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What is Johnny Cash’s I Walk the Line all about? Learn 12 songs’ meanings

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Song lyrics can be as simple or as complex and metaphorical as the composer wants, and examples of both can be found in almost any musical genre. Sometimes, being obscure can cripple a song’s chances to become a hit, but there are plenty of classic tracks that, if listened to carefully, have some odd or cryptic meanings, to say the least. The following 12 famous songs managed to captivate audiences despite their unusual meanings. Which ones do you like the most?

Image: Rafael Camacho Greilberger

The first item on our list is a classic 1970s hit that may sound like it is about a road trip, but it has a much deeper meaning. According to the band’s singer and songwriter, the song was written about the materialism and greed the band had experienced in the record industry, as well as the wider American culture.

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The Beatles experimented a lot, both with the sound and the lyrics of their music. And what might seem like a lovely simple song is, instead, a sharp criticism of the civil rights situation in mid-20th-century America.

Image: Debby Hudson

Back in 1973, Dolly Parton’s relationship with Porter Wagoner, her mentor and on-screen duet partner, was losing steam on all fronts. Dolly wrote this song as a farewell to Porter, who wasn’t ready to let her go.

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The lyrics to one of Johnny Cash’s most iconic songs, I Walk the Line, are a declaration of fidelity to Vivian, his first wife. The idea of walking straight served the Man in Black as a motto for his behavior.

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The second Beatles track on our list was penned by George Harrison, and it was inspired by his then-wife, Pattie Boyd, who was married to the Beatle from 1966 to 1977.

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This Phil Collins hit was inspired by his divorce from Andrea Bertorelli in 1980, according to Phil himself, who spilled the beans during an interview with Jimmy Fallon on his talk show.

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What seems like a beautiful love song is, instead, the message of a stalker to his wife. Clear hints spring to the fore with lines like "Every smile you fake", but overall, the message seemed to be masked for some as they were blinded by the soft rock music.

Image: Emily Rudolph

A song title that was subject to varied interpretations, 5150 refers to the building of Eddie Van Halen’s recording studio, but many attribute this number to the newfound balance and compromise within the band after the new singer, Sammy Hagar, came aboard to replace David Lee Roth.

Image: Kelly Sikkema

The use of reverse recordings hidden within the song has been present for quite a few decades now but, most of the time, this was done to conceal what might have been an inappropriate lyric (at least, according to some). But the members of Tool decided to hide a positive message within the song that said: ‘Work hard, stay in school, listen to your mother, your father was right’.

Image: Jongsun Lee

This famous 1980s ballad is, weirdly enough, about vampires. Originally written by composer Jim Steinman for the Broadway musical Nosferatu, the track was formerly titled ‘Vampires In Love’. The lyrics centre around life in eternal darkness and other standard vampire tropes.

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The subject of this classic Dylan track was Bruce Langhorne, who played guitar with Bob on a few records and was remembered as owning a giant tambourine, hence the name.

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The name "American Pie" refers to a quintessentially American creation that is filled with lyrical imagery for the song. One of the major inspirations behind it is thought to be the tragic plane crash that led to the demise of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JP Richardson.

Where exactly are you from?

London, Argentina? 10 cities that were named after a city

Some would say that naming a city is as important as naming a child, or even more, considering that cities tend to have a longer lifespan. Like with a child, the name is a declaration of intentions, of what is expected or wished for them.

But sometimes children are named after someone else, like a loved one, a relative, or a favorite celebrity. Does this happen to cities as well? In this article, we will explore some cities around the world that have a namesake.

In Spanish, Londres is the name given to the city of London, England, and also to a town in the Argentinian province of Catamarca. This town, the second oldest in the country, owes its name to the marriage of Mary Tudor with Philip of Spain in 1553. The founders of the city, at that time part of the Spanish empire, decided to honor the royal marriage by naming it Londres de la Nueva Inglaterra (London of the New England), though nowadays the name has been shortened to just Londres.

Located over the Mississippi River, the city of Memphis has been the setting of important historical and political events. But, where did it get its name from? In 1818, the U.S. gained the territory of Western Tennessee after signing the Treaty of Tuscaloosa. The founders of the city, among them future president John Adams, recognized the importance of the river and decided to name the place after another famous city on a river, the Egyptian Memphis.

Back in the day, many people believed that China and the U.S. were on opposite sides of the world. One of these people, Mrs. Ann Eliza Cromwell, was tasked with naming the new town her husband had helped to found near the Illinois River. Convinced they were on the antipodes of Peking (what we now call Beijing), she chose the name Pekin.

The origin of this name is interesting because we don’t really know the reason behind it. During the 1820s, a man called Edward Hughes bought land in the state of Maryland and divided it for sale. He received Congressional approval for a postal route in a document where the flourishing town was named as The Pleasant Plains of Damascus. While he named it after the Syrian city of Damascus, we don’t know if he had any connections to it or if it was just a biblical reference.

In the early 19th century, Scottish landowner William Fullarton wanted to give coal workers on his estate somewhere to live, and he founded a village for this purpose. The son of an East India Company officer, Fullarton was born in India, in the city of Patna, Bihar, and decided to name the new mining town after his birthplace.

Many people hear ‘Cartagena’ and think about the Colombian city, named after its Spanish namesake. But Spanish Cartagena is also named after a city. This Mediterranean town was founded by Carthaginian general Hasdrubal with the name of Carthago (after the North African city of the same name). Conquered by the Roman Empire, it was renamed Carthago Nova, or ‘New Carthage’, and, after the Visigoth and Arab rule, its name evolved to Cartagena.

One would think that a city named Kansas in a state named Kansas would be the first of its name. But the Kansas of Kansas is named after Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in the 1830s, the Missourian Kansas quickly grew thanks to commerce and industry. Over the state line, the people of Kansas state decided to also have a Kansas City, to benefit from the economic growth associated with the name. Now you know: if you have a feeling that you are not in Kansas anymore, you might just be in Missouri.

Capital of the state of Jalisco, Guadalajara is one of the most important cities in Mexico. Its name is of Arab origin, and it means ‘valley of the stones’. Established by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, it was named by Cristobal de Oñate after his birthplace, Guadalajara City in Spain, a place once under Arab rule.

There are at least 16 places in the U.S. named Boston, but only one of them is named after a foreign city. The capital of the state of Massachusetts was established in the 17th Century by Puritan settlers, who took the name from an English port in Lincolnshire. The new Boston was the scene of several key episodes in the American Revolutionary War, and all other Bostons in the U.S. are named after it.

Ithaca is a college town, home to Cornell University. It was founded after the Revolutionary War, on territory gained from the Iroquois, who had helped the British Army during the conflict. The American government granted plots of land as payment to soldiers in the Continental Army, one of them being Moses De Whitt. First settled in the Town of Ulysses, he later relocated to what is now Ithaca and named it after the Greek island that was Ulysses’ home.