Bad lyrics
A while back, I posted some MC 900 Ft Jesus lyrics that I liked. Maybe I’ll post some more good lyrics in the future, but today I’d like to post some absolutely awful lyrics.
You remember that band Silverchair? Going to their website, it appears that they’re working on a fifth album. That’s a surprise to me because I only knew about their first two. Well at any rate, that “Tomorrow” song rocked, so back in college I bought their first album, Frogstomp. Don’t even act like you didn’t think that song rocked, because you totally did.
Well over the years I’ve hardly ever listened to that album. Not because of the music. The songs may not be that original, and I don’t listen to that early 90’s stuff much any more in general, but they can still manage to get me headbanging in my car. No, it’s because of the lyrics. They’re so bad it’s almost like it causes physical pain for me to hear them. (I would make a reference to Vogon poetry here, but that would make me look like a complete geek. Shoot, too late.) I’ll usually just see that CD on my shelf, or see the MP3’s in my iTunes/iPod and cringe and move on. But occasionally I’ll think “you can ignore the lyrics, give it another try”. So then I end up trying to enjoy the music while sending my mind to some far away place so it doesn’t hear the lyrics, usually to no success.
The thing is, I usually don’t even pay attention to lyrics. Some of my favorite songs, I don’t even know what the lyrics are because I can’t understand them and I never bothered to look it up. So when I say I can’t get past the lyrics, that’s how bad they are.
Here are the lyrics to “Israel’s Son”, which I got from their website. I warn you, it’s going to be painful.
Israel’s Son
Hate is what I feel for you
And I want you to know that I want you dead
You’re late for the execution
If you’re not here soon, I’ll kill your friend insteadAll the pain I feel
Couldn’t start to heal
Although I would like it toI hate you and your apathy
You can leave, you can leave, I don’t want you here
I’m playing this pantomime
But I don’t see you showing any signs of fearAll the pain I feel
Couldn’t start to heal
Although I would like it to
This time I’m for real
My pain can not heal
You will be dead when I’m through[Chorus]
Pain and execution
Put your hands in the air
Put your hands in the air
The air… yeahI am, I am Israel’s son
Israel’s son I am
Put your hands in the air
Put your hands in the air
It’s not the subject matter. I think it’s the fact that they’re trying to be profound, and failing so miserably, that makes them horrible. As you were reading that, did you think “that sounds like something a 16-year old would write during study hall after getting out of 3rd period Global Studies”? There’s a reason for that. They were 16 at the time. But they’re not going to get cut any slack here.
At my first co-op, some guy said that when he first heard Frogstomp, he felt the same way he did when he first heard Nevermind. He was that blown away by it. Scary.
Let’s share one more Silverchair song, shall we?
Pure Massacre
People dying for no reason at all
Age is no difference or if you’re large or smallFamilies being torn apart
Doesn’t have to be this way
Some people, just have no heart
It’s happening every dayPure massacre
Pure massacre…Machine guns pumping, hearts thumping
Death is all around
People crying for freedom
No one hears the sound[Chorus]
There’s people crying
There’s people dying
But someone’s taken it all, yeah[Repeat Last Verse]
[Chorus]It’s gonna be a pure massacre
Yeah!
Oh man, that one hurt. There was one other artist I was going to talk about, but that took too much out of me so I have to end the post right here.