Epiphanic Music

There are songs we've heard a million times, know all of the words to, and we think we know exactly what the artist is talking about. Until you're driving along on a Friday night, singing along to one of your favorite songs, and its multilayered, allegorical meaning, smacks you in the face. You've been wrong all this time.

Here's an example for you, 'Little Red Corvette' by Prince. Nah, he wasn't talking about a Chevy. "She had a pocket full of horses, Trojans, some of them used." What? Yeah, I know. This woman was much too fast, and the song is a clever tongue in cheek slap at a loose woman. Wow.

'You shook me all night long' by AC/DC. In this case, I thought it was a reference to making love all night long. Sigh. It's about a damned motorcycle. When you realize the subject isn't what you thought, your respect for the writer goes up a whole 'nother notch.

The other night, I was driving, listening to the Eagles, singing along and enjoying myself. 'New Kid in Town' was playing, and I was feeling it. Until it dawned on me it was another song I'd completely missed the boat on. The song isn't talking about a stranger in town. The song is about a man in love with a woman, who has already started seeing someone else. Everybody else knows it except him. "But after a while, you're looking the other way. It's those restless hearts, that never mend. Johnny come lately, there's a new kid in town. But will she still love you, when you're not around?"

And all roads lead back to writing. Last week I wrote a poem about a sweater which had grown too small. The sweater was once beautiful, a favorite, but it was outgrown. The only thing was, the poem wasn't about a sweater at all. It was about outgrowing a relationship. Yeah, I have my moments.

The moral of this is, the picture, song, or artwork, is never as transparent as it first appears. Allegories, personification, similes, are tools of a writer to slyly pull the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting. Works like a charm. "Everybody's talking about the new kid in town."

msh