I was listening to Cream’s “Badge” for the first time in who knows how long and those lyrics are really, really bad, as if they threw a bunch of unrelated sentences together just to fit the rhyme. In fact, I think the lyrics are so distractingly dumb that I’d probably prefer an instrumental version.
What are some other examples of songs you like except for the idiotic lyrics?
I can’t imagine how anyone is going to top *“mama se mama sa mama coo sa”*unless it’s with that other brilliant line from the same song: "You’re a vegetable and they hate you". I love me some old style MJ but some of his lyrics . . . sheesh.
Ted Nugent, “Stranglehold.” An awesomely menacing bass line and one of the rare extended guitar jams that’s actually exciting…in the service of a junior high-school level lyrical fantasy about choking a bitch.
Renegades by X Ambassadors is a catchy tune and I like the guy’s voice but the lyrics are repetitive and vapid and are starting to annoy me because of the overplayed Jeep commercials on TV.
As a prog-rock fan of the Seventies, I’ve long been USED to lyrics that make absolutely no sense!
Do the lyrics of “Court of the Crimson King” or “Close to the Edge” mean anything more than “Pete Sinfield and Jon Anderson smoked a lot of weed and read a little Tolkien”? Probably not!
The first of those isn’t original to him, and Dibango has the settlement to prove it. (Also not entirely nonsense - just a play on the Duala word makossa).
One example that always immediately comes to mind is Finger Eleven’s “Paralyzer.” The stupid lyrics did not prevent me from voting for the song in Smapti’s 2008 poll of the best of the rest of the Top 40, however.
Here’s one from my second-favorite singer, Tom Petty: “Honey Bee.”
FTR, one of the best band names ever. 
Has anyone actually read, or listened to, the words to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”? The song is about homeless teenage prostitutes!
I’ve always thought that Rainbow’s All Night Long falls into this category.
Great beat, excellent guitar, solid vocals… Just silly lyrics. But then again, the song’s topic doesn’t exactly warrant words by Shakespeare.
I never got that vibe from the lyrics - it’s just a story about two different young people from two different walks of life having a chance encounter in a bar late at night.
JOLENE! Oh god yes, a thousand times, Jolene. It’s, IMO, a brilliant song, musically and vocally. Even if it sounds a bit dated instrumentally, I could listen to it over and over and again, and even silently sing along. But, without the music and Dolly’s wonderful voice, oh god what trash. The lyrics work with the song, but the story she’s telling, oy! It drives me nuts if I stop to think about it.
Needy woman pleads with a Bitch to not steal her Asshole man because Needy will never find another man, whereas Bitch can have any man she wants, and if Bitch rejects Asshole then he’ll have to settle for Needy. Excuse me? Asshole and Bitch deserve each other because it’s obvious to me that a man who would cheat and a home wrecker who would be with a cheat is a recipe for disaster, the more the merrier. I see lots of fights between Bitch and Asshole, with household objects thrown, neighbors annoyed by the shouting, and many domestic violence visits by police in their future. Yeah there might be wild make-up sex after each fight but damn, such drama!
Not to mention that Needy is too dim to realize that even if Bitch took pity on Needy and dropped Asshole and he went back to Needy, a man who would cheat on her once will be cheating on her again. And again. And again. Forget the Asshole Needy, and work on your self-esteem. Find a decent man. They are out there! Live a quiet happy life and be thankful that you gave up the now totally miserable Asshole to the now totally miserable Bitch. Living well and being happy is the best revenge.
But still, I do love that song otherwise!
I don’t know if it’s a ‘good song’ but the lyrics are awesome: Big Sean and Nicki Minaj (who is the Queen of bad stupid lyrics all on her own): “Dance Ass” - ‘ass ass ass ass ass ass…’
A good song, by definition, has good lyrics.
I think I’m going to have to disagree with you here. I could argue the sheer emotive power of music, but it’s easier to just give an example. “By some accounts “Louie Louie” is the world’s most recorded rock song” and no one even knows what the lyrics are.
I disagree. Cite: Gary Moore’s Parisienne Walkways lyrics. Only 47 words, including “Oh, I could write you paragraphs, About my old Parisienne days.” He could write paragraphs, but he chose not to.
Not necessarily. Instrumentals can be great songs without any lyrics at all, and how about some of the great old R.E.M. songs, which have no discernible lyrics?
How about “I Am The Walrus”?
Or how about the Cocteau Twins, with Beth Fraser’s deliberately obscured vocal delivery (and I’m not even sure if she actually sings English words half the time, or if it’s just syllables that sound good. No matter, whatever it is, it’s beautiful and other-worldly.) Or Sigur Ros, which does sing some of their songs in a made-up language sometimes called “Hopelandic”?
I think panache45 is commenting on the more strict definition of a song, in that it is a musical piece with a vocal line, but there’s nothing definitionally that suggests it needs to have lyrics, or even good ones at that, to be a good song.
Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal has stupid lyrics and a stupid plot. MJ’s original is not that gripping (except for the video and subsequent video game) but Alien Ant Farm’s cover is pretty rockin’! Except for the lyrics.
Now that’s an interesting discussion: lyrics that are in the categories of Imagery, Arcane/Obscure, Pretentious and Absurd. These are not discreet categories - they can overlap.
Imagery is usually a very good thing for a song unless it is clumsy or incongruous.
Arcane/Obscure is the most difficult - it can sound great but can be annoying when you know it refers to a very specific thing that only the author knows. Or a pretence that the Author takes on by writing intentionally arcane but ultimately has no meaning whatsoever.
Pretentious is always bad (unless it’s a parody). Authors get pretentious when they try to impress by using exaggerated, inappropriate, or (unknowingly) false descriptions.
Absurd is obviously senseless or irrational and that brings us to “I Am The Walrus”… which I don’t mind too much - the words sound good and are funny.
“A Whiter Shade Of Pale” is intentionally arcane (and somewhat pretentious) but there is meaningless imagery that actually sounds great.
“She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” to me is a great song musically, but really bad lyrically because the lazy obscure references obviously are pretentious attempts to impress the listener but are clumsy, jarring and stupid sounding. For example “by her own lagoon”, “And so I quit the Police Department / To get myself a steady job”.