Bad Lyrics- Page 7

[Playbilly]

Posted: 8/30/12 at 10:00pm

I have always liked that NYC lyric ended on "tough". People who hate New York say it's big, loud and tough. Here, it's the city's virtues. "Proud" would be WRONG.

[oliviacecilia]

Posted: 8/30/12 at 10:09pm

I hate to jump on the William Finn bandwagon because I do love his work, but in "the I love you song", I always thought 'we always knew you were a champion, your sadness filled my room, dear if you should feel my gloom blame it on me" was a bizarre and unclear phrase; perhaps it's going over my head somehow.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/30/12 at 10:30pm

oliva, I love Finn, but I wrote a few pages back that he tends to let his rhyming lead him by the nose through a lyric. The lines you quote seem like an example.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/31/12 at 10:55am

The "depression runs in our family" line, too.

Oh, and "God, we love the way you grew" just sounds weird.

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 8/31/12 at 11:08am

I love 'Blame it on your daddily and mammily / Cause depression runs in our family' is incredibly contrived and absolutely wonderful.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/18/13 at 9:24pm

Has everyone seen this video? Apparently "la, a note to follow so" is lyricism at its worst.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8zD0qFvvMs

[After Eight]

Posted: 1/18/13 at 10:13pm

Just watched this video.

What an obnoxious idiot. What a jerk.

And stupid, too.

Doesn't know that lyricsm is not the same as lyric-writing.

Hey kid, don't try to use big words you don't know. In fact don't use small words either- especially the four letter ones.

Or better yet, do us all a favor and just shut up altogether.

I pity his parents.

And his teachers even more!

And kid, you don't know every lyric ever written, so you can't comment on any being the worst of all time.

And if you ever heard "Home on the Range," you would know that the word "deer" appears in that song.

I think I need a cup of tea with jam and bread as an antidote to this clod.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/18/13 at 11:43pm

Whatever happened to Chi Chi?

[jasonf]

Posted: 1/19/13 at 8:10am

Wait, the Do-Re-Mi video wasn't a satire? I thought it was a lame attempt at humor...

[After Eight]

Posted: 1/19/13 at 9:09am

^

Yes, it was.

Pathetically lame.

But to get back on topic, here's a lame lyric I heard while watching the ART Pippin, from "Simple Joys":

"Wouldn't you rather be a left-handed flea"

A left-handed flea? Whaaaa?

[Dionysus3]

Posted: 7/5/20 at 11:03am

“I hate to admit it, but he doesn’t get enough credit for all the credit he gave us” is an all-time bad line in an otherwise great closing number.

[hork]

Posted: 7/5/20 at 12:37pm

The above conversation about "la, a note to follow so" is seven years old and the video it pertains to is no longer available, but I have to agree that it's a terrible lyric. In fact, Douglas Adams wrote an entire essay about it.

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 7/5/20 at 1:00pm

If we’re talking bad lyrics, I think Mean Girls has too many clunkers to count. Which is puzzling to me because I actually think Nell Benjamin’s lyrics for Legally Blonde are great

[Loopin’theloop]

Posted: 7/5/20 at 3:38pm

All of ‘If I Were A Man’ from the stage version of VICTOR VICTORIA

OY VEY!

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 7/5/20 at 5:50pm

 “I hate to admit it, but he doesn’t get enough credit for all the credit he gave us” is an all-time bad line in an otherwise great closing number."

Yes, I always thought that was a very clunky line. 

 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 1:43pm

Fun to see this thread back, curious to hear some examples from the last few years. I forget who said it, but one of my favorite criticisms of William Finn is that he "snatches at a rhyme like it's the last canape on the tray". I think Finn has even stated that he's not entirely sure what certain songs in In Trousers are meant to be about.

edit: Tootsie has some stinkers. The musical "lube" punchline in Whaddya Do doesn't make any sense. Ideally, the audience should fill in the missing words with something along the lines of "up your ass" by setting that rhyme up previously, but the line that the missing words actually would rhyme to is "We take that list and roll it in a ball", which doesn't rhyme with anything suggestive off the top of my head. Also, could a plate of humble pie be "overwhelming"? Would "everything you ever wanted in life" be capable of "laughing at you and calling you a jerk"? 

Updated On: 7/6/20 at 01:43 PM

[Leaf Coneybear]

Posted: 7/7/20 at 10:19am

My friends and I always like to laugh at some of the dumbest lyrics in Urinetown.

"You'll be a arrested soon / Perhaps as soon as noon"

"You are wrong, Mr. Strong!" 

[VotePeron]

Posted: 7/7/20 at 1:08pm

Does the discography of Beetlejuice count? Truly one of the most inane scores I've ever heard in a theater.

[joevitus]

Posted: 7/7/20 at 3:33pm

CATSNYrevival said: "Has everyone seen this video? Apparently "la, a note to follow so" is lyricism at its worst.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8zD0qFvvMs"

I want to use this as a jumping off point for what I consider the most unfairly maligned lyric in Broadway history: "A lark that is learning to pray." There's literally nothing wrong with this lyric. No, larks can't learn to pray, but brooks don't laugh or trip, and chimes can't sigh, either. No ones' bothered by those other lyrics. They are all examples of poetic imagery. Maria is a free spirit who loves nature but is trying to force herself to conform to the rigid life of a cloister, thus all the references in the song's lyrics are to nature, freedom and religion. She is the lark who is learning to pray. It's a perfectly fine lyric. 

Updated On: 7/7/20 at 03:33 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/8/20 at 1:51am

I suspect you know I agree, Joe. "A lark who is learning to pray" is the PERFECT expression for a teenage novice who lives in a convent.

What? She should be comparing larks to taxis honking in Times Square?!

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 7/9/20 at 4:00pm

VotePeron said: "Does the discography ofBeetlejuicecount? Truly one of the most inane scores I've ever heard in a theater."

"The Whole Being Dead Thing" featured "hitlist/Christmas/Triscuits/statistics" back to back, which was a big oof.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 7/9/20 at 6:08pm

I can't even list every lousy lyric/phrase/stanza I've heard being sung in a Broadway theatre. Slant rhymes especially seem to be all the rage nowadays, and it gets on me a little.

[iwuldwf]

Posted: 7/9/20 at 7:23pm

I revisited some of The Prom recently and “I can guess your whole agenda / You be Elphie, I’m Galinda” is impressively bad.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 7/9/20 at 8:53pm

iwuldwf said: "I revisited some of The Prom recently and “I can guess your whole agenda / You be Elphie, I’m Galinda” is impressively bad."

Courtesy of Chad Beguelin- a lyricist who, ironically, has said before that he tries to form perfect rhymes as much as possible. I'll say this: I also think this is a clunky lyric, but Beguelin did a decent job lyric-wise with most of The Prom. Sure, it's no Hadestown, but it feels great to hear lots of pure rhymes, something most new musicals nowadays lack.

 

[Dollypop]

Posted: 7/10/20 at 9:52pm

"Her nails will be polished/
And in her hair/
She'll wear a gardenia/
And I'll be there..."

He'll be in her hair?
Heaven forfend!