Hidden Meaning in Lyrics

Mabey this has been posted before in some shape or form but here it is in it's totality. (even a word?)

Some people interested (or board) as i am ever sit around listening to your favorite band and actually listen to the lyrics? Some of the bands i listen to, Tool, Led Zepplen, Pink Floyd, etc, have layered lyrics that are often political- religious smashing; caked off with deep and multiple meanings about governments, religions, cosmology, all implanted with esoteria, and on and on...

I was curious to see if other bands out there use these same tecniques to get a hidden message back to their listeners. I am possitive there are but what i want is for people to mention any thing regarding this topic about one of your favorite bands and the depth of their lyrics.

For example in the band Tool on a song titles "Schism" the drum beat is tempoed at a speed in which it "schisms" or divides down into smaller bits much like the meaning schism referes to "to divide".

If anyone out there can build of this thread with some of their own favorite bands, we might see a different side of the genius of their creators and possibly stitch together something new all together...

[edit on 16-2-2005 by Pandoras Box]

I just had my hubby read this because he knows Maynard and I thought he could give some insight into your example. He wasn't really sure he was understanding what you were saying.

IMHO there is always a hidden message. Maybe not political or conspiratorial in nature, but there is always something in the song that is 'secret' to the person writing it. Never take a song at face value.

Jemison

I had one up here, pretty much the same subject...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Jemison
I just had my hubby read this because he knows Maynard and I thought he could give some insight into your example. He wasn't really sure he was understanding what you were saying.

IMHO there is always a hidden message. Maybe not political or conspiratorial in nature, but there is always something in the song that is 'secret' to the person writing it. Never take a song at face value.

Jemison

He knows Maynard, thats incredibly sweet. but i know better than to take a song a face value, and i won't push it too far as in "over thinking over anylizing seperate the body from the mind" (Tool). As far as what i was trying to say was this: if there is a song you know about that has a "hidden theme" in it i would like to know about it because i like that whole deep she-bang.

If you go to the Tool site (on another blog forum) where fans talk about the band i believe i read that Danny Carrey drums in a certain fassion (pardon my lack of musical literacy) on the song "Schism" in a certain way. Also he drums to the song "Lateralus" in to the Fabonacci pattern.

Its things like that i want to know about. The unique tecniques bands use in their songs, including layerd lyrics. If anyone out there can include some other input, be my guest.

Thanx for the input though, Jemison

Ah, the special insight of rock stars. Where would we be without their tricky allegory and word play.

It's not just music you know. It's pretty much art, and pretty much the point.

Pick anyone you want to discuss (Shakespeare, Kafka, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John... doesn't matter), the "life" of art is never literal and always hidden in the subtext. Appreciation is in the eureka moment of shared discovery.

But if you just want to consider the subversive elements of literally "hidden meanings" that might be otherwise frowned upon by the establishment, again.. look to truly oppressive times and societies for the most hidden imagery and messages in art.

Shakespeare is an example of a master. Da Vinci another. Indy, Alt and rock/rap so-called subversiveness is pretty lame actually given our freedoms. A pretense, all things considered.

But take a women like
Katherine Anne Porter born in 1890's Texas! A journalist that couldn't even find a forum for her more "radical" ideas like liberation of feminine sexuality.



But through a series of harmless little "Miranda Tales," such as "The Grave," proper Ladies could retire to tea rooms away from Deacons, Politicians and husbands to discuss a southern girl's silly little notions and clumsy journey from innocence.

FYI: She's not really playing hide and seek in that freshly dug grave Pastor Dan.

That's hidden meaning.

Originally posted by RANT
Ah, the special insight of rock stars. Where would we be without their tricky allegory and word play.

It's not just music you know. It's pretty much art, and pretty much the point.

Pick anyone you want to discuss (Shakespeare, Kafka, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John... doesn't matter), the "life" of art is never literal and always hidden in the subtext. Appreciation is in the eureka moment of shared discovery.

But if you just want to consider the subversive elements of literally "hidden meanings" that might be otherwise frowned upon by the establishment, again.. look to truly oppressive times and societies for the most hidden imagery and messages in art.

Shakespeare is an example of a master. Da Vinci another. Indy, Alt and rock/rap so-called subversiveness is pretty lame actually given our freedoms. A pretense, all things considered.

But take a women like
Katherine Anne Porter born in 1890's Texas! A journalist that couldn't even find a forum for her more "radical" ideas like liberation of feminine sexuality.



But through a series of harmless little "Miranda Tales," such as "The Grave," proper Ladies could retire to tea rooms away from Deacons, Politicians and husbands to discuss a southern girl's silly little notions and clumsy journey from innocence.

FYI: She's not really playing hide and seek in that freshly dug grave Pastor Dan.

That's hidden meaning.

Yeah thats what i was aiming at. I know artists of all kinds do that kind of stuff, and i know it may not be a uncommon as i make it sound but that is exactly why i posted this thread, to learn more about the crazy stuff artists do to entertain and to inform.

I don't know if anyone is gonna read this post (out of date) but most people are not aware (forgiven the circumstance) that the same greedy banks that financed hitler during WWII now pull all the strings in world economy, government, education, healthcare and pretty much everything in our society. The reality as you know it, is a false sense which is laid upon us by the mass media they control. Watch banking with hitler or the money masters. People are begining to realise that the governments who we trust to do the right thing are so corrupt that they are the biggest threat that mankind has ever faced. Most do not realise this. BTW listen to JFK's last speach before he was killed. THIS IS TRUE!!! I think musicians of our time ARE TRYING TO TELL US! Look up lyrics for the pretender by foo fighters or our velocity by maximo park or wake up by Korn or america by razorlight or fortune faded by Red hot CPs or turn up the sun by oasis or polyethylene by radiohead or rabbit in the headlights by UNKLE (global warming themes in some of these i think). Knowing the truth has actually ruined my life now that I know how the world really works. If you still do not beleive, look at the support Ron Paul is getting while running for president. He knows the truth but he cannot do it alone. Also considering the controll they excercise over the media and the internet (you tube vids being pulled when no infringemet of their rules!crazy), the only method of communicating which cannot be tainted is music and sugestive lyrics.

Actually, all of Tool's songs are about Anal.

I jest, but I think the primary reasons for any artist to include a manifest and a latent meaning in their song can be summed up in a few ways.

1. They simply don't want you to know what the song is about. It's too personal for them. (This one is rare, but happens)

2. They want you to decide what the song is "really about". Nothing gives a writer more joy, at least in my case, than having someone really think about how something they've written relates to them.
(Since you've mentioned Tool, Sober fits under this category. Ive seen in interviews how people will come up and thank the band members because the song helped them get off drugs. Ironically the song is about how we should be able to do them if we want to.)

3. That's just simply their writing style. They want to say too much in too short of a period of time, so they have to hide stuff to make it fit.
(Bands like: Tool, Dredg, 10 years, Rishloo, System of a Down[that or their incredibly insane, and have no meaning in their lyrics], amongst a few others.)

But when in comes down to it, sometime a song about shoving your hand up someones cornhole is just a song about shoving your hand up someones cornhole.

I got your Tool right hear bitches!!!

The video deals more with the infamous incident of when people accused Judas Priest of having subliminal messages to kill themselves, but you get the idea, also NSFW

Lyrics... always, mainstream, always, commercials, dur...

Childrens movies?

Ofcourse, got to get them when they are young right?

www.youtube.com...

Just another brick in thE WALL?

yeah.

dance hall drug by boys like girls is actually about losing your virginity!


Grown up
She just turned 16
Stuck in the moment
Dead at the scene
And it's on tonight
This is the life that you wanted, right?
So turn off all the lights
Dressed up just like a movie star
At all the parties they'll know who you are
Wouldn't it be great, to be fashionably late?
So why don't you wait, till you're sedated

Don't it feel like something's not right in his kiss tonight?

Yeah what I'm saying is do you, do you want to lose it all?
Cause this is more than just a dance hall drug
You can't wait to fall in love
All I'm saying is do you, do you want to learn to fly?
Then you should pack it up and say goodbye
Cause when the push comes to the shove
It's just a dance hall drug

Step in and you can lock the door
The candles are lit and the clothes on the floor
You could take a chance on finding romance
Now you're holding hands
But he's got other plans
Tick-tock, the clock is turning red
The room won't stop spinning and thoughts in your head
And it's too late
You feel like you're making a big mistake
You should've waited
Don't it feel like something's not right in his kiss tonight
Yeah what I'm saying is do you, do you want to lose it all?
Cause this is more than just a dance hall drug
You can't wait to fall in love
All I'm saying is do you, do you want to learn to fly?
Then you should pack it up and say goodbye
Cause when the push comes to the shove
It's just a dance hall drug
Just wait love
Show 'em what you're made of
Don't it feel like something's not right in his kiss tonight?
Do you, do you want to lose it all?
Cause this is more than just a dance hall drug
You can't wait to fall in love
All I'm saying is do you, do you want to learn to fly?
Then you should pack it up and say goodbye
Cause when the push comes to the shove
It's just a dance hall drug
Do you, do you want to lose it all?
Cause this is more than just a dance hall drug
You can't wait to fall in love
All I'm saying is do you, do you want to learn to fly?
Then you should pack it up and say goodbye
Cause when the push comes to the shove
It's just a dance hall drug






i especially think the 'wouldnt it be great to be fashionably late' part is very clever, basically saying that if you wait until your ready, its much cooler.


i only noticed it today!

sophie x