This has always pissed me off about Rhiannon- great song, great band, and as a kid in the 70’s spent many a night fantasizing about Stevie Nicks, but in this song she does something that annoys the hell out of me:
She rules her life like a fine skylark
What the hell is a “fine” skylark? Is there a meaning to this word I don’t know? Sure, some definitions could technically fit, but have you ever heard any one ever
use the word fine when describing a skylark, or any bird for that matter? Why not
take the time to find a better word, or rewrite the line if need be- that line is not crucial to this song. Can anyone else provide examples of songs which obviously add inappropriate words to reatin meter or whatever?
I also loathe songs which use a made up proper name to rhyme, but I can’t think of any examples right now
It’s a mistake to think of song lyrics as poetry set to music. With a song, expecially a pop tune like “Rhiannon,” the songwriter is trying to evoke a visceral reaction to a combination of the singer’s voice and the music. It’s the mix that counts. Preserving the meter is more important than intelligent lyrics.
Take, for instance, the Dixie Chicks’ “Long Time Gone.”
"Daddy sits on a front porch swingin’
"Looking out on a vacant field
"Used to be filled with burley t’bacca
“Now he knows that it never will…”
The use of “that” in the fourth line is superfluous. In any grammar classroom, it would be scratched out. But it’s necessary in this song to preserve the line meter. The only alternative is to extend either “knows” or “it” to two syllables, which would probably detract from the listenability of the song.
The same goes for extraneous lyrics like “I said,” and “Oh, yeah,” and other exclamations. They don’t add anyting to the textual “message” of the song, but they let the singer give voice to the emotion he or she is trying to convey. The best example of this is Melissa Etheridge’s primal scream at the end of “Your Little Secret” (talk about annoying!)
Rather than trying to make the words have individual meaning, let them flow with the music; hear the whole song, and enjoy the effect.
Well, it’s been claimed that the line can be alternately heard as "in which we’re livin’ "
So full lyric would read: “If this ever-changing world in which we’re living”
I’m not 100% convinced that this was Sir Paul’s original line but he’s granted the pass.
As for actually addressing the OP, the over use of the word “surely” when you need two quick syllables is mildly irksome.
My faves, Steely Dan have produced masterful lyrics but occassionally settle for something-less-than-brilliant at times.
On Aja, “surely” appears on two separate songs (*Black Cow’s * “surely will screen out the sorrow” and then on Home at Last with “danger on the rocks has surely passed”).
jeffrice, agree totally. I would say most songs have a that or very thrown in somewhere to preserve meter, and you don’t give it a second thought. To me though the one in Rhiannon is so blatantly ridiculous it calls attention to itself.
No fair–in the first place, that song is a spoof, and the badness is intentional; in the second place, they do rhyme that line, albeit in a perposterously strained way: “et cetera” rhymes with “know you better.”
The Streets “Memento Mori”, is really annoying me at the moment. It has the chorus:
“Memento mori, memento mori
It’s Latin and it says we must all die
I tried it for a while
But it’s a load of boring shite
So I buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy”
Not only is “Mori” made to rhyme with “die” (yes, he sings more-eye), but the last line is just awful.
It sets my teeth on edge and it is an earworm, so it’s stuck in my brain.
Re “Live and Let Die”, my original copy of the Book of Rock Lists (the only with pictures of Lou Reed shooting up on stage and Grace Slick sucking a lollipop topless) gives Sir Paul a dubious distinction award for “throwing in a extra preposition and calling it artistic license” (along with Moby Grape for the line in “Funky Tunk” "how come you ain’t got on your clothes on) for (their quote)
“in this ever changing world in which we live in”.
I always assumed this was the line. But until a previous poster propsed another line, and considering the next line, “in this ever changing world in which live in” really doesn’t make sense. I mean, which sounds better-
“In this ever changing world in which we live in makes you give in and cry”
or
“If this ever changing world in which in we’re livin makes you give in and cry”
line two makes much more sense. So unless someone has the original sheet music
or lyrics from somewhere…