Band of Skulls, "Friends":
All my life [1] I've been searching for something [2, plus doesn't this line seem familiar?]
Something i can't put my finger on [3]
Maybe I've been living for the weekend [4]
Maybe I've been living for this cyber soul
But every friday just about midnight [5]
All my problems seem to disappear [6]
Everyone that I miss when I'm distant
Everybody's here
I need love [7]
Cause only love is true [8]
I need every wakin' hour [9] with you
And my friends* [10] cause they are so beautiful [11]
Yeah my friends [10A] they are so beautiful [11B]
They're my friends [10C]
All my life [1D] i've been wastin', wastin' [12**]
Wastin' all my money [13]
All my time [14]
All the time [14E] i'm waitin', waitin' [12F]
Waitin for the moment [15] you are mine [16]
The song about*** yeah I'm thinkin', thinkin' [12G]
Thinkin all the things that I've done wrong [17, "that" optional]
All the time yeah I was forgettin' [18 (commonly known as "the empty 'yeah' "))
You were mine all along [19, note that many adjectives and nouns can be substituted for "mine" here]
Then they just repeat the chorus.
Total score: 19 distinct clichés, plus 7 more repeated ones, out of 23 lines. That's a clichindex score of 83|108, which is no mean feat. Special attention also should be drawn for the whole-line lift (especially as both lines are in the same place--the first line of the song, no less), the lack of cohesion, and the generally nonsensical, ungrammatical, and illogical nature of the non-cliché lines. This is a truly impressive feat of mislyricism (so bad it inspired a whole feature).
If you have any suggestions for future Count the Clichés entries, feel sure to leave a comment or just keep it to yourself and make me do all this hard work myself.
*It wasn't a cliché until John McCain made it one.
**Not these specific words, but the cliché of repeating a phrase for no reason because you can't think of something else that fits.
***Sidenote: whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!
In retropect, I probably should have used "illyricism," not "mislyricism." Stupid abundance of prefixes.
ReplyDelete