Now that's a funny thing to say in a song.

Cafe Society
1

Have you ever listened to a song you’ve heard dozens of times and all of a sudden you realize that the lyrics were kinda funny? Something like Dave Barry so famously pointed out about Neil Diamond’s I Am I Said-- nobody heard. Not even the chair.?

Some of my favorite songs have, well, something silly in the lyrics. The Temptation’s Ball of Confusion chorus really does go Great ooggly-moogly, sock it to me.

The fantastic love song by the Chi-Lites Have You Seen Her has the question Why, oh why, did she have to leave and go away? as if it was possible for her to leave and stay at the same time.

And the late, great Barry White will always be remembered by me because he’s never, ever gonna quit ‘cause quittin’ just ain’t [his] shtick.

Any lyrics ever strike you as (unintentionally) funny?

2

Bob Seager’s “Shame on the Moon”: “Until you’ve been beside a man, you don’t know who he knows.”

3

Nearly anything by “America”. Example (from Ventura Highway):
“Seasons crying no despair,
Alligator lizards in the air.”

Huh?

4

Since I’m a huge Queen fan I’ve notices some weird lyrics in their songs:

Sweet Lady:
“You call me sweet like I’m some kind of cheese”

Put Out The Fire:
“People get shot by people People with guns”

Life Is Real:
“Breastfeeding myself”

there is actually a site with

5

Yeah, some of those songs by America had some odd lyrics. Steely Dan had some weird ones too, like this example from “Josie”: “She prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire.”

The Paul Simon song that is popular currently has the line “I’m going to stand guard, like a postcard of a golden retriever” which I think is just stupid.

6

Creedence Clearwater Revival, My Back Door:

Tambourines and elephants are playin’ in the band,
won’t you take a ride on the flyin’ spoon…

Combine this with the magician’s apparition and all the happy creatures dancin’ on the lawn, and you know somebody had some good bud…

7

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Montgomery Burns *
**Yeah, some of those songs by America had some odd lyrics. Steely Dan had some weird ones too, like this example from “Josie”: “She prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire.”
**

Is it “prays?” I always had it in my head that it was “preys.”
Not that “preys like a Roman” makes MUCH more sense…

8

Supertramp’s Breakfast in America contains the lryic:

 *Don't you look at my girlfriend.
 She's the only one I got.
 Not much of a girlfriend.
 I never seem to get a lot.*

Always makes me smile.

9

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. “Don’t Do Me Like That”
‘If you were in a public eye
Giving someone else a try’

10

Leonard Cohen; One of Us Cannot be Wrong:

“And just when I was sure
That his teachings were pure
He drowned himself in the pool
His body is gone, but back here on the lawn
His spirit continues to drool”

Okay, his lyrics are generally more-or-less incomprehensible to me, but I’ve always liked the image of a drooling spirit, on the lawn of all places.

11

Weird and/or stupid things to say in a song?

Two words:

Steve Miller

12

“Tighten up on my organ, now!”

13

“Now, life’s a bowl a bagel dogs, but there are unpleasantries…”

Les Claypool has sung a lot of weird things, but I always thought this was one of the weirdest.

(Also “And if I had my 'druthers, I’d screw a chimpanzee.”)

14

Lemmy’s ode to speed, the Hawkwind/Motorhead song “Motorhead”, with the immortal line:

“Fourth day, five day marathon
We’re moving like a parallelogram” I always thought that was a silly line growing up, untill I went on a speed binge in the 80s. After five days you ARE moving like a parallelogram".

Jon

15

Daydream Believer: “The shaving razor’s cold and it stings”

Not funny until you realize the singer is baby-faced Davy Jones, who probably never had a single facial hair in his life.

16

Puffy Ami Yumi:

True Asia:

‘Take all the pandas and line them up, every single white one.’

Jet Police: (This is a translation of the line)

‘Sometimes we show the whip of love.’

HIM:

Sigilum Diaboli (and Stigmata Diaboli):

‘Just woke up for hearse and you know it as well as I do.’

Aqua:

Happy Boys and Happy Girls:

‘Try it with an eagle, it’ll make you look so nice.’

Ken Hirei:

Strawberry Sex:

‘Strawberry Sex, it’s a wonderful wor(l)d!’

17

The Justin Timberlake song, Like I love you always cracks me up because of the lines in the rap that go “Funny how a few words turn into sex.”

I mean, they’re not very specific about what the few words are. The imagination runs wild.

“Would you like fries with that?”

“Quiet in the library!”

“Six times two is twelve.”

18

The Turtles - Happy Together

…the only one for me is you
and you for me
so happy together
how is the whether

Where the heck did that come from? Okay, not that silly really, but it always left me feeling rather :dubious:

19

>how is the whether

I suspect it was “weather” … :slight_smile:

20

There’s a song on Red Hot Chili Pepper’s album One Hot Minute that has this one line that bothers me. The song is called Tearjerker, and I really like it…except for this on line. At the beginning, the singer is talking about this girl backstage at a show that he fell in love with. He goes on about this for a bit. Later, he says:

I like your whiskers and I like the dimple in your chin, your pale blue eyes.

What? Is she really a man? Is she really a cat? Does she have a mustache? And if the later, why do you like it, and chose to publically compliment her on it? It preturbs me just thinking about it.