# Songs that piss you off by adding words to get meter or using made up names to rhyme **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901 "2006-06-08T15:47:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/41 "2006-06-09T06:03:17Z")
> [@bup](#): > > There’s plenty to dislike about Bryan Adams’ “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” already, but… > > “Tell me you have you ever really, **really really** loved a woman?” > > It begs the question how many more “really’s” he’d have been willing to add had the meter required it. You left out the best part! “…have you **ever** really[sup]3[/sup] **ever** loved a woman?” Sublime in its palindromic excess. With respect to the Dixie Chicks song, I’m no farmer, but if my tobacco was burly, I’d expect it was diseased. Maybe that’s why it’s gone now. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/42 "2006-06-09T06:48:37Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > When I was in high school, I used to drive around with my best friend in his dad’s car. We totally ruled the night. That was one fine Buick. Damn straight. My mom owned a Skylark. I loved that car becuase you never had to dig it out of the snow. Just gun it and the V6 would plow Everest out of your way. Of course, I never told Mom about my time-saving strategies. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/43 "2006-06-09T09:33:33Z")
> [@Don Logan](#): > > 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… Google is inconclusive - the grammatically-better version seems to have been posted by a fan, suggesting a retro-fit; and even the best out there doesn’t come up to the standards of the second alternative posted above, which would make sense if the next line were "Say ‘Live and let die’ " instead of (what it has always sounded like) “So live and let die”. I suspect there is a “Kessel Run in less than twenty parsecs!” thing going on here; I’m old enough to remember L&LD when it first came out and the generally-held view was that the lyrics actually went: > [@Macca](#): > > But **in** this ever-changing world **in** which we live in makes you give in and cry; So live and let die in which, of course, the two bolded “in” s were wholly superfluous. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/44 "2006-06-09T12:45:22Z")
> [@Marlitharn](#): > > There’s a song I hear on the radio every now and then - I think it’s called “Love is what I Got” but I’ve no idea who sings it - and the part that grates on my last nerve is: > > _Love’s what I got, > Don’t start a ri-OT…_ > > Yep, he rhymes “riot” with “got”. I might forgive him if he was making it up as he was recording it, but did no one look at the lyric sheet and say, “Um, dude, about this line…” “What I Got” by Sublime. I guess you weren’t a teenager in the second half of the 90s. And honestly, I’ve never really noticed. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/45 "2006-06-09T12:51:27Z")
> [@Nic2004](#): > > Also the **Doors** : “There’s a killer on the road. His brain is squirming like a toad.” > A TOAD? Yes, a toad. It’s known as a “similie.” :rolleyes: A pretty good one, too. Very evocative and if it bothers the literal-minded, that’s their problem. > [@](#): > > Billy Joel, needing to rhyme “she’s always a woman to me”, helpfully explains that “she can’t be convicted, she’s earned her degree”. Another line that’s evocative, not literal. To argue the literal meaning of it is to miss the point entirely. Is it wrong to be poetic? If so, you must really detest John Lennon, who often used words simply because of the way they sounded. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Logan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Don\_Logan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Logan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/46 "2006-06-09T13:20:26Z")
Not exactly what the OP asks, but Jackson Browne rhyming pretender with “ice cream vendor” always struck me as lazy- I have never in my life heard this person called anything but ice cream man. There are plenty of other rhyming words he could have used to avoid this travesty (splendor, blender, fender, lender, et. al.)- still a pretty good song though. “what are you doing outside son?” “waiting for the ice cream vendor, mom” yea right. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Logan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Don\_Logan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Logan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/47 "2006-06-09T13:23:20Z")
\*\*RealityChuck \*\* , since you referenced The Doors, a bit off the OP, but do you have a take on Jim intoning in some song, for no apparent reason, “I see the bathroom is clear”? I never got what was up with that one. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/48 "2006-06-09T13:48:56Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > Mony Mony! > > Has there ever in the history of the world been a girl named Mony? > > Or Sloopy? **M** unicipality **O** f **N** ew **Y** ork Is what I believe it stands for. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/49 "2006-06-09T13:50:03Z")
Re the Doors “Riders on the Storm”, I kind of dig the squirming like a toad line, but the way “a” is pronounced / accented in the line “take a long holiday” grates mightily on my nerves. There are lots of songs in which this happens, though I can’t think of an example at the moment, and it just comes across as lazy writing. ---
**Author:** ![ululate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/59ef9b/32.png) [@ululate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ululate)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/50 "2006-06-09T13:50:30Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Another line that’s evocative, not literal. To argue the literal meaning of it is to miss the point entirely. Is it wrong to be poetic? If so, you must really detest John Lennon, who often used words simply because of the way they sounded. I have nothing against lyrics that are evocative rather than literal – with the posible exception of Neil Diamond’s famous specification that the chair also didn’t answer him, of course. But I don’t get that Joel is going for that in this song. Consider what he uses for every other rhyme in that vein: _And she only reveals what she wants you to see._ _And she’ll take what you give her as long as it’s free._ _But she’ll bring out the best and the worst you can be._ Evocative, sure, but literal. Now, he can do straight-up literal just fine; she’s frequently kind and she’s suddenly cruel, she’ll ruin your faith with her casual lies, she hides like a child, and so on. And he can do evocative _ **with a point** _ just fine too; I don’t object to him saying the most she will do is throw shadows at you, because I _ **get** _ it. But I don’t get how “she can’t be convicted, she’s earned her degree” makes the same kind of sense. Even evocatively. (Meh. How about I pit it for rhyming “Eden” with “Bleedin”?) ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/51 "2006-06-09T14:02:42Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > Mony Mony! > > Has there ever in the history of the world been a girl named Mony? > > Or Sloopy? One of my cousins (about 15-20 years older than me) married a girl named ‘Mony’. Not unsurprisingly she loves-hates that song. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/52 "2006-06-09T14:03:43Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Google is inconclusive - the grammatically-better version seems to have been posted by a fan, suggesting a retro-fit; and even the best out there doesn’t come up to the standards of the second alternative posted above, which would make sense if the next line were "Say ‘Live and let die’ " instead of (what it has always sounded like) “So live and let die”. Please. The **only** ambiguity in this line is: Does he really say “in which we’re livin’,” or is it the redundant “in which we live in”? The “if” and “say” are obvious. Even if Paulie doesn’t enunciated them clearly enough, they should be self-evident from the parallel construction. “You **used to say** ‘live and let live’…” but **if** this big mean ol’ world is too hurty for you **then** “say ‘Live and Let Die!’” There’s a lot to make fun of about this song, beginning with that ludicrous interjection of “Ya know ya did, ya know ya did, ya know ya di-id,” chanted like a schoolyard taunt, but people just go overboard on that one line. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/53 "2006-06-09T14:07:47Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Damn straight. My mom owned a Skylark. I loved that car becuase you never had to dig it out of the snow. Just gun it and the V6 would plow Everest out of your way. So clearly Nicks just wants us to see how a long-dead Welsh witch is like a sensible Americn-made sedan. Makes perfect sense to me. **RealityChuck,** I don’t think Billy Joel’s line is a good example of figurative language. I think it’s a good example of a nonsense put into a song to complete the meter and rhyme. “Squirming like a toad” gives the listener a very uncomfortable visual image and communicates the idea perfectly. But “She can’t be convicted; she’s earned her degree” just makes no sense. There is no figurative connection there. I could offer some possible alterations: \*\*She can’t be convicted; she wiped her PC She can’t be convicted; she’s like Syngmon Rhee She can’t be convicted; not in Tennessee Alternatively: She can’t be evicted; she still has the key She can’t be redacted; she’s like a decree She can’t be afflicted with AIDS and Hep B.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/54 "2006-06-09T14:15:37Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > “She can’t be convicted; she’s earned her degree” just makes no sense. There is no figurative connection there. No, I think what he’s saying is “I can’t hold anything against her because, to me, she has attained such an elevated status.” See? I can’t convict her because she is babelicious. Well, that’s my take anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/55 "2006-06-09T14:19:50Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > Please. The **only** ambiguity in this line is: Does he really say “in which we’re livin’,” or is it the redundant “in which we live in”? The “if” and “say” are obvious. Even if Paulie doesn’t enunciated them clearly enough, they should be self-evident from the parallel construction. “You **used to say** ‘live and let live’…” but **if** this big mean ol’ world is too hurty for you **then** “say ‘Live and Let Die!’” > > There’s a lot to make fun of about this song, beginning with that ludicrous interjection of “Ya know ya did, ya know ya did, ya know ya di-id,” chanted like a schoolyard taunt, but people just go overboard on that one line. Don’t “please” me, biffo. People have been hearing “in”, “in” and “in” since the firkin thing first came out, and commenting on it. As to “if” and “say”, they may be self-evidently necessary that way in order for the durn thing to make sense, but that’s not evidence that they _were_ written that way… like the parsecs thing. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/56 "2006-06-09T14:21:02Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > **M** unicipality > **O** f > **N** ew > **Y** ork > > Is what I believe it stands for. No, it stands for Mutual of New York, an insurance company whose sign he saw from a hotel window. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/57 "2006-06-09T14:49:20Z")
And then there’s the classic [“A Horse with No Name”](http://www.accessbackstage.com/america/song/song005.htm) by _America_ : _'Cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain._ “Ain’t” is fine. “Give you no pain,” sure, I’ve heard “no” replaced with “any” plenty of times in the South. But I have _never_, ever heard a conversation where someone used the double prepositions “for to.” ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/58 "2006-06-09T15:26:58Z")
I’m going to have to say pretty much every rap song made in the last 10 years. Do they even listen to the music they’re recording the lyrics over? Jesus, it’s like the lyric to music equivalent of bashing a square peg into a round hole. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/59 "2006-06-09T15:43:37Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > This lyric from Yes always bothered me… > > \*cause its time, its time in time > With your time and its news is captured > For the queen to use. > \* There could be an entire thread for Yesisms. Yes doesn’t so much have lyrics, as word fitted to music. > [@yes](#): > > I will remember you > your silhouette will charge the view > of distance atmosphere > call it morning driving thru the sound and even in the valley ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901/60 "2006-06-09T15:56:13Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > As to “if” and “say”, they may be self-evidently necessary that way in order for the durn thing to make sense, but that’s not evidence that they _were_ written that way… Actually, I’d say it is. Paulie may write some silly lyrics–including this one–but he’s not stupid, and it’s hardly a stretch to give him the credit for knowing how to complete a coherent sentence (whether grammatical or not). On the other hand, the fact that people have been hearing it wrong all these years only proves that they’ve been spending too much time in that bathroom on the right, waiting to kiss this guy. No offense meant with the “please.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-piss-you-off-by-adding-words-to-get-meter-or-using-made-up-names-to-rhyme/359901.md?page=4)