5 Songs With Plot Twists You Never Noticed
Modern pop music is pretty simple, as far as narrative goes — the singer loves someone, or at least wants to bang them, or wants them to stop being a bitch and take it to the floor now, etc. Sometimes, however, a song takes such a hard left lyrical turn that you might not even realize what just happened. For example…
‘Breakin’ Dishes’ by Rihanna
Rihanna isn’t the type to suffer silently, as illustrated by her promises to fight a man and narration of burning his clothes and, well, breakin’ dishes in her song “Breakin’ Dishes” in response to said man’s habit of staying out suspiciously late. Hey, you don’t cheat on Rihanna and expect a calm response. Except halfway through the second verse, she sings, “Is he cheating? Man, I don’t know.” You don’t know? What do you mean, you don’t know? You’ve been burning this man’s clothes, and you don’t actually know if he did anything wrong? It’s gonna be so awkward when it turns out he’s just been planning a surprise birthday party for her.
‘Getting Better’ by the Beatles
The first two verses of the Beatles’ catchy ode to optimism are fairly innocuous, describing the narrator’s immature attitude toward school and teachers and generally being an angry, aimless youth. You could be forgiven, then, for mentally checking out by the time they hit the third verse, which begins, “I used to be cruel to my woman / I beat her and kept her from the things that she loved.” Beatles songs were surprisingly rife with domestic violence, from threatening murder in “Run for Your Life” to admitting to burning down a woman’s house in “Norwegian Wood,” but it’s unexpected in the song about how things are getting better all the time. At least they are?
‘All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You’ by Heart
Considering the title, Heart’s prototypical ‘80s power ballad seems to fall squarely into the “let’s bang” category of straightforward pop music, telling the story of a one-night stand with a sexy hitchhiker. In fact, you’d have no idea it’s not unless you listen really closely to the third verse, when Ann Wilson sings about running into him later to find him “surprise(d) to see his own eyes,” and tells him, “Please understand, I'm in love with another man, and what he couldn’t give me was the one little thing that you can." It kinda sounds like he just gave her a good time in the pants and, what, looked in a mirror? But no, she’s saying she spermjacked him. He sees his own eyes in the face of the baby she has. These days, Heart would use the song to do spon-con for Trojan.
‘Come Sail Away’ by Styx
Most of “Come Sail Away” is about, you know, sailing away. A ship’s captain wistfully reflects on “childhood friends and the dreams we had” as he takes off to “search for tomorrow.” So far, so normal. After the beat drops, however, “a gathering of angels appeared above (his) head,” which is a little weird. Did the boat sink? Is he dead? If you stick around past the first 12 “come sail aways,” you’re rewarded with the answer, which is that he “thought that they were angels,” but then he “climbed aboard their starship” and “headed for the skies.” Yep, it’s aliens. Honestly, more pop songs should have surprise alien endings.
‘Down with the Sickness’ by Disturbed
If you only know the “ooh-wah-ah-ah-ah” and “get up, get up, get down with the sickness” parts of Disturbed’s biggest hit, that’s probably because the rest of the song is pretty boring, explaining to the listener that you’ve “woken up the demon” in Mr. Disturbed, hence his surrender to the sickness. At least, that’s the song that was played on the radio and MTV. The album version is much longer, featuring a lengthy section at the end where it becomes clear that the subject of the song is the singer’s mother as he pleads, “Mommy, don’t do it again,” calls her a “stupid, sadistic, abusive fucking whore” and promises to kill her. Singer David Draiman does have some regrets about the verse because his mom is actually really cool and it’s always censored anyway but insists on singing it live, which must be really confusing to everyone in the audience except the three people who didn’t just come to hear the “ooh-wah-ah-ah-ah.”
