songs which are factually inaccurate

[8ball]

Bono did in fact live, whether it was with or without you (the latter being more commonly the case).

This has proved to be controversial.

 

[JimW]

Friendship does sometimes end. Also, slamming one's body down and winding it all around sounds quite painful.

 

[8ball]

Friendship does sometimes end. Also, slamming one's body down and winding it all around sounds quite painful.

Also, the “you better get with my friends” bit really shouldn’t be taken as general advice.

 

[friedaweed]

99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd - HMHB.

I've always questioned Nigel's research methods especially as they seem to be written on the soul of a slipper with a Biro.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

" I Was Born With A Smile On My Face"

Nah. Wind.

 

[prunus]

OK, what about?.....

"London belongs to me" by Saint Etienne starts with the lines: "Took a tube to Camden Town/Walked down Parkway....."

Surely it should be walked up Parkway. It´s an ascent.

I also think that London is in multiple ownership - or is all owned by the Crown, depending on how you look at it.

 

[8ball]

“I woke up this morning…”

You’re a professional blues singer ffs!
You woke up this afternoon.

 

[Raheem]

To be fair, Rick Astley hasn't done any of those things to me.

I bet he says goodbye at the end of every concert he does.

 

[JimW]

Supertramp claim their song is logical but right out the gate they say all the world's asleep when it's night where they are, which of course ignores the vast swathes of the globe where everyone's up and about.

 

[andysays]

'Downtown'

Where all the lights are low, allegedly, except the lampposts are the same height there as in the rest of the city...

 

[prunus]

I have strong doubts that any of the events in "Hey Diddle Diddle" ever took place, let alone at the same time and in the same place.

 

[isvicthere?]

OP example failure in post 1

And I think everything else is sliding into professional pedantry

And so much a failure, it was pointed out in post 2. Since the thread appears to have taken off, it seems a bit daft to correct it now.

 

[Raheem]

And I think everything else is sliding into professional pedantry

No-one is getting paid for it, so it's not professional. Sorry to pick you up on that.

 

[hitmouse]

I'm a streetwalking cheetah with a heart full of napalm

Honestly. Where do you even start with this?

I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb

Atomic weapons are incapable of giving birth.

I am the world's forgotten boy

You're a well known singer who has performed to millions and who has his own radio show.

The one who searches and destroys

Ok. You have smashed a fair bit of stuff up in your time. I'll give you that.

While we're picking on Iggy Pop, "Well, it's 1969, okay, all across the USA" - bollocks is it, the current year is in fact 2022, anyone could tell you that. Frankly a bit embarrassing to make such a basic error.

 

[hitmouse]

I also don't believe that the KKK took his baby away. However, if they had, while ringing the FBI may help establish whether or not his baby is alive I don't think ringing the president will be any use in finding out where his baby went.

On a similar note, every time I've tried to complain to the United Nations about my parents not letting me use their car, or indeed the more general situation of summertime-related ennui, the response has been frosty at best.

 

[DotCommunist]

Famously Billy Bragg looks nothing like De Niro and Mitsubishi Zero is an aircraft not a motorcar

 

[JimW]

While we're picking on Iggy Pop, "Well, it's 1969, okay, all across the USA" - bollocks is it, the current year is in fact 2022, anyone could tell you that. Frankly a bit embarrassing to make such a basic error.

Fair chunk of the US where it's forever 1779

 

[belboid]

The Doors

Five to one, baby
One in five


Five to one is one in six, James. Basic bloody maths.

 

[souljacker]

I also don't believe that the KKK took his baby away. However, if they had, while ringing the FBI may help establish whether or not his baby is alive I don't think ringing the president will be any use in finding out where his baby went.

WELL ACTUALLY...

Joey is referring to his bandmate Johnny, a racist (therefore, in the KKK) who stole his girlfriend (girls in many modern pop songs are referred to as 'my baby'). So he was actually spot on.

I'm reasonably certain that no member of Ramones ever beat up a small child with a baseball bat though.

 

[DotCommunist]

XTC's lead singer claims he had five senses working overtime, somehow overlooking proprioception and touch-pressure sense
Still its a good song:

 

[A380]

Sarah Brightman actually lost her heart to a frog faced right wing multi millionaire who writes adequate musicals rather than a highly trained powered armour wearing infantryman from a militaristic future society.

 

[A380]

I doubt any of the four members of Queen actually shot and killed anyone immediately before visiting their mothers.

 

[A380]

Even though Amtrak are poorly organised away from the North East corridor I think it’s unlike that they dispatch trains with ‘nowhere’ as a destination. Rendering Kenny Rodger’s greatest song a lie.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Even though Amtrak are poorly organised away from the North East corridor I think it’s unlike that they dispatch trains with ‘nowhere’ as a destination. Rendering Kenny Rodger’s greatest song a lie.

or to 'anywhere', even from south detroit station...

 

[Pickman's model]

WELL ACTUALLY...

Joey is referring to his bandmate Johnny, a racist (therefore, in the KKK) who stole his girlfriend (girls in many modern pop songs are referred to as 'my baby'). So he was actually spot on.

I'm reasonably certain that no member of Ramones ever beat up a small child with a baseball bat though.

on the other hand mick jagger was telling the truth when he asked for sympathy for the devil

 

[Artaxerxes]

I don't think anyone ever said the Nile used to run from East to West, certainly not enough to justify the "they say" part.

 

[Pickman's model]

contrary to the song the reason the turks changed constantinople to istanbul in 1930 is very well known

 

[Sue]

lonnie donegan's dad was a professional violinist and not in fact a dustman

But what about his headgear, eh?

 

[Sue]

Do we know whether his old man wore a) a dustman's hat, b) a professional violinist's hat, or c) neither?

But what about his headgear, eh?

Damn you!

 

[isvicthere?]

Since New York is a vast metropolis, inhabited by millions, I imagine it is unlikely at any time that Paul Simon was the only living boy to occupy it.