I nominate Madonna’s Music (which ironically does not evoke music at all for me). Some portions of the song:
Do you like to boogie-woogie
Do you like to boogie-woogie
Do you like to boogie-woogie
Do you like my Acid Rock
Hey Mister D.J.
Put a record on
I wanna dance with my baby
And when the music starts
I never wanna stop
It’s gonna drive me crazy
Music makes the people come together
[Never gonna stop]
Music makes the bourgeoisie and the rebel
[Never gonna stop]
Don’t think of yesterday
And I don’t look at the clock
I like to boogie-woogie, uh, uh
It’s like riding on the wind
And it never goes away
Touches everything I’m in
Got to have it everyday
*
The song itself just drives me nuts, and I hate it with a passion. But for some reason, when I actually listen to the lyrics, it makes the song about ten times worse. It got to the point where I would violently punch the car radio power button when i heard it come on…
Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song
Gliddy glub gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla
Nooby abba naba
Early morning singing song
I agree with ** Windwalker** about that Madonna song…it’s so painful.
One song that comes to mind that has insipid lyrics is the song Abracadabra by Steve Miller Band. A sample of the lyrics are:
I heat up, I can’t cool down
You got me spinnin’ 'round and 'round
'Round and 'round and 'round it goes
Where it stops nobody knows
Every time you call my name
I heat up like a burning flame
Burning flame full of desire
Kiss me baby, let the fire get higher
Abra abra cadabra
I want to reach out and grab ya.
Kiss is coming to town, so I get to hear snippets of “I Just Wanna Rock and Roll All Night, and Party Every Day” every time I listen to the radio. Complete lyrics are here, not that there are many of them.
See the tree how big it’s grown
But friend it hasn’t been too long it wasn’t big
I laughed at her and she got mad
The first day that she planted it, it was just a twig
Then the first snow came
And she ran out to brush the snow away so it wouldn’t die
Came running in all excited slipped and almost hurt herself
And I laughed 'til I cried
She was always young at heart
Kind of dumb and kind of smart
And I loved her so
And I surprised her with a puppy
“I’ve spent my life exploring the subtle whoring that costs too much to be free.”
The whole - for the lack of a better word - smarminess - of this song just makes me wanna indulge in some heavy shameless petting every time I hear it.
In defense of the song, I should point out that this is a (bad) translation of Jacques Brel’s original lyrics for the song “Le Moribund”, which are in French and are a lot more moving.
ABBA needs a separate thread for their sometimes insipid lyrics.
I have a dream, a fantasy.
To help me through reality.
And my destinity makes it worth the while.
Pushing through the darkness, yet another mile.
I believe in angels, something good in everything I see.
I believe in angels, when I know the time is right for me.
I’ll cross the stream. I have a dream.
Nothing can defend that song’s sheer badness. Even if you could prove that Seasons in the Sun prevented us from getting sucked into a giant black hole and being eaten by space zombies, I would still detest that song with every fiber of my being.
But I ran the page through babelfish and it seems quite moving, really.
I know everything is subjective but boy is this ever a craptacular distortion of the original song.
Jacques Brel died fairly young and many, many of his songs talk about death and dying - usually from the point of view of someone who knows he’s going to die soon.
In the original song, Jacques bids farewell to those who’ll take care of his wife after he’s gone: his best friend, the local priest, and… her lover. There’s absolutely nothing about murder or any such thing, talk about gross Hollywoodization!
I will submit every single Japanese and Korean pop song ever written after 1980. It hardly gets any worst.
Oh, don’t worry jjimm, I took that site as explaining the lyrics to Seasons in the Sun, and not Le Moribond. I was shocked at the hatchet job they did on the original song.
Note, I’ve never heard Seasons in the Sun. Or I don’t remember. Not that I’d want to.