What Does That Song Mean?
Remember that song "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins?
Someone once told me the "real story" behind the lyrics of the song:
Phil Collins and his fiancee' (now his wife) were taking a romantic walk on a beach one night when they were approached by three drunk men. They beat Phil and then raped his wife, while holding Phil down and forcing him to watch. Five years later, he was on that very same beach when he heard a man in the water crying for help. He swam out to save the man, but when he got to him he saw it was one of the men who beat him and raped his wife. So, he let him drown. Here are the lyrics.
There are hundreds of translations of this song with a similar theme. Even though Phil Collins said that wasn't what the song was about, we still hold on to our own meanings. Some of the best songs ever written are the ones that have reached that kind of urban legend status.
I was reading some websites about song meanings and it's amazing how creative people can be with translations. I love reading them. Although, I've found that almost every song written in the 70's has been interpreted to be about either drugs and/or satanism (but mostly drugs). See what I mean?
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I've gathered a list of songs with the most disputed interpretations:
Hotel California - This is at the top of the list for a reason. Because three decades later, people are still arguing about what it means. Some interpretations:
(1) Drugs, drug withdrawal, (2) The gang lifestyle, (3) A Satanic church, Satan worship, "The First United Satanic Church of America," (4) Jackson Browne's wife who committed suicide, (5) A tribute to California and/or Los Angeles (6) Alien abduction, (7) Various Prisons, Mental Hospitals, and/or Drug Rehabilitation Centers, (8) The Beverly Hills Hotel where some celebrities died of drug overdoses, (9) Purgatory, (10) A drug overdose death that results in seeing the Devil and going to Hell, (11) Gambling addiction, (12) Record label holding The Eagles into a bad contract, (13) The music industry in general, (14) Love and relationships, (15) A whorehouse where orgies took place, (16) Cancer, (17) Living in the fast lane, decadence and excess that comes from fame and fortune, (18) "Hotel California was once an Inn run by cannibals. These cannibals would bring some guests in and invite them into their grotesque ways or simply eat them...This has been portrayed in the famous Xbox game "Jade Empire" as there is an Inn that is run by cannibals," (19) A Buddhist hotel in Texas, (20) Materialism and greed, (21) "The hotel is the Las Angeles county morgue. This song is about a car accident and many people died and they ended up with there souls trapped in the morgue," (22) Cults (other than Satanic), (23) "Half-way house for post rehab, post prision parolees."
I found all the above translations here.
The Others
- Don McClean - American Pie
- Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
- Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight (of course)
- Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper
- Bob Dylan - Mr. Tambourine Man
- The Doors - The End
- Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac - Almost every song Stevie wrote.
- Carly Simon - You're So Vain
There are a lot of other songs, but that's all I can come up with at the moment. Here are some more song interpretation sites, but the best one is the link I put above (after the Hotel California meanings): SongMeanings.net, LyricsInterpretations.com, and Song Crossfire by Darryl & Jerry.
