# "What Are They Saying In That Song?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959 "2017-05-18T21:28:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/21 "2017-05-24T18:32:42Z")
And then there is the foreground talking with the music in the background. The Guess Who, Sea of Love. Very Canadian conversation. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/J7Ote0DOtgI/hqdefault.jpg "The Guess Who - Hi, Rockers! Sea of Love / Heaven Only Moved Once Yesterday /Don't You want Me") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Ote0DOtgI) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/22 "2017-05-24T18:43:56Z")
The third verse of [Chicago’s “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”](https://youtu.be/7uy0ldI_1HA?t=206) has someone talking under the music; some is understandable, but I don’t want to turn it up loud enough to decipher all of it. ---
**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:** [May 24, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/23 "2017-05-24T19:16:12Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > The third verse of [Chicago’s “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”](https://youtu.be/7uy0ldI_1HA?t=206) has someone talking under the music; some is understandable, but I don’t want to turn it up loud enough to decipher all of it. When the song was new, and all I had was a portable radio, I never heard the talking. (I never heard a lot of stuff in popular music. Getting a real stereo system was an eye opener!) I wish I still couldn’t - it’s distracting and doesn’t add anything, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/24 "2017-05-24T19:19:22Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > When the song was new, and all I had was a portable radio, I never heard the talking. (I never heard a lot of stuff in popular music. Getting a real stereo system was an eye opener!) > > I wish I still couldn’t - it’s distracting and doesn’t add anything, IMO. Agreed. There are greatest hits versions that leave it off. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/25 "2017-05-24T19:49:09Z")
[10CC’s I’m Not In Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki78MK9JywE) has many back-up vocal tracks. Most are pa pas and na nas but there are a few words just before the chorus (Let’s be calm? Just because?). I’m not talking about the whispered phrase in the middle of the song, which for a long time I thought was “Requesting quiet” but is actually “Big boys don’t cry”. I think. This song recently got re-discovered on Star Lord’s Awesome mix tape. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/26 "2017-05-25T00:57:52Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > The third verse of [Chicago’s “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”](https://youtu.be/7uy0ldI_1HA?t=206) has someone talking under the music; some is understandable, but I don’t want to turn it up loud enough to decipher all of it. _People runnin’ everywhere Don’t know the way to go Don’t know where I am Can’t see past the next step Don’t have to think past the last mile Have no time to look around Just run around, run around and think why_ ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/27 "2017-05-25T01:17:45Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > And the part just before it, there’s a woman and curmudgeonly-sounding dude sounding like they’re from a movie or something. (while Fripp plays single notes and Cross’s playing meanders yet gradually builds.) > > What’s the spoken word (“below”?) that Plant says after “let my love come running in” from Zep’s _Rock’n Roll_? I always thought it was just “Let it!” In one of the _Pet Sounds_ tracks, Beach Boys can be heard faintly in the background, talking about cameras. Beatles, “Hey Jude”: “Fuckin’ hell!” – John, a few measures before the “da da…” coda begins --after he flubs a note (I think maybe he played bass on that one). Stones, “Something Happened to Me Yesterday”: “What kind of drug is this?,” someone asks between verses. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/28 "2017-05-25T01:28:24Z")
More Zep: start of “Boogie with Stu.” “How do I get this airplane off?” (A propellor plane is heard in the background). Then some neons says something just before the music starts. “Not even!”, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/29 "2017-05-25T01:33:25Z")
“Swish Swish Bish”? I just remember Katy looking pissed off on cam on SNL. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/30 "2017-05-25T06:30:00Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I thought it was something about California. > > Once I heard Pink Floyd’s _One of These Days_ on the radio. My pleasure quickly faded afterward when the DJ commented, “I don’t even know what he’s saying there.” :mad: > > Dear ignorant DJ from a long time ago, he is saying, “One of these days I’m going to cut you into little pieces!” There’s a live version where Klaus indeed wails “California” there instead of AREYOUREADYBABY? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/31 "2017-05-25T14:36:42Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > More Zep: start of “Boogie with Stu.” “How do I get this airplane off?” (A propellor plane is heard in the background). Then some neons says something just before the music starts. “Not even!”, maybe? Sorry, make that “Black Country Woman.” ---
**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:** [May 25, 2017, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/32 "2017-05-25T15:02:58Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I’m not talking about the whispered phrase in the middle of the song, which for a long time I thought was “Requesting quiet” but is actually “Big boys don’t cry”. I think. > . Are you me? Because for years that’s what I thought she was saying. (See my previous comment about my cheap mono radio I had for my childhood.) It doesn’t help that she’s pronouncing it “kwy”. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/33 "2017-05-25T15:23:49Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > More Zep: start of “Boogie with Stu.” “How do I get this airplane off?” (A propellor plane is heard in the background). Then some neons says something just before the music starts. “Not even!”, maybe? I had heard the response to the airplane line was Jimmy saying “Nah, leave it in” ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/34 "2017-05-26T02:27:40Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > I had heard the response to the airplane line was Jimmy saying “Nah, leave it in” Makes sense – thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/35 "2017-05-27T13:49:44Z")
[“Stepping Razor”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o_jVHmU_V4) by Peter Tosh. There’s some talking over the guitar solo (starting around 3:45) that I’ve never been able to figure out. I’m not even sure if it is English… probably some sort of Jamaican dialect? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/36 "2017-05-28T07:30:15Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > [10CC’s I’m Not In Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki78MK9JywE) has many back-up vocal tracks. Most are pa pas and na nas but there are a few words just before the chorus (Let’s be calm? Just because?). I’m not talking about the whispered phrase in the middle of the song, which for a long time I thought was “Requesting quiet” but is actually “Big boys don’t cry”. I think. > > This song recently got re-discovered on Star Lord’s Awesome mix tape. Who’s Star Lord? That’s Johnny Karate! ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/37 "2017-05-29T12:49:31Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > I had heard the response to the airplane line was Jimmy saying “Nah, leave it in” Actually, according to the liner notes of the boxed set, it’s actually Robert Plant and he says, “nah, leave it, yeah!” ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-they-saying-in-that-song/786959/38 "2017-05-29T13:26:20Z")
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