# Songs that use very few rhyme sounds
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 7, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349 "2013-01-07T16:06:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349/1 "2013-01-07T16:06:26Z")
Also know as “yellow ribbons” from “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree.” Except for “time/mine” and “bus/us” every single rhyme is an “ee”: free, me, tree, three, see, key, repeated _ad naseum_.
Any others?
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### Author:  [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349/2 "2013-01-07T16:22:38Z")
You might want to exclude songs with minimal lyrics such as the Beatles’ “Why Don’t We Do It In the Road” which has no rhymes, or Hotlegs’ “Neanderthal Man” which has one (“girl/world”).
“I Want to Hold Your Hand” is borderline, with only three rhymes, two of them employing the same basic sound: “man/hand”, “understand/hand,” and “inside/hide”.
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### Author:  [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2013, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349/3 "2013-01-07T16:45:51Z")
Oh yeah, and another Beatles example, “For You Blue” – all the rhymes are “oo” sounds (you, blue, too, etc.).
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349/4 "2013-01-07T16:49:50Z")
Most of the lyrics by Robert Wyatt, which don’t rhyme at all.
Here’s snipped of “[Moon in June.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OH4Kyzs9rQ)”
> [@Moon In June](#):
>
> Living can be lovely, here in New York State
> Ah, but I wish that I were home
> And I wish I were home again - back home again, home again
> There are places and people that I’m so glad to have seen
> Ah, but I miss the trees, and I wish that I were home again
> Back home again
> The sun shines here all summer
> Its nice cause you can get quite brown
> Ah, but I miss the rain - ticky tacky ticky
> And I wish that I were home again - home again, home again…
> Living is easy here in New York State
> Ah, but I wish that I were home again
Tom Lehrer’s “When You are Old and Gray” has this sequence of rhymes:
> [@Tom Lehrer](#):
>
> An awful debility,
> A lessened utility,
> A loss of mobility
> Is a strong possibility.
> In all probability
> I’ll lose my virility
> And you your fertility
> And desirability,
> And this liability
> Of total sterility
> Will lead to hostility
> And a sense of futility,
> So let’s act with agility
> While we still have facility,
> For we’ll soon reach senility
> And lose the ability.
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### Author:  [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349/5 "2013-01-08T01:13:02Z")
Stevie Wonder’s Pastime Paradise:
Dissipation
Race Relations
Consolation
Segregation
Dispensation
Isolation
Exploitation
Mutilation
Mutations
Miscreation
Confirmation…to the evils of the world
Not the first or last song to use that rhyme.
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349/6 "2013-01-08T01:26:59Z")
Hank Williams, “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)”.
It helps that, the way he sings it, “Jambalaya” and “bayou” rhyme. But even without that, pretty much every line ends in the same vowel, IIRC.
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### Author:  [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349/7 "2013-01-08T01:55:27Z")
“So Long” Fisher-Z
> [@](#):
>
> When I read your letter I couldn’t believe that you’d gone.
> I dialled your number but no one answered your phone.
> I asked your friends to tell me if they knew where you were.
> They said that they thought they were ill.
>
> I hired a detective to try and find out where you are.
> He managed to trace you, he said you were living in France.
> A watchman saw you climb into someone else’s car,
> and drive off laughing in the night.
>
> Why didn’t you tell me ?Not leave me this way!
> You could have told me.Not waited for so long.
> I’ve tried to forget you, but I found myself walking the streets.
> I went to the doctor and he gave me something to sleep.
> I’ve sent you telegrams, but you haven’t answered one.
> Your mother told me, I best leave you all alone.
> I hope you’re satisfied now you’ve done this thing to me.
> I hope you’re pleased with what you’ve done.
> Why didn’t you tell me ?Not leave me this way!
> You could have told me.Not waited for so long.
> For so long, I never realized just exactly who you were.
> For so long, I never realized the girl I had before.
> For so long, I hope you’re satisfied, you won’t hear from me again.
> For so long, I hope you’re pleased with what you’ve done.
> Why didn’t you tell me ?Not leave me this way!
> You could have told me.Not waited for so long.
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349/8 "2013-01-08T02:03:46Z")
Andrew Bird’s “[Fake Palindromes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv7_1xJU0PI)” had some lines that don’t rhyme at all and some that do rhyme but the same sound is only used 2-3 times. However, he gets a run of eight rhymes for “eyed” at the beginning of the song, a run of five rhymes for “shoes”, and a run of six using words ending in “ad” or “at”.
A lot of Pearl Jam lyrics don’t rhyme at all, but “[Nothing As It Seems](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id920P5eg0A)” (one of the few Pearl Jam songs with lyrics by bassist Jeff Ament) relies very heavily on words ending in “ome/one” with some “ees/eems/eeds” thrown in.
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### Author:  [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-use-very-few-rhyme-sounds/646349/9 "2013-01-08T02:56:09Z")
INXS’s [“Mediate.”](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/inxs/mediate.html)