Not What You Think
While songs are left open wide for fans to dissect and draw their own meaning, some tunes have specific messages that have been lost over time or the writer wasn’t very outspoken about the truth.
Here are some famous tracks that mean something entirely different than the world initially thought.
Closing Time by Semisonic
While Dan Wilson thought that the song would be a big hit with bars – to kick out any bar flies that just would leave – the real meaning is something completely different.
Wilson and his wife just had a baby and his headspace was solely fixed on that event. The song is meant as a funny pun to be bounced out of the womb.
Imagine by John Lennon
We picture this worldwide theme song of love and peace to be about repairing the earth and our connections within.
But no – it’s pretty much the entire Communist manifesto. Lennon said, "Because it's sugar-coated it's accepted. Now I understand what you have to do—put your message across with a little honey."
Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler
It’s a power ballad like no other.
But it was a frequent writing collaborator with Meat Loaf that wrote the song. He later admitted it was all about Vampire love. He even tried to work it into his bombed-musical Nosferatu. “If anyone listens to the lyrics, they're really like vampire lines. It's all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love's place in dark."
Harder to Breathe by Maroon 5
On the surface, it sounds like another song about Adam Levine’s on-and-off girlfriend, Jane. After all, many songs are about her.
But Levine himself said in one interview that it's a bitter indictment of music industry pressures. “That song comes sheerly from wanting to throw something,” he said.
S&M by Rihanna
One would think this is about whips and leather – from every single line plus the spicy music video.
However, it has nothing to do with what happens in the bedroom. "The song can be taken very literally, but it's actually a very metaphorical song. It's about the love-hate relationship with the media and how sometimes the pain is pleasurable," Rihanna told Vogue in 2011
Slide by The Goo Goo Dolls
Yeah, this isn’t a love song at all.
“I was thinking a lot about the neighborhood I grew up in. 'Slide' is about a teenage boy and girl. They're trying to figure out if they're going to keep the baby or if she's going to get [rid of it] or if they're just going to run away," the band's front-runner John Rzeznik told Billboard in 2018.
Good Riddance by Green Day
It’s also called “Time of Your Life.”
The problem is most people focus on the second part and not the first. It’s actually a cynical breakup song. Billie Joe Armstrong said, "I was trying to be as understanding about it as I could. I wrote the song as kind of a bon voyage. I was trying not to be bitter, but I think it came out as a little bitter anyway," he said.
Angel by Sarah McLachlan
You’ve heard this from pretty much any “save ___” society or charity.
What most people don’t realize is that McLachlan wrote the song after the death of Smashing Pumpkin’s keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin, who passed after an overdose. It’s a painful tribute not a comment about any personal longing on her part.
Somebody to Love by Queen
The line “Can anybody find me somebody to love” might be clear as day – and one of the messages in the song.
However, there’s another important layer. Rather than looking for love, the song wonders if the individual is worthy of love. “Can anyone love me?”
In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins
Nope, it’s not about a guy drowning and the other dude not saving him. It just stems from the singer’s anger during his divorce.
“I was just pissed off, ya know? I was angry," Collins told Jimmy Fallon on an episode of "The Tonight Show" in 2016.
American Pie by Don McLean
“Bye bye, Miss American Pie” – that’s what most people remember.
But the song is a lengthy 8 minutes, and many forget there is heavy reference to the plane crash that killed Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson. "People ask me if I left the lyrics open to ambiguity. Of course, I did. I wanted to make a whole series of complex statements. The lyrics had to do with the state of society at the time," he said.
Born in the USA by Bruce Spingsteen
Even now, you can’t take five steps without hearing this song attached to some patriotic movement ... or holiday sale.
However, the singer firmly stated that it’s a critique of America's involvement in the Vietnam War – as well as the post-return deaths of soldiers through neglect, homelessness, addiction, suicide, and general lack of eternal support.
I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton
Yes, Miss Parton was the original singer. Ms. Huston only revamped it.
Her lyrics weren’t meant as a tragic love song. They were written during her decision to leave her mentor, Porter Wagoner. They both loved working on his show, but she needed to move on.
Rock the Casbah by Clash
The song is about Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1979 broadcast music ban in Iran.
"I started to wail about the muezzin and the sheiks and the oil in the desert. Somebody'd told me earlier that if you had a disco album in Tehran, you got 20 lashes. And if you had a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label whiskey, you got 40 lashes," he said. "I couldn't get this out of my mind, so I was trying to say fanaticism is nowhere. There's no tenderness or humanity in fanaticism. That's what I was trying to say in 'Rock the Casbah.'"