Song lyrics

Yeah Clawdy the radio version is the clean one, the original is on the album.

Apparently the original version of Don't Marry Her was Don't Marry Her, F* Me!

At least in our generation you had to work out what it meant. Now it is no holds barred, f words, c words, the lot. Quite quite revolting.

Don’t marry her by The beautiful South. The lyrics are don’t marry her have me, but for years I thought they were Don’t marry her Habean ( thought Habean was the chaps name!)

Savvy

Never fails to make me laugh when people say they don't know what 'Ride a White Swan' is about. When the lyrics include the words black cat, tall hat, say a few spells, children of the Beltain and Druid of the old days, do they really think it's not about witchcraft?

I think we've established most people have no idea what the words are and just like the sound of a song. Either they can't make the words out or they don't really care what they are!

Well I never knew that about Walk on the Wild Side mentioned above. You learn something new every day on GN. I'll have a listen sometime. I really liked that in the 70s.

Never fails to make me laugh when people say they don't know what 'Ride a White Swan' is about. When the lyrics include the words black cat, tall hat, say a few spells, children of the Beltain and Druid of the old days, do they really think it's not about witchcraft?

What’s new pussycat is certainly not about a cat

And the first verse says
She was mistress of her trade.
I mean really!

GrumpyGran8

I remember the chorus of a folk song we used to sing at school, about a sailor:
"I'll go no more a rovin, with you fair maid.
A roving, A roving, since roving's been my ru-i-in,
I'll go no more a roving, with you fair maid."
We all enjoyed signing it, espcially that drawn-out "r-u-i-n". It was only some time ago, when I heard the song again, that I realised that the sailor had been doing a bit more than "roving" with his "fair maid"; in fact, he was probably telling her that she had given him the pox!

The second verse;
I put my arm around her waist,
Mark well what I do say.
I put my arm around her waist.
Says she 'young man you're in great haste'.

The response to ‘Jerusalem’ is ‘No, no, no, no, get them yourself.’

I remember the chorus of a folk song we used to sing at school, about a sailor:
"I'll go no more a rovin, with you fair maid.
A roving, A roving, since roving's been my ru-i-in,
I'll go no more a roving, with you fair maid."
We all enjoyed signing it, espcially that drawn-out "r-u-i-n". It was only some time ago, when I heard the song again, that I realised that the sailor had been doing a bit more than "roving" with his "fair maid"; in fact, he was probably telling her that she had given him the pox!

Jerusalem . My English teacher in 6th form told us that the poem was a cry for sexual freedom for women

Not at all. The words are part of a much longer poem - by William Blake - about Milton's 'Paradise Lost'.
However, when the composer Hubert Parry, set it to music and it became a hymn, it was adopted by the suffragette movement; Parry, his wife and daughters were all suffragette supporters and it was sung on their marches.

I saw kd lang perform it live several years ago. Made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Jeff Buckley's version was good too. Good to see another Leonard Cohen fan, I too have loved his songs for the last 50 years. As you say, there were about 80 draft verses and Leonard Cohen did pick and choose verses when he performed the song.
I wonder if some of the other singers knew who he was or even listened to the lyrics.

Being a fan of Leonard Cohen for over 50 years, I've always known what 'Hallelujah!' was all about - however, I've had lots of giggles when I've seen some of the recent interpretations of the song by (mostly) female singers in recent years.

They get that 'Holier than thou' look on their faces ........................ which I find absolutely hilarious. I'm thinking in particular of Miss Jenkins and Miss Burke .

My favourite version of this HAS to be Leonard's own version - even though his voice isn't perfect. But he, at least, KNOWS what it means and HOW it should be sung .

KD Lang does a wonderful version.

There's actually at least 80 (EIGHTY) verses to the song, so you can take your pick as to which ones to sing .

Walk On the Wild Side is about oral sex. The BBC didn't ban it because they didn't know what 'giving head' was.

Get Down by Gilbert ‘o’ Sullivan I’d terrible. He now claims it is actually about his dog?

Chestnut asked ‘Do you have to mean the words of every song you sing?’

Well, I certainly consider them carefully, and don’t sing anything that I consider dishonest or offensive. I love Holst’s tune, and I’m happy to sing the second verse, but lying is never ‘beautiful’. I think that starting off with ‘I vow...’ and then singing a whole load of stuff that I heartily reject would be utterly dishonest. I don’t lie when I talk, so why should I lie when I sing?

In general, I think that popular songs often contribute to normalising things that are not acceptable - sexual abuse, stalking and drug abuse are all glorified in songs cited in this thread.

geekesse

I always pay attention to lyrics. I find ‘Rule, Britannia’ racist and xenophobic, and I cannot sing the first verse of ‘I vow to thee my country’ because I could not ever vow unquestioning devotion to anything.

Grief! Surely you can appreciate a beautiful song and join in singing it, without signing your life away. You're not in a court of law with a Bible in your hand.
Do you have to mean the words of every song you sing?

We have a care home and convent backing onto our back garden. They got a new loud sound system last summer. The staff were practising with it and blasting out (with DGS2 age 2 in the garden) were rap songs with swearing in them! This year it's Vera Lynn, Proclaimers and Scottish songs like Mairi's Wedding, ABBA etc!

I always pay attention to lyrics. I find ‘Rule, Britannia’ racist and xenophobic, and I cannot sing the first verse of ‘I vow to thee my country’ because I could not ever vow unquestioning devotion to anything.

Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke sounds so obviously about date rape. The lyrics make me sick and I hate how popular it was.

Ignorance definitely is bliss, but so is not actually hearing what they're saying! Lol

4allweknow. Actually Hotel California was about the excesses of show biz in the seventies - suppose that does include drugs but not exclusively. When asked about the lyrics Don Henley once said ‘this song is about materialism and excess. California is used as the setting, but it could relate to anywhere in America. ... It's a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America which was something we knew about."