Mishearing the lyrics to songsย is nothing to feel bad about. Weโve all done it. I mean, who can really tell whether The Beatles sing โget highโ or โcanโt hide?โ Sounds the same to me. But what about when you donโt just get one lyric to a song wrong – you misunderstand the entire message of the tune? That is a bit more shocking. To learn that, oops, โBlackbirdโ isnโt actually about birds. Or love. Itโs about the civil rights movement. How embarrassing.
But donโt fear! Letโs admit it together, weโve all misunderstood some of the most famous songs ever and weโre not embarrassed anymore! In fact, letโs take a look right now at some of the most misunderstood classic rock songs of all timeโฆ… HIT IT!!
โBorn in the USAโ – Bruce Springsteen
![born in the usa](https://doyouremember.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/born-in-the-usa.jpeg)
Weโll start off with an easy one. A song by an American legend called โBorn in the USA,โ released with an American flag as the cover art, with an apparently proud Bruce Springsteen shouting over and over that he was born in the USA? It canโt be anything other than a patriotic ode to the greatest country in the world, right? Wrong. Despite the songโs use at rallies by politicians on both sides of the aisle, if you get beyond the chorus Springsteenโs message was far more critical of America than you at first realize. A deeper dive into the Bossโs lyrics reveals the song is actually about the difficulties of a returning Vietnam veteran to re-assimilate into society, and about how the government has replaced actually helping working-class Americans with empty patriotism. Heavy stuff, not just patriotic fluff.
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โFor What Itโs Worthโ – Buffalo Springfield
Speaking of the Vietnam War, everyone knows that Buffalo Springfieldโs 1966 song โFor What Itโs Worthโ is a protest song about Americaโs involvement in Southeast Asia. I mean, come on, the song played during the Vietnam War segment in Forrest Gump, and Forrest would never lie to us. Welp. Weโve all been wrong this whole time. โFor Whatโs Itโs Worthโ is indeed a protest song, but writer Stephen Stills was actually documenting the Sunset Strip curfew riots. Locals had become outraged that young club-goers on the strip snarled traffic late at night, and pressured the city into enacting a strict 10 p.m. curfew. The youth of the day, alongside celebrities like Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda, felt that their rights were being infringed on, and staged protests, which soon descended into riots. So yep, one of the most famous protest songs of all time is about 22-year-olds wanting to stay up late.
โLucy in the Sky With Diamondsโ – The Beatles
Itโs pretty obvious that โLucy in the Sky with Diamondsโ is about drugs. After all, The Beatles were admittedly very fond of acid, the initials of Lucy – Sky – Diamonds spells LSD, and with imagery like โwhere rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies,โ what else could John Lennon be singing about but a drug hallucination. And yet the earnest Beatle has always denied that the song was about drugs. Lennon claims that his three-year-old son came home from preschool with a drawing of his classmate Lucy that he described as only a toddler could – Lucy, in the sky, with Diamonds. Lennon thought the phrase was beautiful, and promptly wrote a song about it. He was heavily influenced by the fact that he was reading Alice in Wonderland at the time, so Lennon filled the song with fantastic and surreal imagery. I still say itโs drugs.
โSummer of โ69โ – Bryan Adams
We all made the same joke when we were 12 and first heard Bryan Adamsโ classic hit โSummer of โ69.โ Heehee. Heehee. โDo you know what heโs talking about? Do you know what a 69 is?โ And then weโd proceed to regal our friends with the lurid details of what we thought Bryan Adams was singing about. But then we grew up, matured, and realized that โSummer of โ69โ is actually a loving, nostalgic snapshot in time that beautifully captures the magic of growing up. Well, what if I told you that that interpretation was basically a load of crap and that our perverted past selves had it right all along? Yep, itโs true. And here is a quote from Mr. Adams himself: โโ69โ has nothing to do about a year, it has to do with a sexual position. Youโd have to be pretty thick in the head not to get that.โ Mind. Blown.ย
โLouie Louieโ – The Kingsmen
If youโve ever sung along to The Kingsmenโs 1963 hit song โLouie Louieโ chances are after the Louie Louie youโve kinda trailed away into unintelligible muttering, because who the hell can understand anything that singer is saying? But donโt feel bad, because even J. Edgar Hoover couldnโt figure out what that song meant. As โLouie Louieโ became more and more popular in 1963, a rumor spread like wildfire that its lyrics were incredibly obscene. And as the words to the song are impossible to understand, you can really fill in the blanks with whatever you want. This led to parents hearing their worst nightmares, radio stations banning the song, and an eventual FBI investigation into whether federal obscenity laws had been violated. Which they hadnโt, because the song was actually about a lonely sailor pining for his lost love. Boring! Itโs way more fun to make up raunchy lyrics in your head.
โMother and Child Reunionโ – Paul Simon
Weโve all heard Paul Simonโs 1972 single โMother and Child Reunionโ, and thought, wow, what a sweet, uplifting song. Really brightened up my day. Probably about a mother and daughter reuniting. Welp, kinda. The lyrics to Simonโs first foray into reggae actually have a much darker undertone. They were inspired by Simonโs pet dog who was run over and killed by a car. This was Simonโs first experience with death, and forced him to imagine how he would react if it was his wife who had been killed. Not exactly light fare. And the mother and daughter in the songโs title? Simon was eating at a Chinese restaurant and saw a chicken and egg dish called mother and child reunion. Think about itโฆ.ย Not exactly the happy-go-lucky reunion the song seems to imply. But definitely a more delicious one!
โTotal Eclipse of the Heartโ – Bonnie Tyler
If thereโs any song that epitomizes grandiose 1980s love ballads, it might just be โTotal Eclipse of the Heartโ from Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler. With soaring vocals, pounding drums, and a key change that makes your knees weak, Tylerโs smash hit has everything an over-the-top ballad needs. And its meaning is obvious. Itโs about love. But what if I told you that โTotal Eclipse of the Heartโ was originally written as a love songโฆโฆ. about vampires?! Yes, itโs true. Writer Jim Steinman originally penned the song when he was working on a musical version of Nosferatu. And when you dig into the lyrics it really makes sense. All of the songโs imagery revolves around darkness, something obviously very important to vampires. So the next time youโre rocking along to Tylerโs hit, try and resist any sudden urges to get bitey.
โLondon Callingโ – The Clash
When you listen to The Clashโs punk anthem โLondon Callingโ itโs immediately obvious that theyโre very angry about something. But if youโre anything like the rest of us, hearing any actual words through singer Joe Strummerโs ferocious snarl is a challenge, and so what the band is actually angry about remains somewhat of a mystery. But if you are able to catch a bit of the lyrics, or look them up on, say, the internet, then youโll find a message that seems several decades ahead of its time. Because what The Clash were so pissed off about in 1979 was climate change. The band had read an article about how if the Thames river flooded then most of central London would be inundated. This greatly affected the punk pioneers – Strummer actually had nightmares of drowning for months – and spurred them on to write perhaps their best song ever. All 27 years before Al Gore made the topic cool.
Those are some pretty rad songs, and even more interesting stories about them. Some of the classic rock songs that everyone misunderstands. How many songs have you interpreted wrong for years? Any that you could say with confidence you always knew the meaning of? Let us know in the comments below, we read every one!