On That Note: Busted Rhymes

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CycloneRulzzz

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RoseClone

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Take your pick :)

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doing it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin' for a new friend
A man in the coonskin cap, in the pig pen
Wants eleven dollar bills, you only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin' that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone's tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the D.A. Look out kid
Don't matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don't tie no bows
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

Oh, get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Hang bail, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail
Look out kid
You're gonna get hit
But losers, cheaters
Six-time users
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin' for a new fool
Don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters

Oh, get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance
Learn to dance, get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don't steal, don't lift
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don't want to be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles
 
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cyclones500

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Low-hanging fruit and I wouldn’t look to this track for high-concept poetry, but it has at least one mega-forced rhyme. Majority of lines are basic unforced like dope/cope, cover/lover, but then:

You kept persisting that I meet your parents
They’re going to love my appearance

 
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cyclones500

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Category: Breaking consistency

Whimsical story with consistent rhyming throughout (Illinois/oh boy; cartwheels/high heels) but a definite sore thumb:

“A dinosaur Victrola/Listening to Buck Owens”



("Sets in” and “singin’” rhyme is iffy, too, but less noticeable.)
 
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cyclones500

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Category: Rhyming a word with itself

I still dig the song, but two occurrences (one of them in the chorus, so we hear it multiple times)

It’s falling all around us
Is this some kind of joke they’re trying to pull on us?

also:
The tabloid generation's lost, choking on its fear
Used to be that's all we had to fear
--> Either I read or dreamed the intended lyric was “choking on its BEER” -- which would be more creative.




(At least the rhyming isn’t forced!)
 

cyclones500

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This cut is full of playful/silly lines & rhymes -- they had the audacity to rhyme “primavera” with “Geraldo Rivera” … but tried too hard (or not hard enough) here:

I brought her upstairs onto the roof
I dogged your wife and she is a doofus

 

Farnsworth

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Forced and Lazy

Havana, ooh na-na (ayy)
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh na-na
He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na, ah
All of my heart is in Havana
There's somethin' 'bout his manners
Havana, ooh na-na


 
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cyclones500

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Bob stretches lyrical and rhyming limits in plenty of songs, but I can make it only about to the 4th verse of this before it becomes super-distracting...

When someone attacks your imagination
But nobody has any respect
Anyway they already expect you
To all give a check
To tax-deductible charity organizations

*He’s loosely rhyming “imagination” with “organizations” -- syllables don’t match; imagination and organizations, one is singular, other plural. And the tax-deductible line never seems to end.

 
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cyclones500

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Doesn't quite rhyme. And how many songs have the word "moot" in them anyway?

You know I feel so dirty when they start talking cute
I wanna tell her that I love her but the point is probably moot



Good one -- although maybe it's best it doesn't rhyme, at least he didn't say "point is probably MUTE." :)
 
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