Rolling Stones: Top 25 Songs With a Secret

Some I knew, most I didn't. 

Comments

[DRaftervoi]

The claim that the Who's "Pictures Of Lily" is about a "porn star" isn't exactly correct. "Porn star" is a modern term, the pictures in the song were Victorian nudes, and the irony was that when the narrator falls in love with the girl in the picture, his father tells him "she's been dead since nineteen twenty-nine..." This isn't exactly a "secret," anyone who pays attention to the lyric can figure it out.

[Gail]

I knew about Springsteen's "Born in the USA.' Funny the way it's been used as a patriotic song, when it really criticizes the US. Many of his lyrics are very dark and depressing - life stinks and then you die, no chance, no prospects, just waiting around until the dust of the coal mine kills you kind of things. That's why I am not a fan.

[DRaftervoi]

Ah, Bruce also writes about hope and redemption and family; most of his records over the years have been more on the joyous than the dark side. Stay away from "Nebraska" if you don't go for the depressing, although I think it's brilliant. Not a freakin' party platter, mind you, but brilliant just the same. Where he really shines is his live show, which is definitely NOT dark and depressing.

[Gail]

When I give it further thought, maybe it depends on what he's being dark about. One song of his I like - Philadelphia - is about being sick with AIDs - certainly avery dark subject. I think the lyrics and music capture it well, and I don't get annoyed with him about it.

Maybe it's just that when he, self-made multi-zillionaire that he is, sings about how hard it is to get a break in the US, it just doesn't ring true.

I can't relate to his point of view. I'm just glad to be here and enjoying life instead of living elsewhere or living in other times. I think people ought to thank their lucky stars for being Born in the USA.

[DRaftervoi]

Yeah, somewhere in the mid-90s, I pretty much lost interest. Terri was never a fan, but we saw him on his '99 tour, and she said it was the best rock and roll show she had ever seen. Mind you, I saw him in '75,'76,'85,'88 and '92, and I thought it was the LEAST of the Springsteen shows I'd seen by comparision.

Yeah, it sounds like a cliche, but Springsteen is one of those artists whose true "art" is his stage performance; the albums are ancillary, and often have too many songs about cars. While I'm a fan, ol' Bruce has the faint air of the ridiculous about him these days when he pens genuine stories of the American working class (as told by a multi-millionaire rock star).

Years ago, we used to do a version of the Flintstones theme, slowed down and sung in a mock-Springsteenian anthemic bellow, a la "Darkness On The Edge Of Town:" "let's riiiiide, with the faaaaaamlee down the streeeeet....throoooough thee courteseeeee of Fred's...twoo.....feeeeettt!"

If you can't make fun of it, you don't really love it.