You see, as I was reclining by the pool on holiday a couple of weeks ago, I heard ABBA's 'Lay All Your Love On Me', which contains the fabulous couplet "I used to think I was sensible / It makes the truth even more incomprehensible", with its six-syllable final word. So I started trying to think if there were any similarly long words in recent chart hits. And I couldn't come up with any!
Five-syllable words used to be commonplace ("Unforgettable" "You irreplaceable you" "Congratulations"...) and The Carpenters managed a whopping seven syllables in "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft" (a song which includes another 5-syllable and four 4-syllable words too). But the most recent six-syllable word I could find was "institutionalized" in So Solid Crew's "Broken Silence" back in 2003, and even five-syllable ones seem pretty scarce -- there's "opportunity" in Eminem's "Lose Yourself", for instance, but that's 2002.
So, please -- somebody! -- name me a hit song within the last 10 years that has at least a 5-syllable word in it, and preferably a 7-syllable one to stop The Carpenters looking so smug (a herculean labour, I know). Otherwise, I'm afraid I shall have to concede that Mars bars really are getting smaller, that policemen are getting younger, and that young people really don't show any respect for their elders any more. In my day, etc., etc., ...
