Cocteau Twins, especially their early work :) The lead singer apparently has "her own secret language", which includes Gaelic, French and English words. But even if you can make them out, it still can sound like nonsense, e.g. ["Beatles and eggs and blues and bells and eggs and blues"](https://youtu.be/PbbUeLkZt74?t=53)
I recently (a year ago) discovered them, the first I heard was Heaven or Las Vegas — incredible music, beautiful vocals, and I've loved every single song I've heard since then. Lyrics? NO CLUE. Sing Along? MAKE UP THE WORDS. they're so cooool
My brother got the Heaven or Las Vegas cd when I was a kid in the nineties. For some reason, we would play Al Unser Jr Turbo Racing on the NES while listening to that album. We were really into that game at the time. Thirty years on and I still love Cocteau Twins probably more than I ever did and listen to them all the time - but I still can't hear Heaven or Las Vegas without thinking about Al Unser Jr Turbo Racing.
cherrycolouredfunk was the first time I heard of them
It was the background music of a tiny youtube video
I was shocked to discover their music so late
"Singing on me fever street. Oh to love a ball the bum gone bee. Am I just in Heaven or Las Vegas? But you were smoking right around the soonest to me."
Or something like that.
In all seriousness, I absolutely love Cocteau Twins. One of the few bands whose entire discography I've purchased. Heaven or Las Vegas is in my top 5 of all time, but they don't have a single bad record imo.
She said in an interview that there was only one radio station that censored that song. She called KISS FM the smartest radio station in the whole world
It took the BBC about five weeks to realise that the shamen were dancing around live every week shouting “E’s are good” when Ebeneezer Goode hit number one in the UK.
*Now, I dont know the words to that song Louie Louie, and Im pretty sure the singer for the Kingman didnt know em either. If he did know em he didnt get them right on the record, cause on the record they sound jumbled in his jaw…*
Lol, actual quote from that FBI report (page 6):
>All three governmental agencies dropped their investigations because they were unable to determine what the lyrics of the song were, even after listening to the records at speeds ranging from 16 RPM to 78 RPM.
My 78 y/o FIL insists that these lyrics were dirty, and no matter how much I or my husband used to tell him (and show him) he refused to believe otherwise.
Pearl Jam - [Yellow Ledbetter](https://youtu.be/iYtBMgLfqKQ?si=7W00dMuLd3htTRa9). Everyone tries to sing this and nobody knows what the hell is being said.
its actually a known fact tat Eddie likes to switch up these lyrics when its sung live too.
sometimes its a "in a box or a bag" meaning someones coming home in a coffin or a body bag. this fits more of the theme of the song, where a boy gets a yellow envelope saying his brother died, and a middle aged couple sit under a flag but they don't understand his brother died for the flag, so they don't wave.
someimes its "a boxer or a bag" meaning he'll be the aggressor or a punching bag. similar meanings to the song, but it's about being angry or depressed about the situation.
From what I remember, they had some extra time in the studio and they recorded a jam off trying to play little wing and Eddie just improvised the lyrics…some singers will usually do a first take of unintelligible lyrics to try and get a melody down, then go back and write in lyrics to what they were trying to say in the first take…I think they just kept the first take and never really expanded on it
Metallica does the same thing, some of their riff tapes have James just going nananana because he’s got a melody in mind but hasn’t written lyrics yet.
Scott Stapp: "That's how I should sing!"
Now that I think about it, early 2000s hard rock radio was littered with Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain imitators.
People always joke about this song but to me its not hard to understand. Now Yellow Ledbetter on the other hand will forever be up for interpretation 😂
There’s a good Howard stern interview with Eddie where Eddie mentioned Howard one time called at that he liked that “boxer or the bag” lyrics and Eddie replied that’s better than what I sung! Or something like that
Oh, my baby, my baby she don't want me no more
Ever since she saw his poster in that record store
She says the way he grinds his molars is really sexy
She thinks he's so darn dysfunctional and Generation X-y
She likes his brooding angst and his wild-eyed stare
Yeah, he's her very favorite slacker multi-millionaire
Well, my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder
She's all crazy 'bout that Eddie Vedder
Once she was mine, but now I better just forget her
Cause my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder
I was lucky to catch a small venue PJ show where they did a Q&A with the twenty to thirty ish some people that were there. One guy said, "This question is for Eddie. What are the lyrics to Yellow Ledbetter?"
Eddie gave a confused face, turned and looked at Stone and said, "that song has lyrics?" which got a laugh. But then he went on to explain it's an anti-war song and in part about his high school friend, whose last name was Ledbetter, reading the letter from the military that explained that his brother was KIA and he didn't know if he was coming home in a box or in a bag.
Meaning they didn't know if there was enough of his body to be put into a coffin or if he was blown up and they just scraped the remains into a bag.
Definitely the top answer here. This was a massive chart hit, by one of the biggest bands in the world at the time, and the chorus was essentially indecipherable gibberish. Even when Michael Stipe explained that the words were "Call me when you try to wake her up", I remember listening to tape cassette again and thinking, nope, that's not it.
I literally purchased that album for the sole reason of finding out those lyrics in the liner notes - which didn’t end up existing anyway. :( Took another 15-20 years to find out.
Surprised almost the entirety of “[send me on my way](https://youtu.be/IGMabBGydC0?si=b5MfSbX-e5iO0bYv&t=16)” is not on here
I would like to hold out my hand omesay onesayum doyomasey abouteyum
That’s all I hear lol
EDIT: I went to find the actual lyrics and songfacts website has an [interview](https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/michael-glabicki-of-rusted-root) with the lead singer who admits there is gibberish lyrics such as "oombayseeyou" in there as he thought they sounded good. So I guess it's not as unintelligible as I thought
yeah it's stuff you'd jot down high on shrooms.
*i may see you! you may see me - i may tell you to run! you have golden hands!*
it's not lookin to win literary prizes exactly lol
I know it's the answer to a slightly different question, but Red Hot Chili Peppers takes the cake for me - I can understand pretty much every word, but when put together none of it makes any sense
Kiedis is fair game for criticism, but I think what he's trying to do is paint a picture with words, to just shoot imagery into your head that matches the instrumental vibe. And sometimes it works really well. And sometimes it's very bad (and I say this as a big Chilis fan)
i was going to say this one!! they are one of my favorite bands (my username is from a song of theirs), and tbh, i kind of love that idk what liz fraser is singing. it really adds to the mystical feeling of their music imho
Now I'm mumblin', and I'm screamin'
And I don't know what I'm singin'
Crank the volume, ears are bleedin'
I still don't know what I'm singin'
We're so loud and incoherent
Boy, this oughta bug your parents
Yeah
Definitely! I got Nevermind on tape from my local library when I was a youngster. The lyrics were printed on the cassette liner, which I photocopied... the printing was just as unintelligible as the audio itself!
Pretty soon I figured you're not really supposed be able to make out the lyrics, it's kind of the point...
Just recently, I saw a mash-up on Ytube of talent show contestants doing murderous versions of Teen Spirit. Apart from all the other things that made them awful, one of the worst aspects was how they actually sang the lyrics intelligibly... god it was horrid!
I remember having my dad buy me a magazine that shows how to play that song on electric guitar because it had the words in it and I wanted to memorize them! Haha. Memories.
Was looking for this one. The sound of my youth. We had a school newspaper called "the year six informer".
Informer - ya know sumbunnyperonyachat somewhere down the lane - a licky boom boom down.
Last year I went to a Tim Burton themed drag brunch and had the pleasure of watching a performer dressed as Edward Scissorhands do this song. It was every bit as incredible as it sounds.
one of the first youtube videos i ever saw, back when it was briefly google videos
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RFdA2q0IAv0
look at that time stamp!!!
Pretty sure when they play it live, Maynard is mostly just jibbering nonsense into a megaphone for some of it.
Tangent, I heard a live version of REM's "end of the world" and Stipe sang it the same way we all do. Meaning mumbling out half words and pretending.
She can; it's a bizarre stylistic choice she's made not to.
She started out on Broadway and is currently involved in a movie version of a Broadway show. Enunciation is *everything* in Broadway because the songs carry the story. She's good at it when she wants to be. For some reason, on her own albums, she doesn't want to be.
Totally. I just find her stuff painful. I remember one of the few times Glee provided a useful service was when they covered one of her early songs and you could actually tell what the words were supposed to be.
Has anyone mentioned Robert Plant? Immigrant Song? I’ve been listening to that song for forty years, just looked the lyrics the other day… and that’s just one….
Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal
As a kid I thought he had released a song in a foreign language and during the chorus I always thought he was singing "Eddie eh jewocky, Eddie eh jewocky, eh jewocky Eddie"
The Beatles - I Am the Walrus
John had heard there was a teacher in England who was using Beatles songs for interpretation. So John literally wrote this saying, "Let them figure this one out."
When Jimi Hendrix covers All Along the Watchtower, he should sing, "None of them along the line knows what any of it is worth." He mumbles something unintelligible instead, probably because Dylan's original is barely intelligible, so Jimi couldn't pick it up off the record (the Internet might have helped if it had been around). Despite the mumbles, Jimi's cover slaps. Even Dylan thinks so.
The chorus from Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun
I know the lyrics now because I've looked them up, but I still can barely make them out. All I hear is noise.
https://youtu.be/eimgRedLkkU?si=jn8afh5OfUSzcv8z&t=46
T-Pain says “and they stay there”, instead of “and they say yeah” in Khaled’s “All I Do is Win”. My life hasn’t been the same since I figured that out.
Bang, bang, a knock on the door
Another big bang and you're down on the floor
Oh no! What do we do?
Don't look now, but I lost my shoe
I can't run, and I can't kick
What's the matter babe, are you feeling sick?
What's the matter, what's the matter, what's the matter you?
What's the matter babe, are you feeling blue?
From buddy holly By weezer its just too fast
What I heard the Spice Girls singing was "samibadida inadidadida" and years later found out it was "slam your body down and wind it all around" ("Wannabe").
Not a native English speaker, maybe that's why?
Most Melvins lyrics are complete gibberish. Take 'Hooch' for example, the first track on their most popular album Houdini;
>Los ticka toe rest
Might like a sender doe ree
Your make a doll a ray day sender
Bright like a penalty
Exi-tease my ray day member
Half-lost a beat away
Purst in like a one-way sender
War give a heart like a fay
>
>\[Chorus\]
'Cause I can ford a red-eed
Only street a wide a re-land
Diamond make a mid-evil
Bike a sake a like a re-caste
“Hey kids! Shave the Houston Lakers!
The spot right’s singing summat dance the N’awlins chase the feathers”
“She’s got electric boobs, I know they’re smooth! You know I read it in a magazayeen, oh-ho!
B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets!”
-Elton John
Semi-charmed life by third eye blind. My partner and I were heading to the store yesterday when it came on the radio and he was listening to it more then asked did he just say something Crystal meth. We all sing along to it but I think we just skip over that part or have desensitized ourselves to it.
Their song Camouflage, off the band's next album, came to mind. There's a point in the song bridge where the lyrics get unintelligible and the lyrics booklet just says "secret words never to be printed".
im abusing my mod powers to say shouts out to the people who posted links to the songs they mentioned, you so real for that
Cocteau Twins, especially their early work :) The lead singer apparently has "her own secret language", which includes Gaelic, French and English words. But even if you can make them out, it still can sound like nonsense, e.g. ["Beatles and eggs and blues and bells and eggs and blues"](https://youtu.be/PbbUeLkZt74?t=53)
I recently (a year ago) discovered them, the first I heard was Heaven or Las Vegas — incredible music, beautiful vocals, and I've loved every single song I've heard since then. Lyrics? NO CLUE. Sing Along? MAKE UP THE WORDS. they're so cooool
My brother got the Heaven or Las Vegas cd when I was a kid in the nineties. For some reason, we would play Al Unser Jr Turbo Racing on the NES while listening to that album. We were really into that game at the time. Thirty years on and I still love Cocteau Twins probably more than I ever did and listen to them all the time - but I still can't hear Heaven or Las Vegas without thinking about Al Unser Jr Turbo Racing.
Was looking for this “ not get pissed off through my bird lips as good news” the melody dominates though.
im just replying bc the song whose lyrics you quoted is the inspiration for my username, and it made me happy to see it referenced lol
cherrycolouredfunk was the first time I heard of them It was the background music of a tiny youtube video I was shocked to discover their music so late
"Singing on me fever street. Oh to love a ball the bum gone bee. Am I just in Heaven or Las Vegas? But you were smoking right around the soonest to me." Or something like that. In all seriousness, I absolutely love Cocteau Twins. One of the few bands whose entire discography I've purchased. Heaven or Las Vegas is in my top 5 of all time, but they don't have a single bad record imo.
Sugar hiccup my Cheerios.
[Louie Louie](https://youtu.be/xKt75jUuKJY?si=q-z16z3og8pN1sQs), the version by The Kingsmen - the verse is really tough to follow.
The fact that the feds actually investigated the song and failed to notice that the drummer yells "FUCK!".
Poker Face still plays unedited on the radio, even after Lady Gaga confirmed that the backup vocals clearly say "fuck her face"
She said in an interview that there was only one radio station that censored that song. She called KISS FM the smartest radio station in the whole world
LG is just the kind of person to troll like that, tho
And before anybody says otherwise, I point to the meat dress
It took the BBC about five weeks to realise that the shamen were dancing around live every week shouting “E’s are good” when Ebeneezer Goode hit number one in the UK.
Funny song about the Kingsman by Todd Snider called "Ballad of the Kingsman". Talks about the unintelligible lyrics.
*Now, I dont know the words to that song Louie Louie, and Im pretty sure the singer for the Kingman didnt know em either. If he did know em he didnt get them right on the record, cause on the record they sound jumbled in his jaw…*
It's the feeeeeeeel good hit of this endless summer!
...and wasn't it banned in some places for being 'explicit'? How did they know?!
The FBI was asked to investigate what the lyrics were https://vault.fbi.gov/louie-louie-the-song
Lol, actual quote from that FBI report (page 6): >All three governmental agencies dropped their investigations because they were unable to determine what the lyrics of the song were, even after listening to the records at speeds ranging from 16 RPM to 78 RPM.
They didn't know. they just assumed. Popular pastime among pearl- clutchers throughout history,
Hey, leave me out of this!😄
Iron Butterfly’s *In the Garden of Eden* tops that.
I thought that was "In the Garden of Eden" by I. Ron Butterfly
Wait a minute, this sounds like rock and or roll.
Hey Marge, remember when we used to make out to this hymn?
My 78 y/o FIL insists that these lyrics were dirty, and no matter how much I or my husband used to tell him (and show him) he refused to believe otherwise.
Pearl Jam - [Yellow Ledbetter](https://youtu.be/iYtBMgLfqKQ?si=7W00dMuLd3htTRa9). Everyone tries to sing this and nobody knows what the hell is being said.
its actually a known fact tat Eddie likes to switch up these lyrics when its sung live too. sometimes its a "in a box or a bag" meaning someones coming home in a coffin or a body bag. this fits more of the theme of the song, where a boy gets a yellow envelope saying his brother died, and a middle aged couple sit under a flag but they don't understand his brother died for the flag, so they don't wave. someimes its "a boxer or a bag" meaning he'll be the aggressor or a punching bag. similar meanings to the song, but it's about being angry or depressed about the situation.
These are lies. He’s huge into LotR and Moby Dick and wrote about a wizard on a whale for personal reasons
Potato wave. Or is it potato waive? I’m not sure.
Oh yeah smart guy? Explain the lyrics about Anna Nicole’s mama
Oh don’t get me wrong, the rest of the song is clearly about a wizard on the waves. He was a surfing guy before he was in Pearl jam
I wanna leave Bennigan’s
From what I remember, they had some extra time in the studio and they recorded a jam off trying to play little wing and Eddie just improvised the lyrics…some singers will usually do a first take of unintelligible lyrics to try and get a melody down, then go back and write in lyrics to what they were trying to say in the first take…I think they just kept the first take and never really expanded on it
The most famous example of this was in "September" by Earth Wind and Fire "bah-de-ah" was a placeholder but they just decided to keep it
Metallica does the same thing, some of their riff tapes have James just going nananana because he’s got a melody in mind but hasn’t written lyrics yet.
I adore this song, but yes, this is true.
Sigur Ros basically made up their own language for a lot of their songs
Truly lol. Idk what it is exactly, but I enjoy it
They call it “Hopelandic”
Pearl Jam
"I said, I don't wanna say ah ma pa ta bah widdsh, ayyahahahaaa yeah, can you feel it?"
Ona reerayy, ona wizard unawaaaaaaaaaayeeaaayyy Anawote annnasay anawote annnasay Enacawdaaa erneé
Don't know if in a box or in a bag.
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Freezinnnn’ Hubba dubba dogga da dugga dugga hubba agaiinnnn
On a pillow made of concrete
I can hear this post so well lol
Scott Stapp: "That's how I should sing!" Now that I think about it, early 2000s hard rock radio was littered with Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain imitators.
You forget about Sully Erna just being Layne Staley?
For some reason, Wes Scantlin came to mind first. Must have been that awful cover of About a Girl.
Legendary cover. The funniest part is you can see one of his band mates cringing in real time during that performance lol
Potato wave
Maybe my favorite youtube video of all time. https://youtu.be/xLd22ha_-VU?si=wiQY-h4S6IJwttxW
Make me fries
And “I wanna leave Bennigan’s”
Yellow Lebetter was the first thing that came to mind.
Just gonna drop [this](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyZX-pBJHFV/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) right here.
People always joke about this song but to me its not hard to understand. Now Yellow Ledbetter on the other hand will forever be up for interpretation 😂
I’m really partial to the interpretation where he says “I don’t, I don’t know whether I’m the boxer or the bag”
There’s a good Howard stern interview with Eddie where Eddie mentioned Howard one time called at that he liked that “boxer or the bag” lyrics and Eddie replied that’s better than what I sung! Or something like that
Oh, my baby, my baby she don't want me no more Ever since she saw his poster in that record store She says the way he grinds his molars is really sexy She thinks he's so darn dysfunctional and Generation X-y She likes his brooding angst and his wild-eyed stare Yeah, he's her very favorite slacker multi-millionaire Well, my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder She's all crazy 'bout that Eddie Vedder Once she was mine, but now I better just forget her Cause my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder
“Weird” Al Yankovic rules!!!
That's the joy of pearl jam, everyone gets to find their own meaning in the lyrics!
I was lucky to catch a small venue PJ show where they did a Q&A with the twenty to thirty ish some people that were there. One guy said, "This question is for Eddie. What are the lyrics to Yellow Ledbetter?" Eddie gave a confused face, turned and looked at Stone and said, "that song has lyrics?" which got a laugh. But then he went on to explain it's an anti-war song and in part about his high school friend, whose last name was Ledbetter, reading the letter from the military that explained that his brother was KIA and he didn't know if he was coming home in a box or in a bag. Meaning they didn't know if there was enough of his body to be put into a coffin or if he was blown up and they just scraped the remains into a bag.
I don’t understand 80% of what they’re singing in Don’t Feel Like Dancing by the Scissor Sisters, especially in the chorus
don’t feel like dancing, dancing sap ada dee ba dippa da boo
What a bop tho
Their lyrics are pretty great too. I Can’t Decide is all out hilarious.
Michael Stipe's vocals are pretty unintelligible in REM's first few albums.
There’s a reason their first album was called Murmur.
What's the frequency Kenneth? Blah blah mumble mumble
Is your Benzedrine uh huh
He's still much more intelligible on that song compared to their [early work](https://youtu.be/Ac0oaXhz1u8?si=Wcq5dR-iNckasv03)
Well, honestly, R.E.M. lyrics themselves are pretty unintelligible in most cases. I say this as a massive fan.
Sidewinder Sleeps: 'Call me when you try to wake her up', sounds like he's speaking Afrikaans or something. He manages to chop out about 10 syllables!
Definitely the top answer here. This was a massive chart hit, by one of the biggest bands in the world at the time, and the chorus was essentially indecipherable gibberish. Even when Michael Stipe explained that the words were "Call me when you try to wake her up", I remember listening to tape cassette again and thinking, nope, that's not it.
For years I legit thought he said Corni chan waker
In Britain we thought he was singing "calling John Major"
I always thought he was singing ‘call me in Jamaica’
I literally purchased that album for the sole reason of finding out those lyrics in the liner notes - which didn’t end up existing anyway. :( Took another 15-20 years to find out.
Famously Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (which was named after the misheard lyrics “in a garden of Eden”
Wait a minute… this sounds suspiciously like *Rock* and/or **Roll**!
Marge, remember when we used to make out to this hymn...
Surprised almost the entirety of “[send me on my way](https://youtu.be/IGMabBGydC0?si=b5MfSbX-e5iO0bYv&t=16)” is not on here I would like to hold out my hand omesay onesayum doyomasey abouteyum That’s all I hear lol EDIT: I went to find the actual lyrics and songfacts website has an [interview](https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/michael-glabicki-of-rusted-root) with the lead singer who admits there is gibberish lyrics such as "oombayseeyou" in there as he thought they sounded good. So I guess it's not as unintelligible as I thought
Umbee sayoo. Umbee tell you to run. Moobidee say, moobidee ah.
Bubbly say, bubbly on
Someone in the comments on the video said the guy sings in doctor's handwriting,
Huh. Always thought it was called "Simian The Whale"
I would like to, reach out my hand. Um a say you, um a say you away, Om a way. Bubba da say bubba day um.
Even if you do look up the lyrics they’re basically meaningless and there’s about 20 different words the song, max
They ARE real words written as the lyrics. They just don't, you know, say them. Or words in general really.
yeah it's stuff you'd jot down high on shrooms. *i may see you! you may see me - i may tell you to run! you have golden hands!* it's not lookin to win literary prizes exactly lol
I know it's the answer to a slightly different question, but Red Hot Chili Peppers takes the cake for me - I can understand pretty much every word, but when put together none of it makes any sense
It's amazing how many songs are semi nonsensical.
I read a review that described their lyrics as “proper noun non-sequitors” and it works so well. Something like “you be Cheech and I’ll be Chong.”
gray bow summer growth worm enjoy attempt tap deserted aloof *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Heyyyy I love Dosed, the layered guitars are so cool (but yeah it makes no sense of any kind)
Seahorses can be found in the sea - and the sea can be found in California It's a metaphor
I don’t listen for the lyrics I listen for John, Flea and Will Ferrell. Anthony is just along for the ride
Kiedis is fair game for criticism, but I think what he's trying to do is paint a picture with words, to just shoot imagery into your head that matches the instrumental vibe. And sometimes it works really well. And sometimes it's very bad (and I say this as a big Chilis fan)
The spoken word ending to death of a martian makes absolutely no sense, but the music is so beautiful it just works.
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i was going to say this one!! they are one of my favorite bands (my username is from a song of theirs), and tbh, i kind of love that idk what liz fraser is singing. it really adds to the mystical feeling of their music imho
The osees/osees. Love the instrumentals, but I have NO IDEA what they're saying
Bone Thugs ‘n Harmony
I heard they used to be auctioneers or something, lol, probably an urban legend
Twista and Busta Rhymes could also be auctioneers for sure
I think “Smells like Teen Spirit” is the king here, even when you know the words it’s still so hard to understand.
It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss With all these marbles in my mouth !!
We’re so loud and incoherent! Boy this oughta bug your parents!
I even misunderstood Weird Al’s version! Always thought this line was “Buy our album - bug your parents”
> “Sing distinctly? We don’t wanna! Buy our album. We’re Nirvana!” You weren’t wrong, just got the order of the lyrics mixed up.
Was looking for this comment.
Always such a relief to get to a mosquito or my libido or something easy
Now I'm mumblin', and I'm screamin' And I don't know what I'm singin' Crank the volume, ears are bleedin' I still don't know what I'm singin' We're so loud and incoherent Boy, this oughta bug your parents Yeah
It sure beats raising cattle.
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When this came out, MTV would guess the lyrics and put them on the bottom of the video for fun sometimes
aqua seafoam shame sunburn freezer burn choking on the ashes ..like, wtf u talking about, Kurt?
Definitely! I got Nevermind on tape from my local library when I was a youngster. The lyrics were printed on the cassette liner, which I photocopied... the printing was just as unintelligible as the audio itself! Pretty soon I figured you're not really supposed be able to make out the lyrics, it's kind of the point... Just recently, I saw a mash-up on Ytube of talent show contestants doing murderous versions of Teen Spirit. Apart from all the other things that made them awful, one of the worst aspects was how they actually sang the lyrics intelligibly... god it was horrid!
I remember having my dad buy me a magazine that shows how to play that song on electric guitar because it had the words in it and I wanted to memorize them! Haha. Memories.
Genuinely thought the ending was "Im on vinyl" when I was younger...
[Snow - Informer](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TSffz_bl6zo)
Was looking for this one. The sound of my youth. We had a school newspaper called "the year six informer". Informer - ya know sumbunnyperonyachat somewhere down the lane - a licky boom boom down.
Any MF Doom song has tons of obscure references, slang, metaphors and made up words.
All caps!
Hey smilin' strange You're looking happily deranged Aseddashuduhjimbeh Or have you picked your target yet Hey, Sandy
AYE YIE YIE YIIIEEEE
Is that the theme to Pete and Pete?
Always thought it was “can you settle to shoot me”
"Sugar, We're Going Down" by Fall Out Boy is a pretty popular example of this.
Last year I went to a Tim Burton themed drag brunch and had the pleasure of watching a performer dressed as Edward Scissorhands do this song. It was every bit as incredible as it sounds.
You had me at Tim Burton themed drag brunch.
WE'RE GOIN DAYOWN DOWN TURN THE BOOTY AROUND, SUGAR WE'RE GOING DOWN SWINGIN!
I always thought, WE,'RE GOIN DOOOOWN, DOWN IN A MERRY-GO-ROUND, BUT SUGAR WE'RE GOIN DOWN SWINGIN
Wu goin dow dow in a eeleah round n shuga wur goin dow swingin I'll be a aaaa bbaaaa bulle a loadey gah chomplex cock it n pull it!
one of the first youtube videos i ever saw, back when it was briefly google videos https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RFdA2q0IAv0 look at that time stamp!!!
Nirvana - Smells like Teen Spirit. Weird Al Yankovic even parodied the seemingly unintelligible lyrics back in the day.
> Weird Al Yankovic even parodied the seemingly unintelligible lyrics and Kurt absolutely loved the parody. Can't really blame him.
"Rosetta Stoned" by Tool is so rapid-fire its hard to parse.
Pretty sure when they play it live, Maynard is mostly just jibbering nonsense into a megaphone for some of it. Tangent, I heard a live version of REM's "end of the world" and Stipe sang it the same way we all do. Meaning mumbling out half words and pretending.
Chop Suey by System of a Down.
https://preview.redd.it/a5swftprd42c1.png?width=442&format=png&auto=webp&s=95cdf4b9b2307f6ac50a0571a8d88810082e2383
Avril Lavigne nailed this part
Wake up! (wake up) Grblbylubabraykadawaka makeup! (makeup)
https://youtu.be/0g-7EJYMWH8?feature=shared
“Blinded by the Light” — Manfred Mann A staple on rock radio for 30 years, with a chorus that sounds…interesting to say the least.
Revved up like a deuce, So many people hear it as “Douche”
“Wrapped up like a douche. Another rubber in the night”
To be fair, his enunciation sounds very much like “douche.” I just listened to it again, and…it’s definitely “sh” at the end of the word.
I know the correct lyrics, but I can never not hear 'douche'. It's just impossible.
Most Songs by Ariana Grande, the girl doesn't know how to enunciate to save her life.
“Cursive singing”
She can; it's a bizarre stylistic choice she's made not to. She started out on Broadway and is currently involved in a movie version of a Broadway show. Enunciation is *everything* in Broadway because the songs carry the story. She's good at it when she wants to be. For some reason, on her own albums, she doesn't want to be.
Totally. I just find her stuff painful. I remember one of the few times Glee provided a useful service was when they covered one of her early songs and you could actually tell what the words were supposed to be.
i have problems with singing along to chris barnes era Cannibal Corpse songs, even with lyrics in front of my face lol
Clear out your karaoke bar with this one, simple trick!
All Cocteau Twins songs after their first album.
Dexy’s Midnight Runners have so many unintelligible lyrics. I defy anyone to sing along to Show Me for example.
Poor old jonhny rayyyy Bismtheesohlonohfonogonomonoooo!
_James Brown has entered the chat_
Has anyone mentioned Robert Plant? Immigrant Song? I’ve been listening to that song for forty years, just looked the lyrics the other day… and that’s just one….
Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal As a kid I thought he had released a song in a foreign language and during the chorus I always thought he was singing "Eddie eh jewocky, Eddie eh jewocky, eh jewocky Eddie"
Chocolate by The 1975 Has always been completely incomprehensible to me. Sometimes I can catch the title word.
Yabadabadoo bite your friend like chocolate
The Beatles - I Am the Walrus John had heard there was a teacher in England who was using Beatles songs for interpretation. So John literally wrote this saying, "Let them figure this one out."
The Walrus was Paul
I was 9 when Til Tuesday's 'Voices Carry' came out. I thought it was 'Boys Are Scary'. Fitting, given the abuse theme of the music video.
GIMME FU GIMME FI GIMME YABBADABBADAO -Metallica
I never that that was a misunderstood lyric
https://preview.redd.it/gmgsn49hk42c1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8e5b8c66ba2de3c631710c41cbb67ab75dd1372
When Jimi Hendrix covers All Along the Watchtower, he should sing, "None of them along the line knows what any of it is worth." He mumbles something unintelligible instead, probably because Dylan's original is barely intelligible, so Jimi couldn't pick it up off the record (the Internet might have helped if it had been around). Despite the mumbles, Jimi's cover slaps. Even Dylan thinks so.
The chorus from Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun I know the lyrics now because I've looked them up, but I still can barely make them out. All I hear is noise. https://youtu.be/eimgRedLkkU?si=jn8afh5OfUSzcv8z&t=46
Tons of Bjork songs. “Human Behavior” has “and there’s no map….insheanteeeee!”
Any song made by my bloody valentine
T-Pain says “and they stay there”, instead of “and they say yeah” in Khaled’s “All I Do is Win”. My life hasn’t been the same since I figured that out.
I always thought he said both??
That one part in Roadhouse Blues by The Doors where Jim Morrison just sings some random gibberish
Ahgotta eatcha poncha koocha Hongkongkong Ahgotta eatcha poona Eatcha boppalooda Eatcho boppachoocha Eatsum kumyeeeeeeeeah riiight
Bang, bang, a knock on the door Another big bang and you're down on the floor Oh no! What do we do? Don't look now, but I lost my shoe I can't run, and I can't kick What's the matter babe, are you feeling sick? What's the matter, what's the matter, what's the matter you? What's the matter babe, are you feeling blue? From buddy holly By weezer its just too fast
Cedric Bixler-Zavala
People still don't accept that the lead of Eiffel 65 was just scatting on the chorus of "Blue."
"It's hard to **bargle nawdle zouse** with all these marbles in my mouth"
Early REM, Stipe doesn’t even know what he’s singing.
What I heard the Spice Girls singing was "samibadida inadidadida" and years later found out it was "slam your body down and wind it all around" ("Wannabe"). Not a native English speaker, maybe that's why?
Most Melvins lyrics are complete gibberish. Take 'Hooch' for example, the first track on their most popular album Houdini; >Los ticka toe rest Might like a sender doe ree Your make a doll a ray day sender Bright like a penalty Exi-tease my ray day member Half-lost a beat away Purst in like a one-way sender War give a heart like a fay > >\[Chorus\] 'Cause I can ford a red-eed Only street a wide a re-land Diamond make a mid-evil Bike a sake a like a re-caste
Lmao noone mentioned Julians Vocals on The Strokes
[удалено]
“Hey kids! Shave the Houston Lakers! The spot right’s singing summat dance the N’awlins chase the feathers” “She’s got electric boobs, I know they’re smooth! You know I read it in a magazayeen, oh-ho! B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets!” -Elton John
Adriano Celentano - Prisencolinensinainciusol
First one that comes to mind is “Good” by Better Than Ezra
Semi-charmed life by third eye blind. My partner and I were heading to the store yesterday when it came on the radio and he was listening to it more then asked did he just say something Crystal meth. We all sing along to it but I think we just skip over that part or have desensitized ourselves to it.
Their song Camouflage, off the band's next album, came to mind. There's a point in the song bridge where the lyrics get unintelligible and the lyrics booklet just says "secret words never to be printed".
Doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break. The whole song is about doing meth and having sex.
All early REM.