Song lyrics that bug you!

[BillStickersWillBeProsocuted]

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?!

And somewhere upthread you'll find a post from me quoting those very lines as my favourite lyric. I can sleep well tonight knowing someone else still appreciates them too.

@Inkypot

I get that they are unlikely to have written a song about coercive control on purpose. I'm sure with its lovely guitars and gentle harmonising, it is intended as a lovely soft rock seduction. Millions of people love the song.

But to me, it reads as though he's saying 'come on, if you really loved me, you'd show me'. 'More than words is all you have to do to make it real' is horrible grammatically and emotionally.

And both the phrases 'what would you do if I took those words away' and 'now that I've tried to talk to you and make you understand' just sound super creepy to me.

Whole song;

Saying "I love you"
Is not the words I want to hear from you
It's not that I want you
Not to say but if you only knew
How easy, it would be to show me how you feel

More than words is all you have to do to make it real
Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me
'Cause I'd already know

What would you do
If my heart was torn in two?
More than words to show you feel
That your love for me is real
What would you say
If I took those words away?
Then you couldn't make things new
Just by saying "I love you"

La-di-da, da-di-da
Di-dai-dai-da
More than words
La-di-da, da-di-da

Now that I've tried to
Talk to you and make you understand
All you have to do is close your eyes
And just reach out your hands and touch me
Hold me close, don't ever let me go

More than words is all I ever needed you to show
Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me
'Cause I'd already know

What would you do
If my heart was torn in two?
More than words to show you feel
That your love for me is real
What would you say
If I took those words away?
Then you couldn't make things new
Just by saying "I love you"

I love Strawberry Fields too. Those opening notes always make me feel calm and chilled.....

😄 I am well versed in that song as remember it being out in the charts but posting the lyrics will hopefully have been helpful for someone. It is so not a creepy song, it's a sweet one about wanting depth and meaning in relationships not just lip service. I cannot imagine how anyone makes the leap to coercive control especially given you yourself say they likely weren't going for that. That alone shows it is down to your creepy interpretation which means maybe it's worth looking at why your head went there on such a gentle love song I don't mean this post to seem as harsh as it might read, apologies if it does seem harsh it's not my intention.

Maybe it was her Yorkshire side coming out

I used to love Suede back in the 90s, but they really had some lyrical corkers.

"High on diesel and gasoline / Psycho for drum machine / Lost it to Bostick, yeah"

"Like his dad / You know that he's had / animal nitrate in mind/ so in your council home / he broke all your bones / now you're taking it time after time"

"Filmstar, elegant sir / terylene shirt / it looks so easy"

"Jumble sale mums / what are they on? / Kids just sit hanging round the street / and they've got somebody else's clothes on"

I love all those lyrics and sang them all as I read them!
The Beautiful Ones lyric is referring to the drugs and rave culture isn't it? Glue sniffing etc. I also love the one from Filmstar, highlighting how fake the fame industry is and especially was in the 90s. Now fancy listening to some Suede cos you've put me in the mood!

Maybe it was her Yorkshire side coming out

You mean like with Macy Gray in Still?

"I'm lovin' you, baby, and it's much too much ee by 'eck and I'll go to the bottom of my stairs to feed the whippet with a Yorkshire pudding"

Ah I was an obsessive Suede fan as a kid so I'm with you!

Beautiful ones is about rave culture yes but no one ever got high off bostick, we were all pilling including Brett Anderson! Also what A list filmstar ever wore a terylene shirt lol, the hero of Insatiable Ones would yes, but not George Clooney.

Loved their first two albums and love Brett's solo stuff. Have been to a number of their gigs both in the 90s and post reunion and going to another next year with the Manics, my other teenage obsession :-)

@LadyBevvy true I just thought he was being a bit sarcastic calling it Bostik 😂 Now you've made me go and put it on all over again! I am listening to Coming Up on repeat and have been since the first Suede post haha! I had the biggest crush on Brett too and I've realised I still do in my 40s 😄

Think it was a reference to solvent abuse. Loved Coming Up and Head Music

I did say it was from an ‘imitation’ of Joseph, not the best way of putting it but one of that stable of Bible story rock oratorios…

@NumberFortyNorhamGardens Isn’t indigo in the rainbow a bit of a myth? I’ve never seen dark blue in the spectrum of light.

IIRC when Newton first split white light with a prism he said there were six colours - but it got changed to seven purely to fit in with the idea of seven being a kind of mystical lucky number.

There was some discussion earlier about stressing the wrong syllable of a word - it’s taken me weeks to remember this, but Song 2 by Blur is a great example of this: “When I feel heavy metal…and I’m pins and I’m needles”. (Also the bit about the jumbo jet but that’s less obvious)

Well said! This is exactly why I struggle to know the words to Song 2 cos it confuses me with the weird emphasis on syllables.

The lyric prior is "all these other girls are tempting but I'm empty when you're gone and THEY say, do you need me?" etc. It isn't his girlfriend saying that.

About 20 years ago it was on never mind the buzzcocks on the mishead lyrics round

I somehow accidently memorised what they sang:

Now I feel like a fig roll
And a piece of artic roll
All of the time I'm never sure why I'm naked
Is there any Jam?

It was about going on sugar benders and neding up naked in a ditch

I often get my own kids names wrong, but that's eched on my brain for ever more! 😂

I loved that round. I still remember their version of “Son of My Father” which I believe included the line “I was oogling I was boogling I was free from drugs.”

I liked Buzzcocks as well, but they were an incredibly spiteful catty bunch at times. It was a bit too much like I’d wandered back into my Upper Fourth classroom and was getting interrogated by the cool crowd.

Best thing about that was putting the subtitles on for the Intros round.

SAME!!! “Pretended I was blended in a plastic cup” 😄

I also enjoyed the chorus of Smells Like Teen Spirit containing the line “I fit two pigs in containers” and Wuthering Heights beginning “Out on the winding, windy moor sweet Roland falls in brie”…

"Concrete jungle where dreams are made of" always bugs me. It doesn't make any sense.

Oh my goodness that is bringing back memories. I think WH went on something like "you had a temper like my jealous eel - too cold too greasy"

I know what you mean about the bitchiness but I bloody loved it when Mark Lamarr was in charge.

In fact this is reminding me of just how massive my crush was on Mark Lamarr 😅

This has gone off topic and turned into a twisted lyrics discussion.

Oooh yessss!