Absurdities in songs - any examples?

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 10:23 PM

About 1974 there was a dismal song about a girl and her horse, named Wildfire. It had the lines

Oh, they say she died one winter
When there came a killing frost
And the pony she named Wildfire
Busted down its stall

Let's get this straight. She was a healthy young woman capable of galloping across the plains, and she died from a FROST?

Sounds more like a tomato plant than a person.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Songster Bob
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 09:58 PM

"It rained all the night the day I left, the weather it was dry.
The sun so hot I froze to death, Susanna don't you cry."

The absurdities are intended -- duh! I think the point of this thread is UNINTENDED absurdities.

Like, from "Omie Wise" --

"Be it murder or treason, oh, what a great crime,
To drown poor Naomi and leave her behind."

Bob

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Bert
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 09:33 PM

In the second verse of "Come to the Bower" by Allen Damron

Our hero is man enough to decide to leave the East and travel to Texas.

In the third verse

'Ma reached me down the long rifle
and I never had held it before'


Great song though.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: LukeKellylives (Chris)
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 08:01 PM

Oh Susanna is confusing to me.

I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee.
I'm goin' to Louisiana, my true love for to see.
It rained all the night the day I left, the weather it was dry.
The sun so hot I froze to death, Susanna don't you cry.

I don't know about you, but I think it'd be pretty damn hard to freeze to death in scorching heat.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: retrancer
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 07:55 PM

I'll pick on John Denver here - almost heaven-west virgina.


Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah river.

The Blue Ridge mountains are not in west virginia and the Shenandoah river barely is at all. neither are central features of the state as denver tributes.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 07:30 PM

If I saw a ghost walking down the street, I'd certainly say "Oh - sheet!"

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 07:14 PM

Is it being a spoilsport to point out that white linen is used not just for shrouds but also for sheets? And to point out that dying people are often likely to wrapped in a sheet.

And "young" is a reasonable word to attach tosomeone engaged in a pretty crazy enterprise that involves recapturing the recklessness of his youth.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 07:05 PM

The Alamo - YOUNG Davy Crocket was laughing and dying !

Wasnt he in his sixties when he died at The Alamo ??

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Black Hawk
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 07:05 PM

The Water is wide

The radio reported a cargo ship floundering off the Devonshire coast and locals plundering the beaches. (No live lost thankfully)

Singing that night I already had the set arranged and started singing this song. When I got to 'She's loaded deep as deep can be' it reminded me of the news item and I struggled to finish the song without laughing. My warped sense of humour - sorry!

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Black Hawk
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 06:58 PM

Galway Shawl

.....all I could think of was the Galway Shawl

.....my heart remains with the Galway Shawl

A cross dresser perhaps?

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 06:54 PM

I think Malcolm Austen summed it up in Lovin' Joanna......

First verse:

"I went to church last Sunday, my love she passed me by,
She only had one contact lens and she wore it in her glass eye".

Last verse:

"I played my love at marbles, And she beat me by and by,
I suspected she was cheating by the rolling of her eye....

Kitty

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 06:51 PM

I've always liked the image in "The Night Visiting Song" where, after tumbling in each other's arms all night, they solemnly shake hands before he rides off. (well, to be fair, it does say he gave her a kiss also...but...)

Subject: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: GUEST,Lone Stranger
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 06:30 PM

Interested in singers views on 'silly' words.

My favourite example was pointed out by a local floor singer.

In 'Streets of Laredo' the lines are ,

Verse 1
1) As I walked out in the streets of Laredo
2) As I walked out in Laredo one day,
3) I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen
4) All wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay

Yeh? Line 3 = a shroud, Line 4 = He is dead, deceased, gone.

Verse 2
1) I see by your outfit you too are a cowboy
2) These words HE DID SAY as I slowly walked by .........

SLOWLY !!! - I would be a speck of dust in the distance if a corpse spoke to me as I walked past.

I can no longer sing this song without an image springing to mind of the narrator disappearing in the distance :-)

Any others have songs that have a similar effect?