Best and worst song lyrics

[clivef]

Best:

He always beat me at Subbuteo,
'Cos he flicked to kick and I didn't know

--My Perfect Cousin, The Undertones

Worst:

He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabokov

--Don't stand so close to me, The Police

[liz]

Worst: Muse (a band I LOVE, but man, they can't write lyrics)

"I have played in every toilet
But you still want to spoil it"

Best:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/wEZ-NvSKJLI

[jojopi]

It is not possible to distinguish good lyrics from bad, as the previous posts demonstrate. There are only memorable versus mediocre lyrics. So I nominate:

The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself

­– Waterloo, ABBA

(Until now, I had never realised that this song also existed in Swedish: http://youtube.com/watch?v=n41t6x2KIpk

Själv känner jag sen jag mött dig
Historien upprepar sig
Personally, I feel since I met you
History repeats itself

Nearly the reverse of the problem translating 99 Luftballons?)

[jasonclark]

As a DJ, I occasionally provide Karaoke services.... the spoken work is far stronger than the written! lol

For me, best is also undertones..

I'm sorry, but most of modern stuff is terrible (but I still play and mix it). Last weekends Wedding has the following feedback;
"My personal highlight was dancing to modern love, up the junction and then pogoing to teenage kicks
with my sister and her husband. It's always rare to see them dancing, especially as they now live in Australia, so thanks for that!
"

Err...Tunes or Wot? lol!

DJ related, I installed Mixxx last night on my 'PI. Not really sure if its ok, but something to look at this weekend.

[mahjongg]

Best song lyric,

perhaps "Sad eyed lady of the lowlands" (I know the text has nothing to do with the Netherlands, I just like Bob Dylan lyrics).

Don't know any bad lyrics, I don't listen to bad music, if I can, and if I'm forced to I quickly forget.

[jackokring]

Hold a birdie song in the air, put a Orville up your nose, buy a jumbo jet, and then be the one and only dominator.... and then like a wheel within a wheel, ... in space, da di da da di dobie do.

[clivef]

It is not possible to distinguish good lyrics from bad, as the previous posts demonstrate. ...

This is not true. The sting (st) is actually the base SI unit for bad lyrics. It is equal to the awfulness of the international prototype lyric, which is a printout of the words above stored in a blacked out vacuum jar in the vault next to the kilogram.

As an example, the Muse lyric above is equivalent to 23 microstings.

[liz]

The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself

­– Waterloo, ABBA

Surely the worst ABBA lyric is

I was sick and tired of everything. When I called you last night from Glasgow.

(It's still a great song.)

[gnomepickle]

Best:

"Keep my feelings under cover like the books on a shelf, if we're scared of one another we must be scared of ourselves." - Operation Ivy "The Crowd"

Worst:

"If you think I'm broke you're dumb. That means that you're a duuummmy!" - Mike Jones "So Many"

Ouch.

[BigAl1452]

"Teenage kicks right through the night !!! "

As they were my hometown band, we thought they were great!

(Unfortunately it was not until later in life when I worked with one of the band members I found out what it means !)

Great for the dance floor, even for a 47yr old!

[Jim JKla]

Spinal Tap America (Worst)

Super highways here and there Pretty womens everywhere Brady Bunch and Smokey Bear

Deep Purple Smoke on the Water (Best)

Frank Zappa and the Mothers Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun Burned the place to the ground

Worst and Best First line at the same time Warren Zevon Werewolves of London

I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand

[liz]

Ooh ooh ooh: I have another "worst". This time from Live and Let Die:

But if this ever changing world in which we live in

There is one too many "in"s in that sentence. Chrissie Hynde, when covering it, changed it to "...in which we're living", for which I salute her. Go Chrissie.

[Jim JKla]

Shouldn't that be "But in this"

[pygmy_giant]

Continuing on a maudalin note, when I'm feeling down I like to listen to this: http://www.lyricsoncall.com/lyrics/noel ... yrics.html

My favourite lines are:

'Hurray-hurray-hurray!
Suffering and dismay.'

- I don't know why, but it has a strange way of cheering me up.

It helps if you try and copy his voice when reading it out.

Alternatively I'd go for 'Bring me Sunshine as performed by Morecambe and Wise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZedhoqYdfTM

[MadHorseman]

Can anyone surpass "Paralyzed" by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy?


p.s. Can anyone make out a single word?

[Ed Raket]

Ah, i remember this one (good):

"And my time is a piece of wax, fallin' on a termite
That's chokin on the splinters"
Beck - loser

[liz]

"Bring me sunshine" was the closing dance at the wedding I've just left (really!); music during the service (on a 400-year-old organ) included the incidental music from Skyrim, and all the dance music afterwards was emphatically from the 1980s. Scritti Politti! Prefab Sprout! Aztec Camera!

On which note:

Hot dog. Jumping frog. Albuquerque.

[redhawk]

Worse songs:
Everything pumped out by Eurovision especially the la la la la song of 1968.
Hanson - MMMBop (their singing was so bad I thought they were actually a German band lol)
Fast Food Rockers - Fast Food Song (sick lyrics)
Eiffel 65 - I'm Blue
Abba - Dancing Queen
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (good music but incoherent and disjointed lyrics not my favourite Queen track sorry)
The Pussy Cat Dolls Don't Cha
Public Image Limited - Death Disco
Asereje - The Ketchup Song
Metallica - St. Anger
Katie Melua - Nine Million Bicycles
Gabrielle - Dreams
Everything from Alanis Morissette - Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie album
The Peruvian National Anthem

Favourite Songs:
Sneaker Pimps - Spin Spin Sugar
Leftfield feat John Lydon - Open Up
Elton John - Your Song
Roy Orbison - Crying + She's A Mystery To Me
P!nk - Who Knew + You and Your Hand
Metallica - No Leaf Clover
Queen - Innuendo
ELO - Mr Blue Sky
John Lennon - Imagine
Genesis - Jesus He Knows Me (funny video)
Toni Braxton - Makin' Me High
The Hollies - All I Need Is The Air That I Breathe
Radiohead - Creep (album version) + Pyramid Song
Erasure - Am I Right
Unkle - Be The
Skunk Anansie - Selling Jesus
George Michael - Different Corner
Marillion - Kayleigh
Muse - Dead Star + Hysteria
OceanLab - Breaking Ties
Pulp - Help The Aged
Mongels - Anti-Chicken Song

Richard S.