Lyrical Cliches You Can't Stand

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When I ask where the party at I also wanna know where we're sipping bacardi at.

(when trying to think of an alternative my friend Jefferson recommended that I ask where we getting retardy at)

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Rhyming "dancin[g]" and "romancin[g]".

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link

something something yadda yadda about MEEEEEE
something something something about being FREEEEEEEEE

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:05 (nineteen years ago) link

"I cant tell you"

So don't write a song then.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:19 (nineteen years ago) link

"I cant tell you"
So don't write a song then.

not to be picky or anything, but that's one of the best reasons to write a song. to express what you can't otherwise articulate.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:24 (nineteen years ago) link

FYE-Ya / Diz-EYE-Ya OTM

And I REALLY hate that "hands in the air/just don't care" rhyme too, not just 'cause it's a cliche, but also because it makes no sense: If I truly "don't care" for the music, why the hell should I demonstrate any enthusiasm for chrissakes? Ridiculous.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Surely that bit about wanting some toast because you saw a ghost or some shit is far too bizarre to be a cliche

paul weller, on the other hand, has you eating "a piece of toast / from the one you love most."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:26 (nineteen years ago) link

referencing a famous guiarist and then playing a really flamboyant guitar lick

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:35 (nineteen years ago) link

It's not quite the same thing but Sublime's "What I Got" is similarly hilarious for the distinctly non-muthafuckin'-riotous guitar solo.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:39 (nineteen years ago) link

"a piece of toast / from the one you love most."

it came from their body/isn't that kinda odd-y

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Any reference to "the way you walk" followed by "the way you talk." Blecch.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 1 October 2004 16:59 (nineteen years ago) link

What about rhyming "disco" with "San Francisco" or "Frisco"?

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Friday, 1 October 2004 17:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Anything that "cuts like a knife", especially when rhymed with "my life".

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 1 October 2004 17:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Plus one that is a favorita amongst spanish songwriters who want to give an americana feel to their lyrics: "back of the cadillac".

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Friday, 1 October 2004 17:13 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't particularly hate it but I find it funny that half the songs in the eighties had the phrase "the night".

― daavid (daavid), Friday, 1 October 2004 17:27 (nineteen years ago) link

...and I'll always be true...(usually rhymes with 'you')

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 1 October 2004 17:28 (nineteen years ago) link

What about rhyming "disco" with "San Francisco" or "Frisco"?

Shit man, there was even a Russian pop song that did it: "San Frantsisko / Gorod v stile disko"

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 1 October 2004 18:31 (nineteen years ago) link

"Angel" pronounced as "ain-JELL."

― wickerbocker please (hammy), Friday, 1 October 2004 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link

The deadly combination of "want" and "need".

― alex in montreal, Friday, 1 October 2004 19:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh yeah, songwriters, check it...there are other words that rhyme with the number SEVEN besides HEAVEN thx k bye.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 1 October 2004 19:29 (nineteen years ago) link

Name three.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:04 (nineteen years ago) link

leaven, devon, eleven

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Eleven.
Leaven.
Kevin.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:07 (nineteen years ago) link

D'oh! Beaten at the post.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Not forgetting former Everton and Motherwell star, Pat Nevin.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:08 (nineteen years ago) link

I challenge someone to use the word "leaven" in a good song lyric.

― wetmink (wetmink), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:10 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm leaven on a jet plane?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:18 (nineteen years ago) link

Mine is the phrase "rebel without a clue" which is used in both "I'll Be You" - The Replacements and "Into The Great Wide Open" - Tom Petty. Two uses might not make a cliche, but it really bugs me for some reason. Apparently it's also a song by Bonnie Tyler but I don't think I've ever heard it.

― wetmink (wetmink), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:19 (nineteen years ago) link

oh baby your body is heaven
i am the dough and you are the leaven

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:20 (nineteen years ago) link

x post

"My heart is the dough,
You're the leaven.
If only you didn't
Look like Pat Nevin."

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:20 (nineteen years ago) link

D'oh!!

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Two uses might not make a cliche, but it really bugs me for some reason.

Replacements opened for Tom Petty back when "I'll Be You" was a no. 1 AOR hit (hard to remember sometimes that the Mats did actually have hits). Tom Petty used in three years later. Not a coincidence.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:21 (nineteen years ago) link

If the devil is six then your ass is seven
I got idle hands but my name ain't devon

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:21 (nineteen years ago) link

This is mostly off-topic, but has any LP ever had as many cliches-as-song-titles as this, the first Asia LP?:

1. Heat Of The Moment
2. Only Time Will Tell
3. Sole Survivor
4. One Step Closer
5. Time Again
6. Wildest Dreams
7. Without You
8. Cutting It Fine
9. Here Comes The Feeling

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link

¿"Ready Eddie" by Eddie Money?

1. Ready to Rock
2. Don't Say No Tonight
3. So Cold Tonight Let It Go (Dedicated to Jack and Diane)
4. Turn the Light Off
5. It's Gotta Be Love
6. Can't Go On
7. Nobody Knows
8.When You Gonna Satisfy Me
9. Need a Little Rock
10. Broken Down Chevy (God Only Knows)

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:31 (nineteen years ago) link

"head in the clouds, feet on the ground" or the REALLY FUCKING PROFOUND CONVERSE "feet in the clouds, head on the ground" maaaaaaaaaaaaan.

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Replacements opened for Tom Petty back when "I'll Be You" was a no. 1 AOR hit (hard to remember sometimes that the Mats did actually have hits). Tom Petty used in three years later. Not a coincidence.

Ha - I just found this: http://www.anti.com/press.php?CatalogID=80377&pressid=553

O: Did you mind Petty swiping your "rebel without a clue" line?

PW: It miffed me a little bit, but it's all... I'd steal something back from him, if I could find something I liked.

― wetmink (wetmink), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Ooh! This one just hit me: Really long trains of lines that all end in "ation" words (relaxation/good vibration/entire nation etc.)
-- Hurting (Hurtingchie...), October 1st, 2004.

...and ending in "emancipation proclamation".

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:49 (nineteen years ago) link

"Self" rhyming with "shelf." Aargh

Except when Humpty Hump does it, then it's awesome!!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:55 (nineteen years ago) link

"all my life" = every phil collins song ever

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:02 (nineteen years ago) link

The rolling list of "on the shelf" songs:

1. Beau Brummels, "Laugh Laugh"
2. The Beatles, "Don't Pass Me By" (though the shelf actually has a context here, so Ringo gets a pass)
3. Jefferson Airplane, "Star Track"

Continue?

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Saturday, 2 October 2004 14:44 (nineteen years ago) link

EMO CLICHE LIST:

Referring to blood as the color of crimson.
"Please hold my hand, please hold my heart, please say we'll never be apart" - real line from a local emo band (uber cliche)

― David Allen (David Allen), Saturday, 2 October 2004 20:01 (nineteen years ago) link

"I can see it in your eyes"

How do you know that isn't constipation?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 2 October 2004 20:49 (nineteen years ago) link

There was a time when i wanted to start a how-to-write-a-Lou-Reed-song thread. There's some very simple cliches:

"alright!" (place at the end of any line)
"i see her walkin' on down the street"
"there she goes"

― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Saturday, 2 October 2004 20:53 (nineteen years ago) link

Any and all variations on "washing away the pain." How the fuck do you wash away pain? That's dirt all over you, grunge people! Dirt, not pain!

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Saturday, 2 October 2004 21:23 (nineteen years ago) link

i 2nd "walking down the street"
also (when you / she) "came into the room" or "entered the room"
"feel so alive"

in hip hop, i can't stand
1. afterparty to hotel lobby...
2. those (fat joe, r kelly especially) who talk about "menage" constantly. it's like they just heard about it at age 30.

― paulhw (paulhw), Saturday, 2 October 2004 21:31 (nineteen years ago) link

"wounds/scars that won't heal"

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Saturday, 2 October 2004 23:44 (nineteen years ago) link

"heaven above"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 3 October 2004 00:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Radio noise plus muffled vocals as a bridge. Every band did this at least once in the 90's.

― The TAO that can be Posted is not the TAO! (The Tao that can be Posted is), Sunday, 3 October 2004 00:20 (nineteen years ago) link

That is not a lyrical cliche!

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 3 October 2004 00:21 (nineteen years ago) link

Skipping 94 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

there's a "lies / eyes" in the little boots single that is only annoying me because it's the bit that spotify are playing me all the time

the cage the elephant ones aren't lyrical cliches, they're just truisms really - nb. i can't imagine that being a good song, though

― thomp, Friday, 28 August 2009 21:59 (fourteen years ago) link

"…color tv"

― naus, Friday, 11 September 2009 05:50 (fourteen years ago) link

They've definitely had their moments, but I could never hear Gucci and Louis Vuitton in another rap or r&b song and be perfectly happy.

― send a hilarious message or make a "wild" statement (Whitey on the Moon), Friday, 11 September 2009 06:29 (fourteen years ago) link

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