Oh. Ouch. Had forgotten that one.
So frustrating, because he can do more than fine - “I guess you’d call it suicide; but I’m too full to swallow my pride” is a great lyric. He’s just so damn full of himself.
Another famous one from Lou:
“but she never lost her head/even when she was giving head.”
Beatles, too:
Hey Jude, don’t make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better
In other verses, the rhyme is “get her/better” and “colder/shoulder.”
Also in Hey Jude he uses the word “Shoulder” twice in different ways. Maybe it works, but I would drive myself crazy trying not to do that, especially considering he never intended to keep it in the second instance.
You see identity rhymes a bit more in hip-hop, but I find they can be quite effective as point of emphasizing a word or as part of wordplay (like Black Sabbath’s and Lou Reed’s use of it.) I’m pretty sure Bob Dylan has some examples of this, too, but I’m blanking. In some languages (like French), identities are fairly commonplace and unremarkable. English prosody, for whatever reason, considers them somewhat “unsatisfactory” for lack of a better description. I’m not sure why–I like identities when used well. Repetition can be powerful.
How about Kid Rock’s inimitable
We were trying different things
We were smoking different things
Ok, that one does suck.
tea, girls, warm and so sweet,
some’re set up
in the Somerset Maugham suite
One Night In Bangkok
Pretty cool, a rhyme within a rhyme: sweet - some’er set/Somerset- suite.
[nitpick] we were smoking funny things [/nitpick]
Well we got no class
And we got no principals
And we got no intelligence
We can’t even think of a word that rhymes
But what’s the diff, when you’re stiff, what riff they’re playin’
When your ears have spent five thousand years decayin’
What does it matter, what possessions you may boast
When you’re just a ghost, it’s only jive, Clive,
Your sarcophagus is glowin’ but your esophagus is showin’
Who cares how rich you are, love, when you look like Boris Karloff.
Well, Cezanne’s father wanted him to be an avocat
But Paul just looked at him and said, “Pfft, mais non, pa
I want to be a painter, I know I can”
Now his oeuvre’s in the Louvre, he’s Paul Cezanne, Cezanne
Cezanne, Cezanne, the father of cubism.
The river was deep but I swam it, Janet
The future is ours so let’s plan it, Janet
So please don’t tell me to can it, Janet
I’ve one thing to say and that’s
Dammit, Janet, I love you…
…
Oh it’s nicer than Betty Munroe had, oh Brad
Now we’re engaged and I’m so glad, oh Brad
That you’ve met Mum and you know Dad, oh Brad
I’ve one thing to say and that’s
Brad I’m mad for you too…
As someone pointed out smoking funny things. I would put this in the clever category,seems to work.
I used to visit all the very gay places
those come what may places
where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
to get the feel of life
from jazz and cocktails
the girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces
with distingué traces
that used to be there you could see where
they’d been washed away
by too many through the day
twelve o’clocktails
The first lines of "Lush Life by Billy Strayhorn with lots of internal rhymes, and the clever “twelve o’clocktails.”
-Hamilton has creative rhymes:
We will fight up close, seize the moment and stay in it
It’s either that or meet the business end of a bayonet
-and how about 9 internal in 4 lines?
Thomas Jefferson, always hesitant with the President
Reticent—there isn’t a plan he doesn’t jettison
Madison, you’re mad as a hatter, son, take your medicine
Damn, you’re in worse shape than the national debt is in
-How many ways can we find to rhyme “Burr, Sir”?
Pardon me. Are you Aaron Burr, sir?
That depends, who’s asking?
Oh, well, sure, sir
I’m Alexander Hamilton, I’m at your service, sir
I have been looking for you
I’m getting nervous
Sir…
I heard your name at Princeton. I was seeking an accelerated course of study when I got sort of out of sorts with a buddy of yours. I may have punched him. It’s a blur, sir.
He handles the financials?
You punched the bursar?
-(later)
Mister Burr, sir
Didja hear the news about good old General Mercer?
-(much later)
Well, if it isn’t Aaron Burr. Sir!
Alexander!
You’ve created quite a stir, sir!
I’m going door to door, sure!
-and many more that I’ve missed.
There’ll be gala opening nights again
You’ll see my name in lights again
I’ll go from dark to brights again
My spirits high as kites again
I’ll never suffer slights again
I’ll taste those sweet delights again
No plethora of plights again
No blossoming of blights again
No frantic fits or frights again
Fame is in my sights again
I’ll take those fancy flights again
I’m gonna scare the heights again
Bialystock will never drop
Bialystock will never stop…
Bialystock will be on top again
I get no kick in a plane
Flying too high with some guy in the sky
Is my idea of nothing to do
But I get a kick out of you
Here’s another one:
My grand-ma and your grand-ma were sit-tin’ by the fire.
My grand-ma told your grand-ma: “I’m gon-na set your flag on fire.”
Talk-in’ 'bout, Hey now ! Hey now ! I-ko, I-ko, un-day
Jock-a-mo fee-no ai na-né, jock-a-mo fee na-né
Look at my king all dressed in red I-ko, I-ko, un-day.
I bet-cha five dol-lars he’ll kill you dead, jock-a-mo fee na-né
Limp Bizkit
I did it all for the nookie
The nookie
So you can take that cookie
And stick it up your YEAH!
Stick it up your YEAH!
Stick it up your YEAH!
Lil Wayne
Swagger tighter than a yeast infection
Fly go hard like geese erection
As for clever, I sought this out after hearing it on a country station on a road trip. I thought it was pretty great, especially for a country song:
Blake Shelton
She put the her in hurt
She put the why in try
She put the S.O.B. in sober
She put the hang in hangover
She put the ex in sex
She put the low in blow
She put a big F.U. in my future
Yeah she’s got a way with words
Not a rhyme, but it’s also hard to beat the way he pronounces “idiot” (and “wind” for that matter). He really chews on it!
Surprised we’ve made it this far (and through several Tom Lehrer references) without the top masterwork of W.S. Gilbert:
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
(and, you know, the whole song, so I’ll just go with the capper verse).
In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin",
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin,
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at,
And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat",
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery –
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy –
You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a gee.