# “Throwaway” Lines in Songs That Make You Say WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 5, 2020, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823 "2020-11-05T10:13:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/81 "2020-12-11T14:45:50Z")
Yes, I have. I think that falls comfortably under my second point. 🙂 ---
**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:** [December 11, 2020, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/82 "2020-12-11T15:51:23Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > No, you’re not the only one. It’s called “poetic license.” Many people don’t have the imagination to accept anything but the most literal of interpretations for anything. . Here, let me get you a ladder, so you can get over yourself, ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/83 "2020-12-11T15:56:45Z")
I never understood that line in Purple Haze where Jimi sings “Scuse me while I kiss this guy”. 😜 ---
**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:** [December 11, 2020, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/84 "2020-12-11T16:44:29Z")
Stevie Wonder - [“Living for the City”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc0XEw4m-3w) “His sister’s black, but she is sho’nuff pretty” ---
**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:** [December 11, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/85 "2020-12-11T16:53:16Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping. That was [David & David](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomtown_(David_%26_David_album)), right? Sorry, that’s probably too abstract to be funny to anyone else. At my college radio station, someone had written in a word balloon on the cover of that album with the words “What’s that on the floor?” in it it. ---
**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:** [December 11, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/86 "2020-12-11T16:58:21Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > Steve Miller’s version is not the original of that song. I forget who did it first and I don’t feel like looking it up. Some doo-wop type group I think. From WIkipedia’s article, it seems to have been pieced together from a couple of songs. WIkipedia says "The song’s accompaniment is borrowed heavily from the song “Soul Sister” by Allen Touissaint. During the Song, Steve Miller references The Clovers’ 1954 song “Lovey Dovey” when he sings “You’re the cutest thing that I ever did see/Really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree/Lovey dovey, lovey dove, lovey dovey all the time.” That seems to be the only borrowed lyric (in a minor variation.) But that’s about it. It doesn’t seem to be a straight cover of any song like “Jet Airplane” is. ---
**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:** [December 11, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/87 "2020-12-11T17:13:57Z")
Oh, duh, you’re probably thinking of “The Medallions,” who are mentioned in the Cecil column, and also a little bit farther on in the Wikipedia article, where the made-up word “puppetutes” appears in the phrase “puppetutes of love.” So, take a little here, take a little there for Steve Millier in that song. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/88 "2020-12-11T18:03:09Z")
Hey There, Delilah, by Plain White T’s. Romantic song, except for the jarring line “And you’re to blame.” 😲 ---
**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:** [December 11, 2020, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/89 "2020-12-11T20:43:38Z")
When I was sixteen, I had to share my bedroom with a cousin who had just acquired Fly Like an Eagle and had to listen to it every night. Silence was mostly my preferred accompaniment to darkness, but man did I develop a loathing for Steve Miller. Especially, “Look through the window Tell me what do you see A beautiful planet Peace and harmony (harmony … harmony …)” I mean, ick. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/90 "2020-12-12T07:18:29Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > _Slowly walking down the hall_ > _Faster than a cannonball_ Given that the next line is “where were you while we were getting high?” it makes total sense to me. Mine is from Houndmouth’s “[Sedona](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8wifV5RYr8).” I love this song, but “this duct tape makes you hush” - WTF?? ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/91 "2020-12-12T12:38:04Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Well you’re built like a car > You’ve got a hubcap > Diamond star halo Oh, come on now. Sometimes it’s about how the words sound together rather than their literal meaning. Gawd forbid you hear a group of words put together in a way you are not accustomed to. I much prefer fresh and original to stale and trite. mmm ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/92 "2020-12-12T16:39:52Z")
Found [online](https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/t-rex/bang-a-gong-get-it-on). Interesting: > Al from Baltimore, Md > The line “You’ve got a hubcap diamond star halo” used to baffle me… until I was walking through an art museum one day. In the collection of Renaissance art I saw painting after painting with the Virgin Mary as the subject, and without fail she was depicted with an elaborate, well engineered, glimmering halo… in fact they looked like hubcaps, adorned with diamond stars. Too much of a coincidence to my mind. In the song Bolan is describing a young woman who has both the air of innocence and flat out sexuality. So the allusion to the greatest virgin of them all is altogether fitting in the context of this song. Don’t know if Marc Boaln was an art lover, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Curiouser and curiouser… ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/93 "2020-12-12T16:57:31Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > Curiouser and curiouser… Isn’t it just? I mean, the lines still make me say WTF (as per the OP), but there’s a touch of beard-stroking about that WTF now. Actually, in my post I was nominating Bolan for a lifetime achievement award. As you’re on a roll, did you want to have a crack at this one? > O Debora always look like a zebra > Your sunken face is like a galleon > Clawed with mysteries of the Spanish main O Debora. And > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Sometimes it’s about how the words sound together rather than their literal meaning. Things just got a bit more complicated regarding literal meaning… 😉 j ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/94 "2020-12-12T16:59:35Z")
No one has mentioned to worst case of a throw away line yet. “We can’t even think of a word that rhymes” And it doesn’t . ---
**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:** [December 12, 2020, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/95 "2020-12-12T17:05:42Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > “We can’t even think of a word that rhymes” I find this to be a genius line in the context of the song. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823/96 "2020-12-12T18:33:21Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Actually, in my post I was nominating Bolan for a lifetime achievement award. As you’re on a roll, did you want to have a crack at this one? > > > O Debora always look like a zebra > > Your sunken face is like a galleon > > Clawed with mysteries of the Spanish main O Debora. Dry hole. It seems there is less than nothing known about that song or its lyrics. Which – looking on the positive – creates a golden opportunity for you to opine on it at some length, with little to no fear of contradiction 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throwaway-lines-in-songs-that-make-you-say-wtf/924823.md?page=4)