# Pop songs with unusual (or unique) words in the lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [September 22, 2021, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118 "2021-09-22T13:56:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/21 "2021-09-22T15:48:50Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > The [new Billy Bragg song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n794uMfCJw) uses the word “autodidact”, which I’m gonna go out on a limb and say is the only use of the word in a popular music track (by some definition of popular music track). “Autodidact” by Swervedriver > Flip the script around – > Autodidact > Teach me one thing “Autodidact” by Gate 9 > I learned to live of the land. > I’m autodidact… Between the Buried and Me also has a song titled “Autodidact” but the word is not in the lyrics. So with Between Home And Serenity’s “Autodidact.” Same with Billy Corgan and “Half-Life Of An Autodidact.” “Half-life” has to be unusual too. He also uses “Fleur-de-lis” and “noblesse oblige.” “Synchroncity” is a champ here. > A connecting principle > Linked to the invisible > Almost imperceptible > Something inexpressible > Science insusceptible > Logic so inflexible > Causally connectible > Nothing is invincible ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/22 "2021-09-22T16:13:15Z")
Try this Warren Zevon for crazy words in a song: 4-aminobiphenyl, hexachlorobenzene Dimethyl sulfate, chloromethyl methylether Two, three, seven, eight, tetrachlorodibenzo- Para-dioxin, carbon disulfide [Verse 1] (Dibromochloropane, cholorinated benzenes) I went walking in the wasted city (Two, nitropropane, pentrochlorophenol) Started thinking about entropy (Benzotricholoride, strontium chromate) Smelled the wind from the ruined river (One, two, dibromo, three, chloropropane) Went home to watch TV All the chemicals sung in the background are carcinogens. The carcinogen that actually killed Zevon is not listed. He died from Mesothelioma, probably from asbestos in his childhood attic. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/23 "2021-09-22T16:13:54Z")
> [@its\_the\_daddy](#): > > The Monkees - Alternate Title Another Monkees title – “Randy **Scouse Git** ” Naugahyde is in here, too. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/24 "2021-09-22T16:16:48Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > [@its\_the\_daddy](#): > > > > The Monkees - Alternate Title > > Another Monkees title – “Randy **Scouse Git** ” And another: **Propinquity** (I’ve Just Begun To Care) ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/25 "2021-09-22T16:28:01Z")
That popped into my mind immediately when reading the OP ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/26 "2021-09-22T16:32:01Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > “Singapore” has odd slang for sex: > > While making feet for children shoes I recently saw this metaphor in “Botany Bay” by Nordhoff and Hall, supposedly uttered around 1780 or so. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/27 "2021-09-22T16:33:54Z")
Wings song, “Getting Closer” **Say You Don’t Love Him, My Salamander.** Salamander isn’t particularly unusual, but using it in a pop song is weird. McCartney’s hubris assumed that would tickle us and endear us to the lyric, but I would expect it to derail the listener “What? Salamander? She’s a salamander, why… is she ugly???” ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/28 "2021-09-22T16:46:11Z")
Oh lordy, I had totally forgotten about that song. Even as kids we thought that was the weirdest / stupidest. One that sort of fits is **Anna Molly** by Incubus. I think they’re trying to cleverly use it as a girl’s name that also sounds like “anomaly”. Get it? 🙄 Except Anna Molly isn’t really a name you would normally hear and the way the singer phrases it doesn’t sound like a name or the word “anamaly” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WA_xjBaXor0/maxresdefault.jpg "Incubus - Anna Molly") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_xjBaXor0) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/29 "2021-09-22T16:47:30Z")
“Chinatown Calculation” by Doug & The Slugs uses the terms “abacus” and “equation algebra”. ---
**Author:** ![its\_the\_daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@its\_the\_daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/its_the_daddy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/30 "2021-09-22T16:53:23Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > [@its\_the\_daddy](#): > > > > The Monkees - Alternate Title > > Another Monkees title – “Randy **Scouse Git** ” Same song! Wiki he say: According to Dolenz, the song was written about a party that [the Beatles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles) threw for the Monkees at [the Speakeasy nightclub](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Speakeasy_Club) in [London](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London). There are references in the song to the Beatles (“the four kings of [EMI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMI)”) and to other party attendees such as [Cass Elliot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama_Cass) of [the Mamas & the Papas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mamas_%26_the_Papas) (“the girl in yellow dress”)[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Scouse_Git#cite_note-1) and Dolenz’s future wife, _[Top of the Pops](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops)_ “disc girl” [Samantha Juste](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Juste) (“She’s a wonderful lady”), (“the being known as Wonder Girl”).[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Scouse_Git#cite_note-2) The verses and chorus [do not relate to each other](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_sequitur_(literary_device)), with the verses whimsically describing the party and the chorus consisting of Dolenz screaming bigoted remarks at an unseen, long-haired youth. The phrase “Randy Scouse Git” in Britain directly translated to, according to Dolenz, “horny, Liverpudlian jerk”,[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Scouse_Git#cite_note-dunoyer-3) was taken from the 1960s British [sitcom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation_comedy) _[Till Death Us Do Part](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Till_Death_Us_Do_Part)_ , in which it was regularly used, by the loud-mouthed main character [Alf Garnett](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alf_Garnett), played by [Cockney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney) actor [Warren Mitchell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Mitchell), to insult his Liverpudlian (“[Scouse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouse)”) son-in-law, played by [Tony Booth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Booth). The show was later adapted into the American sitcom _[All in the Family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_in_the_Family)_ , in which the writers replaced the phrase in American scripts with the epithet “[Meathead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_%22Meathead%22_Stivic)”. [RCA Records](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_Records) in England told the band that they would not release the song unless it was given an “alternate title” (though, in [British English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_English), they may have used the word “[alternative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_having_different_meanings_in_American_and_British_English:_A%E2%80%93L#A)”). By his own account, Dolenz said “OK, ‘Alternate Title’ it is”.[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Scouse_Git#cite_note-dunoyer-3) The song is played by all four Monkees with Dolenz on vocals, drums and timpani, [Davy Jones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Jones_(musician)) on backing vocals, [Mike Nesmith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Nesmith) on guitar, [Peter Tork](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Tork) on piano and organ, and producer [Chip Douglas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Douglas) ([The Turtles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turtles)) on bass guitar. Dolenz reprises lyrics from the song in “Love’s What I Want”, a bonus track to the 2016 Monkees album _[Good Times!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Times!_(The_Monkees_album))_ (“Why don’t you be like me? Why don’t you stop and see? Why don’t you hate who I hate kill who I kill to be free?”). ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/31 "2021-09-22T16:56:19Z")
Todd Rundgren had a whole song about onomatopoeia (complete with sound effects!) One that I frequently mention in these kinds of threads is from Blood Sweat & Tears “I Can’t Quit Her”: _She had a woman’s touch, a young girl’s eyes In seconds flat I was proselytized_ Just about any random Decemberist’s song will have at least one word that you’d have to look up. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/32 "2021-09-22T17:05:28Z")
The first two songs that came to my mind were Al Stewart’s “Year of the Cat” and The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin.” Both are pure poetry, set to music. [https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=year+of+the+cat+lyrics](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=year+of+the+cat+lyrics) _On a morning from a Bogart movie_ _In a country where they turn back time_ _You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre_ _Contemplating a crime_ _She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running_ _Like a watercolor in the rain_… _While she looks at you so cooly_ _And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea_ _She comes in incense and patchouli So you take her, to find what’s waiting inside The year of the cat._ [https://www.google.com/search?q=nights+in+white+satin+lyrics&client=firefox-b-d&ei=JF5LYaaRKdeGwPAPy9y4yAc&oq=nights++lyrics&gs\_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYATIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeOgcIABBHELADOgcIABCwAxBDOg0ILhDIAxCwAxBDEJMCOgoILhDIAxCwAxBDOgQIABBDSgUIOBIBMUoECEEYAFD6qBFYxtgRYIr9EWgCcAJ4AYAB4QSIAdInkgEMMC4zLjEzLjEuMS4xmAEAoAEByAEPwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz](https://www.google.com/search?q=nights+in+white+satin+lyrics&client=firefox-b-d&ei=JF5LYaaRKdeGwPAPy9y4yAc&oq=nights++lyrics&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYATIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeOgcIABBHELADOgcIABCwAxBDOg0ILhDIAxCwAxBDEJMCOgoILhDIAxCwAxBDOgQIABBDSgUIOBIBMUoECEEYAFD6qBFYxtgRYIr9EWgCcAJ4AYAB4QSIAdInkgEMMC4zLjEzLjEuMS4xmAEAoAEByAEPwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz) _Breathe deep the gathering gloom Watch lights fade from every room Bed sitter people look back and lament Another days useless energy spent Impassioned lovers wrestle as one…_ _Cold-hearted orb that rules the night Removes the colors from our sight Red is gray and yellow white But we decide which is right And which is an illusion_ The third was Kim Karnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes.” [https://www.google.com/search?q=bette+davis+eyes+lyrics&client=firefox-b-d&ei=UF9LYZu4FYi7rgS0zqCgAg&oq=bette+davislyrics&gs\_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYADIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeOgcIABBHELADOgcIABCwAxBDOg0ILhDIAxCwAxBDEJMCOgoILhDIAxCwAxBDOgQIABANSgUIOBIBMUoECEEYAFC2kg1Y1a8NYJ\_VDWgBcAJ4AIABsAWIAbEakgELMC4xLjYuMi4xLjGYAQCgAQHIAQ\_AAQE&sclient=gws-wiz](https://www.google.com/search?q=bette+davis+eyes+lyrics&client=firefox-b-d&ei=UF9LYZu4FYi7rgS0zqCgAg&oq=bette+davislyrics&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYADIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeOgcIABBHELADOgcIABCwAxBDOg0ILhDIAxCwAxBDEJMCOgoILhDIAxCwAxBDOgQIABANSgUIOBIBMUoECEEYAFC2kg1Y1a8NYJ_VDWgBcAJ4AIABsAWIAbEakgELMC4xLjYuMi4xLjGYAQCgAQHIAQ_AAQE&sclient=gws-wiz) _Her hair is Harlow gold Her lips a sweet surprise Her hands are never cold She’s got Bette Davis eyes She’ll turn her music on you You won’t have to think twice She’s pure as New York snow She got Bette Davis eyes_ _And she’ll tease you, she’ll unease you All the better just to please you She’s precocious, and she knows just what it Takes to make a pro blush She got Greta Garbo’s standoff sighs, she’s got Bette Davis eyes_ … ---
**Author:** ![its\_the\_daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@its\_the\_daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/its_the_daddy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/33 "2021-09-22T17:08:31Z")
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/34 "2021-09-22T17:26:41Z")
The Police’s “Wrapped Around Your Finger” starts with the lyrics: You consider me the young apprentice Caught between the Scylla and Charibdes Hypnotized by you if I should linger Staring at the ring around your finger The the Scylla and Charibdes were sea monsters in the Greek mythology and “Caught between the Scylla and Charibdes” came to mean something like caught between a rock and a hard place. This is certainly the only use of this element of Greek mythos in pop music, and one of the few references to any part of Classical culture. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/35 "2021-09-22T17:32:30Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Just about any random Decemberist’s song will have at least one word that you’d have to look up Like “Hetty Green Queen of supply-side bonhomie bone-drab” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/36 "2021-09-22T17:37:30Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Try this Warren Zevon for crazy words in a song: > … > The carcinogen that actually killed Zevon is not listed. He died from Mesothelioma, probably from asbestos in his childhood attic. That’s another Zevon song: _Kickin’ asbestos in the factory Punchin’ out Chryslers in the factory Breathin’ that plastic in the factory Makin’ polyvinyl chloride in the factory_ ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/37 "2021-09-22T17:42:37Z")
I always thought the band Seven Mary Three using the word 'Cumbersome" in a song, not just as a one-off word in a verse, but as the key word in the chorus and the title of the song itself, was a bold choice. The word ‘cumbersome’ is itself cumbersome-- its consonant-heavy 3 syllables trip and stagger off the tongue clumsily. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/38 "2021-09-22T17:56:37Z")
Not too long after “Cumbersome” we got Local H’s “Bound to the Floor” which unfortunately was not titled “ **copasetic** ” but it was in the chorus! ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/39 "2021-09-22T18:04:07Z")
I’m guessing that _Cruel Angel’s Thesis_ is one of the few songs with the word thesis in the lyrics. Add “pathos” for extra points. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-wpXShTUfY) Pretty much most of the words from _Modern Major General_ [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zSGWoXDFM64/hqdefault.jpg "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSGWoXDFM64) ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118/40 "2021-09-22T18:16:34Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Pretty much most of the words from _Modern Major General_ Though there we have the debate over whether comic opera counts as pop music? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-with-unusual-or-unique-words-in-the-lyrics/951118.md?page=3)