worst rhyme ever

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 20 Nov 08 - 10:47 AM

Oh, Shenanikey Dah
He play the guitar
Outside the bazaar, bazaar, bazaar.
As he play the guitar
He smoke a cigar
And he laugh a da ha ha ha ha ha.

I'll get me Barbour . . .

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Peter T.
Date: 20 Nov 08 - 10:23 AM

And while one is parsing this, there are different elements to the bad rhyme problem. For instance, if you consider it as a problem based on the need to have the last word in the line rhyme with the last word of the previous line (or recent line), then badness (1) you could pick a crappy word; or badness (2) you could pick a good word, but in order to get to it, you have to create a phrase that is ungrammatical or clunky. I am usually much more unhappy about the second problem than about the first. I'm sure there are other badnesses people could name and illustrate......

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST,nick gourley
Date: 20 Nov 08 - 10:08 AM

my mother is black and my fathers on crack what are you on

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 12 Nov 06 - 11:27 PM

"He loves all the people no matter their races,
Hell he even had a hit country song with Julio Iglesias"
Bruce Robinson, with tongue firmly in cheek, in the song What Would Willie Do?
- Phil

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Genie
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 11:54 PM

McGrath, I think you've put your finger on the essence of "bad rhyme."

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Genie
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 11:52 PM

Yeah, it is regional.   Where I come from, depending on what week it is, "gone" may rhyme with "lawn" or "on," but "one" usually rhymes with "run."    Of course, in some areas in the southern US, "on" rhymes with "phone." LOL

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Chris Cole
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 05:39 PM

There's no beginning... There'll be no end 'cause on my love, you can depend. (love is all around me)

Yuck - makes me cringe every time

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 03:32 PM

Any kind of echo can serve as a rhyme well enough. The rhymes that really deserve to be called "bad rhymes" are those you get when, in an effort to achieve a perfect rhyme, a writer, distorts what they are saying in order to obtain that rhyme, in a poem that isn't intended to be humorous. In other words, bad rhymes are formally perfect rhymes which don't fit.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: KateG
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 01:20 PM

Snuffy,
For me (NE US of A) and possibly for Genie, "gone" rhymes with on, Don & Ron, but "one" rhymes with dun, bun, and run.

Actually the rhyme that I can't figure out is the old nursery rhyme:

"I love little pussy, her coat is so warm;
And if I don't hurt her, she'll do me no harm."

I've never been able to make that one work in my head except by pronouncing warm as if I were speaking German, but it might work in dialects other than mine.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Snuffy
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 08:46 AM

Ah, regional differences in pronunciation, Genie. For me both "one" and "gone" rhyme with "on", "Don", "Ron", etc. Do you rhyme "gone" with "lawn" or "morn" or what?

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 02:54 AM

I like Maurice Condie's Limerick:

There was a young lady from Bude,
Who went for a swim in a pond.
A man in a punt, stuck his pole in the water
And said "you can't swim here, it's private."

My boyfriend wrote a similarly amusing poem about his goldfish while he was at school that simply went:

                  Oh, wet pet.

That's a good rhyme though...

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Genie
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 02:37 AM

Ok, Snuffy, maybe I should have acknowledged "gone" and "one" as a half-rhyme, but it's part of the repeated REFRAIN.   (I still don't think it rhymes, but that's just me.)

The point was that once the repetitive refrain is established, the rest of the lines don't even try to rhyme, yet the song still has very regular patterns.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 07:18 PM

one of my all time favourites,


from,'The Bacon Butty'(written by Fred McCormick)


And to the ones who daily toil
In sandwich bar and kitchen
To serve in cellophane and foil
Our modest lives enriching.

Well washed and free from gangarine
I bless the tender hand which
Spreads thick, and fast, the margarine,
Upon the bacon sandwich.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Snuffy
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 03:38 PM

"Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" is an example of one of those songs that uses pattern repetition and "refrain" repetition but not rhyme.   Highly structured lyrics with no rhymes at all.

No rhyme?

Where have all the xxxxxxxxx gone
Gone to xxxxxxxxxx every one

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Genie
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 01:55 PM

"Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" is an example of one of those songs that uses pattern repetition and "refrain" repetition but not rhyme.   Highly structured lyrics with no rhymes at all.

Now, if we're broadening the topic to include other kinds of bad lyrics, I nominate the song "Rose Garden" (sung by Lynne Anderson).   An especially atrocious collection of piled-on clichés and cheap pointless rhyme is this part:

You'd better look before you leap;   
Still waters run deep
And I won't be there to pull you out,
And I know what I'm talking about ...

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 09:02 AM

High in the sky floats the neocon castles.
raining prayers and bombs from its ego strong ass holes.

-excerpt from the Sack of Baghdad-

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 08:08 AM

Where have all the flowers gone? Arrgh. [By sheer luck they are now far, far away.]

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: DoctorJug
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 06:58 AM

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one.
Perhaps one day you'll join us
And the world will live as one.

True genius.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Genie
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 04:38 AM

Was that ever in doubt, Guest, dear? ;)

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 02:36 AM

A St—r Mo Chro'

A st—r mo chro', when you're far away
From the home you will soon be leaving
'Tis many a time by night and by day
Your heart will be sorely grieving
The stranger's land may be bright and fair
And rich in its treasures golden
You'll pine, I know, for the land long ago
And the love that is never olden


A Walk in the Irish Rain

When the sun goes down o'er Dublin town,
The colours last for hours, oh.
The lights come on, the night's a song,
And the streets all turn to gold.
A gentle mist all heaven kissed,
Like teardrops off an angel's wing.
Don't you know you'll cleanse your soul,
With a walk in the Irish rain.
Chorus:
Oh, Katherine, take my hand,
I've got three pounds and change.
And I'll sing you songs of love again.
And when I get too drunk to sing,
We'll walk in the Irish rain.


Adieu to Lovely Garrison

Adieu to you Bundoran
With your beauty spread far and wide.
Your lovely strand, both gay and grand,
Washed by the Atlantic tide.
In the summertime the strangers come
Some pleasure for to see.
But alas it grieves me to the heart
To be far away from thee.

Just to show that we Irish are well in the race when it comes to banality and bad verse.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 02:23 AM

JUBILATION T. CORNPONE
Lil' Abner : The Musical (1956)
(Gene De Paul / Johnny Mercer)
Stubby Kaye - 1956


When we fought the Yankees and annihilation was near,
Who was there to lead the charge that took us safe to the rear?
Why it was Jubilation T. Cornpone;
Old "Toot your own horn - pone."
Jubilation T. Cornpone, a man who knew no fear!

When we almost had 'em but the issue still was in doubt,
Who suggested the retreat that turned it into a rout?
Why it was Jubilation T. Cornpone;
Old "Tattered and torn - pone."
Jubilation T. Cornpone, he kept us hidin' out!

With our ammunition gone and faced with utter defeat,
Who was it that burned the crops and left us nothing to eat?
Why it was Jubilation T. Cornpone;
Old "September Morn - pone."
Jubilation T. Cornpone, the pants blown off his seat!

and so on..

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Genie
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 01:11 AM

Guest rr, I'd say it's rap music more than pop that overuses the lazy "-ation" rhymes.

"Dave the gnome, this from the Turtles is an excellent example:
Eleanor, gee, I think you're swell
and you realy do me well.
You're my pride and joy et cet'ra."

But you left off the most groan-worthy part: in the ending of that verse they rhymed "et cet'ra" with "better!"

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST,Anonymous Evil
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 12:27 AM

GOAT-HERD........

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 06 Nov 06 - 11:19 PM

Barbara quoted Tom Lehrer:

    I love her and she loves me
    And happy are the both of we

And leeneia wrote,

    Whether he's spoofing or not, Barbara, you're right that that is an awful rhyme.

But you know the very next couplet in that song is

   I love her and she loves I
   And will for all eternity

With "eternity" pronounced to rhyme with "I".

Of course, Lehrer has a lot of excruciating rhymes:

    When the air becomes uranious/We will all go simultaneous

    The druggist on the corner, he/Was never mean or ornery

He rhymes "funeral" with a piece of "sooner or later".

    Everybody say his own/Kyrie Eleison

    These are all the ones of which the news has come to Harvard
    There may be many others but they haven't been discovered

    Plagiarize!/Let no one else's work evade your eyes!

    While we're attacking frontally/Watch Brinkley and Huntley/Describing contrapuntally

And so on. Well, you could call them all awful, but since the songs are supposed to be comical, I'd rather call them awful good.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Nov 06 - 02:26 PM

And nobody

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Nov 06 - 12:49 PM

John Milton on rhyme:

... rime being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre; graced indeed since by the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse, than else they would have expressed them.

Not without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rime both in longer and shorter works, as have also long since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings—a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good oratory.

This neglect then of rime so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of riming.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST,grr
Date: 06 Nov 06 - 11:49 AM

Anything in pop music which lazily uses the end-syllables "-ation".

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Nov 06 - 11:41 AM

"RHYME: The repetition of similar or duplicate sounds at regular intervals, usually the repetition of the terminal sounds of words at the end of lines of verse....

Verse has not always made use of rhymes, and some poets (eg Milton) have spoken against it; nevertheless, rhyme is one of the most persistent of poetic devices. It calls attention to the word as sound, which we enjoy form its own sake, as opposed to the word as conveyor of meaning. It also functions as a marker, signalling the end of a rhythmical unit.

When a rhythmical and rhetorical unit coincide, the rhyme reinforces their correspondence; when they do not, the rhyme establishes in the mind of the reader an interaction between them."

From a readers Guide to Literary Terms, Beckson and Ganz, Thames and Hudson 1961)

Can't say fairer than that...

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST,SqueezeMe
Date: 06 Nov 06 - 08:37 AM

Used to play in an Aussie bush band who opened their show with a song containing the immortal lines:

"We play our music to entertain ya
The songs and music of Austra-ya"

Shear poetry!

MC

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: leeneia
Date: 06 Nov 06 - 08:02 AM

Whether he's spoofing or not, Barbara, you're right that that is an awful rhyme.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Barbara
Date: 06 Nov 06 - 12:35 AM

Tom Lehrer:
"I love her and she loves me
And happy are the both of we"

Of course he is spoofing Gilbert and Sullivan's style. It's from the song where he sings "Clementine " in the manner of a number of famous composers.

Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: leeneia
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 11:08 PM

From "As we march-ed down to Fenario" --

I love you most of all, Captain Willie-o,
I love you most of all, Captain Willie-o,
I love you most of all, but your fortune is too small.
I'm afraid that my mother would be angry-o.

Eh?

I have folk-processed this abject lack of rhyme to a merely clumsy rhyme by changing Willie to Danny. How much you wanna bet it was Danny originally?

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: johnross
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 10:57 PM

From "The State of Illinois"
(or as it appears in Sandburg's "American SOngbag," El-a-noy)

Away up in the northward,
Right on the border line,
A great commercial city,
Chicago, you will find.
Her men are all like Abelard,
Her women like Heloise;
All honest, virtuous people,
For they live in Illinois.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: JennieG
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 09:31 PM

I'm with Genie above - I reckon Leonard Cohen's rhymes in 'Hallelulia' are execrable. They make me grit my teeth and flinch whenever I hear them.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST,frogprod
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 07:47 PM

well, the words all seem to refer to weather and nature, so I presume it refers to temperature rather than police... and, come to think of it, there is at least one very bad rhyme in there - "clouds" and "sound"... it's from A HORSE WITH NO NAME

On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 07:13 PM

Unless "the heat" meant "the police". (I'm not saying it does in that line, since I don't know the context - but sometimes words aren't that straightforward.)

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: GUEST,frogprod
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 07:02 PM

on the subject of America's lyrics: while it has nothing to do with rhyme, it IS one of the worst lines of all time - "the heat was hot"

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 06:49 PM

McGonigal has already been mentioned. That should have killed the thread....

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: curmudgeon
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 11:37 AM

Tequila Sheila by Shel Silverstein --

"I never thought you were a squeeler,
Sheiler"

Linn (Bat Goddess) forgot to change from Tom's cookie and don't have time now

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 11:06 AM

Several distinct reason why people say somethings a "bad rhyme".

One is where the words in question just don't rhyme. But sometimes this criticism is misplaced, because in English there are a wide variety of varieties of rhyme, and the "perfect rhyme" is only one of these - and not always the best one to use.

A too perfect and predictable rhyme can in fact come across as trite. And in fact some of the examples of "bad rhymes" offered up in this thread fall into that category - perfect but trite.

And there are perfect rhymes which are in a way the opposite of that - they are so unexpected they come across as forced and over artificial. Which is OK as a comic device, but lianbkle to be disastrous in other contexts.

And there are rhymes which work in some accents/dialects, but not in the one used by the critic. (I'd say that "warrior" and "bore ya" probably fall that category, since many Americans do seem to pronounce "warrior" as "wore-ya" where the English would say worr-ya.)
..................
One way of getting away with a rhyme using an unusual word, when you don't want it to sound comic, is to use the unusual word first, and the common word as the rhyme, rather than the other way round.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Flash Company
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 10:54 AM

Johnnie Mercer was responsible for this one, so politically incorrect you couldn't sing it now:-

The other girls can go to Europe, and mix in high society,
And they can wed a Count or Marquis,
Or a Russian, or a darky,
But when I get married, and settle in Brooklyn,
He may be a hobo, a hick or a rueben,
But he has to be a Cuban!

FC

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 09:57 AM

From my song "Cowardly Act":

The truth would surely challenge the most bizarre criteria –
That cow'd been rustled by Russians from her pasture in Siberia.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 09:14 AM

Both from the Turtles - although I do believe they did it on purpose. Or should that be on porpoise? Oh , never mind.

I realy think you're groovy
Lets go out to a movie

further along

Your lips intoxicate me
even though your folks hate me

and, the chorus. Not strictly a rhyme but the worse example of fitting a meter in badly

Elenor, gee, I think your swell
and you realy do me well
you're my pride and joy etcetera

They don't write 'em like that any more.

:D (tG)

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Darowyn
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 09:07 AM

Oops- it's "She Loves You" not "I want to Hold Your Hand"
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Tom Hamilton frae Saltcoats Scotland
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 06:54 AM

this is about Scots whisky


Leave Us Our Glens
       (George Donald / Buff Hardie)
       I love Scotland's glens, and whatever else we lose
       Please leave us our glens, our glorious glens
       Our mountains as grand, Ben Nevis, Ben Lomond too
       You can have all those bens, but leave us our glens
       Glenfiddich, Glendronach, Glenlivet, Glen Grant
       Can you do without them? If you must know, I can't
       Put a drop in the glass of Glen Spey or Glen Drotter
       It's a perfectly bearable way to drink water
       I'd willingly lose our culture, or most of it
       Including that mess they call 'full Highland dress'
       With the whole ethnic bit of haggis and Hogmanay
       I'd gladly dispense, but leave us our glens
       Glenfiddich, Glendronach, Glenlivet, Glen Fall
       I once knew a man who had sampled them all
       Glenisla, Glenugie, Glenkinchie, that's plenty
       He looked sixty-five, but in fact he was twenty
       Take our Highlands scottische, take our marches, strathspeys and reels
       Take our old Scottish waltz, but leave us our malts
       You can take, if you wish, our ladies' conveniences
       And our gentlemen's - but leave us our glens
       Glenfiddich, Glendronach, Glenlivet, Glenfyne
       Was great at communion when we ran out of wine
       Glenisla, Glenugie, Glenkinchie, Glenmorangie
       I prefer them to Quantro which I find too orangey
       Oh breathe there a Scot whose aims and priorities
       When laid on the line, are different from mine
       Take our homes, take our jobs, take anything else you will
       Wife, family and friends, but leave us our glens
       (as sung by Iain MacKintosh)

      Susanne´s Folksong-Notizen
       [1987:] Buff Hardie (lyrics), George Donald (music). Written in 1975.
       (Hardie / Robertson / Donald, Scotland the What? Collected sketches and
       songs, Gordon Wright Publ., Edinburgh)
       [1995:] Glenmorangie [...] has a special kind of floweriness, a delicate
       yet unmistakeable fragrance, that I find extremely attractive. It is
       bottled at 70°, ten years old, and [...] is what I would call an all-
       purpose whisky. It is equally good as a pre- prandial and as a post-
       prandial drink, and I confess I have drunk it at many other times as
       well. There is a Glenmorangie which I have drunk at the distillery which
       is older and more full- bodied than that which is available bottled,
       possessing more richness and less delicacy than the latter. It goes for
       blending, of course [...].
       At its best, Smith's Glenlivet combines a teasing subtlety of flavour
       with a distinctive 'nose' and fullness. These are not always
       sufficiently in evidence when bottled too young, but the firm's own
       bottling, twelve years old at 80°, gives one everything that could be
       desired in this noble whisky. I have tasted a Glenlivet put in cask in
       1941 and bottled (by Berry Brothers & Rudd) in 1958, and the only note
       on it which I entered in my whisky scrap- book after the first glass was
       simply 'a superb whisky'. But later experience of comparing different
       ages and proofs leads me to believe that additional age over twelve
       years does not add all that much in quality and (within limits, of
       course) a twelve- year- old at a higher proof tastes better than an
       older whisky at a lower proof. But the twelve- year- old is decidedly
       better than anything younger. [...]
       How does Glenlivet compare with Glen Grant? In general character they
       are not dissimilar: each has that smooth integration of peatiness,
       softness and full sweetness (or almost sweetness) that needs age to
       bring it out. Like Glenlivet, Glen Grant is conspicuously better at ten
       or, better still, twelve years old than at, say, five (and it is
       available at five years old). There is a sharpness about a young Glen
       Grant that belies its true potential. [...] A well- matured Glen Grant
       has a splendid smoothness: it is not, perhaps, such a complexly
       patterned whisky in the combination of 'nose', taste and after- taste
       that is found in Glenlivet at its best, being a more single- minded
       whisky, as it were. [...]
       Glenfiddich [...] has a pleasing dry fragrance [...]. Glenkinchie, which
       so far as I know is not available as a single whisky but of which I have
       a sample bottle from an Edinburgh blending firm [...] is a very
       agreeable whisky, slightly sweeter and perhaps just a trifle sharper
       than Rosebank. (Daiches, Scotch Whisky. Its Past and Present 170ff)
       [1998:] Written for 'Scotland the What?' 'Glen Drotter' is probably a
       made up name in order to get the rhyme. (Pr. comm., ICM)

Quelle: Scotland
   L-Index

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Darowyn
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 06:49 AM

I don't think that anyone should whinge about what I call regional rhymes. Rhyming mirror with beer would be terrible if I did it, but if it was a song from say Kentucky or Tennessee, it would probably be a genuine rhyme. You'd prbably get away with rhyming squirrel with girl too.
In "I want to hold your hand", the Beatles rhyme "I think it's only fair" with "apologise to her". That is a true rhyme in Liverpool to this day.
In my own house, my wife Wendy could rhyme book with spook, where coming from the opposite side of the Pennines, I would rhyme book with luck.
I add my disdain for Neil Diamond's "brang", and as an example of the way in which perfect rhyming can be destructive and unintentionally comic, Billy Braggs lines go:-
"I've always heard it said that love is based on understanding,
Until that's true you'll find your stuff all stacked out on the landing "
(Actually it might not be entirely unintentional here)
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Declan
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 05:31 AM

It never rains in California,
but girl let me warn ya

I once wrote a song that never saw the light of day about a particular night out in Dublin. There was a very drunken man reciting "poetry" on the night in question. The verse went something like:

"The poet was stretched out all over the table,
To recite his poetry, he barely was able,
His poem spoke of women, It seems he'd his bed full,
I quite liked his verse, but his rhyming was dreadful"

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Genie
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 01:44 AM

It just occurred to me today that one of my favorite CCR songs has this 'rhyming' gem:

Dinosaur Victrola
Listening to Buck Owens ...


Yup, that rhymes! LOL

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Genie
Date: 20 Sep 06 - 12:13 PM

Yeah, snuffy, they could've at least tried to work in a word like "gasket" instead. ;)

Of course, the vocabularily-stumped* would-be rhymer can always fall back on the clever device used by many a troubadour and by Paul Simon in "Mrs. Robinson":

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.
Jesus loves you more than you should know
Oh oh oh

What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Joltin Joe has left and gone away
Hey hey hey.

I actually love this song, including that sort of 'cheap rhyme', but it probably only works in a song that's a bit tongue-in-cheek.


*OK, I made that word up. Sue me.

Subject: RE: worst rhyme ever
From: Snuffy
Date: 20 Sep 06 - 09:12 AM

If we're going by the standard that it's the use of a completely inappropriate word in the context solely because it rhymes which makes the rhyme crap, then this must qualify as one of MacColl's less glorious efforts:

The old ways are passing and soon will be gone
And progress is aye a big factor
It's sent to afflict us and when they evict us
They tow us away wi a tractor

As for rhyming "platic with "baskets", any comment of mine would be superfluous.

Farewell to the blossom and besoms of broom
Farewell tae the creels and the baskets
The folk of today would far rather pay
For a thing that is made oot o plastic

I don't think either of these were intentionally bad, but even the greatest writers have their off days.