Response 2: I’ll give it a shot! The irrational reproduction of the word panda in the lyrics is meant as an ironic counterpoint to the difficulty of getting actual pandas to reproduce. The syllable “pan” seems like a truncated statement of “panda,” but in fact is an evocation of the Great God Pan, and by implication, the mysteeerious forces of nature. And the word China is thrown in just to be weird.

Response 3: And then there’s the “Cookie Monster” school of metal singing, in which the lyrics are functionally impossible to understand. Actually, metal is great for this kind of thing, since a number of bands have recorded songs with lyrics in Latin. There’s even a band called (oh wow, seriously guys?) “Rotting Christ” that has lyrics in Sumerian, a long-dead language that I’m pretty sure scholars do not strictly speaking know how to pronounce anymore. And then there’s Sigur Ros, (not a metal band) who sing in “Hopelandish,” which is their made-up language of Icelandic baby talk. All this deliberate mysteriousness has a certain masonic flavor… maybe instead of Musical Talmud, we should do a series of Musical Kabbalah, where we just jumble up the phonemes in Living on a Prayer and see if we can recreate the Secret Name of Jovi.

Response 3.1: I love “Leaf House!” But I’m kind of sad to know that they’re meowing at the end, because I had thought that they were saying “Meowth,” you know, like the Pokemon.

Thing 2: Next time, you should Talmud-ize the Deerhoof song “Panda.” If memory serves, the lyrics are, “Panda, panda, panda/Panda, pan, China.” Shakespeare. Pure Shakespeare.

Thing 3: Does Deerhoof have the most nonsensical lyrics of all time? They sure might. My other nominees would be Animal Collective (see my favorite of their songs, “Leaf House” for an example–it degenerates into them meowing), Dan Deacon (I, too, have a rattlesnake gun, sir), and, of course, The Beatles. And the award for Lyrics So Dense and Obscure They May As Well Be In Another Language goes to Ms! Joanna! Newsom!