So what does THAT mean?

I'm on a bit* of a Lady GaGa kick these days. Consequently, my ten year old brother is too. He always seems to pick up on my musical obsessions and take them on himself. Like with Alanis Morissette, Neil Young, that song by Sublime "Wrong Way," Metric, Johnny Cash, Elton John..... MJ's "Billy Jean" and a whole lot more.

So lately he's been prancing around the house singing "Boys Boys Boys," a song off GaGa's album The Fame. Here is a sample of the lyrics:

I like you a lot LOT
Think you're really hot HOT....

Boys boys boys
We like boys in cars
Boys boys boys
Buy us drinks in bars...

And so on. This coming from a boy who says, and I quote "My first priority is girls, my second is getting in shape to impress them." Alas, I find him a child of many contradictions haha.

I mostly just get a kick out of him liking the music I like (and sometimes he learns the songs just from hearing me sing them at home), but not only does he run around the house (and everywhere else) singing these songs, he also asks me questions about them. And when the artist has an album full of mature (or immature, depending on how you look at it) content, the questions can be hilariously awkward at best, and bordering-on-corrupting-his-mind at worst.

They can be really specific too...

[line from Metric's Succexy: "Every ten year old enemy soldier thinks falling bombs are shooting stars, sometimes, but she doesn't make wishes on them."]
Brother: Why would a bomb be like a shooting star and why is an enemy soldier only ten years old? What does Succexy mean?
Valid questions and easy to answer. And he's not one of those kids who asks questions and then doesn't care about the answer. He actually listens, so I can get all philosophical and whatnot, something that if I do with other people, it drives them up the wall.

{EDIT: That line is actually from Metric's IOU . My mistake. Both songs are really good.}

[line from Lady Gaga's Paparazzi: "We're plastic but we still have fun."]
Brother: What does she mean by plastic people having fun?
Again, not an awkward question. Easily dealt with.
Me: Well, she means that she is fake, people are fake and have fake personalities when they go out to clubs and so on they just put on a mask and... no not a real mask, a figurative mask.... and on some superficial level, it's all still fun.
Brother: O I thought it meant people with plastic surgery.
Me: Sure that too.

But then his little ears begin to pick out words and phrases he is not familiar with and he starts asking for definitions...

[line from LG's Pokerface: "...'Cause I'm bluffin' with my muffin"]
Brother: Sister, what's a muffin?
Not quite so easy anymore. But I decide it's better for him to know what it really means, so he doesn't get up in front of his class and sing that song, because, trust me, he would totally do that kind of thing. He's the biggest drama queen I've ever met.
Me: It's a vagina.
Brother: (uncontrolable laughter). So how do you lie with a.... that thing?
Me: I dunno. She just doesn't love the guy I guess. (This is not exactly what it means, but I wasn't about to get into the whole thing when she said she thought of women when she slept with her old boyfriend.)
Brother: O ok. (thoughtful pause) Is she a prostitute?
Me: No. Well...no.

So my parents weren't too pleased with me divulging that kind of information to my brother. I could tell by the look on their faces (slightly aghast with eyes oogling like pairs of googly eyes), since they were sitting in the same room as us. So next time I got a question like that, I censored myself.

[line from LG's LoveGame: "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick."]
Brother: What's a disco stick?
Me: It's umm... this cane-like stick that Lady Gaga has that has a light-up crystal on the end and she uses it during her shows as a prop. She um.. dances with it.
That wasn't even a lie. She has a stick like that, but that is most definitely not what she is talking about in the song. But my dad was in the car with us when the question was asked, and he was wearing that look on his face like "dear Godddd....why does this music exist?" so I thought I would filter my words for his benefit.

At least my father has the good sense not to say something like "O this pop music will never last." He learned from his dad's mistake. As a child he was told that this Rock and Roll business will fade out as sure as anything, and that people will be listening to Hank Williams long after Rock has died and been forgotten. (To which I answer, who is Hank Williams?)





*slight understatement