What were those songs really about about....and do I really want to know?

[Retro]

Here is a couple: 8)

West End Girls-Pet Shop Boys. About random conversations being heard at a bar in London's West End.

Puff The Magic Dragon-Peter, Paul & Mary was just that, nothing to do with drugs at all.

 

[Retro]

Won't somebody dissect Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant?

About his recollection of an event that happened to him in Western Massachusetts?

In A Gadda Vida Baby !

In The Garden of Eden.

 

[stevations]

What was the song Penny Lover by Lionel Richie about? I googled this and someone said he had a crush on Janet Jackson that was Penny on Good Times tv show......is this true? Other people said the song was about a hooker and another said it is about a coin collecting hobby.

 

[Robert Bass]

What was the song Penny Lover by Lionel Richie about? I googled this and someone said he had a crush on Janet Jackson that was Penny on Good Times tv show......is this true? Other people said the song was about a hooker and another said it is about a coin collecting hobby.

Considering Richie was married when he wrote this song and his wife at the time helped co-write it, I'm not sure Brenda would have appreciated it if Lionel had intended the song to be about him having a crush on Janet Jackson.

R

 

[firepoint525]

What was the song Penny Lover by Lionel Richie about? I googled this and someone said he had a crush on Janet Jackson that was Penny on Good Times tv show......is this true? Other people said the song was about a hooker and another said it is about a coin collecting hobby.

Considering Richie was married when he wrote this song and his wife at the time helped co-write it, I'm not sure Brenda would have appreciated it if Lionel had intended the song to be about him having a crush on Janet Jackson.

And especially since Brenda (as we would later find out) had violent tendencies.

 

[firepoint525]

What was America's...... Horse with No Name about?

The rumor during my days in radio was HEROIN. "Horse" is one of a number of street names for this drug. Listen carefully-- as the song starts, you can almost track the user's rise to Heroin's speedy euphoria. Then, toward the end, the singer appears to be "coming down" from his "high". Of course, I could be wrong.

You are wrong. The song's composer, D. Bunnell, has explained exactly what the song was about. It was about all the things he saw while traveling the U.S. as a young man.

America was made up of the sons of U.S. servicemen stationed in the U.K. It always rained there, so they wrote what could have been the antithesis to that: riding through the desert on a horse with no name. They might have been a bit homesick as well!

 

[rnigma1]

"Mother and Child Reunion" - Paul Simon was in one of those old rail-car diners and he heard someone order chicken and eggs, and the waiter then called to the cook "one mother and child reunion!"

 

[radiocph]

"Mother and Child Reunion" - Paul Simon was in one of those old rail-car diners and he heard someone order chicken and eggs, and the waiter then called to the cook "one mother and child reunion!"

I thought it was a Japanese dish (Oyako Donburi - lit, parent-and-child rice bowl)

 

[CatCall]

"Questions 67 & 68" by Chicago.

In an interview with Robert Lamm (who wrote the song) he was asked how did the song come about and what is actually the meaning of the lyrics? His answer was "IT’S ABOUT A GIRL I KNEW DURING THOSE YEARS WITH A HINT OF ACID IMAGERY, AND VERY BEATLES INFLUENCED."

 

[stevations]

Gordon Lightfoot's song Carefree Highway is about Arizona's SR 74 north of Phoenix, but is not part of the state highway system. Doesn't make much sense but that is the info on Wikipedia.

 

[landtuna]

Gordon Lightfoot's song Carefree Highway is about Arizona's SR 74 north of Phoenix, but is not part of the state highway system. Doesn't make much sense but that is the info on Wikipedia.

That road is indeed called the "Carefree Highway" (in reference to a town called 'Carefree' at the eastern end but it is indeed a state highway denoted by the S(tate) R(oad) prefix.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

What was America's...... Horse with No Name about?

The rumor during my days in radio was HEROIN... Of course, I could be wrong.

You are wrong. The song's composer, D. Bunnell, has explained exactly what the song was about. It was about all the things he saw while traveling the U.S. as a young man.

Oh yea? Well who are you gonna believe?

Hey, just kidding. Don't want this great thread getting exiled to TIO!

 

[michael hagerty]

Gordon Lightfoot's song Carefree Highway is about Arizona's SR 74 north of Phoenix, but is not part of the state highway system. Doesn't make much sense but that is the info on Wikipedia.

Actually, if you go back and re-read it, you'll see that it says the final stretch into Carefree itself (less than 10 miles in the Phoenix metro area) is not part of the state highway system. The rest of it (which covers about 50 miles) is.

 

[rnigma1]

http://listverse.com/2010/06/14/top-10-misinterpreted-song-meanings/

 

[oldies76]

That road is indeed called the "Carefree Highway" (in reference to a town called 'Carefree' at the eastern end but it is indeed a state highway denoted by the S(tate) R(oad) prefix.

You mean "Every Highway", that's sure what it sounds like Gordon is singing. ;D

 

[ixnay]

That road is indeed called the "Carefree Highway" (in reference to a town called 'Carefree' at the eastern end but it is indeed a state highway denoted by the S(tate) R(oad) prefix.

You mean "Every Highway", that's sure what it sounds like Gordon is singing. ;D

Has that road seen better days? Would I risk letting it slip away, slip away on me if I drove it?

I guess I'll always associate "Carefree Highway" with the evening while on vacation in 1987, on my way up the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) from Niagara Falls to my cousin's house where I would stay that weekend in Waterloo, and turning on the AM, spinning the dial while zooming along at 62 mph/100 km/h (the limit in Canada when most states of the Union still had a 55 mph limit), and getting "Carefree Highway" through the ether (which station, I don't remember).

ixnay

 

[boiseengineer]

"I clean my gun and dream of Galveston
I still see her standing by the water..."

 

[michael hagerty]

"I clean my gun and dream of Galveston
I still see her standing by the water..."

Well, that song's easy. A guy in Vietnam dreaming of his hometown in Texas and the girl he left behind.

 

[hm insulators]

Re: What were those songs really about....and do I really want to know?

Or America's "Tin Man": "Cause never was the reason for the evening, or the topic of Sir Galahad." I remember reading that the group admitted that the whole song was nonsense, just randomly selected words that fit the melody.

Speaking of nonsense by America, what are "alligator lizards in the air" as mentioned in "Ventura Highway?"

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and guess...
...More nonsense!
But it's a catchy tune, so who cares?
Do the music video for it in your head, it's better that way anyhow.

Alligator lizards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Alligator_Lizard

Hmmm, interesting. They can be found in grasslands, in forests, and near streams. But no mention of "in the air."

Just as well, really. It's bad enough having to dodge bird droppings! ;D

 

[michael hagerty]

Re: What were those songs really about....and do I really want to know?

Or America's "Tin Man": "Cause never was the reason for the evening, or the topic of Sir Galahad." I remember reading that the group admitted that the whole song was nonsense, just randomly selected words that fit the melody.

Speaking of nonsense by America, what are "alligator lizards in the air" as mentioned in "Ventura Highway?"

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and guess...
...More nonsense!
But it's a catchy tune, so who cares?
Do the music video for it in your head, it's better that way anyhow.

Alligator lizards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Alligator_Lizard

Hmmm, interesting. They can be found in grasslands, in forests, and near streams. But no mention of "in the air."

Just as well, really. It's bad enough having to dodge bird droppings! ;D

Dewey Bunnell, who wrote the song and did vocals, says he was referring to the shapes of the clouds he saw while driving.