BEST SONG with the WORST LYRICS

any shins song off chutes too narrow, but especially So Says I

Oh Chute, I like this album a lot tho and never found the lyrics egregiously distracting.

i love Chutes, but god if Mercer isn't the worst offender of the whole "bad lyrics" thing that gets talked about here

http://hazlitt.net/feature/praise-stupid-song-lyrics

luckily the popcraft outweighs it—he's no colin meloy

I think I like most of the songs I like in spite of the lyrics. Because most lyrics are terrible.

― It stops me from using my ghost powers and is a meatier from space (Old Lunch), Saturday, 6 May 2017 23:40

Or, y'know, serviceable at best.

― It stops me from using my ghost powers and is a meatier from space (Old Lunch), Saturday, 6 May 2017 23:41

Aside from what's in the singles charts I rarely have a huge problem with lyrics.

I think lots of extreme metal has good lyrics because a lot of it just describes cool things and that works well. Loved the Khanate lyrics, but it's a lot to do with the delivery.

Yes - "Close To The Edge"? It's a mixed bag lyrically but I love the words "total mass retain".

Under my Thumb by Rolling Stones

I love the marimba and it might be my favorte RS song but tje lyrics feel a tad mysoginistic

mysoginistic lyrics are part of the appeal. it's a hate song.

keith richards was asked about that song once and his defense was that he could imagine the song being sung by anyone about anyone, regardless of gender

Hard to single out just one Police song but I think I'll go with 'Wrapped Around Your Finger'

Ooh, the Police are a strong contender. "Don't Stand So Close to Me"? "King of Pain"?

I like "Under My Thumb" a lot and think it has good lyrics in the sense of being well-written pop lyrics that work with the music and effectively paint a picture. It's not just about hate but about revenge and domination, though, and the message could be a bit creepy if one extrapolates to consider how male partners often achieve(d) revenge and domination, especially in the 60s. (So I don't know if I completely buy Richards's defence.) That said, it can definitely be defensible for songwriters to write songs from the pov of creepy, indefensible protagonists.

Has any female singer covered "Under My Thumb" ?

Tina Turner.

does "worst" mean bad lyrics or objectionable lyrics?

keith richards was asked about that song once and his defense was that he could imagine the song being sung by anyone about anyone, regardless of gender

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, May 8, 2017 4:47 AM

in his new Beatles book, Rob Sheffield argues that Jagger used his campiest, most sexually ambivalent performanes for his bitchiest lyrics, mitigating some of the misogyny.

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"