Songs that lie...

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...or at least contain rather problematic statements. To wit:
Sammy Hagar, "There's Only One Way To Rock"
Mojo Nixon, "Machines Ain't Music"

Those are the only titles I could think of offhand, but lyrics should be fairly easy to come by. And yes, I suppose there should be an obligatory mention of "nobody listens to techno" in there somewhere.

― Nate Patrin, Friday, 23 August 2002 01:43 (twenty-three years ago)

if we are being literal, we could say that Bruce Springsteen is certainly not "on fire", but that there are probably many on this board who wish that he was. As for me I am ambivalent.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Friday, 23 August 2002 01:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Sparks's "I Predict" predicts the song will "fade out", but kind of just chugs to a finish.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 23 August 2002 01:59 (twenty-three years ago)

spectrum - "a true love will find you in the end"

daniel johnson cover i think...

― mike (ro)bott, Friday, 23 August 2002 02:16 (twenty-three years ago)

stone roses "i am the resurrection"

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 23 August 2002 02:34 (twenty-three years ago)

"song of joy" by nick cave

about the narrator's innocence...

― mike (ro)bott, Friday, 23 August 2002 03:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Hanson, "mmm-bop" (sp?) - "You lose your hair but you don't care" - they'll find out

― dave q, Friday, 23 August 2002 05:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Rage Against The Machine "Fuck You I Won't Do What You Tell Me"

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Friday, 23 August 2002 10:56 (twenty-three years ago)

"Funky for You", Nice & Smooth -- "Dizzy Gillespie played the sax."

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 23 August 2002 12:39 (twenty-three years ago)

-Rage Against The Machine's entire oeuvre.

-Lots of Bob Dylan eg: "I had a pony, her name was Lucifer."

-Queen: "We will rock you"

-Michael Jackson: "I'm bad" - well I suppose from what perspective you look at it from...

-Neil Young: "I’m a vampire baby…"

-Frank Zappa: "Help I’m a rock"

That's enough lies I think.

― Roger Fascist, Friday, 23 August 2002 13:37 (twenty-three years ago)

What about Right Said Fred "I'm Too Sexy"?

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Friday, 23 August 2002 13:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Name one song where you can claim the artist is telling the truth. Go on.

All songs are lies...

― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 23 August 2002 13:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Nicole: "My name is Prince, and I am funky."

― Roger Fascist, Friday, 23 August 2002 13:58 (twenty-three years ago)

That was only true for a limited period though.

― RickyT (RickyT), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Name one song where you can claim the artist is telling the truth. Go on.
Neil Young - Tonights The Night, Dont Be Denied, Needle and The Damage Done.
Eric's Trip - Secret For Julie, Behind The Garage, One Floor Below, My Room, My Bed Is Red, My Chest Is Empty.
Julie Doiron - just about any song shes written solo is about her, crying, her children, Nora (her olde car), husband, dog or people talking to her after shows.
Dinosaur Jr - Just Like Heaven (I dont doubt J has been asleep for days)

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Belle and Sebastian are not "Four boys in their cordorouys". And I can't spell cordorouys.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry, I don't buy any of it.

It's times like these where I'm in total agreement with Jess.

― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Nicole; are you telling me Bret Michaels was lying when he sang "every Rose has its thorn?"

― Roger Fascist, Friday, 23 August 2002 14:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Haha you haf all missed out HELP I'M A FISH!

― Sarah (starry), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Can I just play the pedant and point out Sarah, that the fish song is a cover stroke update of the aforementioned Zappa track.

― RogerFascist, Friday, 23 August 2002 14:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Well er guys I was thinking more opinions and statements expressed a'la my examples posted initially and not "gee the Beastie Boys never really broke into cars with wire coat hangers and Rakim never actually got set up and sprayed with automatics and there was never a conflict in the middle east where a Sharif ordered jet fighter planes to blow up a casbah". But that Poison ref made me laugh so I don't really mind that much.

― Nate Patrin, Friday, 23 August 2002 16:27 (twenty-three years ago)

"Isn't it Ironic?"

― dave (Dave225), Friday, 23 August 2002 18:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Nice 'n Smooth once said "Ayo, Dizzy Gillespie plays the sax," which is untrue.

― mike, Friday, 23 August 2002 19:58 (twenty-three years ago)

oops, already mentioned.

― mike, Friday, 23 August 2002 19:58 (twenty-three years ago)

nine months pass...

'Save the best for last': "Sometimes the snow comes down in June/ Sometimes the sun goes round the moon"
The second line of this song is a lie, and is made all the more insidious in being preceded by a reference to an unlikely (though possible) meteorological event...

― jadrenos (jadrenos), Monday, 16 June 2003 19:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I've already mentioned this, but it bear repeating:
The line in Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" where he pompously declares "and I'm proud to be an American/ where at least I Know I'm freeeee..."
and it chokes my up...no out of pride, but dispair. Because I know that the "free" part is a lie lie lie.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 16 June 2003 19:22 (twenty-two years ago)

y'all got to go down to the southern hemisphere sometime, all sorts of wacky stuff happens "down under"...

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 16 June 2003 19:38 (twenty-two years ago)

y'all got to go down to the southern hemisphere sometime, all sorts of wacky stuff happens "down under"...

Indeed. I meant unlikely in the northern hemisphere context of the song - sorry if that's a bit erm, ethnocentric, or something. Anyway, I hope that you agree that the second (sun/moon) line is even more of a damned lie if the first (snow/June) line refers to a common occurence... it's all about getting us to blindly accept the lie...

― jadrenos (jadrenos), Monday, 16 June 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

"It's Raining Men"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 16 June 2003 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Valerie Loves Me.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Monday, 16 June 2003 21:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm still Jenny from the Block!

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 02:41 (twenty-two years ago)

"i would do anything for love"

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 02:42 (twenty-two years ago)

That meatloafs a dirty little sod. I bet he has done that for love. He's probably done it for thirty quid.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)

hell, he probably did it for a happymeal.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 01:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Any song that says "everything's gonna be all right" or "everything will work out fine." And/or any song that says (in not so many words) "life is shit" or "life sucks." Both sides are a lie, and there are far too many examples of both to mention (and just because they're a lie doesn't mean they're not occasionally wonderful anyway).

― scott woods (s woods), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 01:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Imani Coppola - 'I'm A Tree' amd 'Legend Of A Cowgirl'.

― Barima (Barima), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 01:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Any song that says "everything's gonna be all right" or "everything will work out fine."

But they were right when they said you can't always get what you want.

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 02:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I second scott woods assertion. The world is much more complex, horrible and wonderful than those songs claim.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 13:43 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

Neil Young - Cortez the Killer

Cortez was indeed a killer, but "Hate was just a legend, and war was never known" to the Aztecs? They were the most warlike empire in the New World, and ripped people's fucking hearts out. "The people worked together and carried many stones?" Yeah, the slaves did. I also doubt that "all the women were beautiful" in Mesoamerica, although I have no definitive proof.

― Ben, Monday, 1 December 2003 20:32 (twenty-two years ago)

right, because Neil is without question:
- speaking for himself
- in the prose voice of a historian
- without irony
- exclusively about the historical events to which the song facially refers

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 1 December 2003 20:45 (twenty-two years ago)

If they were, the Aztecs would have fought harder, Ben

― Michael Patrick Brady (Michael Patrick Brady), Monday, 1 December 2003 20:46 (twenty-two years ago)

also, your reading of the lyric is quite consistent with the tone of the guitar solo

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 1 December 2003 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Louie CK used to have a bit (it's on his Live in Houston CD) about "Signs":

"And the sign said long-haired freaky people need not apply."
No it didn't! No sign ever said that. It's bad enough you're trying to get me mad at signs, but now you're just making shit up to be mad about.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 1 December 2003 20:48 (twenty-two years ago)

(someone should start a thread about straw-person/object songs)

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 1 December 2003 20:50 (twenty-two years ago)

They didn't lose because they weren't warlike enough, they lost because they didn't have horses and guns like the Europeans did. Where is the irony, anyway? I like the song, but it just seems like oversimplification for the sake of poignancy.

― Ben, Monday, 1 December 2003 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

"You're so vain"?

― Jole (Jole), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 05:12 (twenty-two years ago)

"I Write the Songs" = Barry Manilow

― dieblucasdie (dieblucasdie), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 05:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Elvis Costello, "The Imposter" ("When I said that I was lying/I might have been lying")

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 06:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Conundrum! Ouch, my head!

― Orbit (Orbit), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 06:15 (twenty-two years ago)

"And I swear that I don't have a gun" - Nirvana

― D Wilson, Tuesday, 2 December 2003 06:25 (twenty-two years ago)

"The next thing I say to you will be true/the last thing I said was false" -Devo

― bad jode (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 06:32 (twenty-two years ago)

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