Musicheads ask you to name a song you love (despite the lyrics!)

Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - Greatest guitar riff in the history of music! Lyrics, not so much.

A little old school, but anyway...

"I've Got a Woman" by Ray Charles
"Under My Thumb" by the Rolling Stones

In my case, it's not so much that the lyrics are silly--it's the feminist in me that does it. ("she knows a woman's place is in her home," "she does just what she's told")

I like Cheap Trick, I want you to want me,
and Peter Frampton, Do you feel like I do
Kiss, I wanna rock and roll all night..
The lyrics are way to simple, they are great Rock and Roll songs..

from another part of the musical universe (as usual) the tradtional Irish song Coal Quay Market. fast paced and fun to play and sing from a musical standpoint, but the lyrics and the story itself, no thanks. though some have called it the ultimate shopping song.

Listening to the podcast now - folks you can also simply listen online.

Oh man, there are so many really good songs with some painful or painfully trite lyrics. And then there are songs that have a kind of a match with just some ... strange interlude. The first one that popped to my mind a kind of guilty pleasure is Shawn Colvin's "Set the Prairie on Fire" is about as passionate as evoking the Midwest can sound, but then she just sort of does this weird wacked bridge thing and the lyrics never fail to crack me up at the end. The simple bones of the song are good, and I love the way it opens, but then... whew. I just hear it out.

Would anyone file Prodigy's "Smack My 3*tch Up" with Susan's two examples?

Tim M. - gotta put in my votes as well for a slightly lesser-known Cheap Trick song, "I'll Be WIth You Tonight" off of Dream Police. "Tonight, tonight, I'll be with you tonight, tonight, tonight." Genius, right? But I challenge anyone to listen to that song and keep still. "Baby Loves To Rock" from All Shook Up would be a close second.

I agree with Mr. Seel. "I'll be With You Tonight" is a rockin song. Another CT song from Dream Police that falls into this category is "The House Is Rockin' (With Domestic Problems). "Heavy...Heavy...Heavy.. Yeah.. The house is rockin still I gotta go in"

Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Relax
Toni Basil, Mickey

Cheap Trick - "Too Much" from the album Special One and the Seattle indie band The Lashes - "Sometimes the Sun" from the CD Get It. Both simple throwaway lyrics but very melodic and repetitive hook after hook.

Black, White, Puerto Rican
Everybody just a freakin'
Good times a rollin...

Love all these Cheap Trick mentions! They used to be my favorite band....til I grew up! Their lyrics don't really stand the test of time very well...

Mommy's allright, Daddy's allright
They just seem a little weird,
Surrender, surrender
But don't give yourself away

I agree with Julia...some of Colvin's bridges are the WORST! I love her "Anywhere You Go" but the bridge sounds like a sample from a sixties TV show, and not a good one.

Anyway, my candidate, dated, I know, is T-Rex's "Cosmic Dancer".....What's it like to be a loon? I liken it to a ballon. But the mood of the song is deep and touching in spite of this.

Whatever Bill, "Surrender" has a pretty deep lyric that's basically about struggling to stay relevant. It's a defeatist song that manages to work as a pick-me-up.

I may tease Mark Wheat about him being the "lyric guy", but as I go through some of my favorite songs, I can't separate the lyrics from my feelings about the song. A song may appear to have lousy lyrics, such as the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated", yet they're absolutely perfect for the mood of the song, so I can't hold the lyrics in poor regard. The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" has just one repeating line throughout the whole song, but it fits with the tone of descending into psychosis.

But okay, my pick is Men at Work's "Down Under". In some ways, "I met a man in Brussels/He was 6 foot 4 and full of muscles" is the greatest couplet in rock and roll history. Can you imagine Colin Hay coming to that band meeting, saying "All right guys, get this...I rhymed Brussels with...muscles!!"

Keeping with the 80's vibe. I was just listening to a few songs on my Pod, and realized that they're really fun songs, they'll get you dancing, but the lyrics are incidental

Wang Chung - Everybody Have Fun Tonight (Everybody Wang Chung tonight)
B-52s - Rock Lobster (all of it... great fun)
Tones On Tail - Go! (ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya-ya yaaaaa...)

And, i have to make my annual reference to Phil Collins "Sussudio". Don't know what the song is about, but I love the Earth, Wind, and Fire horns on that song.

"Rock Lobster" = dumb lyrics? I dunno. When something is artfully, intentionally ridiculous, is it still "bad"? Besides, I think "everybody had matching towels" is one of the great lyrical moments of the 80s, but maybe it's Fred Schneider's delivery.

"Can you imagine Colin Hay coming to that band meeting, saying "All right guys, get this...I rhymed Brussels with...muscles!!""

LOL :)

I just shared this comment with my son, and he said he'd always interpreted the lyric as "mussels," because mussels are a specialty of Brussels. HMMmmmm..... I don't know if it makes the line any less dumb/pointless/etc., but it's an interesting thought!

New Order - a great band with consistently lousy to downright weak lyrics. Pick any song of theirs: True Faith, Bizarre Love Triangle, etc.

New Order -- yes!!! This has always been highly problematic for me. So many incredible songs, so many utterly inanane, throwaway lyrics. Sumner's bad lyrics seem to actually be part of the forumula, it seems to me. The Perfect Kiss! Yikes.

Gee Mac, sorry I hit a soft spot w/Cheap Trick's "Surrender"...the band has never been great at writing songs. That's why they have even called in the song doctor's on a few occasions. Check their songwriting credits. You will see Desmond Child & even Linda Perry on a few. They also have recorded a large amount of covers.

In total agreement regarding New Order. There lyrics can be downright generic. But, the music never is!

Our love is like the earth
The sun and the trees and the birth

--Bernard Sumner

"Pets" by Porno for Pyros. I really dig this song, but the lyrics are so odd!

I would have to go with "The Long and Winding Road" by The Beatles. Horrific lyrics but those instrumental surges and Paul's voice? It's really good and really bad at the same time.

Lots of New Order and Jesus & Mary Chain to add into the mix too.

Gotta be The Doors' "Riders on the Storm." It's so atmospheric, with all of the rain sounds and Jim Morrison's deep, dark voice, and then he sings "There's a killer on the road/His brain is squirmin' like a toad/Take a long holiday/Let your children play/If ya give this man a ride/
Sweet memory will die/Killer on the road, yeah." Ouch.

Anything by Mew. Witness:

"You're tall just like a giraffe
You have to climb to find its head
But if there's a glitch
You're an ostrich
You've got your head in the sand" - zookeepers boy

But I love every track.

Ok, I have to politely contest "Rock Lobster." I think Fred Schneider is awesome, but what was that?! I DON'T love it, despite the lyrics. I do however, definitely agree with Men at Work's "Land Down Under." I kind of actually dig Colin Hay in general, despite songs about "muscles" or "mussels," Vegemite sandwiches, and hippie trails... that song is just fun!