Interpretations:Bills, Bills, Bills

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What "Maybe I Know" should have Been

It is understandable that there are no interpretations of this song at all, because the Johns did not write it, it is a cover. And what is the use in interpreting a song on the tmbg wiki, when it wasnt written by the Johns and is fairly straight forward? What possible meaning can possibly be found in the text? well, none, apparently. But that is not to say, that there is no meaning to be found, from whats NOT in the text. The Johns kept the lyrics the same, only changing sqirm with squirrel, so we know they could have changed the text if they wanted to. Specifically, they could have changed brother to sister, and man to woman, without it impacting the flow of the song, adjusting the song for their sexual preference. In fact, this is exactly what they did when they covered "Maybe I Know". Changing he to she. But they dont here. And I think that is noteworthy. By not making any changes to the song they do exactly what a cover should do, that is cover the original. And the fact that it is still sung by men, it makes this song an explicitly homosexual song. By not changing the song, they essentially changed the meaning by singing it. I mean, they would have changed the meaning regardless of if they changed it or not, since it was now men singing the song. But I truly believe they propably would, if given the choice today, now that gayness is a less controversial topic, when covering "Maybe I Know" use he instead of she. And that is the way it should be imo. I dont know why, but hearing them say she always kind of bothered me. But this song essentially sends a "Message" if you can even call it that. So yeah, even though it is a cover, the meaning is changed, and it is noteworthy what the Johns chose to do with it.I SilassaliS I (talk) 10:06, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

Williams

This song is stuck in my head lately. I'm fascinated by it. How did they make this so good? It's like some sort of magic.

I've had plenty of opportunity to ponder this song's dumb lyrics. At first I was thinking: Wow, these women are so vapid, assuming their boyfriends should pay for everything for them. Then I paid closer attention to the verses and they seem more reasonable, because the boyfriends in question are using them, running up their bills and not paying them back (calling their mothers multiple times!), so they should find someone who's more respectful of them. Reading Wikipedia, I see that Beyonce and the others were only about 17 when this song was written, so what did they know about having their own money and dating guys with full-time jobs? Well, I guess it's different for successful singers. Apparently most of the lyrics were by a woman who was a few years older though.

I only recently remembered what the title is referring to. Back in the 90s, it was apparently a common refrain to mutter, "Bills, bills, bills!" when looking though the mail and not finding anything worthwhile. Maybe that only happened on sitcoms; I'm not sure if it's a reference to one specific thing or just something people said. King of the Hill had a funny riff on this, where Hank says, "Bill's, Bill's, Bill's... why do we keep getting Bill's mail?"--Mandaliet (talk) 19:16, 9 April 2024 (EDT)