Word play

[indra]

Digging through songs for the delightful "Song Name Chain" threads I noticed that I tend to like songs with a fair amount of word play. Sometimes it's double entendres, sometimes it's actually making up new words, occasionally it's even "private" jokes that only fans would understand.

Here's a few which come to mind for me to get this started:

-- Untitled Too (Steve Kilbey song...second untitled song on the album Dabble)

-- Constant in Opal (song by The Church. Say it out loud, and run the words together)

-- Cantilever (another song by The Church. A cantilever is apparently an attachment on a guitar which is used to get a really distinctive sound in this song. But, if you sound it out, cantilever sounds like Can't I Leave Her, which is very appropriate when you listen to the song.)

-- in The Church (yeah, yeah, them again! But it gives the rest of you every other band to use) song Tel Aviv, it's the making up words trick -- "you better hope the dope don't make you telepathetic"

-- There was a band named The Bhagavad Guitars -- a play on The Bhagavad Gita

-- In the song No Such Thing (Steve Kilbey), there's the line "and please don't mention the church." Kind of an in joke as Sk's "day" job is as a member of the band The Church.

-- The Church song Welcome (which is essentially a list of names) has a lot of the inside joke type of thing. A few are: Gavin McKillop -- producer of the band's P=A cd; Nick Ward -- the band's first drummer (he didn't last long); Tom Miller (Tom Verlaine's original name); Trevor Johnstone -- The Church lighting guy; Wendy Fuller -- prettiest girl at Steve kilbey's school in Dapto. Awww... ; Joyce Bell -- Steve's mum; Alan Muller -- the artist who painted Steve's portrait which appears on his (SK's) Remindlessness cd. A more complete list of names (some are pretty interesting), is at the following link.
"Welcome" names list

What examples of word play in music (titles, lyrics, even band names) can you dig up?

 

[u2popmofo]

Interesting thread idea

I know I'll think of more later, but I have one on the top of my head:

Portishead - 'Western Eyes'

In the actual song, you cant ever tell if they're saying Western Eyes or Westernize. I like that.

 

[u2popmofo]

The Cure had a hit with a song called 'Why Cant I Be You'.

They just released a b-side entitled 'Why Cant I Be Me' (which I surprisingly havent heard yet!)

 

[beli]

Indra, you missed Terra Nova Cain

 

[indra]

Indra, you missed Terra Nova Cain

Hey! There's hundreds of songs to wade through! But you're right, I should have gotten that one! Hell I listened to Gold Afternoon Fix for years when I drove.

 

[u2popmofo]

lmjhitman just reminded me of a song with wordplay:

'Feel Good Hit of the Summer' by Queens of the Stone Age.

The lyrics:

Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol.
CCCCCCocaine.

 

[indra]

Another one:

-- on the Isidore album there is a song titled One For Iris Doe. Iris Doe is an anagram for Isidore. Plus Isidore is the nickname of Jeffery Cain, one half of Isidore, the group.

 

[alia612]

Paul Westerberg's got an album called 'Suicaine Gratifaction'. I'm not still exactly sure what it means.

EDIT: Oh, and Mofo, 'Why Can't I Be Me?' is pretty good! it's similar to the original, but a lot more downtempo [and different lyrics, of course]. It's not a great song, IMO, but it's all right.

 

[indra]

And an amusing example of homophones is "Wholly Holy" by The Crystal Set.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

-- Constant in Opal (song by The Church. Say it out loud, and run the words together)

it's been a long week. help!

 

[beli]

slur the words together. Think of Byzantium

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

hmm

well at the end of '21st Century Digital Boy' by Bad Religion there's what I think is a King Crimson reference

St. Etienne have an early song called 'Carnt Smile' that's a reference to a Happy Mondays album title

I can't remember any others

 

[indra]

Think pre Istanbul.

 

[indra]

This one might be a stretch, but I always think of it when I hear the song.

In the song "Aura" by The Church (yep, them again ), there is a list of things which equal each other:

They said that love = hate
And death = fate
An enemy always = an adorer
But priest = aura

Yeah, and life = time
And time = space
And space = sublime
And human = race

Oh and woman = man
And pot = pan
The fauna ought to equal the flora
But priest = aura

And beginning = the end
The end always = the start
But straight = bent
The mind sometimes = the heart

And you = me
The land = the sea
Richer = poorer
And priest = aura

I wonder about the "pot = pan" line. One meaning is obvious -- cooking utensils. But I wonder, given Kilbey's fondness for drugs and mythology, if it can also mean pot (the drug) = pan (the greek god Pan).

 

[indra]

I seem to be the only one posting in this...oh well, keeps me happy.

More Kilbey weirdness:

Pinnochio he loves her
Like anybody wood

(from The Egyptian

 

[typhoon]

Who the hell are the Church anyway?

 

[indra]

Who the hell are the Church anyway?

You have to be kidding!

Here's a site with loads of info on them. If you're interested, give it a look.

Shadow Cabinet

 

[thesuburbskill]

"it was dark as i drove the point home"

love this lyric from the smiths' "that joke isn't funny anymore"


also a lot of double entendres on pj harvey's "the letter"

Who is left that
Writes these days?
You and me
We'll be different
Take the cap
Off your pen
Wet the envelope
Lick and lick it

 

[alia612]

There's a line in 'Valentine' by the Replacements about "when you're hungry and you're fed up"... Paul Westerberg's got a lot of 'em. Can't think of any others at the moment though.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i still don't get that one.

 

[indra]

i still don't get that one.

you mean "Constant In Opal"? Actually it took me a while to get it at first too. Doesn't much help that the song doesn't seem to have much to do with the title... It probably made sense to the drug-addled brain of Steve when he wrote it though.

The play on words is "Constant In Opal" = Constantinople (what Istanbul used to be called).