Lyrics you could live without

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UltravioletU2

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Aug 15, 2002
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Maybe this has been done before, but I searched the forum and came up empty handed. In the previous post there were several mentions of terrible lyrics, ex. "mole digging in a hole" "new york".

So...what U2 lyrics do you find really lame?

This is not intended to bring up fights! Of course we all know on the whole Bono is an amazing lyricist, but after writing as many songs as he has, there's bound to be some lyrics that are definitely lacking.

My sister and I have always agreed that "Some Days" contains the most lame line:

"Some days you can't stand the sight of a puppy"
 
"In the days
When we were swinging form the trees
I was a monkey
Stealing honey from a swarm of bees."

Gets my vote
 
I'm also not sure about this one:

"Babyface, babyface
Open the door, let me unpack my case."

huh?
 
"...and the cartoon network turns into the news"

I don't know...just not a fan of that particular lyric. It feels oddly out of place, knowwhatimean?
 
i can't think of any in particular, just when they do things that are a bit cliched, esp. rhyme-wise. like if they had a line like "you had my heart/right from the start" or something like that.
 
Some People in this forum have been trying to convince me about how these lyrics are actually poetic and inspiring. I thin kthey're garbage.


"The Blind Leading the Blond"
"If Coke is a mystery, Michael Jackson...History"
"a Big Mac bigger than you think"
"See Father Christmas with a begging bowl"

I find these lyrics too cheesy and uninspiring. How can the same man that wrote "In my dream I was drowning my sorrows
But my sorrows, they learned to swim" write these lyrics. Maybe he was sleepy when he was writing them?
 
MIAMI....MY MAMMY....

WTF? :der: :huh:

I also agree with just about every one above exept the cartoon network turning into the news....basically a metaphor for something fun/good going bad?????

The Wild honey lyrics can also seriously jump in a lake---"I was a monkey?? Stealin honey from a swarm of bees??" had to have been written by his young children or something, I swear.....

I will admit there are some slight lyrical downslides in a few songs in ATYCLB....*hides* :reject:

My opiniion---lyrical peak was Achtung Baby. Go ahead...try to find one bad lyric in there!!

:shame: on me for thinking this.....
 
I'm thinking right now I could have lived without
"The sea it swells like a sore head..."


Though overall I like the song!
 
Seconds said:


"The Blind Leading the Blond"
"If Coke is a mystery, Michael Jackson...History"
"a Big Mac bigger than you think"
"See Father Christmas with a begging bowl"


And you're absolutely right. Especially the first three (the Christmas one isn't quite as bad, but it's not good.) Playboy Mansion, especially lyrically, is so incredibly bad that I have a hard time believing it's by U2. I mean, they have other songs I dislike but in many ways that one takes the cake. I hear too much about how incredibly profound Pop is lyrically. It does have some really good lyrics...but man, some of them are bad.

Other lyrics I dislike include:

"The smartest ass at the top of the class"

"In the days when we were swinging from the trees" etc.

"Nothing much to say I guess, just the same as all the rest"--actually, I mainly dislike this because lyrics such as those get held up as profound while lyrics from October such as "And what am I to do, just tell me what am I supposed to say" get vilified. :scratch:

"Holy dunc space junk"--please, Bono, just shut up for a minute!

"You just can't get enough of that lovey dovey stuff"

"I have a lover, a lover like no other"--yaaaaawwwwwwn

Some of Bono's 90's lyrics seem very, very forced. I'm trying to think of 80's lyrics I dislike, without much success. I'm biased. :huh:
 
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scatteroflight said:

"Nothing much to say I guess, just the same as all the rest"--actually, I mainly dislike this because lyrics such as those get held up as profound while lyrics from October such as "And what am I to do, just tell me what am I supposed to say" get vilified. :scratch:

I personally find the first lyric more interesting.. if you think about it it can be saying a whole lot... about society and stuff. the one from October is kinda simple and blatant (though not bad). I guess that I'm probably just falling into the category of people with opinions that annoy you.


"the air is heavy, heavy as a truck" doesn't do a whole heck of a lot for me. I guess I just don't like the word truck used in poetry. I think if it said "heavy as a drug" it would be both more profound and less childish sounding. And I mean really, the man's Irish... aren't they called lorries? :p
 
I'm not sure I agree with your interpretaion of Babyface.
I do like the Wild Honey lyrics, I think it's a clever way of saying he's loved this person since the beginning of time or evolution.
And after listening to ES several times, I really think the line is "heavy as a drug", but I could be wrong.

But as far as throw away lyrics:
Miami and New York, like I've said before Bono should quit writing about US cities.

Just my $.02
 
Catman said:
"...and the cartoon network turns into the news"

I don't know...just not a fan of that particular lyric. It feels oddly out of place, knowwhatimean?

Personally, I think those lyrics are great... because: look at people... no on's interested in the news anymore. everyone's feeling numb about all the terror we see on the daily news. so somehow cartoon network takes the place of the news, people enjoy watching this more than CNN

just my 0.02 ?
 
SkeeK said:


"the air is heavy, heavy as a truck" doesn't do a whole heck of a lot for me. I guess I just don't like the word truck used in poetry. I think if it said "heavy as a drug" it would be both more profound and less childish sounding. And I mean really, the man's Irish... aren't they called lorries? :p


:D
 
scatteroflight said:


"I have a lover, a lover like no other"--yaaaaawwwwwwn


...she got soul, soul, soul, sweet soul
and she teach me how to sing
shows me colours when there's none to see
gives me hope when I can't believe
and for the first time, I feel love...


Even if you don't like that first line, that's a really lovely song, lyrically speaking. Of course that's just my opinion, and scatter is entitled to hers. :)
 
paxetaurora said:


...she got soul, soul, soul, sweet soul
and she teach me how to sing
shows me colours when there's none to see
gives me hope when I can't believe
and for the first time, I feel love...


Even if you don't like that first line, that's a really lovely song, lyrically speaking.

I agree. Sometimes you have to look at a line in the context of an entire verse. BTW, those are some of my favorite lines from the Zooropa album.

As for lyrics I could live without, I would have to go with the infamous "a mole, digging in a hole" from Elevation. It's too bad, because it puts a real damper on an otherwise kick-ass tune. I also don't like "Miami, my mammy" :yuck:
 
"it's the blind leading the blonde
it's the stuff, the stuff of country songs"

or something like that



pretty bad really
 
Salome said:
"it's the blind leading the blonde
it's the stuff, the stuff of country songs"

or something like that



pretty bad really
I can't understand why everybody keeps saying that this verse sucks. :shrug: It does have a deeper meaning...
 
as i mentioned before, i don't like the cliched rhymes. i also think, while i like the album, there's a lot of stuff on pop that sucks lyric-wise. of course, i know he was kinda rushed sometimes so that can explain some of it. even if i had a year to write one song, i couldn't hold a candle to some of bono's lesser liked works. :D
 
KhanadaRhodes said:
of course, i know he was kinda rushed sometimes so that can explain some of it. even if i had a year to write one song, i couldn't hold a candle to some of bono's lesser liked works. :D

Exactly.

Hence why, even if I do find some lyrics of U2 songs (or songs by any other artists) that I feel might be sorta "eh", unless I honestly, truly felt I could come up with something better, I don't say much. I may make a comment, but I don't sit there and make it seem like I could do so much better, because I know full well I can't.

Not saying that any of you are acting that way, don't take this as an accusation. That's not what I meant.

That's just my personal view, you know?

Besides, as some of you pointed out, sure, a lyric may seem lame at first, but there may be a deeper meaning to it, so it may not seem as lame when you figure out what the lyric is talking about.

Angela
 
In "Electrical Storm" there's a reference to something being as heavy as a truck. I found this laughable....and each time I hear it I still smirk at how lame it was to choose "truck" when referencing something heavy.
 
Danospano said:
In "Electrical Storm" there's a reference to something being as heavy as a truck. I found this laughable....and each time I hear it I still smirk at how lame it was to choose "truck" when referencing something heavy.

At first I thought this was very cheezy too, but someone on another forum brought to my attention that he may be singing "the air is heavy as a drug" . It's much better lyrically, but "drug" and "luck" don't rhyme as well as "truck" and "luck". I haven't listened closely enough to tell, but everytime I hear it, I think it does sound like it could be "drug", and I believe that's the line cuz it's way better! Ignorance is bliss. :)
 
UltravioletU2 said:


At first I thought this was very cheezy too, but someone on another forum brought to my attention that he may be singing "the air is heavy as a drug" . It's much better lyrically, but "drug" and "luck" don't rhyme as well as "truck" and "luck". I haven't listened closely enough to tell, but everytime I hear it, I think it does sound like it could be "drug", and I believe that's the line cuz it's way better! Ignorance is bliss. :)
Yep, that's what I think too. :up: We know that sometimes Bono doesn't speak 100 % clearly and that Electric Storm files could be a bit....off? :shrug: I believe he is singing 'drug' like in In God's Country: 'Sleep comes like a drug in God's country'.
 
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