User:Richhoncho/Songs by theme
The main problem with these categories are two-fold, one is the actual subject matter notable and if notability is established, editors not understanding the difference between "about" and "containing" a certain word.
Song lyrics extensively use Simile, Metaphor, Allegory, Alliteration (sometimes words are added just because they sound nice), and every other literary and poetic device known. Sometimes a song’s meaning could be as plain as day, sometimes it is so obscure that it is possible not even the songwriter understand what the meaning is!
This is all by-the-by, as it is not for Wikipedians to have an opinion when adding categories, the fact should be contained in the article - and preferably in the lead.
Categories are created as "Songs about Foo" but that is then widened by successive editors to include anything that mentions Foo and become depositories for unreferenced and poorly referenced entries. There are also editors out there that think because a word appears in a song title then that is what the song is about.
One of my favourite howlers was adding Kitty Can into the songs about animals category. There is no reference to any animal whatsoever, no comment on the page on the lyrical content, a search found that the chorus line is "Eve never pleases me and Kitty can" so I think we should count ourselves lucky there isn't a category, "songs about bestiality"
Some of the categories are worthy of a scholarly article which references notable songs with lyric quotes (subject to relevant and important constraints imposed by WP) and detail, but creating lists of songs by subject is often an exercise in indiscriminate collection of information, as I will point out below, purely by noting some of the entries :-
Example of contents of typical categories
[edit]As can be seen from below, songs are added to categories because an editor "understands" what the song is about and not necessarily because it is the theme of the song.
| Title | From article | My comment |
|---|---|---|
| Blackbird (Beatles song) | and I remembered this whole idea of "you were only waiting for this moment to arise" was about, you know, the black people's struggle in the southern states, and I was using the symbolism of a blackbird. It's not really about a blackbird whose wings are broken, you know, it's a bit more symbolic | Symbolism, not about birds. |
| Blue Bird (Ayumi Hamasaki song) | Nothing in article | Therefore not defining. |
| Bluebird of Happiness (song) | Nothing in article | Therefore not defining. |
| Chizhik-Pyzhik | Nothing about birds in the article | Not about birds. |
| Čížečku, čížečku | Lyric, “Siskin, o little Siskin, a little birdie..” | It’s also "about" plants (poppies), harvests etc etc. No reason why this is about birds only. |
| El Cóndor Pasa (song) | Translates as “The Condor passes” | From the lyrics it could be about opportunism, snails, forests, streets, earth and feet as well! |
| Disco Duck | with a Donald Duck–esque voice as the main plot point, the story within "Disco Duck" centers around a man at a dance party who is overcome by the urge to get up and "get down" in a duck-like manner. | In the style of a fictional duck is not “about a bird” |
| Flamingo (song) | Nothing in article | Therefore not defining. |
| Fly Like an Eagle (song) | Nothing in article | Therefore not defining. Also note: It is “like an eagle” |
| Fly, Robin, Fly | Nothing in article | Therefore not defining. |
| Grey Goose (folk song) | a preacher who hunts and captures a grey goose for dinner on a Sunday. He tries to kill the goose prior to eating it, but no matter how hard he tries, he cannot kill it, the implication being that he had not properly observed the Sabbath | It’s “about” religious observance! |
| Lesbian Seagull | in response to a government study of long term monogamous lesbian behaviour in seagulls] | Is really about a seagull, or is this a parable, allegory or something else? |
| Little Bird (The Beach Boys song) | Nothing in article beyond “about nature” | Therefore not defining. |
| A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square | Nothing in article | The lyrics commence “When two lovers meet in Mayfair, so the legends tell, songbirds sing” so it’s about love not nightingales. |
| One for Sorrow (nursery rhyme) | Magpies | Or is it about superstition? |
| Paloma Blanca | Baker has been quoted as saying the song is about "a poor South American farmer who works hard all day and then sits by a tree and dreams of being a white bird with its freedom | Bird as symbolism. |
| Palomita Blanca (song) | Nothing in article | Therefore not defining. |
| Rockin' Robin (song) | Nothing in article | Therefore not defining. |
| Rubber Duckie | The song is named after Ernie's toy, a rubber duck affectionately named Rubber Duckie | Shouldn’t this be in “songs about toys?” |
| Skylark (song) | The yearning expressed in the lyrics is Mercer's longing for Judy Garland, with whom Mercer had an affair. | Symbolism |
| Snowbird (song) | The theme and approach broadly resemble that of the earlier hits Message to Michael (a.k.a. Kentucky Bluebird and "Yellow Bird in contrasting the narrator's being stranded in the place of his/her heartache to the bird's ability to just up and fly away. | More symbolism perhaps? |
| Sparrow (song) | The lyrics basically have a poetic and religious tone to them as Marvin calls a sparrow "to sing (his) beautiful song" to let him make sure that things are all right even when they aren't | More symbolism, not really about “birds” |
| Surfin' Bird | Nothing in article | Therefore not defining. How many birds have you seen using surfboards, anyway? |
| Swallow song of Rhodes | Nothing in article | Therefore not defining. |
| Three Little Birds | I Threes member Marcia Griffiths remarked, "After the song was written, Bob would always refer to us as the Three Little Birds. | Inspired by 3 little birds, but NOT about birds. |
| When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along) | Nothing in article | A quick check of the lyrics suggest the bird is a talisman i.e. more symbolism. |
| The Woodpecker Song | Nothing in article | Therefore not defining. NB The lyrics include, “To serenade your lady, find a tree that’s shady...” |
A CfD for this category was "no consensus".
| Song Title | From article |
|---|---|
| Changes (Tupac Shakur song) | the song talks about all of the different issues that were related to 2Pac's era of influence - notably racism, police brutality, drugs and gang violence. It continues The song refers to the possibility of a black President of the United States, claiming 'we ain't ready'; just over ten years after the song's release, Barack Obama became the first African-American/Mixed race U.S. President. |
| Cleanin' Out My Closet | In the song, Eminem introspectively examines his life reflecting on such topics as his troubled childhood, marital conflicts, and resentful feud with his mother. Continues with how Eminem suffers at the hands of his mother because of Münchausen syndrome by proxy in the line "All my life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn't" |
| Fast Car | The song is a narrative tale of generational poverty. The song's narrator tells the story of her hard life, which begins when her mother divorces her jobless, alcoholic father, forcing the narrator to quit school in order to care for him. Eventually, she leaves her hometown with her partner in hopes of making a better life. Despite her employment at a grocery store, she falls victim to the cycle of poverty, as her life begins to mirror her mother's: her partner remains largely unemployed and becomes an alcoholic. |
| Coat of Many Colors (song) | The song tells of how Parton's mother stitched together a coat for her daughter out of rags given to the family. As she sewed, she told her child the biblical story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colors. The excited child, "with patches on my britches and holes in both my shoes," rushed to school, "just to find the others laughing and making fun of me" for wearing a coat made of rags. |
| Ill Manors (song) | The lyrics mingle perceived causes of the riots such as the closing of community centres with threats and jokes. The aggressive baseline in the song is designed to mirror the turmoil and unrest felt by those involved in the riots, engaging a "visceral energy" to raise awareness |
| Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) | the song depicted the ghettos of inner-city America as it discussed how the bleak economic situation would lead to someone wanting to holler and throw ones hands up. |
There were two CfDs for this category, the first was delete and the second outcome was "listify"
| Song Title | From article | My comments |
|---|---|---|
| I Was Only Nineteen | account of a typical Australian infantry regular soldier's experience in the Vietnam War | Vietnam was a “hot” war! |
| Nikita (song) | describes his crush on a beautiful GDR border guard whom he cannot meet because he is not allowed into the country | This is a “love song” set against a “border” |
| Heroes (David Bowie song) | ...the image of the lovers kissing "by the wall” | As Nikita, it’s a love song. |
| Crazy Train | main theme of the song is criticism of Cold War | Criticism of something is not the same as “about” |
| Back in the U.S.S.R. | refers to a "dreadful" flight back to the U.S.S.R. from Miami Beach in the United States, on board a B.O.A.C. aeroplane. | How is this about the cold war? |
| A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall | Dylan had written the song more than a month before the crisis broke. However, the song has remained relevant through the years as it has a broader sweep; the dense imagery suggests injustice, suffering, pollution and warfare | The line “I met a white man who walked a black dog” should confirm it is not “about” the Cold War” |
| One Night in Bangkok | lyrics sarcastically juxtapose the Thai capital city and its nightlife with the game of chess. | I know the musical was about a Russian defector who plays chess, but this song is not about the Cold War. |
| Ronnie – Talk To Russia! | "Featuring Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev" is written on the cover. | There’s enough here to suggest it might be cold war-related, but then again it might not! |
| London Calling (song) | Lyrics mention nuclear accidents, police, flooding and the article says “The lyrics also reflect desperation of the band's situation in 1979 struggling with high debt” | About every except the cold war. |
| Weeping Wall (instrumental) | The track has been described by Bowie as intending to evoke the misery of the Berlin Wall, | Song –v- instrumental conundrum, too! |
| Balls to the Wall (song) | Asked about the meaning of the song, guitarist Wolf Hoffmann replied :"We've always been interested in politics and in human rights and things like that, so a lot of the lyrics that we had in those days, and to the end actually, were dealing with human rights, for instance, and that's really what "Balls To The Wall" is all about. "One day the tortured will stand up and kick some ass!" | So Human rights is now something to do with the cold war |
| The Final Countdown (song) | The song's lyrics were inspired by David Bowie's song "Space Oddity" | Yes, space travel gets included. |
| 2 Minutes to Midnight | The song has references to the Doomsday Clock, the symbolic clock used by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In September 1953 the clock reached 23:58, the closest the clock ever got to midnight. This occurred when the United States and Soviet Union tested H-bombs within nine months of one another. | This is "about the Cold War?" Tenuous to say the least. |
| 99 Luftballons | The English (but not the German) version tells about two children who buy 99 balloons at a toy shop and release them into the air, where faulty radar equipment is unable to identify the balloons. The German version starts with the narrator stating he will tell of a story about 99 balloons. Both versions then continue much in the same way with the government immediately put their troops on red alert and scrambles fighter jets to intercept the balloons, which ultimately triggers a nuclear war. | Only by "interpretation" can this be considered to be about the cold war, it is also included in Category:Songs about the military AND Category:Anti-war songs. |
| Bonzo Goes to Bitburg | The song was written in reaction to the visit paid by U.S. president Ronald Reagan to a military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany, on May 5, 1985. | Whoever added this to the category needs a history lesson. |
| Breathing (song) | "Breathing" is about a foetus, very much aware of what is going on outside the womb and frightened by nuclear fallout, which implies that the song is set either during a nuclear war scare or a post-apocalyptic birth. The lyrics also refer to the foetus absorbing nicotine from the mother's smoking. | Nuclear fall out does not equal cold war. |
| Bullet the Blue Sky | The song was originally written about the United States' military intervention during the 1980s in the El Salvador Civil War. | Somebody has connected El Salvador with the Cold War? Original research? |
| Burning Heart (song) | The East versus West conflict is reflected by the fight in the boxing ring between Rocky and Ivan Drago | Cold War as Metaphor for boxing, or boxing as Metaphor for Cold War? Lyrics don't mention boxing or cold war so it really is interpretation or Original research as we call it at WP. |
Closed as "purge" which never happened, so still has all the howlers in there.
| Song Title | From article | My comments |
|---|---|---|
| Songs about HM Prison Holloway | Redirects to “In Popular Culture" | Not even about songs specifically |
| Attica State (song) | The song is a lamentation of the loss of life in the Attica State prison riots, as well as the poor living conditions and human rights prisoners are afforded in the United States | OK this is about a prison |
| The Auld Triangle | The song is used to introduce the play, a story about the occurrences in a prison | OK about a prison. |
| Biko (song) | It is about Steve Biko, a noted black South African anti-apartheid activist. | It’s about Biko, isn’t it? |
| Born in a Prison | The lyrics to "Born in a Prison" use prison as a metaphor for the constraints society places | The word is metaphor… |
| Care of Cell 44 | tells the story of a person writing to their partner in prison, as they await their release from prison | Not about a prison is it? It’s about a letter isn’t it? |
| Cosy Prisons | Article is silent on meaning/lyrics | Could it be a metaphor, perhaps? |
| Chain Gang (song) | inspired after a chance meeting with an actual chain-gang of prisoners on a highway | About prisonERS? |
| Date Rape (song) | Humorous in tone, the song ends with the victimizer being sent to prison | Not about prison, although prison gets a mention |
| Ex-Con (Smog song) | Article is silent on meaning/lyrics | Could it be a metaphor, perhaps? |
| Telephone (song) | Text says 1. Gaga explained that the lyrics portray herself preferring the dance floor instead of answering her lover's phone call and noted that the telephone addressed in the lyrics of the song is, in reality, a person telling her to continue working harder. 2. The video… is also shot as a short film. After Gaga gets bailed out of prison by Beyoncé | Oh, shouldn’t this be in Videos about prison? |
| Folsom Prison Blues | Cash was inspired to write this song after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison | Nowhere does it say it’s about a prison, but I will give the benefit of the doubt on this one. |
| The Fugitive (song) | it drew upon his then still-relatively recent prison term for burglary. Here, Haggard fills the shoes of an escaped convict, trying to live life on the run from the authorities | About prisonERS |
| I Shall Be Released | combining imagery of religious redemption, or release from sin, with implied literal release from prison | Released from what? |
| In Prison | composed in 1915 in the civilian Ruhleben internment camp on the former racecourse in Berlin where Keel was interned | OK It’s about an internment camp or prison |
| Jailbreak (AC/DC song) | Article is silent on meaning of lyrics | Or a metaphor? |
| Jailhouse Rock | suggestion of gay romance when inmate Number 47 tells Number 3, 'You're the cutest jailbird I ever did see') | More hokum. Perhaps an entry for LGBT categories? |
| Percy's Song | song relates the story of a fatal car crash and a subsequent manslaughter conviction and 99-year sentence in Joliet Prison that is handed down to the driver (a friend of the first-person narrator). The narrator goes to ask the sentencing judge to commute his friend's sentence which he considers too harsh. The sentence stands. | Yet it is now "a song about prison." |
| Midnight Special (song) | …originated among prisoners in the American South | But the Midnight Special is a train foretelling release. |
| Une femme en prison | Article is silent about the lyrics | Added because of the word “prison” |
| Thug Cry | Article is silent about lyrics, but the video “follows a prisoner as he steps out of jail” | Video about prison? |
| There Ain't No Good Chain Gang | The song is written and sung from the perspective of a prison inmate, writing back home to his family. | Songs about redemption? |
| Sing Me Back Home (song) | Here, the singer takes the role of an inmate at a state penitentiary, where a condemned prisoner is being led toward the death chamber | Songs about prisonERS |
| Prisoner (Dokken song) | Article is silent about the lyrics | Added because of the word “prisoner” in the title. |
| The Prisoner (Howard Jones song) | Article is silent about the lyrics | Added because of the word “prisoner” in the title. |
| Rubber Bullets | A tongue in cheek homage to the film "Jailhouse Rock" with a Beach Boys influence, the song attracted some controversy at the time because of the British Army's use of rubber bullets to quell rioting in Northern Ireland. (unreferenced) | It’s pure hokum and doesn't belong in this category (or should it be in the "songs about dancing" category?). |
| Jailbreak (Thin Lizzy song) | Lyrics start"Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak somewhere in this town," | yes, even though nobody in the town knows where the jail is, it's not going to escape this category! |
| Planning a Prison Break | Redirect that does not point to any supporting evidence | Could be about anything |
| Prison Song (Graham Nash song) | Redirect that does not point to any supporting evidence | Could be about anything |
| Rikers Island (song) | Redirect that points to “song that warns of the dangers of living a life of crime and ending up in the Rikers Island jail” | It’s NOT about jail really it’s not. |
| Johnny 99 (song) | sings about an auto worker who gets laid off in New Jersey and shoots and kills a night clerk while drunk and distraught. As a result, he is apprehended and is sentenced to 99 years in prison, but requests to be executed instead. | Voluntary euthanasia? |
"Songs about" categories previously nominated for deletion
[edit]| Year | Discussion page | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | remorse | Deleted |
| 2015 | food | Deleted |
| 2013 | candy | Deleted |
| 2012 | films | Deleted |
| 2012 | Cold War | Listify |
| 2012 | poverty | No consensus. |
| 2012 | tobacco | Deleted |
| 2012 | trucks | Deleted |
| 2012 | days of the week | Deleted |
| 2010 | travel | Deleted |
| 2010 | money | Deleted |
| 2011 | transport | Kept |
| 2011 | serial killers | Deleted |
| 2010 | anger | Deleted |
| 2009 | goats | Deleted |
| 2008 | Cold War | Deleted |
| 2008 | divorce | Deleted |
| 2008 | fashion | Deleted |
| 2008 | masturbation | Deleted |
| 2007 | drug use | Deleted |
| 2007 | fame | Deleted (supported by creator) |
| 2007 | masturbation | No consensus |
| 2014 | coffee | Deleted |
| 2014 | androgyny | Deleted |
| 2014 | anger | Deleted |
| 2014 | rain | Deleted, but listified by closer. List was deleted |
| 2014 | Loneliness | Withdrawn to create group nomination |
| 2014 | buses | Withdrawn to create group nomination |
| 2014 | abortion | Withdrawn to create group nomination |
| 2015 | Prison | Purge |
| 2015 | The extermination of indigenous peoples | Deleted |
| 2015 | Nacissism | Deleted |
| 2015 | Seafaring songs | Deleted |
| 2016 | Witchcraft | Deleted |
| 2016 | Moon | Deleted |
| 2016 | Rain | Deleted |
Example categories commencing with the words "Songs about"
[edit]abortion, aircraft, alcohol, animals, automobiles, Barack Obama, BDSM, bicycles, birds, bullying, buses, cannabis, child abuse, cities, countries, crime, dancing, death, diseases and disorders, domestic violence, drinking and driving, drugs, HIV/AIDS, heroin, homelessness, indigenous peoples, loneliness, Marilyn Monroe, music, nuclear war and weapons, places, poverty, professional sports, prostitutes, radio, school, science, sexuality, suicide, telephone calls, telephones, television, the Holocaust, the media, the military, touring, trains, transport, Witchcraft, World War II. (Updated 8th June 2015).
Lists of songs about Foo
[edit]List articles create the same problems as categories. There are good arguments that some subjects in songs maybe notable, there are cultural references, the almost continuous use of metaphor and simile, but no, we have to reduce songs down to the lowest common denominator, a list of, with no explanation why a specific song is about xxx and inclusion is based on the use of the word "xxx" in the song/title.
Prime example. If this had been Rain in culture with explanations, that is a totally different kettle of fish. This list was deleted 1 June 2014.
| Song | From Article | My comment/part lyrics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Another Fucking Song About the Rain | Nothing | Link through to album, could be an instrumental piece for all the information supplied. | |
| Biga Oneun Naren | The song was actually recorded on an actual rainy day in order to further accentuate the feeling of sorrow emphasized in the song | No confirmation the song is about “rain” | |
| Come Rain or Come Shine | Nothing | The lyrics start, “I'm gonna love you like nobody's loved you come rain or come shine, High as a mountain and deep as a river come rain or come shine...” So it’s about mountains and rivers too? | |
| Endless Rain | Nothing | ||
| Hare Ame Nochi Suki | Nothing | ||
| Here Comes the Rain Again | its melancholy lyrics draw a comparison between the painful and tragic feelings of unrequited love with falling rain | As it says, it’s a simile, not about rain at all. | |
| It's Gonna Rain! | Nothing | Japanese lyrics so I can’t comment. | |
| November Rain | Nothing | Lyrics read, “Nothing lasts forever And we both know hearts can change And it's hard to hold a candle In the cold November rain” So again, not about rain. | |
| Rain(Beatles song) | "I've never seen rain as hard as that, except in Tahiti", and later explained that "Rain" was "about people moaning about the weather all the time". Another interpretation is that the songs "Rain" and "Sun" are phenomena experienced during a benign LSD trip. | It is probably about rain, or as ever, about something else? | |
| Rain (Yui song) | The video eventually ends with an image of hope for the future, with the lyrics: "When someday this rain turns to snow / And slowly consumes this sadness / I'll be greeted by new hope | So it’s about hope, not rain. | |
| Rain Is Fallin'/Hybrid Dream | Nothing | Lyrics are, “I gotta feelin' that this could be the night Wow-wow, wow-wow, yeah-yeah-yeah, Rain is fallin' over you & me.” I could be wrong, but I think I have found a simile. | |
| The Rain Song | Nothing | First line of lyrics are, “This is the springtime of my loving - the second season I am to know” and the last line is “This is the mystery of the quotient - Upon us all a little rain must fall.” Definately not about rain. A metaphor? A simile? | |
| Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head | Nothing | It’s about hope and change, “those raindrops ain’t worrying me” | |
| Rainy Days Never Stays | Nothing | Part lyrics read, “"Raining all day" has gone away Like that summer My dream...be with me, and I'll find it” | |
| Singin' in the Rain | Nothing | Lyrics read “I'm singing in the rain Just singing in the rain What a glorious feelin' I'm happy again” | |
| Spring Rain | Nothing | If somebody want so check this one out, I couldn’t find it. | |
| Why Does It Always Rain on Me? | Eilat... The city is known for its hot weather even during winter time, but surprisingly it began to rain for two days during his (writer) stay | Part lyric is “Why does it always rain on me? Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?” Another metaphor, a simile perhaps? | |
| Didn't It Rain | Nothing | Ok, it’s about Noah and his flood, | |
| Rhythm of the Rain | The lyrics are sung by a man who wishes the rain would stop falling and reminding him of the error of his ways, and to let him cry alone, as his lover has left him. | It’s about lost love again. |