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Curious subject matter in songs

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    Curious subject matter in songs

    Belfast—Boney M
    Not that you shouldn't sing about the Troubles. It's just a bit odd hearing it from a bacofoil-clad Jamaican-German disco group.

    So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright—Simon & Garfunkel
    An ode to the architect.

    Ben—Michael Jackson
    An ode to a rat.

    #2
    "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" was Paul Simon's backhanded tribute/farewell to Art Garfunkel who studied architecture before S&G took off.

    Despite singing on the track, It was years before Garfunkel twigged.

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      #3
      Calypso - John Denver. Stirring tribute to Jacques Cousteau's floating marine research laboratory.

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        #4
        48 Crash - Suzi Quatro
        The undisputed queen of glam rock discusses the male menopause. Purportedly. (Although rather brilliantly, in my opinion.)

        Being Boiled - The Human League
        Sheffield synth newcomers expound upon the failures of Buddhism. And the slaughter of silkworms.

        Ping Pong - Stereolab
        Breezy avant-pop piece detailing the fluctuations of nineties European economic and trade cycles. (But, to some extent, that's kind of what they did.)

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          #5
          Terrible songs about NI top 10

          Invisible Sun- Gardai
          Belfast Child- Johnny and the Self Abusers
          Zombie- Cranberries
          Give Ireland back to the Irish- Sir Macca
          Sunday Bloody Sunday- Lord Lennon
          More I See- Funboy 3
          Barbed Wire Love- SLF
          I'll tell me Ma
          Black Velvet Band
          Belfast as above

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            #6
            Stutter—Elastica
            A song about alcohol-induced impotence, if I'm not mistaken.

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              #7
              Songs about school shootings (real or imagined):
              I Don't Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats
              Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People

              Song about the violent fantasies of a fictional beagle*:
              Snoopy vs The Red Baron - The Royal Guardsmen

              *shameless lift from recent episode of Chart Music

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                #8
                Originally posted by Duncan Gardner View Post
                Terrible songs about NI top 10

                Invisible Sun- Gardai
                Belfast Child- Johnny and the Self Abusers
                Zombie- Cranberries
                Give Ireland back to the Irish- Sir Macca
                Sunday Bloody Sunday- Lord Lennon
                More I See- Funboy 3
                Barbed Wire Love- SLF
                I'll tell me Ma
                Black Velvet Band
                Belfast as above
                How do you feel about Through The Barricades?

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                  #9
                  The first two songs on side two of "one step beyond " are ,respectively ,about a pervy newsagent and a mooching mate you can't get rid of

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                    Stutter—Elastica
                    A song about alcohol-induced impotence, if I'm not mistaken.
                    It wasn't the first, however:

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ7pgElCPXE

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                      It wasn't the first, however:

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ7pgElCPXE
                      Or on a slightly related note, 10 Second Bionic Man by Kinky Machine.

                      ("I know what I am/Ten second bionic man/Over before it began")

                      Fondly remembered (by me, at least) for the opening lines, "I thought that this was my moment/On the threadbare shagpile".)

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                        #12
                        Also:

                        Skylon! by Gruff Rhys.

                        The (long) tale of an embittered bomb disposal expert on a hijacked plan and how his life changed.

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                          #13
                          Not too many songs about being caught in a plane crash, except Glow Girl by The Who

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                            #14
                            REM's Life and How to Live It was apparently inspired by a guy who owned two homes next door to each other and connected by a hole in the wall. When he got tired of the one, he'd move into the other :

                            'Burn bright through the night, two pockets lead the way
                            Two doors to go between the wall was raised today
                            Raise the walls to chide its flaws, the carpenter should rest
                            So that when you tire of one side, the other serves you best'

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                              #15
                              Camouflage by, I think, Stan Ridgeway? Seem to recall this charting in the UK in the late 1980s. A ballad about a young GI in Vietnam being saved from an ambush by the ghost of a dead Marine.

                              Charts were a bit more varied those days.

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                                #16
                                [QUOTE=Amor de Cosmos;1433570]Not too many songs about being caught in a plane crash, except Glow Girl by The Who

                                There is also Bright Eyes and At the Bottom of Everything :

                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GHyLhbdzN0

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                                  #17
                                  Isn't that how Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton used to live?

                                  (the two connecting houses)

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                                    #18
                                    As I've mentioned 'pon these hallowed pages before, there was a period of a few months in 1975 that the Billboard charts featured major hit records dealing with:

                                    Mental illness (Angie Baby - Helen Reddy)
                                    Parental neglect (Cat's in the Cradle - Harry Chapin)
                                    Domestic abuse (Only Women Bleed - Alice Cooper)
                                    Attempted suicide (Someone Saved My Life Tonight - Elton John)

                                    The height of unlikely (or just plain 'dark') US hit song lyrics was probably reached a few years before, with Timothy - a single by Pennsylvania one-hit-wonders, The Buoys. This told the story of three workmates trapped in a mine, two of whom resort to cannibalism of the third (the 'Timothy' of the title). This record somehow made #17 in America (shifting 200,000 copies) and was written by none other than English songwriter-in-exile Rupert Holmes - yep, the very same guy that was banging on about Pina Coladas less than a decade later...

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                      Not too many songs about being caught in a plane crash, except Glow Girl by The Who

                                      I guess you have to pretty nippy to fit the lyrics to the melody on your way down.

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                                        #20
                                        They Might Be Giants - Cloisonné.

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                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                          Not too many songs about being caught in a plane crash, except Glow Girl by The Who
                                          There have been many, including:

                                          Hit the Plane Down - Pavement
                                          Lucky - Radiohead
                                          Light Aircraft on Fire - The Auteurs
                                          Five Miles Out - Mike Oldfield
                                          Fire and Rain - James Taylor


                                          ...among others.

                                          (Meanwhile, Slade's Wheels Ain't Coming Down and 747 (Strangers in the Night) by Saxon were both tales of 'near'- aviation disasters.)
                                          Last edited by Jah Womble; 05-06-2018, 18:12.

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                                            #22
                                            Mary Chapin Carpenter - "He Thinks He'll Keep Her". Domestic neglect.
                                            Boomtown Rats - "I Don't Like Mondays". School shootings.

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                                              #23
                                              U2 - Twilight. About being sexually propositioned by a paedophile.

                                              (Not really. I think it's about his mum dying... but the words work either way.)

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                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                                                There have been many, including:

                                                Hit the Plane Down - Pavement
                                                Lucky - Radiohead
                                                Light Aircraft on Fire - The Auteurs
                                                Five Miles Out - Mike Oldfield
                                                Fire and Rain - James Taylor


                                                ...among others.

                                                (Meanwhile, Slade's Wheels Ain't Coming Down and 747 (Strangers in the Night) by Saxon were both tales of 'near'- aviation disasters.)
                                                C'MON, yer missing the Granddaddy of all Plane Crash Songs:

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                                                  #25
                                                  Rammstein - "Dalai Lama". Aircraft flies into storm, father smothers his child in panic at imminent death.
                                                  Dixie Chicks - "Earl". Woman's best friend helps her do away with abusive husband.
                                                  Aerosmith - "Janie's Got a Gun". Girl shoots abusive father.
                                                  Aerosmith - "Adam's Apple". How Eve ate the fruit of temptation in the Garden of Eden.

                                                  And of course zillions of folk songs on all sorts of topics.

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