Bad Lyrics- Page 3

[AC126748]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 6:22pm

Yes, Andrews was the only performer nominated--and the musical's only nomination, as well. York won the Drama Desk Award, but was overlooked completely at the Tonys.

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 7:01pm

Words misused or mispronounced can take you right out of a song:

Have a pork. (Gypsy)
Some leftOvers of Moo Goo Gai Pan (Flower Drum Song)
SOUFFlé (Mr.President)

[AC126748]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 7:11pm

Since someone already brought up "Gifts of Love," this has always bothered me logically:

A fresh-picked rose beside my bed.
The coffee pot there, hot there,
when I raise my head.

So, is the coffee pot kept on their bedside table?

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 9:52pm

With respect, AC, what's wrong with "Have a pork"?

To me, it sounds like the way someone who has spent most of her life in show business (particularly around urban Jews) would talk.

I'm sure Sondheim would have written "Have the pork" if he hadn't wanted exactly what he wrote.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 9:58pm

Is that not how you pronounce "Moo Goo Gai Pan" then? I'm honestly asking as I have no idea.

[AC126748]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 9:59pm

Gaveston2, it's After Eight who has a problem with "Have a pork," not me.

-AC, who is still questioning the logic of the coffee pot on the nightstand.

Updated On: 11/6/11 at 09:59 PM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:03pm

Sorry, AC. Apparently, I had a small stroke there, as I certainly know the difference between you and After Eight.

And of course I know which of you would be straining to invent an error in Sondheim's writing.

Please have a pork and send me the bill...

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:05pm

Maybe he's serving her coffee in bed? I... have no idea.

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/7/11 at 2:37am

SporkGoddess,

It's not the Moo Goo Gai Pan that is mispronounced, but the accentuation in "leftovers." The accent in the song is on O instead of LEFT.

Then there's the problem of making sure the words go well with the pauses in the music. If not, that can throw you off as well.

"But not like a yo-yo school boy." When sung, there's a slight pause after yo-yo, so that you hear "but not like a yo-yo" and you wonder what's slow about a yo-yo, and what kind of a comparison is that?

One has to pay attention to every detail.

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 11/7/11 at 2:55am

The point of the Baker's Wife lyric is that Amiable has put the coffee on the table beside the bed so it's there for her when she wakes up. Pretty straightforward.

[AC126748]

Posted: 11/7/11 at 7:25am

If that's the intent, then okay, but the vagueness of the phrase makes it less so.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 11/7/11 at 5:50pm

I adore Ragtime, but this one lyric in What Kind of Woman always bothered me:

"Each day the maids trudge up the hill.
The hired help arrives.
I never stopped to think they might have lives
beyond our lives."

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/9/11 at 11:59pm

"Don Black's "translated" lyrics for Gerard Presgurvic's Romeo et Juliette."

The French version of this is a huge guilty pleasure--saw it three times when I lived in Montreal, but that London production ws such a flop (I can't believe it was recorded) that I can't even find the CD used online. Call me a sadist, but I'm dieing to hear it.

[TheHappyPhantom]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 3:14am

I'd like to nominate ALL of Next to Normal. Corny, cliche, several missed or inconsistent rhymes, not personalized to the characters, and a complete ignorance of the how to effectively use cast members as a chorus. Why the hell does the boyfriend who's barely met the mother sing along with the family when they discuss her history?!! He doesn't know her history! He was just introduced a scene prior.

[binau]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 4:04am

Guh. I'm glad you posted this only because it really shows your unfamiliarity with the show/ignorance.

Can you cite the lyrics with 'missed' or 'inconsistent rhymes'? The show generally uses true rhymes throughout...I think a better argument would be the rhymes are really basic and obvious, not that they are 'missed'. For example, in Just Another Day:

adoring/boring week/freak another/brother freak/cheek easy/breezy wack/crack obey/day etc... all seem like 'successful rhymes' to me.

And you are taking "My Psychopharmacologist and I" wayyy too literally by argueing that Henry shouldn't be there. lol.

Updated On: 11/10/11 at 04:04 AM

[TheHappyPhantom]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 12:16pm

Either, you've never seen the show or you're just talking out of your ass since I offended you by bashing it, but there are a ton of missed rhymes. I will look them up if you like, but the only ignorance exposed here is your own.

[showchoirguy]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 1:39pm

Wonderland: "Set phasers up to start"
Love the show but some of the lyrics.....no.

[binau]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 2:33pm

I have seen it many times although admittedly I might be selectively attending to the 'successful' rhymes, I just can't remember which rhymes you are referring to. So please, do look them up. Even if there are a couple I imagine there are very few compared to the 'true' rhymes....(days/crazed? in "Hey #1"?)

Updated On: 11/10/11 at 02:33 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 3:01pm

Regarding "Have a pork," Sndheim is using it right, but not necessarily clearly. Pork is not a noun in this case, but an adjective, modifying the noun "egg roll" or "Chinese food."

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 3:57pm

Darquegk,

Let's say your reading of "pork" as an adjective is correct. It's still a bad lyric because it's unclear, and just as importantly, sounds both clumsy and wrong.
"A pork," either noun or adjective is just no good.


And have you ever heard anyone use the expressions "pork egg roll," or "pork Chinese food?" I haven't.
Updated On: 11/10/11 at 03:57 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 4:31pm

I hear "pork egg roll" all the time- at least in my area, the options are "Pork, chicken, shrimp or veggie" egg roll.

But it's still a clumsy lyric. I didn't argue that it was good, just that it could be possible that he was using "a pork" in an acceptable way. Still weird to sing.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 5:25pm

Oh, good grief! Some people need to get out more.

The full lyric line is:

"Have a dish, have a fork, have a fish, have a pork."

She isn't offering him an entire fish. (Since when is chinese food delivered with whole fish on the plate?) "Fish" AND "pork" are colloquialisms where the adjective stands in for the noun. (I'm sure there's a technical term for this, but I'll leave that to the linguists among us.)

It's excellent writing for character that culminates at the end of the stanza when Rose pronounces "poem" as one syllable ("pome") to rhyme with "home".

(In fact, Sondheim has said the real problem with the song is that after the first line, it isn't about anything. Apparently, he amused himself writing colloquialisms instead of content.)

It isn't unclear to anyone except After Eight. But he has a grand mal seizure every time he sees Sondheim's name in the program, so all the language is confusing to him.

***

A more interesting question is where is Rose from? Doesn't the scene with her father take place in Seattle? Both Rose and her father sound more like they come from one of the cities in the Northeast. But then I'm not an expert on the working class of Washington state.

Perhaps Gypsy Rose Lee's mother was born back East and moved to Seattle with her family. Does anyone know?

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 6:30pm

Here's another problem that pops up from time to time: using a word for no logical reason, but simply to meet the needs of rhyme or syllabication.


In Camelot, we are told "the winter..... exits March the second on the dot." Why not March the first or the twentieth, either of which would make far better sense? Because second is the only number that fits the music, so second it is. But meaning-wise, it just doesn't cut it. In fact, it jars.


In Do I Hear a Waltz?, we hear "Roses are dancing with peonies." Okay now, let's put aside the fact that this icky-poo attempt at lyricsm is itself cringeworthy. Even if one could swallow the image, why would these roses be dancing with peonies, as opposed to Johnny-jump-ups, Jack-in-the-pulpits, or anything else? Well, something had to rhyme with Viennese, and those luckless peonies were commisioned for the task. They deserved better..... And so did we.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 9:30pm

After Eight, I'll grant your objections to DO I HEAR A WALTZ? Rodgers was in control of that show and the only decent lyric is the cut version of "We're Gonna Be All Right" (which, fortunately, eventually resurfaced in SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM).

But the whole point of the title song of CAMELOT is that it is a magical world that follows rules completely different from the real world where the rest of us live. Yes, of course you're right that winter ends on March the second in order to fit the number of musical notes, but so what? It isn't a realistic world anyway.

Do you also spend "The Lusty Month of May" wondering if winter ends a month early, why do flowers still wait until May to bloom? Because this is a scientific inconsistency that demands an angry rebuttal!

If you can't surrender yourself to the magic and whimsy of musical theater, then perhaps your time would be better spent watching the early, realistic plays of Arthur Miller. They're quite good and less apt to end seasons on arbitrary dates.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 9:57pm

Henry doesn't sing in "My Psychpharmacologist and I". Neither does Dan or Natalie or Gabe, for that matter.