Bands who write the most pretentious/meaningless lyrics?

I thought the killers human or dancer was in reference one of hunter s thompsons books?

Most lyrics that are not smacking you in the face with their meaning require an understanding of the reference to have any meaning.
 
fez said:
I thought the killers human or dancer was in reference one of hunter s thompsons books?

Most lyrics that are not smacking you in the face with their meaning require an understanding of the reference to have any meaning.
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I know what you are saying, but I do come across some songs where I really have no idea what the lyrics are about, take this song for example (Silver Heat by APC):

I stand alone like a leper
in the splended grandeur of my solitude
a rude mannerism
to include on those held back by inhibitions
if the myth that keeps you warm
fails to feel secure by superstition
everything else steering charted to the unknown
sweet reciept of a conic glass
bubbles like bass, where intricate broadcasts
experiments like lab rats
pack heat like a thermos, intrinsic
act on instinct and ballots extinguished
stink like N'Sync, I exist as contradiction
taking your silence as conformation
silver heat
MC for modern classic, conceptual
from you empty gestures, cosmetic
many weathers apart
when your a pitter it patters like wallpaper
floppy ****, vagrants, a vapor, vanquished
empty parking lot vacant and vanished
just as lightbulbs make love and burn themselves out
obviously you're not stingy with stupidity
conceited, and your album's only one song strong
chew your arm off and and raise your hand
appreciation is just as impractical
as masculinity for drag queens
in the game of role reversal
like conducting the hell's angels at a choir rehersal
rejoice, rejoice, rejoice
and celebrate every day as new year's
is lookin in the mirror to watch my balls drop
four, three, two, one
silver heat
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Nitefly said:
Oh come on, how is it not Radiohead? :p

I've hilighted the most offending bits:


What a load of absolute crap :D
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It kinds of helps when you know what the song is actually about. It's about parents divorcing and a family breaking up. Makes more sense now, doesn't it. To help you more, go here:

http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/11950/

Don't dismiss something as 'crap' because it doesn't immediately make sense to you. If all art was instantly understandable things would get rather boring. There would be nothing to explore.
 
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I have no idea what half of Vampire Weekend's lyrics are about. Not pretentious and a great band, and potentially not even meaningless, but the lyrics are certainly bizarre!
 
No one has mentioned Bohemian Rhapsody yet :D

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
(Galileo) Galileo (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro
Magnifico-o-o-o-o
I'm just a poor boy nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
Let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go
Let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go
Let me go (Will not let you go)
Let me go (Will not let you go) (Never, never, never, never)
Let me go, o, o, o, o
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh mama mia, mama mia) Mama Mia, let me go
Beelzebub has the devil put aside for me, for me, for me!
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Awesome song, but utter gobbledegook
 
Edinho said:
Finally people coming round to realising they are crap.
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They really aren't though. Some of their stuff is pretentious but not meaningless.

MikeHunt79 said:
Does he do a lot of The Mars Volta Lyrics? Some of them are rather strange...
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Strange is an understatement.
I have recently started listening to TMV and I don't understand a lot of the stuff he sings about :(
 
physichull said:
Any AC/DC! Overcompensating I reckon.....
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Heh, it's hard rock - it's all over-compensating! That being said, You Shook Me All Night Long has brilliant lyrics and is sung really well so that it fits the music and rhythm really well.

qqg3 said:
Excluding Eminem surely? He has some of the best lyrics out there...
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The Beastie Boys, too. To The 5 Boroughs is an outstanding album.

manic111 said:
I have no idea what half of Vampire Weekend's lyrics are about. Not pretentious and a great band, and potentially not even meaningless, but the lyrics are certainly bizarre!
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I think his vocals save the lyrics, to be honest. He has a stunning voice.
 
We Didn't Start The Fire by Billy Joel

Mental lyrics!, but awesome

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

CHORUS:
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser aand Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy hn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez

CHORUS:
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"

Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide


[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/we-didnt-start-the-fire-lyrics-billy-joel.html ]

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo

CHORUS:
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

CHORUS:
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodsto/ck/, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

CHORUS:
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...
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Just watched some Billy Connolly and he mentioned this song and sais some stuff about it i canne post here, i went and listened to the song and fully agreed with him then remembered this thread...

 
Domo said:
The Killers.

Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
My sign is vital
My hands are cold
And I'm on my knees
Looking for the answer
Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
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That song was based roughly on a quote from Hunter S Thompson, about are we human doing everything that we want, or are we dancers, all following choreography.

Rich
 
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