Song lyrics

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

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

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 .

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.

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

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

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'.

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

What’s new pussycat is certainly not about a cat

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?

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.

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!

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!)

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.

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

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