4 Iconic 90s Lyrics That Don’t Make Sense but Still Sound Like Poetry

Don’t get me wrong, I love 90s music just as much as the next guy. Some of the lyrics from those 90s songs, however, are a little difficult to defend.

“Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice

“I’m killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom / Deadly, when I play a dope melody / Anything less than the best is a felony.”

If you grew up in the 90s or early 2000s, I’m sure you didn’t get through it unscathed. By that, I mean, I’m sure you were forced to listen to “Ice Ice Baby” a thousand times just like everyone else. I know that Ice is talking about his beats in this lyric, but if someone could tell me why he needs to kill people like poisonous mushrooms, that would be great.

“Loser” by Beck

“In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey / Butane in my veins, and I’m out to cut the junkie.”

This whole song is full of wacky lyrics. Before “Loser” became Beck’s defining anthem, he was riffing around in coffee houses, trying to get people to find him amusing. Apparently, he came up with this song totally spontaneously. He’d had the idea for the song for a while, though, even though it came together on the fly.

“Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls

“And I’d give up forever to touch you / ‘Cause I know that you feel me somehow.”

All in all, “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls is a beautiful song. If someone wrote a song like this about me, I think I’d be done for. However, you have to admit that those first lines are a little confusing. What does “feel me somehow” even mean in this context? It’s super romantic; whatever it means, I’ll give the Goo Goo Dolls that much.

“Unbelievable” by EMF

“But this time, I realize / I’m going to shoot through / And leave you.”

This song is all about a person who contradicts themselves, especially with the way they communicate. The song’s rebuttal to this behavior is what’s confusing to me, though. What does it mean to “shoot through” something? Is this a type of 90s slang I wasn’t made aware of?

Photo by: Steve Eichner/Getty Images

The post 4 Iconic 90s Lyrics That Don’t Make Sense but Still Sound Like Poetry appeared first on American Songwriter.