The Most Meaningless Lines in Pop Music History

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"She was a be-bop baby on a hard day's night."

--The Hooters, "And We Danced"

Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 12 October 2006 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

Huh.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 October 2006 21:52 (nineteen years ago)

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously!

Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Thursday, 12 October 2006 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
Say it for me
Say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me

Nickelback- "Savin' Me"

Chris Grasinger (gman59), Thursday, 12 October 2006 21:57 (nineteen years ago)

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously!

-- Steve Go1dberg

Is that Sting?

Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 12 October 2006 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

Crimson flames tied through my ears full of high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads using ideas as my maps

Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 13 October 2006 00:43 (nineteen years ago)

mmm bop

Sir Lance A Zit (Dick Butkus), Friday, 13 October 2006 00:45 (nineteen years ago)

"I've never tried to create a wow."

scriblerus (mike lynch), Friday, 13 October 2006 00:45 (nineteen years ago)

Someday you will find me
Caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova in the sky
Someday you will find me
Caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova
A champagne supernova in the sky

jackl (jackl), Friday, 13 October 2006 00:47 (nineteen years ago)

"All you need is love".

musically (musically), Friday, 13 October 2006 00:48 (nineteen years ago)

someone (above) doesn't get it

Sir Lance A Zit (Dick Butkus), Friday, 13 October 2006 00:50 (nineteen years ago)

Holy shit, mmmbop is worse than I thought!

Mmm bop, flip ta ba du op
Du daba, du op
Flip ta ba du
Ye-ah
Mmm bop, flip ta ba du op
Du daba, du op
Flip ta ba du
Ye-ah
in an mmm bop there gone,
in an mmm bop there not there
in an mmm bop there gone

Sir Lance A Zit (Dick Butkus), Friday, 13 October 2006 00:53 (nineteen years ago)

LFO's "Summer Girls" completely pwns this thread.
here are a few of my favorites from that song.

Hip Hop Marmalade spic And span,
Met you one summer and it all began
Your the best girl that I ever did see,
The great Larry Bird Jersey 33

Stayed all summer then went back home,
Macauly Culkin wasn't Home Alone
Fell deep in love,but now we ain't speakin
Michael J Fox was Alex P Keaton

When you take a sip you buzz like a hornet
Billy Shakespere wrote a whole bunch of sonnets
Call me Willy Whistle cause I can't speak baby
Sumthin in your eyes went and drove me crazy


yeah...

Christopher Costello (CGC), Friday, 13 October 2006 00:54 (nineteen years ago)

Actually, I think Butthole Surfers own this thread.

Sir Lance A Zit (Dick Butkus), Friday, 13 October 2006 00:56 (nineteen years ago)

"Summer Girls" OTM. I have never, ever been able to get over that hornet/sonnet couplet...

jackl (jackl), Friday, 13 October 2006 00:58 (nineteen years ago)

Mach ten at sudden speed flying into the wind now. I'm flowing at my feet something of likeness to you now. I spotted you in the sun. I called your name from a distance. I knew you were the one. I called again. I do declare I can float in the air, and with some love from above you must don't caress the weasel, and don't fall too soon. Don't seek the blood from the panther. Don't take a trip to you soon. I'm the one helding the time back from the sun as i scope the lobe. I am the one who controls the sun, and i know that things will pass as time elapse, lapses, time elapsing through the sound of you and the things we could do. Just think of the master trying to fool the blastman. Check the cards at the table. Scream softly you are able to see the sign of thineself as throughout the ages of time. Things you thought weren't going to climb the mountain. See the sun touch the waves of the earth. Feel the grass softly. And don't think for the one you know. I am screaming backward in the sand.

Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 13 October 2006 01:10 (nineteen years ago)

"I am screaming backward in the sand" is a great line. I remember at the time I was doing a lot of acid and sort of "understood" this. I didn't, of course.

Sir Lance A Zit (Dick Butkus), Friday, 13 October 2006 01:15 (nineteen years ago)

I knew a guy once trying to propagate a Summer Girls game: one person spits out an awkward romantic come-on and the other person has to answer in five seconds with a completely tangential rhyming cultural reference. Example: "I love you so my dearest one" / "Luke turned out to be Vader's son." Get that party started!

Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Friday, 13 October 2006 01:16 (nineteen years ago)

"I take my [anything] off the shelf"

Eppy (Eppy), Friday, 13 October 2006 02:09 (nineteen years ago)


Colorless green ideas sleep furiously!

-- Steve Go1dberg

Is that Sting?

...sounds like a typical cryptic crossword clue.

Jez (Jez), Friday, 13 October 2006 06:22 (nineteen years ago)

Chomsky Beat!

Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Friday, 13 October 2006 06:38 (nineteen years ago)

Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
Say it for me
Say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me
Nickelback- "Savin' Me"

Now, if the Cure had sung this....

mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 13 October 2006 08:01 (nineteen years ago)

Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 October 2006 09:58 (nineteen years ago)

Oh Geirpaws!

mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 13 October 2006 10:02 (nineteen years ago)

“High / High as the sky / Low / Low as a ghost / Purple dragons fly into your eyes / Milkshake shimmy cry and cry and cry.”

Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Friday, 13 October 2006 10:05 (nineteen years ago)

"Crab if you want her
She won't be coming down
Crab if you need it
She put her knickers on"

-weezer

See also: the rest of the green album

Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Friday, 13 October 2006 12:00 (nineteen years ago)

GA's 'wild horses' just came on random so...

i was tryna sedate him tryin not to blow tryin not to hate him but time was as blatant as gold, wouldn't you know?


WAHT?

;_; (blueski), Friday, 13 October 2006 12:03 (nineteen years ago)

"columnated ruins domino..."

hank (hank s), Friday, 13 October 2006 12:20 (nineteen years ago)

Now hold on...

Mark (MarkR), Friday, 13 October 2006 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

"All you need is love" - fine.

"Nothing you can do that can't be done" - erm.

Tom (Groke), Friday, 13 October 2006 12:23 (nineteen years ago)

Good call on the Oasis, especially since their lyrics are all delivered in a way which implies they are supposed to be all profound and that. My favourite crap Oasis line is "Life is precocious in the most peculiar way."

chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Friday, 13 October 2006 12:23 (nineteen years ago)

When we all give the power
We all give the best
Every minute of an hour
Don't think about the rest
And you all get the power
You all get the best
When everyone gets everything
And every song everybody sings

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 October 2006 12:34 (nineteen years ago)

"welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends..."

"here come the dancers, one by one
your mama's callin', but you're, havin' fun
you find you're dancin' on a number nine cloud
put your hands together now, and sing it out loud
it's all part, of my rock and roll fantasy
it's all part, of my rock and roll dream"

hank (hank s), Friday, 13 October 2006 12:42 (nineteen years ago)

"there's nothing you can do that can't be done" makes perfect sense.

Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 13 October 2006 13:06 (nineteen years ago)

it's convoluted way of saying something that's not even true. but that's poetic license, chief.

;_; (blueski), Friday, 13 October 2006 13:09 (nineteen years ago)

what can you do that can't be done?

anyway I think i like "meaningless" lyrics more than meaningful lyrics anyway. "And I will drive my chariot down your streets and cry
'Well, it's me, I'm dynamite and I don't know why'"

Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 13 October 2006 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

I agree w/ that for the most part. Sometimes words are good for how they sound even if they don't make sense. And sometimes they're just thrown together as placeholders by dummies who don't know any better. "She was a be-bop baby on a hard day's night" is definitely the latter.

Mark (MarkR), Friday, 13 October 2006 13:19 (nineteen years ago)

t. rex is pretty good on the meaningless tip too.

Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 13 October 2006 13:24 (nineteen years ago)

Frozen joe the ballet boxer,
Chromed his toes to get his rocks oh
Babe, I do mean babe.

All the rats and all the peacocks,
Built a ship and flew to venus,
Babe, I do mean babe.

Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 13 October 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

but yeah, i see the difference between poetic license and tossed-off lazy lyrics

Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 13 October 2006 13:31 (nineteen years ago)

Crimson flames tied through my ears full of high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads using ideas as my maps

-- Mr. Snrub (mistersnru...), October 12th, 2006 9:43 PM. (Mr. Snrub)

It's about an epiphany, dood.

Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Friday, 13 October 2006 13:43 (nineteen years ago)

Mark Bolan own this, with The Slider probably being his peak. There isn't a coherent line on that album, but they're all catchy. Bolan may have started out a brain-fried hippy, but by the time of The Slider, he was doing it on purpose. Call me a rabbit fighter, but you know it's true.

bendy (bendy), Friday, 13 October 2006 14:29 (nineteen years ago)

"Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah"

Oh wait, that had a meaning.

zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Friday, 13 October 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

Lots of these make sense to me, anyway, so I'm saying the winner so far is "Champagne Supernova." I mean, he's caught beneath a landslide, in the sky. There is some weird gravitational action in this metaphor. Also both the landslide and the supernova seem overwhelming, yes, but the landslide seems like more of a bad thing, whereas they seem fond of the supernova. So is this like a tragic end, or some kind of glorious immortality? The more I think about it, the more it seems like a song about drinking so much you fall down and can't get up: feels like you're caught beneath a landslide, but you're staring up at the sky, and since everything's spinning (from all the champagne), it takes on a cosmic quality. Then you throw up, just like after listening to the song's coda.

nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 13 October 2006 16:48 (nineteen years ago)

Knock down the old brick wall, and be a part of it all
Nothing to say, nothing to see, nothing to do
If you would give me all, as I would give it to you
Nothing would be, nothing would be, nothing would be

Sang Freud (jeff_s), Friday, 13 October 2006 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

MAMA SAY MAMA SA MA MAKUSA

The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Friday, 13 October 2006 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

Oasis topped themselves with Be Here Now, though. "There's blood on the tracks and I don't know why/ The fool on the hill and I feel fine" leads into "All my people, right here, right now/ D'you know what I mean?"

No, we don't, but we love your videos.

marc h. (marc h.), Friday, 13 October 2006 18:35 (nineteen years ago)

oops, better get my meaningless lyrics straight: "Blood on the tracks/ and it must be mine"

marc h. (marc h.), Friday, 13 October 2006 18:38 (nineteen years ago)

MAMA SAY MAMA SA MA MAKUSA

This means, "I really like Manu Dibango"

Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 13 October 2006 18:41 (nineteen years ago)

well, if we're gonna pick on Oasis, then let's not let The Verve ("Cast No Shadow" was dedicated to one Richard Ashcroft, you know) off the hook:

"And one and one is two
But three is company
When you're thinking about the things you do
And you're thinking about the things you do
I want to tell you my tale
How I fell in love and jumped out on my bail
I hope you understand there's more in a smile than in a hand
In every sky, in every kiss
There's something that I might have missed
blah blah blah skinful of dope"

hank (hank s), Friday, 13 October 2006 18:42 (nineteen years ago)

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together,
See how they run like pigs from a gun see how they fly, I'm crying , sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come
Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday, man you've been a naughty boy you let your face grow long
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus, goo goo g' joob
Mister city policeman sitting pretty little policemen in a row,
See how they fly like Lucy in the sky see how they run, I'm crying, I'm crying, I'm crying, I'm crying
Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye, crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess
Boy, you've been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus, goo goo g' joob


Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies,
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers,
That grow so incredibly high.
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore,
Waiting to take you away.
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds,
And you're gone.
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 October 2006 19:11 (nineteen years ago)

"street lights. people."

nijoli (nijoli), Friday, 13 October 2006 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

"If I was a sculptor/But the again, no."

Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 13 October 2006 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

sorry, "then again"

Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 13 October 2006 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

"You can spend all your time making money/You can spend all your love making time/If it all fell to pieces tomorrow/Would you still be mine?"

Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 13 October 2006 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

Haha, I always thought that Taupin line was pretty clever.

marc h. (marc h.), Friday, 13 October 2006 19:41 (nineteen years ago)

If Bread had interrupted "If" to add, "Whatever, I'm totally cheeseballing it here"... but then again, no.

marc h. (marc h.), Friday, 13 October 2006 19:45 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, almost forgot, personal favorite... meaningless in a good way: "And the love that loves the love that loves the love that loves the love that loves to love the love that loves to love the love that loves."

marc h. (marc h.), Friday, 13 October 2006 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

I think I've said before how much I love some of the weirdo disjunctions in Interpol songs:

My best friend's a butcher; he has sixteen knives.
He carries them all over the town; at least, he tries.
Oh look, it stopped snowing.

nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 13 October 2006 20:27 (nineteen years ago)

It's like his lyrics weren't very good, so they hired someone to randomly poke him with a stick and distract him in the middle of every song:

I can't pretend
I need to defend
some part of me from you
Hey wow that dude's beard is crazy

nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 13 October 2006 20:33 (nineteen years ago)

xpost to Marc H. I love the bit in L. Bangs' essay on "Astral Weeks" where before he quotes that line he writes "Then this occurs:"

A Radio Picture (Rrrickey), Friday, 13 October 2006 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

This thread would work better if the concept were reversed and we looked for profound truth and wisdom in pop lyrics.

How many people seriously hear all of the lyrics to songs, let alone most of them or even understand the principles behind them?

My Imperfect Cousin (MIC), Friday, 13 October 2006 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

Well, most of the songs I have quoted here (apart from the pathetic "Live Is Life") are actually songs that I enjoy and respect a lot, and through posting those Beatles lyrics, that was kind of my point too. (Plus, dragging Oasis down because of meaningless lyrics, without mentioning that the lyrics of their most important influence were indeed rather meaningless at times too, is unfair)

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 October 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

xpost
I always thought "Champagne Supernova" was about how one or both of the Gallaghers wanted to die a rock-star death (landslide), which would immediately catapult him to glorious rock-star immortality (champagne supernova). Instead, they made Be Here Now.

Heathen Chemistry still takes the cake, tho:

She is love
and her ways are high and steep
She is love
and I believe her when she speaks

deusner (deusner), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 00:43 (nineteen years ago)

"Be Here Now" was the one album that would immediately catapult them to rock-star immortality. Or so they thought, at least, in their somewhat Coke-influenced world...

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 00:50 (nineteen years ago)

I just realized that on "Tonight's the Night" Rod Stewart sings "Let your inhibitions run wild." Now there's a concept.

A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 01:27 (nineteen years ago)

Touch my bum, this is life.

-or maybe that's just the secret to the known universe.

lexurian (lexurian), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 07:33 (nineteen years ago)

"She said "Rama lama lama lama Rock and Roll is King""

I don't believe this happened to anybody.

mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 08:01 (nineteen years ago)

"There's a hole in the sky.
But don't ask me why.
Because I don't know."

Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 09:46 (nineteen years ago)

"Dawn of light lying between a silence and sold sources,
Chased amid fusions of wonder, in moments hardly seen forgotten,
Coloured in pastures of chance dancing leaves cast spells of challenge,
Amused but real in thought, we fled from the sea whole.

Dawn of thought transfered through moments of days undersearching earth
Revealing corridors of time provoking memories, disjointed but with purpose,
Craving penetrations offer links with the self instructor's sharp
And tender love as we took to the air, a picture of distance.

Dawn of our power we amuse redescending as fast as misused
Expression, as only to teach love as to reveal passion chasing
Late into corners, and we danced from the ocean.

Dawn of love sent within us colours of awakening among the many
Wont to follow, only tunes of a different age.
As the links span our endless caresses for the freedom of life everlasting."

mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 10:07 (nineteen years ago)

"Look mummy, there's no plane up in the sky!"

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 22:13 (nineteen years ago)

"SHARP! DISTANCE! HOW CAN THE WIND WITH ITS ARMS AROUND ME?"

A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 22:16 (nineteen years ago)

ra ra Rasputin / Russia's greatest love machine


then again, it may be the greatest lyric ever....

SG (asylum), Thursday, 19 October 2006 02:18 (nineteen years ago)

All these from one album:

"You've gone too far this time
But I'm dancing on the valentine
I tell you somebody's fooling around -
With my chances on the dangerline"

"Shake up the picture the lizard mixture
With your dance on the eventide
You got me coming up with answers
All of which I deny."

"I shed my skin
When the party was about to begin
I'm light years away but I'm walking back tonight
Of all nights
When I should be feeling just right
Don't want to be in public
My head is full of chopstick
I don't like it"

"Midnight, I think I'm gonna make it
Feel the magical lash of the roll and the crash in their lives..
Headline, in tomorrow's papers,
Kill that light it's so bright
And you're shining it right in my eyes."

"Summer of madness the undertow, dragged me up an alley -
For the blossoming fire on a strangers smile.
Bride of wires - how disguise so easily cracked -
Saw your heart turn spade, this orchids turned to black.."

"Telegram force and ready
I knew this was a big mistake.
There's a fine line drawing my senses together,
And I think it's about to break."

"Shackled and raised for a shining crowd
They want you to speak but the music is louder than
All of their roar with the heat of the planet's core-but
[CHORUS]
The shadows are on your side
As soon as the lights go down
In the darkest place you can find
You belong to the hands of the night"

"Those words are all remainders
Echos growing in the heart of twilight
They lay back laughing at naivetys star.
Awaken all those whispers,
The dusty shadow of a passing favour
I wouldnt say that you were ruthless or right
I couldnt see from so far.
Was I chasing after rainbows?
One thing for sure - you never answered when I called.
And I wiped away the water from my face
To look through the eyes of a stranger..."

Thankfully they spared "Tiger Tiger" from le Bon's lyrics.

turkey (turkey), Thursday, 19 October 2006 06:52 (nineteen years ago)

i was going to say oasis pwn thread til i read that avalanche of durannie tosh! fucking hell...

CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Thursday, 19 October 2006 07:06 (nineteen years ago)

Faces
All around different faces I see
Some are happy, some in misery
They express joy and pain
No two faces are the same.

Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 19 October 2006 07:13 (nineteen years ago)

My favourite songwriter, Daan:

just like stories of coffee machines
breakin' corner stones
comes as a minor surprise
but where does it come from like that
I'll call a stand-in stoned box
flyin hells up a russian cut
common and sane
it's common insane
I am gettin there
not from the salvation of cat
not from the salvation of starfish
crossing over borderlines
takin' down all the ticket lines
why do they sell you that ?
you could've saved
you could've saved me from that
you're not awake above my eyes
longer time on residental side
fisherman is a shoulder
more like a beegee song

Huh? Oh yeah.

Nathalie (stevie nixed), Thursday, 19 October 2006 07:22 (nineteen years ago)

Bush own this thread:

we live in a wheel :: where everyone steals :: but when we rise it's like strawberry fields

got a machinehead better than the rest :: green to the red machinehead :: and i walk from my machine :: i walk from my machine :: deaf dumb and thirty

actually - everything on this site is classically rubbish: http://www.bush-music.com/lyrics_sixteenstone.html

wogan lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 19 October 2006 11:31 (nineteen years ago)


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