It’s Lyrical
March 3rd, 2010 | Published under Music | No Comments
Songs are an amazing and powerful thing. They date back tens of thousands of years and can be found in the history of every culture on the Earth. It would be safe to say that music, alongside pictorial art and language is a standard element of all human beings. A huge part of today’s music are the lyrics, which are sometimes as powerful, if not more powerful, then the song itself.
I’ve always had a huge interest in speculating the meanings of my favorite songs, and also researching their true meanings and lyrical history. As part of this interest, I’ve put together a 3-part series of blogs about songs which I’ve found have interesting lyrics, histories or rumours attributed to them. Here’s the first five of them:
The Beatles – Let It Be
Nearly everyone would be familiar with the famous English rock band The Beatles and their immensely popular song Let It Be, which was released in 1970. The song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and reached number one is the USA, Germany, Italy, Norway and Switzerland.
What is particularly interesting in this song’s lyrics is the reference to ‘Mother Mary’ in the line “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me.” Many believe this is in fact a biblical reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus or otherwise the mother of the Church (Virgin Mary).
Paul McCartney actually wrote this song about his own mother, Mary, who died when he was 14-years-old. He was inspired to write it after he was going through a stressful time, and his mother who had been dead for ten years came to him in a dream and spoke words of wisdom to him, and told him, “It will be all right, just let it be.”
The song was the first Beatles song played in the Soviet Union, and had the largest initial sales in US record history at the time, with more than 3.7 million advance orders. The song was also played at the funeral of Linda McCartney. It is claimed that Let It Be and The Long and Winding Road were written on the same day.
Simon and Garfunkel – Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
Paul Simon wrote and recorded Me and Julio down by the Schoolyard in 1971 and it was released in 1972. It was a somewhat popular song for the American folk singer, but what is more interesting about the song is its continued lyrical debate.
The two boys in the song are described to have broken a law, but the exact law broken is not ever specifically mentioned in the song. The mother calls the police station to report the crime, which leads to their arrest. They are later released when a ‘radical priest’ intervenes and gets them released.
The most popular belief is that the lyrics refer to two boys being arresting at an antiwar protest on their college campus, with the radical priest likely referring to Philip or Daniel Berrigan who were known for their Vietnam War activism. There are other speculations that it may be about the boys doing recreational drugs, or being seen buying drugs.
On July 20, 1972, Jon Landau asked Paul Simon in a Rolling Stones interview, “What is it that mama saw? The whole world wants to know.”
Paul Simon replied, “I have no idea what it is… something sexual is what I imagine. But when I say ‘something’, I never bothered to figure out what it was. Didn’t make any difference to me.”
This has sparked further debate that the song is about a homosexual relationship, and the boys were caught in a sexual act together, which, at the time illegal in many states.
The Fray – How to Save A Life
How to Save a Life is a song by Denver-based rock band The Fray who formed in 2002. It is probably their most popular airplay song and became the joint sixth-longest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 along with Santana’s Smooth with a period of 58 consecutive weeks. It has had over 3 million downloads.
The meaning I had first heard when investigating the lyrics of the song was that it was the story of a father approaching his son about his drug habit, who tries to help his son with his addiction to ‘save his life.’ His son isn’t interested in his dads attempt to help him. This explanation makes quite a lot of sense when listening to the lyrics.
According to Isaac Slade, who wrote the song with Joe King, and is the lead singer and pianist for The Fray, the song was influenced by his experience while working as a mentor at a camp for trouble teens:
“One of the kids I was paired up with was a musician. Here I was, a protected suburbanite, and he was just 17 and had all these problems. And no one could write a manual on how to save him.”
He claims the song is about people who have tried to reach out for help with their problems but haven’t been successful. The boy who influenced the song had his friends and family approach his problem by saying, “Stop it or we won’t talk to you”, when what he actually needed was support. The chorus of the song describes the singer trying to save a friend but being unable to because he didn’t know how.
In an interview with USA today, Slade spoke about the response to the song:
“I got a lot of e-mails about it. One kid died in a car accident, and I guess it had been the last song he downloaded from his computer. They played it at his funeral, and some of his friends got save a life tattooed on their arms. The response has been overwhelming.”
Blink 182 – Adam’s Song
Adam’s Song was written by pop-punk band Blink 182 for their third album Enema of the State. It was recorded and released in 1999 and was one of the five Blink 182 songs that peaked at number 2 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was commonly referred to as the song when Blink 182 “got serious.”
The song has three popular rumours:
- The song was inspired by a teenage boy named Adam who wrote a letter to Blink 182 and committed suicide afterwards.
- The song is inspired by the website dedicated to Adam Krieger, a boy who posted a suicide note on the Internet and named those who lead and further effected his depression. The website is www.adamsletter.com.
- The third and possibly silliest rumour I have heard is that the song is about the ex-Blink 182 member Adam, who committed suicide. Of course, any Blink 182 fan will know the ex-members name was Scott, not Adam, and he is well and alive and still drums for other bands.
The lyrics have a few different possible inspirations. Liza Bermingham, Blink 182’s tour manager at the time, claimed that Mark Hoppus wrote this song when he was depressed about being away from his family while on tour. The song ends with him saying that things will get better.
On the other hand, Tom DeLonge said:
“The story behind that is Mark read a letter someone sent him as an email, that a kid wrote before he committed suicide to his parents. We kind of got together and wrote this sad, slow song. It came out sadder than we ever thought it would, which is good too. Any song that moves you is good. Some people listen to it and go ‘Wow, that’s a real bum-out of a song.’ But it’s one of those things, a story of a kid not being happy in his life, crossed with us being really lonely on tour. At the end of it there’s a better way out, there are better things to do than kill yourself.”
Another interesting lyrical meaning relates to the line “I traced the cord back to the wall, no wonder it was never plugged in at all” was inspired when guitarist Tom DeLonge was playing guitar in his garage and he and his amp were in a puddle. Fortunately, the amp was not plugged in or he could have been electrocuted.
The line “I took my time, I hurried up, the choice was mine, I didn’t think enough” refers to the 1991 Nirvana’s song “Come as You Are.” There the line is, “Take your time, hurry up, the choice is yours, don’t be late.”
Don McLean – Vincent
The song Vincent, sometimes known as Starry Starry Night was written and recorded in 1971 by the famous folk singer Don McLean. The song became a number one hit in the UK and reached number 12 in the US.
For those who know what the song is about already, the lyrical interpretation is clear. But to those who don’t usually find the background quite interesting. The song was written by Don McLean after he read a book about the life of the artist Vincent van Gogh, and is a tribute to the artist. A Starry Night is one of the Dutch impressionist’s most famous paintings.
The lyrics ‘Paint your palette blue and gray’ reflect the prominent colors of the painting. The ‘ragged men in ragged clothes’ and ‘how you tried to set them free’ refer to Van Gogh’s humanitarian activities and love of the socially outcast as also reflected in his paintings and drawings. ‘They would not listen, they did not know how’ refers to Van Gogh’s family and some associates who were critical of his kindness to the wretched. ‘How you suffered for your sanity’ refers to the schizophrenic disorder from which Van Gogh suffered.
Have you heard a different explanation or always thought it was about something different? Let us know by leaving a comment for discussion below.
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