Parallel Lines

Of lines spoken - I say what I mean. It's parallel lines that never meet. 

When I took English class in high school, a lot of time was spent on literary devices such as metaphors and symbols. Symbolism particularly annoyed me, because it seemed so unnecessary. Hester Prynne's letter "A" was supposed to be much more significant because it was scarlet. The statue in "Ozymandias" had some huge import that still escapes me to this day. I was much like the MGM film exec who said, "When I want to send a message, I use Western Union dammit". Just lay it on the line. Use prose, not poetry. Say exactly what you mean to say.

Symbolism is actually very old, it blossomed during the 19th century. When I reached my twenties, the beauty and necessity of symbolism hit me. It isn't that hard to figure. With pop music, the allowable venues, radio & concert halls, are commercial and establishmentarian. If a person wants to sing about something X-rated, politically controversial or religiously sensitive, he will be shot down by the censor's arrow. Starting with the early 60's, singers had messages more daring than "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to". There were many rock/folk songs dealing with issues of the day - Viet Nam, civil rights and women's rights, religious and sexual freedom, drug experimentation, etc. A new lexicon of symbols, colors and idioms came to the fore, to allow people with controversial viewpoints to come across on shows like "Ed Sullivan" and even "Lawrence Welk". Reviewing the 60's songs, sometimes the references are more frivolous than serious. "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "Along Came Mary" come to mind; they might allude to drugs and "weed". Other songs are more oblique:

"She-bop", Cyndi Lauper - about masturbation
"A Little Help from My Friends", the Beatles, ditto
"Shambala", B.W. Stephenson - about drug use
"I Melt With You", Modern English - about a relationship with God (not a romance)

There are thousands of other examples, and some more interesting (also more controversial and arguable). Because most pop songs deal with love, romance and sex, a frequent ruse is to make the song look like a paean to love, rather than something else (e.g., Modern English example above). The recipient of the message must be intelligent and emotionally sensitive for his antennae to pull in the message completely. As far as staying between the lines, Peter Paul and Mary sum the phenomenon up very well in their own song lyric:

I dig Rock and Roll music
I could really get it on in that scene.
I think I could say somethin' if you know what I mean
But if I really say it, the radio won't play it
Unless I lay it between the lines

So, the next time a song comes across as too simple or too cryptic or too weird, you may need to get beneath the surface and see if something more is happening. Embedded somewhere in the lyrics may be a sly wink, an "Easter Egg" to use a software analogy. Artists are usually loathe to tell you in so many words what they meant by this or that turn of phrase. It's for the listener or the reader to glean and appreciate. And so to quote Deborah Harry, "It's parallel lines that never meet".