I am looking for a hit 80's pop song that can be broken down perfectly
into a series of haiku.  By "hit 80's pop song" I would prefer a song
that ranked #1 in the Billboard Single chart in the United States
between 1980 and 1989, but would accept anything that was once ranked
in the top 40.  By "haiku" I mean a 17 syllable poem arranged in 5-7-5
format.  I am willing to forgo the normal Japanese requirement of a
seasonal reference in haiku.

Haiku must contain complete words, with no breaks between
words (ie, if you have the word "super", you cannot put "su" at the
end of one line and "per" at the start of another)  Syllables should
be broken down as recommended on dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/

As an example, here's an attempt to breakdown The Police song "Every
Little Thing She Does Is Magic":

http://ntl.matrix.com.br/pfilho/html/lyrics/e/every_little_thing_she_does_is_magic.txt

1) Though I've tried before
   To tell her of the feelings
   I have for her in            (OK!)

2) My heart.  Everytime
   That I come near her I just
   Lose my nerve as I've        (OK!)

3) Done from the start, every (doh!  6 syllables!  doesn't work!)

Two extra conditions for the song chosen:  the entire song must
generate a minimum of three haiku (no using an instrumental!), and the
song
cannot have a single word that accounts for more than 25% of the
lyrics (such as "bird" in "Surfin Bird"
http://ntl.matrix.com.br/pfilho/html/lyrics/s/surfin_bird.txt )

Good luck!

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Request for Question Clarification by smudgy-ga on 05 May 2003 19:17 PDT

How much flexibility does one have in terms of getting every single
lyric down? Some songs have nearly infinite repetitions of certain
words at the end of a chorus, or ad libs thrown in between lines or
verses. Is it required, optional, or forbidden for these flourishes to
be included in our solution?

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Clarification of Question by hailstorm-ga on 05 May 2003 23:48 PDT

smudgy,

You should quote a reputable source for your lyrics, and use that as
your guide.  Whatever they include, you should as well.

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Clarification of Question by hailstorm-ga on 06 May 2003 17:41 PDT

Nobody will try to answer the full question?  I feel a haiku coming on...

Do you really want
To hurt me?  Do you really
Want to make me cry?

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Request for Question Clarification by smudgy-ga on 07 May 2003 18:50 PDT

Okay, just to be -extra- clear on this matter...

The -entire- song's lyrics need to translate into haiku, right? From
beginning to end without error, in some large number of haiku.
Correct?

If so, does the final haiku have to be complete as well?

Also: if a song contains, say, "Oh, oh, oh, la la la" or other
nonsense syllables, are they included too? Assume they are included in
the lyrics transcription.

Thanks,
smudgy

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Clarification of Question by hailstorm-ga on 07 May 2003 19:13 PDT

At this time, I'd like the entire song to fit perfectly into haiku. 
So if you have between 1 and 16 syllables remaining, it won't work. 
If we get near the deadline, I may change my mind and accept a haiku
that works perfectly until the end.

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Clarification of Question by hailstorm-ga on 07 May 2003 20:05 PDT

Everything included in the lyrics you reference must be included, with
the exception of the coda at the end that goes on for infinity.  If
this is the case, you can break it off at whatever point you want,
provided that the line that is repeated is finished entirely.  So if
you have a song that repeats "this is the end of the song" until the
sound fades out, you can repeat "this is the end of the song" as many
times as you like until it fits into a perfect haiku, but you can't
finish with "this is the end" or any other partial song fragment.

---

Clarification of Question by hailstorm-ga on 20 May 2003 01:47 PDT

If haiku is not possible, I would also accept limericks.

Hey, stormy!

What an intriguing Question! Are you going to tell us what it's for???

You specified: 
"the entire song must generate a minimum of three haiku".
and gitana has provided you with songs that include 3, 5, and 3 haiku
respectively.

Now, if you had said, "provide the lyrics for the entire song, which
must generate a minimum of three haiku", then it would have been clear
that that was what you wanted. However, gitana did Answer the Question
as it was worded.

(What **IS** this for???) 8-)

ace

Yes, I spent a good amount of time trying to phrase this question so
that what I wanted was clear, but I guess I should have slept on it
before posting it.  What I want it for...I may say after I get it. 
;-)

Hi hailstorm-ga,

  Given a collection of files with
  the song lyrics, I think I could
  write a computer program to filter
  out all the haikus.

  Unforunately, I think it would take
  several hours to do.  Also, I imagine
  you don't have a nice collection
  of lyrics sitting around.

  Great question though -- I can't wait
  to see the answer.

            dogbite-ga

It's not that no one has tried to answer the full question -- it's
just that answering it is very difficult.  I found a list of all the
top 40 songs of the 1980s.  I tried out many of the number ones, and
after my eyes started to dry out from staring at the screen and
dividing the lyrics into 5-7-5s, I thought about the lyrics for the
number 2s and 3s.  None seemed to work.  Even going to other eras, I
still haven't come up with a likely candidate.

Well, I got about 17 haikus into one song before it broke, and I still
hadn't gotten through all the lyrics. I'm pretty disheartened now.