What is your song? My song is probably one you have never heard of. Whenever I am down, or tired, or frustrated I pull up the song "Frames Without Photographs" by a little known band called the 77's. Like the Psalmist in Psalm 40, I often find myself feeling a little empty and waiting for something more.
Some songs don't quite mean what we think they do. For instance, the song Jump by Van Halen is not an exercise promotion. Apparently it was written because of someone standing on a ledge of a building threatening to jump. David Lee Roth apparently didn't like the fact that people were being put on the news and not actually killing themselves. The song encourages the ledge stander that they "might as well jump". Kind of a dark meaning behind a fan favorite, upbeat song.
Another song that has a strange meaning is 99 Luftballons by Nena. It kind of seems like a wistful dance tune, but the reality of the song is much darker. Whether in its authentic German language or in English, the happy-pop New Wave jam is easily the most danceable track about a nuclear holocaust caused with the aid of balloons. Guitarist Carlo Karges originally thought up the song when Mick Jagger launched lots of balloons into the sky at a 1982 Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin. It got him thinking about what would happen if the balloons crossed into Soviet airspace, were mistaken for UFOS, and set off a chain reaction of nukes flying around the world. The track ends with the narrator discovering a single balloon in the ruins of the world, thinking of the listener, and letting the balloon go.
What is your favorite song? Have you ever wondered what it really means? Sometimes I wish we could go back to just fun songs with no secret meaning. Like Puff the Magic Dragon. Ah...innocent times!
ReplyDeleteSympathy for the Devil, mostly for the backup vocals, "woo woo".