Lay Down Your Lazy Pen, My Friend: Rhymes I Never Want to Hear Again
By BigSteve on Oct 6, 2009
Rock requires rhyming. Relinquishing rhyme requires retaining regular rhythm regardless.
Ok, I’ll stop.
My point is that any rule, such as the one stipulating that rock lyrics must use end-rhyme, can seem like a straitjacket, and it will lead you to write things you wouldn’t write if the rule were not there.
And it’s too easy to lean on examples you’ve heard before, which leads to hackneyed lyrics that are just there because you need to fill up the space with words if you want to sing rock music. It’s often been noted that English is not a great language for rhymes, compared to Romance languages, but that’s no excuse for laziness.
One of my least favorite rhymes is found you/around you. It usually takes the form of "I’m so happy that I’ve found you/I’ll build my world around you," but perhaps the most famous version of this rhyme is in The Foundations' song:
I’ve never liked this song, though I’ve got to admit that’s a pretty cool video. One of things I had problems with was the "now that I’ve found you/I can let you go" concept. Looking up the lyrics now, I see that it’s "I can’t let you go," and suddenly the whole song seems too much like a domestic abuse scenario.
Another rhyme I hate is change/rearrange.
In this case it’s made more annoying by the chaayaange/rearraayaange pronunciation. Changing the world is a tall order, especially for a scrawny English dude with such elementary skills on the piano.
We had a thread recently where we talked about the lazy lyricist who rhymed a word with itself. That's bad, but reaching into the grab bag of pre-existing obvious rhymes is just as bad.
What are some of your least favorite hackneyed rhymes?
11 comments
“But the sun's been quite kind while I wrote this song
It's for people like you that keep it turned on”
By the way, in the previous thread when we were discussing rhyming words with the exact same word, I don’t think anybody brought up what has to be considered the Best in Show:
Motley Crue, Kickstart My Heart:
“I'd say we've kicked some ass….
And I'd say we're still kickin' ass”
phone/alone
self/shelf
Can't STAND them! The third one is especially egregious, as the line is usually something to the extent of:
don't leave me by myself
don't put me up on a shelf
The rhyme is not only bad and overused, but also forces the use of a really stupid metaphor, that of a shelf being an inherently isolated place where disused things go.
eyes/surprise/realize
Seriously, once I hear that in a song, it's hard for me to recover. The song better be damn good!
In terms of rhymes I'm tired of/never liked: I'm very much tired of lines that rhyme things with the word "insane." Or maybe (and here I'm venturing into the conceptual discussion, I guess) I'm just tired of all the things that seem to drive rock stars INSAAAAAAAANE. (Pronounced "in-say-eeeeeeen.")
well, we got no class
we got no principal
we got no innocence,
we can't even think of a word that rhymes
such blatant honestly is so refreshing
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