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From: lutton@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Best song lyric
Message-ID: <1764@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 28-Oct-84 01:54:55 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.1764
Posted: Sun Oct 28 01:54:55 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 29-Oct-84 02:41:22 EST
Lines: 21
Nf-ID: #N:inmet:6600211:000:972
Nf-From: inmet!lutton    Oct 25 21:39:00 1984

<>
     Somebody asked for the Best Song Lyrics.
     The best song lyric I can think of right now is "The Nightmare
Song" by W.S. Gilbert (Music by Arthur Sullivan, recorded by Todd
Rundgren (and also by the D'Oyly Carte and other opera companies).)
     It seems a singer boasted to Gilbert that he could memorize any
song lyric after hearing it only once.  Gilbert challenged him with
this song, and the singer lost.  I can't remember it either, so I
won't post it (maybe someone else has the words).
     It appears on the surface to be nonsensical, but it has wonderful
imagery -- an entirely different scene is described in every line, with
each scene dissolving into the next -- some very clever rhyming and
rhythmic tricks, and although it is meant to be sung extremely fast,
none of the syllables are awkward or sound out of place.

				Mark Lutton

				"But the night has been long,
				 Ditto ditto my song,
				 And thank Heaven they're both 
	 of them over."