Every December, a small and terrible ritual unfolds in offices, classrooms, and living rooms across the English-speaking world. Someone starts singing about a partridge in a pear tree, the restContinue readingThe Meaning of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”
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The Meaning of “Hey Jude” by The Beatles
Let’s be honest about something: it’s almost impossible to write about “Hey Jude” without sounding like a greeting card. The thing has been sung at weddings, funerals, ballgames, and barContinue readingThe Meaning of “Hey Jude” by The Beatles
The Meaning of “Eyes Without a Face” by Billy Idol
Here’s the thing about Billy Idol: everybody thinks they know him. The sneer, the bleached spikes, the fist pumped like a punk Elvis who got lost on the way toContinue readingThe Meaning of “Eyes Without a Face” by Billy Idol
The Meaning of Cuban Folk Song “Guantanamera”
Some songs are written, and some songs are found, like old coins turned up by a plow. “Guantanamera” is the second kind. Nobody can quite say where it began, whichContinue readingThe Meaning of Cuban Folk Song “Guantanamera”
The Meaning of “Macarena” by Los del Río
Somewhere in the summer of 1996, the entire Western world lost its mind and started doing the same hand motions at the same time. Wedding receptions, baseball stadiums, middle-school gyms,Continue readingThe Meaning of “Macarena” by Los del Río
The Meaning of “Zombie” by The Cranberries
There’s a particular kind of rage that arrives not as a shout but as a keening wail, and when Dolores O’Riordan let it loose in 1994, the whole world satContinue readingThe Meaning of “Zombie” by The Cranberries
The Meaning of “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez
Every few years some small, shivering thing crawls out of a bedroom with an acoustic guitar and ends up on the radio in forty countries, and every few years theContinue readingThe Meaning of “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez
The Meaning of “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac
Let me tell you about a song that sounds like a woman standing alone in the snow, doing arithmetic with her own life. “Landslide” is not a hit in theContinue readingThe Meaning of “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac
The Meaning of “Purple Rain” by Prince
Some songs are written. Others feel summoned. “Purple Rain” is firmly in the second category. It’s the title track of Prince’s 1984 album and film, an epic power ballad thatContinue readingThe Meaning of “Purple Rain” by Prince
The Meaning of “Yellow” by Coldplay
Before the stadium tours, the festival headlining slots, and the confetti cannons, Coldplay was a young British band with a handful of songs and a lot of nerves. Then cameContinue readingThe Meaning of “Yellow” by Coldplay