# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/161 "2011-02-09T05:02:06Z")
> [@Drain\_Bead](#): > > There was a hair metal song back in the day called “When I’m Gone” that I absolutely loved, except for one line. “Your clothes are hanging on the floor.” > > They are either hanging, or on the floor. They can’t be both. I can think of about 8 ways to say what they were trying to say in that line without screwing up the syntax. So why couldn’t they? Maybe it was just shorthand for “your clothes are hanging [out] on the floor” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AshenLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@AshenLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AshenLady)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/162 "2011-02-09T05:17:04Z")
\*\*I feel inclined to blow my mind Get hung up feed the ducks with a bun They all come out to groove about Be niceand have fun in the sun \*\* I don’t get what feeding ducks with a bun is…after you blow your mind, and is it ducks that come out to groove about? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/163 "2011-02-09T05:20:02Z")
Yes, “Handbags and Gladrags” is ridiculous. The concept at work here is the idea that the subject of the song is frivolously spending his or her grandfather’s hard-earned money on handbags and gladrags. Okay, this is perfectly logical. And there are plenty of logical ways of saying it: “Your granddad had to sweat so that you could buy these handbags and gladrags.” “You can only afford these handbags and gladrags because of your granddad’s sweat [at work, earning the money being spent on them].” Or even, “[These are the] handbags and the gladrags that your granddad’s sweat buys.” (The “sweat” being used as a stand-in word for the money earned from the granddad’s hard labor.) However, the lyric, as sung, implies that _something is actively being done_ to the handbags and gladrags _by_ the granddad. Saying “the handbags and the gladrags that your granddad bought you with his sweat” works. But saying “the handbags and the gladrags that your granddad had to sweat so you could buy” is a completely illogical, senseless sentence, upon analysis. Without analyzing it, it gets the point across and so I guess it works fine in the song. But when you think about it, it’s a very improper phrasing. ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/164 "2011-02-09T05:21:44Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > There are tons of them - but the Black Eyed Peas sang this gem at the half-time show for the 2011 Super Bowl: > _I’m so 2008 you’re so two thousand late…_ It’s “3008”. ---
**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 9, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/165 "2011-02-09T06:33:26Z")
> [@AshenLady](#): > > \*\*I feel inclined to blow my mind > Get hung up feed the ducks with a bun > They all come out to groove about > Be niceand have fun in the sun > > \*\* > > I don’t get what feeding ducks with a bun is…after you blow your mind, and is it ducks that come out to groove about? “Blow my mind” means _get high_. Then you feed the ducks with bread torn off a \*hot dog \*bun, “grooving about” (having fun, living life, _digging the vibes, man!_) with the ducks when they come out to get the bread. What’s not to understand? (Admitted, I did a good deal of Itchykooing in those days…) ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/166 "2011-02-09T07:08:28Z")
New song lyric bugging me and I’ve never even heard the whole song. It’s used in a new Subaru commercial, Sean Hayes’ “Powerful Stuff” - \* Oh yes this is powerful stuff Got me circling like the moon round the sun\* \ Durr, it circles around the earth. Causing tides and whatshit. And that clip of song is a terrible awful earworm I’ve had in my head for a couple of days. Somebody shoot me please. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/167 "2011-02-09T07:15:58Z")
I have no pride, so I’m going to bring up Barry Manilow and _Trying to Get the Feeling Again_; _Where did it run to I swear I’ve done all that I could Just to keep the fire burning. But whatever I’ve done Guess I just haven’t done it too **good** _. _Well_, Barry. You haven’t done it too well. Dolt. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/168 "2011-02-09T07:27:03Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I have no pride, so I’m going to bring up Barry Manilow and _Trying to Get the Feeling Again_; > > _Where did it run to > I swear I’ve done all that I could > Just to keep the fire burning. > But whatever I’ve done > Guess I just haven’t done it too **good** _. > > _Well_, Barry. You haven’t done it too well. > > Dolt. Correct. Now change “could” so that it rhymes with well. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/169 "2011-02-09T10:27:20Z")
> [@multimediac17](#): > > It’s “3008”. lol. Now \*that \*makes it all fall together! Had I know that, I wouldn’t have snickered so much. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/170 "2011-02-09T10:56:13Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > lol. Now \*that \*makes it all fall together! Had I know that, I wouldn’t have snickered so much. 🙂 I remember it confused a lot of people when the song first came out (in 2009) - they were like “Fergie you fool, 2008 was last year!” Fergie-Ferg needs to enunciate! ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/171 "2011-02-09T12:07:44Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > \ Durr, it circles around the earth. Causing tides and whatshit. The moon circles the Earth, the Earth circles the sun, ergo, the Moon circles the Sun. According to one neat visual aid I saw in an astronomy textbook, it actually travels around the sun in a zig-zagging pattern because of how the Earth’s gravity affects it. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/172 "2011-02-09T21:29:59Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > You ever listen to a song, and you get to a lyric where you’re just “Wait, what?” Not necessarily songs that are bad or even ones you don’t like, just where you find particular lyrical choices that got under your skin for some reason. > > My favorite example of this is from the Beatles song “Come Together”. > > “He’s got feet, down, below his knees…” > > Now, I know this song isn’t strictly supposed to make any sense, but… he’s got feet down below his knees? Where the hell else would he keep them?!😕 It’s like that joke when the comedian declares that under her clothes, Madonna is NAKED!!!. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/173 "2011-02-09T22:07:51Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > It’s like that joke when the comedian declares that under her clothes, Madonna is NAKED!!!. re: “Feet down below his knees” - It could also just be another way of saying he puts his pants on one leg at a time; that, despite all these other things about the fellow in question, underneath it all he’s just a regular guy. ---
**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 9, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/174 "2011-02-09T23:37:53Z")
Since we’ve mentioned The Beatles in this thread several times, can anyone explain the following snippets from “The Ballad of John and Yoko?” 1. “50 acorns tied in a sack” 2. “The man in the mack” (could be “mac” or “mak”) 3. “Honeymooning down by the Seine Peter Brown called to say You can make it okay You can get married in Gibraltar, near Spain” If they’re honeymooning, doesn’t that imply that the wedding’s already taken place? 1. “Eating chocolate cake in a bag” ---
**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 9, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/175 "2011-02-09T23:54:50Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Since we’ve mentioned The Beatles in this thread several times, can anyone explain the following snippets from “The Ballad of John and Yoko?” > > 1. “50 acorns tied in a sack” > 2. “The man in the mack” (could be “mac” or “mak”) > 3. “Honeymooning down by the Seine > Peter Brown called to say > You can make it okay > You can get married in Gibraltar, near Spain” > > If they’re honeymooning, doesn’t that imply that the wedding’s already taken place? > > 1. “Eating chocolate cake in a bag” 1. Refers to John & Yoko’s stunt of sending acorns to various world leaders asking them to plant a tree “for peace.” 2. Mac, short for mackintosh, a raincoat or overcoat. Probably refers to a specific person involved with immigration who turned J&Y away. 3. It’s a fair cop. 4. Refers to John & Yoko’s stunt of “bagism,” which involved, among other events, holding a press conference completely concealed inside a huge cloth bag. They weren’t eating “chocolate cake in a bag,” they were eating chocolate cake _while_ in a bag. ---
**Author:** ![FrigidLizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@FrigidLizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrigidLizard)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/176 "2011-02-10T00:24:30Z")
I really like the Alanis Morissette song “That Particular Time”, but every time it gets to the second verse, I just cringe. at that particular time love encouraged me to wait at that particular moment it helped me to be patient that particular month we needed time to marinate in what “us” meant Ugh. It always makes me picture Alanis sitting in a tub of soy sauce. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/177 "2011-02-10T01:47:17Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Correct. Now change “could” so that it rhymes with well. _pffffft._ No need. Stand back: _But whatever I’ve done Guess it just hasn’t done any **good**._ ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/178 "2011-02-10T01:51:24Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > _pffffft._ No need. Stand back: > > _But whatever I’ve done > Guess it just hasn’t done any **good**._ 😃 Well done sir, well done. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/179 "2011-02-10T02:38:57Z")
I thought he was supposed to be coming up with a rhyme for “well.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944/180 "2011-02-10T04:42:32Z")
Hi way works well too. 🆒 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-always-bugged-you/569944.md?page=10)