Words only used in one song?

[jwdd27]

Smeaton was, as the song notes, an Old Leodensian, i.e. an ex-Leeds Grammar School boy (like Ricky Wilson).
Smeaton also has a state school named after him in the city, which is what most Leeds people would think you were referring to if you said "Smeaton".

[ursus arctos]

Dunno the song, but John Smeaton is often called the father of civil engineering

[Patrick Thistle]

Got one - the Kaiser Chiefs had a weird reference to "Smeaton" which I thought was a name from Dickens but now am not so sure.

[irony towers]

A couple that came up on the same radio show today:

"conventionality" - Grease by Frankie Valli (though it also appears in half a dozen obscure songs)

"mahout" - Drop the Pilot by Joan Armatrading; no other mentions that I can find.

[irony towers]

Alexei Sayle was on Desert Island Discs last week and chose Shipbuilding, which is a one-off if you disregard its inclusion in some music-hall whimsy from Stanley Holloway.

Upthread Fussbudget mentioned the propensity towards "precious and literary" lyrics in Orange Juice songs. I'll nominate Edwyn Collins' A Girl Like You for "allegorically," which otherwise appears only in a handful of (I think) obscure tracks.

[Jon]

Similarly, South Detroit:

"While the lyrics mention being "born and raised in south Detroit", there is no place in the Detroit, Michigan area called "South Detroit"; the location south of the Detroit city center is actually the Canadian city of Windsor.^[8] Steve Perry has said, "I tried north Detroit, I tried east and west and it didn't sing, but south Detroit sounded so beautiful. I loved the way it sounded, only to find out later it's actually Canada."^[8] Detroiters often refer to the "East Side" and "West Side" of the city, but only rarely north (sometimes called "8 Mile", after the road of the same name) or south (referred to as "Downriver" or "Mexican Town"). The lyric "streetlight people living just to find emotion" came from Perry watching people walking in the streets of Detroit at night after a show.[9]"

From Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing.' Or, as I prefer to sing it: "Don't start un-believing, Never don't not feel your feelings."

[San Bernardhinault]

Wiki seems to think that East(ern) California is basically anything that's in the rain shadow of the Sierras, Cascades and Peninsular Ranges, or maybe places where your main route north-south is going to be the 395 rather than the 99 or 5 or 101.

I think defining it by roads would be a very California thing.

[San Bernardhinault]

Article on the vagueness of where Northern and Southern California actually are

https://www.mynspr.org/post/where-ex...ornia#stream/0

Palm and Pine tree planted to possibly define the center-line between Northern and Southern California, just south of Madera on CA-99

https://duanehallca.blogspot.com/201...eets-pine.html

[ursus arctos]

Similarly, "Central California" is defined in terms of east-west, while Northern and Southern California use north-south (with vast swathes of the northernmost part of the state being largely ignored).

[danielmak]

https://www.onetouchfootball.com/for...ck#post2352958

Glad you caught that as well. West coast is certainly used in California, but as you note, there is no sense of what East California means. Even San Bernadino isn't that far east, although it is certainly east of Los Angeles.

[My Name Is Ian]

I thought Fountains of Wayne would be good for this. I had to do a tiny bit of digging, but New Routine, off their otherwise broadly disappointing album Traffic & Weather, contains the plural "prostates." Apparently, people don't otherwise like singing about more than one.

(This song also contains a rare mention of "Liechtenstein", which makes up the second half of my favourite lyrical rhyme of all time, in no small part because it's *so* unexpected the first time you hear it, although it's some way off unique.)

And so far as I can see, they've also committed the only lyrical reference to Basil Hayden's bourbon on record, on the song Red Dragon Tattoo.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I posted about this in relation to re: an earworm. I'm a big fan of Kim Wilde's Kids in America (and maybe like the Muffs' cover even better) but there is a bizarre phrase, so not a word, that nobody would use in California:

New York to east California

Also, I don't know if the phrase music-go-round has been used elsewhere. That's a clever phrase.

Here's the song since I know y'all are itching to hear it now:

https://www.onetouchfootball.com/for...ck#post2352958

[danielmak]

I posted about this in relation to re: an earworm. I'm a big fan of Kim Wilde's Kids in America (and maybe like the Muffs' cover even better) but there is a bizarre phrase, so not a word, that nobody would use in California:

New York to east California

Also, I don't know if the phrase music-go-round has been used elsewhere. That's a clever phrase.

Here's the song since I know y'all are itching to hear it now:

[nmrfox]

Wobbegong (aka a carpet shark) appears in just one song, Luritja Way by (not surprisingly) Midnight Oil.

[Jah Womble]

A 'kipper' is a smoked herring - a popular breakfast dish in the UK, particularly in Scotland and the north.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipper

Why the heck Supertramp thought them likely to be found in Texas, God alone knows.

[KyleRoteJr.]

Dang, I thought it had only been used by Supertramp, whatever kippers are

[Sits]

It's in a Jam song - Saturdays Kids

And Bracklesham Bay

[Jah Womble]

Breakfast in America - Supertramp
Angel Delight - Fairport Convention
Seafood Song - Divine Comedy
Boy What Love Has Done for Me! - Ella Fitzgerald
Full English Brexit - Billy Bragg

...all mention 'kippers'. (And songs by Ian Dury, Belle & Sebastian and Mark Knopfler talk of 'kipper' in the singular.)

[KyleRoteJr.]

kippers

[Tony C]

The 'Trick of the Tail' artwork is very recognisible.

[Jimski]

I thought Arab Strap would be good for this, but all I could find was the reference to "Merrydown" cider in "The First Big Weekend", confirmed as being the only such reference in lyrics.

[statto99]

The Tragically Hip did a song called Titanic Terrarium. How many times does the word Terrarium feature in a song?

10, apparently:

https://www.lyrics.com/lyrics/terrarium

Given that a two word search phrase that returns only one page is termed a Googlewhack, if a word appears in only one song could it be a Lyricwhack?

[johnr]

When I started the thread - and being probably their biggest fan on OTF - I was going to mention that, as well as the words naiad, hogweed, slubberdegullions, breadbin, and quite a few others but, as per the OP, didn't feel that would qualify as sufficiently 'popular'.

(BTW, is that a 7in single cover Ursus? That song is far too unwieldy to be a hit, what were they thinking?)

[Patrick Thistle]

The Tragically Hip did a song called Titanic Terrarium. How many times does the word Terrarium feature in a song?

[Hot Pepsi]

Steve Miller coined “pompatus.“

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompatus