Every once in a while, I remember a song that I used to love, back when I used to listen to the latest cutting-edge music. Anyway, there was a song called Step On by Happy Mondays, one of the bands that came out of the famous Manchester music scene. So, since Google makes it so easy now, I looked up the lyrics since I always wondered what he was saying.
It struck me that if I was imprisoned on a desert island, and my only way of getting off the island was to figure out the lyrics to that song, I would be stuck on that island for at least a thousand years. I’d love to hear examples of songs like this. And just since it’s probably the most obvious, I’ll just throw in mostly every song by The Pogues.
“White Riot” on the first Clash album was pretty opaque to me until I saw the lyrics written down, in a sheet music book of all things. I don’t play piano very well, so I’ll never know what the sheet music company’s piano arrangements for the first Clash album sounded like.
I don’t think REM has ever published the “official” lyrics to their early, mumbly records, so even Google won’t help you out with songs like “Sitting Still” because different websites say different things.
I could have the lyric sheet in front of me while listening to the song, and still not decipher the words to Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon”. Which is kind of annoying, as it is my name. People are always asking me what the song’s saying, and I have no frickin’ clue.
This is a perfect example of my lack of common sense: when I was a kid, I was listening to a Kate Bush album and reading along with the lyrics provided on the album sleeve, and I wondered how the record making people managed to figure out what singers were saying so they could print the lyrics. A few seconds later it occurred to me that Kate probably knew what the lyrics were… :smack:
Despite how many times I have heard the Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones catalogues over the years, I couldn’t quote the entire correct lyrics to a lot of their songs.
Here’s another vote for Kate Bush, and another for REM. As much as I like Fables Of The Reconstruction, I have no idea what most of the songs are about.
A lot of songs by The Shins. Their lyrics include a lot of strange metaphors, which seem to render the songs indecipherable. Surprisingly, however, the folks over at songmeanings.net actually put forth some good ideas, and I think they’re mostly right. They usually just pop in to comment, “OMG THIS SONG IS TEH ROXORZ!!!111 LOL”
I’ll add The Pixies. For a specific example, I don’t know what most of the words to the second verse of Where Is My Mind are. Nirvana too, Weird Al Yancovich’s parody of Smells Like Teen Spirit even focused on that.
