I hear Van Halen’s “Jump” today on the radio, and as always noted that odd “standing with my back to the record machine” line. First off what is a “record machine”? And why mention it in the song? It reminded me of Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So”, which has a line about “turn on the telly”. What American refers to their TV as a “telly”? What unusual phrasings and words have you heard in a song that really stick out to you?
Scansion oftentimes trumps sense. Come up with another phrase meaning “device that plays recorded music to a crowd” that fits that meter.
This brings up one of my favorite changes in a cover - Jimmy Buffett’s take on “Brown Eyed Girl,” which I think is superior in every way to the Van Morrison original. One thing he does is change a critical lyric from
to
…which changes the rhyming up a little but works better, IMVHO.
I’m no Van Halen fan, but I’d give 'em a pass on this one. Referring to a jukebox as a “record machine” has a venerable history in rock ‘n’ roll, as Chuck Berry used the phrase in “Little Queenie.”
The word “triviality” has always stuck out oddly in the otherwise mostly monosyllabic lyrics to the Beatles’ “When I Get Home.”
Well, I’ll get lost shaker of salt out of the way…
and from the old Daniel Boone TV series: What a Boone, What a doer, What a dream-come-a-truer…
It’s kind of the opposite, but whenever I listen to Pink Floyd’s “Learning to Fly” I wait for, and am rewarded by the lines “There’s no sensation to compare with this / Suspended animation / state of bliss” - it’s one of those cases where the melody and line become an almost perfect mix of content, neither verbal nor musical alone.
** @campp**, if we’re going to get into TV theme lyrics, I refuse to go near those for “Spiderman.”
“Is he strong? Listen, bud. He’s got radioactive blood.” Sorry, couldn’t help myself…
The same kind that refers to an airplane as an “aeroplane.”
Sometimes words are put in because they rhyme. From Cecil’s column on the song “American Pie”:
My standard answer is “my blood’s so mad, feels like coagulating” from “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire.
Well, in the Pretentious sub-category: Sting
I will turn your face to alabaster - when you see the Servant is the Master.
Wet bus stop - she’s waiting - he starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov
Oh Sting, you’re eruditer than us.
It’s in Crocodile Rock too. Jukebox would be pretty hard to rhyme, I think (cleanly, anyway)…
Always seemed awkward to me… Big Girls Don’t Cry, that’s just an alibi.
Okay, yes, it’s chiefly in there for rhyme and meter… but it’s the chorus which means it’s not even just a line slipped in but repeated throughout the song. Plus… as used, it’s kind of nudging the definition of what the word means (oh it’s no Alanis Morrissette “ironic”, but it’s still a bit off)
Making references to something other than drugs, sex and the hard, hard life of a touring Rock Star is pretentious? I love hearing real words in well-crafted songs.
Maybe it’s diction. Since you can’t understand most of them, you probably have no idea how many sophisticated words are used in Golden Earring’s “Twilight Zone.” 
:(. Some of my favorite lyrics.
One of my favorite Billy Joel songs is You’re My Home, which is a beautiful song utterly spoiled by this line:
If I travel all my life
And I never get to stop and settle down
Long as I have you by my side
There’s a roof above and good walls all around
You’re my castle, you’re my cabin and my instant pleasure dome
I need you in my house 'cause you’re my home.
You’re my home.
You’re my home.
Also “I Love Rock & Roll.”
I like well done sophisticated lyrics; I merely find the erudition to sound forced in these cases.
Yes, “Twilight Zone” has super-advanced words, like “circuits” and “cloned.”
Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days”, when he says his friend could throw a “speedball by you”. I always think of a speedball as what killed John Belushi, not what a baseball pitcher throws. “Fastball” works just as well scan-wise, so “speedball” just seems like a strange choice there.
From “These Boots Were Made For Walking”: You keep lying, when you ought to be truthing and You keep saming when you ought to be changing.
That’s very clever and sophisticated wordplay – inventing a nonce word whose meaning is perfectly clear in context.
Actually, that’s a great example. Speedball?
Not words you typically find in hard rock/metal lyrics. Nor lines like “My beacon’s been moved amid moon and stars / where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far.”
I had acquired an entire mondegreen set of lyrics for this song that barely rose above the grunt and groan level, and was pleasantly surprised to find these unusual words and nuanced imagery amid the three chords. No, it’s not Shakespeare, or even Sting, but.