Heard at FSGW Getaway 2003, and still squirrelling...

"I know a song that annoys everybody and this is how it goes...."

I think that not only must the words grammatically link the tail to the head, but the music is somehow "canonical" or "irresolute" or something, because when these songs are really effective at being ouroborian (ah neology and the livin' tongue!) there is no place in the tune to logical resolve it. I don't *know* but I suspect that they "end" (insofar as you can say they "end"!) on a leading tone that pressures the singer and auditor to keep going.

Just another $0.02 fwiw.

V