10 Worst Music Lyrics Of The '80s
3. The War Song - Culture Club
The problem with the lyrics here isn't the sentiment - just the trite and overly simplistic way that it is expressed. No-one really has a problem with Edwin Starr's classic, 'War': 'War, what is it good for, absolutely nothing', even though it is expressing a very similar sentiment to Culture Club's ditty of almost the same title.
The child-like naivete of 'War is stupid and people are stupid' would be acceptable - coming from a child. When dispensed with the mock profundity of a pop star who thinks the world wants to know what they think, those words become such an easy target that any good intention is overwhelmed by ridicule. The line: 'People fill the world with narrow confidence like a child at birth', might be even worse.
Boy George has a track record when it comes to lyrics that sound as if they were thrown into the song on the spur of the moment, without much thought for whether they are actually saying anything; how about 'After the bird has flown, he walked ten thousand miles back home' from 'Fat Cat'. Seriously? After that 'Karma karma karma karma chameleon' sounds deeply philosophical.