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It’s A Murderous Metaphor

Nefarious doings in the world of rock lyrics

Image uncredited from Pixabay

Do you like to understand the meanings behind song lyrics? I know I do.

The best song lyrics are like poetry, using imagery, similes and metaphors to give meanings and paint pictures.

Some metaphors crop up regularly. Roads are often used to describe journeys or escape — Springsteen’s Thunder Road is about leaving ‘a town full of losers,’ Dylan’s Highway 61 is the road that takes us through history. However, I don’t believe The Beatles Why Don’t We Do It In The Road is about a journey, so sometimes things are exactly what they say on the tin.

Birds are another common metaphor, especially the idea that flight gives freedom. The Beatles Blackbird is a metaphor for the US civil rights movement, and flying away to freedom — bird being old-fashioned British slang for a woman. Black bird means black woman.

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird is also about freedom, obviously, as is Nelly Furtado’s I’m Like a Bird, although I realise the title is a simile rather than a metaphor, before anyone comments.

Aeroplanes also serve as a metaphor for flying, but are often about leaving and disorientation rather than freedom — think Leaving On A Jet Plane, Eight Miles High from…