Lyrical Cliches You Can't Stand

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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

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

Slippery When Wet might at least provide some competition.

IIRC:

Let It Rock
You Give Love a Bad Name
Livin' On a Prayer
Social Disease
Wanted Dead or Alive
Raise Your Hands
Without Love
I'd Die For You
Never Say Goodbye
Wild In the Streets

(Hey, I got all but one from memory)

Hmm, Asia may have the edge.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 3 October 2004 01:01 (nineteen years ago) link

"Spread your wings and fly" shits me to no end.

― Mil (Mil), Sunday, 3 October 2004 01:57 (nineteen years ago) link

The rolling list of "on the shelf" songs:

4. Tori Amos - "Hey Jupiter"

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Sunday, 3 October 2004 02:25 (nineteen years ago) link

When a person (usually female) says "I'm in too deep". THAT really burns me up!

― Crummy Grandma, Sunday, 3 October 2004 02:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Try lubricant.

― You've Got to Pick Up Every Stitch (tracerhand), Sunday, 3 October 2004 02:48 (nineteen years ago) link

...and ending in "emancipation proclamation".

Whatever, wu-tang's "mystery of chessboxin" is awesome.

― Symplistic (shmuel), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:03 (nineteen years ago) link

"i'm so sick and tired of being sick and tired"

― Symplistic (shmuel), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:04 (nineteen years ago) link

dude, i was KIDDIN'!!!

i love that song by the way.

x-post

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:05 (nineteen years ago) link

haha i was too

― Symplistic (shmuel), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:14 (nineteen years ago) link

The rolling list of "on the shelf" songs:

5. Alice Cooper, Clones (We're All)

Six is having problems adjusting to his clone status
Have to put him on a shelf, please don't put me on a shelf
All day long we hear him crying so loud
I just wanna be myself, I just wanna be myself
I just wanna be myself, be myself, be myself

― a banana (alanbanana), Sunday, 3 October 2004 21:43 (nineteen years ago) link

I appreciate any time a songwriter rhymes "rain" and "pain," as they are both sad.

― Jesse Fuchs (Jesse Fuchs), Sunday, 3 October 2004 22:16 (nineteen years ago) link

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