Recently, during an extensive automobile trip, I had occasion to listen to either my car radio or my Ipod for long stretches. It occurred to me that I have never understood the meaning of the lyrics in many of the songs that I have been listening to for years. Perhaps you can enlighten me.
For example, who is Rikki and why shouldn't he/she lose that number? Why would mailing it to oneself be preferable to writing it down somewhere and sticking it in one's back pocket? Isn't there some mnemonic device that would allow Rikki to remember it? Is this song really about how dumb Rikki is? I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.
Why is Bruce Cockburn wondering where the lions are? Is this really a mystery? I mean aren't they primarily on the Serengeti or in zoos? There used to be a real old scrawny one in Franklin Park. Maybe there is the odd one or two in some rapper's penthouse, but I think we have a pretty good handle on the rest of them.
Why does some North Ontario town leave Neil Young feeling helpless? What does a town have to do with it? Could it have anything to do with some of Cockburn's lions on the loose? Don't they offer any self-help programs up there in North Ontario? What about Canada's vaunted health care system? I mean it seems to me that Neil could be a good candidate for a little pick-me-up.
What good would sending in the clowns do? If there is one character on the ground and one in the air, how would a bunch of clowns help? Wouldn't a ladder be more useful? By the way, does Sondheim mean real clowns or a bunch of goofballs like my golfing buddies?
Why is it such a big deal that James Taylor has seen fire and rain? Who hasn't? I've personally seen both of those things as well as mud, granite, and lava. I don't go around bragging about it, though. By the way, I've also ridden the full length of the Massachusetts Turnpike as far as that goes; gave the guy exact change too!
How come Lyle Lovett feels he needs both a pony and a boat? I mean, neither one would be particularly helpful on, say, the Massachusetts Turnpike. Wouldn't most people be happy with one or the other? It seems a bit greedy to ask for both. Maybe he intends to give one of them to Neil Young to make him feel better.
While I absolutely love every song he ever wrote, I must admit that I don't understand a single thing Leonard Cohen is singing about. Chinese tea and oranges? Traveling blind? Dancing to the end of love? How 'bout dancing to the end of the song? What is a drunk doing in a midnight choir? How did he make it past the audition? And so forth...
Of course none of this confusion is apparent in those older, wonderful songs from the Great American Songbook. I mean "I've Got You Under My Skin" is obviously about a case of poison ivy, "But Not For Me," is about my attempts to win Powerball, and "My One and Only Love" is about Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins.
Well, despite my confusion, the long and the short of it is I will keep listening whether I know what they're talking about or not.
It's the same approach I take with my financial adviser.
Ain't music grand?
J
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