10 Worst Music Lyrics Of The '80s

2. Abacab - Genesis

For many Genesis fans, there are two distinctively different bands: the Peter Gabriel era and the Phil Collins era. During Gabriel's tenure as singer, Genesis were seen as the archetypal prog rock band, with quirky lyrics and odd musical interludes. That licence to experiment meant that they could get away with singing words of apparent nonsense, given their context. The Phil Collins-led years changed the band's sound and audience considerably.

In the '80's, Genesis and Collins' solo work often sounded the same - radio-friendly inoffensive pop. Enter 'Abacab'. A word that means nothing, other than the chords that were being used as a working template for the song. The worst line is: 'You're never there, just stop and stare, Abacab he's in everywhere', but this verse is a very close second: 'It's a game, or reflection of someone else's name, when you wake up in the morning covered in cellophane'.

Phil Collins had a solo hit with another invented word as the title, 'Sussudio'. The lyrics for his hit 'All Of My Life' describe his plight perfectly: 'All of my life I've been searching, for the words to say how I feel'. How about not searching in the rhyming dictionary?

Contributor

Lifelong music obsessive, regular contributor to US guitar magazines, sometime radio presenter, singer/guitarist in Star Studded Sham, true believer in the power of rock'n'roll and an amp turned up to 11, about to publish first novel, The Bulletproof Truth.