Lyric discussion by Fritzy 

I think McCrea is messing with us. :P

People seem to think that he's talking about some sort of awesome, unattainable dream chick, but I doubt that. I think McCrea is singing about the maturing tastes of a man in his late twenties or so-- a girl who's hot, yes, but also reserved and responsible. "Putting up her hair" denotes that, as often a wilder girl would let her hair flow freely.

The machete sounds free-spirited enough, but McCrea uses the analogy (quite cleverly) to describe efficiency. She uses the machete to cut through red tape. In other words, she finishes her work quickly and effortlessly with style.

"Changing her name from Kitty to Karen" sounds like she would also just be entering the life of a responsible adult. The identity McCrea assumes isn't looking for a cougar-- just a girl who's maturing at the same rate he is. A girl who's tired of hookups and partying and wants to live like an adult. I saw "yuppie" a while back, that's a pretty good word to describe these people. And I definitely don't think it's irony or sarcasm or satire or anything like that.

@Fritzy This is what I think the song is about - drawing a funny parallel with a mature love song, sounding like he's singing about salacious things, but just wanting a girl who has her crap together

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