There's a line in Steve Miller's 'Take the Money and Run' which I happened to hear the other day:
They went down to El Paso
Where they got into a great big hassle
But if this ever changin' world
In which we live in
Makes you give in and cry
Say live and let die
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
Cryin' all the time
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
Cryin' all the time
Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit
And you ain't no friend of mine
Oh, my father's father's father's father
By nature he was bendy
We are the chi chine tribe
And we are over friendly
They went down to El Paso
Where they got into a great big hassle
The passing of time has not weakened my view that this is one of the worst lyrics of all time. But it did get me trying to recall the full list of contenders.
Obviously grammatical errors would get my goat if I had one. How about:
Nobody does it
Half as good as you
Half as well, if you please. Carly Simon brought down by the curse of the Bond theme. As was Macca:
But if this ever changin' world
In which we live in
Makes you give in and cry
Say live and let die
'In which we live' or 'which we live in' would have done fine.
And despite he being one of my all-time favourite song-writers we pause to note Steve Winwood's line from 'Sometimes I feel so Uninspired':
There is no reason for not failing
The double negative succeeds in saying exactly the opposite of that which I believe he intended.
There is no reason for not failing
The double negative succeeds in saying exactly the opposite of that which I believe he intended.
Enough grammar. And we'll not bovva wiv spelling. Slade dun for that coz they sed so. Rock and roll don't obey the rules:
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
Cryin' all the time
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
Cryin' all the time
Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit
And you ain't no friend of mine
It appears my love is a hound dog and only a hound dog, nothing but. And like hound dogs you cry all the time. What? But unlike hound dogs you are poor at rabbiting. You may be man's best friend but no friend of mine. It made sense when originally sung, by Big Mama Thornton about her useless man:
You can come around here
But I ain't gonna feed you no more
We have a nonsense lyric that sounds perfect by repetition, a genre of pop that found its logical culmination in any number of Sean Ryder's streams of unconsciousness. From many examples I choose:
By nature he was bendy
We are the chi chine tribe
And we are over friendly
It's so ridiculous it's wonderful.
Anyway, over to you. Worst lyrics of all time? Go.
4 comments:
Someone left the cake out in the rain
- enough said...
I think the McCartney lyric is "in which we're livin'" which redeems the line entirely. Antony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a band I quite like, has nevertheless dropped some of the worst lyrics of all time. Unforgivable is:
"Standin' on the porch 'cause I lost my house key / Pick up my book, I read Bukowski'
We aren't going to go anywhere near contemporary Christian worship music, are we? Because that's where I've encountered some of the worst lyrics of all time.
Case in point:
“Like a rose trampled on the floor
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all.”
Really? Above all others he thought of me???
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