My pick is “Tumbling Dice” by The Stones. As a kid, before discovering the wonder of Song Hits Magazine, there were only a few phrases in the entire song I could understand, even after dozens of listenings- “sixes and sevens and nines” “partner in crime” and a couple of others. I honestly couldn’t understnad the part where Mick says “Tumblin Dice” and I knew that was the song title and should have expected it somewhere.
Gotta pick on Neil Young & Crazy Horse for a song called “Welfare Mothers”, the title of which was the only coherent set of syllables.
Peep a hiccup and a pudding gun now
Welfare mothers, they can dis-stutter
DRC !!!~
Linda Ronstadt had to corner Mick and make him write down the lyrics when she wanted to cover “Tumbling Dice” on one of her albums.
My nomination is any early Springsteen song (before Born To Run).
The ending theme song to WKRP in Cincinnati.
Gotta be “Me Ears Are Alight”…er, I mean, “Israelites” by Desmond Dekker.
Anything by REM when they were still with IRS is all but unintelligible, Murmur being the penultimate example of Michael Stipe’s incoherent mumbling. Still, it’s a great album.
Yep - I always thought “Sitting Still” was particularly unintelligible.
Dunno if you meant that as a whoosh, but in case you don’t know, there were no actual lyrics to that - just nonsense syllables sung to sound like they were “rock” lyrics.
heh
Pearl Jam, uh - Even Flow?
“Eeeaaah, reh hi ha oh a ihha a uh oncrete”
I listened to that song over and freakin’ over, for months on end, and never did figure out what was going on.
I’m fully aware of that, being the big WKRP fan that I am. The “lyrics” (insofar as meaningless mutterings can be considered such) are still bloody unintelligible, though.
Oh I’d say the Rolling Stones take the “Unintelligible Lyrics Cake”.
Think you know the lyrics to Gimme Shelter?
How about the second verse?
Ooh, see the fire is sweepin
Our very street today
Burns like a red coal carpet
Mad bull lost its way
Complete lyrics available here:
The verse is “War, children …” ? How many of you (including myself) thought it was “Woah children”?
Despite lyric unintelligibility, a great Merry Clayton performance as has been mentioned here many times.
And I’d say Mick is the main target of the lyric unintelligibility of that song.
Anything off Green Day’s album “Dookie.” Specifically, “Welcome to Paradise.” Only Green Day can make words like, “laughing,” “station” and “trembling” sound virtually identical.
Yeah. I don’t think it’s mumbling as much as it was bizarre word combinations and having his voice buried in the mix. 9-9 was purposefully recorded so you could only hear the line “conversation fear.” I would also include “Wolves, Lower” from Chronic Town. When the internet showed up in the early 90s, I had to relearn almost all of the R.E.M. lyrics I’d heard to that point.
Man, Murmur and Reckoning are great albums. I’m going to listen to them both tomorrow!
Awww, come on! By punk standards, these guys were crystal clear! 
I was never a fan of Rancid, but my father was, and damn, ol’ Timmy sounds like he’s got a mouthful of marbles. “Ahm jess lookin fa a goooouwal… a goooouwal wif a harda goal… HARDA GOAL!”
My ex hated Radiohead, because he couldn’t understand a word Thom was saying.
What else… hmmm… howzabout “The Right Profile” by the Clash? 
There’s a Britney Spears song where she says, “Get it, get it, (something something)” really quickly, and I swear she’s calling a cat: kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, here kitty.
Also, heaven is defined a moose.
Aussie singer James Reyne is a very talented lyricist but boy it is hard to tell listening to him. Crank up your speakers, sit back and listen to this from his* Australian Crawl* days.
Has anybody else seen the lyricitis version of Fall Out Boy’s “…Arms Race”
“Geno” by Dexys Midnight Runners. To my ear, only about every one in three words are decipherable. Great song, but I am forced to sing along to it in a kind of moon man language.
“Brass in Pocket” by The Pretenders. The verses are suprisingly hard to work out.
Anything by The Cocteau Twins although I imagine being indecipherable on purpose doesn’t count…
Although Pearl Jam’s “Evenflow” has been mentioned, the popular B-Side “Yellow Ledbetter” is far less intelligible. Even though I listened to lots of grunge then and now, the only published lyric you can decipher from listening to the song is “I don’t want to stay” towards the end of the song.