Song Lyrics That Don't Make Sense

[Johnny Footstool]

Why would the girl who is "somebody's baby," refer to herself as somebody's baby - and in the third person?

And what's that last line thrown in there for? (It doesn't relate to the next line either.)

She's not saying that she's some guy's girlfriend. She's telling her friends that she feels the need to hook up with a guy -- any guy. 'Cause when the cars and the signs and the streetlights light up the town (i.e. - nighttime), she gets horny.

[deltachi8]

Pretty much all of "Jump"

Sometimes songwriters write what "feels" right....a friend of mine is a songwriter and back in college he penned a pop-ish song called "Drop Down Wedding Gown"

"She Was the best looking bride around
In her drop down wedding gown"

So I asked him, what exactly is a drop-down wedding gown. He responded: "I have no clue, it rhymed"

[Unassisted]

How is it that Duran Duran just doesn't own this thread?

Because using their stuff is like shooting fish in a barrel? I think it would be a big challenge to find Duran Duran lyrics that are coherent. And yet I still enjoy them.

Here's my favorite incoherent fish from the Duran Duran barrel.

Out on the tar plains, the glides are moving
All looking for a new place to drive
You sit beside me so newly charming
Sweating dewdrops glisten freshing your side

[Redsland]

A/B/C/D/E/F/G
H/I/J/K
LMNOP
Q, R, S
T,U,V
W/X
Y and Z
Now I know my ABCs,
Tell me what you think of me.

------------

Tell me what you think of me?!

Singing the whole freaking alphabet seems like a long way to go for a song that's really about insecurity and self-loathing in our modern, literate society. "Am I correct?" is what the singer truly pleads. "Aren't I oh so perfect in your eyes?" he begs. Well sing THAT instead! Don't confuse the issue with half-hearted "elemeno's" that have nothing to do with your discontent with correctly ordering letters that by their nature are jumbled and rearranged in every word the were intended to create. It's absurd. Were Egyptian kids dutifully forced to learn a song about the "order" of hieroglyphics, and if so was it sung aloud or only through sign language? For that matter, what about the Greeks? Were their children forced to deliver a boustrophedon rendition, and if so, could you hear satanic messages during half the song?

Maybe it’s just me.

[westofyou]

I believe that's "revved up" like a deuce. Talkin' fast cars, I think.

Yep... Bruce is from our former great car culture, Thunder Road, Racing in the Streets, Backstreets, Johnny 99, and on and on and on..... Cars used to be a very important part of a young mans life... you must remember the joy you felt when you popped the hood and you could actually fix something without a degree in electrical engineering.

I'd write a song about that too.

Sigur Rós lyrics confound me...

Then I read

you won't be able to find lyrics and translations from ( ) because the vocals don't contain lyrics [see question above]. the band had planned to do official translations of ágætis byrjun in 2000 with the help of a grammarian but no progress has been made in this matter. you can read lyrics in icelandic with word-for-word english translations of song titles in our lyrics section.

[registerthis]

An ounce of perception,
A pound of obscure.
Process information at half speed.
Pause, rewind, replay,
Warm memory chip,
Random sample, hold the one you need.

Rush (Vital Signs)

That one also has one of the most ridiculous choruses ever sung in a rock song:

Everybody's got mixed feelings
About the function and the form
Everybody's got to deviate from the norm

[Dom Heffner]

She's not saying that she's some guy's girlfriend. She's telling her friends that she feels the need to hook up with a guy -- any guy. 'Cause when the cars and the signs and the streetlights light up the town (i.e. - nighttime), she gets horny.

Some 20 odd years later, I understand. Thanks, Johnny!

[westofyou]

That one also has one of the most ridiculous choruses ever sung in a rock song:

Everybody's got mixed feelings
About the function and the form
Everybody's got to deviate from the norm

Sounds like the typical art school student bull session.

[Roy Tucker]

I have 2 songs... First is MacArthur Park. What is it about this cake?

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

MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
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
Oh, no!

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground around your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing checkers by the trees

MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
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
Oh, no!

[break]

There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You'll still be the one

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why

[extended break]

MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
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
Oh, no!
Oh, no
No, no
Oh no!!

[Roy Tucker]

And Elton John's Levon... Who is Alvin Tostig?

Levon wears his war wound like a crown
He calls his child Jesus
`Cause he likes the name
And he sends him to the finest school in town

Levon, Levon likes his money
He makes a lot they say
Spend his days counting
In a garage by the motorway

He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day
When the New York Times said God is dead
And the war's begun
Alvin Tostig has a son today

And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
In tradition with the family plan
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
He shall be Levon

Levon sells cartoon balloons in town
His family business thrives
Jesus blows up balloons all day
Sits on the porch swing watching them fly

And Jesus, he wants to go to Venus
Leaving Levon far behind
Take a balloon and go sailing
While Levon, Levon slowly dies

[KittyDuran]

Because using their stuff is like shooting fish in a barrel? I think it would be a big challenge to find Duran Duran lyrics that are coherent. And yet I still enjoy them.

Here's my favorite incoherent fish from the Duran Duran barrel.

Out on the tar plains, the glides are moving
All looking for a new place to drive
You sit beside me so newly charming
Sweating dewdrops glisten freshing your side

So true, but a GREAT video...

How is it that Duran Duran just doesn't own this thread?

I'll let you in on a little secret... Simon Le Bon mostly talks about sex, women, sex, women, and more sex...

[Johnny Footstool]

From "Rocket Man":

"Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact, it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them
If you did."

Exceptionally awful. It's not the kind of place to raise your kids because there's no one there to raise them if you decided to raise them there?

[gonelong]

A/B/C/D/E/F/G
H/I/J/K
LMNOP
Q, R, S
T,U,V
W/X
Y and Z
Now I know my ABCs,
Tell me what you think of me.

------------

Tell me what you think of me?!

Singing the whole freaking alphabet seems like a long way to go for a song that's really about insecurity and self-loathing in our modern, literate society. "Am I correct?" is what the singer truly pleads. "Aren't I oh so perfect in your eyes?" he begs. Well sing THAT instead! Don't confuse the issue with half-hearted "elemeno's" that have nothing to do with your discontent with correctly ordering letters that by their nature are jumbled and rearranged in every word the were intended to create. It's absurd. Were Egyptian kids dutifully forced to learn a song about the "order" of hieroglyphics, and if so was it sung aloud or only through sign language? For that matter, what about the Greeks? Were their children forced to deliver a boustrophedon rendition, and if so, could you hear satanic messages during half the song?

Maybe it’s just me.

I always thought it was, "Next time won't you sing with me?".

GL

[pedro]

From "Rocket Man":

"Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact, it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them
If you did."

Exceptionally awful. It's not the kind of place to raise your kids because there's no one there to raise them if you decided to raise them there?

I like it.

While were on the subject of Mars. How about this gem?


Life On Mars
David Bowie

It's a god-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling "No"
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
For she's lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

It's on Amerikas tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

[TRF]

I love Springsteen but...

Crazy Janey and her mission man were back in the alley tradin' hands
'long came Wild Billy with his friend G-man all duded up for Saturday night
Well Billy slammed on his coaster brakes and said anybody wanna go on up to Greasy Lake
It's about a mile down on the dark side of route eighty-eight
I got a bottle of rose so let's try it
We'll pick up Hazy Davy and Killer Joe and I'll take you all out to where the gypsy angels go
They're built like light
and they dance like spirits in the night (all night) in the night (all night)
Oh, you don't know what they can do to you
Spirits in the night (all night), in the night (all night)
Stand right up now and let it shoot through you

Well now Wild young Billy was a crazy cat and he shook some dust out of his coonskin cap.
He said, "Trust some of this it'll show you where you're at, or at least it'll help you really feel it"
By the time we made it up to Greasy Lake I had my head out the window and Janey's fingers were in the cake
I think I really dug her 'cause I was too loose to fake
I said, "I'm hurt." She said, "Honey let me heal it".
And we danced all night to a soul fairy band
and she kissed me just right like only a lonely angel can
She felt so nice, just as soft as a spirit in the night (all night)
In the night (all night). Janey don't know what she do to you
Like a spirit in the night (all night), in the night (all night)
Stand right up and let her shoot through me.

Now the night was bright and the stars threw light on Billy and Davy
dancin' in the moonlight
They were down near the water in a stone mud fight
Killer Joe gone passed out on the lawn
Well now Hazy Davy got really hurt, he ran into the lake in just his socks and a shirt
Me and Crazy Janey was makin' love in the dirt singin' our birthday songs
Janey said it was time to go
So we closed our eyes and said goodbye to gypsy angel row, felt so right
Together we moved like spirits in the night, all night
Baby don't know what they can do to you
Spirits in the night, all night
Stand right up and let it shoot right through you