# SongShitting, as in, "Thats a real good song, except for this part" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2015, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359 "2015-03-19T05:25:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/101 "2015-03-22T22:24:43Z")
I like the song “Still You Turn Me On” by ELP, but it contains what’s arguably the worst rhyme in the history of bad rhymes, which makes me cringe every time they get to it: [QUOTE=ELP] Every day a little sadder A little madder Someone get me a ladder [/quote] ---
**Author:** ![Lemmytheseal2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lemmytheseal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemmytheseal2)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/102 "2015-03-23T00:22:35Z")
Oh, and regarding my love for The Smashing Pumpkins, I adore the song “Daphne Descends”, from the album _Adore_, but I thought the ending of that song (“You love him… you love him…”) was silly in 1998 and I feel the same way now. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/103 "2015-03-24T22:32:18Z")
**Nirvana** _Drain You_ - Great little power-pop tune that just stops dead where the guitar solo normally goes. It drones on for about a minute while sounding like they felt they needed to do a soundcheck, then starts up again to finish. Cut out that “instrumental” break and it’s a great song. **Led Zeppelin** _Carouselambra_ I like 2 of the 3 sections of the song. Surprisingly, I actually like the disco synthesizer final third. For me it’s the middle section that’s a snooze. My ex-girlfriend always tried to shut off **Aerosmith’s** _Eat the Rich_ before the power belch at the end. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/104 "2015-03-25T00:08:59Z")
Jimmy Webb’s “MacArthur Park” is a great song, except for the line about the “strip-ed pair of pants.” No, I don’t have a problem with the “someone left the cake out in the rain” line; that at least makes sense as a metaphor. The pants line makes no sense whatsoever (and I’ve heard that Webb omits it when he performs the song). ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/105 "2015-03-25T07:54:30Z")
From the first Alan Parsons album, in the song _A Cask of Amontillado_, when he sings that word, “amontillado”, with the hard L sound, that just goes “clank” for me. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/106 "2015-03-25T10:25:04Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > From the first Alan Parsons album, in the song _A Cask of Amontillado_, when **he sings that word, “amontillado”, with the hard L sound** , that just goes “clank” for me. That made me wince just to read it. Someone slept through Spanish class it seems. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2015, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/107 "2015-03-25T11:38:46Z")
In regards to Sweet Home Alabama: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet\_Home\_Alabama#Controversy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#Controversy) > [@](#): > > In 1975, Van Zant said: “The lyrics about the governor of Alabama were misunderstood. The general public didn’t notice the words ‘Boo! Boo! Boo!’ after that particular line, and the media picked up only on the reference to the people loving the governor.”[6] “The line ‘We all did what we could do’ is sort of ambiguous,” Al Kooper notes. “‘We tried to get Wallace out of there’ is how I always thought of it.”[6] However, neither explanation accounts for the barely audible “and the governor’s true” toward the end of the song. Journalist Al Swenson argues that the song is more complex than it is sometimes given credit for, suggesting that it only looks like an endorsement of Wallace.[6] “Wallace and I have very little in common,” Van Zant himself said, “I don’t like what he says about colored people.”[6] > [@](#): > > Music historians examining the juxtaposition of invoking Nixon and Watergate after Wallace and Birmingham note that one reading of the lyrics is an “attack against the liberals who were so outraged at Nixon’s conduct” while others interpret it regionally: “the band was speaking for the entire South, saying to northerners, we’re not judging you as ordinary citizens for the failures of your leaders in Watergate; don’t judge all of us as individuals for the racial problems of southern society”.[ ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/108 "2015-03-25T16:08:03Z")
I just want to state for the record that being repetitive is not always a bad thing. For example, The Chambers Brothers [Time Has Come To Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irsg0FxcVnQ) works. It builds, fades, changes, moves around. The song is going somewhere. (At least for the 4:30 version. The 11 minute version doesn’t.) ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/109 "2015-03-25T16:14:15Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I just want to state for the record that being repetitive is not always a bad thing. For example, The Chambers Brothers [Time Has Come To Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irsg0FxcVnQ) works. It builds, fades, changes, moves around. The song is going somewhere. (At least for the 4:30 version. The 11 minute version doesn’t.) I just want to state for the record this song creeps me the hell out :eek: ---
**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:** [March 25, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/110 "2015-03-25T16:39:47Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > From the first Alan Parsons album, in the song _A Cask of Amontillado_, when he sings that word, “amontillado”, with the hard L sound, that just goes “clank” for me. That grates on my ears too, but it \*is \*an accepted English pronunciation. If you Google the word it’s the first pronunciation shown; in my old Webster’s it’s the \*only \*pronunciation given. ---
**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 25, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/111 "2015-03-25T16:59:22Z")
> [@Lemmytheseal2](#): > > Oh, and regarding my love for The Smashing Pumpkins, I adore the song “Daphne Descends”, from the album _Adore_, but I thought the ending of that song (“You love him… you love him…”) was silly in 1998 and I feel the same way now. That one doesn’t bug me, but the lyric on “Ava Adore”: “It’s you that I adore/you will always be my whore” always makes me cringe. I’m not sure what exactly it is, but it just sounds so, I dunno, juvenile, forced or something. Most of Billy’s lyrics are a bit on the overdramatic teenager side, but that one in particular grates on me enough that that’s the only song on the album I regularly skip. (An otherwise perfect album.) I’ll never turn around on _Machina_, though. There’s a couple decent songs on there, but most of it sounds soulless and mechanical to me. “Paint-by-numbers Pumpkins” is my view of it–like they were trying formulaically to go back to their hard sound. I’ve listened to that album dozens of times, and it still just sounds hollow to me. _Machina II_ is all right, though. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/112 "2015-03-25T18:59:40Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I love love love the song “Changes” by Yes, but for a long time I thought I hated it because I couldn’t get past the intro…what is that, a xylophone? > > I cope with it now, but I still always think of the rest of the song as “the good part”. Oh this is one of my favorites! I was the same about the intro until I realized…it’s a musical metaphor for the theme of the song. If you listen closely, the music for the “rest of the song” is intertwined with the intro when it gets closer to that part. So intricate!! I’m sure there’s a musical term for it that would help me describe it better. Then I love how they reprise the intro at the end of the song. It rocks!!! ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/113 "2016-06-07T02:26:29Z")
“Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” was one of the dance classics of the early 80s… [until the sound of a flushing toilet(!) comes in at 3:27.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgGiCKbud5I) ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/114 "2016-06-07T06:39:51Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I avoid [_Fool In The Rain_] like a dose of The Clap due to the fucking **Miami Sound Machine** Conga Line middle section. Actually I can roll with that thingy. > [@eschereal](#): > > When I was ripping _Lucky Man_ for my song collection, I thought, screw that inane synth crap at the end, so I used Audacity to blend it into my favorite Steely Dan song, _East St. Louis Toodle-oo_. Agreed. And Kieth’s twerpy synth ending at the end of “From The Beginning” I find all gucky-yuck-uck. The old west saloon ditty at the end of IMHO one of ELP’s more impressive numbers, “Bitches Crystal”, while incongruous as all get-out, gets my pass. And thank-you for introducing me to Audacity. > [@scabpicker](#): > > Yep, I will endure all of the protests of anyone in the room or car to listen to that guitar solo. The ring modulator tone is just crazy, and Page is in one of his best moments. I believe **Face Intentionally Left Blank** was referring to the Knack. Unless if Jimmy Page did some mysterious sessions with them. (lol - sure, two and a half months late - better late than never?):o To borrow from an earlier thread of mine: > [@Songs with odd/creepy/incongruous endings](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-odd-creepy-incongruous-endings/748904/1): > > “She’s a Rainbow” - Rolling Stones…Nothing like a nice, bucolic tune about a wonderful girl that ends with horror movie soundtrack violins. > > Rambling, almost Bartok-like piano at the end of Bowie’s “Aladdin Sane” - even more spidery-like in the “David Live” version. > > “Long, Long, Long” - Beatles - keyboards at the end go _way_ up in the mix, with odd howling. Definitely not in keeping with what is a very quiet, moving tune. Wasn’t crazy about the cough in “Who Loves the Sun” by the Velvet Underground. Felt like they were trying to be all like “let’s make sure this isn’t radio friendly”. > [@psychonaut](#): > > For me, the quintessential example of this phenomenon is **“Something in the Air”** by Thunderclap Newman, an otherwise wonderful song ruined by someone whose idea of a solo is to bang tunelessly on a piano for a full minute. Never been a big fan of the song, and that piano break is a major reason - definitely a quintessential example of song-shittery. The first four minutes of the following tune? - FUCK THAT. (But the rest of it - S.F.G…Sheer Fucking Godliness): (Actually the violin solo at 8:56 doesn’t really do it for me.) ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/115 "2016-06-07T08:16:51Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I really like Taxi, but that part in the middle, which I’m sure many people think is so cool, is really hard for me to get through. > Oh, I’ve got something inside me > To drive a princess blind > There’s a wild man, wizard > He’s hiding in me, illuminating my mind > Oh, I’ve got something inside me > Not what my life’s about > 'Cause I’ve been letting my outside tide me > Over 'til my time, runs out Huh. That part’s fine with me; it’s the “Baby’s so high that she’s flyin’” part I don’t like. Different voice, different tempo, takes you out of the story, what’s it even doing there? Strongly agree with those who don’t like the last few seconds of “Big Yellow Taxi.” Strongly disagree with those who don’t like the last half of “Layla.” Showing my age, there are lots of pop songs that are half good music by a singer and half rap by a “featured” guest artist, and the rap parts spoil them for me. “Suit and Tie” by Timberlake is an example. And to reverse the theme, Max Bruch’s Concerto in C has a ten-second crescendo that is one of my favorite passages of all time. The rest of the 25-minute piece is just filler to me. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/116 "2016-06-07T09:30:24Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > I believe **Face Intentionally Left Blank** was referring to the Knack. > Unless if Jimmy Page did some mysterious sessions with them. > (lol - sure, two and a half months late - better late than never?):o Bwahahaah, in retrospect, you’re absolutely right. I have no idea what I was thinking, other than I can say those things about the “Fool In the Rain” solo. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/117 "2016-06-07T11:33:32Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I like the song “Still You Turn Me On” by ELP, but it contains what’s arguably the worst rhyme in the history of bad rhymes, which makes me cringe every time they get to it: But he’s singing from despair, he’s in an emotional “hole” and wants to “climb out”. ---
**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:** [June 7, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/118 "2016-06-07T13:13:57Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I really like Taxi, but that part in the middle, which I’m sure many people think is so cool, is really hard for me to get through. > > Oh, I’ve got something inside me > To drive a princess blind[…] I see this is an old post but yesterday I was reading another thread referencing folk revival and that got me reading the Wiki page and that mentioned Chapin and I thought “I haven’t heard Taxi in _forever_. I barely remember it.” So I pulled it up on Youtube and hit this middle part and thought “Holy shit, this is God awful”. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/119 "2016-06-07T13:53:51Z")
“Love Will Find a Way” from Yes’s album _Big Generator_ It was bad enough that Yes was reformed with new members and produced for top-40 appeal. I can excuse and ignore the typical love song tripe lyrics. But I cannot abide the last line of the first refrain: _Here is my heart Waiting for you Here is my soul I eat at chez nous_ I EAT AT CHEZ NOUS??? It means “I eat at our kitchen.” Couldn’t they at least have something not so non-sequitur, like “My feelings are true?” How deep. I already had to suffer their selling out by rationalizing that they’re at least still putting out music, but that line just bugged the hell out of me. At least Jon Anderson got sick enough of it to spearhead _Anderson Bruford Wakeman & Howe_ afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359/120 "2016-06-07T14:08:01Z")
Well, not to pile on ELP but the acoustic guitar solo in the middle of “Take a Pebble” always drove me nuts - especially the hootin’ and hollerin’ and hand clapping at the end. Completely orthogonal to the rest of the song. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songshitting-as-in-thats-a-real-good-song-except-for-this-part/715359.md?page=7)