50 of the Maximum Misunderstood Songs in Rock

Some songs imply precisely what they are saying, others are open for broader interpretation.

And particularly if you are an across the world well-known musician, this implies numerous other folks deciphering your paintings as they see have compatibility. Naturally, it will possibly lead to a few flawed assumptions and downright wild theories.

Frequently, when a music is presumed to be a few explicit matter and seems to not be, it may be tough to shake the belief other folks have followed. It generally takes the artist themselves popping out to elucidate the which means of a music, to set the document instantly as soon as and for all.

We are looking at 50 of the Maximum Misunderstood Songs in Rock — in case you suppose you understand the which means in the back of those titles, you might wish to suppose once more.

1. “A Toute Le Monde,” Megadeth
From: Youthanasia (1995)

At one level, Megadeth’s “A Toute Le Monde” used to be banned from MTV because the community deemed it a pro-suicide music. However that used to be the furthest factor from the reality in step with Dave Mustaine. “It used to be principally a few dream I had the place — my mother had died all at once, and it used to be very surprising — and in my dream, my mother used to be in a position to return again to earth and say something simplest. And that something used to be, ‘I really like you,'” he defined to Spin in 2023. “And I assumed that might be nice if I used to be in a position once I pass to heaven to return again and say something to the individuals who I really like – I might wish to say, ‘I really like you.'”

 

2. “Acquiesce,” Oasis
From: The Grasp Plan (1998)

Within the studio recording of Oasis’ “Acquiesce,” you’ll be able to pay attention a dialog between Liam Gallagher, co-producer Owen Morris and rhythm guitarist Bonehead wherein Gallagher says he is “sacked” his brother Noel from the band. However that did not imply the music used to be concerning the two siblings. “The music is set friendship within the widest sense,” it says within the album’s sleeve notes, “and no longer, as ceaselessly speculated, concerning the Gallagher brothers themselves.”

 

3. “Ain’t My Whinge,” Metallica
From: Load (1996)

Frankly, the misconception referring to Metallica’s “Ain’t My Whinge” used to be the accountability of the listeners, who assumed the name referred to a girl. However that wasn’t the case – it used to be as a substitute a metaphor for a scenario being difficult or problematic.

 

4. “Alive,” Pearl Jam
From: Ten (1991)

At the floor, it is smart that lovers would pay attention the lyrics to Pearl Jam’s “Alive” and imagine it a music of significant resiliency. However for Eddie Vedder, who primarily based no less than portions of “Alive” on his personal revel in studying that the person he believed to be his organic father grew to become out to not be, it used to be meant to learn darker. “He is nonetheless dealing, he is nonetheless rising up. He is nonetheless coping with love, he is nonetheless coping with the dying of his father,” Vedder mentioned to Rolling Stone in 1993. “All he is aware of is ‘I am nonetheless alive’ — the ones 3 phrases, that is completely out of burden.” (4 years later, Pearl Jam’s “Immortality” used to be additionally misinterpreted as being about Kurt Cobain and his dying, which Vedder has firmly denied.)

 

5. “American Lady,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
From: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1977)

For some time, there used to be a rumor going round that Tom Petty’s “American Lady” used to be written a few younger lady who dedicated suicide via leaping off a construction on the College of Florida in Gainesville, Petty’s fatherland. This used to be unequivocally no longer true. Many years later, a an identical scenario passed off. Whilst it used to be true that 2002’s “The Remaining DJ” used to be impressed via Jim Ladd, the purpose used to be larger than that and radio used to be simplest supposed as a metaphor for  society’s obvious want to devour up to imaginable. “What I in finding fascinating in this day and age is what the target market is keen to just accept,” Petty mentioned to the Los Angeles Occasions then. “I ceaselessly ponder whether they even care. I do not wish to imagine that…However there is a large birthday celebration of mediocrity in our tradition, and I do not commit it to memory to this extent ahead of.”

 

6. “American Girl,” The Wager Who
From: American Girl (1970)

Canadian rock band the Wager Who used to be no longer seeking to make some more or less political observation with “American Girl,” as some lovers concept. “What used to be on my thoughts used to be that ladies within the States gave the impression to grow older sooner than our ladies and that made them, neatly, bad,” Burton Cummings clarified to the Toronto Big name in 2013. “After I mentioned ‘American lady, steer clear of me,’ I in reality supposed ‘Canadian lady, I favor you.’ It used to be all a contented twist of fate.”

 

7. “Large Factor,” Duran Duran
From: Large Factor (1988)

It appears a excellent selection of other folks had their minds within the gutter when it got here to the name observe of Duran Duran’s Large Factor, considering it a connection with the scale of a selected human frame section. But it surely used to be supposed to be kind of an introductory observation concerning the album – here is the following large factor! “For me, it is among the worst lyrics we now have ever written,” Simon Le Bon later admitted, “so unhealthy if truth be told, that most likely it justifies the entire grievance that has ever been leveled at us!”

 

8. “Blood In, Blood Out,” Exodus
From: Blood In, Blood Out (2014)

There may be reasonably a couple of songs in the market written about fellow band participants, however Exodus’ “Blood In, Blood Out” isn’t certainly one of them. “A large number of other folks requested if [the song] had anything else to do with Rob [Dukes] being changed within the band, however as handy as that sounds, the name, the lyrics, they had been all there when Rob used to be recording it,” guitarist Gary Holt instructed Billboard in 2014. “I hate to disappoint them on that one. It wasn’t autobiographical.”

 

9. “Bodhisvatta,” Steely Dan
From: Countdown to Ecstasy (1973)

Within the past due ’60s, reasonably a couple of rock ‘n’ roll artists grew to become their consideration towards meditation practices, enlightenment and different Jap rituals. Steely Dan’s “Bodhisvatta” used to be one thing of a parody of this phenomenon, which the general public did not pick out up on. As Donald Fagen put it: “Entice of East, hubris of hippies, a snappy repair.”

 

10. “Born in the usA.,” Bruce Springsteen
From: Born in the usA. (1984)

There may most probably be a completely separate listing for songs which have been assumed to be patriotic and are in fact the other. Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the usA.” is arguably probably the most well-known of those numbers. Certain, the name word sounds very country-loving, however concentrate to the lyrics extra carefully and you’ll be able to pay attention Springsteen discussing the hardship Vietnam veterans confronted after they returned house from conflict — no longer precisely becoming for Fourth of July parades and the like. (Different songs on this vein come with Neil Younger‘s “Rockin’ within the Loose Global,” John Mellencamp‘s “Purple Homes” and Bob Seger‘s “American Hurricane.”)

 

11. “Brass in Pocket,” The Pretenders
From: Pretenders (1980)

Chrissie Hynde has just about at all times rejected the concept she’s a feminist chief in rock track, and that implemented to “Brass in Pocket,” too. “When other folks say that there is this robust feminine personality using the music, it drives me fucking loopy!” she instructed Vintage Rock in 2021. “The ‘lady’ factor appears to be actual vital for folks however I am mystified via it. For me, ‘Brass in Pocket’ used to be meant to be actual conventional, as a result of custom in rock is what turns me on. We would like our rock singers to be assured and cocky, and ‘Brass in Pocket’ used to be an act, my try to write a music that gave the impression of that. It is in fact very tongue-in-cheek – that is why I’ve that line the place I sing: ‘I am winking at you.'”

 

12. “Candyman,” Siouxsie and the Banshees
From: Tinderbox (1986)

When she used to be 9 years outdated, Siouxsie Sioux used to be sexually assaulted via a stranger, an incident that went unaddressed via each her oldsters and police. Due to this fact, Sioux grew up conserving her distance from adults. In 1986, she and the Banshees launched “Candyman,” which many of us took to be some more or less drug reference. But it surely used to be in reality about how adults can abuse the accept as true with that kids naturally position in them, and what can occur when that accept as true with is violated.

 

13. “Cloud 9,” The Temptations
From: Cloud 9 (1969)

Like numerous different ’60s songs, the Temptations’ “Cloud 9” with its increased name used to be assumed to be a music about medicine. “Berry [Gordy] concept that we had been making a song about getting prime,” Otis Williams recalled to uDiscover Track in 2023. However that merely wasn’t the case: “I do know there were not drug references as a result of [the song’s writers] Norman [Whitfield] and Barrett [Strong] did not do medicine.”

 

14. “Even It Up,” Center
From: Bebe le Unusual (1980)

You would be forgiven for considering that Center’s “Even It Up” is set a egocentric lover who must get started pulling their weight in a courting, however the band used to be considering extra widely than that. “That music used to be written in about ’79 or ’80, and it used to be for sure a reaction to being obstructed as girls within the rock box,” Ann Wilson instructed Songfacts. “There are such a large amount of systemic issues that get thrown up in entrance of you, other glass partitions and stuff. We had been talking out in opposition to it then.”

 

15. “Each and every Breath You Take,” The Police
From: Synchronicity (1983)

There is a superb line between attentive lover and instantly up stalker, as evidenced within the Police’s “Each and every Breath You Take.” “I believe the music could be very, very sinister and unpleasant and other folks have in fact misinterpreted it as being a gradual little love music, when it is reasonably the other,” Sting as soon as defined to BBC Radio 2.

 

16. “Lucky Son,” Creedence Clearwater Revival
From: Willy and the Deficient Boys (1969)

Like Springsteen’s “Born in the usA.,” Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Lucky Son” has taken on a lifetime of its personal within the a long time since its liberate. You’ll be able to ceaselessly see it cited as an anti-war quantity, extra particularly anti-Vietnam Conflict, however John Fogerty has at all times maintained that the music is much less about army battle and extra about elegance disparities at house within the U.S. When he wrote the music, he used to be considering of the way sons of outstanding political figures had been ceaselessly spared from having to battle within the conflict, a privilege the ones in decrease categories did not get to revel in. (Many of us assumed CCR’s “Run During the Jungle” used to be additionally an anti-war music, however Fogerty used to be in fact addressing the proliferation of weapons in The us.)

 

17. “Just right Riddance (Time of Your Lifestyles),” Inexperienced Day
From: Nimrod (1997)

To Inexperienced Day’s wonder, 1997’s “Just right Riddance (Time of Your Lifestyles)” was immensely standard at highschool proms, graduations and an identical ceremony of passage occasions with its lyrics about turning issues and forks within the street. However this used to be certainly not what Billie Joe Armstrong firstly had in thoughts when he wrote the music. He’d in fact penned it as an annoyed kiss-off to his female friend on the time who had up and moved to Ecuador.

 

18. “Upper,” Creed
From: Human Clay (1999)

No, Creed’s “Upper” isn’t a drug reference and additionally it is no longer about some kind of ascension to heaven. As a substitute, it is about lucid dreaming. “You might be bodily asleep, however you are unsleeping to your thoughts,” singer Scott Stapp defined to Spin in 2000. Via coaching himself to lucid dream, Stapp used to be in a position to forestall the ordinary nightmares he’d been having, and he wrote “Upper” about his revel in doing so.

 

19. “I Cannot Dance,” Genesis
From: We Cannot Dance (1991)

You’ll be able to’t take Genesis too actually, not at all in terms of 1991’s “I Cannot Dance.” “It is not about being not able to bounce,” Phil Collins defined to Rolling Stone in 2016. “It is about guys that glance excellent however can not string a sentence in combination. Every verse is a piss-take on the state of affairs of a denims industrial. It used to be excellent a laugh, however the target market concept, ‘What does he imply that he can not dance?’ They did not see the humor, and it killed the joys.”

 

20. “I Love L.A.,” Randy Newman
From: Bother in Paradise (1983)

Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” isn’t the simple love letter to town that numerous other folks think it to be. Newman used to be aiming for a extra tongue-in-cheek way, making a laugh of town slightly with some purposefully cynical lyrics. “There may be kind of an competitive lack of expertise to [the city] that I really like,” he mentioned to The New York Occasions in 2021.

 

21. “I Stored the Global Lately,” Eurythmics
From: Peace (1999)

“It is very ironic,” Dave Stewart as soon as instructed Songfacts of Eurythmics’ 1999 music “I Stored the Global Lately.” “Some other a type of songs the place other folks pass hooray! However it is not pronouncing that, it is pronouncing, if simplest. It is a very uplifting refrain however the verses are down musically. Within the lyric it is during pronouncing, neatly, there may be most of these issues and there is a million issues to resolve, however hello, I stored the sector nowadays.”

 

22. “I Will At all times Love You,” Dolly Parton
From: Jolene (1974)

At the floor, Dolly Parton’s “I Will At all times Love You” may also be seen as a young tribute to a lover who is moved on, however Parton in fact wrote it with a platonic buddy in thoughts. She penned it about her skilled separation from Porter Wagoner, with whom she’d labored for seven years.

 

23. “Within the Air This night,” Phil Collins
From: Face Price (1981)

“I have no idea what this music is set,” Phil Collins admitted to BBC Global Carrier. “When I used to be penning this I used to be going via a divorce. And the one factor I will say about it’s that it is clearly in anger. It is the offended aspect, or the sour aspect of a separation. So what makes it much more comical is once I pay attention those tales which began a few years in the past, in particular in The us, of any person come as much as me and say, ‘Did you in reality see any person drowning?’ I mentioned, ‘No, improper.’ After which each time I’m going again to The us the tale will get Chinese language whispers, it will get increasingly elaborate. It is so irritating, ‘reason that is one music out of the entire songs most probably that I have ever written that I in reality have no idea what it is about, you understand?”

 

24. “Killing an Arab,” The Remedy
From: Boys Do not Cry (1980)

Naturally the name “Killing an Arab” drew a numerous controversy when the Remedy first launched it in 1980. However the music itself is in line with Albert Camus’s French novel The Stranger. “If I knew it ahead of, I might have referred to as it ‘Status at the Seaside,'” Robert Smith later mentioned. “It might have have shyed away from many troubles.”

 

25. “Remaining Teach to Clarksville,” The Monkees
From: The Monkees (1966)

When one thinks of ’60s protest track, the Monkees are most probably no longer the primary band to return to thoughts. The made-for-TV band needed to get ingenious in the event that they sought after to take stances of their writing. Clarksville, Tennessee, it grew to become out, used to be close to a military base, which made the road “I have no idea if I am ever coming house” tackle a unique which means. “Taking into consideration that it used to be a Monkees music and the primary one, I used to be at all times stunned that the document corporate even launched it except it simply went proper over their head,” Micky Dolenz instructed Rolling Stone in 2016.

 

26. “Laura,” Billy Joel
From: The Nylon Curtain (1982)

On the time of its liberate within the early ’80s, Billy Joel mentioned that “Laura” used to be no longer written about any ex spouse of his, although that for sure did not forestall listeners from speculating precisely that. It wasn’t till a few years later that Joel after all started to open up concerning the music, telling Howard Stern in 2014 that he wrote it about “any person in my circle of relatives who is a ache within the ass.” Later he showed that it used to be about his personal mom.

 

27. “Much less Than 0,” Elvis Costello
From: My Purpose Is True (1977)

When Elvis Costello arrived in The us to accomplish for the primary time, he discovered that his target market did not have a clue what “Much less Than 0” used to be about. That made sense, for the reason that Costello had written it concerning the former British Union of Fascists chief Oswald Mosley. “I am not positive if any individual in Cleveland had ever heard of Oswald Mosley or gave a rattling about him once we performed ‘Much less Than 0’ that evening,” he later wrote in his autobiography. “It used to be only a few rock and roll track with a fashionable-sounding name.” (Costello’s “This 12 months’s Lady” used to be additionally misunderstood as an assault on girls, however used to be in fact a reaction to the Rolling Stones‘ “Silly Lady.”)

 

28. “Let Me Roll It,” Wings
From: Band at the Run (1973)

That is the one music in this listing that used to be, if truth be told, a drug music, however the general public did not catch directly to that truth. Many listeners concept it to be a kind of tribute or reaction to John Lennon‘s track, however Paul McCartney wasn’t considering of that. “I believe it’s honest to mention that to ‘roll it’ has to do with rolling a joint,” he mentioned in The Lyrics: 1956 to the Provide. “I don’t believe that is going to return as a wonder to any individual. There used to be numerous post-smoking in an target market, again within the day when smoking used to be nonetheless allowed in venues.”

 

29. “Like a Stone,” Audioslave
From: Audioslave (2002)

Audioslave bassist Tim Commerford assumed “Like a Stone” to be a music about love and romance when he first heard it. He used to be improper. “The fast model is only a few man sitting in a resort room considering dying and the place you pass and what it method and the entire probabilities of that,” Chris Cornell defined in an interview. “Then arising with a picture that he preferred. Like going with the philosophy of, possibly whilst you die and you may have been excellent sufficient to your lifestyles then you definately get to head someplace that you just remember the fact that used to be in reality cool.”

 

30. “Lucy within the Sky With Diamonds,” The Beatles
From: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Membership Band (1967)

The participants of the Beatles could have been experimenting with medicine within the latter part of the ’60s, however that did not imply all their trippy songs had been about their reports doing so.  “Lucy within the Sky With Diamonds” used to be rumored to be about LSD, which with ease had the similar letters because the music, however it in fact stemmed from a completely blameless match. At some point John Lennon’s three-year-old son Julian gave him a drawing he’d made at school with that name, prompting Lennon to put in writing a music about it. (And if you do not imagine Lennon, Ringo Starr witnessed the interplay himself.)

 

31. “Maneater,” Corridor and Oates
From: H2O (1982)

In line with John Oates, “Maneater” is not about an individual in any respect, however a spot. “‘Maneater’ is set NYC within the ’80s,” he instructed One thing Else! in 2014. “It is about greed, avarice and spoiled riches. However we now have it within the environment of a lady as a result of it is extra relatable. It is one thing that individuals can perceive. That is what we do all the time.” (The duo additionally did this with “I Cannot Pass For That (No Can Do),” which used to be written concerning the track industry.)

 

32. “Reflect within the Rest room,” The English Beat
From: I Simply Cannot Forestall It (1980)

When Dave Wakeling wrote and sang a few reflect in 1980’s “Reflect within the Rest room,” he supposed the sort that you just take a look at your self in, however an important quantity of other folks didn’t pick out up on that, assuming as a substitute that it used to be about cocaine utilization. “In The us within the early ’80s, everyone gave me understanding winks and mentioned, ‘Oh, I do know what that one’s about, then, Dave,'” he recalled to Songfacts. “And it wasn’t that reflect in the toilet in any respect, it used to be the only at the wall, and no longer the only to your knee.”

 

33. “One,” U2
From: Achtung Child (1991)

Many lovers considered U2‘s “One” as a phenomenal tribute to togetherness, however Bono used to be considering a lot more cynically than that. “This is a music about coming in combination, however it is not the outdated hippie concept of ‘Let’s all reside in combination.’ It’s, if truth be told, the other,” he instructed the Los Angeles Occasions in 1993. “It is pronouncing, we’re one, however we aren’t the similar. It is not pronouncing we even wish to get alongside, however that we need to get alongside in combination on this international whether it is to live on. It is a reminder that we haven’t any selection.”

 

34. “Highest Day,” Lou Reed
From: Transformer (1972)

Lou Reed wrote such a lot of songs about medicine that once he wrote songs that had been no longer about medicine, other folks tended to not imagine him. Such used to be the case with “Highest Day,” which many presumed to be some other ode to dependancy. “No, that is not true,” he mentioned in 2000. “I do not object to that, in particular…no matter you suppose is best. However this man’s imaginative and prescient of a super day used to be the woman, sangria within the park, and then you definately pass house; a super day, actual easy. I supposed simply what I mentioned.”

 

35. “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” Peter, Paul and Mary
From: Shifting (1963)

Now and again a music is solely as blameless as its name sounds. Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Puff, the Magic Dragon” used to be no longer a connection with the smoking of substances, however a few puppy dragon and his playmate Jackie Paper. (It used to be impressed via a 1959 poem via Leonard Lipton.)

 

36. “Wet Day Ladies #12 and #35,” Bob Dylan
From: Blonde on Blonde (1966)

Making an attempt to discern what precisely a Bob Dylan music is set is one thing of a idiot’s errand, but when there may be something he sought after to shed light on about 1966’s “Wet Day Ladies #12 and #35,” with its “everyone should get stoned” chorus, it is that it is no longer a drug music. “I by no means have and not will write a drug music,” he mentioned all over certainly one of his 1966 live shows.

 

37. “Causes,” Earth, Wind and Hearth
From: That is the Approach of the Global (1975)

Earth, Wind & Hearth’s “Causes” has someway discovered its method onto an terrible lot of marriage ceremony playlists, which has come as a wonder to the band. “It is not speaking about actual love,” singer Philip Bailey emphasised in 2015. “It is speaking a few one-night stand.”

 

38. “Ronnie, Communicate to Russia,” Prince
From: Controversy (1981)

You almost certainly do not bring to mind Prince as having been a lot of a politcal songwriter, so its comprehensible his supposed message in “Ronnie, Communicate to Russia” used to be in large part overpassed. Prince in most cases stored his opinion on politcal issues, if he had them, non-public, however in 1981’s “Ronnie, Communicate to Russia” he used to be immediately urging President Ronald Reagan to take care of peace with The us’s enemy within the Chilly Conflict.

 

39. “Room for the Lifestyles,” Kate Bush
From: The Kick Inside of (1978)

Very similar to Chrissie Hynde, Kate Bush from time to time discovered that lovers positioned extra of a feminist emphasis on her track than she herself had ever supposed to, together with with 1978’s  “Room for the Lifestyles.” “Folks concept that music used to be feminist which disillusioned me,” she instructed Sounds in 1980. “It used to be in fact pronouncing we will have to pass slightly more straightforward on males as a result of we’re the ones with survival within us, we supply the following era, we now have the desire to stay going, we stay bouncing again. I do not understand it that is anti-liberationist however I would not say femininity used to be very robust in my songs.”

 

40. “Soak Up the Solar,” Sheryl Crow
From: C’mon C’mon (2002)

The state of the sector following the 11th of September assaults used to be, in a phrase, dismal, and Sheryl Crow used to be paying shut consideration to how privilege and disparity had been taking part in an element when she penned “Soak Up the Solar,” which many listeners took for only a easy, happy-go-lucky observe. “We already knew what used to be taking place within the atmosphere, and but the whole thing that you just noticed on MTV used to be like, bling and Rolls Royces and women, and it simply used to be this kind of bizarre dichotomy to be like, ‘The planet’s demise, but we are in reality going to pay attention to how a lot wealth we will be able to accrue,'” she defined to Folks in 2023. “That is what impressed the music: taking a look over at MTV like, ‘Whoa, what is going on right here?'”

 

41. “Summer season of ’69,” Bryan Adams
From: Reckless (1984)

That is in fact a unprecedented example wherein you want to place your thoughts in the gutter to grasp the which means in the back of a music. Opposite to standard trust, Bryan Adams’ “Summer season of ’69” used to be no longer supposed to be a nostalgic glance again at his glory days, “however in fact,” Adams mentioned in 2008, “it is extra about making love in the summer. It is the usage of ’69 as a sexual reference.”

 

42. “The KKK Took My Child Away,” Ramones
From: Delightful Desires (1981)

That is a type of songs the place even the participants of the band appear to have no longer had the similar working out of its which means, so it is comprehensible that listeners would not both. Ramones supervisor Monte Melenick concept it used to be Joey Ramone writing about Johnny Ramone stealing his female friend from him. However Micky Leigh has mentioned that is not correct and used to be as a substitute written concerning the time Joey dated an African American lady, which his oldsters disapproved of, and the way, after they cut up up, he instructed Leigh that “the KKK took my child away.”

 

43. “The One I Love,” R.E.M.
From: Record (1987)

Certain, the name and first actual line of this 1987 R.E.M. music sounds candy, however all you in reality wish to do is concentrate for only a few extra seconds to appreciate issues don’t seem to be so rosy. “A easy prop to occupy my time,” Michael Stipe sings. “I have at all times left myself lovely open to interpretation,” Stipe mentioned to Rolling Stone on the time. “It is most probably higher that they only suppose it is a love music at this level.”

 

44. “This Land Is Your Land,” Woody Guthrie
From: Launched in 1945

Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” ceaselessly makes appearances at such things as political rallies and different nationalistic sort occasions, however the model that is generally performed simplest contains the extra idealistic verses. There are in fact two extra verses of lyrics which can be extra crucial of The us and categorical Guthrie’s frustration at what he perceived as injustice that ran rampant in the course of the nation: “Within the shadow of the steeple I noticed my other folks / Via the comfort workplace I observed my other folks / As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking / Is that this land made for you and me?“

 

45. “Lately,” The Smashing Pumpkins
From: Siamese Dream (1993)

“Lately is the best day I have ever identified,” Billy Corgan says on the best of “Lately,” main listeners to imagine they are listening to a music about, neatly, a really perfect day. However Corgan used to be in fact considering alongside a lot darker traces. “I used to be in reality suicidal,” he instructed Rolling Stone in 1993. “I simply concept it used to be humorous to put in writing a music that mentioned nowadays is the best day of your lifestyles as it can not get any worse.”

 

46. “General Eclipse of the Center,” Bonnie Tyler
From: Quicker Than the Pace of Evening (1983)

Jim Steinman had a in reality explicit purpose in his head when he penned “General Eclipse of the Center:” write a vampire love music. “Its unique name used to be ‘Vampires in Love’ as a result of I used to be operating on a musical of Nosferatu, the opposite nice vampire tale,” he recalled to Playbill in 2002. “If any individual listens to the lyrics, they are in reality like vampire traces. It is all concerning the darkness, the ability of darkness and love’s position in darkish. And so I figured ‘Who is ever going to understand; it is Vienna!’ After which it used to be simply laborious to take it out.”

 

47. “Wavelength,” Van Morrison
From: Wavelength (1978)

A variety of other folks assumed Van Morrison’s “Wavelength” to be about both his travels in The us or the glories of radio, or a mix of each. But if Morrison sang “I heard the voice of The us calling on my wavelength” he supposed it in an excessively literal sense. Voice of The us used to be (and nonetheless is) a U.S.-run radio program broadcast in dozens of languages world wide. “It is in fact about Europe, as a result of that is the place the station used to be,” Morrison defined of his music to Melody Maker in 1979. “It got here out of Frankfurt, and the primary time I ever heard Ray Charles used to be at the Voice of The us. We attempted to get a tape recording of the Voice of The us to place at the entrance of that observe, however it did not determine. I did not get it by the point the album used to be because of be blended. However I believe it could have made it so much clearer if the signature factor used to be at the entrance of it. It does not click on for numerous other folks.”

 

48. “We Gotta Get You a Girl,” Todd Rundgren
From: Runt (1970)

Like different songs in this listing, Todd Rundgren’s “We Gotta Get You a Girl” stuck flack for some dangerous lyrics about girls, on this case “they could also be silly however they positive are a laugh.” Rundgren would later give an explanation for that he supposed the “silly little traits that individuals have — humorous little quirks and stuff like that.”

 

49. “Whip It,” Devo
From: Freedom of Selection (1980)

Devo purposefully made the lyrics to “Whip It” nonsensical and kind of foolish, however after all, numerous listeners took it to be extra sexual in nature. “All of the DJs and other folks listening to it assumed it used to be a music about beating off or sado-masochism, so we allow them to suppose that,” Jerry Casale instructed Songfacts. “We did not wish to break it and inform them the reality, as a result of they only would not get off at the reality.”

 

50. “White Insurrection,” The Conflict
From: The Conflict (`1977)

There have been numerous listeners who concept the Conflict’s “White Insurrection” used to be a noisy and proud name for a race conflict, however this may no longer had been farther from the reality. It used to be as a substitute written about how, within the eyes of Joe Strummer, impoverished white early life would wish to battle again in opposition to the police and different tough government like their black opposite numbers were doing in the event that they sought after to get up for themselves. “The one factor we are pronouncing concerning the blacks is that they have got were given their issues and they are ready to maintain them,” he instructed NME. “However white males, they only ain’t ready to maintain them — the whole thing’s too comfortable. They have got were given stereos, medicine, hi-fis, automobiles. The deficient blacks and the deficient whites are in the similar boat.”