Odd songs.

[Mystic Muse]

Okay. I didn't see a thread on this so I thought I'd make one. Have any of you ever heard a song with lyrics that made you think to yourself "What were these people on when they thought this up"? This is a thread for discussing those songs.

The one that comes to mind right now is "Funhouse" by pink. I was introduced to this song by my older sister. Here's the lyrics that specifically make me think that the writers are crazy.

"This used to be a funhouse. But now it's full of evil clowns."

Maybe it's just me, but I can't think of any context where this line isn't ridiculous.

So, what songs have you heard and wshat makes them sound so crazy?

[TSGames]

Have any of you ever heard a song with lyrics that made you think to yourself "What were these people on when they thought this up"?

Yes. My favorites musics are Classic Rock and Metal.
Just a few...
"I am the Walrus" by The Beatles
"White Room" by Cream
"Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin


Sometimes a song's meaning is simply the emotion it conveys.

[Mr. Mud]

Aesop Rock and Why? Are both bands that are nearly predicated on thier weird as hell lyrics. Here's some from Why?:


just another sunday paddleboat ride
on a man made lake with another lady stanger
if i remain lost and die on a cross
at least i wasn't born in a manger
i can sense somewhere right now being prayed for
seems like i always arrive on the same shore
from where my sails set maybe with one less lady
than my vessel left with, is that a threat
oh i've stayed scarce this last year yes
but be assured in unrest
i'm unavoidable like death this christmas
is this twisted why be upset
i never said i didn't have syphillis miss listless
hard like the bricks i pound my fists with
i mean she's hard like the bricks that i pound with my fists

this is the fall of mr fifths
forged for the hordes
and the ladies and lords
cept the fat cords in modern english
i know, i know
this must be more revealing
than the sound of high heels
down the marble tile hallways
of your distict's one allotted
city funded steiner school bilingual
or montessori followed by
a single high pitched scream
followed by breaking glass
but could your anger be mapped
into an interpretive dance
to a trip hop track
could it be bowed out on strings
or strung into a pattern
for a god's eye to bring to
your alma mater's holiday fundraiser boutique thing

god i'm sorry, i'm just being crazy. i'm sorry. i'm just being crazy, i know. i'm gonna take you know, kay? you're fine. everything's totally fine. feel a lot better now.

Link to song here <3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx_BfRa3Vko)

[nanobot_swarm]

How about Beach Party Vietnam by Dead Milkmen


It's a beach party Vietnam
Surfin' with the Viet Cong
Cookin' hot dogs with napalm
A beach party Vietnam

Frankie and Annette were
Layin' on the sand
When Frank got a letter
From his Uncle Sam

It said: Get Moon Dog and
All your friends
You're all invited to a

Beach party Vietnam
Surfin' with the Viet Cong
Cookin' hot dogs with napalm
A beach party Vietnam

- Hey Frankie, aren't you gonna give me youur class ring?
- Oh I'm afraid I can't do that, Annette
- Why not?
- 'Cause I don't have any arms!
(AH!)

Beach party Vietnam
Surfin' with the Viet Cong
Cookin' hot dogs with napalm
A beach party Vietnam

Annette, she wants Frankie's ring
Frankie wants Annette's thing
They're layin' on the West Coast
There's gonna be a wiener roast

Beach party Vietnam
Surfin' with the Viet Cong
Cookin' hot dogs with napalm
A beach party Vietnam

[Serpentine]

Odd? More like awesome!

Fish heads, fish heads, rolly-polly fish heads!
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum!

[Avilan the Grey]

"They are coming to take me away, haha..."

Old classic, that.

Also: Tie my Kangaroo Down.

[shiram]

Strapping yound lad's Satan's ice cream truck is pretty odd, but the lyrics alone do not convey all the weirdness.

[Serpentine]

Also: Tie my Kangaroo Down.What's wrong with that? A dying man's last requests. With a bit of good old fashioned racism thrown in...

I love the image invoked by Cake: The land where large, fuzzy dice still hang proudly like testicles from rearview mirrors.

[Coplantor]

The first time this happened to me was with a Red Hot Chillie Peppers song.

"Centuries are what it meant to me
A cemetery where I married the seas
Stranger things could never change my mind
I've gota take it on the other side"

I was 11 and confused.

Also, there's an argentinean band quite famous for the fact that no one but the band and a few of the most fervous fans know what they are talking about. Look for them, Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota.

[SDF]

This is the soundtrack to me going insane. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6fktHmQQlc)

[hamishspence]

The lyrics to some lullabies aren't exactly pleasant when taken literally.

TV Tropes mentioned it as the "Hostile Baby-Rocking Song"- suggesting that it's a way of getting out hostile feelings after you've been kept awake for hours.

[Dienekes]

I know a mouse
And he hasn't got a house
I don't know why I call him Gerald
He's getting rather old
But he's a good mouse

You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world
I'll give you anything
Everything if you want things (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHRE5dyDKTA)

It's not so much that the song is directly crazy like some others it's just incredible random for a song essentially about wooing a chick.

There are of course the popular favorites like the previously mentioned, but now linked to the music.
They're Coming to Take Me Away, Haha (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4)
Fish Heads (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKDtUzRIG6I&feature=related)

and another oddball favorite
Dead Puppies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak0_fa1DDpc&feature=related)

[tehjohnli]

Many of Ke$ha's songs have the strangest lyrics in the world--

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-10-dumbest-keha-lyrics

I see these lyrics and I'm like .....ummwutt?

[Ikialev]

All of They Might Be Giants music.

[Dogmantra]

All of They Might Be Giants music.

Case in point: Statue Got Me High. People try to ascribe meaning to it, but apparently John and John came out and said that it's just about a guy looking at a statue then all of a sudden his head explodes.

[Cespenar]

Trapped in the Drive Thru (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHnTocdD7sk&feature=PlayList&p=BEFACC86EF5C5A1B&index=39), from Weird Al Yankovic?

[Avilan the Grey]

Trapped in the Drive Thru (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHnTocdD7sk&feature=PlayList&p=BEFACC86EF5C5A1B&index=39), from Weird Al Yankovic?

A lot of songs by him.

How about Dare To Be Stupid?

[Mx.Silver]

Warren Zevon's Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner probably deserves a mention here. You could also make a case for Werewolves of London too.

[Eldan]

How about the absolute classic of WTF songs?

Frontier Psychiatrist by the Avalanches (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8BWBn26bX0)

[X2]

You don't listen to much Bob Dylan do you?

[Coplantor]

Trapped in the Drive Thru (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHnTocdD7sk&feature=PlayList&p=BEFACC86EF5C5A1B&index=39), from Weird Al Yankovic?

One of my all time favourites by Weird Al. Though Albukerke beats it by far.

[Obrysii]

America's Horse with No Name is quite odd, I think.


After nine days I let the horse run free
'Cause the desert had turned to sea
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
there was sand and hills and rings
The ocean is a desert with it's life underground
And a perfect disguise above
Under the cities lies a heart made of ground
But the humans will give no love

[Coplantor]

How could I forget about this! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN04vtNcrek)

Just a few parts of it


wise men save
near a tree by a river
there's a hole in the ground
where an old man of aran
goes around and around
and his mind is a beacon
in the veil of the night
for a strange kind of fashion
there's a wrong and a right

Wut...

[Telonius]

You don't listen to much Bob Dylan do you?

My favorite "WTF?" Dylan quote:


The motorcycle black madonna
Two-wheeled gypsy queen
And her silver-studded phantom cause
The gray flannel dwarf to scream
As he weeps to wicked birds of prey
Who pick up on his bread crumb sins
And there are no sins inside the Gates of Eden.


They Might Be Giants has quite a few of them.


I returned a bag of groceries
Accidently taken off the shelf
Before the expiration date
I came back as a bag of groceries
Accidently taken off the shelf
Before the date stamped on myself

Did a large procession wave their
Torches as my head fell in the basket,
And was everybody dancing on the casket?

Now it's over I'm dead and I haven't done anything that I want
Or, I'm still alive and there's nothing I want to do

Though for sheer unadulterated lunacy, it's hard to beat Wesley Willis. (Lyrics unpostable here).

[Ponderthought]

Join Date: Dec 2008

Default Re: Odd songs.
I know a mouse
And he hasn't got a house
I don't know why I call him Gerald
He's getting rather old
But he's a good mouse

You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world
I'll give you anything
Everything if you want things

It's not so much that the song is directly crazy like some others it's just incredible random for a song essentially about wooing a chick.


I think that's more the result of the writer being crazier than a snakes armpit. Poor Sid.

Ive got a quite a few, possibly due to my odd taste:

and open up your chest for me and i will build a house
and peel apart your weathered scars and i will live there like a mouse
(meow meow meow meow) -Man Man

Sitting on a mossy stump, among all the bottles drunk, breathe cold against the air
Oh I smell your ragweed hair, smoked to the bone, soaked to the bone I'm all alone, poor me - Andrew Bird

Step you lightly now
We must keep our voices down
The dogs of remorse
Follow close on the wind
Take your face off, don't be shy
They can't hunt you with their eyes
But surely they know the scent of sin -Firewater

[Dogmantra]

How about the absolute classic of WTF songs?

Frontier Psychiatrist by the Avalanches (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8BWBn26bX0)

How could I forget that? Though I'd say the video is what pushes it beyond "odd" into "WHAT THE EARTH IS HAPPENING"

[The Vorpal Tribble]

One of my favorites:

Creepy Doll - Jonathan Coulton (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0t7ZTzylg0)


That isn't even close to another couple songs I'm trying to remember though...

Edit: This one definitely wins the WTF award for music videos:
I Feel Better - Hot Chip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaCZN2N6Q_I)

[Dogmantra]

One of my favorites:

Creepy Doll - Jonathan Coulton (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0t7ZTzylg0)

I'd say Mr. Fancypants is weirder. JoCo even admitted that he wrote it just to fill a week in Thing a Week and has no idea what it's about.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Ah ha!

Here we go: Love Me Dead/Cancerously - Ludo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XH3oMNKApI)

My ex-bf sister listens to practically nothing but songs that make you just go 'what the hell?!?!?!'

She introduced this to me.

[Sneak]

Everything about this song is WHAT. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvFcoXn4qCo)

I love it.

[Moff Chumley]

:smallbiggrin: The song I quote in my sig, The Fez, by Steely Dan. Pretty damn mindblowing.

[Jallorn]

The Dragonforce song Heart of the Dragon is mostly ok, but one line is apparently: "Standing before of us".......

I'm sorry, but that is one of the stupidest lines I've ever heard.... Of course, I don't entirely believe that those are the lyrics, since it also happens to sound much more like "Standing the four of us" with makes so much more sense.

[Mx.Silver]

The Dragonforce song Heart of the Dragon is mostly ok, but one line is apparently: "Standing before of us".......

I'm sorry, but that is one of the stupidest lines I've ever heard....
Well yeah, it's Dragonforce. Intelligent lyrics aren't really their thing.

[ex cathedra]

A lot of Mr. Bungle is fairly odd, from songs mentioning Giga-Gilgamesh (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wvYOV_IKH8&fmt=18) to songs (not all that obviously) about castration (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbLY7BNV7mM&fmt=18).

A related project consists of a seventy-four minute track written around the theme of surgery without anesthesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del%C3%ACrium_C%C3%B2rdia).

Mike Patton is... certainly an interesting fellow.

[Dragor]

I got introduced to this a few weeks ago.

Stump - "Buffalo" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-PmQ3dFQvs)

Weirdest song I've heard, period.

I always wondered about Brain Damage by Pink Floyd.


The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path
The lunatic is in the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more

I've always interpreted it as "He thinks everyone else around him is insane, but he actually is" but I don't think that's quite right. I'm horrible at interpreting songs.

[Capt Spanner]

How has no-one mentioned Macarthur Park (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHS8hj4TdT8) by Jimmy Webb (sung by Dumbledore Richard Harris).

My favourite lines:

Someone left the cake out in the rain
And I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again.
Oh noooooOOOOOOOOoooooohhhhhhh!

[GrlumpTheElder]

I've always wondered what was up with this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EJ5SJmsTFQ&feature=related

And the Willow Farm section from 'Supper's Ready' by Genesis (although, I do really like the song, especially that bit)



If you go down to Willow Farm,
to look for butterflies, flutterbyes, gutterflies
Open your eyes, it's full of surprise, everyone lies,
like the fox on the rocks,
and the musical box.
Yes, there's Mum & Dad, and good and bad,
and everyone's happy to be here.

There's Winston Churchill dressed in drag,
he used to be a British flag, plastic bag, what a drag.
The frog was a prince, the prince was a brick, the brick was an egg,
the egg was a bird.
(Fly away you sweet little thing, they're hard on your tail)
Hadn't you heard?
(They're going to change you into a human being!)
Yahoo, we're happy as fish and gorgeous as geese,
and wonderfully clean in the morning.

We've got everything, we're growing everything,
We've got some in
We've got some out
We've got some wild things floating about
Everyone, we're changing everyone,
you name them all,
We've had them here,
And the real stars are still to appear.

ALL CHANGE!

Feel your body melt;
Mum to mud to mad to dad
Dad diddley office, Dad diddley office,
You're all full of ball.

Dad to dam to dum to mum
Mum diddley washing, Mum diddley washing,
You're all full of ball.

Let me hear you lies, we're living this up to the eyes.
Ooee-ooee-ooee-oowaa
Momma I want you now.

And as you listen to my voice
To look for hidden doors, tidy floors, more applause.
You've been here all the time,
Like it or not, like what you got,
You're under the soil (the soil, the soil),
Yes, deep in the soil (the soil, the soil, the soil, the soil!).
So we'll end with a whistle and end with a bang
and all of us fit in our places.

[devinkowalczyk]

Supertheory of Supereverything
Crimson King (if you haven't read the black tower)

[Ponderthought]

The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path
The lunatic is in the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more

Half of anything pink floyd did was strange. and i love it.

Cemetery Polka by tom waits is a great, odd song about a really strange family.

[Rowsen]

I'd say Mr. Fancypants is weirder. JoCo even admitted that he wrote it just to fill a week in Thing a Week and has no idea what it's about.

Bacteria is even better. A song made from a KFC training video. Genius.

[Marillion]

A by Knorkator (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7dbJOrrHv8)




AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaa aAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....aaa

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Rivus]

Ed from Cowboy Bebop sang the value of Pi... to me, that's one of the oddest...

[The Dan]

Midnight Flight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BRHoaU2RxE) by Yeti.

Odd: yes.
Disturbing: Highly

Always cheers me up though.

[Athaniar]

Two and a half pages, and no mention of American Pie, one of the oddest (and best) songs ever? Shame on you!


How could I forget about this! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN04vtNcrek)
At least in this case the artist has admitted that the lyrics lack meaning. Which does nothing to stop the speculation.

I'd also like to add St. George and the Dragon by Toto. It's somehow about the eponymous legend, but still odd.

[Coplantor]

When he said the song had no meaning, people started speculating if that was true.

[Dogmantra]

Pokusaj (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_tspk1ifFI) by Laka. It's in Bosnian, but the lyrics are very bizarre. The chanty bit means "Come down from the castle Laka told ne. Come down from the castle, Laka the singer told me personally".

The chorus means "I try to kiss you but you pretend you are mad. I try to kiss you but you pretend you are mad. I try to kiss you but you pretend you are mad. I try to wake you up but you pretend you are already awake."

I used to know more but I forgot it.

[PhoeKun]

*ahem*


Ribonucleic acid freak out, the power of prayer.
Long halls of science and all the lunatics committed there.
Robot Lords of Tokyo, SMILE TASTE KITTENS!
Did you not know that the royal hunting grounds are always forbidden?
Are you rolling tape now? Bits and pieces large and small
Sector, vector, eat them all.
It’s already in their eyes.
Among the metal ones a messenger will soon arrive.

10001110101
Periodic table with a center piece of mind.
10001110101
Periodic table with a center piece of mind.

Man alive the jive and lyrics,
Radioactive, don’t come near it.
Temple of Syrinx having the bake sale of the year.
Man alive the jive and lyrics,
Radioactive, don’t come near it.
Temple of Syrinx having the bake sale of the year.

Ain’t nothing you can do about it. Gonna be a big brawl over it
Like them little bitty babies in the king cakes.
Bonnie & Clyde the whole dome,
The shackles of automata will shatter like their bones.

Does that qualify?

[Klose_the_Sith]

I'd say Ramblin' Van Walkers songs, especially Wildgrass, but everyone would just give me quizzical looks because no-ones heard of Ramblin' Van Walker.

Which is a shame.