Inspired by this thread, what rhymes in songs have been overused to the point that you don’t want to hear them any more.
For instance, rhyming “rambler” with “gambler.”
Or “love him” with “of him.”
What else?
“Maybe” and “baby” can go too.
Insane and brain are so joined together in rock and rap that if you hear one, you know you’re going to hear the other.
If the lyric says “world,” you know there’s “girl” or “unfurled” coming up.
Kids these days. No respect for the traditions.
And now for some words from Thomas Morley, one of the most prolific publishers of popular music in the 16th century, due in part to the fact that he owned the printing company; Morley is infamous for the fact that his songs are usually improved by replacing the words with an instrumental line:
Now is the month of maying,
When merry lads are playing,
Each with his bonny lass
Upon the greeny grass.
The Spring, clad all in gladness,
Doth laugh at Winter’s sadness,
And to the bagpipe’s sound
The nymphs tread out their ground.
Fie then! why sit we musing,
Youth’s sweet delight refusing?
Say, dainty nymphs, and speak,
Shall we play at barley-break?
True dat, peeps.
“Crazy” and “Baby.” Oh, how I hate that one. It doesn’t even rhyme.
“Fire” and “desire.”
“tonight” and “all right”
Back when we lived for the 80’s/90’s hair metal scene, my friends and I found 44 different songs with variations of the “on your knees”/“begging please” combo.
Sigh…where has all the misogyny gone?
anything with love, like “glove” or “dove.”
although, while googling, I found a GOOD use of the love/glove rhyme (not the typical “your love fits me like a glove” or tripe like that):
“Let a Woman in Your Life” from My Fair Lady:
You want to talk of Keats or Milton
She only wants to talk of love
You go to see a play or ballet
And spend it searching for her glove…
we’re the best
better than the rest
(which is a rhyme that sixth graders think they just made up for the first time in history, so it should not appear in any song)
Moon/June/soon should go. There are other words that would still fit nicely in place of these: tune, croon, noon, poon (depending on the type of song). On the other hand, I don’t think boon, coon, dune, goon, hewn, loon, prune, rune, spoon, strewn or tewn would really fit into most songs, but with some creativity and originality, anything is possible.
“put your hands in the air like you just don’t care”
David Letterman once did a bit about (fake) recent nominees for enshrinement in the Country Music Hall of Fame. One of the worthies was Jimmy LaFarge, “for making so many ‘outlaw’ songs possible by discovering that ramble rhymes with gamble.”
Well, whenever a country song takes place in Nebraska, I always know Alaska can’t be far behind…
“Crazy” and “lazy.”
“Dance” and “romance.”
(I’ve actually ranted about that predictable combination on the SDMB before.)
Dreams and schemes.
“Arms” and “Charms.”
HA! I remember a very old Archie comic book, in which Reggie encounters Big Moose attempting to write a tender love song for Midge:
Moose: Duh, what rhymes with “moon”?
Reggie: Goon!
This was followed a few panels later, of course, by Moose beating the crap out of Reggie.
Sir Mix-a-lot, in his song, “Seattle Ain’t Bullshittin’”, rapped the lines:
“But to the masses I’m just another coon
Gettin’ paid for a little bit of boom.”
Okay, not a rhyme, but Spinal Tap, in “Stonehenge” spoke the line:
“But their legacy remains, hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge.”
Rush, in “Time and Motion”, wrote:
“The mighty ocean
Dances with the moon
The silent forest
Echoes with the loon”