Barking Spiders Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 I need to know. All explanations gratefully received. So, more examples please of lyrics that are utter nonsensical ballcocks and what your own interpretations are. I'll start with the entire lyric of Jean Genie. The song is almost as old as I am and to this day I've haven't a firkin clue what it's about except Bowie must've been out of his tree on 'ludes, mescalin, Charlie or whatever his poison of choice was. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimalkin Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 One man's meat is another man's poison, anyway: "I smell like I sound, I'm lost and I'm found And I'm hungry like the wolf..." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 I drive a Rolls Royce, because it's good for my voice 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 Maybe it's a metaphor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricksterphil Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 46 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said: I need to know. All explanations gratefully received. So, more examples please of lyrics that are utter nonsensical ballcocks and what your own interpretations are. I'll start with the entire lyric of Jean Genie. The song is almost as old as I am and to this day I've haven't a firkin clue what it's about except Bowie must've been out of his tree on 'ludes, mescalin, Charlie or whatever his poison of choice was. ...from Rolling Stone The music to “The Jean Genie” was inspired by Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man”; Bowie wrote the song’s lyrics in the New York City apartment of model-actress Cyrinda Foxe, then a publicist for his management company and later married to David Johansen of the New York Dolls and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. But the actual subject of the song was Iggy Pop, or at least a fictionalized version of him, Bowie said. The lyrics were about somebody who “sits like a man but he smiles like a reptile.” The title of the song was an homage to French novelist/dramatist Jean Genet – Bowie has told different stories over the years whether the reference was unconscious or deliberate – while the line “He’s so simple-minded, he can’t drive his module” would, in turn, inspire the name of the band Simple Minds. as you say, probably written while out of his box on some recreational chemical or other 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 53 minutes ago, police squad said: I drive a Rolls Royce, because it's good for my voice Written by a man who never learned to drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 "Isn't it ironic?" No Alanis. Nothing in your song is. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 Closets of my mind destroyed, as I enter outward from a void Corpses white have strapped me down, I rise above then fall Tactual hallucination, cockroaches infest the wall. Nonsense lyrics, but actually work quite well as a rhythmic device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetera Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 "Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball" - Oasis Actually, almost anything from them... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 48 minutes ago, BigRedX said: Written by a man who never learned to drive. well spotted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikel Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 Almost the whole Yes back catalogue. And I love their music. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimalkin Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 "Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 Max Romeo - Wet Dream. "When pressed, Max Romeo insisted the song was about fixing a leaky roof, but few outside of the Carpenter's Union believed him". Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down Look how you're big and fat, like a big, big shot Give the crumpet to big foot Joe, give the craddock to me Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down Lie down girl let me push it up, push it up, lie down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 Well, a shot in the dark, is one step away from you, while a walk in the park, is a step in the dark, and it's the things that you do, that will make me feel alright. Hope that helps 😜 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Horse Murphy Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 "Take your seaside arms and write the next line" 🤷♂️ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nail Soup Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 For me, making sense is not a requirement for lyrics. It can be good to leave a bit (or a lot, or everything!) to the imagination. Don't need to be too literal. That said, I do like songs with easily penetrable lyrics too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 An unoriginal choice, but prize for most random lyrics has to go to Procol Harem’s “Whiter shade of pale”. Of course everyone was high on the good stuff back then, so it probably made more sense. Fiction Factory’s “Feels like heaven” comes a close second. Both great songs, mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 (edited) Meaningless title (and awful song): "Born to be alive" Edited October 15, 2022 by Clarky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabag Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Not much out there weirder than Zappa She had that Camarillo brillo Flamin' out along her head I mean her Mendocino bean-o By where some bugs had made it red She ruled the Toads of the Short Forest And every newt in Idaho And every cricket who had chorused By the bush in Buffalo She said she was a Magic Mama And she could throw a mean Tarot And carried on without a comma That she was someone I should know She had a snake for a pet and an amulet And she was breeding a dwarf but she wasn't done yet She had gray-green skin, a doll with a pin I told her she was awright but I couldn't come in And so she wandered through the door-way Just like a shadow from the tomb She said her stereo was four-way An' I'd just love it in her room Well, I was born to have adventure So I just followed up the steps Right past her fuming incense stencher To where she hung her castanets She stripped away her rancid poncho An' laid out naked by the door We did it till we were un-concho An' it was useless any more Is that a real poncho? I mean is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho? Hmmm, no foolin'... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NikNik Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Sounds like an Ed Straker reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigface Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 5 hours ago, fleabag said: Not much out there weirder than Zappa One of my favourite songs. It's not particularly weird, though, IMO. Just a story about a weird woman 😄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimalkin Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 "Pigeons in flight I wanna see you tonight I want to hold you If I may be so bold to And tell you some things that you like..." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barking Spiders Posted October 15, 2022 Author Share Posted October 15, 2022 21 hours ago, MacDaddy said: Well, a shot in the dark, is one step away from you, while a walk in the park, is a step in the dark, and it's the things that you do, that will make me feel alright. Hope that helps 😜 Yes thank you, now I get it 😁 11 hours ago, Nail Soup said: For me, making sense is not a requirement for lyrics. It can be good to leave a bit (or a lot, or everything!) to the imagination. Don't need to be too literal. Hmm, but any no talent tack can write absolute meaningless rhyming couplet ballcocks as Noel Gallagher has demonstrated a hundred or so times. Radiox describe him as a songwriting genius!!!! WTF...https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/liam-gallagher/which-oasis-songs-did-liam-gallagher-write/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimalkin Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 "From the early 1970s, David Bowie used cut-ups to create some of his lyrics. In 1995 he worked with Ty Roberts to develop a program called Verbasizer for his Apple PowerBook that could automatically rearrange multiple sentences written into it." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique#:~:text=The cut-up technique (or,Burroughs. Write them on bits of paper and put them into a hat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimalkin Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 "The phone, the TV and the news of the world Got in the house like a pigeon from hell, oh-oh..." More pigeons. From hell this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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