Great Songs with Unintelligble Lyrics

Name some songs you love but have don't have a clue what they're singing about.

These have puzzled me most of my life:


"Get Off My Cloud" – Until I got the Stones Singles box in 1989 with lyrics, I had no idea what the heck Mick was shouting. After reading the lyrics, I must admit I liked it better that way (I suppose this applies to most songs on the Singles Collection ha ha ha

Led Zep – “Trampled Underfoot” – aside from “Talk about love” and something about gasoline, I have no idea what’s going on here.

"Jailhouse Rock" – Ok, what in the world is Elvis singing in the final verse? I can make out “make a break” and “heaven sakes” but what’s that’s stuff about “shifty nix nix kix” ???

 

Every song on REM's Murmur comes to mind.

Trampled Under Foot is a good pick! I totally agree. Un maw my gasoline, and it in gonna crack ya head. Whuh?

 

"Sway" from Sticky Fingers. Great song, but I have no idea what Mick is singing.

Larpy

 

Tumblin' Dice - Stones

Curmudgeon - Great Nirvana B Side with completely unintelligble lyrics.

 

Shifty Henry said to Bugs, "For Heaven's sake,
No one's lookin', now's our chance to make a break."
Bugsy turned to Shifty and he said, "Nix, nix,
I wanna stick around a while and get my kicks."

"Nix" is, of course, slang for "no".

One of the more delightfully indecipherable performances in rock history is the Yardbirds' Five Live version of "Too Much Monkey Business". Unless you're familiar with Chuck Berry's original--and maybe even then--you'd be hard put to figure out what the hell Keith Relf is babbling about.

And, need I add, *anything* from the Stones' Exile On Main St..

 

Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam

 

Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen?

 

The whole song is a running car metaphor for sex.
Pumping your gasoline, checking beneath the hood, etc.

Another great Zeppelin pick is The Wanton Song.

And, of course, all of the really heavy metal I listen to.

 

Yup!

I can understand every word of " by the Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar".

 

Re: Re: Great Songs with Unintelligble Lyrics

You just cleared up a mystery that's been bugging me since I was 7 years old. What a tongue twister!

 

Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress - the Hollies

 

so. Central Rain-- R.E.M. The only words I can make out are "I'm sorry" and I'm not even sure about that, even though it's the subtitle of the song!

 

Great song, and I also second Mike V's post on "Murmur".

My vote goes to "Gardening At Night", especially the early version on the Eponymous album. I love that song!

Sadly, there's such a thing as knowing too much. Here's a link to the lyrics but I'm not going to read them. I prefer letting the song have it's own special meaning to me. Whatever that is.

http://www.geocities.com/mmeyer_hermann/Gardening2.html

Dan C

 

Paul McCartney's "Monkberry Moon Delight" from "Ram", to this day I still can't understand all the words!

 

Good one - can't believe I missed this song. It's drenched in so much echo, maybe for good reason

 

"Shootout On The Plantation" by Leon Russell.
I love that song, but I can't understand what he's singing most of the time!

 

Santa Fe, Bob Dylan.

Richard.

 

Damn, I thought I'd be the first one with a cut from the basement tapes!

Bob Dylan "I'm Not There (I'm Gone)"

Usually can't tell what he's singing, and when you can it doesn't really seem to follow the preceding line... one suspects Bob's pulling these phrases out of the ether as he's singing them. Still, the mood of loss and regret is undeniable, powerful, heartbreaking.


EDIT: I can't quite believe this, but I googled the song title, and someone's actually transcribed the lyrics: http://www.slopbucket.com/bob/lyrics/imnotthere.html

 

Mike,

My wife and I spent a dinner with another couple deciphering the lyrics. Strangely enough, it was fun!


Saturday night I was downtown
Working for the FBI
Sitting in a nest of bad men
Whisky bottles piling high

Bootlegging boozer on the west side
Full of people who are doing wrong
Just about to call up the DA man
When I heard this woman singing a song

A pair of 45's made me open my eyes
My temperature started to rise
She was a long cool woman in a black dress
Just a 5'9, beautiful tall
With just one look I was a bad mess
'Cos that long cool woman had it all

I saw her headin' to the table
Well a tall walking big black cat
When Charlie said I hope that you're able boy
Well I'm telling you she knows where it's at
Well suddenly we heard the sirens
And everybody started to run
A jumping out of doors and tables
Well I heard somebody shooting a gun

Well the DA was pumping my left hand
And then she was a-holding my right
Well I told her don't get scared
'Cos you're gonna be spared
Well I've gotta be forgiven
If I wanna spend my living
With a long cool woman in a black dress
Just a 5'9 beautiful tall
Well, with just one look I was a bad mess
'Cos that long cool woman had it all

Had it all

 

I did say that that Exile on Main st was overrated,but the songs were structurally cool.Almost any ole song from Exile has unintelligible lyrics(I'm pushing it but you folks,get it),but the lyrics are not as important as the feel of those songs.

 

Another one I forgot to list - everything on my Charley Patton cd. I'm sure this is mainly due to the condition of the original 78's or whatever they used but I can't understand a single word he sings. It still sounds wonderful at any rate. I get scared everytime I play "High Water".

 

L-O-V-E-U by Brass Construction

 

I don't remember that song being that difficult. Poor guy's just got a piano up his nose, that's all. But yeah, now come to think of it, without the track playing in front of me, he was having some problem with "soup and fury" as I recall.

But I guess "Solar Prestige a Gammon" from Elton John's Caribou disc doesn't count since it's in some other language and though I love the tune, I belt it out phonetically?...

 

Y'know, that's the first time I've ever seen the lyrics to "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)." I've been listening to that song for 32 years and pretty much knew the title and a few other scattered words, and that's it. It hasn't lessened my appreciation of it.

"Get Off of My Cloud" remains unintelligible at any speed, even though, once again, I've seen the lyrics. The same with "Brown Sugar" and "Tumbling Dice."

Several others that fit the bill:

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" -- Nirvana
"Come On Eileen" -- Dexys Midnight Runners
"One Week" -- Barenaked Ladies
"Lookin' Out My Back Door" -- Creedence Clearwater Revival ... for decades I thought John Fogerty was singing "Memory of an elephant, I'm playin' in the band"
"I Am the Walrus" -- The Beatles ... you can't tell the lyrics without a scorecard, so to speak