# Songs that contain words not commonly found in song lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846 "2007-02-19T19:38:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/61 "2007-02-20T00:28:29Z")
Steve Miller [stole](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html) a particularly famous song lyric, in a particularly bad (and well plagiarized) song, I might add. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/62 "2007-02-20T00:31:47Z")
Oh, he will if you ask. My end is usually Rush: _Totem_: Vishnu and Gaia, Aztec and Maya. _Dog Years_: Galapagos _Alien Shore_: Chromosome _You Bet Your Life_: reactionary revisionist evolutionist minimal expressionist post-modern neo-symbolist existentialist deconstruction _Neurotica_: Exotica _Heresy_: ideology _Roll the Bones_ parallax polyester gluteus interaction abstraction _Anagram_: merchandise _Superconductor_: persona superconductor orchestrate _Presto_: proportion improvising sympathizing _Chain Lightning_: contagious gravitation lunar synchronous infectious resonate epidemic optimism That’s just a few albums, too. Nerd rock rules. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/63 "2007-02-20T00:35:03Z")
Dork. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/64 "2007-02-20T00:45:34Z")
George Harrison manages to reference the Nikkei, Dow Jones, the FTSE, and Nasdaq in “Brainwashed”; I thought that was pretty unique. Then, too, there’s the Radiohead song “Myxomatosis.” ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/65 "2007-02-20T00:53:51Z")
“Salamander” Paul McCartney in “Getting Closer” - _Say you don’t love him, my Salamander_ ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/66 "2007-02-20T01:01:45Z")
Frank Black, in [one song](http://frankblack.net/songs/Default.asp?menu=album&mode=release-song-details&releaseID=701&songID=84), uses the words _ballyhoos_, _tritons_, _pelagic_, and _choragic_. A lot of the words mentioned in this thread are fairly uncommon in popular music, but _pelagic_ sent me to the [dictionary](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pelagic). On the same album, in “St. Francis Dam Disaster,” he rhymes _metropolis_ with _apocalypse_, which I thought was cool because I’d never noticed that you could rhyme them before. ---
**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 20, 2007, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/67 "2007-02-20T01:35:27Z")
[QUOTE=look!ninjas] Then, too, there’s the Radiohead song “Myxomatosis.” [/QUOTE] Previously used by T-Rex in “Left Hand Luke and the Beggar Boys” from _Tanx_. Peter Hammill, “Faint Heart and the Sermon”: **cenotaph** ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/68 "2007-02-20T01:59:36Z")
I can recall only one word in a rock song that sent me to a dictionary, but the song contains several unusual words: **Blue Oyster Cult** ’s _Workshop of Telescopes_: > [@](#): > > By silverfish imperetrix, whose incorrupted eye > Sees through the charms of doctors and their wives > By salamander, drake, and the power that was **undine** > Rise to claim Saturn, ring and sky ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slip\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slip\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slip_1)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/69 "2007-02-20T02:49:42Z")
Scritti Politti, from “Lover to Fall”: “I’ve got a new hermeneutic/I’ve got a new paradigm”. And speaking of Blue Oyster Cult, from ETI: “Ascension/and that’s all they said”. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/70 "2007-02-20T03:48:39Z")
[QUOTE=Autumn Almanac] Try Nirvana’s “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” [/QUOTE] You sure? I don’t hear “sycophants” in there. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/71 "2007-02-20T03:59:09Z")
[QUOTE=Stratocaster] Yes, that’s why I said the point stands. Carry on. [/QUOTE] I thought you were saying it was a different unique word, not a different word for the same thing. Anyway… ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/72 "2007-02-20T04:29:42Z")
Didn’t Cecil write a column about the phrase “The Pompatus of love”? Anyhow, the musical **Wicked** has two great examples: “Since folks round here to an absurd degree Seem fixated on your verdigris” and “Don’t be offended by my frank analysis Think of it as personality dialysis” But the king has to be **Flanders and Swann** , with lyrics such as “Then there flashed through her mind what her mother had said with her antepenultimate breath” and “oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling columbine”. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/73 "2007-02-20T04:54:03Z")
Possibly my favorite Springsteen lyric: > [@](#): > > **Taconite** , coke and limestone > Fed my children and made my pay > Them smokestacks reachin’ like the arms of God > Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay > … > From the **Monongahela** valley > To the Mesabi iron range ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/74 "2007-02-20T06:35:25Z")
There were two specific songs, “In Quintessence” by Squeeze and “Synchronicity” by the Police, that definitely made me think “Oh great, that guy learned a new word.” ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/75 "2007-02-20T06:42:09Z")
Grandmaster Flash broke his sacroiliac in “The Message.” ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/76 "2007-02-20T06:56:27Z")
Sting has some winners. When I was a kid, I had to look up “alabaster” after I heard “Wrapped Around Your Finger.” (As well as Scylla and Charybdis.) “Invisible Sun” has “Armalite” and “acetylene” in it. “Russians” was probably the first pop song to namecheck Oppenheimer, Khrushchev, and Reagan. “Seven Days” has “Neanderthal.” Pronounced “ne-and-er-tal,” the erudite way. Another fave of mine is Andy Partridge of XTC. Not to be outdone by Sting’s “Nabokov” reference, he drops “Chekov” in “Garden of Earthly Delights.” He also mentions “navvies” and calls London by its Roman name “Londinium” in “Towers of London.” Swotty guys, those Englishmen. I also should point out that I’ve learned most of what I know about Australian history and the plight of Aborigines from Midnight Oil lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/77 "2007-02-20T07:38:07Z")
First time I heard “Mining for Gold” by Cowboy Junkies (although lyrics are credited as ‘Traditional’)… _Two years and the silicosis takes hold and I feel like I’m dying from mining for gold_ …I thought “Don’t hear many songs about silicosis.” ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/78 "2007-02-20T07:40:27Z")
[QUOTE=K364] “Salamander” Paul McCartney in “Getting Closer” - Say you don’t love him, my Salamander [/QUOTE] Well, Jethro Tull have a song called _Salamander_ mmm, speaking of the 'Tull, are there many other songs that mention “the Suffolk, the clydesdale, the Percheron”, like _Heavy Horses_ does? Or _galliards_, like _Songs from the Woods_ Oh, and for the sycophant fans, there’s The Smiths, _Paint A Vulgar Picture_: ‘the sycophantic slags all say: “I knew him first, and I knew him well”’ ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/79 "2007-02-20T07:54:15Z")
**Sloan** was always good for a few unusual words: There’s **Coax Me** , which contains the chorus “_Coax me, cajole me_”. …and I’m up too late. I’m sure there’s more, _sure_ of it. But I’m sleepy now. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846/80 "2007-02-20T08:07:38Z")
[QUOTE=Jonathan Chance] Oh, he will if you ask. My end is usually Rush: [snip] _Heresy_: ideology [/QUOTE] **Billy Bragg** uses that one a bit, as you’d expect. He even has a song titled _Ideology_, that also contains the only usage of _careerist_ in a lyric I’ve ever seen. How about The Clash, with _minarets_ and _Casbah_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-contain-words-not-commonly-found-in-song-lyrics/392846.md?page=5)