Rock music puns?

January 20, 2022 6:18 PM

There are a few verses that stand out in my memory as excellent wordplay. None of these are from songs I love. 1. What else feels this good, word-wise; and 2. They’re not puns. What are they?

These are the types of wordplay I’m talking about. Looking for similar examples and a better name than “pun”

1. Rod Stewart, Maggie May:
steal my daddy's cue and make a living out of playin' pool

2. Metallica, The Unforgiven:
Never shined through in what I've shown

3. Wallflowers, 6th Avenue Heartache
And the same black line That was drawn on you Was drawn on me And now it's drawn me in

posted by OrangeVelour to Writing & Language (42 answers total)

They are great lyrics. Not puns.But boy could I list awesome lyrics that resonate with me, but, would take up the whole thread...
posted by Windopaene at 6:40 PM on January 20, 2022

Best answer: Jawbreaker has a few of these.... "dot my tees and cross my eyes"...I'm too exhausted from work to remember any of their many others.
posted by vrakatar at 6:44 PM on January 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is approximately but not quite an antanaclasis.
posted by phunniemee at 6:49 PM on January 20, 2022 [5 favorites]

I love that the song Exes and Ohs is discreetly all about orgasms (Os). With her ex-boyfriends, of course.
posted by Sublimity at 6:52 PM on January 20, 2022 [4 favorites]

Best answer: On the questions of wording and definitions: those are all canonically and classically puns. Puns are a broad category of wordplay using different words that have similar sounds or using the same word in different senses.

Many people are confused, and think they hate puns, because people who say they love puns tend to love godawful puns.

So when you see these threads that make you want to retch, about how that cheese was tasty, very Gouda, or that pretty rock is really gneiss, or the the mycologist who was a FUN GUY, just call those 'bad puns', and remember that good puns are clever and poetic wordplay, and nobody has to wink and nudge and groan about it.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:56 PM on January 20, 2022 [24 favorites]

X - Some Other Time has the line "Someone always interrupts us when we talk/So I'm gonna draw this evening's line/Before my wash hangs on it for everyone to see".
posted by zombiedance at 7:01 PM on January 20, 2022 [3 favorites]

Sloan does this a fair bit, especially the songs Chris Murphy writes. Autobiography is pretty much built on them. For instance:

I’m certainly the former, but I’m not so much the latter

And then

when you find that you’re the former, take pride in how you form
posted by armeowda at 7:01 PM on January 20, 2022 [2 favorites]

Barenaked Ladies have a lot of these-

Alternative Girlfriend:
Old at being young
Young at being old
Everything's on hold
within our evolution

Am I the Only One?
Am I the only one who gets to make you laugh,
Laugh until you cry?
Am I the only one who asks you to go,
Go on without me?
Am I the only one who loves when you leave
your hair down in front of your eyes?
- [Chorus]
- And who do you think I am?
- And who do you think I'll be without you?
Am I the only one who had to dress you up
To see how you fell down?
Am I the only one who needs you to go,
Go on about me?
Am I the only one who loves when you leave
your hair down in front of your eyes?

Stomach vs Heart:
... But Tummy just growls
Not real words, mostly vowels
And I always forget sometimes Y (why)

posted by nouvelle-personne at 7:10 PM on January 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

War Pigs by Black Sabbath has the line,
"Generals gathered in their masses / Just like witches at black masses."
This is either an example of the laziest rhyme in the history of songwriting, or a nice pun.
posted by SandiBeech at 7:16 PM on January 20, 2022 [3 favorites]

Hello Orange Velour, I could be incorrect, but I believe the line from Maggie May is: ..."make a living out of preying/praying fools." I think he mentions that his father is a preacher.

At any rate, you may enjoy the verses of Elvis Costello. Two songs that are laden with "double entendre" are Oliver's Army and Green Shirt. Here's a quote from Green Shirt:

Somewhere in the Quisling Clinic there's a short-term typist taking seconds over minutes. She's listening in to the Venus line, she's picking out names, I hope none of them are mine.... Almost every word has a double meaning.

Oliver's Army turns on the word "occupation" as a career and a military exercise, and critiques the use of the working class as colonial cudgel. Lots of the verses are double entendre.
posted by effluvia at 7:27 PM on January 20, 2022 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I havecalways considered these as clever turns of phrases: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/turn+of+phrase

My favorite is in the song Tempted by Squeeze:

Your body gets much closer
I fumble for the clock
Alarmed by the seduction
I wish that it would stop

For some reason, going from the word "clock" directly to "alarmed" always makes me think "alarm clock" and I admire the wordplay.
posted by bacalao_y_betun at 7:55 PM on January 20, 2022 [14 favorites]

Maybe not quite what you're looking for, but Barenaked Ladies "Pinch Me" has:
We can hide out under there / I just made you say underwear

(where in between, there's an assumed line that you say "under where?" as a response to "under there")

Jason Mraz' "Wordplay" also toys with some ideas; he's known for having lyrics that can have multiple interpretations (it's all about the wordplay) but the song is also about maintaining a music career including how you're judged basically on how many times your song is heard (it's all about the word "play"). He also calls himself the "Mister A to Z" which of course, becomes Mr.AZ...
posted by neilbert at 8:25 PM on January 20, 2022 [4 favorites]

The Roches do this. Here are some examples off the top of my head.

I am the only tree, and everybody leaves (One Season)

I've got the apple in me, original cinnamon style (This Feminine Position)
posted by FencingGal at 8:30 PM on January 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

I've never been sure whether Rod Stewart was saying "Make a living out of playing pool" or "Make a living out of playing fool." Either one works to describe being a pool hustler but what works best is hearing both possibilities at the same time.

I think SaltySalticid is probably right that the lyrics you like could be called puns. I guess you could also just say they make use of words with double meanings or words that are homophones of other words. I doubt there's a single word or name other than "pun" that describes them.

Here are some lyrics I like that I think are similar:

Leonard Cohen - Passing Through

I saw Adam leave the garden with an apple in his hand
I said "Now you're out, what are you gonna do?"
"Plant some crops and pray for rain, maybe raise a little Cain"

(It's better when it's not written down, because it could also be "cane," giving it a triple meaning.)

-----

Dog's Eye View - Last Letter Home

All the lyrics sites show something different from this but I feel pretty confident that they're wrong and I'm right. Listen to it and I bet you'll agree. This is another one that's better heard than seen in writing.

Hopeless
Hope less and do more
Say less and feel more
This time

-----

Bodeans - Closer to Free

Everybody one, everybody two, everybody free

posted by Redstart at 9:24 PM on January 20, 2022 [2 favorites]

Came here to recommend Squeeze, and Elvis Costello. For example:

She said she was working for the ABC news,
It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use

John Hiatt has a knack for this too, though, especially on the albums Perfectly Good Guitar, & Beneath This Gruff Exterior.
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 9:37 PM on January 20, 2022 [7 favorites]

In addition to being one of the best songs of 2021, Lucy Dacus's "Thumbs" has an example of this where she imagines consoling a friend about their abusive father: "You two are connected by a pure coincidence / Bound to him by blood, but baby, it's all relative".

One word you might try looking for to find wordplay that's similar to some of the things mentioned here is zeugma, the use of a single word to modify multiple others in related but different ways. A relatively classic example is "You held your breath / And the door for me" in Alanis Morrisette's "Head Over Feet".

Also, I don't know if you're interested in rap music but it has tons of stuff that feels this good, wordplay-wise. A recent example from an absolute master of it: "Cops got us under microscope / To make sure we see cells" in Ka's "I Notice".
posted by valrus at 10:50 PM on January 20, 2022 [4 favorites]

Best answer: The bit in "School's Out" where Alice Cooper growls "well we got no class, and we got no principles" never fails to make me smile. True dad-level groaner puns
posted by potrzebie at 10:58 PM on January 20, 2022 [8 favorites]

Best answer: Oh wow! I asked this same question many years ago and have been thinking about these ever since. I call them metaphor triples. Here’s what’s going on:

There’s three reads on these: the literal meaning, the sense meaning, and the metaphorical frame meaning, which borrows from the first two. Usually in multiple ways.

Let’s take the line you shared, “steal my daddy's cue and make a living out of playin' pool” That’s an excellent one.

The literal meaning is: I could go to my dads and take his cue stick. I’ll become a pool shark.

The sense meaning is: I could follow in my dad’s footsteps and became a hustler.

The metaphorical frame meaning is derived from the double sense of ‘cue’ AND of ‘playing pool’, both of which stay in the same metaphor of the table game (and give each other extra meaning).

Let’s do another one; this one is slightly different, but still works the same: “ Never shined through in what I've shown”

Literal(ish) meaning: the things I’ve created don’t express the inner me.

Sense meaning: even though I’m creating this brightness (this good in the world), the real me hasn’t come through. You get the sense of doubt or insecurity.

Metaphor frame: derived from double meanings of ‘shine/shone’ as in light, but also excelling. And ‘shown’ as in to share (some piece of work). In this one, there’s two-way crossover between the metaphor frames of ‘shining’ and ‘showing’, where each word makes sense in the other context and thereby reinforces meaning. Also, our metaphorical understanding of darkness as mysterious or unknown.

Your third one is really fun: “ And the same black line / That was drawn on you Was drawn on me / And now it's drawn me in”

Literal meaning: somebody is drawing pictures of us using the same pen for both drawings. They’ve finished mine (all filled in).

Sense meaning: I’ve been judged the same way you were, and now I’m caught up in this.

Metaphorical frame meaning: double meanings of ‘(black) line’, ‘drawn (in)’, being ‘marked’ work in both the (court? accounting?) frame as well as the artist’s frame. You’re both being depicted AND conclusions are being made from that (being drawn). As you’re getting ‘filled in’, you appear more = being more present = more sucked in (drawn in).

What makes these examples different from other lyrics is how deep you can go with them, despite how pithy they are. The metaphorical frames often get evoked again later in the song, usually only with a single word. And because of that, you get an entire callback to a bigger history.

Two of my personal lyrical favourites:

You saw a light, I saw a freight train coming
I tried to tell you he was no damn good
You heard the bells, I heard the hammer falling
He ran you down like I said he would
This is an interesting one because the bells/hammer line doesn’t fit into the train metaphor (afaik), but it forms its own triple, assuming these are wedding bells…she hears only joy, he hears the hammer (which falls inside the bell to give it its sound). Anyways, the last line brings it back to the train metaphor. There’s also a line later in the song, “it’s a heavy load, it’s a trail of tears”, which takes this further (in an offensive, crass way), equating her plight (or perhaps the singer’s) with that of the death march / forced removal of the Five Tribes and the abusive guy with the settlers and their takeover of the land, coinciding with the railway boom.

The band’s on fire, it’s a pyre, and the bodies are burning
Best description of a concert / dancing ever!
posted by iamkimiam at 12:40 AM on January 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

Best answer: The part I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around with all of these examples is that they always involve an agency or perspective shift.

The one who gets drawn on, gets drawn in.
The band’s on fire, but it’s the others who are burning (eg affected by what the band creates = writhing, dancing).
The creator of the shiny things wants to do the shining.

And on.

There’s more to this but my brain breaks at this point.
posted by iamkimiam at 12:51 AM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

I think these play on homonyms where words have the same spelling and/or pronunciation as one with a different meaning. Like drawn the past tense of to draw in with emotion or feeling, figuratively, and drawn the past tense of drawing with a pen or pencil
posted by The_imp_inimpossible at 3:24 AM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Mary Coughlan sang "She's got a way with men, She just got away with mine". Apparently written about Sinead O'Connor who had an affair with her husband.
posted by night_train at 5:00 AM on January 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

The song Hold by KRS-One is what you're looking for, lyrics below.

"Alright, here we go

I'm thinkin' real hard about some money I can hold
But everybody I know is deep in the hole
A steady payin' job is too hard for me to hold
I call around for work but they puttin' me on hold
But in my hand a shiny .45 is what I hold
I make a mayonnaise sandwich out of some whole-
Wheat, I'm feelin' weak, I can't hold
I gotta rob somebody tonight and take the whole
Bank roll, some cash I gotta hold
At the bottom of my shoe is a little bitty hole
That's it, my mental sanity I can't hold
I'm walkin' to the store with this pistol that I hold...

Half of me is sayin' maintain and uphold
Suddenly I bump into some asshole
He's cursin' me out, but this pistol that I hold
Took control, and in his head I put a hole
Ahhh man, now I'm lookin' around the whole
Area, the gun is still hot that I hold
I'm buggin' out, and I don't know how much longer I can hold
I feel myself sinkin' deeper in the hole
So in my victim's pants I rip a little hole
And felt for the wallet, and took the whole
Bill-fold, forty bucks is what I hold
Suddenly I hear, "Freeze! Police! Hold!"

In the penitentiary I see a whole
Bunch of blacks and Hispanics that they hold
In my cell I cry like hell, my head I hold
One day somebody ax if my shoes they could hold
I told this guy, "Listen! My shoe's got a hole
But what's up with that shiny sharp knife that you hold?"
He lunged forth, the first thing that I thought of was to hold
The arm with the knife so that he couldn't put a hole
In me, but then I put him in a chokehold
Took the knife and in his neck I put a hole
Suddenly all the C.O's come to me and it's me they hold
Beat my ass and I spend two weeks in the hole
I'm ready to bug out, my sanity I can't hold
My needs and wants messed up my life on a whole.

Damn. Just wasn't satisfied with life.

The moral to the story is...your addiction to your needs and your
wants is what causes problems in your life. Make sure you got whatcha
need. Put at a safe distance all the things that you want. It's wants
that get you into trouble.

This is the balance of life, the balance to life on a whole."
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 5:20 AM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: These are great and I’d love more examples if you find them.

Also, a couple of you are disputing the Rod Stewart line. Funny that your versions are also fun wordplay! I’m as sure as I can be about the cue/pool lyrics without like, contacting the songwriters.
posted by OrangeVelour at 5:50 AM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Two slightly embarrassing homonym double entendre puns. Bob Seger's Her Strut "They do respect her, but, they love to watch her strut." Where the pun is the sound alike between but and butt, which depending on how you take it, completely flips the meaning of the line. Also, Boston's Peace of Mind "I understand about indecision and I don't care if I get behind." The song's about opting out of corporate life, so presumably "getting behind" means getting behind financially, but of course it can be taken that the writer's not going to be getting any action because he's broke but has his principles.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 7:09 AM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

I think the Rod Stewart Maggie May pun is the next line, "or find myself a rock n roll band that needs a helping hand" implying becoming a roadie (not that important) when he is in fact the singer (most important).

Songs actually filled with comedic puns meant to be funny, not just excellent writing.

Santa Lost a Ho- Christmas Jug Band Santa/sex/christmas puns

Step into My Office Baby - Belle and Sebastian office work/sex puns

Jesus, the Missing Years - John Prine religious/sex/Jesus/Chirstian/death/Beverly Hillbillies puns

KMAG Yoyo - Hayes Carll army/space/drugs/drug testing in the military/illusions to other songs puns

Stings's latest track Rushing Water also has a pun, but I'm not sure it quite works, or is amazingly clunky.
"I'll see my shrink on an analyst's couch
Hit me with a hammer and I'll say, ouch
What we have here is so easy to solve
Just takes a firm purpose and some resolve"
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:22 AM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Mark Knopfler’s “Why Aye Man” has the line, “Tonight we’ll drink the old town dry / keep our spirit levels high,” which I always notice when it comes around. But since the song is kind of about tradesmen and workers, “spirit levels” always makes me think it’s a triple joke rather than a double.
posted by Occula at 7:42 AM on January 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

Again, rap, but I love “I can’t read minds [mines] but I can read yours” from OutKast’s Spread. But you could probably pick any one of their songs and find one like this.
posted by rustcellar at 8:42 AM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Rod Stewart, Maggie May:
steal my daddy's cue and make a living out of playin' pool

I can’t see this particular verse as being a pun at all. He’s contemplating quitting school to shack up with Maggie, and playing pool is one way to earn some money.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:00 AM on January 21, 2022

Sparks are a mine for puns and generally brain-tickling, humorous lyrics.
"Tryouts for the Human Race”, "Angst in My Pants", "Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins"
posted by bluedora at 9:22 AM on January 21, 2022

I can’t see this particular verse as being a pun at all. He’s contemplating quitting school to shack up with Maggie, and playing pool is one way to earn some money.

It's the "steal my daddy's cue" part. See iamkimiam's comment above.
posted by Redstart at 9:25 AM on January 21, 2022

Elvis Costello has been doing this kind of lyrical wordplay his whole career, for example the opening of "Watching the Detectives":

Nice girls, not one with a defect,
cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct.
Red dogs under illegal legs.
She looks so good that he gets down and begs.

The "red dogs" in the third line is referring to the shoes the girls are wearing "shrink-wrapped" -- i.e. they have stockings on -- but EC makes it seem literal when he describes the enthralled man begging like a dog.

Seriously, this is so much of the Elvis Costello catalog.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:56 AM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

So many many good answers here. In a similar vein, the lyrics to Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" are deliberately ambiguous. "Because really the song has two sets of lyrics"
. . "We were borne before the wind" (like sailing)
. . "We were born before the wind" (like ageless?)

And Elvis Costello got a couple nods up above; my favorite's always been New Amsterdam "I step on the brakes to get out of her clutches / I speak double Dutch to a real double duchess." And "Everyday I Write the Book" has some more pun-ishment, etc.

And I'll read through the comments about whether these count as puns. I've always heard that a good pun is its own reword.
posted by adekllny at 10:56 AM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

Another good one for this kind of alliteration and wordplay is the late Warren Zevon. I'll always love the line:

Little old lady got mutilated late last night from "Werewolves of London". (Now say that a few times fast!)
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:02 AM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

I love these lines from Steve Earle:

"No matter how I try to put you down
I still carry you around"

The song is about someone who can't forget a lost love, but the 'put you down' line also has a second meaning, speaking ill of the other person.
posted by essexjan at 11:59 AM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Not exactly a pun, but I like the zeugma in The Jazz Butcher's song "Party Time": "And you know you'll only go home in a taxi and disgrace"

And I don't know if this fits what you're looking for, but maybe Bambam's song "Ribbon". When said in Korean, "ribbon" and "reborn" sound the same.

In the BTS song "Dis-ease", there's a bilingual pun based on the word for “work” in Korean (일) sounding like the English word "ill." "I’m ill, yeah, I’m work [일] itself / That friend called ‘rest’, oh I never liked him. / How much do you have to earn to be happy?”
posted by Lexica at 1:38 PM on January 21, 2022

The Kinks' "But I know what I am, and I'm glad I'm a man And so is Lola" is the ultimate. Accept no substitutes.

Also, I'd like to think that you'd appreciate Adrian Belew's Bird in a Box.
posted by kimota at 2:12 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

Here's my very similar question from long ago; I'm sure you'll find some extra examples there too. :)
posted by iamkimiam at 3:02 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Your Latest Trick by Dire Straits has evocative lyrics generally and has a line punning (?) on 12 bar blues:

"you played robbery with insolence
I played the blues in 12 bars down in Lovers Lane"
posted by pianissimo at 4:59 PM on January 21, 2022

Rosanne Cash has a few gems as well. In My Baby Thinks He's a Train, we find as the final lyrics: "He's just like a train, he always gives some tramp a ride." And Seven Year Ache gives us "Don't bother callin' to say you're leavin' alone, cause there's a fool on every corner when you're tryin' to get home."
posted by yclipse at 6:44 AM on January 22, 2022

Taking back sunday has one of my favorites from "Cute without the e"
"Down Down, Across your floor"
serving as a potential triple entendre of sex, suicide, and crossword puzzles.
posted by evilmonk at 11:29 AM on January 22, 2022

In “Cure For Pain,” Mark Sandman of Morphine sings “I propose a toast, to my self control, you see it crawlin helpless on the floor” and I felt that lyric for a loooooooong time.
posted by sara is disenchanted at 6:25 PM on January 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

Some of my favourites:

Frightened Rabbit - My Backwards Walk - "You're the shit and I'm knee-deep in it" (simultaneously, you are the best thing ever and I am completely head over heels but also uh-oh this is utterly terrifying and could be a big disaster) (also the whole song is just brilliant)

Frightened Rabbit - Dead Now - "I've gone and deviled my kidneys/now he's living inside of me/if we can't bring an exorcist/I'll settle for one of your stiffest drinks" (deviled kidneys = drunk too much alcohol segues into the devil is inside, therefore possessed so bring the exorcist; kind of a combination of pun and extended metaphor)

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone - "It was so clear to me/that it was almost invisible" (the full lyrics are full of clever extended metaphors that rely on wordplay if not exactly puns)
posted by Athanassiel at 12:18 AM on January 23, 2022