Bad Lyrics

Yeh, Greg actually showed up at Pete's one concert... and sang on the song with him... and Pete's album was on Manticore.. so there was a few connections. Even some of the lyrics he wrote were PFM were off the wall... its a good thing their English wasn't all that good then...

It is from Pete's solo album... but Greg only sang on the chorus of 1 of the songs.."Still". Of course, thats the best song on the album.. and a proving point that Greg had the best voice in the business.. When he comes in on that chorus... my knees generally give way....

Pete's lyrics have always gone from one extreme to the other.  For instance, he wrote those lyrics before that we were quoting as bad.. from "Love Beach".... "Taste of my Love".  But then he co-wrote the words to KE9 and Pirates.

But Pete's website is a very interesting place to hang out.. .http://www.songsouponsea.com/

Actually one of my favorite lyricists has always written the strangest stuff...Generally tho, once you knew how to read in between his lines, he became a lot more clearer...

"The sea goat casts Aquarian runes through beads of
    mirrored tears,
Suave pirates words of apricot crawl out of your veneer
Anoint your eyes with Midas' oil and make it still appear
Alladin's lamp is glowing bright transmuting panacea;
To fill your souls with sugared holes.
"Oh can't you hear" sang the sea goat "the nonsense
    makes me numb."
"It's near it's clear" sang the sea goat "we live to
    overcome,
The madman's voice and his nowhere choice,
The pain that drains like an endless day of rain."

The sea goat reads the flight of birds and writes upon the
    sand;
Gold waterfalls of autumn wheat slip through a pointing
    hand
Whose fingers stiff with sentences still beckon to the
    band
To play the "Best Foot Forward March" and deafen all
    the land.
With hollow words, it's so absurd!
"Take your stand" sang the sea goat "the night goes on
    and on."
"Unwrap your plans" sang the sea goat "tell everyone
    you've gone
To touch the earth and to see the birth
The smile, the style down an unspun mile of life."

It fills the air! It fills the air!
The song of the sea goat shaking in the domes
The song of the sea goat as endlessly he roams,
Between the sunset's crimson veil
On smooth grey streets where the drunkard spins his
    tale.

The sea goat sips and hurls his glass along the
    smoke-filled road
Where shuttered snakes of brakeless trains run aching
    with their load
Of spring-eyed, tonguetied, wooldyed lads who kiss the
    L-shaped goad
Which soon will smear their uniforms with blood,
    whitewash & woad.
Damn iron minded, gold braid blinded, officers and
    gentlemen!
"God!" sang the sea goat "is always on both sides."
"Change" sang the sea goat "is constant as the tides
"And this play" sang the sea goat "is strangely
    synthesised
When your part of a cast where the first comes last
Where the east goes west and the sun is burning out

And your part of a cast . . . . . ."

Actually I'm a big fan of Music Hall music - not necessarily listening to it, but performing it is certainly great fun. I went round to a series of old people's homes with some people at college - the idea being to provide some entertainment on a dull Wednesday. I didn't realise quite how much the music meant to them - it was truly moving, especially to hear their 1st hand accounts of the War(s plural in some cases!). I then joined a semi-pro theatre group that put on a couple of weeks of fully-fledged Music Hall with melodrama, compere, the works. It was a total scream! I particularly enjoyed the Can-Can, as I was persuaded to play the piano for that. Best seat in the house

A lot of the music is a straight development from Rag Time, and was "pop music" to several generations, not to mention social commentary, as a large proportion are about aspects of War.

I must have a think about those, Fitz and Danbo - you're digging up the more obscure ones now (well, they're obscure to me at any rate - but oddly familiar...).

 Certif1ied, where do you find these things?!

That song can be heard in all its glory (!) here:

http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/Collins%20&%20Harlan% 20-%20Aba%20Daba%20Honeymoon.mp3

Sophisticated stuff.

Moving forward 40 years but keeping the tropical theme, do the lyrics: "Look. See. Nice? Agree." ring any bells?

That makes me think of this;

Good Morning Starshine... from the musical Hair... as performed by Oliver...

I've got the 45...

Fitzcarraldo wrote: Sorry, threefates, but I can't stand the ELP lyrics you quoted either. My personal opinion only, but I find them corny in the extreme. Each to his/her own.

No problem, Fitz... I was actually quoting them as bad lyrics.  However, in ELP's defense.. they were meant to be corny and extreme... sort of Pete and Greg's way of getting back at the record company that was forcing them to make this album.  Believe me, I'm sure that during that recording, the band was probably trying very hard not to laugh themselves out of the studio....

That'll be "Hooch" by the Melvins - notorious for "incomprehensible" lyrics, and yet there's an alluring rhythm and curious pathos to it when you consider the whole song;

Los ticka toe rest.
Might likea sender doe ree.
Your make a doll a ray day sender bright like a penelty.
Exi-tease my ray day member half lost a beat away.
Purst in like a one way sender war give a heart like a fay.
Cuz I can ford a red eed only street a wide a ree land.
Die-mond make a mid-evil bike a sake a like a ree caste.
Cuz I can ford a red eed only street a wide a ree land.
On a ree land. Find a ree land.
You sink a my swan.
Rolly a get a worst in.
Maybe minus way far central poor forty duck a pin.
Milk maid dud bean. Master a load a head.
Pill pop a dope a well run general hash pump a gonna led.

Maybe it's just me, but I quite like those!

I can't see any such saving graces in the ELP lyrics, however - good call, threefates

Nasty!

Fitzcarraldo wrote: Well, it doesn't look bad on paper, I suppose, but I find listening to the following absolutely excruciating in the song, especially the way the singer drags out "America" to try and make it fit the music. I spent 1938 in the United States of America, I grew to love it's many faces, and they had built some amazing places, The "faces"/"places" thing makes me cringe. Talk about a forced rhyme.

Hey thats the best singer Prog ever had...

Anyway, since it was skipped over, I thought I'd answer it.. its ELP's OFficer and A Gentleman.. from Love Beach.  I can't believe those lines bothered you.. and yet you didn't mention these;

"Take all you need from the taste of my love
I want to love you like nobody ever loved you
Get on my stallion and we'll ride.
I want to hold you and enfold you beyond reason
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
Go down gently with your face to the east
The sun may be rising but we haven't finished the beast.
Ohhh, you still look hungry woman
I'm glad your came in here with your eyes so bright,
on this long hot night"