A Bananarama fan pointed out to me that 'Robert de Niro's Waiting' is actually a song about a girl using a Robert de Niro fantasy to get away from thoughts of date rape, which was quite a surprise.

But my favourite remains the US Army's use of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" in psychological loud music campaigns.

From Afghanistan to Panama to Iraq via other hotspots, they've blasted it out at their enemies at ear-splitting levels wholly unaware that the song is actually a trenchant critique of the United States social problems as a direct result of the Reagan and Bush I administrations-of which vainglorious militarism was an essential component.

Hmm, that's the thing though Geoff. Maybe they are aware of it, but dismiss the content on the grounds that the form itself is seen as part and parcel of American cultural dominance and imperialism.

It's like David Cameron and his espoused love of 'The Eton Rifles'. He knows full well the lyric of the song despises the constituency that he represents, but he appropriates the song on the basis that pop music in terms of the UK also represents the last bit of cultural power the nation has left. It's very calculated, the buggers know what they're doing though.

I understand (via my Oxbridge connections, like) that it was actually hugely popular at Eton. (Which kind of makes sense, given the way adolescent guys tend to kick a bit against institutions and authority and that.)

Yeah, but tempered I would imagine, with that innate knowledge that they are born to rule if you get me.

This may not be news to anyone, but I heard that people have U2's One playing at their wedding, even though it's actually about a couple's dissolution.

That Dandy Warhols song from a few years back. 'Bohemian Like You'. It was a really vicious and angry diatribe against slackerdom, that was used by BT to promote some new call facility they were promoting.

Is it just a rumour that 'Perfect Day' was a tribute to heroin addiction.