Prof Cloonan: “It seems to me this is a thinly veiled reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter which is about a woman who conceives a child from an adulterous affair. ‘Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter, and my daddy said stay away from Juliet.’ – Taylor Swift, Love Story (7%) Prof Cloonan: “For those in the know the answer is obvious – ‘Club Tropicana’ is in the hills above San Antonio at Ibiza’s legendary Pikes Hotel (now known as Ibiza Rocks House), where the video was shot. ‘Club Tropicana, drinks are free, fun and sunshine, there’s enough for everyone, all that’s missing is the sea’ – Wham!, Club Tropicana – (8%) It is a case of the words sounding fine in the song, but not making sense on the page.”Ĩ.
Prof Cloonan: “The band have denied that the song has any particular meaning there is no deep and meaningful metaphor here. ‘The reflex is an only child, he’s waiting in the park’ – Duran Duran, The Reflex (8%) Prof Cloonan: “Sometimes I think that we just have to accept songwriters are strange.”ħ. ‘Beats so big I’m stepping on leprechauns’ – Black Eyed Peas, Boom Boom Pow (10%) So it is about having something (rather than an actual person) missing in your life, a fairly common experience. Prof Cloonan: “You really can miss something you’ve never had and Jepson has spoken of the song being about her current boyfriend. ‘Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad’ – Carly Rae Jepson, Call Me Maybe (11%) They have no meaning outside of sounding right in the song.”ĥ. Prof Cloonan: “Richie has himself admitted that the lyrics are ‘A wonderful joke’ and an attempt to insert some African dialect into the song, which he couldn’t do in time, so just made up. ‘Tom bol li de se de moi ya, hey jambo jumbo’ – Lionel Richie, All Night Long (12%) It could be construed as an attack on the ivory trade.”Ĥ. Prof Cloonan: “Ultimately this is a misjudged protest song, which sees a world in which the innocent simply have things done to them by malevolent forces. ‘What about elephants? Have we lost their trust?’- Michael Jackson, Earth Song (18%) Lennon did once declare that ‘The Walrus was Paul’ but it appears to in fact be a reference to Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus and the Carpenter and so, a reference to surreal or imaginary worlds.”ģ. It is an exercise in surrealism and word play – a true highlight of UK psychedelia. Prof Cloonan: “John Lennon spoke of writing some of this while on an acid trip, which might help explain things. ‘I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus, goo goo g’joob’ – The Beatles, I Am The Walrus (27%) Thompson quote: ‘We’re raising a nation of dancers.’ Flowers said: ‘I say that it’s a mild social statement, and that’s all I’m gonna say.”Ģ. Prof Cloonan: “Brandon Flowers of The Killers has admitted that the line is taken from a Hunter S. ‘Are we human, or are we dancer?’ – The Killers, Human (30%) The top 10 most confusing lyrics, with proposed explanations from Professor of Popular Martin Cloonan from Glasgow University, are:ġ.
Almost two-thirds (64%) also said music lyrics have become more confusing over time.ĭespite all this, 28% of respondents said baffling lyrics don’t stop them enjoying a song. When asked what the main reasons are for not understanding peculiar lyrics in tracks, 40% said they could not make out the actual words being sung, over a quarter (27%) said the lack of logic in the lyrics makes it tricky to grasp the meaning of a song and 10% said they don’t understand the slang used. Lyrics from The Black Eyed Peas, Duran Duran and Taylor Swift also appeared in the rundown. The Beatles’ ‘I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus, goo goo g’joob’ (27%) from I am the Walrus was in second place, with Michael Jackson’s head-scratcher ‘What about elephants? Have we lost their trust?’ (18%) from Earth Song taking the third spot. Topping a list of puzzling lyrical offenders was The Killers’ ‘Are we human, or are we dancer?’ (30%) from their hit track Human. Music streaming service blinkbox Music polled 2,000 Brits and found that 65% struggle to understand the meaning of lyrics in today’s chart toppers.
LONDON, Friday 1st August 2014: A new study reveals that when it comes to understanding the meaning of song lyrics, many of us are left well and truly baffled. Blinkbox Music Reveals The Song Lyrics That Leave Brits Baffled.
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