Tag Archives: Lyrics

Badge of Imagery

2 Jul

One of my favorite songs is Badge by Cream. When I saw Eric Clapton in concert, this was the song I most wanted him to play. Luckily, he played it before bringing his special guest, Vince Gill, on stage. Vince is the Nashville equivalent of bird shit. You see him everywhere. Anyway, Clapton played Badge, and I was lost in the guitars riffs and the words.

I was so inspired by Clapton’s performance that I wrote a short story based on the words. I’ve thought about posting excerpts from the story, but it is kind of dark. All of this is weird because I have no idea what the song is about. The lyrics sound nonsensical, but I reckon a lot of songs do. No matter. I know what I visualize when I hear the song. As I did with Somewhere Down the Crazy River, I have decided to visualize Badge in blogosphere form.

Thinkin’ ’bout the times you drove in my car.

Thinkin’ that I might have drove you too far.

And, I’m thinkin’ ’bout the love that you laid on my table.

I told you not to wander ’round in the dark.

I told you ’bout the swans, that they live in the park.

Then, I told you ’bout our kid, now he’s married to Mabel.

Yes, I told you that the light goes up and down.

Don’t you notice how the wheel goes ’round?

And, you better pick yourself up from the ground

Before they bring the curtain down.

Yes, before they bring the curtain down.

Talkin’ ’bout a girl that looks quite like you.

She didn’t have time to wait in the queue.

She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle.

Guess what. After all of that, the song still doesn’t make any sense.

Tags: , , , ,

Dirty Deeds and Thunder Chief

3 Jan

During my high school days, my friends and I spent a lot of time cruising Main Street. We would swap up driving duties, but the route was always the same. Circle through the Kroger parking lot. Head down Main. Circle through Sonic. Then, head back up Main to Kroger. Along the way, we stopped in parking lots to talk or just talk between cars as we drove. Sometimes, we drove all the way to the town square, but a more redneck crowd hung out there. But, no matter the car or the route, we always had the stereo cranked up.

Our cruising soundtrack could come from the popular stations or cassettes, but it included 70s and 80s gold. Rock was the norm with AC/DC, Aerosmith, KISS, Black Sabbath and Guns n’ Roses. Sometimes, things got lighter with The Eagles, U2, The Police or The Cars. I don’t really believe there is such a thing as the “Good Ol’ Days”, but things were relatively idyllic. They were funny too as we played practical jokes and got into as much mischief as possible. However, nothing was more funny than when I was cruising with my best friend.

I put in an AC/DC greatest hits cassette, and we were rocking out. “Hell’s Bells”. “Highway to Hell”. “Back in Black”. Then, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” came on, and my buddy started singing, “Dirty deeds and thunder chief.” I must have had a weird look on his face because he suddenly stopped.

What?

Why are you singing Thunder Chief?

That’s what the song says.

No, it doesn’t.

Yeah, it does.

I hit rewind, and we listened again.

See, it says Thunder Chief. It’s about an Indian.

No, it’s not. It’s about dirty deeds that are done dirt cheap.

We argued about it for 30 minutes, and on January 2, 2012 he still thinks the song says Thunder Chief.

I was thinking about this the other day and began to think about songs that I got wrong. Mistaken lyrics have become a popular Internet search, and entire websites are dedicated to the musical misconceptions of people. I realize that some of my mistakes are probably typical, but hopefully they are not too stupid.

1. Rocky Mountain Way by Joe Walsh – This actually came from a conversation with a high school friend. He was an Alabama fan, and I was a Tennessee fan. For those from other parts of the world, these two types of creatures do not mix very well. We had a basketball coach at the time named Don DeVoe that wasn’t very good, and my friend said listen to this:

Out to pasture

Think it’s safe to say

Don Devoe’s been fired.

I thought this was fantastic – a rock legend was a Tennessee fan and agreed with me that our coach needed to be gone. Later, I figured out that the line was:

Out to pasture

Think it’s safe to say

Time to open fire.

2. Blinded By the Light – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – I know this one is typical because the pronunciation is not very clear when they sing:

Blinded by the light

Wrapped up like a douche

Another runner in the night.

I always thought that was so cool. What a Hell of a thing to say in a song – wrapped up like a douche. Unfortunately for me, it says:

Blinded by the light

Revved up like a deuce

Another runner in the night.

What really makes this one funny is that the line is repeated over and over throughout the song. I still think the first way is better.

3. A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum – This one isn’t as funny, but it is one of my favorite songs. Therefore, I should know how it does. The line that always messes me up is:

As the miller told his tale,

That her face at first just ghostly

Turned a whiter shade of pale.

I always thought it was “mirror” instead of “miller”. In fact, I think my version is an improvement. Think about her looking in a mirror to see how she looks. It isn’t literally telling her, but it is informing her about how appearance.

So, there are a few of the songs that I have misheard (or improved upon) through the years. I am sure that there are a lot more, but they escape me at the moment. What are some of your favorite misheard lyrics? I would find it interesting to hear.

Tags: ,

“If You Could Read My Mind” There’s No Telling What You Would Find

24 Dec

The other day I caught the ending of “Wonderland”, a movie starring Val Kilmer. It chronicles the life of John Holmes, porn legend, and his possible role in a murder/robbery. The ending is the best part of the movie. Holmes and his girlfriend are parked in the desert discussing the future. He then takes off while the movie tells us what the future held for them and others portrayed in the film. All of that is great, but the best part is that Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind” was playing over the scene. This was one of my favorite songs as a kid and like it to this day. I even saw Lightfoot in concert just to hear this one song live.

When I was young, my favorite songs were ones I could visualize. I could see the guy trying to frantically check out of the “Hotel California”. I could also see the car going down Interstate 40 in “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”. However, nothing hit my imagination like “If You Could Read My Mind”. I know that I took things too literally and missed the deeper meanings of the lyrics, but I still can’t listen to these songs without watching the childhood created movie in my head.

Obviously. Lightfoot’s song is about a love that has run its course.

I don’t know where we went wrong

But the feelins’ gone

And I just can’t get it back.

See. he spells it out plainly. But, my child’s imagination focused on other lines.

If I could read your mind love

What a tale your thoughts could tell.

Just like the paperback novel.

The kind that drugstores sell.

I could actually see a woman buying a paperback in a drugstore. Then, there was the part about the movie.

I’d walk away like a movie star

Who gets burned in a three-way script.

Enter number two.

A movie queen to play the scene

Of bringing all the good things out in me.

Again, I could see a movie set where actors are playing the roles that Lightfoot is describing. However. the best part was in the beginning of the song.

Just like an old-time movie

‘Bout a ghost in a wishin’ well.

In a castle dark or a fortress strong

With chains upon my feet,

You know that ghost is me.

And I will never be set free

As long as I’m a ghost you can’t see.

This part was easy to imagine because I had seen exactly what he was describing. I loved watching Abbott and Costello movies, and all of them were basically the same. Abbott played the straight man to Costello’s bumbling character. But, one movie was different. In 1946, they made “The Time of Their Lives”, about star-crossed lovers killed during the American Revolution. Their ghosts are trapped on an estate, specifically to a well, until they can prove their innocence. Each time I heard “If You Could Read My Mind” I thought about Abbott and Costello and the ghost movie that they made.

I have often wondered if this was something I conjured up, or did Gordon Lightfoot use the movie as his inspiration? How weird would it be if a 1940s Abbott and Costello movie led to a hit song about dying love in the 1970s? I have no idea if Lightfoot ever saw the movie, but I like to think that I figured out his secret and was able to read his mind, to paraphrase from the song. If not then I know that this song and others did what good songs are meant to do. They allowed me to enter my imagination and take what I wanted from them. From “If You Could Read My Mind” I took Abbott and Costello; combined them with a woman buying a paperback from a drugstore; and put them all on a movie set to my own made up studio where I was the star.

Tags: , , , ,