BEST SONG with the WORST LYRICS

Kinda feel like '90s alternative is the apotheosis of this trope. So much music from that era I love, with so many lyrics that scan like a cry for help from an angsty 13-year-old who enjoys pulling random words from the dictionary without reading their attendant definitions.

"Bustin at Em" - WAka

My personal favorite song with lyrics I really can't get behind is a Chuck Ragan solo tune, "On Broken Ears":

Repercussions come around
As a word named free (?) burns to the ground (??) somehow (??!)

Iggy Pop to thread

I'm only five foot one
I got a pain in my neck
I'm looking up in the city
What the hell what the heck

Ariana Grande’s “Into You” contains my favourite dumb lyric of last year: “A little less conversation / and a little more touch my body.” You know how porno dirty talk always sounds a little awkward? How sexts are always a little embarrassing? This is that. The puerility is vulnerability. It feels accurate. There’s no veranda—this is happening in a room that smells like rum and body odour.

from the hazlitt piece linked upthread. finding it alternately infuriating and exhilarating, the former bc of stuff like this—the lyric is awkward bc it's deliberately referencing two other song titles, why not mention that—the latter bc colin meloy is really bad

"On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings"
Horse With No Name - America

the heat was hot

Its not exactly Neil Young.

Its approximately ...

Let's Talk About The Led Zeppelin Epic Track- "Carouselambra"

ellen willis made a similar argument about "under my thumb":

A crude but often revealing method of assessing male bias in lyrics is to take a song written by a man about a woman and reverse the sexes. By this test, a diatribe like "Under My Thumb" is not nearly so sexist in its implications as, for example, Cat Stevens's gentle, sympathetic "Wild World"; Jagger's fantasy of sweet revenge could easily be female—in fact, it has a female counterpart, Nancy Sinatra's "Boots"—but it's hard to imagine a woman sadly warning her ex-lover that he's too innocent for the big bad world out there."

Yeah, it's the Outhere Brothers
Comin' back at yo' ass for tha 9 4
For all you motherfuckers that didn't know
We comin' back, ruthless Roy, crazy
Ya know wha I'm sayin'? BIAAAAATCH!

Don't stop movin', baby
Ooh, that booty's drive me crazy
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle
Don't stop movin', baby
Ooh, that booty's drive me crazy
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle

Wiggle wiggle, wiggle, don't stop
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle, don't stop
Wiggle wiggle, don't stop
Wiggle wiggle, don't stop

Don't stop movin', baby
Ooh, that booty's drive me crazy
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle
Don't stop movin', baby
Ooh, that booty's drive me crazy
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle

Don't stop, don't, don't stop movin', baby
Don't stop, don't, don't stop movin', baby
Don't stop, don't, don't stop movin', baby
Don't stop movin' baby, drive me crazy

Energy, energy, energy, energy
Energy, energy, energy, energy

Put yo' ass on my face
I love the way your pussy tastes
Girl, you know you are the one
Take that ass and make me cum

Put yo' ass on my face
I love the way your pussy tastes
Girl, you know you are the one
Take that ass and make me cum

Don't stop movin', baby
Ooh, that booty's drive me crazy
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle
Don't stop movin', baby
Ooh, that booty's drive me crazy
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle, wiggle wiggle

Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle, wiggle wiggle
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle
Wiggle, wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle

Girl, you got to suck my dick
And you got to suck it quick
Girl, you got to suck my dick
And you got to suck it quick

Energy, energy, energy, energy
Energy, energy, energy, energy

Put yo' ass on my face
I love the way your pussy tastes
Girl, you know you are the one
Take that ass and make me cum

Put yo' ass on my face
I love the way your pussy tastes
Girl, you know you are the one
Take that ass and make me cum

Don't stop movin', baby
Ooh, that booty's drive me crazy
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle
Don't stop movin', baby
Ooh, that booty's drive me crazy
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle, wiggle wiggle

Wiggle wiggle, wiggle, don't stop
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle, don't stop
Wiggle wiggle, don't stop
Wiggle wiggle, don't stop

Don't stop movin', baby
Ooh, that booty's drive me crazy
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle
Don't stop movin', baby
Ooh, that booty's drive me crazy
Wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle

Drive me crazy, drive me crazy
Drive me crazy, don't stop movin', baby
Drive me crazy, drive me crazy
Drive me crazy, don't stop movin', baby

Energy, energy, energy, energy
Energy, energy, energy, energy

Biatch!

is this really a 'best song'

Is the sentiment in "Wild World" really that different from the one in Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams"?

I'm not even sure I agree about the "Boots"/"Under My Thumb" analogy. Maybe I could see it if there were a sequel where Nancy Sinatra bragged about how her man now does just what he's told, speaks when he's spoken to, and had become the sweetest pet in the world.

["... did just what he was told, spoke when he was spoken to, ...]

I'm only five foot one
I got a pain in my neck
I'm looking up in the city
What the hell what the heck

You're crazy, those are great lyrics!!!!

Iggy is a top notch lyricist.

Remembered a big one - "Life on Mars."

― flappy bird, Sunday, May 7, 2017 11:09 AM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wrong as fuck

lol at Outhere Brothers making a best song list

"man, 'i wanna fuck you in the ass' really puts a damper on what is otherwise a genre-defining classic"