Fix automatic insertion of <p></p> or allow toggle

The feature whereby WP will automatically wrap paragraphs in tags is nice, but it needs to be smarter and/or have the option to be disabled.
For instance, I’ve defined a class of <pre></pre> for use in marking up song lyrics. If I start off like so:
<pre class="lyrics">people you love will turn their backs on you
you'll lose your hair
your teeth
your knife will fall out of its sheath
but you still don't like to leave before the end of the movie</pre>
WP inserts after “sheath” and before “but”, but it doesn’t get the opening before “people”. This hilights how I feel the behavior should be smarter, but in fact in this instance I give, this is where I would prefer a toggle to disable the “feature” for this entry. I do not want any tags within’ that <pre></pre> block.