The Black Angel’s Death Song-- Velvet Underground
“The ratty man’s patter ran on through the dawn
Until we said so long to his skull. Shrill Yell.”
I’ve heard that Lou Reed wrote it just because he liked the sound of the words put together.
Looks like we have a few different versions… I always thought it was “Take a load off Fanny”
This song has apparently been covered by a bunch of people. Here’s what some of the various lyric sites have to say:
Aretha Franklin - Take a load off Fanny
Travis - Take a load off Fanny
Texas - Take a load off Fanny
The Supremes - Take a load off Fanny
Sheryl Crow - Take a load off Fanny
They seem pretty unanimous on that one line - for those interested, I googled the search criteria the weight lyrics take a load
Heart’s Barracuda always puzzled me - something about “smell me - smell you, the porpoise said, right down deep down”.
And Hubby and I just noticed that although we’ve been watching Cops off and on for over 10 years, neither one of us can tell what they’re saying beyond
Bad boys bad boys
Whatcha gonna do
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you
(although the word “police” is clearly heard at one point)
Apparently the Cops song is by a band called ‘Inner Circle’, better known for ‘Sweat (A La La La Long)’.
I’ve been looking for it on and off for a while–it’s a great theme.
picunurse
… and he put the load right on me… and
cazzle
Now that I think of it, there is a line in the song, where they mention “…get back to Miss Fannie” thereby clearly demonstrating that is not Annie. (The ‘F’ in ‘Fannie’ gets lost in the alliteration of the chorus “… off Fannie…”
To the both of you, thanks for the corrections.
Still the question remains, what does the song mean?
Incidentally, with all the versions listed by cazzle, there are no doubt many others. My personal favorite is the one by Jackie DeShannon.
hehehe Mr.Roboto You are correct. To hear Richard Harris perform:
Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed
In love’s hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants
is one of my little pleasures in life. 
No one has mentioned Beck yet!! What’s wrong with you people.
Beck’s Loser must be the most f*cked up song in existance.
http://display.lyrics.astraweb.com:2000/display.cgi?beck..mellow_gold..loser
a sample:
In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
butane in my veins and I’m out to cut the junkie
with the plastic eyeballs, spray-paint the vegetables
dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose
kill the headlights and put it in neutral
stock car flamin’ with a loser and the cruise control
baby’s in Reno with the vitamin D
got a couple of couches, sleep on the love-seat
someone came in sayin’ I’m insane to complain
about a shotgun wedding and a stain on my shirt
don’t believe everything that you breathe
you get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve
so shave your face with some mace in the dark
savin’ all your food stamps and burnin’ down the trailer park
Yet it all makes perfect sense if you’re 36 and slightly dissatisfied.
An awful lot of Robyn Hitchcocks’s output would qualify, this from Where are the Prawns? The chorus “Where are the prawns?” in glorious three (or four?) part harmony.
Cookie pie, the waters rise above your legs beneath your eyes
Already the clouds are drowning and even the stars are damp
I’ll be awake and dreaming all of us could go screaming
Where are the prawns?
Down by the sea
Where are the prawns?
Down by the sea
Or how about Brenda’s Iron Sledge
All aboard -
Brenda’s Iron Sledge
All aboard -
Brenda’s Iron Sledge
Please don’t call me Reg.
It’s not my name.
That’s wonderful Small Clanger. Thank you so much.
What is the"Low SPark of High-Heeled Boys" and how does it make a sound?
What about Elton John’s “Solar Prestige A Gammon”:
"Oh ma cameo molesting
Kee pa a poorer for tea
Solar prestige a gammon
Lantern or turbert paw kwee
Solar prestige a gammon
Kool kar kyrie kay salmon
Har ring molassis abounding
Common lap kitch sardin a poor floundin
Cod ee say oo pay a loto
My zeta prestige toupay a floored
Ray indee pako a gammon
Solar prestige a pako can nord"
Huh?! If anybody could tell me what the heck these lyrics mean, I’d be very grateful. I’ve been wondering since I was 11.
I love Tori, but man, that woman is kind of wacky.
Just a sample of different lines from her song Space Dog:
Way to go Mr. Microphone
show us all what you don’t know
centuries secret societies
he’s our commander still
space dog
rain and snow
our engines have been receiving your eager call
there’s Colonel Dirtyfishydishcloth
he’ll distract her good
don’t worry so
Deck the halls
I’m young again
I’m you again
racing turtles
the grapefruit is winning
your feet finally on the ground he said
stood with those girls before
so sure we were on something
the hair in pairs it just got nasty
your feet are just on the ground
and now those girls are gone
Thin Lizzy (I believe)
“Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak
Somewhere in this town…”
Gee…I wonder where it might happen?
Felt. Fairly obscure 1980s indie band from England. I love them to death, but man did they have some terrible lyrics. The worst being an early track called “The Stagnant Pool”:
The stagnant pool
Like a drowned coffin
Still as a deceased heart
Haunting the ghost of the noble crusader
Who recalls pellucid ice
Clutching the aching twigs
Never a drop to disturb stagnation
And no, they weren’t a goth band… the lyrics might have made some kind of (twisted) sense if they were!
Actually this one doesn’t sound that obscure. The song is almost certainly refering to the traditional song, "Will the Circle be Unbroken. a song about a bot grieving the loss of his mother and how his faith bouys him up in this situation. Some of the lyrics:
We sang the songs of childhood,
Hymns of faith that made us strong,
Ones that our mother had taught us,
Hear the angels sing along
Will the circle be unbroken?
By and by Lord, by and by,
There’s a better home a-waitin’
In the sky Lord, in the sky.
In this context, “If your circle stays unbroken; Then you’re a lucky man; Cause it never, never, never has for me.” is pretty plain.
Or if you are not into science fiction traditional songs you can sing the one about the BOY grieving the loss of his mother.
Oh, this makes perfect sense! There’s some aggressive punning going on, but parse it:
The yellow leaf blew down the street, tumbling end-over-end.
While formerly we loved those trees, we love them no more;
we too, have turned over a new leaf.
Add to this that Roosevelt Avenue is a street in Columbus, Ohio (aka “Cowtown”, the song’s title), and the story begins to unfold. When you get to the chorus, all is revealed to make total sense. Really, I think the chorus makes the entire song intuitively obvious, even to the casual observer:
“I’m goin’ down to Cowtown,
the cow’s a friend to me.
Lives beneath the ocean
that’s where I will be
beneath the waves, the waves,
and that’s where I will be,
I’m gonna see the cow beneath the sea.”
I was listening to one of several Elvis CDs I just got recently, and a lyric went by that must qualify for inclusion in The Worst Lyrics Of All Time:
“Girl, we have yet to taste the icing on the cake we’ve been baking with the past.”
The song’s title escapes me (I’m at work), but man, they sure gave Elvis some wretched material to work with in the late '60s!