I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
When I was a little bitty boy
My grandmother bought me a cute little toy
Silver bells hangin' on a string
She told me it was my ding-a-ling
My ding-a-ling, my ding-a-ling
I want to play with my ding-a-ling
My ding-a-ling, my ding-a-ling
I want to play with my ding-a-ling
And then mother took me to Grammar School
But I stopped all in the vestibule
Every time that bell would ring
Catched me playin' with my ding-a-ling
Once I was climbing the garden wall
I slipped and had a terrible fall
I fell so hard I heard bells ring
but held on to my ding-a-ling
Once I was swimming cross Turtle creek
Many snappers all around my feet
Sure was hard swimming 'cross that thing
With both hands holdin' my ding-a-ling
This here song it ain't so sad
The cutest little song you ever had
Those of you who will not sing
You must be playin' with your own ding-a-ling
My ding-a-ling
My grandmother bought me a cute little toy
Silver bells hangin' on a string
She told me it was my ding-a-ling
My ding-a-ling, my ding-a-ling
I want to play with my ding-a-ling
My ding-a-ling, my ding-a-ling
I want to play with my ding-a-ling
And then mother took me to Grammar School
But I stopped all in the vestibule
Every time that bell would ring
Catched me playin' with my ding-a-ling
Once I was climbing the garden wall
I slipped and had a terrible fall
I fell so hard I heard bells ring
but held on to my ding-a-ling
Once I was swimming cross Turtle creek
Many snappers all around my feet
Sure was hard swimming 'cross that thing
With both hands holdin' my ding-a-ling
This here song it ain't so sad
The cutest little song you ever had
Those of you who will not sing
You must be playin' with your own ding-a-ling
My ding-a-ling
Lyrics submitted by sawg
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"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Plastic Bag
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“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
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"Zombie" is about the ethno-political conflict in Ireland. This is obvious if you know anything of the singer (Dolores O'Riordan)'s Irish heritage and understood the "1916" Easter Rising reference.
"Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken
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Another mother's breaking
Heart is taking over"
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"But you see it's not me
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this song STILL cracks me up.
it's all a very clever double entante.
"Ding-A-Ling", ha ha. ;)
Actually, it's a rather transparent double-entendre.
Aww, such wit.
Great song from a great musicien.
Much as I love Chuck Berry and this song, I have to agree with DJacques on this. It's not particularly clever or witty. A fun song, but there's no lyrical genius begind it.
Yeah I was being sarcastic (in case you didnt know)
I remember first hearing this song in a car when I was younger, and laughing to myself because I thought the double-entendre was competely unintentional.
Now I'm pretty sure it wasn't. FUnny stuff.
This song is a classic, I remember orginally hearing a small boy singing it on the Simpsons one episode. I almost died off laughter, of course then with the small amount of lyrics provided you could not decifer the double meaning.
I then heard the full song later and It still cracked me up, My favourite verse has too be
"Once while swimming cross turtle creek Man them snappers right at my feet Sure was hard swimming cross that thing with both hands holding my dingaling..."
Chuck Berry at his best I must say, one of the funniest song I have ever heard!
My favorite part is at the end
"Those of you who will not sing must be playing with your own ding-a-ling
Chuck Berry was of the fathers of rock and roll, with no particular place to go, roll over beethoven, memphis tennessee etc. This is just sell out schmaltz, its selling point being every verse has the same lame double entendre about masturbating. It demonstrates well that the pop charts have always been populated with crap, as this was his only number 1.
with respect to teerbigear...
this song, which was later in his career is actually reminiscent of his original song writing style from his early Cosmopolitan Club days, when he went from playing standard blues songs to upbeat, lyrically light-hearted, hillbilly-esque, and race-friendly creations; the response he got from the audience from those early days motivated him to continue in that style, with some songs being a little more silly (ala ding-a-ling) than others.