Quote: bamalamafizzvaj @ September 13 2010, 5:56 PM BST

I bet you love the Pulp song 'Something Changed'

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Don't get me started, a song that has the lyric "I wrote this song two hours before we met" and then goes on about things changing after they met, eh? When exactly Jarvis, did you write the song about meeting someone who changed your life but before you actually met them?

It's another song I put in a sub-genre "Time Travel songs".

"New England" is one, as is "Something Changed" and also "Up The Junction" by Squeeze ("This morning at 4:50 I took her rather nifty" then "and now she's two years older", so did two years pass between you writing those two lyrics?).

Avril Lavigne's "Skater Boi" is another one;

"Five years from now, she sits at home", you can see into the future Avril?

Quote: Tony Cowards @ September 13 2010, 5:54 PM BST

Not sure why my first observation was "basically crap", 100% trouble is more desirable than 200% trouble surely? It's not much of a dilemma.

I also don't really get Carly Simon's song "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you", well it is about him isn't it?

It's about him being so vain, so him thinking the song is about him is more perceptive than a sign of vanity, surely?

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I meant "Should I stay or should I go" was crap basically.

Again though the Carley Simon one was quite clever.

I think what I just need to accept is that pop songs are often the enemies of logic and grammar.

"Real gone kid, I'll do what I should've done" doesn't really scan does it?

But good pop songs are cleverly written. That's what makes them good. Not crap like Girls Aloud, Take That etc.

"Thought I was sleeping - it was just a dream."

Money's Too Tight to mention - then Hucknall bangs on and on about it for the length of a shit pop song.

Maybe he was referring to the wads of 50s jammed into his sweaty, Ginger, big faced, wallet?

Quote: Tony Cowards @ September 13 2010, 6:07 PM BST

Don't get me started, a song that has the lyric "I wrote this song two hours before we met" and then goes on about things changing after they met, eh? When exactly Jarvis, did you write the song about meeting someone who changed your life but before you actually met them?

It's another song I put in a sub-genre "Time Travel songs".

"New England" is one, as is "Something Changed" and also "Up The Junction" by Squeeze ("This morning at 4:50 I took her rather nifty" then "and now she's two years older", so did two years pass between you writing those two lyrics?).

Avril Lavigne's "Skater Boi" is another one;

"Five years from now, she sits at home", you can see into the future Avril?

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Not really into the use of narrative to tell a tale then?

Quote: Chappers @ September 13 2010, 6:22 PM BST

But good pop songs are cleverly written. That's what makes them good. Not crap like Take That etc.

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F**k off.

Waht's Take That's new album called?

Quote: zooo @ September 13 2010, 7:16 PM BST

F**k off.

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Yeh Robbie really is too much of a cock to take back.

But aren't pop songs that make sense ultra dull?

"slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball"

Quote: Tony Cowards @ September 13 2010, 6:07 PM BST

Avril Lavigne's "Skater Boi" is another one;

"Five years from now, she sits at home", you can see into the future Avril?

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To be fair, I think the 'now' referred to is not the writing/performance of the song, but the 'now' of when the story she's telling happened. I.e. five years previously.

Still, it does mean that the lyrics are a tad misleading.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ September 13 2010, 2:04 PM BST

Billy Bragg "I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I'm 22 now but I won't be for long" well were you 21 or 22 when you wrote the song? If you were 21 why were you writing that you were "22 now"?

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Billy was paying homage to Simon and Garfunkel's Leaves That are Green which starts with the same words. I think it's a good lyric.

The problem with "Ironic" though. Is that there is a bit of a smug "I'm so clever" feeling to the song. Which invites attack about the words.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ September 13 2010, 5:54 PM BST

I also don't really get Carly Simon's song "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you", well it is about him isn't it?

It's about him being so vain, so him thinking the song is about him is more perceptive than a sign of vanity, surely?

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I wrote a sketch about this ages ago (ironically, it also included Ironic). The producer who rejected it (naturally) said one of the reasons was because Carly Simon's lyrics are a deliberate joke on the vain man in question. I hadn't thought of it like that before but it makes sense. Maybe we should be giving songwriters more credit - lots of them are playing little word and mind games deliberately.

I always rather assumed Carly Simon was making a joke at her own expense. It is a clever lyric.