# Songs with weird subjects
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 16, 2002, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566 "2002-03-16T02:41:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/1 "2002-03-16T02:41:33Z")
Plenty of songs have been recorded about love, hate, men, women, cars, animals, and so forth. What’s some of your favorite (and, perhaps, no so favorite) songs with weird subjects?
Here’s a few to start:
1. “Timothy” - The Bouys - Ahh, not enough songs about cannibalism, I say!
2. “Disco Duck” - Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots - Man goes to a disco and turns into a dancing duck. We all knew those places were bad for you.
3. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” - The Beatles - Early hit about a serial killer.
4. “Attack of the Giant Ants” - Blondie - Japanese horror movie goes new wave.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/2 "2002-03-16T03:03:58Z")
Ben by Michael Jackson, Rat love song.
Rock Lobster by the B52s, Go to the beach, find a lobster, cook it and eat it.
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### Author:  [@WortMeWorry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WortMeWorry)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/3 "2002-03-16T03:22:54Z")
Go To Hell, by Commander Cody. A lovely song about how you, and everyone you know is going to end up in hell.
No Anchovies, by J. Geils. Beware those cans of anchovies, unless you like being a…Bowling ball !!
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### Author:  [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/4 "2002-03-16T03:55:31Z")
_Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner_\* by Warren Zevon. A song about a mercenary who gets his revenge…
But then again, just about all of Zevon’s songs are about weird subjects.
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### Author:  [@trishdish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trishdish)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/5 "2002-03-16T04:09:49Z")
My favorite song - MacArthur Park! A song about cake, leaving it out in the rain, sweet, green icing flowing down and never having that recipe ahhhhgain. Oooooooh nooooooo!
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### Author:  [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/6 "2002-03-16T05:26:53Z")
How about ‘He’s Nobody’s Moggie, Now’, by Eric Bogle. It’s a great singalong when you’ve got the kids in the car…the subject is pussy road-kills!
“Somebody’s moggie, by the side of the road
Somebody’s pussy who forgot his highway code
Someone’s favourite feline, who ran clean out of luck
When he ran onto the road and tried to argue with a truck…”
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/7 "2002-03-16T06:17:25Z")
I’m a Human Fly - The Cramps
Popsicle Toes - Diana Krall
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### Author:  [@Denis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Denis)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/8 "2002-03-16T07:14:53Z")
“Lady Sniff”-Butthole Surfers
“Cherub”-Butthole Surfers
“Barbequed Pope”-Butthole Surfers
“The Ballad of Naked Man”-Butthole Surfers
Oh hell, anything by the Butthole Surfers
“Detachable Penis”-King Missile
“TV Dinners”-ZZ Top
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### Author:  [@chief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chief)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/9 "2002-03-16T07:16:15Z")
Skinned - Blind Melon (this is about a murderer who used his victims to make things apparently, or something like that)
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### Author:  [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/10 "2002-03-16T07:55:19Z")
**Gonna buy me a dog** - The Monkees, my favorite Monkee song. It is what it is
**Boris the Spider** - The Who, hey there’s a spider, let’s squish him. SPLAT!
**Istanbul** - They Might be Giants, I mention this mainly to complain they never mention that Istanbul, which used to be Constantinople was Byzantium even earlier.
**Starman** David Bowie, defines the early 80s for me.
**In the Year 2525** - Zager & Evans. An 8,000 year journey into the future.
**Star Trekkin’** - Firm, Why? I don’t know.
**I’m Going Slightly Man** Queen, madness, you have to see the video.
Rasputina has a bunch of them.
**The Donner Party** which comes to the conclusion that the Pilgrims were forced to consume their dead by comparing them to the Donner Party.
**The Olde Headboard** mentions “Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.” I’m not so sure I get this song, perhaps cause I’m male?
Perhaps every song by Wally Pleasant. I’ll name a few of my favorites **The Day Ted Nugent Killed All the Animals,** **How I Got Lost On The Road Less Traveled But Then Got Instant Karma On I-96** and **Rumble At The Karaoke Bar** and many many more.
I know musicals probably shouldn’t count but
**Springtime for Hitler** is a hilarious song.
**Suicide is Painless** which speaks for itself. I wonder if it got any airplay when M_A_S\*H came out
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### Author:  [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/11 "2002-03-16T14:52:51Z")
**They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa** by Napoleon XIV. Grossly insensitive to the (very real) plight of the mentally ill–but a fine guilty pleasure.
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### Author:  [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/12 "2002-03-16T15:46:11Z")
**Muskrat Love**
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### Author:  [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/13 "2002-03-16T16:04:50Z")
Björk - “F\*\*\*ing in Rhythm and Sorrow” - ahh… There’s a naked man in her flat, and the entire song is bascially about the singer trying to calm him down. It gets hilarious at times and she yells a lot in this song, too. She’s good at that. My guilty pleasure.
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### Author:  [@foxfiregrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foxfiregrrl)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/14 "2002-03-16T20:30:27Z")
In my last art class, my teacher had a weird mix tape that she’d play. Most flok/indie stuff. It was pretty cool. One song that always made me giggle was about… a bad haircut. Yes. The chrus went _bad haircut, ooooh, bad haircut_ or something like that. I have no idea what the actual title of it is, or who sung it, but… definitely odd. Anyone else heard of it?
Barenaked Ladies also have some strange songs. \*\* Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep At the Wheel **, Alcohol, \*\* In The Car** , **Conventioneers** … the list rather goes on. That band is simply a strange bunch.
Tori Amos has a song called \*\* She’s Your Cocaine\*\* that seems to be about cross-dressing that I’ve always liked.
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### Author:  [@Fifteen\_Iguana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fifteen_Iguana)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2002, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/15 "2002-03-16T20:56:43Z")
I Leaned Against the Sofa - Dave Gordon - about, as he said, “a moment of cosmic insignificance.”
A friend of mine thinks about it is about the after effects of chemotherapy, which DB was going through.
My Brother John is a CPA - Dave Gordon
I Would Not Be Here - John Hartford. John explains he would not be here if a friend hadn’t introduced him to steamboats. THe friend learned about them from a teacher who was only there because her husband had left to work with an army buddy who he met because of a sergeant who would have died in a car accident if it hadn’t been for…
The Naked Truth - Joel Mabus - How Truth and Falsehood used to be friends until Falsehood stole Truth’s dress and ever since then…
When did we have sauerkraut? - Lou and Peter Berryman - about having heavy philosophical thoughts while cleaning the fridge.
Mysterious Woman - Christine Lavin - CL tries to write a heavy philosophical song, ala Suzanne Vega, but keeps getting distracted by thoughts of cleaning her refrigerator. A salute to the Berryman song, I think.
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### Author:  [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2002, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/16 "2002-03-17T01:53:58Z")
Porcupine Pie by Neil Diamond (Don’t let it get on your jeans.)
Horse With No Name by America - Weird subject, stupid song.
Paperback Writer by the Beatles - WTF?
Brand New Key by Melanie - Insipid, yet annoying.
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### Author:  [@Minor\_Irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minor_Irritant)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2002, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/17 "2002-03-17T04:58:05Z")
Don’t forget the Barenaked Ladies. Their oeuvre includes songs about Grade 9, Yoko Ono, breaking and entering, Brian Wilson…
Of course, there’s also _Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap_, an AC/DC song about murder-for-hire. They are descended from convicts, after all.🙂
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### Author:  [@Palve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palve)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2002, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/18 "2002-03-17T05:16:33Z")
Might I mention _Frontier Psychiatrist_ by the Avalanches? It’s weird, in a good way.
Also Rammstein’s _Zwitter_, which means ‘Hermaphrodite’ in English. A story about a hermaphrodite who’s sexually in love with himself. Strange indeed.
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### Author:  [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2002, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/19 "2002-03-17T05:39:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by OttoDaFe \*
> \*\ ***They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa** by Napoleon XIV. Grossly insensitive to the (very real) plight of the mentally ill–but a fine guilty pleasure. \*\*
Don’t leave out the flip side to that single [!aaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er’yehT](http://www.rhino.com/features/72402p.html) by noelopaN VIX
(read his other songs, teeheehee)
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### Author:  [@Tanaqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanaqui)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2002, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-weird-subjects/98566/20 "2002-03-17T07:01:37Z")
Most of the music I listen to is pretty boring and conventional… but a few rather odd ones include:
“Sometimes I Don’t Mind” by the Suicide Machines. Basically a love song to a dog.
Every single song written by [Bloodhag.](http://www.bloodhag.com)
Tanaqui
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