Lyrics That Are Good, Bad, or Otherwise Questionable (7,876 views)

[Alex61]

"And don't tell me not to reference my songs within my songs"

['S]

So bad it's good:

'Boom Boom Boom Boom! I wanna double boom'

I always found this really nice and comforting:

'If you think about it, each person in life has something they worry about, but can't talk about.

What's there to life? It's the same for everyone.
They say that's just life. Days of hardship and pain.
But life is good. You did well today.'

[falsetokaiba]

Skid Row and Sebastian Bach belong firmly in the 'mixed bag' camp. On the one hand, they did write songs about more serious subject matters than a lot of their peers and had some evocative and quite eloquent lyrics, like these from 'Wasted Time':

"Paranoid delusions they haunt you
Where's my friend I used to know?
He's all alone, he's buried deep within
A carcass searching for a soul
Can you feel me inside
Your heart as it's bleeding
Why can't you believe
You can be loved?"

But on other occasions, they did descend into nonsense, and the lyrics of 'Sweet Little Sister' are both bad and questionable:
"The pettin's getting heavy got his tongue in her ear
Her friend is doing time for kickin' ass on a queer
They're in a mental state and all their friends are here"

[IhateMana]

this line from Jay-Z's "The Story of OJ" has always left me doing the big hmmmm

"You wanna know what's more important than throwin' away money at a strip club? Credit
You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it"

[Platypus]

From "Not Weird Enough" by Ian Gillan of all people

"The screaming of a woman getting raped
In the dead of night
Like the sound of an animal you know
She's screaming with delight"

[IhateMana]

oh umm, while I'm here

[Seb]

“Full of sorrow, your eyes are too wide and too new
Though I know these feelings I get when you're near
Even I, I can't give you love without fear
You're too young, I don't know what's keeping me here
All that I can do is wait for you just wait for you
All that I can do is wait for you just wait for you”

- “Bad Obsession”, Bonham

Hey baby, how old are you?
Twenty-six, twenty-one, maybe twenty-two?
I'm twenty five, she shucked and kinda neighed
And said, "Hee hee hee I'm only thirteen"
Thirteen!? I need a quick escape
That's statutory rape, but she was good!

- “13 & Good”, Boogie Down Productions

“They say she young, I should've waited
She a big girl, dog when she stimulated”

- “Stimulated”, Tyga

“Young ladies, young ladies
I like 'em underage see
Some say that's statutory
But I say it's MANDATORY!”

- “Cool Daddy Cool”, Kid Rock

The last one was from a song in a children’s movie

[Vels]

"Ripped open by metal explosion
Caught in barbed wire
Fireball
Bullet shock
Bayonet
Electricity
Shrapnel
Throbbing meat
Electronic data

Prisoners in n****town
It's a dirty little war
Three Five Zero Zero
Take weapons up and begin to kill
Watch the long long armies drifting home"

[Brenda]

Feb 16, 2020 20:44:32 GMT Platypus said:

From "Not Weird Enough" by Ian Gillan of all people

"The screaming of a woman getting raped
In the dead of night
Like the sound of an animal you know
She's screaming with delight"

YIKES

But most importantly: yuck!

[Seb]

Feb 16, 2020 20:44:32 GMT Platypus said:

From "Not Weird Enough" by Ian Gillan of all people

"The screaming of a woman getting raped
In the dead of night
Like the sound of an animal you know
She's screaming with delight"

"Way Beyond Weird" would be a more fitting title

[Baronessa]

"I'm no fucking Buddhist, but this is enlightenment."

[IhateMana]

that's probably my fav Bjork line tbh

[Alex61]

SPOILER: Click to show

{oh god what}

"Miley keeps twerkin', daddy's song is workin'
Now Billy sing that crazy hook again (wrecking ball)"

[Breakfast in D-sharp]

Feb 16, 2020 21:34:53 GMT Seb said:

“They say she young, I should've waited
She a big girl, dog when she stimulated”

- “Stimulated”, Tyga

“Young ladies, young ladies
I like 'em underage see
Some say that's statutory
But I say it's MANDATORY!”

- “Cool Daddy Cool”, Kid Rock

The last one was from a song in a children’s movie

 Those make Young Girl and Don't Stand So Close to Me sound quite virtuous. Don't Stand So Close to Me is one of those songs with some lyrics that have taken on new significance in the light of subsequent events. Here's another, from last year:

SPOILER: Click to show

{So Cold Its Hard to Think}

"But stay indoors until such time as summer has begun
They'll think we're stupid
They'll say we're dumb
But we'll be the clever ones"

[Vels]

"You're too good, but oh, so good...

Too good, but oh, so good for me"



Show me a better transition from a flattering, yet suave daydreamer to a confident proprietor in two lines.

[IhateMana]

not until you show me a better example of whatever the fuck it is you're talking about

[DaydreamingBaritone]

[My Faves ATM]

"Living in the rising sun

Our life, a feeling that's moving

Running on a million people burning

Don't cry, it's a wild time to be alive."

"We leave as clueless as we came

For the rented heavens to the shadows in the cave

We'll all be wrong someday."

[...Self-Explanatory]

"I'm a dragon, you're a whore

Don't even know what you're good for

Mimicking me is a fucking bore (to me)."

"Yeah I smoke pot, yeah I love peace

But I don't give a fuck, I ain't no hippy."

[Alex61]

I don't really want to type out these lyrics so I'll just link them here (goes without saying but NSFW language warning)

[IhateMana]

the maddest part is, they have worse lyrics

[Vels]

"With this burden by my side, I wander far and wide
She's light in my arms, but so heavy in my heart."

Just two lines that I think are really fine, it's not particularly hard to write things like that but you don't often see it, at least I do not.
Nice melody for it and a thick British accent also making a good outline on it.

[halloweenjack95]

That "Crossroads and hamburgers" line from Bowie's Sweet thing.
Maybe because he used the "Cut-up" technique when he wrote the lyrics. But still odd.

[kewis]

Metallica have some excellent lyrics, "One" for example comes to mind

SPOILER: Click to show

I can't remember anything
Can't tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel the scream
This terrible silence stops me

Now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up, I cannot see
That there's not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, wake me

Back in the womb it's much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can't look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I'll live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, wake me

Now the world is gone, I'm just one
Oh God, help me
Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, help me

Darkness
Imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

Landmine
Has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken my legs
Taken my soul
Left me with life in hell

...but also some that just make you cringe, like "Hit the Lights"

SPOILER: Click to show

We know our fans are insane
We are gonna blow this place away
With volume higher
Than anything today the only way
When we start to rock
We never want to stop again

Hit the lights
Hit the lights
Hit the lights

With all our screaming
We are gonna rip right through your brain
We got the lethal power
It is causing you sweet pain Oh sweet pain
When we start to rock
We never want to stop again

Judas Priest is also another band with very good and bad lyrics mostly depending on the era. Take the lyrics of "Beyond the Realms of Death" for example:

SPOILER: Click to show

He had enough, he couldn't take anymore
He'd found a place in his mind and slammed the door
No matter how they tried they couldn't understand
They washed and dressed him fed him by hand

Yeah! I've left the world behind
I'm safe here in my mind
I'm free to speak with my own kind
This is my life, this is my life, I'll decide not you

Withdrawn he'd sit there stare blank into space
No sign of life would flicker on his face
Until one day he smiled it seemed as though with pride
The wind kissed him goodbye and he died

Yeah! I've left the world behind
I'm safe here in my mind
Free to speak with my own kind
This is my life, this is my life, I'll decide not you

Keep the world with all it's sin, it's not fit for livin' in
Yeah! I will start again
It can take forever, and ever, and ever
And ever, but I'll still win

How many like him, are there still
But to us, all seem to have lost the will
They lie in thousands plagued and lost
Is nothing worth this bitter cost

Yeah! I've left the world behind
I'm safe here in my mind
Free to speak with my own kind
This is my life, this is my life, I'll decide not you

Keep the world with all it's sin
It's not fit for livin' in

and compare them to "Hot Rockin'"

SPOILER: Click to show

I've done my share of workin' out.
I wanna go some place, where I can scream and shout.
Show me the lights, where I can find
The only thing I need to give me peace of mind!

I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go Hot Rockin'

Where is the spark that kicks the air?
Where is the energy that charges everywhere?
I see the crowd, I hear the roar!
I feel my body to leave the ground and soar!

I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go Hot Rockin'!

I'm goin' out in search of the bright lights.
Somehow I feel that tonight is the right night!
I'm almost there, I've got the vibration.
It's coming strong from this generation.
My blood is hot, from now on I'm set free!
My pulse is hot, so don't try to stop me!
Cuz this is it, and I'm Hot Rockin'!

Don't let it stop, don't let it end,
Please let it carry on and on and on again.
I get so high. Knocked off my feet, yeah!
This is the only way I want, I want, I want

[Deleted]

I love the lyrics to AFI's "Rewind":

Draw a line that cannot be crossed
Make a circle out of salt
Knowing it was all your fault
Hide inside, call your doting dogs
As their weak servility
Feeds your emptiness, remember me
In solitude you will sense me

[imladris]

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain

Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies

Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers

That grow so incredibly high

That verse from Lucy in the sky with diamonds has always been one of my favorite lines Lennon has ever written. I know the lyrics are heavily inspired from Alice in wonderland. So technically they're not overly innovative but I still like them a lot.

[clem]

Feb 16, 2020 20:25:01 GMT falsetokaiba said:

But on other occasions, they did descend into nonsense, and the lyrics of 'Sweet Little Sister' are both bad and questionable:
"The pettin's getting heavy got his tongue in her ear
Her friend is doing time for kickin' ass on a queer
They're in a mental state and all their friends are here"

I assume they just needed something to rhyme with 'ear', and that was the best they could come up with. If not, it's certainly an odd detail to include for the sake of one line and one line only.

Pretty standard 80s hard rock song about two people going at it: an otherwise unmentioned individual is in jail for common assault on a gay person.