Have you ever listened to a song

[YOhio]

for a long time and had no idea what the lyrics said or meant? The discovery of the meaning is sometimes satisfying, other times disappointing.

Today I figured out that Mr. Roboto by Styx was really just about a stupid robot, not, as I was led to believe, a devil-worshiping song. Kind of anti-climatic.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by YOhio

for a long time and had no idea what the lyrics said or meant? The discovery of the meaning is sometimes satisfying, other times disappointing.

Today I figured out that Mr. Roboto by Styx was really just about a stupid robot, not, as I was led to believe, a devil-worshiping song. Kind of anti-climatic.

WHo or what led you to believe it was about devil worship?

[YOhio]

Originally Posted by creekster

WHo or what led you to believe it was about devil worship?

Isn't all heavy metal about devil worship?

Some of my childhood memories include dramatic incidents of my friends telling me about KISS being an acronym for Knights In Satan's Service, WASP standing for We Are Satan's People, and the song Mr. Roboto containing subliminal lyrics commanding people to worship Satan. For a while it seemed as if devil worshipping was quite popular in the music community.

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by YOhio

Isn't all heavy metal about devil worship?

Some of my childhood memories include dramatic incidents of my friends telling me about KISS being an acronym for Knights In Satan's Service, WASP standing for We Are Satan's People, and the song Mr. Roboto containing subliminal lyrics commanding people to worship Satan. For a while it seemed as if devil worshipping was quite popular in the music community.

Hotel California is Satanic, too.

On your original topic, I firmly belive that R Kelly's I believe I can fly is what happens when a writer's only goal is to string together words that rhyme.

I used to think that I could not go on
And life was nothing but an awful song
But now I know the meaning of true love
I'm leaning on the everlasting arms

If I can see it, then I can do it
If I just believe it, there's nothing to it

I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away
I believe I can soar
I see me running through that open door
I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly

See I was on the verge of breaking down
Sometimes silence can seem so loud
There are miracles in life I must achieve
But first I know it starts inside of me, oh

If I can see it, then I can do it
If I just believe it, there's nothing to it

[creekster]

Originally Posted by YOhio

Isn't all heavy metal about devil worship?

Some of my childhood memories include dramatic incidents of my friends telling me about KISS being an acronym for Knights In Satan's Service, WASP standing for We Are Satan's People, and the song Mr. Roboto containing subliminal lyrics commanding people to worship Satan. For a while it seemed as if devil worshipping was quite popular in the music community.

I should have qualified my question with "apart from the fact that all rock is about devil worship." Btw, no offense or anything, but except in a 'punny' sense, Mr Roboto is not even close to heavy metal, IMO. In fact, Styx is more like bad broadway theatre (and bear in mind I was in a cover band that covered at least 10 Styx songs, so I know whereof I speak) than it is like heavy metal, but I digress.

When I was a DJ we had these cool turntables that you could play backwards and, having nothing better to do with my life, I spent a number of hours listening to certain Beatles tunes for "Paul is Dead" and to certain Rolling Stones songs for anything to do with the devil. I never heard any of it. I could never find anythign close to a message in any of this stuff.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

Hotel California is Satanic, too.

On your original topic, I firmly belive that R Kelly's I believe I can fly is what happens when a writer's only goal is to string together words that rhyme.

R. Kelly was a piker compared to America:

On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la ...

After two days in the desert sun
My skin began to turn red
After three days in the desert fun
I was looking at a river bed
And the story it told of a river that flowed
Made me sad to think it was dead

You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la ...

After nine days I let the horse run free
'Cause the desert had turned to sea
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
there was sand and hills and rings
The ocean is a desert with it's life underground
And a perfect disguise above
Under the cities lies a heart made of ground
But the humans will give no love

You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la ...

The heat was hot indeed.

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by creekster

R. Kelly was a piker compared to America:


The heat was hot indeed.

Horse with No Name has always cracked me up. I can't wait to hear it live.

[hyrum]

Originally Posted by creekster

R. Kelly was a piker compared to America:


The heat was hot indeed.

I was told the "horse" was heroin and the desert was an allegory for life as an addict.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by hyrum

I was told the "horse" was heroin and the desert was an allegory for life as an addict.

Sure. Except they deny it in a pretty reasonable way. And "Hey Jude" was about heroin, except MCartney denies it, in a pretty reasonable way, and Mr. Roboto is about mind control by the devil, except it's really just a really bad song, and so forth.

The song's author says:

A tune as famous as this one deserves a detailed explanation, though Bunnell suggests that its meaning has evolved over time: "I was messing around with some open tunings--I tuned the A string way down to an E, and I found this little chord, and I just moved my two fingers back and forth, and the entire song came from basically three chords. I wanted to capture the imagery of the desert, because I was sitting in this room in England, and it was rainy. The rain was starting to get to us, and I wanted to capture the desert and the heat and the dryness."

The imagery came from Dewey's childhood: "I had spent a good deal of time poking around in the high desert with my brother when we lived at Vandenberg Air Force Base [in California]. And we'd drive through Arizona and New Mexico. I loved the cactus and the heat. I was trying to capture the sights and sounds of the desert, and there was an environmental message at the end. But it's grown to mean more for me. I see now that this anonymous horse was a vehicle to get me away from all the confusion and chaos of life to a peaceful, quiet place."

[YOhio]

Originally Posted by hyrum

I was told the "horse" was heroin and the desert was an allegory for life as an addict.

You must be confusing that song with Paul Revere by the Beastie Boys.