I have no idea what you're talking about...

[Nail Soup]

Give me hard-to-understand lyrics over overly-literal stuff any day.

For reference I think Dylan, Mark E Smith and Captain Beefheart are great lyricists.

 

[paul_5]

Overtly Literal has its place though - namely Death Metal; kind of one-dimensional from a lyrical standpoint, but good fun nonetheless.

[Dan Dare]

3 hours ago, Nail Soup said:

Give me hard-to-understand lyrics over overly-literal stuff any day.

For reference I think Dylan, Mark E Smith and Captain Beefheart are great lyricists.

 

 

Agreed. Using words for their sound or rhythmic qualities, rather than their meaning, together with onomatopoeia and other devices are long-established literary traditions. Poets have been doing it for centuries. Pop music follows in the tradition and has done so for a long time. How about "Tutti Frutti. Aw Rooty. A Wop Bop A Loo Bop, A Wop Bam Boo" from the 1950s? And Little Richard was following in the footsteps of artists like Slim and Slam before him. Poetry, music and literature doesn't HAVE to mean something/anything. Sometimes, it's just pleasing to the eye or ear.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Dan Dare

[TheGreek]

Meaningless lyrics  - v - nonsense 

[Gasman]

The good Captain Beefheart must surely lead the way in this, the Trout Mask Replica album has some epic tracks such as ‘Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish’, ‘Old Fart at Play’, with a few more beefheartfelt protest numbers dropped in like ‘Veterans Day Poppy’. I still listen to the album when I need cheering up, or softly tripping out with minimal artificial assistance! I wonder where the Mascara Snake is now?

[Rich]

On 17/04/2023 at 14:59, Cato said:

I understand what all these words mean individually, but....

 

 

I seem to recall Phill Jupitus reckoned it was about making a beverage for a soul singer who hadn’t arrived…

“Make me a tea, and make it straight 

No sign of Seal? I’ll take it.”

[Rich]

On 18/04/2023 at 19:20, Fishfacefour said:

Don't forget Sigur Ros and their made up language, Hopelandish I think. 

 

On 18/04/2023 at 22:34, Hellzero said:

Or way before them, Christian Vander from Magma and the language he created called Kobaïen.

And the extraordinary, exquisite Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins.  
https://youtu.be/s-5Xgw6d3h0

 

Edited April 28, 2023 by Rich

[MacDaddy]

13 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Agreed. Using words for their sound or rhythmic qualities, rather than their meaning, together with onomatopoeia and other devices are long-established literary traditions. Poets have been doing it for centuries. Pop music follows in the tradition and has done so for a long time. How about "Tutti Frutti. Aw Rooty. A Wop Bop A Loo Bop, A Wop Bam Boo" from the 1950s? And Little Richard was following in the footsteps of artists like Slim and Slam before him. Poetry, music and literature doesn't HAVE to mean something/anything. Sometimes, it's just pleasing to the eye or ear.

 

Who put the bomp

In the bomp bah bomp bah bomp?

Who put the ram

In the rama lama ding dong?

Who put the bop

In the bop shoo bop shoo bop?

Who put the dip

In the dip da dipda dip?

[TheGreek]

Paint me down
Paint me down

I'm walking into studio
Consider strange appeal
Paint me in the home
I'm brushing up on sketchbook
Designs for love, unreal
Paint me in the home

Oil and skin, you'll need to buy it
Consider what I mean
She sinks beneath the moving pictures
Prepare the brush for me
I'm craving with this need.

 

Spandau Ballet...don't tell me they weren't using too much cocaine. 

[asingardenof]

14 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Agreed. Using words for their sound or rhythmic qualities, rather than their meaning, together with onomatopoeia and other devices are long-established literary traditions. Poets have been doing it for centuries. Pop music follows in the tradition and has done so for a long time. How about "Tutti Frutti. Aw Rooty. A Wop Bop A Loo Bop, A Wop Bam Boo" from the 1950s? And Little Richard was following in the footsteps of artists like Slim and Slam before him. Poetry, music and literature doesn't HAVE to mean something/anything. Sometimes, it's just pleasing to the eye or ear.

I am the walrus, goo goo ga joob, etc.

[LeftyJ]

I love listening to Igorrr, and many of their lyrics are in the fictional language developed by the band ÖXXÖ XÖÖX (who sure love their Umlauts!).

Even with the translation, it's hard to comprehend: https://www.letssingit.com/igorrr-lyrics-downgrade-desert-mbwmn3x 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2023 by LeftyJ

[Crusoe]

15 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Agreed. Using words for their sound or rhythmic qualities, rather than their meaning, together with onomatopoeia and other devices are long-established literary traditions. Poets have been doing it for centuries. Pop music follows in the tradition and has done so for a long time. How about "Tutti Frutti. Aw Rooty. A Wop Bop A Loo Bop, A Wop Bam Boo" from the 1950s? And Little Richard was following in the footsteps of artists like Slim and Slam before him. Poetry, music and literature doesn't HAVE to mean something/anything. Sometimes, it's just pleasing to the eye or ear.

The Black Angel's Death song by Velvet Underground is my favourite for this sort of lyric.

 

Myriad had choice of his fate
Set themselves out upon a plate for him to choose
What had he to lose?
Not a ghost bloodied country all covered with sleep
Where the Black Angel did weep not an old city street in the east
Gone to choose

And wandering's brother walked on through the night
With his hair in his face on a long splintered cut from the knife
Of GT
The rally man's patter ran on through the dawn
Until we said so long to his skull
Shrill yell
Shining brightly red-rimmed and redlined with the time
Infused with the choice of the mind on ice skates scraping chunks
From the bells

Cut mouth bleeding razors
Forgetting the pain
Antiseptic remains cool, good buy
So you fly
To the cosy brown snow of the east
Gonna choose, choose again

[Leonard Smalls]

15 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

How about "Tutti Frutti. Aw Rooty.

There was an original meaning, but Robert Blackwell, the record's producer decided that the lyrics needed to be changed as it was considered somewhat ribald:

 

Tutti Frutti, good booty
If it don't fit, don't force it
You can grease it, make it easy

 

Tutti Frutti was slang for a gay man...

 

[Dan Dare]

4 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

There was an original meaning, but Robert Blackwell, the record's producer decided that the lyrics needed to be changed as it was considered somewhat ribald:

 

Tutti Frutti, good booty
If it don't fit, don't force it
You can grease it, make it easy

 

Tutti Frutti was slang for a gay man...

 

 

Thanks. I knew Little Richard was gay, but didn't put two and two together. Makes one wonder how much seemingly whimsical or even nonsensical language - literary or musical - is code.

[Leonard Smalls]

43 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

Makes one wonder how much seemingly whimsical or even nonsensical language - literary or musical - is code.

Indeed!

Did you ever hear any episodes of Round The Horn with Kenneth Williams?

Good thing the BBC commissioning editors didn't know Polari!

[Baloney Balderdash]

How about this piece I wrote:

 

Purple Poem - A poetic purple suit to the color purple

 

I got purple pants and purple gloves on my hands
I got a purple mind, of a different kind
I would have a purple hat, if it was not black
I got a purple soul, or
so I was told.
Purple, purple, purple...

Pour the purple, purple stream,
waterfall of purple dreams,
Gleams of purple haze when smoking,
Don't you think I'd just been joking!
Purple is the color purple,
sometimes hue in red or blue,
most of times it's simply purple, purple,
purple time,
purple rhyme,
this is it:

A purple sign!

Nothing purple left behind,
purple as a violet, violet,
nothing purple is a hurdle,
shining red and blue as true,
mix it up or differentiate it,
purple is what purple made it,
understand!
don't misconceive,
simply make it make believe,
purple is the greatest color,
everything else is just a tad more duller

I think I here have made my point:

Not pink, not grey, nor green or yellow
Purple is the color of this fella'!

 

 

[Waddo Soqable]

6 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Indeed!

Did you ever hear any episodes of Round The Horn with Kenneth Williams?

Good thing the BBC commissioning editors didn't know Polari!

Considering you could be jailed for being gay (until sometime in the 60s) it's not surprising that covert or code "languages" had evolved over the years. 

I wonder if we'll be needing to develop new ones that AI can't understand... 

[Waddo Soqable]

1 minute ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

How about this piece I wrote:

 

Purple Poem - A poetic purple suit to the color purple

 

I got purple pants and purple gloves on my hands
I got a purple mind, of a different kind
I would have a purple hat, if it was not black
I got a purple soul, or
so I was told.
Purple, purple, purple...

Pour the purple, purple stream,
waterfall of purple dreams,
Gleams of purple haze when smoking,
Don't you think I'd just been joking!
Purple is the color purple,
sometimes hue in red or blue,
most of times it's simply purple, purple,
purple time,
purple rhyme,
this is it:

A purple sign!

Nothing purple left behind,
purple as a violet, violet,
nothing purple is a hurdle,
shining red and blue as true,
mix it up or differentiate it,
purple is what purple made it,
understand!
don't misconceive,
simply make it make believe,
purple is the greatest color,
everything else is just a tad more duller

I think I here have made my point:

Not pink, not grey, nor green or yellow
Purple is the color of this fella'!

 

 

Purple is the colour of this fella? That'd be your "old fella" would it... 😂

[Baloney Balderdash]

6 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Purple is the colour of this fella? That'd be your "old fella" would it... 😂

Well, to be honest I never intended this interpretation, but I guess that is how the subconscious plays tricks with you when you're taking a casual swim in it, it doesn't get any better that it was written in character as my WoW Gnome roleplay character Bertel Wobblespring... 

 

But, yes, I have actually noticed.

 

Edited April 28, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Waddo Soqable]

2 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Well, to be honest I never intended this interpretation, but I guess that is how the subconscious plays tricks with you when you're taking a casual swim in it, it doesn't get any better that it was written in character as my WoW Gnome roleplay character Bertel Wobblespring... 

 

But, yes, I have actually noticed.

 

Wobblespring eh, perhaps better not even go there! 😁

[Dan Dare]

2 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Indeed!

Did you ever hear any episodes of Round The Horn with Kenneth Williams?

Good thing the BBC commissioning editors didn't know Polari!

 

Oh yes. "I'm Julian and this is my friend, Sandy". "Ooh, hallo, Mr 'Orne". I'm 70 this year and was (and am) a fan of classic radio comedy.

 

I read somewhere that a lot of Beeb commissioning editors in the early post-war years were ex-forces officers (I think it was Spike Milligan who referred to them as "bomber pilots"), who, fortunately, didn't understand the argot.

[KingBollock]

2 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Well, to be honest I never intended this interpretation, but I guess that is how the subconscious plays tricks with you when you're taking a casual swim in it, it doesn't get any better that it was written in character as my WoW Gnome roleplay character Bertel Wobblespring... 

 

But, yes, I have actually noticed.

 

What realm are you on?

 

I used to be on Darkmoon Faire. It’s a RP realm, but I never actually did any RP, though I always meant to try it. I had a proper character with a proper back story.

 

When I moved to Wales, I didn’t get the internet for seven bloomin’ weeks. By the time I got back to WoW, my guild was gone and the server was dead. I’d often go on and be the only Horde (For The Horde!!), on there. In the end I moved my main character to Draenor.

 

I had a Gnome, too. He was an engineer (most of my characters are engineers) called Boltthrower. I think I only got him as far as level 12, or something.

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, KingBollock said:

What realm are you on?

 

I used to be on Darkmoon Faire. It’s a RP realm, but I never actually did any RP, though I always meant to try it. I had a proper character with a proper back story.

 

When I moved to Wales, I didn’t get the internet for seven bloomin’ weeks. By the time I got back to WoW, my guild was gone and the server was dead. I’d often go on and be the only Horde (For The Horde!!), on there. In the end I moved my main character to Draenor.

 

I had a Gnome, too. He was an engineer (most of my characters are engineers) called Boltthrower. I think I only got him as far as level 12, or something.

Rather tired now, so can't be assed to write a lot, but I'll throw you a PM tomorrow.

 

Cool though, and you should absolutely get back to WoW, and give RP'ing a shot. 

 

And the new expansion is one of the better Blizzard done as well.

[Islander]

On 28/04/2023 at 20:13, Dan Dare said:

 

Oh yes. "I'm Julian and this is my friend, Sandy". "Ooh, hallo, Mr 'Orne". I'm 70 this year and was (and am) a fan of classic radio comedy.

 

I read somewhere that a lot of Beeb commissioning editors in the early post-war years were ex-forces officers (I think it was Spike Milligan who referred to them as "bomber pilots"), who, fortunately, didn't understand the argot.

 

Bona to vada your dolly old eek...

 

They're rerunning some episodes of Round the Horne on Radio 4 Extra (and some other old classics as well) 😊

[Gasman]

‘Put yer ring on ma doo dumma dah, whack for my daddio...’ often wondered if the singer and Captain Farrell really were whacking their daddios with both barrels...

Edited May 22, 2023 by Gasman
Better grammar