Worst Pop Lyrics of All Time?
Since we're on the subject of second-rate rock (although Badfinger was only second-rate in comparison to the Beatles), I notice that BBC is running a contest to identify the worst rock lyric of all time. Here's their contenders so far. Hard to beat these gems...The Top 10 Worst Pop Lyrics?
1 ABC (pictured) That Was Then But This Is Now: More Sacrifices than an Aztec priest/ Standing here straining at that leash/ All fall down, Can’t complain, mustn’t grumble/ Help yourself to another piece of apple crumble
2 Snap Rhythm Is A Dancer: I’m as serious as cancer/ When I say Rhythm is a Dancer
3 Human League The Lebanon: Before he leaves the camp he stops/ He scans the world outside/ And where there used to be some shops/ Is where the snipers sometimes hide
4 Razorlight Somewhere Else And I met a girl/ she asked me my name, I told her what it was
5. Duran Duran Is There Something I Should Know?: And fiery demons all dance when you walk through that door/ Don’t say you’re easy on me you’re about as easy as a nuclear war
6 Oasis Champagne Supernova: Slowly walking down the hall/ Faster than a cannonball/ Where were you when we were getting high?
7 Des’ree, right, Life I don’t want to see a ghost/ It’s the sight that I fear most/ I’d rather have a piece of toast/ Watch the evening news
8 Black Sabbath War Pigs: Generals gathered in their masses/ Just like witches at black masses
9 Toto Africa: The wild dogs cry out in the night/ As they grow restless longing for some solitary company/ I know that I must do what’s right/ Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
10 U2 Elevation I’ve got no self control, Been living like a mole now/ Going down, excavation/ High and high in the sky/ You make me feel like I can fly/ So high, Elevation
I think Black Sabbath's is particularly good. But then, Razorlight's is also very impressive. Any other suggestions?
Full story at Times Online
Labels: Just For Grins
posted by Christopher Newton at 8:22 AM
4 Comments:
I'm working on the worst lyrics, but the folowing are my choice for the finest lyrics in all this debris we call popular music. Bro. Frank Zappa at his finest, as he would say, "No Commerical Potential.
"Evelyn, a modified dog
Viewed the quivering fringe of a special doily
Draped across the piano, with some surprise
In the darkened room
Where the chairs dismayed
And the horrible curtains
Muffled the rain
She could hardly believe her eyes
A curious breeze
A garlic breath
Which sounded like a snore
Somewhere near the Steinway (or even from within)
Had caused the doily fringe to waft & tremble in the gloom
Evelyn, a dog, having undergone
Further modification
Pondered the significance of short-person behavior
In pedal-depressed panchromatic resonance
And other highly ambient domains...
"Arf," she said"
The entire lyrics to "Macarthur Park". But especially the part about "left the cake out in the rain, and I'll never get that recipe again."
It really doesn't get much worse than that!
Hey Ive got that America album. Ive heard worse lyrics. What about Beach Boys?
"Why dontcha
Come (come, come-a, come-a)
Tonight (come out tonight)
Why dontcha
Come (come, come-a, come-a)
Tonight (come out tonight)"
Jinx, I think you have an obsessive interest in muskrats. I didn't even know that song HAD lyrics. It was one of those mid-Seventies lull me to sleep with your prettiness kind of things. Like The Carpenters excelled at.
Now if you want to hear a good inane animal song - look up Abba-Dabba Honeymoon. A vaudeville classic published in 1913. It always brought down the house when my daughter Kirstie and I performed it at the West Kingston Senior Center.
It starts "Abba dabba dabba dabba dabba dabba dabba said the monkey to the chimp." Kind of an inter-species forbidden love song.
As for the Beach Boys. I cut them a lot of slack. I can listen to "Warmth of the Sun" forever and float up to paradise 'till I bang my head on the ceiling. Those guys could sing harmony like none others of my generation, including the Beatles. But I've never heard the song you refer to.
I'm kind of leaning toward that one about the wet cake. That whole song - flabby, self-important, blown up at of all proportion - it's funny because Richard Harris, who sang the song, was a pretty good actor. You'd think he would have known better.
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