Rhyming Doesn't Have to Make Sense

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ReservoirTickle

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Just looking at two of my favorite lyricists, I find this to be true for me.

Stephen Malkmus - the king of the cryptic couplet

"Pigs, they tend to wiggle when they walk
The infrastructure rots
And the owners hate the jocks
With their agents and their dates
If the signatures are checked
You’ll just have to wait"

And Jeff Mangum said that sometime he had ideas written but connected them with words that just plain sounded cool in the flow of the song.

Just want peoples' thoughts on this approach.
 
Waiting doesn't work for me
No, it's not my teacup full of Bree
But if it works for Steve and Jeff
I guess it works, so WTF
If a pig's butt wiggles--warm and moist
It's hock of ham with hemorrhoids.

Write on.
 
Make way for the easy targets
All scopes on deck
Targets come from every direction
Annihilate your pick
Behead parades in flesh hooks
No chess in the Park
Amateur night blinds in neon
A novice in white belt

Peel off my face, burn finger tips
Smash all my teeth, bury me deep
Bashed to a pulp
My final slap on the wrist
Spit out the bottle screaming “Where do I fit in?”

White in white belt
White in white belt
Whining for help

Outside an audience begs, show us more scars
Burn back the fields at once and blanket with tar

Peel off my face, burn finger tips
Smash all my teeth, bury me deep

Back off there’s no reward
Welcome to the deep end
We want a suicide, not bloody revenge

White in white belt
White in white belt
Whining for help

Bashed to a pulp
My final slap on the wrist
Spit out the bottle screaming “Where do I fit in?”

White in white belt
White in white belt
Whining for help
 
My eyes are achin'
I burned the bacon
I've stirred and shaken but could not waken
The juiced Jamaican
Could she be fakin'
If not, I'm makin' tracks
 
My little beaver had such a fever I stayed and prayed and dared not leave her
I fell asleep, without a peep she rose and chose to leave me lying
With frozen frown she did the town in a hand-me-down brown bridal gown
It's all so mystifying
 
Nonsense rhymes are more interesting when they sound like they might mean something. Some great pop songs and the rap genre have that in common.
 
TaoManna Don said:
Nonsense rhymes are more interesting when they sound like they might mean something. Some great pop songs and the rap genre have that in common.
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Your beaver rhyme has a hidden agenda! :D
 
Rokket said:
Your beaver rhyme has a hidden agenda! :D
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I'm not sure it's all that hidden. :o The part I posted is verse one of a three verse song I'm working on called "Its All So Mystifying." This is the only part I dared post. The rest of it goes a little too far for some of the young eyes that might see it here. And it would certainly ruin my reputation as a serious (though long-winded) advisor. (see my new title under my name at the top of this post)

At least you now know that I sometimes use rhymes in verses (usually in weird or funny novelty songs like this).

Keep writing,
Don
 
TaoManna Don said:
I'm not sure it's all that hidden. :o The part I posted is verse one of a three verse song I'm working on called "Its All So Mystifying." This is the only part I dared post. The rest of it goes a little too far for some of the young eyes that might see it here. And it would certainly ruin my reputation as a serious (though long-winded) advisor. (see my new title under my name at the top of this post)

At least you now know that I sometimes use rhymes in verses (usually in weird or funny novelty songs like this).

Keep writing,
Don
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ooooh, now you have my curiousity up! You can PM me if you find the time. I like a dirty song now and then.... :D
 
This is called "Nonsense Verse", and it's nothing new at all. Read "Jabberwocky" from Alice in Wonderland sometime... it's pretty much regarded as the pinnacle of the style. So much so, in fact, that some of the words that Lewis carol made up in that poem have become actual words...."chortle" and "galumph" for example. Here... I went and found it for you:

Jabberwocky

By Lewis Carol

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxnome foe he sought
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.


The Beatles used the technique in I am the Walrus. The band Yes also used the technique all the time to. Check out the lyrics from Roundabout sometime.

And by the way.... anybody that thinks Alice in Wonderland is a children's story hasn't read it. There is some deep stuff going on in those two books (AIW and Through the Looking Glass). For example, did you know that in TTLG, every move a character makes is analogous to moves on a chess board, and if you follow each move through the length of the book it details a chess game from beginning to check-mate? No kidding.

A
 
Thanks Aaron,

I loved "I Am The Walrus"; but I had forgotten about Lewis Carol and Jabberwocky. The thought of mixing real and nonsense words in a song sounds a bit inspiring. What delicious freedom it must be to create the words that fit the rhythm and rhyme of your verses.

I feel some new songs coming on.

Keep writing,
Don
 
Yeah, thanks for chiming in with your insights, Aaron. You posts always raise the level of these discussions.
 
I hate to burst bubbles all the rhymes are good but as a Hip Hop N RnB producer it is essential that the rhymes make sense. You can rhyme words just to put words together, but when a fan heres the lyrics are all over the place and there is no meaning to the rhyme you lost that listener. I wont produce artist who lyrics make no sense. Here's a line I made an artist change. " I'll put a fist in your head, that will cause a hole in your chest and i'll run around the block like Cluber Lang I'm the best." It made no sense with the rest of the song. You got to be a storyteller. You have to make the listener want to hear the next line and then the next an then the next. You have to hold the lister threw the entire song. Keep them on edge to here the next line or verse.

Lets take Cameron (rapper) he's not a storyteller his songs don't make you want to listen to the next line. He's all over the place maybe 3 lines make sense then he's onto something else. WTF is that! Now take Nas or even Talib Qwelie from the begging to the end you know what the song is about and it never looses it's message. And then you hit REPEAT cause you want to hear it again.

Just cause it rhymes don't make it a hot line. It's a bit easier to get away with it in a rock band becasue so much more can be going on with other instruments.

~one~
 
gspot - although Hip Hop and R'n'B doesn't do anything for me - great post man.
 
Garry Sharp said:
gspot - although Hip Hop and R'n'B doesn't do anything for me - great post man.
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I agree. When rap started out, it was just drums and vocals most of the time. The lyrics had to make sense or it was lost. Even when hip hop was introduced, the vocal was still the focal point. The words still have to make sense.
 
gspotstudios said:
" I'll put a fist in your head, that will cause a hole in your chest and i'll run around the block like Cluber Lang I'm the best."
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I like that line :(

In fact, that line could be very nice, it all depends on the rest of the song.
 
If you guys want to see some cool "nonsense verse" songs in action, GO HERE.

You will not be disappointed.

The project started out as a challenge to write a song for every letter of the alphabet, using only words that start with that letter. Some songs/ lyrics are better than others. Highlights include: T song, P Song, M Song, S Song.

A
 
One of my fav nonsensical lyrics is by Oasis (Supersonic)

I need to be myself
I cant be no-one else
Im feelin Supersonic
Give me gin and tonic...

I know a girl called elsa
She's into alcaseltzer
She sniffs it through a cane
on a supersonic train...
She done it with the doctor
on a helicopter....


This is the genius of Noel Gallagher. No deep meaning or anything. just nice owrds that fit. Elsa was a big dog who used to live in the studio who farted alot...
 
Aaron Cheney said:
This is called "Nonsense Verse", and it's nothing new at all.
A
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funny, I used to be really good at this when I was in high school. You could give me a word and I could write a clever verse about it in about 10 minutes or so. I hated it. I stopped writing poems till i could write real stuff. That was 20 years ago...
 
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