"Back to the land of California, to my sweet home Chicago..."

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The Robert Johnson song Sweet Home Chicago includes the geographical nonesense quoted above. What other examples can you think of of songs with deliberaetly misleading facts/information, or general gibberish (not surrealist lyrics a la Lennon/Beefheart). Things intended and unintended. Lyrics where the writer is testing the sharpness of his audience, or revealing their own stupidity. The one most ppl will think of immediately is Alanis Morrissette's definition of irony. Let's have some more.

― pete s, Saturday, 20 December 2003 16:32 (twenty-two years ago)

This isn't to necessarily judge examples harshly, just point them out if you want. (Or hate away). The Robert Johnson song is fantastic, and the lines work in the mouth of this mythic rootless drifter character in the song.

― pete s, Saturday, 20 December 2003 16:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Another one that bugs me is Bob Dylan's 'I dreamed i saw St Augustine'. Fine song, except for the lines 'And i dreamed i was amongst the ones/ That put him out to death.' St Augustine died in his bed, he was not martyred. It annoys me because there's any number of saints he could have chosen to fit that purpose (and then changed the melody line to scan properly).
I suppose the get-out clause is that dream-logic often serves up a mistake of this kind. Well okay, if Bob really did dream it that way and decided to be authentic in his account of it; still there must be dozens of people who now incorrectly think Augustine was martyred because of this song, and that's a sloppy decision in my eyes.

― pete s, Saturday, 20 December 2003 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

"He came from somewhere back in her long ago,
the sentimental fool don't see,
tryin' hard to re-create what had yet to be created
once in her life."

― donut bitch (donut), Saturday, 20 December 2003 17:26 (twenty-two years ago)

haha that's convoluted shit!
what's it from?

― pete s, Saturday, 20 December 2003 17:30 (twenty-two years ago)

'Set you free this time' by the Byrds (Gene Clark) is needlessly complex in a 'poetical' vein. Clark got better at this kind of thing.

― pete s, Saturday, 20 December 2003 17:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know .. I think there is actually a backstory to the whole "land of California" thing, but fuck me if i can remember it right now....

― Broheems (diamond), Saturday, 20 December 2003 22:44 (twenty-two years ago)

One track on Ghostface's Supreme Clientele (I'm guessing "Ghost Deini") mentions a "booger-green '68 Pacer". Pacers weren't introduced until the mid '70s.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 20 December 2003 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

i think that california meant, in that context, a more general land-of-milk-and-honey type thing. and chicago was a (seeming) haven for poor blacks living in the south around the first half of the 20th century

― brains (cerybut), Saturday, 20 December 2003 22:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I am a grumpy old sod. Hence i was having a really bad time about 6 years ago when All Saints' 'Never Ever' was clogging up the charts.
"Some questions that i need to know..." AAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!
PHRASE IT BETTER!!!! OR MORE GOOD!!!

― pete s, Saturday, 20 December 2003 23:39 (twenty-two years ago)

haha that's convoluted shit!
what's it from?

What a Fool Believes-Boobie Brothers

― Speedy Gonzalas (Speedy Gonzalas), Sunday, 21 December 2003 00:11 (twenty-two years ago)

From Billy Bragg's "Richard":

"Richard belongs to Jane
And Jayne belongs to yesterday;
How can I go on
When every alpha particle hides a neon nucleus"

No it hides a helium nucleus, Billy. I somehow suspect correcting it would destroy the point of the lines, but I'm not sure, as I've no idea what this is supposed to signify anyway.

― OleM (OleM), Monday, 22 December 2003 13:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Sade's Smooth Operator - wasn't one of the lines
"Coast to coast, LA to Chicago" ?

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 22 December 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

But what follows that line? A friend of mine insists that she says "Western Maine", which would explain the coast to coast part.

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Monday, 22 December 2003 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)

"Coast to coast, LA to Chicago, western male
Across the north and south, to Key Largo, love for sale "

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 22 December 2003 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Google says the line reads "Coast to coast, LA to Chicago, western male" Does that make sense to anyone?

I'm bothered that I hadn't noticed that before, and, Sade, I'm a little disappointed in you!!

xpost

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Monday, 22 December 2003 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmmmm... I think I'll stick to the Western Maine theory then..

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 09:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Chicago does have a coast. It's just not a very big one.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 09:26 (twenty-two years ago)

"Coast to coast, LA to Chicago, western male" Does that make sense to anyone?

Maybe he's so western that he doesn't know there's anything east of Chicago?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 09:30 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.amiright.com/misheard/artist/sade.shtml

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 09:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Some classics there!

"You ruin the way that i move, and i'll break your a**"

"Smooth apparatus"

"He's a boom operator"

"Your love is gay"

"You give me the swedish baboon"

"He likes almond joy"

― pete s, Wednesday, 24 December 2003 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

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