Lyrics that strike you as odd or disgust you- Page 3

[backwoodsbarbie]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 3:47pm

^I agree that the songwriting is nothing to scoff at but I find the lyrics offensive because they're blasphemous. I about fell off the treadmill when I first heard the song.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 3:58pm

Kad, re the conflagration on Anne's arm:

Jerry Herman was maintaining a rhyme scheme that crosses several stanzas when he used conflagration. Other matching lines in the song:

Life is a celebration with you on my arm.
Walking's a new sensation with you on my arm...

We start a conflagration that's cause for alarm...
I've found a combination that works like a charm...

There's lots to ridicule in Jerry's various lyrics (see my entry way above) but this word seems well-chosen to me.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 4:02pm

Going back to the stupid Nessa, confess-a line, shouldn't it be, "I have something to confess, the reason why..."? I mean, there really is only one reason he asked her. It's not like he had planned on it before Guh-linda suggested it.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 4:04pm

temms, thanks for your post on behalf of Cole Porter's sneaking gay slang into "You're the Top" way back in 1934.

It would be thrilling if there were a poster out there who could actually confirm for us that "top" and "bottom" were current terms for gay roleplay in 1934 or not. (Something tells me they were.)

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 4:25pm

Hasa Diga Eebowai also bothers me. I heard about it before I saw the show and thought I would be ok with it when seeing it but, although the tune is catchy, I just don't care for the lyrics. And I have a very good sense of humor.

Also those lyics from "For Good". I also feel it is like a backhanded apology.

[nettajean]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 4:51pm

Avenue Q - The very last line Rod sings in "My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada"...
"And I can't wait to eat her hmmhmm again"
Makes me cringe every time.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 5:02pm

charlesjguiteau-

I do see that, and yes, from a technical standpoint the word is a good choice. But I feel like Herman's penchant for being clever still got the better of him in that instance. It's just not a word people often use (I can't really recall ever coming across it otherwise). It's not as bad as Nellie Forbush using "bromidic", for instance, but still.

[quizking101]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 5:34pm

"The nuns were nice and nunny..."
(Invisible - WOTV)

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 5:43pm

I also can't stand the lyric "you'll be with me like a hand print on my heart". It makes me think of Elphaba cutting her chest open, taking Glinda's hand, forcing it into red paint, then smacking her hand on her open heart. It disturbs me
From Women on the Verge- "In a helmet of telephone wire" and "the cobwebs in your head turn into razor wire". Odd lyrics, but I LOVE them. I think the lyrics from this show are just so beautiful and poetic.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 5:51pm

bwayphreak, In fact Schwartz's original lyric instead of "handprint on my heart" was "FOOTPRINT on my heart!!" According to the book "Defying Gravity" it was Winnie Holtzman who suggested the switch.

[Katia2]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 6:22pm

EVA: Did you hear that? They called me a whore! They actually called me a whore!
ADMIRAL: But, signora Peron, it's an easy mistake- I'm still called an admiral- yet I gave up the sea long ago!

Hate that we're supposed to laugh at that.

[AngusN]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 6:38pm

In 'I Know It's Today' in Shrek when Fiona sings 'Though I seem a bit bipolar...a very gifted bowler' ARGH! The dreadful rhyme makes me feel ill.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 8:01pm

I could understand a person
If it's not a person's bag.
I could understand a person
If a person was a fag.

[PitPro2004]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 8:55pm

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I'm glad it exists because there is a relevant issue that has been driving me mad for years now.

When Les Mis first came out and the music was made into vocal arrangements, every single "Jon-Benet Ramsey" wannabe for 300 miles would show up at banquets singing "I Dreamed a Dream". And every single time I saw this, the bile rose to the back of my throat.

Wth is a 6 year old child doing singing a lyric such as "he took my childhood in his stride"??? Dear god, it was like a Toddler in Tiara singing to the pedophiles in the room! Subject matter like that, despite the fact that I am sure the children had no idea what they were singing about (or maybe they did??), should NEVER have come from their lips. I can't listen to that song sung today by an age appropriate actress onstage performing it for this very reason.

A note to all the parents out there; if you are hell bent on shoving your kid into show business, please pick more age appropriate material to sing in public.

Thanks! Ah...I feel better now.

[raker]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 10:02pm

Sondheim revised that verse. It's now this:

I could understand a person,
if he said to go away.
I could understand a person,
if he happened to be gay.

[raker]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 10:05pm

"Truman Capote's balls."

Applause

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 10:09pm

the phrase "unexpected song" bothers me. I don't know why.

Also, I don't really know what the context of the song was, but "You need someone who's older" strikes me as weird from "You're Just In Love."

[TheLadyoftheWood]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 11:31pm

@bwayphreak234 I had to go back and listen to my Women on the Verge Cd in order to notice those to lines. The first one "In a helmet of telephone wire," might be giving you grief because it sounds like he is saying "helmet," but he isn't. He is actually saying "In a hell made of telephone wire." That makes more sense since, Pepa throws her phone out of the window and the telephone booths are a big part of the central plot. The second line I can't help you with though, sorry.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 11:35pm

raker, Yeah I always hated that Sondheim changed that fag lyric into something so banal and politically correct. To me, the fag line always sounded exactly like what those girls would have said to eachother in 1969, however unpleasant it sounded to our ears. Isn't a lyric supposed to be all about character, not political correctness?

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 11:39pm

Theladyofthewood- that would make a lot more sense the lyrics don't give me grief at all, they're just different, but I love them. Probably some of my favorite lyrics in a new musical.

Posted: 6/21/11 at 11:48pm

CharlesGuiteau--remember the lyric change was made initially for the revision that moved Company up once again to the "present day" which in this case was 94 or 95 or so. That said, even most productions that bring it back to the 70s usually keep the revised lyric, but of course the term would make more sense from those women in 1970, although many modern audiences could hear it as more mean spirited than it's meant to be (I guess it's nto the same thing, but it does remind me of all the probs they've had changing the opening use of the N word in Show Boat).

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 6/21/11 at 11:56pm

Good point, Eric. On the use of n****r in Showboat, you've really gotta respect that Oscar Hammerstein deliberately repeated the n-word dozens of times in his libretto and lyrics back in 1927. He knew it was a word you'd never hear in a Broadway musical, and realized how shocking it would be for his audience then, just as it would be to us listening today. How smart Hal Prince was in his 1994 revival to restore the n-word back to its rightful dangerous place in that score. I'd love to hear if anyone who saw that show was offended or thought it was the wrong choice.

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 6/22/11 at 12:02am

In "Real Live Girl", there's a line "just when I started to learn how to knit", which is just so random. The next line has something about being "in stitches", but the wordplay is not justified when the previous lyric sounds so random.

In Spring Awakening (I could quote the whole show if we're discussing bad lyrics) "we'll take that silver magic, and we'll aim it at the wall". Is "silver magic" supposed to be semen? Why are they aiming it at the wall? That's kind of disgusting.

I always find the line in Les Miz "...and mine's Javert. Do not forget me. Do not forget my name" (or whatever it is) to be so awkward. It's like Javert is doing a cheesy line delivery to the audience saying that he's an important character. How does he know that he's going to meet Jean Valjean again?

In "Steal Your Rock and Roll" from Memphis, I can't stand the line "love it with your feet" because, first of all, it's just an awkward thing that people don't say, and second, the line would make some sense if the show were about dancing, but it's all about singing. This line has no meaning. I suppose "love it with your mouth" sounds dirty and "love it with your vocal chords" is too many syllables.

[bossbear062]

Posted: 6/22/11 at 12:24am

I can't stand the "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah's" From "I am the one" in Next to Normal...just does not fit and sounds forced..IMO

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/22/11 at 12:25am

charlesjguiteau, did Hal Prince restore it for the 94 revival? I don't have it with me to verify, but I'm pretty sure that on the cast recording it's "colored folk". I honestly can't remember what they were saying when I saw the tour (when Cloris Leachman and I think Dean Jones were playing Parthy and Captain Andy).