# Things you learned from lyrics, pretentious or otherwise **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 1, 2024, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535 "2024-11-01T05:05:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/1 "2024-11-01T05:05:32Z")
Reading [The Pretentious rock lyrics](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-rock-lyrics/1009504/37) thread( all of whose examples I agree with) got me to thinking about all the things I learned from hearing them. Sting may be full of himself but he did motivate me to look up “Scylla and Charibdes”. Alanis Morissette’s ‘All I Really Want’ has the line “I’m like Estella, I like to reel it in and then spit it out” which led me to look up who the heck Estella is, which in turn led me to learn about ‘Great Expectations’ ( why I never had to read it in school, I don’t know). Morrissey / Smiths have been a source of British vocabulary and events. I learned about the Moors Murders, the Kray Brothers and the terms “old blighty” and “spanner” among many others. These aren’t all necessarily examples of pretention, but they’re things I didn’t know until these wordsmiths introduced them. How have lyrics lead you to educate yourself? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/2 "2024-11-01T05:12:13Z")
I don’t think this is what you had in mind but: _“But all I’ve ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya.”_ ~ Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah (not proud of it) ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/3 "2024-11-01T05:22:01Z")
There are no wrong examples, and that’s actually a good one. I didn’t get all the religious references and had to look them up. Also, I find that line quite meaningful. Also also, I hate when singers cover it and pronounce all the "ya"s with “you”. Way to ruin the flow and diminish the rhyme 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/4 "2024-11-01T05:44:21Z")
When I first heard Nick Cave’s [There She Goes, My Beautiful World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlkrYYp3nrk) I had to look up 3 things that he mentioned in one verse. Turned out he was wrong about Johnny Thunders though. > John Wilmot penned his poetry > Riddled with the pox > Nabokov wrote on index cards, > At a lectern, in his socks > St. John of the Cross did his best stuff > Imprisoned in a box > And JohnnyThunders was half alive > When he wrote Chinese Rocks ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/5 "2024-11-01T07:26:49Z")
Elvis Costello’s [“Less than Zero”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtZe7b7LMQ4) was where I first heard of British fascist Oswald Mosley. And I first learned who Nelson Mandela was from the Special AKA’s [“Free Nelson Mandela.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmKiq0mQd8c) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/6 "2024-11-01T07:30:39Z")
I learned who Richard Manuel was because of Counting Crows’ “If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead)”. Not immediately, though, because I knew about The Band but not who its members were and I couldn’t figure out why it vaguely sounded like a Band song. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/7 "2024-11-01T11:52:48Z")
I learned that: > In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was 26 > In Vietnam he was 19 > In-in-in Vietnam he was 19 (Don’t know if that’s necessarily accurate, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/8 "2024-11-01T14:53:05Z")
There are a couple ways I learn things from lyrics. One way is if the lyrics contain an interesting subject or word I am unfamiliar with, which prompts me to Google it and learn more. One example (of many) is the acronym “DDT” in the song _Lobotomy_ by The Ramones. What the heck is DDT? So I Googled it, and learned it was an insecticide that was banned in the 1970s and 1980s. Less common is when the lyrics themselves teach me something. One example would be The Wreck of the _Edmund Fitzgerald_ by Gordon Lightfoot. It’s a light history lesson, even though some of the details are incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/9 "2024-11-01T15:29:23Z")
Al Stewart. Every album was a weeks worth of research. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/10 "2024-11-01T15:43:01Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > One example (of many) is the acronym “DDT” in the song _Lobotomy_ by The Ramones. What the heck is DDT? So I Googled it, and learned it was an insecticide that was banned in the 1970s and 1980s. Same for me. I first heard that song on Dr. Demento’s show, of all places. I may have first learned about Patty Hearst from Camper van Beethoven’s “[Tania](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hLZstCG-ik).” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/11 "2024-11-01T16:40:14Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > One example (of many) is the acronym “DDT” in the song _Lobotomy_ by The Ramones. What the heck is DDT? So I Googled it, and learned it was an insecticide that was banned in the 1970s and 1980s. It also appears in Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”: _Hey farmer, farmer, put away the DDT now_ _Give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees_ _Please_ But I’m old enough that I remember to have heard as a child that DDT was a very bad thing that polluted the environment. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/12 "2024-11-01T16:45:37Z")
[Hey Man, Nice Shot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMDxrXFQwU8) was about the suicide of disgraced and soon to be convicted [Budd Dwyer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Budd_Dwyer). Makes the song sweeter to know it was a guilty coward. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/13 "2024-11-01T16:56:26Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > insecticide that was banned in the 1970s and 1980s. Banned in 1972 in the US. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I remember to have heard as a child that DDT was a very bad thing that polluted the environment. For those of a younger generation not exposed (sorry!) to it, DDT also prevented the spread of malaria, which is a good thing. It’s so effective that it is still used in places in the world where malaria is rampant, as there is no better replacement. It also weakened eggshells and led to the decline of the bald eagle, which is a bad thing. In the US all in all it is better that it was banned. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/14 "2024-11-01T16:59:19Z")
Something I learned from The Wobbly Doxology, by John Neuhaus: Praise boss when morning work-bells chime. Praise him for bits of overtime. Praise him whose wars we love to fight. Praise him, fat leech and parasite. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/15 "2024-11-01T17:34:20Z")
I can’t believe I didn’t include the granddaddy of informational songs: Billy Joel’s " We Didn’t Start the Fire". I was a few years out of high school when this came out but I would have loved to have a history class that used this. By the time lyrics were easily found on line I knew a majority of the things mentioned(at least the ones that I could make out) but not all. Johnnie Ray? Apparently well known enough to be mentioned in 2 moderns songs - WDSTF and “Come on Eileen”. Malenkov, Dien Bien Phu - huh? What happened in Budapest? Starkweather homicide? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/16 "2024-11-01T18:19:10Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > “Scylla and Charibdes” The Brits have different spellings for a lot of things, but I’ve always only seen Charybdis. Is that another tire/tyre? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/17 "2024-11-01T18:45:31Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > the decline of the bald eagle And osprey, which was how I learned about it as a kid (Time or Newsweek? cover arguing for the banning of DDT). ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/18 "2024-11-01T18:53:04Z")
Really? No one else? Okay, it only counts as “Rock” for certain values of rock, but we also have pop, folk, and other styles. So I’ll go with the big boy! SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK! Lots of stuff learned there, but it’s thank to the lyrics about the [Preamble](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_NzZvdsbWI) that I still can recite the whole thing (minus the one clause I have to add mentally). ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/19 "2024-11-01T19:03:57Z")
As a high school sophomore in 1986, I was not at _all_ interested in history. But I learned this/memorized these lyrics about Alexander The Great: _At the age of nineteen_ _He became the Macedon King_ _And he swore to free all of Asia Minor_ _By the Aegian Sea, in 334 B.C._ _He utterly beat the armies of Persia_ To this day, I know that Alexander The Great’s time = ~334 B.C…courtesy of Iron Maiden. 🙂 🤘 ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535/20 "2024-11-01T19:21:30Z")
I didn’t learn _from_ the songs, but now more easily remember the date (not the time) that MLK was killed (April 4, in Memphis), and what time the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima (8:15, that’s the time that it’s always been). U2 and OMD [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-learned-from-lyrics-pretentious-or-otherwise/1009535.md?page=2)