Lyrical Pet Peeves

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We all have them, I'm almost sure of it... so, out with them! What words or lines (and they don't have to be specific--in fact, it's better if they aren't) make you twitch with horror or shudder with repulsion?

― Clarke B., Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Me, I HATE hearing the word "cigarette" in a song. I can't explain it--it's not like I even think smoking is evil or anything--but it makes me feel awful and scummy to hear the word sung. The same goes for "mama" being used to refer to a sexy woman--AAGGHHH! Okay, your turn...

― Clarke B., Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hate when the singer just goes uh uh uh uh uh uh uh for 83 measures. Also, I'm not to keen on songs that just repeat the title 83 times. Even 82 times is a bit excessive as far as I'm concerned.

― Lord Custos, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"society". any song that uses that word, ugh.
i also find the crappy rhyme schemes of neutral milk hotel to be very irritating, as well as his constant "dee-da-dee-dee-dee-dee"'s.

― daniel, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"insane" and ditto to "cigarette" and "society"

― bob snoom, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

insipid rhyme schemes annoy me far more than single words and can ruin an otherwise great song. Example: Urge Overkill's "Bottle of Fur"

when I would hold you in the night... we used to make it till daylight!

WHY!? such an inessential verse too.

― Ian M, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The word 'shine'.

― DG, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Crappy rhyme schemes" in Neutral Milk Hotel songs? Hmm?

The "fire / desire" rhyme always tweaks my grrr reflex, unless done with skill. Even in songs I like (like, say, the two on the Spinanes' _Strand_), it irks me.

And Elliott Smith's last LP had WAY too much song-title repetition for my tastes.

― David Raposa, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The "self"/"shelf" rhyme is the absolute worst. Exception: Belle and Sebastian, who totally pull it off in two different songs.

― Douglas, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DG, I hope you make an exception for the Boredoms' "Super Shine."

I have a problem with "cigarette," too. Too melodramatic (see Lloyd Cole.)

― Mark, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anything that rhymes 'brain', 'insane', 'pain'. Although, curiously, I love Cypress Hill's "Insane in the Brain"!

It's a shame the English language doesn't have more rhymes for 'girl', besides 'world'. Although I hate the use of the word 'girl' most of the time. Also, anything that's 'in your eyes', unless they're talking about cataracts.

"Bootylicious" is ruined for me when she says "Smelling good!"

― dave q, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Light/Night/Alright is the absolute pits and was ubiquitous for a while.

No thanks. Also I hate songs that use the love-as-chemistry metaphor. Overused and damn shite.

― EdwardO, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't stand 'girl' paired with 'world'. I heard a great song, where the wordsmith I think had the same aversion, "I get hung up on all these telephone girls/ There's no romance with a telephone girl." - he would rather rhyme "girl" with "girl" then use "world".

I also wince a little when I hear "rock n' roll" in lyrics. An exception being "Her life was saved by rock and roll". Case in point: the song "For the Singer of REM" (fIREHOSE) - most of the lyrics are metaphorical, until the line "get it all wet, remember/forget what rock and roll is for." - somehow ruins it for me. (Though there are much, much worse examples.)

...and the winner for some of the most trite rhymes ever ... "What if God was one of us..." here's the worst part -> "tryin' to make his way home, nobody callin' on the phone, 'cept the Pope maybe in Rome."

― Dave225, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Lately I haven't heard any song in which the word 'fuck' is put to good use.

― Alacrán, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Society used well by Sonic Youth on Experimental Jet Set... I forget which song, but the one with "Society? A supastaaaaah" and also by X on "Sex and dying in high society". I think the trick is to inflect it riot-stylee, ending all high and shrill. "Sahsiate`".

I lovelovelove any song which rhymes "fingertips" and "lips". Big Star does the girl/world thang right on "I know a girl".

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh the worst HAS to be the whole "sky/high" business. Whole bands have based a career on rhyming these two words. Arrgh. It rilly GETS ME GOAT. How can someone be so lazy?

― Steve.n., Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hey, "Sky High" by Jigsaw is fantastic! (They also rhyme it with "lie" and "why")

― dave q, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Some of the old MOR tunes had as many lyrical cliches as musical ones!!!! The obvious ones are "in the heat of the night" or infinite variations on "Girl, I wanna make love to you/Because that's what a man's supposed to do". (Hang on, I always thought a man's supposed to do what a man's supposed to do!!!! Since when did it become more specific?!?!?)

Old Fart!!!!!!!

― Old Fart!!!!, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

not a fan of rhyming "triangle" with "point of view"

― Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hate the word "sublime". A couple of years ago I really hated "millennium".

Sterling-I especially love "lips, *hips* and fingertips".

― Arthur, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hey -- "sky", "high", and "fly"? Poetry in Eric Burdon's hands ("Sky Pilot"), crap in yours and mine.

― Fat Bobby, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I never understood why "mama" and "baby" were used for girlfriends. Some Freudian shit going on there. Do people talk like that in real life?

― sundar subramanian, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's a shame the English language doesn't have more rhymes for 'girl', besides 'world'

Heres a few: whirl, hurl, pearl, burl, furl (or unfurl, for that matter)....

― daniel, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hope this doesn't mean you dislike Norma Jean's "High Soceity," one of Chic's cooler productions....

No other way to put this: bad vaginal metaphors. All-time worst offender: the Who's "Squeeze Box," which is quite possibly the most embarrassing song ever written.

― M. Matos, Thursday, 15 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Who's "Squeeze Box," which is quite possibly the most embarrassing song ever written.

Embarrassing for whom? Emabarrassing for Pete Townshend because the lyrics are poorly crafted or embarrassing for you because you're scared of the idea.

― Dave225, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My only gripe is the way certain Americans pronounce the word "mirror" so it comes out "meer". Stand up and be counted, Ken Stringfellow! (And sorry, because otherwise I love your music, just pronounce 'mirror' properly, will you please???)

― Rob M, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I always thought a squeeze box was an accordion. W-wait, you mean it's a... Oh. My. God. That is soooo gross!

On a Who bootleg I have, Entwhistle pronounces it exquisitely lewdly. "Squeeeezzeee baks-ah"

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I haven't read this whole thread, don't think anyone's mentioned "But she never lost her head, even when she was giving head"... ok, rhyming "head" and "head" is kinda dud... acutally I love it what am I saying.

Brian Molko may be the worst lyricist I've ever heard. I keep listenig to him tho (I hope no one heard that).

― Sean, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Lou Reed's latest album has "Mad" which is endearingly dumb. Dumb as a thumb. It makes me mad. It makes me sad.

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

no mention yet of walk/talk? IT's a rock n roll staple

― g, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

anything along the line of "throw you hands in the air.."

― Jeff, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But such a good song.. "better walk it like you talk it lest you lose that beat".

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Irritating imaginary song "In your best friends car On the bathroom floor Independent Woman I'll take your money anyway Even if your broke On the bedroom floor"

Too many "bedroom/bathroom floor"s these days.

― dog latin, Saturday, 17 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The only modern artist to execute "throw your hands in the air" properly has been OutKast, and only because they pronounce it "ay-er" followed by "cay-er" and "oh yay-er". This brings to mind a lot of other cliché hip-hop chants that really have no justification anymore.. uh.. "yes yes y'all", "..and you don't stop", "when I say ____, you say ____" (I saw that in a Ja Rule live performance on M2 last month, and nearly gagged.) etc etc..

― Bobby D. Gray, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"all y'all knockoffs ain't ballin/innovation stallin/just drawlin/yes yes y'allin"

― Sterling Clover, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

When lyricists screw up their tenses in very obvious ways.

You'd think, for example, Steely Dan ("When I see my little cousin Janine walk in/Well, all I could say was ouch" --"Cousin Dupree") would have a better grasp of this stuff... but hey, maybe they know something I don't.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 23 May 2003 07:21 (twenty-three years ago)

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