This is the one line in the whole song that I'm reasonably confident I've got right:
It's a pun, a reference to the 12 musical keys in which songs and other Western music are written in -- and also the 12 literal keys that make up each octave on a piano / organ / synth keyboard; 7 white, 5 black.
It fits with the musical pun in the line before -- "I played the blues in 12 bars," where "bars" = both "musical measures" (a "12-bar blues" is one of the standard blues progressions) & "dives where they play the blues."
How that...
This is the one line in the whole song that I'm reasonably confident I've got right:
It's a pun, a reference to the 12 musical keys in which songs and other Western music are written in -- and also the 12 literal keys that make up each octave on a piano / organ / synth keyboard; 7 white, 5 black.
It fits with the musical pun in the line before -- "I played the blues in 12 bars," where "bars" = both "musical measures" (a "12-bar blues" is one of the standard blues progressions) & "dives where they play the blues."
How that fits into the context, though --
"And you never did have the intelligence to use
The twelve keys hanging off of my chain"
that one's beyond me.
Best I can do with that is that music somehow is the way to really get to him (the singer/songwriter character he's playing), and she didn't avail herself of that.
Something along the lines of the great line the Sandra Bullock character has in "The Thing Called Love," when she says to the Dermot Mulroney character near the end, "You could have had me for a song."
"And you never did have the inteligence to use The twelve keys hanging off my chain"
i'd love to know the meaning behind those lines.
This is the one line in the whole song that I'm reasonably confident I've got right: It's a pun, a reference to the 12 musical keys in which songs and other Western music are written in -- and also the 12 literal keys that make up each octave on a piano / organ / synth keyboard; 7 white, 5 black. It fits with the musical pun in the line before -- "I played the blues in 12 bars," where "bars" = both "musical measures" (a "12-bar blues" is one of the standard blues progressions) & "dives where they play the blues." How that...
This is the one line in the whole song that I'm reasonably confident I've got right: It's a pun, a reference to the 12 musical keys in which songs and other Western music are written in -- and also the 12 literal keys that make up each octave on a piano / organ / synth keyboard; 7 white, 5 black. It fits with the musical pun in the line before -- "I played the blues in 12 bars," where "bars" = both "musical measures" (a "12-bar blues" is one of the standard blues progressions) & "dives where they play the blues." How that fits into the context, though -- "And you never did have the intelligence to use The twelve keys hanging off of my chain" that one's beyond me. Best I can do with that is that music somehow is the way to really get to him (the singer/songwriter character he's playing), and she didn't avail herself of that. Something along the lines of the great line the Sandra Bullock character has in "The Thing Called Love," when she says to the Dermot Mulroney character near the end, "You could have had me for a song."
@YouKnowStuff The 12 keys hanging off of my chain - the 12 keys music can be played in, He uses a lot of musical imergery throughout.
@YouKnowStuff The 12 keys hanging off of my chain - the 12 keys music can be played in, He uses a lot of musical imergery throughout.