# Oddly chosen words in songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153 "2013-10-13T19:15:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/21 "2013-10-14T00:03:55Z")
That Hawaiian dance song “My little grass shack in Kealakua”: “Where the humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apua-a’s swimming by.” In “One night in Bangkok,” how did Iceland figure in the song? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/22 "2013-10-14T00:27:23Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > 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”? Also, [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_%28musician%29) one. (in the second verse of Sign O’ The Times). ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/23 "2013-10-14T00:29:39Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > That Hawaiian dance song “My little grass shack in Kealakua”: “Where the humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apua-a’s swimming by.” > > In “One night in Bangkok,” how did Iceland figure in the song? One Night in Bangkok is about an elite chess tournament. The singer was listing other exotic places the tournaments are held. The song is from the musical Chess, about chess tournaments and US-USSR hostilities. Act I was held in a spa town in Italy, in the Tyrol region. Lyrics: Time flies – doesn’t seem a minute Since the **Tirolean spa** had the chess boys in it All change – don’t you know that when you Play at this level there’s no ordinary venue It’s **Iceland – or the Philippines – or Hastings – or – or this place!** ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/24 "2013-10-14T01:01:54Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > **You’re my castle, you’re my cabin and my instant pleasure dome** It would have been better if he’d quoted Samuel Taylor Coleridge and said “stately pleasure dome”. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/25 "2013-10-14T01:15:58Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > It would have been better if he’d quoted Samuel Taylor Coleridge and said “stately pleasure dome”. Marginally better, if that. 🙂 Pleasure dome makes me think of fun-sexy-time Mad Max ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/26 "2013-10-14T01:31:10Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > It would have been better if he’d quoted Samuel Taylor Coleridge and said “stately pleasure dome”. He is quoting Coleridge already. Where else, before 1797 and _Kubla Khan_, has there been a “pleasure dome”? Which is not to say that his cheesifying the phrase isn’t awful. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/27 "2013-10-14T01:46:36Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > One Night in Bangkok is about an elite chess tournament. The singer was listing other exotic places the tournaments are held. The song is from the musical Chess, about chess tournaments and US-USSR hostilities. Act I was held in a spa town in Italy, in the Tyrol region. > > Lyrics: > Time flies – doesn’t seem a minute > Since the **Tirolean spa** had the chess boys in it > All change – don’t you know that when you > Play at this level there’s no ordinary venue > > It’s **Iceland – or the Philippines – or Hastings – or – > or this place!** Got it!. But then, why would he think the devil’s walking next to him? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![yawuntz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a5b964/32.png) [@yawuntz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yawuntz)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/28 "2013-10-14T01:52:13Z")
“Columnated ruins domino.” Not actually all that inaccessible unless you’re Mike Love I guess. :: Mention of “the record machine” reminded me of Ernie Maresca’s “Shout shout, Knock Yourself Out”, which starts out with these oddly chosen words: Wop wop wop, wop wop adada dada Wop wop wop, wop wop adada dada Wop wop wop, wop wop adada dada Wop wop wop, wop wop adada dada ---
**Author:** ![Licentious\_Ectomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@Licentious\_Ectomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Licentious_Ectomorph)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/29 "2013-10-14T02:02:19Z")
One that bugs me is the line from Scissor Sisters’ "Let’s Have a Kiki:’ _We’re spilling tea and serving just desserts one might deserve_ Why “spilling” tea? “Pouring” would work just as well there. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/30 "2013-10-14T02:10:51Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > That’s very clever and sophisticated wordplay – inventing a nonce word whose meaning is perfectly clear in context. Verbing weirds language. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/31 "2013-10-14T02:11:28Z")
> [@Licentious\_Ectomorph](#): > > One that bugs me is the line from Scissor Sisters’ "Let’s Have a Kiki:’ > > _We’re spilling tea and serving just desserts one might deserve_ > > Why “spilling” tea? “Pouring” would work just as well there. Spilling tea means ‘gossiping’ and coupled with ‘getting just desserts’ could it mean something about gossiping and having it come back to bite you? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/32 "2013-10-14T02:32:44Z")
Some songs, like “Quintessence” and “Synchronicity,” give me the impression that the bandleader just learned a new word. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/33 "2013-10-14T02:54:20Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > 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. No it ain’t since a-thumpin’ suggests a-humping ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/34 "2013-10-14T02:58:29Z")
The second line of this one: “You even worry my pet”? You can’t even say it’s for the sake of rhyming–because it doesn’t! Now, I can understand that it would set a bad example to include a line like “Are you strung out on meth?”–but “You never run out of breath” would rhyme, and makes way more sense in context! ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/35 "2013-10-14T03:14:01Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Also “I Love Rock & Roll.” The oddly chosen word in that song is “dime” as in “put another dime in the jukebox” since all jukeboxes required a quarter by that point in time. She could have said “coin.” (I know, the original had come out earlier, during the dime period). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/36 "2013-10-14T03:25:56Z")
Fried chicken. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/37 "2013-10-14T03:57:01Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > The oddly chosen word in that song is “dime” as in “put another dime in the jukebox” since all jukeboxes required a quarter by that point in time. She could have said “coin.” (I know, the original had come out earlier, during the dime period). Are you kidding? “Coin” would have been far more awkward. Literal and period-correct accuracy has nothing to do with it. How long did people speak of “dropping a dime” for making a phone call? ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/38 "2013-10-14T04:08:14Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Are you kidding? “Coin” would have been far more awkward. Literal and period-correct accuracy has nothing to do with it. How long did people speak of “dropping a dime” for making a phone call? The Stray Cats had a song out the same year (1982) called “Rock This Town” which correctly evaluated the price of a jukebox play at one quarter. (I prefer the Joan Jett song, to be honest). ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/39 "2013-10-14T12:15:19Z")
This one always shivers my spine (from Bowie’s “ **Starman** ”): > [@](#): > > He told me “Let the children lose it > Let the children use it > Let all the children boogie” It’s not the lyrics that take me out of the song, but the way he pronounces the word ‘boogie’. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153/40 "2013-10-14T12:34:28Z")
Billy Joel’s _Light as the Breeze_: “… and I turn in disgust, from my hatred, from my **love** …” Love?? It shouldda been lust, which would make a lot more sense in the contect – and it would rhyme! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-chosen-words-in-songs/671153.md?page=3)