Lyrical vomit: The 10 best songs that don’t make any sense
How important are lyrics? Well, that depends on who you ask. Many folk artists would say they form the foundation on which every song should be built. Most rappers would probably argue the same thing. However, some artists completely dismiss lyrics, or at least they view vocals as another instrument that can add to a sound but doesn’t need to make grammatical sense.
Realistically, music has found a middle ground between the two opposites. It’s always good when a tune has moving lyrics, but if it doesn’t, then it isn’t a total dealbreaker. There are a lot of great songs that have words that amount to almost nothing.
You’d be surprised how many tracks there are that, under closer inspection, make no sense. This doesn’t mean that they have one lousy line; it means that they are so abstract in what they say that any meaning is completely lost when they’re played. Of course, fans will always try to interpret the uninterpretable, but many of these tracks don’t make sense, purely because there is no sense to make of them.
This list will explore 10 of the best songs that have no meaning attached to them, or at least, their meaning is buried in metaphor so heavy it will never see the light of day.
10 great songs that don’t make sense
Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘Give It Away’
Some songs leave us with more questions than answers. Some songs give us answers and some that leave us with only questions. ‘Give It Away’ by Red Hot Chili Peppers is undoubtedly the latter. The opening lines remain unclear, as when we are instructed to give it to our “mamma”, “papa”, and “daughter,” we are given no clues as to what “it” is.
The real confusion comes in the second verse, though, as Anthony Kiedis sings, “I’m a low brow, but I rock a little know-how / No time for the piggies or the hoosegow / Get smart get down with the pow wow / Never been a better time than right now.” This is gibberish, and we will decipher the language of the zodiac killer before we ever make sense of this lyrical vomit.
The Beatles – ‘I Am the Walrus’
‘I Am the Walrus’ is arguably the most talked about and widely dissected release in music, as upon release, this fever dream by The Beatles sounded like someone had cracked open a kaleidoscope and poured the contents onto sheet music. It was thusly picked apart and rummaged in as fans were desperate for a deeper meaning.
John Lennon said afterwards that the song was left intentionally abstract, with the band wanting to make something as disjointed as possible. Since so many people were trying to analyse the Fab Four’s tunes, they decided to write something impossible to interpret. “The first line was written on an acid trip one weekend,” confessed Lennon, “The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko.”
Beck – ‘Loser’
The story of Beck’s uprising and the birth of the anti-folk movement is fascinating, as he essentially made music that protested the hypocritical nature of folk music in New York at the time. He was tired of seeing rich and famous people talk about the world’s difficulties, and so essentially became a parody of them. At its heart, ‘Loser’ is a self-critical look at Beck as a musician and a person, but it’s also a bunch of gibberish.
Words like “In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey / Butane in my veins and I’m out to cut the junkie / With the plastic eyeballs, spray-paint the vegetables / Dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose,” make it so that if it weren’t for the clearly written chorus, this track would be lost on anyone who listened. Beck has always attested that the words don’t need to be analysed because the song isn’t that deep; saying it all mainly refers to how bad he is at rapping.
Nirvana – ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
Kurt Cobain originally got the title for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ from Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill. One night, she wrote on his dressing room wall, “Kurt smells like teen spirit.” Not realising she was referencing deodorant, Cobain ran with the title and wrote a song that he claims was about musical revolution. “We don’t follow the guidelines of what’s expected of us to be adults. We still screw around and have a good time,” he said when discussing the meaning behind the words.
That all sounds well and good, but when you properly analyse lines like, “A mulatto, an albino / A mosquito, my libido,” it’s hard to describe the words as anything other than paper-thin nonsense. Disagree? Even drummer Dave Grohl admits he thinks the words in many Nirvana tracks are flimsy.
“Just seeing Kurt write the lyrics to a song five minutes before he first sings them, you just kind of find it a little bit hard to believe that the song has a lot to say about something,” he said, “You need syllables to fill up this space, or you need something that rhymes.”
Oasis – ‘Champagne Supernova’
This Oasis song has an infectious nature. The melody, paired with an easy-to-memorise chorus, means that the minute it comes on in a bar or you hear it live, it’s hard to do anything other than sing along. It seems that we get so lost in that singalong that we forget to think about the lyrics, and if you do for a couple of seconds, you’ll realise they make absolutely no sense.
The band have already admitted that the lyrics to ‘Champagne Supernova’ were never supposed to be remotely cohesive. You could argue it’s relatively poetic, a track about getting so off your face that nothing makes sense, arguably, shouldn’t make sense. On the other hand, though, it’s more likely just lazy writing.
The Killers – ‘Human’
Brandon Flowers has previously come out about this song, saying that the widely disputed chorus line has a simple meaning. He boldly said, “You’re an idiot” if you don’t get it. Well, any track with as many interpretations as this one can’t be that straightforward, and the true meaning behind it is still open to interpretation.
Because of the grammatical presentation of the word “Dancer,” it is tough to know how we are supposed to interpret the line, “Are we human? Or are we dancer?” It’s tough to note whether it refers to a person, concept or state of being. With theories surrounding mispronunciation, Hunter S Thompson and expressed metaphors, the meaning of this track is still up for debate.
Harry Styles – ‘Watermelon Sugar’
The way this Harry Styles song is sung, the instrumentation, and the generally bright colours conjured up in our minds when it plays, ‘Watermelon Sugar’ has very positive connotations and often has feelings of love attached to it. However, when you actually take a moment to read the words, love is never really mentioned, and the meaning of “Watermelon sugar high” remains up for debate.
It seems that even Harry Styles struggles with the track. In an interview with Zane Lowe, Lowe commented on the meaning of the song, saying, “Everyone’s kinda figured out what it’s about: the joys of mutually appreciated oral pleasure,” to which Harry replied, “Is that what it’s about? I don’t know.”
Queen – ‘Radio Ga Ga’
This Queen track was written by the band’s drummer, Roger Taylor, who had a clear message in mind when he first put pen to paper. The track is supposedly a critique of radio stations and how they were becoming commercialised. Essentially, he references that they play the same tunes and are losing their heart.
While that message seems like a just one to write about, how it’s delivered isn’t the clearest. Lyrics like “You gave them all those old time stars / Through wars of worlds invaded by Mars” inject an element of ambiguity into the song. It was abstract enough that Lady Gaga got her name from it and used the track as the basis for her musical persona.
Cocteau Twins – ‘Whales Tails’
Cocteau Twins really showed off their musical ability on their 1986 album Victorialand, and the track ‘Whales Tails’ was a clear standout. The instrumentation was dreamlike, as synths and guitars came together to form a partnership like the two had never before. Elizabeth Fraser’s vocals are equally heavenly; however, her words are a bit harder to complement.
It turns out that this is another song written with intended ambiguity. “The lyrics are words that I found by going through books and dictionaries written in languages that I don’t understand,” said Fraser when discussing how she came up with the haphazard words, “I have no idea what it means.”
Harry Nilsson – ‘Coconut’
Much musing has gone on over the years to decipher the true meaning of ‘Coconut’ and every ounce of it perhaps heaps too much credit on Harry Nilsson‘s cerebral pull when it comes to this particular number. That’s not to say that it isn’t a good song. If anything, it showcases how Mr Schmilsson was adept at songwriting. He was even able to craft his nonsense into a fine little track.
The irreverence is heightened by Nilsson’s recollection of how it came about. He was reclining in Hawaii on holiday when he jotted down the word coconut on a matchbox. For some mad reason known only to the late star, he thought it might come in handy. Alas, I suppose it did. It’s now one of his most profitable hits, proving that a hook is often more important than a point.
