Song: "Everybody have fun Tonight"

"Everybody Have Fun Tonight" by Wang Chung
{hyperbole, allusion, repetition, and paradox}
{and no, I don't need to be reminded this is an absolutely horrible 80s one-hit-wonder. thanks anyways.}

I'll drive a million miles
To be with you tonight
So if you're feeling low
Turn up your radio
The words we use are strong
They make reality
But now the music's on
Oh baby dance with me yeah.

Rip it up
Move down
Rip it up
Move it down to the ground
Rip it up
Cool down
Rip it up
And get the feeling not the word.

Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody Wang Chung tonight
Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody Wang Chung tonight
Ev'rybody have fun.

Deep in the world tonight
Our hearts beat safe and sound
I'll hold you so close
Just let yourself go down.

Rip it up
Move down
Rip it up
Move it down to the ground
Rip it up
Cool down
Rip it up
Get out what's inside of you

Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody Wang Chung tonight
Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody Wang Chung tonight
Ev'rybody have fun.

On the edge of oblivion
All the world is Babylon
And all the love and ev'ryone
A ship of fools sailing on
(Ev'rybody)
Ev'rybody have fun tonight
(Ev'rybody)
Ev'rybody have fun tonight.

Across the nation
Around the world
Ev'rybody have fun tonight
A celebration so spread the word.

Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody Wang Chung tonight
Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody Wang Chung tonight
Ev'rybody have fun tonight
Ev'rybody have fun.
Ev'rybodyEv'ryone.

Songs: "We Didn't Start the Fire"

"We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel
{ a great example of allusions (the entire song), internal rhyme, and rhyme}
{a great video}

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye
Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Maciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Literary Devices in Songs, Continued

I'm glad we all have a better grasp on repetition (although most of us can't spell it ).

We also seem to get personification -- although we need to remember that a phrase only counts as personification if the action is a "human" action. To say "the sun melts" CANNOT be personification; although the sun cannot really melt, a human can't either. This could be symbolism or a metaphor, depending on how it is used.

Remember, a metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things, saying one is equal to the other (my love is a red, red rose). Similes, however, compare two unlike things using like or as. (my love is like a red, red rose OR my love is as red as a rose).

Irony comes in three packages: verbal, situational, and dramatic. Verbal irony is like sarcasm: saying something and meaning another. Situational irony involves the event itself; what happens is not what is expected to happen. Dramatic irony usually occurs in plays; the audience knows what's happening (or what already happened) but the characters do not.

Now that we've got those four literary devices mastered (or close to it), let's try to find the following ones in song lyrics. Feel free to use children's songs too! If you can't remember what some of these lit devices are, refer to your notes from last semester or visit the links provided on the original post below this one.

• alliteration (read "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" -- not for the weak stomachs)
• anthropomorphism (read "Gorilla You're a Desperado" Warren Zevon)
• foreshadowing (read "Frankie and Johnny" or see/listen to a variation by Johnny Cash)
• hyperbole
• imagery
• apostrophe
• onomatopoeia
• oxymoron
• paradox
• allusion (view a really cool flash video for "We Didn't Start the Fire" or read the lyrics)
• palindrome (see or read Weird Al Yankovic's song "Bob")
• anagram (read "Anagram" lyrics by Rush)
• assonance
• cacophony
• consonance
• internal rhyme
• inversion
• rhythm
• rhyme

Another great resource: http://www.thewallflowersweb.com/glossary.htm

http://www.northern.edu/wild/dany/mxthea05/Mt_Lyrics_s03.pdf

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=115