Interpretations:Whistling In The Dark
I was just listening to this song, where i've been pondering over it's inner meaning for a few days now, and it struck me that the song could quite possibly be about peer pressure, especially negative peer pressure. I took it from the perspective of an unpopular kind've fellow, and he want's to fit in with the popular crowd. 1st Verse "I'd like to poison your mind With wrong ideas that appeal to you Though I am not unkind" is the kind've jock approach, where they befriend unpopular people by making them fit in by making them do rebelious things. The chorus "There's only one thing that I know how to do well And I've often been told that you only can do What you know how to do well And that's be you, Be what you're like, Be like yourself" is the person contemplating what the women tells him and how he tells himself that he should just be himself and not act like someone they want him to be. "Whistling in the dark" infers that he's just wants to be happy (whistling is associated with glad/happy) with being unpopular (in the dark, away from the jocks). 2nd Verse ""I'd like to change your mind By hitting it with a rock," he said, "Though I am not unkind."" Is about the aftermath, the unpopular guy succumbed to the peer pressure and is now suffering for it (is in jail, for whatever reason) and this man is telling him how bad his judgement was. "And hit my head on the wall of the jail Where the two of us live today." - he's beating himself up for his misjudgement --Ralph 06:29, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
My take on this song is a little simpler. It is about a man who is tring to shun himself from dirty thoughts and the evil in the world. He'd rather be Whistling in the Dark...
Whistling in the dark is an expression that I beleive means pretty much just like "being in the dark" about somthing, not knowing. R3D
I found a (translated to English) passage in "The Clouds" by Aristophanes:
That's a fine advice to offer me, The state I'm in right now! No cash, no tan, no shoes, no blood, Just whistling in the dark and mud, And all but done for - yoww!
The context is that Strepsiades, who is a victim of his spoiled son's appetites and his poor managerial skills, is seeking the aid of nonsensical and heretical sophists so he can reason a way out of his debts. Seems comparable to, "A woman came up to me and said I'd like to poison your mind, with wrong ideas that appeal to you though I am not unkind."
Any thoughts?
I took this song to be about ways of dealing with propagandists, evangelicals, fundamentalists, etc. The zealous woman who wanted to poison his mind is not unkind--she believes she is helping him. But the lyrics express a desire not to enter a way of light that anyone shows them. By remaining uninfluenced the singer stays blissfully ignorant--"whistling in the dark"--Benthorot
I agree with Benthorot's take. I might add that, while the woman seems to have fairly peaceful methods, the man wants to use force to change the narrator's mind. To continue with the religion analogy, it's sort of the difference between "Convert, because it'll make you happier!" and "Convert or I'll kill you!" It's interesting that the narrator and the man end up in the same jail. Did the man succeed in changing the narrator's mind, or is the jail something unavoidable, regardless of your thoughts? -VoVat
- If the song is about religion, perhaps the jail is the afterlife(or the ground where they rot), and the lyrics are saying that, despite their different beliefs, the narrator and the man he meets both end up in the same place. By saying he "hit my head on the wall of the jail", perhaps the narrator had a near-death experience shortly after walking away from the other guy(I say "near-death" instead of a definite death because he just "hit his head" on the jail; he didn't actually get inside the jail until later). Maybe the guy he met was serious, but the narrator thought he was joking and started to walk away, so the guy got mad and threw the rock at the narrator's head, thus giving him said near-death experience. -Guest
My take on this is a bit different, since I've always thought of "whistling in the dark" as a way to prevent oneself from being afraid of the dark. I think that the narrator is a decidedly unhappy person, and that he sees the woman's attempt to provide him with "ideas that appeal to you" as a poisoning of his mind. Perhaps the only thing that our narrator can do well is be unhappy? Anyway, it seems to me that although he's "having a wonderful time" with whatever is happening to him, he'd much rather be on the border of unhappiness: whistling in the dark to keep himself from being afraid, but doing nothing to promote happiness. --Chuckie
I don't think the Johns meant it this way, but the phrase "whistling in the dark" is a crude slang term for cunnilingus. John Waters even uses it in his movie "A Dirty Shame". -acm
Hmmm... If that's true, then we can make a strong case for the woman being a prostitute, and the man being a pimp, given the implied violence, the imprisonment, and the fact that these words were on the woman's scalp. -- gryffinp
Everything I've been taught about English revolves around your trust in the author making every choice for a reason. I don't think we can say the "Johns didn't mean it that way," because really, acm's got the commonly accepted definition.
I know someones or some people have already said this, but this song is about being happy and not caring about the bad things that are going on in life. On a personal note, I love the vocals in this song. How does Linnell do that?? I also think that the man in the second verse is Satan. - GiantMidget
I find this song to be about peer pressure. Hence the lyrics about being yourself. It's also about uniformity. Ok, that's my absolutely lame interpretation. Yay! Listen to the song with that in mind. --Lemita 08:45, 14 Apr 2006 (CDT)
When I hear the phrase "whistling in the dark" I think it means you're happy because you don't know what's going on. If you're standing around in the dark, you might be perfectly content because you can't see any danger. -Alice
Anyway, I am not even close to figuring what it is about, but everyone above me said the man is meaner than the woman. I disagree. The woman is really creepy, having a message written on her scalp. Anyway, what I think happened was the woman poisoned the narrators mind with wrong ideas which made him cry for help because you don't want wrong ideas. Then since he had wrong ideas he had bad things which landed him in jail. Then the man, who got in jail the same way, was making a spoof of the woman's saying. I mean, think about it, what the man said was silly compared to the woman. Anyway, then they laughed and he walked away because he hit his head and he was whistling in the dark.
And has anyone noticed the connection between the message on the woman's scalp and the ppl that want to write a message on Mr. Horrible's forehead with a green magic marker?
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