You really need words, a whole lot of rhyming words

[vovat]

I was listening to the Frank Black song "Western Star" today, which includes the lines:

"Now he's heading skyward
Standing up on piles of plywood
And all he talks about is how he
Looks like Heroes-period Bowie."

On the face of it, I guess I wouldn't say this is a particularly good rhyme. "Skyward" and "plywood" don't rhyme, except possibly in some accent that Frank doesn't have. [1] And in order to make the second rhyme work, he has to mispronounce Bowie's name. But I still think this is a good set of rhyming lines, and it got me thinking about song rhymes of which I am particularly fond, some of them good and some bad (in terms of the words actually having identical sounds at the end, that is).

1. "Medicating in the sun/Pinched doses of laudanum/Longing for the old fecun/dity of my homeland."
--The Legionnaire's Lament - The Decemberists

The words don't totally rhyme, but I like the fact that somewhat unusual words are (semi-)rhymed, and I like the trick of rhyming a syllable in the middle of a word. Which brings us to our next lyric.

2. "As the judge remarked the day that he acquitted my Aunt Hortense, to be smut, it must be utterly without redeeming social importance."
--Smut - Tom Lehrer

Later in the song, Lehrer rhymes "philately" with "Lady Chatterly." This song includes quite a few words that sent me to the dictionary back when I was in college. Lehrer is quite good with rhymes and lyrical tricks, making him an example of how math people CAN also be language people (which is something I wrote about in an entry some time ago, which I don't feel like looking up right now).

3. "He's reading Balzac, and knocking back Prozac."
--Country House - Blur

4. "Made the fakeness realistic/When the action went ballistic/One degree shy of sadistic."
--SenSurround - They Might Be Giants

I think it's mostly the word choice I like in that one. And for a special bonus, the next is an old favorite among TMBG lines.

5. "My story's infinite, like the Longines Symphonette."
--Birdhouse In Your Soul

Whenever the subject comes up on a TMBG discussion forum, people can never agree on just what the Longines Symphonette actually was. Nevertheless, it's a good line.

6. "Now, I don't think that I could cruise
In one of those small VW's
Or zip along the highway in a classic pickup truck
There's something 'bout a Comet
That makes me want to vomit
And those Datsuns just ain't worth a Fudgesicle, no!"
--Belvedere Cruising - "Weird Al" Yankovic

The "make like you're going to curse, but then say something else instead" trick is an old one, and one Al has used in other songs, but this is one of its better uses. This was the first song of Al's that ever got radio play.

7. The rhyming of "Ethiopians" with "fallopians" in "Ally McBeal," by Da Vinci's Notebook. There are a lot of other words between the rhyming ones, so I'm not going to type them all out, but it's a good rhyme.

8. "We've got so many tchotchkes, we've practically emptied the Louvre
In most of our palaces, there's hardly room to manoeuvre
Well, I shan't go to Bali today, I must stay home and Hoovre
Up the gold dust"
--Zebra - The Magnetic Fields

And yes, the lyrics are spelled like that in the booklet. One of the best cases of effective MISpronunciation that I think of.


I'm sure there are others that I can't think of right now. Maybe I'll add to this list in the future, and make it a Top Ten or something. (Right now, I guess it's a Top Eight.) Anyone else have any favorite rhyming lyrics? And would anyone be interested in seeing any more lists like this in the future? [2] I'm thinking of such topics as "best wordplay," "best uses of clichés," and "best references to earlier songs."

I don't really have much else to say this evening. I did have Quizno's for dinner, and that was tasty (as well as toasty). I had the Italian sub, as usual. Maybe someday I'll branch out. Actually, I did have the meatball sub once, but I thought the sauce was kind of weird. A little too sweet, or something.

[1] This reminds me of how Stephin Merritt said he wished he'd had someone British sing "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing," so that "matters" would rhyme with "Paris."
[2] Probably not.

Comments

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

I did have the meatball sub once, but I thought the sauce was kind of weird. A little too sweet, or something.

I've never had a meatball sub I liked. Ever.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I like most of them, actually. I used to get the ones at Subway all the time, but I've kind of gotten turned off from Subway since they stopped using the wedge cut. I mean, it still TASTES the same, but it's a lot messier now.

[loz]

"Skyward" and "plywood" --- the accent which makes these two rhyme is my accent. It's about as close to a perfect rhyme as everything.

The Bowie one isn't though. Sometimes my mum pronounces his name to rhyme with 'how he' and gets the smackdown.

They were fantastic. I'd be interested in seeing more like this.

I don't have any rhyming lyrics, but one of my very favourite Pun-like lyrics, which is simply clever in its wordplay is Barenaked Ladies' "In terms of Roman numerals he's IV League with Roman Polanski" from "Sell Sell Sell".

One of the things I love about BNL is their wordplay. It's good to see that there are other people who value this skill too.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

One thing that most of the bands I like have in common is that they use a lot of wordplay. Also, a lot of them use accordions. Maybe it would be simpler to just say I like a lot of bands made up of nerds. {g}

I only have BNL's first album, which I like, but not enough to have sought out other albums of theirs. (Actually, bethje has a few of the others, so I guess I could listen to hers, but I never do.) That line you quoted IS a clever one, though.

[(Anonymous)]

I <3 Tom Lehrer, as you know.

"We've gained notoriety,
And caused much anxiety
In the Audubon Society
With our games.
They call it impiety,
And lack of propriety,
And quite a variety
Of unpleasant names.
But it's not against any religion
To want to dispose of a pigeon."

and later...


"We'll murder them all amid laughter and merriment.
Except for the few we take home to experiment.
My pulse will be quickenin'
With each drop of strychnine
We feed to a pigeon.
It just takes a smidgin!
To poison a pigeon in the paaaarrrrk."


And of course, there's always the marathon that is "The Elements" and the bridge from "When You Are Old and Gray:"


An awful debility,
A lessened utility,
A loss of mobility
Is a strong possibility.
In all probability
I'll lose my virility
And you your fertility
And desirability,
And this liability
Of total sterility
Will lead to hostility
And a sense of futility,
So let's act with agility
While we still have facility,
For we'll soon reach senility
And lose the ability.

LOL!

There are many rhymes that stretch somewhat above believability in "I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica," however.

[arfies.livejournal.com]

Oops- that was me.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of "When You Are Old And Gray"! I love that rhyming section. I understand that, in the musical review Tomfoolery, there were even MORE rhymes in this part of the song.

You're right about "Hanukkah In Santa Monica," but it's funny, so I'm willing to excuse it. {g} Most of Lehrer's rhymes are legitimate, but have you ever heard anyone pronounce "strychnine" to rhyme with "quickenin'" except in "Poisoning Pigeons In The Park"? Lehrer also pronounces "iodine" differently from how most people I know do in "The Elements" ("i-o-deen" instead of "i-o-dine") and NOT for the sake of a rhyme, but I actually think his pronunciation makes more sense. I mean, the other halogens are pretty much always pronounced with "een" sounds rather than "ine" ones, right?

[revme.livejournal.com]

I've only got Maroon, which is basically the only BNL album I figure I need. It's a damn fine record, though, but a lot of their stuf tends to turn me off, because it's a little bit too "HEY LOOKIT US WE'RE CLEVER!!!" instead of just, y'know, being clever. (sorta like the "I could hide out under there/I just made you say underwear" line in "Pinch Me" which just almost ruins that excellent, excellent song.)

Also, I'm really surprised about people fighting over what the Longines Symphonette is. Longines was a watch-maker, their slogan was "It never rests", and as a giveaway-type thing (also, I believe a radio show), they had a Symphonette that would put out tons and tons of records of Easy Listening Music.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm really surprised about people fighting over what the Longines Symphonette is.

Well, maybe that was an exaggeration on my part. I was a little confused, because I sometimes saw references to it being a kind of watch, and other times to it being a collection of music. I now understand that both are true, to an extent. So...yeah.

[obsessical.livejournal.com]

Legionnaire's Lament has some amazing rhymes and word...oddities. It's one of my favorite Decemberists' songs, actually. I think my favorite part is the rhythm of "my baby in a charabanc". i can't write it out in words, really, but there's a beat before the last word, and on the first syllable. i'm not sure why i enjoy that so much, but i do.


and yes, i would be interested more lists of rhyming! i love rhyming! how about a WORST rhyme list? I nominate "I start to shake and cough / just like that old man in / that book by nabokov" from "Don't stand so close to me" by the police. there are many more awful rhymes I'm sure you could find :P

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite part is the rhythm of "my baby in a charabanc". i can't write it out in words, really, but there's a beat before the last word, and on the first syllable.

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. My mom is a Gilbert and Sullivan fan, and I think that particular song is very Gilbert-esque in its rhyming of unusual words. It's one of my favorites, too.

As for bad rhymes, I think Dave Barry mentioned in his Book of Bad Songs how the song "Take The Money And Run" rhymes "Texas," "facts is," "taxes," and...uh, something else I can't remember. I think that might qualify as one of the worst rhymes in music history, and there's no indication that it was done humorously (as, for instance, Tom Lehrer's rhymes in the aforementioned "Hanukkah In Santa Monica" were).

I was thinking when I wrote this entry about how some rhymes are kind of lazy, as when someone rhymes pretty much anything with "and how" (see "Savoy Truffle" and "Something," by the Beatles) or "you bet" (as in "Mr. Me"). But I understand that not every rhyme can involve advanced vocabulary words, and I can excuse that kind of thing. And I think some rhyming songs can come across as ingenious even when they only use really simple words, a favorite example of mine being "Stalk Of Wheat."

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Sorry, whenever I TRY to think of the cool lyrics floating around in my head, I can't actually THINK of them! I keep meaning to write down the lyrics I like when I think of them, so I'll have a collection of cool lyrics to refer to whenever I want to refer to cool lyrics. I was thinking about this because I was doing an expanded version of the "answer these questions about your favorite artists" meme we did the other week to amuse myself-- hmm, maybe I'll post that-- and wondering why it was so hard to come up with my favorite lyrics when there are so many times I've thought of lyrics that I just SO ADMIRED....

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's often the same way with me. I'm sure there are a lot of good rhyming lyrics that I forgot about when writing this post. Maybe I should start taking notes when I hear a lyric I really enjoy. That's kind of difficult to do if you're driving or something at the time, though.