# Scientifically inaccurate songs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 12, 2005, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882 "2005-10-12T12:54:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/21 "2005-10-12T16:28:51Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#):
>
> Well a sort of scientific-historical example… that Sinatra song with the lyrics ‘They all laughed at Christopher Columbus, when he said the world was round’. No they bloody didn’t.
I thought they did. Well I am sure the majority of the people in Christopher Colombus’s time didn’t believe him since most were illiterate.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/22 "2005-10-12T17:21:47Z")
> [@Otto](#):
>
> Every hymn, gospel and “Christian rock” song ever written.
Now you’re just being petty and attacking religion for no good reason.
How is “Amazing Grace,” for instance, scientifically inaccurate? What scientific claims does it make? (God’s existence is a METAPHYSICAL assertion, not a scientific one.)
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/23 "2005-10-12T17:27:21Z")
> [@JThunder](#):
>
> by Alfred Yankovic
Merely seeing his name presented like this is funnier than anything else in this thread.
Sailboat
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### Author:  [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/24 "2005-10-12T17:27:55Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> But Marconi made up for it by playing the mambo. Listen to the radio. Don’t you remember? We built this city on rock and roll.
Actually the lyrics specify that Marconi played the mamba. I think that turning poinsonous snakes into musical instruments may overshadow radio as an innovation, but it may untrue. However that would go in a “historical innaccuracies” thread.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/25 "2005-10-12T17:29:30Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#):
>
> I thought they did. Well I am sure the majority of the people in Christopher Colombus’s time didn’t believe him since most were illiterate.
Nope, it was common knowledge that the world was round, at least among the educated classes. The size of the world was in question.
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/26 "2005-10-12T17:29:52Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#):
>
> I thought they did. Well I am sure the majority of the people in Christopher Colombus’s time didn’t believe him since most were illiterate.
Illiteracy aside, the educated people of Columbus’ day generally agreed that the world was indeed round. Their disagreement with Columbus was that they thought it was BIGGER than he did – and they were right.
The illiterate people probably had no idea Columbus existed, much less was planning a voyage, and so probably didn’t laugh at him.
It’s a modern fallacy to imagine that everyone back then thought the world was flat.
Sailboat
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### Author:  [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/27 "2005-10-12T17:40:55Z")
“He took a hundred pounds of clay to make my life worth livin’”
No…wait a minute…in Kansas that is science.
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/28 "2005-10-12T18:16:45Z")
“The sun is a mass of incandescent gas”
What the FUCK were they thinking??!
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/29 "2005-10-12T18:20:39Z")
> [@Smeghead](#):
>
> “The sun is a mass of incandescent gas”
>
> What the FUCK were they thinking??!
Maybe I’m being wooshed here but…isn’t it? I mean, AFAIK, that song is accurate. Things might be simplified down a bit, but I thought it was correct.
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### Author:  [@A\_qui\_profite\_le\_crime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_qui_profite_le_crime)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/30 "2005-10-12T18:24:34Z")
“In a time where \*\*dinosaurs \*\*walked the earth, when the land was swamp and caves were home […] to search for landscapes \*\*men \*\*would roam”
_Iron Maiden - Quest for Fire_
It doesn’t bother me, but for many Maiden fans, this lyric ruins the song.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/31 "2005-10-12T18:28:01Z")
“Walk the Dinosaur” by Was Not Was. The whole song.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/32 "2005-10-12T18:36:15Z")
“‘The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one,’ they said…”
The odds are, I imagine, considerably worse than that.
I do not believe the list of ingredients in “Love Potion no. 9” would create an actual love potion.
In the song “30,000 pounds of Bananas” I do not believe that all 30,000 pounds of bananas would end up mashed. Some of them, certainly, but you would not have 30,000 pounds of mashed bananas.
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/33 "2005-10-12T18:41:09Z")
From _We Are the World_ -
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally Sung By **Willie Nelson** _
> As God has shown us,
> By turning stones to bread…
Jesus did **not** turn stones to bread. He was tempted to do so after fasting for forty days and nights, but He refused. “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
Matthew 4:1-4.
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/34 "2005-10-12T18:51:18Z")
> [@](#):
>
> From We Are the World -
>
> Quote:
> Originally Sung By Willie Nelson
> As God has shown us,
> By turning stones to bread…
> Jesus did not turn stones to bread. He was tempted to do so after fasting for forty days and nights, but He refused. “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
>
> Matthew 4:1-4.
>
> Regards,
> Shodan
So that would be a _Theologically_ inaccurate song, then.
(Or maybe _Scripturally_ inaccurate)
But Science would seem irrelevant to a miracle, in any case.
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### Author:  [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/35 "2005-10-12T18:52:02Z")
“Thunder only happens when it’s raining…”
Of course, it **is** a scientific fact that players only love you when they’re playing.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/36 "2005-10-12T18:56:59Z")
I’m a Neanderthal man, you’re a Neanderthal girl,
Let’s make Neanderthal love in this Neanderthal world.
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### Author:  [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/37 "2005-10-12T19:11:34Z")
“I can feel St. Elmo’s Fire burning in meehee…”
Actually, St. Elmo’s Fire is an external phenomenon.
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### Author:  [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/38 "2005-10-12T19:11:35Z")
Another historically inaccurate song - Crusader by Chris De Burgh. I love the song, but the innaccuracies in the song make me wince after I’m done jamming to it.
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### Author:  [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/39 "2005-10-12T19:15:13Z")
From “Once Upon A Time” sung by Frank Sanatra (and later Lorrie Morgan)
Once upon a hill
We sat beneath a willow tree
Counting all the stars and waiting for the dawn
But that was once upon a time
Now the tree is gone
Willow trees don’t grow up on hills. Willow trees grow down by the water. Water is usually found in valleys. Sometimes the water (if it’s flowing) actually created the valley.
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### Author:  [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientifically-inaccurate-songs/325882/40 "2005-10-12T19:26:56Z")
> [@System of a Down - Science](#):
>
> Science fails to recognise the single most
> potent element of human existence
I think it’s been fairly well established that it’s carbon (chemical symbol C), and if System of a Down has some solid evidence to refute this, I wish they’d put it in a peer-reviewed journal rather than some ditty.
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