Lyrics (Over)Analysis - Rainy Day Women ♯12 & 35 by Bob Dylan

This song is often interpreted as a drug song about marijuana use. However there are people out there who strongly disagree and other music reviewers such as George Starostin, John McFerrin and Jonathan Hopkins who all find it funny that people are dumb enough to interpret it as a drug song.

This song is about "casting stones" in a sense of "let him who is without sin cast the first stone"

So the song is essentially a dig at his critics where they will stone him no matter what he does. He concludes in the chorus that he wouldn't mind getting stoned if everyone who cast stones at him were under the same level of scrutiny. Essentially this song is a message against hypocrisy for all the critics and cynics who choose to cast stones and to judge other people.

The lyrics certainly fit that interpretation and in fact Dylan also said "I have never and never will write a 'drug song.'" Answering a question about people interpreting this song to be about getting high, Dylan told Rolling Stone in 2012: "These are people that aren't familiar with the Book of Acts."

So that seems to answer that question. It's an open and shut case that this song isn't about drugs since the lyrics fit the casting stone interpretation and Dylan outright denies the drug message right?

Well I say no and I'll disagree with Dylan himself even though I have no reason to question his honesty and sincerity regarding his denial. The fact is he wrote a drug song whether he intended to or not.

You see lyrics are not the same as poetry. In poetry the entire message of the poetry is purely derived from the words. In lyrics the message of the song is derived from both the words and the music.

Dylan singing this same lyrics in a contemplative Freewheelin style ballad is completely different to singing the same lyrics whilst playing carnival music in the background, having people sounded like they are partying in the background with the "woo hoo" and having Dylan giggling and singing "everybody must get stoned" whilst sounding completely spaced out himself. In fact according to wiki "During the recording, Dylan was high on cannabis, having passed joints around before the recording"

So we have a bunch of people high on cannibis going on about "Getting stoned" and people like George Starostin are seriously saying this song isn't about marijuana use. That is completely utterly nonsense and I'm going to put a slight alteration of a quote from George here to prove my point.

"Yeah sure, go ahead and tell me how all the hippies were too thick to get the actual meaning of Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35, how they took it for a marijuana drug song when in reality it was condemning the hypocrisy of critics casting stone from the first to the last line. You know what? When Black Sabbath put intentionally Christian lyrics on Master Of Reality, they could hardly hope to evade the usual accusations of Satanism - just because your record says 'leave the Earth to Satan and his slaves', you can't really help yourself if it's essentially still brutal, dark, horrific style guitar riffs. 

Likewise, just because your song says ‘Well, they'll stone you when you're trying to be so good, They'll stone you just like they said they would, They'll stone you when trying to go home, And they'll stone you when you're there all alone’ you can't really help yourself if it's essentially still a loud, cheerful, drug party with an intoxicated guy yelling 'Everybody must get stoned' at the top of his lungs. 

And don't tell me Bob Dylan didn't know that. This is an intentionally bohemian album, an album whose creator knew it would appeal to the hippies who wouldn't be able to take the 'subtlety' of the lyrics into account - and then, when accused of being about marijuana and drug taking sympathies, he could always turn around and say, 'hey guys, why doncha read the lyrics right'. It's an intentional provocation, and of the meanest kind, at least according to my personal values"

My personal view is that this song is both about casting stones and about “getting stoned”. When Bob Dylan refers in the verse about the people who will cast stones at him no matter what he does. I would often think about the critics who denounce bohemian culture and cast stones at the drug use that involves in the subculture. When Bob Dylan sings out “But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned”, this is simultaneously about the hypocrisy of people who cast stones at him because those critics would never liked it if everything they do is scrutinized by other people whilst at the same time it’s a humorous reminder that if everyone get stoned people wouldn't be so much of a stickler and have more of a “live and let live” attitude. Essentially the “stoned” is used as a double entendre to mean both casting stones as well as getting stoned.

Lyrics (Over)Analysis - Everyday Is Like Sunday by Morrissey

This song is often one of the examples used to demonstrate Morrissey miserable nature and whilst I would certainly say that reputation is somewhat deserved, I don’t believe that completely captures the message of the song. Usually the line “Everyday is silent and grey” is often the line that is focus on to show his miserable nature but I think that is quite deceptive

This song was inspired by Morrissey visited a seaside resort and thought it was terrible idea for a holiday resort to be based in England due to the infamous English weather where normally it is “silent and grey” This context adds a certain dark humour to the song about spending time in a british holiday resort on the beach marred by terrible weather wishing for the town to be nuked to end the drabness of the experience.

However the one thing people often overlook when discussing this song is the title. If you notice the song is called “Everyday Is Like Sunday” not “Every Day Is Like Sunday” and the fact that everyday isn’t separated is done deliberately.  Singing, “Every Day is like Sunday, every day is silent and grey” would be a hymn to miserable depressing life where every single day of life is terrible without a light at the end of the tunnel.

However “Everyday is Silent and Grey” doesn’t project that message and is a clever switch by Morrissey.  Everyday is defined as “the ordinary or routine day or occasion”. This song isn’t telling people that every single day is silent and grey but is essentially having message that the routine normalcy of life is silent and grey.

If that’s what the line says then perhaps the message is actually a more optimistic calling people to not behave, dress, think and live in such an everyday manner as life would be dull if everyone was like that. Perhaps this song is call to arms of a free-spirited mentality by depicting the drudgery of the outcome of “everyday” mentality. The call for the nuclear bomb is less of a call for wishing you were dead to but a rather dark humour call for something exciting to break the tedium of "everyday" life .

This song plays with the expectation of mopey and miserable Morrissey and the downtempo music adds to that vibe. The song was deliberately written for people to misinterpret it to be how "every day is silent and grey"  but with just a single change in word from Every Day to Everyday Morrissey subverts that expectation in a clever way.  

Lyrics (Over)Analysis – Rubber Ring by The Smiths

The Smiths developed a reputation of attracting a fan base of lonely socially awkward teenagers that used The Smiths as a sort of therapy for their own problems because they were able to relate to his introspective lyrics.  There was a criticism of the The Smiths that their target audience are immature teenagers and that once those teenagers grew up and overcome their shyness and get laid, they will no longer need The Smiths and the band will become obsolete. This song explores the phenomenon that adults tend to think of troubles they suffer as kids and as adolescent as trivial and now they are more “clever” then that.

Cleverly enough Morrissey decided to satirically write about this phenomenon and this song is about Morrissey lamenting the fans “growing up” and abandoning The Smiths when they no longer needed the band as therapy. I have to say it’s one of the things I like about Morrissey and The Smiths that elevate them above other mope-rockers is that they have a sense of humour albeit a self-mocking one. This is probably my favorite Smith song in terms of quality of the lyrics.

“A sad fact widely known
The most impassionate song
To a lonely soul
Is so easily outgrown”

The song starts off with Morrissey acknowledging that even the greatest song that speaks for the lonely broken hearted person will become obsolete when the person becomes happy.

“But don't forget the songs
That made you smile
And the songs that made you cry
When you lay in awe
On the bedroom floor
And said : "Oh, oh, smother me Mother..."”

This is Morrissey pleading to his fan base not to forget him and his songs and remember the times when they were depressed lying on the floor listening to ‘I Know It’s Over” with awe (smother me mother is a reference to that song from Queen Is Dead album which is probably known as one of his most emotionally dramatic song of his career).

“No...
Rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring
La...”

I interpret that the ring in the chorus is used to symbolise a wedding ring. This is recognizing the loyalty that the fan has with their favourite group to be akin to a marriage. However because the ring is made out of rubber which I believe is connected to the ring-shaped flotation device that was originally made out of rubber that prevented people from drowning.  Essentially this is a disposable ring that may save the lives of the fan but the fans will eventually discard and dispose when it is no longer useful to them once they have grown up.

“The passing of time
And all of its crimes
Is making me sad again
The passing of time
And all of its sickening crimes
Is making me sad again”

The passage of time will make Morrissey to remain cynical and sad as he considers the fan that “grows out” of the music to be considered a betrayal or a “sickening crime”. As all his fans will eventually move on, he will always remain the same.

“But don't forget the songs
That made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you're older now
And you're a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you”

This is another plea from Morrissey to his fan that even though the fan is now older, wiser and “clever” and more emotionally stable, that they should always keep his songs close to their hearts because those were the songs that stood by them and “saved” their lives  when life was rough.

“The passing of time leaves empty lives
Waiting to be filled (the passing...)
The passing of time
Leaves empty lives
Waiting to be filled

I'm here with the cause
I'm holding the torch
In the corner of your room
Can you hear me?”

However despite the passage of time leading to people growing out of listening to The Smiths, the passing of time also leaves a new generation of depressed lonely socially awkward people needing their lives to be fulfilled by someone that can empathized with them. Morrissey will always be available to comfort the new generation of fans and will hold the flame for every generation of socially awkward youths.

“And when you're dancing and laughing
And finally living
Hear my voice in your head
And think of me kindly”

He is reminding the people that when the depressed socially awkward fans finally recover to be happy with their lives to continue to remember and honour Morrissey for keeping thems afloat when times were tough.

“Do you
Love me like you used to?
Oh...
Rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring
La...”

Morrissey then emotionally pleads to the fans that grew out of him whether they still love him and then lament that his songs are just the rubber ring to the fans. Just like previous Smiths songs cover the topics of shyness and social rejection and isolation, this song is about the isolation and rejection he feels about fans who previously had kinship and related with him.

“You're clever
Everybody's clever nowadays”

The audio sample plays over Morrissey lament over the chorus snidely remarking that everybody is clever, too clever for The Smiths when the teenager becomes adults.

“You are sleeping
You do not want to believe”

The song end with an enigmatic sample from an LP "Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment In Electronic Communication With The Dead" by Latvian psychologist Konstantin Raudive that supposedly is translation of people who hear from the dead. I interpret the last line of the typical Smiths fan who do not believe in themselves and are waiting to be “awaken” by The Smiths and eventually grow out of the group.

Lyrics (Over)Analysis – You Can’t Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones

To me “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is one of the best songs of all time (in my top 10 songs) and one of the most positively emotionally resonant rock songs ever made. In fact in my opinion this song approaches a spiritual and religious experience that no other song I’ve heard in rock music has ever captured.

I know people may baulk with the idea of The Rolling Stones writing “spiritual” and “emotionally resonant” songs during this period and there are people who even believe “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” to be a pessimistic song reflecting the end of the idealism of flower power at the end of the 60’s. So I have to give some context why I feel that way about this song.

I'll mention I do come from a family with a Buddhist background. One of the key tenants of that religion is the idea that happiness can't be fulfilled by external forces and the environment as it is out of your control. The idea is that our desires or “attachment” is the root cause of unhappiness.  People desires and want can never be fully satisfied and the only way to reach happiness is by accepting that "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and that you’ll have to be happy despite whatever you face in life. For someone to be truly happy, there happiness has to be unconditional. As long as you put conditions to your happiness then the person is destined to be unhappy and dissatisfied with life. Whether Jagger/Richards intended it or not, I believe this song captures that message perfectly. Who knows maybe they did intend it as Mick Jagger is a practising Buddhist.

So after the choir intro (that I always felt a bit tacked on), the song starts off with just plain acoustic guitar strumming with Jagger painting a bleak picture of a women drinking her sorrows with wine about her relationship with a man who display no commitment or responsibilities. Then Jagger starts singing in a mournful way "You can't always get what you want" however the organ appears with some chords and there is this gorgeous descending and ascending piano line (one of the best keyboard moment in rock music IMO). To me that combination of the piano and organ signifies a religious epiphany where the protagonist discovered “the truth" and he sings “But if you try sometime you find” and then the female gospel singer joins in and sings “You get what you need" which explodes into music that is filled with joy. You see the protagonist realized the basic truth “that you get what you need” (which is happiness) when you accept that “you can't get what you want” and the song explodes into one of the most joyful and soulful music you can ever hear signifying the wave of happiness out of discovering that “truth”. 

Also notice that throughout the following verses, the music still remain joyful despite the lyrics about the various disappointments various characters experience in life which signifies that the person is remaining happy despite the troubles in life. Also notice how the chorus throughout the song differs to the chorus at the beginning as the first chorus sounds sad and desperate with the sparse arrangement and the absence of the female backing vocalist until the “epiphany” but in later chorus the female backing vocalist sings at the beginning of the chorus signifying that the character of the song is embracing the joyfulness of not getting what he wants.

For a person who is raised in a Buddhist family but grew up in a Western culture, this song resonated with me especially as it is in my opinion a perfect synthesis of Eastern Buddhist philosophy with Western music. Gospel music is a western music that is associated with spiritual joy with Christianity and it is an ingenious arrangement choice to mesh that spiritual joy with the line that is superficially pessimistic “You can’t always get what you want” to bring out the message that spiritual joy is derived by realizing that message.  The female gospel backing vocalist that jumped in throughout the song did the perfect job in delivering that message.  This song is a perfect example of how the arrangement can be used to craft the message of the song