Non - logical lyrics

[JumboXL]

John Hiatt sang:

"And when your back's against the wall

Just turn around and you, you will see

I will catch you, I will catch your fall."

If your back is against a wall, and you turn around, you will see a wall.

The Who sang:

"The simple things you see

are all complicated;

I look pretty young,

but I'm just backdated."

If you want to pose younger than you are, you should be postdated, I'd say.

Any other examples of non-logical lyrics?

Edited November 19, 2013 by Guest

[Carl]

I get metaphor and artistic license and all that, but this never made logical sense to me:

Traveling twice the speed of sound

It's easy to get burned

"Just a Song Before I Go" by Crosby, Stills & Nash

[Zabadak]

Have a look at this discussion which covers similar ground...

[Carl]

That looks like an attack of the Grammar Police. Love the academic explanation of the errors in "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

[Zabadak]

:frenchie:

[JumboXL]

"Close your eyes, close the door..."

That's not easy to do, Bob (I'll be your baby tonight).

[Uncle Joe]

A pretty good songwriter in Neil Diamond.....

"I am"... I said

To no one there

And no one heard at all

Not even the chair

[Zabadak]

The Human League - The Sound Of The Crowd

Put your hand in a party wave

Pass around

Make a shroud pulling combs through a backwash frame

Find the copies in a carbon mount

Pass around

Stroke a pocket with a print of a laughing sound

Nope, me neither!

[blind-fitter]

I've always heard it as "Put your hair in a parting wave", i.e. encouraging somebody to style their hair in a particular way, which adds some sense to the next line, with its reference to back-combing and "shrouds" (not an unreasonable metaphor for the post-punk glam-pop crowd approach to coiffure; everybody back-combed at some time or another, without necessarily achieving a shroud.)

As for the rest; no idea. Are they definitely the correct words?

[Zabadak]

Oh yes and it gets worse!!!

The shades from a pencil peer

Pass around

A fold in an eyelid brushed with fear

The lines on a compact guide

Pass around

A hat with alignment worn insde

[Shawna]

well... keeping with BF's idea, the pencil could be an eyeliner pencil, and the folds in the eyelid are when the eyeshadow creases, or just that the eyelid itself is folded (as they do sometimes when people age)... the lines on the compact guide could be a compact (mirror, which comes with makeup and women keep them in their purses, called "compacts"), so I'm thinking that part's about makeup.

I have no idea about the hat thing, though.

[blind-fitter]

I checked the lyric insert in the Dare gatefold sleeve. And they are the correct lyrics as quoted. I've just misheard them all this time. My favourite track on the album, too.

It is definitely about hair and make-up, getting yourself ready to go out on the town looking "Wow!".

i think they've used a lyrical device, whereby you write lyrics that make fairly banal sense, before twisting them round, substituting particular words for virtual homonyms, etc. to generate a more surreal outcome.

[Zabadak]

Sounds about right!

[Shackled77]

'For seven years I dwelt in the palace of exile..

..playing strange games with the girls of the Island.

Brothers & sisters of the pale forest,children of the night..

...who among you will run with the hunt.?

Now...night arrives with her purple legion...

....retire to your tents & to your dreams...tomorrow we enter the town of my birth.

I want to be ready.'

[Shackled77]

you don't remember the *rock legend who wrote

these lines.?

*he usually wore handmade Indian leather moccasins on stage.

[Carl]

Donovan, perhaps? I was going to guess Dave Matthews, but he doesn't wear shoes.

[Shackled77]

Jim Morrison...sometimes poet...sometimes singer.

[tonycrf]

"I am an american Aquarium drinker"

[andy7]

The shrieking of nothing is killing

Just pictures of Jap girls

in synthesis and I

Ain't got no money and I ain't got no hair

But I'm hoping to kick but the planet it's glowing

- Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie

---

300th post

[Zabadak]

When the everywhere-eye asks you

Who is the emperor of the sky

Take the archangel's thunderbird

Go to Edgar Allan in the tower of sleep

He'll tell you a story which makes you to creep

The echo of your cries is falling so deep

Rent a destroyer and sail to Cape Cod

There lives a lion, they call him God

There is no elevator to Eden, but a hole in the sky

In shock-corridors standing

People with their eyes in their hands

But they don't understand

Don't get with your confessional

Flare into the vaulting flight of stairs

Baiting soldiers sleeping in melting house of wax

Why is the audience not taking the insurrection-axe

Thousands of windows burst open

And alarm bells are broken

Archangel's Thunderbird - Amon Duul II

(OK, not their first language but still!) :haveabeer:

[Rayzor]

Zabber, I see those lyrics as being symbolic, deep & many hidden meanings. I can see how their language skills make it difficult to paint the picture properly, but I still see the art behind the lyrics. Of course nonsense is not new to me: it's how I write my poetry!

[Zabadak]

It's how I hear most things before Nurse Cratchett brings me my meds...

[Rayzor]

[Zabadak]

The purple ones work fastest!

[Rayzor]

These pills?

Edited August 15, 2014 by Guest