Songs ruined by cornball lyrics/vocals at dramatic moments

Megadeth's "1000 Times Goodbye" features an intense guitar riff during the bridge, under which Dave Mustaine tells his ex-girlfriend "You know what? You really ...suck"

Stuff like that.

Collect .here

I was furious when I found out that the Titanic-themed dialogue insert in Oops... I Did It Again wasn’t just for the video

haha

The entirety of Metallica's "Of Wolf and Man" is deeply cornball but the climactic "SEEK THE WOLF IN THYSELF!!" never failed to make my college roommate and I suddenly stop headbanging and just stare off into the middle distance, consumed by shame.

"Did you ever waken to the sound
Of street cats makin' love
And guess from their cries
You were listenin' to a fight?"

Bob Weir: "Looks Like Rain"

The "this sick beat" bit in Shake It Off

I can't tell if it's the lyric or the performance, but "aaaaaaa wham bam thank you ma'am!" always grates on me extremely in "Suffragette City".

I don't like "are you gay? are you blue?" in "Hey Jupiter", otherwise it's a crushingly beautiful lyric

Not ruined but ABBA's "Move On" could sure do without the stupid spoken word sections - which are by Bjorn, so they only have themselves to blame!

half the Sugarcubes catalogue #challop

Spoken words sections are often dodgy.
Somehow, VW pull it off in « Ya Hey » (for those who don’t hate the song because of the processed chorus !).

Speaking of spoken words/lyrics in general : the whole Doors catalogue if you’re not a teenager !

Love them. Not the poems, obviously.

The Doors lyrics are fine. It's become some hipster received wisdom thing where people love to hate them, but at their worst they're not that much worse and in most cases quite a bit better than their contemporaries.

Ray Manzarek was if anything more of a cornball than Jim Morrison

Hum I dunno. I used to love them but I’m not sure I could enjoy « The End » spoken part anymore, for instance...

Doors were good though, I like to view them without their cultural baggage as a slightly embarrassing but still pretty decent American equivalent to The Soft Machine.

Actually « The End » is a perfect answer to this thread for me !

I never take too much notice of lyrics anyway, so Jimbo's more egregious clunkers don't tend to register but his good lines do.

I'm not immensely perturbed by it myself but that I understand quite a few find the "James Brown!" bit in "Genius of Love" close to unbearable.

I hated the Doors before it was cool

I loved the Doors when everyone hated them before it was cool.

I can't tell if it's the lyric or the performance, but "aaaaaaa wham bam thank you ma'am!" always grates on me extremely in "Suffragette City".

― flamboyant goon tie included

No way, that bit's great!

Anyway loads of decent techno bangers are spoiled by a robot german man popping up to say "Time on an infinite loop" or something like that in the breakdown.

Like Das Boot

I like the corniness and bombast of "Live and Let Die," but "this ever-changing world in which we live in" is insuperable

Well, perhaps he can clear up at least one tiny mystery of several decades standing: What exactly is McCartney's maddening lyric in "Live and Let Die"? Is it, "In this ever-changing world in which we live in"? Or "in which we're living"?

McCartney considers and seems genuinely puzzled. "Yeah, good question," he says. "It's kind of ambivalent, isn't it? . . . Um . . . I think it's 'in which we're living.'"

He starts to sing to himself: "In this ever changing world. . . . ' It's funny. There's too many 'ins.' I'm not sure. I'd have to have actually look. I don't think about the lyric when I sing it. I think it's 'in which we're living.' 'In which we're living.' Or it could be 'in which we live in.' And that's kind of, sort of, wronger but cuter. That's kind of interesting. 'In which we live in.' In which we live in! I think it's 'In which we're living.' "

Not helpful, Paul.

we're verging into ungrammatical territory rather than strictly cornball here but on a similar tip my favourite of these is:

"concrete jungle where dreams are made of"

the spoken word part of Everlasting Gaze by smashing pumpkins. thread won.

xxp regardless of how it ends, it starts with if, not in - otherwise it makes no sense: 'But IF this ever changing world in which we're living makes you give in and cry, say live and let die"

Sounds like Sir Paul doesn’t want to offend any part of his fanbase, which might be comprised of individuals loyal to various different lyrical readings.

End of that New Radicals song.

"concrete jungle where dreams are made of"

i'll never get over this tbh, it's appalling

End of that New Radicals song.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, August 6, 2019 12:53 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

The part about Beck and Marilyn Manson, etc?

When you've got movies like Tom Cruise in them, you can't lose.

I think REM's 'You' counts here. I'm into it right up until the tuneless 'YEEEEEWWWWWWW, YEEEWWWWWWWWW, YEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW' that closes it out. Just another take or two until you hit the right note, Michael. That's all it would've taken.

Extended version of Bluebird by Buffalo Springfield features some prominenet grunting by Stephen Stills that could have been omitted.

In "Easy" by the Commodores, when Lionel Richie gives that big "UNNGH!" right before the guitar solo.

(also +1 on the "shake it off" moment referenced by mfktz -- that has always felt particularly cringey)

"This sick beat" is Elizabeth Barrett Browning compared to "Hey kids/Spelling is fun!/Girl, there ain't no 'i' in team/But you know there is a 'me'".

I'm not immensely perturbed by it myself but that I understand quite a few find the "James Brown!" bit in "Genius of Love" close to unbearable.

― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Tuesday, August 6, 2019 5:05 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's mostly ignorable in the studio version but the delivery in Stop Making Sense is...unfortunate.

counterpoint, the james brown part is the best part of the song

the entire live version of genius of love on stop making sense is off-putting, though

ELP's "Still...You Turn Me On"

Every day a little sadder
A little madder
Someone get me A LADDER!!!

A game of HORSESHOOOES!

Anyway loads of decent techno bangers are spoiled by a robot german man popping up to say "Time on an infinite loop" or something like that in the breakdown.

― chap, Tuesday, August 6, 2019 6:46 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

omg yes this

When "Ramble On" reveals itself as LOTR cosplay.

Did you forget you were listening to Zep or

The Live Rust version of Cortez the Killer

xpost I blame Andy Serkis.

On "Yellow Gold", E-40 is rapping a raga to riches story over a dark slappy beat, then he says

"I started off a dollar-naire
Doodoo stains in my underwear"

'Black Country Rock', twice towards the end. Once where Bowie inexplicably does a bad French accent for no reason other than the lyrics include the word "adieu", and then a second time immediately after where he takes his Marc Bolan impersonation a bit too far and sounds like a laughing goat.

I join the « this sick beat » team.
How come nobody in the process told her it was unfortunate ?

OK I know nobody listens to 12 Rods but the Gay? EP is pretty nice and understated- the only awful part about it is when he does that irritating whiny nasal "nothing's worse than a finger pointed" break during Revolute.

I did half a Xan
13 hours 'til I land
Had me out like a light, ayy

the beatboxing and acapella singing 3/4 thru Dr Dre's "Genocide" always ruins the song's spell

Someone’s made an album called “raga to riches” right?

The Live Rust version of Cortez the Killer

― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes)

Otm

The newscaster in OutKast’s “Synthesizer”

The one that sounds lime they've never spoken before?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see a lot of Doors discussion in this thread, but my first thought was "Runnin' Blue" which kind of has the opposite problem of being ruined by Jim's histrionics. Robby Krieger singing bluegrass is pretty jarring in the middle of an otherwise standard LA Doorsy rock song. Don't think those sections would sound any better with Jim singing though, so maybe the song just needed a rewrite.

Just googled the song and learned that it was intended as an epitaph to Otis Redding ("dead and gone"), which makes the line "I've got to find the dock of the bay" pretty cornball in its own right

Kacey M: you can have your space, cowboy
me: aw cool pun, now I get the title's other meaning
...
Kacey: you can have your space, cowboy (x 17)
me: (begs for death)

Don't think those sections would sound any better with Jim singing though

Pretty sure they would, Krieger has a terrible voice.

Fair enough but Morrison was onto something imo refusing to sing them... very much outside his milieu. Maybe with a different arrangement that tones down the bluegrass thing, but I can't quite hear in my head what that would sound like.

"This sick beat" is Elizabeth Barrett Browning compared to "Hey kids/Spelling is fun!/Girl, there ain't no 'i' in team/But you know there is a 'me'".

There's nothing to ruin in the second case, though.

"Party, party, party, party all the time" does this for me in Sonic Youth's "Self-Obsessed and Sexxee", a tune I really like otherwise.

The Doors lyrics are fine. It's become some hipster received wisdom thing where people love to hate them, but at their worst they're not that much worse and in most cases quite a bit better than their contemporaries.

― ☮ (peace, man), Tuesday, August 6, 2019 2:43 AM (thirteen hours ago)

the doors are bad

I love the doors so much

The rap in the middle of "Eyes Without A Face" by Billy Idol.

The sorta-rapey spoken bit over the final verse of Parliament's otherwise unfuckwithable "My Automobile"

I don’t know about “ruined,” but I think Stipe’s cornball little hipster monologue in the middle of “Stumble” is a bit less awesome than the rest of the song.

Neither cornball nor ruined, but I could do without the bit in "Monkey Man" where Jagger sounds like he's puking.

I've never been a big fan of Dev's rap on Some Things Never Seem to Fucking Work by Solange.

I fucking love Bill Withers, one of my favourites

But I would happily go the rest of my life without a note of his music in it if it meant I never had to hear the ending to "Lovely Day" again

LOVELY DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
LOVELY DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
LOVELY DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
LOVELY DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
LOVELY DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

Awful

The rap in the middle of "Eyes Without A Face" by Billy Idol.

I'm on a bus
On a psychedelic trip
Reading murder books
Trying to stay hip

I love that

Nevermore's "Poison Godmachine" gets to this really intense riff at the bridge and then the spoken word begins

"Poison...
Is a word

God...is a word
Used for fear"

As usual, cheesily on the nose and sucks the air out

omfg Mykki Blanco's atrocious feature on Charli XCX's gleaming, brilliant "Femmebot" absolutely destroys the track for me

John Foxx yelling "underpants!"

If we're talking live, Hetfield to thread. YOU BETCHA!

you must be joking re: "lovely day" !

i've grown to love morrison's terrible poetry because it keeps me from taking the songs too seriously. when he starts in on "indian summer on dawn's highway bleeding..." i bust into laughter most times. same with stuff like "there's a killer on the ROAD/his brain is squirming like a TOAD". also his forced enunciation of "take a long holiday" in the next line is classic

lionel richie's "UNNGH!" in "easy" sounds like it's pre-made for the faith no more cover, where mike patton's rendering of it is all-time

kind of surprising that there's already been dead discussion and nobody has talked about donna on live versions of "playing in the band"

i rather like a lot of stuff by the police despite the fact that sting is the absolute worst lyricist in history

and since we're talking live, i don't object to "does anybody remember laughter?", but plant's nonstop gurning on the rest of the song does it no favors.

I am an apologist both for Doors lyrics (which, as someone said upthread, are certainly no worse than those of 90% of his contemporaries and are in some cases quite good) and Donna's banshee wails on "Playing In The Band." I also don't get what's so terrible about Sting's lyrics in the Police.

If we're going to talk about conspicuous "raps" in songs that aren't rap songs, we'll need an entire new thread. That said (and I expect to be crucified for saying this), I thought "The Hook" by Blues Traveler was a totally decent and maybe even enjoyable pop song, but that rap in the middle remains one of the single worst things I have ever heard.

I like some of Morrison's lyrics but the tortured syntax of the first verse does get in the way for me on "Light My Fire". "I'm finding it hard to believe we're in heaven" in Bryan Adams's "Heaven" always seems really off since that phrasing suggests scepticism rather than incredulous wonder to me and I find it hard to believe that that is what he wanted to express.

The first verse of "Light My Fire" was written by Robby Krieger.

Ah

Jimbo only wrote the 2nd verse iirc.

"I'm finding it hard to believe we're in heaven" in Bryan Adams's "Heaven" always seems really off since that phrasing suggests scepticism rather than incredulous wonder to me and I find it hard to believe that that is what he wanted to express.

lol, never thought about that, but you're right. Like "This is it? This can't be it."

My first encounter with "Genius of Love" was having it pop up in the middle of Stop Making Sense. I was maybe 9 or 10 at the time, and even then, the cringe factor was quite intense.

kind of surprising that there's already been dead discussion and nobody has talked about donna on live versions of "playing in the band"

I love Donna's singing in "Playing," always. Of course she's loud: she's the only vocalist on that stage with the ability/knowledge of how to project her voice.

the "why don't you piss off" in "Your Silent Face" is an example of a song *made perfect* by cornball lyric/vocal at a dramatic moment.

Jimbo only wrote the 2nd verse iirc.

On the spot, in that awful film.

That said (and I expect to be crucified for saying this), I thought "The Hook" by Blues Traveler was a totally decent and maybe even enjoyable pop song, but that rap in the middle remains one of the single worst things I have ever heard.

"Suck it in, suck it in, suck it in / If you're Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn"

I always assumed I was mishearing that. Nope, that's what they sing (according to the internet). Brutal.

“A fool who’ll waste his life, GOD REST HIS GUTS.”

Ian Gillan's hysteric wailing in Child In Time although I'm sure many people love that part.