There’s a line in the Foo Fighters’ “Big Me” that made me recently search for the lyrics…
When I talk about it Aries or treasons
All renew
Although the rest of the song is practically undecipherable as well, at least it appears to me to have meaning to the the author (Grohl?)…but “Aries or treasons all renew”?
The Master speaks of “The Pompatus of Love” here, and Michael Jackson’s “shamone” line in "Bad"is fairly well documented…looking for other examples of throwaway words or lines that are supposed to sound as if they mean something, (so “Shama-Lama-Ding-Dong” and the like are not good examples), but really point to the lyricist’s lack of effort or imagination, and is trying to put one by the listener.
Also, stream of consciousness lyrics (“Blue Jay Way”, “I Am the Walrus”) or works by Captain Beefheart don’t count either. Different animal. I’m talking about songs that are supposed to appear to make sense.
Down in Louisiana, down in Cajun land
Folks got something goin’, goes something like
Folks come an git’cha tootsie, I wants to t’tie ya puppe’tame me
Gonna dig ya on a scoobydoo, gonna gitcha on’a scubadie
Ooh boog-a-boo you, you, ooh boog-a-boo you, little boy
Get hip to the consultation of the boolawee
This is, however, most likely an example of something different than what you’re looking for – lyrics that are mostly in standard English, but include words that are in a different language, dialect, or idiolect that most listeners wouldn’t know.
One example that might fit your definition is the line “The movement you need is on your shoulder” from “Hey Jude”. When Paul McCartney first played the song to John Lennon, the story goes, he apologized for that line, saying it was just a placeholder and he would take it out when he thought of something better. Lennon replied, “You won’t, y’know. It’s the best line in the song.”
I’ve always thought the verses of “Surrender” by Cheap Trick sounded like they were written via Mad Libs or an algorithm.
Whatever happened to all this season’s
Losers of the year?
Every time I got to thinking
Here’d they disappear?
But when I woke up, Mom and Dad
Are rolling on the couch
Rolling numbers, rock and rollin’
Got my KISS records out
There’s another lyric that the Master spoke to, in Muddy Waters’Hoochie Coochie Man
[QUOTE=Muddy Waters]
I got a black cat bone
I got a mojo too
I got the Johnny Concheroo
I’m gonna mess with you
[/QUOTE]
[Bolding mine]
I believe Cecil said it referred to a hex/charm/mojo bag that could be used against people in a voodoo/santeria sort of way, but it still sounds out there to a listener who doesn’t know the Straight Dope!
ETA: for that matter, being a “Hoochie Coochie” Man kinda fits the OP. It clearly means he is a Playa with the ladies, but has a few other boasts, too, but the phrase itself is not common.
Well, that certainly testifies to Steve Miller’s lack of effort or imagination, but the word in the lyric he ineptly ripped off of Vernon Green, “puppetutes,” turns out to very much mean something (“a secret paper-doll fantasy figure”). That and “pizmotality” are great poetic coinages.
Yep. I know what he was saying, and I know that the Google Lyrics I pasted in don’t get the spelling right. My only point is that it is one of those terms you don’t hear and jump out if you take the time to understand the lyrics.
One that does not apply to the OP but I thought it did for years is Loser by Beck. I never cared enough to look up the lyrics, but the first line of the chorus was gobbledy-gook to my ears. It was until much more recently that I looked it up and saw it was “Soy un perdedor” which is “I’m a loser” in Spanish.
Was it ever established that “colitas” is a word? As in “warm smell of colitas”? Also, is “reet” a slang word I never learned? Is “new skank, so reet” too hip for my lame brain?
Not sure why one would dust their broom (unless they’re taking it with them?), but I always took this as a poetic way of saying “I’m leaving for good”. Wiki confirmation…
Yes, when you get into the blues, you encounter a lot of odd words and phrases that are not standard English. Like “nation sack” (a mojo bag used by women to dominate men) and “drylongso” (various definitions including “nothing unusual”) in “Come On in My Kitchen”.
Another good place to find stuff like this is in the lyrics of Dr. John.