Ask Lemmy

Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones. It's a song about banging a slave, but I didn't know that as a kid.

Hard Habit To Break by Chicago is pretty straightforward, but I liked it on the radio as a kid because it's peppy and has an orchestra.

Decades later I get access to music service libraries and give it a listen.

I was a jerk and you left me, and now you're with another guy. I'm not sorry. I'm not going to do better. But I have an orchestra!

I still like it, but have perspective now.

Not sure, if I stopped listening to mainstream music around that time, but uh, both of my examples are from 2011, apparently:

• Kind of a classic response to this question, is "Pumped Up Kicks" from Foster The People. It's got that upbeat melody, and the lyrics are this:

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet.

• And my other example is "The A Team", apparently originally from Ed Sheeran, and apparently also with an upbeat melody. I think, I only ever listened to a cover version. But yeah, it's about drug use and sex work, and how those kind of necessitate each other...

Constipated by Weird Al. That changed me.

Closing time by Semisonic I thought it was about going home with someone after a night out at the bar. It’s about the lead singers child being born.

Stinkfist - Tool

You think from the title it would be obvious. Never thought why it was named like that until after I realized what the song was about.

the two Who rock operas are chock full of stuff that went over my head because i heard them when i was younger than i probably should have been. in this case the songs are written from character POVs so i wouldn't say they make me think less of the band because of the content, but jeez, 10 year old me never would've figured Love Reign O'er Me for example was about a suicide attempt as opposed to, you know, feeling loved

I’m surprised at the number of people who don’t know Weezer’s “Hashpipe” is about male prostitution.

This song is cute and happy but the lyrics are absolutely devastating and make me cry. https://open.spotify.com/track/2E3hdMguyNDQswLXyUotYR

https://genius.com/Bloc-party-signs-lyrics

[Verse 1]
Two ravens in the old oak tree
And one for you and one for me
And bluebells in the late December
I see signs now all the time
The last time we slept together
There was something that was not there
You never wanted to alarm me
But I'm the one that's drowning now

[Verse 2]
I can sleep forever these days
Cause in my dreams I see you again
But this time-fleshed out fuller face
In your confirmation dress
It was so like you to visit me
To let me know you were okay
It was so like you to visit me
You're always worried about someone else

[Bridge]
At your funeral I was so upset
So, so upset
In your life you were larger than this
Statue statuesque

[Chorus] (x2)
I see signs now all the time
That you're not dead, you're sleeping
I believe in anything
That brings you back home to me

I hate this song. Literally sobbing at the fear of the state my mental health would be in if my wife suddenly passed.