Top 10 Misunderstood Songs

[bholas]

We’ve all been known to sing distorted lyrics to our favorite songs – take Madonna’s classic, which doesn’t go: “Like a virgin touched for the thirty-first time”, or Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which doesn’t go: “The algebra has a devil for a sidekick meee!” However, misinterpreting a whole song is something else. Whatever the lyricist intended for the following hit tracks, the public didn’t quite get – with hilarious consequences.


10. ****ing an Arab – The Cure

The shock-tactic title of this song certainly worked in The Cure’s favor – it was their first single and lead to huge chart success for the album “Boys Don’t Cry”. The track is often misinterpreted as promoting violence toward Arabs, and it even came packaged with a sticker advising against racist usage upon its US release in 1986. In fact, the song is a poetic interpretation of the beach scene in the Albert Camus novel “The Stranger”.

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[bholas]

9. You’re Gorgeous – Babybird

The catchy chorus was the thing that tricked fans of this song. People in love began singing it to their beaus and it even featured in some couples’ weddings as they danced to the throes of “Because you’re gorgeous – I’d do anything for you.” What Stephen Jones was actually talking about in this tune, was an aspiring model tricked into a soft-**** photo shoot by a charming photographer.

[bholas]

8. You Can Leave Your Hat On – Randy Newman / Tom Jones

This two-time hit single is the track of choice for strippers everywhere, mainly thanks to Brit flick “The Full Monty”. However, the song isn’t about someone being completely nude, bar a hat, rather someone being so pig ugly that they’re advised by their lust interest to keep their hat on and hide their face.

[bholas]

7. Mr. Tambourine Man – Bob Dylan

This signature song of the sixties isn’t really about some happy hippy playing his tambourine – it’s actually an ode to a drug dealer who provides the means for Dylan to hallucinate and be high. As penning overt songs about narcotics was illegal in the 60s, this happy ditty hid the meaning with lines like “Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind…” and “My senses have been stripped, My hands can’t feel to grip”.

[bholas]

6. Dancing with Myself – Billy Idol

While hundreds of teens crooned to this classic 80s hit in the discos, hundreds of others sniggered at the covert meaning to the tune. With lyrics such as “With the mirror reflection, I’m dancing with myself” and “When there’s no-one else in sight,
In the crowded lonely night”, it’s a wonder no one realized sooner. Billy belatedly protested to this interpretation, however, saying the track was about Japanese night clubbers watching themselves dance in space-enhancing mirrors. Yeah, right!