Expecting Rain

The beach was deserted, all the way to the sea
A piece of an old ship, it lay on the shore
When I needed your help, well you came through for me
You gave me a map, and a key to your door

Talk about clunky. At very least, 'well' should be dropped, it's redundant.

he wouldn't have settled for effin' 'kelp'. It was the start of a period where sloppiness began to creep more and more into his songwriting.

I haven't closely read the whole, long thread, but a scan reveals it to be a mishmash of genuinely objectionable rhymes (e.g., "kelp/help" - an OK rhyme as such, but my laws, nobody should be allowed to write "the beach is deserted except for some kelp" ; "can you cook and sew/make flowers grow" etc.) and then some that are really rather charming.

It beats me how anyone can slag the last verse of "Spirit on the Water," for instance. Or, "a gal named Honey/took my money/she was passin' by" - sure, the money/honey rhyme is hackneyed, but the net effect of the verse is a marvelously compact depiction of the classic dilemma: boy meets girl, boy spends money on girl, girl buggers off. That's neatly done, especially when matched with Bob's inimitiable delivery.

Then there's a bundle of outrageous rhymes. E.g., "outrageous/contagious," "January/Buenos Aires," "sons of bitches/orphanages," "subpoena/Angelina," etc., etc.. One part of Bob's toolkit is this willingness to bolt together two words that nobody else would dare to. There's a sly humour to such rhymes, and calling them "bad" strikes me as a bit ungenerous. "Fun" might be closer to the mark.

Conversely, the sort of thing that bugs me is ponderous rhymes. For instance, "breath" and "death" are a hard combo to get away with ("sleep is like a temporary death" being a rare weak link in that otherwise wonderful song). "I dreamt of my future wife" is a great line, but its partner - "this version of death called life" - is one wince-inducing renegade that almost kiboshes the whole tune. "Strife/life" is another pair of evil fraternal twins, inflicting harm on "When the Deal Goes Down" and "Red River Shore;" whether the context is adequate to save these songs from the resulting carnage is for each listener to judge.

But basically, I'm surprised by some of the candidates offered in this thread, as their nomination seems to show a distaste for some of Bob's most characteristic moments as an artist.

though they murdered 6 million, in the ovens they fried,
the Germans now too have God On Their Side
yuck
- nate

I guess this is the kind of clunker that drove him to write more speculative.

..However I think the winner (or loser) in the end has to be the couplet Alouette quotes from Joey. This is so bad I feel my eyeballs shrivelling as I read:

they let him out in '71 he'd lost a little weight
But he dressed like Jimmy Cagney and I swear he did look great

This is pure McGonagall.

I think coca cola / gondola is excellent rhyme !!

song is a masterpiece, perfect or close to it

I can’t find it, but I’m pretty certain I’ve heard John Prine single this out as one of his favorite rhymes. I like it, too.

Thought of this today, not a rhyme but "the snow was outrageous" is a pretty bad line in Isis. Was it, Bob? Was the snow outrageous?

Thought of this today, not a rhyme but "the snow was outrageous" is a pretty bad line in Isis. Was it, Bob? Was the snow outrageous?

Instead of 'outrageous' maybe 'the snow was the flakiest' would have been a good rhyme, like listening to Christmas In the Heart all throughout the year.

Instead of 'outrageous' maybe 'the snow was the flakiest' would have been a good rhyme, like listening to Christmas In the Heart all throughout the year.

... When the judge sent me down the road with your subpoena
rhyming with Angelina

I love all the other crazy rhymes on Angelina, but this one is terrible.