But you left off the best part of it:
“Pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa
Oom m-mow mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Pa pa pa oom m-mow mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Pa pa oom m-mow mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Oom m-mow mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Pa pa oom m-mow mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Pa pa oom m-mow mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Oom m-oom m-oom m-oom
M-oom m-mow mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Pa pa oom m-oom m-oom m-oom
M-oom m-mow mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Oom m-mow mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Pa pa oom m-mow mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Pa pa oom m-mow mow
Oom mow m-mow
Pa pa oom m-mow mow
Oom mow m-mow
Pa pa oom m-oom m-oom m-oom
M-oom m-mow mow
Oom m-oom m-oom m-oom
M-oom m-mow mow
Oom mow m-mow
Pa pa oom mow m-mow
Pa pa oom m-mow mow
Oom mow m-mow”
I love some Rush as well, but there a rich seam of cringy lyrics to be found there. I’ll see your “Roll the Bones” rap, and raise you “Virtuality”…
Net boy, net girl
Send your signal 'round the world
Let your fingers walk and talk
And set you free
Net boy, net girl
Send your impulse 'round the world
(Put your message in a modem)
Put your message in a modem
(And throw it in the cyber sea)
And throw it in the cyber sea
Or, how about “Dog Years”?..
In a dog’s life
A year is really more like seven
And all too soon a canine
Will be chasing cars in doggie heaven
In the ugly department,
Blackmore’s Night, “Be Mine Tonight”
In an otherwise sweet devotional love song, we get this:
So many stories,
So many treasures,
So much our lives have shared…
We’ve done it all and we’ve done it together,
You know I’ve always cared…
“Cared?” really, just “cared?”
Does Paul Simon say that somewhere? Because reading the lyrics (of a song I’ve heard hundreds of times) just to be sure, it never occurred to me before and seems like quite a stretch now.
Well, I suppose I could have said ‘in my opinion’ and maybe saying the song is about ‘racism’ is simplifying things a bit. But the album was created in the shadow of Apartheid, and it seems, to me at least, pretty clear that Simon was making social and political statements about Apartheid; and in general about the prevalence of African culture throughout the world and certain other cultures’ unease with that.
However, he didn’t want to distract from the music itself, so he so he couched things in levels of metaphor to keep the social and political messages secondary to the music.
Take this expanded section of lyrics from ‘Fingerprints’:
Well, the sun gets bloody
And the sun goes down
Ever since the watermelon
And the lights come up
On the black pit town
Somebody says what’s a better thing to do
Well, it’s not just me
And it’s not just you
This is all around the world
Sure, interpretations can differ, and maybe I’m wrong, but to me this is saying that racial injustice, or at least racial biases and misunderstandings happen 'all around the world".
Here’s an interesting thesis on the Graceland album I found online.
In the otherwise sublime Moody Blues concept album “Days of Future Passed,” at the end the narrator intones: “Senior citizens wish they were young.” He should have said “old men and women” or something — “senior citizen” is a soulless demographic euphemism.
Yep, that always jars me.
I think you’re reading a lot into it. I’ll just leave it at that, rather than hijack the thread. Main thing is, the author’s intended meaning is unknown afaict.
One I heard yesterday that I really like from Heart Nothing at all
I would walk home every evening
Through the pyramids of light
I would feed myself on silence
Wash it down with empty nights
Then you get AC/DC:
A body of Venus with arms
Maybe so; it’s possible I’m reading too much into it. In any case, I will drop the hijack too.
My S. American Latina wife once related that her mother said to her that my wife was fortunate not to have large breasts because it meant that she could wear low-cut or revealing feminine clothes without looking like a whore. I don’t know if that mindset is intentionally reflected in those lyrics but it reminded me of that.
(Should go without saying that I’m not endorsing this line of thought)
Maybe that sentiment applies here, but one can surely express it better. Confuse them with mountains? That’s ridiculous, almost baby speak.
I mean, it’s no biggie, it’s a harmless pop song without any greater message you can dance to, so there are no big expectations for great poetry. I’ve also always assumed that the writer is no native English speaker, so I cut them some slack.
True, I won’t say that they’re good lyrics. Just spurred a memory.
I think that’s genius! I mean, it IS AC/DC. Subtlety isn’t their forte.
“She told me to come/but I was already there”
Returning to the Good, my entry in the Songs beginning with E thread reminded me of these splendid lines from Black Grape’s England’s Irie. (This is, improbably, ostensibly, a soccer World Cup song (very unofficial). Note that the first couple of lines refer to a referee).
Hey diddle-diddle, there’s a fella in the middle
And I think he’s pulling my string
My wife’s lactating and I’m spectating
It’s a football thing
I live in a land of class hypocracy
We’re going to win the national lottery
E I Adio, I don’t think so
j
Atmosphere.
So many good lyrics.
My favorite song is “Trying To Find a Balance.”
Wait, let’s prey on the blind, deaf, dumb, dead
Hustle, maybe a couple will love what you said
Emcees drag their feet across a big naked land
With an empty bag of seed and a fake shake of hands
Yeah I got some last words, fuck all of ya’ll
Stop writin’ raps and go play volleyball
Gotta journey the world in a hurry
'Cause my attorney didn’t put enough girls on the jury
In the days of Kings and Queens I was a jester
Treat me like a God or they treat me like a leper
You see me move back and forth between both
I’m tryin’ to find a balance
“The Key To Life Vs. 15 Minutes of Fame”
It’s like all of Franklin Avenue now sleeps upon my chest
I’ve used cigarette butts and loose leaves to build my nest
Did I mention I appreciate the way you treat your guests?
But I’m not really convinced when you say that you’re impressed
The line between MC and comedian gets a little thinner
Now it’s nothing but ruffage for lunch and punchlines for dinner
I’ve tried to open the blinds to let in some sunshine
Wound the watch 'til it broke all in hopes of stopping the time
The key broke off in the ignition
Hoping if I wandered off through my thoughts wishing
Hoping this could be for you what it is for me patiently I stay busy, I wait, I see
Listening to Your Song today and these lines annoyed me as they always do:
If I was a sculptor
But then again, no
Or a man who makes potions in a travelin’ show, oh
I know it’s not much, but it’s the best I can do
My gift is my song and this one’s for you
Even the way Elton sings it, it barely makes sense.
Besides having a funky groove and terrific guitar work by Adrian Belew, I love David Byrne’s semi-rap From Crosseyed And Painless:
Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don’t do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
Facts are nothing on the face of things
That’s what I like about it. It’s about someone grappling for the right words to express his love, but he’s not very creative so it comes out all jumbled.
And then there’s this astonishing line:
But the sun’s been quite kind while I wrote this song
It’s for people like you that keep it turned on
What you folks need is Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs, which was the result of an overwhelming response to his column setting out a Bad Song Survey. It’s been a long time since I read it but I believe that “MacArthur Park” was at or near the top of the list …
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe agaaaaaaain!
Oh, nooooooooo …
But the book (and Barry’s fans) also tries to disparage *The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", which I entirely disagree with. It’s a perfectly fine nautical ballad.