The Phrase "funeral pyre"

[yes123]

Why is the phrase "funeral pyre" so common in metal/prog lyrics?
Does it always refer to older days burning at stakes or is the phrase still relevant today?

[ronmac]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyre

[yesman1955]

Supposedly many modern-day Indians still creamate their dead on wooden funeral pyres next to the Ganges River. Saw it on a Terry Jones-hosted travel show a few years ago.

[Mascodagama]

Probably because it rhymes with fire, which usefully is a thing associated with pyres. An easy couplet for lazy rhymers.

[Derk]

Probably because it rhymes with fire, which usefully is a thing associated with pyres. An easy couplet for lazy rhymers.

Or barbed wire

[Piskie]

Great Jam track!

[Finch Platte]

Leon Russell, Tight Rope. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Z9qN8R9Bg

I'm up on the tight wire
One side's ice and one is fire
It's a circus game with you and me
I'm up on the tight rope
One side's hate and one is hope
But the top-hat on my head is all you see

And the wire seems to be
The only place for me
A comedy of errors and I'm falling
Like a rubber-neck giraffe
You look into my past
Well maybe you're just too blind to see

I'm up in the spotlight
Oh does it feel right
Oh altitude seems to get to me
I'm up on the tight wire
Flanked by life and the funeral pyre
Putting on a show for you to see

Like a rubber-neck giraffe
You look into my past
Well maybe you're just too blind to see

I'm up in the spotlight
Oh does it feel right
Oh the altitude really gets to get to me
I'm up on the tight wire
Flanked by life and the funeral pyre
Putting on a show for you to see

[Scott Bails]

I blame Jim Morrison.

[Mister Triscuits]

I blame Jim Morrison.

Ah-ah-ah…Robbie Krieger wrote those lyrics.

[EBES]

Probably because it rhymes with fire, which usefully is a thing associated with pyres. An easy couplet for lazy rhymers.

Yep. In the same category as people who write a line ending in "world" and then have to find some way to have the next line end in the world "girl," or vice versa. Also the pattern of stresses (FYOON-ral PY-re) fits well into meters, and it's a thing that sounds literary and serious.

[chalkpie]

I'm guilty as charged...used it in my latest xmas concoction:

https://youtu.be/wdC8A6C7KGw

[ronmac]

Yep. In the same category as people who write a line ending in "world" and then have to find some way to have the next line end in the world "girl," or vice versa. Also the pattern of stresses (FYOON-ral PY-re) fits well into meters, and it's a thing that sounds literary and serious.

Then there's the overused "dreaming" and "scheming" rhyme.

[wideopenears]

Supposedly many modern-day Indians still creamate their dead on wooden funeral pyres next to the Ganges River. Saw it on a Terry Jones-hosted travel show a few years ago.

yes--I've seen it, and it's a daily thing on the banks of the Ganges even today.

[Koreabruce]

Then there's the overused "dreaming" and "scheming" rhyme.

Or Schemer, Dreamer...

[progholio]

Ah-ah-ah…Robbie Krieger wrote those lyrics.

But it was Jim who etched them into our brains

[neuroticdog]

what about masses and...

...masses?

best
Michael

[EBES]

Or Schemer, Dreamer...

Or how something like 65% of all uses of the word "strife" in the English language are by people who need a rhyme for "life"

[Scott Bails]

Or how something like 65% of all uses of the word "strife" in the English language are by people who need a rhyme for "life"

Yes, the English language is rife with this.

[ronmac]

Yes, the English language is rife with this.

I said the same thing to my wife.

[Gerhard]

A friend recently pointed out to me that Roine Stolt seems to be quite fond of using "funeral pyre" in his lyrics, but I don't know of other examples than this, off hand, from their newest album.

[spellbound]

[viukkis]

Ah-ah-ah…Robbie Krieger wrote those lyrics.

Robbie wrote the first verse and part of the chorus. If you look at the lyrics, they get much more expressive and poetic in the second verse, which was written by Jim.

Anyway, nice job from The Doors rhyming "funeral pyre" with "mire" instead of "fire"!

[SRS]

A friend recently pointed out to me that Roine Stolt seems to be quite fond of using "funeral pyre" in his lyrics, but I don't know of other examples than this, off hand, from their newest album.

The only other one I can think of is "Broken"



"Traitors work their funeral pyres"

...interesting that the lyric sheet has the next verse showing as "In murky mires" - but that is not actually sung by Hasse in the song.

[LeFrog]

A friend recently pointed out to me that Roine Stolt seems to be quite fond of using "funeral pyre" in his lyrics, but I don't know of other examples than this, off hand, from their newest album.

Stolt has a habit of recycling expressions and rhymes found in many classic songs. Of course English is not his first language but it often comes across as lazy and cliché, all the more so because the actual meaning of his lyrics is often very vague.

[Vic2012]

Just sat down for a beer at the pub, and I'm hearing Light My Fire as I type. Liar, Pyre, Faya!!!....