Let's Get Pedantic... non-sensical and/or incorrect lyrics that bug you
Was chatting with someone last night who bought up the fact that despite Alt-J's name literally being in a triangle (it's how you get it on a keyboard etc..) that in the song 'Tesselate' they sing 'Triangles are my favourite shape, three points where two lines meet' but surely a triangle is three lines?
And Olly Murs, when you sing 'My heart skips skips skips, skips skips skips a beat' you should really get that seen to, it isn't really a good thing for your heart to be doing that.
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NEW YORK... CONCRETE JUNGLE WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE OF
it's "where dreams are made", silly.
I really, really, really hate this one
*
Concrete jungle that dreams are made of
Concrete jungle where dreams are assembled
Concrete jungle of which dreams are constituted
Internet says 'Where dreams are made, oh'.
Libertines, Time for Action
"There are fewer more distressing sights than that of an English man in a baseball cap"
I agree with the sentiment, but it should be "few" not "fewer". Mind you I guess when you've taken that much skag grammar goes out of the window.
If we're on a pedantry trip, the song is called Time for Heroes.
Bollocks! Of course it is.
I think that's just terrible diction
wasn't this done about a month ago!
the best one was someone mentioning Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
If I stay there will be trouble
But if I go there will be double.
Stay then, why would you want double
was it?
not that I notice or remember...
There is absolutely nothing nonsensical about that
It's a rhyming poetic way of saying he's screwed either way, surely. And possibly that despite it being worse if he does go, nevertheless it's his preferred option. Jeez.
Still a crap lyric, though
Really dislike that song.
'Why you bein' a dickhead for? You're just fuckin' up situations'
Eurgh.
Great line
on a triangle
there are three points where two lines meet, they are the corners.
*shrug*
one that annoys me was "i'm in love for the first time, & this time i know its for real"
as compared to what?
also the whole thing of hey there delilah, all those lyris about how deeply thery are in love & nobody else could feel like that & he's away playing his guitar etc & then you find out the titular delilah is in school with 2 years left to go. pfft.
I agree
On a triangle, there are three places where two of the lines which make up the triangle happen to meet.
Yeah that Queen one always gets me too
as compares to the previous times when I thought I was in love but now realise that it was not for real
perfectly clear.
I just died in your arms tonight, must have been something you said
Impossible.
I GOT A FEELING
THAT TONIGHT'S GONNA BE A GOOD GOOD NIGHT
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
"Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak, somewhere in this town"
Hmmm, now I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but my money's on the jail.
But how many jails are there?
It's a town rather than a city
so from that I would infer a comparatively small criminal population, and thus most likely only the once jail.
Perhaps he is referring to 'London town', which has a significant number of penal facilities,
as well as dozens of police stations with holding cells.
Possibly
but as an Ireland-based band I find it unlikely.
We've done this
If you were tunnelling out of a jail you could, quite literally, break out ANYWHERE in the town.
A jailbreak isn't someone escaping from prison though,
it's a riot during which a bunch of prisoners escape, e.g. the bit in Batman Begins when Crane busts out all the mentals. So it would have to be at the/a jail.
?
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/jailbreak?q=jailbreak
Yeah but what you're not factoring in here
is that the singer - i.e. the jailbreak organiser - is IN jail himself, talking to his fellow aspiring escapees. "We're busting out, dead or alive".
Jail being what it is, it's quite likely that he's in danger of being overheard, either by prison staff or paid informers. Therefore, he's saying "Tonight there's going to be a jailbreak... SOMEWHERE IN THIS TOWN" as a means of throwing any eavesdroppers off the scent. His co-conspirators all know exactly what he means. But if collared, he can always maintain that he's talking about a breakout plot at another jail. In fact, he's probably hoping that he WILL be collared, in which event he can pretend to crack under interrogation and give the screws the name of a different jail, thus focusing their attention elsewhere, right at the time that the breakout is happening at the Thin Lizzy jail.
It's fucking genius, really.
Shut up, Roddy...
"Ro-o-ose abil-ity, there is no roseability."
That's right, Roddy, there's no roseability, because you just f*cking made it up...
Not as a concept, no.
GERTRUDE STEIN SAID THAT'S ENOUGH
I KNOW THAT THAT'S NOT ENOUGH NOW
I would do anything for love, but I won't do that
Then you wouldn't do ANYTHING, would you Meat Loaf?
Hmm, to play devil's advocate
Could he not be saying that the reason he won't do 'that' be that it's NOT for love? He never actually explicitly says that the thing he's refusing to do IS for love, though I agree the phrasing is clumsy at best...
Possibly. He should be clearer in his reasoning though. Young ladies are frequently confused by such things.
Note to Meat Loaf - More clarification needed on these things. And bring back Todd Rundgren!
Intercourse
The That to which he refers is Gary Barlow, Mark Owen et al
The Smiths - What She Said
"What she read, on heavy books she'd sit & prophecise"
Er, that's PROPHECY Mozza.
no it's not.
Well well
For over 25 years that lyric has been annoying me, and now I Google it, I find that it's right & I'm wrong. Wrists duly self-slapped.
Charlatans - Then
"You, you're nothing next to me/I'm a phenomena, you see"
Er, that's PHENOMENON Tim.
Didn't realise those were the lyrics
learn something new everyday
We're this far in...
...and NOBODY has mentioned the whole of 'Ironic' by Alanis Morrisette?
Isn't it ironic? NO!!!!!!! IT'S A SERIES OF FUCKING COINCIDENCES, BAD DECISIONS AND EXTREMELY POOR ORGANISATION OF YOUR CUTLERY DRAWER!!!
thus making the song ironic
It was explained to me once how the bit about the plane crashing was dramatic irony...or something like that.
But ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife is never anything more than appalling kitchen planning. Which fucker owns ten thousand spoons? Sort it out. Seriously...
...she's obviously a massive junkie.
Alright Ed Byrne
Huh?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1TVSTkAXg
Actually quite freaked by that...
Genuinely have never seen that! My irie comes from having to play the f**king thing in my GCSE school band and having an ex-girlfriend who loved that song. I remember her saying "Aren't the lyrics amazing?". And me thinking "Erm, no!"
Good man. I agree with him :-)
groooaaaannnn
Thin Lizzy again - Boys are Back in Town
"It won't be long 'til summer comes, now that the boys are here again"
So Phil, you're implying that, had these boys not returned, the climate, nay, the very seasons themselves would have been affected, and the town plunged into a permanent winter?
I don't think that's what the lyric implies.
It's like saying, the birds are flying south, winter will be here soon. It doesn't imply that their migration causes the change in weather, just a regular correlation between the two events.
Ah you're inferring that the return of the boys
from wherever they've been is an annual occurrence, and that they usually return around the start of summer? This could possibly imply that they are coming home from university, which makes them somewhat less threatening than Phil would have us believe.
I've always interpreted it as being a song about them coming home from military service or jail, which would be more of a one-off event and thus unconnected to the changing of the seasons.
summer could be a metaphor
for, y'know, the good times. everyone knows it's rubbish when there are no boys in town. now the boys are back! we can go dancing and... stuff. it's the summertime of our lives. (?)
"Winter Is Coming" - House Stark of Winterfell
But surely Phil, lothario that he was
would be happy about the lack of boys in town, as he would have the pick of the ladies? Unless...nah, not Phil Lynott, surely.
isn't he one of the boys who are back in town?
maybe even the leader of the boys.
Phil would ALWAYS have the pick of the ladies
He's just glad that the boys are back so he has some more company for beer drinking and shennanigans.
there's a lot more to Alt-J that is insufferable
have you seen their Soundcloud? they add comments at the start of the tracks to explain what they are about. Bless. Sometimes it's better not to know.
This is an awful thread for awful people
and you should all feel awful.
What's that from?
Your mum's box
:D
All Saints
A few questions that I need to know
SURELY
A few questions that I need to know the answer to
or
A few answers that I need to know
Like how the fuck that song won an Ivor Novello
that all saints one does my fucking head in
also can't stand how they sing "a to zee" and then "a to zed" just so it fucking rhymes with the next retarded fucking line. have some sodding imagination, you dumb bints. (sorry. i hate the word bints. but i think it's appropriate for those empty fucking vessels in all saints.)
Aren't two of them Canadian and two British?
Though it is a piss-weak excuse to rhyme some bad lyrics.
Scary Spice doesn't have the same excuse
when she does the same thing in the rappy bit in Wannabe.
A further 'mistake' in the same song, which is more amusing than frustrating, is that - when Scary is running through all the members of the band in her rap bit - she totally leaves out Sporty!
(We got Em in the place who likes it in your face
You got G like MC who likes it on a...
Easy V doesn't come for free, she's a real lady
And as for me, ha you'll see)
MC
refers to Melanie Chisolm (aka Sporty). So, like........
Probably spelt her name wrong, mind.
AHHHHHH
Genuinely pleased to have that cleared up.
A few questions to which I need to know the answer
Is Turbo B really as serious as cancer?
That would've been a much better opening line.
Adele - Set Fire to the Rain
And why/how would you want to do that Adele? Did you mistake the rain for a pie & try to cook it or something?
Doesn't she say like
watched it burn as it touched your face.
Well done Adele. I understand he broke your heart but you wouldn't just sit back and watch his face melt cause of burning rain.
also "chasing pavements"
WHAT. yes i know it's about walking home, on the pavements, or something. you're not chasing the fucking pavements are you? they're staying where they are.
unless i've got it all wrong and she's stalking steve malkmus?
...
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/set-fire-to-the-rain-visualized.jpg
Was the rain actually chip-pan oil?
It would make sense on many levels...
"But I wish I had a chance to sing these three words...
...after laughter comes tears"
Wu-tang clan: great rap innovators, not so hot on counting.
Those aren't the 'three words' he's talking about
What are the three words he is talking about?
?
HOW is it like Murder She Wrote?
HOW?!!
YES! THIS ONE!
Yes, totally
I mean, I could understand if it was used to make a rhyme but it doesn't even do that.
I was twenty one years when I wrote this song
I'm twenty two now, but I won't be for long
if you're twenty two now, then you were twenty two when you wrote the song.... you're a LIAR!
In a similar vein
Something Changed by Pulp
"I wrote this song 2 hours before we met"
But hey, if Albert Camus can't get it right, we can't expect pop groups to get it right.
no! the pulp one works!
it's about romantic anticipation. like, he's sat at home writing a song, about to go out to the pub or the shops or to play a gig or whatever, and he starts daydreaming about what if he meets the love of his life that day. he's never been in love like that but he knows it would change everything, because since the dawn of time more than half of all art has been about love. so he's imagining what it would be like, and how he will feel in the future when he's all ensconced with his lady, and our takeaway from the song is meant to be that he *did* meet her that day when he went to the pub/shops/gig. no?
I know
but I am following the OP and examining the lyrics in an objective and pedantic way, and as such, they do not pass muster. But I agree, it is a lovely sentiment.
Yeah, he should have said
"I was twenty one years when I started writing this song". I suppose people don't sit and write a whole song in one sitting though so I forgive them for certain events occurring before they are actually possible in the lyrics.
21 when he wrote it
22 when he recorded it
easy.
Dire Straits - Romeo and Juliet
JULIET, THE DICE WAS LOADED FROM THE START
Either the die was loaded or the dice were. Dickhead.
Dear Vanessa Williams
The sun will never go round the moon!
In the context of the song
it actually works. She's singing about how, sometimes, even the unlikeliest things can happen - snow falling in June, the sun going round the moon, her boyfriend actually finishing her off when she thought he was already done & ready to roll over & sleep etc.
The sun going round the moon isn't "unlikely"
It's impossible and would probably destroy all live on Earth. Good move, Williams.
From which we can conclude
that her boyfriend finishing her off is impossible as well then. Poor old Vanessa.
:D
Shooting a shark in a lunchbox here...
But James Blunt:
"But I won't lose no sleep over that, because I've got a plan"
AND THEN
"And I don't know what to do"
Either you've got a plan or not James. Make a decision. Fucking hell, I'd hate to have been in his army regiment under heavy fire...
Also, he says that his life is brilliant and then proceeds to tell us why it blatantly isn't. Dude clearly needs to see a psychiatrist...
If his life is brilliant
why is he taking drugs and stalking women on the Underground?
BTW you've probably seen this already but if you haven't, enjoy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl7yDVy9swY
Yeah, that'd be me mate!
We're on a train. Stop perving!
...because I've got a plan
That plan better include pissing off
This has genuinely made my day
She has let herself go a bit!
HE'S ON DRUGS!!!
I don't really see how making love in an elevator is "living it up"
*Cue a DiS-inspired bout of lift-fucking this weekend*
Speak for yourself
Are we human or are we dancer?
Fuck off, Flowers.
Also to the OP, a triangle might have three lines but each of the three points is a meeting place for just two of them.
Ha ha, hadn't spotted is was Sean!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
you gon' get banned
don't worry
I made the exact same point to the person who pointed this out... it's like some sort of IQ test in lyrics...
i bloody loved it when that song came out over here and brandon flowers was in tears because loads of brits thought he was singing "are we human or are we denser" because of his accent.
hahahahaha. and i really like the killers, and i really like that song. but it was so adorable and funny how upset he got about it.
Mike Oldfield - Moonlight Shadow
"4am in the morning"
Thanks for clarifying that Mike, for a minute there I thought it might've been 4am in the fucking evening.
Agree here
I assumed it was a phrasing issue, but `4 o'clock in the morning' would have worked just as well AND been correct.
Steve Miller - The Joker
"Some people call me Maurice, 'cos I speak of the pompitous of love"
Note that "cos" in there. Is Miller implying that only people called Maurice are allowed to discuss the pompitous of love? If I decide to start talking about the pompitous of love (though this would require considerable initial research on my part, as I have no idea what a pompitous is) would people start calling me Maurice? Very odd.
Properties of love
No.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/972/in-steve-millers-the-joker-what-is-the-pompatus-of-love
REM - Leaving New York
"leaving was never my proud" You what?
that alt-j one is ok
because there are three points, and at each point two lines meet. i think you're just not parsing it right (and that's partly their fault)
oops
should have read thread before posting.
Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles
"Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you tonight"
Even assuming that she's singing this at 5am - fresh after waking - that means she has technically got 18 hours and 59 minutes to cover this distance, in order to justify it being "tonight". That's an average "walking" speed of 52.7 miles per hour to make it to see him on time.
Best get a move on Vanessa. Or better still, don't be so tight-fisted and get a plane...
she never says the 1000 miles and the visit are related
I mean, she could meet up with that chap, and then as part of the bargain commence a 1000-mile walk at her leisure afterwards
And in this ever changing world in which we live in
No.
If you're going to be pedantic, at least be right.
The lyric is 'and IF this ever changing world in which we live in', and makes perfect sense with the rest of the verse.
Oh hang on, in picking up your typo I missed the clanger.
Carry on.
This has come up before – according to this guy, it's not an error:
http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4192641#r4785325
I spent years fuming about this
and then one day I realised it's as likely to be "In this ever changing world in which we're living". I was going to google the lyrics, but then I remembered I couldn't be bothered.
A one way ticket to hell and back
Doesn't annoy me, let's be honest, but that is clearly a return ticket.
i think that's meant to be goofy... at least i hope it is.
I know
but that's not really what this is about
Yeah, clearly a corny joke
Yeah, obviously it's a joke, but they do the same thing with Love on the Rocks with no Ice.
in Wake Up by Arcade Fire
where he clearly means to say "I guess we just have to adjust!" but it goes "I guess we just have to adj-OOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAH!"
I don't see nothing wrong, with a little bump and grind
So he DOES see something wrong with a little bump and grind? Or maybe he means he wants more than a little bump and grind?
106 replies and no mention of the clanger in Let and Let Die??
"But if this ever changing world in which we live in..."
ARRRRGGGHHHH
Great reading
whoops
what a clanger
In which we're living, surely?
Right, what about in that New Order song, Blue Monday I think it's called
where, like, Barney sings "I see a ship the the harbour/I can and shallow bay". What the fuck is that about? Bring back Alan Curtis.
Trying to logically explain New Order lyrics is a bit like trying to trying to stop a tsunami with a single sandbag.
"The afternoon was very clear
The sun was beating down on me
I got thirsty for a beer
That I had to go to sea
The sea was very rough
It made me feel sick
But I like that kind of stuff
It beats arithmetic"
These aren't so much hard to explain
They're just crap.
I'm pretty sure it's 'I can and shall obey'
Absolutely no idea wtf the ship has to do with anything
Really??
So I've been getting the lyrics wrong for nearly thrity years? What must people have though when they heard me singing those words. How embarrassing.
my least favourite new order lyric is hands down
here comes love
it's like honey
you can't buy
it with money
I'm pretty sure you can buy honey with money
Alan Curtis.
They should never have got rid of him.
Always thought:
"I can and shall obey"
No?
Someone link to the Favourite Interpol Lyrics thread
End thread.
Fugazi - Shut the door
'I burned a fire to stay cool'
It must have been a really hot place if a fire is going to keep Ian MacKaye cool
Like a map with no ocean
At a conservative estimate I'd say that about 90% of the world's maps probably don't contain an ocean.
Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down
Right from the off: "I think I'm in love with the girl next door" - why you hittin' on this other girl two doors down then? You some sorta cul de sac fuck-bike Blaine? I even asked him about this once in an interview and his answer was unsatisfactory, just tried to laugh it off. It's not funny, man, it's incorrect.
Also Boyzone: "love me for a reason, let the reason be love" always pisses me off. Idiocy dressed up as profundity. It sounds patronising too. Either give an actual reason, or say something about love being unexplainable and unquantifiable.
Maybe he's telling his next door neighbour that he loves their next door neighbour?
There was an explanation for this in another thread.
Something about a weird construction of a block of flats meaning that one's next door neighbour is also 2 doors down.
http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/3414275#r1927085
Also, my previous answer is great so I shall repeat it:
There are 2 girls.
He only *thinks* he's in love with the girl next door.
He *knows* he's in love with a girl who lives two doors down.
If that's the case
Then why does the chorus go: "I THINK I'm in love with the girl who lives Two Doors Down."
oh balls
Ok, there's 3 girls.
He only *thinks* he's in love with the girl next door.
He *knows* he's in love with a girl who lives two doors down to the left.
He *thinks* he's in love with a girl who lives two doors down to the right.
what about the girl that lives next door to the other side?
poor girl, feeling pretty unloved I bet.
Simple. Two doors down is referring to the number on the door.
Odds on one side of the street, evens on the other. Road slopes downwards. Next door is also two doors down the road.
It ain't no use in turning on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
"Knowed"
Jesus, Bob, what are you doing to me?
my favourite
from i love you just the way you are.
I don't want clever conversation
I never want to work that hard
I just want someone that I can talk to
I want you just the way you are.
keep yer trap shut love, now turn over and show us yer cactus, ill do the talking
show us yer cactus
wut?
Let Forever Be - Chemical Brothers
"How does it feel like . . ."
That's bugged me for years!
I always think of it as "How does it feel, like?"
This should elicit some deja vu
http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4324778
Champagne Supernova
"Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball".
So, either the cannonball is rolling slowly along the hall floor, or the protagonist has exceptionally long legs.
"The world's still spinning around we don't know why"
Try Newton's First Law of Motion.
Soul Asylum
And the sac breaks and out come the
Siamese twins
Who grow up to become
The first president with two heads
are better than one.
- String of Pearls
Why don't you like sentences :'''(
Has to be Syd for me..
Stained, glaucous, glycerine, gold, goat, clover, Gold, local, stocks, type, food, wild, national, lake, flag, Valve, gyroscope, sect, Heat, helium, lead, bare, state, invention, medieval, Refraction, faction, ultra-action, Hunter, interest, bullet, market...
Ryan Adams 'When Will You Come Back Home?'
"If I could find my way back home, where would I go?"
I think I can hazard a guess.....
I Like Birds by Eels
Great song, but this line always bugs me for grammar/rhyming reasons:
"If you're small and on a search, I've got a feeder for you to perch on"
Surely it would be better as:
"If you're small and on a search, I've got a feeder on which you can perch".
JEEZ.
Thingy Bedingfield's hit used the word *hyperbole*
and she sings it as HI - PURR - BOWL. Because she's a twat.
I have no idea what Nas is talking about in Ether when he says
Rockefeller died of AIDS
Thought of another one
song released in the mid 90s, scottish band, forget what it was called, The Best Weekend of the Year or something. The chorus went:
Went out for the weekend
It lasted for ever
High with our friends
It's a fish early summer
I mean, come on, they're not even trying.
surely you jest
you trolling?
Not sure what you mean
should I know what a fish early summer is?
A fish early summer
is a scotish tradition where before a night out people go out early and get fish and chips.
The shorthand term for this became ''Fish early'' ie you going for fish (and chips) early (this evening).
It's a common phrase north of the border.
Makes sense I suppose
I've lived my whole life in a small village in north Essex so it's no surprise I've never heard that expression. I do wish these ruffians wouldn't include colloquialisms from their regional dialects so us proper people could understand them.
Hehe
from rapgenius.com
'None of the famous Rockefellers ever died of AIDS; rather, Jay-Z’s label is named after a Brooklyn hustler named Rocafella who died of AIDS when it was first becoming an epidemic in the black community
From the Jaz-O song “Love is gone”: “Rocafella had the crown on the block, him and Sync gettin' bent, I was 10 lookin' at them intrigued”'
ah
always wondered about that, but possibly less comfortable with it now
Tonight there's going to a jailbreak, Somewhere in this town.
That'll be in the jail then.
http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4356711#r6842886