Ironic Song Titles

January 20, 2005 3:11 PM

SongFilter: I've got in my head to do a mix CD of songs that are ironic or in some way foretelling. Examples I've come up with so far are "Punk Rock Classic" by the Chili Peppers ("Put us on MTV...") and "My Generation" by The Who ("Hope I die before I get old...") Any suggestions?
posted by me3dia to media & arts (25 comments total)

"Video Killed the Radio Star"? Its use as first MTV video might qualify it.

I met your children, oh-ah-oh
What did you tell them?
posted by GaelFC at 3:13 PM on January 20, 2005

"Dizz Knee Land" by Dada.

"I just flipped off President George
I'm going to Dizz Knee Land"

(True again.)
posted by SisterHavana at 3:19 PM on January 20, 2005

I should mention: Alanis' "Isn't It Ironic" will *not* appear on the CD, despite the irony of her not mentioning an true irony in the song.
posted by me3dia at 3:24 PM on January 20, 2005

Just about anything by Joy Division, but especially "Isolation" and "Decades."

Nirvana, "Come on Death."
posted by googly at 3:25 PM on January 20, 2005

Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot had a few eerie pre-9/11 things in the lyrics. See "Ashes of American Flags" or google it for details.
posted by rfordh at 3:40 PM on January 20, 2005

"Ironic" by Alanis Morissette.

It contains exactly zero examples of irony.

It figures.
posted by Jairus at 3:41 PM on January 20, 2005

Nirvana's "Come as you are" (And I swear that I don't have a gun) and They Might Be Giants' "End of the Tour" (No, we're never gonna tour again). Oh, and Elton John's "Rocketman" (I miss the earth so much, I miss my wife)
posted by 23skidoo at 3:41 PM on January 20, 2005

Jeff Buckley has a line from So Real, "and i couldn't awake from the nightmare that sucked me in and pulled me under
pulled me under".

He died from drowning.
posted by quadog at 3:44 PM on January 20, 2005

i have to point out that there's tons of internet argumentation (ARGUEMENSTATIONS) about whether or not the NAYSAYERS AND FUN KILLERS who sagely point out that "Isn't It Ironic" isn't ironic are technically correct.

it's actually interesting reading.

i can't find the original article i read by the contrarian contrarians, but this one suffices.

also i think you should put some billy ocean on there, because, you know, BILLY OCEAN!
posted by fishfucker at 3:50 PM on January 20, 2005

"don't do anything illegal" by charles manson.
posted by mcsweetie at 3:58 PM on January 20, 2005

Kid Rock, "Devil Without a Cause". Devil without a cause...I'm going platinum...
posted by smackfu at 4:06 PM on January 20, 2005

Nirvana, "Come on Death."

Or "Come as You Are" for the "I don't have a gun" refrain.

"don't do anything illegal" by charles manson.

Pedantic nitpick: Manson had already spent most of his life in jail before he wrote that song. The guy has spent very little of his life on his own recognizance.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 4:09 PM on January 20, 2005

Got beat to the Jeff Buckley phenomenon (absolutely chilling).

There's the posthumously released Elliott Smith album with plenty of suicide imagery, but he'd been writing like that his whole career.
posted by themadjuggler at 4:17 PM on January 20, 2005

Public Enemy's "Welcome To The Terrordome" contains this lyric from Chuck D:

Hear my favoritism roll "Oh"
Never be a brother like to go solo
(according to the official Public Enemy website; my recollection has it as
Never see a brother like me go solo)

The irony being that Chuck D released a solo album in 1996.

Also, in "Express Yourself" by NWA, Doctor Dre (who is NOT EVEN A REAL DOCTOR... OH THE IRONY) proclaims:

Even if Yella, makes it a-capella
I still express, yo, I don't smoke weed or sess
Cause it's known to give a brother brain damage
And brain damage on the mic don't manage - NUTHIN

He since has been reported to smoke weed.
posted by jtron at 4:44 PM on January 20, 2005

"I Fall to Pieces" by Patsy Cline.
posted by JanetLand at 4:45 PM on January 20, 2005

My favorite Nirvana line is in "Stay Away," where Kurt Cobain sings "I'd rather be dead than cool."

Sadly, he was telling the truth.
posted by jeffmshaw at 5:45 PM on January 20, 2005

Ooh, Janetland, that was nasty. In the same airplane crash vein: "That Smell" -- Lynyrd Skynyrd
posted by joaquim at 8:27 PM on January 20, 2005

I always thought Nirvana's "I Hate Myself And Want to Die" was trying to tell us something.
posted by Yorrick at 9:46 PM on January 20, 2005

Two years after Jan & Dean released "Dead Man's Curve," which is about a car accident involving a Stingray, Jan Berry was nearly killed in a car wreck. In his Stingray. (But not at Dead Man's Curve, according to Snopes.)
posted by kirkaracha at 10:20 PM on January 20, 2005

You must include John Denver's "Leaving On a Jetplane"!
posted by Robot Johnny at 10:34 PM on January 20, 2005

Guns N' Roses's song "Pretty Tied Up" predicted the breakup of the group two years later.

Once there was this rock n' roll band
Rollin' on the streets
Time went by and it became a joke
We just needed more and more fulfilling, uh-huh
Time went by and it all went up in smoke
posted by inksyndicate at 2:06 AM on January 21, 2005

First we take Manhatten, then we take Berlin

-Lenny Cohen, and how right he was for values of 'we' up to and including cockroaches
posted by Sparx at 5:41 AM on January 21, 2005

There's got to be some early U2 or REM songs where they make fun of self-important rock stars.
posted by bondcliff at 6:16 AM on January 21, 2005

"wake me up before you go-go" by Wham!
("cause i aint plannin on goin solo"...and, yya know...he did...twice.)
posted by softlord at 7:35 PM on January 21, 2005

One more: "Keep It In The Closet" -- Michael Jackson.
posted by JanetLand at 1:01 PM on January 22, 2005