Lyrical zeugma
May 12, 2023 9:36 AM Subscribe
In "Head Over Feet" Alanis Morissette sings "you held your breath / and the door for me." Zeugma! What other songs make use of this (most excellent) rhetorical construction?
(let's say for these purposes Jim Steinman's lyric "once upon a time I was falling in love / now I'm only falling apart" counts, even though it repeats the verb twice)
Your help here will make a playlist and my day.
(let's say for these purposes Jim Steinman's lyric "once upon a time I was falling in love / now I'm only falling apart" counts, even though it repeats the verb twice)
Your help here will make a playlist and my day.
Best answer: Have Some Madeira, M'dear by Flanders and Swann ("She made no reply, up her mind and a dash for the door")- CW date rape, however.
posted by Shark Hat at 10:05 AM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Shark Hat at 10:05 AM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Steve Earle - I Still Carry You Around - contains the lyric "No matter how I try to put you down, I still carry you around".
posted by essexjan at 10:11 AM on May 12, 2023
posted by essexjan at 10:11 AM on May 12, 2023
Best answer: Well the moon is high and so am I
The stars are out and so will I be pretty soon
posted by credulous at 10:14 AM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
The stars are out and so will I be pretty soon
posted by credulous at 10:14 AM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The J. Geils Band - You’re Gettin’ Even While I’m Gettin’ Odd
posted by staggernation at 10:18 AM on May 12, 2023
posted by staggernation at 10:18 AM on May 12, 2023
Best answer: “Now, when all the clowns that you have commissioned
Have died in battle or in vain”
Bob Dylan - Queen Jane Approximately
posted by doctord at 10:18 AM on May 12, 2023
Have died in battle or in vain”
Bob Dylan - Queen Jane Approximately
posted by doctord at 10:18 AM on May 12, 2023
Best answer: "Cause we're young and we're reckless
We'll take this way too far
It'll leave you breathless, hmm
Or with a nasty scar"
Taylor Swift - Blank Space
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:28 AM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
We'll take this way too far
It'll leave you breathless, hmm
Or with a nasty scar"
Taylor Swift - Blank Space
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:28 AM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Nobody gives you a chance or a dollar in this old town
Belle & Sebastian, The Boy with the Arab Strap
posted by urbanlenny at 10:39 AM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Belle & Sebastian, The Boy with the Arab Strap
posted by urbanlenny at 10:39 AM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Since repeated verbs count, "Honky Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones has "She blew my nose and then she blew my mind."
posted by papayaninja at 10:40 AM on May 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by papayaninja at 10:40 AM on May 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
Best answer: The Weakerthans' song A New Name for Everything does it twice in three lines:
When you can't save
Cash or conviction, you're broke and you're breaking
A tired shoelace or a wave
posted by creepygirl at 10:42 AM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
When you can't save
Cash or conviction, you're broke and you're breaking
A tired shoelace or a wave
posted by creepygirl at 10:42 AM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
I feel like there should be a million Elvis Costello examples, but the only one I can think of is more of a mixed metaphor than an instance of Zeugma: "don't wear your heart upon your sleeve when your remarks are off the cuff" (Riot Act)
posted by Morpeth at 10:50 AM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Morpeth at 10:50 AM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Does this count?
Simon & Garfunkel, in Me & Julio down by the schoolyard: "Taking my time, but I don't know where"
posted by hydra77 at 10:52 AM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Simon & Garfunkel, in Me & Julio down by the schoolyard: "Taking my time, but I don't know where"
posted by hydra77 at 10:52 AM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: "The moon is high
Like your friends were the night that we first met"
Paper Rings - Taylor Swift
"They told me all of my cages were mental
So I got wasted like all my potential"
this is me trying - Taylor Swift
posted by skunk pig at 11:06 AM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Like your friends were the night that we first met"
Paper Rings - Taylor Swift
"They told me all of my cages were mental
So I got wasted like all my potential"
this is me trying - Taylor Swift
posted by skunk pig at 11:06 AM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: "Great Lengths" by the Lucksmiths:
"You kept your distance and me guessing
Finally acquiescing
Only after I’d discovered
You kept the things I sent you"
posted by clair-de-lune at 11:09 AM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
"You kept your distance and me guessing
Finally acquiescing
Only after I’d discovered
You kept the things I sent you"
posted by clair-de-lune at 11:09 AM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
"Marry the Man Today" (from Guys and Dolls):
Have a pot roast
Have a headache
Have a baby
Have two!
posted by earth by april at 11:10 AM on May 12, 2023
Have a pot roast
Have a headache
Have a baby
Have two!
posted by earth by april at 11:10 AM on May 12, 2023
Best answer: "The Lucky One" by Taylor Swift:
How you took the money and your dignity and got the hell out
posted by earth by april at 11:18 AM on May 12, 2023
How you took the money and your dignity and got the hell out
posted by earth by april at 11:18 AM on May 12, 2023
You make me complete
You make me complete
You make me a complete mess.
You make me complete
You make me complete
You make me a complete mess.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:34 AM on May 12, 2023
You make me complete
You make me a complete mess.
You make me complete
You make me complete
You make me a complete mess.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:34 AM on May 12, 2023
Not exactly the same, but related:
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:44 AM on May 12, 2023
and it's 1,2,3 what are we fightin for?From Vietnam Song by Country Joe and the Fish.
don't ask me i don't give a damn, the next stop is Vietnam,
and it's 5,6,7 open up the pearly gates.
Well there aint no time to wonder why...WHOPEE we're all gunna die.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:44 AM on May 12, 2023
I'm not quite sure I've got this, but I think:
She Sends Kisses by The Wrens:
She sends kisses
In envelopes stamped with hope and hearts ripped right open
Between the Bars by Elliott Smith
Drink up, baby, stay up all night
With the things you could do
You won't but you might
And I feel like the Middle Cyclone version of Magpie to the Morning by Neko Case does this, but maybe I'm asking how she uses "sorrow" to do too much work. (Lyrics in the link.)
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:57 AM on May 12, 2023
She Sends Kisses by The Wrens:
She sends kisses
In envelopes stamped with hope and hearts ripped right open
Between the Bars by Elliott Smith
Drink up, baby, stay up all night
With the things you could do
You won't but you might
And I feel like the Middle Cyclone version of Magpie to the Morning by Neko Case does this, but maybe I'm asking how she uses "sorrow" to do too much work. (Lyrics in the link.)
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:57 AM on May 12, 2023
Jacob's Dream by Noah Reid has a couple:
My thoughts are all tangled up / I've come apart at the seams / like I'm never gonna find a way
and
They're trying to strangle me / with all of their might / be the blessing lord that I've been asking for
and
They tell me I'm stable here / but I just want to leaves / keep on falling down / like so many stars
posted by okayokayigive at 12:08 PM on May 12, 2023
My thoughts are all tangled up / I've come apart at the seams / like I'm never gonna find a way
and
They're trying to strangle me / with all of their might / be the blessing lord that I've been asking for
and
They tell me I'm stable here / but I just want to leaves / keep on falling down / like so many stars
posted by okayokayigive at 12:08 PM on May 12, 2023
Best answer: Another Taylor Swift example, from Vigilante Shit:
While he was doing lines
And crossing all of mine
posted by lampoil at 12:14 PM on May 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
While he was doing lines
And crossing all of mine
posted by lampoil at 12:14 PM on May 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
Billy Bragg’s Greetings To The New Brunette: ‘how can you lie there and think of England / if you don’t even know who’s on their team’
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 12:35 PM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 12:35 PM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Close In The Distance from FFXIV has
"no time for mourning / rises"
posted by augustimagination at 12:50 PM on May 12, 2023
"no time for mourning / rises"
posted by augustimagination at 12:50 PM on May 12, 2023
https://ask.metafilter.com/360528/Rock-music-puns is not 100% what you're asking, but there's a bunch of links in there including at least two comments specifying zeugma
posted by adekllny at 12:51 PM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by adekllny at 12:51 PM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
I don't know if this counts but I love this line so much. Swooner by The Zolas.
That incandescent girl
Of Incan
Descent
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:13 PM on May 12, 2023
That incandescent girl
Of Incan
Descent
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:13 PM on May 12, 2023
Best answer:
Though you kept me guessing and your distance
Were it not for my persistence
We would never have been lovers
You kept your distance and me guessing
Finally acquiescing only after I’d discovered
You kept the things I sent you
The lengths I went to
posted by ludwig_van at 1:22 PM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
"Great Lengths" by the LucksmithsI think the fact that this one includes the same zeugma in both orders, and rhymes both of them, makes it even better:
Though you kept me guessing and your distance
Were it not for my persistence
We would never have been lovers
You kept your distance and me guessing
Finally acquiescing only after I’d discovered
You kept the things I sent you
The lengths I went to
posted by ludwig_van at 1:22 PM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Best answer: "Gold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth"
posted by misscleo3861 at 1:23 PM on May 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by misscleo3861 at 1:23 PM on May 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
Perhaps Pretty Vacant by the Sex Pistols?
Oh we're so pretty
Oh so pretty
Vacant
posted by TwoWordReview at 2:35 PM on May 12, 2023
Oh we're so pretty
Oh so pretty
Vacant
posted by TwoWordReview at 2:35 PM on May 12, 2023
The Roches use a lot of wordplay. I'm not sure if you want that exact form for sentences or just the same word used with two different meanings, so I'm sorry if these aren't quite it:
"We":
we don't give out our ages
and we don't give out our phone numbers
give out our phone numbers
sometimes our voices give out
but not our ages and our phone numbers
"This Feminine Position":
I've got the apple in me
Original cinnamon style
"Mr. Sellack":
Waiting tables ain't that bad
Since I've seen you last
I've waited for some things that you would not believe
To come true
"One Season":
I am the only tree
And everybody leaves
posted by FencingGal at 4:07 PM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
"We":
we don't give out our ages
and we don't give out our phone numbers
give out our phone numbers
sometimes our voices give out
but not our ages and our phone numbers
"This Feminine Position":
I've got the apple in me
Original cinnamon style
"Mr. Sellack":
Waiting tables ain't that bad
Since I've seen you last
I've waited for some things that you would not believe
To come true
"One Season":
I am the only tree
And everybody leaves
posted by FencingGal at 4:07 PM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Re Elvis Costello, I knew there must be one somewhere on *Spike*… and found it in the first song, “…This Town…” —
“Her clothes and her attention were scant”
Re Billy Bragg, I don’t think the line about “lie back and think of England” is an example of this — the narrator only understands the phrase one way and it’s a huge tell (and very ironic) that the other meaning sails right over his head.
posted by sesquipedalia at 5:20 PM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
“Her clothes and her attention were scant”
Re Billy Bragg, I don’t think the line about “lie back and think of England” is an example of this — the narrator only understands the phrase one way and it’s a huge tell (and very ironic) that the other meaning sails right over his head.
posted by sesquipedalia at 5:20 PM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
I use the "she blew my nose and then she blew my mind" when teaching zeugma to students, but since that one's taken, David Berman's "Darkness and Cold" has "the light of my life went out tonight/ without a flicker of regret" as well as an elegantly displaced version of the trope: "she's making friends/ I'm turning stranger."
"If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me" is a paranomasia rather than a syllepsis/zeugma, but if you like one you may well like the other.
posted by sy at 6:12 PM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
"If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me" is a paranomasia rather than a syllepsis/zeugma, but if you like one you may well like the other.
posted by sy at 6:12 PM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: You get the car, I'll get the night off
- Built to Spill, Car
(Really just a perfect opening line)
posted by miles per flower at 9:00 PM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
- Built to Spill, Car
(Really just a perfect opening line)
posted by miles per flower at 9:00 PM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Lyle Lovett:
I don't love you any less
But I can't love you anymore
posted by miles per flower at 9:14 PM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't love you any less
But I can't love you anymore
posted by miles per flower at 9:14 PM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Cardi B, Get Up 10:
"Went from makin' tuna sandwiches to makin' the news"
and
"And you gon' have to learn to hold your tongue or hold the gun"
posted by creepygirl at 9:23 PM on May 12, 2023
"Went from makin' tuna sandwiches to makin' the news"
and
"And you gon' have to learn to hold your tongue or hold the gun"
posted by creepygirl at 9:23 PM on May 12, 2023
Best answer: don't ask me why i'm crying, i'm not going to tell you what's wrong.
i'm just gonna sit on your lap for ten dollars a song
i want you to pay me for my beauty - i think it's only right
'cause i have been paying for it all of my life
- Ani DiFranco, “Letter to a John”
posted by nouvelle-personne at 9:26 PM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
i'm just gonna sit on your lap for ten dollars a song
i want you to pay me for my beauty - i think it's only right
'cause i have been paying for it all of my life
- Ani DiFranco, “Letter to a John”
posted by nouvelle-personne at 9:26 PM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
I am not throwin' away my shot
I am not throwin' away my shot
Hey yo, I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwin' away my shot
It's time to take a shot (the characters are in a bar drinking shots)
I dream of life without a monarchy
The unrest in France will lead to anarchy?
Anarchy how you say, how you, oh, anarchy?
When I fight, I make the other side panicky
With my shot
Yo, I'm a tailor's apprentice
And I got y'all knuckleheads in loco parentis
I'm joining the rebellion 'cause I know it's my chance
To socially advance, instead of sewin' some pants
I'm gonna take a shot
Bur we'll never be truly free
Until those in bondage have the same rights as you and me
You and I, Do or die
Wait 'til I sally in on a stallion
With the first black battalion
Have another shot
Geniuses, lower your voices
You keep out of trouble and you double your choices
I'm with you, but the situation is fraught
You've got to be carefully taught
If you talk, you're gonna get shot
- Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Hamilton”
posted by nouvelle-personne at 9:40 PM on May 12, 2023
I am not throwin' away my shot
Hey yo, I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwin' away my shot
It's time to take a shot (the characters are in a bar drinking shots)
I dream of life without a monarchy
The unrest in France will lead to anarchy?
Anarchy how you say, how you, oh, anarchy?
When I fight, I make the other side panicky
With my shot
Yo, I'm a tailor's apprentice
And I got y'all knuckleheads in loco parentis
I'm joining the rebellion 'cause I know it's my chance
To socially advance, instead of sewin' some pants
I'm gonna take a shot
Bur we'll never be truly free
Until those in bondage have the same rights as you and me
You and I, Do or die
Wait 'til I sally in on a stallion
With the first black battalion
Have another shot
Geniuses, lower your voices
You keep out of trouble and you double your choices
I'm with you, but the situation is fraught
You've got to be carefully taught
If you talk, you're gonna get shot
- Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Hamilton”
posted by nouvelle-personne at 9:40 PM on May 12, 2023
Best answer: Nick Cave's Nature Boy:
She moves among the sparrows
She floats upon the breeze
She moves among the flowers
She moves something deep inside of me
posted by ojocaliente at 9:55 PM on May 12, 2023
She moves among the sparrows
She floats upon the breeze
She moves among the flowers
She moves something deep inside of me
posted by ojocaliente at 9:55 PM on May 12, 2023
Best answer: Lizzo -
You're 'posed to hold me down, but you're holding me back.
And that's the sound of me not calling you back.
posted by Iteki at 2:38 AM on May 13, 2023
You're 'posed to hold me down, but you're holding me back.
And that's the sound of me not calling you back.
posted by Iteki at 2:38 AM on May 13, 2023
Best answer: "He watches afternoon repeats and the food he eats." (Blur, "Country House")
posted by Klipspringer at 2:46 AM on May 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Klipspringer at 2:46 AM on May 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
In my capacity as the "not-quite-getting-it" guy, I offer Kinky Friedman's "Get your biscuits in the oven and your buns in bed".
posted by Chitownfats at 2:53 AM on May 13, 2023
posted by Chitownfats at 2:53 AM on May 13, 2023
Kings of Convenience, Stay out of Trouble:
"Stay out of trouble, stay in touch
Try not to think about me too much"
posted by hellopanda at 10:20 AM on May 13, 2023
"Stay out of trouble, stay in touch
Try not to think about me too much"
posted by hellopanda at 10:20 AM on May 13, 2023
Matthew by John Denver:
So he came to live at our house,
And he came to work the land.
He came to ease my daddy's burden
And he came to be my friend.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 7:21 PM on May 14, 2023
So he came to live at our house,
And he came to work the land.
He came to ease my daddy's burden
And he came to be my friend.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 7:21 PM on May 14, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by brainwane at 10:05 AM on May 12, 2023