Lyrics You're Not Proud To Know

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Just realized today that I can recite all of Nine Inch Nail's "Hurt" from memory still. What's your secret shame?

Sterling Clover, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I am absolutely awful at remembering lyrics, yet I know the rap at the start of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air word for word.

*hangs head*

chris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

what the hell are you hanging your head for man, thats cool! my sister knows the belair words too

um, yo holmes smell your weight

gareth, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i know all the Fresh Prince lyrics as well and NEVER fail to sing along with them. and most of Kylie's old hits. and quite a lot of "ice ice baby" by vanilla ice. dear god.

katie, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That's "Yo Holmes, smell you later!"

Based on a performance in the car the other day, I've decided that my new karaoke standard shall be "What's Love Got To Do With It?"

Dan Perry, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You know all of the lyrics to Ice Ice Baby, MsG! I have heard you receit them on at least one occasion.

RickyT, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

alright, stop, collaborate and listen.

is that right? it makes no sense, that I do know.

chris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Come back! Yes with my colour teevee, and my cee dee collection, of Bob Mar-lee COME BACK yes give me one more try cos a luv like this shoulda nevah nevah die.

Sarah, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

...cookin' MC's like a pound o' bacon...

Jonnie, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sarah, you missed out the badda byebyebyebye, badda byebye byebye bit. Cuh!

Jonnie, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

shit dan, you're right. but i did say it was my sister that knows all the lyrics, i struggled to even remember that bit

gareth, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Running to the station, my obligation
When I'm in effect, I shake the foundation
Stories I tell, intellectually well
Fresh for '89, rocking bells
Leila K. - coming right and exact
Leila K. - ain't down with no crack
Leila K. - laying rapster rap
On the mic super-def, never coming out whack"
Got to Get - Rob n Raz feat. Leila K

MarkH, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm proud of every lyric I know by heart, so I can't really answer this. I will admit though that I know every line of the movie BLOODSPORT by heart, even the accent. DUX MY MAN! OK USA!

Ramosi, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

'.......maxin' out(?), catchin'(?), relaxin'(?) or chillin'(?), I was playing some beat-ball(?) outside the school, when a coupla kids who were up to no good, started making trouble in my neighbourhood.

I know all the lyrics apart from that bit (seen above which I have just made a complete bollocks of) when he's arsing around with the baseball. It drives me potty. Please help. Also much trauma over 'Song For Guy', what exactly does Elton John say death is? A curious thing? A terrible thing? A terminal thing? Been annoying me since age 10 when forced to study the intricate percussion in orchestra practice at primary school by progressive teacher.

Wilfred the Beagle, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

not really the question at hand, but the way 'Kitchen knives and skewers' is sung in 'Laid' by James is almost as amusing as Bjork's rendition of.....bugger, forgotten what it was half way through typing. It's not 'It's oh-so-quiet' I can remember that much.

Wilfred the Beagle, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

My brother knows Karl Marx, he met him eating mushrooms in the People's Park, he said "What do you think about my Manifesto?" "I like your manifesto, put it to the test-o", took him down to meet the anarchist party, met a groovy guy, he was arty-farty, he said "I know a little latin and a quis and a quae", I said "I don't know what it means", he said "Neither do I", EAT NATURAL FOOD, bathe twice daily, fill your muscles up with gravy, don't drink tea and don't drink coffee, cover your tin in Yorkshire toffee, dancing in the disco, bumper to bumper, wait a minute, where's me jumper where's me jumper where's me jumper...

Tom, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh Christ. Until now I'd forgotten that I too know all the lyrics to Where's Me Jumper. The shame of it all.

RickyT, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Christ on a bike.

Emma, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh and it's your chin, not tin, that you're supposed to cover in toffee.

RickyT, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Well I never knew that. Good heavins.

Tom, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

someone must know the proper words to THAT bit in both the Fresh Prince theme and Song for Guy..........am having to go off for a fag with the stress of it all.

Wilfred the Beagle, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Tom! I am speechless, unfortunately I know that also, but had previously buried it in the recesses of my mind, where it bloody well belonged.

chris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think I'd best shut up before I embarrass myself further

RickyT, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's fill your NOSTRILS up with gravy you plonker.

Sam, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Perhaps my faulty memento-like memory is due in part to remembering the lyrics to every awful song to ever come down the pike. If I hear a song twice, I remember the lyrics. "The Only Living Boy In New Cross" is particularly galling (sorry ptee).

Nicole, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I believe the bit in Fresh Prince is "Chillin' out, maxin', relaxin' real cool, shooting some b-ball outside of school, there were a couple of guys, they were up to no good, started makin' trouble in my neighbourhood, I got in one little fight and my Mom got scared, she said "you're moving in with your auntie and uncle in Bel-air""

Corrections = welcome.

chris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i wouldn't be proud to know many lyrics, and shame is something i know not of (ahem). there are songs that i do know the lyrics to that people might be a little surprised at. Take That Look Off Your Face by Marti Webb (from Andrew Lloyd Webber musical thingy) cos it's naff, and Born Slippy cos it's inaudible.

Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Chillin out, maxin, relaxin or coolin / shootin' some b-ball outside of the school / when ..........

I love the episode where Will goes back to Philly and runs into the "guy that was spinning you over his head in the opening credits!"

Ramosi, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh Sheriff Fatman too of course.

Tom, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

sheriff fatman - say it loud, you're a carter fan and you're proud, heh

Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The lyrics to every metal ballad of the 1980s and too many Steve Miller Band songs. The wages of being Midwestern.

Pyth, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

thank you chris and ramosi.......most appreciated

alan - tooting on angel dust, but she smiled at you boy, drag boy, dive boy, thumpy-thump-thump.....really am at a loss to know how anyone can make out anything intelligble. Full credit to you, nonetheless. Shoutin' lager lager lager lager and so forth. Mega-mega- white thing.

always enjoy that round on Never Mind The Buzzcocks even tho' v.obvious they've been given the answers beforehand. Slightly less obvious than They Think It's All Over. Mark Lamarr in the throes of deep-setaed identity crisis at the mo' tho'.

Wilfred the Beagle, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ricky T and Sarah know the lyrics to Psychonaut by Fields of the Nephilim.

chris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Pyth - is it Steve miller band who perform 'The Joker' with the confusing line 'Some people call me mould-reese'? I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight talker......

Is this Pyth as in pithy insights or taking the..?

Wilfred the Beagle, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

that'll be "some people call me Maurice [wolf whistle]"

chris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

once again - chris, thanks in abundance. It is a terrible burden being so concerned with such trivialities. You have relieved my weary soul. May have to surf the web for answer to Song for Guy lyric. Am not even going to start on who it's about.

Wilfred the Beagle, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Willard, that is correct, only I'm purdy shore it's "some people call me Maurice." And it's Pyth as in Pythia.

Pyth, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

it's also "midnight toker" for those who were wondering.

Sean, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ricky T and Sarah know the lyrics to Psychonaut by Fields of the Nephilim.

"Sweet nectar...of a THOUSAND young!"

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

CURSES! Chris robbed me of the chance to prove 80s geekitude to you all by clarifying country rawk lyrics. Now you will undoubtedly think I'm just copying him.

Pyth, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Fields of the Nephillim? Chch they are so far out of my mindset it's LARFFABLE. Its only DIMMU BORGIR for me, DARLINK. That or Apoptygma Bezerk! (ARR the joys of netgoth.org.uk and SLIMELIGHT website are really unbounded)...

Sarah, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

so you know of these Goff sites then?

GOFF!

chris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Watching my Romeo and Juliet DVD last night (awww):

"Brother and sister together we'll make it through..."

I believe I had these cut out of Smash Hits once upon a time.

Graham, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

There is no shame in knowing nin lyrics! Okay, there's some. The song I really want to memorize is "Ice, Ice Baby."

bnw, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Its not that I'm agrophobic, its just its not safe to go outside anymore, so I stay indoors with my TV Times, my petty crimes and my nursery rhymes. Someone said that the sound of a baby crying is the most beutiful sound in the world. Well beauties in the eye of the beholder and as it gets colder and colder I just feel so tired. The fridge is empty the walls are damp there's no how water and I look like a tramp, but tramps like us baby we were born to walk and where does a mothers' girl go when her mothers gone? Some you win and some you lose and I've spent my whole life time Falling On a Bruise. And if I had the chance to do it all again - I'd change everything.

AND PROUD!

Pete, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You're a sick man, ptee.

It's a good thing my sister isn't reading this, you'd probably get propositioned via email.

Nicole, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

in case anyone gives even the remotest shit - Song For Guy lyric is 'Life isn't everything'. Except when it's sung it's more like 'eeeh-verr-hurr-ree-theeung' but less intelligible.

I'm getting the threads mixed up - this isn't the one in which to mention how dreadful Dodgy's 'Staying Out For The Summer' was in EVERY respect or how much better The Boo Radley's 'What's In The Box? (See What You Got)' was in comparison to 'Wake Up Boo!'

Wilfred the Beagle, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I am not proud to know the lyrics to Bryan Ferry's "In Your Mind" which include the ageless "see the veiled prophet's withered gaze reflect the nouvelle vague".

On a less shameful note, I also know "So What" by the Anti-Nowhere League.

dan, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I know the lyrics to many bad songs (see useless skills thread), but the jewel in the crown is:

It's me again/ yes how did you guess/ 'cause last time you were really impressed

Betty Boo 'Doin' The Do'

Every verse.

Anna, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Rebel MC's 'Street Tough' is slightly worse, I venture.

'Kno' wot it is? I'm just street tuff'

Wilfred the Beagle, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Fresh Prince! I could recite Parents Just Don't Understand in its entirety to you right here, right now.

The rap in the KLF's 3am Eternal was one I knew by heart as well. I'm sure if I tried to recite it I'd do OK

electric sound of jim, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Coooolin' at the bar, and I'm looking for some action but like Mick Jagger says, I can't get no satisfaction--

NAME THOSE LYRICS AND YULL WIN BIG

actually, it's pretty easy.

Mandee, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That's why I found you don't fool around with the Funky Cold Medina

electric sound of jim, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

a slew of early 90s R&B songs [jodeci, adina howard, blackstreet, jade, SWV, mary j blige, etc], and a few E-40 & The Click songs ["Captain Save a Ho" being my favorite]... Also the 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl Shuffle

phil, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I know all the words to PWEI's "Not now James we're busy". The lyrics are fantastic! "Missus Brown, you got a lovely son but he's on the run on a shotgun mission!/'Listen here cocksuckers, motherfuckers, pay respect to my building/It's JB property and it could be the one you get killed in!/Cops arrive 'Whats this, whats happening, whats what, wheres the hotshot?/James pushed his luck too far this time/His pick up trucks flat out and flying"

GENIUS!! I reckon I'd know all the words to the rest of the songs on that album after I heard a few bars.

Michael Bourke, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

we both lie silently still in the dead of the night

goeff, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The theme to "Prisoner Cell Block H". Even the second verse. Oh, the shame...

Fiery Scot, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Welcome back here at the MCG or the Gabba, or the WACA, or the Adelaide Oval or the MCG, doesn't matter, where you are/ 'Cos we're here in Australia, in summer..." Some song by the Third Man, this dire cricket commentator impersonator, who releases one album a year, at Christmas, and which is bought by approximately EVERY SINGLE Australian. I hate sport (especially cricket), but I still remember that song (though not its name).

charles m, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I don't like cricket/ Oh no/ I love it/ Dreadlock Holiday

Nancy Drew, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Check it out: I just sang the Fresh Prince theme but in a little tiny pipsqueak voice I imagined was coming out of my dickhole (which I was manipulating between my thumb and forefinger in order for it to "mouth" the lyrics). Try it!

Ramosi, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Tag Team's "Whoomp! There It Is". I am proud of the fact that I know all the lyrics to "Parents Just Don't Understand."

Vinnie, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Neunhundertneunzigvierzweizweivierzwei / für ein-und-achtzig pfennig / bist du dabei / vierzweizweivierzweizwei."

Colin Meeder, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Welcome back my friends/To the show that never ends/We're so glad you could attend/Come inside, come inside

There behind the glass/Is a real blade of grass/Be careful as you pass/Move along, move along

Come inside, the show's about to start/Guaranteed to blow your head apart... blah, blah, blah

[Some scars never leave you... ELP fail to land Muppets' theme, 197x]

Michael Jones, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mandee's puZZloR = 'Funky Cold Medina', Tone Loc, no? What is my prize?!

I can't even remember the lyrics to my own songs - you expect me to remember other peoples?

Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I heard 'Down In The Tube Station At Midnight' by The Jam for the first time in years the other day, and was horrified to find that I could sing along to all the lyrics. It also occured to me for the first time ever that if our narrator IS down in the tube station at midnight, isn't it a bit strange for his wife to be "lining up the cutlery, polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork" at that late hour?

Andrew L, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Also why on earth has he decided to go to a pub a half hour away from the tube?

Tom, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

achy breaky heart. I would hang my head but then I realised that I have no shame

Menelaus Darcy, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Also why on earth has he decided to go to a pub a half hour away from the tube?

Not really, he could have been meeting friends in south east London.

N., Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Also why on earth has he decided to go to a pub a half hour away from the tube?

Because he is Paul Weller = because he is a thicko.

Nicole, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

where are you love?

I'm in the glovebox...

goeff, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Is it possible he is at the destination station, rather than the embarking one, as Tom assumes? The only thing that makes me think not is that he's faffing around buying plums in vending machines, which he surely wouldn't be doing if he was almost home and worrried about his curry going cold.

N., Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Did tube stations at any point have plum vending machines?

Tom, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I don't know. This part puzzles me.

N., Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

it would have been even longer than half an hour too. back in the day were not last orders EVEN EARLIER!

Alan Trewartha, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Maybe he did that thing where you fall asleep on the tube and end up going all the way to the end of the line and then have to come back again? I of course have never done this but know people who have snoozed past Finsbury Park, ended up in Walthamstow and gone bouncing backwards and forwards on the Victoria line for much of the night.

Emma, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hang on a minute. I've just realised that at no point in the song does he even say he has been to the pub. Tom has just projected his own life onto Weller's protagonist. He's probably just been working really late at the office. No, hang on, this is the 1970s and that kind of thing didn't happen. OK, he's been shagging his secretary in some grotty hotel room.

N., Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Now you are projecting YOUR life onto the song, N..

Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

un mundo ideal, un mundo identicoooo, un mundo para ti, para los dos...

goeff, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

re: weller's plum. allegedly this refers to a bar of cadury's chocolate (you know that deep blue foil they have). this is the best theory google could find me.

Startlingly this came from an essay about a longpigs song. oh dear.

Alan Trewartha, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Where's Lucy when you need her? I need her to tell me if this is a genuine piece of Woking slang. I suspect not.

N., Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Glasgow N. that's where.

chris, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION YOU FOOL

N., Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Not only that but he is wrrying about the wine going flat = Champagne socialist!!! I have you twigged Mr "man O' the People" Weller.

Pete, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

How is the smell of brown leather different from the smell of white or black leather anyway? Does Weller have a hypersensitive sense of smell?

Nicole, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's obv. Lambrusco, Pete.

Nicole, you've got no poetry in your soul.

N., Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That's because I'm not a goth like you, Dastoor.

Nicole, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Brown leather = not goth

N., Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Late to the game as usual. Cabbage/Pyth: 1st verse of SMB's The Joker = v self-referential. Space Cowboy = title of song on his 3rd album
Gangster Of Love = title of song on 2nd album
Maurice = lead character of Enter Maurice from 7th album Me sad because Enter Maurice is so silly it still makes me laugh.

Ageing W Coast acid-rock fan, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

but what is a pompatis? as in "and i speak of the pompatis of love"???

I used to be able to do ebeneezer goode by the shamen, but having just tried realise it has now gone from my mind, although i could prolly sing along quite easily...

CarsmileSteve, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hah!, I knew someone would ask this, but didn't guess it would be Mr Hewitt.

Pompatis (sic) of love

David, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The straight dope version has a slightly different spelling. The interview bits with Vernon Green are genuinely touching.

Tracer Hand, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ashamed to have intimate knowledge of the following:

Touch upon the booty it was soft as a Twinkie
But since it was stinky
Wouldn't touch it with my pinky
She was moving up and down Like a stair-climbing Slinkie.*

The third line is infuriating because YOU JUST SAID YOU TOUCHED IT!

* Kwame, "It's the Man We All Know and Love"

|\|`!`+`5`u`h, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Smoke stack shooting (?) black soot into the sooty sky

something something makes the Indian cry
Elephant won't forget what its like living in a cage
The ringmaster, tv caster sings from the empty stage

I like the eels. Mainly "electro-shock blues," which I know up and down just from listening to it a gazillion time.

bnw, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

two years pass...
I know far too many Carter lyrics, despite not having listened to them since about 1994.

I also know all the lyrics to John Kettley is a Weatherman by A Tribe of Toffs.

ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 4 September 2004 12:28 (nineteen years ago) link

I got this thread off a link from this thread ("Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" by The Jam - What Does It Mean?) which is the greatest thing in the history of ILM. Probably.

ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 4 September 2004 12:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I can still remember the lyrics of "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes, even though I never even had that song on tape or CD or anything.

Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 4 September 2004 12:35 (nineteen years ago) link

I can do Snow's "Informer" complete with faux-Jamaican accent.

Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 4 September 2004 13:09 (nineteen years ago) link

she had dumps like a truck (truck truck)
thighs like what (what what)
baby move your butt (butt butt)
I think I'll sing it again

Ernest P. (ernestp), Sunday, 5 September 2004 01:08 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm a stony crusty dude with a mop on top
My melon's fully tweaked and I'll never stop
Stop trying to weaz the nugs from coast to coast
The ones with the cones are the ones I dig the most
Lisa, Lisa!

AaronHz (AaronHz), Sunday, 5 September 2004 01:11 (nineteen years ago) link

'zero' by the smashing pumpkins.

latebloomer (latebloomer), Sunday, 5 September 2004 01:16 (nineteen years ago) link


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