# Good songs, Bad lines **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2000, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614 "2000-07-14T22:36:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DRY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/61 "2000-07-17T15:34:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ArchiveGuy \* > \*\ ***DRY** , > > Yet more from the horrible _HWNN_: > > “The heat was hot and the ground was dry but the air was full of sound” > > \ > > \*\* Yeah, you kind of wonder whether the song writer was actually writing a song, or free associating. I wish I could make that much money for spouting non-sensical stuff (no comment about my posts, please). Frankly, I think I’m more lucid in my sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/62 "2000-07-17T15:35:05Z")
Sands, “Wish you were here” is supposed to make no sense at all. It describes Syd Barrets insanity. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/63 "2000-07-17T15:35:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Falcon \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by jayron 32 \* > > **Eve-6’s song Inside Out has a just plain disturbingly bad chorus, but the song itself is catchy enough…** > > Aw, c’mon…you don’t love the lines “Wanna put my tender heart in a blender, watch it spin around to a beautiful oblivion”?? > > _grins_ \*\* The missus and I refer to that as “the cliche song” ---
**Author:** ![TN\_hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TN\_hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TN_hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/64 "2000-07-17T16:02:28Z")
What the hell is a **"pompatus** of love…"??? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/65 "2000-07-17T16:17:34Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by TN_hippie \* > \*\*What the hell is a **"pompatus** of love…"??? \*\* see; [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_065.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html) ---
**Author:** ![TN\_hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TN\_hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TN_hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/66 "2000-07-18T12:00:02Z")
On a vaguely related topic, it was Robert Johnson (blues singer in the 20s and 30s) who first recorded that delightful line: _You can squeeze my lemon, baby, till the juice run down my leg_ I’d grown up thinking it was a LedZep original. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/67 "2000-07-18T12:41:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Screeme \* > \*\*I never understood this one… > > “She thinks that emptiness is a mat that lies in the doorway” > from matchbox20… > > \*\* It’s “She thinks that happiness is a mat that sits on her doorway”, not “emptiness”… I took this to mean that she presents the appearance of being happy, as a welcome mat on your doorstep presents the appearance that you want your in-laws or some other bunch of random idiots to come on into your house. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/68 "2000-07-18T14:58:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gammu \* > \*\* > Everyone! Sing Along! > > > [@](#): > > > > Someone left the cake out in the rain, > > I don’t think that I can take > > Cuz it took so long to bake it > > and I’ll never have the recipe agaaaaaain! > > Ohhhhhh Noooooooooooooooooooooooo! > > \*\* I prefer it when They Might Be Giants made fun of that by sticking the following lyric in “It’s not my birthday” When this grey world crumbles like I cake I’ll be hanging from the hope That I’ll never see that recipe again ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/69 "2000-07-18T15:13:30Z")
California Uber Alles is one of the Dead Kennedys’ most memorable songs. But every time I hear Jello’s absurd forced rhyme: It’s the suede and denim secret police They’ve come to take away your uncool niece… I just crack up. MR ---
**Author:** ![zwaldd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a9adbd/32.png) [@zwaldd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zwaldd)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/70 "2000-07-18T15:18:55Z")
anyone wear black concert t shirts under flannels in high school? work boots? then how bad is this gem from Black Sabbath’s Hand of Doom (these are supposed to be 'rhyming couplets, by the way): First it was the bomb Vietnam, napalm Disillusioning you push the needle in From life you escape reality’s that way Colors in your mind satisfy your time when i started reading this thread, it’s the ‘vietnam, napalm’ line that immediately jumped into my head, but that whole verse is aesthetically warped. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2000, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/71 "2000-07-18T17:13:15Z")
Some great lines in here. My contribution comes from Billy Joel, generally acknowledged to be a great (if aggressively mainstream) songwriter, regardless of anything else you might say about his voice, his later albums’ lack of thematic unity, etc. In his song “This is the Time,” from the album _The Bridge_, he sings the following: And so we embrace again Behind the dunes This beach is so cold On winter afternoons Oh but holding you close Is like holding the summer sun I’m warm from the memory Of days to come Okay, Billy, you were doing so well up until that last little bit. It’s a sweet and wistful song about what happens to love after the initial youthful passion fades, and two people are finding themselves settling into comfortable, familiar rhythms. The “summer sun” line is a great romantic reminder of what brought these two people together in the first place, and why, after all this time, he still loves her. But: “the memory of days to come”? I like the song, but for me that line is like hitting a speed bump at 40mph. Methinks it was an early-draft placeholder that never got revised. Billy certainly comes up with occasional clunkers, but this one, for some reason, bugs me more than the others. ---
**Author:** ![Feelyat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3be4f8/32.png) [@Feelyat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feelyat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/72 "2000-08-17T02:40:17Z")
Noel Gallagher, of Oasis, is an endless supply of ridiculous lyrics. Example: She’s electric. She’s got a family full of eccentrics. Makes no sense, and doesn’t even RHYME!! but, wait, there’s more from the same song: She’s got a cousin. In fact she’s got 'bout a dozen. And she has one in the oven. But it’s nothing to do with me. She’s go a cousin in the oven? Has she had an incestuous relationship with a cousin?? So many more Oasis lyrics that Noel just stuck together. Don’t get me wrong, they’re one of my favorite bands. Not skilled in song-writing,though. ---
**Author:** ![Feelyat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3be4f8/32.png) [@Feelyat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feelyat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/73 "2000-08-17T02:46:33Z")
Wait! I forgot one from Oasis’ newest album, “Standing on the Shoulder of Giants”: I can see a liar sitting by the fire. Noel, you’re a creative genius! Sure, it makes sense, but it’s obvious that he rhymes simply for the sake of rhyming, not to add wit or intelligence to his songs. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/74 "2000-08-17T02:59:53Z")
Ozzy Osbourne, “Ghost Behind My Eyes”, Blizzard of Ozz album “I think I’m gonna drink some plastic water, I guess I should’ve married Lennon’s daughter, yeah yeah yeah yeah” etc Of course unless you look at the lyrics sheet, you don’t know that it’s “Lennon”, and not “Lenin”, as I assumed the first time I heard the song 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/75 "2000-08-17T03:07:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Democritus \* > \*\* > I see a red door and I want to paint it black? WTF? > \*\* I think it’s a grave (raw red soil) and he wants it filled in. The line of cars are all painted black like hearses. ---
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/76 "2000-08-17T03:39:25Z")
Just noticed the post about PM Dawn. I don’t much care for them, but as for the lyrics: \> Christina Applegate, you gotta put me on. \> Guess who’s piece of the cake is Jack gone? In fairness to them, the first line is definetly a concious reference to A Tribe Called Quest’s song Bonita Applebum, the chorus to that being “Bonita Applebum, you gotta put me on”. What that has to do with a piece of cake though, I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Brood\_McEto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@Brood\_McEto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brood_McEto)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614/77 "2000-08-17T03:46:56Z")
The Nerd: Any lyrics by Soul Coughing are pretty much non-sensical. But I do love singing ‘normalize the signal…’ especially since i have a goatee. Forced rhymes? Listen to any of Eminem’s songs on the new album. A lot of them are twisted to sound like rhymes. From ‘Stan’: Dear Slim, I wrote you but you still ain’t callin. I left my cell, my pager and my home phone at the bottom. I sent two letters back in Autumn, you must not’ve got’em. There probably was a problem at the post office or something. Sometimes I scribble addresses too sloppy when I jot’em. But anyways, f\*ck it. What’s been up man, how’s your daughter? My girlfriend’s pregnant too, I’m bout to be a father. If I have a daughter, guess what I’ma call her, I’ma name her Bonnie. This is a very touching song, and shows that Em isn’t a big angry superstar rapper or whatever. But who sends letters in Autumn? How many people actually say Autumn? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-songs-bad-lines/25614.md?page=3)