wouldn't tell anyone. Power and the Passion was one of these songs. All other references only comment on how powerful the songs sentiment is, but refuses to say what that sentiment is.
You one thing that annoys me about this song personally, was for years I’d make excuses for it by saying the lyrics “It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees” was a killer line. Only to discover it was stolen from Emiliano Zapata Salazar a Mexican revolutionary.
I have compiled a sample list of Midnight Oil songs and I challenge anyone to explain what they are saying without going into metaphors or long winded explanations.





If Ned Kelly was King-Place without a Postcard 1981

Hollow threats and a great adventure



So much business, towns in the dirt



Company cars and efficient Americans



Three black boys sit in the corner



White woman waiting to talk



Lots of intention but no understanding



If Ned Kelly was king



He’d make those robbers swing



He’d send them down



Out in the dead heart, tourists and cameras



Four wheel drives wreck, snapshots and slides



Follow the brochures but nothings inside



Heavy machinery loud in the outback



Dreamtime developers they make all the sound



Where will we be when they leave us a quarry?



If Ned Kelly was king



He’d make those robbers swing



He’d send them down there



He’d make them stay



And we can hope



If Ned Kelly...



If the quinella comes in today

King of the Mountain-Blue Sky Mining 1990




Walking through the high dry grass, pushing my way through slow



Yellow belly black snake, sleeping on a red rock



Waiting for the stranger to go



Sugar train stops at the crossing, cane cockies cursing below



Bad storm coming, better run to the top of the mountain



Mountain in the shadow of light, rain in the valley below



Well you can say you’re peter, say you’re paul



Don’t put me up on your bedroom wall, call me the king of the mountain







Blacksmith fires up the bellows, cane cutters burning the load



Workers of the world, run to the top of the mountain



Mountain in the...



I cant take my hands from my face, there are some things we cant replace



Mountain in the...



Over liquid tarmac wastelands of cactus and heat



Down cobblestone alleyways of washing day sheets



Up ghost prairie mountains of sunset and space



Down the road at a familiar place, across the wilderness



Out further than the bush I will follow you








Outside World-10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1- 1981




There’s a wind on the eastern side



Ghost gums dance in the moonlit night



Mopoke mourns the racketeers



The bosses they can sense your mood



All in place to a hand that rules



They all want to deal you out



I can see the outside world



Everything’s inviting in the outside world



Leaving all my problems in the outside world



Its the summer of another year



A little world weary a little more to fear



Hold those cards tight to your chest



Maybe someday you could be a man



Living quietly in a caravan



Not the Lismore road tonight

Short Memory-10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1- 1981




Conquistador of Mexico, the Zulu and the Navaho



The Belgians in the Congo short memory



Plantation in Virginia, the raj in British India



The deadline in south Africa short memory



The story of el Salvador, the silence of Hiroshima



Destruction of Cambodia short memory



Short memory, must have a, short memory



The sight of hotels by the Nile, the designated Hilton style



With running water specially bought short memory



A smallish man Afghanistan, a watch dog in a nervous land



They’re only there to lend a hand short memory



Wake up in sweat at dead of night



And in the tents new rifles hey short memory



If you read the history books you’ll see the same things happen again and again



short memory they’ve all got it



When are we going to play it again



Got a short, got a short, got a short, got a short



They’ve got a short must have a short theyve got a short aah



Short memory, they’ve got a.








I'm The Cure - Bird Noises 1980




Tell all your friends I’m the cure



Tell them again and again



Watching the walls, spinning in doors



I can bring you peace of mindUse me whenever you please



Sweeter than sweet memories



Everything’s neat, avoiding the heat



I can give you peace of mind



All this pressure I cant handle



Everything else becomes dim



You’re so much better than them



Waiting around for something to happen



Bring you this instant reliefKilo pascals in my finger



God is hiding in this teacup

Run By Night - Midnight Oil 1978




I’m on the whiskey flying, and Ill run by night



I’m on the whiskey running, and Ill run by night



I’m on the winter cycle, shut my eyes to the bite



I’m on the winter cycle, shake my fist at the bite



I’m on the whiskey flying, and Ill run by night



I’m on the phone to summer, so Ill see you on the flight



My friends are at a party, playing games with the light



I hate to say I’m wrong, I just know I’m right



We all run by night



I’m on the whiskey flying, and Ill run by night



I’m on the glaze a burning, and it burns in the light



I’m on a turning circle, turn my face from the bite



I’m on a turning circle, hear me screaming at the bite



I’m on the edge of danger, and Ill run by night



I’m on the phone to summer, so I’ll see you on the flight



My friends are at a party, playing games with the light



I hate to say ‘Im wrong, I just know I’m right



We all run by night


Scream In Blue -10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1- 1981




Come to me now, be careful of what you say



Don’t make a sound, there’s noise enough in this



Come with me now, let night move into day



Let sheets keep secrets that no one else could know



I could kill for this one time and not be caught



She said to me this is the one and I know



Come to me now, this is the final hour



When I’m dreaming I dream in blue



When I’m dreaming I dream of you



When I’m screaming I scream in blue

Redneck Wonderland - Redneck Wonderland 1998




I don’t want to run I don’t want to stay



Cos everything that’s near and dear is old and in decay



Emergency has gone, apathy rolling on



Time to take a standRedneck wonderland



Got you in my sights, spotlit by the fence



If your small you’re faking, its just common sense



Brick and tile for miles, rolling in the aisles



Rifle in my handRedneck wonderland



Well the streets are clean, nothing gets away



I can see the beauty treatment draining from your face



It is vision free, its poor bugger meSomething less than grand




Kosciuszko - Red Sails In The Sunset 1984




Older than Kosciusko



Darwin down to Alice Springs



Dealers in the clearinghouse



The settlements explode



High up in the homelands



Miners drive across the land



Encounter no resistance



When the people block the road



Older than Kosciusko



Dry white seasons years ago



Darkness over Charleville



The fires begin to grow



No end to the hostility



Now they want to be somewhere else



No stranger to brutality



Now they’d like to be someone else



Older than Kosciusko



Driven back to Alice Springs



Endless storm and struggle



Marks the spirit of the age



High up in the homelands



Celebration cross the land



Builds up like a cyclone



Now the fires begin to rage



Call off the ultimatum



No don’t turn away



Call off the ultimatum until yesterday



Call off the ultimatum



No don’t turn away



Bind up the broken-hearted



No don’t turn away



Call off the ultimatum until yesterday




Mosquito March - Capricornia 2001

when they march



when they march over fields of green



when they march



when they march over fields of green



when they march



when they march over fields of green



walking in the wilderness



no future to the question



you might get a simple answer



get a simple answer



walking in the wilderness



you're naked now just skin and sand



you'll get a smile answer



get a smile answer



see the king see the king of happiness



see the kingsee the king of happiness in the light



in the light you can see him crawl



see the kingsee the king of happiness



walking in the wilderness



no future to the question



you might get a simple answer



get a simple answer



walking in the wilderness the endless distance



you don't need to get a smile answer



et a smile answer



past the point of no return



your like a dog without a bone



so get a simple answer



get a simple answer

Lyrics & their meanings Part 5 - Jumpin' Jack Flash

Ever wondered what your favorite song was about? Probably not, which is good because a nice melody and tune are far more enticing than words. Church hymns have truly inspiring lyrics and meaningful messages but don’t really jump out of the record stores. At last a biased attempt is being made to determine what some of the best-loved tunes are really about. We will have a look at the background of these songs and see if history can tell us if any light can be shed on these cryptic verses, poignant prose or just Grade Two poetry

PART 5
Jumpin' Jack Flash (1968) Rolling Stones

By the Mid-Sixties The Beatles and the Rolling Stones had reached the heights of popularity and would continue to stay there for decades to come. While the Beatles were already hugely influential, there was no denying the Stones their place in history. Great songwriters and performers in their own right the Stones biggest mistake was to try and match the Beatles Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Their Satanic Majesties Request The Rolling Stones answer to ‘Sgt Peppers’ was a self indulgent, drawn out piece of nonsense that took too long to record for very poor results. With the exception of She’s a Rainbow and maybe 2000 Man the album was not up to scratch for the usually consistent Stones.
The band had not seen the top of the singles charts since Paint It Black two years earlier. Jumpin’ Jack Flash was a kick-start for the floundering Stones. Recorded during the Beggars Banquet sessions it was released as a single to herald what was to come. It was far removed from the previous album as in much it contained harder, rockier song with Jagger’s trademark snide lyrics making a big comeback. With their Satanic Majesties album the only thing that ruffled a few feathers was its title. A song like Jumpin’ Jack Flash ’made the Stones dangerous again.
The story goes that this track wasn’t even a traditional Jagger/Richard tune. As Bill Wyman recalls “We got to the studio early once. And there was just myself, Brian and Charlie- the Stones NEVER arrive at the same time, you know – and Mick and Keith hadn’t come. And I was just messing about and I just sat down at the piano and started doing this riff, da-daw, da-da-daw, da-da-daw…. And then Brian played a bit of guitar and Charlie was doing rhythm. We were just messing with it for 20 minutes, just filling in time, and Mick and Keith came in and we stopped and they said, ‘hey, that sounded really good, carry on, what is it’
And then the next day all I can remember…. We recorded it and Mick wrote great lyrics to it and it turned out to be a really good single” Jagger was so inspired that wrote the lyrics almost straight after he heard the music. All up he took less than an hour to come up with the fractured fairy tale style of lyric. He was very economical with the words but what he wrote fit the song perfectly. Nasty words for a dirty riff. Nothing more, nothing less.
With the past year the band had become the human headlines, whereas the Beatles seemed untouchable with their OBEs: the Stones were on everybody’s hit list. In fighting over women and control of the band had strained relationships between key members Brian Jones, Mick Jagger & Keith Richard. And it was a well-documented fact Jones was so smashed during the recording of Satanic Majesties that he had virtually no input to the whole project.
This album was the last project Jones played before he quit the group a year later then to die tragically only a few days after that.
Alarmist blamed the Stones preoccupation with Devil worshipping on the current state of the band and the misfortune that seemed to befall those who were close to the group. Songs like Sympathy for the Devil, Street Fighting Man and Jumpin’ Jack Flash were all considered by the worry-worts to be songs designed to raise the public mischief, but it was just the Stones returning to their blues and country roots and being a proper rock band again. One good thing the Stones never followed the Beatles into was retirement from performing live.
When Jumpin’ Jack Flash was released in May 1968 Jagger only comment was that the song was ‘…the most basic thing we ever did’. In an interview in 1995 after he’d had a while to think about it he added, ‘ It’s a metaphor for getting out of all the acid things’.
Obviously Jagger had finally realised Their Satanic Majesties Request was as bad as every one had told them.
Jumpin’Jack Flash was a historic turning point for the Stones. Bill Wyman has always maintained what he contributed in the studio and to Jagger/Richard compositions was for the betterment of the group but steadfastly claims ownership to the riff. It can also be claimed and it was possibly the last great contribution from Brian Jones. Keith Richard in an interview with author Terry Southern said ‘when I play that first riff in Jumpin’ Jack Flash, something happens in my stomach – a feeling of tremendous exhilaration, an amazing superhuman feeling .An explosion is the best way to describe it. You just jump on that riff, and it plays you. It’s the one feeling I would say approaches Nirvana’
And that from someone that conventional drugs have been unable to kill.
But Mick Jagger’s affection for the song is a tad indifferent. Dave Jerden, engineer on the Stones’ Dirty Works album and Jagger’s solo effort She’s the Boss recalls that while working in Paris he was summoned by Jagger into the studio. Jagger was there to record new vocals for Jumpin’ Jack Flash for the Whoopie Goldberg film of the same name. Jagger had the original master with him.
“ Well I should make a copy,” Jerden said, noting there were no open tracks left on the tape for a second vocal. “No, I’ll just go over the original vocal” Jagger replied. Which he did, meaning the original master performance is gone forever. So much for history.

(c)2004

Lyrics & their meaning Part 4- Blinded by the light

This continuing story of song lyrics and there meaning in some of the worlds best loved songs.
Who are they really kidding?

PART 4
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT -
MANFRED MANNS EARTH BAND (1976)

Blinded by The Light first recorded by Bruce Springsteen and the E street Band in 1972 , was ignored by the record buying public when released as the first single from his debut album Greetings from Ashbury Park. As a matter of fact the album wasn’t very successful at all selling only 50,00 copies on fist release. It eventually went gold when Spingsteen’s popularity surged after 1975’s Born To Run and more so after the mega sales of the Born In The U.S.A album.
Manfred Mann 60’s pop star, leader and keyboardist for the Earth Band was obviously a huge fan of the Greetings album. He recorded three songs from it.
Spirit in the night on the1975 Nightingales & Bombers album, BBTL in 1976 and For You on The Chance album in 1980.
Manfred Manns version of the song was a world wide hit and making it Springsteen's first USA No.1.
It is interesting to note that Springsteen’s reaction to the cover version: according to his manager Mike Appel was “he held up his nose with his fingers and I agreed with him. It stunk”
Manfred Manns Earth Band (MMEB) has been credited in giving the attention to Spingsteen which he deserved and kick starting his huge popularity. Manfred Mann was renowned for his ability to rework other people songs most of his career. His covers of Dylan songs such as The Mighty Quinn & You Angel You were also international hits.
Even though Manfred Manns Earth Bands version is the most popular, to use it as a guide to what the song is really about would be futile as MMEB actually changed some of the words and only used some of the verses, with those also being out of sequence. To put a finer point to it MMEB reworked the song to the point were they could have left Spingsteen’s name off the writing credits.
The critics and fans alike have ignored the song when it comes to its status of all time Springsteen favourites.
Even in his un-authorised autobiography; Springsteen Point Blank author Christopher Sandford notes when reviewing Spingsteen's first album wrote “ Greetings in fact, bowed with just a crassly leaden Dylan lark (Blinded by the light)....and then went onto to be wordy"
That line being the only reference to the song in the whole book.
Bruce Springsteen had written a metered rhyme that somehow tries to explain life on the entertainment area around the beach and fair ground of Ashbury Park New Jersey. Manfred Mann had transformed it into a cleverly crafted pop song where the words are part of the production.
Prior to the release of Ashbury Park, Springsteen was touted as a new Dylan which leads to the theory that Bruce was trying a bit too hard to be a poet as opposed to a lyricist and crammed as many syllables into the verse similar to Samual Taylor Colerige’s Kubla Kahn or T S Elliot’s’ Waste Lands or still some of Bob Dylans free form moments. Spingsteen never attempted anything like BBTL again on any scale.


©Shidot Prod. 2003

Lyric & their meanings Part 3 Puff the magic Dragon

This continuing story of song lyrics and there meaning in some of the worlds best loved songs.
Are they really as important as you make them out to be?

PART 3
Puff the Magic Dragon- Peter, Paul & Mary (1963)
This song Puff The Magic Dragon has (unfairly) had a reputation ,built over the years, concerning its relationship with smoking dope, but if anyone looked hard enough they would discover it is just an innocent children’s song.
Back in 1958 Peter Yarrow before he was the Peter from Peter, Paul & Mary , while waiting in a friends room happened upon a short poem left on said friends typewriter The poem was left there by one Leonard Lipton while sitting in the mutual friends room earlier, Leonard as the story goes was feeling vulnerable and depressed now that he was at College and was missing his friends and the less responsible ways of his child hood and wasn’t coping with the pressures of growing up.
He just typed out some verse about the wonders of the imagination of young Yarrow was impressed by what he saw and the sentiment expressed within. He took the note added some extra lyrics and wrote a tune around it.
5 years later Yarrow was on a roll having become huge in folk music circles also becoming instrumental in kick starting Bob Dylan’s career when Peter, Paul & Mary successfully recorded his “Blowin’ In the Wind”
Yarrow tracked down Leonard Lipton and told him that he found his poem and even though he had embellished it and could have gotten away with it he gave Lipton song writing credit. A very honourable thing to do which made Lipton some serious cash.
The marijuana links are probably the same stoner crap that linked H.R Puff’n’stuff with smoking dope gaining popular myth status in the late 60’s and early to mid 70’s.
The song was a very popular children’s song from the start and is still popular with pre school children today, though as a folk standard it is not that popular.

© Shidot Prod. 2005

Lyrics & their meaning Part 2- A Whiter Shade of Pale

This continuing story of song lyrics and there meaning in some of the worlds best loved songs.
PART 2

A Whiter Shade Of Pale(1967) Procol Harum

There are people in this world that think that all decent rock music ceased to be recorded after 1972 (the people who vote for the Grammys come to mind). They take hold of a style or a band and never seem to let go. One band that draws this attention is Procol Harum and in particular their first hit A Whiter Shade of Pale.
In 1967 following the dissolution of his former band pianist/singer Gary Brooker formed a song writing partnership with Keith Reid, who sent him lyrics by post. Included in the first batch (?) were those of A Whiter Shade of Pale (or AWSoP as the enthusiast like to call it), Brooker composed >the music and melody. It took him about half an hour, but it was organist Mathew Fischer and not Brooker who stretched an improvisation based on Bach’s Air on a G string or Sleeper awakes (depending which classical purist you want their opinion on) to create the memorable opening riff.
Brooker had to form Procol Harum as a band proper when AWSoP drifted from pirate radio ships and unexpectedly tore to No.1 Even though the production of the song and an ill-defined mono mix the music and Brooker’s soulful voice stood out. It was lyrics that had every one scratching their head.
Though Keith Reid was song-writing partner to Gary Brooker he was actually considered a standing member being included in all band promotional photographs and interviews. Brooker must have seen some novelty value in him or secretly owed him lots of money. Reid was compulsively morbid and interviews he attended with the band usually ended up with him contributing nothing because he spent all his time gibbering to himself in the corner. Which may just explain those lyrics for AWSoP. When AWSoP was first released Jimi Hendrix in an interview with NME brought attention to the song when he said “ when I first heard it I understood the first verse and that was all. But as you hear it again and again you begin to put things together”. Sadly Jimmi died before he could share that with us. Unlike Stairway to Heaven and American Pie AWSoP doesn’t attract the deep analytical studies the others receive in fanzine and on the Internet. In most articles I read nearly everyone agrees it’s about a pair of medieval lovers breaking up during a coffee break between catching the plague and heading off to the crusades and more often than not finish with the cowardly conclusion ‘find your own interpretation’. Reid's own explanation – “It’s like looking at an abstract painting” is proof enough he just stacked a heap of catchy phrases and stolen medieval lines together.
Reid over the years has become obsessed with his little bit of nonsense revealing in an interview with Shine On in 1977 his disappointment in missing out on additional income. “The phrase ‘a whiter shade of pale’ has been ripped off so much ever since. To this day, every day, I pick up a newspaper and somebody’s using either that phrase or an approximation of it. I feel that I should get some of the credit for introducing something into the English language; it’s been used so often. It seems to me it was just a very powerful statement in so many ways…”
Quite frankly if he hadn’t written it some copywriter would have for an advert for washing powder.
This last remark by Reid is shared by Procol Harum’s devoted fan base who despite not knowing what the phrase ‘whiter shade of pale’ means, other than its literal sense, post examples of its impact on the human race on the bands web site. A visit to http://www.procolharum.com/ is a view into the mind of the obsessed. Any title is accused of ripping off Reid’s contribution to the English language from A Deadly Shade of Gold to A white thought in a white shade and Just another shade of Brown.
All I can say is ‘Hue must be joking’.
The sixties had a lot to offer it’s a shame they couldn’t take this song back.

Lyrics & Their Meaning Part One- MacArthur Park

There is a band from Iceland by the name of Sigur Ros whose music consists of a language called Hopelandic that their singer Jonsi made up.

It consists of sighs, moans, groans and screams. Anything that takes his fancy when trying out a melody line. To most people it would probably sound as if he is singing in his native Icelandic.
To me it’s relevant because it totally dismisses the use of words as an important part of song structure.
Where this is not really relevant, as history has shown us, just check out any classical music piece, not a word anywhere. Neither am I discounting countless songs with heart felt words and stories that would be silly.
I do believe however that sometimes people get lazy and just pop any old shit anywhere and pass it off as relevant.
For the next few posts I am listing some very popular songs and what their song lyrics are supposed to mean or what they represent if anything at all.


MacArthur Park (1968) – Richard Harris



Jimmy Webb is one of the worlds best known songwriters
His songs By the time I get to Phoenix‘ and Galveston have become country rock standards and He is considered along with Paul Williams and Randy Newman as a leader in the Adult contemporary music genre.
So what was he thinking when he wrote MacArthur Park
Musically the song is a soaring production with lush orchestral arrangement, but those lyrics! Webb himself has been quoted as saying the words even make him cringe, when asked to elaborate Webb said “ O.K, it may be far out there, and a bit incomprehensible, but that is what I was trying to get at. I suppose the whole thing was that I wrote the song about the same time in the late1960s when surrealistic lyrics were the order of the day. It was written about the same time as ‘Strawberry Fields’, so it probably seems a bigger deal now than it was back then”.
Web doesn’t make it clear whether he meant the song was about childhood memories (as Strawberry Fields was about) or he liked the food theme. As usual everybody else has an opinion for him. The most popular theory being that the song is a metaphor for lost love. And judging by the description and the era it was written obviously through the eyes of someone off their head on Acid.
Even though at the time of writing MacArthur Park Webb was a hugely successful writer of hits, the band The Association collectively turned down the song as too weird. So Webb offered the song to his friend hard drinking Irish Actor Richard Harris. Webb said the reason he worked with Harris had more to do with hanging out and drinking rather than create great art.
Harris who had just experienced success as Arthur in the lame Hollywood musical Camelot was more a tough guy actor but was looking for different directions and fancied himself a bit of a singer after the role in the movie even though critically he was considered a weak choice for the lead role.
Harris’ choice paid off and the song was a mammoth hit worldwide.
Similar songs around this period may have contributed to its success. Songs like Eloise, Nights in White satin, Out of time and Whiter shade of Pale also selling truckloads of records as the super ballads of the period.
Even though the lyrics themselves are subject to ridicule it didn’t stop Frank Sinatra from covering the song even though he was relentlessly critical of silly song lyrics, which in his opinion ruined the mood of a song.
The music has gone on to be a Muzak classic while the words have been constantly voted in the top ten dumbest lyrics of all time even as recently as 1999, even beating such tough competition as Yummy, yummy, yummy (I got love in my tummy).
Of course we have to mention before he died Richard Harris played Dumbledore in the Harry Potter Movies. And his still the best one.




© Shidot Prod. 2003