4 Songs From the 1960s With Lyrics That Make No Sense, but Still Sound Perfect

Sometimes, it’s not what you say that makes a song sound so good, it’s how you say it, and that’s certainly true of these four songs from the 1960s. Do the lyrics make sense? No, not really. Does that change how catchy or impactful the songs are? Definitely not.

“Come Together” by The Beatles

The Beatles’ 1969 track “Come Together” is one of many Fab Four tracks that feature nonsensical lyrics (another honorable mention would be “I Am The Walrus”). But this track earned a top spot on this list of 1960s songs with lyrics that make no sense because of how good it feels to sing along to it. John Lennon captured a rhythmic quality to the English language that almost turns the voice into another percussion instrument instead of a storytelling device.

Even the very first line, “Here come old Flat Top, he come groooovin’ up slowly” paints a picture and sets a vibe with cadence alone.

“Incense and Peppermints” by Strawberry Alarm Clock

Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1967 track, “Incense And Peppermints”, proves that you can make just about anything sound cool when you have a rhyming dictionary, a good backing beat, and a little bit of LSD. The lyrics of this 1960s hit are literally just strings of words with similar rhymes—the song literally includes the phrase “meaningless nouns.” Yet the way lyricist John S. Carter strung the words together gives the song a greater meaning, even a topical, sociopolitical one.

“To divide the cockeyed world in two / throw your pride to one side, it’s the least you can do / Beatniks and politics, nothin’ is new / a yardstick for lunatics, one point of view.”

“Mellow Yellow” by Donovan

Speaking of psychedelic drugs imbuing new meaning into otherwise nonsensical lyrics, Donovan’s 1960s hit “Mellow Yellow” is a peak example of acid-fueled songwriting that pervaded the latter half of the decade. The track is also a testament to the ability of “nonsense” words to hide more salacious meanings. Donovan would later explain that the song was partially about being attracted to a fourteen-year-old girl. And it was also about a yellow vibrator, or “electric banana.”

“Electrical banana is gonna be a sudden craze / electrical banana is bound to be the very next phase.”

“Surfin’ Bird” by The Trashmen

The Trashmen might have insisted that “everybody’s heard about the bird” in 1963. But just because someone is insistent about something doesn’t necessarily mean it makes sense. Unlike the other 1960s songs with nonsensical lyrics in this list, “Surfin’ Bird” predates the psychedelia craze. Instead, the song pulls from other popular early rock tunes, like “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” and “The Bird’s The Word” to create one infectiously catchy tune.

“B-b-b-bird, bird, bird, bird is the word.” Sure, if you say so.

Photo by John Downing/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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