I really liked <i>Red Right Hand</i> so I downloaded <i>Stagger Lee</i>, which turned out to be horrifically, unlistenably bad.

- David Stein

Some ridiculously bad lyrics:

<i>(male voice) "It's getting hot in here/ So take off all your clothes"
<b>(female voice) "I am getting too hot, I wanna take my clothes off"</b></i>

Struck me as an awful line. I can't imagine anyone with an I.Q. above your typical cow saying something this stupid in this context.

<i>(male voice) You smoke
(female voice) I smoke
(male voice) I drink
(female voice) Me too
(male voice) Well good
(together) And we gon' get it on tonight</i>

Are these the two most boring people in the world? If I needed to present an argument against going to bars, this would be Exhibit A.

<i>Don't tell me to stop
Tell the rain not to drop
Tell the wind not to blow
'Cause you said so, mmm hmm</i>
(Madonna, "Stop")

Is Madonna so tired of music that she can't spend more than 12 seconds to craft some lyrics above the reading level of a first-grader?

<i>Now she's back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair
(insert incoherent mumbling at end of every other line)</i>
(Train, "Drops of Jupiter")

GAAHH! Who chose a man with a horrific drooling and stuttering problem as the singer of a rock band?

<i>I
I wish you could swim
Like dolphins...
<b>Like dolphins can swim</b></i>
(The Wallflowers, "Heroes")

I swear that we were CURSED with this song on every station, on every minute of airtime, for six months straight. By the second week of this trash I wanted to gouge out my eardrums.

<i>"Whatever I said, whatever I did, I didn't mean it, I just want you back for good (want you back... want you back... want you back for good)"</i>

Sadly, the name of this song is not "The Most Insincere Apology In History." The tone of the song and the rest of the lyrics make this out to be a "You... complete me" style love ballad.

- David Stein

for some reason i can not explain, most teens at my high school love "hot in heere" by nelly

more
You sucked me in and played my mind.
Just like a toy you would crank and wind.
Baby, I would geve till you wore it out,
You left me lyin' in a pool of doubt.
And you're still thinkin' you're the Daddy, Mac.
You should've known better but you didn't,
And I can't go back.

Oh, life goes on,
And it's only gonna make me strong.
It's a fact, once you get on board,
Say good-bye 'cause you can't go back.
Oh, it's a fight,
And I really wanna get it right,
Where I'm at, is my life before me,
And this feelin' that I can go back.


Wish I knew then what I know now.
You held all the cards and sold me out.
Baby, shame on you, if you fooled me once.
Shame on me if you fooled me twice.
You've been a pretty hard case to crack,
I should've known better but I didn't,
And I can't go back.

Oh, life goes on,
And it's only gonna make me strong.
It's a fact, once you get on board,
Say good-bye 'cause you can't go back.
Oh, it's a fight,
And I really wanna get it right,
Where I'm at, is my life before me,
And this feelin' that I can go back.


Na, na, na, na, na, life goes on.
Na, Na, Na, Na, an' it made me strong.
Oh yeah, got a feeling that I can't go back.
Life goes on, ooh yeah.
Life goes on, and on and on.

Shame on you, if you fooled me once.
Shame on me if you fooled me twice.
You've been a pretty hard case to crack,
I should've known better but I didn't,
And I can't go back.

Oh, life goes on,
And it's only gonna make me strong.
It's a fact, once you get on board,
Say good-bye 'cause you can't go back.
Oh, it's a fight,
And I really wanna get it right,
Where I'm at, is my life before me,
And this feelin' that I can go back.


Na, na, na, na, na, life goes on.
Na, Na, Na, Na, an' it made me strong.
Oh yeah, got a feeling that I can't go back.

Na, na, na, na, na, life goes on.
Na, Na, Na, Na, an' it made me strong. (Oh Yeah.)
Got a feeling that I can't go back.

Na, na, na, na, na, life goes on.
Na, Na, Na, Na, an' it made me strong.
Oh yeah, got a feeling that I can't go back.

To Fade.

Na, na, na, na, na, life goes on.
Na, Na, Na, Na, an' it made me strong.
Oh yeah, got a feeling that I can't go back

Funny thread! :)

OK, the following might qualify as an easy target. Anyway, I listen to a lot of death metal, and - brace yourself - the lyrics are sometimes dumb! Examples:

Car-caaaaaaaasssssss!
Filled with
Mag-goooooooots!
- Malevolent Creation, some song from the album "Eternal." One would assume that anybody whose vocabulary includes the word "malevolent" would come up with better lyrics than that.

The bodies are bursting apart
Volcanic eruption of guts
- Cannibal Corpse (shocker!), "Dormant Bodies Bursting." Of course, they're not exactly rewriting War and Peace in their other tunes, but this particular line has always stuck out in my mind.

And I hate to reopen old wounds.....but I'm gonna do it anyway. Some of TOOL's lyrics are fairly intelligent; some are atrocious.

From "Hush" off the Opiate EP:
I can't say what I want to
Even if I'm not serious...
Things like,
"F*** yourself
F*** yourself
You piece of sh**
Why don't you just go
And kill yourself!"

From "Hooker With a Penis" (by FAR the worst song on AEnima):
I!
Met.
A.
Boy!
Wear-
-ing.
Vans!
Five.
Oh.
Ones!

It's the one-syllable-at-a-time delivery that makes this especially painful.

Finally, Tori Amos might have written this clunker intentionally (can't recall the song; think it's on Little Earthquakes - "Silent All These Years" maybe?):
So you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts
What's so amazing about really deep thoughts?

Edit: "Kurt Cobain was a genius." "Kurt Cobain was a visionary." "Kurt Cobain saved rock."

Whatever. Kurt Cobain also contributed these insights to modern sociological discourse:
Rape me
Rape me, my friend.
Rape me
Rape me, again.
I'm not the only one
Yeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhh
I mean, Christ, Cannibal Corpse is firmly embedded in self-parody, but at least their self-parody is intentional. Nirvana, now that I think of it, had consistently asinine lyrics. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" might enjoy semi-official status as Most Important Song Ever but it, too, is stupid.

:jawdrop:
But, those two lines are followed by the jawdropper-
Boy, you best pray that I bleed real soon-
How's that thought for you?
-which just smacks you in the face when you realize the implications. Personally I love the set up of those two lines you mention, given the pay off that follows.
(sorry, I just had to defend my favorite song:) )

Hehe, sorry about that. :)

I should add that part of my dislike of that line stems from my impression that there are simply too many syllables in the "What's so amazing about" part. Comes off awkward, IMO. Still, it speaks volumes of her talent as a musician and songwriter that, despite my preference for metal, I really like some of Tori's songs - "Spark" and "Crucify" I think were my 2 faves.

I guess it would have been worse if she'd said
So you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts
I plant my flowers inside really deep pots
Then she would have entered the realm of death metal-caliber lyrical stupidity. :)

I know this is 4 months late ... and not to defend the Wallflowers, because I don't particularly like them ... but this was The Wallflowers (and Jakob Dylan) doing a Bob Dylan song. Not their own.

This is the worst lyric ever recorded.


Heart: "All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You"

It was a rainy night when he came into sight
Standing by the road
no umbrella
no coat
So I pulled up along side and I offered him a ride
He accepted with a smile so we drove for a while
I didn't ask him his name
this lonely boy in the rain
Fate tell me it's right
is this love at first sight
Please don't make it wrong
just stay for the night

All I wanna do is make love to you
Say you will
You want me too
All I wanna do is make love to you
I've got loving arms to hold on too

So we found this hotel
it was a place I knew well
We made magic that night. Oh
he did everything right
He brought the woman out of me
so many times
easily
And in the morning when he woke all I let him was a note
I told him 'I am the flower you are the seed'
We walked in the garden we planted a tree
Don't try to find me
please don't you dare
Just live in my memory
you 'll always be there

All I wanna do is make love to you
One night of love was all we knew
All I wanna do is make love to you
I've got loving arms to hold on too

Oh
oooh
we made love
Love like strangers
All night long
We made love

Then it happened one day
we came round the same way
You can imagine his surprise when he saw his own eyes
I said 'please
please understand
I'm in love with another man
And what he couldn't give me
was the one little thing you can'

All I wanna do is make love to you
One night of love was all we knew
All I want to do is make love to you
Come on
say you will
you want me too

All I wanna do is make love to you
One night of love was all we knew
All I want to do is make love to you
Say you will
you want me to

All night long
All night long

All night long
All night long.

It's actually a Bowie song, and it's an amazing song (not the Wallflowers' version, the original), lyrics and all.

And the Heart lyrics from "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" kill me. I had totally forgotten about that song and a couple months ago I reaquired it. When I really listened to the words for the first time my eyes popped out of my head when I realized what she was talking about. It's a Springer episode in a song! Casual sex! Deadbeat dads! Impotent lovers! Yipee!!!

One of my favorite songs ever.

Murder Ballads - One of my favorite albums of all time. I could not disagree with you more.

OK, this would fall into the "If he just said what I think he said...WTF?!"

In the song "Dyers Eve" by Metallica (the last song from ...And Justice For All), the word "innocence" is spoken twice. Problem is, both times he says it, it sounds *exactly* like "anal sex"! Don't tell me I have a dirty mind; I swear I'm not making this up - go listen to the song right now if you don't trust me (you do own it, don't you? ;)).

So Hetfield is launching this diatribe directed at overprotective parents when he seems to say

Anal sex,
Torn from me
Without your shelter.

So.....you're angry that your parents didn't let you experience sodomy? :)

I think you guys are being too judgemental when it comes to some of these songs, because a lot of these songs aren't meant to be serious songs. A lot of the songs you guys are mentioning are "party songs" basically so we shouldn't analyze or find a deeper meaning in these lyrics. To me bad lyrics are when an artist is deliberately trying to make a serious song but the lyrics are so horrible that it cannot be taken seriously. I think one of the artists(if you can call him that) that writes the worst lyrics is Kid Rock. This guy writes horrible music, horrible lyrics and his ego is way bigger than his talent. I can't believe nobody here mentioned him yet..

Hiro11: That was the first song that came into mind when I saw this thread.

For bad lyrics, there's nothing quite like emo. The Anniversary's "Husam, Husam":

I've always thought the bit from Oasis's Wonderwall that goes:

Backbeat!...the word is on the street that the fire inside you has died

is GAWDawful and it grates me especially because I think aside from that line it's a nice little song. But I grimace whenever I hear that line.

Aiyyo, we light a candle
Run laps around the english channel
Neptunes, I got a cockerspaniel

Noreaga, "Superthug"

Although I love the song.

i'd like to nominate anything from the latest Marilyn Manson album.

Take the Money and Run
Steve Miller

This is a story about Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue
Two young lovers with nothin' better to do
Than sit around the house, get high, and watch the tube
And here is what happened when they decided to cut loose
They headed down to, ooh, old El Paso
That's where they ran into a great big hassle
Billy Joe shot a man while robbing his castle
Bobbie Sue took the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He ain't gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin' off of the people's taxes
Bobbie Sue, whoa, whoa, she slipped away
Billy Joe caught up to her the very next day
They got the money, hey
You know they got away
They headed down south and they're still running today
Singin' go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run

'I can't stay on your morphene 'cause it's makin' me itch'.
Pink - Like a Pill

NOTE: relationship troubles and junkies DO NOT make a good comparison.

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun...

"Talking to myself, on the way to the station..
Pictures in my head of the final destination..
All lined up, all the ones who are allowed to stay."

Eh? What? That's a verse from Nin's 'Slipping Away'.

Other than that, almost any pop song will do. I hate rhyming catchy verses / choruses.

http://www.sambhaav.com/deb.jpg

Shake your love
I just can't shake your love
Shake your love
I just can't shake your love
Shake your love
I just can't shake...
Shake your love
I just can't shake your love

Sorry, I can't let this one go.. Murder Ballads is brilliant. Sounds like you're referring to the lyrics below. There is no WAY these could EVER be considered "terrible." And anyone who disagrees is out of my club.

HENRY LEE

Get down, get down, little Henry Lee
And stay all night with me
You won't find a girl in this damn world
That will compare with me
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee

I can't get down and I won't get down
And stay all night with thee
For the girl I have in that merry green land
I love far better than thee
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee

She leaned herself against a fence
Just for a kiss or two
And with a little pen-knife held in her hand
She plugged him through and through
And the wind did roar and the wind did moan
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee

Come take him by his lilly-white hands
Come take him by his feet
And throw him in this deep deep well
Which is more than one hundred feet
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee

Lie there, lie there, little Henry Lee
Till the flesh drops from your bones
For the girl you have in that merry green land
Can wait forever for you to come home
And the wind did howl and the wind did moan
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee

Journey - Anyway You Want It

She loves to laugh
She loves to sing
She does everything

All Night All Night
Oh Everynight