Unlikeliest word in a rock and roll song

[BurtWorm]

My nomination: "amortization," from Smoke It, by the Dandy Warhols




Hey I been thinkin'
I been thinkin' about nothin' yeah
Now I been thinkin about nothin' to do and nothin' but thinkin' oh yeah
I know what it is to be there
And now people there ain't nothin' here but people
Dig it yeah
Now if people got problems and they got problems with people oh yeah
I know what it is to be there

you gotta smoke it (smoke it)
just as long as you can smoke it (smoke it) yeah (yeah)
if people got problems and they got problems with people oh yeah
i know what it is to be there

uninsured cop payment amortization
local collection at its latest litigation
i should of stayed in college for about another 100 years(LEAVE ME ALONE!) but
i know what it is to be there
alimony PALIMONY don't get too drunk in vegas
AT LEAST NOT with the waitress from any those places
people got more bagage than JFK, Yeah
And i'm talkin about the airport man

you gotta smoke it (smoke it)
just as long as you can smoke it (smoke it) yeah (yeah)
we got child-proof containers we use only as directed
Inspected by (Number 9) it seems like he checked it

alright, here we go, everybody together (here we go), everybody together
so lets get a big round of applause, big round of applause
to brothers and sisters, brothers mothers, sisters other mothers
other brothers sisters mothers anyone, anyone whos here yeah
lets have a big round of applause anyone who can do it
yeah yeah

smoke it (smoke it)
just as long as you can smoke it (smoke it) yeah (yeah)
if people got problems and they got problems with people oh yeah
i know what it is to be there

FILED FOR AN EXTENSION ON MY TAX MOTION
paid off our house and then fell into the ocean
grown up quicker and handlin' my liquor
you know what it is to be there
i registered to vote so i could extate my exemption
i thought LAUNDRY was the fifth dimension
thats why i never voted in the presidential election
cause women are clearly more qualified to SUBMIT TO

smoke it (smoke it)
just as long as you can smoke it (smoke it) yeah (yeah)
so if your gonna be a dog then at least be a good dog
come on and sit, beg, stay

smoke it (smoke it)
just as long as you can smoke it (smoke it) yeah (yeah)
if people got problems and they got problems with people oh yeah
i know wHAT it is to be there
SMOKE IT!

[BurtWorm]

1. "immeasurable"

...

My love for you is immeasurable
My respect for you immense
You're ageless, timeless, lace and fineness
You're beauty and elegance

You're a rhapsody, a comedy
You're a symphony and a play
You're every love song ever written
But honey what do you see in me

Chorus:
You're in my heart, you're in my soul
You'll be my breath should i grow old
You are my lover, you're my best friend
You're in my soul

...

[Rambis]

2. "Vernacular" Village Green Preservation Society (kinks)

We are the Village Green Preservation Society
God save Donald Duck, Vaudeville and Variety
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties
Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways for me and for you
What more can we do
We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society
God save Mrs. Mopp and good Old Mother Riley
We are the Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium
God save the George Cross and all those who were awarded them
We are the Sherlock Holmes English Speaking Vernacular
Help save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity
God save little shops, china cups and virginity
We are the Skyscraper condemnation Affiliate
God save tudor houses, antique tables and billiards
Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways for me and for you
What more can we do
God save the Village Green

I am partial to the Kate Rusby version...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRK6U5vIHCs

[SteppingRazor]

18. That entire album is unbelievable. VASTLY underrated (both the album and the band). n/t

[BurtWorm]

3. "glissando" in Aladdin Sane

Watching him dash away, swinging an old bouquet - dead roses
Sake and strange divine Uh-h-h-uh-h-uh you'll make it
Passionate bright young things, takes him away to war - don't fake it
Sadden glissando strings
Uh-h-h-uh-h-uh - you'll make it

Who'll love Aladdin Sane
Battle cries and champagne just in time for sunrise
Who'll love Aladdin Sane

Motor sensational, Paris or maybe hell - I'm waiting
Clutches of sad remains
Waits for Aladdin Sane - you'll make it

Who'll love Aladdin Sane
Millions weep a fountain, just in case of sunrise
Who'll love Aladdin Sane

We'll love Aladdin Sane
Love Aladdin Sane

Who'll love Aladdin Sane
Millions weep a fountain, just in case of sunrise
Who'll love Aladdin Sane

We'll love Aladdin Sane
We'll love Aladdin Sane

[Orrex]

10. "Exophagy" and "Fecundity" in We Are Hungry Men

My studies include exophagy
I've formed my own society
To crush the power of fecundity
The world will overpopulate
Unless you claim infertility
So who will buy a drink for me, your messiah?


FWIW, I don't believe that many online lyrics databases get those lines right, instead falling back on "suffragy," a non-word that's clearly justified only by 1971's Suffragette City.

Good call re: Aladdin Sane, though! :hi:

[BurtWorm]

11. tricoteuses in Candidate

:hi:

Bowie's a great one for unlikely words, ain't he?

[Orrex]

22. Yes--and that's another excellent example!

Heck, we might as well throw in "impermanence" from Changes, even though that's one of his more common uncommon word choices.

The Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (reprise) cycle has been among my favorite bits of music for decades, but I'm still only about 80% sure that I know the lyrics! And I don't trust most online sources much more than I trust my own half-assed transcription.

[mitchum]

33. That song cycle is perhaps his best work

For years (hell, now decades), I have found myself walking around chanting "There's a shop on the corner selling papier mache..."

[zanne]

4. "prudent"? nt

[raccoon]

5. Faksiz. "Take the Money and Run." nt

[nomorenomore08]

24. Someone used that verse as a kind of "worst lyrics ever" example:

Billy mack is a detective down in texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He aint gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin off of the peoples taxes

[Sheets of Easter]

6. "pataphysical"- Beatles- Maxwell's Silver Hammer

[lizziegrace]

7. "moot" - Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl"

I play along with the charade,
there doesn't seem to be a reason to change
You know, I feel so dirty
When they start talking cute
I wanna tell her that I love her,
But the point is probably moot

[mitchum]

34. That "moot"jumped out at me when the song was on the radio....

much like the "precocious" in "Bette Davis Eyes" at roughly the same time

[BurtWorm]

35. Good call on Bette Davis Eyes.

It rhymes with something atrocious, too--and I don't think it's "atrocious."

[mitchum]

36. Scoliosis?

:)

[BurtWorm]

37. It's something like "da da da dada bones does."

I think I'm misremembering it. ;)

Bad rhymes in rock songs would be a good thread in itself.

[mitchum]

38. "What it takes to make a pro blush"

[BurtWorm]

39. Thank you!

I knew it was something on that order of "poetic."

:toast:

[quip]

8. "Pompitous"

[Pierre.Suave]

13. Followed by...

"ass"

:rofl:



JK, I know what song that came from.

[Greyskye]

14. In that case... "epistemology"

Thanks Steve Miller! :rofl:

My dearest darling, come closer to Maurice
so I can whisper sweet words of epistemology
in your ear and speak to you of the pompatus of love.

[BeachBaby]

9. Sassafras.

"Love in an Elevator" ~~Aerosmith~~

[Z_I_Peevey]

12. debentures

Janis Ian - At Seventeen

...in debentures of quality
and dubious integrity...

[Tommy_Carcetti]

15. Copacetic

As in,

"And you just don't get it/keep it copacetic" in "So Pathetic" by Local H.

[Bennyboy]

23. Grateful Dead used Copacetic in West LA Fadeaway....

One of those weird Grateful Dead coincidences. Jerry and Robert Hunter wrote this song before longtime GD fan and friend John Belushi died at the Chateau Marmont, yet this song is pretty much about that. "I'm looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do".


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH3XhkSC02g

I'm looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do
I'm looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do
I don't want to buy it
I just want to rent it for a minute or two

I met an old mistake walking down the street today
I met an old mistake walking down the street today
I didn't want to be mean about it
I couldn't think of one good word to say.

West L.A. fadeaway, West L.A. fadeaway
Little red light on the highway, big green light on the speedway hey, hey, hey.

I had a steady job moving items for the mob
I had a steady job moving items for the mob
Know the pay's much pathetic
It's a shame those boys couldn't be more copasetic

I need a West L.A. girl, already know what I need to know
I need a West L.A. girl, already know what I need to know
Lord, just how far to go.

West L.A. fadeaway, West L.A. fadeaway
Little red light on the highway, big green light on the speedway hey, hey, hey.

I'm looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do
I'm looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do
I don't want to rent it
I just want to use it for a minute or two

West L.A. fadeaway, West L.A. fadeaway
Little red light on the highway, big green light on the speedway hey, hey, hey.(3)

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

16. Scaramouche

Doesn't turn up real often...

[suninvited]

17. Pontificate

Sheryl Crow

Fire rages in the streets
And swallows everything it meets
It's just an image often seen
On television.
Come leaders, come you men of great
Let us hear you pontificate
Your many virtues laid to waste
And we aren't listening.

[SteppingRazor]

19. I guess the most unlikely would be words the writer made up. Pompitous is a good one, but...

that's already been mentioned. How 'bout "thought-dreams" in "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" by Dylan:

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.


That one came to me because I just listened to Bringing it All Back Home. The chorus has the added advantage of "guillotine," a fairly unlikely word, I would think.

[taterguy]

20. Brocellosis (sp?) from Zevon's Play It All Night Long

Obscure cattle diseases are rarely mentioned in rock

[mitchum]

27. Beat me to it...

that was my choice also

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. Not a word, but...

I believe Bloodrock may be the only rock band to reference the Andrews Sisters, in "Fancy Space Odyssey" on "Bloodrock II":

Singin' with my friends Patty, Maxine and Laverne

[mikeytherat]

25. "ambergris" from the song "Panacea" by Rush

Come to think of it, "panacea" is an unlikely rock-n-roll word, too.

mikey_the_rat

[Dora]

26. "Parthenogenesis"

"Nemesis" - Shriekback
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovH46-o0rLw

In a jungle of the senses
Tinkerbell and Jack the ripper
Love has no meaning, not where they come from
But we know pleasure is not that simple
Very little fruit is forbidden
Sometimes we wobble, sometimes we're strong
But you know evil is an exact science
Being carefully correctly wrong

Priests and cannibals, prehistoric animals
Everybody happy as the dead come home
Big Black Nemesis, parthenogenesis
No one move a muscle as the dead come home

We feel like Greeks, we feel like Romans
Centaurs and monkeys just cluster round us
We drink elixirs that we refine
from the juices of the dying
We are no monsters, we're moral people
and yet we have the strength to do this
This is the splendour of our achievement
Call in the airstrike with a poison kiss

Priests and cannibals, prehistoric animals
Everybody happy as the dead come home
Big black nemesis, parthenogenesis
No-one move a muscle as the dead come home

How bad it gets, you can't imagine
the burning wax, the breath of reptiles
god is not mocked, he knows our business
Karma could take us at any moment
Cover him up.....I think we're finished
You know it's never been so exotic
but I don't know, my dreams are visions
We could still end up with the great big fishes

Priests and cannibals, prehistoric animals
Everybody happy as the dead come home
Big black nemesis, parthenogenesis
No-one move a muscle as the dead come home

[Tommy_Carcetti]

28. awabuki viburnum

From Tori Amos' Datura.

Although that's sort of cheating, as 90% of that song is just listing off exotic plants in her garden. Great, very weird song.

[MilesColtrane]

29. "Nabokov"

"Scylla" " Charybdis"

Yeah, we get it, Sting...you read books.

[flvegan]

30. Either Gunter, glieben, glauchen, or globen

[hellbound-liberal]

31. How about "Khatru" as in "Siberian Khatru" by Yes?

As far as I know it doesn't really mean anything. Jon Anderson made it up but I wanted a chance to listen to, and share some Yes with you. Their DVD from Montreux is AWESOME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71VYdM9S6nQ

Siberian Khatru

Sing, bird of prey;
Beauty begins at the foot of you. Do you believe the manner?
Gold stainless nail,
Torn through the distance of man
As they regard the summit.

Even Siberia goes through the motions.
Hold out and hold up;
Hold down the window.
Outbound, river,

Hold out the morning that comes into view.
Bluetail, tailfly.

River running right on over my head.

How does she sing?
Who holds the ring? And ring and you will find me coming.
Cold reigning king,
Hold all the secrets from you
As they produce the movement.

Even Siberia goes through the motions.
Hold out and hold up;
Hold down the window.
Outbound, river,

Hold out the morning that comes into view.
Bluetail, tailfly.

River running right over the outboard, river,
Bluetail, tailfly,
Luther, in time.
Dood'ndoodit, dah, d't-d't-dah.

Hold down the window;
Hold out the morning that comes into view.
Warm side, the tower;
Green leaves reveal the heart spoken Khatru.

Gold stainless nail,
torn through the distance of man as they regard the summit.
Cold reigning king,
Shelter the women that sing
As they produce the movement.
River running right on over my head

Outboard, river.

Bluetail, tailfly,
Luther, in time,
Suntower, asking,
Cover, lover,
June cast, moon fast,
As one changes,
Heart gold, leaver,
Soul mark, mover,
Christian, changer,
Called out, saviour,
Moon gate, climber,
Turn round, glider.

[abq e streeter]

32. Cerebellum, from Teenage Lobotomy---an all-time classic rhyme

Guess I'll just have to tell 'em , that I got no cerebellum...