[Music] Best Tunes With Worst Lyrics

[Uh_huh_him]

Mmmmm......lovely song and lyrics in my sad old book

Wow!

I like the song, just find the rhyming cringeworthy.

No more nights by the telly
No more nights nappies smelly

Maybe it's just me.

 

[ozzygull]

Don't be afraid to catch fish (WTF)

https://youtu.be/ozv4q2ov3Mk

 

[Is it PotG?]

From one of the finest and underestimated pop records ever written........

"There's not, I think, a single episode of Dallas that I didn't see "

 

[maltaseagull]

https://youtu.be/FDyL3CoynfQ

At the Turin Motor Show
I was dreaming of a mobile that couldn't be mine
Not without lyin'
Was I feeling kind a silly
When I stepped in soakin' beer down the cola machine
Oh, stayin' seventeen
Well she claimed she was a killer
And she owned a floodlit villa
A little aways from the main highway
Oh, take me way down yonder, woo
She was tall, thin and tarty
And she drove a Maserati
Faster than sound
I was heaven bound
Although I must have looked a creep
In my army surplus Jeep
Was I being too bold
Before the night could get old

 

[Tom Bombadil]

From one of the finest and underestimated pop records ever written........

"There's not, I think, a single episode of Dallas that I didn't see "

I thought the whole point of that song was how mundane her life was before she met the man. It fits in perfectly, every day was grey and monotonous.

 

[Is it PotG?]

I thought the whole point of that song was how mundane her life was before she met the man. It fits in perfectly, every day was grey and monotonous.

Whilst I fully accept that the writer was of Swedish, I was referring to the construction of the sentence.

Their songs tended to be lyrically sound, and I felt that the line was clumsy in context.

 

[hart's shirt]

As much as I adore The Smiths...



"Some girls are bigger than others
Some girls are bigger than others
Some girls mothers are bigger than other girls mothers"

 

[Arthritic Toe]

This song has had me wincing at the lyrics for decades.
Not exactly the lyrics themselves, just the continual cheesiness of the rhymes.
Brilliant songwriters, but this is just line after line of cheese.

I saw a documentary once where Difford and Tillbrook claimed it was one of their lyrical triumphs!!
I assume their tongues were very firmly in their cheeks.



I got a job with Stanley
He said I'd come in handy.

This morning at 4:50
I took her rather nifty

FFS!

And don't stop there - it goes further downhill..

- down to an incubator [why would you take someone to an incubator to give birth?]
where 30 minutes later
she gave birth to a daughter
within a year a walker

Most squeeze lyrics are great - no idea what happened with this one.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Even the best of the best........

"Was "Jesus saves" painted by an atheist nutter"

 

[Razzoo]

I love Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy
Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak
Somewhere in this town

 

[Uh_huh_him]

And don't stop there - it goes further downhill..

- down to an incubator [why would you take someone to an incubator to give birth?]
where 30 minutes later
she gave birth to a daughter
within a year a walker

Most squeeze lyrics are great - no idea what happened with this one.

Absolutely!

Don't get me wrong I do love the song. Just lyrically......

Incidentally in the same interview, where they claimed this as one of their best, they claimed that Cool for Cats was the worst!
Cool for Cats!

Shape up at the disco and I think I've got a pull
I ask her lots of questions and she hangs on to the wall
I kiss her for the first time and then I take her home
I'm invited in for coffee and I give the dog a bone
She likes to go to discos but she's never on her own
I said I'll see you later and give her some old chat
But it's not like that on the TV when it's cool for cats


Not dissimilar in terms of rhyming, but so much better in every, single way!

 

[Arthritic Toe]

Absolutely!

Don't get me wrong I do love the song. Just lyrically......

Incidentally in the same interview, where they claimed this as one of their best, they claimed that Cool for Cats was the worst!
Cool for Cats!

Shape up at the disco and I think I've got a pull
I ask her lots of questions and she hangs on to the wall
I kiss her for the first time and then I take her home
I'm invited in for coffee and I give the dog a bone
She likes to go to discos but she's never on her own
I said I'll see you later and give her some old chat
But it's not like that on the TV when it's cool for cats


Not dissimilar in terms of rhyming, but so much better in every, single way!

I agree - love Squeeze. I always thought the 'give the dog a bone' line was metaphorical, but not so sure now.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Absolutely!

Don't get me wrong I do love the song. Just lyrically......

Incidentally in the same interview, where they claimed this as one of their best, they claimed that Cool for Cats was the worst!
Cool for Cats!

Shape up at the disco and I think I've got a pull
I ask her lots of questions and she hangs on to the wall
I kiss her for the first time and then I take her home
I'm invited in for coffee and I give the dog a bone
She likes to go to discos but she's never on her own
I said I'll see you later and give her some old chat
But it's not like that on the TV when it's cool for cats


Not dissimilar in terms of rhyming, but so much better in every, single way!

This. It's like if Chas n Dave had chipped in and bought an O Level in Eng Lit

 

[Eeyore]

This song has had me wincing at the lyrics for decades.
Not exactly the lyrics themselves, just the continual cheesiness of the rhymes.
Brilliant songwriters, but this is just line after line of cheese.

I saw a documentary once where Difford and Tillbrook claimed it was one of their lyrical triumphs!!
I assume their tongues were very firmly in their cheeks.





I got a job with Stanley
He said I'd come in handy.

This morning at 4:50
I took her rather nifty

FFS!

I have to strongly disagree with the Rt.Hon NSCer.

However, I'm sure 'Labelled With Love' made up for it.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I agree - love Squeeze. I always thought the 'give the dog a bone' line was metaphorical, but not so sure now.

First single I bought.

Opposite for me.
I took it as literal for a number of years and thought it was a pretty shit lyric.
Then it dawned on me and I thought it was genius.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I have to strongly disagree with the Rt.Hon NSCer.

However, I'm sure 'Labelled With Love' made up for it.

Clearly Marmite lyrics..

To clarify , I really, really like the song and love Squeeze.

And for me this wins the Best Tune, worst lyrics contest by a country mile.

Line after line of awkward non-sensical rhymes

I put away a tenner
Each week to make her better.

Still a great song despite (and possibly because of) it.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

This. It's like if Chas n Dave had chipped in and bought an O Level in Eng Lit

 

[Stato]

I saw a documentary once where Difford and Tillbrook claimed it was one of their lyrical triumphs!!
I assume their tongues were very firmly in their cheeks.

Nope, It is one of the finest songs ever written. The lyrics are rhyming couplets in simple language using the vernacular of Chris Difford's place of origin, because the song's narrator is a working class bloke from London who grew up in that environment. There's no cliche in the lyrics and few songwriters have proven themselves capable of the brevity and pathos the song creates: Ray Davies, Jonathan Richmond, Ian Dury, not a lot of others. You may as well call William Blake or LS Lowry cheesy.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Nope, It is one of the finest songs ever written. The lyrics are rhyming couplets in simple language using the vernacular of Chris Difford's place of origin, because the song's narrator is a working class bloke from London who grew up in that environment. There's no cliche in the lyrics and few songwriters have proven themselves capable of the brevity and pathos the song creates: Ray Davies, Jonathan Richmond, Ian Dury, not a lot of others. You may as well call William Blake or LS Lowry cheesy.

I agree with most of what you say.
It isn't the lyrics that are cheesy.
The song is beautiful and touching and a truly great working class love song.

However....
The forced nature of each rhyming couplet is cheesy
No working class man has ever said: "No more nights nappies smelly."
Not even in Deptford.
Ever.

 

[Eeyore]

Wow!

I like the song, just find the rhyming cringeworthy.

No more nights by the telly
No more nights nappies smelly

Maybe it's just me.

I love the bitter ode..

'She looked just like her mother- if there could be another....'