June 10, 2005
"I can't stay on your life support, there's a shortage in the switch" -- Pink, Just Like A Pill
I love that song, really I do. But I cringe every time I hear "shortage in the switch". I realize that the tune flows better with that phrase, but c'mon, it's not slang or idiom, it's an intentional misuse of a word that makes it nonsense. You can have a short in a switch, but not a shortage.
Nitpicky? You bet.
Need another example? How about in Maria Muldaur's Midnight at the Oasis. A very sexy song with a wonderful melody, sung by a singer with a great voice for it, and the word play and imaging is excellent. Oasis, sultan, camel, sheik, belly dancer, nomad, and so on, right up until the line:
Come on, Cactus is our friend
Cactus?!?!?!?! Where the hell did the cactus come from? I thought we were in a thousand and one Arabian nights, not a Roadrunner cartoon. You say cactus and I'm picturing the American southwest or Mexico. Your romantic camel just became a burro refusing to budge for no damn reason while Gabby Hayes mutters "dagnabbit". Talk about a mood breaker.
What about you? Got some song lyric that just grates on your nerves?
Posted by: Ted at
05:57 AM | category: Square Pegs
Comments (6)
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But yeah, my pet peeve is lyrics that can't be made out. Eddie Vedder sings 'Yellow Ledbetter' in it's entirety in this fashion.
Posted by: shank at June 10, 2005 08:18 AM (+H1yK)
Posted by: shank at June 10, 2005 09:14 AM (+H1yK)
As for stupid lyrics, in the otherwise excellent Hotel California;
"Please give me my wine.. we haven't had that SPIRIT here since 1969."
Wines are not spirits! Vintage would have scanned perfectly and been appropriate. Which is a mighty small nit in one of my favorite songs.
Posted by: Jim Gwyn at June 10, 2005 09:38 AM (9ZxRw)
Moving forward using all my breath
Making love to you was never second best
I saw the world crashing all around your face
Never really knowing it was always mesh and lace
HATE IT! I think it's the whole pretentious art-school reject whiny emo-boy sound of it, plus the forced-into-meter thing.
I tell you how much I hate this song... Tom Hanks *genuflect* could mime it and I'd still spit.
Posted by: LeeAnn at June 10, 2005 02:50 PM (v9jcm)
And I like Joni Mitchell and all, but in her song "For Free" she pronounces "jewels" as two two syllables, "jewwwww- wels", and then has to pronounce "schools" as "schoooo- wels" to make it rhyme. Rediculous!
And as fer misunderstood lyrics, in the song "Jet", Paul McCartney sings "I thought the only place was on the moon" but for years I thought the line was ?I thought the only lonely FACE was on the moon," which I think is a better line!
Posted by: Tuning Spork at June 12, 2005 11:55 AM (nOyDe)
When he gets to the part, "Just let your inhibitions run wild" I think, if she does that, he's NEVER getting any.
Posted by: wheels at June 16, 2005 11:21 PM (8df8f)
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