Spoken bits in songs

[Chedney Honks]

Always make my nuts shrivel into Smints.

Can anyone figure out why?

I find them really embarrassing, like I want to wince. It's like if I wanted to hear your shit poetry or irreverent storytelling, I'd take you out for dinner.

It's like when you have a not especially funny but likeable friend who says something actually funny and because they're not used to the laughter, they feel that electricity surging through their spine and gooch and they instantly start talking in a kind of performance mode, like Americans do when they're aware they're speaking in public, and they're trying to ride the wave and eke out a few more laughs but each successive comment is worse and worse and you have to say maaaaatttte, just enjoy that one bolt of lightning before my bollocks implode.

It's that kind of embarrassment for someone else. There'll be a German word for it, I'm sure. I can't bear spoken word bits in songs in general.

Am I wrong in your opinion? Have I missed out on some greats?

[markburgle]

You are wrong in my opinion. I think they're class. I find them ballsy and charismatic. Although funnily enough the only two examples I can think of right now are from the vicar's Good Guy song in This Country, and Gary Le Strange's Is My Toaster Sentient? Both great examples to be fair, but not "real" songs.

So much greatness in popular music is about having the guts to go out on a limb and do something that'll either be great or make you look like a tit, and you don't know until it's out there and the reviews are in.

When people find xyz embarrassing it often says more about their uptightness than the thing itself.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Always make my nuts shrivel into Smints.

Can anyone figure out why?

I find them really embarrassing, like I want to wince. It's like if I wanted to hear your shit poetry or irreverent storytelling, I'd take you out for dinner.

It's like when you have a not especially funny but likeable friend who says something actually funny and because they're not used to the laughter, they feel that electricity surging through their spine and gooch and they instantly start talking in a kind of performance mode, like Americans do when they're aware they're speaking in public, and they're trying to ride the wave and eke out a few more laughs but each successive comment is worse and worse and you have to say maaaaatttte, just enjoy that one bolt of lightning before my bollocks implode.

It's that kind of embarrassment for someone else. There'll be a German word for it, I'm sure. I can't bear spoken word bits in songs in general.

Am I wrong in your opinion? Have I missed out on some greats?

What about when Diana ross does it?

Also there's a tune on the drive soundtrack (drive the film)
Which does it and is aces

[jobotic]

Shangri-Las mate, Shangri-Las

[non capisco]

Good practitioners of this - Jarvis, Kevin Rowland, Isaac Hayes

Nut shriveller - Old matey from Freeez

[Absorb the anus burn]

What about great songs that are entirely spoken bits?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMrhANwRy0

[sardines]

Springstreen's spoken word bit in Lou Reed's 'Street Hassle' is pure Q-magazine reader porn.

[earl_sleek]

Sarah Cracknell speaks the verses in Nothing Can Stop Us and it's dead sexy.

[Marner and Me]

Don't listen too The Streets first album!

[phantom_power]

The spoken word bit in The Look of Love by ABC is, to coin a phrase, mint and skill

[JaDanketies]

Not got a problem with it at all. Currently loving Dance by Julia Stone, which has her doing a few breathy spoken bits in her lovely voice. Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick is all spoken-word and nobody noticed.

What about great songs that are entirely spoken bits?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMrhANwRy0

When I saw it was Talking Heads I assumed it would be Once In A Lifetime.

[PlanktonSideburns]

The spoken word bit in The Look of Love by ABC is, to coin a phrase, mint and skill

great example

[spaghetamine]

is it cheating to pick songs by The Fall? so many to choose from but a personal favourite is MES ranting "THERE IS AN END TO NUTRIMENT AND RATIONING NUTRIMENT" through some kind of megaphone effect at the climax of Mess Of My

The Fall - Mess Of My (Peel Session)

[PlanktonSideburns]

desire - under your spell

thats what i was thinking of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K7rmxjk5RQ&list=PL1A594B0ABCBDFC96

[lazyhour]

You could have been getting down to

This

Sick

Beat.

[The Mollusk]

My god I cannot fucking stand Taylor Swift. That's the most cringey thing ever uttered in a song.

[markburgle]

is it cheating to pick songs by The Fall? so many to choose from but a personal favourite is MES ranting "THERE IS AN END TO NUTRIMENT AND RATIONING NUTRIMENT" through some kind of megaphone effect at the climax of Mess Of My

The Fall - Mess Of My (Peel Session)

Big fan of the whispered "He's up there now, listening to us - I know he is" in City Dweller. The was my MES mourning song, found myself drawn to it as it's maybe the only Fall song that I find quite sad. That line seemed extra appropriate in that context

[Jockice]

Much as I love The Human League, Louise makes is just dreadful. It would be fairly bad even without the spoken word bit but that just pushes it over the edge. I can accept the 'but this is Phil talking' bit in Love Action because he actually sings it and as for Joanne's spoken part in Human, well, it's not actually their song, and it's Joanne isn't it? I'd forgive her anything.

[thecuriousorange]

I know when to go out. I know when to stay in. And get things done.

[JaDanketies]

My god I cannot fucking stand Taylor Swift. That's the most cringey thing ever uttered in a song.

Blank Space is a good song and tbh her new Folklore album is bold and different enough to get my respect.

Not really relevant, but I told Alexa that I like The Way I Am by Eminem recently and I've realised that it has one of the crappiest bits of writing in any good rap song.

And it seems like the media immediately points a finger at me
So I point one back at 'em, but not the index or pinkie
Or the ring or the thumb, it's the one you put up
when you don't give a fuck

You don't have to list literally every finger other than the middle finger, Mr Mathers. We knew what you meant.

[flotemysost]

I always find it a bit cringe when a singer who doesn't naturally have an American accent switches from singing in that accent (which is fairly standard for a lot of pop music) to speaking in it - it's hard to pull off without sounding really forced and awkward.

I'm thinking of stuff like the bit at the end of No Good Advice by Girls Aloud (3:16 onwards), a song I quite like otherwise. All of them have different natural accents anyway so some are more suited to it than others (e.g. Nadine Coyle, who's Irish, can probably pull off the rolled 'r's a bit better) but also it's just pretty cringey anyway.

You could have been getting down to

This

Sick

Beat.

That whole section is the worst - the "Guy over there / With the hella good hair" bit, urghh

[Hooverbag Sherlocks]

I always find it a bit cringe when a singer who doesn't naturally have an American accent switches from singing in that accent (which is fairly standard for a lot of pop music) to speaking in it - it's hard to pull off without sounding really forced and awkward.

Likewise Gary Numan in 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' where he opts for some bizarre mid-Atlantic/Cockney hybrid with even stranger intonation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lllHxxj_Yhc&t=01m31s

[spaghetamine]

just remembered another great one - the icing on the cake of an incredibly daft but fantastic song

What was it to you that a man lay down his life for your love?
Were those clear eyes of yours ever filled with the pain and tears of grief?
Did you ever give yourself to any one man in this whole wide world?
Or did you love me and will you find your way back one day to Xanadu?

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - The Legend Of Xanadu

[Brundle-Fly]

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick is all spoken-word and nobody

He is the master in this field. One of my favourite moments from an underrated Dury song. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkUnZBpFmFY&t=1m11s

[Sin Agog]

Can anyone figure out why?

It's probably something to do with the artist suddenly taking their melodic guard down and getting all up in your grill.  But this is pop.  It's supposed to be aloof and universal, isn't it?  Even when they're having a little verbal moment with their DJ or something, it still feels nuder than if they were just singing.

To conclude- you have intimacy problems.  Seek psychiatric help.

[Rizla]

 You probably think this is rubbish, don't you? You idiot. You fucking idiot.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I generally can't stand them, although there's some good ones that are either done by proper actors/voice actors or are taken from other media, such as Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds and a lot of the Manics Holy Bible.

[Jockice]

Pick of The Pops has played Flash by Queen in the last hour. I have very fond memories of going to see that film with my sister.

[boki]

The absolutely cringiest example of this is in Ministry's Work For Love.

[chveik]

Shangri-Las mate, Shangri-Las

YES