This song is saying that sometimes you find yourself having to take the subservient role, to have to get down on your knees or to say please for something. Sometimes you have to lower your head and take it, and it sucks but, "that's the way the thunder rumbles/bee bumbles" (he avoids saying "... cookie crumbles" but that's what we think of because of the rhyme.)
The stuff about buffalo/bison--rifle/cannonball is about hunting animals in the wild. sometimes innocent animals get shot by hunters, and that's the way the thunder rumbles. i don't know if cannonballs are used for hunting, but it fits in with the rhythm better than, say, "bullet".
kanagaroo/chipmunk, and bedbugs/ballyhoo. bedbugs and ballyhoo are opposites. bedbugs means poverty, uncleanliness. Ballyhoo means opulence, extravagance. Kangaroo and chipmunk are kinda opposites in that there's a big size difference. kangaroo happens to rhyme somewhat with ballyhoo; otherwise a better opposite might have been "elephant" or "hippopatamus".
That verse might mean: sometimes things good happen, sometimes things bad happen. Hard times, rich times: either way you get what you get, that's the way the bee bumbles.
It's a depressing song about the inevitability of hard times and humility, disguised ironically as a fun, upbeat tune with animals in it.
This song is saying that sometimes you find yourself having to take the subservient role, to have to get down on your knees or to say please for something. Sometimes you have to lower your head and take it, and it sucks but, "that's the way the thunder rumbles/bee bumbles" (he avoids saying "... cookie crumbles" but that's what we think of because of the rhyme.)
The stuff about buffalo/bison--rifle/cannonball is about hunting animals in the wild. sometimes innocent animals get shot by hunters, and that's the way the thunder rumbles. i don't know if cannonballs are used for hunting, but it fits in with the rhythm better than, say, "bullet".
kanagaroo/chipmunk, and bedbugs/ballyhoo. bedbugs and ballyhoo are opposites. bedbugs means poverty, uncleanliness. Ballyhoo means opulence, extravagance. Kangaroo and chipmunk are kinda opposites in that there's a big size difference. kangaroo happens to rhyme somewhat with ballyhoo; otherwise a better opposite might have been "elephant" or "hippopatamus". That verse might mean: sometimes things good happen, sometimes things bad happen. Hard times, rich times: either way you get what you get, that's the way the bee bumbles.
It's a depressing song about the inevitability of hard times and humility, disguised ironically as a fun, upbeat tune with animals in it.
@mliem411 This is more likely going to sound like internet slang to you, but this is the very best comment I've read on this site about any song.
@mliem411 This is more likely going to sound like internet slang to you, but this is the very best comment I've read on this site about any song.