Oddly Misunderstood Songs

“I don’t ever want to feel like that” it’s about NOT wanting to be on drugs, not scoring them.

Okay, but the bit that goes:

Under the bridge downtown
Is where I drew some blood
Under the bridge downtown
I could not get enough

Under the bridge downtown
Forgot about my love
Under the bridge downtown
I gave my life away

Is about…..? 😀

No quite deliberate, but at the wedding of friends of ours, the bride came down the aisle to something very suitable, but unfortunately no one stopped the CD after the song finished.

So as she daintily approached the altar it played the next track: “Whhhhhhhhyyyy?” by Annie Lennox 😆

GrahamS, yep, that bit is about getting drugs, but the song is about how he doesn’t want that in his life any more, and how his music and bandmates rescued him from it.

Sorry I was just teasing emsz. 😉 I agree.

Misunderstood? My sisters 1st dance was to “songs of love” I’m pretty sure nobody was thinking “ooh divine comedy, nice”

GrahamS, yep, that bit is about getting drugs, but the song is about how he doesn’t want that in his life any more, and how his music and bandmates rescued him from it.

Actually Kiedis said that the song was written about how he felt distant from his bandmates, because he was trying to get completely clean of drugs due to the death of the RHCP’s original guitarist, but they were still doing weed so he felt that he was no longer as close to them.

The song deals with his misery and isolation, and how he feels more kinship with the city of LA than with other human beings (hence the It’s hard to believe that there’s nobody out there/It’s hard to believe that I’m all alone/Atleast I have her love, the city, she loves me/Lonely as I am, together we cry), whilst also touching on his past as an addict and the depths he stooped to (such as going into gang territory to try and get a fix).

Incidentally he fell off the wagon was back on smack four years after that song was written. Doh!

Broader than just songs but it amazes me that people think The Smiths are depressing. They do have their glum moments but at other times they’re hilarious.

+1

‘Songs that saved your life’ is well worth a read, as it explains a lot about how some songs got attached certain interpretations (before the internetz NME opinion was king) and how it can snowball.