They can’t just be bad; we’re talking about lyrics that clearly show the lyricist didn’t put much effort in overcoming his or her writer’s block.
I got thinking about this while listening to a classic rock song I actually like very much – Journey’s “Feelin’ That Way”:
*Give me all of your sunshine,
A spark is all I need,
To take it away, all of the shadows, Well what more can I say? *
Another one that came to mind for me was Air Supply’s “The One That You Love” – especially funny because of all of the feeling and emotion they put into the particularly lazy line:
*The night has gone,
A part of yesterday I don’t know what to sayyyyyyy!
Don’t know what to say-a-a-hey-ay! *
You’d think that, with all that wandering in the desert, they’d find the time to come up with a lyric that doesn’t need a spurious word to make it fit the rhythm of the song.
Here’s another from Neil Diamond:
How long did Diamond struggle before giving up and settling for this? Five minutes?
How about “Who Let The Dogs Out?”-by the Baja Boys?
-“who let the dogs out…who…who” (repeat 10 times)
Very profound lyrics…obviously expressing urban angst and pain!
There’s some romantic song out there that forces a rhyme with the prepositional phrase “for only you and I.” Can’t remember what it is but it makes me want to punch someone.
ETA: another shoehorned rhyme, not ungrammatical but still kind of lame: Lucinda Williams’s “Passionate Kisses”: “Is it much to demand / I want a full house and a rock and roll band / Pens that won’t run out of ink / And cool quiet and time to think”
:dubious: You really fret about your pens running out of ink?
Yes lyrics are a category of their own, but give this a try from “Going for the One”
Well the verses I’ve sang
Don’t add much weight to the story in my head
So I’m thinking I should go ahead and write a punchline
But they are so hard to find
in my cosmic mind
So I think I’ll take a look out of the window
Maybe the Doors’ “I’m gonna love you till the stars fall from the sky for you and I”? If so, Robby Krieger is the man to punch. He could have written “…till the fish fly from the sea for you and me”.
From the Spanish side of the tracks, I give you Siniestro Total’s “Nocilla, ¡qué merendilla!” The whole song consists of repeating the slogan for this nutella-like product again and again.
Does the Muppets song (that Muppets song) say anything other than “manah manah mana manama, manah manah manamanah”?
I’ve got a cloak
It’s a bit of a joke
There’s a tear up the front
It’s red and black
I’ve had it for months
The whole thing has a distinct air of ‘will this do?’ about it.
It’s more painful when the lyricist is a genius - the clams really smell.
To wit: Warren Zevon’s “Mr Bad Example”:
Then on to Monte Carlo to play chemin de fer
I threw away the fortune I made transplanting hair
I put my last few francs down on a prostitute
Who took me up to her room to perform the flag salute
Whereupon I stole her passport and her wig
And headed for the airport and the midnight flight, you dig?
“You dig?” YOU DIG?!?! That was the best you could come up with Warren? Seriously?
I know you’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but I’m sure if the situation were reverse, Warren would be talking smack about me.
God dammit all, I absolutely knew this song was going to show up in this thread, and it makes me upset. That is a good lyric. The rest of the line is: “He ain’t gonna let those two escape justice/he makes his living off of the people’s taxes.” That is a slant rhyme and is a legitimate rhyming device.
As a lover of Steve Miller I have got to stand up in the defense of these lyrics. They are not “lazy”, if anything they’re a unique departure from typical rhymes.
Every day a little sadder
A little madder
Someone get me a ladder
Paul McCartney - My Love
And My Love Does It Good
Wo-Wo-Wo-Wo Wo-Wo-Wo-Wo
My Love Does It Good
I Love Oh Wo…My Love
Only My Love Holds The Other Key To Me
Oh…My Love Oh…My Love
Only My Love Does It Good To Me
Wo-Wo-Wo-Wo Wo-Wo-Wo-Wo
My Love Does It Good
His worse, however, is the second verse of “the Joker”:
You’re the cutest thing
That I ever did see
I really love your peaches
Wanna shake your tree.
a-Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time
Ooo-eee baby, I’ll sure show you a good time
