One of the things, one of the many things I liked about the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team was that they always made their rhymes work. In Eleanor Rigby they rhyme, “where a wedding has been” with “lives in a dream”. Been is pronounced “bean” which is the way it should sound with two “E”s. We Americans pronounce it bin. It bothers me when a songwriter rhymes “again” with pain or train but pronounces it “agen” the way Johnny Cash does in Highwayman. Again does rhyme with pain and train but Americans pronounce it as agen. The word is A- GAIN. The word gain rhymes with pain and train and rain why does the word again rhyme with friend? The Doors at least rhymed it with “end”, which works, sort of.
I’m tired of hearing that poetry doesn’t have to rhyme. The reason poetry “doesn’t have to rhyme” is because a lot of the world’s great poetry was written in languages other than English and the true beauty of poetry is the thought and emotion within it not the rhyming scheme. We sacrifice the rhymes for the meaning and feeling the poet was trying to convey when it’s translated into English but it’s no excuse for lazy songwriters to not even bother trying to use real rhymes when writing in English. Of course there are some great songs that have little or no rhymes in them at all. America by Paul Simon and the Journey song, Lights, written by Steve Perry and Neal Schon are two beautiful songs with barely a rhyming word in them and you don’t even notice it.
Friday Funnies
Hey - Is this a rhyme?
ReplyDelete"Every night my friends go out and they get some
Here I am sitting all alone and getting none"
Is that close enough? It works for me because I sing the word "numb" instead of the written "none". Get it? "Here I am sitting all alone and getting numb!" That could have several meanings. Do I really get numb? Is my mind getting numb from boredom, or is it my wanker getting numb from over-yanking? That's for the listener to figure out.
I got a million like this. I love looking at peoples' eyes when I sing this kind of prose to them. I can tell it affects them.
Thicken and sicken will rhyme with chicken,
ReplyDeleteAnd fork will rhyme with pork.
A leaf of thyme, with beef will rhyme,
But nuttin’ rhymes with mutton.
© John Langdon 2012