Actually, I found it to be an amusing song about somebody who is easilly distracted. It's basically the experience of watching shows with a person who never follows the plot and talks a lot.
In the first verse, the singer is watching a violent Japanese war film with us (perhaps in a theater... "moving across the screen" is something which is much more noticable on a wide screen than on a TV, where "pan & scan" cropping ruins those sorts of shots"). Amid the hideous gore, we are elbowed in the ribs because one of the warriors kind of reminds the singer of somebody.
Verse two, 15 minutes into a news broadcast, just as the international news stories are starting (CNN's tag-line used to be "give us 30 minutes, we'll give you the world), the singer again gets a little too enthusiastic about how the female dictator on the screen is a lot like a mutual aquaintance.
Verse three, watching a nature film, this time taken aback by a lizard who looks like "the very image of someone we know".
Obviously not flattering, comparing somebody to a Samurai, a brutal dictator, and a predatory lizzard... but there are lots of reasons to dislike somebody enough to see their faces in such unflattering contexts. I disagree with the notion that it absolutely must be one of their "lovers lament" songs. Now "Twisting"... that's what I call a break-up song!
Actually, I found it to be an amusing song about somebody who is easilly distracted. It's basically the experience of watching shows with a person who never follows the plot and talks a lot.
In the first verse, the singer is watching a violent Japanese war film with us (perhaps in a theater... "moving across the screen" is something which is much more noticable on a wide screen than on a TV, where "pan & scan" cropping ruins those sorts of shots"). Amid the hideous gore, we are elbowed in the ribs because one of the warriors kind of reminds the singer of somebody.
Verse two, 15 minutes into a news broadcast, just as the international news stories are starting (CNN's tag-line used to be "give us 30 minutes, we'll give you the world), the singer again gets a little too enthusiastic about how the female dictator on the screen is a lot like a mutual aquaintance.
Verse three, watching a nature film, this time taken aback by a lizard who looks like "the very image of someone we know".
Obviously not flattering, comparing somebody to a Samurai, a brutal dictator, and a predatory lizzard... but there are lots of reasons to dislike somebody enough to see their faces in such unflattering contexts. I disagree with the notion that it absolutely must be one of their "lovers lament" songs. Now "Twisting"... that's what I call a break-up song!