I find many times when I have a song by an artist that I quite like, but the song isn’t one that I care much for, a look at the lyrics will almost instantly make the song much better.
I’ve already mentioned Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing” being a rather spectacular song, and every time I listen to it, I get a little more out of it. I’ve always thought “That ain’t workin’” was a great line. I just keep waiting for something to break so I can utter it nonchalantly.
But that’s not what he meant. He didn’t mean “working” in the marcher sense, he meant it in the travailler sense! (For you non-Frenchies, marcher means “to work” like “my CD player doesn’t work, it’s broken” and travailler means “to work” like “I’ve been working on the railroad”.)
And now reading the lyrics, which are not…
We got some in-store microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We got the movies, refrigerators
We got the movies, colour TV’s
Not Dire Straits, not “Money For Nothing”
…the song makes even more sense. He works at The Brick and this is what he’s coming up to us when we’re “just looking” and trying to sell. No. He was describing what he has to do, namely:
We got to install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators
We got to move these colour TV’s
Dire Straits, “Money For Nothing“
Which is much harder work than playing the geeter or playing them drums.
Another song whose lyrics I read that made me look at it in a whole different way was The Doors’ “We Could Be So Good Together”.
I’m sure you could guess by the title what it’s about. I’m sure you could guess what I giggled and thought to myself when I read the back of the album cover: “oh, why Jim, I do declare! If that’s an invitation, then I do indeed accept!”.
Reading the lyrics gave another whole spin on it. “I tell you wicked lies”, “tell you ’bout the world that we’ll invent”. Wait, what? You mean, when you said “We could be so good together”, you were lying? You were just saying that so you could get into my pants? But I thought you loved me! Waaaaaaah!
Sure. It could be about that. Which is what everyone seems to think. A love song. Well, a fake love song. A hate song? Nevertheless, a song dealing with relationships, like many a lame song before it.
No. One word changed all that for me: “Enterprise”. Immediately, I could see the set being built in my head, the background dancers in their matching (but slightly varied) costumes, the two businessmen, one good-hearted and naive and the other quite slimy with much to gain. It reminded me of “You Never Give Me Your Money” in “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (the movie, that is) or maybe a scene from “The Producers”. Yes, yes! Now, to find the other songs for my Doors jukebox musical!