Search This Blog

Thursday, December 14, 2006

#268: Lazy Rhyming

When lyrics in a song use the same word as the rhyme. Example is Black Sabbath's War Pigs which has the line "Generals gathered in their masses/Just like witches at black masses." In this case, though the word mass is used in two different ways, it's still a rhyme of the same word which I think is cheating. Severity: 1

2 comments:

Vicki Stockton said...

As usual, so true. I've always hated that song "What if God was One of us" due to the insipid lyrics. Not only are they incredibly simplistic (like a poem I would have written in 1st grade) but also break the cardinal rule you mention about repeating a word and passing it off as a rhyme.

"What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on the bus...trying to make his way home."

Oh, and another thing: since when did "Home" rhyme with BUS????? There were some other options left...cuss, fuss, truss. It could have gone:

""What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on the bus...whose name is Russ."

Marc Schoenfeld said...

Great example vicki. I actually had trouble remembering my own example, but yours is great because it's also a song I hate, while I like the Sabbath song I use. I can't believe the "slob" line! I never realized that was the lyric and I thought you were making a joke, and now see it's real. The only defense to the lazy rhyming might be that they weren't trying to rhyme at all, but were repeating the same word twice for some other effect.