I was always troubled by Allentown by Billy Joel, because he’s normally such a fantastic lyricist.
They threw an UH-mer-ICK-an flag in our face.
Dude, c’mon. You’re better than that.
The pinnacle of dumb is Song No. 2 by Blur- the most egregious mis-emphasized syllable of all time, in the service of the stupidest words of all time:
I got my head checked
By a jum-BO jet
They are, evidently, NOT better than that.
Can confirm. I played Aggravain, presumably in a different production.
It is 5/4 and although it sounds weird to the ear, the beat is on the first syllable.
SEN si ti vi ty
SEN si ti vi ty
I’M just load ed with
THAT (2 3 4 5).
IN this one word is
THE e pi to me
OF the a ris to
CRAT (2 3 4 5).
Is *that *what they’re singing?! I love Allentown and it’s a particularly fun song to sing along with but I have never been able to figure out that line.
As for the Blur song, I’ve never been able to decipher *any *of that nonsense. I always heard it as something like “I got my hat check, my HMO check”. :smack:
And JSexton, you’re cracking me up.
Nightwish “Amaranth”. The first word in the Refrain is “Caress”. It’s pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable, which means the vowel can’t be the schwa that it normally is, so it’s made into a “long A” as in “care”. 1:12 in NIGHTWISH - Amaranth (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) - YouTube
Makes it completely unintelligible to actual English speakers in my opinion. (Nightwish is Finnish, although the singer in that song is Swedish)
As much as I love that song, that line always rubbed me the wrong way.
Some people must really go nuts listening to some Neil Young songs like Albuquerque.