Metal songs that tried to be profound but were actually ignorant?

First thing that came to mind was "What a Joke" by Deliverance.

Sure, it was ignorant back then as well, but it's especially cringeworthy today.

DakotaRogers wrote:

First thing that came to mind was "What a Joke" by Deliverance.

Sure, it was ignorant back then as well, but it's especially cringeworthy today.

Christian music, with the exception of Fear Not and Petra's early work, tends to be lyrically insipid.

A huge amount of Christian Metal albums...

While i like it, "Stars" by Hear N Aid comes to mind. Its good that it raised all that money (i assume), but those lyrics were SO full of lyrical cheese ("And we all wanna touch a rainbow") that its hard to take it seriously nowadays, let alone as some anthem against world hunger.

Dio's lyrics are just ridiculous for the most part but yeah, good call on "Stars".

corplhicks wrote:

DakotaRogers wrote:

First thing that came to mind was "What a Joke" by Deliverance.

Sure, it was ignorant back then as well, but it's especially cringeworthy today.

Christian music, with the exception of Fear Not and Petra's early work, tends to be lyrically insipid.

Rez Band had some pretty intelligent lyrics as well.

Hadley wrote:

While i like it, "Stars" by Hear N Aid comes to mind. Its good that it raised all that money (i assume), but those lyrics were SO full of lyrical cheese ("And we all wanna touch a rainbow") that its hard to take it seriously nowadays, let alone as some anthem against world hunger.

All of those famine songs were really, really bad. Band Aid's Feed the World being the worst and probably the worst line in the history of music is "Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow"



This stupid ignorant line has me shouting at the radio that African people are not f*&king stupid, they would not decide to live in a place where nothing grows and the rain never comes!!  It's a drought, not a permanent sh*tting state of affairs!

Hadley wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

DakotaRogers wrote:

First thing that came to mind was "What a Joke" by Deliverance.

Sure, it was ignorant back then as well, but it's especially cringeworthy today.

Christian music, with the exception of Fear Not and Petra's early work, tends to be lyrically insipid.

Rez Band had some pretty intelligent lyrics as well.

Yeah that's another good example.

Boris2008 wrote:

Hadley wrote:

While i like it, "Stars" by Hear N Aid comes to mind. Its good that it raised all that money (i assume), but those lyrics were SO full of lyrical cheese ("And we all wanna touch a rainbow") that its hard to take it seriously nowadays, let alone as some anthem against world hunger.

All of those famine songs were really, really bad. Band Aid's Feed the World being the worst and probably the worst line in the history of music is "Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow"



This stupid ignorant line has me shouting at the radio that African people are not f*&king stupid, they would not decide to live in a place where nothing grows and the rain never comes!!  It's a drought, not a permanent sh*tting state of affairs!

My thoughts exactly. The whole song is condescending and trite--two words that do not go well together. And it's SUNG TERRIBLY. Seems like the whole thing's rushed as the vocals don't match up well at all and the synths are melodically lazy samples. I could go on. I hate that song so much.

I figured out years ago that it's best for me to ignore metal lyrics as much as possible, because if I pay attention to them the stupidity starts to invade upon my enjoyment of the music.

Another one that kind of fits here are all the European (usually German) bands that don't really know English. It's not that they are ignorant, they just mix up the words and it comes out sounding awkward. Like, is this song about empowering people to fight corruption, or about anal sex? "Plug a bomb in their ass". "Down on me". Is this song telling me about the evil that the devil does, or about oral sex?

One of my favourite bands is Mystic Prophecy, and in their lyrics malapropisms are the norm, not the exception.

Then again... maybe I got it all wrong? Maybe it's that ambiguity that makes them great. All those lame double entendres about sex that the English-speaking bands could ever come up with, well, none of them are quite as ambigous or deep as the lyrics German bands do come up with. Those German bands don't really even seem to be singing about sex. But still they are. Because they get inside your head with their broken English and make you think of all these things. Things that they probably wanted you to think about in the first place.

It's like that episode of the Simpsons when Marge is in a cooking contest and the Italian chef Luigi sabotages her.

Quote :

Marge: Stop, you're tainting my entry.
Luigi: Oh I'm so sorry. It was how you say, done with malice a forethought, yes?
Marge: You did it on purpose?
Luigi: No no no, my English is not so good, i was how you say, ruining your food so I win, yes?

WRITE A LETTAH! WHAT'SA MATTA? YOU FEEL BETTA! WRITE A LETTAH!

"Lesbian Stool Orgy" by Gorgasm comes to mind.

DakotaRogers wrote:

First thing that came to mind was "What a Joke" by Deliverance.

Sure, it was ignorant back then as well, but it's especially cringeworthy today.

I thought of that one too.

How'bout Barren Cross' immortal "Believe," which states "Better than pot, JEEEEEESUS RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWKS!"

The one that always springs to mind is a certain young man masturbating to kill himself!  (Of course he may have been referencing 'la petit mort' (the little death) idiom for sexual climax and the spiritual release that comes with orgasm or to a short period of melancholy or transcendence as a result of the expenditure of the "life force," which would make that line fairly clever, but honestly, I'm going with dumb ) 

Lari wrote:

Another one that kind of fits here are all the European (usually German) bands that don't really know English. It's not that they are ignorant, they just mix up the words and it comes out sounding awkward. Like, is this song about empowering people to fight corruption, or about anal sex? "Plug a bomb in their ass". "Down on me". Is this song telling me about the evil that the devil does, or about oral sex?

One of my favourite bands is Mystic Prophecy, and in their lyrics malapropisms are the norm, not the exception.

Then again... maybe I got it all wrong? Maybe it's that ambiguity that makes them great. All those lame double entendres about sex that the English-speaking bands could ever come up with, well, none of them are quite as ambigous or deep as the lyrics German bands do come up with. Those German bands don't really even seem to be singing about sex. But still they are. Because they get inside your head with their broken English and make you think of all these things. Things that they probably wanted you to think about in the first place.

It's like that episode of the Simpsons when Marge is in a cooking contest and the Italian chef Luigi sabotages her.

Quote :

Marge: Stop, you're tainting my entry.
Luigi: Oh I'm so sorry. It was how you say, done with malice a forethought, yes?
Marge: You did it on purpose?
Luigi: No no no, my English is not so good, i was how you say, ruining your food so I win, yes?

German bands of this type also make fantastic covers. This being one of my favorites!

How about "Fire From Heaven" by Sacred Warrior?

Quote :

Gay rights and porno movies are rampant everywhere
The end result foretold is the disease they share
If Sodom and Gomorrah came to a fiery end
What makes you think that this place will stay in god's right hand ?

Fire, fire falling from heaven, burning up everything
Sea to sea, nothing can stand in the way of the judgement
When it begins with godly desire
Fire, fire, righteous and holy, wiping out all the intended disease
Will you be part of this massive destruction
Or will you be saved from this terrible siege?

You take the little babies from their mama's womb
A jar upon the shelf becomes a cold, darkened tomb
How long do you think god's patience will last
Watching?
It's just a matter of time till his wrath will be released

Fire, fire falling from heaven, burning up everything
Sea to sea, nothing can stand in the way of the judgement
When it begins with godly desire
Fire, fire, righteous and holy, wiping out all the intended disease
Will you be part of this massive destruction
Or will you be saved from this terrible siege?

For sins no different than these god made some cities fall
His warnings went unheeded they wouldn't heed the call
How long do you think god's patience will last
Watching?
It's just a matter of time till his wrath will be released

Fire, fire falling from heaven, burning up everything
Sea to sea, nothing can stand in the way of the judgement
When it begins with godly desire
Fire, fire, righteous and holy, Wiping out all the intended disease
Will you be part of this massive destruction
Or will you be saved from this terrible siege?

Good call on Queen and any rich rock star that champions the plight of lower to middle class working man.

Apologies in advance to the OP as I am going off on a bit of a tangent here, but this is what bothers me about Country music. My wife likes it a lot so I hear a pretty fair amount of it around our house and in the car. I can't reconcile when Blake Shelton or someone else of his stature in the genre sings about the "working hard on the farm and his rusty old truck." Come on, give me a break, this hasn't been the case for 20 years or so. If he or anyone else wants to sing about their roots and the "downhome values" that made them who they are, it's fine with me. But, don't put it in the here and now, Toby Keith, with "Drinks After Work" like he just clocked out after an 11 hour shift at the factory.

I can't take the hypocrisy of it all. Like when Miranda Lambert talks of being a Mom and making pancakes after Church on Sunday and the next song is about how tight her jeans are and the color of her lipstick. Really? Ok. Rant over.

Closer to the original topic would be the "tongue in cheek" stuff like SOD or MOD where it's ignorant but it's okay cuz we're just effin around, see? The same goes for the OTT eighties metal stuff like Roxy Blue "Rob the Cradle" or too many Kiss songs to list.

On what Sentinel said, i kind of find it odd that happily married rock stars like Alice Cooper or Jon Bon Jovi still write songs about heartbreak and breakups. While i understand that the songs are not meant to be autobiographical (or if they are, its likely inspired by past heartbreak with former girlfriends), its kind of odd to hear them sing these songs. Granted, this is something thats been going on in all forms of music since the first musician to write about heartbreak got married, but the point still stands.

Getting back on topic, Sammy Hagar's "Sympathy for the Human",,i dont know what Sammy was thinking.

Of course many rock stars started out poor or lower middle class so it's not like it's a completely alien concept to them. Just because your bank account adds a few extra zeroes doesn't mean you magically forget your upbringing.

Both S.D. and Hadley have made a good point. I ask the same questions myself many times. I also would find it awkward for a musician to sing songs about other girls and call them by name, while he was married.

Since when do lyrics have to reflect the exact condition the lyricist is experiencing at that moment?

Witchfinder wrote:

Since when do lyrics have to reflect the exact condition the lyricist is experiencing at that moment?  

Yeah, it's not like the musical tradition is one of storytelling or anything! 

Boris2008 wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

Since when do lyrics have to reflect the exact condition the lyricist is experiencing at that moment?  

Yeah, it's not like the musical tradition is one of storytelling or anything! 

When it comes to lyrics I tend to either like ballad-style lyrics (traditional ballad) like Phil Lynott wrote, songs with characters telling a specific story. Or I like "colorful nonsense" lyrics like Ian Gillan writes...or comical mind-f*ck lyrics like Ian Anderson.

Runicen wrote:

GnR also had some absolute hits in that area.