Friday, July 20, 2007

Ten (Top? Who could say?) Rhymes in My iTunes and in My Head

Inspired by Akshay's comment regarding drinking and driving, I thought first of Wilco and second of other rhymes I like, which I determined to be good fodder for my first crack at 'Wigging out.' Apologies for errors. The transcriptions are the work of my ear, memory, and the Internet, imperfect sources all.

Performed by
Song (Album)

10. Wilco
Passenger Side (A.M)
You're gonna make me spill my beer
if you don't learn how to steer.
See above.

9. Chuck Prophet
Run Primo Run (No Other Love)
Primo snorted up his name like he does every year
on the day he came into this world. It makes him feel like Richard Gere.
I don't really like the song, but I have to credit the appearance of Richard Gere.

8. Frank Sinatra
I Get a Kick Out of You (??)
Flying too high with some gal in the sky
is my idea of nothing to do.
. . . and internal rhyme takes the stage! It gets even better if "gal" becomes "guy."

7. Bobby Darin
Clementine (Greatest Hits)
took the foot bridge, way 'cross the water
though she weighed two-ninety nine.
The old bridge trembled and disassembled—
Oops!—dumped her into the foamy brine.
A re-write in which Clementine becomes "chubby Clementine." Extra points for being totally offensive and ridiculous.

6. A tie! Outkast
Hey Ya! (The Love Below)
Why, oh why, oh why, oh,
are we so in denial . . .

Happy Valentine's Day (The Love Below)
Never know because, sh[oo]t, I never tell her.
Ask me about my feelings I’d holla that it’s irrela'.
I don't get myself caught up in the Jello gella' . . .

Roses (The Love Below)
Caroline! See she's the reason for the word "bitch."
I hope she's . . .
and crash, crash, crash into a ditch.
Near rhymes are my favorite, and oh! the delivery on the last one.

5. Langhorne Slim
Drowning (Langhorne Slim w/ Charles Butler)
Here comes the lifeguard.
I'm drowning and she seems so delicious.
I'm grounded with her arms around me,
and I'm blinded by them ugly fishes.
If you don't know Langhorne, you should. He screams real high and wears a hat.

4. Mose Allison
Top Forty (??)
No more philosophic melancholia—
800 pounds of electric genitalia.
What Mose can look forward to when he makes his "big beat, top-forty, rock'n'roll record."

3. Tom Waits
The One the Got Away (Small Change)
And the shroud-tailor measures him for a deep-six holiday.
The stiff is froze, the case is closed, on the one that got away.
This entire song deserves consideration for this list.

2. Joanna Newsom
Emily (Ys)
That the meteorite is a source of the light,
and the meteor's just what we see.
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee.

And the meteorite's just what causes the light,
and the meteor's how it's perceived.
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
Even though she astronomically confuses meteorites for meteoroids, who can argue that this isn't genius?

1. Tom Waits
Step Right Up (Small Change)
It's sanitized for your protection; it gives you an erection; it wins the election.
Mr. Waits at his best.

4 comments:

Akshay Ahuja said...

Here are some of my favorites:

Point Blank (Bruce Springsteen)

I was going your Romeo
You were gonna be my Juliet
These days you don't wait on Romeos
You wait on that welfare check


(Springsteen's poetic instincts failing him a bit here, I would say.)

Jesse's Girl (Rick Springfield)

You know, I feel so dirty
When they start talking cute
I wanna tell her that I love her
But the point is probably moot


(Perhaps the only use of "moot" in the history of popular music.)

Haunt You Down (Pavement)

I've had Christmas in France
where they don't wear any pants


(Does anyone know if this is actually true? It seems unlikely.)

And finally, I've always loved this line from Young Americans:

Ain't that close to love?
Well ain't that poster love?

Drew said...

His vocal chords are made of gold
He just looks a little too old

"Late Greats," (Wilco, featuring a very self-aware Jeff Tweedy)

Matt K said...

My favorite Dylan rhyme was always from 'Sign on the Window':

"Build me a cabin in Utah
Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout
Have a bunch of kids that call me Pa
That must be what it's all about"

Then Christopher Ricks (remember that Oxford Don who wrote a massive academic exegesis of Dylan's work) singled out the same snippet as HIS favorite line: http://books.google.com/books?id=cWv7HkDlE0IC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=christopher+ricks+dylan+cabin+utah&source=web&ots=LW_K4oc3gU&sig=_YCfON5s6sTVYChXt05WbV88CTI.

This either makes it much greater or completely ruins it, I'm not sure which.

Beth said...

I love this list. Johathan Richman belongs here. A sampling:

(At Night)
When the daylight ain't, but the planets are
The door to the arcane is thrust ajar


And for all you Francophiles

(She Doesn't Laugh at My Jokes)
I got a fine sense of humor
I got a full repertoire
I tell her fine fine jokes when we're in the boudoir
...
I think I'll call up somebody intelligent maybe Albert Camus
Say I've got some hot hot jokes I want to try on vous