submissions
| The Beach Boys – Wouldn't It Be Nice Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
|
This song was all about the wish that Brian had to return to his former, simpler days. Teenage years, uncomplicated romance. He was 25 years old, and was beginning to experience the affliction of paranoid-schitzophrenia. Wouldn't it be nice if things were simple again. The only way he could couch his feelings was in the framework of a teen romance. |
submissions
| The Beach Boys – This Whole World Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
I remember reading back in 1969 in one of those magazines (Circus?)
Brian said that we were going to be hearing lots of new voices and experiments. What he was trying to say was "I am not singing falsetto, that's Al, and we don't have access to Dennis much these days, so we'll make some buzzy sounding mix containing Al, Mike and Bruce to replace him. And Carl will sing leads, and I'm basically upstairs in my bed."
Too bad, it was one of his best late 60s works, and if we could have heard it like it should have been, with Brian on lead and everybody else where they should have been.... |
submissions
| The Guess Who – No Sugar Tonight Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
This part was written by Randy Bachman. From the story told on the 2007 PBS special, Randy showed up a Burton's house one day, and they found that they had both written a song in the difficult key of "E" and neither could finish it. Thus they melded the songs together, and came up with "No Sugar/New Mother Nature." Of course, this could be the result of revisionist history. After Randy and Burton fell out, the Guess Who always performed only Burton's "New Mother Nature" segment of the song. |
submissions
| The Kinks – God's Children Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
This song was written for an absurd movie (Percy) in which the hero is seeking a penis transplant. When Ray was comissioned to write a song for it, he responded with this biting commentary on the morality of transplants. |
submissions
| The Beach Boys – Surf's Up Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Anything quoted from "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is suspect, as it is now regarded to have been written primarily by Landy. |
submissions
| The Beach Boys – Kokomo Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Brian Wilson had nothing to do with this song. It was written by John Phillips (Mamas & Papas) and Scott McKenzie. It took Mike and company 20 years to get a #1 song, and they kept on trying to milk the formula until Phillips died, and McKenzie went away. Then Carl died, they kicked Al out, and they are now playing county fairs, while Brian plays to packed houses everywhere. |
submissions
| The Beach Boys – Heroes and Villains Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
It's impossible to understand the lyrics of Heroes without having heard SMiLE. That's where Brian failed. Nobody understood what the damn thing was about, and that's why the single failed. |
submissions
| The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
Replying to a post almost 2 years old: it's Carl singing, not Brian.
Repeated radio airplay has worn this record out.
The abomination known as "Winchester Cathedral" bumped it out of the #1 spot after only 2 weeks. So much for the ears of the record buying public. |
submissions
| The Beach Boys – Feel Flows Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
It's all very simple. Both Carl Wilson and Jack Rielly have said it's a description of an orgasm. So much for all that speculation. |
submissions
| The Beach Boys – Caroline No Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
All of you are wrong. Brian wrote this song for Carol Mountain, a girl he was infatuated with in high school. One evening in 1965, he went with his entourage (today reads posse) up to her house, where she rebuffed him and her husband threatened to beat Brian within an inch of his life if he did not leave. |
submissions
| The Guess Who – Undun Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
No, it's spelled Undun. DUH.
Who knows what it means? Burton Cummings plays the flute brilliantly, and he has repeatedly stated "this is the best song that Randy Bachman ever wrote. I was privileged to sing it." So Randy wrote the ballads? No wonder the Guess Who started floundering when he left/was fired.
There is an awesome version on Youtube. |
submissions
| The Guess Who – Talisman Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
I think it's a look back at the past, and how science exploded the old views about magic. The narrators opines about such things as "the non-existent soul of John Smith" and then falls back on the familiar...
Talisman, talisman grace my hand...."
The thing about the purple berries seems to indicate a new settler who is depending upon the natives to stay alive.
At any rate, it's a brilliant song, and indicative of where the Guess Who were going before Randy Bachman was fired/quit. |
submissions
| The Guess Who – Sour Suite Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
His real father deserted the family when Burton was 5. The reference to "46201" is a real American zip code in Indianapolis. Supposedly, Burton became vey attached to a fan who lived there. Now things haven't worked out, and "it's just like 46201."
I take it as a song about a road weary performer who has real issues in his life, and is reserving the morning to ruminate about them. Toni Tennille even wrote a song about this, entitled "The Good Song.' She describes being so down that the mere thought of taking the stage terrifies here, but she does it anyway. |
submissions
| The Guess Who – Share The Land Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Someone was studying with Jehovah's Witnesses. Probably Burton. He was lost and searching in those years. "Walkin' down by the river" is a clear reference to Revelations= 22:1,2. |
submissions
| The Guess Who – Runnin' Back to Saskatoon Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
It's about a a not so intelligent guy who set out to see the world, but limited his horizons to Saskatchewan. He learned about soil farmers, heart doctors, grease monkeys, and dyin'. Was probably a tongue in cheek jab at the rural province from the urban, sophisticate Winnepegers. Later, the Canadian comedy show SCTV (of which Burton is a big fan) lampooned this as idiots from Nova Scotia who moved to Toronto based on the promise of "jobs there for lawyers, doctors, and nuclear physicists." |
submissions
| The Guess Who – No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
This is a song patched together from 2 different songs. Both Randy and Burton had written parts of a song in the key of "B", which is a difficult key to master. From what they said, they got together, melded the 2 pieces together, and ended up with "No Sugar/New Mother Nature." From what they said. |
submissions
| The Guess Who – Bus Rider Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
I would say that Randy Bachman took this to a whole new level in "Takin' Care Of Business". So glad not to have to ride the bus to make a living. Who made that possible for you, Randy? We, the bus riding people who buy your albums and go to your concerts. Shame on us. |
submissions
| The Guess Who – Bus Rider Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
I would say that Randy Bachman took this to a whole new level in "Takin' Care Of Business". So glad not to have to ride the bus to make a living. Who made that possible for you, Randy? We, the bus riding people who buy your albums and go to your concerts. Shame on us. |
submissions
| The Guess Who – American Woman Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
All of you should watch the whole performance, which is in 2 parts on youtube. I won't post the URL - you should be able to find it by yourselves. Search for Guess Who, or Bachman Cummings.
There is a lot of this song you haven't heard.
It talks about finding a "sweet honeysuckle rose" "down Carolina way" but gets more bitter as the song goes on. BTW, this may be the best thing the Guess Who has ever done.
As the relationship falls apart, the writer becomes more and more bitter, and begins to attack her country as well as her. Apparently, she has made him bitter against everything she represents. |
submissions
| The Guess Who – American Woman Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
All of you should watch the whole performance, which is in 2 parts on youtube. I won't post the URL - you should be able to find it by yourselves. Search for Guess Who, or Bachman Cummings.
There is a lot of this song you haven't heard.
It talks about finding a "sweet honeysuckle rose" "down Carolina way" but gets more bitter as the song goes on. BTW, this may be the best thing the Guess Who has ever done.
As the relationship falls apart, the writer becomes more and more bitter, and begins to attack her country as well as her. Apparently, she has made him bitter against everything she represents. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Hey Nineteen Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Aretha Franklin and the Soul Survivors were big hits in 1967. It's just a song about the generation gap. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Hey Nineteen Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Aretha Franklin and the Soul Survivors were big hits in 1967. It's just a song about the generation gap. |
submissions
| The Doobie Brothers – South City Midnight Lady Lyrics
| 17 years ago
|
Has it occured to any of you that that the "midnight lady" is a prostitute?
This is a song about depression, alcoholism, and some drunk feeling better about himself because he's not as low as the "midnight lady."
Also, it really sucks that I have to use Internet Exploder to post on this site, because the "add your comments" box won't appear in Firefox. Jeez, songmeanings.net, get your coding up to standards so that a correct browser can render all of it. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – FM (No Static at All) Lyrics
| 17 years ago
|
There is a hilarious video about the song "FM" and the mythical Steely Dan/Eagles feud here:
http://www.channel101.com/shows/view.php?media_id=1766
Must have been made back in the early 80s. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Reelin' In The Years Lyrics
| 17 years ago
|
I am gonna add an alternative meaning. This song came out during the first wave of a huge nostalgia boom for simpler times. Happy Days was a new show on TV. Capitol Records had released "The Beach Boys Endless Summer" which went double platinum. Disco was rearing it's ugly head on the far horizon.
The first verse gives it away: "Your everlasting summer..." - obvious reference to "Endless Summer."
The "girl" in the song was a metaphor for the record buying public. Steely Dan had spent years becoming a top notch jazz/blues/rock act, and now the public wanted "endless summer" rather than progressive music.
"You wouldn't know a diamond if you held it in your hand, the things you think are precious, I don't understand." - compares the progressive music of Steely Dan to the simplistic music of the nostalgia boom.
"The college" likely refers to early 1970s college and freeform radio, where obscure artists were played, and the weirder, the better.
"Reelin' In The Years" - trying not to grow old by trying to relive endless summers of the past.
"You've been tellin' me you're a genius since you were 17" - obvious references to Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, and John Lennon.
"I still don't know what you mean." - I never got it. I'm into a different groove.
"The things you think are useless, I don't understand." - there was a conscious effort during 1974 - 1976 to reject all things progressive. Maybe it was the advent of the nation's 200th birthday? Maybe just a time? But, the record buying public came to feel that progressive was useless, and nostalgia was in.
Fortunately, the public came to their senses about 1978. But, can you sense the disdain the the SD lyrics, as they rag on the record buying public, who they compare to a wayward girl who can't make up her mind?
This may not be the correct interpretation, but it makes sense to me. Add to it that SD never wrote about the obvious, but about the obscure. Attributing these lyrics to a real girl just doesn't jive with their style. |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.
