Comically bad lyrics

[Bristlehound]

I actually think that Elvis Costello's lyrics are comically brilliant.

"Somewhere in the Quisling clinic
There's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes"

Genius.

 

[ebb soul]

I'm sorry but this is tripe....

 

[Dismalhead]

View attachment 439952 I'm sorry but this is tripe....

Yeah, lots of their songs were about elves and Mordor and stuff.

 

[ebb soul]

Over pretentious phycobabble, IMO.

 

[sonicsmitty]

I think all these lyrics are great, because they're better than anything I can do. I can't write lyrics.

 

[Minimalist518]

We are the priests
Of the Temples of Syrinx
Our great computers
Fill the hollowed halls
We are the priests
Of the Temples of Syrinx
All the gifts of life
Are held within our walls

My favorite bit is where, in one of the passes through the chorus, Geddy kind of gives the line a subtle Tony the Tiger reading: "...our g-reat computers fill these hallowed hall-alls"

 

[Teleterr]

Do lyrics that you just don t like qualify ? Theres nothing stupid about Plants lyrics , you all just don t share their view point or philosophy. My only complaint, it should be Glisters not Glistens in Stairway.

 

[brenn]

So, I do not intend this to bash a song or songwriter, but to start a discussion of lyrics that make you laugh.

My example: Having grown up on classic rock radio, I've heard Bob Seeger's night moves an infinite number of times, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I actually heard the lyrics. Specifically, the line that goes:

"She was a dark haired beauty with big brown eyes. And points of her own sitting way up high." And then he shifts to a falsetto sort of voice for emphasis and sings "Way up, firm and high!"

I just cannot hear that without cracking up. The fact that he sounds so serious and places so much emphasis on it makes it all the more hilarious.

I don't understand the humor - the song was entirely about sex.

 

[brenn]

Yeah, lots of their songs were about elves and Mordor and stuff.

The lyrics I find stupid are just about anything with a sci-fi/fantasy/satan theme. Always seems pretty childish, if your older than 12 or so. I like NIB by Black Sabbath but the lyrics are like a low-budget 60's horror movie.

Lyrics I think are comically bad? The ones by Rush...followed by the ones by every other prog rock band.

 

[Minimalist518]

McArthur Park kinda takes the cake:

View attachment 439952 I'm sorry but this is tripe....

It was the times. I was baffled by this stuff as a kid. Grown ups were freaking weird!
The middle of "Ramble On" is way worse than "Kashmire" the part where the boy meets girl/boy is a loner so he leaves girl story suddenly takes an unwarranted, superfluous side trip to Morder.
But I will say that, comparatively, "Kashmir" is WH Auden next to "McArthur Park."
"Someone left my cake out in the rain/and I don't think that I can take it/cause it took so long to bake it/and I'll never have that recipe again..."
Committing completely to a bad metaphor and stretching it far beyond its breaking point isn't gonna make it a good metaphor!

 

[Johnson johnson]

"Bitchin Camaro, bitchin Camaro
Lug nuts on your lawn
Bitchin Camaro, bitchin Camaro
Tony Orlando and Dawn"

Just my .00000000002 cents.

 

[Teleterr]

"Bitchin Camaro, bitchin Camaro
Lug nuts on your lawn
Bitchin Camaro, bitchin Camaro
Tony Orlando and Dawn"

Just my .00000000002 cents.

Whos lyrics. ?! Does the folow up song say "yeah, motorcycles, fightin w other gangs and the Carpenters ?

 

[Mississippi_Kid]

These guys figured this out a long time ago, and made a living off mocking it...

 

[Mid Life Crisis]

The lyrics to 96 Tears always annoyed me for being so throwaway:


You`re way on top now since you left me
You’re always laughing way down at me
But watch out now, I`m gonna get there
We`ll be together for just a little while
And then I`m gonna put you way down here

 

[Johnson johnson]

Whos lyrics. ?! Does the folow up song say "yeah, motorcycles, fightin w other gangs and the Carpenters ?

The Dead Milkmen, a hangover from a misspent youth. Other major hits were "Big Lizard in my backyard" and "Life is Sh#t".

 

[Teleterr]

It was the times. I was baffled by this stuff as a kid. Grown ups were freaking weird!
The middle of "Ramble On" is way worse than "Kashmire" the part where the boy meets girl/boy is a loner so he leaves girl story suddenly takes an unwarranted, superfluous side trip to Morder.
But I will say that, comparatively, "Kashmir" is WH Auden next to "McArthur Park."
"Someone left my cake out in the rain/and I don't think that I can take it/cause it took so long to bake it/and I'll never have that recipe again..."
Committing completely to a bad metaphor and stretching it far beyond its breaking point isn't gonna make it a good metaphor!

not a metaphor actually happened. I caught a interview w Jimmy. I had always thought it was a put-on tonque in cheek thing, sort of a parody of the more theatrical songs of the time. NO, totally serious. When I 15 and it hit I was thinking "oh its some Broadway guys trying to do Rock." Especially when it speeds up in the break and you just see the girls in the cages dancing the Frug in their fringed mini skirts.

 

[brookdalebill]

Edie Brickell's What I Am was the first thing I thought of:

Best lines "I know what I know if you know what I mean" and "What I am is what I am, what you are are what". Thanks Popeye.

"I'm not aware of too many things
I know what I know if you know what I mean
Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box
Religion is the smile on a dog

I'm not aware of too many things
I know what I know if you know what I mean
Choke me in the shallow water
Before I get too deep

What I am is what I am
Are you what you are - or what?"

Another favorite is Black Eyed Peas My Humps:

"What you gon' do with all that junk?
All that junk inside your trunk?
I'ma get, get, get, get, you drunk,
Get you love drunk off my hump."

Yes, but I like EB & the NB!
Totally concur on the BEP, uh, tune.

 

[RLee77]

Any song that uses this tired pattern:
Blah blah make it,
Blah blah break it,
Blah blah take it,
Blah blah shake it,
Blah blah fake it

This isn't comical though, it's just not even trying.

 

[RLee77]

Do lyrics that you just don t like qualify ? Theres nothing stupid about Plants lyrics , you all just don t share their view point or philosophy.

Yeah, while Kashmir's lyrics are a bit pretentious, they DO work within the context of Plant's voice and the mystic-themed music.
However, if Brad Paisley were to do it…

 

[dlew919]

George is writing about the Beatles internal discord and the lawsuits to come.

Yes. So the theory states that he was using the mantra to calm himself. It's a double entendre