Oddly chosen words in songs

[carlb]

@IvoryTowerDenizen

Marginally better, if that.

Pleasure dome makes me think of fun-sexy-time Mad Max

Which is precisely why I love this line (and the song as a whole). In one brief phrase he sums up everything his wife/lover/significant other is to him:
[ul]
[li]A safe place to which to retreat (castle)[/li][li]A comfortable place to just enjoy life with no stress or distractions (cabin)[/li][li]Mad Max sexy-fun-time lover (instant pleasure dome)[/li][/ul]Sounds like a pretty awesome gal if you ask me.

[WordMan]

Ooo - I got one: So Twenty Flight Rock is a rockabilly classic by Eddie Cochran, who also wrote Summertime Blues. TFR is the song that Paul McCartney played offstage for John Lennon at the church social where the Quarrymen were playing. Great song.

Anyway, so Cochran’s last verse is:

Well, they sent to Chicago for repairs
‘Till it’s a-fixed I’m using the stairs
Hope they hurry up before it’s too late
Want my baby too much to wait
All this climbin’ is gettin’ me down
They’ll find my corpse draped over a rail

Why doesn’t the last couplet scan?? Always drove me crazy - I ended up changing the words for when I perform it to:

All this climbin - bound to fail
They’ll find my corpse draped over a rail

There - that’s better

[born_too_late]

@installLSC

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?

@Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew

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.”

I’m looking at the many questionable lyrics sites online and they list ‘record machine’ as the lyric, but it always sounded like ‘wrecking machine’ to me, as if to say “I’m up against a hard place” like it was a wrecking ball. Still pretty sketchy, but it makes slightly more sense in context of the surrounding lines.

[Battle_Pope]

“I don’t want to see a ghost,
It’s the sight that I fear most
I’d rather have a piece of toast
And watch the evening news.”

Oooooooookay then.

[Sam_A.Robrin]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

What the heck has the SDMB come to, that nobody’s yet mentioned Neil Diamond by way of Dave Barry?

“I AM,” I said – to no one there – and no one heard at all; not even the chair.

And some years later, that chair didn’t become Michael Jackson’s son.

[Barkis_is_Willin]

Saw mention of “Empire State of Mind” in another thread.
“In New York,
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of”

Yuck.

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

“If this ever-changing world in which we’re living” works, though.

I’ve always insisted on this interpretation, but it may be time to give it up. I just got the über-deluxe box set reissue of Wings Over America, and one of its four (!) large format books includes the lyrics “as performed live in concert” with impromptu variations faithfully transcribed. Damned if it doesn’t have “If this ever-changing world in which we live in.” That’s pretty durned official.

[Annie-Xmas]

Speaking of Neil Diamond:

Crackling Rose, you’re a store bought woman,
But you make me sing like a guitar humming.

I’ve never sung like a guitar, guitars do not hum, and humming does not rhyme with woman.