one really bad line

Ten thirty I turned my radio on
Some group was playing a musical song
It wasn't too long and I went to sleep

The second line in particular. "Musical song"? Hide that hideous mole, honey. Please.

good: I got up this mornin' and I got myself a beer
bad: the future's uncertain and the end is always near

But, I think Fear outdid him with this:

When I wake up in the mornin', my mouth's all parched and dry (parched and dry-yy)
and I crawl to the refrigerator (unh) and I peek inside (ooh oooh)
and I feel like somebody drove nails into my head and eyes
and I'm hopin' and I'm prayin'... I hope there's one more bee-eee-eeer

I'd say, "Later that week it was Friday once again" from "You Are Invited," but much of the rest of the lyrics are poo, too.

I stood in line and ate my Twinkies

Agh! There's just something about it - the way that all the other lines are sort of masked by the guitar, but "TWINKIES" just comes in loud and clear - that makes me cringe every time!

"Tonight there's gonna be a Jailbreak/Somewhere in this town!"

"Somewhere in this town?" Ummmm.....the jail, maybe?

"My name is Humpty pronounced with the 'umpty' yo ladies oh how I like to funk thee"

complete and utter trash.

“I go to my refrigerator One dry potayter”

Ironically, this sometimes keeps me awake at night…

'Strange pills' is just rubbish. Like 'Wooo!! Strange pills'

Geez, Jimmy, Everlong's a song about wanton romantic lust - that line MAKES the song! (And the Humpty Dance ... oh ...) (And, geez, so the DCs like to smell good when they go out.) (Ah, but I'm not here to pooh on everyone's parade.)

My irksome couplet comes from a person whose music I adore because of his ability to avoid pat rhymes & dodgy verse. This, though ... ay yi yi -

I've done things in your room you'd be ashamed to accuse me of
it's just a tendency I have when certain people refuse me love

Maybe it's just contextual, but I think this lyricist can be forgiven as that's just his style. I try as much as possible to this day to play this album towards friends, and the first kicker off the record where he ends the first couplet "little more SUBTLE" always hammers in the point that, well, yeah, he must be a grad student or something. Still though everyone always likes the song about drinking.

(Please note that I'll be more than happy to offset this kvetching to talk about how good this guy's music actually is, especially in recent years.)

(And I'm partial to the song about premature ejaculation.)

Well, it is kinda dark. Do you not like it because it irks you as such? Or because you think it's irksome in a rather unsubtle, obvious way?

No matter really. Again, lyrics aren't my personal high priority when it comes to enjoying music... unless the artist(s) specifically put them as the forefront of the music, obviously. I'm a huge XTC fan, but Partridge has certainly more than his fair share of wince- inducing lines... most of which are in "Dear God", a song of which Partridge is justifiably embarrassed.

Smooth like a prism? I mean, I think he was trying to rhyme the word "rhythm", but "smooth like a prism?"

"i drank so much tea
i wrote my letters in kanji"

"i'll still change my underwear if that's ok with you" from 'i won't change you' and "straight from the mouth of mr. ed" from 'party in my head' - the latter being surely the most extraordinarily nonsensical tv reference since "it's like murder she wrote once i get you out them clothes" (though i luvv that one).

none of this means i think either se-b or r. kelly are great poets otherwise; just that those particular lines stick to my ribs.

or "what's on the box - Man About the House with Paula Wilcox"

True! I prefer the "orgy like club med" line from the same rhyming pattern.

Er, yes? You prefer your optical instruments smooth, trust me.

another n.o. gem is found in behind close doors: 'i feel it in my bones / i check up on the scores / i listen to the corrs / behind closed doors'

"I will be in the bar / with my head on the bar"

sounds terrible. Although if you think about it, it sort of makes sense in a funny way.

rhyming "our" with "flower"

"pretext" with "text"... it's the same bloody word, just with more letters before it!

i will be at the bar with my head on the bar...

"and I would hold you in the night.....we used to make it 'till daylight"

I cringe every time I hear that insipid bit