Song lyrics one liners that anyone under 30 won’t understand

[winjim]

I must have heard this 1000 times and I'm pretty certain its 'I'll bet I'm a man and so's Lola'. I'll check again. The coca cola line was apparently adjusted to cherry cola since the BBC objected to the coca cola brand name on TOTP back in the day.

Having listened to it far too many times this morning trying to make it out, and put far too much thought into it, I think that the lyric 'I'm glad I'm a man' would have several possible meanings, including a callback to a previous line 'I'm gonna make you a man' with the implication being that in fact that's exactly what she did, much to the enjoyment of them both...

 

[richardfm]

Having listened to it far too many times this morning trying to make it out, and put far too much thought into it, I think that the lyric 'I'm glad I'm a man' would have several possible meanings, including a callback to a previous line 'I'm gonna make you a man' with the implication being that in fact that's exactly what she did, much to the enjoyment of them both...

I've got a Greatest Hits Kinks CD. It has the Cherry Cola version and it sounds clear to me that it finishes
She said, "Little boy, gonna make you a man"
Well I'm not the world's most masculine man
But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man

 

[slowmotion]

And from the same band

"Can blue men sing the whites,
Or are they hipocrytes?"

One more....
"Baby, you're so far ahead it's beautiful"

 

[Windle]

I've got a Greatest Hits Kinks CD. It has the Cherry Cola version and it sounds clear to me that it finishes
She said, "Little boy, gonna make you a man"
Well I'm not the world's most masculine man
But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man

I always though it went:

Well I'm not the world's most masculine man
But I know what I am and in bed I'm a man and so's Lola

As if he'd found out a bit late .

 

[Chris S]

"Belsen was a gas" - The Sex Pistols. In the 1970s a 'gas' was a laugh.

It was written by Sid Vicious whose girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, was Jewish. So was their manger, Malcolm Maclaren. He later described it as, "A nasty little song that should have ended up on the cutting room floor."

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

"Belsen was a gas" - The Sex Pistols. In the 1970s a 'gas' was a laugh.

It was written by Sid Vicious whose girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, was Jewish. So was their manger, Malcolm Maclaren. He later described it as, "A nasty little song that should have ended up on the cutting room floor."

The Sex Pistols were deliberately set up to shock above all else

and they used to medium of Punk to do it

I am not surprised about those lyrics - great marketing directed at their target market
in other words - normal Sex Pistols

The Clash were better
actually most punk bands I had heard in pubs around Liverpool for years before were better!

 

[winjim]

"Belsen was a gas" - The Sex Pistols. In the 1970s a 'gas' was a laugh.

It was written by Sid Vicious whose girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, was Jewish. So was their manger, Malcolm Maclaren. He later described it as, "A nasty little song that should have ended up on the cutting room floor."

I'm upset by the historical inaccuracy if nothing else.

 

[captain nemo1701]

I always though it went:

Well I'm not the world's most masculine man
But I know what I am and in bed I'm a man and so's Lola

As if he'd found out a bit late .

Interesting you heard it this way, I still think its 'bet' and that sounds like 'bed' with the same syllable. 'Glad' sound totally different, It sounds to me that Ray sings a word beginning with 'B' not 'G'.

 

[Alex321]

Interesting you heard it this way, I still think its 'bet' and that sounds like 'bed' with the same syllable. 'Glad' sound totally different, It sounds to me that Ray sings a word beginning with 'B' not 'G'.

It can be quite difficult to tell the difference between B and G when spoken - a fact ventriloquists rely on.

 

[Dogtrousers]

It can be quite difficult to tell the difference between B and G when spoken - a fact ventriloquists rely on.

Gottle of geer

 

[matticus]

I've got a Greatest Hits Kinks CD. It has the Cherry Cola version and it sounds clear to me that it finishes
She said, "Little boy, gonna make you a man"
Well I'm not the world's most masculine man
But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man AND SO IS LOLA [added by Matt]

I've just listened to some random utoob version (without the lyrics in front of me) and the above is definitely correct.

The last few posts have overlooked the four bolded words that finish the story. My conviction is that they do NOT provide an unambiguos twist.
Is Lola a man? Maybe...
Or is Lola glad? Also, maybe ...

This is consistent with all the other verses being written with deliberate ambiguity. This is typical of lyrics in the 60s-80s; noone was brave enough to put certain things in black-n-white (e.g. see Golden Brown which is PROBABLY about Heroine. And Lucy In the Sky ... etc ... )
e.g.
Well, I'm not dumb but I can't understand
Why she walked like a woman but talked like a man

Once you decide that Lola IS a man, this lyric seems to confirm it. But it's written as a hint ... open to interpretation ...


Incidentally, with either reading I think it's a lovely song, because he's clearly happy about the relationship! How can you not love this bit:

Well, that's the way that I want it to stay
And I always want it to be that way
for my Lola
L-O-L-A, Lola
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world,
except for Lola
La-la-la-la Lola

 

[winjim]

Incidentally, with either reading I think it's a lovely song, because he's clearly happy about the relationship! How can you not love this bit:

Well, that's the way that I want it to stay
And I always want it to be that way
for my Lola
L-O-L-A, Lola
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world,
except for Lola
La-la-la-la Lola

And by that point he knows, the twist at the end isn't a twist for him. He was down on his knees and looking her in the eye in the middle eight, the verse you quoted comes after that but before they go home and she 'makes him a man'.

Despite my earlier assertion that there was little subtlety in the song, having listened to it and thought about it a lot yesterday I'm appreciating the way it's crafted a lot more than I was before.

 

[CharlieB]

Oh man, I need TV when I got T. Rex
(Mott The Hoople/all the young dudes, 1972).

 

[Dogtrousers]

This thread sent me down memory lane and got me re-listening to The Vibrators' We Name The Guilty. It's chock full of references that might baffle the under 30s.

Jasper Carrott, Cyril Smith I wonder if they realised exactly how guilty Cyril Smith was when they made the song. Maybe at the time he was just an obese politician, not an abuser.

But my favourite line was A pint of lager and two Castellas I don't smoke and rarely go into pubs these days but I imagine the days of selling cheap cigars over the bar are long gone. Do Castellas even exist these days? The tobacco advertising ban has plunged cheap cigars into obscurity. (Edit ... Yes, they do)

 

[richardfm]

This thread sent me down memory lane and got me re-listening to The Vibrators' We Name The Guilty. It's chock full of references that might baffle the under 30s.

Jasper Carrott, Cyril Smith I wonder if they realised exactly how guilty Cyril Smith was when they made the song. Maybe at the time he was just an obese politician, not an abuser.

But my favourite line was A pint of lager and two Castellas I don't smoke and rarely go into pubs these days but I imagine the days of selling cheap cigars over the bar are long gone. Do Castellas even exist these days? The tobacco advertising ban has plunged cheap cigars into obscurity. (Edit ... Yes, they do)

I don't know about Castellas but that line reminded me of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please by Splogenessabounds
View: https://youtu.be/TaY4zoQsNiQ?si=s_n63sa9BZXIkIO-