old parody of word-pairs: RHYMING BINS, M to Z

POST #90

PARODY-LYRICS, a continuation of post #89.

ORIGINAL SONG: "The Elements", Tom Lehrer, 1959.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, July 2015.

KEYWORDS: language, goldenoldy 

THE RHYMING BINOMIALS
(word-pairs), M to Z

(to the tune of Tom Lehr's "The Elements")

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 the WORD-PAIR PARODY SONGS

Pairs
Alliterative Binomials, part #1
Alliterative Binomials, part #2
Reduplications - Lesson
Reduplications - Lexicon A to K
Reduplications - Lexicon M to Z
Rhyming Binomials, A to M
Rhyming Binomials, M to Z (see below)
Legal Doublets

UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT

(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)

I'VE GOT ANAGRAMS

(to the tune of "I've Been Everywhere")

I was sitting at my desk with “The Joy of Lex” composing palindromes;

When along came a thought, where sometimes seems nobody’s home

If you’re gonna write some wordplay, go with what you understand

Cause you start off every morning, Jumble puzzle in your hand

There’s no doubt that I can go both ways in handling anagrams,

But first I’d need return a message, I was told that a ‘Sam’ rang.

old parody of word-pairs: RHYMING BINS, A to M

PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "The Elements", Tom Lehrer, 1959.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, July, 2015.

The inherent music of language is an important element in the toolkit of parodists. In a recent posting, I used Tom Lehrer’s format to sing a nonsense-song about irreversible binomials, focusing on examples where the 2 elements show alliteration e.g. 'hot and heavy' and ‘prim and proper’. The current offering highlights pairs in which the 2 elements rhyme, e.g. ‘age and stage’. Specific cases may border on cliché, but delight us with their musical quality. Sneak a peek!

Most binomial pairs are not rhyming

WARNING!  Do not attempt to sing this at the pace of a patter-song. The management of this blog will take no responsibility for any injuries sustained.





THE RHYMING BINOMIALS
(word-pairs), A to M


(to the tune of Tom Lehr's "The Elements")

There’s age and stage, bug in a rug, out and about, and ants in pants

And agony and ecstasy, and amble ramble, ain’ts and shan’ts

  A rhyming binomial

There’s bows and arrows, brake and take, more bounce to ounce, and box and cox

Bird is the word, feathered not furred, and claws and paws, cock of the walk.

There’s chips and dip, and chalk and talk, and cruising for a brui-uising

Candy is dandy, liquor’s quicker – it’s your pick and choo-oosing.

And crime and grime, and croon a tune, crumpled and rumpled, (blushing groom)

Cat in the Hat, Dancer and Prancer, dream and scheme, and doom and gloom.

Dennis the Menace, dives and drive-ins, fair and square, and eyes on prize

Delicious and nutritious, flotsam jetsam, also Five Alive.

There’s gym and swim, and gap and lap, and grip or slip, Amazing Grace

And shades of Hades!  hurry  scurry, huff and puff, and haste makes waste.

The hostess with the mostest, hire and fire, and high and dry, haircare

Highway and byway, health- and wealthy, height and weight, and here and there.

By hook or crook, and grope and hope, and hulk and skulk, and hitch and snatch

Hasten and chasten, hustle bustle, hither thither, itch and scratch.

There’s kneel and squeal, and kitty litter, luck and pluck, and keen and mean

Loonie and toonie, life of strife, lock stock, muss fuss, and lean cuisine.  

The latest and the greatest, loot and booty, Mod Squad, lie and pry

Lotions and potions, ma-and-pa, musty and dusty, my and thy.

Burns’ ‘Louse’ and ‘Mouse’*, and Looney-Tunes, and old cartoons with Mick and Minn

Or Huey Dewey Louie, while the cat is OUT and mice are IN.  

There’s likely umpteen others, but so far I can’t imagine them

They’d spread across the alphabet from a-ardvark to zymogen.

*   Among Robert Burns many famous poems, "To A Louse" and "To A Mouse" figure prominently. 

Funny! - Rhyming money

HOT LINKS to the WORD-PAIR PARODY SONGS

Pairs
Alliterative Binomials, part #1
Alliterative Binomials, part #2
Reduplications - Lesson
Reduplications - Lexicon A to K
Reduplications - Lexicon M to Z
Rhyming Binomials, A to M (see below)
Rhyming Binomials, M to Z
Legal Doublets


UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT: 
(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)

I seem to be addicted to this "OS" (original song) as a vehicle for parodies. Try using the search function at the top of the page ("Lehrer" will get you there) to review the 3 previous submissions of this type.

You can also play/sing Tom Lehrer's original patter-song, The Elements,  by checking  out Corktunes, the songbook of the Corktown Ukulele Jam here.  The chord-charts have the alternate-line superscript format that many ukers find preferable.
Lehrer had adapted the melody from "The Major General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance". There are 3 somewhat different melodies/chord-sequences used in alteration through the GandS song, and in Lehrer's derived take-off. 

For more fun, proceed to the next blogpost "Rhyming Binomials, M to Z" 

An ABBA Contrafactum (mishmash) part #2: "Those Were Our Trains"

 

Illinois Central Railroad:
 Mississippi Valley route

POST #85

PASTICHE OF 2 ORIGINAL SONGS, with interchange of lyrics and themes; the more complex term contrafactum is explained in the previous post, "Starry Notions."

ORIGINAL SONG#1-MUSIC: "Those Were The Days", by Boris Fomin. This song was first recorded with Russian lyrics in 1925; translated by Gene Raskin, it was recorded by the Limeliters. Subsequently it became a worldwide hit single as recorded by Mary Hopkin, 1968; Paul McCartney produced the session for the new Apple label.

ORIGINAL SONG#2 - LYRICS: "The City of New Orleans". Steve Goodman wrote this song after riding the iconic train in 1971, and played it for Arlo Guthrie, who recorded it on his album "Hobo's Lullaby", 1972.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, April, 2015.

KEYWORDS: goldenoldy, mishmash

An A-B B-A-CONTRAFACTUM

1)Singable Introduction 

2)"Starry Notions"

 =see the previous posting

3)"Those Were Our Trains"

(to the tune of Those Were the Days" as performed by Mary Hopkin) 

Fifty years ago a lonely whistle –

Goodman’s ode to disappearing trains.

Arlo Guthrie covered his epistle
While passengers took off for cars and planes.

Those were our trains my friend, their near demise portended -

Grid derailed while Willie topped the charts,

A spate of bankruptcies – Pullman and then Pennsy,

And Congress salvaged the remaining parts.

La la la  la la la  La la la  la la la

Amtrak can manage the remaining parts.

Riding on the City of New Orleans.

Mississippi Central morning rail (1)

Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders

Three conductors, twenty sacks of mail.

The train they call the C. of N.O.

Along the odyssey, pull out at Kankakee
And roll along past houses, farms and fields
Past towns that have no names, freight yards full of old men
And graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

La la la  la la la    La la la  la la la

The graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
The train they call The City of New Orleans -
I'll go five hundred miles ere day is done.

The towns and people seem part of a troubling dream
But the steel rails no longer have the blues
Conductor sings again, passengers please refrain -

This line makes profit hauling coal and crude.

La la la  la la la    La la la  la la la

We now make profit hauling coal and crude.

Twenty years ago, Illinois Central

Was bought out by our neighbor’s CNR (2)

Amtrak runs the intercity service

Ridership keeps creeping up so far.

Stations and riders seem like a non-profit scheme
Yet subsidies have solved Steve Goodman’s blues
Rail’s bottom-line’s now great, its locomotive’s freight

Passenger service serves as the caboose.

La la la  la la la    La la la  la la la

Passenger service serves as the caboose.

(1) The Mississippi Central, operating from Mississippi to Tennessee, was absorbed into the Illinois Central system in 1878.

(2) Canadian National Railways

Performing Notes for "Those Were Our Trains" 

Ukuleles or other stringed instruments e.g. balalaikas, play tremolo as indicated by ~~~

[Dm~~~]
[Dm!] Fifty years [Gm!] ago a lonely [Dm~] whistle –

[Dm!] Goodman’s ode to [D7!] disappearing [Gm~] trains

[Gm7!] Arlo Guthrie [Gm6!] covered his e[Dm~]pistle

While [E!] passengers took [E7!] off for cars and [A7!] planes.

[A7+] Those were [A7] our [Dm] trains my friend, their near-[Gm]-demise portended 

[Gm7] Grid de[C]railed while [C7] Willie topped the [F] charts

[F6] A spate of [Gm7] bankrupt[Gm6]cies – Pullman and [Dm] then Pennsy,

And Congress [A7] salvaged [A7+] the remaining [Dm] parts.

[Dm!] La-[A7!]la-la  [Dm] la-la-la    La-[D7]la-la  [Gm] la-la-la

Amtrak can [A7] manage [A7+] public-[A7]-service [Dm] parts.

An ABBA Contrafactum (mishmash) part#1: "Starry Notions"

The train they call
"The City of New Orleans"

POST #84

 PASTICHE OF 2 ORIGINAL SONGS, with interchange of lyrics and music; the more complex term contrafactum is explained below in the singable introduction.

ORIGINAL SONG#1 - LYRICS: "Those Were The Days", by Boris Fomin. This song was first recorded with Russian lyrics in 1925; translated by Gene Raskin, it was recorded by the Limeliters. Subsequently it became a worldwide hit single as recorded by Mary Hopkin, 1968; Paul McCartney produced the session for the new Apple label. 

ORIGINAL SONG#2 - MUSIC: "The City of New Orleans". Steve Goodman wrote this song after riding the iconic train in 1971, and played it for Arlo Guthrie, who recorded it on his album "Hobo's Lullaby", 1972.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, April, 2015.

KEYWORDS: goldenoldy, mishmash

An A-B B-A CONTRAFACTUM

1)Singable Introduction

(to the tune of "The City of New Orleans" as performed by Arlo Guthrie) 

Writing an art-form called contrafactum

Parody sub-type, web-site AmIRight

Posted there a spoof about our railroads *

A song that bids America ‘Goodnight’.

But if you can take A’s melody and substitute the theme from B

The lines have got to be the proper length;

If everybody knows the tune, it’s fun to hum, but less to croon

Changed lyrics can get you tongue-tied, but that’s its strength.

So, ‘Hello!’ new diversion we can practice-

We can also sing A’s words to tune from B,

It’s word-play I’d call an “ABBA-contrafactum”

If it gets five hundred hits, I’d be in ecstasy.  

* “Those Were Our Trains”, posted on AmIRight.com, April 6th.

2) "Starry Notions"

(to the tune of "The City of New Orleans" as performed by Arlo Guthrie ) 

verse#1:

Once upon a time there was a tavern,

Place where we used to raise a glass or two.

Remember how we laughed away the hours 

And imagined all the great things that we would do.

Chorus:

Oh yes, those were the days my friend; we thought that they would never end

We’d sing and dance for ever and a day,

Live the life that we would choose, we’d fight and we would never lose,

And as youngsters we were certain to have our way.

But later, after busy years rushed by us,

Just, “La-la-la, how are you?” ’s what we’d say,

If by happenstance I saw you in the tavern.

We gave up our starry notions along the way.

verse #2:

Tonight I stood alone before the tavern

And nothing seemed the way it used to be

In the glass I saw a strange reflection,

Was that lonely older woman really me?

Chorus

verse #3:

Through the door there came familiar laughter

I saw your face and heard you call my name.

Oh my friend we’re older but no wiser

For in our hearts the yearning's still the same.

Chorus

Performing Notes for "Starry Notions": 

The chord pattern is the same for each of the 3 verses of the new song; the chorus for this song amalgamates the 2nd and 3rd verse elements from Steve Goodman's railway-song. 

[G] Once upon a [D7] time there was a [G] tavern,

[Em] Place where we used to [C]  raise a  glass or [G] two [D7]

Re[G]member how we [D] laughed away the [Em] hours 

And i[G]magined all the [D7] great things that we would [G] do.

Oh [Em] yes, those were the days my friend; we [Bm] thought that they would never end

We’d [D] sing and dance for ever and a [A] day,

[Em] Live the life that we would choose, we’d [Bm] fight and we would never lose,

And as [D] youngsters we were [D7] certain to have our [G] way.[G7]

But [C] later, after [D7] busy years rushed [G] by us,

Just, [Em] “La-la-la, how [C] are you?” ’s what we’d [G] say,

[D] If by [G] happenstance I [D7] saw you in the [Em] tavern. [A7]

We gave [F] up our [C] starry [D7] notions along the  [G] way.