Talk:Rhymes

Previous discussions

19-mar-2003

I'll be a little surprised if much more than "Hanukkah/harmonica" pops up on the worst list unless someone really sick of the band starts updating here... I've never seen any other single lyric bashed like that one... (not that I'm defending it or anything -- it always stuck out like a sore thumb to me but I used to think that was just because I knew it was a Sandler lyric first). -- Jolene

It's funny that you say that. I had the idea for the page, but couldn't think of anything else. I also wasn't sure what to put for the clever rhymes because there are so many. Perhaps there are some that stand out, though. --SR

20-mar-2003

I wonder if "Rhymes" might be a bit limiting as a category. A lot of the cleverness of TMBG lyrics lies elsewhere: alliteration, double meaning, fake rhymes, etc. --RobertH

19-nov-2003

Kiss Me, Son Of God - "Now you're the only one here who can tell me if it's true. That you love me and I love me." Actually, this does rhyme. Who/true and you love me/i love me.

2-apr-2004

You could argue that Kiss Me, Son Of God actually does rhyme, but be sure to realize that the lack of rhymes discussed is that you expect the line to go "Now you're the only one here who can tell me if it's true / that you love me, and I love you." --My Evil Twin's Twin

25-jul-2004

Did anyone else think there's an unexpected lack of rhyme in Experimental Film? "I don't know what makes your face implode/But that's the way the movie ends" I was fully expecting "But that's the way the movie goes". --Kazen

24-jul-2004

(It's still the 24th where I am) Surprised? No, not really.It's a common TMBG practice, so I didn't even notice. --TVsKyle

26-jul-2004

Wow, I didn't notice it, but you're right. It sure seems like Experimental Film doesn't have any rhymes at all! "Explain it" and "great it's" are just barely near rhymes. AIN-it and ATE-its... close but no cigar. The near rhyme there sure feels intentional, though, going along with the quick, repeating rising and falling of the melody at this point in the song. (AIN-it and ATE-its appear at the same point in the rise-fall cycle.) In any event I think Experimental Film definitely deserves a place on the rhymes page. --Veloso

21-Aug-2004

You might be on to something with Experimental Film's lack of rhyme. I can say that one song that I just noticed that could be put in the No Rhymes section is Ana Ng. With the exception of there/air, there are absolutely no other end rhymes in the entierity of the song.

While I'm at it, I shall also say, of the comment about the infinite/symphonette rhyme, that I only find it to be the second most clever rhyme in a pop song. Number one goes to a rhyme from the Soul Coughing song "Down to This." I mean, anyone who rhymes screwy with ratatouille wins automatically. -- TheNintenGenius

Rhyming

This whole Most Clever, Weakest, and Unexpected Lack Of Rhymes seems so subjective, but I cannot think of any better substitute, apart from removing the whole page (but don't do that). -- DidgeGuy (आ ज) 7:05, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

I think that this page shouldn't be a song theme. It's a good idea, but putting in your opinion doesn't necessarily mean that the song centers around/includes a whatever. Take Body Parts for example. They put stuff on it because a song centers around/includes a body part. Or Recycled Material. They put stuff on that because a song has recycled material in it. Perhaps this page could be like that Misheard Lyrics page? -- Buzzmusic100 ("Keep your voice down...")

It's not a song theme now. Check out the song themes talk page, though.

Good. How long has it not been a song theme? I didn't know. :D -- Buzzmusic100 ("Keep your voice down...")

I don't think it was ever a song theme. Of course, that didn't stop me. *shiver*

I'm pretty sure it was a song theme. It might have not said the [[Category:Song Themes]] on the page, but people do put [[Rhymes]] on songs (or atleast used to). -- Buzzmusic100 ("Keep your voice down...")

If it was a song theme, it would be on the Song Themes page, but I don't think it was, anyway. People only put Rhymes under song themes because I they don't know that it isn't a song theme. I swear.

Wow, yeh, this whole page is kind of bullshit. Why do we have it? Unless we're, like, putting it to a wiki-wide vote, I don't approve, soooo ridiculously subjective, geez...--Self Called Nowhere 21:22, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

Since it isn't a song theme (which I know now), I've taken it off of every song that has it. User:Apollo put it back on some songs because the song references rhyming/rhymes. Someone (maybe me) could make a theme called "Rhymes (Theme)", so that the "Rhymes" page doesn't have both opinions and real references. -- Buzzmusic100 ("Keep your voice down...")

But there are only three. -Apollo. 01:53, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

So, maybe we don't need a briefly mentioned section at all! -- Buzzmusic100 ("Keep your voice down...")

Songs with no rhymes (well, almost no rhymes)

Should songs where they have a couple of rhymes be on the section "Songs with no rhymes"? Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head and Bloodmobile both have rhymes! So, therefore, do they really belong on "Songs with no rhymes"? -- Buzzmusic100 ("Keep your voice down...")

FACT: This isn't an information page. It's like...a quirk page. Don't think about it too much. If it really bothers you, I don't think making a new section will stop the wiki in it's tracks, but have a clear definition of what constitutes "almost no" rhymes. -Apollo. 01:10, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Rhymes for discussion and opinionation and etc.

Most Clever Rhymes

• 9 Secret Steps - Irregular but clever internal rhymes: "Inhume your gloom within a tomb / Confine your mind behind a line / There's only doom outside your room / Confine your mind behind a line"
• A Self Called Nowhere - AABBACCADDAEEA rhyming pattern - "But I'm thinking of a wooden chair / in the room at the top of a stair / and I'm looking down the stairwell at the vanishing dot / on the map of the spot / let me take you there / the dotted line / surrounding the mind / of a self called nowhere / it's a thing named "id" / in a bottomless pit / you can't see it there / the sunken head / that lies in the bed / of a self called nowhere" (wow, that took up a lot of room)
• Ana Ng - "And in back of the edge of hearing/ these are the words that the voice was repeating."
• Atlanta - "Electric guitars are nurses / that wrap you all in gauze / and the songs we play are the hospital bill / you pay with your applause"
• Bee Of The Bird Of The Moth - Equal/Freak We'll
• Birdhouse In Your Soul - Infinite/Symphonette might be the single best rhyme I've ever heard in a pop song. Addendum: Don't forget bee in your bonnet/a point on it, opposite me/ancestry/shipwreck-free. Ancestree? TMBG weren't kidding when they said the lyrics were Gilbert-and-Sullivany.
  • I'd also like to add "lot/job/Argonauts" to the list--somehow, Linnell manages to prononce "job" so that you don't really notice that it doesn't rhyme with "lot" and "Argonauts". ~Anna Ng hears your words.
• Certain People I Could Name - The last refrain is jam-packed with rhymes, or non-rhyming words sung in such a way as to make them rhyme. "Who is it like? Doesn't it strike you as the very image of someone we know? Isn't it so like certain people? How could anybody miss the obvious and the uncanny and the clear resemblance? Isn't it just like certain people I could name?"
• Cloisonné - "I'm sick of this beeswax / I'm sick of these second-story Sleestaks"
• Complete Paranoia - Millionaire/silverware. Brilliant. The only rhyme in the song, and a doozy to find; it took me days of this song playing in my head to even notice it. - The Silver Chauffeur
• Courage The Cowardly Dog - Muriel/surreal
• Damn Good Times - "ossified" and "step aside". Maybe not the purest of rhymes, but pretty damn clever.
• Dark And Metric - "Not a night spent in jail, parrot on my arm / Not a man of the world, no patch on my eye, patch on my eye" - though the vowel sounds are very different normally, Linnell somehow makes the two lines ryhme naturally
• Don't Let's Start - "D, world destruction / Over an overture / N, do I need / Apostrophe T, need this torture?"
• I Am Not Your Broom - "Now broom you must now sweep for me, the dust it fills my room / No John, I will not sweep for you for I am not your broom". Works perfectly!
• I've Got A Match - "I put a rock / In the coffee in your coffee mug". It shouldn't rhyme, but it does... I think it has something to do with the repetition of coffee.
• James K. Polk - "And annex / the land / the Mex-/icans/command" fascinates me every time.
• Greek #3 - Even translated into Greek, the majority of the couplets end in rhyming syllables. That's pretty awesome.
• Hovering Sombrero - The "time is flying" section I think is particularly cool
  • Indeed. "Time is flying like an arrow/And the clock hands go so fast they make the wind blow/And it makes the pages of the calendar go flying out the window one by one/Till a hundred years are on the front lawn/And the old familiar things are mostly all gone/But the old sombrero just keeps hovering on/Hovering sombrero, hover on." Brilliant! ~Anna Ng
• Kiss Me, Son Of God - "But they've overcome their shyness / Now they're calling me your highness"
• Letterbox - Tomorrow. Sparrow. Are, O. Instead of any number of fairly obvious true rhymes, we get a cleverly disjointed triple near-rhyme. It's a great effect; the first near-rhyme would just be sloppy, but the third raises this to brilliance.
• Los Angeles - The triple rhymes and semi-rhymes throughout the song are catchy, especially in the "grooves / truths / moves" part.
• Lucky Ball & Chain - The surprising shifts in rhyme scheme keep us on our toes, beautifully fitting the abrupt departure from generic lyrics on the eighth line. Along with ABCBDEFG end rhyme patterns (where we expect ABCBDEFE), we get a switch in the chorus's rhyme scheme. First chorus: Confidentially, doll, confidentially, pride, two, mind. Second chorus: Confidentially, charms, confidentially, home, place, arms. The expected rhyme would be to home, but the speaker doesn't seem to want to linger on that.
• Metal Detector - Every seashell (1) has a story to tell (1) if you're listening (2)
  

But underneath every shell (1) there's a story as well (1) if you've heard enough of the sea (2)

Then everything (2) on the top (3) will just suddenly stop (3) seeming interesting (2)

So listen now (4) to the sound (4) of the things (2) that are found (4) underground (4)

• Michigan - "Now grow back, Michigan We miss you again". Very good.
• Mr. Me - "So take the hand of Mister Me/ and mister, make him glad/ To swim the Mister Misty Sea/ and cease the Mister Mystery/ That mister, made him sad"
• My Man - completely coated in/uninterrupted skin, orders/headquarters
• Nightgown Of The Sullen Moon - knob / abruptly - drug trip / insulted
  • "Space walk, it's like a space walk/With the corresponding weight loss" is another good one. ~Anna Ng hears your words.
• Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes - "And the mirror it reflects a tiny dancing skeleton/Surrounded by a fleshy overcoat and swaddled in" It shouldn't rhyme, but "skeleton" is pronounced so that it does. I guess you could consider it weak, but I thought it was clever.
  • I've always heard "skeleton" pronounced so that it would rhyme with "swaddled in", even in casual conversation. Maybe it's a regional difference (I live in California), but still. It's a clever rhyme, in any case. ~Anna Ng hears your words.
• Ondine - "Won/gun/done/comes"--had they only done it once, it'd sound forced, but the fact that they manage to do it four times and still have it make sense impresses me. ~Anna Ng hears your words.
• Other Father Song - "Makin' up a song about Coraline / She's a peach, she's a doll, she's a pal of mine" "When she comes around exploring / Mom and I will never, ever make it boring / Our eyes will be on Coraline"
• Pittsburgh - "We will rock it so well/We will roll down the hill"--another instance of Linnell singing two words that don't rhyme so that they DO rhyme and making it seem natural. Like, he pronounces "well" as some combination of "well" and "will", while he pronounces "hill" as being somewhere between "hell" and "hill", and it sounds awesome. ~Anna Ng hears your words.
• Particle Man - "Particle man, Particle man, doing the things a particle can" "Is he a dot or is he a speck / When he's underwater does he get wet"
• Rat Patrol - "Headlights turn into the drive" / "Then disappear into the night"
• Renew My Subscription - many great rhymes, similar to Metal Detector, somewhat. "Person" and "worsen" is a highlight.
  • "Whatever that thing is that makes the carpet stop turning into snakes" I didn't even notice this rhyme until about the third or fourth time I heard this song.
  • I have a theory that this song only exists to show off Linnell's transcendent way with rhymes. Believe it or not, "magazine" and "familiar ring" apparently rhyme in Linnellese, as do "daydream" and "aging" -- somehow he makes it work. "Quota" and "load o'" might be obvious after the fact, but it's still brilliant. - The Silver Chauffeur
• Sensurround - realistic/ballistic/sadistic
• She's An Angel - The middle of the second half of the chorus is sung quickly in a way where you almost can't catch the "air/there" rhyme. Same with the first half, which uses the mostly non-slant rhyme of "building" and "things".
• She Was A Hotel Detective - "She was a hotel detective (A)/But now she's gotten promoted (A)/I don't think it was the money (A)/She didn't care about expensive things (B)/No furs (C) or pearls (C) or fancy cars or diamond rings (B)/She was a hotel detective (A)/But now she's better connected (A)/She didn't have to change/anything, just the stencil on her window (D)/She used to be quite a lady (E)/She drove the underworld crazy (E)/But now she goes insane in her way when it suits her occupation (F)/She read that motel directive (A)/It told her she was defective (A)/I guess she found an easier way up the ladder and she took it (G)/Now that lady is running the world (H)". A beautiful AABCCBAADEEFAAGH (seriously!) rhyme scheme, with tons of great near-rhymes. (In addition, "lonely/only" and "shoot you/have to" work very well, partially because of the placement.) ~Anna Ng hears your words.
• Snail Shell - Surprising density of rhymes. "And knew that there would be a way/ the act might be repaid/ and so it may/ but for today"
• Spin The Country Dial - "My brain is like a husk you could drive a truck through If you don't like country music, fuck you" Tutt 16:44, 12 Oct 2005 (EDT)MasterChivo
• Stalk Of Wheat - "like I is/...out of ideas". Who would have thought I is and ideas rhymed?
• The Bells Are Ringing - "The bells are ringing the song they're singing the sound is bringing the people round/They hear the instructions they follow directions they travel great distances to the sound" The song has a pretty interesting rhyming scheme. ~Anna Ng: The Only TMBG Fan In Her Class 19:18, 30 Apr 2006 (CDT)
• The End Of The Tour - "Aground/around" and "world/tour"--you might think they're a bit forced, but I like it nonetheless. They make it work somehow. ~Anna Ng hears your words.
• They'll Need A Crane - Crane/chain/again/pain, break/take, heart/start, band/again
• Thunderbird - quit/this, desist/this, dry/I, fall/crawl/tall... wasn't a big fan of the song until I started listening for the rhymes...
• Trucker's Coffee - Orange/doorhinge. Though to be fair, I think Eminem used this first. Though to be extra (savoir) fair(e), the poem was not written by TMBG, and most likely prior to Eminem's use.
• Vestibule - Yellin' vents/intelligence/skeleton's, vestibule/best to you. Makes it sound effortless, too.
• Where Your Eyes Don't Go - hovering/discovering.
• Which Describes How You're Feeling - Feeling fine / didn't really rhyme. Self-referential near-rhyme. Sneaky.
• Why Does The Sun Shine? - "The sun is a mass of incandescent gas"
• Why Does The Sun Really Shine? - "The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma"

Weakest Rhymes

Warning! Some TMBG lyric-bashing below.

• Alphabet Lost And Found - Most of the rhymes are just repeating the end of a previous word, i.e. collector/ector and street/eet.
• The Cap'm - The forced pairing of of "Cap'm" with "laughing" and "happ'm" just doesn't work.
• Chess Piece Face - The first four lines end in "face". It sounds so good, you almost don't notice it, though.
• Concrete And Clay - "Beneath my feet begin to crumble / but love will never die / you know, we'll see the mountains crumble / before we say goodbye." "Rhyming" the same word is bad enough as it is, but the fact that TMBG changed the second "crumble" from tumble, as it is in the original, makes it much worse.
• Cyclops Rock - "I taught you how to cyclops rock / And then you go and turn around and break my heart" is an effort at slant rhyme that seems a little weak.
• E Eats Everything - Words don't rhyme with themselves. "Spork" is made of the word "fork", so in theory, spork doesn't even rhyme with fork. It just seems a little pathetic.
• Feast Of Lights - Hanukkah/harmonica, electronica/Monica
• Fibber Island - "Here on Fibber Island, our house is made of pie/ our dog is two miles wide/ and all he talks about is pie". I'm sorry Johns. Just. Please. Don't rhyme "pie" with "pie".
• The Gravel's Coming With Us - rise up on high / six dimensions high
• If I Wasn't Shy - "I'd steal somebody's Cadillac / I'd steal anything I lack"
• I'm Sick (Of This American Life) - "Got alarms set all around / In case they move around"
• Piece Of Dirt - "I would climb the highest mountain/ Just to jump into a fountain"
• Rest Awhile - "Out of the burning wreckage I fell / Wanting only to lay where I fell"
• Spy - "I see you walking on the ground / I see you through my spyglass, baby / I can see right through the ground" Rhyming ground with ground is lame...
• Stalk Of Wheat - (work/jerk) (money/bunny) (dream/gleam) (luck/duck) (juice/moose) (bubble/trouble) - They seem kind of corny.
  • They're intentionally so. It's a parody of boilerplate children's music.
• The Shadow Government - "Looked in the sky, saw with my eye."
• Valentine - "A heart frosty as this Ballantine / It's a sad indication / This reckless invitation / The world wants to be your valentine". Rhyming "valentine" with an old brand of beer just seems to be a bit of a stretch.
• West Virginia - "Think it over / No need to answer right away / I'll be over / There in the state across the way..." Wait a minute...

• Perhaps intentional, given the concentric nature of the lyrics in general. --MisterMe (talk) 14:13, 23 August 2013 (EDT)

• When It Rains It Snows - "There's a knock at the door / That I adore". Clever, but it's kind of weak.
• Your Racist Friend - "It was the loveliest party that I've ever attended / If anything was broken I'm sure it could be mended" -- (I don't know, it just seems kind of lazy.)

Unexpected Lack of Rhymes

• AKA Driver - "Big hand's on 120, little hand's on E." You expect the Empty, rather than just E. (Though E DOES technically rhyme with 120.)
• Bastard Wants To Hit Me - "And who the hell is he? I can't believe this is happening." I don't know about anyone else, but I'd always expected there to follow "to me"
• Birds Fly - "Thoughts fall from my thoughts/This good luck charm hanging off of my arm/Was left here by the police" One would expect "cops" rather than "police."
• Bloodmobile - "Someone's got to haul out the trash / it's not a pretty job." The word "task" might be expected instead of "job."
• Counterfeit Faker - The rhyme scheme leads one to believe that the Counterfeit Faker is carrying something more intimidating - "There's no way to measure/ The damage he has done / Counterfeit faker/ Carries a grudge"
• Dark And Metric - "Dark and metric is my town / Every day and night / Just because you're floating / Doesn't mean you haven't drowned" - although "drowned" does near-rhyme with "town," you would expect the rhyme scheme to be ABCB instead of ABCA and make the last line rhyme with "night". Perhaps "died"?
• E Eats Everything - "H burns food so horrible / All I tastes is smoke / J just likes drinking juice / And K drinks only soda" - You expect 'Coke' instead of 'soda'.
• I'll Sink Manhattan - "So before I get through / I'll find your answering machine and I'll sink it first" - 'First' was intentionally chosen over the rhyming "sink it too." ^[1]
• I'm Your Boyfriend Now - Late in the song, after "see it in your eyes," the expected rhyme would be "hear it in your sighs," but instead, the I sound is carried long and into "silence."
• Kiss Me, Son Of God - "Now you're the only one here who can tell me if it's true. That you love me and I love me."
  • This has to be the most diabolically awesome non-rhyme in the history of music. - ElbridgeGerry
• My Evil Twin - "Who cut the arm off the voodoo doll/That resembles a Republican president from long ago/I'd hate to see you leave" and "My evil twin/Bad-weather friend/He always wants to start/When I want to begin" You'd rather expect the word end".
• Narrow Your Eyes - "Now let's toast the sad cold fact / Our love's never coming back / And we'll race to the bottom of a glass" For some reason, I often want to say the word "crack" here
• Number Three - "A rich man once told me "Hey, life's a funny thing." / A poor man once told me that he can't afford to speak", and "But I politely told the ladies "You'll still have to call me Sir / Because I have to keep my self-respect I'll never be a star / Since there's just two songs in me / And this is Number Three"" one might think it would be "But I politely told the ladies "You'll still have to call me Sir / Because I have to keep my self-respect I'll never be a star / Since there's just two songs in me / And this is the third""
• One Dozen Monkeys - You might expect some sort of rhyme when they say "And the postman rang the doorbell / To deliver a package / It was a barrel / That came from the jungle".
• Rat Patrol - "Wilderness of mirrors shine" / "Floorboards creak or footsteps heard"
• See The Constellation - "I lay my head / On the railroad track / Stare at the sky / All painted up". You would expect the word "black" to rhyme, but Flans is messing with us. And again with the next verse: "Two years ago / Moved from my town / I was looking up / Past the city lights" You'd expect something along the lines of I was looking down instead of Past the city lights
• She's Actual Size - "Big men often tremble, as they step aside / I thought I was big once, she changed my mind." You'd expect something like "cut me down to size", and you can tell how much fun they're having with it by the way he says the last three words.
• She's An Angel - the verses in this song are sung in a way that makes it sound like the second and fourth lines of each stanza should rhyme.
• Snowball In Hell - "Have a nice day, you want it when?/Have a nice day, have a nice day" The inflection of "when" really leads one to believe he will go on to say "I'll see you in hell". I believe this was intentional.
  • "Don't tease me with all of your might/Side effect or drug trip/My panacea's in a Xerox shop" - expected a rhyme there.
• Spiraling Shape - "Go ahead, wreck your life/That might be good/Who can say what's wrong or right?/Nobody can." It seems like "can" should be "could" to rhyme with "good".
• Thermostat - "or was it a loud explosion / or is the thermostat..." the natural rhyme which one would expect is "broken", but instead a more intense description replaces it, and then the line is lengthened by an extra measure: "...engulfed in flames, or is it just me?"
• Turn Around - throughout the song, you expect the fourth line of each stanza to rhyme - "I was out by myself in a graveyard / I was doing an interpretive dance / when I felt something heavy and pointed / strike me in the back of my neck"
• Unrelated Thing - "'How come you never look me in the eye? / Aren't you listening to me?' said the man". I expected "guy" instead of "man".
• When It Rains It Snows - "There's a note on the door/ and the note will say when it rains it snows." Obviously one would expect to hear when it rains it "pours"
• Your Racist Friend - Attended, mended, pretending, saying. We've got what looks like a neat, regular quatrain until that last word. Nicely jarring.
  • "He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking / Can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding." One would expect "drinking."

One partial rhyme that doesn't really work is in The Cap'm: "boat"/"don't". It would be fine if it was like a really quick rhyme, but the words are emphasized and held for a very long time so it doesn't work. --ColorOfInfinity (talk) 21:29, 10 July 2020 (EDT)