Rethinking Rock Classics
I always assumed that the Beatles song "Hello, Goodbye" was about two lovers breaking up because they couldn't see eye to eye about things. After all, Paul wrote it after he had met Linda, but while he was still involved with Jane Asher:
You say yes, I say noBut now that I have a two-and-a-half-year-old, I know what it's really about: trying to get your kid to do something. Anything.
You say stop and I say go go go
You say goodbye and I say hello
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello
I say high, you say low
You say why and I say I don't know, oh no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello hello
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello
(Which is not to be confused with the Todd Rundgren album "Something/Anything?," which includes every kid's least-favorite song, "The Night The Carousel Burnt Down.")
It's not the only song that means something different than it used to; for example, I know now that "Another Brick In The Wall" isn't allegorical, but pretty much literal ("if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding"). What other songs have changed meaning for you now that you've had kids?
1 Comments:
"She's leaving home" it still means the same thing I thought it did, but now that I have a little girl, it's a much, much sadder song than I used to realize.
Also, Bob Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" . . . I used to think it was about a man and a woman, but I can see where it might be more literal than I originally thought . . . I used to think "bring that bottle over here" was alcohol in some sort of old west whore house kind of debauchery . . . but it could be a baby bottle . . . of course hearing Norah Jones sing it rather than Bob Dylan helped me find a purer meaning in the song.
Close your eyes, close the door,
You don't have to worry any more.
I'll be your baby tonight.
Shut the light, shut the shade,
You don't have to be afraid.
I'll be your baby tonight.
Well, that mockingbird's gonna sail away,
We're gonna forget it.
That big, fat moon is gonna shine like a spoon,
But we're gonna let it,
You won't regret it.
Kick your shoes off, do not fear,
Bring that bottle over here.
I'll be your baby tonight.
b
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