August 4, 2026

Song Lyrics Say It All

Lyrics by Meredith Wilson “The Music Man”, 1962.

“Seventy-six trombones led the big parade

with a hundred and ten cornets close at hand

they were followed by rows and rows

of the finest virtuosos, the cream of every famous band

seventy-six trombones caught the morning sun

with a hundred and ten cornets right behind

there were more than a thousand reeds springing up like weeds

there were horns of every shape and kind

there were copper bottom tympani in horse platoons

thundering, thundering all along the way

double bell euphoniuns and big bassons

each bassoon having its big fat say!

There were fifty mounted cannon in the battery

thundering, thundering louder than before’

clarinets of evry size

and trumpeters who’d improvise

a full octave higher than the score”

Ah, the imagery! The technical detail (copper bottom tympani, double bell euphoniums,)

the internal rhymes (reeds, weeds, rows, virtuosos)choice of words, and on and on!

And then we have a rap lyric. (from Google, “how to write rap”

“Step in the room and the vision is clear

I put in the work every day of the yeart

No need for a script, I just step to the beat

Walking this path till I win on the street”

And from bobhaddad, 2018

“Welcome my dearest friend

You’ve made it to the arms of friends

I want you to see me, remember you need me

Wherever you may go, just know I’m by your side”

Finally, from Oscar Hammerstein, “South Pacific” “ The Cockeyed Optimist” 1958

“I hear the human race is falling on its face

And hasn’t far to go.But every whipporwhill is selling me a bill,

And telling me it just ain’t so”

Amen.