# Truisms in Pop Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 1, 2000, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247 "2000-11-01T15:47:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/1 "2000-11-01T15:47:05Z")
Have you ever listened to the lyrics of pop songs and discovered a truism that you never heard before? For example: In Soul Asylum’s “Black Gold”: “See the crowd gather around. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.” In The Gin Blossom’s “Hey Jealosy”: “If you don’t expect too much from me, you might not be let down.” In Depeche Mode’s “One Caress”: “When you think you’ve tried every road and every avenue, take one more look at what you found old, and in it you’ll find something new.” I’m sure you can think of others. (By the way, this is my first thread) ---
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/2 "2000-11-01T15:57:11Z")
Hullo, I think this is a wonderful first thread. Mine was crap, but I won’t provide a link to it. Let’s see… Folk Implosion says “Don’t touch me, 'coz I’ve had too much to feel tonight…” Oof. I know exactly what that’s means…when your brain is on fire- Oh yeah…I don’t know the name of the song or the artist, but this girl sings in a sweet childish voice “Life’s not fair/kill yourself or get over it” Magnetic Fields-“If you don’t cry” She sings “If you don’t cry/it isn’t love/if you don’t cry/then you don’t feel it deep enough” I’ll come back with more later… ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/3 "2000-11-01T16:05:08Z")
I think Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls is almost all truisms “I’d give up forever to touch you, 'cause I know that you fill me somehow. You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be and I don’t want to go home right now. When all I can taste is your sweetness, and all I can breath is your light (or life?) Sooner or later it’s over, I just don’t want to miss you tonight.” ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/4 "2000-11-01T16:51:58Z")
Jim Croce put many truisms in his songs: don’t tug on Superman’s cape, don’t spit into the wind, don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger, don’t mess around with Jim/Slim. I’ve tried to live my life by these words. On a slightly more serious note, I think “Cat’s Cradle” by Harry Chapin gives a wonderful example of the wrong way to be a daddy. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/5 "2000-11-01T17:57:10Z")
Hey, _nobody_ told the truth like good old Bob. “Now the preacher looked so baffled When I asked him why he dressed With twenty pounds of headlights Stapled to his chest. But he cursed me when I proved it to him Then I whispered ‘Not even you can hide; You see, you’re just like me, I hope you’re satisfied.’” – Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again “Praise be to Nero’s Neptune The Titanic sails at dawn And everybody’s shouting ‘Which side are you on?’ And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot Fighting in the captain’s tower While calypso singers laugh at them And fishermen hold flowers Between the windows of the sea Where lovely mermaids flow And nobody has to think too much About Desolation Row.” – Desolation Row “He looks so truthful, is this how he feels Trying to peel the moon and expose it With his businesslike anger and his bloodhounds that kneel If he needs a third eye he just grows it He just needs you to talk or to hand him his chalk Or pick it up after he throws it.” – Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? ---
**Author:** ![Althea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@Althea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Althea)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/6 "2000-11-01T18:03:30Z")
I’ve always been partial to Counting Crows’ “And all at once you look across a crowded room and see the way that light attaches to a girl” from “A Long December” ---
**Author:** ![Medea\_s\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Medea\_s\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medea_s_Child)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/7 "2000-11-01T18:06:59Z")
Oh. I love lyrics threads. This makes you my hero of the day JJ. Poysyn, Iris is one of my ‘me’ songs. So wonderful. So true. “You bleed just to know you’re alive” Simon and Garfunkle "I have my books And my poetry to protect me; I am shielded in my armor, Hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island. And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries." Joydrop "if i was beautiful like you, i would never be at fault i’d walk in the rain between the raindrops, bringing traffic to a hault. but that will never be, that will never ever be. cuz i’m not beautiful like you. i’m beautiful like me." Meredith Brooks “I hate the world today You’re so good to me I know but I can’t change Tried to tell you But you look at me like maybe I’m an angel underneath” And my sig, Green Day’s “Minority” ---
**Author:** ![Medea\_s\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Medea\_s\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medea_s_Child)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/8 "2000-11-01T18:08:21Z")
grr… _and my sig_ ---
**Author:** ![malden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@malden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malden)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/9 "2000-11-01T18:24:01Z")
“Still, a man hears what he wants to hear, And disregards the rest.” _–Simon and Garfunkel_ ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/10 "2000-11-01T18:51:51Z")
Thanks for reminding me of the Counting Crows, Althea. “Round Here”: “She knows she’s just a little misunderstood, she has trouble acting normal when she’s nervous.” Sting - “Fortress Around Your Heart”: “As I returned across the fields I’d known, I recognized the walls that I once made. I had to stop in my tracks for fear of walking on the mines I’d laid…” And a truism as a song title: Morrissey - “We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful” ---
**Author:** ![Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommy_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/11 "2000-11-01T19:11:13Z")
Another one by the Goo Goo Dolls (the song title escapes me right now): “And reruns all become our history.” I’ve heard many conversations stemming from “Remember the episode of Seinfeld (Cheers, The A-Team, Magnum PI, ad infinitum) where…?” ---
**Author:** ![Cantrip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Cantrip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cantrip)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/12 "2000-11-01T19:20:45Z")
“You can’t close the door when the wall’s caved in” - Grateful Dead “People are strange when you’re a stranger faces look ugly when you’re alone. Women seem wicked when you’re unwanted, streets are uneven when you’re down.” - The Doors And my personal favorite: “Don’t sleep in the subway, darling. Don’t stand in the pouring rain.” - Petula Clark ---
**Author:** ![Voorvie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/22d042/32.png) [@Voorvie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voorvie)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/13 "2000-11-01T19:45:59Z")
It’s hard to think of some really good examples when I’m surrounded by loud-mouthed sales people! But I did come up with one that seems to be appropriate at this time of year: Duran Duran: “A year of Sundays seems to have drifted right by” It always amazes me how fast time goes, and the older I get, the faster it seems! Another good one is Soundgarden: “Had a taste so sour, had to think of something sweet”. I often think of this when I have to listen to loud-mouthes sales people all day! Good thread, JJ! ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/14 "2000-11-01T20:06:25Z")
Traveling in a fried-out combie On a hippie trail, head full of zombie I met a strange lady, she made me nervous She took me in and gave me breakfast Really, this paragraph just speaks volumes. Who here _can’t_ relate to this experience? Who here _hasn’t_ been threatened through poison by men of European descent? Clearly there’s a little bit of thunder for all of us to hear. The fact that it wasn’t awarded the nobel prize for literature plainly shows just how removed from everyday life the committees are. I weep for their souls. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/15 "2000-11-01T21:17:00Z")
“The worst part of breaking up/ is getting back your stuff.” I don’t know who sings that, but they’ve been playing it a lot on Radio Disney lately (My daughter listens to that station, and it’s where I get all my knowledge of pop music these days.) ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/16 "2000-11-01T21:22:50Z")
**Turpentine** mentioned the wonderful Folk Implosion. From the same release: “There’s no need to worry, Confusion has its own embrace. Your mind loves the hurry, Your heart loves the race.” Story of my frickin’ life. The Loud Family (Scott Miller) weighs in with: “I’m on my feet, I’m on the phone, demanding answers. Maybe I better just sit down.” -and- “I never knew how your kisses felt, Until I saw you kiss someone else.” And from Folk Implosion’s alter-ego, Sebadoh, comes: “I gotta Saint, Never ever will forgive. It never understood me, But still tells me how to live.” Nothing like personal catharsis to make all pop songs suddenly fraught with poignant observation. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/17 "2000-11-01T21:33:37Z")
Also liked Sting from “I’m so Happy that I Can’t Stop Crying” "And a friend said to me “You look different somehow.” I said, “Everybody has to leave the darkness sometime.” " Patty Smith and Don Henley “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough” ”Now, I don’t want to lose you But I don’t want to use you Just to have somebody by my side And I don’t want to hate you I don’t want to take you But I don’t want to be the one to cry And that don’t really matter to anyone, anymore But like a fool I keep losing my place And I keep seeing you walk through that door “ And “When it’s late at night and you’re all alone Are there things that you wanted to say? And do you feel me beside you in your bed There beside you, where I used to lay? “ I Will Survive “Oh, no, not I, I will survive Oh as long as I know how to love I know I’ll be alive I’ve got so much life to live and I’ve got so much love to give” I can See Clearly Now “I think I can make it now the pain has gone And all of the bad feelings have disappeared Here is the rainbow I’ve been praying for It’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day “ ---
**Author:** ![Chef\_Troy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Chef\_Troy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chef_Troy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/18 "2000-11-01T21:42:41Z")
Let’s try to get this thread back on track. The OP didn’t ask you for lyrics you think are _cool_ or _profound,_ for Christ’s sake. Rather, he asked for _truisms_… here’s a definition for those unclear on the concept: > [@](#): > > \*\*Truism: An undoubted or self-evident truth; a statement which is pliantly true; a proposition needing no proof or argument. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/19 "2000-11-01T22:36:22Z")
The _Talking Heads_ have some great ones. “Somethings are hard to describe, the sound of a cigarette burning. A place where everything spins.” “I was born in a house with the television always on. Yes, I grew up to fast…” And the Classic, “Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.” (Granted proving this one true is going to be tough) ---
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247/20 "2000-11-01T22:50:41Z")
Ohhhh, Talking Heads! On the Remain in Light album…there’s a song called “Seen and Not Seen” I was listening to it with my friend and suddenly we started paying attention to the lyrics and my friend said “Oh my God, David Byrne is a genius!” What he was saying the song was that a man subconsciuosly altered his facial features to resemble people in the media that he admired, gradually, and assumed that most people shared this ability. “This is why first impressions are often correct.” When we heard that line, we had to rewind and hear it again to make sure we heard what we thought we had heard. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truisms-in-pop-songs/39247.md?page=2)