Rock poetry... Artistic powerful lyrics

[Nijinsky Hind]

King Crimson and Yes both have spellbinding and often dark and beautiful lyrics that could be considered to be great poetry... What song lyrics really are "great poetry" to you? One of My favorite song lyric is my avatar name (not the duck)...

Nijinsky Hind Marc Bolan, T.Rex

Nijinsky Hind is a wisp of our world
Through the heart's eye.
It's horns are white hide
From the skin of our lord
When his youth stood
Wondrous and fair like a sea.
Nijinsky Hind is a remnant of Earth
As it once stood.
A likeness in flesh of the magic
Contained in a pearl's shell
Breathing it's breath uniquely.
Nijinsky Hind was begotten
From man's thoughts of kindness.
Its hoofs shod with gold
Are the textures of Earth's distant future
Gilded and tall like a hall

Peter Sinfield is probably my favorite songwriter along with Bolan, he mentions bolan by name in a song of his, I suppose they were contemporaries of the same rock era.

For those who need a good lyric in their music, What new bands have poetic and artistic lyrics to equal these. I like the way No Mans Bowness writes.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Both Pete Townshend and Ray Davies have moments that seem utterly inspired to me. For Pete, I'll take this passage from "Slit Skirts":

...The incense burned away, and the stench began to rise,
and lovers, now estranged, avoided catching each others' eyes,
and girls who lost their children cursed the men who fit the coil,
while men not fit for marriage took their refuge in the oil.
No-one respects the flame quite like the fool who's badly burned.
From all this, you'd imagine that there must be something learned.

For Ray Davies, I'd take "Don't Forget to Dance" (with "Come Dancing" a close second):

You look out of your window, into the night.
Could be rain, could be snow, but it can't feel as cold as what you're feeling inside.
And all of you friends are either married, vanished, or just left alone.
But that's no reason to just stop living.
That's no excuse to just give in to a sad and lonely heart...

[bob_32_116]

"Deeper Water" by Paul Kelly.

No point in posting a portion, it requires the whole thing:

On a crowded beach in a distant time
At the height of summer see a boy of five
At the water's edge so nimble and free
Jumping over the ripples, looking way out to sea

Now a man comes up from amongst the throng
Takes the young boy's hand and his hand is strong
And the child feels safe, yeah, the child feels brave
As he's carried in those arms up and over the waves

Deeper water,
Deeper water,
Deeper water, is calling him on

Let's move forward now and the child's seventeen
With a girl in the back seat tugging at his jeans
And she knows what she wants, she guides with her hand
As a voice cries inside him - "I'm a man, I'm a man!"

Deeper water,
Deeper water,
Deeper water, is calling him on.

Now the man meets a woman unlike all the rest
Well, he doesn't know it yet but he's out of his depth
And he thinks he can run, it's a matter of pride
But he keeps coming back like a cork on the tide

Well, the years hurry by and the woman loves the man
Then one night in the dark she grabs hold of his hand
Says 'There, can you feel it kicking inside?!'
And the man gets a shiver right up and down his spine

Deeper water,
Deeper water,
Deeper water, is calling him on.

So the clock moves around and the child is a joy
But Death doesn't care just who it destroys
Now the woman gets sick, thins down to the bone
She says 'Where I'm going next, I'm going alone'

Deeper water,
Deeper water

On a distant beach lonely and wild
At a later time see a man and a child
And the man takes the child up into his arms
Takes her over the breakers
To where the water is calm

Deeper water,
Deeper water,
Deeper water, is calling them on

The whole of human experience is here: birth, youth, sex, love, death. Magnificent.

[Nijinsky Hind]

Yeah those are both very fine poetry. I know theres millions of them, but some really stand out as superb.

[JKL2000]

I was going to post something very serious by Roy Harper, but instead here's this bit from One of those Days in England:

But the government must love me 'cause they keep me out of work
They must be saving me for something special
Maybe it's the job of rolling spliffs for Captain Kirk
Or giving Miss Lovelace a pubic hairdo.

[Nijinsky Hind]

Hahaha.... Then theres those!!

Post away, have some fun... Its not like we have to worry about running out of bandwidth anymore.

[Dana5140]

I always liked the lyrics to Elvis Costello's "Beyond Belief."

History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues
I'm just the oily slick
On the windup world of the nervous tick
In a very fashionable hovel

I hang around dying to be tortured
You'll never be alone in the bone orchard
This battle with the bottle is nothing so novel

So in this almost empty gin palace
Through a two-way looking glass
You see your Alice

You know she has no sense
For all your jealousy
In a sense she still smiles very sweetly

Charged with insults and flattery
Her body moves with malice
Do you have to be so cruel to be callous

And now you find you fit this identikit completely
You say you have no secrets
And then leave discreetly

I might make it California's fault
Be locked in Geneva's deepest vault
Just like the canals of Mars and the Great Barrier Reef
I come to you beyond belief

My hands were clammy and cunning
She's been suitably stunning
But I know there's not a hope in Hades
All the laddies cat call and wolf whistle
So called gentlemen and ladies
Dog fight like rose and thistle

I got a feeling
I'm going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief

I got a feeling
I'm going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief

I got a feeling
I'm going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief


Read more: Elvis Costello - Beyond Belief Lyrics | MetroLyrics

[Nijinsky Hind]

I always liked Costellos songwriting, his voice Didnt work well for me though.

[rcarlberg]

Always thought this was masterful.

First Girl I Loved
Time has come I will sing you this sad goodbye song
When I was seventeen
I used to know you

Well, I haven't seen you now since many is the short year
And the last time I seen you, you said you'd joined the Church of Jesus
But me, I remember your long red hair falling in our faces
As I kissed you

I want you to know, I just had to go
I want you to know, we just had to grow

And you're probably married now, house and car and all
And you turned into a grownup female stranger
And if I was lying near you now
I wouldn't be here at all

We parted so hard
Me, rushing round Britain with a guitar
And making love to people
I didn't even like to see

I would think of you
And I mean in the six sad morning
And in the lonely midnight
Try to hold your face before me

I want you to know, I just had to go
I want you to know, we just had to grow

You're probably married now, kids and all
You turned into a grownup female stranger
And if I was lying near you now
I'd just have to fall

Well, I never slept with you
Though we must have made love a thousand times
We were just young, didn't have no place to go

But in the wide hills and beside many a long water
You have gathered flowers and they do not smell for me

I want you to know, I just had to go
I want you to know, we just had to grow

So it's goodbye first love and I hope you're fine
I have a sweet woman
Maybe someday to bear babies by me, she's pretty
Is a true friend of mine

[rcarlberg]

This one as well.

Scarred For Life
Leave me something to remember you by
More than a lock of your hair
Leave me scarred for life
Show you really care
You can do it with kindness
Keener than a knife
Just by making yourself scarce
You can leave me scarred for life

We walked arm in arm with madness
And every little breeze
Whispered of the secret love
We had for our disease

Leave me something so I won't forget
More than a nick or a scratch
To remind me than in you I met
In you I met my match

Nothing on the surface
I don't want it to show
Something I can hide inside
So only you and I will know
You know I'd do the same for you –
Leave me scarred for life

And if we never meet again
For all the time we spent
Leave me with a tender spot
Something permanent

[SteveSly]

Both Pete Townshend and Ray Davies have moments that seem utterly inspired to me. For Pete, I'll take this passage from "Slit Skirts":

...The incense burned away, and the stench began to rise,
and lovers, now estranged, avoided catching each others' eyes,
and girls who lost their children cursed the men who fit the coil,
while men not fit for marriage took their refuge in the oil.
No-one respects the flame quite like the fool who's badly burned.
From all this, you'd imagine that there must be something learned.

For Ray Davies, I'd take "Don't Forget to Dance" (with "Come Dancing" a close second):

You look out of your window, into the night.
Could be rain, could be snow, but it can't feel as cold as what you're feeling inside.
And all of you friends are either married, vanished, or just left alone.
But that's no reason to just stop living.
That's no excuse to just give in to a sad and lonely heart...

Good call on both of those. Pete and Ray have had some incredible lyrical moments over the years.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Always thought this was masterful.

One of I.S.B.'s finest tunes altogether, IMO.

[Zeuhlmate]

I have allways loved Pete Browns lyrics, though I never understood half of it.

[Dana5140]

Slit Skirts was a song I was going to list next- great call and superb lyrics.

[Scrotum Scissor]

SWANS: Failure

I, I've been lonely
And I, I've been blind
And I,. I've learned nothing
So my hands are firmly tied
To the sinking leadweight
of failure

I've worked hard all my life
Money slips through my hands
My face in the mirror tells me
It's no surprise that I'm
Pushing the stone up the hill
of failure

They tempt me with violence
They punish me with ideals
And they crush me with an image of my
life that's nothing but unreal
Except on the goddamned slaveship
of failure

I'll drown here trying
to get up for some air
But each time I think I breathe
I'm laid on with a double share
of the punishing burden
of failure

I don't deserve to be down here
But I'll never leave
And I've learned one thing
You can't escape the beast
In the null and void pit
of failure

When I get my hands on some money
I'll kiss it's green skin
And I'll ask it's dirty face
"Where the hell have you been?"
"I am the fuel that fires the engine
of failure."

I'll be old and broken down
I'll forget who and where I am
I'll be senile or forgotten
But I'll remember and understand
You can bank your hard-earned money
on failure

I saw my father crying
I saw my mother break her hand
On a wall that wouldn't weep
But that certainly held in
The mechanical moans of a dying man
Who was a failure

My back hurts me when I bend
Because I carry a load
My brain hurts me like a knife-hole
Because I've yet to be shown
How to pull myself out from
The sucking quicksand
of failure

Some people lie in hell
Many bastards succeed
But I. I've learned nothing
I can't even elegantly bleed
Out the poison blood
of failure



Juxtaposed with:



TIM BUCKLEY: I Must Have Been Blind

Here I am believin' words again
Here I am tryin' to find your love again
Here I am down on my knees again
Prayin' for a love that we used to know

Both of us know how hard it is
To love and let it go
Both of us know how hard it is
To go on living that way

When so few understand what it means
To fall in love
And so few'll know how hard it is
To live without it

Lord, I must have been blind
Lord, I must have been blind
Lord, I must have been blind

To hold something real and not believe it
To live in her life and never trustin'
To give all you know and never feel it
To hold back each day, until it dies away

Both of us know how hard it is
To love and let it go
And both of us know how hard it is
To go on living that way

When so few understand what it means
To fall in love
So few know how hard it is
To live without it

Lord, I must have been blind
Lord, I must have been blind
Lord, I must have been blind
Yes, I must have been blind


Read more: Tim Buckley - I Must Have Been Blind Lyrics | MetroLyrics

[yoyiceu]

I always liked Keith Reid's lyrics with Procol Harum and some of Jim Capaldi's lyrics with Traffic, like this one.

Forty thousand headmen couldn't make me change my mind
If I had to take the choice between the deaf man and the blind
I know just where my feet should go and that's enough for me
I turned around and knocked them down and walked across the sea

Hadn't traveled very far, when suddenly I saw
Three small ships are sailing out towards a distant shore
So lighting up a cigarette, I followed in pursuit
And found a secret cave, where they obviously stashed their loot

Filling up my pockets, even stuffed it up my nose
I must have weighed a hundred tons between my head and toes
I ventured forth before the dawn, had time to change its mind
And soaring high above the clouds, I found a golden shrine

Laying down my treasure before the iron gate
Quickly rang the bell hoping I hadn't come too late
But someone came along and told me not to waste my time
And when I asked him, who he was, he said, "Just look behind"

So I turned around and forty thousand headmen hit the dirt
Firing twenty shotguns each and man, it really hurt
But luckily for me they had to stop and then reload
And by the time they'd done that I was heading down the road

Heading down the road, forty thousand headmen
Going around the lane, going around the lane, going around the lane
Forty thousand headmen on my trace



Read more: Traffic - 40000 Headmen Lyrics | MetroLyrics

[Nijinsky Hind]

Yeah I like 40000 headmen and Keith Reid both... Fires which burnt brightly is incredible.

[rcarlberg]

James Taylor, Paul Simon and Carole King have written their fair share of thoughtful lyrics. Choose your own favorites.

[Nijinsky Hind]

James Taylor, Paul Simon and Carole King have written their fair share of thoughtful lyrics. Choose your own favorites.

Thats for sure... And Carole King has been around the songwriting scene much longer than most are aware of.

[The Dark Elf]

My favorite rock lyricist has always been Ian Anderson. Very keen ear for poetry. A great example is 'Cold Wind to Valhalla', wherein he employs approximations of Old English/Norse kennings (figurative expressions that replace a name or a noun. Often it is a compound of two words and the words are hyphenated). Not your every day rock fare:

And ride with us young bonny lass ---
with the angels of the night.
Crack wind clatter --- flesh rein bite on an out-size
unicorn.
Rough-shod winging sky blue flight on a cold wind
to Valhalla.
And join with us please --- Valkyrie maidens cry
above the cold wind to Valhalla.
Break fast with the gods. Night angels serve
with ice-bound majesty.
Frozen flaking fish raw nerve ---
in a cup of silver liquid fire.
Moon jet brave beam split ceiling swerve and light
the old Valhalla.
Come join with us please --- Valkyrie maidens cry
above the cold wind to Valhalla.
The heroes rest upon the sighs of Thor's trusty
hand maidens.
Midnight lonely whisper cries,
We're getting a bit short on heroes lately.''
Sword snap fright white pale goodbyes in the
desolation of Valhalla.
And join with us please --- Valkyrie maidens ride
empty-handed on the cold wind to Valhalla.

Or the wordplay in "A Hunting Girl", which is one of the filthiest rock songs ever written without the use of obscenities. Sex with metaphors and allusions, Ian was literally in this song a cunning linguist:

One day I walked the road and crossed a field
to go by where the hounds ran hard.
And on the master raced: behind the hunters chased
to where the path was barred.
One fine young lady's horse refused the fence to clear.
I unlocked the gate but she did wait until the pack had disappeared.

Crop handle carved in bone;
sat high upon a throne of finest English leather.
The queen of all the pack,
this joker raised his hat and talked about the weather.
All should be warned about this high born Hunting Girl.
She took this simple man's downfall in hand;
I raised the flag that she unfurled.

Boot leather flashing and spur necks the size of my thumb.
This highborn hunter had tastes as strange as they come. Cum!
Unbridled passion: I took the bit in my teeth.
Her standing over --- me on my knees underneath.

My lady, be discrete.
I must get to my feet and go back to the farm.
Whilst I appreciate you are no deviate,
I might come to some harm.
I'm not inclined to acts refined, if that's how it goes.
Oh, high born Hunting Girl,
I'm just a normal low born so and so.

[polmico]

You guys have definitely posted some awesomely poetic rock lyrics. As already noted, this thread could go on and on and never cease to be entertaining. Hats off for recognizing an often derided aspect of the music!

But aspiring to compare these lyrics with poetry, or even suggesting that they are great poems, fails a crucial aspect of their importance and, in my mind, betrays both the concept and purpose of lyrics and poetry.

Rock lyrics aren't poems, and never can be.

This may sound as if I am denigrating lyrics or great lyricists. I am not. Lyrics (rock or otherwise) can certainly be poetic, and poems and lyrics share many of the same techniques: verse, chorus, meter, rhetorical tropes and schemes. There is no principal difference in the alliteration that Peart uses versus the alliteration that any poet uses. Both achieve a desired poetic effect (more on this in a second). Let me exemplify:

In "Spirit of the Radio," the speaker claims that "magic music makes your morning mood." The alliteration is compelling not just because it links the idea of "magic" with "music" and the implied power it has on your emotions, but it is also euphonious. The euphony further emphasizes the pleasing, soothing, healing capabilities of music. That alliterative phrase is not unintentional, and it is poetic in its aim. But it's not poetry, even if it achieves a similar effect a poem might.

This is because the rhetoric is so very different. Now here, it's important to distance yourself from the definition of "rhetoric" that is usually connoted on the evening news. Political rhetoric can indeed by divisive, but based on the way the word is often used, you'd think that's the only thing it can be. It's not. Rhetoric simply means, in the strictest terms (and to paraphrase Aristotle), the available means of persuasion. How does a rhetor (and here I'll use this general term as it can be broadly applied to a lyricist and poet) achieve her intended purpose for an intended audience? What is the context in which she is working? What is her message? What techniques--rhetorical or otherwise--does she apply to effect her aim? That is properly rhetoric, and given that definition, one is forced to acknowledge the fundamental difference between poetry and lyrics. (And please note, poetry indeed did originate in a musical context. The Odyssey would have been sung. But poetry has long since abandoned those ancient traditions. No one was ever intended to sing a Shakespearian sonnet.)

The differences in their rhetoric fundamentally change the ways in which poems and lyrics are constructed, further distancing these related but completely separate art forms. In fact, implicitly, you guys have already defined the fundamental difference.

Look back up at the lyrics that have been posted. A foundational tool of poetry is missing.

This, of course, is punctuation.

Lyrics can easily be read line by line. They are meant to sung line by line, and punctuation doesn't really matter. The cadence and rhythm of the music determines the way in which the lyrics make meaning.

This ignores the fundamental process of enjambment in poetry. Imagine if you read Shakespeare line to line rather than full stop to full stop:

From Sonnet 130:

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied* with false compare.

Remove the punctuation and you have a cognitive mess!

This is even more obvious as poetry moves into modernity. It's difficult to imagine that initial publishers tried to "clean up" Dickinson's seemingly chaotic and random punctuation, but they did!

This stanza from "I heard a fly buzz" becomes near meaningless without the punctuation and the enjambment suggested by its use:

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air -
Between the Heaves of Storm -

But perhaps even more than how they are constructed, going back to the idea that the rhetoric is fundamentally different, is how these two media are intended to be consumed by an audience. And this is the key point: You are meant to enjoy poetry on the page, to read it slowly and allow your brain to fill in the ideas that are left unstated. The music often fills in these ideas in a lyric; divorcing the lyric from the music robs it of so much of its power and grace and purpose and desire. You can of course do this with lyrics, and perhaps if you were presented with lyrics structured in stanzas with careful attention to punctuation, and if you had never heard the song in question, you might not know the difference. I suspect a case could be made for lyrics as poems under these conditions. Dylan and Van Vliet spring to my mind as two lyricists who could work here.

But it's not what they intended for their audience, and that does substantially change the rhetoric.

What's interesting is when the two do collide, when a musician intentionally puts poems to music. Syd Barrett did so on his first solo album with a James Joyce poem. And though Joyce's poetry is questionable, the haunting poem marries well to the haunting song. William Drake does this frequently. Most notably (for me) is the version of Longfellow's "Psalm of Life" that he and Tim Smith worked up for the Sea Nymphs album:



The combination is remarkably effective and Drake's delivery maintains the rhetorical sense of Longfellow's verse. This is an example where it works wonderfully.

But I have trouble imagining the converse is true, even given my previous acknowledgement. I love Peter Hammill's lyrics. The haggard and distraught speaker of "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" ably is met by the crisis-filled, harrowing music of the song. The speaker's ennui turning to anger in "Still Life" is echoed by the music--and this is saying nothing of the clever combination of sci-fi themes and marriage imagery of the lyrics which always wry-fully makes me smile. But take the same lyrics, put them on paper, put them in a book, and I couldn't be forced to read them. I can't imagine anything more boring. And I delight at the prospect of opening up my well-thumbed copy of O'Hara's Lunch Poems or a stained and broken copy of Donald Justice's greatest hits. They affect in me in such different ways that it doesn't even occur to me that they are the same thing.

Now, if I've been effective in my rhetoric, I have achieved a pretentious and pompous tone. I'm not sure how much of the above I actually care if any of you take seriously, ignoring the fact that a post this long is most likely to be skipped out of simple annoyance. ("Fuck that guy and his super-long post--what a dick!") This is a semi-serious argument. If it makes you google some poets like O'Hara or revisit your 11th grade notes on Dickinson, than that may be enough for causing a silent hooray in my otherwise senseless morning.

Or perhaps we should just remember that it's only rock and roll, and there are only three things a rock lyric needs to do: name the dance, explain with whom one should be dancing that dance and explain the frequency with which that dance should be done.

[Nijinsky Hind]

Yeah, but dancing to Thick as a brick with anyone seems like it could be difficult. I don't read real poetry then, never have, but I do pay attention to song lyrics. Take Dark elfs cold wind to valhalla by Jethro Tull for example... If someone handed you those lyrics on a sheet of paper and told you it was a poem.. And if you had never heard the song, could you differentiate and say... This is not a poem... It is a song?

I could not. And perhaps that would have to do with my lack of knowledge about poetry proper. So in my case ignorance is bliss.

That was a good post! Thanks.

[Nijinsky Hind]

Oh and.... I am certain that a even a semi talented musician could put ANY poem to some sort of music. The end result may not be very good granted, but the poem would then become a song...no? I write little songs sometimes, just the words, my method is to put the music around the words after the poem is finished.... i wonder if many real songwriters do this.

Perhaps Im writing rhymes... I honestly don't know.

[polmico]

And perhaps that would have to do with my lack of knowledge about poetry proper. So in my case ignorance is bliss.

A good point and one I often wonder myself. Had I been born with manual dexterity or a non-tone deaf ear or patience to practice a musical instrument--had I been born with any one or combination of those talents and had studied music theory instead of rhetoric and literary criticism in college, would I view things differently? Would I be able listen to Wire's Pink Flag the same if I knew it only had three or two or--gasp--only one chord (and I guess I actually do know this because I've been told so)? Or would I still find something enjoyable in the simplistic confines of the music? I don't know that there is an answer.

But by way of analogy, it is a problem I have when I read. I cannot turn off the analytical part of my brain. Sometimes it works to my advantage. I hate The Scarlet Letter. It's boring, the syntax is ponderous and pompous, the plot is facile. But every semester I teach the book, I find something challenging in the rhetoric to latch on to to make it entertaining, some new twist, some new interpretation. Unfortunately, I'm always looking for this kind of depth when I read, and I forget that I don't need to. This is why I often shut down my brain and just read superhero comics for pleasure (which is undoubtedly offensive to those who make an intellectual pursuit of superhero comics, but you can't please everyone and everyone will not be pleased).

That was a good post! Thanks.

Thank you! It's good to engage in discussion even when we disagree.

Oh and.... I am certain that a even a semi talented musician could put ANY poem to some sort of music. The end result may not be very good granted, but the poem would then become a song...no?

I suppose you're right, but it's difficult for me to divorce the intention from the actuality. They are too closely related in my head. And, yes, I think it's easier to make a poem into a song than vice versa.

I suppose we could play a little game?

Which is the song lyric and which is the published, canonized poem? To make it fair (because the song lyric is published with minimal punctuation) I have removed most of the punctuation from both texts and moved some lines around in the poem to make it read more line-by-line rather than idea-to-idea

"Eden on the Air"

Plain we make it
How we love plain and even
This is even
Things are fine odd
But we all like it even
This is even

You're on the air
You're on the water

Water's always welcome on the deck
But we like it dry
Odds call in all day
But they ain't get any answers

You are on the air
You're on the water


"Three Airs"

So many things in the air
soot, elephant balls, a Chinese cloud
which is entirely collapsed
a cat swung by its tail
and the senses of the dead
which are banging about
inside my tired red eyes

In the deeps there is a little bird
and it only hums, it hums of fortitude

and temperance, it is managing a foundry
how firmly it must grasp things
tear them out of the slime and then
it mischievously drops them in the cauldron of hideousness

there is already a sunset naming
the poplars which see only, watery, themselves

[polmico]

Perhaps Im writing rhymes... I honestly don't know.

Perhaps, but I bet you know the difference between good and bad regardless of the context.

Greg Lake rightly gets criticized for the "get me a ladder" lyric. The metaphor he creates by forcing "ladder" into the rhyme scheme is odd to say the least.

Or maybe it's not a metaphor? Maybe he wants a literal ladder? Maybe he wants to recreate Belushi's famous window scene in Animal House?

Or maybe it's synecdoche and what he really wants is a fire truck? Maybe that creates another metaphor (his heart is on fire; the fire truck will put the fire out)?

Or maybe it's metonymy, and he's become so frustrated by his inability to get the girl (or whatever the fuck that song is about), that he's turned his pursuit to a stereotypical and undoubtedly offensive pursuit of homosexual sex at the the local fire station???

None of that, however, stops me from singing the stupid lyric when ever the song comes up and the mood strikes me.