We’ve all sat listening to music and thought to ourselves “What does this song mean? What’s the singer (or the band) trying to say?”
Sometimes it’s nothing, just a bunch of words strung together in a way that sounds fun. Other times, lyrics to a song may be just some kind of stream-of-consciousness thing that somehow made sense to the singer or the lyricist at the time. Or maybe it didn’t. Lots of songs are written in altered states.
A song could be an oblique and opaque form of poetry that’s supposed to resolve itself in the brains of each listener. There have been many times when I’ve asked a singer “What does this song mean?” Their answer is “Well, what does it mean to you? Whatever you say is the right answer.”
Okay, I get it. It’s art. Art is supposed to be open to personal interpretation When you hear something beautiful or provocative or inspiring, who cares what the initial intent was—if there even was one. All that matters is that the song somehow hits you on an emotional level that’s difficult or impossible to quantify or describe.
Then again, some songs have a very specific point. They tell a story. Or they’re inspired by something that happened in real life and the composer is trying to capture what he or she felt and saw.
And then there are the stories of the creation of the songs themselves. Something happened for that song to be born. What was it? And what were the circumstances, the serendipity, the accidents, the crazy coincidences that needed to manifest for a great song to come to life?
This is another episode of stories behind songs.
Songs heard on this show:
- David Bowie, Heroes
- Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart
- Bob Marley, I Shot the Sheriff
- The Killers, Mr. Brightside
- Pearl Jam, Jeremy
- Fastball, The Way
- Jane’s Addiction, Jane Says
- Weezer, Buddy Holly
And here’s the playlist from Eric Wilhite.
- 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7pm
- Q107/Toronto – Sunday night at 9pm
- Live 88-5/Ottawa – Saturdays at 9am and Sundays at 6pm.
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday nights at 11pm
- FM96/London – Sunday nights at 8pm
- Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday nights at 10am and 10pm
- 107-3 The Edge/Calgary – Sundays at 10am and 10pm
- Sonic 102.9/Edmonton – Sunday at 8am and 8pm
- The Zone/Victoria – Sunday at 8am and 9pm
- The Fox/Vancouver – Sundays at 10anm and 10pm
- Surge 105/Halifax – Sunday at 7pm
- WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown – Mon-Fri at 9pm
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