Fix what’s wrong, but don’t rewrite what the artist wrote. Stick to the official released version — album booklet, label site, verified lyric video, etc. If you’re guessing, pause and double-check.
Respect the structure
Songs have rhythm. Pages do too. Leave line breaks where they belong. Don’t smash things together or add extra empty space just for looks.
Punctuation counts (but vibe-editing doesn’t)
Correct typos? Yes. Re-punctuating a whole verse because it ‘looks better’? Probably not. Keep capitalization and punctuation close to the official source.
Don’t mix versions
If you’re editing the explicit version, keep it explicit. If it’s the clean version, keep it clean. No mashups.
Let the lyrics be lyrics
This isn’t the place for interpretations, memories, stories, or trivia — that’s what comments are for. Keep metadata, translations, and bracketed stage directions out unless they’re officially part of the song.
Edit lightly
If two lines are wrong… fix the two lines. No need to bulldoze the whole page. Think ‘surgical,’ not ‘remix.’
When in doubt, ask the crowd
Not sure what they’re singing in that fuzzy bridge? Drop a question in the comments and let the music nerds swarm. Someone always knows.
Instrumental inspired by the group being in London and riding a bus to a gig. A "brown" is Brit slang for what Americans call "mooning," displaying your naked butt out the window of a moving vehicle. Apparently someone offered someone else a pound to do it on the bus. The instrumental (from the album Uncle Meat) is sort of jouncy, you can envision a bus ride.
What a great site! Zing, I was at a Mothers concert at the Albert Hall in the UK in 1969, the last tour by the original Mothers. "Uncle Meat" had just been released, with the first released version of "Brown" on it. Before performing the song, Frank explained it's origins for us. You are correct but I can add more detail: In Frank's words as best I can remember them: "Last time we were here we were met at the airport by a big glass bus with big glass windows so we could see everything outside and everyone outside could...
What a great site! Zing, I was at a Mothers concert at the Albert Hall in the UK in 1969, the last tour by the original Mothers. "Uncle Meat" had just been released, with the first released version of "Brown" on it. Before performing the song, Frank explained it's origins for us. You are correct but I can add more detail: In Frank's words as best I can remember them: "Last time we were here we were met at the airport by a big glass bus with big glass windows so we could see everything outside and everyone outside could see everything inside. As we were driving to the hotel, Jimmy Carl Black said to Bunk Gardner "I bet you a pound you won't do a brown out in this here bus". Bunk did a swift conversion in to Sterling currency and had his pants off in no time!." Frank then explained the construction of the song thus: "The first part is a happy bouncy part to describe how the Mothers of Invention just love to go cruising around the countryside in a big glass windowed bus. This changes in to a less melodic section which describes the altercation between Jimmy and Bunk" I can't remember anymore from there. I witnessed the section of the concert that is at the end of "Burnt Weeny Sandwich" including the "invasion" of the stage, which was actually by a small party of U.S. kids aged about 12. No idea how they came to be there. The rest of the Albert Hall crowd stayed politiley and quietly in tirre seats, apart from the idiot freaking out about "get the unifroms of that stage MAAANN!!!"
@zing1 I'm British and I've never ever heard of "a brown" being slang for mooning. I've checked the online urban dictionary and neither has it. The urban dictionary does say "brown" can be slang for heroin, although FZ was anti-drug so the title probably isn't advocating drug use, more likely satirising it.
@zing1 I'm British and I've never ever heard of "a brown" being slang for mooning. I've checked the online urban dictionary and neither has it. The urban dictionary does say "brown" can be slang for heroin, although FZ was anti-drug so the title probably isn't advocating drug use, more likely satirising it.
@zing1 I'm British and have never heard a moon being known as a brown...Your making this up. A brown is possibly a glass of Brown Ale. Drinking Brown Ale on a bus that cost's a nicker in 1967 pounds, shilling and Pence...............
@zing1 I'm British and have never heard a moon being known as a brown...Your making this up. A brown is possibly a glass of Brown Ale. Drinking Brown Ale on a bus that cost's a nicker in 1967 pounds, shilling and Pence...............
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Instrumental inspired by the group being in London and riding a bus to a gig. A "brown" is Brit slang for what Americans call "mooning," displaying your naked butt out the window of a moving vehicle. Apparently someone offered someone else a pound to do it on the bus. The instrumental (from the album Uncle Meat) is sort of jouncy, you can envision a bus ride.
What a great site! Zing, I was at a Mothers concert at the Albert Hall in the UK in 1969, the last tour by the original Mothers. "Uncle Meat" had just been released, with the first released version of "Brown" on it. Before performing the song, Frank explained it's origins for us. You are correct but I can add more detail: In Frank's words as best I can remember them: "Last time we were here we were met at the airport by a big glass bus with big glass windows so we could see everything outside and everyone outside could...
What a great site! Zing, I was at a Mothers concert at the Albert Hall in the UK in 1969, the last tour by the original Mothers. "Uncle Meat" had just been released, with the first released version of "Brown" on it. Before performing the song, Frank explained it's origins for us. You are correct but I can add more detail: In Frank's words as best I can remember them: "Last time we were here we were met at the airport by a big glass bus with big glass windows so we could see everything outside and everyone outside could see everything inside. As we were driving to the hotel, Jimmy Carl Black said to Bunk Gardner "I bet you a pound you won't do a brown out in this here bus". Bunk did a swift conversion in to Sterling currency and had his pants off in no time!." Frank then explained the construction of the song thus: "The first part is a happy bouncy part to describe how the Mothers of Invention just love to go cruising around the countryside in a big glass windowed bus. This changes in to a less melodic section which describes the altercation between Jimmy and Bunk" I can't remember anymore from there. I witnessed the section of the concert that is at the end of "Burnt Weeny Sandwich" including the "invasion" of the stage, which was actually by a small party of U.S. kids aged about 12. No idea how they came to be there. The rest of the Albert Hall crowd stayed politiley and quietly in tirre seats, apart from the idiot freaking out about "get the unifroms of that stage MAAANN!!!"
@zing1 I'm British and I've never ever heard of "a brown" being slang for mooning. I've checked the online urban dictionary and neither has it. The urban dictionary does say "brown" can be slang for heroin, although FZ was anti-drug so the title probably isn't advocating drug use, more likely satirising it.
@zing1 I'm British and I've never ever heard of "a brown" being slang for mooning. I've checked the online urban dictionary and neither has it. The urban dictionary does say "brown" can be slang for heroin, although FZ was anti-drug so the title probably isn't advocating drug use, more likely satirising it.
@zing1 I'm British and have never heard a moon being known as a brown...Your making this up. A brown is possibly a glass of Brown Ale. Drinking Brown Ale on a bus that cost's a nicker in 1967 pounds, shilling and Pence...............
@zing1 I'm British and have never heard a moon being known as a brown...Your making this up. A brown is possibly a glass of Brown Ale. Drinking Brown Ale on a bus that cost's a nicker in 1967 pounds, shilling and Pence...............
Another Brit here to say that "brown" is definitely NOT British slang for mooning. We call mooning, mooning.