Interpretations:Cupid

• Song
• Lyrics
• Download
• Interpretations
• Credits
• Guitar Tab
• Bass Tab
• Chronology

Potpourri of old things

The Charles Atlas ads were nostalgia when the song was written. The phrase "shaking down" is used in the sense of extortion by violence - a reference to Mafia tactics of old (e.g., breaking legs), and of course it's funny to see this applied to Cupid the cherub of romance.

"Please to move your van" is the kind of joke they probably wouldn't make any more, referencing an EAASL speech pattern... today we all bristle at the slightest perceived toying (such as a cheesy accent), whether a slur is intended or no (and I detect none in this song).

"Why I'd...!" is an intentionally old-fashioned formation - like "Why I oughta...!" - which would be recognized in 1985 as an echo of many comedic performances from old movies & TV shows (and going further back, radio & vaudeville) such as The Three Stooges, The Honeymooners, and Abbot & Costello. The speaker would always be a lower-middle class character frustrated into anger, clenching both fists & grimacing. The phrase would precede a threat ("...break his legs!") but it would be understood that the threat is toothless, coming from a person whose position in life precludes any effective action or vengeance ("...I have to walk away feeling mad"). Obviously Flans loves this mini-trope... it's the high note in the song & its finale. --Nehushtan (talk) 13:09, 23 November 2019 (EST)

Anti-Love Song

It took me a while to think of what this song could be about. I used to think of it literally, like this guy is actually shaking down Cupid just because he lost his girl to someone she likes more. But after a while I now sorta see it trying to be the same thing that Blue Rosebuds by the Residents was. An anti-love song.

Blue Rosebuds by the Residents is a song that is sung from 2 perspectives: A guy and a girl. The song has a very simple structure: The guy sings a love song to the love of his life, the girl he loves rejects and berates him for the song, and the guy sings his love song again but now alone and crying, he even changes one of the lyrics from "It's like a Roman candle coming rosebuds." to "It's like a Roman candle burning rosebuds."

Now why do I see this song in a similar light as that one? Well whilst Blue Rosebuds is more of an anti-love song in the way of how it isn't like how love songs are like: "Guy: I love you. Girl: I love you too. Both: We love each other!" and is instead rather: "Guy: I love you. Girl: I hate you. Guy: I loved her." This song feels more as its POV/singer is anti-love and is singing about his experience which led to this belief.

"I'm shaking down Cupid 'cause I'm feeling so mad. Why, I'd break his legs!" He hates love so much that he wants to harm and hurt the literal mascot of Valentine's Day. "I'd kill myself if I was somebody else. I'm feeling so beside myself." I just kinda want to say I see this line as him saying that he would commit suicide if he was Mr. Right, the guy who stole his girl, just a bit funny. He also does realize that he just sometimes ain't himself sometimes however. "She's paging Mr. Right. Please to move your van. She thinks of him especially. I think he's kicking sand. In my face, just like in that ad. And I have to walk away feeling mad." The singer saw his girl calling out to some other guy she likes more, the guy bullies (? It's a bit confusing with the "I think" line.) the singer which leads to him just walking away without an argument. I don't know what to make out from the van line.

I do feel like this is a VERY LONG stretch that I made just so I could connect 2 of my favourite bands, TMBG and the Residents, together. But I still see it as plausible a bit. I Say Yeh Yeh (talk) 18:43, 27 May 2026 (EDT)