# Little things in song lyrics that piss you off **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 15, 2002, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839 "2002-04-15T23:22:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/21 "2002-04-16T14:14:29Z")
in **new order’s** _crystal_, bernard sumner sings: _here comes love, it’s like honey you can’t buy it with money_ now, bernard has never been the best lyricist. but this is truly awful. first, he rhymes ‘honey’ with ‘money’. jesus fuck! never heard that one before! it’s up there with city and pretty, or moon and june. but most importantly, it’s a stupid metaphor. unlike love, i \*_can_ buy honey! it’s available from the local supermarket. a couple of dollars will buy you a jar? hasn’t bernard ever heard of the grocery section before? still a great song, though. also, the get up kids cover of **motley crue’s** _on with the show_. now, i’ve never heard the orginal, and i really don’t think i want to, not being a huge fan of hair-metal. but the get up kids’ version is a sparkly piece of emo-pop. it’s all very nice except for the horrendous lyrics. i spose their only excuse is that they didn’t pen them. _on with the show_ is a stupid mawkish ballad about a tough kid who lives on the streets and dies on them, or some shit. the lyrics are awful. [just look](http://www.lyricsstyle.com/t/thegetupkids/onwiththeshow.html) - you really do need to see the whole thing to appreciate how awful it is. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/22 "2002-04-16T14:50:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gex gex \* > \*\* > the get up kids’ version is a sparkly piece of emo-pop. it’s all very nice except for the horrendous lyrics. i spose their only excuse is that they didn’t pen them. > \*\* \Can someone please tell just waht exactly IS “emo-pop”? This term has been nagging at me.\ My ex-boyfriend hated, just _hated_ the **Live** line “If the mother goes to bed with you…” In the full context of the song, it’s not really that disturbing, but that line is so clear compared to the others that it seems a little isolated. He found it used to bring icky thoughts to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/23 "2002-04-16T15:34:43Z")
A bad Rush Lyric. Yup. In the song “Alien Shore”, Neil Peart (a.k.a. the best lyricist on the planet) must have had an offday. _For you and me We hold these truths to be self-evident For you and me We’d elect each other president_ Yikes, Neil. Back to the drawing board! Of course, this _pales_ when compared to Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart my Heart”. The entire song’s lyrics are pretty stupid, but this: _skydive naked from an aeroplane or a lady with a body from outerspace my heart, my heart kickstart my heart_ …just completely tells it all. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/24 "2002-04-16T17:53:48Z")
This is bizarre – I had a random annoying song lyric just lodge itself in my head not ten minutes ago, and then I come here, and find a ready-made place to vent. (You folks are the greatest – no, really.) Anyway, it’s a song by **The Judybats** , though I can’t remember which one. (Just searched because it was really annoying me – the song is “Is Anything.”) The line, which is semi-shouted at the end of the song, is: > [@](#): > > How can we have wondered about so much for so long and received so few answers? and is repeated, if I remember correctly, twice. I usually like Jeff Heiskell’s lyrics; he has a lot of nice wordplay and some interesting views of life. But this line drives me screaming bugfuck every time I hear it. Repeat after me: “ **Receive**? What the hell are you expecting to **receive**?! Just lying around **thinking** is not going to get you anything! Don’t just **wonder** – get the hell off your ass and **do something!!!** ” Pant pant. Feels good to get that off my chest. ---
**Author:** ![madcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@madcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madcat)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/25 "2002-04-16T19:32:33Z")
The old Norman Greenbaum song “Spirit in the Sky” makes me want to scream:“Shut up you smug,pretentious bastard!” when I hear the line:“Never been a sinner, I never sinned.” ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/26 "2002-04-16T19:41:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Grelby \* > \*\*Couple… first in that horrible, horrible, highly annoying drivel _What if God Was One of Us_: The part about how “would you want to see Him if seeing meant you had to believe…” That’s not exact, but more or less how it goes. It strikes me as the most idiotic “deep faith question” one could ask. I mean… DUH! > \*\* Be fair now. She’s not asking whether you would want to see god if seeing god would mean that you had to believe in god, but rather (as the next line indicates), whether you would want to see god if seeing god meant that you would _also_ have to believe in “things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets”. Oddly, I did not realize until I ran a Google search on this song (wanted to make sure I quoted the lyric correctly) that the song is “What if God Was One of Us” rather than the grammatically correct “What if God Were One of Us”. I always seem to mentally correct this error, so it never bothers me in any of the many songs that make it. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/27 "2002-04-16T19:50:09Z")
Lines like the following. (This is from Sharryl Crowe’s latest—and I just realized I have no idea how to spell her name) _I’ve got a commie job It don’t pay near enough To buy the things I need To win me some of your love._ ACK! How much money does it cost to win someone’s love? What exactly do you need to win someone’s love? A car? Jewelry? A horse? What? And songwriters make references like this all of the time! ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/28 "2002-04-16T20:10:41Z")
I’ve always wondered what Paul McCartney meant when he sang : “The movement you need is on your shoulder”. But then again, I’ve heard he wonders the same thing! ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/29 "2002-04-16T20:50:47Z")
Well, it is probably an insane notpick . In the excellent song by U2 _Pride (In the Name of Love)_ the lyric goes: Early morning April 4 Shot rings out In the Memphis Sky It is referencing the assasination of Martin Luther King, but he was shot late in the evening not the morning! OK, I understand it is stupid of me to complain and literary license and all that, but now that I know it I cannot help listening to the song and muttering under my breath…“Evening, not morning, evening!” ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/30 "2002-04-16T21:26:41Z")
**Caricci** , he wanted to take that line out, but John said he liked it, so Paul kept it in. Now everytime he sings it, he of course, thinks of John. Well, that’s his story and he’s sticking to it. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/31 "2002-04-16T21:30:05Z")
Oh, here’s one from Don Henley that drives me nuts. In “The ENd of the Innocence,” he sings… “Lay your head back on the ground, And let your hair fall all around me.” Don… if the girl is lying back on the ground, this little thing called GRAVITY would prevent her hair from falling over you. ---
**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/32 "2002-04-17T00:06:04Z")
This one has always bugged me: In “Happy Together” by the Turtles he sings… “The only one for me is you, and you for me, so happy together.” Uh, didn’t you just repeat yourself? For me…you and you for me. Same thing! Thank you for listening. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/33 "2002-04-17T01:23:42Z")
My pet peeve is the use of I when “me” is called for. Example, in Melissa Etheridge’s _Yes I Am_ > [@](#): > > Barring divine intervention > There is nothing between **you and I** Grrr. Just to rhyme with the word “santify” in the next couplet which isn’t used correctly either. Icky, icky, bad, Melissa. Btw, **Jeremy’s Evil Twin** , Tom Petty is from Florida, not SoCal. He’s said that he’s never actually been to Reseda, and just heard the name in a movie. I’d lay money that he cribbed it from [i[The Karate Kid\*. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/34 "2002-04-17T02:53:00Z")
> [@](#): > > “The only one for me is you, and you for me, so happy together.” Uh, didn’t you just repeat yourself? For me…you and you for me. Same thing! Isn’t it short for “the only one for me is you, and the only one for you is me”? It seems to make sense to me. By the way I’m with you, **tlw**. What’s the song that has the line “for the sake of you and I”? I hated the line so much I had to turn the radio off every time that song started. ---
**Author:** ![typhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed8c4c/32.png) [@typhoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typhoon)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/35 "2002-04-17T03:32:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nenya\_Elizabeth \* > \*\*Yeah, the thing with the persecuted-Christian lyrics is not that Christians are not persecuted; they are, but the folks writing the songs or listening to them are not being asked to give up their lives or anything. To me, it seems to cheapen the experiences of those who ARE killed for their faith. \*\* Yeah, they really ruin it for the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/36 "2002-04-17T15:40:28Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by Tretiak_ > Well, it is probably an insane notpick . In the excellent song by U2 Pride (In the Name of Love) the lyric goes: > > Early morning > April 4 > Shot rings out > In the Memphis Sky > > It is referencing the assasination of Martin Luther King, but he was shot late in the evening not the morning! OK, I understand it is stupid of me to complain and literary license and all that, but now that I know it I cannot help listening to the song and muttering under my breath…“Evening, not morning, evening!” ahh yes, but bono has since realised his error, and sung ‘evening’ in concert. > [@](#): > > _originally posted by charmian_ > Can someone please tell just waht exactly IS “emo-pop”? This term has been nagging at me. actual term is ‘emo’, i used emo-pop because the song in question can be described as pop-influenced emo. in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=107243), killerfig described emo as > [@](#): > > Emo is a style of music that has its roots in punk rock but is much more melodic and frequently involves emotions other than just anger. It was originally referred to as Emo-core punk, but eventually devoloped an identity of its own. It’s a pretty broad genre, including bands as diverse as Rites of Spring, Promise Ring, and The Get Up Kids. which is a pretty good description as far as i’m concerned. ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/37 "2002-04-17T15:44:41Z")
also a good discussion of emo in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=84336). ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/38 "2002-04-17T15:49:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gex gex \* > \*\* > actual term is ‘emo’, i used emo-pop because the song in question can be described as pop-influenced emo. \ > \*\* Ahh… now I understand. _basking in the glow of enlightenment_ Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Teerious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Miss\_Teerious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Teerious)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/39 "2002-04-18T00:48:06Z")
The song "Turning Japanese has one of the most annoying lyrics ever. “I want a doctor to take your picture, so I can look at you from inside as well.” Everyone else in the entire world seems to like this song, but I hate it because of this lyric. Not only is it stupid, but think about it, it’s gross. Also, in that song “The Way You Do the Things You Do” the line “If good looks were a minute, you know you could have been an hour” has always bugged the crap out of me. Argh! It’s a terrible metaphor! And “Hey 98.6, it’s good to have you back again.” He’s singing to his friggin’ temperature. I’m glad I’m finally able to get some of this off my chest! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839/40 "2002-04-18T02:03:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miss Teerious \* > \*\*The song "Turning Japanese has one of the most annoying lyrics ever. “I want a doctor to take your picture, so I can look at you from inside as well.” Everyone else in the entire world seems to like this song, but I hate it because of this lyric. Not only is it stupid, but think about it, it’s gross. > \*\* Well yes, but the narrator of the song is obviously nuts so as stupid and gross as the line is, it fits in perfectly. The _worst_ line in that song is “Everyone avoids me like a cyclone ranger.” What the heck is a cyclone ranger? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-in-song-lyrics-that-piss-you-off/103839.md?page=3)