Yeah, I guess forced lyrics irk me…
Here’s a prime example…in Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”
…
*Women, they will come and they will go
When the rain wa-SHES you clean you’ll know
*
Took years to figure out what Stevie was singing because it’s such a square peg/round hole deal.
Got any examples that drive you batty?
Obligatory om Leher reference:
And I Love Her, The Beatles. Paul squeezes out a …
“She gives my everything
And tender-LEEEEEEEEE”
Two oldies that did it intentionally–not to force the lyric, but to make a point:
SENsetivity senseTIVity
I’m just LOADED with that
In this one word
is the ePITomy of the
aristoCRAT
You’ve got to AC-cent-uate the POS-itive
EE-liminate the negative
Latch on to the af-FIRM-ative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between
In U2’s “All Because of You,” Bono sings of an “intellectual tortoise,” whatever that means. Not only does he emphasize the second syllable of “tortoise,” he pronounces it to rhyme with “voice” and “choice.”
Tor-TOYCE. Ugh.
Doris Day’s “que say-RAH, say-RAH” is actually pronounced “SAY-rah, SAY-rah” in Spanish.
Saw the thread title and came here to post the exact same example. Ninja’d by the OP!
Some people pronounce tortoise like that, Bono is probably one of those people.
No, it isn’t. Será = “will be.”
You’re probably thinking of Italian sera, which means “evening.”
Adam Ant’s “Desperate But Not Serious” is a trainwreck of mis-emphasized syllables and bizarre hyphenations to force the rhyme & meter:
“If I ask you
diff-I-cult questions
If I make IM-
proper suggestions…”
Except “que sera sera” isn’t Spanish … or any other language.
To be precise, the full phrase in Spanish is “que sera, que sera”, which is pronounced “KAY SAY-rah, KAY SAY-rah”. An example of the correct usage appears in “Lost In Emotion” by Lisa Lisa [Velez] and Cult Jam.
Someone else mentioned this one a few months back:
The Young Rascals - “Groovin’”
“Life would be ecstasy, you and me and Leslie” (endlessly)
Not a song, but I was listening to a book on tape and the speaker was using an unusual emphasis. He was talking about the Himalaya Mountains. I’ve always heard it pronounced him-A-lay-A. But he was pronouncing it hi-MAL-a-ya (so it rhymed with regalia).
Is this an acceptable alternative pronunciation? Or was this guy just off on his own?
In Donovan’s “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” he uses colorful language:
He pronounces it alley-zar-in. (Maybe with four or five extra syllables.)
I actually asked for it that way in a art supplies store.
It’s uh-liz-er-in.
Ah, Donovan. Somehow he pronounces “Quite rightly” as “Quite right smidge”.
Must be Welsh.
Donovan again! Epistle to Dippy.
“Looking through crySTAL specTACLES”
isn’t this line just perfectly enunciated? Or is it me? Why the objection?
I bet it would irk you a lot more if she sang
“When the rain WASH-es you clean…”
It sounds perfect to me the way it is. It actually sounds rock and roll that way. TEHO.