You know someone is a good songwriter when they can convince the masses that a song is about being in love or love lost when it’s actually about something totally different. The following beloved classic rock songs sound like they are about being in love but actually have totally different meanings. Let’s take a look!
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“Got To Get You Into My Life” by The Beatles (1966)
“You didn’t run, you didn’t lie / You knew I wanted just to hold you.”
Around the mid-to-late 1960s, The Beatles penned a track or two that many assumed were love songs but ended up really being about psychedelic substances. Often, the band never confirmed this or straight-up denied it. John Lennon was pretty firm about “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” being about his son’s school friend and not a particular substance.
However, when it comes to “Got To Get You Into My Life”, Paul McCartney was quite frank.
“It’s actually an ode to pot,” said McCartney. “Like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret.”
“Keep On Loving You” by REO Speedwagon (1980)
“And I meant, every word I said / When I said that I love you / I meant that I love you forever.”
With lyrics like the above, it’s easy to think that this classic from REO Speedwagon is about lovin’ somebody special, a simple ode with no other implications. However… it’s actually about frontman Kevin Cronin making the discovery that his wife was cheating on him. The song seems to be an artistic attempt to get past it, but the couple would divorce just a few years after “Keep On Loving You” became a hit.
Songfacts: Keep On Loving You | REO Speedwagon
This song is lead singer Kevin Cronin’s response after he found out his wife Denise had been cheating on him before they were married. Instead of leaving her, he decided that he would keep on loving her no matter what, as he made that promise: When I said that I loved you I meant that I loved you forever And I’m gonna keep on lovin’ you Cronin called it, “The most painful song I ever wrote.”
“The One I Love” by R.E.M. (1987)
“This one goes out to the one I love (Love) / This one goes out to the one I’ve left behind.”
This one still surprises me. “The One I Love” is the kind of song you heard at 90s weddings on the regular. It really does sound like one of many rock songs from the era about being in love. However, according to R.E.M.’s frontman Michael Stipe, “The One I Love” has much more sinister undertones. And when you really read the lyrics, it makes sense. This is an “incredibly violent” song, per Stipe.
“It’s very clear that it’s about using people over and over again,” Stipe told Musician Magazine back in 1988.
Photo by Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images
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