[Closed] Song lyrics that confuse......

Any more ?

Pretty much the entire output of the Manic Street preachers

Culture sucks down words
Itemize loathing and feed yourself smiles
Organize your safe tribal war
Hurt, maim, kill and enslave the ghetto

Each day living out a lie
Life sold cheaply forever, ever, ever

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness

Life lies a slow suicide
Orthodox dreams and symbolic myths
From feudal serf to spender
This wonderful world of purchase power

Just like lungs sucking on air
Survivals natural as sorrow, sorrow, sorrow

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness

All we want from you are the kicks you've given us
All we want from you are the kicks you've given us

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness

Drive away and it's the same
Everywhere death row, everyone's a victim
Your joys are counterfeit
This happiness corrupt political shit

Living life like a comatose
Ego loaded and swallow, swallow, swallow

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness everlasting nothingness

Pretty sure some chilli peppers lyrics would melt your brain if you paid enough attention!

I sort of get that bar the "motorcycle emptiness!

Can someone explain she's a star by James?

Oh no, she knows where to hide in the dark
Oh no, she's nowhere to hide in the dark
She's a star
She's a star

Edit: Obviously "she's nowhere to hide in the dark, she's a star" makes sense (and is quite witty), but what is the "she knows where to hide in the dark" all about?

"Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball".

Lay off the drugs for a bit, eh Noel?

"I am the Walrus, you are the Eggman, coo coo cha-choo" 

OK, John, thanks for your valuable contribution

Oh, Human by the killers

Are we Human or are we Dancer?

What, like the reindeer?

Isn't it dance like hypnotised chickens in Lust for Life?

I think motorcycle emptiness refers to the unfulfillable promise of expensive consumer products, in this case motorbikes.

Ag-a-doo-doo-doo

"Scuse me while I kiss the sky" apparently misheard by millions for many years

Bush - Everything Zen

There must be something we can eat
Maybe find another lover
Should I fly to Los Angeles
Find my asshole brother

Mickey mouse has grown up a cow
Dave's on sale again
We kissy kiss in the rear view
We're so bored, you're to blame

Try to see it once my way
Everything zen, everything zen
I don't think so
Everything zen, everything zen
I don't think so
etc.
etc.

Say what!?

Obviously “she’s nowhere to hide in the dark, she’s a star” makes sense (and is quite witty), but what is the “she knows where to hide in the dark” all about?

I reckon it's just a play on words to avoid singing the same line twice when you can't think of something else. I've done it myself a couple of times in my limited song writing career.

“Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball”.

Lay off the drugs for a bit, eh Noel?

“I am the Walrus, you are the Eggman, coo coo cha-choo” 

OK, John, thanks for your valuable contribution

Lolz!

I was confused for many years by:
Marilyn Marilyn Marilyn Marilyn
Life's a butter dream

As a grown up, most of what Bob Dylan wrote.

Lennon was wilfully obfuscating with the Walrus lyrics after they got sick of people trying to read too much into them. Dylan was the master of trying to appear 'deep' without offending any branch of his purchasing public.

Oh, Human by the killers

Are we Human or are we Dancer?

What, like the reindeer?

OOooh, I can answer that. I once read an interview with Brandon Flowers about this exact line. He's trying to suggest that 'dancer' is a new species - related but separate from human. Apparently inspired by a Hunter S Thompson quote "we are raising a generation of dancers". As in, we people are no longer human, but dancer.

I originally thought it was a nod to the MTV generation / 'video killed the radio star' etc. But it seems it's more like an anti-capitalist mantra - everyone's marching (dancing) in step with the beat. Or it's just a catchy line?

There's a line in a Half Man Half Biscuit song that seems meaningless but I kind of somehow totally "get".

While you're capturing the zeitgeist,
They're widening the motorway.

That's actually quite smart, a bit like the right provoking culture wars and attacking 'wokeism' whilst privatising, porking and sleazing.

Most of them don't make sense, they're just sounds like the strumming of a guitar or the hit of a drum. There was a thread on here ages ago about favourite poetry and someone offered song lyrics and I realised that song lyrics are rarely poetry, they are a bit rubbish without the music.

The Fountains of Wayne song 'Mexican Wine' is a good example. It is syntactically fine, it sounds like someone telling a story but it's complete nonsense, on purpose. The words are chosen because the rhythm, the rhyme and the appearance of sense to prevent jarring flow together with the music and create some sort of musical effect with only the most superficial content. Which I think is rather clever.

Yes - Your's is no Disgrace.

Battleships confide in me and tell me where you are,
Shining, flying, purple wolfhound, show me where you are.

Isn’t it dance like hypnotised chickens in Lust for Life?

Easy to mishear. Reminds me of this...

There’s a line in a Half Man Half Biscuit song that seems meaningless but I kind of somehow totally “get”.

While you’re capturing the zeitgeist,
They’re widening the motorway.

I don't think that's meaningless at all. In fact, if there's any band who aren't guilty of meaningless lyrics it's HMHB, virtually every song is a coherent story of some sort.

it’s HMHB, virtually every song is a coherent story of some sort.

Errr......Joy Division Oven Gloves, Petty Sessions, Vatican Broadside, On Reaching the Wensum etc. Don't get me wrong, I agree most of their songs do have a story of sorts to tell, but some are just streams of lyrical silliness from Nigel. Not that that's a complaint, three of the songs I listed above are amongst the favourites every time they play live.

Let's go eskimo.

Bizarre choice of lyrics from Girls Aloud who are, in all other respects, renowned wordsmiths.

I'm a big Sparklehorse fan, I just assume they lyrics are not supposed to make sense.

Yes – Your’s is no Disgrace.

Battleships confide in me and tell me where you are,
Shining, flying, purple wolfhound, show me where you are.

I believe Jon Anderson was once quoted as saying his lyrics had about as much meaning as the bullsh*t on the back of a cornflakes packet.

I was going to post the lyrics to Sleep's Dopesmoker but on review I realise that if you pay close attention to the opening lines ("DRRRROP....OUT....OF....LIFFFFFEEEEEE! WITH BONG.....INNNN.....HAAAAAND!!!!") everything else makes perfect logical sense.

Comeback Kid by Kasabian. Utter nonsense:

King Pin on a cutback
King Pin on a cutback
With sunken eyes

Big cheese in a bedsit
Big cheese in a bedsit
And shit the sky

Slick move you said you wanna try me
You should've left it just where you found it
I see you creeping, thinking what it could be
You'll have to trust me, just don't believe me
Reap what you sow

Comeback Kid
Says hello
Here, here we stand
Side by side
Don't let go (of my hand)

Sasquatch in a bin bag
Sasquatch in a bin bag
It's no suprise

Nosebleed in a pound shop
Nosebleed in a pound shop
Spitting flies

I think a lot of lyrics are like dancing with words.

But re the OP, what has he had in his ear before?

It seems to be a thing after the late 60s. Most songs, Ying Tong Song excepted, had a theme or message before then. Musical Dadaism like Bowie taking up Burroughs' cutting up text methods, LSD, Bay City Rollers, any other thoughts?

Happy Christmas (War is Over)

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

Err, Christmas is in December John. The new year hasn't started yet.

Most things by Rush... just absolute tosh
Most Yes stuff is nonsense poetry
And David Bowie lyrics post Young Americans seem completely random...
And there is the Cocteau Twins ...

What you need is....

Kissthisguy

Full of miss heard lyrics and corrections....

Mickey mouse has grown up a cow
Dave’s on sale again

This (and I think other lines as well) as just riffing off artists and songs that they like. The above line is adapted from Bowie's Life on Mars:

It's on America's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more

Also totally bonkers lyrics, but one of my favourite songs.

[i]“Scuse me while I kiss the sky” apparently misheard by millions for many years[/i]

This came out while he was trying to avoid draft by claiming to be homosexual so lots of people decided it was something to do with that - 'scuse me while I kiss this guy (and therefor cannot join the US army)

I think he droped the bit in brackets to make it scan better

I only realised the lyris to this the other day, it was going ok until the 5th line then wtf....

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido
Yeah, hey

I believe Jon Anderson was once quoted as saying his lyrics had about as much meaning as the bullsh*t on the back of a cornflakes packet.

Apparently he would use words and phrases because he likes the sound they made, not because they made sense.

There are some Yes songs that make a bit of sense.

sleep jerusalem aka the dopesmoker album/song lyrics make perfect sense, when the whole thing is about a caravan of mechants carrying hash across the deserts smoking as they go and the visons and trance like states they experience.

I always thought that Band Aid's "well tonight thank god it's them instead of you" was a bit of an odd choice of line for a charity record.

Any fellow Incredible String Band fans on here? Or indeed, fans of Jack Bruce songs with the lyrics written by Pete Brown?
I love them both, but 'far out' doesn't come close.

One String band song which springs to mind:
"Ask anyone", he muttered, as he gazed amazed at four lost eyebrows lisping into the unexpected, "I would advise stilts for the quagmires and camels for the snowy hills. Any survivors, their debts I will certainly pay" Beat that!

sleep jerusalem aka the dopesmoker album/song lyrics make perfect sense, when the whole thing is about a caravan of mechants carrying hash across the deserts smoking as they go and the visons and trance like states they experience.

Exactly, right?

Or as Sleep would have it: proceeds the weedian Nazareth.

.I always thought that Band Aid’s “well tonight thank god it’s them instead of you” was a bit of an odd choice of line for a charity record.

I think the lyrics of "Do they know it's Christmas?" are some of the most bizarre , patronising and ignorant European looking down on the Africans lyrics I have heard. Bob should be ashamed - talk about the colonial vision of the black man.

"There won't be snow in Africa this Christmas" - well, other than the Atlas Mountains and Kilimanjaro
"Nothing ever grows" - other than the vineyards of South Africa, the fertile plains in Kenya, the mountains where they farm tea and coffee, the hashish fields of Morocco - and the rain forests.
etc etc

A girl with kaleidoscope eyes doesn't exactly make perfect sense....but my girlfriend thought they were singing 'a girl with colitis goes by', which makes even less...

I always thought that Band Aid’s “well tonight thank god it’s them instead of you” was a bit of an odd choice of line for a charity record.

Pretty straightforward. It's about appreciating how lucky you (the listener) is to live in a nice home with plenty food, rather than being unlucky enough to be a country stricken by war, famine, drought etc.

“Scuse me while I kiss the sky” apparently misheard by millions for many years

This came out while he was trying to avoid draft by claiming to be homosexual so lots of people decided it was something to do with that – ‘scuse me while I kiss this guy (and therefor cannot join the US army)

I think he droped the bit in brackets to make it scan better

Jimi was in the army and invalided out.

The James one is "She knows there's nowhere to hide in the dark - she's a star" so fairly obvious really.

Not a confusing lyric, more than it's utterly terrible banality, but the Razorlight one

"I met a girl,
she asked me my name,
I told her what it was"

as deep as a puddle eh

Bill Bailey taking apart The Killers -All These Things That I've Done

I always think of his version when I hear it being played now.

The opening 3 verses to 'Where's Me Jumper?' by Sultan's of Ping FC, before the song gets into the less confusing subject of a misplacing an item of clothing at a disco.

My, brother, knows, Karl Marx,
He met him eating mushrooms in the peoples park,
He said 'What do you think about my manifesto?'
'I like a manifesto, put it to the test-o.

Took it straight down to meet the anarchist's party.
I met a groovy guy, he was arty farty,
He said 'I know a little latin man a cus man a kai'
I said 'I don't know what it means' he said 'neither do I

Eat natural foods, bathe twice daily,
Fill your nostrils up with gravy.
Don't drink tea and don't drink coffee.
Cover your chin in yorkshire toffee.

Well thanks chaps - I am now both amused and confused

Never got my head around the line in the Feeder song, Buck Rogers

“Drinking cider from a lemon”

Some weird West Country game?

Erm ... any Cocteau Twins song. Do I win?

Never got my head around the line in the Feeder song, Buck Rogers

“Drinking cider from a lemon”

Some weird West Country game?

I see your "cider from a lemon" and raise you a "cider from eleven".

And yes, probably.

Errr……Joy Division Oven Gloves

Nothing odd about that, I’ve got a pair of Joy Division oven gloves!

Nigel is often just playing with words, and there are so many pop-culture references as well; it’s been said that there’s a song title or lyric in HMHB songs for pretty much any subject you care to name.

Erm … any Cocteau Twins song. Do I win

I hear your Cocteau Twins and raise you Sigur Rös and Magma. The link is their lyrics are all basically a made-up language, intended to sound good when sung but carrying no meaning. Jon Anderson’s lyrics are in much the same vein, as someone quoted him as saying; designed to sound good when sung, interpret them however you wish.

Actually, that rather includes R.E.M., circa ‘Murmur’, because the vocals are rather buried in the mix and Stipe does mumble them, and are very open to various interpretations, which Michael Stipe was perfectly happy to go along with and encourage.

Honestly though, does it matter? I’ve got albums sung in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Breton and a number of other languages, and I’m just as happy listening to them not making a bit of sense as I am with Yes, R.E.M. or Cocteau Twins.

They’re just painting pictures with words - pretty abstract pictures, and some you might say are just Pollocks, but enjoyable none the less. 😎

I was just amused adn bemused by "Love is like hypnotising chickens" and trying to work out what if anything it meant.  Just a bit of idle fun

Cum on Eileen!?!

WTF!? Popular song though!

Re Bowie- he used cut up technique for a lot of his songs, where he'd write a stream of prose and then he'd cut it all up & re-arrange it into what sounded good.

I was just amused adn bemused by “Love is like hypnotising chickens” and trying to work out what if anything it meant. Just a bit of idle fun

"The song's lyrics contain a number of references to William S. Burroughs' experimental novel The Ticket That Exploded, most notably mentions of "Johnny Yen" (described by Burroughs as "The Boy-Girl Other Half strip tease God of sexual frustration") and "hypnotizing chickens". " Source - Wikipedia. Still no idea what it means though.

You can hypnotise chickens:

It's apparently pretty easy, so I'm guessing the lyric refers to that? Sort of the opposite of herding cats on a difficulty scale.

"Don't go chasing waterfalls"

I always heard "Go Go Jason Waterfalls" when I was younger and was very confused.

Nothing odd about that, I’ve got a pair of Joy Division oven gloves!

Nigel is often just playing with words, and there are so many pop-culture references as well; it’s been said that there’s a song title or lyric in HMHB songs for pretty much any subject you care to name.

I own a pair too. Wasn't saying the song was odd, more that not all their lyrics make, or need to make, literal sense. And yes often it's just Nigel enjoying some fun wordplay.

On car journeys heading down south I play Life's a PBR (perpetual Biscuits reference). So many things to spot including people not keeping two chevrons apart, taking junction 16 for Crewe, Nantwich, Hoylake, signs for tractors turning, Knutsford city limits, stopping at Tebay with a girl called Joyce and so many more. My one big disappointment is having never been caught in a bottleneck at Capel Curig.