... funeral
... sooner or L(ater)
and
... tragic
... adjec(tives)
Listen here [1].
[0] https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/we-wil...
[1] https://tomlehrersongs.com/we-will-all-go-together-when-we-g...
Laissons le champs libre à l'oiseau
Nous serons tous les deux priso-
Nniers sur parole
I don't know if he was the first to try cutting words or if not, who tried it first.
But in Feb. 1830 people in Paris fought over the versification of Hernani, a play by Victor Hugo, because the author had dared cut a phrase in the middle across two verses:
Serait-ce déjà lui? C’est bien à l’escalier
Dérobé.
Word-breaks are hard to use because of the way the audience will react to the unexpected in language. In the literary standard, a poet would be considered to lack talent for breaking words in a sloppy way or making other clumsy structures.
Leonard Cohen may never have used word-breaks -- I can't recall an instance in any of his recorded material. The song "Halleleujah" contains some cheap rhymes where Cohen shifted the literary register for effect.
Cohen, Cole Porter, Lehrer, Al Yankovic, and of course the great Brassens are literary. But only Porter and Brassens were careful enough to use the technique for dramatic effect as well as the humorous.
Bob Dylan received a Nobel Prize for his work but he's notoriously hit-and-miss and by his own admission writes things as quickly as possible. As a lyricist, he has been prolific but not very careful about words, except in his early folk period where he imitated Woody Guthrie and the occasional later surprise (e.g a few compositions on Desire). Dylan is more of a verbose song writer. (Bettye LaVette is his best dramatic interpreter.)
Lehrer's and Yankovic's work is mostly humorous, even when there's a serious message behind the song.
Brassens may be the most brilliant of the 20th century's musical poets. His song *Les Philistins épiciers" is another good example of his style. Brassens worked his syllables to perfection. He was not typically in a hurry to utter his phrase, although he could use rapid delivery for humorous effect (e.g. Les funérailles d'antan).
There are brilliant moments in Lehrer's recorded work and he is making a clear gesture by putting his work in the public domain. Dylan sold his entire catalogue of song for an estimated $300m. Porter may have earned the most money because of his association with Hollywood and the royalties from the jazz repertoire. Yankovic is known for his satire of Amercian songs and society. Brassens is not well-known in English-speaking countries because his work is hard to translate and, alas, eating a croissant does not bestow linguistic powers to the eater.
Rap music is a (lucrative) counter-movement to almost every tradition. I leave this topic to those with greater affinity.
Minor nitpick: that song may be a good example of Brassens' singing or music-writing styles, but the words are from Jean Richepin, an eccentric poet from the late 19th/early 20th century.
His 1996 song "Infinite" could please your ear, if you'd care to listen :)
That said, while DOOM is the obvious example, I'd like to throw a personal recommendation out as well: Ivy Sole is criminally underrated as an artist, especially her lyricism. Lines like "No second coming of Lauryn I got bigger // Hills to climb, no disrespect but it's my time", or the election metaphor later on are clever, but also beautifully smooth and fit in so well with the music.
Thanks for sharing.
eg Curtsey for me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY7IjnxmGsE&t=39s
If it’s uncut And in subt——-tle
Or
If it is swill Or really fil——-thy
... Harvard
... discovered