Least favourite lyric

[Mr. Getgood]

Following on from the 'worst song' thread, how about a least favourite lyric thread?

I'll kick off with "And I even slapped your face and made you cry," from Boy With A Problem. It's never sat well with me.

[rightbrain]

I've always cringed over "There's already one spaceman in the White House, what do you want another one for?" from Peace In Our Time.

The lyric was somehow implying that the current president Ronald Reagan (a Republican) was somehow equivalent to Senator John Glenn of Ohio (a Democrat), who was running for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1984.

Glenn, of course was the first American astronaut to orbit the earth in 1962.

Not only is the lyric strained, but it also made no logical sense, because Glenn would have been the polar opposite of Reagan had he won the White House. In fact, during Glenn's time in the Senate, he was chief author of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978 . . . So, either EC ignored this in the service of some contrived word play, or was simply completely ignorant of US politics at the time. Either way, it's a howler of a lyric.

[Mr. Getgood]

[quote="rightbrain"]I've always cringed over "There's already one spaceman in the White House, what do you want another one for?" from Peace In Our Time.

That lyric's always been a favourite of mine; but then not being American and not being au fait with that period in politics, I wasn't aware of the contradictions. Thanks for enlightening me!

[Goon Squad]

That's strange coz I always thought it was a play on words with spaceman ( astronaut), and spaceman in the slang way meaning a sort of weirdo or loony ( i.e. spaced out ) !

[Neil.]

Deleted duplicate post

[Neil.]

That's strange coz I always thought it was a play on words with spaceman ( astronaut), and spaceman in the slang way meaning a sort of weirdo or loony ( i.e. spaced out ) !

It is - that's the joke: it's a double meaning.

I've never been keen on the lyrics to 'Deep Dark Truthful Mirror'. The chorus is terrific, as are the first two verses - marvellous stuff about the fibreglass tumbleweed and the ground being like iron etc. - but when it starts doing all the stuff about butterflies feeding on a dead monkey's hand etc, and the stripping puppet on a liquid stick gets into it pretty thick (?!) etc - I think he spoils it.

This could have been a massive hit if he'd made it a slightly more conventional love song lyric - one to rival Alison. Alas, it wasn't to be. Apparently it's about someone hallucinating, and it's meant to be the crazy visions of a madman.

He always performs this superbly live, I think.

P.S. I've never been keen on the 'mopin'/Chopin' rhyme in Other End of the Telescope.

[erey]

This could have been a massive hit if he'd made it a slightly more conventional love song lyric - one to rival Alison. Alas, it wasn't to be. Apparently it's about someone hallucinating, and it's meant to be the crazy visions of a madman.

Not a "madman", but rather a falling-down drunk, like in the rest of the song.

I love this song, but I seriously doubt those few lines prevented it from being a massive hit. But then again, ""Alison" was not actually a hit, either.

[Ymaginatif]

Well, I like these recent albums, but I found his lyrics on Secret, Profane and Sugarcane left me cold.

They scan badly (but don't all Costello lyrics do, and that's normally why I love them ), sound pompous, don't hang together, and with their ultra-american frame of reference have no relevance whatsoever for this person in the UK.
His older lyrics, be it about fraught relationships, history, politics etc etc., rang true. But SPS does nothing to me.

And that's entirely personal of course ...

[Mr. Getgood]

I've never been keen on the lyrics to 'Deep Dark Truthful Mirror'. The chorus is terrific, as are the first two verses - marvellous stuff about the fibreglass tumbleweed and the ground being like iron etc. - but when it starts doing all the stuff about butterflies feeding on a dead monkey's hand etc, and the stripping puppet on a liquid stick gets into it pretty thick (?!) etc - I think he spoils it.

I saw an interview somewhere where E.C. said that he lifted "a butterfly feeds on a dead monkey's hand," and "a butterfly drinks a turtles tears," from a nature documentary about the jungle/rainforest that was on the television at the time.

[verbal gymnastics]

.."a butterfly drinks a turtles tears," from a nature documentary about the jungle/rainforest that was on the television at the time.

This lyric will be updated to read "A moth drinks Ronaldo's tears..."

[Mr. Getgood]

Like it!

[sheeptotheslaughter]

May I say I think I may have been the first person on Facebook to quote 'deep dark truthful mirror' in conjunction with the photo of the moth on Ronaldo.

[verbal gymnastics]

What's facebook?

[sulky lad]

Who's Ronaldo ?

[Neil.]

Well, I like these recent albums, but I found his lyrics on Secret, Profane and Sugarcane left me cold.

They scan badly (but don't all Costello lyrics do, and that's normally why I love them ), sound pompous, don't hang together, and with their ultra-american frame of reference have no relevance whatsoever for this person in the UK.
His older lyrics, be it about fraught relationships, history, politics etc etc., rang true. But SPS does nothing to me.

And that's entirely personal of course ...

That's funny - I was massively impressed with the lyrics to Red Cotton and She Was No Good from SP&S - they managed to compress the feeling of a big fat novel into a song - the whole sweep of history boiled down into 3 or four mins. He's done lots of songs with an epic sweep, lately... All These Strangers and Church Underground being two others that spring to mind.

Good point about Alison, whoever said that... not a massive hit at the time.

[Poor Deportee]

I have a lot of trouble with these 'least favourite' threads...there's such a body of work to sift through, and (shamefully) I'm not familiar with all its nooks and crannies.

One lyric that has always bothered me is 'All This Useless Beauty.' The first verse is great, the refrain is a great line. But it's diminishing returns thereafter. 'If you couldn't guess' jars - why suddenly address the listener like that? Why not just 'if she couldn't guess?' And then we hit the pretentious-yet-clunky middle-eight and the ponderous final verse. If you're going to inveigh against the supposed mediocrity of mass culture, you simply can't get away with ham-fisted rhymes like 'he's part ugly beast and Hellenic deceased' or 'the calendar fades almost all barricades,' let alone all the off-rhymes that the song indulges in. Never has an EC so lured me in only to disappoint. Indeed, I find the writing on ATUB to be less effective than it needs to be. But there's something about the weight accorded to that song - title track, beautiful melody, appealing scenario - that makes it ultimately more disappointing than one of his minor throwaways (e.g., the execrable 'My Lovely Jezebel').