Here's something you might be interested in.
I don't usually think about what I'll blog during the day. It isn't until right before I go to bed and I log onto the computer.
I was coming home from racquetball tonight, and some AM station was talking about the kid that had a tumor growing in his brain. And, it had a foot inside it.
But that didn't seem all that interesting to me. Once a year we hear about kids having body parts somewhere on them, from what would've been a Siamese twin.
Then I heard the Prince song Raspberry Beret. And it was an epiphany. I knew what I would blog about. Not that purple wearing midget with the goofy mustache. But that song. Say what you will about Prince, the cat can write a great pop tune.
And two lines in that song I especially like. He croons about working at a five-and-dime (do we really think he ever worked at a five-and-dime?) and he had a boss named "Mr. McGee." And a few lines later, he talks about putting a woman on the back of a bike (do we really think it was a woman he put on the back of his bike?)...and he rode past "old man Johnsons farm."
Are those guys real? I know it's a song, but Prince did something I love. He used names that DID NOT rhyme with the next line.
That seems like such a crutch for songwriters. And I hate it!
The Beatles, one of my favorite bands...they were the guiltiest at doing this. Michelle, my belle. Come on! Lovely Rita...yeah, because that's the only name that rhymed with "meter" (when pronounced "meta maid"). In Rocky Racoon, too many lame name rhymes to mention. The Beatles did get it right with another song on the white album...Martha, My Dear. That's perfection. Some might prefer Tom Waits "Martha" more. Not me.
The Doors are another of my favorites, but in Maggie M'Gill they sing: Maggie M'Gill/She lived on a hill/her daddy got drunk and left her no will....
I think a 5th grader could've written that.
If you use a womans name, do it like Elvis Costello in Allison. The next line doesn't rhyme with that. He sings "my aim is true." It's beautiful.
Rappers are notorious for using a womans name simply because it rhymes. Names that rhyme with 'ho are especially popular.
When KISS wrote Beth, I wonder if they first tried to rhyme anything with it. And when nothing worked, they said "Okay...let's start the song with her name: Beth, I know you're out there...."
I give a pass to early rock 'n roll songs. Buddy Holly yearning for Peggy Sue...it doesn't get better than that. Ditto for Chuck Berry yelling for Carol.
But by the 60s, I'd expect more. I don't want to hear about Suzi Q, just because she rhymes with "baby, I love you."
Ray Davies of the Kinks is one of the best songwriters ever. But Lola? Did he pick that because he could rhyme and spell it, with Cola?
Steve Winwood didn't write about women in all of his 60s bands (Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith). But in the 80s he gave us Valerie (it rhymed perfectly with "call on me").
More recently, we had Tom Petty singing about a "Last Dance with Mary Jane." Sure, Jane has a lot of rhymes that go with it. But the song was about pot, and "Mary Jane" is slang for that. He gets a pass.
I think Jane is used in a number of rock songs, although I can only think of "Jane Says" and a Jefferson Airplane tune at the moment.
Airplane also uses Sara...a name that Hall & Oates, Dylan, and Fleetwood Mac have used.
Sally is a name that has gotten a lot of shout-outs in song. She's been long and tall. She drove a Mustang.
I can't remember what Rufus Wainright and Velvet Underground described her as. I just know they mention her.
Weird names are always fun. And it usually means the person is real. It was years after the Knack hit with My Sharona, that we found out she was a real person (and looked good on the picture sleeve of the 45 I owned). Last I heard, she was selling houses in L.A.
In Suzanne Vega's song Luka, nothing rhymes with that. It makes me think that was probably really written about a kid that was abused.
Jenny was used so great in "Jenny Jenny" (the song more people know by the phone number for her: 867-5309). It was used horrible by Donovan, in the atrocious "Jennifer Juniper" (which I liked a bit more after hearing it used in the movie Election).
Jennifer Lopez used it in her "Jenny from the Block". Is there a worse line in a rap then: Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got/I'm still, I'm still Jenny from the block/I used to have a little, now I have a lot."
Paul Simon said in an interview that when he wrote Mrs. Robinson, with the line "where have you gone Joe DiMaggio" that Joe was upset. And that if he had his way, he would've used Mickey Mantle, since that was his favorite player. But it didn't have enough syllables. He's admitting right there, that that's what songwriters do. They pick names that suite them. And what would Rhymin' Simon have to go with Mantle? DiMaggio rhymed with the last line of "people love you more than you will know."
But what can you expect from a guy that sings about 50 ways to leave your lover, and then he only gives us 7 or 8?
I don't usually think about what I'll blog during the day. It isn't until right before I go to bed and I log onto the computer.
I was coming home from racquetball tonight, and some AM station was talking about the kid that had a tumor growing in his brain. And, it had a foot inside it.
But that didn't seem all that interesting to me. Once a year we hear about kids having body parts somewhere on them, from what would've been a Siamese twin.
Then I heard the Prince song Raspberry Beret. And it was an epiphany. I knew what I would blog about. Not that purple wearing midget with the goofy mustache. But that song. Say what you will about Prince, the cat can write a great pop tune.
And two lines in that song I especially like. He croons about working at a five-and-dime (do we really think he ever worked at a five-and-dime?) and he had a boss named "Mr. McGee." And a few lines later, he talks about putting a woman on the back of a bike (do we really think it was a woman he put on the back of his bike?)...and he rode past "old man Johnsons farm."
Are those guys real? I know it's a song, but Prince did something I love. He used names that DID NOT rhyme with the next line.
That seems like such a crutch for songwriters. And I hate it!
The Beatles, one of my favorite bands...they were the guiltiest at doing this. Michelle, my belle. Come on! Lovely Rita...yeah, because that's the only name that rhymed with "meter" (when pronounced "meta maid"). In Rocky Racoon, too many lame name rhymes to mention. The Beatles did get it right with another song on the white album...Martha, My Dear. That's perfection. Some might prefer Tom Waits "Martha" more. Not me.
The Doors are another of my favorites, but in Maggie M'Gill they sing: Maggie M'Gill/She lived on a hill/her daddy got drunk and left her no will....
I think a 5th grader could've written that.
If you use a womans name, do it like Elvis Costello in Allison. The next line doesn't rhyme with that. He sings "my aim is true." It's beautiful.
Rappers are notorious for using a womans name simply because it rhymes. Names that rhyme with 'ho are especially popular.
When KISS wrote Beth, I wonder if they first tried to rhyme anything with it. And when nothing worked, they said "Okay...let's start the song with her name: Beth, I know you're out there...."
I give a pass to early rock 'n roll songs. Buddy Holly yearning for Peggy Sue...it doesn't get better than that. Ditto for Chuck Berry yelling for Carol.
But by the 60s, I'd expect more. I don't want to hear about Suzi Q, just because she rhymes with "baby, I love you."
Ray Davies of the Kinks is one of the best songwriters ever. But Lola? Did he pick that because he could rhyme and spell it, with Cola?
Steve Winwood didn't write about women in all of his 60s bands (Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith). But in the 80s he gave us Valerie (it rhymed perfectly with "call on me").
More recently, we had Tom Petty singing about a "Last Dance with Mary Jane." Sure, Jane has a lot of rhymes that go with it. But the song was about pot, and "Mary Jane" is slang for that. He gets a pass.
I think Jane is used in a number of rock songs, although I can only think of "Jane Says" and a Jefferson Airplane tune at the moment.
Airplane also uses Sara...a name that Hall & Oates, Dylan, and Fleetwood Mac have used.
Sally is a name that has gotten a lot of shout-outs in song. She's been long and tall. She drove a Mustang.
I can't remember what Rufus Wainright and Velvet Underground described her as. I just know they mention her.
Weird names are always fun. And it usually means the person is real. It was years after the Knack hit with My Sharona, that we found out she was a real person (and looked good on the picture sleeve of the 45 I owned). Last I heard, she was selling houses in L.A.
In Suzanne Vega's song Luka, nothing rhymes with that. It makes me think that was probably really written about a kid that was abused.
Jenny was used so great in "Jenny Jenny" (the song more people know by the phone number for her: 867-5309). It was used horrible by Donovan, in the atrocious "Jennifer Juniper" (which I liked a bit more after hearing it used in the movie Election).
Jennifer Lopez used it in her "Jenny from the Block". Is there a worse line in a rap then: Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got/I'm still, I'm still Jenny from the block/I used to have a little, now I have a lot."
Paul Simon said in an interview that when he wrote Mrs. Robinson, with the line "where have you gone Joe DiMaggio" that Joe was upset. And that if he had his way, he would've used Mickey Mantle, since that was his favorite player. But it didn't have enough syllables. He's admitting right there, that that's what songwriters do. They pick names that suite them. And what would Rhymin' Simon have to go with Mantle? DiMaggio rhymed with the last line of "people love you more than you will know."
But what can you expect from a guy that sings about 50 ways to leave your lover, and then he only gives us 7 or 8?