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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?!

OP posts:
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9
traumallama · 02/10/2023 14:10

Tellerium · 02/10/2023 14:04

Oh and Chris de Burgh, if that’s how you want to pronounce “dance” that’s fine, but then it doesn’t rhyme with “romance”, ok duck?

Crap song anyway

Aah yes! Daunce and romaunce... noooooo

Inkypot · 02/10/2023 14:15

The lyric itself doesn't bug me... but the spelling/grammar does.

In Gwen Stefani's 'What You Waiting For?' video there's a few points where it flashes up lyrics that are being sung at the time.
On the lyric, "you got your million dollar contract, and they're all waiting for your hot track", the music video spells it as, "and their all waiting for your hot track".

I could just about accept "there" maybe meaning "it's there waiting", but "their" makes absolutely no sense!! Drives me round the twist every time.

Inkypot · 02/10/2023 14:17

24 Hours From Tulsa.

So not content with cheating on his way home, he writes an entire diatribe about it with graphic detail for his poor missus to learn of his misgivings. Classy!

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Music
FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 02/10/2023 14:20

Respectfully I say to thee
I'm aware that you're cheating
When no one makes me feel like you do

Aside from all the other issues, why the random 'thee' when she sings 'you' in the rest of the song. Use one or the other; not both!

Hopelesslydevotedtoshrews · 02/10/2023 14:36

Adele (again), Give My Love to Your Next Lover, when she can feel the 'Hot Heat rising'. It's small but really irritates me, the hot heat eh? As opposed to the lukewarm/borderline tepid heat? Heat that's not hot is a draught.

Brefugee · 02/10/2023 14:38

JoanThursday1972 · 02/10/2023 14:00

What's it all about? How life was pointless without a bloke in it?

And yes @Tarquina complete controlling lyrics!

Edited
Show quote history

No. It was about how her day played out before she met the chap. Doesn't sound pointless. A bit aimless maybe.

toadasoda · 02/10/2023 14:41

BellaTheDarkOverlord · 02/10/2023 13:46

“Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on”

It was on in the car once. Dh suddenly said it says hotdog to dd. Now all I can bloody hear is hotdog.

“Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the hotdog goes on”

Love it. My ninja obsessed boy heard a song about one in the car one day...

'I sit and wait..does a ninja contemplate my fate?'....'I'm loving ninjas instead..'

traumallama · 02/10/2023 14:44

@toadasoda I love that, especially the idea of ninjas in such a slow ballad song! I put it on and it does sound like ninja on that first line!

toadasoda · 02/10/2023 14:46

traumallama · 02/10/2023 14:44

@toadasoda I love that, especially the idea of ninjas in such a slow ballad song! I put it on and it does sound like ninja on that first line!

AND the ninja offers him protection, so it all makes sense 😅

ImtheFlag · 02/10/2023 15:09

ZebraDanios · 30/09/2023 22:16

To pick on another song though: Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney…

”The choir of children sing their song
They’ve practised all year long:
Ding dong ding dong ding dong…”

Really? They practised all year for that?!

I think this is my favourite so far 😅😅

ZebraDanios · 02/10/2023 16:08

Brefugee · 02/10/2023 11:47

Meh - sounds like retrofitting to me.

Show quote history

I agree, there’s something really jarring about it. The whole song has such an air of youthful innocence about it that innuendo just feels entirely out of place. I reckon he chose a year to rhyme with “five and dime” and then tagged the other meaning on much later.

ZebraDanios · 02/10/2023 16:10

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 02/10/2023 10:20

ZebraDanios

Very good points, actually. That makes me think of Father Dougal excitedly telling Ted about the scandal of what 'Clint Eastwood' has done, until he realises that "Ah, no, wait - it's just a film!"

This is one of the many ways in which I can relate to Father Dougal 😄

WhatapityWapiti · 02/10/2023 16:17

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 02/10/2023 14:20

Respectfully I say to thee
I'm aware that you're cheating
When no one makes me feel like you do

Aside from all the other issues, why the random 'thee' when she sings 'you' in the rest of the song. Use one or the other; not both!

Because it rhymes within the line with “Respectfully” and makes the lyric a bit les boring.

Meadowflower2023 · 02/10/2023 16:36

The Weeknd - I Feel It Coming

Tell me what you really like
Baby I can take my time
We don't ever have to fight
Just take it step-by-step
I can see it in your eyes
'Cause they never tell me lies
I can feel that body shake
And the heat between your legs

I'm no prude but that last line of that verse makes me cringe every single time.

When I was young my mum would have Michael Bolton on a lot, I used to think he was an absolute arse with the song 'said I loved you but I lied' until I was older and took in the rest of the lyrics.

Playingintheshadow · 02/10/2023 17:47

Conferenceblues · 30/09/2023 07:30

That’s the point though, isn’t it? They don’t need no education because they don’t give a shit about correct grammar. That sort of bourgeois nonsense is the problem! Your insistence that they have to say ‘any’ instead of ‘no’ when the latter is perfectly comprehensible just because it follows the correct rules highlights that you are just another brick in the wall …

Show quote history

I KNOW what it means and I KNOW why they did it. It just irritates me, that's all!

This is a light-hearted thread and your patronising comment does not make you look big or clever.

Conferenceblues · 02/10/2023 17:57

Playingintheshadow · 02/10/2023 17:47

I KNOW what it means and I KNOW why they did it. It just irritates me, that's all!

This is a light-hearted thread and your patronising comment does not make you look big or clever.

Show quote history

Um ... ok ... that was meant to be lighthearted, not make me look big or clever ... I'm not really accusing you of bourgeois nonsense - I'm saying that is the point of the song!

flustereddriver75 · 02/10/2023 18:26

There's so many but Elton John...

"I sat on the roof and picked at the moss
A few of the verses got me quite cross"

Just irrationally annoys me because it sounds like it was written by eight year olds in a poetry contest.

toadasoda · 02/10/2023 18:50

flustereddriver75 · 02/10/2023 18:26

There's so many but Elton John...

"I sat on the roof and picked at the moss
A few of the verses got me quite cross"

Just irrationally annoys me because it sounds like it was written by eight year olds in a poetry contest.

It does.. and yet some lyrics are so beautiful as mentioned upthread. It was Elton and Bernie Taupin's first commercial hit wasn't it? I reckon that was the moment when Bernie said-'seriously, I'll do all the lyrics from now on Elton, no more tweaks'.

Alstroemeria123 · 02/10/2023 19:16

Another ABBA one, just because I find this lyric a bit incongruous with the rest of the song (which I actually love)

From When All Is Said And Done:

In our lives we have walked
Some strange and lonely treks
Slightly worn, but dignified
And not too old for sex

BeenToButtonMoon · 02/10/2023 19:35

I love the rest of lyrics but wtf is a Wonderwall? Laziest rhyme ever and ruins an otherwise great song imo

PeggyPiglet · 02/10/2023 19:41

BeautifulWar · 28/09/2023 18:28

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag...

Er, no Katy Perry, can't say I have.

Drifting on the wind, wanting to start again?

That's still a no...

It's figurative language 🙄. Not to be taken literally.

BeautifulWar · 02/10/2023 19:50

It's figurative language 🙄. Not to be taken literally.

Yeah, fabulous imagery, I must be a total philistine, nigh on illiterate not to get that.

They're shit lyrics.

traumallama · 02/10/2023 19:58

I am I said, to no one there
And no one heard at all not even the chair

🪑

RobinGet · 02/10/2023 19:59

PeggyPiglet · 02/10/2023 19:41

It's figurative language 🙄. Not to be taken literally.

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Lots of lyrics use figurative language, it doesn’t mean they don’t bug people, which is what this thread is about.

@BeautifulWar ‘clap along now if you feel like a room without a roof’ bugs me!

WhatapityWapiti · 02/10/2023 20:02

To me, part of the joy of songs as opposed to other writing like journalism etc is that they can be full of nonsense and we sing along because they have catchy tunes.

I do think it’s funny to pick holes in the grammar etc but it doesn’t stop me actually enjoying the song, in a way I am taking the piss out of myself for enjoying the silly lyrics.

All together now, “And it’s Hi Ho Silver Lining, and away we go…”