It’s something of a blessing that this song’s insanely catchy synth riff overshadows its lyrics, which are an earnest discussion of the possibility of flying to Venus to hang out with friendly extraterrestrials. We’re not sure we want to, to be honest.īest bit: “We’re heading for Venus and still we stand tall/ ‘Cause maybe they’ve seen us and welcome us all” No, we have no idea what a “love removal machine” is, either. (And, of course, there’s the fact that Kilimanjaro isn’t even remotely close to the Serengeti.)īest bit: “Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, I fell from the sky/ Yesterday you blew my mind/ Oh yeah” Honestly, it’s hard to know where to begin with this: the weird post-colonial vision of Africa as dark, exotic wonderland of wild dogs and wise old men and distant drums, or the nonsensical chorus, or the above lyric, which is surely the most hilariously silly couplet anyone ever tried to cram into a verse structure built to accommodate about 14 less syllables. All together now: “Take your seaside arms and write the next line!”īest bit: “I know that I must do what’s right/ As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti” So silly, in fact, that we’re celebrating this week’s release of The Cult’s Choice of Weapon by collecting some of our favorite examples after the jump. As we mentioned earlier this week in our regular streaming album roundup, we have something of a soft spot for 1980s rockers The Cult, mainly because they were so absurd that it was somewhat endearing, from Ian Astbury’s curious Native American obsession through Billy Duffy’s haircuts to writing songs with titles like “Aphrodisiac Jacket” and “Earth Mofo.” Amongst other things, they were also responsible for some of the ’80s most gloriously silly lyrics - and that‘s saying something, because the ’80s were home to lyrics that were very, very silly indeed.

Tell me why why 80's song