Great songs with not so great lyrics

[K364]

As @pulykamell and others have mentioned, I like surreal lyrics, but they must have imagery and be poetic.

An example on the good side is “Whiter Shade of Pale”

An example on the bad side is Dylan’s “Love Minus Zero / No Limit” which (besides a great tune) starts and ends just fine with the My Love parts, but in the middle he ruins the mood with fake made-up crap like “Even the pawn must hold a grudge” and “Banker’s nieces seek perfection”.

There are attempts to explain all this, but I think Bob is yanking our collective chains.

[Jackmannii]

Don’t you know about the bird?

Everybody’s heard about the bird!

B-b-b bird, bird, bird, b-bird’s the word
A well a bird, bird, bird, the bird is the word
A well a bird, bird, bird, well the bird is the word
A well a bird, bird, bird, b-bird’s the word
A well a bird, bird, bird, well the bird is the word
A well a bird, bird, b-bird’s the word
A well a bird, bird, bird, b-bird’s the word
A well a bird, bird, bird, well the bird is the word
A well a bird, bird, b-bird’s the word

• The Trashmen

Actually those are great lyrics. Papa ooma mow mow, papa oom mow mow mow!

[Elmer_J.Fudd]

@Jackmannii

Papa ooma mow mow, papa oom mow mow mow!

Which were stolen from the Rivingtons.

[jsc1953]

@dirtball

And that’s not to say I think all country music is polished gems of songwriting craftsmanship with lyrics that’ll comply with the standard rules someone would learn in a creative writing workshop. It’s most certainly not. But (and again, based simply on my own nonscientific experience with hearing music over the years) if that’s what you’re looking for as a listener, country is probably safer territory.

I don’t listen to a lot of country, but the lyrics to “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” always struck me as particularly clever:

I’m getting paid by the hour but older by the minute

My boss just pushed me over the limit; I’d like to call him something but I think I’ll just call it a day

[LSLGuy]

Good one.

I too don’t listen to country unless I can’t avoid it, but IMO that genre pretty much has the lock on lyrics as a rueful observation about life as an ordinary Joe / Jane in the mostly dysfunctional US of A.

[Lucas_Jackson]

@Q.Q.Switcheroo

It’s been speculated that he “borrowed” part of that rhyme scheme from Robert Browning:

One of the things I don’t get about the Dylan mystique, is why he never gets called out on his thievery. Early on he stole not only lyrics but melodies, song structures, etc. Other folks, like Zep for example, get smeared for it but not Dylan. It usually gets put down to, oh well, it’s a folk tradition.

@wguy123

I could give you the upper lyrics, but I love these two lines.

Interesting. I almost highlighted those two lines as the worst of the bunch, in fact, it was those two lines that first soured me on Dylan. Different strokes, I guess.

@BlankSlate

A meta take on this subject: Hook by Blues Traveler. Maybe not a ‘great’ song but pretty damn good

I would put this song in the ‘great’ category. The concept and execution (the meta part) is absolutely brilliant.

ETA: Deconstructed.

@K364

As @pulykamell and others have mentioned, I like surreal lyrics, but they must have imagery and be poetic.

100% agree! Lennon is good at this: Glass onion, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, etc.

[dirtball]

@Lucas_Jackson

One of the things I don’t get about the Dylan mystique, is why he never gets called out on his thievery. Early on he stole not only lyrics but melodies, song structures, etc. Other folks, like Zep for example, get smeared for it but not Dylan. It usually gets put down to, oh well, it’s a folk tradition.

Zeppelin has been defended by some hardcore fans as simply following blues tradition, and yes, that kind of thing has indeed been done by blues artists.

I think the big difference, though, might be that Dylan was regarded from the outset as a folkie himself. He was one of them. Zep would have been regarded as outsiders in the blues world. I’m just speculating, though.

[Lucas_Jackson]

That’s an interesting take, and a fair point. Still, Dylan never got sued (as far as I know) nor did he credit those he stole from under the song name.

[Q.Q.Switcheroo]

I guess he showed a certain amount of self-awareness when he titled a whole album “Love and Theft.”

[EinsteinsHund]

@Lucas_Jackson

That’s an interesting take, and a fair point. Still, Dylan never got sued (as far as I know) nor did he credit those he stole from under the song name.

Most of the tunes he “adapted” were in the public domain as age old folk tunes nobody knew the author of, so there was nobody to sue him. Everybody in blues and folk did that. It would have been more honest if he had credited those songs as “words: Bob Dylan, tune: traditional”, I grant you that.