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36-22-36 – Bobby Bland
“Baby can be tied, but not beat”
Two Lovers – Mary Wells
Torn between Two Lovers – Mary Macgregor
He Hit Me and It Felt Like a Kiss – Crystals
Shake, Rattle, & Roll – Joe Turner
Memphis – Chuck Berry
“Memphis” deserves special treatment
Goodnight Irene – Leadbelly
Leadbelly sang in the original . . .
“I get you in my dreams,” not even “I'll,” he's gotten and will likely continue to get
This vivid presentation was cleaned up for the “I'll see you in my dreams” version
credited to friends
In the Summertime – Mungo Jerry
Decoy racy lyric is the “If her daddy's rich …” bit. Truly subversive lyric is “Have a drink, have a drive …”
Cecilia – Simon & Garfunkel
Decoy racy lyric is “Makin' love in the afternoon with Cecilia up in my bedroom … When I come back to bed someone's taken my place.” Truly subversive lyric is the elided line “I got up to wash my face” – why did he need to do that?
You're So Vain – Carly Simon
The song is about him, so, though he may indeed be vain in other ways, his thinking the song is about himself is not evidence of his vanity, technically (whoever him is).
Killing Me Sofly – Roberta Flack
Me and Mrs. Jones – Billy Paul
Will It Go Round in Circles – Billy Preston
Like the Riddle Song
Rich Girl – Hall & Oates
He doesn't actually say, “You're a bitch, girl.” He does say, “it's a bitch,” meaning her behavior, which has gone too far. Is it too much of a stretch to mean that someone is a bitch if one has already called their behavior “a bitch”? Increasing chart position by the controversy of seeming to call someone a bitch was a strategy that had already been successfully used by Elton John and the Rolling Stones. (See also the Who's Squeezebox)
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World – Charlie Rich
My Girl Bill – Jim Stafford
Don't Give Up on Us – David Soul
Can't Stop – After 7
Lyrics: I'm diggin on you, you diggin on me, we diggin' on we
Bad Case of Lovin' You (Doctor, Doctor) – Robert Palmer
“Doctor, doctor, give me the news / I've got bad case of lovin' you”
First line, he's addressing the doctor. Second line he's addressing the song's love interest, unless he does indeed have the hots for the doctor
Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
“Mama, just killed a man / Put a gun against his head”
The protagonist perversely removes the “I” (“Mama, [I] just …”). Therefore, the listener without the lyric sheet doesn't know about the comma and thinks it's narrator's mama that killed the man. Even with the next line,
“Pulled my trigger now he's dead”
the ambiguity continues because it could be the narrator's gun that the narrator's mother is pulling the trigger of. The ambiguity is finally resolved in the next two lines:
“Mama, life had just begun, / Only now I've gone ahead and blown it all away”
Where Does the Good Times Go – Buck Owens
In country music's eschewing of “book learning” and general celebration of the “authentic” class, not the liberal elite, this bad grammar is probably intentional
Take the Money and Run – Steve Miller Band
“Billy Joe . . . killed a man while robbin' his castle”
“Bobby Sue . . . took the money and run”
Should be “and ran”
Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms – Various
“I heard her parents don't like me”
“They drove me away from your door” [her or their door]
“Had my life to live over”
“I'd never go there any more”
I don't know how to recast this – “If I had my life to live over, I wouldn't go there anymore.” Except, with his whole life to re-live, presumably in his new life he'd never go there; there wouldn't by a more to go with the any
Can You Woo Woo Woo – Jeffrey Osborne
(Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind – LeVert
No Diggity – Black Street
Yah Moh Be There – James Ingram
Travelin' Man – Ricky Nelson
Racist and sexist
Young Girl – Gary Puckett
Ageist and sexist, the self-sacrificing cradle-robber
December 1963 (Oh What a Night) – Four Seasons
What's Your Name – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Angie Baby – Helen Reddy
Crazy – Seal
Perhaps could go in Songs with bad grammar because of the un-ironically used oxymoron “a little crazy” (“You know we're never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy”). Recalls the Karen Black line from Can She Bake a Cherry Pie: “I'm almost not crazy anymore.”
You May Be Right – Billy Joel
Ramblin' Man – Hank Williams
Freebird – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Gentle on My Mind – John Hartford
Heard It in a Love Song – Marshall Tucker Band
This Old Cowboy – Marshall Tucker Band
The Kids Are Alright – The Who
“Better leave her behind with the kids are alright”
Overlapping word/phrase in brackets: “Better leave her behind with the kids [the kids] are alright”
Mr. Sellack – The Roches
“Let the other forty-million, three-hundred and seven people who want to get famous”
Overlapping word/phrase in brackets: “Let the other forty-million, three-hundred and seven people who want to get famous [get famous].”
Dear Eloise – The Hollies
“It's beneficial to you must read in between the lines”
Overlapping word/phrase in brackets: “It's beneficial to you [you] must read in between the lines”
First line of Whiter Shade of Pale, Procol Harum, is, “We skipped the light fandango.”
The common expression is “Trip(ped) the light fantastic.”
Wallflowers' album title is: Bringing Down the Horse.
The common expression is “bring(ing) down the house.”
The standard Side by Side (I have it by Patsy Cline), goes “Oh, we ain't got a barrel of money.”
The common expression is “barrel of monkeys.”
“Electrically they keep a baseball score”
The Beat Goes On – Sonny & Cher
“Sometimes I live in the country / Sometimes I live in town / Sometimes I get a great notion / To jump into the river and drown”
Goodnight Irene – Leadbelly
“Hello, darlin' How'm I doin'? /
Well, I'm doin' alright /
'Cept I can't sleep /
And I cry all night 'til dawn”
Hello Darlin' – Conway Twitty
“She had been born with a face /
That wouldn't let her get away”
Hollywood knights – Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
“I never kissed a bear /
I never kissed a goose /
But I can shake a chicken in the middle of the room”
Let's Have a Party – Wanda Jackson
“Just like a car /
You're pleasin' to behold /
I call you Jaguar if I may be so bold”
Jeepster – T-Rex
“Don't walk down lover's lane /
Just go right on a sayin' [pronounced “sane”] /
`I only want a buddy not a gal'”
I Only Want a Buddy – Carter Family
“I don't want a bowl of little fishies /
He can't take a goldfish for a walk”
How Much Is That Doggie in the Window – Patti Page
“Looked like sixty-five when he died /
He was a friend of mine
“Eddie, I miss you more than all the others /
This song is for you my brother”
People Who Died – Jim Carroll
“We're not the jet set /
We're the old Chevrolet set”
We're Not the Jet Set – George Jones
& Tammy Wynette
“Just like a ghost you've been a-hauntin' my dreams /
So I'll propose on Halloween”
Spooky – Classics Four
“My uncle Mort, he's sawed off and short /
He measures four feet two /
But he feels like a giant [pronounced “jint” with long “i”] /
When you hand him a pint /
Of that good old mountain dew”
Mountain Dew – Various
“She never gets involved /
With blowing her cool /
She's too busy painting sky /
With her classmates in school”
Superlungs My Supergirl – Donovan
“When I get the blues I get me a rockin' chair”
“Hi yo, hi yo Silver”
Honey Hush – Joe Turner
“Other guys imitate us /
But the original's still the greatest”
“It doesn't matter where you've been /
You ain't been nowhere til you've been in . . .”
In Crowd – Dobie Gray
“Rhododendron . . . is a nice flower”
“Theory of the waltz . . . mashed potato schmaltz”
Do the Strand – Roxy Music
“Roly poly, eatin' corn and taters /
Hungry every minute of the day /
Roly poly, gnawin' on a biscuit /
Long as he can chew it it's okay /
He can eat an apple pie /
And never even bat an eye /
Roly poly, daddy's little fatty /
Bet he's gonna be a man someday”
Roly Poly – Bob Wills
“You should see my blue-eyed Sally /
She lives way down on Shinbone Alley”
Stay a Little Longer – Bob Wills
“She was doin' a dance without any shoes /
She was barefootin'”
Barefootin' – Robert Parker
Is this an example of an “internal,” (internally referenced “other work”) a la “Tennessee Waltz”
“All your friends call you Lily Paloma /
But that's not the way that you are /
It's too much of a gentle misnomer /
For a shooting star”
On the Radio – Al Stewart
“We were so close /
There was no room /
We bled inside each other's wounds”
Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) – Melanie
Mungo Jerry's “In the Summertime” presciently anticipates the problem of drunk driving, Melanie's “bleeding inside each other's wounds” anticipates the problem of AIDS
“There's a flame from the stack /
And that smoke's a blowin' black as coal”
Six Days on the Road – Dave Dudley
Pre-pc admitting to air polution, like “In the Summertime” and “Lay Down”
I apologize for the profane and scatological but that's how it goes with parody lyrics
“Laxatives will happen /
It's only shit and run /
(Used to be a victim now you're not the only one)
I don't want to smell it /
'Cause I know what I done”
Elvis Costello's Accidents Will Happen
“We built this titty /
We built this titty /
We built this titty with silicone, /
Built this titty”
Starship's We Built This City
“What a night for a nightmare /
What a night for a feverish boy /
And I'll be lost in a nightmare /
Seein' how the world is being destroyed”
Daydream – Lovin' Spoonful
“I want to sleep … in city that never wakes up!”
New York, New York – Frank Sinatra
Deck of Cards – T. Thomas Tyler
Show hands dealing a deck of cards (?)
Hold On – Wilson Phillips
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia – Vicki Lawrence
Angie Baby – Helen Reddy
Ode to Billy Joe – Bobbie Gentry
Harper Valley PTA – Jeannie C. Riley
“I've got some real estate here in my bag”
America – Simon and Garfunkel
“If I live to be a hundred /
I guess I'll never clear my name /
Cos everybody knows I've been in jail /
No matter where I'm livin' /
I've got to tell em where I've been /
Or they'll send me back to prison if I fail”
Not telling people you've been in jail isn't a crime, as far as I know, or even a violation of parole