For the longest time I thought the Beatles lyric to "Can't Buy Me Love" was "got puppy love". The song makes absolutely no sense if you have that as the man lyric.

It's not like they can read anyway. It's not like popular music has any lyrics WORTH reading.

I wanna make love
In this club
In this club
In this club

I wanna make love
In this club....

I think this is a good thing. As the 90s showed us, knowing the lyrics to the songs means that we'll act them out by shooting at cops or having sex or doing drugs.

iPods are actually protecting our children from evil lyricists.

\I'm Hillary Clinton, and I approve this message

"Don't sell me your lunch meat..

Don't sell me your lunch meat...

Don't tell me, I ...Don't...Want...To..Know..."

"Don't go out tonight,
It's bound to take your life.
There's a bathroom on the right."

/'Scuse me while I kiss this guy.

And half the CD generation doesn't know the names of the songs, only, "track 6".

/guilty

On my computer I just grab the lyrics through foxytunes. When walking I listen to news podcasts. Other than emergency karaoke, I don't think I'd really need them anyhow.

Um. its not like the words matter.

I just look the lyrics up online. Plenty of good sites. My favorite is songmeanings.net/ (new window) You not only get the lyrics, but peoples interpretations on the song. Of course quite a bit is crap, but there are some gems of insight there.

Katie98_KT: Um. its not like the words matter.

It's a shame you listen to music where that would be the case.

I listen to My Pal Foot Foot by The Shaggs. This makes me a better person than you.

Well Hold Me Closer, Tony Danzaaaaaaa.......

That's stupid.

/just google any lyrics printed or not

I'm a dumptruck personality!

We split up on the docks that night, both agreeing it was best.

At least they don't destroy their eyesight by trying to read tiny printing on cassette case labels.

/Kids, ask your parents what cassettes were.

Thank god.

The iPod generation is also the Google generation. We don't know song lyrics, but we're dumber for googling everything? I call shenanigans.

co-conspirator: "Don't go out tonight,
It's bound to take your life.
There's a bathroom on the right."

/'Scuse me while I kiss this guy.

I thought you weren't supposed to go out because there was a baboon on the rind. Huh.

BooBoo23: And half the CD generation doesn't know the names of the songs, only, "track 6".

Two words: Teenage Wasteland.

/calling it that makes me want to delete people from this planet more than any other song mix-up.

OK, I admit I LOL at that headline.

Bands still include their song lyrics in the CD jacket?

+ 1 smitty!

And down you make my brownouts blue

I always preferred "There's a Bathroom on the Right" by Credence Clearwater Revival

iPod has nothing to do with it. I still have trouble with song titles, dating back to listening to cassettes on a Walkman.

I've got a lot of CDs, and not a lot of them have lyrics on the inserts. They don't do that any more, if they ever did.

And as for my generation, we know how to use Google to find the lyrics if we want. You old people can barely turn your computers on.

Canadian Canuck: For the longest time I thought the Beatles lyric to "Can't Buy Me Love" was "got puppy love". The song makes absolutely no sense if you have that as the man lyric.

One of my Japanese friends thought it was "Hey, Dude" instead of Hey Jude. I sing it her way now.

This is really a phenomenon confined to the iPod generation, as we all know exactly what they're saying in Louie Louie. Yep, poor kids today are just blinded by the light. Wrapped up like a douche with nutterbutters in the night.

Or it could be that so much of the music is just terrible screaming into a mic that hardly resembles words at all.

True story: when I was a kid, I thought that the opening lyrics for "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who went said "No one knows what it's like to be the Batman."

It wasn't until years later that I found out it was actually "No one knows what it's like to be the bad man."

FuturePastNow: I've got a lot of CDs, and not a lot of them have lyrics on the inserts. They don't do that any more, if they ever did.

And as for my generation, we know how to use Google to find the lyrics if we want. You old people can barely turn your computers on.

Pretty much this, minus the 'old people' snark.

/that reminds me, is it really "Fire, to begin whipping dance of the dead"?

nyihockey: Or it could be that so much of the music is just terrible screaming into a mic that hardly resembles words at all.

I should add that I'm only 23 myself, but if I can't sing along to a song, I won't like it. I hate not knowing the words, and I hate getting them wrong when I'm singing in the car by myself

/go ahead, make fun. everyone else does.

paulseta: Katie98_KT: Um. its not like the words matter.

It's a shame you listen to music where that would be the case.

I listen to My Pal Foot Foot by The Shaggs. This makes me a better person than you.

You bastard! First I read that and got My Pal Foot Foot stuck in my head. Then I thought about it and realized what kind of person I am that I could even possibly get a song like "My Pal Foot Foot" stuck in my head. So now I've got this existential crisis going on.

Heroic Poser: Well Hold Me Closer, Tony Danzaaaaaaa.......

HA! I thought this for 25 years!

/Dirty Deeds of the THUNDER CHIEF!

TheMothership: iPod has nothing to do with it. I still have trouble with song titles, dating back to listening to cassettes on a Walkman.

With Walkmans (Walkmen?), there was nothing; all Discmans had was a track number. Mp3 players, on the other hand, have nifty tags for titles, artists, albums, years, genres, etc. Or, at least my 4-year-old Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra does, and I assume that's the case with these fancy new thingers nowadays.

You want to have fun with kids?

Ask them to name three Bob Dylan songs.

It's not like anyone ever knew the words to "Louie Louie" anyway.

Oh yea, it is definitely digital musics fault. Everyone knew the lyrics to every song before that damn iPod was released.

/Excuse me while I kiss the sky...

Renegade Pancake: You want to have fun with kids?

Ask them to name three Bob Dylan songs.

Or name three songs from the punk band that is on their t-shirt...

/Bikini girls with machine guns... thats all I got.

All jokes aside, I think Apple missed out on insanely great opportunities for added value when they defined the standards for their-home-grown (AAC) digital music files.

Wouldn't it be great if more liner-notes-type material was included in the files, so interested listeners could tell who played what instruments on each song or album? So you could search the iTunes store for music by a remembered lyric line? You could search out every track that a solo performer was a background singer on before he/she made it big? Or get a list of songs that featured a certain instrument playing. The possibilities for the music fanatic are astonishing.

They could've added stuff the NEVER made it to liner notes as well, like timing info so you could have lyrics scrolling in time to their matching music. Added data so you can search for songs by categories like male/female-duet, a cappella, choir, monster rock ballad, etc.. Tempo info so you could auto-assemble playlists by fast/slow categories, or make sure you easily alternate tempos on your playlists.

And they could have added WIKI-power to iTunes to tap into the volunteerism of music fan-bases to add most of that info to their library of existing music files

AAC2 and iTunes 8.0.
Just do it, Apple.
Be insanely great - and make a shiatload of money doing so.

I thought that most bands were trying to shut down the lyrics servers? Back when the Tipper Gore was leading the PMRC lots of bands argued that even making lyrics available was an assault on their "rights" Lyrics began disappearing from Vinyl an cassettes around that time and they were never a part of the package with 8 tracks. In the early 90's several labels successfully shut down the largest lyrics servers. Lyrics sheet vanishied because the bands don't want you to know what they are saying.

Hey I know the lyrics to a lot of songs!

/Blinded by the light
//Wrapped up like a douche
///Another runner in the night

Renegade Pancake: Ask them to name three Bob Dylan songs.

Wasn't he a poet? Or was he the guy who could barely sing? Can't keep up with them...

The main reason I buy CD's is for the lyrics in the case. Its also kinda my thumbs up to the artist for putting out something that even though I can get for free, I'll buy...because they deserve the kudos.

/just bought new Coldplay
//new My Morning Jacket also
///I know....
////cue Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd

Wrapped up like a douche, another boner in the night...

This seems appropriate:

Yellow Ledbetter (new window)

I'm spoiled from having XM radio. Now when I listen to regular radio (shudder) I'm always looking around to see who the artist and song title are.

music > lyrics


want pretty words? Read a book.

Renegade Pancake: You want to have fun with kids?

Ask them to name three Bob Dylan songs.

All along the watchtower, knockin on heaven's door, just like a woman, shelter from the storm. Granted, that's all I can name though

People actually listen to the lyrics? I can never understand them so I don't bother.

People have been mishearing lyrics since... well at least since Hendrix.

Maybe the "internet site is being blitzed with hilariously misheard versions of lines from songs" is because the site encourages people to post misheard lyrics.

Now what's really sad is the loss of album art due to CDs.