What is the world’s record for highest density of idioms or clichés in a song or poem? I nominate Linda Ronstadt’s hit song Different Drum. I show the first four stanzas below with clichés and idioms colored red. Can anyone top this?
Don’t get me wrong. I actually love this song!
You and I travel to the beat of a different drum
Oh can’t you tell by the way I run
Every time you make eyes at me
You cry and moan and say it will work out
But honey child I’ve got my doubts
You can’t see the forest for the trees
Oh don’t get me wrong
It’s not that I knock it
It’s just that I am not in the market
For a boy who wants to love only me
Yes, and I ain’t saying you ain’t pretty
All I’m saying is I’m not ready
For any person place or thing
To try and pull the reins in on me
The thing that bugs me about that song is that, while Linda’s clearly ruling out the possibility of hooking up with the guy, she’s using a cliche that implies that they should be soulmates.
You and I don’t travel to the beat of A different drum; we travel to the beats of TWO different drums.
Her singing is decent, but it sounds like the singer, the person playing the drums, and the person playing the harpsichord are all playing different songs in different styles and competing for attention. And the latter two don’t even seem like they’re trying to be musical so much as just trying to aggressively get your attention, whether you want to give it to them or not.
Not the most annoying song ever, but it’s certainly going for the title.
Joe South’s “Rose Garden” contains the immortal line: “You better look before you leap, still waters run deep.” And yes, he’s a great songwriter (though that tune isn’t one of my favorites of his.)
I remember reading a review of Billy Joel’s “Keeping the Faith” that said it was full of cliches…I guess there’s a few but I hardly think it’s “full” of them
I can’t point out all the cliches and aphorisms in Smash Mouth’s “All Star” without breaking board policy of not quoting lyrics too extensively, so here’s a link.
Part of that may be because when Capitol records signed the Stone Poneys to a recording contract, they did it to get Linda Rondstadt and didn’t give a damn about Bobby Kimmel or Kenny Edwards. Nick Venet, the group’s producer, isolated Rondstadt’s vocals, stripped Kimmel and Edwards off the track entirely, and used studio musicians.
John Prine also did it intentionally in “It’s a Big Old Goofy World”.
Up in the morning
Work like a dog
Is better than sitting
Like a bump on a log
Mind all your manners
Be quiet as a mouse
Some day you’ll own a home
That’s as big as a house
The first time I heard Springsteen’s “Dancing In the Dark” on the radio, I turned it off after the first chorus: You can’t start a fire, you can’t start a fire without a spark
This gun’s for hire even if we’re just dancing in the dark
It was just three trite phrases in a row that exhausted my patience in under 20 seconds.
However, it hooked in hard after the third hearing, and I loves that “Dancing In the Dark” song.
Half of the phrases highlighted in the OP aren’t cliches or idioms, to my eye. They’re just prose.
“Can’t you tell by the way I run” - It doesn’t make the most sense to me but it’s not a cliche or idiom that I’m familiar with. How can “Can’t you tell” be anything but basic English sentence structure?
I love that song. And several of those things aren’t cliches but just regular ways of saying things.
I’m thinking you’re misinterpreting the song. She’s saying she isn’t interested in an exclusive relationship.
“Hooking up” would definitely be on the table (“I ain’t saying you ain’t pretty”) if she didn’t suspect that he would want her to be monogamous (“I’m not in the market for a boy who wants to love only me”).
