# Puzzling lyrics that drive you nuts
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 5, 2007, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761 "2007-01-05T02:15:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/21 "2007-01-05T18:17:50Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire]
Hootie and the Blowfish “Everytime I look at you I go blind.”
Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?
[/QUOTE]
Hmmm. He’s blinded by her beauty. Or, he uses her picture when “taking care of himself”. Either way, compliment!
I’m just full of answers, today, huh! :dubious:
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### Author:  [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/22 "2007-01-05T18:35:51Z")
Listen to any Rob/White Zombie song and see if you can figure out what any of it means.
Here’s a verse to decipher:
Yeah inbreed the witches
and woship the dogs
Deformed and fuck’n lazy
Damn yourself and choke
On my name I’d love to love ya baby
Deadringer rats swinging in the trees
Immaculate conception Bury me an angel God I need
some inspiration
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/23 "2007-01-05T18:42:40Z")
I think you’ve broken up some of those lines in weird places, but he’s writing in images and impressions, not telling a story. Those kinds of lyrics rarely make ‘sense,’ especially without the music. But I always liked “Bury me an angel, God I need some inspiration.”
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### Author:  [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/24 "2007-01-05T18:46:22Z")
Just about every damn sing Duran Duran ever did.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/25 "2007-01-05T19:23:06Z")
We had to sing part of “You Can Call Me Al” in choir class. Also that Love Me Like A Rock song. One of those horrible medleys they seem to love.
No, I never could figure out what that first song meant. The second one made a little more sense, though “She love me like a rock” was still kind of weird.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/26 "2007-01-05T19:48:08Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant]
From [_Sympathy for the Devil_](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rolling+stones/sympathy+for+the+devil_20117881.html)
> [@](#):
>
> And I laid traps for troubadours
> Who get killed before they reached bombay
The Hell does that mean, if you’ll pardon the expression?
[/QUOTE]
Once before, when the SDMB danced around that one, somebody came in to tell us about the “hippie trail” of backpackers who travelled across south Asia in search of enlightenment. Several of them were robbed and killed by local bandits.
> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> Hootie and the Blowfish “Everytime I look at you I go blind.”
>
> Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?
I’m guessing it’s a compliment, sort of an update of an older song.
“There are clouds in the sky,
Maybe millions of people go by,
But they all disappear from view,
'Cause _I only have eyes for you_.”
By the way, it’s a futile quest to try to make sense out of some Paul Simon songs.
---
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/27 "2007-01-05T19:49:59Z")
There was a song (from the end of the disco era) which always puzzled me; I think it went like this:
-"…its too hot, too hot baby, gotta run for shelter, gotta find the shade"
I also though it sounded like:
“… its two o’clock, two o’clock, gotten run like rats, from the mess that we made”
neither of which seemed to make any sense.
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/28 "2007-01-05T20:02:49Z")
[QUOTE=Autumn Almanac]
I think the “Ignition” lyrics are purposefully absurdist. My favorite line from that song is “We got food everywhere/As if the party was catered.” If there’s food everywhere, than the party _actually was_ catered! It’s not a simile!
[/QUOTE]
Err, not necessarily. I can throw a party and put food everywhere myself. To me “catered” implies that a third party has done the catering. (This may or may not be true in the strictest definition of “cater”, but it’s how it generally seems to be used)
I don’t think it’s meant to be “purposefully absurdist” so much as it’s meant to rhyme.
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### Author:  [@meow\_meow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meow_meow)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/29 "2007-01-05T20:18:16Z")
[QUOTE=gigi]
“Butterfly” always gets me:
Whatever tickles your fancy Girl
It’s me and you like Sid and Nancy
[/QUOTE]
Back in my singer/songwriter days I had a line that went:
I like your pants, you’re so fancy
Will you be the Sid to my Nancy
Nobody better steal that, now.
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### Author:  [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/30 "2007-01-05T20:59:28Z")
If you can make sense of these lines from “Supper’s Ready” by Genesis -
There’s Winston Churchill dressed in drag,
he used to be a British flag, plastic bag, what a drag.
The frog was a prince, the prince was a brick,
the brick was an egg,
the egg was a bird,
Hadn’t you heard?
Yes we’re happy as fish, and gorgeous as geese,
and wonderfully clean in the morning.
- you’ll be doing better than me.
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### Author:  [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/31 "2007-01-05T22:05:01Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c]
There was a song (from the end of the disco era) which always puzzled me; I think it went like this:
-“..its too hot, too hot baby, gotta run for shelter, gotta find the shade”
I also though it sounded like:
“.. its two o’clock, two o’clock, gotten run like rats, from the mess that we made”
neither of which seemed to make any sense.
[/QUOTE]
“Too Hot” by Kool & The Gang.
It’s clear Gwen Stefani is planning ahead. By writing and performing vapid earworms that no doubt are played by every high school in the nation at pep rallies, she’s setting herself up for a wave of nostalgia tours about fifteen years from now. (Must have paid attention to the fate of her husband, who rode the grunge wave with Bush, then crashed when people realized they were utter crap.)
Speaking of which… Bush had to have the absolute worst lyrics ever. Case in point:
[QUOTE=Gavin Rossdale]
Breathe in breathe out
Tied to a wheel fingers got to feel
Bleeding through a tourniquet smile
I spin on a whim slide to the right
I felt you like electric light
For our love
For our fear
For our rise against the years and years and years
[/QUOTE]
And what the hell is a “razorblade suitcase?”
---
### Author:  [@Autumn\_Almanac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autumn_Almanac)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/32 "2007-01-05T22:57:16Z")
[QUOTE=Rigamarole]
I can throw a party and put food everywhere myself.
[/QUOTE]
But you wouldn’t do it yourself if you had R. Kelly’s money. 😉
[QUOTE=Hilly Hollow]
Speaking of which… Bush had to have the absolute worst lyrics ever.
[/QUOTE]
I think you’re kind of missing the point of Bush lyrics. To borrow from **Marley23** , “he’s writing in images and impressions, not telling a story.”
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/33 "2007-01-05T23:08:57Z")
[QUOTE=Autumn Almanac]
I think you’re kind of missing the point of Bush lyrics. To borrow from **Marley23** , “he’s writing in images and impressions, not telling a story.”
[/QUOTE]
Although not everybody who does that is good at it. 😉 There are some bits in that passage that are okay. I think my “worst-ever” lyrics title is reserved for Jim Steinman.
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### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/34 "2007-01-05T23:39:17Z")
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Louie Louie. 🙂
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/35 "2007-01-05T23:52:45Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23]
Although not everybody who does that is good at it. 😉 There are some bits in that passage that are okay. I think my “worst-ever” lyrics title is reserved for Jim Steinman.
[/QUOTE]
Hee. [posts 44 and 45](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=402489)
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/36 "2007-01-06T00:34:59Z")
How about that song “She’s a Brick House.” Is this supposed to be a complement? I’ve actually asked several women I know about this song, and none of them would appreciate being described metaphorically as a large masonry structure.
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/37 "2007-01-06T00:36:50Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant]
From Sympathy for the Devil
Quote:
_And I laid traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reached bombay_
The Hell does that mean, if you’ll pardon the expression?
[QUOTE=AskNott]
Once before, when the SDMB danced around that one, somebody came in to tell us about the “hippie trail” of backpackers who travelled across south Asia in search of enlightenment. Several of them were robbed and killed by local bandits.
[/QUOTE]
[/QUOTE]
I may have been way off base on this but I used to think it was a reference to [the Thuggee.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggee)
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### Author:  [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/38 "2007-01-06T01:13:31Z")
[QUOTE=Diceman]
How about that song “She’s a Brick House.” Is this supposed to be a complement? I’ve actually asked several women I know about this song, and none of them would appreciate being described metaphorically as a large masonry structure.
[/QUOTE]
But they’d probably appreciate “[stacked](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030704.html)” (or at least understand the meaning).
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/39 "2007-01-06T01:37:36Z")
[QUOTE=NDP]
I may have been way off base on this but I used to think it was a reference to the Thuggee.
[/QUOTE]
A good point, but given the imagery one has become accustomed to from the Rolling Stones, “troubadours” must be some reference to musicians, raconteurs or artists of some sort.
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### Author:  [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puzzling-lyrics-that-drive-you-nuts/386761/40 "2007-01-06T05:29:16Z")
_System of a Down_, whose often incomprehensible lyrics are infamous, doesn’t seem to make that much more sense when you actually read what they’re trying to sing.
In _Toxicity_, for example, the singer asks:
> [@](#):
>
> New, what do you own the world?
> How do you own disorder, disorder?
😕
What is the function of the word “new”? New what?
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