I often find myself wondering what they’ve got against East and South. I bought one of their anthology albums and in the liner notes on this song they describe it as on of their most blatantly silly.
Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around
Or the preferred version of many,
The tab is there to open the can
The can is there to hold the Spam in
Both songs are about equally meaningful. But it’s just a lovely little tune.
I always took the Lennon lines in “All You Need Is Love” to be bascically a shorthand way of saying there’s nothing you can do/say/sing that hasn’t already been done/said/sung. I think that’s more clear in the 2nd verse-- “There’s nothing you can show that isn’t shown / Nothing you can know that isn’t known…”
Of course, I think he was also doing a lot of acid at that time and those are exactly the kinds of lines that sound profound while you’re tripping balls, so I wouldn’t rule out that possibility either.
In Andy Williams’s “The Holiday Season”:
“When old Santa gets into town
He’ll be coming down the chimney, down.”
It works, but it’s obviously a tautology.
Mike Oldfield and Maggie Reily, Moonlight Shadow has the line
Grrrrrrrrrrr! 
Not really tautologies, but I did think of An Apple a Day by Aqua.
Except that it incorrectly calls proverbs “cliches” throughout the whole song. :smack:
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Not a tautology, but the French lyrics to the Varshavianka make me cringe every single time.
The last lines of the first verse go (translation mine) : “The human race must rally under only one flag and have only one watchword : Labor and Justice, Solidarity between all workers !”. THAT’S THREE, DAMMIT !
Around the World (La La La La La) by ATC. The lyrics mean absolutely nothing!
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
The Chi-Lite’s Have You Seen Her (a favorite song of mine) contains the meter filling line:
“Why, oh why did she have to leave and go away.”
Both leave and go away? At the same time? Why that’s. . . obvious.
No Such Thing, by John Mayer, has this line:
“I am invincible as long as I’m alive.”
You’re joking, right?
I know it’s supposed to be poetic, but I hate it when songs use “forever and a day”.
I have it on good authority from Jerry Reed that when you’re hot, you’re hot; whereas when you’re not, you’re not
Again, though, those are deliberate repetitions. They’re emphasis, not tautology.
“We need to create a plan forward” is a tautology; it’s not at all distinct from “We need to create a plan.” (“This ever-changing world in which we live in” is both tautological and retarded.) “Why are we here? Because we’re here” delivers a message substantially different from “We’re here.”
sigh okay, I’ll draw you a picture:
“**in **this everchanging world in which we live in.…live and let die…”:
There are 3 'in’s in the sentence above. Two is pushing it, but necessary to include the cliche “in this everchanging world”. But no… in order to establish that we’re talking about the world in which we live (as opposed to the world in which we do not live), McCartney uses three 'in’s.
The sigh should be directed at you. You are pushing a well-known accusation of amateur grammarians. The song actually says “in this ever-changing world in which we’re living”. He thought you were joking because this is rebutted so frequently.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
That’s still one too many “in’s.”
I don’t know about frequently; I’ve been on this board for 4 years and I’ve never once seen the question come up. And I don’t know about “amateur grammarian” because it’s quite valid to point out that the words as I posted them are horrible. And finally, before posting I googled the lyrics a few times to ensure I was representing them correctly, and the first 10 sites all had them identical to what I posted. Of course the internet is rife with mistakes, and I’ll accept correction if I’ve made an error. But I’d like to see a cite that the lyrics are what you say they are.
And as Dio said, that’s still one ‘in’ too many.
Ah, but it’s “*if *this ever-changing world in which we’re living”.
I’ve heard a song that goes “It is what it is.” The speaker then asks what it is.
I think I understand now. Just can’t think of anything that applies.
Those look like cliches to me. In fact, I think that’s sort of the point.
Go to the bottom of this page and click on “Belabouring the Obvious” (MP3).