# Lines you hate in a song you like **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2018, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654 "2018-04-18T18:09:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/141 "2018-05-01T13:58:02Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I’m a lifelong atheist, but I still love the musical _Godspell_. Even when I was nine years old, I could tell there was one line in it that clunked – the last line of the last song (other than a couple reprises): > > _“Long live God.”_ (Musically, though, this section is clever, and moving: the clunky line uses the same chords as the opening song, “Prepare ye the Way of the Lord,” which then re-commences – the circle of life and all that.) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/142 "2018-05-02T13:16:22Z")
I always sing the chorus to The Glory of Love like this: I am the one who will fight for your honor. I’ll be the hero that you’re dreaming of. We’ll live together knowing forever that We did it all for glory of love People do not live forever, but they do live together. I’m willing to believe you might maybe know something forever, in a figurative sense. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/143 "2018-05-02T18:32:03Z")
I could do without the gigajillion repetitions of _Na na na na na na na na na na, Hey Jude_ ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2018, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/144 "2018-05-04T07:21:27Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > 1. The Revivalists’ “Wish I Knew You (When I Was Young)” - why, what’s wrong with right now? If there’s the hint of an answer in the song, I can’t find it. > > I’m loving the song as it goes _Friday night, holy ghost, take me to your level, show me the one I need the most_, and then it hits me with the title line, and I’m going _WTF?_ every time. I interpret it as “If I had known you when I was young, I would have had more time with you.” Or it could be “it’s a shame I’m only meeting you now, when I’m older and not as energetic/healthy/adventurous as I used to be.” ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/145 "2018-05-05T10:49:39Z")
Cat Stevens, “Moonshadow” If I ever lose my mouth or my teeth, **north and south** ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/146 "2018-08-11T15:24:40Z")
I just think the following line in “Closer” by the Chainsmokers/Halsey sounds so _forced_, for wont of a better term: “So baby pull me closer in the backseat of your Rover That I know you can’t afford Bite that tattoo on your shoulder Pull the sheets right off the corner Of the mattress that you stole From your roommate back in Boulder We ain’t ever getting older.” That’s a lot of imagery and history packed in there, too much so imho. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/147 "2018-08-11T17:21:56Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > I always thought that line was innuendo, which isn’t meaningless. Most 17 year olds, including myself years ago, are often chubby, awkward, or have acne. The exquisite ones men drool over are rare as unicorns. My opinion and I’m sticking to it. Also, even back then, it was thought 17 year olds were firm, undiseased, pliant bags of flesh for the using, unlike some old, worn out hardened groupies. Those young giggling dummies were invited back to ‘party’ with the band because of their sparkling conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/148 "2018-08-11T19:33:47Z")
In “Robbery, Assault and Battery” by Genesis: “God always fights on the side of the bad man” WTF? 😕 Tony Banks is a consummate keyboardist and music composer, but he sucks at writing lyrics. _A Trick of the Tail_ is one of their best albums musically, but lyrically suffered in spots without Peter Gabriel’s contribution. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/149 "2018-08-11T23:00:47Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Cat Stevens, “Moonshadow” > > If I ever lose my mouth > or my teeth, **north and south** It’s ‘all’ my teeth, north and south. Top and bottom. That’s an actual expression. Or, I should say, I’ve heard it used as an expression. Specifically, I remember former baseball player Lenny Dykstra saying that he lost his teeth, ‘north and south’, because of chewing tobacco. But which came first? Perhaps Cat Stevens coined it. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/150 "2018-08-11T23:50:00Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > But when he says “then I stepped out to buy some dog food for the cat”, I cringe. It’s like, he’s trying so hard to be ironic or clever or something with this, but it fails. Sort of like… “It rained all day the night I left The weather was so dry The sun so hot I froze myself…” ? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/151 "2018-08-12T09:38:33Z")
Danny O’Keefe’s song “On Discovering a Missing Person” is a favorite song of mine. But it’s clear that in the last verse he just didn’t know what to say: “Take me to that river I’m ready for the plunge There ain’t been much water lately In my sponge” Every time I hear the song, I cringe at the last line. And you can’t even think of it as a throwaway as it’s the LAST LINE IN THE SONG. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/152 "2018-08-13T00:40:20Z")
From Bette Davis Eyes,which overall is a great song, I have always thought that: She’s precocious And she knows just what it takes To make a pro blush is a terrible, forced rhyme. (There is another verse that uses “ferocious” instead of “precocious” - just as bad.) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/153 "2018-08-13T13:18:24Z")
To Paxtn’s I’m Changing My Name To Chrysler" is excellent. The line: I will tell some power broker/What he did for Iacocca" is pure Dylan-level rhyme genius. HOWEVER… Since the first amphibian crawled out of the slime We’ve been struggling in an unrelenting climb We were hardly up and walking before money started talking And it said that failure is an awful crime should be We had barely started walking before money started talking. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/154 "2018-08-13T13:32:21Z")
**"Moonlight Shadow":** “Four a.m. in the morning.” \*\*Of course \*\*it’s four a.m. in the morning! That’s what “a.m.” **means**! **DUH!** :smack: No matter how hard I try, I cannot unhear those words. Couldn’t they have used “Four **o’clock** in the morning” instead? :dubious: :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/155 "2018-08-13T13:48:48Z")
Leonard Cohen’s “Night Comes On” has the lines… _There was this terrible sound And my father went down With a terrible wound in his side_ The double use of “terrible” there has always annoyed me. I’ve no idea if it was deliberate but it sounds to my ear like Cohen couldn’t think of another synonym for “very bad” that worked. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/156 "2018-08-13T19:49:28Z")
> [@MadTheSwine](#): > > neither does sucking… weird lyric “chewin’” would have worked. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/157 "2018-08-13T19:53:38Z")
Every word of the Stones’ “Brown Sugar” and “Under my Thumb.” ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/158 "2018-08-13T22:17:03Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > Every word of the Stones’ “Brown Sugar” and “Under my Thumb.” Not “Stupid Girl?” ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/159 "2018-08-13T23:08:32Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > While we’re on this topic, how many people here actually know what “bedsitter people” means? From the Soft Cell song **Bedsitter** “poverty-stricken apartment dweller” makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654/160 "2018-08-17T17:58:12Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > Not “Stupid Girl?” TBH, I didn’t even know that song. I did look up the lyrics but it seemed to me that they’re about a type of girl who’s very vain. Did I get that wrong? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lines-you-hate-in-a-song-you-like/812654.md?page=9)