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?!

I’m a big Squeeze fan too (particularly Glenn Tilbrook) but I cringe whenever I hear ‘he started me on Monday, so I had a bath on Sunday’!

I always thought it was 'deadly' ?

"I have an odd memory of this song from my clubbing days... I don't know if it was a remix or DJ mixing up for fun, but in my head it is combined with the lyrics 'wanna drop a house on that bitch' and somehow linked to the Wizard of Oz witch. (I think maybe I was drinking too much!)"

@Thingsthatgo there's a definite wizard of oz connection. Maya came out on top of the pops dressed as Dorothy, complete with basket and Toto and then around the time of her sexy quick change she unceremoniously lobs Toto away.

Huh - I alwasy thought the Barry White version was the origional! Every day's a school day!

Oh no. Poor old Ed. I have another one (don't know the song)

'And we sipped champagne out of cider cans'

Nothing inherently illogical but every time I hear it I go off to another place in my head wondering about how that scenario unfolded. Did they decant champagne into empty cider cans because of hygiene reasons and they didn't want to pass around the bottle? Or was it too fizzy to neck from the bottle? And how many people drinking champagne happen to have empty cider cans to hand? Does it have a hidden meaning?

I don’t want to upset anyone, but it’s actually 40 years since Band Aid.

My contribution is from Kate Bush, much as it pains me. In Babooshka, she says, “She could not have made a worst move.”

Drives me crackers.

Also,
“Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?”

Pardon, Ed?

I always thought that song was mistakenly released before they finished it. It was supposed to go to a lyricist as the melody was finished but accidentally was recorded instead.

I don't want to see a ghost
It's a sight that I fear most
I'd rather have a piece of toast
And watch the evening news

God yes, terrible terrible lyrics.

The one that springs to mind for me is “Cheerleader” as well as being extremely annoying it features the lyrics:
”Do I make you feel like cheating”? (said as though his gf is asking him)
He replies: ”Im like ‘no, not really’”

So not only is his girlfriend pathetically asking him if “SHE makes him feel like cheating” as she’s obviously very needy and lacking in any self esteem whatsoever - he’s responding in a kind of blasé way “nah, not REALLY”! Not really? Not much of an assurance to his clearly insecure partner is it? And this horridly misogynistic song was No1 for weeks! 😡🤬

“Do you ever feel, like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?”

No can’t say I’ve ever felt like a plastic bag

I always thought that line was a reference to the opening scenes of American Beauty.

You’ve completely misunderstood the lyrics of Cheerleader there.

it’s not his gf who is asking “Do I make you feel like cheating?” It is the other women who he is turning down because he has a girlfriend. The point is that gf is so wonderful that he wouldn’t even contemplate cheating despite the other women being all over him.

All these other girls are tempting
But I'm empty when you're gone
And they say
"Do you need me?"
"Do you think I'm pretty?"
"Do I make you feel like cheating?"
And I'm like, "No, not really" 'cause

All the lyrics to Shaggy - It wasn't me. It's not funny.

Alanis Morrissette - Ironic for reasons stated many, many times before. She isn't talking about irony just bad luck.

Regardless the whole song makes me angry everytime:

One friend left to sell clothes, one works down by the coast
One had two kids but lives alone, one's brother overdosed
One's already on his second wife, one's just barely getting by
But these people raised me and I can't wait to go home

Basically saying his friends are total deadbeats for the above reasons, even though none of the reasons given make them bad people in the slightest......
But don't worry good old Ed is sooo gracious and not judgemental (??!) that he'll lower himself to spend time with them regardless.

I actually don't mind some of Ed's other songs but every time I hear this I think "oh fuck off, who do you think you are?"

I haven't read the whole thread so not sure if someone has mentioned Eleanor Rigby's face that she keeps in a jar by the door.
I remember doing a school "60's concert" when at primary school in 1986 (how weird does that sound!) and as 10 year olds we were all so confused by that line.

Isn't it that she puts on a brave/happy face to the world as she leaves the house despite her loneliness?

It's a beautiful lyric

And/or it’s literal makeup- “I need to put my face on” is a common way that older ladies describe putting on makeup.

I get that. Still doesn’t work for me - something very unlikely but not impossible would be better. I may be being unreasonably literal… 🤣

That seems ok to me. It’s from a time when many people still only bathed once a week, plus they are struggling for money so heating water would be avoided. He’s trying to make a good impression at work.

Walking In The Rain by the Ronettes :
"(Johnny) No, he'll never do,
(Bobby) No, it isn't him, too."

That "too" is so wrong!

Yes, I can see that now as an agoraphobic adult, but when I was ten I didn't think that deeply.

@WhatapityWapiti Re the You and I/You and Me thing. I came on here to see if anyone had mentioned Bryan Adams Run To You. It's one of my all time favourites but...

She says her love for me will neve rdie
but that'd change if she ever found out about you and I.

I know he does it for the rhyme but it still makes me want to shout at the radio.

Yes! Yes! That is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind and that song is indeed a prime offender!

"Concrete jungle were dreams are made of...."