The Story Behind "Barracuda" by Heart

The band Heart released its hit song "Barracuda" in 1977 on the album "Little Queen." Heart, a band with two sisters leading it, quickly took this song to the chart tops. There has been a lot of discussion, though, about what this song about an animal actually means.

The song itself

On the surface, the song appears to describe an under-the-sea battle between a barracuda and a porpoise. The barracuda is a sneaky fish, trying to hide from the porpoise. The porpoise is using this song as a way to let the barracuda know that it is not as sneaky as it thinks.

The deeper meaning

Barracuda's meaning is actually much deeper than it appears. Before the song was written, Heart was having some issues with both the media and the record label who owned the band. Several stories that were released by the record company. The sisters thought this was done in order to sell more records. In this song, the sisters are the porpoise and the record company is the barracuda. The line "no right no wrong you're selling a song" directly relates to the fact that the record company was willing to do whatever was necessary to try to make as much money as possible. Heart, as evident in this song, was not happy with the treatment it received from the company.

Songs like "Barracuda" that feature animals often have deeper meaning than what they appear to have on the surface. This song is no different with the suggested underlying meaning to the lyrics the sisters wrote.