Not misheard. Not misunderstood. I’m talking Misinterpreted. It’s when the listener sees the words correctly, but totally does not get the song’s meaning, which could have been the artist’s intent anyway. Songwriters love to be vague and disguise the true meaning of a song and, I admit, I love the challenge of trying to figure out what the hell they meant.
Steely Dan is the all-time master at this lyrical sleight-of-hand and it tends to drive us crazy…in a fun way. Artists will sometimes put doom and gloom lyrics into a bouncy, happy melody. They will make you think they are supporting something when, really, they are protesting it. They use every literary device in the book to confuse us: metaphor, allegory, double-entendre…you name it. Being able to draw more than one meaning out of a song gives it greater depth and heightens the listening experience.
Politicians in…
View original post 3,651 more words
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments