Many lyricists rhyme as they pronounce, and their pronunciation is simply horrible. They can make "home" rhyme with "alone," and "saw" with "more," and go right off and look their innocent children in the eye without a touch of shame.
In "A Wodehouse Miscellany," P.G. Wodehouse observes that many songwriters have poor pronunciation. He criticizes their tendency to manipulate words to create rhymes that don’t actually sound right. For instance, they might rhyme "home" with "alone," which highlights the absurdity of how they stretch language in their quest for lyrical harmony.
Wodehouse points out the irony of these lyricists being unapologetic about their questionable pronunciation. Despite rhyming words that sound dissimilar,...
