Neil Young's "Drftin' Back"... dumbest lyrics ever?

The music to this song is great. And the concept (drifting back to how things used to be) is really cool. But Young's lyrics are absolutely stupid and don't do the music justice at all in my opinion. He's actually singing about and including the word "mp3" in his lyrics for god's sake. Lame.

Does he not understand the importance of couching his message in a little poetry or maybe telling a story. Tom Petty tackled a similar feeling in "The Last DJ". The message was obvious, but he conveyed it through storytelling. Neil's lyrics just sound like an old man bitching incoherently ("I used to dig Picasso").

Again, too bad because the music to the song is great AND it takes up a whole damn LP. Someone should re-write the lyrics for this song and do it justice.

Can anyone think of other songs with great music, but really bad/dumb lyrics?

 

"Elvis and Marilyn/I wonder if they met/The fact that I will never know/Is the one thing I regret."

 

No, they're not the 'dumbest lyrics ever'
Whee! Another negative thread.

 

Paul McCartney had some doozies there for awhile. Smile Away for one.
I was walking down the street one day and who did I meet
I met a friend of mine and he did say
Man I can smell your feet a mile away

 

They certainly suck, but they're not "worst ever" - I think you have to actually put a minimum amount of effort in to make a truly rank set of lyrics. I'd be surprised if Neil had much more than the title ready before the engineer hit "record".

 

i'll take that over "gonna get me a hip hop haircut".

 

I admire (and agree with) the Neiler's enthusiasm and passion in this area and it seems that he thought the only way he could get this message through was to beat people over the head with it. But yeah, a little silly - gonna take a lot more than that to get rid of MP3s. Still a great song though, as you said.

 

Are the lyrics bad, dated and cringe-inducing? Of course. Are they the 'dumbest lyrics ever'? Come on. Maybe start with Vanilla Ice or Limp Bizkit and set the bar down there.

 

well you could at least post the lyrics in here so we can decide whether they are dumb or not ?

 

You want a piece of my heart? You better start from the start.

 

I love the music but:

"T-Bone"

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
No T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone

Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone

Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone

 

Drifting Back was never intended to be a song. Neil just recorded a jam in one take and put it out. From my interview with Frank Sampedro last year:

"Ordinary People" used to be Neil's longest song, and "Driftin' Back" beats it by eight minutes.

Many times, after we haven't played for a while, we jam. ... This time it was captured on tape. I don't think every moment is great, but as the moments pass it gets into good things. Neil said, "I'm going to put it all out there." I said, "No, man, you should cut a couple of those parts out." [laughs]. But that's us, jamming for the first time after nine years, and everybody's gonna get to hear it. That's something I always wished for or dreamed we could do. It finally happened after all these years.

Full interview is here:
http://music.msn.com/poncho-sampedro/story/interview/

and there's already an existing thread about great songs marred by bad lyrics.

 

or Neil's own 'Motorcycle Mama', which is not only obnoxious tripe but almost manages to ruin an otherwise decent side of one of his better albums

 

I'm not surprised that what has to be one of the daftest thread titles ever takes all of four posts to bring in Paul McCartney! I haven't heard the song yet (and it sounds more like a jam, or experiment), but though NY's lyrics are normally quite hard to pin down on certain levels, from time to time he's always penned songs that are extremely open and direct. He's always from time to time pushed boundaries too, and he'll name drop anything if it suits him to do so. I can't believe this is really that bad, and even if it is how on earth can you question whether he really knows how to write lyrics? He's written more fantastic lyrics than many people here have had hot dinners!

 

You beat me to it.

 

The fact that I "liked" this post is NOT to be construed as an endorsement of the lyric. Quite the opposite, in fact. Thank you.

 

At least this one's kind of funny. One drunk evening, my best friend and I changed it from "feet" to "butt" and enjoyed endless, beer-washed amusement. So there's that.

I could be wrong, but it always seemed that McCartney totally got a free pass for "Let Em In." If something like "She's Leaving Home" is up there lyrically (at least I think so), then "Let Em In" is the basically the sound of someone forgetting how to write a song, period.

 

Did you like it better when the music was recycled for "This Note's For You"?

 

i'm as big a neil fan as you will find, but in my opinion his lyrics have been slipping in recent years. i think he just doesn't care as much about crafting songs anymore, and just writes lyrics down without much editing. of course, this is probably the way he's always done it, but it seems to me to be a case of diminishing returns.

now, his guitar playing is a whole other beast. i've noticed a slight drop off in his acoustic playing, but i'd say his electric guitar playing is still getting better. he knows his axes and his rig so well at this point, and he can make them sound EXACTLY the way he wants.

 

I agree

 

You asked for it!

Driftin' Back
A lyric poem by N. Young

Hey now now, hey now now
I'm driftin' back
Hey now now, hey now now
I'm driftin' back
Dreaming about the way things sound now
Write about them in my book
Worry that you can't hear me now
And feel the time I took
To help you feel this feeling
Let you ride along
Dreaming about the way you feel now
When you hear my song
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
In my meditation
I block out all my thoughts
When they come back I push them out
Like Jesus had a rock
They pushed in front of this cave now
They rolled across the ground
Hey now now, hey now now
They rolled across the ground
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
Here's how I got my mantra
Gave them thirty five bucks now
Gave it to the Maharishi
It went to the organisation
Excuse my religion
Dreaming ‘bout the way things feel now
Write it in my book
Blocking out all the thoughts now
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
Hey now now, hey now now
I'm driftin' back
Hey now now, hey now now
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I used to dig Picasso
I used to dig Picasso
Hey now now, hey now now
I used to dig Picasso
Then the big tech giant came along
And turned him into wallpaper
Hey now now, hey now now
I used to dig Picasso
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
Don't want my mp3
Don't want my mp3
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
When you hear my song now
You only get five percent
You used to get it all
You used to get it all
Blocking out my anger
Blocking out my thoughts
Blocking out my anger now
Blocking out my thoughts
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
Gonna get me a hip hop haircut
Gonna get a hip hop haircut
Gonna get a hip hop haircut
Hey now now, hey now now
Hey now now, hey now now
Blocking out my anger
Finding my religion
I might be a Pagan
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back
I'm driftin' back

 

Now THAT'S an example of a guy forgetting how to write a song!

 

It is a tough one to digest for sure. I picked up psychedelic pill last weekend. It's a good album. But Neil even tries to make it like an Double LP with two CD's. Hahaha.

 

The Beatles
Great music Great Vocals
Hello Goodbye

 

As Neil says, "It's all one song."

And I think the repetitiveness of "T Bone" is brilliant.