Sylvia's Mother - Dr. Hook

A few observations on this tune ...
First, we can assume that the snubbed boyfriend has deposited an initial 40 cents to be speaking to Sylvia's mother in the first place. Also, the boyfriend is far enough away to have to call long distance.

Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's busy, too busy to come to the phone
Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's tryin'to start a new life of her own
Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's happy so why don't you leave her alone
And the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes

So far, the phone call is up to 80 cents and has lasted at least 6 minutes.

(Chorus)
Please Mrs. Avery I just gotta talk to her, I'll only keep her awhile
Please Mrs. Avery I just wanna tell her goodbye

Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's packin', she's gonna be leavin' today
Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's marryin' a fellow down Galveston way
Sylvia's mother says please don't say nothin' to make her start crying and stay
And the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes

Now our phone call has lasted 9 minutes and is up to $1.20 ... also, it appears that Sylvia's mother is going to allow the boyfriend to speak directly to Sylvia, but we never get to hear that conversation.

(Chorus)

Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's hurryin, she's catchin' the nine o'clock train
Sylvia's mother says take your umbrella 'cause Sylvie, it's startin' to rain
And Sylvia's mother says thank you for callin' and sir, won't you call back again
And the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes

(Chorus)

Now, the phone call has lasted 12 minutes and has totaled $1.60 ... this works out to 13 1/3 cents per minute. If he'd had called nowadays, the only way he'd get that rate is to use one of those pre-paid phone cards. Also, we just aren't told WHERE Sylvia is going now! Whether she spoke to the boyfriend and is going back to him, or whether she has told him a final goodbye and left for Galveston.

Was the misspelling AGAIN of the word "nitpicking" intentional?

Yep ... I figger, what the hell!

Oh, all right, I'll FIX the thread title!

Derf--keep in mind the live version of "Sylvia's Mother" ends with the near-hysterical singer repeating "tell her goodbye" over and over and over and over. I think she's off to Galveston.

I have a nitpick with M.C. Hammer's song U Can't Touch This ...
He begins the song in the first choral passage like this ...

I TOLD you homeboy ... (You can't touch this)
Yeah, that's how we livin' and you know ... (You can't touch this)
Look at my eyes, maaaaaaan ... (You can't touch this)
Yo, let me bust the funky lyrics ... (You can't touch this)

AND YET ... I have YET to see a photo of M.C. Hammer that DOESN'T show him without wearing sunglasses! (that actually HIDE his eyes from view!!)

You actually dissected M.C. Hammer's lyrics? Oh god, Derf, you poor thing... (gives Derf a big hug.)

Thanks for saying that for me, Luigi. I've been trying to come up with a polite way to point it out ever since Derf posted it...

Where my cash at?

(Actually, I did a Lycos search and came up with the lyrics ... no dissection required)

What I wanna know, Derf, old buddy, old pal, is just why the hell were you looking for Hammer's lyrics to begin with? Are we that bored?

Well Senior Benn, it just so happens that I own a CD called "Millennium Party" with Hammer's U Can't Touch This on it, and I was playing the CD when the line "look at my eyes" caught my attention, noting that I have NEVER seen his eyes!

[PS - the CD also has "All Night Long", "YMCA" and "Brick House" on it ... so go figger!]

Oh. Okay. I guess that explains it.

But *WHY* is it that "U can't touch this"? Not that I'd want to, or anything, but...

It's especially funny when you realize that 'a touch', in UK usage at least, can also mean (roughly) 'ask for a loan.'
So...in the end a whole LOT of people could touch Mr.Hammer - including tailors, car dealers, real-estate salesmen and presumably a never-ending supply of gorgeous groupies.

Not to mention the IRS.

Maybe that's why he went bankrupt?

Here's another nitpick that'll leave my buddies scratchin' their heads and wonderin' 'bout me ...

Take Me Home - John Denver
Almost heaven, West Virginia,
Blue Ridge Mountains
Shenandoah River.
Life is old there,
Older than the trees,
Younger than the mountains
Growin' like a breeze.

The age of life is the nit here ... "Younger than the mountains" I can believe, but "older than the trees"? ... ?? How can LIFE be older than something that's LIVING???

My last post was perhaps a bit vague ...
what I was trying to say is, if the trees are the oldest LIVING thing that John is comparing LIFE to, WHY is life older than the trees?

Ye gods - from MC Hammer straight into John Denver. That's it, Derf, we're getting you into therapy ASAP.

You're right about the 'life' thing, though. In a literal sense it's nonsensical.
But...I think Denver was going more for the poetic-metaphor sense, as in 'the spirit of life' - or the spirit of hope, or belief, or something New Age-y - is well-established in wherever-this-is. (Seriously. I used to come across phrases like this on the back of historical-romance novels all the time.)

Me, I suspect that ol' John-boy was coming down from a Rocky Mountain high when he wrote that song.

Accidentally posted this on the Quiz board (oops - dopey me!)

Well, if West Virginia is place where he belongs, maybe he was a bit inbred...

No offense intended to real West Virginians!

(from the rubber room) My next post will be about The Village People and then The Lettermen ... (drool, drool)

Trees have only been around since the Mesozoic era. Basically they were a woody plant that filled the niche previously occupied by ferns (tree ferns to be specific). The earliest known life on land was the spiders in the Silurian era (way older than trees).

Now while I don't know the approximate age of the West Virginia mountains, but if you can find fossils in the mountains then the mountains are younger than life.

A few weeks ago I was channel surfing and came across a music video on the religious station. IIRC the chorus was

"All the boys in the band want a Barlow girl
the boys know they are the bomb
'cause they remind them of their mom"

Eeeeeeew, yuck! Paging Dr. Freud. Oedipus complex on line 2.

Hey! That's a cheap shot!

Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits

You get a shiver in the dark
It's been raining in the park but meantime
South of the river you stop and you hold everything
A band is blowing Dixie double four time
You feel all right when you hear that music ring

It sounds like Knopfler sings double fall time, which had me confused until I looked up the correct lyrics. In all my association with playing/studying music I had NEVER heard of "double fall time". And it being associated with Dixie music made it even more intriguing.

And speaking of Dire Straits, their other hit tune Money For Nothing starts out thusly:

Now look at them yo-yo's
That's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin'
That's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and your chicks for free

Once again, Knopfler doesn't sing guitar, he sings gee-tar. Also, occasionally he sings "Moan-eh" instead of "money". Not that I object to his use of colloquial language, but since I was already here nitpickin' the guys ...

Hey, hey! No nitpicking the {Sultans of Swing}! That's an awesome tune!

And a crowd of young boys, they're fooling around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles
They don't give a d@mn about any trumpet playing band
It ain't what they call rock and roll
And the Sultans, yeah the Sultans, they play Creole

You step inside but you don't see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down
Too much competition too many other places
But not too many horns can make that sound
Way on down-south, way on down-south London town

You check out Guitar George he knows all the chords
Mind he's strictly rhythm he doesn't want to make it cry or sing
And an old guitar is all he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing

And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene
He's got a daytime job he's doing alright
He can play the honky tonk like anything
Saving it up for Friday night
With the Sultans ... with the Sultans of Swing

(insert above verse)

And then the man he steps right up to the microphone
And says at last just as the time bell rings
Thank you goodnight now it's time to go home
And he makes it fast with one more thing
We are the Sultans of Swing

(also from the rubber room)
The group/band Kriss Kross had a hit tune called Jump with a verse that goes thus:

Now,the formalities of this and that
Is that Kriss Kross ain´t comin´ off wack
And for all ya´ll suckers that don´t know
Check it out
Some of them try to rhyme
But they can´t rhyme like this
Some of them try to rhyme
But they can´t rhyme like this
Some of them try to rhyme
But they can´t rhyme like this
Some of them try to rhyme but they can´t
Cause I´m the miggida miggida miggida Mac Daddy
Miggida miggida miggida Mac Daddy
I make ya wanna
Jump jump
The Mac Dad will make ya Jump jump
The Daddy Mac will make ya Jump jump
Kriss Kross will make ya Jump jump
uh huh uh huh

The nitpick here is that after viewing the "rhymes" ... I wouldn't want to rhyme "like that" even if I could! About the only attempt at a rhyme in that passage is the words "that" and "wack".

"Miggida miggida miggida..."?! Good grief.

Justasec...faint memories of Kriss Kross are returning...aren't they the duo whose trademark was backwards shirts?
Kinda makes you wonder how they could keep straight faces at their own performances.

Two awful songs that my radio station keeps playing.

I think the first is called The Date Rape Song. Unfortunately it's one of those songs that just plays endlessly in one's head sometimes. Ugh!

It starts off saying that it happened "about an hour ago", but later in the song it says, "The next day" Sorry, but you've already established one time period, you can't go changing it mid-song.

Of course there are a lot of unanswered questions here.
The gal is in a bar. How did she get there?
Later she goes for a ride with the date rapist & afterwards he takes her BACK to the bar. How did she get home? If she had a ride, then why did she go for a ride with this guy???

At one point the guy says, "If it wasn't for date rape I'd never get laid." Who talks like that? And if he was this desperate for sex why not use a hooker?

The next day she contacts an attorney. Funny, I'd imagine the first place someone would go is the police.

Of course we are not privy to any of the evidence actually given in the trial other than the guy saying "She lied, you slut" and "the judge knew he was full of [synonym for fecal matter]", although frankly it would seem to be a case of her word vs. his word.

The guy gets 25 years for this. Hmmm, if he'd killed her he'd probably be out in 7.

I realize the song is trying to make a point, but the bad writing & the fact that sometimes I can't get it out of my head, really makes me despise this piece of [fecal matter].

I don't know the name of the group or the song of this one, but it sounds to me like white boys trying be black gangstas.

Throughout the song the idiot is singing about shootings, pimping, smacking his girlfriend & beating up her father when he sings, "There's nothing in life but to be legit". Excuse me? A whole host of illegal activities is Legit???

The next line is, "Don't quote me boy, I ain't said [fecal matter]". Actually, everything he's said has been [fecal matter].

(posted by kerriem)
Justasec...faint memories of Kriss Kross are returning...aren't they the duo whose trademark was backwards shirts?

Yep, AND backwards pants! I always wondered how those little nippers took a whizz ...

Nitpicking the audio track between the songs Don't Leave Me Now and Another Brick In The Wall, Part III from the Pink Floyd album "The Wall" has a distraught male shooting out the sets of six TV's, ALL of which are tuned to a TV station. HOWEVER, the audio track records the sound of 16 TV's being turned ON, and only 6 TV's being shot out!

This might be rationalized by thinking that ...
1. The actual number of sets turned ON were only 11 ... (i.e., 6 sets were turned ON and 5 sets were turned On and then OFF) leaving only 6 sets to be blasted away by the 6 gunshot sounds that follow.
2. There WERE actually 16 sets that were turned on, and the shootist used a shotgun to blast away at 3,3,3,3,3 then finally ONE set (as the audio track records)

However, it is easier to think that he held a revolver than a shotgun, based on the audio track ... he could have blasted all 6 TV's with one loaded revolver, but would have to re-load a minimum of 3 times with a shotgun ... BUT, the progression of TV set clicks vs. gun blasts can be easier explained by the "shotgun" theory ... although, its hard to imagine a guy being able to blast out 3 tv sets at a time without leaving ONE intact now and then!

From the first board:

Derf (talking about "This boy's to young to be singing the blues}:

Can we NOW assume that Elton (or whoever he was singing about in the song) is NOW old enough to be "singing the blues"? (over 25 years later?)

Maybe that's why he did I Guess That's Why They Call It 'The Blues'?

Anyone remember "Mexican Radio" by Wall of Voodoo? In the song there's the lines "They talk about the U.S. inflation/I understand just a little/No compredende/It's a riddle." Um, if in the Spanish line, singer Stan Ridgway means to say, "I don't understand", his Spanish is wrong. First person singular in Spanish should be "No compredendo." Unless I'm getting my Spanish really screwed up here.

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting etc.)
The ending of this song always bothers me.

"Although it's been said
many times, many ways"

I keep thinking that those two lines should rhyme, and it just sounds wrong that they don't.

I think the guy that was writing it was just tired and wanted to finish.

Isn't "ways", supposed to rhyme with "phrase", like this?

And so, I'm offering this simple phrase
To kids from one to ninety-two,
Although it's been said, many times, many ways,
Merry Christmas to you.

It doesn't sound that way when I listen to it. To me the rhythm doesn't match that interpretation.

Okay, a nitpick that concerns the use of LETTERS and/or NUMBERS to represent whole words in the title/words of a song ...

The tune U Can't Touch This performed by M.C. Hammer makes use of the letter "U" to describe the word "You", and as such, it represents a demonstration of a "kind-of" phonetic spelling technique. In that regard, and in order to keep with M.C.'s pronounciations, the title to the song should REALLY be U Kayn't Tutch Dis!

speaking of backwards....I remember back in the day a friend telling me that the song "Fire on High" from the ELO album Face the Music had backwards lyrics in the beginning. I always knew that it sounded strange but never thought it was backwards...somehow we connected my turntable to do it and the backward music in the very beginning of the song is scary. It starts out sounding weird and then it just becomes Crystal Clear...It says "Music is reversible, but Time? go back go back go back...Scared the crapp out of me and my friend...I now believe in the power of subliminal messages...

I thought it was "The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back! Turn back! Turn back!" I remember back in the '70s, one of Dallas' DJs on the radio station, KZEW, played that part of song as it is on the record. Then, without missing a beat, played it in reverse. I wish I still had the tape with that on it. It was pretty cool.

There are, incidentally, authentically backmasked tracks. "Rain" by the Beatles has a verse that's played backwards. ELO's "Evil Woman" has a piece of another ELO song, "Nightrider" spliced in backwards. "Darling Nikki" by Prince also some true backmasking in it. Perhaps my favorite appears in the Pink Floyd track, "Empty Space". It's a hard one to find, much less hear, but it's really there. What's said is, "Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your solution to the Funny Farm, care of Suffolks." I learned of that one on Casey Kasem's American Top 40, back in the '80s.

np - Shuttered Room - the Fixx

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

This website confirms what I've heard when the intro to "Fire On High" is played backwards:

http://www.rockaria.com/songs/fireonhigh.html

np - Napster Nabs - Rainbows and Sunshine - various artists

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

Does Revolution 9 from the White Album have some backwards riffs? It sure sounds awfully distorted!

I've tried playing it backwards to see if there's some hidden message. I keep getting stuff about the Devil and something which keeps saying "fry this album" or something...

If you want another example of reversible music, listen to "Warerfall" then the next track "Don't Stop" on the album "The Stone Roses". It's not perfect (I believe the version used on "Don't Stop" was a different cut of "Waterfall" which inserted another chorus, and the album cut of "Waterfall" fades out instead of stopping on a big chord) but it still blows your mind.

Found this website that lists some backmasking. It also has some RealAudio sound clips. Among the artists who have backmasked: The Backstreet Boys, N'Sync and Michael Jackson. Oh yeah, it does have the ELO and Pink Floyd clip on it.

http://www.undergroundnoize.com/index.html?http%3A//www.undergroundnoize.com/backmask.php

"Gnos eno lla s'ti." - Gnuoy Lien

Oh, and Scott, "Revolution 9" does indeed have some backmasking in it. Supposedly it says, "Turn me deadman."

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

I believe the BNL song "Pinch Me" and The Beatles' "I'm Only Sleeping" both contain backtracked guitar solos, if that counts for anything.

Thanks for clearing the lyrics up for me Benn..Its been a long time and I only listened once and was real scared..Backwards masking is not right...you dont realize it and if it somehow can still effect you then it Ain't right. I remember also hearing about a live Black Oak Arkansas record where the singer flips out on stage and starts yelling.."Natas,Natas,Natas".

No charge, Glenn. That Black Oak Arkansas song you're talking about is "When Electricity Came to Arkansas".

It should be pointed out that there are two kinds of backmasking. One is legitimate and if you listen to the song as it plays forward, you can tell that section of the song is backwards. "Darling Nikki" by Prince, "Fire On High" by ELO and "Empty Spaces" by Pink Floyd are three such examples. You can tell because what you normally hear sounds like gibberish. Played in reverse, it makes sense.

On the other hand, the parts in, say, Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" (possibly the most famous song "backmasked"), are not. What you hear when you play the song backwards is more or less phonetics. It's not that anything is really being said when you play "Stairway" backwards. It's just that the mind tries to make sense of what it's hearing and "Because I live with Satan" is the closest approximation.

np - 100% ep - Sonic Youth

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

Thanks again Benn, you are answering questions I have had for way too many years. I was going to ask about Zep next and you beat me to it. I always thought the Zep lines reference to Satan was just the lyric. " AND AS we wind on down the road ". ( And As ) sounds like natas and could be construed to be satan played backwards. This, I always thought, was unintentional and purely coincidence. Do you know if this is the line of the song in question and have you ever heard it?. Thanks again Benn

Well, it's one of the lines in "Stairway" that supposedly contains backmasking. Among others are

"And it makes me wonder." = "There's no escaping it."

"It's just a spring clean for the May Queen." = "He will give you 666."

"Yes, there are two paths..." = "The power is in Satan."

"There's still time to change the road you're on." = "Here's to my sweet Satan."

"The Piper's calling you..." = "The Lord turns me off."

"Your stairway lies on the whispering wind." = "'Cause I live with Satan."

Again, I think these are just phonetic coincidences. I refuse to believe that Robert Plant, who wrote the lyrics, is actually smart enough to work all that out on his own.

Again, this site http://www.undergroundnoize.com/index.html?http%3A//www.undergroundnoize.com/backmask.php has a listing of some of the backmasking that's out there, real and otherwise. You can even listen to most in RealAudio. There are some that are mp3s. It's kinda interesting and fun, in a perversed way.

np - Woman 2 Woman - Fem 2 Fem

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

If you listen carefully to R.E.M.'s "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", you can hear singer Michael Stipe fluff a line. In one verse he sings,

"Baby, instant soup doesn't really grab me.
Today, I need something more sub-sub-sub-substantial.
Some can of beans or black eyed peas
Some Nescafe and ice.
A candy bar
A falling star
Or a reading of Dr. Seuss."

Except, Michael sings "Dr. Zeus. He catches his mistake, corrects it and then laughs. It's definitely there in the song.

np - Holywood (In the Valley of the Shadow of Death) - Marilyn Manson

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

In the original cast recording (London Cast) of Phantom of the Opera, during the song Phantom of the Opera, you can hear Ms. Brightman sing, "The Phantom of the Operer is here".

She's not the only one, Scott! Many, many preformers of the song end up catching "Operer"-itis!

An observation/nitpick on the classic tune of Jamaica Farewell performed by Harry Belafonte ...

Down the way where the nights are gay
And the sun shines daily on the mountaintop
I took a trip on a sailing ship
And when I reached Jamaica I made a stop

(Refrain)
But I'm sad to say, I'm on my way
Won't be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town

Sounds of laughter everywhere
And the dancing girls sway to and fro
I must declare my heart is there
Though I've been from Maine to Mexico

Refrain

Down at the market you can hear
Ladies cry out while on their heads they bear
Aki rice, salt fish are nice
And the rum is fine any time of year

Refrain

Down the way where the nights are gay
And the sun shines daily on the mountaintop
I took a trip on a sailing ship
And when I reached Jamaica, I made a stop

Refrain

Observation
I really enjoy the plethora of internal rhymes this song has to offer. Not many songs can match the rhyming that occurs in this single tune! It makes for a most pleasurable listening experience. (along with Harry's wonderful voice)

Nitpick
The man weaving this story seems to be more in love with Jamaica than with the "little girl in Kingston town" that he keeps mentioning in the refrain. He comments on the local street vendors, the way he got to Jamaica, the flavor of local street life there, etc., but ONLY in passing says that he had to leave a "little girl" when he left Jamaica. Is this a slam against Jamaican women? Does it take Jamaica itself to keep a world traveler from leaving?

On Bob Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again"

The lyrics are:

But me, I expected it to happen,
I knew he'd lost control
When he built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes.

Listen to the version on Blonde on Blonde. You can here Dylan stumble on the third line. He says "When I... HE built a fire on Main Street"

"Lemon Tree", PETER, PAUL AND MARY

"But the fruit of the poor lemon / Is impossible to eat."

What nonsense. Lots of people, including myself, enjoy eating lemons.

The tune Return To Sender sung by Elvis Presley contains the following lyrics:

So I dropped it in the mailbox
And sent it Special D

I seriously doubt that the singer could send a letter by "special delivery" by just dropping it in the mailbox, unless there was a plethora of stamps applied to the envelope. Most special delivery letters are negotiated at the post office counter and a fee paid prior to mailing.

Here's an exerpt of the Elton John tune Daniel ...

Daniel my brother
You are older than me
Do you still feel the pain
Of the scars that won't heal

Now, a scar denotes a wound that HAS already healed! ... therefore the line should have more appropriately been sung "Of the wounds that won't heal".

In the YES album "90125", in the song "It Can Happen", you can hear Jon Anderson & somebody else talking to each other during the instrumental.

Not exactly a nit, but for Robert Plant to lose a girl to Gollum, who you'd think would have other things to be doing in Mordor, must really suk.

I've tried playing the end of Sgt Pepper backwards (the part which goes 'I-Never-Could-Speak-Any-Other-Way!' when played forward) and it sounds vaguely French... 'ami et un nairscie(?) s'il te plait' or something like that.

It's "supposed" to be "We'll f*ck you like Superman" (or "supermen"). Someone played it for McCartney, several years later I think, and he was shocked to hear it but of course said it wasn't intentional.

Man, I miss playing things backwards on the turntable. Playing .WAVs or .MP3s is safer and more accurate, but just lacks the romance.

"Uncle John's Band" by the Grateful Dead:

"Don't you worry anymore,
'Cause when life looks like easy street
There is danger at your door."

Huh? The singer tells you NOT to worry, and then in the very next line he gives you an onimous warning!

I just noticed this one this evening while going through my CD collection. The title of the Zombies 1968 classic Odessey and Oracle is misspelled. The correct spelling of the word is Odyssey.

check out http://www.SubliminalMessages.Com It has some really wicked cool stuff on there.

"Vanessa Simmons / Funny kind of name . . ."

Hmm. "Vanessa Simmons" doesn't seem like a funny name to me. It seems a fairly common and prosiac name. I mean, someone please explain to me what's so funny about the name "Vanessa Simmons"?

Was listen to the DVD-A of Foreigner's first album, and I guess because I was following along with the lyrics for the first time ever, I suddenly realised that these two lines from the bridge, which I've sung along with numerous time, made absolutely no sense:

It feels like the first time,
Like it never did before.

(!)

And since I seem never to have brought it up before, 'White Queen' penned by Queen's Brian May has the line: 'How did thee fare, what have thee seen?'

I'm pretty sure those 'thee's should be 'thou's.

Been thinking about Bowling For Soup's "1985". The chorus is

"Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV."

Problem is, unlike the other acts mentioned, by '85 Blondie had broken up. Debbie Harry and the boys weren't getting the airplay the Boss, Madrama, er Madonna or U2 were getting then. Kinda makes "1985"'s chorus somewhat inaccurate.

np - "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" - the Charlie Daniels Band

Why is "Vanessa Simmons" a "funny kind of name"? seems like a dang normal whitebread name to me . . .

Yo Todd, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish but I just gotta say Beyonce had the best music forums EVER!

Todd, I don't know the song you're referring to, but I've noticed you've mentioned it twice on this page. Hope you find out soon.

I just finished listening to Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be) and I happened to really look at the book that came with the CD. Track 12 is a song called, "Help Me Make It to the Ground" and track 13 is listed as "Angel Flying Too Close to the Night". Somebody screwed up. It should be "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground". "Annoyed Grunt".

I mistyped in my last post. Track 12 is listed as "Help Me Make It Through the Ground", not "...to the Ground". We regret the error.

This is probably a case of misheard lyrics.

What does Boomer have that the song with the Lyrics "Boomer has it" repeated over and over speak of?

BOOMER WILL LIVE!!!! (Fans of the Nostalgia Critic will understand that one!)

In Elton John's "Levon", the lyrics go "The New York Times said 'God is dead'". Sorry Reggie, but that was Time Magazine. Its April 8, 1966 issue, to be specific. Its cover read "Is God Dead"? More on that here.

In Suzanne Vega's song "Tom's Diner", Vega sings about an "actor who had died while he was drinking; he was no one I had heard of". The actor she spoke of was William Holden. How could she not have heard of him? He was a very famous actor for years, who did some good movies (The Towering Inferno, S.O.B.), some classic movies (Network, Sunset Boulevard) and some not so good ones (When Time Ran Out). By the way, the DNA remix of that acapella song is great. (Holden died foolishly, bleeding to death after hitting his head while in a drunken stupor).

In Adam Sandler's "The Chanuka Song", he claims that Rod Carew is Jewish ("he converted").

This is wrong. Carew never converted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Carew#Confusion_over_conversion_to_Judaism

In Billy Joel's "Piano Man", the opening line notes that it's Saturday.

Yet later, the "businessmen slowly get stoned". Why would this be happening on a weekend? Wouldn't that be happening on a weekday when they stop in after work?

They could be at a convention.

Unlikely, it's "The regular crowd".

It's nine o'clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in

Well, I'm sure it all made sense in his mind when he wrote it

Dire Straits "Money For Nothing", from 1985:

"We've got to install microwave ovens..."
Most microwave ovens I've seen (including mine) were just put in place on a cart, counter or table, not "installed" per se.

"We've got to move these color TVs..."
Almost all TV's, even back in 1985, were color; the phrase "color TV's" was pretty much phased out in the early 1980s.

Vikki Carr's 1967 classic "It Must Be Him" tells the story of a woman, who apparently had a major fight with her lover, and when the phone rings, she prays that it is him. That would all be moot today, as almost everyone has caller ID.

In the Rolling Stones' classic "As Tears Go By", the second verse is "I sit and watch the children play". You know what they call people who do that these days...

In the song by The Police, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Sting sings "I resolve to call her up... A thousand times a day". Nowadays, behavior like that would be considered telephone stalking.

I'm pretty sure that the "thousand times a day" refers to how often he resolves himself to call her, not how many calls he resolves to make. Over and over he makes plans to call her and confess his love, but fails to follow through.

In The Song that Never Ends, it says that some people started sing it not knowing what it was.

How can they not know? Its bloody TITLE is "The Song that Never Ends"!!! And it's first line says, "This is the Song that Never Ends".

Heard Van Halen's Hot For Teacher on the car radio before (courtesy of Q104.3). In the (kind of long) intro, David Lee Roth says "What do you think the teacher's gonna look like this year?" Unless the school faculty has been drastically overhauled, or Mr. Roth was a new transfer student, he should know full well the school's roster of teachers for each subject, and what they look like.

The Beatles' Octopus's Garden-
Grammatical error: The possessive of octopus is octopus' (with the apostrophe, but without the second "s".)

I thought both forms were valid.

I'm not sure. You may be right. But, that's the way I was taught in Catholic elementary school. Seven years of nuns (and one lay teacher) who drilled English grammar into you. (And who were in high gear about not letting me and the rest of the class use the bathroom, but that's another story. )

Another Piano Man one...

For a guy who's allegedly playing piano, he spends a lot of time on the harmonica.

[DISCLAIMER: I can't take credit for this, I saw it on another site]

The Righteous Brothers Unchained Melody had lyrics that go "Time goes by...so slowly...". Try getting older (like yours truly) and see just how fast time goes by.

Rock Sugar's Can't Stop The Santa Man.

At one point they sing that Santa should join a union to get some workman's comp.

What would be the point? Santa's an independent contractor. He's his own boss. Nobody pays him to make and deliver toys. Heck, he doesn't even sell the toys. He gives them away.


The Killer's Don't Shoot Me Santa.

Yes, that's the title and plot. I think this song has potential, but the lyrics feel more like a rough draft.

At one point the main singer sings he's been killing people for fun, then when Santa shows up to kill him he says he never hurt anybody, and then he talks about how he had to kill them. True you can argue that he was just lying when he said he never hurt anyone, but I think songwriter should have done a better job of writing the overall story.

Paul Simon still sings "Don't take my Kodachrome away" on many classic rock stations. (And maybe in concert as well; I've never see him live.) However, Kodak ignored his plea; the last roll of Kodachrome was made in 2009.

Not sure that's a nit unless Kodak is his mama.

Speaking of his mama, I don't know what she saw, but it was against the law.

I'm guessing that Paul Simon wrote that song decades ago.

Not sure that's a nit unless Kodak is his mama.

No, not a nit. Just one of those things I thought I'd throw in, after hearing the song at the supermarket a few days ago. And, I assume his mama was Mrs. Simon.

I'm guessing that Paul Simon wrote that song decades ago.

Don't know when Simon wrote the song, but it was one of the singles from his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin' Simon.