Revealing the True Meanings Behind These Misunderstood Songs

Published on 09/19/2023
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‘Just Like Heaven’ – The Cure

While The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” appears to be a standard love ballad, lead singer Robert Smith claims that the lyrics are a bit more sophisticated. “The song is about hyperventilating—kissing and fainting to the floor,” Smith has said, and that portions of the lyrics connect to his childhood recollections of perfecting magic tricks as a youngster, however Smith has conceded that “on another level, it’s about a seduction trick, from much later in my life.”

'Just Like Heaven' The Cure

‘Just Like Heaven’ The Cure

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‘Imagine’ – John Lennon

While John Lennon’s classic ballad “Imagine” could be interpreted as a simple plea for world peace, the former Beatle – and his wife Yoko Ono, whom Lennon later acknowledged contributed far more to the song than the solo credit indicates – were addressing more specific issues rather than a general call for peace. In a 1980 interview with Playboy, Lennon addressed the song’s religious overtones. “The idea of positive prayer… If you can envisage a world at peace, with no religious groups – not without religion, but without this my God is bigger than your God thing – then it is possible… The World Church once contacted and requested, “Can we use the lyrics to ‘Imagine’ and just change it to ‘Imagine one religion’?” That demonstrated to [me] that they had no idea what I was talking about. It would contradict the entire meaning of the song, the entire concept.”

'Imagine' John Lennon

‘Imagine’ John Lennon

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