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.
Sands,
“Wish you were here” is supposed to make no sense at all. It describes Syd Barrets insanity.
The missus and I refer to that as “the cliche song”
What the hell is a "pompatus of love…"???
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 
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.
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.
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?