The standard bearer for this category has to be Toto’s “Africa,” with the line “…sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serrrr-engeti.” They crammed about five syllables too many in there.
I heard another one the other day from a truly dreadful song: “How Do You Talk To an Angel” by The Heights. (This song is also notable for being sung by the cast of a TV show also titled The Heights. Fortunately, the inexplicable success of the song didn’t translate to TV ratings: the show was cancelled after only five or six episodes.) The chorus goes:
How do you talk to an angel
How do you hold her close to where you…aaaaare
How do you talk to an angel
It’s like tryingtocatcha falling star
The second line is missing a few words, while the fourth line really strains to cram in the words “trying to catch a.”
I love 1776 the musical, but I always thought it was funny how instead of “independence,” they almost always said “independencey” when singing. Is there a historical basis for that? In the show, the pronunciation is sometimes used for rhyming purposes, while other times it seems like they’re doing it because they need the extra syllable to fill out the line.
Crap. There are two or three pop songs that seem to have really lumpy lyrics that irritate me every time I hear them, but you think I can bring them to mind? Bleah…
Elton John/Bernie Taupin has a thing for squishing odd, or oddly pronounced, words into lyrics.
I can’t think of a specific example right now, but there’s a fairly popular song right now where the rhyme in one stanza comes in the middle of a sentence. Not, like, an internal rhyme, where there are two rhyming words per line. But where you’ve purposely broken a sentence and moved a word or two to line #3 to get the rhyme you need into the end of line #2.
Cole Porter was a genius for using ill-fitting rhymes and making them work:
“Where is the fun I used to find?
Where has it gone? Gone with the wind.” (last word pronounced like “rewinding”).
“While tearing off a game of golf” (in Porter’s time, some people still pronounced “golf” as “goff,” but it was rare.)
“I’m just in a way,
As the French would say, “de trop”.
But if, baby, I’m the bottom,
You’re the top!” (“de trop” is ordinarily pronounced "de trope’).
Many songs by Joni Mitchell.
Part of her art is the ability to fit her lyrics to the song in a way that works when she sings it, but don’t try this at home.
Another kind of ill-fitting lyrics is when the melody and the lyrics seem contradictory in tone.
The melody of Radiohead’s “Creep” has a sweet, romantic sound to it, but the lyrics are depressing and somewhat disturbing (example: “But I’m a creep/I’m a weirdo/What the hell am I doing here?”)
And most of the rest of Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. as well.
The third line in this verse of Darlington County always is a mouthful
Girl you’re looking at two big spenders
Why the world don’t know what me and Wayne might do
OurPaseachownoneoftheWorldtradecenters
For a kiss and a smile I’ll give mine all to you
Bad Religion’s Greg Graffin has a tendency to try to cram his erudite musings into a song whether or not they actually scan very well. But still, I give him points for effort.
I think you mean “Every Breath You Take” by The Police.
The one I always think of is “Take The Money And Run” by Steve Miller Band.
Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He ain’t gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin’ off of the people’s taxes
For misplaced syllabic stress, I think of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”… “when the rain wa-SHEZZ you clean, you’ll know”.
For style/lyric meaning mismatch, there’s a sweet, jaunty, cheerful little Eric Clapton song with lyrics that include “Boy, you’re gonna be dead.” I can’t recall the name of the song…“Peaches and Diesel”, maybe?
