The Meaning of Rock

"Sometimes...playing rock music...it can all become a big wash and sometimes the words get lost..." says Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard at a concert in Seatle. While the band went on to play Lukin (the lyrics of which cannot be understood), the idea that rock lyrics are often misunderstood is very valid. There are countless rock songs that, for whatever reason, are consistently misinterpretted. My favourite is Neil Young's Keep on Rockin' in the Free World, which many mistakenly think is an anthem for the free world (or specifically, the fall of the Berlin Wall), but in reality is about the decay of American politics and society. Rolling Stone magazine has their own take on the Top 25 Songs With a Secret. I'm not going to transcribe them all, but here are some of my favorites:

2. “Lola” – The Kinks: Thought to be about a beautiful woman, actually inspired by an incident in which Kinks’ manager Robert Wace spent a drunken night dancing with a transvestite he mistook for a woman.
3. “Born in the USA” – Bruce Springsteen: Misperceived as a nationalistic anthem, is really a dark portrait of post-Vietnam life.
5. “Rainy Day Women #12 & #35” – Bob Dylan: With its lyrical proclamation, “everybody must get stoned” the song was embraced as a stoner’s anthem, but the song is actually about the literal throwing of stones.
6. “Please Please Me” – The Beatles: Thought to be a cute little teenage love song, is actually about oral sex.
11. “Polly” – Nirvana: Misunderstood by frat boys to glorify rape, was actually inspired by a true story in which a rape victim escaped from her captor.
12. “She Bop” – Cyndi Lauper: Thought to be a charming and innocent song about a girl dancing around, is actually about masturbation.
18. “Pennyroyal Tea” – Nirvana: Thought to be inspired by many things, including a tea Kurt drank to ease his stomach pain, was actually inspired by an herbal remedy meant to cause an abortion.
20. “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”– Green Day: Misperceived as a love song, is really about a bitterness-filled breakup.
24. “Drain You” – Nirvana: Thought to be just another song about heroin, is actually about a case in which one twin baby stole the nutrients from its twin while in the womb, resulting in one stillbirth.
25. “Dier Eir von Satan” – Tool: Thought to be about something to do with Satan, the lyrics, which are all in German, actually consist entirely of a repeating recipe for hashish cookies.


I think my absolute favourite in the RS list is Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). I still recall so many people singing this "great love song" with their highschool sweethearts. One RS reader wrote that it seemed that at every wedding he went to this song was played for the couple's first dance. The title of the song is Good Riddance! How people didn't know this was about a bitter break-up confounds me.

I also love Please Please Me because it launched the shaggy-haired idols from Liverpool into stardom. These "good boys" represent the "good ol' rock and roll" that your parents wish you would listen to. I think this may actually be the perfect embodiment of what rock is: a big FU to mainstream society (preferably without them knowing it!).


Kudos RS.