SEP 20, singable satire: Tom Lehrer sings "RHYMING BINOMIALS, A to L"

 PARODY SONG-LYRICS

  A rhyming binomial

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

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio,  2015. This song is the fourth 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.

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. 

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!

There’s age and stage, bug in a rug, and amble — ramble, ants in pants
And agony and ecstasy, out and about, and ain’ts and shan’ts.
There’s bows and arrows, brake and take, more bounce to ounce, and box and cox
Bird is the word, and flock and herd, and claws and paws, cock of the walk.

There’s chips and dips, and chalk and talk, and cruising for a brui-uising
Yes! candy’s dandy (liquor’s quicker), — it’s your pick and choo-oosing.
And crime and grime, and croon a tune, and crumpled — rumpled, brush and broom,
Cat in the Hat, and Dancer — Prancer, dream and scheme, and doom and gloom.

Delicious and nutritious, dives and drive-ins, also eyes on prize,
And Dennis (Menace), flotsam — jetsam, fair and square, and Five Alive.
There’s gap and lap, and grip or slip, and gym and swim, Amazing Grace;
And shades of Hades, hurry — scurry, huff and puff, and haste makes waste.

The hostess with the mostest, hire and fire, high and dry, haircare
And high- and byways, health- and wealthy, height and weight, and here and there;
By hook or crook, and grope and hope, and hulk and skulk, and itch and scratch,
And hasten — chasten, hustle — bustle, hither — thither, hitch and hatch.

There’s kneel and squeal, and kitty litter, luck or pluck, and keen and mean
There’s loonie — twonie, life of strife, lock stock and barrel, lean cuisine.
The latest and the greatest, loot and booty, Mod Squad, lie and pry
And lotions — potions, ma-and-pa, and musty — 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.

* Robert Burns many famous poems include “To A Louse” and “To A Mouse”

Funny (rhyming) Canadian coins
— Loonie and Twonie

And, for those interested, here's how you find the lyrics-only-version

of the ten songs that make up this cycle. If you would like to  accompany yourself on ukulele or guitar, find relevant chord charts by following the links that will take you to the versions in our blog "Silly Songs and Satire". 

1. PAIRS, to the tune of "Words" in the style of the Beegees

...  the following songs in the style of "The Elements" by Tom Lehrer

2. ALLITERATIVE BINOMIALS, part#1

3. ALLITERATIVE BINOMIALS, part#2

4. RHYMING BINOMIALS, part#1

5. RHYMING BINOMIALS, part#2

6. A LESSON ABOUT REDUPLICATIONS

7. REDUPLICATIONS, part#1

8. REDUPLICATIONS, part#2

9. LEGALISTIC DOUBLETS, in the style of "Supercalifragilistic..." from  the musical "Mary Poppins"