Otherside - Red Hot Chili Peppers

think up, bring up, go back, turn on, tear down,

This song features on Californication, RHCPs most successful album, and was released as a single in 2000. Most writers seem to agree that the song is about fighting drug addiction, specifically heroin, and or suicide. RHCPs founder member,  Hilliel Slovak had died in 1988 and some fans regard the whole Californication album as a tribute to him.

I heard your voice through a photograph
I thought it up, it brought up the past
Once you know you can never go back
I've got to take it on the otherside

Turn me on, take me for a hard ride
Burn me out, leave me on the otherside
I yell and tell it that it's not my friend
I tear it down, I tear it down
And then it's born again
(Otherside - Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Think up: invent. He is saying that  he imagined or invented the voice.
dictionary definition

Bring up: to introduce a subject. He is saying that imagining the voice remided him of the past.
dictionary definiton

Go back: to return. He seems to be talking about death. you can never go back means you can not return to life. Here otherside apparently refers to the "afterlife".
Dictionary definition

Turn on: to excite, stimulate. Turn on often appears in songs with a clear sexual connotation, but hear it seems to refer to the effects of drugs.
Dictionary definition

Burn out: to exhaust. Literally if a fire burns out it dies because ther is no more combustible material left. We often refer to people being burned out by excessive work - exhausted. Here the drugs have extinguished his life and left him "on the otherside".
Dictionary definition

Tear down: to demolish, destroy. He might mean that he destroys his life, commits suicide,  because it is so unbearable.
Dictionary definition

See the lyrics to the song

Otherside - Red Hot Chilli Peppers, official video. 

Never gonna give you up - Rick Astley

give up, let down, run around, go on

Today's helping of Rock n roll Phrasal Verbs are unashamedly pop. Rick Astley's 1987 hit Never gonna give you up is almos as rich a source of phrasal verbs as it was a source of money for Rick and his producers, the 80's hit factory Stock Aitken and Waterman.

If you somehow missed out on being Rickrollered when the craze swept the internet in 2008, then another look at the video of this 80s synth dance smash hit can't do you any harm.

 

Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

.................

We've known each other for so long
Your heart's been aching but you're too shy to say it
Inside we both know what's been going on
We know the game and we're gonna play it

give up: to abandon, to renounce.
He is saying he will never leave her, that he will stay with her.
See the full dictionary definition of give up

let down: dissappoint, fail
See the full dictionary definiton of let down

run around: to be promiscuous
He is saying he will be faithful to her
See the dictionary definition of run around 

go on: happen
this line of the song means: "we both know what has been happening"
See the dictionary definition for go on

Read the lyrics to the song 

Rock 'n' Roll High School - The Ramones

Knock out

I wanted to choose something from a Johnny Ramone composition to mark the 10th anniversary of his death yesterday. Unfortunately with one thing and another I didn't get round to it, so this is a little late. I also had some problems finding songs which Johnny at least partly composed which had at least one phrasal verb worth making an example of. In the end, I picked Rock 'n' roll high school, which credits Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee as authors.

The song was first recorded by the band in 1979 by Ed Stasium for the film of the same name, though another version, recorded by Phil Spector, is the one which appears on the Rock 'n' Roll High School soundtrack album and also on the album End of the Century.

Well the girls out there knock me out, you know
Rock, rock, rock'n'roll high school
Cruisin' around in my GTO
Rock, rock, rock'n'roll high school
I hate the teachers and the principal
Don't wanna be taught to be no fool
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock'n'roll high school
(Rock n roll high school, The Ramones)


Knock out: impress, surprise, cause admiration Dictionary definition of knock out

The basic meaning of knock out is to hit someone so they become unconscious. Here however the figurative meaning is used.

Rock and Roll High School lyrics

Listen to Rock and Roll High School 

Perfect Day - Lou Reed

Hang on

Today I've chosen hang on from Perfect Day by Lou Reed, originally released on the 1972 album Transformer.

Oh, it's such a perfect day
I'm glad I spent it with you
Oh, such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging on
You just keep me hanging on

According to the dictionary, hang on means wait or continue holding something (see definition) The trouble is that Lou Reed uses it figuratively, You just keep me hanging on roughly means you keep me alive, you help me survive. The song was written after Lou Reed spent a day in Central Park, New York with his fiancée, Bettye Kronstad, and may be about his relationship with her but also about his sexuality and drug use. Read more about the song

Perfect Day lyrics

Listen to the song

Everybody Knows - Leonard Cohen'

Go through, come apart

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows
(Everybody Knows, Lonard Cohen)

Go through: to experience, to suffer
See the full dictionary definition

Come apart: to fragment
See the full dictionary definition

Link to the lyrics

Listen to Rufus Wainwright's version of the song - much better than Leonard Cohen's original!

Fly away - Lenny Kravitz

Get away, fly away

Today's phrasal verbs come from Lenny Kravitz's song Fly away, on his album "5", released in 1998.

Oh I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah yeah yeah

1. To get away. To leave, to escape, from a person or place,

see the full dictionary entry

2. To fly away To leave by means of flying

see the full dictionary entry

read the lyrics of the song

listen to the song

Common People - Pulp

Sing along, get thru' (through), tear out, come out

Sing along with the common people,
Sing along and it might just get you thru'
Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along even though they're laughing at
(Common People, Pulp)

1. Sing along: to acompany someone else singing or playing a tune/song
 
Read the complete dictionary entry

2. Get through: to survive a difficult experience

Read the complete dictionary entry

Like a dog lying in a corner
They will bite you and never warn you
Look out.
They'll tear your insides out
`cos everybody hates a tourist
Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh
Yeah and the chip stain and grease will come out in the bath


3. Tear out: to criticize mercilessly.

I wasn't sure if I should include this, it's not really a phrasal verb at all, but a metaphor. As such, you won't find it in a dictionary, but here is a definition of tear someone apart, which basically means the same:

4. Come out: get cleaned
Another phrasal verb that isn't one! This line in the song is quite clever. It appears to simply say that having a bath will leave the girl in the song clean once again, but it also makes a reference to an expression  "to come out in the wash" which means that the situation will not have permanent effects.


Read a transcript of the lyrics of Common People 

Hear the song and watch the video

Hear William Schatner's cover of the song (seriously, Capatian Kirk from the original Star Trek!) 

Hear a version in Catlan by Manel - won't help your English, but it's a great version!

Get over you - The Undertones

Get over

And I don't wanna get over you
It doesn't matter what you do
I just can't get over you - over you
(Get over you, The Undertones)

To get over (somebody, something): To recover (from something)

Full dictionary definition 

Listen to the song

See the lyrics