What are some songs that only after many listens did you realized what they meant?

Question

I dont mean because their voices were muffled or heavy-accented.
Song meanings that you didnt just search on the internet, and took some time for it to come to you, and it came suddenly one day.
Also no songs that are pretty straightforward. Metaphors are more than welcome.
Please also state what you got from it.
Thanks

It doesnt have to be the entire song, it can be a line or two or whatever.

sarah c - oh wow. Dont feel dumb. I think the song is doing its job if you have to hit it several times before it cracks.

huevo_ranchero - I was told that song meaning and even after readinfg the lyrics i was never able to understand how everyone else figured it out.

smile - yes fnm! i knew that song was raunchy, but how is it gay?

huevo - yes those are good days

joe - good for you!
rocket queen - i never knew that about Born in the USA. well i never really thought about it either, but, interesting!
Spooky - Yes, for Jeremy I've still havent made that connection yet.
Phil D - Yes and how powerful it is! True story i think? Dont quote me on it.

Answer 1

Elliott Smith - Miss Misery

at first I thought it was a pretty, sad song.......then months later when I finally listened to the original version, something clicked and I finally comprehended the lyrics

Answer 2

Hotel California - Eagles
I was listening to it one day after reading the autobiography of a literal crackwhore, and the whole "you can check out any time you like but you can never leave" line rang a bell in my head. Then the whole song's meaning just became apparent.

After reading the poem "Kais and Layla" by a Persian poet, I realized that Layla by Derek & the Dominoes wasn't just a song about love, it was a song about forbidden love.

When I was younger, I thought The Wall Part 3 by Pink Floyd was just a anti-school anthem. When me and my best friend were talking about building walls around your mind and emotions one day, (we were 13 and 14, respectively) it sort of hit me that The Wall is talking about mentally isolating yourself from everyone and everything to protect yourself.

The River by Bruce Springsteen... only when I found out what abortion was did I realize that it's about him taking his girlfriend to have an abortion on Christmas.

** Oh, and it took me a *while* to realize that Born in the U.S.A. is an anti-America, or anti-War song, not a patriotic one. I laughed at the irony, and how most people were singing his song at the top of their lungs believing it to be about the greatess of the good old USA, when it was really about the hypocrisy of it and the horrors of war.

Answer 3

A couple of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac songs only made sense when I was in my late teens :~

Rattlesnake Shake
The World Keep On Turning
{they're both about masturbation}


One I've only recently heard, and which is the subject of much discussion, is :~

St. Teresa ~ Blackmore's Night {originally by Joan Osbourne}

Everyone believes it's about a prostitute {which makes sense}, but people say that 'St. Teresa' must be some saint of prostitutes. Now, to me, just from listening to the lyrics, lines like :~

"Sit down on the corner, just a little climb"
"Oh, St. Teresa, higher than the moon"
"Every stone a story, like a rosary"

Makes me think that 'St. Teresa' may be an actual church.

Answer 4

Brick by Ben Folds Five. I just listened to the music, paying half-*** attention to the lyrics (I tend to do that at times, I'm more of a music guy) when it hit me it was about his girlfriend having an abortion. Talk about being bummed out suddenly.

Edit: Conie, I'm still not sure how I figured it out. I think the planets must have aligned themselves just at the right moment, allowing my IQ to significantly jump 80 points (from -20 to 60) and come up with the meaning.

Answer 5

I could not understand most Pink Floyd's songs (except from The Wall) when I was in high school.
I listened to them again ten years later and there was it. And the strange thing is that I realized they had a completely new meaning for me (even The Wall) by then as my perspective had changed.

Answer 6

The Weight - The Band
I just didn't understand about taking the load off from Annie and then I read the lyrics and still didn't get it but now (after listening to it 20 times) I think I do and it seems rather sweet.

Answer 7

i can't believe i actually ever listened to this song now that i know what's its about. "Be Aggressive" by Faith No More...it's kinda raunchy in a gay way... so that caught me off guard!

then there's "Go" by Pearl Jam...at first i just it was about this guy not wanting to be alone, not have his lover walk out on him. but as i got older i realized it's about an abusive relation ship.
then there's "Daughter" by Pearl Jam. I thought it was about how the girl didn't want to be the parent's daughter that the girl wanted nothing to do with the family...maybe it still is but as i got older metaphores made more sense to me. when they sing "the shades go down" its kinda like saying the nieghbors can't see in so they think everything is ok...but in fact the parents think...that she's "not fit to be" their daughter.
~what i got from it was how powerful words can be.

Answer 8

Wow, this is going to sound really stupid, but when I was about 6 I heard my mother, (I don't know if this is a real song or not,) sing this song:
"I love you,
You love me,
Homosexuality!
People think that we're just friends,
But we're really lesbians!"
I liked the tune and I asked my mom where she heard it and she said "high school". I, of course, didn't know what a lesbian or homosexuality was, so I taught the song to all my friends. I didn't know what it meant until I was 12 or 13. >_< Yeah, my mom's great. =P LOL

Answer 9

Tears For Fears song "Woman In Chains" It took me a while to figure out that it is not about a woman at all but about how men suppress the female side of themselves!

I took from it to try and let them out and not hold it back.

Answer 10

Bob Dylan's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue took me a while. But I usually come up with my own meanings, completely overlooking what the artist was really trying to say...I prefer it that way, lol.