Last weekend, I spent a good chunk of my Sunday figuring out the chords to Paul McCartney’s “Backwards Traveler”. This little song (it’s literally just a minute or so long) has always been a favorite of mine, ever since I found it tucked away on the B-side of the “With a Little Luck” 45. The mystifying part of this song’s attraction is that the lyrics are utter and total nonsense.

“Hey, did you know that I’m
Always going back in time
rhyming slang, Auld Lang Syne my dears
Through the years
I Am the Backwards Traveller
Ancient wool unraveller
Sailing songs, wailing On The Moon

And we were sailing songs, wailing on the moon
wailing on the moon.”

I have no clue what Sir Paul is trying to say. Really, I’m sure the words were spouted out while he first strummed the chords, and he never bothered to fix them. How exactly does one sail a song? How does one become an ancient wool unraveler? Is there a night class I can take?

No, they don’t scan well on the page; but when married to the galloping tune, there’s something suggestive, dream-like and magnetic about the lyrics. Indeed, I’m glad he didn’t try to “fix” the words. In fact, they remind me of my favorite nonsense line from the otherwise crystal-clear “Hey Jude”;

“The movement you need is on your shoulder.”

(Fun fact: when McCartney told John and Yoko that he would change that murky phrase, he was told by both that he should not. And so he didn’t.)

Of course, Sir Paul also wrote “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”. That masterpiece of absurdity contains the meaningless lyrics “Hands across the water/heads across the sky”, which is backed by such a soaring melody line that it’s positively inspiring. Until, of course you wonder what heads across the sky could actually entail.

Considering this nonsense syndrome brought to mind other songs by great songwriters that simply make no sense on the page. Look closely at the lyrics to Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s lovely “Yous Song”, for example…

“If I was a sculptor..but then again no.”

What? Not “If I was a sculptor, I’d try to capture your beauty”; nothing like that. It’s as if Elton and Bernie are saying “If I was a sculptor...aww, the hell with it”. Incredible! Marvelous! And of course the same team gave us;

“Take me to the pilot
Lead me through the chamber
Take me to the pilot
I am but a stranger”

No one, and I mean no one, has any clue as to what that means. And that’s what makes it compelling. Of course, Bob Dylan can write the most meaningful of songs, but when he gets weird, he’s magic. Consider, if you will, this stanza from “Please Mrs. Henry”:

“Now, don’t crowd me, lady
Or I’ll fill up your shoe
I’m a sweet bourbon daddy
An’ tonight I am blue
I’m a thousand years old
And I’m a generous bomb
I’m T-boned and punctured
But I’m known to be calm”

Songs like these are jumbled artifacts from the subconscious, which is of course where music is born. There is something oddly familiar and comfortable about them, as there is in the poetry of Edward Lear or the books of Lewis Carroll. The English language, I think, invites twisting and contortion.

And aren’t we are all forced into the mistaken belief that nonsense belongs in childhood? If I’ve learned anything in 40-some years, it’s that the world is mystifying and hard to make sense of. Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. See saw Marjorie Daw. I heartily concur.

But the oldest and spookiest example of this genre has to be “Nottamun Town”. This old British folk song is pure nonsense, and, as it was passed down, crossing the ocean into Appalachia, must have made even less sense to those who sang it;

“Sat down on a hard hot cold frozen stone
Ten thousand stood round me but I was alone
Took my hat in my hand to keep my head warm
Ten thousand was drowned that never was born”

Just as a dream or a painting can affect you more deeply than an essay, nonsense (when used well) has the unique ability to signify feelings that transcend words. You don’t have to fall down the rabbit hole to get there—you just need to suspend your rational mind for a bit.

Trust me—the movement you need is on your shoulder.