-"Summer of 69" by Bryan Adams: I've heard lots of people say "Oh he was only like 9 years old, how could he have had a band or anything". I don't know for sure, but maybe it was what he WISHED he could've been doing that year as a kid. If it was based on his own experiences it would've made more sense to call it "Summer of '79", but since that was just a few years ago at the time, it wouldn't have fit as well for nostalgia.

-"Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter Paul & Mary: Ugh, why does everyone think it's about smoking weed? It came out in 1963, that's before the psychedelic/drug smoking era even took off. Just by listening to the lyrics and the sentimentality of it, I can tell it's about a young kid who outgrows his imaginary friend as he gets older, and the sadness the dragon felt. If it were about drugs I doubt it would be as praised and common as it is.

-ANY random parody songs that get miscredited to Weird Al. I guess people do it because he's the only REALLY huge household name parody artist, so they naturally assume a funny song is by him (and say they're not a huge fan who's familar with his work). He does pretty cleancut, family friendly/PGish material, so it kinda bugs me that alot of the dirtier, harder stuff gets miscredited to him all the time. It also might unfairly give people a negative impression of him, like parents who wouldn't want their kids listening to him because of a profane song they ASSUME he does. Even his occasional edgier or semi dirty stuff is pretty tame by comparison.

I used to wonder about "Summer Of 69" and thought he was too young for a band.  LOL.

Crash Test Dummies' "mmmm mmmm mmmm" is regarded as a positive song though the lyrics seem to be negative.  I never understood this.

-"Summer of 69" by Bryan Adams: I've heard lots of people say "Oh he was only like 9 years old, how could he have had a band or anything". I don't know for sure, but maybe it was what he WISHED he could've been doing that year as a kid. If it was based on his own experiences it would've made more sense to call it "Summer of '79", but since that was just a few years ago at the time, it wouldn't have fit as well for nostalgia.
I realized at the time the song was a hit "Summer of '79" doesn't have same ring to it.  This is one of my complaints about the over-personalization of rock lyrics.  It's hard for a rock musician to write a song in first person without it seeming biographical about the songwriter.  "Summer of '69" is definitely my favorite Bryan Adams song.  It is every rock cliche squeezed into one song...and oh so well!

"Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter Paul & Mary: Ugh, why does everyone think it's about smoking weed? It came out in 1963, that's before the psychedelic/drug smoking era even took off. Just by listening to the lyrics and the sentimentality of it, I can tell it's about a young kid who outgrows his imaginary friend as he gets older, and the sadness the dragon felt. If it were about drugs I doubt it would be as praised and common as it is.

Greg Focker: Who'd have thought it wasn't about a dragon.
Jack Byrnes: Huh?
Greg Focker: Well some people think that 'to puff the magic dragon' means to... puff... smoke... a marijuana cigarette.
Jack Byrnes: Puff is just the name of the boy's magical dragon... You a pothead, Focker?
Greg Focker: No, I pass on grass always. Well not always.
Jack Byrnes: Yes or no?
Greg Focker: No, um, yes, um...
;D

No, it isn't about smoking whacky tobacky.  The lyrics were written in the 1950s before the hippie counterculture.  "Puff" as a verb, not a proper name, was inevitable once all the kids were toking up!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/08/rudolf.gif

-ANY random parody songs that get miscredited to Weird Al. I guess people do it because he's the only REALLY huge household name parody artist, so they naturally assume a funny song is by him (and say they're not a huge fan who's familar with his work). He does pretty cleancut, family friendly/PGish material, so it kinda bugs me that alot of the dirtier, harder stuff gets miscredited to him all the time. It also might unfairly give people a negative impression of him, like parents who wouldn't want their kids listening to him because of a profane song they ASSUME he does. Even his occasional edgier or semi dirty stuff is pretty tame by comparison.


I was just thinking of one today, puerile rock journalists tried to suggest there was an oral sex reference in JCM's "Jack and Diane," to wit: "Suckin' on chili dog outside the Tastee Freeze." 
Hey, JCM is wouldn't make such a lewd reference!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/07/nono.gif

The other one applies to an entire album: The urban myth that "Dark Side of the Moon" matches up perfectly with the "Wizard of Oz"!

Speaking of PFloyd, I also get annoyed with the claim that "Another Brick in the Wall" is an anti-education song 

^LOL! I've thought that about that chili dog line from "Jack and Diane" too (even if he probably didn't mean it that way). ;D Glad I wasn't the only one.

Yeah, I think that's true what you said too, about songs getting pigeonholed as being about the personal life of the singer, even if they're not. I've done the same thing myself sometimes. I guess it's natural in a way, since they're delivering the message you logically associate it as being about them.


P.S. Another one I thought of is "Every Breath You Take" - that's always either considered a love song or a stalker song (I've seen so many of those comments on youtube!). I heard Sting wrote it after his divorce from his first wife, and it was just about his feelings for her...probably like he still loved her and a part of him felt like it "belonged" to her, even if he'd moved on.

^LOL! I've thought that about that chili dog line from "Jack and Diane" too (even if he probably didn't mean it that way). ;D Glad I wasn't the only one.

Yeah, I think that's true what you said too, about songs getting pigeonholed as being about the personal life of the singer, even if they're not. I've done the same thing myself sometimes. I guess it's natural in a way, since they're delivering the message you logically associate it as being about them.


P.S. Another one I thought of is "Every Breath You Take" - that's always either considered a love song or a stalker song (I've seen so many of those comments on youtube!). I heard Sting wrote it after his divorce from his first wife, and it was just about his feelings for her...probably like he still loved her and a part of him felt like it "belonged" to her, even if he'd moved on.


I think Sting has referred to it as a stalker mentality but if it makes you feel any better, Prince's "Little Red Corvet" was not really about a car!
:P

People still think Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight" refers to Phil watching his friend drown and not trying to save him. 

There was a rumor that Depeche Mode "Strangelove" was about getting sodomized.  It's not true.  The autoerotic suggestions in "But Not Tonight" might be as such, though.  It's like what they said about the name "Pet Shop Boys," which was not either true, and I shall not repeat it. 

I once made up a lurid tale of how Men Without Hats "Pop Goes the World" was about the pornography industry.  This never took hold.
:P