Several of the Greg Kihn band’s album titles are puns:
Next Of Kihn
Rockihnroll
Kihntinued
Kihnspiracy
Kihntagious
Citizen Kihn
Kihn of Hearts
Marrillion’s Charting the Single is full of word play.
“Schnapping my fingers on an alcoholiday” and other stuff.It’s pretty neat.
http://www.lyrics007.com/Marillion%20Lyrics/Charting%20The%20Single%20Lyrics.html
[QUOTE=gigi]
Country songs (recent ones, anyway) are famous for using an idiom in the title and twisting the meaning.
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Country music does have a lot. Michelle Wright’s “Take It Like A Man” uses the title idiom as both the “be a tough guy” idea, and as a command, telling the guy to “take my heart.” The pun comes when she uses the same idiom for both:
And my poor heart needs somebody who
Can take it like a man, steady and strong
Not a lot of fuss and carrying on…
It’s not a pun, but for the wordplay, I’ve got to mention “All My Exes Live In Texas (That’s Why I Hang My Hat in Tennessee)” by George Strait. I just like the way he rhymed “exes” with “Texas.”
Would you count Weird Al’s “Gotta Boogie”?
“Gotta boogie on my finger and I can’t get it off!”
[QUOTE=Chez Guevara]
Led Zep’s D’yer Mak’er.
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Isn’t this just straight English slang?
[QUOTE=rackensack]
"The World’s Address ", by They Might Be Giants, which not only has a pun as its title but comments self-referentially on its own paranomasia in the chorus.
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Or how about I C U?
[QUOTE=Telemark]
Isn’t this just straight English slang?
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Well, the song title is pronounced “jah-may-kah,” a sound-alike for Jamaica. D’yer Mak’er is a reggae-influenced song.
[QUOTE=Telemark]
Isn’t this just straight English slang?
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But the song was done in a reggae style, making the title a pun on “Jamaica”.
Bra Size 45 By: Ivor Biggun & the D Cups: Bra Size 45 - Everything2.com
a (loose) pun of Stars on 45.
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow]
The blues song* “The Sky Is Crying” actually milks the old Hendrix “kiss this guy” mondegreen (intentionally or not) by repeating the lyric “The sky is crying” throughout, then at the end changing it to “This guy is crying.”
*forgive me if its original form is otherwise, I only actually know it from Stevie Ray.
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“The Sky is Crying” predates “Purple Haze”, having been written in 1959 by Elmore James (arguably, with Levy and Morris, I believe). Forgive the nitpick, but whenever I get a chance to make people aware of James, I take it.
CH
[QUOTE=CateAyo]
“The Sky is Crying” predates “Purple Haze”, having been written in 1959 by Elmore James (arguably, with Levy and Morris, I believe). Forgive the nitpick, but whenever I get a chance to make people aware of James, I take it.
CH
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Cool. Do you know if that particular line is in the original, or if Stevie Ray added it in his version?
From Number One Blind by Veruca Salt, “Levolor, which of us is blind?”
Slays me.
Rocky Raccoon
Rocky is wounded and checks into room, only to find Gideon’s Bible.
Gideon left it no doubt to help in Good Rocky’s revival.
Disraeli Gears by Cream is a pun on Derailleur Gears. The alternate album name
was Elephant’s Gerald.
[QUOTE=beowulff]
Bra Size 45 By: Ivor Biggun & the D Cups: http://everything2.com/?node_id=1043359
a (loose) pun of Stars on 45.
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Thanks. Had almost reached the point where I could listen to “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” without the lyrics for that encroaching. Now it’s back . . .
[QUOTE=MrSquishy]
Or how about I C U?
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Well, if we start listing all the puns in TMBG songs, we’ll be here all year. In the case of “The World’s Address”, the whole song turns around the pun, and it comments on that fact.
John Prine’s It’s a Big Old Goofy World is basically line after line of cliches:
full lyrics here
Aerosmith has a (new?) song called Devil’s Got a New Disguise, some of the lyrics are:
“If you see kay, tell her I love her
She did me in but Ill recover”
If you don’t get it, say the first 4 words to yourself. Or shout them. I don’t care.
I’d count Benny Bell’s Shaving Cream as wordplay.
Basically it’s a switcheroo, where all the lyrics and rhymes suggest the next word will be “shit”, but Bell says “shaving cream” instead.
Bell specialized in these kinds of lyrics - he also had a song called “Everybody Wants My Fanny”, about his girlfriend named… you guessed it… Fanny. (A double entendre)
Squeezebox by The Who
[QUOTE=Borborygmi]
Elvis Costello songs often contain a fair amount of wordplay, which is sometimes cool and sometimes annoying.
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“Call careers information Have you got yourself an occupation” from Oliver’s Army. Nice double meaning there.