On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 21:02:50 +0200, Frank Burkhard
<franky_81@web.de> wrote:
> just listing Beatles "Happiness is a warm gun", and asking
> myself, "what the f***" it means?
Don't try to understand it! A lot of the Beatles lyrics don't actually
make much sense as lyrics, if you just look at (or listen to) the words.
There is background often but it takes a lot more digging.
The title (and closing lines) of this one came from the title of an
article which John Lennon saw. Lennon was a pacifist, and disliked
intensely the American "love affair" with guns, so this song is partly
an ironic look at the phrase in the article (that phrase implying that
the feel of a gun after it's been used -- presumably to shoot someone --
is 'happiness').
The use above of "love affair" in relation to guns is intentional, many
psychologists have pointed out that the power (as well as the shape) of
a gun is sexual, and that's another element Lennon wove into this song,
the metaphor of the gun as a love object. Phrases like "When I hold you
in my arms and I feel my finger on your trigger" and "his hands are busy
working overtime" are part of this imagery.
> Sorry, but stupid german like i cant answer this question
Not stupid, it's not obvious even to most native English speakers if
they aren't familiar with the culture of the time (1968, the clash
between the "gun culture" and the hippy "love culture" mixed through a
Liverpool musician who liked to play with the sound of words). Looked
at without that knowledge, the juxtaposition of the gun and love
elements seems strange...
Seriously, the lyrics of the Beatles are often weird for the sake of it,
and a lot of them are based on cultural imagery which people who weren't
around at the time often don't know existed. Drugs, "free love", the
peace movement; Vietnam, McCarthyism, the gun culture; it's surprising
that anyone growing up round that time turned out sane...
Chris C
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