Popular songs you know, but don't know the words to?

[Jimmy Higgins]

In the what if thread I was pondering the song Beat It, but then it occurred to me that other than "Beat It!" I knew none of the words to the song. Now I was a kid when this came out and at the time Michael Jackson was as big a star as was possible. So I heard the song a good deal. But oddly enough, I can't recall a single word to the song.

Now I'm pretty bad at hearing lyrics, but that song seemed an oddity to be nearly completely blank. And that made me wonder, what other very famous songs that I've been exposed to, do I know no words to?

Bittersweet Symphony, Ice Ice Baby, Fight for your right to party.

I'm thinking most the songs are songs I never owned an album for. Other bands like Bon Jovi, who had their moment, I at least know the choruses (chori?).

 

[Elixir]

Bird’s the Word
Oh, and Louie Louie, but nobody knows the words to that.

 

[Politesse]

I'm less than clear on what the lyrics to Milady's Poker Face are, despite having just looked them up. Early Gaga is so inpenetrable they may only understand it while similarly shagged up on some high class woolie.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Almost none of this:

Hey kids, shake it loose together
The spotlight's hitting something
That's been known to change the weather
We'll kill the fatted calf tonight
So stick around
You're gonna hear electric music
Solid walls of sound

Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
Uh but they're so spaced out, B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really keen
She's got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine
B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets

Hey kids, plug into the faithless
Maybe they're blinded
But Bennie makes them ageless
We shall survive, let us take ourselves along
Where we fight our parents out in the streets
To find who's right and who's wrong

Oh Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
Oh but they're so spaced out, Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really keen
She's got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine, oh
B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets

Oh Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
Oh but they're so spaced out, Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really keen
She's got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine, oh
B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Jets, Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie
Bennie, Bennie and the Jets

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

That's a good one! I've heard this on the radio many times, but other than Benny and the Jets... no clue what any of the other lyrics are.

Oh... she has electric boots and a mohair suit.

I always thought it was:

She's got electric *unintelligible* an *unintelligible*
B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[Thomas II]

 

[ZiprHead]

Any song by Bjork.

 

[bilby]

 

[Elixir]

 

[TV and credit cards]

While I was aware of the two different versions, I hadn't thought about if there was reason behind it until now.

The BBC banned the track for a different reason: the original stereo recording had the words "Coca-Cola" in the lyrics, but because of BBC Radio's policy against product placement, Ray Davies was forced to make a 6,000-mile (9,700 km) round-trip flight from New York to London and back on June 3, 1970, interrupting the band's American tour, to change those words to the generic "cherry cola" for the single release, which is included on various compilation albums as well.[25][26][nb 1]

Now I know. Citation 26 is interesting too.

 

[Politesse]

Almost none of this:

Hey kids, shake it loose together
The spotlight's hitting something
That's been known to change the weather
We'll kill the fatted calf tonight
So stick around
You're gonna hear electric music
Solid walls of sound

Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
Uh but they're so spaced out, B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really keen
She's got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine
B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets

Hey kids, plug into the faithless
Maybe they're blinded
But Bennie makes them ageless
We shall survive, let us take ourselves along
Where we fight our parents out in the streets
To find who's right and who's wrong

Oh Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
Oh but they're so spaced out, Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really keen
She's got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine, oh
B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets

Oh Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
Oh but they're so spaced out, Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really keen
She's got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine, oh
B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Jets, Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie
Bennie, Bennie and the Jets

Damn fine album, though.

"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" actually has a pretty clear and unequivocal meaning, but I didn't understand what it was about til I was an adult, simply due to its subject matter.

 

[ZiprHead]

"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" actually has a pretty clear and unequivocal meaning, but I didn't understand what it was about til I was an adult, simply due to its subject matter.

I haven't listened to that album in probably close to forty years. Never knew there was some sort of sub-meaning to it. So, do tell.

 

[Patooka]

Smells Like Teen Spirit
Ace of Spades
Every song by Tom Waits.

 

[Politesse]

Never knew there was some sort of sub-meaning to it. So, do tell.

Oh I just meant the song; as a kid I loved the song but had no idea what a kept lad was, so it took years for the penny to drop. The album's deeper meaning is, as I understand it "we wrote this whole thing in two week's time and recorded it in one, whaddaya want?" Goddamn brilliant.

 

[ZiprHead]

Elton and Bernie were a dream team. Not quite John and Paul level but pretty damn good in their own right.

A little trivia.
 Dick Wagner lived a block away from me when I was a kid. He worked with Bernie Taupin too. He had a helluva career and almost no one outside of Michigan knows who he is.

You know that guitar solo in Aerosmith's Train Kept A Rollin', the one that sounds like a live recording? That was actually Dick Wagner.

 

[thebeave]

Much of Led Zepppelin is pretty hard to decipher, but Carouselambra takes the cake for me. I used to jog and ride my bike listening to In Through the Out Door on my Walkman, but I could never cite or recall a single lyric in this 10+ minute song!!

 

[ZiprHead]

Pearl Jam - Daughter

 

[Shadowy Man]

Every Britney Spears song I’ve ever heard a snippet of.

 

[ZiprHead]

Every Britney Spears song I’ve ever heard a snippet of.

Leave her alone! You're lucky she even performs for you bastards!