Confusing Lyrics
Confusing Lyrics
#1Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 5:06pm
Have you ever heard a song and thought "...what the heck does that line mean?" Or any line that, when you think about it, really doesn't make much sense?
The first one that comes to mind for me probably makes perfect sense, but it's confused me since I was about three: "Everyone here'd love to be you, Gaston, even when taking your lumps."
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
seaweedjstubbs
Broadway Star Joined: 3/21/07
#2re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 5:18pmSomething that has bothered me for a while are a set of lyrics in Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid. It's the part when Sebastian sings "The fish in the bowl are lucky, They in for a worser fate, One day when the boss gets hungry, Guess who's gonna be on the plate?" How can the fish in the bowl be lucky, but at the same time be in for a worser fate? Maybe I'm hearing the lyrics wrong........
Shannon Bo Dannon
Broadway Star Joined: 8/19/08
#2re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 5:58pm
Both of those make absolutely no sense..I'm hoping someone can explain.
At least half of the lyrics in Spring Awakening, they're pretty but I barely understand what they're saying.
Mythus
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/16/04
#3re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:11pm
take your lumps
to receive and accept criticism or punishment for something you have done.
to experience and accept difficulties as part of doing something.
Etymology: based on the idea of a fighter being able to take lumps (= accept swelling in parts of the body)
Can't explain the second one. I thought about it and I tried to come up with an answer, but...nope.
#4re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:14pm
The Gaston lyric basically means "okay, so your life's not totally perfect, but it's close enough that we'd even like to be you when bad things happen". For some reason I can't make it any clearer, but I can't see why it's so confusing.
The 'Under the Sea' lyric has NEVER made sense to me though. I'm sure a crab in a Disney movie wouldn't be doing some kind of heavy sarcasm for "lucky", so... WTF?!
#5re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:20pm
Read the whole verse:
Down here all the fish is happy
As off through the waves they roll
The fish on the land ain't happy
They sad 'cause they in their bowl
But fish in the bowl is lucky
They in for a worser fate
One day when the boss get hungry
Guess who's gon' be on the plate
The "They" in the 6th line is referring to the fish "down here", not the fish "on the land". He's saying the fish in the bowl isn't happy because they're trapped in a bowl, but when someone goes fishing, they go to an ocean, not a fishbowl.
Updated On: 1/5/09 at 06:20 PM
#6re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:21pmAh, sorry-- I'd just never heard the expression 'taking your lumps' before. I always assumed it meant, like, putting lumps of sugar into tea or coffee.
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
Shannon Bo Dannon
Broadway Star Joined: 8/19/08
#7re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:34pm
It all makes sense now! Thank you. =]
Off topic: WOAH, Schmerg new avatar. It's slightly blowing my mind.
#8re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:38pm
Yes! Only slightly different from my previous one, but four times the Terrence Mann Creepiness Factor... and a not-so-clever pun to boot!
EDIT: Another slightly confusing one from "Evita."
Don't cry for me Argentina
For I am ordinary, unimportant
And undeserving of such attention
Unless we all are
I think we all are."
Does she mean 'unless we are all undeserving' or 'unless we all are deserving?' I'm thinking she means the second, but the song makes it sound as though it out to be the first. Well, it's a pretty bad lyric anyway.
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
Updated On: 1/5/09 at 06:38 PM
Shannon Bo Dannon
Broadway Star Joined: 8/19/08
#9re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:43pmI always though Terrence looked kind of like a woman in your last avatar, now he is more manly but scary all the same. =P
#10re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:45pm
HE IS ALWAYS MANN-LY.
Sorry, I am addicted to bad puns. But yes, he does tend to look like a freakish woman, which is one of the reasons why I changed my avatar-- I realized that some people thought that was a picture of ME... eurgh. Anyhow, this one's from the Tony telecast of Les Miserables. He makes a series of the world's most horrific faces in the space of four lines.
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
#11re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 6:59pm
'Under the Sea' makes a little more sense, but if you remember the visuals of that bit of the song, you'll see why it doesn't make sense generally.
Eva means "I'm not special, I don't deserve attention. Unless ordinary people deserve attention as well as special people. Which I reckon they do. Attention to all the ordinary people as well as the special people, pls!".
Which reminds me, I hope Scott Westerfeld stopped writing that series of books... I really don't know how much further he could take it...
Chrysanthemum62001
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/14/04
#12re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 7:04pm
I always assumed the under the sea line was talking about lobsters in those tanks. You know, the ones where you pick the lobster you will be having for din-din.
And Schmerg, I LOVE your new av. Cracks me up.
"What a mystery this world. One day you love them and the next day you want to kill them a thousand times over." The Masked Bandit in THE FALL
#13re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 7:04pm
Weez-- I know what Eva means, but it's the fact that she says, "I'm undeserving, unless we all are." It makes it sound like she's saying she thinks 'we all are undeserving.' So it's a slightly unclear message.
Dude, those Uglies/Pretties/Specials books... I could never really get into those at all. I mean, I tried. But the main characters changed too much for me to get attached to them-- the only person I really liked was David. And you could totally tell they were written by a guy, because he kept dwelling so much on the technology as much as Stephenie Meyer dwells on describing Edward Cullen's shiny purtiness. The 'Extras' one was particularly hard to get through. I loved the "Midnighters" trilogy, though.
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
#14re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 7:10pm
C'mon, it's a Tim Rice lyric. We're lucky it's just slightly unclear as opposed to downright freakin' terrible. 
Shannon Bo Dannon
Broadway Star Joined: 8/19/08
#15re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 7:29pm
always assumed the under the sea line was talking about lobsters in those tanks. You know, the ones where you pick the lobster you will be having for din-din.
If that's the case, it makes so much more sense.
heo1128
Broadway Star Joined: 7/9/08
#16re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 7:40pm
I feel like an idiot, but a lot of the Spring Awakening lyrics go right over my head.
"Name the stars and know their dark returning" wtf?
Also, in Wicked
"Brave witch hunters I would join if I could"...but they are the witch hunters. So haven't they already joined?
Updated On: 1/5/09 at 07:40 PM
#17re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 7:58pm
"We're lucky it's just slightly unclear as opposed to downright freakin' terrible."
Excuse my ignorance, but I was unaware that Tim Rice was regarded as a bad lyricist, I actually like his lyrics in both Evita and JCS. Maybe my taste is just off, but I think "High Flying Adored" has some incredible lyrics. Please feel free to show me otherwise, I'm interested and I love discussing lyrics.
And I love the idea of this thread. There are so many instances where I'm left baffled by lyrics, but of course now that I have the opportunity to ask about them I forget.... If I remember, I'll be sure to post!
#18re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 8:05pm
Any time a bad lyrics thread comes up, Rice gets a lambasting. Check out Joseph sometime, that has some particularly stellarly bad ones. He's successful, he's entertaining, but sometimes his lyrics don't stand up to any sort of inspection. :3
Heo: the lion, tin-man, and scarecrow are the witch hunters, not the howling pitchforked mob singing the song. :)
EDIT: okay, just been through a few threads. The general consensus is that Evita has pretty good lyrics although they do fly over a lot of people's heads, but many many other Rice lyrics are less good.
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=970335
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=973488
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=982968
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=985211
Also, I have GOT to stop citing The Civil War when we discuss terrible lyrics. I'm surprised you haven't all complained at me for being incredibly repetitive yet. XD
Updated On: 1/5/09 at 08:05 PM
#19re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 9:27pm
Thanks..... I guess I'd forgotten about Joseph. Saw a community theatre production a few years ago and HATED it. So I tend to forget it.
And I've never cared for Aida either, so I've never really paid attention to its lyrics.
However, I still think Evita has good lyrics.
heo1128
Broadway Star Joined: 7/9/08
#20re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/5/09 at 11:14pmWeez: Ohhhh duh I get it now lol. That makes so much sense, I don't know why I didn't realize that! Hah thanks!!
#21re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/6/09 at 2:37amA whole mess of stuff from Spring Awakening, Rocky Horror and Shock Treatment
You're reminding me of people you hear at the movies asking questions every ten seconds, "Who is that? Why is that guy walking down the street? Who's that lady coming up to him? Uh-oh, why did that car go by? Why is it so dark in this theater?" - FindingNamo on strummergirl
"If artists were machines, then I'm just a different kind of machine...I'd probably be a toaster. Actually, I'd be a toaster oven because they're more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese" -Regina Spektor
"That's, like, twelve shows! ...Or seven." -Crazy SA Fangirl
"They say that just being relaxed is the most important thing [in acting]. I take that to another level, I think kinda like yawning and...like being partially asleep onstage is also good, but whatever." - Sherie Rene Scott
"If artists were machines, then I'm just a different kind of machine...I'd probably be a toaster. Actually, I'd be a toaster oven because they're more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese" -Regina Spektor
"That's, like, twelve shows! ...Or seven." -Crazy SA Fangirl
"They say that just being relaxed is the most important thing [in acting]. I take that to another level, I think kinda like yawning and...like being partially asleep onstage is also good, but whatever." - Sherie Rene Scott
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#22re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/6/09 at 6:23am
What I tell my students when he/she/we can't get the right way to deliver a line, or a line doesn't seem to "fit": that just means there is something we haven't figured out yet. And we keep working at it until we figure it out. That's our challenge.
I don't suggest, of course, that you should need to do investigative work as an audeince member to figure out lyrics...if there is too much that doesn't work for you, I can see that being a turn off to a show. But when much of it does, and just certain things stick out, I like to think about it and figure it out.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#23re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/6/09 at 7:46am
From one of the best-known songs from Broadway:
TOMORROW
TOMORROW
I LOVE YA, TOMORROW
YOU'RE ALWAYS A DAY AWAY
Well, if it's ALWAYS a day away, doesn't that mean you'll never actually GET to tomorrow????
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markymatt
Understudy Joined: 3/18/05
#24re: Confusing Lyrics
Posted: 1/6/09 at 11:44am
The Little Mermaid lyric is saying that the fish in the bowl is unhappy because he is in a bowl and not in the ocean, but he should count his blessings because one day he will end up being someone's dinner and THAT is when he should be unhappy.
And, TimesSquareRegular, I think you get the point of Tomorrow perfectly. Annie feels she will never get to tomorrow and get that happiness she is looking for.
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