Interesting song about a girl. Can anyone understand this?

[coloradodem2005]

Athena, I had no idea how much I'd need her
In peaceful times I hold her close and I feed her
My heart starts palpitating when I think my guess was wrong
But I think I'll get along
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

Athena, all I ever want to do is please her
My life has been so settled and she's the reason
Just one word from her and my troubles are long gone
But I think I'll get along
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
She's just a girl

Athena, my heart felt like a shattered glass in an acid bath
I felt like one of those flattened ants you find on a crazy path
I'd of topped myself to give her time she didn't need to ask
Was I a suicidal psychopath?
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

Consumed, there was a beautiful white horse I saw on a dream stage
He had a snake the size of a sewer pipe living in his rib cage
I felt like a pickled priest who was being flambed
You were requisitioned blondie
She's just a girl - she's a bomb

I'm happy, I'm ecstatic
Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
Just a girl just a girl
She's just a girl

Look into the face of a child
Measure how long you smiled
Before the memory claimed
How long would children remain
How long would children remain

Athena, you picked me up by my lapels and screamed "leave her"
It felt like waking up in heaven on an empty meter
And now you're stuck with a castrated leader
And I hate the creep, I didn't mean that
She's a bomb
I just said it
She's a bomb
I didn't mean it, please
She's a bomb

Athena, I had no idea how much I need her
My life has been so settled and she's the reason
Just one word from her and my troubles are long gone
But I get along
She's just a girl, she's a bomb
She's just a girl, she's a bomb


THE WHO - "Athena" lyrics

The Who, It's Hard, 1982

[southpaw]

1. I never got that song...

I remember it well. The passage about the horse with a giant snake living in its rib cage was perhaps the most puzzling bit of imagery I had heard up to that point.

[Fenris]

2. IIRC, Pete was abusing heroin around this time.

That might explain it.

[southpaw]

4. Yeah... It helps

[coloradodem2005]

3. I like the song.

But of all the Who songs, that one just puzzled me beyond belief.

[Craig Roberts]

5. Not bomb

I don't know where you got those lyrics, and maybe the "official" lyrics show the line as, "she's a bomb," but if you listen to the song you know the actual lyric is "she's a bowl."

Thinking it was "bomb" instead of "bowl" I can see how the lyrics would be confusing. Hope this clears it up for you.

[coloradodem2005]

6. Not really.

I guess, I am a little stupid here, but what is the significance of bowl?

[amerikat]

7. I heard this song was written

in response to the TV show "Danger UXB". I think It was a BBC production about a bomb disposal squad of the British army in WWII. Athena was a particularly troublesome type of bomb. UXB being a synonym for unexploded bomb.

edit spelling

[Magrittes Pipe]

8. Heroin's a hell of a drug.

[Susang]

9. I think I found your answer

Here's one part:

snip:
Pete recorded most of the demos for Face Dances in January through March 1980. In addition to the songs listed below, Pete also recorded "Theresa", a very personal song that would later be recorded by The Who as "Athena", "What Is Love", "Popular" which would later be re-written as "It's Hard" and "Dance It Away" which was released as a solo Pete version on the flip side of "Uniforms" in the U.K. The band's reaction to the new songs was noticably cool. Pete later said about a demo tape of songs for Face Dances, "when I played them nobody said anything, not a dicky bird. Eventually Rabbit said, 'I like such and such a song, that has some good bits in it.' He was trying to be positive because he was aware of this big pregnant silence. I just picked up the tape and walked out."

Here's the next:

snip:
1980

On the 13th, Pete, in Los Angeles to record additional demos for the Who's next album, visits a movie director's home in an effort to get him to make the Lifehouse film. The director has flown back to London to be with his wife leaving his actress-girlfriend behind. Pete and a friend go out with the girlfriend and Pete falls madly in love with her. They go to see The Wall and do cocaine together, an event that Pete later says turns him into a serial drug user. The next day, Valentine's Day, Pete makes his feelings known to the woman who turns him down. Pete takes the rejection hard. On the 16th, he goes into Warner Brothers Recording Studio C in North Hollywood. There he records "Theresa," a song he had just written about his unrequited love. It eventually becomes the song "Athena" on the It's Hard album. He also records guitar and vocal overdubs to "What Is Love," a song that will be rejected for The Who's new album.

http://www.thewho.net/linernotes/FaceDances.htm

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:XPs9fX7-7pAJ:www.thewho.net/whostory/febold.html+roger+daltrey+theresa&hl=en

There's your meaning, I do believe. :-)

[coloradodem2005]

10. Thank you.

:-)

[Susang]

12. No problem

It does make you wonder who "Theresa" was, doesn't it? Haven't been able to find that one out yet. If I do, I'll let you know. ;-)

[Jokerman]

11. She's A BONG!

Inspired us to name the bong we had in college "Athena".

[Elidor]

13. Funny, I thought it said, "She's a ball"

Weirdest damn lyric. Pete's not a bad egg, but he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, either.