# Songs that make you say, "WTF?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005 "2007-03-29T17:32:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/81 "2007-04-01T19:16:16Z")
[QUOTE=Havik] “Don’t You Want Me” by Human League always made me think the singer was a little crazy. Like, as if he’s threatening to kill the chick for leaving. “But dont forget its me who put you where you are now And I can put you back down too.” Also, “You think youve changed your mind Youd better change it back or we will both be sorry.” Maybe it’s just me, but it creeps me out. Especially now that they’ve been using the song in those Chips Ahoy commercials. [/QUOTE] I don’t find it creepy, because they are obviously telling a story with two unreliable narrators. You’re not supposed to sympathize with the rich guy who wants to control his woman, or the cocktail waitress who screws her way to the top. I used to love that song, by the way, but it was definitely a relic of the _Dynasty_ era. ---
**Author:** ![enigm4tic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@enigm4tic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigm4tic)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/82 "2007-04-02T00:17:07Z")
I believe it was hinted at but not discussed in this thread… (or maybe the other reference was to something else Alanis Morrisette - Ironic An old man turned ninety-eight He won the lottery and died the next day It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late Isn’t it ironic … don’t you think Chorus [unfortunately, these things are not ironic](http://www.answers.com/topic/ironic) :rolleyes: Also, REM’s _It’s the End of the World as We Know It_ is a complete WTF (although I can sing along to the whole thing, which is cool) on that note a while back about boyfriends looking like girlfriends, we’ve conjectured either that it was a transvestite or a transexual, but we never really had any idea what that had to do with anything ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/83 "2007-04-02T01:42:11Z")
_Well bless my soul, what’s wrong with me? I’m itchin’ like a man on a fuzzy tree._ ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/84 "2007-04-02T02:18:09Z")
[QUOTE=enigm4tic] [unfortunately, these things are not ironic](http://www.answers.com/topic/ironic) :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] Actually, as [Merriam-Webster Online](http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/irony) notes, > [@](#): > > 3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity Under which definition, at least some of what she is singing about is “ironic.” ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/85 "2007-04-02T03:50:19Z")
**Could I Be Your Girl** by Jann Arden > [@](#): > > And I am ashes - I am Jesus - I am precious > Could I be your girl - Could I be your girl I am Jesus? _REALLY??_ WTF! ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/86 "2007-04-02T12:52:29Z")
[QUOTE=VCO3] The Human League’s _Being Boiled_ - Listen to the voice of buddha Saying stop your sericulture Little people like your offspring Boiled alive for some god’s stocking Buddha’s watching, buddha’s waiting ??? [/QUOTE] This is about the boiling of silkworm cocoons, thus killing the larva (children), to make silk for clothing (some gods stocking). A bit of buddhist hypocrisy, since ordering animals to be killed is an offense in buddhism. _thanks to Rosco for explaining this to me many years ago_ ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/87 "2007-04-02T15:18:00Z")
Heart’s **All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love To You)** Girl driving along on a rainy night, picks up a hitchhiker. Girl brings hitchhiker to hotel, proceeds to have wild, passionate sex with this total stranger, whose name she never asks. Girl leaves before he wakes up, admonishing him in a note to never, ever, ever, ever, ever try to find her. Girl runs into hitchhiker years later, where he somehow immediately knows that the kid she’s with is his. Girl confesses that she’s in love with someone else who (was infertile? didn’t want kids? couldn’t have sex?), so she decided to hunt down a stranger to have **random, unprotected sex with** so she could have a baby. :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: Yea gods, I _hate_ that song. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/88 "2007-04-02T15:38:34Z")
Because of copyright concerns, please be careful to avoid posting full lyrics in your posts. The best thing to do is to quote a few lines and then cut-and-paste a link to the lyrics on another site. I’ve gone through and trimmed a number of lyrics in this thread, so if your post no longer makes sense, sorry about that. Next time, be sure to include a link to the full lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/89 "2007-04-02T16:22:15Z")
[QUOTE=Ferd Burfel] “_Daddy was a cop On the **East Side** of Chicago_” …which on my map is Lake Michigan. [/QUOTE] I’ve heard this before, but it isn’t actually true. The 0,0 point of the Chicago street system grid is the intersection of State and Madison, so by definition, anything east of State Street is the East Side. On the North Side of Chicago, it’s true that this terminates into Lake Michigan pretty quickly (although it does include Magnificent Mile portion of Michigan Avenue), but on the South Side, the East Side is fairly substantial. On topic: EVERYTHING by REM, pretty much. I don’t mind, I still like them, but I’m damned if I know what, if anything, almost all of their songs mean. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/90 "2007-04-02T16:41:37Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud] I’ve heard explanations, but I still have a “WTF?” reaction to the alleged fact that “the lights went out in Georgia” when they “hung an innocent man.” Were they using one of those high-wattage electric gallows? [/QUOTE] Not to mention, it should be “hanged”. Hmm, unless they hung him on a live wire to kill him. You may be on to something here. ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/91 "2007-04-02T16:47:33Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] [Angie Baby](http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/helen_reddy/angie_baby.html) This song is jam packed with WTFitude. The story goes that Angie, who listens to the radio obsessively, finds some peeping Tom freak climbing into her room and they both drop the brown acid. No? [/QUOTE] I read this and the related posts and was astounded that there would be any confusion around this song. I have been listening to this one since I was a kid and I always loved the song and it always made perfect sense to me. The Angie lives in a different reality than the rest of us and so appears strange. The neighbor sees her as easy pickings and makes a move. Once he enters her world the rules change and he becomes trapped when he is associated with the music on the radio. His interface with reality is now dependant on the volume control of the radio. So she just turns him off when she doesn’t need him and then turns up the sound when she wants a “dancing partner”. I mean, come on, the guy even gets disoriented when he crosses from one reality to the other. You guys just never read enough 60s Sci Fi. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/92 "2007-04-02T16:54:27Z")
[Tangerine](http://az-lyrics.us/item/436/436113/Tangerine_Lyrics.html) by the Flaming Lips. Maybe all their songs are like this; I dunno. But it was in heavy rotation when released, and it drove me crazy: it makes no sense whatsoever. Girl, with vaseline on toast. Guy, blows nose on magazines. Girl like Cher turns hair orange by using tangerines. WTF? No, seriously… WTF? What is the point of telling us these things? Why do you have these pathetic friends? Is Vaseline-toast girl some kind of bulemic, trying to induce diarrhea? Do you really hang out with booger-magazines guy? And why does the orange-haired girl remind you of Cher? Gah! ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/93 "2007-04-02T16:55:30Z")
[QUOTE=Lucky 13] I found these lyrics on [songmeanings.net](http://songmeanings.net). Before that, I had thought the guy said “Like a chicken cherry cola”, which still makes no sense. I like your interpretation better. Although I’m still wondering what the hell is a “magenta feeling”. [/QUOTE] The chick-a cherry cola thing is in the liner notes. I have the CD. I thought maybe it was some Australian beverage or something, personally. I still don’t know what a magenta feeling is, either. But I guess it’s good, from the context of the song. Blue=sad, magenta=some kind of happy? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/94 "2007-04-02T17:25:29Z")
[QUOTE=bobkitty] Heart’s **All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love To You)** Girl driving along on a rainy night, picks up a hitchhiker. Girl brings hitchhiker to hotel, proceeds to have wild, passionate sex with this total stranger, whose name she never asks. Girl leaves before he wakes up, admonishing him in a note to never, ever, ever, ever, ever try to find her. Girl runs into hitchhiker years later, where he somehow immediately knows that the kid she’s with is his. Girl confesses that she’s in love with someone else who (was infertile? didn’t want kids? couldn’t have sex?), so she decided to hunt down a stranger to have **random, unprotected sex with** so she could have a baby. :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: Yea gods, I _hate_ that song. [/QUOTE] I am right there with ya, **bobkitty**. Not that I needed _another_ reason to hate Heart! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/95 "2007-04-02T18:05:46Z")
**Lightray** : That isn’t really very representative of The Flaming Lips. Their best albums are _Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots_ and _The Soft Bulletin_, both of which make more sense. **enigm4tic** : _It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)_ is probably best understood as a dream where the world is ending but you feel fine because it’s time you had some time alone. In other words, don’t break your glasses. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/96 "2007-04-02T18:15:22Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] More recently, WTF? _Somebody told me You had a boyfriend Who looked like a girlfriend I had in February of last year_ Is somebody transsexual? Is somebody related? The rest of the song doesn’t clarify in any way. [/QUOTE] I assumed that this chorus lyric is the result of playing “telephone” - as one person spread gossip to the next person down the line, the rumor evolved into something convoluted and more, well, gossipy. Plus it has the ambi-sexual feel that seems more provocative than it really is. Our girl singer in our bands sings it and it goes over well… ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/97 "2007-04-02T19:05:51Z")
Something that bugs me about Ironic is that it’s a very ironic song and that people get worked up over it. The name of the song is Ironic, it’s about things that aren’t ironic. That’s irony. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/98 "2007-04-02T19:18:08Z")
[QUOTE=SkipMagic] Because of copyright concerns, please be careful to avoid posting full lyrics in your posts. The best thing to do is to quote a few lines and then cut-and-paste a link to the lyrics on another site. I’ve gone through and trimmed a number of lyrics in this thread, so if your post no longer makes sense, sorry about that. Next time, be sure to include a link to the full lyrics. [/QUOTE] Eek! Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/99 "2007-04-05T02:55:15Z")
[QUOTE=Diceman] On a not-too-dissimilar note, I’ve always wondered about Richard Marx’s [“Hazard.”](http://www.lyricsdepot.com/richard-marx/hazard.html) Now hold on a second. Let me get this straight: At only seven years old, people were already thinking that there was something wrong with you? Were you starting fires or torturing puppies or something? We also hear that when his girlfriend disappears, “a thousand fingers” point right at him. There’s more to this guy’s history than he’s letting on. I think he’s a sociopath, and was displaying symptoms of that sort of behavior even at a young age. Perhaps he didn’t kill her, but the fact that so many people are prepared to believe the worst about him speaks volumes about what sort of guy he is. [/QUOTE] I feel Hazard was a small town and his mother (single? widowed?) moved there when he was seven and because he grew up somewhere else his mannisms were different and when his friend dissapeared they assumed the outsider caused it. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005/100 "2007-04-05T03:22:35Z")
I always wondered is the Scatman was talking about abortion in this line of “I’m the Scatman”: I hear you ask all about the meaning of scat Well I am the professor and all I can tell you Is while you’re still sleeping **Saints are still weeping Cause things you call dead haven’t yet the chance to be born** I’m the scatman. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/398005.md?page=6)