Sunday, December 21, 2008

Prose Songs from the 90's

Songs that rhyme suck.

It's a bold statement, and a half truth because there are plenty of songs I like that do happen to have words in it that rhyme. But still, when was the last time you actually heard a song that didn't rhyme and was in prose and still sounded lyrical? It always seems like songs that rhyme are forced to complete the rhyme scheme and verse, which usually stretches songwriters' lyrics capabilities to the extreme so that one stupid word will rhyme with the previous line's word, and still make sense without decreasing your intelligence when you listen to it. I've always thought Donald Fagen does a good job of writing lyrics without them sounding forced, gimmicky, or like a stream-of-consciousness deal.
But there are god-awful auditory abominations that you like, but you openly admit the song is plain idiotic by its lyrics. Jimmy's Chicken Shack "Do Right" is a pretty good example of words put together to create a song that's saved only by the repetitive and monotonous chorus. But Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy" is the perfect example of terrible song that makes no sense with its infantile rhyme scheme.
But there is one song that's even WORSE.
Black Eye Peas' "My Hump." "My hump, my hump my hump my hump my hump my hump my hump, my lovely lady lumps." According to Will Ferrell, "No one knows what it means, but it's provocative!"

I've only heard a few, but they always jut out in my mind, and I'm trying to find out if there are more songs out there like this from the 80's and 90's. So far I have:
Days of the New "The Down Town"
Temple of the Dog "Hunger Strike"
Better than Ezra "In the Blood"
Tonic "If You Could Only See"
Suzanne Vega "Tom's Diner"
Spacehog "In the Meantime" (it barely rhymes)
Nirvana "Man Who Sold the World"
Collective Soul "Listen"
Counting Crows "Mr. Jones"
John Cougar Mellencamp "Key West Intermezzo"
Paula Cole "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?"
Everclear "I Will Buy You a New Life"
Del Amitria "Roll to Me"
Fuel "Shimmer"
Pearl Jam "Evenflow"
Pearl Jam "Jeremy"
Beck "New Pollution"
Smashing Pumpkins "Tonight, Tonight"
Soundgarden "Blackhole Sun" (Nonsensical song)
Stone Temple Pilots "Plush"
Cake "Sheep Go to Heaven"
Crash Test Dummies "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Crystal Waters "Gypsy Woman"
Green Day "Brain Stew"
INXS "New Sensation"
Jane's Addiction "Jane Says"
Korn "Got the Life"
Megadeth "Mechanix"
Oingo Boingo "Same Man I Was Before"
Oingo Boingo "Out of Control"
Oingo Boingo "Wild Sex (In the Working Class)"

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Please note that Marcy Playground never had another hit (if you can call "Sex and Candy" a hit, in the first place).

Unknown said...

Heh, I could do another post of the dumbest songs known to humankind, and that one would definitely be up there.

 
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