Six pearls where the real subject was hiding the whole time.
You think you know who a song is about. Usually a lover, sometimes a place, the obvious read the title hands you on the way in. Most of the time that read is fine. These six are the exceptions, where the obvious subject is a decoy and the real one was standing just out of frame.
This string collects pearls from six songs that aren’t about what they seem. A song that plays like a letter to a lost lover is really about the frontman of another band. A song named for a state isn’t about the state at all; the writer says it’s about America and the rot under the dream. A song you’d swear was about a boyfriend is aimed at two-faced friends. A song that sounds like one lover begging is two lovers cutting a deal with God to swap bodies and finally feel what the other feels. A ghost story about a drowning turns out to be the fallout of a divorce. And a blast of anger you’d read as aimed at rich kids in general had one specific couple in its sights.
Surface any of these six and the decoy drops away. You hear who the song was talking to all along.