Who can forget those hauntingly poetic lyrics from “Ping Pong”:
It’s all right, 'cause the historical pattern has shown
How the economical cycle tends to revolve
It always seemed to me that the second stanza of Wish You were Here had a couple lines that were flipped.
Did they get you to trade
Your heros for ghosts
Hot ashes for trees
Hot air for a cool breeze
Those last two lines are arranged in reverse relative to the line before, apparently for the scansion and rhyme. We just, I guess, accept it that way and assume the opposite meaning.
Good sleuthing! A few years ago, I had to move my copy of Revolution in the Hesd from my home to my work office, because I was spending too much time reading it over and over. I kid you not! It was my addiction.
It may not be a “great” song, but Utopia’s Rock Love has this bit of wisdom:
Let me be your adviser
Keep the monkeys off your back
Figure your taxes
Stay up all night making sure that everything is right
Figure your taxes?
Back in the day “figure” was a decent word for “compute”. Sort of short for “figure out”, but with a built-in arithmetical connotation. Whereas plain old “figure out” could apply to any problem-solving exercise.
And it has the right number of syllables.
“Figure your taxes” sounds perfectly fine to my not-quite-50-year-old ears. I mean, there’s a current YouTube short entitled “figure your taxes in a few minutes,” so it is colloquially used, at least. If that doesn’t work for you, the IRS on its own homepage uses the verbiage “to figure your taxes” and the first verb definition on dictionary. com is “calculate.”
Or is the complaint not about the words but the imagery chosen for those particular lines? That is a bit arbitrary and whimsical and perhaps intentionally humorous, but I don’t know the song.
There’s another line from “Rock Love” that’s worth remembering:
You got to choose your heroes, choose them well
They could be leading you straight into hell
Yeah, I meant this way.
I’ll love you forever, buy you diamond rings and things right to your door, send you to the moon on gossamer wings, I’ll do all that. it’s romantic and shit.
But…doing your taxes? That’s a bit to practical for a love song, IMO.
Ça Plane Pour Moi is a great song with completely inane lyrics.
I got it. It does a bit jarring.
I am the king of the divan!
The only thing that makes it a good song is, I don’t speak French. He could be singing…anything! or nothing at all!
Just like Prisencolinensinainciusol…all right!
Get your colored balls dyed.
Ken Lee, a libadidiba do chu
Rock and roll inherited that from folk music, of course.
The tune don’t have to be clever,
And it don’t matter if you put a couple of extra syllables into a line.
It sounds more ethnic if it aint good English
And it don’t even gotta rhyme!
Excuse me…rhyne.
Folk, ala Dylan:
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don’t wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don’t wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don’t work
’Cause the vandals took the handles
I know people worship Dylan, but come on, those are terrible lyrics!
It’s been speculated that he “borrowed” part of that rhyme scheme from Robert Browning:
Look, two and two go the priests, then the monks with cowls and sandals,
And the penitents dressed in white shirts a-holding the yellow candles;
One, he carries a flag up straight, and another a cross with handles.
And the Duke’s guard brings up the rear, for the better prevention of scandals…
I could give you the upper lyrics, but I love these two lines.
Yes, but rhyming isn’t really the main problem I have with the Steve Miller song. I could write a whole bunch of stuff about it, but in a nutshell, the whole thing is just very sketchy, lacking enough detail to make it, well, actually interesting. They shot a guy while robbing him, ran away, and there’s some detective who hasn’t caught them. So what?
I’m not asking for a novel, but if you’re paying attention to the lyrics, which is what this thread is about, Steve’s raising more questions than he answers, and a little bit more work on the song could probably smooth it out. Even the Applebee’s song, unfortunate though it may be from its very conception, acquits itself better on that account. (But I’ll agree that Steve’s song is better when you consider the music as well.)
The Exception That Proves The Rule: AC/DC Big Balls
A meta take on this subject: Hook by Blues Traveler. Maybe not a ‘great’ song but pretty damn good.