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Original poster

Song lyrics that bug you!

509 replies

BillStickersWillBeProsocuted · 28/09/2023 17:38

I was listening to Objects in the rear view mirror by Meatloaf the other day and it contains the line:

"If life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car"

That line always bugged me - for a start that's a pretty big "if" but apart from that surely in that analogy the body is the car and the soul is the driver?!

Another one is maybe a bit more Niche but Tim Minchin has a song called "Grew on me" where he likeness his love for his wife with various illnesses (it's actually much more sweet than that makes it sound!) which contains the line:

"The successful removal of you would probably kill me too"

Surely if it kills the patient you can't call it a successful removal?! What really bothers me is “the attempted removal of you” would fit the song just as well and make more sense!

Anyway I'm bored at work so thought I'd see if anyone else has any pedantic lyrical bugbears?!

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berrypop · 30/09/2023 22:59

C1N1C · 28/09/2023 17:46

The Tamperer ft. Maya

"What's she gonna look like with a chimney on her?"

Ah, now this one... chimney is slang for black eye. So 'what's she gonna look like with a black eye on her'

InvisibleDuck · 30/09/2023 23:25

Couchto5ktowine · 28/09/2023 19:50

“I look like Kiss but without the make-up
And that's a good line to take it to the bridge“

the last line is the laziest fucking lyric known to man from Robbie Williams (Strong). It makes me angry every time I hear it!!

I have just realised that I misheard this when it came out. I thought it was 'to take you to the bridge' which 12-year-old me interpreted as a reference to suicidal thoughts. I knew that Kiss were a band but not how they looked with or without makeup and just assumed it was bad enough to be that depressing.

I still like my version better. Melodramatic lyrics are better than incredibly lazy ones.

Brefugee · 30/09/2023 23:37

ZebraDanios · 30/09/2023 22:44

@NumberFortyNorhamGardens Don’t forget Abba were writing in a second language though - they’d have got extra time and a bilingual dictionary in an exam 😄

(Incidentally do you know the Allan Ahlberg parody of When a Knight Won His Spurs?)

that's only one of 3 grammatical mistakes that i can think of in the ABBA catalogue (up with: "must be funny in a rich man's world" - they mean fun i think. and "Since many years..." in Fernando.)

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Alstroemeria123 · 01/10/2023 00:05

Brefugee · 30/09/2023 23:37

that's only one of 3 grammatical mistakes that i can think of in the ABBA catalogue (up with: "must be funny in a rich man's world" - they mean fun i think. and "Since many years..." in Fernando.)

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There’s also “in the end of 89” in Happy New Year.

My Swedish grammar is far worse than their English grammar though!

Orders76 · 01/10/2023 00:35

I'm now wondering what cider and champagne tastes like. I think with a good cider, I could possibly go for that but the hangover would be insane

C1N1C · 01/10/2023 06:11

berrypop · 30/09/2023 22:59

Ah, now this one... chimney is slang for black eye. So 'what's she gonna look like with a black eye on her'

Show quote history

Hmm, interesting. I thought I'd looked this up in the past and remember somewhere saying it was a wizard if it reference... basically saying the lady was a like a witch and deserved a house to be dropped on her.

Brefugee · 01/10/2023 10:12

Alstroemeria123 · 01/10/2023 00:05

There’s also “in the end of 89” in Happy New Year.

My Swedish grammar is far worse than their English grammar though!

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i've never noticed that.

I love ABBA and forgive them everything, especially because they wrote in a foreign language.

Vitriolinsanity · 01/10/2023 18:16

I can forgive ABBA anything for the lyrics in Winner Takes It All and especially The Day Before You Came.

I was just listening to Duran Duran in the car. God their lyrics are bollocks, but then one was wildly distracted at all times by John Taylor and simply couldn't notice.

BriceNobeslovesMurielHeslop · 01/10/2023 18:25

I always interpreted “must be funny, in a rich man’s world” as money is a joke to a rich man. Maybe I am overthinking ABBA.

Brefugee · 01/10/2023 18:26

The Day Before You Came is a perfect storytelling pop song. Up there with Up the Junction.

Also, agree wrt John Taylor. I forgive the Durannies a lot because of JT

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 01/10/2023 19:39

Bryan Adams was only 9 years old for most of the year of 1969, so much of the song wouldn't have made sense in relating to a child. Even buying the guitar - his parents would likely have bought it for him.

The song was definitely about 'the other' understanding of 69. I think he actually admitted it once, didn't he?

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 01/10/2023 19:42

We just caught part of a Shadows concert on TV, and they were doing some old Cliff songs.

It never occurred to me before that Bachelor Boy makes absolutely no sense. Aside from his uber controlling father dictating to him that he must never marry, the lyrics...

As time goes by, I probably will meet a girl and fall in love
Then, I'll get married, have a wife and a child
And they'll be my turtle doves

But until then, I'll be a bachelor boy
And that's the way I'll stay
Happy to be a bachelor boy until my dying day

Is he somehow planning on meeting a girl, marrying her and then having a child with her all after he has already died?!

Dandelionchaser · 01/10/2023 20:03

"feel the beat from the tambourine" always pisses me off because that's impossible, it still stops me in my tracks when I hear it.

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 01/10/2023 20:14

"feel the beat from the tambourine" always pisses me off because that's impossible, it still stops me in my tracks when I hear it.

I don't get this? A tambourine is basically a small drum (with bells on the side too), so why would you not aurally sense the beat from a drum?

ZebraDanios · 01/10/2023 20:31

BriceNobeslovesMurielHeslop · 01/10/2023 18:25

I always interpreted “must be funny, in a rich man’s world” as money is a joke to a rich man. Maybe I am overthinking ABBA.

That’s what I always thought too.

And I too will forgive Abba anything. Most bands would be happy with just one hit as catchy and memorable as any of theirs, yet they had so many.

Krustykrabpizza · 01/10/2023 20:39

Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby..

BathshebaKnickerStickers · 01/10/2023 20:49

No-one’s banging driving tune is Tiny Dancer.

it’s just not.

DuranNotSpandeau · 01/10/2023 21:11

thiswayupsidedown · 29/09/2023 13:51

I don’t know what the song is and the rest of the lyrics may explain it but
”you’re so vain - you probably think this song is about you”
you’re literally singing about him

Love that song and i think its really clever whenever I hear it. It's Carly Simon and it was rumoured to be about her ex (Warren Beatty I think). Yes she is singing about him, but because obviously she doesn't identify him she's saying that he's so vain he would think it must be about him because (he would think) she wouldn't sing about another man (who in his mind she wouldn't have loved as much/been so deeply affected by).

ZebraDanios · 01/10/2023 23:19

It’s a lovely song but some of the lyrics of Your Song are fairly duff. “If I were a sculptor - but then again, no” and the whole verse about sitting on the roof and kicking off the moss…

Dandelionchaser · 01/10/2023 23:20

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 01/10/2023 20:14

"feel the beat from the tambourine" always pisses me off because that's impossible, it still stops me in my tracks when I hear it.

I don't get this? A tambourine is basically a small drum (with bells on the side too), so why would you not aurally sense the beat from a drum?

"feel the beat" means feel it with your body i.e. a heavy bass sound which a tambourine doesn't make.

Tarquina · 01/10/2023 23:23

Oliver's Army.

"Oliver's Army is here to stay
Oliver's Army are on their way"

The writer could not decide if army is singular or plural. Drives me nuts!

Zonder · 01/10/2023 23:30

threecupsofteaminimum · 28/09/2023 19:51

One must NEVER query David Bowie's lyrics WinkWink

Even when he used the word "hungriness" instead of just plain old hunger?

Zonder · 01/10/2023 23:31

useless1000 · 28/09/2023 19:53

This one is political- Danser is a person, if I remember correctly an unpopular American one

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Really? So not Dancer, mate of Comet and Cupid and Dasher and Vixen?

Tarquina · 01/10/2023 23:35

I've always been surprised never to read anyone being appalled at the lyric of this Beatles song.

I got something to say that might 'cause you pain
If I catch you talking to that boy again
I'm gonna let you down
And leave you flat
Because I told you before
Oh, you can't do that

Well, it's the second time I've caught you talking to him
Do I have to tell you one more time, I think it's a sin
I think I'll let you down (let you down)
And leave you flat (gonna let you down and leave you flat)
Because I've told you before, oh
You can't do that

WhatapityWapiti · 02/10/2023 00:01

BathshebaKnickerStickers · 01/10/2023 20:49

No-one’s banging driving tune is Tiny Dancer.

it’s just not.

Haven’t you seen the bus scene in Almost Famous? It’s quite iconic. That’s what he was getting at I think.

Almost Famous HD (Tiny Dancer Full Version)

(Most will never know how much effort was put into making this.) A Columbia Pictures Production. By The Legendary Elton John (2021 Remix)

https://youtu.be/kgcD0XErPZo?si=5vAMTj6MnFhOt6Qe