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| A rhyming binomial |
ORIGINAL SONG: "The Elements", Tom Lehrer, 1959.
PARODY COMPOSED: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015. This song is the fifth of nine in the series on Word-Pairs. You can find the links to the lyrics of the previous songs at the bottom of the post. Also, our prior exploration of this theme resulted in a lexicon of rhyming binomials on this site as displayed here.
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| Most binomial pairs are not rhyming |
The inherent music of language is an important element in the toolkit of parodists. When all of this began, I used Tom Lehrer’s format to sing a nonsense-song about irreversible binomials. The current offering highlights pairs in which the 2 elements rhyme, e.g. ‘make or break'. Specific cases may border on cliché, but delight us with their musical quality. Sneak a peek!
UKULELE and GUITAR-FRIENDLY LINK: Our whole series of songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players on our sister blog "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE" with chord-charts and helpful performing suggestions. Click here to proceed to this site. But note that as it is a 'private blog' you will need to arrange access, if you don't already have it. Leave a comment on this post if you want to access the musically informative version.
There’s make or break, and move and groove, neither or either, mash- and mish-
And meet and greet, and meter-feed, and moans and groans, and meat or fish.
It’s my way or the highway, metes and limits, also leer and peer
Obama and Osama, and the news and views, both near and dear.
An ocean of devotion, moon in June -it’s grouped with- odds and sods
An Okie from Muskogee, onward upward, also nod and prod
And pedal to the metal, a man with a plan, no pain - no gain
And slump or hump, and scrimp or primp, there’s pump and dump, and planes and trains.
There’s red or dead, and rough and tough, and rude and crude, and rain in Spain
And Seven and Eleven, stash and dash, and stain you can’t explain
And slice and dice, and shake and bake, and surf and turf, and scowl and frown
And shop ‘til drop, and slim and trim, saggy and baggy, town and gown.
Son of a gun, and thrills and chills, and sine and cosine, twine and line
And twirl and swirl, and use or lose it, weed and feed, and wine and dine.
Whale of a tale, wham bam and thank you, wary chary, wheel and deal
And wear and tear, and yeas and nays, and zoot suit, and religious zeal.
There’s likely umpteen others, but so far I can’t imagine them
They’d spread across the alphabet from a-ardvark to zymogen.
HOT LINKS to WORD-PAIR PARODY LYRICS,
here on the wordplay-poetry-lyrics blog "Edifying Nonsense" ...If you want to resume daily titillations on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any week in the years 2020 and 2021. (There are now over 600 daily entries on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)
