# Lyrics with a flaw **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597 "2015-04-13T21:15:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/21 "2015-04-14T00:03:54Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > I thought that was the reason I mentioned. Don’t quote me on this, but it’s just barely possible that I misread that part of your OP. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/22 "2015-04-14T00:27:22Z")
“Crown of Creation” - Jefferson Airplane “Life is change / How it differs from the rocks…” OK, to be fair the songwriter (Paul Kantner) was paraphrasing dialogue from John Wyndham’s novel “The Chrysalids” (with the author’s permission.) The metaphor is expressed a little better in the novel, but still…“how it differs _from the rocks_???” Just such a clunky line in an otherwise jamming little tune. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/23 "2015-04-14T00:30:19Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Although I love _Les Miserables_, there’s one song that has a clunker line that always takes me out of the enjoyment when I hear it. > > Sky? > > And don’t tell me it’s translated from French, because the English lyrics are a complete redo. I think this makes perfect sense because the sky acts as a simple metaphor for fate, judgment, God, etc. There’s a whole song called “Stars” after all. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/24 "2015-04-14T00:35:59Z")
One tortured rhyme has always been “With words they try to jail ya” with “It’s the rhetoric of fail-ya” It’s already an image that’s married to a concept in a convoluted way, so it’s not like Sting nailed the idea and just cheated on le mot juste. Nothing in that verse really works, and the terrible rhyme only makes it more painfully obvious. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/25 "2015-04-14T01:02:14Z")
I’ve already dissected Ed Sheeran’s _Thinking Out Loud_ in another thread but I hear it every day and there’s still so much cringe inside me that I think I’ll take another pass at trying to purge myself. “. . .will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?” :eek: Just, no. No. And not as oogy but still weird and awkward - “. . . will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?” What the hell kind of Picassoesque creature is he dating? “. . . honey your soul will never grow old, it’s evergreen”. Where I come from, an old soul is a \*good \*thing. It’s like telling her she’ll never reach emotional / spiritual maturity. And then for the chorus of this tender love song that I’d bet money was written with visions of being _the_ wedding song of 2014 he tells his love “Baby I’ll be loving you til we’re 70”. Gee Ed, that’s so . . .specific. I generally like this song, as the melody is pretty, and I like Mr. Sheeran as well, but dude, these lyrics are shite. And to whoever the dudes are that sing _Classic_, it is not necessary or recommended to use the adverb “so” as in “Baby you’re so classic”. Bitch is either classic or she aint. There aren’t degrees of classic, just like there aren’t degrees of unique. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/26 "2015-04-14T01:23:45Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > The Beatles, “It’s All too Much”: “All the world’s a birthday cake. So let’s take a slice, but not too much!” Jesus, George, really? I guess that was just the scene back then: sex, drugs, rock and roll, and a sensible attitude towards sweets. I’m gonna give George this one. He’s almost certainly referencing Billie Holiday’s ‘God Bless the Child’ > [@](#): > > Money, you’ve got lots of friends > Crowding round the door > When you’re gone, spending ends > They don’t come no more > Rich relations give > Crust of bread and such > **You can help yourself > But don’t take too much** > Mama may have, Papa may have > But God bless the child that’s got his own > That’s got his own ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/27 "2015-04-14T01:28:24Z")
Electric Six - Iron Dragon It was the longest game of chicken; who would be the first to blink first? ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/28 "2015-04-14T01:46:14Z")
There’s a lyric in the song “At the Gallows End” by the doom metal band Candlemass that always makes me cringe: _“Soon it is time, the dark has now fled / And I see the place for my death the priest he will pray for my lost soul / I’m sure he’s wasting his **time…** ”_ “TIME”??? Really? They couldn’t come up with “wasting his breath” which would at least rhyme? Then there’s Joan Baez: _“And here I sit, hand on the telephone / Hearing a voice I’d known **a couple of light years ago** …”_ I’ll bet she also brags about doing the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. Gerry Rafferty: _“You’re as constant as the Northern Star / The brightest light that shines.”_ Polaris isn’t the brightest star in the sky – it’s not even in the top forty! And the U2 song “Pride (In the Name of Love)”: _“Early morning, April 4th / Shot rang out in the Memphis sky”_ Umm, MLK was assassinated in late afternoon, not the morning. (Apparently, Bono sometimes changes the words to “early evening” when he performs the song.) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/29 "2015-04-14T01:53:07Z")
In “Uneasy Rider,” five big dudes come walking in, with some old drunk chick and a guy with green teeth, but later in the song he doesn’t want to get into a fight- especially when there were three of them… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/30 "2015-04-14T02:00:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **WOOKINPANUB** : > > And to whoever the dudes are that sing Classic, it is not necessary or recommended to use the adverb “so” as in “Baby you’re so classic”. Bitch is either classic or she aint. There aren’t degrees of classic, just like there aren’t degrees of unique. What? Of course there are degrees of both “classic” and “unique”. How could there not be? ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/31 "2015-04-14T02:57:06Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > One tortured rhyme has always been > > “With words they try to jail ya” with “It’s the rhetoric of fail-ya” > > It’s already an image that’s married to a concept in a convoluted way, so it’s not like Sting nailed the idea and just cheated on le mot juste. Nothing in that verse really works, and the terrible rhyme only makes it more painfully obvious. \*He starts to shake and cough Just like the old man in that book by “NAB-o-kov” You consider me the young apprentice, Caught between the Scylla and “Char-by-dis” \* :smack: ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/32 "2015-04-14T03:07:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What? Of course there are degrees of both “classic” and “unique”. How could there not be? I know you’re a smart cookie so you may very well prove me wrong, but it seems to me “unique” and “classic” are all encompassing descriptors on their own. Doesn’t unique mean one of a kind? It doesn’t feel right to describe something as “extremely one of a kind” because it’s, you know, \*one \*of a kind. As such, doesn’t classic mean of the highest order / quality? If something is already the highest degree, it really can’t be “_so_” because it is already as classic as it can be. Maybe I’m being not only pedantic but inaccurately so( it wouldn’t be the first time) but for some reason that line gets on my nerves every time I hear it. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/33 "2015-04-14T03:33:06Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > And to whoever the dudes are that sing _Classic_, it is not necessary or recommended to use the adverb “so” as in “Baby you’re so classic”. Bitch is either classic or she aint. There aren’t degrees of classic, just like there aren’t degrees of unique. MKTO. I know this because, uh, I, er… well I saw them in concert. My 12yo daughter had a great time, and really, the kids put on a pretty good show. One of the nice touches was they would take some girls phone and start singing into it while it was recording video, then give the phone back to her. Let’s just say that the lasses _loved_ it when they did this. However, there is one question/problem I have with the song. In the chorus they sing: > [@](#): > > I wanna thrill you like Michael > I wanna kiss you like Prince > Let’s get it on like Marvin Gaye > Like Hathaway > Write a song for you like this Uh… Hathaway? Who is that? Donny Hathaway, the guy who sang “Where is the Love?” with Roberta Flack? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/34 "2015-04-14T03:44:49Z")
The one that has always grated on my ears is from [Warren Zevon’s _Mr. Bad Example_](http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/warren_zevon/mr_bad_example.html) \*Whereupon I stole her passport and her wig And headed for the airport and the midnight flight, you dig? \* It’s so awful that it sticks out in a career otherwise filled with clever lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/35 "2015-04-14T03:55:35Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > MKTO. I know this because, uh, I, er… well I saw them in concert. My 12yo daughter had a great time, and really, the kids put on a pretty good show. One of the nice touches was they would take some girls phone and start singing into it while it was recording video, then give the phone back to her. Let’s just say that the lasses _loved_ it when they did this. > > However, there is one question/problem I have with the song. In the chorus they sing: > > Uh… Hathaway? Who is that? Donny Hathaway, the guy who sang “Where is the Love?” with Roberta Flack? I have a vague memory of “Hathaway” as someone who had a big hit but I can’t quite pin it down. I took a quick look on wiki but the list was pretty damn long. I feel like it was someone who had a hit with title or line that goes along with the theme of the song but I too cannot remember exactly who or what. Also, please to enlighten this old crone as to the meaning of MKTO? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/36 "2015-04-14T04:08:01Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/37 "2015-04-14T04:10:24Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Uh… Hathaway? Who is that? Donny Hathaway, the guy who sang “Where is the Love?” with Roberta Flack? That would be my assumption – he is known for smooth 70s baby-making music. ETA: That may just be my faulty memory – but the wiki for him does mention this MKTO business. > **[Donny Hathaway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donny_Hathaway)** > > Donny Edward Hathaway (October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979) was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, backing vocalist, and arranger who Rolling Stone described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include "The Ghetto", "This Christmas", "Someday We'll All Be Free", and "Little Ghetto Boy". Hathaway is also renowned for his renditions of "A Song for You", "For All We Know", and "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", along with "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to Hat... And I thought the “little” in Galileo was about wondering why this tiny thing far away is having an effect on her. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/38 "2015-04-14T04:35:11Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > That would be my assumption – he is known for smooth 70s baby-making music. > > ETA: That may just be my faulty memory – but the wiki for him does mention this MKTO business. > > [Donny Hathaway - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donny_Hathaway) > And I thought the “little” in Galileo was about wondering why this tiny thing far away is having an effect on her. That does make sense, especially time frame wise when you pair it with " Marvin Gaye". I just had this nagging sense that I half remembered some r&b or disco artist called “Hathoway”. Actually I think I’m hallucinating late 80s / early 90s but I can’t clear up the mental image more than that. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/39 "2015-04-14T05:00:33Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > That does make sense, especially time frame wise when you pair it with " Marvin Gaye". I just had this nagging sense that I half remembered some r&b or disco artist called “Hathoway”. Actually I think I’m hallucinating late 80s / early 90s but I can’t clear up the mental image more than that. You may be thinking of Haddaway, who had the 1993 hit “[What Is Love?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhrBDcQq2DM)”, aka the “Night At The Roxbury” song. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597/40 "2015-04-14T05:24:57Z")
And, to contribute to the thread: In the South Park song (yes, this is what bothers me) “What Would Brian Boitano Do?”, I am driven to distraction by: \*And when Brian Boitano built The pyramids, he beat up Kublai Khan 'Cause Brian Boitano doesn’t Take shit from **anybody** \* Aaaagh! Anybody? “ **Anyone** ” would have rhymed with Kublai Khan! “Anybody” doesn’t! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-with-a-flaw/717597.md?page=3)