# Songs with Unusual Topics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2013, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080 "2013-03-05T09:26:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/41 "2013-03-05T17:54:31Z")
_Billy The Mountain_ is about a picturesque mountain that decides to go on vacation with his wife Ethyl (a tree)…and that’s just the setup. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/42 "2013-03-05T18:45:59Z")
Guy Clark has written many songs with unusual topics. I’ll list just a few. [_Homegrown Tomatoes_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yiWcS4w1i0) Only two things that money can’t buy, and that’s true love and home grown tomatoes. [_L.A. Freeway_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa7EkXpy8jE) - a song about moving Say goodbye to the landlord for me. That son of a bitch has always bored me. [_Picasso’s Mandolin_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UmdSiJMrgc) He’s born in Spain and died in France He was not scared of baggy pants [_Immigrant Eyes_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2VOv2ztejc) Don’t take it for granted, say grandfather’s Immigrant Eyes [_Stuff That Works_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ot035kSVt0) Stuff that’s real, stuff you feel The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall [_Black Diamond Strings_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og7dMS-nyqA) You play Black Diamond strings cuz that’s all you can get. [_Watermelon Dream_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLm1QeZ5yAk) - about sittin’ on the front porch eatin’ peach ice cream ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/43 "2013-03-05T18:59:00Z")
**The Mary Ellen Carter** – Stan Rogers’ folk song about the former crew of a ship salvaging it after it sank and was abandoned by the owners. A pretty upbeat and uplifting song that’s usually read as a metaphor for overcoming obstacles. As has been observed, the song never does say if they succeeded. > **[The Mary Ellen Carter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mary_Ellen_Carter)** > > "The Mary Ellen Carter" is a song written and first recorded by Stan Rogers in 1979. It tells the story of a heroic effort to salvage a sunken ship, the eponymous Mary Ellen Carter, by members of her crew. > The song chronicles the efforts to salvage the ship, implying that it will be raised on the following day: > We've patched her rents, stopped her vents, > Dogged hatch and porthole down, > Put cables to her fore and aft > And girded her around. > > Tomorrow noon, we'll hit the air > And then take up the ... [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/fT-aEcPgkuA/hqdefault.jpg "Stan Rogers performs "The Mary Ellen Carter" in One Warm Line documentary") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-aEcPgkuA) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/44 "2013-03-05T19:01:18Z")
> [@K.S.Masmacho](#): > > And Talking Heads’ _Stay Up Late_ is about waking up a baby to make him stay up all night. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imWnuirIL8o](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imWnuirIL8o) I think it’d be hard to find a Talking Heads song with a non-weird topic. Psycho Killer is about… well, you can guess. A lot of their other stuff was just kind of free associated. This Must Be the Place is probably about as normal as they got. That probably goes for R.E.M., too. Their biggest hits included songs about using someone who thinks you’re in love with them, going crazy, Vietnam and Agent Orange, Andy Kaufman’s wrestling career, suicide, and Dan Rather getting mugged. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/45 "2013-03-05T19:05:23Z")
“I’ll Be Waiting” by **Barenaked Ladies** is a love letter from Canada to Quebec. - You say you cannot live with me, you need your own identity And now we air our laundry on national TV And so you hate my arrogance, my smothering and sitting on the fence, But I’m afraid of the hard permanence of letting you go free\* ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/46 "2013-03-05T19:07:28Z")
“Murder (or a Heart Attack)” by **Old 97s** is about a cat running away while Rhett Miller was pet-sitting for a friend. ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/47 "2013-03-05T19:49:33Z")
“The Crab Louse,” by **Lords of Acid,** is about … getting crabs. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/48 "2013-03-05T20:01:08Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I think it’d be hard to find a Talking Heads song with a non-weird topic. Psycho Killer is about… well, you can guess. Somebody who kills psychos? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/49 "2013-03-05T21:18:20Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > [Dieselhed](http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dieselhed-mn0000268977), a 90s alt-country band from California, are the kings of this. They have songs about: hash browns, soap carving, their own (fictional) breakup, taking a test to operate a forklift, leaning on a stove and accidentally setting a pizza box on fire, and oddly suggestive magazine titles (“Hot VWs”). I think Uncle Bonsai (cheerleaders on drugs, surrogate motherhood, K-Mart, family restaurants, liposuction, putting a chihuahua in a microwave, a baby’s head being hexagonal, committing suicide when hearing that “The Love Boat” has been cancelled, and several of the Doug songs) and the Bobs (a lifelong love of helmets, mopping, laundry (5 songs), renting food, a family brought closer by watching the Oliver North hearings, a bus tour to an outlet mall, a cat’s plan to take over the world, a love affair between a UPS driver and a Fotomat clerk, turtles (3), synaesthesia, being inspired to make a breakthrough in cold fusion while making ramen, asking Mickey Mantle to autograph a dog) could give them a run for their money. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/50 "2013-03-05T21:29:23Z")
“Shout” by Tears for Fears is about politics, apparently. “Beds Are Burning” by Midnight Oil _seems to be_ about deforestation for agricultural development, from the point of view of the displaced wildlife. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/51 "2013-03-05T21:38:59Z")
“Be My Girl / Sally” by the Police is about a blow-up doll. (Well, half of it is.) ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/52 "2013-03-05T21:44:27Z")
[Son, oh Son](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMlaDcsWRy0) by Boiled in Lead (popular in some circles) is about sororicide. Todd Menton, in talking about the song—possibly in the liner notes to ‘Orb’—claimed that the storyline of the song (a Brother impregnating his Sister, then killing her to hide the fact) was not unusual by itself in celtic folk songs, but that the Mother refusing to hide the Son, and instead threatening to kill him was unusual. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/53 "2013-03-05T21:44:34Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > Just about everything in Frank Zappa’s catalog. I don’t know that Kate Bush has ever written a song about a _usual_ topic. [_Pull Out The Pin_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBcDjeR_y7Q) is from the perspective of a Viet Cong about to throw a hang grenade, the protagonist of [_The Kick Inside_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5Kz26VSpqg) is pregnant by her brother, etc. [Her first hit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1pMMIe4hb4) was sung by a ghost. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/54 "2013-03-05T21:47:55Z")
> [@SiXSwordS](#): > > [Son, oh Son](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMlaDcsWRy0) by Boiled in Lead (popular in some circles) is about sororicide. > > Todd Menton, in talking about the song—possibly in the liner notes to ‘Orb’—claimed that the storyline of the song (a Brother impregnating his Sister, then killing her to hide the fact) was not unusual by itself in celtic folk songs, but that the Mother refusing to hide the Son, and instead threatening to kill him was unusual. I videotapes Boiled in Lead many years ago, and they had a different version of this song called _The Baby Song_. I really need to dig that video up and post it. ETA: I didn’t see your post before my last one. _Son, O Son_ and _The Kick Inside_ I think are both based on _Lizzie Wan_. ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/55 "2013-03-06T05:20:47Z")
[Plea from a Cat Named Virtute](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdwMkA1WaGU) by The Weakerthans is written from the perspective of the owner’s cat. There’s also a sequel - [Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnmcw6kJ2HQ). [The Fitted Shirt](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qgk5LtELIE) by Spoon is about sartorial taste. [Frontier Psychiatrist](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLrnkK2YEcE) by the Avalanches is about ??? mental illness? ---
**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:** [March 6, 2013, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/56 "2013-03-06T08:10:14Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > “Beds Are Burning” by Midnight Oil _seems to be_ about deforestation for agricultural development, from the point of view of the displaced wildlife. Naah, it’s a political song about repatriating native Australian lands back to the indigenous people. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/57 "2013-03-06T08:41:21Z")
_Man Or Astro-Man?_ has these rather interesting song titles: Curious Constructs Of Stem-Like Devices Which Now Prepare Themselves To Be Thought Of As Fingers Fractionalized Reception Of A Scrambled Transmission Interstellar Hardrive Krasnoyask-26 / Within The Mainframe / Impaired vision From Inoperable Many Pieces Of Large Fuzzy Mammals Gathered Together At A Rave And Schmoozing With A Brick Maximum Radiation Level Multi-Variational Stimuli Of Sub-Turgid Foci Covering Cross Evaluative Techniques Obligatory Part 2 Song In Which There Is No Presently Existing Part 1, Nor The Plans To Make One Song Of The Two-Mile Linear Particle Accelerator, Stanford University, Stanford California Spectrograph Reading Of The Varying Phantom Frequencies Of Chronic, Incurable Tinnitus Static Cling Theoretical Sounds Of Slow Motion U-235 PU-239 Very Subtle Elevators ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/58 "2013-03-06T10:18:16Z")
Sufjan Stevens is another one whose breadth of song-writing takes in UFOs, serial killers, roads, state holidays, cancer and all manner of stuff. Probably need to walk past him quickly or you’ll get written about. Also Nick Cave and Birthday Party [Tupelo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSl4KX7zBTQ), possibly the best treatment of the apocalyptic non-coming of Elvis’s still-born twin. ---
**Author:** ![K.S.Masmacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/96bed5/32.png) [@K.S.Masmacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K.S.Masmacho)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/59 "2013-03-06T10:39:43Z")
I expected there to be several good leads out there, but I’m overwhelmed at the sheer number already presented here. > [@](#): > > I think it’d be hard to find a Talking Heads song with a non-weird topic. – Marley23 Good point. Burning down houses, changing one’s shape or face, facts are living turned inside out, etc. Thank you, everyone! This is really something else. No doubt there are even more songs with out-of-the-ordinary topics… ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080/60 "2013-03-06T14:44:42Z")
_Stop Stop Stop_ by the Hollies is about a man so obsessed with an exotic dancer that he goes every week to her place of business, attacks her, and is thrown out on the street on his ass. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-unusual-topics/652080.md?page=4)