There are some words which popular music simply couldn’t do without. ‘Love’, obviously, would be much missed by any aspiring Hal David out there. A blanket ban on the word ‘baby’ would cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth for wordsmiths from any genre. These are the building blocks of the lyric, the sturdy foundations of so many lyrical conceits. And, for the most part, they work just fine, thank you very much. If your all time top 10 doesn’t have song featuring wither of those words, for example, you have no soul.
But sometimes you need a little bit more. It’s like when man discovered that the adding of cheese to a burger could be food alchemy; that sticking lime into Corona was divine; that you could have two haircuts at once, if you were a redneck or it was the 80s. Some words are as rare as unicorn tears. They arrive in a song, for no reason at all, yet seem so wonderfully obvious you wonder why no-one else thought to use them. We present five examples of songs featuring a word which doesn’t appear anywhere else in pop.
Quisling – Elvis Costello ‘Green Shirt’
When Vidkun Quisling assisted Nazi Germany after it conquered his own country so that he could rule the collaborationist Norwegian government himself, he surely felt he’d be subject to much opprobrium. He probably didn’t bargain on his name becoming a viciously descriptive adjective for any sell-out collaborator who ever followed, and probably had no idea that pop’s foremost Angry Person would use it in this devastating rant. One of Costello’s most underrated tracks.
Allegorically – Edwyn Collins ‘A Girl Like You’
When struck down by an aneurism, a tragedy of Collins illness was that it denied the world more of his spectacular word play. Happily, his recovery has shown that it did not deny him the savage wit and incredible depth of linguistic skill he’d demonstrated throughout his career. This remains his most famous song, and so it should. It’s still brilliant.
Brucellosis – Warren Zevon ‘Play It All Night Long’
The famous Neil Young/Lynrd Skynrd spat which led to ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ also led to this coruscating answer song from the LA genius. Desecrating the myths that ‘Alabama’ tried to revel in, Zevon’s unflinching story tells of rape, incest, alcoholism, Vietnam and this cattle disease. And as well as all that, the chorus line ‘play that dead band’s song’ shows that the gloves were well and truly off.
Sericulture – The Human League ‘Being Boiled’
Sericulture is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk. What, you mean you didn’t know? Phil Oakey’s hair back then suggested he’d be the type who knew this. Oh, and if he married Princess Leia, her name would be Carrie Oakey. That would be cool.
Verisimilitude – Teenage Fanclub, ‘Verisimilitude’
Some words roll over the tongue like food. You can savour this word, it’s delicious and exotic and comforting and weird and…oh, it’s just perfect. It refers to the quality of appearing to be true or real. In 1993, suddenly a certain type of teenage boy knew that. Just after they bought Grand Prix, in fact.
Are there more that you know of? Do you know a song with the word ‘labia or ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ in it? If so, let us know!
Filed under: General Stuff Tagged: | edwyn collins, elvis costello, rare words in songs, Teenage Fanclub, Warren Zevon
How about ‘desolisating’?
I think it’s a word Rob Halford invented, it appears on Rapid Fire, from Judas Priest’s ‘British Steel’.
No made-up words, that’s cheating!
Nick Cave uses “arboratum” in a song, can’t remember which one at the moment…..possibly off Boatman’s Call.
Ive always maintained that if not for the good fortune that the words “rule”,school” and “fool” rhymed, rock and roll would never have been invented.
and “cool” ; see , now if this site only had an edit function…..
And suddenly ‘tool’ springs to mind….
“Synchronated” appears in the song ‘Spiral Architect’ on ‘Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath’ from Aston’s finest….