Lyrics that strike you as odd or disgust you- Page 5

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 1:45pm

I dunno, carolinaguy. It's repetition on a theme. I'm ok with it - well as ok as I am with anything that Wicked has to offer.

Mine's from Evita:

"A new Argentina!
The chains of the masses untied!"

How does one untie chains? For that matter, how does one tie them?

I can't think of a single lyric that disgusts me.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 2:12pm

Dan would never say "pic".

I never knew him that well.

[kyl3fong2]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 3:54pm

"And I search through trash for a melody." - Spiderman Turn Off the Dark

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 7:06pm

I dislike the word "snack" so much that it borders on pathology. I Book of Mormon, the lead-in for Spooky Mormon Hell Dream has a line about eating a snack. In a show that is pretty colorful lyrically when it wants to be, why end on a word like "snack"? Yes, I know, it sets up a rhyme with "Jack," but it really, really grates each and every time I hear it. Am I the only one?

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 7:57pm

Actually, that rhyme always bothers me, too, and I don't even have an unreasonable hatred of the word. It's just so obvious, and the rest of the score is so clever.

[jayclay]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 9:40pm

Jesus Christ Superstar - "To conquer death you only have to die".
Ummm...isn't dying giving into death, not conquering it? Living would be conquering death.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 10:00pm

Not to get too into religion here, but the church teaches that Jesus did "conquer" death by dying and being resurrected.

You can also look at it in the "to die will be an awfully big adventure" or "death is but the next step on the journey" mentalities that are presented in works from Peter Pan to Harry Potter.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/24/11 at 10:28pm

"'it's what we used to dream about, think twice before you poo-poo it' from Rent. that lyric just stands out like a sore thumb to me."

"I SO agree with this one, and I love Rent. Eery time I thread like this pops up, that has been my answer!"


It's actually "pooh-pooh it" with an H. To pooh-pooh something means to express contempt about it. It has nothing to do with sh!t.

[Movidude742]

Posted: 6/25/11 at 11:57am

If you miss one stanza of Hasa Diga, I understand disliking it. But please recall the following lyrics:

If you don't like what we say,
Try living here a couple days!
Watch all your friends and family die!
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

All humor aside, the lyric is earned

[Movidude742]

Posted: 6/25/11 at 12:08pm

Jesus Christ Superstar - "To conquer death you only have to die".
Ummm...isn't dying giving into death, not conquering it? Living would be conquering death.

you can't come back from the dead until you have died.

[thehillsarealive]

Posted: 6/25/11 at 12:43pm

Taking for granted that Jekyll & Hyde is a bad, bad show, I've always had a fondness for Murder, Murder. I think it's a great number, but what always sticks out to me is:

"To kill outside St. Paul's
Requires a lotta balls!"

Seems a little modern and not like something someone in the 1880s would say...

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/25/11 at 2:22pm

In regards to the Nessa confessa, line, I always heard it as a tentative pause, like, "Nessa, I have something to confess...uh......"

I ADORE Grey Gardens, but I don't like and never really understood the racist song Big Edie sings, 'Hominy Grits'. I took offense because I get they were trying to show Big Edie lacking the decorum of a lady at that time, but as a Grey Gardens buff, there has never been any indicators of Big Edie being racist. Actually she was known to be pretty accepting of diverse people. The lyrics of that song are just offensive and I think it paints Big Edie in a less sympathetic light and its untrue and unfounded.

"Remember, you're an old time Mammy-poor as dirt, true, but rich in the wisdom of the ages."

"Once ya done yer picking, you get fried chicken!"

"Next to watermelon, there ain't no tellin'. Thems the bestest vittles us colored folks gits."

[Jake01]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 12:02am

Agreed, Bettyboy. "Grey Gardens" has a beautiful score, but that song sticks out as kinda random.

[Jake01]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 12:02am

double post Updated On: 6/26/11 at 12:02 AM

[iflip4musicals]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 12:15am

I second Birthday B!tch from bare, the last line in My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada, and the bipolar/bowler line from Shrek.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 4:40pm

"The hallways always smelled like chicken soup." - Invisible, WOTV

Completely out of left field.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/27/11 at 10:09am

I always get nauseous when I listen to Real Nice Clambake from Carousel:

Oh, this was a real nice clambake,
We're mighty glad we came.
The vittles we et
Were good, you bet,
The company was the same.
Our hearts are warm, our bellies are full,
And we are feeling prime.
This was a real nice clambake,
And we all had a real good time.

Remember when we raked them red hot lobsters
Out of the driftwood fire?
They sizzled and crackled and sputtered a song
Fittin' for an angels' choir.

We slit 'em down the back and peppered 'em good,
And doused 'em in melted butter.

Then we tore away the claws and cracked 'em with our teeth
Cuz we weren't in the mood to putter.

Then at last come the clams.

Steamed under rockweed and poppin' from their shells.

Just how many of 'em galloped down our gullets,
We couldn't say ourselves, oh...

Blech!

[p.s.]

Posted: 6/27/11 at 11:38am

Valjean says to the Innkeeper:
I will pay in advance...

And the Innkeeper gives him a choice:

You leave my house!
Or feel the weight of my rod.


p.s. But then, before he has time to actually choose,
Valjean is thrown out of the inn.

[justoldbill]

Posted: 6/27/11 at 11:48am

One lyric that has always struck me as odd is "All my dreams will be repaid." in "Broadway Baby". Dreams come true (or not). Dreams are not "repaid". How do dreams get "repaid"? Has anyone ever heard of this concept outside of this song EVER? I continue to find this line as ill-fitting now as I did in 1971.

[carolinaguy]

Posted: 6/27/11 at 11:49am

I've never liked "Clambake" either. Probably the worst song in any R&H classic.

Listening to "Book of Mormon" this weekened--were they really trying to rhyme "Kevin got caught playing hooky" with "super spooky-wooky" in "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream"? There are several false rhymes in the show, but that has to be the worst. (I still love it, though.)

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/27/11 at 12:03pm

The "Hominy Grits" routine in "Grey Gardens" does not show Edie as a racist (except maybe incidentally) so much as show the inherent racism in the culture of the time. She isn't singing that song specifically to make a personal attack on blacks, she's singing it because so called "coon songs" were the popular styles of the day. Were they racially insensitive? Yes, but no one had really said so yet. By singing one, Edie is no more specifically racist than white people today who sing along to gangsta rap and don't blanch at the repetition of "nigga" in the lyrics.

Is it racist, or just pop-cultural insensitivity? That's a different debate.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/27/11 at 2:46pm

"The "Hominy Grits" routine in "Grey Gardens" does not show Edie as a racist (except maybe incidentally) so much as show the inherent racism in the culture of the time. She isn't singing that song specifically to make a personal attack on blacks, she's singing it because so called "coon songs" were the popular styles of the day. Were they racially insensitive? Yes, but no one had really said so yet. By singing one, Edie is no more specifically racist than white people today who sing along to gangsta rap and don't blanch at the repetition of "nigga" in the lyrics."

Having read that it makes even less sense to the story. If its not illuminating the characters but rather the racist beliefs of the time they were living in its an even farther shot in the dark and takes from the story. I think the show focused on women's expectations and roles at the time, not people of color.

And I disagree, if Big Edie would gleefully sing that song to children with such bravado, joy, and colorful affect then she is inherently racist and culturally insensitive especially as Brooks Senior is roaming the background.

That to me supports nothing I know about the Beale women.