Worst Paul McCartney Lyric

We... wasted time and again
On things... things we already knew
Born to do... I give my love to you
Whenever you get some time
Whenever you get some time
Id like to roll it all
Up in ball
And spend it with you
Youve got the power of love
And love has the power, to make it come true
We can go through our love
We can do things that they said were impossible
Through our love
We can do all that we want to do
We can go through our love
We can go through our love

Whenever you will be mine
Whenever you will be mine
I want to be with you
Just want to do whatever feels right
Youve got the power of love
And love has the power to turn on the light

Here we go through our love
We can see things that they said were invisible
Through our love
We can see where we are going to
Were going through our love
Through our love we can learn to do things that they said were
Impossible
Through our love
We can be blessed with a better view
We can go through our love
We can go through our love
We can go through our love

Whenever you get some time
Id like to roll it all
Up in ball
And spend it with you

k I hadn't considered the physical pain this thread would cause. Sorry everyone.

I need love
Yeah I need love
Like a second needs an hour
Like a raindrop needs a shower

That, after some guff about jumping waterfalls and lakes.

THEN:

I need love
Yeah I need love
Like a castle needs a tower
Like a garden needs a flower

Followed by some thing about friendly polar bears.

I give her all my love,
and tenderly-eee

If I only had one love
Yours'd be the one I'd choose

Oh great, so if some other bird comes along I'm safe, is what you're saying. Good to know.

To me you are the loveliest thing I've seen all day

o_O

But if this ever changing world in which we live in...

Isn't it 'in which we're living'?

Either way it's a crap lyric.

She can be a bellydancer
I don't need a true romancer

RONG

Freedom.

^^this

Kind of incredible this is the same guy who wrote "Eleanor Rigby".

He's made comments about Lennon throwing suggestions at his lyrics. When you compare his Beatles work to everything since, it's so obvious.

Everyday she takes a morning bath
She wets her hair
Wraps a towel around her
As she's heading for the bedroom chair

Bip bop
Bip bip bop
Bip bop bip bop boo

Isn't it 'in which we're living'?

Either way it's a crap lyric.

I've studied this pretty closely and I am pretty positive it's not. I bet Sir Paul's trying out some revisionist history on that one.

Ooh ooh what do you do
No one else can dance like you
So what's all the fuss
There ain't nobody that spies like us
Hey hey what do you say
Someone took your plans away
So what's all the fuss
There ain't nobody that spies like us

Hey don't feel afraid
Of an undercover aid
There's no need to fuss
There ain't nobody that spies like us

Spies like us

We don't know the meaning of fear
We play every minute by ear
One for all and all for one
Everybody's on the run
Especially at this time of year

Ooh ooh what do you do
No one else can dance like you
So what's all the fuss
There ain't nobody got spies like us

Hey hey what do you say
No one else can look that way
So what's all the fuss
There ain't nobody got spies like us

We get there by hook or by crook
We don't do a thing by the book
Never needed special clothes
How we did it no one knows
I guess we must have had what it took

Ooh ooh, ooh
Oh when things get tough
(Oh when things get tough)
Guys like us act rough
(Guys like us act rough)

Hey hey what do you say
Someone took your plans away
So what's all the fuss
There ain't nobody that spies like us

Picking up scales and broken chords
Puppy dog tails in the House of Lords
Tell me darling
What can it mean? *

Making up moons in a minor key
What have those tunes got to do with me?
Tell me darling
Where have you been?

Once upon a long ago
Children searched for treasure
Nature's plan went hand in hand
With pleasure
Such pleasure.

Blowing balloons on a windy day
Desolate dunes with a lot to say
Tell me darling
What have you seen?

Once upon a long ago
Children searched for treasure
Nature's plan went hand in hand
With pleasure
My pleasure.

Playing guitars on an empty stage
Counting the bars of an iron cage
Tell me darling
What can it mean?

Picking up scales and broken chords
Puppy dog tails in the House of Lords
Help me darling
What does it mean?

Once upon a long ago....

* I DON'T KNOW PAUL, YOU TELL US!!!!

Shut up guys, these are all great. Okay, on paper they might not seem so hot, but let me tell you, they really take off in song! Similarly:

Say you don't love him
My salamander
Why did you need him?
Oh no don't answer

would appear to be somewhere on the border between nonsense and obscenity, but when sung, it just works. This lyric gets stuck in my head on a bimonthly basis.

But in the spirit of things, here's some more

Woody wouldn't do it, but he said he never blew it
He didn't know what was hanging out
Oh, till he got an answer out of daddy's dancer
When she took him to the waterspout

She said, love comes in, love comes out
At the bottom, at the bottom of the waterspout
Whoa whoa whoa, love comes in, love comes out
At the bottom, at the bottom of the waterspout

Again - nonsense or obscenity, but quite lovely with the melody.

OK, here's one that just plain sucks:

Behold the famous groupies
They are alike as two peas
And where the other goes, the other goes
But though the famous groupies
Are only paid in rupies
Nobody knows what the famous groupies know
And nobody goes where the famous groupies go

(It goes on with increasing "wackiness" and doesn't get any better.)

Someone's knockin' at the door
Somebody's ringin' the bell
Do me a favor,
Open the door and let 'em in

Don't go jumping
waterfalls
Please keep to the lake.
People who jump to
the waterfalls
Sometimes can
make mistakes.
And I need love

Give ireland back to the irish
Dont make them have to take it away
Give ireland back to the irish
Make ireland irish today
Great Britain you are tremendous
And nobody knows like me
But really what are you doin
In the land across the sea

I'll spare you the rest

Pick any line from "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey."

OK,

"Butter pie? Well the butter wouldn't melt so I put it in the pie"

Thank you.

Do I put it back in the pack after having memorised it?

Just leave it with your dear friend and confidante, Mademoiselle Kitty.

Oh yeah, when he tried to be Keith Moon on "Rock Show" not by bashing drums, but by ripping off "BellBoy"...

A lot of really bad lyrics for sure, but I cannot see what's bad about "Give Ireland Back To The Irish". I think that lyric is rather great in its "Making sense through naivety" way.

Give rhythm back to the whites
Dont make them have to take it away
Give rhythm back to the whites
Make white music rhythmic today
R&B you are tremendous
And nobody knows like me
But really what are you doin
In the music across the sea

Geir "making sense through naivety".

A lot of really bad lyrics for sure, but I cannot see what's bad about "Give Ireland Back To The Irish". I think that lyric is rather great in its "Making sense through naivety" way.

Sure, right up there with 'Imagine'

*backs away slowly*

HEY, HEY,
HEY, HEY.

HEY, HEY.

YEAH!

HEY, HEY.
OOH, OOH.

HEY, HEY, YEAH!

HEY, HEY.

THAT'S ALL!

Oh yeah, when he tried to be Keith Moon on "Rock Show" not by bashing drums, but by ripping off "BellBoy"...

What, on the "green metal suit" part? All they really have in common is that they're spoken by British guys.

And even so, "Bell Boy" ripped off "Elected," so it had it coming.

"Give Ireland..." is hamfisted, but I do like the "and nobody knows LIKE ME" bit, since you kind of have to go, well, if anybody can speak to things working out great for him in Great Britain, it's Paul McCartney. It might be the closest the guy's ever come to writing an undisguised autobiographical lyric.

The entirety of "Rockestra Theme":

[extemporaneous McCartney "Yeah yeah's!" and "Woohoo's!" and "Well well well's!"]
All: "I have not had any dinner."
[extemporaneous McCartney "Oh no no's!" etc.]

"She's Leaving Home."

is that really what they're saying on Rockestra?

apparently not, the lyrics are: "With a bird in the hand he says: why no dinner? " which is way better because it's more WTF

Yeah, moves it closer to things like "Soily, soily, the cat in the satin trousers said 'It's oily.''"

apparently not, the lyrics are: "With a bird in the hand he says: why no dinner? " which is way better because it's more WTF

That sounds more like transliterated lyrics from a Japanese pressing. Anyway they only sing 8 syllables and that's got 12. I just listened to the studio and Concerts for Kampuchea versions and I still hear "I have not had any dinner."

I always heard "If a bird in the hand" and then maybe "Anywayyyyy" but that's less certain to me.

Everybody gonna dance tonight
Everybody gonna feel alright
Everybody gonna dance around tonight

Everybody gonna dance around
Everybody gonna hit the ground
Everybody gonna dance around tonight

Well you can come on to my place if you want to
You can do anything you want to do

Everybody gonna dance tonight
Everybody gonna feel alright
Everybody gonna dance around tonight

Well you can come on to my place if you want to
You can do anything you want to do

Everybody gonna stamp their feet
Everybody's gonna feel the beat
Everybody wanna dance around tonight

Everybody's gonna dance tonight
Everybody gonna feel alright
Everybody gonna dance around tonight

Everybody gonna jump and shout
Everybody gonna sing it out
Everybody gonna dance around tonight

Well you can come on to my place if you want to
You can do anything you want to do

Everybody gonna dance tonight
Everybody gonna feel alright
Everybody gonna dance around tonight
Everybody gonna dance around tonight
Everybody's gonna feel alright tonight

Anyway they only sing 8 syllables and that's got 12

I hear twelve

biker like an icon

THERE WAS A GIRL WHO LOVED A BIKER,
SHE USED TO FOLLOW HIM ACROSS AMERICA.
BUT THE BIKER DIDN'T LIKE HER.

SHE DIDN'T CARE, SHE STILL PERSISTED,
THOUGH HER BROTHER SAID SHE WAS TWISTED.
AND THE FAMILY SAID THEY WOULDN'T MISS HER ANYWAY.

SHE LOVED THE BIKER LIKE AN ICON,
GAZING AT HIS PICTURE EV'RYDAY, MM-MM.
SHE LOVED THE BIKER LIKE AN ICON,
SLOWLY WATCHING PRECIOUS WATER DRIP AWAY.

(.. and on it goes)

I know he doesn't care what I think he has a "right" to do, but I think "Dance Tonight" feels really earned.

Dunno if anyone could save "Biker Like an Icon," though. Maybe Flipper?

You know, looking at all these blunders, it is amazing this is the guy who wrote the lyrics to "Eleanor Rigby".
(Plus he has composed a lot of fantastically amazing tunes, but a talent for music doesn't neccessarily imply that there is a poetic talent as well)

Seasonally appropriate...

SIMPLY HAVING A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TIME

(If I ever met Sir Paul I would stab him for this.)

aw come on im not having HERE TODAY slagged off.

Yeah, it needs to be slagged off for the whole obvious "I are serious song" string quartet approach.

The string quartet was meant as a homeage to The Beatles, he tried to make it sound a bit like "Yesterday".

Well sure, but it just feels like such an obvious thing to do, something he's been guilty of more than once. Like working with Michael Jackson, or putting "Ebony and Ivory" in the Flowers in the Dirt Tour setlist (Yes Paul, I know it was a U.S. #1 for 7 weeks, but none of the people who made it #1 are in this audience. [I've never seen so many people get up to go to the bathroom at once as they did when he broke into this one.])

Back in the '80s when he started touring again, some interviewer asked if he might sing one of John's songs and he said "Nobody wants to hear me sing 'Imagine.'" Maybe not, but how about "In My Life"? Pick something with some personal meaning to you, not the on-the-nose choice.

all the lonely people
where do they all come from?

prolley the most callous lyric to ever be mistaken for deep

the chorus of 'ebony and ivory' is making me so angry that i've been unable to sleep for two hours

1. piano keys are not people
2. the ivory keys dominate the ebony ones, paul, if you bothered to pay any attention

Even at his best, there will always be something syrupy about McCartney's lyrics. Even "Eleanor Rigby" is kind of syrupy. That's just the way he is and he cannot help that.

can't believe anyone would find "eleanor rigby" syrupy, it's one of the bleakest and most hopeless fuckin' songs ever written. the line about the priest "wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave" always stuns me.

tbf I'd do the same if my hands had been in dirt

Wiping the flowers in the dirt from his hands...?

You're my baby, and I love you
You could take a pound of love and cook it in the stew

I SAW A CAT WITH A MACHINE IN HIS BRAIN
THE MAN WHO FED HIM SAID HE DIDN'T FEEL ANY PAIN
I'D LIKE TO SEE THAT MAN TAKE OUT THAT MACHINE
AND STICK IT IN HIS OWN BRAIN
YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?

Fuckin' it up for everyone! (fuckin' it up for everyone!)
Fuckin' it up for everyone! (fuckin' it up for everyone!)

He often says "They can't *all* be Eleanor Rigby"

I say he should be damn well trying to.

Ringo actually wrote a couple of those lines (the darning his socks line and another, I think), and said "look at all the lonely people" should be the chorus.

"You are driving me crazy / I'm in love but I'm lazy" is Paul's worst, worst of all time even

That single line managed to ruin both rhyming and the word "love" forever

I don't think that line is meant to be good other than as something evocative of a popular tune from earlier in the 20th century and I think it not only succeeds at that but is kind of cool because it's so silly and convincing as a silliness that might have actually been in such a song.

There are other really good lines in that song in my opinion - the line about sailing across the Atlantic and the line about wishing the wind to blow her boat back.

otm

I hate every single thing about that song and think it's so fucking disgusting and stupid and I still love it completely

1. piano keys are not people
2. the ivory keys dominate the ebony ones, paul, if you bothered to pay any attention

Also the keys literally *side by side* like say, F / F#, completely CLASH, theyre not fuckin harmonious at all unless you're Schopenhauer or something.

Just leave it with your dear friend and confidante, Mademoiselle Kitty.

― Joseph McCombs, Tuesday, January 8, 2008 12:13 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this line rules but it's 90% about the delivery.

"biker like an icon" is truly, truly awful. a career low maybe. and he just keeps repeating it!

I got a little woman I can really love
My woman fit me like a little glove

oh god

My baby, she comes out at night
She's taken me by surprise, she's my baby
Like gravy, down to the last drop
I keep moppin her up, yeah yeah, she's my baby

Well well well take off your face
Recover from the trip you've been on
I want you to lie on the bed
Gettin' ready for my polygon

have always been torn on "She's My Baby," as I really like the tune but maannnn. "I keep MOPPIN' IT UP, MOPPIN' IT UP, yeahh" - ugh

Ha, all these years I've heard polygon as body gun!

'Here Today' always struck me as an incredibly half-arsed lyric considering it was supposed to be some sort of tribute to John Lennon's death.

Paul admited "body gun" would have been a better lyric, but he's kept it "polygon" ever since.

Well, I bumped into a man who'd been a boxer
asked him what had been his greatest night
He looked into the corners of his memory,
searching for a picture of the fight
But he said he always had a feeling that he lacked a little extra height
Could have used a little extra height
Yes, mate!
You heard right!
He always had a feeling that he might have lacked a little height

I was just listening to that song today! I love 'Average Person', disagree that the lyric is one of his worst

Ha, yeah, even as I was typing it I was like "you know in a certain light this is kinda good" but coming out of the speaker it just really rubbed me the wrong way. Classic "I dunno, I just need some words to go with this tune, is this quirky enough?" McCartney lyric-writing, very reminiscent of "Return to Pepperland," "London Town," "Famous Groupies" etc.

of the many McCartney songs dealing with his neurotic obsession with "ordinariness" and thwarted, unsuccessful people, I think the lyric is better than the straightforwardly cloying benevolence of something like like 'How Many People', the affected/grating music hall comedian persona "yes sir! you heard right!" way the song is delivered seems to go some way to acknowledging the potential creepyness of the most successful pop star in the world singing this

"Well I'm talking to a former engine driver (DRI-VER!)/Trying to find out what he used to do"

Uhhh... drive a fucking engine, Paul?

got to get you into my life = the lamest song about pot ever?

But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

"The eyes in his head see" -- you mean you wanted to say "sees" again but needed to fill out an extra line and this stupid song failed to offer enough substance to do so meaningfully?

the lamest song about pot ever?

high bar

yeah tbh it's not even Paul's lamest song about pot

Cafe On The Left Bank - I guess he thought "touching all the girls with your eyes" was a clever line, but it's way creepy.

Cafe on the left bank, ordinary wine
Touching all the girls with your eyes
Tiny crowd of Frenchmen 'round a TV shop
Watching Charles de Gaulle make a speech

Dancing after midnight, sprawling to the car
Continental breakfast in the bar
English speaking people drinking German beer
Talking far too loud for their ears

But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

"The eyes in his head see" -- you mean you wanted to say "sees" again but needed to fill out an extra line and this stupid song failed to offer enough substance to do so meaningfully?

― a man a plan alive (man alive), Tuesday, May 31, 2016 1:25 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wait, I never paid much attention to this song bc I hate it, and now suddenly I get the lyric. But now I hate it more because it sounds like a Randian -- misunderstood "genius" thought a fool.

the real lame line in that song is "they don't like him," which seems both slightly at odds w/ the sentiment of the rest of the lyrics and also just a random placeholder non-lyric that he never bothered to turn into a real line

Yeah, improv. Always thought that.

Fool on the Hill is forgivable IMHO. It's like one of a thousand dopey late 60s songs about misunderstood genius outsiders and/or the Mr. Joneses that misunderstand them, etc., but at least it has a pretty melody and nice production. And "the eyes in his head..." could, if you're charitable, be read as some incompletely-formed attempt to make a point about the character's ego/cognition and the material body on the hill. I don't think that's what McCartney was going for and if so it's backwards - you'd think the eyes would just take in the sun, but the Fool would see the bigger picture of the world spinning round - but it's a little more interesting and I'd choose to hear it that way over having to cringe each time, because now that it's been pointed out I doubt I can un-hear the dopeyness of it. Oh well.

"Cafe on the Left Bank" much more objectionable. "Continental breakfast in the bar" - wow, you've really captured the soul of the place, mister traveling rock star tourist, do go on.

it's time to resurrect the "ever changing world in which we live in" vs "ever changing world in which we live in" debate.

the fool isn't misunderstood, just pedantically literal-minded

"ever changing world in which we live in" vs "ever changing world in which we live in"

you're doing it wrong

he fool isn't misunderstood, just pedantically literal-minded

― pacific distances (sciatica),

^^^ a better lyric

lol...oops. let the eyes in your head see the second one as "ever changing world in which we're living"

would not be surprised if there is some kind of fan who insists that, as with some other Macca lyrical blunders, that "eyes in his head" is actually I's in his head. can even picture the ropey Anthology footage now: macca vaguely alluding to some stoned readings of stoner texts on buddhism or nihilism or something, contemplating multiple minds in one body, claiming john convinced him to keep both the confusing homophone and the singular/plural screwup it introduces. "I think it's a nice little song, really, and there's something there to think about."