And these are the days When our work has come asunder And these are the days When we look for something other
U2 - Lemon
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:40 (sixteen years ago) link
"Pudding" (Pink Floyd: "Another Brick in the Wall Part Two")
You playing album versions again?
― Mark G, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:40 (sixteen years ago) link
Asunder's in 3 girl rhumba, but I guess that wouldn't qualify as a hit.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link
"Alabaster" (Shoplifters Of The World Unite)
O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea.
― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:42 (sixteen years ago) link
Nabakov - "Don't Stand So Close To Me"
― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:45 (sixteen years ago) link
"Alabaster Lady" by Carole King.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:45 (sixteen years ago) link
10cc:
'bullhorn' ("Rubber Bullets") 'Milton' (as in John) ("The Dean and I") 'Getty', 'Rothschild' ("Wall Street Shuffle") 'toupees and threepees' ("Silly Love") 'minestrone' ("Life Is a Minestrone!")
― Tom D., Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:47 (sixteen years ago) link
"Minestrone" - "Bangers And Mash" by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:49 (sixteen years ago) link
'Paisley' (as in the town) (Hue & Cry, "Looking For Linda")
― Tom D., Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:51 (sixteen years ago) link
Apposite time to cite "The Glasgow Underground Song" by Francie and Josie:
"There's Partick Cross and Cessnock, Hillhead (pronounced HillHEED) and Merklands Street, George's Cross and Govan Cross where all the people meet, West Street, Shields Road, the train goes round and round" etc.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:53 (sixteen years ago) link
There's also "Paisley Park" by Prince (okay, it's not about the town, but it's still the same word).
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, was going to say...
― Mark G, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:55 (sixteen years ago) link
Also "Letter From America" by the Proclaimers wraps up Bathgate, Linwood, Methil, Irvine, Lochaber etc. Not to mention "Sunshine On Leith."
And "HAVER"!
― Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:55 (sixteen years ago) link
Which isn't a hit single
― Tom D., Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought Paisley was mentioned in "These Streets" by Paolo Nutini, but he only mentions a couple of specific streets in Paisley, not Paisley itself.
― ailsa, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link
18 Prince & The Revolution Paisley Park May 1985
― Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:58 (sixteen years ago) link
It was in the UK:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_Park_%28song%29
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Damn, x-post.
Ha ha, I musta forgot all about that!
― Tom D., Tuesday, 5 February 2008 16:00 (sixteen years ago) link
<i>"Pudding" (Pink Floyd: "Another Brick in the Wall Part Two")
-- Mark G, Tuesday, February 5, 2008 10:40 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Link</i>
Hey man, American classic rock radio (at least the stations I know) ALWAYS plays the "eat your meat" part!
― Clarke, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 16:01 (sixteen years ago) link
'Bon marché' (Steely Dan, "Haitian Divorce")
― Tom D., Tuesday, 5 February 2008 16:06 (sixteen years ago) link
"Wakka" ("Ooh Wakka Doo Wakka Day" by Gilbert O'Sullivan).
― Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 16:06 (sixteen years ago) link
"Camisas" ("Favourite Shirts" by Haircut 100).
― Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 16:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Is "Mo Money, Mo Problems" the only hit record with the word "flagrant" in it?
― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 16:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Was "People Who Died" a hit? Can't be many others that mention hepatitis or leukemia.
― dad a, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 16:40 (sixteen years ago) link
c'puter says no.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 16:44 (sixteen years ago) link
What about Capt. Beefheart's "Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish"? Was that a hit?
― Tom D., Tuesday, 5 February 2008 16:55 (sixteen years ago) link
21 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band Trout Mask Replica Dec 1969
So, yeah.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 17:02 (sixteen years ago) link
Somehow or another, big awkward words just DO NOT have the same effect in all these obscure art-rock songs that some of you guys have started naming. You EXPECT five-dollar words in some song by Jim Carroll, 'cause hell, he's a poet in the first place! And if Van Dyke Parks uses the word "progenitorship" in a song, his audience probably wouldn't even have to look that up!
But it's way more shocking to hear funny words in some out-and-out mainstream pop or soul song (even if it didn't make the charts). Laura Lee's "Separation Line" is a moving southern soul ballad that was never a hit, true - but I always love to hear that line about how she no longer needs her mother's jurisdiction. Or Rick James (not mainstream, but close) singing about coming home horny and intoxicated in his hit "Give It To Me Baby." It sounds more left-field in songs like those than it does in some R.E.M. tune.
(Say, where was Beefheart's "Octafish" a hit? Pluto?)
― Rev. Hoodoo, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 17:18 (sixteen years ago) link
Rick James (not mainstream, but close) singing about coming home horny and intoxicated in his hit "Give It To Me Baby"
"I'm the fear you tasted/ Well intoxicated/ Psycho somantic addict insane"
― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 17:23 (sixteen years ago) link
psychosomatic - prodigy, breathe
― ledge, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 17:27 (sixteen years ago) link
-- Rev. Hoodoo, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 17:18 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
Hull.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 17:28 (sixteen years ago) link
Antibiotics - Alanis M., "Thank U" Eclectic - The Cars, "Hello Again" Horton Hears A Who - Deee-Lite, "Groove Is In The Heart"
― Eazy, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 18:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Sussudio - Phil Collins
― craven, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 21:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Has it gotten this far without mentioning "My Prerogative"?
― bendy, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 23:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Or for that matter, Foster Sylvers'"Misdemeanor?"
― Rev. Hoodoo, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 00:07 (sixteen years ago) link
several Missy Elliott tracks
― wanko ergo sum, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 00:12 (sixteen years ago) link
-- bendy, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 23:48 (Yesterday) Link
"The best thing about being a woman/Is the prerogative to have a little fun"
― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 00:14 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't guess "Verisimilitude" (Teenage Fanclub) was a hit.
― ellaguru, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 00:14 (sixteen years ago) link
I'd be surprised if there's a song other than Ween's "Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)" that mentions "spinal meningitis".
"Spo-Dee-O-Dee" from "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" by Stick McGhee
"Buffalo Stance" by Neneh Cherry
"The Discovery Channel" from Bloodhound Gang's "The Bad Touch"
"Longines Symphonette" from They Might Be Giants' "Birdhouse in Your Soul"
"Zipperhead" from Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl"
"JavaScript" from Weird Al's "White & Nerdy"
― eeyore19, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 01:12 (sixteen years ago) link
In Jessie's Girl Rick Springfield says the word "moot."
I remember hearing it and looking it up in the dictionary when I was younger
― filthy dylan, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 05:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Beach Boys: "My four-speed dual-quad positraction 409."
― dad a, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 05:52 (sixteen years ago) link
"placenta" -- live, lightning crashes
― bug, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 07:20 (sixteen years ago) link
Buffalo gets a mention in Buffalo Gals by Malcolm McLaren.
― ailsa, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 11:19 (sixteen years ago) link
What about "Reaganomics" in "Money's Too Tight to Mention" by Simply Red?
― Clarke, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 16:29 (sixteen years ago) link
And "Buffalo Soldier" by Bob Marley (xp).
― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 16:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Confining myself to UK Top 40 singles, which is the only way something like this can work (and not counting neologisms c.f. "Instinction" by Spandau Ballet):
"Arran" (Nik Kershaw "The Riddle") the entire lyrics of "Gaudete" by Steeleye Span I suspect "fare thee well" from the same band's "All Around My Hat" "Grasmere" (The Smiths "Panic", and probably some of the other place names in that most conservative of radical songs and most radical of conservative songs) "Videotheque" (erm, "Videotheque" by Dollar) possibly "Engels" and probably "The Archers" (The Style Council "Life At A Top People's Health Farm") and is there another Top 40 single bar "Come to Milton Keynes" that mentions said new town? There might be, but not one that I know.
A cache of Divine Comedy, unsurprisingly: "woodshed" (Something for the Weekend) "unrefined" (Becoming More Like Alfie) possibly "hay fever" (Pop Singer's Fear Of The Pollen Count: I would say "pollen count" itself but it isn't actually in the lyrics)
And even more Manics: "Miller and Mailer", "Plath and Pinter" (Faster) "lebensraum, kulturkampf, raus raus, fila fila" (Revol: also most/all of the political figures mentioned in that song) "carrion" (She Is Suffering, though pronounced in the Sid James sense) "kaffir" (the South African equivalent of the n-word used in "Kevin Carter") and the title itself of "La Tristesse Durera"
― February Callendar, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 19:16 (sixteen years ago) link
"carrion" (She Is Suffering, though pronounced in the Sid James sense)
"Carrion" by British Sea Power
― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 19:20 (sixteen years ago) link
I suspect "fare thee well" from (Steeleye Span)'s "All Around My Hat"
In America, Jerry Butler's "He Will Break Your Heart" started off with "fare thee well, I know you're leaving."
What about "Carrion, My Wayward Son?" ***KIDDING!***
― Rev. Hoodoo, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 19:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Dean Martin - That's Amore, "tarantella"
― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 20:10 (sixteen years ago) link