# Lazy song writing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [December 13, 2021, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957 "2021-12-13T01:50:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/1 "2021-12-13T01:50:14Z")
Whenever I hear, “There were plants and birds and rocks and _things_”, I have to wonder if the America guys had just given up. What lyrics trigger you as lazy lyrics? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/2 "2021-12-13T02:01:20Z")
The Turtles were in a dispute with their record label, which led to the deliberately pop-sugary [Elenore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elenore) which included memorably forgettable lines like Your looks intoxicate me Even though your folks hate me I really think you’re groovy Let’s go out to a movie and the never to be topped Elenore, gee, I think you’re swell And you really do me well You’re my pride and joy, et cetera ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/3 "2021-12-13T02:12:30Z")
If you’ve seen The Beatles “Let It Be” on Disney+ (highly recommended BTW), when they come up with songs on the fly, which they do a lot, these types of lyrics are used constantly. They just don’t make it into the final versions. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/4 "2021-12-13T02:25:32Z")
_The wild dogs cry out in the night As they grow restless longing for some solitary company… I know that I must do what’s right Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti…_ ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/5 "2021-12-13T02:43:33Z")
This seems like a good time to complain about what I think is one of the most overused cliches in music. “Build my world around you”. It’s meaningless pablum that appears in a LOT of songs (many with slight variations). ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/6 "2021-12-13T02:46:08Z")
If you rhyme party with Bacardi. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/7 "2021-12-13T02:50:40Z")
Neil Young has written some of the best lyrics, and his “Cortez the Killer” is, yeah, a killer song. Do you remember how it ends, though? > Cortez, Cortez > What a killer ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/8 "2021-12-13T02:56:34Z")
I was under the impression he was going for a bit of shock value by just laying it out straight. There was no sugarcoating what he thought of him. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/9 "2021-12-13T03:00:03Z")
Neil Young has some doozies. _“Got mashed potato Ain’t got no T-Bone”_ That’s not two selected lines from a song. Those are the only - heavily repeated - lyrics to the whole song. And Sugar Mountain has the lines _“Now you’re underneath the stairs And you’re giving back some glares”_ which Neil has admitted in concert to being total shit that he put in as a point of reference to show how bad lyrics could be. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/10 "2021-12-13T03:04:30Z")
She opened up a book of poems And handed it to me Written by an Italian poet From the 13 the century I always hated that one. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/11 "2021-12-13T03:26:41Z")
Anything with Eagles Flying. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/12 "2021-12-13T03:28:07Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Do you remember how it ends, though? > > > Cortez, Cortez > > What a killer > [@Paintcharge](#): > > She opened up a book of poems > And handed it to me > Written by an Italian poet > From the 13 the century > > I always hated that one. I love those two. How about “Oh Pretty Woman”? _Pretty woman, yeah, yeah, yeah_ _Pretty woman, look my way_ _Pretty woman, say you’ll stay with me_ ETA: or the laziest line ever, from Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”, a lesson of tautology: _Good times never seemed so good_ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/13 "2021-12-13T04:25:35Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > If you’ve seen The Beatles “Let It Be” on Disney+ (highly recommended BTW), when they come up with songs on the fly, which they do a lot, these types of lyrics are used constantly. They just don’t make it into the final versions. Unless they do. Unless I’m misremembering, “The movement you need is on your shoulder” from “Hey Jude” is a placeholder lyric that John liked enough that he convinced Paul to leave it in. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/14 "2021-12-13T04:54:27Z")
Every day a little sadder A little madder Someone get me a ladder Any lyric that rhymes the same word. And Neil Young really hated his audience, didn’t he? Well, Neil, despite your best efforts, I still like your music. So there! ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/15 "2021-12-13T06:18:52Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Good times never seemed so good _You gotta start from the start…_ and _Only time will tell if we stand the test of time_ ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/16 "2021-12-13T06:22:48Z")
_In this ever-changing world in which we live in_ ETA: I still maintain that he sings _in which we’re living_, but no one else seems to agree with me. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/17 "2021-12-13T09:45:00Z")
I’ve always been impressed by “we can’t even think of a word that rhymes” from School’s Out by Alice Cooper. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/18 "2021-12-13T10:31:09Z")
Tattoo by the Who, a fairly obscure song about two teen brothers getting tattooed to the consternation of their parents, ends on this; Now I’m older I’m tattooed all over My wife is tattoed too A rooty-toot-toot Rooty-tootle-toot-toot Rooty-tootle-tootle Tattoo too To you On one of Pete Townshend’s live albums where he played a solo acoustic version of this song, he explained to the audience that he threw in the rooty-toot-toots as filler when recording the demo because he hadn’t come up with a closing line yet, and then just decided to leave it as is because it was just there to fill time on the LP and wasn’t ever going to get airplay. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Someone get me a ladder I kinda assumed that line was in reference to the implied necrophilia in the song. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/19 "2021-12-13T10:39:21Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > _In this ever-changing world in which we live in_ > > ETA: I still maintain that he sings _in which we’re living_, but no one else seems to agree with me Wouldn’t ‘if’ be the first word there? ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957/20 "2021-12-13T10:55:18Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > She opened up a book of poems > And handed it to me > Written by an Italian poet > From the 13 the century > > I always hated that one. You may hate the lyric, but no thinking person would call it lazy songwriting. mmm [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-song-writing/955957.md?page=2)