Hatrack River Forum: Ridiculous or cryptic lyrics.

This is topic Ridiculous or cryptic lyrics. in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Ben (Member # 6117) on :

noticing how many people switch lyrics around in the improved lyrics thread i got to thinking how many songs i absolutely adore that are just downright bizarre lyrically.

AT THE DRIVE IN is a perfect example of this. all of their songs are random as can be and i know they must make some sort of sense to the band but i'm lost myself.

THE BLOOD BROTHERS is another example of this.

[ July 15, 2004, 10:53 AM: Message edited by: Ben ]

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

Almost any REM album has this aspect.

-Bok

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

I have 3 CDs where all the lyrics are in Sanskrit, talk about cryptic!

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :

They Might Be Giants is playing in Dallas this weekend. They fit this thread.

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

What do you mean? Aren't everone's shoes "laced with irony"?

Or "do you never know what you're going to find when you open up your letterbox tomorrow, because a little bird never tells you anything you want to know; she's your best friend, she's a sparrow?" I often have this problem.

[Smile]

-Bok

Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :

quote:
The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

so, yeah.

Posted by Erik Slaine (Member # 5583) on :

quote:
The Sun is hot, the Sun is not
A place where we may live,
But here on Earth there'd be no life
Without the light it gives.

My six-year-old got his first CD last month: Flood by TMBG.

<--Son has good taste. [Wink]

Posted by BlueJacsFan (Member # 6590) on :

quote:
I have 3 CDs where all the lyrics are in Sanskrit, talk about cryptic!

I have a couple or 3 where the lyrics are in Czech. But the vocals are too, so it's not so bad. [Big Grin]

Posted by Caitlin Strand (Member # 6631) on :

[ROFL]

My 7th Grade teacher taught me that : The suns is a mass... song! It's halarious.

Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

I think the "Giants" songs make a lot of sense.

----

quote:
Almost any REM album has this aspect.

ramble:

It cracks me up that every wedding I've gone to plays the song that starts "This one goes out to the one I love."

Nevermind that the next lines are:
This one goes out to the one I've left behind.
A simple prop to occupy my time.

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

PSI: Yeah, do they not get the tone of the melody? Peter Buck once said he thought it was pretty weird when he used to see people making out to "The One I Love" at concerts.

-Bok

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

It's worth noting that TMBG did not, in fact, write the Sun song. They just performed it. (Same goes for "Istanbul, not Constantinople.")

But I don't find their lyrics inscrutable, at least not compared to the weirder songs from REM and Tori Amos.

Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

Bok- Plus, it's not like they don't repeat those lyrics an infinite number of times. And there aren't a whole lot of other words to detract from them.

[ July 15, 2004, 01:01 PM: Message edited by: PSI Teleport ]

Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :

I find TMBG words very scrutable.

(Scrutable is the oppisite of inscrutable, isn't it? I mean flammable and inflammable are oppositte--er--nevermind)

Check out their kids music.

Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

This is totally random, like so much of what I've said today. But I really like Dan. All flattery aside, he's really sharp and funny. His kid is very, very lucky.

Posted by Erik Slaine (Member # 5583) on :

For truely cryptic lyrics, check out David Byrne. He went on a period of using "found lyrics", gleaned from Newspapers and other media. Witness "Born Under Punches" on the Remain in Light album.

Brian Eno has also been known to be random. And not just lyrically either....

Posted by martha (Member # 141) on :

quote:
I have a couple or 3 where the lyrics are in Czech.

It seems to me that there should be some joke here about the musical comedy Chess, or inserting the word "mate," but I'm just not sharp enough to come up with it at the moment.

Posted by Ben (Member # 6117) on :

Don't forget the cocteau twins

[ July 15, 2004, 09:30 PM: Message edited by: Ben ]