# Song Lyrics That Always Bugged You **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2011, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944 "2011-02-02T21:50:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/201 "2011-02-16T08:07:37Z")
From the _Sound of Music_: “La, a note to follow sol.” Lazy, lazy, lazy, and annoys me every time. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/202 "2011-02-16T09:18:07Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > There could easily be a moratorium on any song ever again beginning with “Woke up this morning” or “I was walking down the street.” Just for the cliche of it all, or for some other reason? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/203 "2011-02-16T13:30:06Z")
This morning I heard “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn, and I remembered that I’ve always hated the line, “walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale”. There are just too many feet in it. Besides, if Beale Street is so special, picture this: You could walk right _on_ it! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/204 "2011-02-16T15:06:59Z")
That reminds me, Walking In Memphis also contains the line \*"But do I really feel the way I feel? \* Yes you do. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/205 "2011-02-16T19:50:23Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > That reminds me, Walking In Memphis also contains the line \*"But do I really feel the way I feel? > \* > Yes you do. But does he? _Really?_ ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/206 "2011-02-16T22:21:53Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > But if this ever-changing world in which we live in. > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > There has been a lot of discussion about this. Some people contend thatn the line is: > _But if this ever changin’ world in which we’re livin’…_ I’ve been convinced of that, too. Listening to the song on the radio, it isn’t clear, and alternate repeats of the line sound opposite to me. Of course, there are plenty of goofy Beatles lyrics, so feel free to mock. > [@Buckler\_of\_Swashing](#): > > I’m not sure there’s such a thing as a “Roman cavalry choir”, Chris Martin. +1 > [@42fish](#): > > Well, it gets lonely out in the desert, but the horse insisted on a commitment first… _snort_ > [@Skara\_Brae](#): > > Anyway, mine is “Second Chance” by Shinedown, which contains this lyric: > > > [@](#): > > > > I just saw Haley’s comet, she waved > > Said “why you always running in place?” > > Even the man in the moon disappeared, > > Somewhere in the stratosphere. > > Huh? What bothers me most is that the moon isn’t in the stratosphere. It is in _space_! > (Did just the man disapppear? That doesn’t make any sense either. And it makes no sense in the context of the song.) Well, it’s the _Man in the Moon_ that disappeared, not the Moon, so the location of the Moon isn’t exactly relevant, as the Man in the Moon is an optical illusion. I’m not sure how the illusion disappeared in the stratosphere - or why he cites Haley’s comet (as opposed to any generic comet). > [@zyzzyva](#): > > “Hold on to 16 as long as you can” > > Look, no matter how hard you try, even in a leap year you’re not gonna get more than 366 days. It’s a metaphor for holding onto the feeling of being 16, the feeling of youth, not necessarily about the actual age. > [@CanvasShoes](#): > > Huh? Please 'splain. I don’t understand how the title has anything to do with what color the characters in the song were, nor do I remember anything in the song about what color they were period. I’m from about as far away from the south as a 'merkin can get though, so if this is a southern thing, please let us yankees know? > 🙂 The complaint seems to be that the song is lamenting 1 case of misjustice, and pretending that that 1 case of misjustice is somehow unique and the only blemish on an otherwise spotless record. It ignores the history of lynching and such based upon racial lines, where many an innocent man was murdered by a mob. It’s not that the protagonists of the song must be white, it’s that injustice sure happened more than just that one night. > [@etv78](#): > > I misheard it as this for a LONG TIME, the lyric is “realistic novelist” Nope, “real estate novelist”. Cite: > **[Real Estate Novelist](https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/real-estate-novelist.171228/)** > > Hi, I´m teaching english in my country and I want my students to listent to "The Piano Man", by Billy Joel, but I don´t know what the expression Real estate novelist means, is this person a writer for a real estate magazine? > thanks for your help, > Lil > [@](#): > > Billy Joel: "It’s an invented phrase. When I was working in a piano bar in L.A., around ’72, everybody came and dumped their day on you. Paul was a real-estate broker, and he would say, “I’m working on this book.” But he was there every night, crocked out of his skull, and I would think, “How’s this guy getting any writing done, unless he’s doing the F. Scott Fitzgerald bit: knock out a couple of things when he first gets up, after the coffee buzz, and then start drinkin’. ” Cite of a cite, without an active link to original, but there you go. > [@fjs1fs](#): > > I think you can start enjoying that line, because it IS grammatically correct. You use “were” if your clause is non-factual, e.g., "If I were the Pope, I would . . . " But if it’s something that may happen such as "If I was to correct your grammar, I would . . . " I believe Jim M was using it in this way, and was planning on saying “Girl we couldn’t get much higher.” No, the case is a alternative condition that is proposed. “Were” would be correct, grammatically. > [@Marley23](#): > > [Bombast]I! WOULD DOOOO ANNN!YTHING! FOR! LOOOOVE… but I WON’T! DO! THAT![/Bombast] > > Perfect example of what you’re talking about, and I’m surprised this song hasn’t been mentioned in this thread yet. > [@Marley23](#): > > If you read the full lyrics, the “but” doesn’t contradict the “anything.” That’s my point. “That” isn’t a contradiction to “anything”? > [@tokolosh](#): > > Big Circumstance comes looming like a darkly roaring train > Rushes like a sucking wound across a winter plain > Recognising neither polished shine nor spark nor stain > And wherever you are on the compass rose > You’ll never be again > > Where to even start? ‘Loom’? ‘Roar’? _Darkly_ roar? ‘Loom’? ‘Rush’? ‘Train’? ‘Wound’? It’s the clunky juxtapositions that bother me. But never mind that . . . > > Poetic license be damned. Wounds cannot _rush_. It’s a perfectly horrible visual I could so do without. I’ll give him ‘sucking,’ kind of - once you’ve known a certain kind of personality the metaphor takes on its own genius. But no circumstance, big or small, can ‘recognise’ anything - is he making it a train or a wound or a sentient entity here? And why would he expect it to recognise a ‘stain’ anyway? The ‘compass rose’ bit really bugs me too. Eh, it’s a common enough way to speak, to personify inanimate objects in order to make them the subject of a sentence. I grant you that wounds do not rush anywhere, so that simile is busted, but there is no problem with personifying “Big Circumstance” (whatever that is) and saying that it looms like a train (bearing down on you and you are stuck on the track), nor recognizing anything to distract it (not stopping for anything). And “compass rose” relates to the way a typical depiction of a compass with actual points at the significant directions, like [http://a07015.uscgaux.info/Compass.jpg](http://a07015.uscgaux.info/Compass.jpg) [![](http://compassfishing.com/images/compass-large.jpg) ](http://compassfishing.com/images/compass-large.jpg) > **[OpenStax | Free Textbooks Online with No Catch](https://openstax.org/general/cnx-404/)** > > OpenStax offers free college textbooks for all types of students, making education accessible & affordable for everyone. Browse our list of available subjects! I had one that I can’t recall at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/207 "2011-02-16T23:22:50Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Just for the cliche of it all, or for some other reason? Very cliched–and the former is rather an obvious well, _duh_. Once in a while, you can do something with it–the Doors’ “Woke up this morning and I got myself a beer” is a pretty succinct way of saying “Jim, you’ve got a _problem_,” for example. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/208 "2011-02-16T23:31:35Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > Once in a while, you can do something with it–the Doors’ “Woke up this morning and I got myself a beer” is a pretty succinct way of saying “Jim, you’ve got a _problem_,” for example. “He’s drunk, Jim.” ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/209 "2011-02-17T02:53:10Z")
Semisonic has a song called “Chemistry,” which features this gem: “All about chemistry Won’t you show me everything you know Ah wonder what you do to me Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh” ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/210 "2011-02-17T03:37:30Z")
Dylan practically invented WTF lyrics. Here’s some from _Desolation Row_. _Here comes the blind commissioner They’ve got him in a trance One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker The other is in his pants_ _Now the moon is almost hidden The stars are beginning to hide The fortune-telling lady Has even taken all her things inside All except for Cain and Abel And the hunchback of Notre Dame Everybody is making love Or else expecting rain_ _Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood With his memories in a trunk Passed this way an hour ago With his friend, a jealous monk He looked so immaculately frightful As he bummed a cigarette Then he went off sniffing drainpipes And reciting the alphabet_ _Yes, I received your letter yesterday (About the time the doorknob broke) When you asked how I was doing Was that some kind of joke?_ I love it, though! ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/211 "2011-02-17T07:35:36Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#): > > From the _Sound of Music_: > > “La, a note to follow sol.” > > Lazy, lazy, lazy, and annoys me every time. That’s always annoyed me, too, and while out walking today, it occurred to me that it could have been “La, the French for _the_, you know” (those last two words are rather contrived), or “La, it means _the_ in Bordeaux.” Either beats what Oscar Hammerstein wrote. So thanx for providing the inspiration (finally!) to answer the question “Well, how would _you_ write it, then?” ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/212 "2011-02-17T07:37:24Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > “He’s drunk, Jim.” Damnit, Bones, I am the Lizard King, not a bartender! ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/213 "2011-02-17T08:43:29Z")
Allison Durbin “I have Loved Me a Man” \* “He has my heart tied in his hands” Yuck - what a visual! - Its probably a cover ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/214 "2011-02-17T13:06:08Z")
The last half of the middle verse of [The Galaxy Song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk)always jars because of the lack of a rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/215 "2011-02-17T16:51:06Z")
Gin Blossoms, “Follow You Down” > [@](#): > > Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down > Anyplace but those I know by heart > Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down > I’ll follow you down, but not that far The point of the song seems to be saying how devoted he is and will do anything, but then the refrain puts immediate constraints on the trivial things he does all the time, “those I know by heart”. Um, yeah, you’re so devoted you won’t do anything commonplace. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/216 "2011-02-17T20:06:28Z")
What I’ve always hated are words that are only in a song to make a rhyme. For example, from one of my favorite songs “Love Will Find a Way” by **YES** Here is my heart Waiting for you Here is my soul I eat at chez nous :dubious: Really? That’s the best they could come up with? And one, I’m not sure was ever a single, but another favorite of mine, “Rivers (of the Hidden Funk)” by **Joe Walsh** There’s a master plan, or so they say I’m a patient man. s’il vous plait ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/217 "2011-02-17T20:19:46Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > What I’ve always hated are words that are only in a song to make a rhyme. For example, from one of my favorite songs “Love Will Find a Way” by **YES** > > Here is my heart > Waiting for you > Here is my soul > I eat at chez nous > > :dubious: Really? That’s the best they could come up with? > > And one, I’m not sure was ever a single, but another favorite of mine, “Rivers (of the Hidden Funk)” by **Joe Walsh** > > There’s a master plan, or so they say > I’m a patient man. s’il vous plait Which is why I’ve always hated Neil Diamond’s I Am I Said to no one there & no one heard at all not even the chair Really? Did you expect the table or lamp hear you as well Neil? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/218 "2011-02-28T03:05:47Z")
“We don’t need no education” Well, it might teach you to avoid double negatives. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/219 "2011-02-28T05:00:06Z")
You think that it might have been part of the point? That pedantry about things like double negatives is a part of society’s effort to kill independent thought? I’m not saying that that is the o sole possible interpretation or that it is the intended message, but I do believe that the intentional violation of that particular “rule” – a rule that does not apply to every register of communcation — makes the message more trenchant. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/220 "2011-02-28T07:04:54Z")
I was listening to **Gordon Lightfoot’s** “Sundown”, and though I’ve heard the song many times before, this time these lyrics caught my ear: Sometimes I think it’s a shame when I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain Why is that a shame? Would he prefer to be feeling worse and in pain? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944.md?page=12)