When pop song writers get clever...

GoFish

munckee said:

In a Frank Black song he has the line “I’m thalassacracy and you’re just Romanov”

thalassacracy is an empire reliant on naval power as I understand it so how it links to Romanov I’ve never worked out. 

Both the Russian Empire and the Romanovs were in dire need of more ports and ways to access their Naval resources? Britain was the thalassocracy that prevented it.

Seems a bit of a stretch.

 I know young Black Francis would sometimes throw out garbled spanish but old Frank Black seems to be less scattergun with his work.

"She's an erotic liquid dream from a magazine" was probably changed at the last to whatever fit. Come on Eileeen!

monquixote

EricTheWeary said:

Roland said:

digitalkettle said:

I don't know if this stuff is clever or not ;-/

As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti, I'm caught between Scylla and Charibdes ;-/

… or as Alice Cooper sang “I can’t think of a word that rhymes”

I always think of Spandau Ballet's "why do I find it hard to write the next line." 

The Toto thing is basically wibble. They always knew it was wibble and seems to have seen it with some bemusement as it has been picked up by other people as having some greater meaning. 

Indeed.

There was the case of Nick Kershaw not being bothered to change his guide nonsense into a proper lyric and therefore calling it "The Riddle" causing people to go nuts trying to solve it assuming there was some kind of prize until he explained it was just nonsense.

Hurling_Fruitmig

I was always tickled by the Kaiser Chiefs song Saturday Night, which includes the lines:

Pneumothorax is a word that is long

They’re just tryin’ to put the punk back into punctured lung

blobb

Robert Wyatt - Signed Curtain:

This is the first verse, the first verse (repeat)

This is the Chorus, or perhaps it's a Bridge? Or just another Key change?

This is the second verse, second verse (repeat) 

Never mind, it doesn't hurt, it only means I lost faith in this song.

'Cos it won't help me reach you.

Philly_Q

viz said:

“Was it polemically sent” - Ozzy’s Mr. Crowley. I always thought it sounded a bit out of place. 

Lyrics by Bob Daisley.  He is Australian, I'm not sure if that's relevant or not.