Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]

    Search       Member List      Official United Site     ArabZone      ArabTRUST       BBC Sport     Twitter
Welcome to The Arab League, one of the longest established Dundee United Football forums, with many members from the old ArabFC forum.

New members are always welcomed, so to join the debate, just sign up - registration is simple, fast, and completely free.

Join The Arab League!


If you're already a member please log in:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Ridiculous Lyrics; Bismillah!
Topic Started: Nov 3 2010, 04:30 PM (624 Views)
whatsthatonyourback
Member Avatar
Waldo Jeffers
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
It's hardly a new idea for a topic, but I was recently listening to Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam & The Ants, and I was struck by how awful some of it is.

Many many tunes lack, err, tunes, and the lyrics are ridiculously bad.

My favourite is the lyric "Get down on your knees and hear the insect prayer". Quite a proclamation, and the listener is really expecting something pretty dramatic after this. And what do they get? "Dirk wears white sox!". The title of the last A&tA LP, and a pretty meaningless phrase at that. Is that the best they could come up with?

Of course, there's also the "Ant Music For Sex People, Sex Music For Ant People" lyric that they were so proud of they even stuck it on their otherwise excellent logo at the time.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
findus
Member Avatar
Jerry Kerr
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Are we talking ridiculous as in pop-enough, or ridiculous as in bizarre-lentils?

My overall impression is that there's a lot of stuff out there that only makes sense to the writer; a lot of stuff that is pop-enough, and some of it is good for what it is; and then there's the primo stuff that connects at some deeper level.

"She gonna look like when there's a chimney on her" is still my favourite all-time :blink: lyric.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Alpha
Member Avatar
Craig Brewster
[ *  *  * ]
few strange ones I can think of

"I am milk I am red hot ketchup"

or

"He's Got A Chain Of Flowers
And Sows A Bird In Her Knickers"

and finally
"My dog needs new ears
Make his eyes see forever"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Naebody
Member Avatar
Twat
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
findus
Nov 3 2010, 04:58 PM
"She gonna look like when there's a chimney on her" is still my favourite all-time :blink: lyric.

Don't mind that one at all. Woman's man has a brief fling with a tart. Man insists it's all over, but tart continues to hang around. Woman mulls what tart would look like under masonry. It's not Shakespeare, but it's good enough for disco.

The ones that annoy me are songs that undermine good lyrics with appalling ones. I can usually let dreadful writing wash over me if the intention's okay. But if good lyrics force me to listen early on, each bad word that follows feels like a toothpick stabbing into in the cerebellum.

For example, Fallen For You by Sheila Nichols. It lowers your guard with simple, clean writing like:

Quote:
 
But I was wrong, so wrong
That was just another song you wrote, for another girl
And I hoped a day could be
When you'd write a song for me
But it never came,
I thank you all the same,
But I'll go now, so you won't know how much I've
Fallen for you ...


Yet, by the third verse, it's pulling this kind of shite.

Quote:
 
Thought about you all the time,
Walking round, the Guggenheim.
Like a rhyme, in my mind,
There you are, in my car,
But we don't drive very far.
To the beach, out of reach
Next to me... my fantasy
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
whatsthatonyourback
Member Avatar
Waldo Jeffers
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Naebody
Nov 3 2010, 08:03 PM
Quote:
 
Thought about you all the time,
Walking round, the Guggenheim.
Like a rhyme, in my mind,
There you are, in my car,
But we don't drive very far.
To the beach, out of reach
Next to me... my fantasy

Wow, that's a good one! Bad one. Whatever.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Naebody
Member Avatar
Twat
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Isn't it, though.

Can't face fifth-form onanism either. Placebo are repeat offenders, such as this ripe example from Pure Morning:

Quote:
 
A friend in needs a friend indeed,
A friend with weed is better,
A friend with breasts and all the rest,
A friend who's dressed in leather,

A friend in needs a friend indeed,
A friend who'll tease is better,
Our thoughts compressed,
Which makes us blessed,
And makes for stormy weather.


To which I reply, grow up or f*ck off.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
YazooArab
Member Avatar
Paul Sturrock
[ *  * ]
War, war is stupid and people are stupid. :unsure:

I rest my case.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
whatsthatonyourback
Member Avatar
Waldo Jeffers
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Naebody
Nov 3 2010, 10:52 PM
Isn't it, though.

Can't face fifth-form onanism either. Placebo are repeat offenders, such as this ripe example from Pure Morning:

Quote:
 
A friend in needs a friend indeed,
A friend with weed is better,
A friend with breasts and all the rest,
A friend who's dressed in leather,

A friend in needs a friend indeed,
A friend who'll tease is better,
Our thoughts compressed,
Which makes us blessed,
And makes for stormy weather.


To which I reply, grow up or f*ck off.

Ah, see I like that one. If I wanted poetry I'd dig out my Norton Anthology and force one of today's skinny-jean youths to shout it through a bad microphone over a wall of feedback while we both get drunk on overpriced cider and he gets off with my girlfriend.

Actually, that sounds great! It was supposed to be crap, but I want to go to that gig NOW.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Naebody
Member Avatar
Twat
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Yeah, I deliberately chose Placebo to divide the crowd. It's not quite as simple as "shit lyrics are shit."

Poetry as lyrics tends to be overbearing, which is why author-musician collaborations rarely work. The Fugs are justly forgotten, Alan Moore and William Boroughs brought nothing to the million or so projects they tried, and Will Self's thing with Bomb The Bass provided one of the worst records ever pressed in earnest. Great lyrics can be shallow in a way good writing in other media rarely can. 'Wonderwall' is barely literate wankoff when read as verse but works fine when attached to a four-chord guitar run.

The line is crossed only when a lyric is so exceptionally clumsy it derails the song. Here's another example, which struggles to express the timeless theme of wanting a nice girl to touch your cock. It's the second verse of I Won't Dance, as popularised by Frank Sinatra.

Quote:
 
When you dance, you're charming and you're gentle
'specially when you do the Continental
But this feeling isn't purely mental
For, heaven rest us, I am not asbestos


Beat that.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Create a free forum in seconds.
« Previous Topic · Off Topic · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Find this theme on Forum2Forum.net & ZNR exclusively.