Help Me Find The Words, They Mean Nothing!

May 1, 2009 8:11 AM

SongFilter: My Superintendent Father-in-Law is putting together a program for his school's "Right to Read" Week and asked if I could help come up with some songs that incorporate "Words". I've come up with some, but I need some more help!

Here is the email he sent me:


We're putting together a program at one of our schools during "Right to Read" week and want to have a one of our district performers play/sing covers of songs about WORDS!

So far, the list is pretty thin, including "Words," by the Bee Gees, "Across the Universe," by the Beatles, and "Conjunction Junction," we believe by Rockapella.

So if you have any 'Word" songs that come to mind from the last 2 1/2 decades and feel so inclined, let us know!


This is the list I sent him so far (just from searching my iTunes Library)

-"The Word" The Beatles (Rubber Soul)
-"Words" Guillemots (Red)
-"Words" Doves (The Last Broadcast)
-"All My Little Words" The Magnetic Fields (69 Love Songs Disc 1)
-"No Words" Neil Diamond
-"Land of a Thousand Words" Scissor Sisters (Ta-Dah)
-All of "Here Come the ABC's" by They Might Be Giants
-"Please Read the Letter" Robert Plant/Alison Krause (Raising Sand)
-"Put the Book Back on the Shelf" Belle and Sebastian (Push Barman to Open Old Wounds)
-"Wrapped Up In Books" Belle and Sebastian (Dear Catastrophe Waitress)
-"Picture Book" The Kinks
-"The Book I Write" Spoon (Stranger Than Fiction Soundtrack)
-"Open Book" Cake (Fashion Nugget)
-"A Book Unfinished" Iron and Wine
-"You Could Write a Book" Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (Pershing)
-"Six and Seven Books" Toots and the Maytals (Reggae Got Soul)


Since this is for a school function, language is a factor, but otherwise, what songs does the Hive Mind know that deal with words, reading, letters, and all things literary?

posted by ThaBombShelterSmith to media & arts (31 answers total)

My favorite song with this theme is Read Eat Sleep (lyrics) by The Books. It's a glitchpop song with samples of a spelling bee instead of normal lyrics though, so I'm not sure how a cover would work.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:24 AM on May 1, 2009

Crazy ABCs by the Barenaked Ladies
My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors by Moxy Fruvous.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:35 AM on May 1, 2009

every day i write the book by elvis costello?
also on the schoolhouse rock tip, i always liked the tale of mr. morton (odd r&b version by skee lo here)
posted by kelseyq at 8:42 AM on May 1, 2009

Wordy Rappinghood - Tom Tom Club
posted by SansPoint at 8:42 AM on May 1, 2009 [1 favorite]

oh! words of love by buddy holly
posted by kelseyq at 8:43 AM on May 1, 2009

Book I Read, Talking Heads.
Spondee Matmos.
Call upon the Author Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
okay, so the last one might be more profane than is needed... But everything is banal and everything is jejune!
posted by Cold Lurkey at 8:44 AM on May 1, 2009

This is awesome, keep em coming!
posted by ThaBombShelterSmith at 8:48 AM on May 1, 2009

Huh, I was just thinking about songs where things are spelled out: I'm a Man, Bo Diddley (I'm a man, I spell M-A-N) and Human Fly, the Cramps (I'm a human fly, I spell F-L-Y).

As for songs about books, Paperback Writer by the Beatles!
posted by scratch at 8:48 AM on May 1, 2009

Wordplay by Jason Mraz - bonus that it's a catchy tune and Jason Mraz is hugely popular right now. It's one of his older songs but it was a single on the radio a few years back.
posted by yawper at 8:49 AM on May 1, 2009

Also, These Words - Natasha Bedingfield. Another bonus - the song mentions Byron, Shelley & Keates!
posted by yawper at 8:51 AM on May 1, 2009

Words (Between the Lines of Age) - Neil Young
Paperback Writer - Beatles
posted by rocket88 at 8:53 AM on May 1, 2009

Word Up by Cameo.
posted by electroboy at 8:56 AM on May 1, 2009

Fiction by The Lucksmiths.
posted by ludwig_van at 8:59 AM on May 1, 2009

What Are Words For? by Missing Persons
posted by pointystick at 9:04 AM on May 1, 2009

When I Write the Book - Rockpile
posted by dfan at 9:13 AM on May 1, 2009

I'd recommend "Autobiography" by Sloan, which involves both writing and some very clever word plays.
posted by saladin at 9:14 AM on May 1, 2009

Box Full of Letters by Wilco?
posted by troywestfield at 9:15 AM on May 1, 2009

Maybe RESPECT, since Aretha spells it out?
posted by misha at 9:30 AM on May 1, 2009

Jason Mraz has another song called "You and I Both" where a verse says:

See I'm all about them words
Over numbers, unencumbered numbered words
Hundreds of pages, pages, pages forwards
More words then I had ever heard and I feel so alive


But the rest of the song is not really about words as much as it is him telling a girl they he had fun when they were together and he hopes she is happy now.


There is a song called Word Play by Young Jeezy, but I don't know if the lyrics are appropriate.
posted by soelo at 9:32 AM on May 1, 2009

Words Of Love - Buddy Holly (and covered by The Beatles)
The Letter - The Box Tops
Every Day I Write The Book - Elvis Costello
Paperback Writer - The Beatles
Your Guitar Or Your Pen - The Who
If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot
posted by lordrunningclam at 9:44 AM on May 1, 2009

More than Words by Extreme?
posted by zizzle at 10:30 AM on May 1, 2009

"Language" by Suzanne Vega:

If language were liquid it would be rushing in
Instead here we are in a silence more eloquent
Than any word could ever be.

These words are too solid, they don't move fast enough
To catch the blur in the brain that flies by
And is gone...

Also, you say ""Conjunction Junction," we believe by Rockapella." - isn't that one of the old Schoolhouse Rock songs? If you're going that route, there's a whole list of Schoolhouse Rock "Grammar Rock" tunes about nouns, verbs, interjections, adjectives, adverbs...
posted by dnash at 10:34 AM on May 1, 2009

Words by The Monkees
posted by Oriole Adams at 11:08 AM on May 1, 2009

"I Know There's A Word" - Aimee Mann
"Chapter and Verse" - Utopia
"Digging for Some Words" - Juluka
"The Word Girl" - Scritti Politti
"Every Word" - Tish Hinojosa
"Word on a Wing" - David Bowie
"Someone Took the Words Away" - Elvis Costello
"If I Only Had The Words" - Billy Joel

Also, "The Book Report" from "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown".

I really feel like there should be some Ani DiFranco songs, but I can't think of any at the moment.
posted by kristi at 11:14 AM on May 1, 2009

This one's a bit of a stretch, but "Engine Driver" by the Decemberists has a part that goes:

And I am a writer,
writer of fictions,
I am the heart that you call home.
And I've written pages upon pages
trying to rid you from my bones.
posted by lolichka at 11:51 AM on May 1, 2009

Also The Book of Love by The Magnetic Fields.
posted by ludwig_van at 12:06 PM on May 1, 2009

"(Who Wrote) The Book Of Love" by the Monotones. Extra points because it's sufficiently silly to be kid friendly: "I wonder wonder who, ba-doo-doo-doo" (whomp) "Who wrote the book of looooooove..."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:33 PM on May 1, 2009

No More Words - Berlin
posted by contrariwise at 2:15 PM on May 1, 2009

"Book of Love" by Book of Love
posted by candyland at 2:43 PM on May 1, 2009

what is the age range of these students?
posted by Hydrofiend at 4:24 PM on May 1, 2009

Hydrofiend: They are 6 to 11
posted by ThaBombShelterSmith at 5:57 PM on May 1, 2009