Complete the Simon or McCartney lyric

Cafe Society
1

Sometimes lyricists just give up before finishing the job. Paul Simon for example in “The Boxer” left some filler lyrics in the final version of the song, “Li li li, li li li li li li li…”, because he felt lazy, or because he couldn’t think of real lyrics, or because he thought the song was good enough as is, or because—well, no one really knows, not even Simon, why the “Li li li” lyrics are in there, and no one really much cares. It’s a terrific song, so what am I complaining about?

Well, we have the time, don’t we, to finish the song? Sure we do. So take a stab at it.

Find some appropriate, fitting lyrics to “The Boxer” that comport with the meter of the “li li li” part, and improve the song.

Or you could do the same with Paul McCartney’s filler lyrics at the end of “Hey Jude,” another megahit that succeeded (I argue) despite the lyricist deciding to go with the filler “Na na na, nana na na” instead of supplying a real chorus at the end. Have a go at it.

I suspect, myself, that the motivation for these (and other) filler lyrics was simply frustration. A songwriter often begins with a melody, and composes a song with 100% filler lyrics, and slowly wrenches a word, a phrase, a line, a quatrain to fit the tune, and works out the orchestration and harmonies before writing very many lyrics down. By the time he’s figured out the music and 50% of the lyrics, he’s probably sick of the song, and if he works on it further and finds that he’s still got 10% of the lyrics to go, sometimes he just decides “Hell with it, I’ll just go with La la las” and hope no one notices. Maybe sometimes he comes up with that final 10% and dubs it into the recording.

I got this idea by listening to the Grass Roots’ “Live for Today,” which features another filler device, counting the beat aloud before going into the chorus: “One, two, three, four! Sha la la la la la, Live for today…” Surely you guys can come up with better lyrics than that.

2

I’ll help those guys out if they’ll come over here and help me out with a couple of songs I’ve been working on.

3

All I got is “With a hey nonny nonny and a sis-boom-bah!” I actually think the syllables in “Live for Today” work perfectly with the spirit of the lyrics. As for “Hey Jude,” it’s over 7 minutes long and the na na na nahs could just be cut.

4

Again, Paul Simon’s Armistice Day sounds like he went with placeholder lyrics:

Armistice Day, Armistice Day,
That’s all, that’s all that I wanted to say.

5

well, yeah, that’s what the lyricists hope for–maybe someone will think these non-lyrics work beautifully. And sometimes people do.

But we can do better.

With “The Boxer” I keep coming up with lyrics that contain a long I sound, the sound in “li li li” that amount to nonsense, but syntactically intelligible nonsense that probably would have been acclaimed as brilliant and emotionally moving if Simon had substituted them for the li li lis.

I despise the lies that you disguise
With your eyes, as you deify the light
That shines all night. And you describe
Your tiny bride too brightly for her life.

6

I always chose to hear the chorus of “The Boxer” as “lie, lie, lie,” as in, the life he’d dreamed about was a lie.

7

It would make more sense if Simon had combined a few words about lying with the li li li chorus. “Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, it’s all one colossal lie” or something of that sort.

I really do see some potential to come up with meaningful lyrics to the Grass Roots tune. in place of “1,2,3,4, Sha la la la la la.” Let’s see, that’s nine syllables, accents (as I hear them) on the second, fourth, fifth, and seventh.

8

I always wanted to make a Hey Jude tape, and loop the na nas for about an hour and see how long it takes to be noticed.

9

Cut your, cut your, Na Nas out…