Let's nitpick some lyrics

"Everybody must get stoned"
Does he mean "Everybody should get stoned"
or
Does he mean that it seems as if everyone I meet is getting high

 

I think it means we should throw rocks at everyone until we're all dead.

 

Just like in Life of Brian.

 

lol. I guess a picture is worth a thousand words after all.

 

It's a song about the little persecutions we suffer daily. I think Bob's saying we're all the same boat--"I would not feel so all alone, everybody must get stoned": everyone suffers the slings and arrows, or stones, in this case.

 

Well, since this is a "nit-picking" thread...

Technically, a jail and a prison aren't the same thing. The former is under city or county jurisdication, the latter under state or federal jurisdiction.

Leiber and Stoller set the song in the "county jail" but then immediately speak of "the prison band." Regardless, it would have to be a very large county for them to have separate jails for male and female prisoners. Many prisons also have both male and female wings.

I don't know that too many of them routinely throw parties for their guests, but when they do it's not out of the question that both sexes would be invited to a common area.

Yeah, I know it's "everybody in the whole cell block"...but it's too convenient a rhyme for "rock" not to use!

 

If you can't find a partner, use a wooden chair.

 

I've always thought it rather funny that John litterally sings this song to Ringo in "A Hard Day's Night" and even on the actual recording when John and Paul are harmonizing, it does cause a few ironic giggles when examining it. hahaha

 

John: It won't be long...till I come home to you.
Cynthia: And then how long will it be?

 

It's pretty pointless to nitpick lyrics unless the crimes are aggregious.

I mean,

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I put them by your gate?

Is it poetry, or nonsense?

 

It's NOT nonsense. Perfect in its context.

"You will find poetry nowhere, unless you bring it with you."

 

"California Dreaming" :

I stopped into a church
I passed along the way...

Well, if you passed it, you didn't stop in - and if you did stop in, how'd you pass it?

 

It's nonsense, but the way he sings it redeems it.

 

"Never let me slip, cause if I slip, then Im slippin"

Dr. Dre - Nuthing But a G Thang

Brilliant lyrics like these are what keeps me from listening to rap.

 

The best for me has to be the accidentally-on-purpose fluff from one of the out-takes of the Beatles' "No Reply" as heard on Anthology (Track 20):

"You walked hand in hand
With another man
In your face" !

The take features "your face" liberally sprinkled around the other verses aswell, to their own great amusement...

 

That picture isn't from Python - it's the Mike Love appreciation society's annual Brian Wilson effigy stoning ceremony.

 

Bob Dylan [You Ain't Going Nowhere]

I think the title is probably a double-negative, but is it "intentional"?

As follows:
Pick up your money
And pack up your tent
You ain't goin' nowhere

Why would you need to pack up (take down) your tent if you weren't going anywhere (nowhere)?

Later on in the song, Dylan suggests strapping "yourself to the tree with roots" - that definately isn't moving anywhere!

So are we staying or going?

Help!


TIA,
Stephen

 

The title and chorus of "If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free" by Sting sometimes bugs me a bit since he makes references in the singular and plural at once.

 

I can help.

The song is humorous--thus, the playful way language is used.

God help us all

 

Good one.

 

Even "better"--Elton John (ok, ok, I know Bernie taupin actually wrote the words, but...): "Tell me, grey seal"

All together now, let's "answer" Elton, by clapping our "fins" and making loud seal noises at the last chord of the chorus! "Orr-Orr-Orr-Orr!"

Robert

 

I always thought Steve Miller was asking "Hows the people?" and then he answered his own question in the next line "Livin in the street"

and now with a young daughter whom my wife and I often ask "Do you have to make?" well Elton John singing about Levon "He makes a lot they say" brings a smile to my face.

 

Oh, and what exactly are the "Streets Of Love", Sir Mick?

I don't think he means the Reeperbahn, but...

Robert

 

Here's another, from "No Reply": "If I were you, I'd realize that I love you more than any other guy". He loves the person he's singing about more than any other guy?