Great songs with not so great lyrics

Cafe Society
1

I really love Van Morrison music. He has produced some great music down through the years and has written some really beautiful songs.

I was listening to And It Stoned Me yesterday. I’ve always liked the song but never really listened to the words. And when I did, well, they seemed a bit clunky.

In the first 4 lines he rhymes:
And the rain came pourin’ down
With
With a silver half a crown:

The next 4 lines:
Hands are full of a fishin’ rod
And the tackle on our backs
We just stood there gettin’ wet
With our backs against the fence

“back” and “fence”? Not only that, he uses ‘back’ twice which doesn’t flow well to my ears.

And then there’s:
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like jelly roll
Jelly roll sems to come out of no where. Sure, it rhymes and I read it is thought to be reference to JR Morton but still…

Almost let a pick-up truck nearly pass us by
Almost nearly?

I love the song, and, yes, I’m nit-picking but it seems he phoned these lyrics in.

2

I’ve always allowed myself a momentary inner smile when I hear Ozzy sing the first lines of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs”:

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses

I guess rhyming “masses” with “masses” is just about the most perfect rhyme you could ever hope for.

3

I remain duly impressed with George Harrison for turning a dozen lines of second-rate teenage love poetry into the banger that is “What Is Life.”

4

Agreed, though a banger it is.

5

Terrible lyrics, but a pretty good tune

Someone’s knocking at the door
Somebody ringing the bell
Someone’s knocking at the door
Somebody’s ringing the bell
Do me a favor
Open the door, let 'em in, yeah, let 'em in

6

Africa by Toto has some lyrics that are obscure enough that people don’t even agree on what they are: Is it “A hundred men or more” or “A hundred men on Mars” ?

Iirc, the members of Toto have admitted that some of the lyrics were just placeholders.

Having said that, the song has a great melody, and is beautifully produced.

7

Personally, I prefer those lyrics to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” which sounds like it was written as an advertisement for a rhyming dictionary.

8

Darn you, sir… now I have that tune stuck in my head! (shakes fist at Procrustus)

9

And then there was that time Nirvana rhymed mosquito with libido … :nauseated_face:

10

I submit the entire song “Stay With Me” by Rod Stewart and the Faces.

There is nothing socially redeaming in the song. It’s a one-night stand of the worst kind

But the music… That comes on the car radio, and I’m crankin’ it up!

11

Love, love that song, but:

I look at the floor
And I see it needs sweeping

Pa-leeze. Reminds me of that old CW song, Good Year For Roses (Elvis Costello)
But what a good year for the roses
Many blooms still linger there
The lawn could stand another mowing
It’s funny, I don’t even care

Also:

I look from the wings
At the play you are staging

'Cause I’m sitting here
Doing nothing but aging

Yipes!

12

I’m reminded of the possibly apocryphal statement supposedly made by Peter Gabriel: “There have been many great songs with terrible lyrics. There have been no great songs with terrible music.”

13

My bucket list includes a trip to Africa just so that I can post a photo on social media with the caption “Kilimanjaro, rising like Olympus above the Serengeti”.

14

The Rolling Stones are good for this. I love the Stones, but a lot of their song lyrics when read do sound kind of shite. I believe Mick Jagger has said as much in interviews, that lyric writing is hard and most of their lyrics wouldn’t stand up to much scrutiny minus the music.

Take ‘Tumbing Dice’-- great jam. Here are samples of the lyrics:

Women think I’m tasty, but they’re always tryin’ to waste me

Baby, got no flavor, fever in the funk house now

This low down bitchin’ got my poor feet a itchin’

No wonder Mick sort of slur-sings most of his songs, so you can’t really tell what he’s saying :roll_eyes:

15

OTOH, I’m sure many men have discovered their libido delivered them into the clutches of blood-suckers far more dangerous than mere insects. :wink:


Probably the single most forced-sounding lyric of all time. To make the syllable count fit the beat they came up with this abomination!!!??!1!??

aaaaaabooooovvvvvvvv thuuuh serengeTEEEEEEEE

IANA music or poetry expert, but jeez Louise even I can tell that stinks.

But, yeah, that does make a cool bucket list item. When you do that, be sure to post it here too.

16

How 'bout “I am, I said” by Neil Diamond.

I am I said
to no one there
and no on heard at all
not even the chair

I mean, do you really expect your chair to listen? “I need to talk, get me my chair on line one” said no one ever.

Still, it’s a great tune

17

And the only way it can get smooshed into the stanza is to pronounce it SARE’-en-geh-tee, first and last syllables accented but the main stress on the first. You know, the way no one in history has ever said it!

18

Did you notice the world keeps turning and we keep learning? Deep stuff.

19

“When the rain wa-SHEZZ you clean, you’ll know…” (just stress error, not syllable count error, but still)
– Fleetwood Mac, “Dreams”

20

Except that Kilimanjaro is about 250 miles from the Serengeti, so they can’t be in the same photo.