What is the most misused song in history?

Birmingham City council (Labour) once used Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" for a promotional campaign, with sweeping shots of smiling racially diverse children frolicking on pristine parkland and the like.
The song is about Heroin.
Lou Reed's songs are all about Heroin and crossdressers.
Might have been intentional now I think about it.
 
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London Bridge is falling down is one. There is another one more a nursery rhyme that's about Queen Mary Tudor I think?

Material Girl was this for Madonna. People completely misinterpreted the meaning of the song by calling her the material girl. (Its about a woman who thrives completely off of material things like jewelry, furs, credit cards, etc) She is lampooning the stupidity of the woman in the song.

Shiny Happy People by REM...

Roam by The B-52's is used constantly in ads. There is a theory its about anal. But apparently it's about loss and death. Specifically your soul wandering.
 
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Not A Bunny said:
Hey Ya. The song even calls out people who don't listen to the words.
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To be fair, this is pretty common.
- Steely Dan wanted to be politically subversive, but eventually admitted in interviews they just ended up having suburban moms humming along to songs about age-gap relationships without realizing it.
- D12/Eminem wrote a song ("Bitch") dedicated to women dancing along to club songs no matter how offensive the lyrics.

- Perhaps the best example, "Hook" by Blue Traveler, is just John Popper describing the structure of a catchy song, but his voice and execution were so good people liked it unironically and it was by far their biggest hit. Really worth a listen if you've never paid attention to the lyrics:
It doesn't matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel I'll convey
Some inner truth or vast reflection
But I've said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don't matter who you are
If I'm doing my job, it's your resolve that breaks
--
Because the Hook brings you back
I ain't tellin' you no lie
The Hook brings you back
On that you can rely
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The choral section, "Ode To Joy" of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 has been appropriated by every political causes, from Nazi rallies to Stalinist propaganda and the inauguration of the Japanese Emperor. It was heard during the demolition of the Berlin Wall, and eventually became the anthem of the EU. It was pumped through loudspeakers by Tiananmen protestors (had the Hong Kong police used the Ninth to disperse crowds, it would have made a delicious irony, but no, they chose Beethoven's 5th). Most recently, Trump used it in this year's Republican National Convention.
 
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iNEEDthatMoney said:
I Melt With You by Modern English. Song is about witnessing a nuclear bomb going off & having your flesh melt off in the process.

The song is one of the more popular wedding songs in the World.
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To be fair, it can be interpreted as a romantic song, it has in the lyrics "I'll stop the world and melt with you" which I think means that the singer wants to spend its last seconds with the person he loves. Robbie Grey did confirm this was about “couple making love as nuclear bombs fall.”
Maggots on a Train v2 said:
It was pretty cringy back in the Bush administration when "Fortunate Son" got used unironically in a Gap commercial. But most misused is always the Sting stalker song.
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I remember the song "Rocking the Casbah" by The Clash being used in Gulf War against the Joe Strummer's wishes. The song was about the persecution of people listening to music not approved by the sharif.
 
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I found it fairly ironic that BLM used that Tupac song about black people and white people recognizing that poor black people and poor white people should get over their differences and stop hating and killing eachother and work together to make a positive change in the world as motivational music for their violent, race fueled riots.
 
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i440BX said:
Robbie Grey did confirm this was about “couple making love as nuclear bombs fall.”
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If WW3 happens and they drop nukes, I want to go out like this.

booklover said:
Extreme's "More Than Words" is also not appropriate for weddings.
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What is it about?

I want to add the YMCA song. I went to a summer camp at a Y and they played this on our first day. Thank goodness I didn't know the meaning of it when I was a kid.
 
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Sketchy Minecraft Mod said:
Obligatory "Stairway to Heaven" post
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Spoiler so I don't ruin the song or anyone's interpretation of it: Robert Plant has gone on record on at least one occasion saying that he has no fucking clue what Stairway is about, they composed the music first and he listened to it and just sat down and wrote the lyrics in one sitting, and they held so little meaning to him personally that he had to have a roadie hold up cue cards with the lyrics on them when they played it live because he couldn't remember them.

This is super interesting, though, because the composition of Stairway is built around harmonizing a descending chromatic line -- in other words, playing a melody that descends one half-step/fret/piano key at a time, and finding chords that disguise that. This is interesting because it's said by some to have a hypnotic/hypnogogic effect, putting the listener into a dreamlike mental state. So the fact that Plant heard it and then sat down and generated a bunch of imagery that he can't explain is fascinating, and arguably lends itself to that conjecture.

What's even more fascinating is that almost everything I just said, aside from the bit about the singer/lyricist not being able to remember the lyrics, is also true of Hotel California. It's also built around harmonizing a descending chromatic line, and the songrwiters also have no idea what the song is about, beyond a vague sense that it reflects their experience with the music industry.

Ironically, Aerosmith's "Dream On" is built around the same musical motif and the title alludes to dreaming, but the lyrics make perfect sense.

And Ballad of a Thin Man employs the same motif and the lyrics make no sense but that's pretty much the point, Dylan is just a dickhead.

beautiful person said:
Kinda like how Puff the Magic Dragon isn't actually about smoking weed.
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I always assumed it was about smoking opium, i.e. chasing the dragon.

On topic, most of the good ones have been mentioned but why the fuck do people dance to Mr Brightside? International cuck anthem.
 
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