Lyrics in musicals that make you itch- Page 2

[TooDarnHot]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 1:29am

jacob - wrong! he wrote A LOT of additional lyrics for both "Jekyll & Hyde" and "Victor/Victoria"

[musicaltheatrefan3]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 1:35am

525,600 minutes
525,000 moments so dear

oh, so 600 of those minutes aren't dear? Or is there a difference between moments and minutes? Are moments longer? What's the conversion rate? It bothers me every time that they say 525,000! but I still love the song and the show!

[A Fleur De Toi]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 12:27pm

A lot of the lyrics in Rent are pretty tosh - I think one was particularly bad - the "I'll take the call, I hate the fall" one. Oh God. grimace grimace.

and Wicked, dont get me started. I simply cannot stand those witch hunter songs or the "bridges you cross you didnt know you crossed until you crossed."

ARGH.

I like them both though, dont get me wrong :)

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 12:30pm

Too Darn Hot- Ok, I will give you those 2 shows, but not any of his other work.

[SirNotAppearing]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 12:33pm

I STILL don't get "the things I've done you blame me for" line.

[philly03]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 12:41pm

"jacob - wrong! he wrote A LOT of additional lyrics for both "Jekyll & Hyde" and "Victor/Victoria""
Wrong. He did write some lyrics for Victor/Victoria, but Frank wrote the majority of the BOOK for Jekyll, no more than a few verses for Jekyll as a whole...and speaking of:

"To kill outside St. Pauls
requires a lot of balls."
-Jekyll

"London has a killer on the loose!
Could be a gang!
Gotta get his head inside a noose!
The man, must hang!"
-Jekyll

"God, can you not feel the terror
like a fire in the air?!"
-Scarlet Pimpernel

'You know I'm right,
it's there in black and white,
when I look your way,
you'll hear what I say!"
-Sunset

"Starlight Express,
you must confess:
Are you real...yes or no?"
Catchy song but awful lyrics!

[MyLife]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 12:49pm

Blaming doesn't necessarily mean innocence. You stole my pencil, and I can't fin it so I blame you for it.

Thus the line says "I ask forgiveness for the things I have done to hurt you"

Schwartz could have said it in an easier way, but it makes sense and it sounds nice when sung.

And I like the "bridges you cross you didn't know you've crossed until you crossed." It makes complete sense if you break it up cross-by-cross. The onyl reason it bothers me it is because it is not something Glinda would ever think to say

[into_the_woods2]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 2:10pm

LOVE Legally Blonde, but hate the "Every time he looks at me it's totally proposal eyes, Omigod you Guys!" because proposal eyes is not a real thing

[Jade]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 2:13pm

From Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat:
"If my life were important I
Would ask will I live or die"
- It just feels like you have to take a breath in the wrong part of the sentence.

I think "That's the chip on my shoulder / I hugged my mom and told her..." (from Legally Blonde) is so bad it's almost good.

And finally, from Rent:
"Your eyes
As we said our goodbyes
Can't get them out of my mind
And I find I can't hide
From your eyes"
- The lyrics are so awkward and the rhymes are so forced.

[SirNotAppearing]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 2:23pm

"Your Eyes" is the worst song in that show, it's almost laughable.

"And I swear Angel was there -- and she looked GOOD! And she said, "Turn around, girlfriend, and listen to that boy's awful, cliched, painful song..."

[AvenueQResident]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 2:47pm

On the subject of Joseph:

"No ifs, no buts, Benjamin is honest as coconuts."

I don't know what possessed Tim Rice to write that...

[SirNotAppearing]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 2:53pm

"You will soon be free, old chap, so do not worry anymore
Soon the King will set you free, you'll butle as you did before"
(Wait, "butle"?)

"Joseph how can we ever say all that we want to about you
We're so glad that you came our way, we would have perished without you"
(Did Tim Rice just rhyme "you" with "you"?)

"Jacob, Jacob and sons, men of the soil, of the sheaf and crook
Jacob, Jacob and sons, a remarkable family in anyone's book"

"Jacob was the founder of a whole new nation
Thanks to the number of children he had
He was also known as Israel but most of the time
His sons and wives used to call him dad"
(Wait, his wives called him "dad"?)

[Weez]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 3:05pm

It's not uncommon, y'know. When I was a kid, everyone in my family called my dad Dad, even my mum. Now my sister's had a kid, we all refer to him as Grandad. I presume they may well have called him Jacob in the bedroom, but around the (probably remarkably huge) dinner table? Nothin' weird about "Dad".

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 3:13pm

If you can have Bette Davis eyes,
why not proposal eyes?

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 3:28pm

re: butle- Having seen the show multiple times, and being involved in a few productions, that line has always come out perfect. It is not a real word, Joseph knows it is not a real word, but it is the only word he can use to explain the butler's job. I think it is a perfect lyric if it is played right.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 3:31pm

SirNotAppearing: And it took Roger a year to write, at that!

"Chip on My Shoulder" really does have some bad ones. One of my favorites is "There's a chip on my shoulder / and it's big as a boulder."

And "What You Want"... Elle's dad's entire part. YIKES. They need a "button" counter.

[sondhead]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 4:13pm

"suicidalmickeymouse, what do you mean by "What's that supposed to mean?" The lyrics are pretty straightforward. "For" is mean to rhyme with "anymore" in the next line "And none of it seems to matter anymore." It might not be Schwartz best work, but I don't see anything wrong with it."

You really don't understand why that's terrible?

"The things I did you blame me for"

That doesn't make any kind of sense. Also terrible is

"Finally for this one night I'm about to have a fun night"
"Dancing through life, down at the ozdust, if only because dust is what we come to"
"As someone's told me lately..." <---GRAMMATICALLY INCORRECT

[SirNotAppearing]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 4:17pm

And you forgot "And I only wish there were something I could do for her to repay her."

Plus, basically all of "She's In Love" from Little Mermaid is a giant lump of retarded. It sounds like Glenn Slater was convinced to work in as many fish puns as possible.

[brochatkid]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 4:19pm

From Miss Saigon:

"Just like a chocolate eclair when you suck out the cream."

and

From Guys and Dolls:

"If I were a salad, I know I'd be splashing my dressing."

Weirdly, they both food related. They make me cringe for some reason.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 4:22pm

"It was pure...is it on the floor?"

WHAT? No. So painful.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 5:17pm

Isn't it "Fat, like a chocolate eclair"?

[myshikobit]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 5:50pm

Carrie: "Don't Waste The Moon"
"You, what a twisted mind
Don't you know that boys are going blind
cuz' they don't have someone who will lend a hand"

What can I say, one moment the show's genius, the next...

Funny Girl: "His Love Makes Me Beautiful"
"For better or for worse, oh promise me
Why does every bride shine radiantly?"

Why is this song such a dud in the middle of a pretty good show?

Rent: "You'll See"

This song just bugs me.

Smile: "Typical High School Senior"

[Weez]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 6:00pm

I'm not denying that 'Wicked' has some pretty awful lyrics, especially in 'Dancing Through Life', but really, guys.

"The things I did you blame me for"

It's poorly phrased, but it's not meaningless. I don't get how you don't get it. BWW lack of reading comprehension bug strikes again!

And as for 'Defying Gravity', the lyric is "as someone told me lately". Some Elphabas may sing "someone's", but for once we can't blame the lyricist.

[changinandhow]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 6:12pm

"As someone's told me lately..." <---GRAMMATICALLY INCORRECT

I've always heard that lyric sung as "as SOMEONE told me lately".
Updated On: 6/24/08 at 06:12 PM

[A Fleur De Toi]

Posted: 6/25/08 at 1:39am

Reading the lyrics of this thread makes me cringe ever so much more.

I remember one especially cringe-worthy one from Pippin (not sure if it was mentioned yet but...) - "Join us, leave your fields to flower; join us, leave your cheese to sour"

ARGH. I die everytime i hear that