Song Meanings
The stories and meanings behind well-known songs.
Creep by Radiohead: The Meaning Behind the Song
Radiohead’s first hit has seven credited songwriters. Five of them are in the band. The other two wrote a soft rock ballad twenty years earlier and...
Song MeaningComfortably Numb by Pink Floyd: The Meaning Behind the Song
A doctor speaks. A patient answers from somewhere far away. The whole thing comes from one night in Philadelphia in 1977 when Roger Waters was too...
Song MeaningBad Moon Rising: The Meaning Behind the Song
Two and a half minutes of cheerful major-key shuffle in which the narrator sees earthquakes, lightning, hurricanes, rivers overflowing and the end of everything, then advises...
Song MeaningTotal Eclipse of the Heart: The Meaning Behind the Song
The biggest power ballad of the 1980s was written for a vampire musical that was never made, and its original title was “Vampires in Love.” Here...
Song MeaningSummer of 69 by Bryan Adams: The Meaning Behind the Song
Bryan Adams was nine years old in 1969. He did not buy his first guitar, form a band, or spend evenings at the drive-in with a...
Song MeaningHey Ya! by OutKast: The Meaning Behind the Song
A record that has soundtracked twenty years of weddings is about two people who stay together because leaving would be harder. The song says so, out...
Song MeaningSemi-Charmed Life: The Meaning Behind the Song
The sunniest-sounding song of 1997 is about crystal meth taking apart a relationship, and it names the drug in the second verse. Radio played it all...
Song MeaningIn the Air Tonight: The Meaning Behind the Song
The most famous story attached to this song is that Phil Collins watched a man drown while somebody else refused to help, tracked down the bystander,...
Song MeaningWaltzing Matilda: The Meaning Behind the Song
Australia’s unofficial national anthem is about a homeless man stealing a sheep, being cornered by the police, and choosing to die rather than be taken. Almost...
Song MeaningWhite Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane: The Meaning Behind the Song
Two and a half minutes, no chorus, one continuous crescendo, and a closing instruction to feed your head. It is usually described as a celebration. Grace...
Song MeaningImmigrant Song by Led Zeppelin: The Meaning Behind the Song
Two minutes and twenty-six seconds, one riff, and a howl. It exists because a group of Icelandic students built a concert hall for Led Zeppelin after...
Song MeaningThe Scientist by Coldplay: The Meaning Behind the Song
A song that exists because Chris Martin could not work out how to play a George Harrison track on a broken piano in a dark room...
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