# Song Titles that are wrong according to the lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 19, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352 "2024-01-19T20:56:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/21 "2024-01-29T21:57:27Z")
While driving today, the Zep song Black Dog came on the radio, and it occurred to me that it’s another of those songs where the title has absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics. Apparently a black lab running around on the grounds of the recording studio inspired the title. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/22 "2024-01-29T22:06:26Z")
Linky no worky (maybe it wasn’t supposed to). ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/23 "2024-01-29T23:54:40Z")
Dylan seemed to enjoy doing this Subterranean Homesick Blues Postively 4th Street Tom Thumb Blues My Back Pages and Coldplay Vida la Vida ETA: > [@psiekier](#): > > Teenage Wasteland” Yeah, Baba O’Riley is a thread-winner for sure. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/24 "2024-01-30T13:33:41Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Linky no worky (maybe it wasn’t supposed to). Weird. Let’s try that again, with the money quote added, so the link is superfluous: > The title is a reference to a nameless black Labrador Retriever the band used to see wandering the Headley Grange studio grounds. The dog would disappear in the evening and return exhausted in the early morning, before resting all day and repeating his evening sojourns. > **[Black Dog (Led Zeppelin song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dog_(Led_Zeppelin_song))** > > "Black Dog" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is the first track on the band's untitled fourth album (1971), which has become one of the best-selling albums of all time. The song was released as a single and reached the charts in many countries. It is "one of the most instantly recognisable Zeppelin tracks", and was included in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list (US), and ranked No. 1 in Q magazine's (UK) "20 Greatest Guitar Tracks". The lyrics contain typica > [@Coriolanus](#): > > Dylan seemed to enjoy doing this > > Subterranean Homesick Blues > Postively 4th Street > Tom Thumb Blues > My Back Pages Don’t forget what may be the greatest non-sequitar title of all time: Dylan’s _Rainy Day Women #12 & 35_. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/25 "2024-01-30T14:19:18Z")
> [@solost](#): > > _Rainy Day Women #12 & 35_. 12 x 35 = 420. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/26 "2024-01-30T14:32:57Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > 12 x 35 = 420. Woah… 🤯 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/27 "2024-01-30T14:39:48Z")
_I guess that’s why they call it the blues_ by Elton John. The song says a lot about _having_ the blues, but it never says why it’s _called_ the blues. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/28 "2024-01-30T15:00:16Z")
New Order, love 'em though I do, have written some pretty naff lyrics over the years. And the song titles seem to have **nothing** to do with the ostensible subject. “Bizarre Love Triangle” which, as far as I can tell, isn’t about one, “Ceremony,” “Everything’s Gone Green,” the list goes on and on. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/29 "2024-01-30T15:16:08Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > _I guess that’s why they call it the blues_ by Elton John. The song says a lot about _having_ the blues, but it never says why it’s _called_ the blues. I’m more bugged because nobody ever says “…why _they’re_ called The Blues”…[/obsessive grammarian] ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/30 "2024-01-30T15:19:08Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > Everything’s Gone Green That one was inspired by a vibrant spring morning with brand new leaves sprouting up everywhere. Yeah, the subsequent lyrical theme is just your garden variety (heh) broken heart kind of lament, but at least the genesis was inspired by an actual event. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/31 "2024-01-30T15:28:52Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Yeah, Baba O’Riley is a thread-winner for sure. Similarly, a song title like **D’yer Mak’er** has almost nothing to do with the contents of the song, plus the added confusion of accents. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/32 "2024-01-30T15:30:56Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Dylan seemed to enjoy doing this > > Subterranean Homesick Blues > Postively 4th Street > Tom Thumb Blues > My Back Pages David Cross named the tracks on at least one album like this (it’s actually biting political commentary, live during the Gulf War, with lines like “How fcked up is it that I have to watch _the BBC news_ to find out what’s happening in America?”). “It’s Not Funny” Track Listing: 1. Certain Leaders in Government Look or Act like Certain Pop Culture References! 2. Women, Please Rinse Off Your Vagina and Anus! 3. I’ve Taken a Popular Contemporary Pop Song and Changed the Lyrics to Comment on the Proliferation of Starbucks in My Neighborhood! 4. A Rapid Series of Comical Noises! 5. Although Indigent, Rural Families Have Little to Say in the Matter, Third Rate Public Education Has Kept Them Ignorant and Thus, Great Sources of Ridicule! 6. My Child is Enthralling, Especially When It Says Something Unexpectedly Precocious Even Though It Doesn’t Understand What It Just Said! 7. My Immigrant Mom Talks Funny! 8. When It Comes to Jews, Behavior One Might Perceive as Obnoxious and Annoying I Present as ‘Quirky’ but It’s Okay to Joke About It Because I, Myself, Am Jewish 9. Pandering to the Locals! 10. Even Though I Am in the Closet, That Won’t Prevent Me from Getting Cheap Laughs at the Expense of Homosexuals! 11. Weathermen Have Become, for the Most Part, Obsolete! 12. When All is Said and Done, I am Lonely and Miserable and Barely Able to Mask My Contempt for the Audience as I Trot Out the Same Sorry Act I’ve Been Doing Since the Mid-Eighties! ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/33 "2024-01-30T16:03:01Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Similarly, a song title like **D’yer Mak’er** has almost nothing to do with the contents of the song, plus the added confusion of accents. **Fun fact:** that song title is from an old joke, though the spelling is tortured, either to match a particular Brit accent, or because if the actual wording was used, the song title would be even more of a head scratcher. The joke: * * * "My wife and I went on separate vacations this year. I went camping, and she went to the Caribbean." “Jamaica? (D’yer Mak’er?)” “No, it was her idea.” * * * When it comes to all the goofy non-sequitur song titles of the 60s and 70s, I have a sneaking suspicion drugs were often involved. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/34 "2024-01-30T16:08:25Z")
Hence my mention of accents. The Brits got it, the Americans didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/35 "2024-01-30T16:22:24Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Dylan seemed to enjoy doing this There seem to be a good number of bands that go for rather abstract titles. In the 90s it especially seemed popular, but probably just the general genre of music I listened to (college/alt/indie rock) liked doing that. From The Smashing Pumpkins: Cherub Rock Bullet With Butterfly Wings Mayonasie (sic) Rhinoceros Geek USA Thirty-Three etc Green Day: Longview Basket Case Good Riddance Brain Stew ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/36 "2024-01-30T16:28:34Z")
Stereolab: every song ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/37 "2024-01-30T16:31:36Z")
Oh, excellent! I actually cannot think of a single song of theirs where the title is somewhere in the lyric. Also, I often have a damn hard time understanding/hearing the lyrics, anyway, and half the time they’re in French. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/38 "2024-01-30T16:36:23Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > _I guess that’s why they call it the blues_ by Elton John. The song says a lot about _having_ the blues, but it never says why it’s _called_ the blues. Sure it does, he states that “time on my hands, could be time spent with you” . And then he states that this time could be better utilized “laughing like children, living like lovers, rolling like thunder under the covers”, but it isn’t so. I guess thats why they call it the blues, he has wasted time on his hands and its called the blues. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/39 "2024-01-30T16:49:25Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Hence my mention of accents. The Brits got it, the Americans didn’t. Eh, I think the joke is perfectly understandable with the American pronunciation of ‘Jamaica’. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352/40 "2024-01-30T16:58:20Z")
Yes, but not when the DJ pronounces the title as “die-er maker.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-titles-that-are-wrong-according-to-the-lyrics/996352.md?page=3)