The Official 'What Do These Lyrics Mean?' Megathred

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 11:56am

Rather than me starting a bunch of threads about lyrics, I figured I'd start a thread where we can ALL ask lyrics-related questions. Can somebody PLEASE translate these for me

"There are Bridges You Crossed You Didn't Know You Crossed Until You Crossed"- Sung by Glinda in WICKED ("Thank Goodness")

"We've All Got Our Junk, and my Junk is You"- Sung by the Girls of SPRING AWAKENING ("My Junk")

Updated On: 5/9/09 at 11:56 AM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 2:20pm

That Glinda lyric is like a triple negitive, it makes no sense.

How 'bout this one:

"Put these here and put those over there."
Mrs. Potts B&B.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 2:22pm

The Wicked one makes more sense if you listen closely and understand verb tenses. She actually says, "There are bridges you cross you didn't know you'd cross until you've crossed." In other words, there are defining moments in your life you never expected to come to, until you look back and realize those moments already happened.

Example: Glinda never expected to be forced to choose between her best friend and everything she's ever wanted. She didn't know that's what she was doing while she watched Elphie fly off on the broom. It was only after, when the wizard and Morrible were spreading lies about Elphaba and showering Glinda with wealth and status, that she realized, "Oh, I guess I made a pretty important life-changing decision back then."

The Spring Awakening line is pretty dumb. It means that we all have our hang-ups, our obsessions, and the singer's hang-up/obsession is "you," the boy she is singing to. (I know it's sung by a bunch of girls singing to nobody in particular. That's part of the reason it's so dumb.)

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 2:25pm

Forgive me, I'm not really up on my Caroline, or Change, but why is the song called Lot's Wife?

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 2:34pm

Lot's Wife is a Biblical reference. when Lot and his family were leaving Sodom and Gomorrah as they were being destroyed, they were told by the angels not to look back on the cities. Lot's wife disobeyed and turned around to look, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 3:01pm

GlindatheGood22 I LOVE LOVE LOVE your avatar.

Thanks for the translations Yero :)

[canmark]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 3:54pm

Re: "My junk"

The intro to that song is the girls mooning over boys (specifically Melchior, but one of the girls likes Moritz), and their "junk" is their crush, fantasy, the person that gets them off. There are various allusions to this.

For example, Georg has a crush on his piano teacher and we see him fantasizing about her during the song.

We also see Hanschen masturbating (there's a line in the song that says "they say you go blind" as in the saying that masturbation will make you go blind), and he sings the line "I go up to my room, turn the stereo on/ shoot up some you in the you of some song."

This would allude to "junk" as slang for heroin which, of course, you "shoot up."

So "junk" takes on various, but related, meanings: that which you fantasize about, that which gets you off, an addiction. And for these characters, their junk is the person they are imagining, fantasizing about, "you." They're singing the song to the object of their affection.

(I write all this because I've read reviews that make fun of this song, implying "we've all got our junk, and my junk is you" is so trite. But I actually think it's a pretty clever song, a way of expressing real human feeling which may be particularly strong when one is young and developing crushes on other people.)

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 5:35pm

"She was 'taken care of', not sexually, and if you infer that they were using her I will SHOVE YOU UNDER THE GODDAMNED BED!!!"
-Around the World, Grey Gardens

...what!? I don't get it. Do I have to see the documentary to get that line. I've read the book of the musical so I understand the money circumstances but for me that line comes out of nowhere.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 5:57pm

Can we just put all of the lyrics from Spring Awakening into this thread?

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 6:03pm

"I go up to my room, turn the stereo on/ shoot up some you in the you of some song."

If the show takes place in the 1890s, how does a boy have a stereo in his room when even phonographs weren't mass produced until after 1900?

[broadway122]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 6:14pm

Well they didn't have rock music or neon lights in the 1890s. Spring Awakening had both of those.

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 6:19pm

The music is part of what makes the musical a musical and not legitimate theater, so I don't think choice of musical style matters. A reference in the lyrics, however, is not.
Updated On: 5/9/09 at 06:19 PM

[broadway122]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 6:23pm

I know. I was just point out the modern things they had in Spring Awakening.

I also agree that any song from that show would fit in this thread. Some of those lyrics come out of left field.

Updated On: 5/9/09 at 06:23 PM

[scott68]

Posted: 5/9/09 at 6:27pm

MrSweetNAwful, I think those lyrics are pretty much best appreciated if you've seen the documentary. It's been a long time since I saw the show or have listened to the music, so I don't remember if there's context given for that specifically, but the lyrics themselves are taken verbatim from the documentary, albeit switched around in order a bit.

[Fan123]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 2:18am

Not a musical per se, but the song 'What Can You Lose' from the film Dick Tracy:

Leave it alone, hold it all in,
Better a bone, don't even begin
With so much to win
There's too much to lose

Is "better a bone" meant to be shorthand for "Better that you stay as you are, with her throwing you a bone every now and then, than you asking for more and perhaps ending up with nothing"?

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 2:23am

One from Pippin:
"Cats fit on the windowsill/Children fit in the snow"

What does that even mean?

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 3:04am

The Pippin lyrics:

It is natural to find cats hanging out on windowsills.
Seeing children playing in the snow is a common occurrence.

Pippin is looking for a simple, one line definition for where his place in the world is.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 3:59am

"How 'bout this one:

"Put these here and put those over there."
Mrs. Potts B&B."

LOL!

I really struggle with Spring Awakening lyrics as well. What does

"We'll work that silver magic, then aim it at the wall" mean?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 4:38am

^ Masturbation.

[twitchy+bitchy+manic]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 4:41am

I think it's a rather confusing reference to that which turns your palms hairy and turns you blind.

[winston89]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 5:15am

I always thought it was talking about ejaculation.

[brochatkid]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 8:58am

Guys and Dolls: "If I were a salad, I know I'd be splashing my dressing."

Do salads ever do that?

[Weez]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 9:30am

I've come to the conclusion that if there's a lyric in Spring Awakening you don't understand, it's probably about masturbating.

That said, the most confusing thing about this whole thread is that so many people are confused by simple lyrics. Really? The bridges thing from 'Thank Goodness'? I know it's clumsily-phrased, but it's hardly meaningless or even difficult to work out. And Spring Awakening has FAR more baffling lyrics than "work that silver magic and we'll aim it at the wall"!

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 10:23am

Byron-
I get the cat thing, it's just Children fitting into snow that doesn't make sense to me. If it had been "sit" I would have bought it. "Fit," not so much.

Half the lyrics in "Glory" don't make sense to me either.

What does bitter winter white taste like?

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 5/10/09 at 10:42am

Okay, half the lyrics in SA are lyrics that I think I might understand, but I'm afraid to say it online because if I'm wrong people would think I'm a pervert, so dramamama... thanks for conforming the Sliver Magic thing, I always though that. So on that note, I need someone to translate every single lyrics to 'The Word of Your Body'. I'm not kidding, there's not a single lyrics that I understand. Not even the title. And Idon't understand what's 'too unreal'


WENDLA
Just too unreal, all this
Watching the words fall from my lips

MELCHIOR
Baiting some girl with hypotheses

BOTH
Haven?t you heard the word of your body?

MELCHIOR
Don?t feel a thing, you wish

WENDLA
Grasping at pearls with my fingertips

MELCHIOR
Holding her hand like some little tease

BOTH
Haven?t you heard the word of my wanting?

O, I?m gonna be wounded
O, I?m gonna be your wound
O, I?m gonna bruise you
O, you?re gonna be my bruise

Just too unreal, all this?

WENDLA
Watching his world slip through my fist

MELCHIOR
Playing with her in your fantasies

BOTH
Haven?t you heard the word ? how I want you?

O, I?m gonna be wounded
O, I?m gonna be your wound
O, I?m gonna bruise you
O, you?re gonna be my bruise