Actually, the way I parse that, it’s the wild and windy night that was crying for the day.
It was nominated for an Oscar, and it actually has a full set of lyrics. But the only ones I ever heard in the film, over and over and over again:
Swinging Belleville rendez-vous
marathon dancing doop dee doop
Actually, the great musicals contain some of the smartest, best-crafted lyrics you’ll ever hear. Take this verse from Cole Porter’s You’re The Top in the show Anything Goes:
At words poetic, I’m so pathetic
That I always have found it best,
Instead of getting 'em off my chest,
To let 'em rest unexpressed,
I hate parading my serenading
As I’ll probably miss a bar,
But if this ditty is not so pretty
At least it’ll tell you
How great you are.
That may not be to your taste, Sparky, but it sure ain’t stupid or lazy.
…bolding mine
Meh… and alot of the worst. Is this a case where the exception proves the law?
Also, my personal tastes have nothing to do with it, I collect novelty songs and enjoy musicals, but thank you for your concern.
And another Paul Simon. It was best pointed out by John Belushi, when Simon was (hosting?) SNL. Belushi comes out and does a spiel about Simon being the best poet of the generation, and then quotes the immortal lyrics:
Li-la-li, li-li-li-li-li-li-li, li-la-li, li-la-LI-li, li-la-li-li, li-li-liiiiii
Joe
may not have transcribed that quite right
Let me just deal with those points in turn.
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“Bolding mine”. I’d have been pretty silly to say the classic musicals contained all the smartest and best-crafted lyrics, wouldn’t I? Almost as silly as you were in making the blanket assertion that musicals were “stupid and lazy by nature”.
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“and a lot of the worst”. Go on, then: give me the worst Cole Porter or Stephen Sondheim verse you can find and let’s see how it stacks up on intelligence and craft against the average rock or pop lyric.
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“Is this a case where the exception proves the law?” No, it isn’t. Porter maintained this high standard of wit and invention throughout a long career, as anyone who takes even a cursory glance at his lyrics will see. Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein and a handful of his other rivals from the musicals’ golden age were no pikers either.
Then there’s Sondheim. Which part of this dialogue verse from Sweeney Todd’s Try A Little Priest strikes you as “stupid and lazy by nature”?
“It’s priest. Have a little priest.
Is it really good?
Sir, it’s too good, at least!
Then again, they don’t commit sins of the flesh,
So it’s pretty fresh.
Awful lot of fat.
Only where it sat.
Haven’t you got poet, or something like that?
No, y’see, the trouble with poet is
'Ow do you know it’s deceased?
Try the priest!”
And once again, no, that’s not an exception. Sondheim has filled a dozen musicals with lyrics that are just as intricate, precise, clever and well-crafted as these.
- If you really collect musicals, and you still think the whole medium is (all together, now) “stupid and lazy by nature” then all I can say is that you’re buying the wrong CDs.
Dude… relax, I was kidding. I have no interest in debating with you but to pacify your obviously hurt feelings, I will clarify.
IMO, the majority of musicals have awful, cheesy, and contrived lyrics due to their subject matter and performance demands. Better?
Secondly, youmisread my post. I collect originals recordings, covers, and novelty songs, not musicals.
Also, I will restate that I have no hatred of novelty tunes or musicals whatever you assume my personal tastes to be…call them guilty pleasures.
Now please move on.
Some people have levelled charges of laziness against the Stranglers fantastic No More Heroes:
“Whatever happened to the heroes, all the Shakespear-ohs”
Not me, though, I think it was purposely irreverent and total genius.
Feelings,
Wo-o-o feelings
Wo-o-o feelings…
Dead or Alives song ‘Spin me round’
You spin me right round, baby
right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
Youtube it and you will llive to regret it.
Perhaps you should look up the lyrics to Blondie’s ‘Atomic’ , the lyric is repeated seveeral times and is just plain lazy, in fact my view is that this is the exemplar of lazy lyrics.
2Unlimited’s song ‘No limits’
No no, no no no no, no no no no, no no there’s no limit!
No no, no no no no, no no no no, no no there’s no limit!
Utterly dreck
*"Keep on smilin’ through the rain, laughin’ at the pain
Just flowin’ with the changes, till the sun comes out again
Keep on smilin’ through the rain, laughin at the pain
Just flowin’ with the changes, *and singin’ this refrain *"
Hard up for a rhyme, there, bro?
Now he’s not totally wrong here. A refrain is a phrase repeated over and over usually at the end of every stanza and they do sing “Keep On Smilin’” a lot.
Also it’s a 2 syllable word which does rhyme (according to the Rhyming Dictionary), but it has always bugged me with its redundancy.
Q
*Wet Willie - Keep On Smilin’
Deja Vu - Iron Maiden
“Feel like I’ve been here before
Feel like I’ve been here before
Feel like I’ve been here before
Feel like I’ve been here before”
I always hated the rhythm of this verse from “Straight Up” by Paula Abdul:
I’ve been a fool before
Wouldn’t like to get my love caught In the slammin’ door
Are you more than hot for me
Or am I a page in your history
book
Just the way that the final rhyming word is completely out of the phrase just grates me.
Even worse is that I will always know that song as the Meatspin song. Google if you haven’t heard of Meatspin.
Or on second thought, don’t.
the Garry Shandling Show theme song:
“This is the theme to Garry’s show,
To Garry’s show,
To Garry’s show.
This is the theme to Garry’s show,
the Garry Shandling Show.”
Or the Tom Green show:
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I can’t be the first to mention Crash Test Dummies, “Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm”
I’l just post the chorus:
Mmmm Mmmm
Mmmm Mmmm
Mmmm Mmmm
Mmmm Mmmm
What about “Da, Da, Da” by Trio, from the '80s?
Not to pick apart your choice, 'cause that’d be rude and senseless, this being a matter of opinion and all but I kind of find this particular chorus pleasing, as far as one word . . .chanting(?) goes. The song is told from the point of view of a kid whose telling about some of the strange kids he encountered in school. Kids that puzzled him make him go “mmmmmmmm. . . .” as opposed to someone who ran out of words and filled the space in with mindless humming.