OT - Song lyrics puzzle

[QuikSand]

Okay, back in the day, song lryics made for great puzzling. If you're conversant in pop culture, then it's fun to contemplate what well-known song includes "Neil Young" in its lyrics.*

Regrettably, the internet has largely spoiled this once fertile ground for puzzling. So, it now takes some creativity to come up with a suitable puzzle based on song lyrics.

Recently, I think I came up with one. We'll see how it does... indeed, this is one where you can give yourself a "score" rather than simply answering the question correctly or incorrectly.

- - -

Find a well-known song, with one word that fits the following description:

-the word must not be an article, pronoun, preposition, or other trivial word

-the word cannot appear in the song title

-the word cannot appear back-to-back more than once in the song

-the word must not appaer as part of a particular phrase in more than half of its appearances



Your score for the puzzle is the number of times that the word is used in the song's lyrics.


I have a qualifying song/word which I believe scores a 25. See how well you can do.








* - That would be Sweet Home Alabama, by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and shame on you for resorting to the footnote.

[albionmoonlight]

Quik,

As Bart once asked Homer--

"Do you even have a job anymore?"

[Maple Leafs]

Is there a generally accepted lyrics database somewhere that could of "official" for this puzzle?

[QuikSand]

Fair question - I don't know the answer, but that would certainly help in resolving potential differences. I don't think there's anything too official, as most lyrics are copyrighted and their reproduction in official form is a bit shaky.

[Maple Leafs]

I am ashamed to admit that, as a former professional writer, I do not know whether the word "here" is technically a pronoun or not.

I do know of a song that uses the contraction "here's" 28 times, by my count.

[Anrhydeddu]

-the word cannot appear back-to-back more than once in the song

I guess that rules out "Oh" and "Baby". :)

There are several lyrics sites that I look up frequently. One of my favorites is http://lyrics.astraweb.com/

[JAG]

Originally posted by QuikSand
-the word cannot appear back-to-back more than once in the song

Darn, but for that rule, I had a 28 point Who song.

[TredWel]

I think I've got a 25 point song as well.

Edit: 25 points by official lyrics, though you could argue for more if you listen to the song.

[Maple Leafs]

Again, not necessarily in the spirit of the puzzle, but the U2 song "Numb" uses the word "don't" about 90 times (I lost count).

[TredWel]

Since this puzzle has been around for a few hours, I'm going to post my solution.

Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime" officially uses "water" 25 times, only 12 of which occur in the phrase "water flowing underground", so it just squeaks in as being official.

Edit: The astraweb link doesn't work, so it's been taken out.

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by TredWel
Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime" officially uses "water" 25 times, only 12 of which occur in the phrase "water flowing underground", so it just squeaks in as being official.


That was my entry also.