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

[Monkey_Chews]

The Bangles, Walk Like an Egyptian

“Life’s hard, you know,
So strike a pose on a Cadillac.”

I mean, I know it’s a silly song, and the rest of it doesn’t make much sense either, but what on earth does that mean? This is their advice on how to deal with a hard life? I don’t geddit.

[Sternvogel]

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by RikWriter *
**

*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… **

According to this site, Montgomery Burns is right. Hmmm, didn’t realize Homer Simpson’s boss listened to such “hepcat” music…

Shine up the battle apple?

[Andy]

I’m afraid of the dark
Especially when I’m in the park
When there’s no one else around
Oh I get the shivers
I don’t wanna see a ghost
It’s the sight that I fear most
I’d rather have a piece of toast
Watch the evening news

I’m not sure if that’s a funny thing to say, or indicative of either an overpowering desire to rhyme or an abject lack of songwriting talent…

Probably one of David Brent’s favourites;)

[Cicero]

How about ‘Blinded By The Light’:

Madman drummers bummers, Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin’ kinda older, I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin’, sneezin’ and wheezin, the calliope crashed to the ground
The calliope crashed to the ground

Yeah, alright.

[Montgomery_Burns]

*Originally posted by Sternvogel *
**Hmmm, didn’t realize Homer Simpson’s boss listened to such “hepcat” music… **

Hey, I’m 104 years old. I’ve heard it all.

And Cicero, there may only be about 2 lines in the whole song “Blinded by the Light” that I understand. I don’t know what Bruce was thinking on that one.

[acrossthesea]

“Now your dancing child with his Chinese suit,
He spoke to me, I took his flute.
No, I wasn’t very cute to him,
Was I?
But I did it, though, because he lied
Because he took you for a ride
And because time was on his side”

• “I Want You”, by Bob Dylan

Most of the other verses are funny too but that’s my favorite one. Maybe it’s symbolic and I’m just missing the point, but to me it sounds almost like Dr. Seuss.

Another one is Stone Temple Pilots’ “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart”:

“So keep your bankroll lottery
eat your salad day deathbed motorcade
Fake the heat and scratch the itch
Skinned up knees and salty lips”

This one makes absolutely no sense no matter how you look at it, I’m convinced.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

*Originally posted by Trigonal Planar *
**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: **

Here’s how I’ve heard them explain it:

The song starts, “Imagine me and you…”

The key word is “imagine.” The girl is not his girlfriend - he just wishes she were. It’s all a daydream. At the end of the song he betrays this by wondering “how is the weather” (not whether - AndrewT is correct) as his brain wanders on to another subject.

Silly, but the Turtles were good at jokes.

[Knowed_Out]

Yes had the new line-up in the 80’s and put out a top 40 song that had the words:

Here is my heart
Waiting for you
Here is my soul
I eat at Chez Nous

WTF does that have to do with the price of tea in China???

I’m a big fan of Colonel Bruce Hampton, and he was definitely tripping when he wrote some of his lyrics, but there’s one song on the Codetalkers CD that has me completely baffled. It’s the last track, Rice Clients.

Hampton goes into kind of a monologue at the beginning, like he’s drunk and telling a funny story. It comes out something like this:

You know I’m down there with Hugh and Ginger
We’re tryin’ to see what the Falcon had done
Falcon was tryin’ to determine if any violations had occured
We was down there with Ma again
Parker Cage
He’d been down there for 4 days
Feelin’ pretty good
He decided to go punt
and he said I’m gonna park my car
I’m drivin’ a Falcon

I think the chorus goes something like this:

I buy for motion rice clients of Baltimore
I buy for motion rice clients of Baltimore
Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore
I buy for motion rice clients of Baltimore

Then the rest of the story:

He drove over the bridge
Cloudy that day
was Fog
and a woman’s car had been sittin’ on the side, teeterin’
Falcon jumped out of the car
and said I’m a registered nurse
Can I help you?
Can we help you, and the woman said Yes, I’m about to fall
Well the cat
Not the cat!
the cat jumped out of the car

then some drunken laughter, then the chorus, and after a bridge, there’s some Japanese guy talking. I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!!!

Does this make sense to anybody who lives in Baltimore?

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

*Originally posted by acrossthesea *
**“Now your dancing child with his Chinese suit,
He spoke to me, I took his flute.
No, I wasn’t very cute to him,
Was I?
But I did it, though, because he lied
Because he took you for a ride
And because time was on his side”
**

That verse has been rumored to be a swipe at Mick Jagger and/or Brian Jones. The last line suggests one of the Stones’ early hits, their cover of “Time Is On My Side.”

[Shoeless]

From the Wilco song “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”:

I want to hold you in the bible black pre-dawn
You’re quite a quiet domino, bury me now
Take off your bandaid 'cuz I don’t believe in touchdowns
What was I thinking when we said Hello.

Granted, the one of themes of the album (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) is distorted communication, but still…