What are your all-time favorite lyrics from songs? For me, I’d go with this from Shane MacGowan because it’s the code that I try to live by everyday:
And in the Euston tavern you screamed it was your shout
But they wouldn’t give you service so you kicked the windows out
They took you out into the street and kicked you in the brains
So you walked back in through a bolted door and did it all again
I also like this from Bob Dylan, though I’m not as big a fan of Bob as some:
Life is sad
Life is a bust
All you can do is do what you must
You do what you must do and you do it well
And I’ve always like this from Robert Johnson:
When the train, it left the station, there was two lights on behind,
When the train, it left the station, there was two lights on behind,
Well, the blue light was my baby, and the red light was my mind.
What are your favorites?
Xboxershorts
Something I’ve always wanted to aspire to…the chorus from The Old Dun Cow:
And there was Brown upside down
Lappin” up the whiskey on the floor.
“Booze, booze!” The firemen cried
As they came knockin’ on the door (clap clap)
Oh don’t let ’em in till it’s all drunk up
And somebody shouted MacIntyre! MACINTYRE!
And we all got blue-blind paralytic drunk
When the Old Dun Cow caught fire.
ranchandsyrup
Lately it’s been:
He foaled a swollen daughter
in a sauna
playing contract bridge.
They’re soakin up the fun
and doin blotters
I don’t know which.
From Pavement — Grounded
Jonny Scrum-half
“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” Paul Simon
“Anything less than the best is a felony.” Robert Van Winkle.
Iowa Old Lady
Apologies for going OT right off the bat, but the Inspector General has been charged with investigating the pre-election actions of the FBI, including Comey and the NY office.
Miss Bianca
Tongues talk fire and
Eyes cry rivers
Indian givers
Hearts of stone
Paper ships and
Painted faces
The world’s no place when
You’re on your own
A heart needs a home
Richard and Linda Thompson, “A Heart Needs a Home”
lollipopguild
Simple Gifts-for trump fans-Simple Gits. For the rest of us Hotel California.
The Eccentric
Send lawyers, guns, and money. The s*it has hit the fan. – Warren Zevon
Doug!
@Miss Bianca:
I almost included the beginning of “Keep Your Distance”, which has my favorite Thompson lyrics though not my favorite of his songs overall.
Mike in DC
You can run on for a long time, run on for a long time, run on for a long time…sooner or later God’s gonna cut you down.
schrodingers_cat
Does it have to be in English?
If yes, then Bob Dylan’s
Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.
Chris
You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older, and deeper in debt,
Saint Peter don’t you call me cause I can’t go,
I owe my soul to the company store.
Chris
@schrodingers_cat:
If not, the entire lyrics to “Le Temps Ne Fait Rien A L’Affaire” by Georges Brassens.
Yoda Dog Democrat
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred.
Bob Dylan- Its Alright Ma (Im Only Bleeding)
Brachiator
If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the viaducts of your dream
Where immobile steel rims crack
And the ditch in the back roads stop
Could you find me?
Would you kiss-a my eyes?
To lay me down
In silence easy
To be born again
To be born again
— Astral Weeks, Van the Man
wenchacha
@Miss Bianca: Pretty much everything by Richard Thompson belongs in this thread.
Doug!
@Mike in DC:
Hey, I heard the Blind Boys of Alabama version of this on the radio last night. Never heard the song before.
Thoroughly Pizzled
You’re the top
You’re the Colosseum
You’re the top
You’re the Louvre museum
You’re a melody from a symphony by Strauss
You’re a Bendel bonnet
A Shakespeare sonnet
You’re Mickey Mouse
Roger Moore
You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you’ll have to answer to
Oh, The Guns of Brixton.
Dan Myers
There’s no good revolution only power changing hands – Pete Ham
PaulW
Friday night I’d just got back
I had my eyes shut
Was dreaming about the past
I thought about you while the radio played
Should’ve got moving
Some reason I stayed
I started drifting to a different place
I realized I was falling off the face of your world
And there was nothing left to bring me back
I’m a million miles away
A million miles away
I’m just a million miles away
And there’s nothing left to bring me back today
daveNYC
what are we left with?
a nation of god-fearing pregnant nationalists
who feel it’s their duty to populate the homeland
pass on traditions
how to get ahead religions
And prosperity via simpleton culture
the idiots are takin over [x8]
dedc79
@Brachiator: could nominate basically the entire album
wenchacha
Sweet Bird – Joni Mitchell
by Joni Mitchell
Out on some borderline
Some mark of inbetween
I lay down golden in time
And woke up vanishing
Sweet bird you are
Briefer than a falling star
All these vain promises on beauty jars
Somewhere with your wings on time
You must be laughing
Behind our eyes
Calendars of our lives
Circled with compromise
Sweet bird of time and change
You must be laughing
Up on your feathers laughing
Golden in time
Cities under the sand
Power ideals and beauty
Fading in everyone’s hand
Give me some time
I feel like I’m losing mine
Out here on this horizon line
With the earth spinning
And the sky forever rushing
No one knows
They can never get that close
Guesses at most
Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching
Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching
Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching
dedc79
But your flag decal won’t get you into Heaven anymore
They’re already overcrowded from your dirty little war
Now Jesus don’t like killin’, no matter what the reason’s for
And your flag decal won’t get you into Heaven anymore
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
I think the lyrics of Leif Erikson from Interpol are wonderful and the ending is the best part:
It’s like learning a new language
Helps me catch up on my mime
If you don’t bring up those lonely parts
This could be a good time
You come here to me.
We’ll collect those lonely parts and set them down
You come here to me…
She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal
Dan Myers
I’m finding out there’s just one kind of war
the one going on tween the rich and the poor
Utah Phillips
PaulW
Well at 5 a.m. oil pressure’s sinking fast
I make a pit stop, wipe the windshield, check the gas
Gotta call my baby on the telephone
Let her know that her daddy’s coming on home
Sit tight, little mama, I’m a-coming around
I got a three more hours but I’m covering ground
Your eyes get itchy in the wee wee hours
Sun’s just a red ball rising over them refinery towers
Radio’s jammed up with gospel stations
Lost souls calling long distance salvation
Hey mister deejay won’t you hear my last prayer
Hey ho rock ‘n roll deliver me from nowhere
Nancy Supler
@Thoroughly Pizzled: Than you and heaven! Great lyrics.
Xboxershorts
I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that’s grown old
If dreams were lightning thunder was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago
Make me an angel that flies from Montgom’ry
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go
When I was a young girl well, I had me a cowboy
He weren’t much to look at, just free rambling man
But that was a long time and no matter how I try
The years just flow by like a broken down dam.
Make me an angel that flies from Montgom’ry
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go
Politically Lost
1, Fade to Black:
I have lost the will to live
Simply nothing more to give
There is nothing more for me
Need the end to set me free
OR
2. Society:
Society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
Society, crazy and deep
I hope you’re not lonely without me
Doug!
@Roger Moore:
When they kick at your front door, how you gonna come?
Mike E
Moribund the Burgermeister
trollhattan
@schrodingers_cat: Especially as sung by Patti Smith last month. Holy moly.
Doug!
@Xboxershorts:
Beautiful song.
Timurid
What have I become,
my sweetest friend?
Everyone I know
goes away in the end.
spacecakes
All I did was miss you, and the way we used to be
All I did was keep the beat, and bad company
All I did was kiss you, through the bars of a rhyme
Julie, I’d do the stars with you, anytime
Dire Straits – Romeo and Juliet
Brachiator
Man, I can understand how it might be
Kind of hard to love a girl like me
I don’t blame you much for wanting to be free
I just wanted you to know
I loved you better than your own kin did
From the very start
It’s my own fault for what happens to my heart
You see I’ve always known you’d go
— Do What You Gotta Do
This lyric popped up in my brain for some reason, and I thought that I knew it from some 50s records my uncle owned. Then, thanks to the google machine, I learned that it was written by Jimmy Webb in 1967. Lots of good versions, and Nina Simone has one of the best. But the version I most remember was sung by Al Wilson.
EdTheRed
I love “The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn.”
Always loved this one from Nobel Prize-Winner/Non-Shit-Giver Bob Dylan:
Another favorite is from Public Enemy (I sing this one to myself about once every other day):
And my favorite lyric change in a re-arrangment (not really fair to call it just a “cover”) is from Levon Helm’s version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City”:
Original:
Levon:
That change just takes it up a notch for me…not sure why, but it does.
dedc79
I guess I heard about original sin. I heard the dude blamed the chick. I heard the chick blamed the snake.
I heard they were naked when they got busted.
I heard things ain’t been the same since.
Penus
I always liked this from the Drive-By Truckers’ “Self-Destructive Zones”: “It’s easier to let it all die a fairy tale than admit that something bigger’s passin’ through.”
And from “A Ghost to Most” on the same album, a delightful FU to Dubya:
“Saving everybody takes a man on a mission with a swagger that can set the world at ease
Some believe it’s God’s own hand on the trigger and the other dumping water in the streets
Talkin’ tough’s easy when it’s other people’s evil and you’re judging what they do or don’t believe
Seems to me you’d have to have a hole in your own to point a finger at somebody else’s sheet”
Basically anything by Mike Cooley. Even just the way he puts filler words together is great, like in “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac”: “Dammit, Elvis, I swear, son, I think it’s time you came around.”
Gin & Tonic
Mose:
Life is short, talk is cheap
Don’t be makin’ promises you can’t keep
Nancy Supler
If they asked me, I could write a book
about the way you walk and whisper and look.
I could write a preface on how we met
so the world would never forget.
And the simple secret of the plot
is just to tell them that I love you a lot.
Then the world discovers as my book ends
how to make two lovers a friend
Rogers/ Hart
grrljock
Offering two:
‘Cause we may flicker and fade
But we never will be through with this
I see this world battered but not broken
There’s a fallow heart, it’s waiting on a sowing hand
You can grow what you want
One day it’s gonna rise up
So plant what you need to make a better stand
(Amy Ray-Indigo Girls, “Tether” on All that We Let In)
You claim I’m stealing jobs though
Peter Piper claimed he picked them he just underpaid Pablo
(Snow Tha Product, “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)” on Hamilton Mixtape)
Doug!
@Brachiator:
Jimmy Webb wrote some great songs.
ET
All the lyrics from Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
We are the daughters
We are the sisters who
Carry the water
We are the mothers too
We are each other
We are the other
We are the daughters
Fierce as fire and sweet as fruit
Not easily defined, not following suit
In a world that’s run on pride and force
Women of the world, we have a voice
When it’s not safe to walk these streets
Gangs and tribes and clubs of beasts
But when, oh when will there be peace?
Will there be peace?
We are the daughters
We are the damned and doomed
Give us your violence
We won’t be silent
We are the shelter
We are the helpers
We are the daughters
dexwood
You ask me for advice, I say use the door.
“Private Life”, The Pretenders. That’s a cold dismissal.
Boudica
High time, we made a stand
And shook up the views of the common man…
Feel the pain
Talk about it
If you’re a worried man
Then shout about it
Open hearts fell about it
Open minds think about it
Everyone read about it
Every one scream about it
Everyone (everyone, yeah)
Everyone (everyone) read about it, read about it
dedc79
@spacecakes: You beat me to it. My favorite part of that song too.
raven
Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast
Oh, but what a shame if all we’ve shared can’t last
crappy version
PaulW
Over and in, last call for sin
While everyone’s lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I’ve done
All these things that I’ve done
If you can hold on
If you can hold on…
rp
So many:
Think this through with me, let me know your mind,
Wo, oh, what I want to know, is are you kind?
And I love my boy and that’s why I’m leaving
I don’t want him to be aware that there’s
Any such thing as grieving
Sometimes I don’t thrill you
Sometimes I think I’ll kill you
Just don’t let me fuck up will you
’cause when I need a friend it’s still you
But Angie, Angie, ain’t it good to be alive?
I do not count the time
you made me forget myself
I thought I was someone else,
someone good
Time casts a spell on you
But you won’t forget me
I know I could have loved you
But you would not let me
Even children get older and I’m getting older too
So can you understand?
Why I want a daughter while I’m still young
I wanna hold her hand
And show her some beauty
Before all this damage is done
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
I found a reason to keep living
Oh and the reason, dear, is you
Oh I do believe
You are what you perceive
What comes is better than what came before
I love women, I think they’re great
They’re a solace to the world in a terrible state
I’m all used up, I’m out of luck, I am star struck
By something in your eyes
that is keeping my hope alive.
But I’m sick of myself when I look at you
something is beautiful and true.
Alone here in the kitchen
I feel there’s something missing
I’d beg for some forgiveness
But begging’s not my business
Everything dies baby that’s a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe
Love is a banquet on which we feed
Home, is where I want to be
But I guess I’m already there
I come home, she lifted up her wings
I guess that this must be the place
We drift in and out
Sing into my mouth
Out of all those kinds of people
You got a face with a view
We are vain and we are blind
I hate people when they’re not polite
Don’t confront me with my failures
I have not forgotten them
Once I had a love
and it was a gas
Soon turned out
to be a pain in the ass
Last time I saw you, you were on stage
Your hair was wild, your eyes were bright
And you were in a rage
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good?
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could?
And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
Why can’t we give love that one more chance?
But you gave away the things you loved and one of them was me
It seems strange
How we used to wait for letters to arrive
But what’s stranger still
Is how something so small can keep you alive
There was no ransom to be paid
Thought of you as my mountain top,
Thought of you as my peak.
PaulW
(unintelligible mumbling)
— Louie Louie
Brachiator
The song that launched an FBI investigation into possible subversive lyrics, deforming the minds of American teen agers
Louie louie, oh baby, i gotta go.
Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi
Louie louie, oh baby, i gotta go.
A fine girl, who waited for me.
I catch a ship across the sea.
I sailed the ship all alone.
I wondered when i’m gonna make it home.
Louie louie, oh baby, i gotta go.
Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi
Louie louie, oh baby, i gotta go.
trollhattan
Not as succinct as “I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still” but Neil Young paints a scene in a scant few strokes here.
Spanky
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
Its good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spell
PaulW
Coming up close
Everything sounds like welcome home
Come home and oh, by the way
Don’t you know that I could make a dream that’s barely half-awake come true
I wanted to say – but anything I could have said I felt somehow that you already knew
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JETHRO TULL HYMN 43
Our father high in heaven, smile down upon your son
Who’s busy with his money games, his women and his gun
Oh Jesus save me
And the unsung Western hero, killed an Indian or three,
And then he made his name in Hollywood
To set the white man free
Oh Jesus save me
If Jesus saves, well He’d better save Himself
From the gory glory seekers who use His name in death
Oh Jesus save me
If Jesus saves, well He’d better save Himself
From the gory glory seekers who use His name in death
Oh Jesus save me
piratedan
Oh, I used to be disgusted
And now I try to be amused
But since their wings have got rusted
You know, the angels want to wear my red shoes
But when they told me ’bout their side of the bargain
That’s when I knew that I could not refuse
And I won’t get any older, now that angels want to wear my red shoes
Oh, oh, I was watching while you’re dancing away
Our love got fractured in the echo and sway
How come everybody wants to be your friend?
You know that it still hurts me just to say it
Oh, I know that she’s disgusted (oh, why’s that?)
Because she’s feeling so abused (oh, that’s too bad)
She gets tired of the lust (oh, I’m so sad)
But it’s so hard to refuse
Can you say that I’m too old
When the angels have stolen my red shoes?
Oh, oh I said, “I’m so happy I could die”
She said, “Drop dead,” then left with another guy
That’s what you get if you go chasing after vengeance
Ever since you got me punctured, this has been my sentence
Oh, I used to be disgusted
But now I try to be amused
But since their wings have got rusted
You know, the angels want to wear my red shoes
But when they told me ’bout their side of the bargain
That’s when I knew that I could not refuse
And I won’t get any older, now that the angels want to wear my red shoes
PaulW
@Brachiator:
Jinx.
you gotta buy my an ice cream.
call_me_ishmael
Lots of good stuff. Pretty much anything by John Prine or Warren Zevon, but I always laugh when I hear Mr Bad Example:
“I got a part-time job at my father’s carpet store
Laying tackless gripping, and housewives by the score
I loaded up their furniture, and took it to Spokane
And auctioned off every last naugahyde divan
I’m very well aquainted with the seven deadly sins
I keep a busy schedule trying to fit them in
I’m proud to be a glutton, and I don’t have time for sloth
I’m greedy, and I’m angry, and I don’t care who I cross”
Also love me some Bruce Cockburn lyrics. This one (from 1983!) seems painfully apropos today:
“Strikes across the frontier and strikes for higher wage
Planet lurches to the right as ideologies engage
Suddenly it’s repression, moratorium on rights
What did they think the politics of panic would invite?
Person in the street shrugs — “Security comes first”
But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse”
raven
So when you see your neighbor carryin’ somethin’
Help him with his load
And don’t go mistaking Paradise
For that home across the road
ALurkSupreme
I want a nice little boat, made out of ocean
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@Brachiator:
It was so much more innocent.
errg
Grateful Dead…
Judge said “Fact it’s gonna cost you your life”
Dupree said “Judge, you know that seems to me to be about right”
raven
I’m so tired of being tired
Sure as night will follow day
Most things I worry about
Never happen anyway
raven
And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill
trollhattan
@piratedan:
Good one. Elvis is essentially a limitless well and frankly, nobody out-puns him.
Mnemosyne
This one was going through my head on my drive to work this morning:
He’s a fine figure of a man and handsome too
With his eyes upon the secret places he’d like to undo
Still he knows who knows who and where and how
And I hope you’re happy now…
ETA:
And don’t forget the chorus:
I hope that you’re happy now
Like you’re supposed to be
And I know that this will hurt you
More than it hurts me
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@call_me_ishmael:
My favorite Bruce Cockburn lyric:
If I had a rocket launcher
some son of a bitch would die.
Yoda Dog Democrat
So many great submissions…
I can hear the wind blowin,
Sending shivers down my spine.
I can hear the wind blowin,
Shakes the trees and the power lines.
Whar makes a man spend his whole life in disguise?
I think I know…
I think I might know…
zhena gogolia
@The Eccentric:
That is a good one.
boatboy_srq
Duran Duran, “Last Chance on the Stairway”
raven
Think of the times you have sat by yourself
And wondered
Just what it was that compelled you to be
What you are
You came into this life unsheltered and all alone
That’s how you came and for sure that’s how you go out.
Brachiator
I’ve been so many places in my life and time
I’ve sung a lot of songs, I’ve made some bad rhyme
I’ve acted out my life in stages
With ten thousand people watching
But we’re alone now and I’m singin’ this song for you
I know your image of me is what I hope to be
I’ve treated you unkindly but darling can’t you see
There’s no one more important to me
Darling can’t you please see through me
‘Cause we’re alone now and I’m singin’ my song to you
You taught me precious secrets of the truth, withholdin’ nothin’
You came out in front and I was hiding
But now I’m so much better so if my words don’t come together
Listen to the melody ’cause my love’s in there hiding
I love you in a place where there’s no space or time
I love you for my life, ’cause you’re a friend of mine
And when my life is over, remember when we were together
We were alone and I was singin’ my song for you
— A Song For You, Leon Russel
The Carmen McCrae version is magnificent
_pk_
Well I know one thing that really is true
This here’s a zoo and the keeper ain’t you
And I’m sick of it, I’m Sick of You
Lou Reed — Sick of You
geg6
We passed upon the stair
We spoke of was and when
Although I wasn’t there
He said I was his friend
Which came as some surprise
I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone
A long long time ago
Oh no, not me
I never lost control
You’re face to face
With the man who sold the world
I laughed and shook his hand
And made my way back home
I searched for form and land
For years and years I roamed
I gazed a gazley stare
At all the millions here
We must have died alone
A long long time ago
Who knows
Not me
We never lost control
You’re face to face
With the man who sold the world
? Martin
Maybe because it’s not too far removed from an actual event.
zhena gogolia
@Chris:
Yeah, I’d go for Delvig’s “Elegiia” then.
ET
The President is doing a tribute to Uncle Joe live right now. He just made Biden get red nose and pull out a hankie.
zhena gogolia
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
If we start on Cole Porter, everyone else will be blown away.
raven
Go take your sister then by the hand
Lead her away from this foreign land
Far away where we might laugh again
We are leaving, you don’t need us
And it’s a fair wind
Blowin’ warm out of the south over my shoulder
Guess I’ll set a course and go
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@wenchacha: And almost everything by Townes Van Zandt.
Some snippets I like:
We’ll laugh like little children telling secrets.
Probably cry like old women drinking gin.
– Jason Isbell “Tour of Duty”
The frost on the ground probably envies the frost on the trees
– Jason Isbell “The Songs that She Sang in the Shower”
Which lover are you, Jack of Diamonds?
Now you be Emmylou and I’ll be Gram
I send a letter, don’t know who I am
I dream a highway back to you
Gillian Welch/Dave Rawlings “I Dream a Highway”
LAO
@geg6: You beat me to it!
burnspbesq
Bruce Cockburn seems apropos these days.
Don’t the hours grow shorter as the days roll by
You never get to stop and open your eyes
One day you’re waiting for the sky to fall
The next you’re dazzled by the beauty of it all
(from “Lovers in a Dangerous Time”)
Or …
Everybody
Wants to see
Justice done
On somebody else
(from “Justice”)
ThresherK
@zhena gogolia: If a Harris pat means a Paris hat, I may.
Yoda Dog Democrat
@geg6: oh hell yea, i love that song so much. Cobain’s is fine, but Bowie’s is divine.
raven
I can’t believe the things I’m seeing
I wonder ’bout some things I’ve heard
Everybody’s Crying Mercy
When they don’t know the meaning of the word
A bad enough situation
It’s sure enough getting worse
Everybody’s Crying Justice
Just as long as it’s business first
Toe to toe
Touch and go
Give a cheer
Get your souvenir
People running ’round in circles
Don’t know what they’re headed for
Everybody’s Crying Peace on Earth
Just as soon as we win this war
Straight ahead
Knock ’em dead
Pack your kit
Choose your hypocrite
Well you don’t have to go to off-Broadway
To see something plain absurd
Everybody’s Crying Mercy
When they don’t know the meaning of the word
Nobody knows the meaning of the word
geg6
I was tuning in the shine on the light night dial
doing anything my radio advised
with every one of those late night stations
playing songs bringing tears to me eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver
when the switch broke ’cause it’s old
They’re saying things that I can hardly believe.
They really think we’re getting out of control.
[Chorus:]
Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don’t give you any choice
’cause they think that it’s treason.
So you had better do as you are told.
You better listen to the radio.
I wanna bite the hand that feeds me.
I wanna bite that hand so badly.
I want to make them wish they’d never seen me.
Some of my friends sit around every evening
and they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
and the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut up;
they don’t wanna hear about it.
It’s only inches on the reel-to-reel.
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
tryin’ to anaesthetise the way that you feel
[Chorus]
Wonderful radio
Marvelous radio
Wonderful radio
Radio, radio…
Shell
OT, but had to say. crying as Obama gives Biden the Medal Of Honor.
narya
There’s a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I’m heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain’t got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted
The defiant snarl behind them, the “no retreat, baby, no surrender” (yeah, a different song) has kept me going through many a rough patch.
And for our current times, from the song “American Land” from “Wrecking Ball”:
The McNicholas, the Posalski’s, the Smiths, Zerillis, too
The Blacks, the Irish, Italians, the Germans and the Jews
Come across the water a thousand miles from home
With nothin in their bellies but the fire down below
They died building the railroads worked to bones and skin
They died in the fields and factories names scattered in the wind
They died to get here a hundred years ago they’re still dyin now
The hands that built the country we’re always trying to keep down
geg6
@LAO:
Probably my favorite song of all time.
geg6
@Yoda Dog Democrat:
Bowie is the best. Period.
Booger
@PaulW: Plimsouls FTW. Haven’t listened to this in a long time, going to rectify the situation.
justawriter
As a chorister these words have always moved me:
Because music was his life
It was not his livelihood
It made him feel so happy
And it made him feel so good
And sang from his heart
And he sang from his soul
He did not know how well he sang
It just made him him whole
Harry Chapin – Mr. Tanner
Kay
Why do people think they can demand this? “Support” is a state of mind. I don’t have any obligation to ‘support” Donald Trump. It’s insane to keep saying this. Accept, yes. Support? No, I don’t think so but thanks for asking. It’s just not something one person can demand of another.
I can walk around thinking he’s a bad person, which is what I do. I don’t “support” bad people. Sorry.
Yoda Dog Democrat
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming
And the signs said,
“The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whisper’d in the sounds of silence
burnspbesq
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
More Isbell:
There’s one thing that’s real clear to me
No one dies with dignity
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
LAO
Since geg6 beat me to “Man Who Sold The World” — Bowie’s version, of course, I offer a little Zevon.
Well, I went home with the waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too
I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this
I’m the innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I’m down on my luck
And I’m down on my luck
And I’m down on my luck
Now I’m hiding in Honduras
I’m a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan
geg6
All my favorites seem to be a riff on a theme:
Don’t wanna be an American idiot.
Don’t want a nation under the new mania
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck America.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow.
For that’s enough to argue.
Well maybe I’m the faggot America.
I’m not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along to the age of paranoia.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow.
For that’s enough to argue.
Don’t want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It’s calling out to idiot America.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow.
For that’s enough to argue
zhena gogolia
@Kay:
I can’t even do “accept.”
Gravenstone
@Shell: Medal of Freedom. Medal of Honor is a damsight harder to come by.
LAO
And, although I’m not a huge Paul Simon fan:
In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of ev’ry glove that laid him down
And cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
“I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains
Chris
@Kay:
Oh, good! Another product of Liberal Hollywood.
LAO
@geg6: You’re my kind of angry!
lgerard
Them that’s got shall have
Them that’s not shall lose
So the Bible said
and it still is news
geg6
You got a lotta nerve
To say you are my friend
When I was down
You just stood there grinning
You got a lotta nerve
To say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on
The side that’s winning
You say I let you down
You know it’s not like that
If you’re so hurt
Why then don’t you show it
You say you lost your faith
But that’s not where it’s at
You had no faith to lose
And you know it
I know the reason
That you talk behind my back
I used to be among the crowd
You’re in with
Do you take me for such a fool
To think I’d make contact
With the one who tries to hide
What he don’t know to begin with
You see me on the street
You always act surprised
You say, “How are you?” “Good luck”
But you don’t mean it
When you know as well as me
You’d rather see me paralyzed
Why don’t you just come out once
And scream it
No, I do not feel that good
When I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief
Perhaps I’d rob them
And now I know you’re dissatisfied
With your position and your place
Don’t you understand
It’s not my problem
I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment
I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is
To see you
Chris
@zhena gogolia:
We need a separate thread just for non-English lyrics.
Another Scott
“My jacket’s going to be cut and slim and checked
Maybe a touch of seersucker with an open neck”
Something about the rhythm of those syllables as sung by Roger Daltry has always stuck with me.
Cheers,
Scott.
Turgidson
“No one here gets out alive.”
The Doors
Repatriated
We serve an old man in a dry season
A lighthouse keeper in the desert sun
Dreamers of sleepers and white treason
We dream of rain and the history of the gun
There’s a lighthouse in the middle of Prussia
A white house in a red square
I’m living in films for the sake of Russia
A kino runner for the DDR
And the fifty-two daughters of the revolution
Turn the gold to chrome
Gift … nothing to lose
Stuck inside of Memphis with the mobile home, sing:
Mother Russia, Mother Russia, Mother Russia rain down down down
Mother Russia, Mother Russia, Mother Russia rain down
Mother Russia – Sisters of Mercy (second half of Dominion/Mother Russia
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@PaulW: Coming Up Close – Love this song and album from Aimee Mann/Til Tuesday. I used to listen to this album all the time when I was a freshman in high school.
Chris
Well meself and a hundred more,
To America sailed o’er,
Our fortunes to be made, we were thinking,
When we got to Yankee land,
They shoved a gun into our hand,
Saying paddy, you must go and fight for Lincoln.
Despite the anti Civil War theme, I always loved this for perfectly capturing the immigrant’s role as America’s cannon fodder. (In much more than just war).
Yoda Dog Democrat
@geg6: Ok, now Im in love with you. That is maybe probably definitely my favorite song of all time.
dedc79
I am an American aquarium drinker
I assassin down the avenue
I’m hiding out in the big city blinking
What was I thinking when I let go of you?
Kay
@zhena gogolia:
One of the things I liked about Obama is he isn’t a needy person. He’s complete, striding around, regardless of your “acceptance”. Donald Trump is like…crowding us with his neediness.
Back off, buddy. i don’t like you one bit :)
Emma
Honestly now
Either you stand for something
Or you get knocked down for nothing
Sister don’t ache too soon
I thought it was understood
By everyone in this room
Who’d ever come up short or won a race
Safety’s just danger
Out of place
Honestly Now by Harry Connick Jr.
Miss Bianca
@Doug!: Used to do an a cappella version of that song with an old band – works really well as a slowish doo-wop number
Love the beginning of that song – also: “oh, I played and I got stung/now I’m biting back my tongue/and sweeping out the footsteps where I strayed”
@wenchacha: not going to argue with that…love the nym, btw!
Cacti
My favorite song lyrics since the election went down (I Hate You! by The Edge of Etiquette)
Just where is our future?
The things we’ve done and said
Let’s just push the button
We’d be better off dead!
Cause I hate you!
And I berate you!
And I can’t wait to get to you!
The sins of all our fathers
Being dumped on us the sons
The only choice we’re given
Is how many megatons!
And I eschew you!
And I say SCREW YOU!
And I hope you’re blue too!
We’re all bloody worthless
Just greedy human scum
The numbers all add up
To a negative sum!
Cause I hate you!
Yes I hate you!
And I hate you too!
Turgidson
@dedc79:
great song. But…
“take off your band-aid ’cause I don’t believe in touchdowns”
How did the entire band allow that lyric to stay in the song? How did they not bust out laughing every time it was said?
No One of Consequence
Joe Pug – Hymn #76
To meet me is to dare into the darkness
But if you are devoted to a dream
Go and light the lantern
Leave your family abandoned
Meet me by the shallows of the stream
O meet me by the shallows of the stream
To ask me is to love with hesitation
My answer is the same as it has been
Here is my affection
No conditions and no questions
Open up the door and let me in
Open up the door and let me in
To trust me is to travel past the towers
Those who make it back from here are few
It takes all of your devotion
To have courage for a moment
The world has bested better men than you
The world has bested better men than you
To love me is to set upon the mountain
Every step is harder than the last
But to find the step above it
Is to triumph, is to summit
Taste the frigid water from the tap
Taste the frigid water from the tap
To curse me for the life we left behind us
Is to misremember what was cost
For from the vacant cradle
To the empty kitchen table
Show me what was precious that was lost
Show me what was precious that was lost
– NOoC
raven
Check out my pals
burnspbesq
lyin’ here in the darkness, i heard the sirens wail
Somebody goin’ to Emergency, somebody goin’ to jail
If you find somebody that you love in this world, you better hang on tooth and nail,
The wolf is always at the door
schrodingers_cat
We shall overcome.
Chris
@Cacti:
Dude, is that that song that the punk is listening to on the bus in Star Trek IV (the one with the whales) where Spock neck-pinches him to turn off the music and the entire bus applauds?
ETA: actually never heard it anywhere else, but I’ve seen that movie half a dozen times.
No One of Consequence
Couldn’t not throw this in too:
World Turned Upside Down – (traditional, but my fave is by Dick Gaughan)
In 1649 To St. George’s Hill,
A ragged band they called the Diggers
Came to show the people’s will
They defied the landlords
They defied the laws
They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs
We come in peace they said
To dig and sow
We come to work the lands in common
And to make the waste ground grow
This earth divided
We will make whole
So it will be
A common treasury for all
The sin of property
We do disdain
No man has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Spring up at their command
They make the laws
To chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feed the rich
While poor folk starve
We work we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to the masters
Or pay rent to the lords
Still we are free
Though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory
Stand up now
From the men of property
The orders came
They sent the hired men and troopers
To wipe out the Diggers’ claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed
But still the vision lingers on
You poor take courage
You rich take care
This earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace
The orders came to cut them down
– NOoC
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
Me, too. Kay is a better person than I am, though.
PaulW
I am holding half an acre
Torn from the map of Michigan
And folded in this scrap of paper
Is the land I grew in
Think of every town you’ve lived in
Every room you lay your head
And what is it that you remember
Do you carry every sadness with you
Every hour your heart was broken
Every night the fear and darkness
Lay down with you
A man is walking on the highway
A woman stares out at the sea
And light is only now just breaking
So we carry every sadness with us
Every hour our hearts were broken
Every night the fear and darkness
Lay down with us
But I am holding half an acre
Torn from the map of Michigan
I am carrying this scrap of paper
That can crack the darkest sky wide open
Every burden taken from me
Every night my heart unfolding
My home
Yoda Dog Democrat
There’s a natural mystic
Blowing through the air
If you listen carefully now you will hear
This could be the first trumpet
Might as well be the last
Many more will have to suffer
Many more will have to die
Don’t ask me why…
ChrisB
I’ve always liked the following from Stevie Wonder’s Living for the City:
“To find a job is like the haystack’s needle
‘Cause where he lives they don’t use colored people.”
Such an elegant yet resonant lyric.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Doug!: The beginning of “Keep Your Distance” is amazing.
dedc79
@Turgidson:
I hear you, and I don’t have a good answer. Awful line in an otherwise amazing song.
Wag
Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens.
PaulW
There are places I’ll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I’ve loved them all
But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
DesertFriar
Have a little bit of faith I say,
Have a little faith my friend.
We got to help each other
through thick and thin.
These are trying times we are living in
Have a little bit of faith I say,
Have a little faith my friend.
~Mavis Staples, “Have A Little Faith
burnspbesq
Aux armes, citoyens
Formez vos battailons
Marchons, marchons
Qu’un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons
Death Panel Truck
@Doug!: He also wrote atrocious shit like McArthur Park.
Mike E
OT npr did a segment on KOMPROMAT!!!! Thot I heard martini glasses clink in the background…
Kyle
Patty Griffin:
The Long Ride Home:
Forty years go by with someone laying in your bed
Forty years of things you say you wish you’d never said
How hard would it have been to say some kinder words instead.
Railroad Wings:
And as far as I can tell, most everything means nothing
Except some things that mean everything.
geg6
Mother, mother
There’s too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today – Ya
Father, father
We don’t need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what’s going on
What’s going on
Ya, what’s going on
Ah, what’s going on
In the mean time
Right on, baby
Right on
Right on
Mother, mother, everybody thinks we’re wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply because our hair is long
Oh, you know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today
Oh
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me
So you can see
What’s going on
Ya, what’s going on
Tell me what’s going on
I’ll tell you what’s going on – Uh
Right on baby
Right on baby
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Repatriated: Ah, beat me to it while I was waffling between that and Doctor Jeep.
I like Cal and his dog Napalm
I like Ike and his itty-bitty A-bomb
Everybody got one, I want mine
You can order it up on Channel Nine
Meanwhile, in the Sheraton,
Doctor Jeep plays on and on and on
There was a time but it’s long gone
Janie got a crush on the Viet Cong
Burning through downtown Saigon
Me, I’m sold – down the Mekong
Meanwhile, in the Sheraton,
Doctor Jeep plays on and on and on
Guns and cars and accidents
The threatened witness my defence
You can sell one another for fifteen cents
Well bye-bye mother, it’s common sense
Meanwhile, in the Sheraton,
Doctor Jeep plays on and on and on
Cacti
@Chris:
Yep, the same.
I think it was written for the film.
Miss Bianca
@Another Scott: Pretty much anything off “Quadrophenia” would do. That album is pure genius.
Oh, and hell, since we’re talking The Who:
We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Parfois j’aimerais mourir
Tellement y a plus d’espoir
Parfois j’aimerais mourir
Pour plus jamais te revoir
Parfois j’aimerais mourir
Pour ne plus rien savoir
Major Major Major Major
Surprised nobody’s mentioned Leonard Cohen’s Anthem.
And, for some reason I had this in my head today by The Mountain Goats:
ChrisB
@schrodingers_cat: Excellent choice.
delk
Home–it’s where I want to be…
hovercraft
Obama Brings Joe Biden To Tears With Surprise Presidential Medal Of Freedom
resident Barack Obama surprised an emotional Joe Biden Thursday with a farewell tribute where he presented the vice president with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Obama gave the entire Biden clan a glowing tribute, including his children, grandchildren and wife, Jill Biden. He described Biden and Jill as “an all-American love story” and affectionately called Biden his “brother” and a “lion of American history.”
Biden laughed and clapped along with the President’s remarks and reacted with shock when Obama ended his speech by giving Biden the medal.
“To know Joe Biden is to know that love without pretense, service without self-regard, and to live life fully,” Obama said. “As one of his long-time colleagues in the senate who happened to be a Republican once said, ‘if you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, you have got a problem.’ He is as good a man as god ever created.”
(VIDEO)
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@PaulW: I remember seeing the Plimsouls at UCSD, circa 1982. I wish anything I owned then still fit.
Chris
@burnspbesq:
Ah, yes. Casablanca.
Stuart Katz
Now she’s gone, and I don’t worry.
‘Cause I’m sittin’ on top of the world.
Death Panel Truck
Oh, well, a young man
Ain’t got nothin’ in the world these days
I said a young man
Ain’t got nothin’ in the world these days
Well, you know in the old days
When a young man was a strong man
All the people, they’d step back
When a young man walked by
But you know, nowadays
It’s the old man
He’s got all the money
And a young man ain’t got nothin’ in the world these days
I said
Ain’t got nothing
Got sweet nothing
—-
Have pity on the young man
They ain’t got nothin’ in the world these days, I said
They ain’t got nothin’!
They got sweet fuck-all!
Live at Leeds
Woodrowfan
I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together
See how they run like pigs from a gun
See how they fly
I’m crying
Sitting on a cornflake
Waiting for the van to come
Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday
Man you’ve been a naughty boy
You let your face grow long
p.a.
Hey Lord don’t ask me question
Hey Lord don’t ask me question
Ain’t no answer in me
Graham Parker (he later commented that he had no idea why he sang ‘question’ singular
Also too:
Well I’ll forgive you if you forgive me hey
Who needs a third party anyway
G.P.
(Guess who’s my favorite musician…)
SenyorDave
From “My Back Pages”, written by Dylan and performed perfectly by the Byrds:
In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Chris
@Cacti:
Ah. Yeah, I thought it might have been that, cheaper than getting the rights to a real song and also explaining why I’ve never heard it elsewhere.
PaulW
In New York freedom looks like
Too many choices
In New York I found a friend
To drown out the other voices
Voices on a cell phone
Voices from home
Voices of the hard sell
Voices down a stairwell
In New York
Just got a place in New York
In New York summers get hot
Well into the hundreds
You can’t walk around the block
Without a change of clothing
Hot as a hair dryer in your face
Hot as a handbag and a can of mace
New York
I just got a place in New York
New York New York
In New York you can forget
Forget how to sit still
Tell yourself you will stay in
But it’s down to Alphaville
New York
New York, New York
New York, New York
New York
The Irish been coming here for years
Feel like they own the place
They got the airport, city hall
Asphalt, asphalt
They even got the police
Irish, Italians, Jews and Hispanics
Religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew
Happily not like me and you
That’s where I lost you…………
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Chris: That song was written especially for the movie.
Hmm, now y’all have me on a SoM kick.
Vision Thing
It’s a small world and it smells bad
I’d buy another if I had
Back
What I paid
For another motherfucker in a motorcade
What do we need to make our world come alive?
What do we need to make us sing?
While we’re waiting for the next one to arrive?
One million points of light
One billion dollar Vision Thing
zhena gogolia
I’m realizing that the songs I like best aren’t really about lyrics, they’re about music. So I’m coming up short.
eclare
“There’s one more kid
that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love,
never get to be cool.”
Hard to get those lyrics out of my head after Trayvon Martin’s death.
geg6
I hate the world today
You’re so good to me
I know but I can’t change
Tried to tell you
But you look at me like maybe
I’m an angel underneath
Innocent and sweet
Yesterday I cried
Must have been relieved to see
The softer side
I can understand how you’d be so confused
I don’t envy you
I’m a little bit of everything
All rolled into one
[Chorus:]
I’m a bitch, I’m a lover
I’m a child, I’m a mother
I’m a sinner, I’m a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I’m your hell, I’m your dream
I’m nothing in between
You know you wouldn’t want it any other way
So take me as I am
This may mean
You’ll have to be a stronger man
Rest assured that
When I start to make you nervous
And I’m going to extremes
Tomorrow I will change
And today won’t mean a thing
[Chorus]
Just when you think, you got me figured out
The season’s already changing
I think it’s cool, you do what you do
And don’t try to save me
[Chorus]
I’m a bitch, I’m a tease
I’m a goddess on my knees
When you hurt, when you suffer
I’m your angel undercover
I’ve been numb, I’m revived
Can’t say I’m not alive
You know I wouldn’t want it any other way
burnspbesq
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Those were the days, weren’t they. I was in law school at USC from 79 until 82, and the hot unsigned local bands were X, the Blasters, the Plimsouls …
trollhattan
If we lived in a world without tears
How would heartbeats
Know when to stop
How would blood know
Which body to flow outside of
How would bullets find the guns
–Lucinda Williams
raven
@SenyorDave: Even better with Bob, McGuinn, Neal, Petty, Clapton, Harrison et al.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGEIMCWob3U
LAO
@hovercraft: It brought me to tears.
Ian G.
Have to come out of lurking mode for this. Considering the state of politics in this country today, I have to go with:
“All over, people changing their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They’d send a limousine anyway”
Who knew Joe Strummer could predict Trump 40 years ago?
Major Major Major Major
Oh, and then of course there’s Leonard Cohen’s prescient “The Future“.
Miss Bianca
@No One of Consequence: Actually not a traditional song, tho’ it sounds like it…it was written by Leon Rosselson in 1975…often confused with “The Diggers’ Song”, which is traditional…
(I only know all this because we tracked the guy’s publishhing company down to make sure he got paid when we recorded it).
James Powell
People moving out, people moving in
Why, because of the color of their skin
Run, run, run but you sure can’t hide
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth
Vote for me and I’ll set you free
Rap on, brother, rap on
Well, the only person talking about love thy brother is the preacher
And it seems nobody’s interested in learning but the teacher
Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration
Aggravation, humiliation, obligation to our nation
Ball of confusion
Oh yeah, that’s what the world is today
Woo, hey, hey
The sale of pills are at an all time high
Young folks walking round with their heads in the sky
The cities ablaze in the summer time
And oh, the beat goes on
Evolution, revolution, gun control, sound of soul
Shooting rockets to the moon, kids growing up too soon
Politicians say more taxes will solve everything
And the band played on
So, round and around and around we go
Where the world’s headed, nobody knows
Oh, great googa-looga, can’t you hear me talking to you
Just a ball of confusion
Oh yeah, that’s what the world is today
Woo, hey
Fear in the air, tension everywhere
Unemployment rising fast, the Beatles new record’s a gas
And the only safe place to live is on an Indian reservation
And the band played on
Eve of destruction, tax deduction, city inspectors, bill collectors
Mod clothes in demand, population out of hand, suicide, too many bills
Hippies moving to the hills, people all over the world are shouting, end the war
And the band played on
Great googa-looga, can’t you hear me talking to you
Sayin’ ball of confusion
That’s what the world is today, hey, hey
burnspbesq
The Trump Anthem (courtesy of Lou Reed):
Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I’ll piss on ’em
that’s what the Statue of Bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, let’s club ’em to death
and get it over with and just dump ’em on the boulevard
Repatriated
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Good call on that one. I can’t go past a Sheraton without that song coming to mind.
On heavenly rain, you fell into my life
Unforgettable smile, unforgettable lies
In the name of the cross or a banner of love
With the hand of a friend or under a blanket of trust
The angels sighed, a little girl cried
The tears run rings around my eyes
We’re going to set fire to the house in my heart
We’re going to set fire to the whole damn world
I don’t understand the wicked things we do
In the name of the good, in the name of the few
Don’t look at me with your innocent smile
When the bed is burning around my head
When a war breaks out, It’ll be no surprise
Your unforgettable smile, your unforgettable lies
And I’ve got to stop running to make my start
We’ve got to get together before we fall apart
They’re pulling down the old slums to build the new
They’re bringing back the old rules to please the few
Pull down the old slums to build the new
Pull down the love I built with you
Promise of tomorrow you never kept
And you try to burn the house down when I slept
The nation’s in disorder, there’s chaos in my heart
We’ve got to get together before we fall apart
– Tears Run Rings Marc Almond
Turgidson
@zhena gogolia:
I’m the same. I generally consider vocals to be another instrument more so than poetry or storytelling. I will notice a particularly good or bad lyrical passage – and appreciate when the lyrical content is a particularly good match for the mood set by the music, but it’s not usually what I’m listening for. I think that’s part of the reason why I don’t listen to Bob Dylan all that much. I’d rather hear the Byrds’ covers of his songs than his original versions.
Ian G.
@Penus:
The Truckers run from “Southern Rock Opera” to “The Dirty South” was magnificent. Cooley always had the snarkiest lyrics. “Well my daddy didn’t pull out, but he never apologized”. I never fail to laugh at that line.
Wyatt Derp
They say Jesus will find you wherever you go
But when he’ll come lookin’ for you they don’t know
– Warren Zevon – Gorilla You’re a Desperado
If California slides into the ocean
As the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing
Until I pay my bill
Warren Zevon – Desperados Under the Eaves
Yes, I love Warren Zevon.
Chris
@burnspbesq:
I thought the Trump anthem was the theme song to Pinky and the Brain, then I remembered that was the Bush anthem. There’s no Brain anymore. Heck, there’s not even a Pinky.
FlipYrWhig
@Miss Bianca: Cool! Yeah, the title points to the Christopher Hill book about the radicalism of the English Civil War / Revolution, which, I just looked up, came out in 1972.
Villago Delenda Est
Stranded in Honduras
I’m a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan
Brachiator
I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I’ve been running ev’r since
It’s been a long time, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die
‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there, beyond the sky
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep tellin’ me don’t hang around
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
— A Change is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke
randy khan
@hovercraft:
That, as Joe might say, is a BFD.
Cacti
Another song that reminds me of the incoming administration:
Germany was having trouble what a sad, sad story
Needed a new leader to restore her former glory
Where oh where was he? Where could that man be?
We looked around, and then we found the man for you and me!
And now it’s…
Springtime for Hitler, and Germany!
Deutschland is happy and gay
We’re marching to a faster pace
Look out here comes the master race!
Springtime for Hitler, and Germany!
Winter for Poland and France
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Come on Germans, go into your dance!
-Mel Brooks
zhena gogolia
The last few days, I’ve been listening to a beautiful song with very simple lyrics by Strouse & Adams of Bye, Bye Birdie fame, “Once Upon A Time.” Bob Dylan sang it at Tony Bennett’s 90th birthday — this performance is devastating in its musicianship.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Styx – These Are the TImes
I hear voices from beyond the veil
They reverberate in mystery
There are shadows in my heart
And they multiply in memory
And the comrades that I’ve lost out there
In the scattered ruins still speak to me
If the flickering light of your campfire dims
The world grows smaller
It’s closing in
I’m standing here
And I want you to live
I know
These are the times we find out who we really are
This will be when a true friend stands at your side
Someone like me who wants to
Believe in the days of high times and innocence
Drawing the lines and shouting back to the night
Someone like me who wants you to live
And from those who’ve seen the light beyond
We know the end will bring tranquility
But the voices of the friends they heard
Brought them back to this reality
Tough the beacon of light in your life seems dim
The sun’s coming up on the world we’re in
There are choices here
And I want you to live
I know
These are the times we find out who we really are
This will be when a true friend stands at your side
One more like me
Who wants to believe in the truth of all we experienced
To live again to jump back into the fight
Someone like me who wants you to live
geg6
@Turgidson:
The Byrds could never sing “Positively 4th Street” the way Dylan did. Dylan’s voice was every bit the instrument that Roger McGuinn’s, David Crosby’s or Chris Hillman’s was. I get that many people don’t appreciate as such, but it is.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
Yeah, but then there’s the whole “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” thing. It’s about the futility of revolutions to actually change anything fundamental.
Erick
There are so many, tempted just to say everything on Blood on the Tracks, Darkness on the edge of Town, or Astral Weeks.
Here is a more obscure one from Sam Phillips:
Pictures steal our memories
Turn our minds to salt
History is written to say it wasn’t our fault
Wasn’t our fault
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
Not coming up with any favorite Hamilton lyrics? I’m finding that they’re more sound bites than something you’d quote at length.
I’m loving the Mixtape! Just love it! I didn’t expect to. Jill Scott, Andra Day are particularly good.
Major Major Major Major
@Wyatt Derp: When he was dying (mesothelioma, after all that livin’ he managed to get one of the cancers that you can’t give yourself), he was on Letterman and Dave asked him what advice he would give people about life.
And Zevon said, enjoy every sandwich.
randy khan
On topic, basically half of the Suzanne Vega songbook. She’s so good at the observational lyric it’s incredible.
This is the best known:
My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes I think you’ve seen me before
If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
I think it’s because I’m clumsy
I try not to talk too loud
Maybe it’s because I’m crazy
I try not to act too proud
They only hit until you cry
After that you don’t ask why
You just don’t argue anymore
You just don’t argue anymore
You just don’t argue anymore
Yes I think I’m okay
I walked into the door again
If you ask that’s what I’ll say
And it’s not your business anyway
I guess I’d like to be alone
With nothing broken, nothing thrown
Just don’t ask me how I am
Just don’t ask me how I am
Just don’t ask me how I am
My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes I think you’ve seen me before
If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
And they only hit until you cry
After that, you don’t ask why
You just don’t argue anymore
You just don’t argue anymore
You just don’t argue anymore
But I also love so many others, like this:
Now the time has come to speak
I was not able
And water through a rusted pipe
Could make the sense that I do
Gurgle, mutter
Hiss, stutter
Moan the words like water
Rush and foam and choke
Having waited
This long of a winter
I fear I only
Croak and sigh
And this:
Today I am
A small blue thing
Like a marble
Or an eye
With my knees against my mouth
I am perfectly round
I am watching you
I am cold against your skin
You are perfectly reflected
I am lost inside your pocket
I am lost against
Your fingers
I am falling down the stairs
I am skipping on the sidewalk
I am thrown against the sky
I am raining down in pieces
I am scattering like light
Scattering like light
Scattering like light
Chris
@Cacti:
Well, hi there, people! You know me!
I used to run a little joint called Germany
I was number one, the people’s choice
And everybody listened to my mighty voice!
My name is Adolf, I’m on the mike
I’m gonna hip you to the story of the new Third Reich
It all began down in Munich town
And pretty soon, the word started gettin’ around
So I said to Martin Bormann,
I said, “Hey Marty, why don’t we throw a little Nazi party?”
So we had an election, well, kinda sorta
And before you knew it, hello! New order!
To all those mothers in the Fatherland, I said,
“Achtung, baby! I got me a plan!”
They said, “What you got, Adolf? What you gonna do?”
I said, “How about this one? World War Two!”
To be or not to be
Oh, baby, can’t you see?
We’re gonna take it to the top
You’re making history and it feels so good to me
Ooh, darling, please don’t ever stop
Don’t be stupid, be a smarty
Come on and join the Nazi party! (Party!)
Like Humpty Dumpty off’a that wall,
All the little countries they began to fall
Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Poland
The troops were rockin’ and the tanks were rollin’
We were swingin’ along with a song in our hearts
And “Deutschland über alles” was making the charts
We had a new step called the goosestep we were marching to
Well, it’s sorta kinda like a German boogaloo
I was gettin’ what I wanted, but it wasn’t enough
So I called the boys, I said boys, get tough!
Now I surrounded myself with some unusual cats
There was skinny little Goebbles and Göring Mister Fats
And let’s not forget ol’ Himmler and Hess
Oh, you better believe we made a hell of a mess
Say Heil! Heil! Siegety Heil!
We gonna whip it on the people Teutonic style!
To be or not to be
Oh, baby, can’t you see?
We’re gonna make it to the top
You are our destiny, this thing was meant to be
Why don’t we do it ’til we drop?
Say your boots ain’t black and shirt ain’t brown?
Well, get back Jack! You can’t get down!
Do it, Adolf, do it!
I drank wine from the Rhine with the finest ladies
And we did it in the back of my black Mercedes
I was on a roll; I couldn’t lose!
Then came D-Day, the birth of the blues
The Yanks and the Brits started raising Caen
Those guys were the pits, they drove me insane!
People all around me started swallowing pills
Let’s face it, folks, we was going downhill
Berlin was crumbling, we was under the gun
Time to look out for number one
So I grabbed a blonde and a case of beer
Said, “The Russians are comin’! Let’s get out of here!”
To be or not to be
Oh, honey, can’t you see?
We had to take it to the top
You sure made history and it felt so good to me
Oh, schätze, please don’t ever stop
Auf wiedersehn! Good to see ya!
I got a one way ticket to Argentina!
To be or not to be
Oh, baby, can’t you see?
We’ve got to take it to the top
You’re making history and it feels so good to me
Why don’t we do it ’til we drop?
Ian G.
Another good one for the state of America today, particularly its idiotic mainstream media:
“Sixteen military wives
Thirty-two softly focused brightly colored eyes
Staring at the natural tan of thirty-two gently clenching wrinkled little hands
Seventeen company men
Out of which only twelve will make it back again
Sergeant sends a letter to five
Military wives whose tears drip down from ten little eyes
Cheer them on to their rivals
‘Cause America can, and America can’t say no
And America does, if America says it’s so
It’s so
And the anchor person on TV,
Goes la di da di da
Fifteen celebrity minds
Leading their fifteen sordid, wretched, checkered lives
Will they find the solution in time
Using their fifteen crispy moderate liberal minds
Eighteen academy chairs
Out of which only seven really even cares
Doling out the garland to five
Celebrity minds, they’re humbly taken by surprise
Cheer them on to their rivals
‘Cause America can, and America can’t say no
And America does, if America says it’s so
It’s so
And the anchor person on TV,
Goes la di da di da
Fourteen cannibal kings
Wondering blindly what the dinner bell will bring
Fifteen celebrity minds
Served on a leafy bed of sixteen military wives
Cheer them on to their rivals
‘Cause America can, and America can’t say no
And America does, if America says it’s so
It’s so
And the anchor person on TV,
Goes la di da di da”
“Sixteen Military Wives”, The Decemberists
zhena gogolia
“Spirit in a Bottle” by Chris White. Not sure if it’s a temperance song or not, but it’s damn good:
Some would say the bottle’s half empty
But I say my stomach’s half full
Some would say I’ve slept the day away
But I say I’ve got the night still
And another bottle in the cabinet
That will give me another thrill
Some would say drinking won’t cure you
But I’m quite sure it will
And the spirit in the bottle is sure to serve its master
I’ve got me a genie and my wish is to get plastered
I don’t need society
And I don’t need sobriety
When that spirit in the bottle sets me free.
Some say that I am the slave
And the bottle owns me
Some say it’ll take me to my grave
Some say it’ll drown me in the sea
But me, I know much better
It’s the liquor that keeps me alive
As soon as that whiskey pumps through my veins
I know I will survive
And the spirit in the bottle is sure to serve its master
I’ve got me a genie and my wish is to get plastered
I don’t need sobriety
And I don’t need society
When that spirit in the bottle sets me free
резидент американской области Российской Федерации
“If The Phone Doesn’t Ring It’s Me” – Jimmy Buffett
There are oceans of feelings between us
Currents that take us and sweep us away
That’s why we seldom have seen us
In the light of a cold hard day
Lots of new friends with the same old answers
Open your eyes, you might see
Of our lives were that simple
We’d live in the past
If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me
If the phone doesn’t ring
You’ll know that it’s me
I’ll be out in the eye of the storm
If the phone doesn’t ring
you’ll know that I’ll be
Where someone can make me feel warm
It’s too bad we can’t turn
and live in the past
If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me
I’ve had good days and bad days
And going half mad days
I try to let go but you’re still on my mind
I’ve lost all the old ways
I’m searching for new plays
Putting it all on the line
Lots of new friends with the same old problems
Open your eyes, you might see
If our lives were that simple
We’d live in the past
If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me
If it takes all the future
We’ll live through the past
If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me
James Powell
@Chris:
The Trump anthem is “In the Flesh” by Pink Floyd
I’ve got some bad news for you sunshine
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Finding this more relevant after the Catastrophe of November 8.
Bobby D
Dylan’s “Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues”, is up there for me. The wholes story is great, but the last two verses seem appropriate today:
“Now, I don’t care just what you do
If you wanta have a picnic, that’s up t’ you
But don’t tell me about it, I don’t wanta hear it
’Cause, see, I just lost all m’ picnic spirit
Stay in m’ kitchen, have m’ own picnic . . .
In the bathroom
Now, it don’t seem to me quite so funny
What some people are gonna do f’r money
There’s a bran’ new gimmick every day
Just t’ take somebody’s money away
I think we oughta take some o’ these people
And put ’em on a boat, send ’em up to Bear Mountain . . .
For a picnic ”
My other favorite would be an entire album, rather than a song. Drive By Truckers’ Dirty South album has the best storytelling in music that I’ve heard. Really resonates w/ me because they are talking about the places/people I grew up with, in a really authentic way. Probably helps that they hail about 20mi from my family homestead, so the cultural touchstones are particularly relevant.
Mai.naem.mobile
@hovercraft: I just watched the Biden/Obama clip. I cannot ever imagine Lumpy and Pence ever acting like these two. Hell,I can’t even imagine Bush and Cheney doing that. I didn’t realize how good friends the two are. It’s a deep friendship not just a convenience friendship.
hellslittlestangel
I’m a human fly, and I don’t know why
I got ninety-six tears and ninety-six eyes
— The late great Lux Interior of The Cramps
Bonus lines from the same source:
I’ll show you how to get on board the drug train
You put one foot up
you put another foot up
You put another foot up
And you’re on board the drug train
chopper
when I was only 17,
i could hear the angels whispering
so i drove into the woods and wandered aimlessly about
till i heard my mother shouting through the fog
it turned out to be the howling of a dog
or a wolf to be exact, the sound sent shivers down my back,
but I was drawn into the pack and before long
they allowed me to join in and sing their song
so from the cliffs and highest hills, we would gladly get our fill,
howling endlessly and shrilly at the dawn
and i lost the taste for judging right from wrong
for my flesh had turned to fur,
and my thoughts, they surely were
turned to instinct and obedience to God.
-Blitzen Trapper
cosima
Bowie, 5 Years.
The cop knelt at the feet of the priest, and the queer threw up at the sight of that.
MazeDancer
White House has tweeted the full 17 glorious minutes of Mr. Obama surprising Mr. Biden with the Medal of Freedom. See the whole thing here. Such wonderful men.
Mr. Obama quotes Yeats, so it’s close to song lyrics.
Mark B.
Mom kicked me out ’til I got some pants that fit
She just don’t appreciate my strange kind of wit.
[Pere Ubu–Final Solution]
Ian G.
And given this country’s fetish for the WWC, how about “Something More Than Free” by the aforementioned Jason Isbell (although the character here sounds too dignified to be a Trump worshiper).
When I get home from work
I’ll call up all my friends
And we’ll go bust up something beautiful we’ll have to build again
When I get home from work
I’ll wrestle off my clothes
And leave em right inside the front door
‘Cause nobody’s home to know
You see a hammer finds a nail
And a freight train needs the rails
And I’m doin’ what I’m on this earth to do
And I don’t think on why I’m here where it hurts
I’m just lucky to have the work
Sunday morning I’m too tired to go to church
But I thank God for the work
When I get my reward my work will all be done
And I will sit back in my chair beside the father and the son
No more holes to fill and no more rocks to break
And no more loading boxes on the trucks for someone else’s sake
‘Cause a hammer needs a nail
And the poor man’s up for sale
Guess I’m doin’ what I’m on this earth to do
And I don’t think on why I’m here where it hurts
I’m just lucky to have the work
And every night I dream I’m drowning in the dirt
But I thank God for the work
And the day will come when I’ll find a reason
And somebody proud to love a man like me
My back is numb, my hands are freezing
What I’m working for is something more than free
And I don’t think on why I’m here where it hurts
I’m just lucky to have the work
Sunday morning I’m too tired to go to church
But I thank God for the work
And I thank God for the work
Hungry Joe
I pulled into Nazareth
I was feelin’ ’bout half-past dead
Just need a place
Where I can lay my head
“Hey mister, can you tell me
Where a man might find a bed?”
He just grinned and shook my hand.
“No,” was all he said.
misterpuff
EC of course just a stanza and chorus:
Down on the mainspring, listen to the tick tock
Clock all the faces that move in on your block
Twice shy and dog tired because you’ve been bitten
Everything you say now sounds like it was ghost-written
New Amsterdam it’s become much too much
Till I have the possession of everything she touches
Till I step on the brakes to get out of her clutches
Till I speak double dutch to a real double duchess
Radiohead:
Please could you stop the noise, I’m trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices in my head
What’s that…? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
What’s that…? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all
What’s that…? (I may be paranoid, but no android)
What’s that…? (I may be paranoid, but no android)
Ambition makes you look pretty ugly
Kicking and squealing gucci little piggy
You don’t remember
You don’t remember
Why don’t you remember my name?
Off with his head, man
Off with his head, man
Why don’t you remember my name?
I guess he does….
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height… height…
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height… height…
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
That’s it, sir
You’re leaving
The crackle of pigskin
The dust and the screaming
The yuppies networking
The panic, the vomit
The panic, the vomit
God loves his children, God loves his children, yeah!
Yes:
[II Total Mass Retain]
My eyes convinced, eclipsed with the younger moon attained with love
It changed as almost strained amidst clear manna from above
I crucified my hate and held the word within my hand
There’s you, the time, the logic, or the reasons we don’t understand
Sad courage claimed the victims standing still for all to see
As armoured movers took approached to overlook the sea
There since the cord, the license, or the reasons we understood will be
Down at the edge, close by a river
Close to the edge, round by the corner
Close to the end, down by the corner
Down at the edge, round by the river
Sudden cause shouldn’t take away the startled memory
All in all, the journey takes you all the way
As apart from any reality that you’ve ever seen and known
Guessing problems only to deceive the mention
Passing paths that climb halfway into the void
As we cross from side to side, we hear the total mass retain
Down at the edge, round by the corner
Close to the end, down by a river
Seasons will pass you by
I get up, I get down
[III I Get Up, I Get Down]
In her white lace, you could clearly see the lady sadly looking
Saying that she’d take the blame
For the crucifixion of her own domain
I get up, I get down
I get up, I get down
Two million people barely satisfy
Two hundred women watch one woman cry, too late
The eyes of honesty can achieve
(She would gladly say it amazement of her story)
How many millions do we deceive each day?
(Asking only interest could be layed upon the children of her domain)
I get up, I get down
I get up, I get down
In charge of who is there in charge of me
(She could clearly see the lady sadly looking)
Do I look on blindly and say I see the way?
(Saying that she’d take the blame
For the crucifixion of her own domain)
The truth is written all along the page
(She would gladly say it amazement of her story)
How old will I be before I come of age for you?
(Asking only interest could be layed upon the children of her domain)
I get up, I get down
I get up, I get down
I get up, I get down
I get up, I get down
I get up, I get down
And strangely Genesis:
Some men never listen,
And others never learn,
But why this man did as he did
Only he will ever know.
He knew he was walking
Into a waiting trap,
Neatly set up for him
With a bait so richly wrapped.
So he went inside there to take on what he found
But he never escaped them, for who can escape what he desires?
And this song from Duke that captures my malaise of late:
“Heathaze”
No cloud, a sleepy calm,
Sunbaked earth that’s cooled by gentle breeze,
And trees with rustling leaves,
Only endless days without a care,
Nothing must be done.
Silent as a day can be,
Far-off sounds of others on their chosen run
As they do all those things they feel give life some meaning,
Even if they’re dull.
It’s time to stop this dreaming, must rejoin the real world
As revealed by orange lights and a smoky atmosphere.
The trees and I are shaken by the same wind but whereas
The trees will lose their withered leaves,
I just can’t seem to let them loose.
And they can’t refresh me those hot winds of the south.
Oh I feel like an alien, a stranger in an alien place.
Now the light is fading fast,
Chances slip away, a time will come to pass
When there’ll be none,
Then addicted to a perfumed poison,
Betrayed by its aftertaste,
Oh we shall lose the wonder and find nothing in return.
Many are the substitutes but they’re powerless on their own.
Beware the fisherman who’s casting out his line
Into a dried up river bed,
But don’t try to tell him ‘cos he won’t believe you.
Throw some bread to the ducks instead, it’s easier that way.
I feel like an alien, a stranger in an alien place.
The trees and I are shaken by the same wind but whereas
The trees will lose their withered leaves,
I just can’t seem to let them loose.
And they can’t refresh me those hot winds of the south.
I feel like an alien, a stranger in an alien place.
SRW1
@schrodingers_cat:
Les journaux sont imprimés
Les ouvriers sont déprimés
Les gens se lèvent ils sont brimés
C’est l’heure où je vais me coucher
Il est 5 heures Paris se lève
Il est 5 heures je n’ai pas sommeil
Jacques Dutronc “Il est cinq heures, Paris s’éveille”
Also, too, because it says this about some Parisian landmarks:
La Tour Eiffel a froid aux pieds
L’Arc de Triomphe est ranimé
Et l’Obélisque est bien dressé
Entre la nuit et la journée
Major Major Major Major
@misterpuff: Oh Yes. So much LSD.
Gravenstone
The night is black
Without a moon
The air is thick and still
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torch lit hill
Features distorted in the flickering light
The faces are twisted and grotesque
Silent and stern in the sweltering night
The mob moves like demons possessed
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right
Confident their ways are best
The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill
They say there are strangers who threaten us
In our immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness too dangerous
In our theaters and bookstore shelves
That those who know what’s best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves
Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand
Gravenstone
Conquistador your stallion stands
in need of company
and like some angel’s haloed brow
you reek of purity
I see your armour-plated breast
has long since lost its sheen
and in your death mask face
there are no signs which can be seen
And though I hoped for something
to find
I could see no maze to unwind
Conquistador a vulture sits
upon your silver shield
and in your rusty scabbard now
the sand has taken seed
and though your jewel-encrusted blade
has not been plundered still
the sea has washed across your face
and taken of its fill
And though I hoped for something
to find
I could see no maze to unwind
Conquistador there is no time
I must pay my respect
and though I came to jeer at you
I leave now with regret
and as the gloom begins to fall
I see there is no, only all
and though you came with sword held high
you did not conquer, only die
And though I hoped for something
to find
I could see no maze to unwind
LAO
Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
Had to listen had no choice
I did not believe the information
(I) just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom boom boom
“Son,” he said “Grab your things,
I’ve come to take you home.”
To keep in silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut
Turning water into wine
Open doors would soon be shut
So I went from day to day
Tho’ my life was in a rut
“Till I thought of what I’d say
Which connection I should cut
I was feeling part of the scenery
I walked right out of the machinery
My heart going boom boom boom
“Hey” he said “Grab your things
I’ve come to take you home.”
(Back home.)
When illusion spin her net
I’m never where I want to be
And liberty she pirouette
When I think that I am free
Watched by empty silhouettes
Who close their eyes but still can see
No one taught them etiquette
I will show another me
Today I don’t need a replacement
I’ll tell them what the smile on my face meant
My heart going boom boom boom
“Hey” I said “You can keep my things,
they’ve come to take me home.”
Lizzy L
This one’s been running through my mind since November.
Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What ?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done ?”
God says. “Out on Highway 61”.
Well Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose
Welfare Department they wouldn’t give him no clothes
He asked poor Howard where can I go
Howard said there’s only one place I know
Sam said tell me quick man I got to run
Ol’ Howard just pointed with his gun
And said that way down on Highway 61.
Well Mack the finger said to Louie the King
I got forty red white and blue shoe strings
And a thousand telephones that don’t ring
Do you know where I can get ride of these things
And Louie the King said let me think for a minute son
And he said yes I think it can be easily done
Just take everything down to Highway 61.
Now the fifth daughter on the twelfth night
Told the first father that things weren’t right
My complexion she said is much too white
He said come here and step into the light he says hmmm you’re right
Let me tell second mother this has been done
But the second mother was with the seventh son
And they were both out on Highway 61.
Now the rowin’ gambler he was very bored
He was tryin’ to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We’ll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61.
But there are so many wonderful songs in the world, I don’t have a favorite, or even 100 favorites. Unpossible!
Mary G
Second “Angel from Montgomery,” “Man Who Sold the World,” “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Immigrants, We Get the Job Done,” Joni Mitchell, especially the Blue Album, too many to mention from Leonard Cohen but the one in my head is
Sign in
Fortunate Son
Creedence Clearwater Revival
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Lyrics
Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Ooh, they’re red, white and blue
And when the band plays “Hail to the chief”
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son, son
It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, no
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand
Lord, don’t they help themselves, oh
But when the taxman comes to the door
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no millionaire’s son, no
It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, no
Yeah, yeah
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask them, “How much should we give?”
Ooh, they only answer More! more! more! y’all
Gravenstone
Just take a pebble and cast it to the sea,
Then watch the ripples that unfold into me
My face spills so gently into your eyes
Disturbing the waters of our lives
Shreds of our memories are lying on your grass
Wounded words of laughter are graveyards of the past
Photographs are grey and torn, scattered in your fields
Letters of your memories are not real
Wear sadness on your shoulders like a worn-out overcoat
In pockets creased and tattered hang the rags of your hopes
The daybreak is your midnight, the colours have all died
Disturbing the waters of our lives,
Of our lives, of our lives, lives, lives, lives
Of our lives
lol chikinburd
Ask any therapist
For a practical prognosis
She’ll tell you making lists
Could be a symptom of psychosis
And it’s becoming clear
Too clear to be dismissed
That there’s somebody this year
Who’s got a thing for making lists
There’s a list of evil men, there’s a list of evil nations
There’s a list of suspect profiles and suspicious organizations
There’s a list of strange new laws, there’s a list of detainees
It’s a list a thousand long which we’re all not allowed to see
But if it’s anything at all like their last illustrious list
That ought to give us some idea of whom this one consists
Cause if you wrote the Bill of Rights, which we’re hoping still exists
Then you’d fit their definition of suspicious terrorists
And for the people who resist, and the people who’d assist
There’s a mystery tribunal in a military mist
It’s a twisted justice system that can always add more twists
When it goes on feeling listless once its mill runs out of grist
And nobody has to be, a vicious pessimist
To perceive that there’s a question here that everybody’s missed
It’s a question that persists, through every day of this
Namely:
Why aren’t we
On the list
(Rick Burkhardt/Prince Myshkins, from the most recent similar moment in our history)
JoeSo
Never say it’s over
Never say the end
Anytime you stop, just start again
Never say give up
Never say give in
You always have to fight to win
However much it hurts
However much it takes
Believe and all your dreams will all come true
However hard it gets
However much it aches
Always believe in me
As I believe in you
To never say too late
Never say it’s done
Make me know for real you are the one
The one that never turns
Never walks away
The one that I can trust to always stay…always stay…
Never say surrender
Never say die
You only ever get there if you try
Never say give up
Never say give in
You always have to fight to win
However much it hurts
However much it takes
Believe that all your dreams can all come true
However hard it gets
However much it aches
Always believe in me
As I believe in you
Never say if only
Never say regret
Only the weak remember to forget
Never say it’s over
Never say the end
Never say never again
However much it hurts
However much it takes
Believe and all your dreams will all come true
However hard it gets
However much it aches
Believe in me
As I believe in you
-Dredd Song, The Cure
mr_gravity
@The Eccentric: My Sh*t’s F*cked Up – Warren Zevon
Mary G
@Mary G: Sorry for Google Play ad, I didn’t look until after I pasted and FYWP won’t let me edit on the tablet.
PJ
You’re like a guitar in the hands
of a man that just can’t play
You’re like an inmate countin’ off the days
You’re like a student on vacation
That’s waitin’ for school to resume
Like a flower in the dark,
Never gonna bloom
You’re getting married
You’re getting married
You’re getting married–oh no…
Well, you say that you’ll both be real happy
You forgot to tell your eyes
You’re like a bird in a cage
Watchin’ the flock fly on by
You’re like a student who’s on vacation
Just waitin’ for school to start
I don’t know what’s in it for you,
But it ain’t your heart…
You’re getting married
You’re getting married
You’re getting married–oh no..oh no…
You’re like a guitar in the hands
of some fool that just can’t play
You’re like an inmate countin’ off the days
Well, you say that you’ll both be happy
Hey, you forgot to tell your eyes
You’re like a bird in a cage
Watchin’ the flock fly on by
You’re like a student on vacation
Just waitin’ for school to resume
You’re like a flower in the dark,
You ain’t never gonna bloom
If you get married
If you get married
Don’t you get married
No, no, no no…
Paul Westerberg, Don’t Get Married
quakerinabasement
This one always stirs me:
Carolina
Is a little girl
Who holds my hopes for me
And I wonder
Looking at the side of the world
What it is she sees
Moving one step at a time
One step at a time
In my own way
I follow
satby
Won’t see the golden of the sun when I’m gone
And the evenings and the mornings will be one when I’m gone
Can’t be singing louder than the guns when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here
All my days won’t be dances of delight when I’m gone
And the sands will be shifting from my sight when I’m gone
Can’t add my name into the fight while I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here
Phil Ochs
Mrearl
He’s a poet, he’s a picker–
He’s a prophet, he’s a pusher–
He’s a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he’s stoned–
He’s a walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction,
Takin’ ev’ry wrong direction on his lonely way back home.
mr_gravity
We’ll do it all
Everything
On our own
We don’t need
Anything
Or anyone
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world? – Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol
Gravenstone
Just cause I surfed across it on the way home tonight:
There’s a club if you’d like to go
you could meet somebody who really loves you
so you go, and you stand on your own
and you leave on your own
and you go home, and you cry
and you want to die
Lizzy L
One for my baby, and one more for the road…
Four years after the revolution
and the old kings execution
Four years after remember how
those courtiers took their final bow
String up every aristocrat
Out with the priests and let then live on their fat
Four years after we started fighting
Marat keeps up with his writing
Four years after the Bastille fell
He still recalls the old battle yell
Down with all of the ruling class
Throw all the generals out on their ass
Why do they have the gold?
Why do they have the power why why why why why?
Do they have the friends at the top?
Why do they have the jobs at the top?
We’ve got nothing; always had nothing
Nothing but holes and millions of them
Living in holes
Dying in holes
Holes in our bellies and
Holes in our clothes
Marat we’re poor
And the poor stay poor
Marat don’t make us wait any more
We want our rights and we don’t care how
We want a revolution
Now
Four years he fought and he fought unafraid
Sniffing down traitors by traitors betrayed
Marat in the courtroom
Marat underground
Sometimes the otter and sometimes the hound
Fighting all the gentry and fighting every priest
The business man the bourgeois the military beast
Marat always ready to stifle every scheme
Of the sons of the ass licking, dying regime
We’ve got new generals our leaders are new
They sit and they argue and all that they do
is sell their own colleagues
And ride upon their backs
Or jail them
Or break them
Or give them all the ax
Screaming in language that no one understand
Of the rights that we grab with our own bleeding hands
When we wiped out the bosses
And stormed through the wall of the prison you told us would outlast us all
Marat we’re poor
And the poor stay poor
Marat don’t make us wait any more.
We want our rights and we don’t care how
We want a revolution
Now
Poor old Marat they hunt you down
The bloodhounds are sniffing all over the town
Just yesterday your printing press was smashed
Now they’re asking your home address
Poor old Marat in you we trust
You work till your eyes turn as red as rust
But while you write they’re on your track
The boots mount the staircase
The door’s thrown back
Poor old Marat in you we trust
You work till your eyes turn as red a rust
Poor old Marat we trust in you
Marat we’re poor
And the poor stay poor
Marat don’t make us wait any more
We want our rights and we don’t care how
We want a revolution
Now…
PJ
Well the smart money’s on Harlow
And the moon is in the street
The shadow boys are breaking all the laws
And you’re east of East St. Louis
And the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause
Napoleon is weeping in the Carnival saloon
His invisible fiance is in the mirror
The band is going home
It’s raining hammers, it’s raining nails
Yes, it’s true, there’s nothin’ left for him down here
And it’s Time Time Time
And it’s Time Time Time
And it’s Time Time Time
That you love
And it’s Time Time Time
And they all pretend they’re Orphans
And their memory’s like a train
You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away
And the things you can’t remember
Tell the things you can’t forget that
History puts a saint in every dream
Well she said she’d stick around
Until the bandages came off
But these mamas boys just don’t know when to quit
And Matilda asks the sailors are those dreams
Or are those prayers?’
So just close your eyes, son
And this won’t hurt a bit
And it’s Time Time Time
And it’s Time Time Time
And it’s Time Time Time
That you love
And it’s Time Time Time
Well, things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl
The boys just dive right off the cars
And splash into the street
And when she’s on a roll she pulls a razor
From her boot and a thousand
Pigeons fall around her feet
So put a candle in the window
And a kiss upon his lips
Till the dish outside the window fills with rain
Just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart
And pay the fiddler off till I come back again
Oh, it’s time, time, time
And it’s time, time, time
And it’s Time Time Time
And it’s Time Time Time
And it’s Time Time Time
That you love
And it’s Time Time Time
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
One for the Trumpanzees:
Naked Eyes – Promises, Promises
Chris
Oh yes, here’s a good one:
I danced on the Sabbath
And I cured the lame;
The holy people
Said it was a shame.
They whipped and they stripped
And they hung me on high,
And they left me there
On a Cross to die.
Because the more things change…
Jim Parene
@Xboxershorts: Down the way where the nights are gay
and the sun shines daily on the mountain top
I took a trip on a sailing ship
And when I reached Jamica I made a stop
(Chorus) But I’m sad to say, I’m on my way
I won’t be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town
Sounds of laughter everywhere
And the dancing girls swaying to and fro
I must declare that my heart is there
Though I’ve been from Maine to Mexico
(Chorus)
Down at the market you can hear
Ladies cry out while on their head they bear
Ackie rice and salt fish is nice
And the rum is good any time of year
(Chorus)
(Chorus)
by Erving Burgess
misterpuff
Oh yeah this one, so simple and yet…
“God Only Knows”
I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I’ll make you so sure about it
God only knows what I’d be without you
If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
If you should ever leave me
Well life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
Mike Love can suck it. He was blessed to be able to sing this one.
John Barleycorn
Sadly, this one has been popping in to my head recently
No more ashes, no more sackcloth.
And an armband made of black cloth
Will some day never more adorn a sleeve.
For if the bomb that drops on you
Gets your friends and neighbors too,
There’ll be nobody left behind to grieve.
And we will all go together when we go.
What a comforting fact that is to know.
Universal bereavement,
An inspiring achievement,
Yes, we all will go together when we go.
Tom Lehrer – We will all go together when we go
mr_gravity
I heard it started with a talkin’ snake
Had a leather briefcase and a three-piece suit
Eve and Adam made a huge mistake
You just can’t bargain with a talkin’ snake. – me
Elizabelle
@ranchandsyrup: Yippie! A ranch and syrup sighting. You have been MIA. How are those gorgeous girls, and dog(s)?
daryljfontaine
@schrodingers_cat: Lyrically one of my favorites, though I like the Bryan Ferry arrangement in particular.
Heard ten thousand whispering and nobody listening
@Spanky: This is the part of that song which seems more relevant these days:
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Also, my favorite Pink Floyd song of all time:
Did you think you could tell?
Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk-on part in the war
For a leading role in a cage?
@grrljock: That whole track is fantastic; Snow’s verse just kills. Though I am also partial to this bit from Riz MC:
Who these ‘fugees, what did they do for me
But contribute new dreams
Taxes and tools, swagger and food to eat?
D
Kyle
@justawriter: That is a long lost reference. Thanks. I adored Harry Chapin.
john fremont
The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her
Tecumseh Valley by Townes Van Zandt
Everything is not enough
And nothin’ is too much to bear
Where you been is good and gone
All you keep is the getting there
Read more: Townes Van Zandt – To Live Is To Fly Lyrics | MetroLyrics
John Barleycorn
From Iris Dement’s Let the Mystery Be –
Some say they’re goin’ to a place called Glory
And I ain’t saying it ain’t a fact
But I’ve heard that I’m on the road to purgatory
And I don’t like the sound of that
I believe in love and I live my life accordingly
But I choose to let the mystery be
Jim Parene
One more, just for fun!
Dear Abbey, Dear Abbey, my feet are too long
My hair’s falling out and my right is all wrong
My friends they all tell me I have no friends at all
Won’t you write me a letter, won’t you give me a call
Signed Bewildered
(Chorus) Bewildered Bewildered you have no complaint
You are what you are and you ain’t what you ain’t
So listen up buster and listen up good
Stop wishin’ for bad luck and knockin’ on wood
Dear Abbey Dear Abbey my fountain pen leaks
My wife hollers at me and my kids are all freaks
Every side I get up on is the wrong side of bed
If it wern’t so expensive I’d wish I were dead
Signed Unhappy
(Chorus) Unhappy Unhappy etc.
Dear Abbey Dear Abbey you won’t believe this
But my stomach makes noises whenever I kiss
My girlfriend tells me its all in my head
But my stomach tells me to write you instead
Signed Noisemaker
(Chorus) Noisemaker Noisemaker etc
Dear Abbey Dear Abbey well I never would thought
That me and my girlfriend would ever get caught
We were sittin’ in the back seat just shootin’ the breeze
With her hair up in curlers and her pants to her knees
Signed Just Married
(Chorus) Just Married Just married etc.
Signed Dear Abbey. By John Prine.
FlipYrWhig
@mr_gravity: I’m pretty sure that song is also one of the few examples in the wild of strictly proper lie/lay usage. It’s like, “If I were to lie here, would you lie with me?” but conjugated in the subjunctive.
Neil Blumengarten
“I’m not a coward,
I’ve just never been tested
I’d like to think that if I was,
I would pass
Look at the tested and think there but for the grace go
I might be a cowards,
I’m afraid of what I might find out.” -Mighty Mighty Boss-tones
“And she said losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow.” -Paul Simon
Repatriated
@John Barleycorn:
“You know, every great war produces its great songs. And, after each war, we like to gather around the piano or the guitar, and play these songs. We enjoy these songs because they remind us of how much we enjoyed the war. Now, World War III is almost upon us as you know — by popular demand, it seems. And it occurred to me that if any songs are going to come out of World War III, we’d better start writing them now.
So I have one here. This is a song that some of the boys will have sung to their mothers, as they will have gone bravely off to World War III.”
– Introduction to So Long, Mom, Tom Lehrer
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Nick Cave – Red Right Hand
Take a little walk to the edge of town
and go across the tracks
Where the viaduct looms,
like a bird of doom
As it shifts and cracks
Where secrets lie in the border fires,
in the humming wires
Hey man, you know
you’re never coming back
Past the square, past the bridge,
past the mills, past the stacks
On a gathering storm comes
a tall handsome man
in a dusty black coat with
a red right hand
He’ll wrap you in his arms,
tell you that you’ve been a good boy
He’ll rekindle all the dreams
it took you a lifetime to destroy
He’ll reach deep into the hole,
heal your shrinking soul,
but there won’t be a single thing
that you can do
He’s a god, he’s a man,
he’s a ghost, he’s a guru
They’re whispering his name
through this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat
is a red right hand
You don’t have no money?
He’ll get you some
You don’t have no car?
He’ll get you one
You don’t have no self-respect,
you feel like an insect
Well don’t you worry buddy,
’cause here he comes
Through the ghettos and the barrio
and the bowery and the slum
A shadow is cast wherever he stands
Stacks of green paper in his
red right hand
You’ll see him in your nightmares,
you’ll see him in your dreams
He’ll appear out of nowhere but
he ain’t what he seems
You’ll see him in your head,
on the TV screen
And hey buddy, I’m warning
you to turn it off
He’s a ghost, he’s a god,
he’s a man, he’s a guru
You’re one microscopic cog
in his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by
his red right hand
geg6
@misterpuff:
Agreed. One of the greatest pop songs of all time.
And fuck Mike Love. He’s a no talent piece of shit.
debbie
Tom Waits, Come On Up to the House:
Well, the moon is broken and the sky is cracked
Come on up to the house
The only things that you can see is all that you lack
Come on up to the house
All your crying don’t do no good
Come on up to the house
Come down off the cross, we can use the wood
You gotta come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I’m just a-passing through
You got to come on up to the house
There’s no light in the tunnel, no irons in the fire
Come on up to the house
And you’re singing lead soprano in a junkman’s choir
You got to come on up to the house
Does life seem nasty, brutish and short
Come on up to the house
The seas are stormy and you can’t find no port
Got to come on up to the house, yeah
You gotta come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home I’m just a-passing through
You got to come on up to the house, yeah
You gotta come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I’m just a-passing through
You got to come on up to the house
There’s nothing in the world that you can do
You gotta come on up to the house
And you been whipped by the forces that are inside you
Gotta come on up to the house
Well, you’re high on top of your mountain of woe
Gotta come on up to the house
Well, you know you should surrender, but you can’t let it go
You gotta come on up to the house, yeah
Gotta come on up to the house
Gotta come on up to the house
The world is not my home I’m just a-passing through
You gotta come on up to the house
Gotta come on up to the house
You gotta come on up to the house
Yeah yeah yeah
Ann Marie
Last verse of “Farewell, but Whenever”:
Let Fate do her worst, there are relics of joy,
Bright dreams of the past, which she cannot destroy,
Which come in the night-time of sorrow and care,
And bring back the features that joy used to wear.
Long, long be my heart with such memories fill’d,
Like the vase in which roses have once been distill’d.
You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang ’round it still.
Shalimar
Well, the dog act got drunk again last night
The king and queen of the waltz clog team had another fight
The king was careless with his tango grip
Nearly lost his queen in a dip
Yeah, she righted herself
Straightened out her slip and kicked him in the shin
Miss Billy Begonia thinks she’s hit the “Big time”
She wants a thick red rug from the dressing room door
To the front-line of the footlights
She’s got a sky blue swans down powder puff
And a corset to keep her spirits up
Yeah, she don’t sweat
She sours and melts like ice cream in the sun
She’ll be out of a job at the end of this three week run
We’re having fun out here on Panic Beach
All the vaudeville bums are here out on Panic Beach
I hear them talk about the Palace but it’s so far out of reach
So I’ll do my time then say goodbye to Panic Beach
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
The visionary theatric strikes a juggler’s seesaw tune
And the dying swan pirouettes and fawns
By the light of the street lamp moon
When my trunk is filled with taffeta
Those “Big time” hacks won’t laugh at us
When my taps are made of silver
I can make the kiddies thrill for just one buck and wing
Yeah, I will nail them to my heel and the Panic Choir sings
Here comes a lucky little thing to Panic Beach
Yeah, you know we got to teach him how to sing
While we’re stuck on Panic Beach
Ah the way ya hear ’em say it, doesn’t seem so outta reach
So I’ll do my time then say goodbye to Panic Beach
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Well, the landlord gets a free show every Saturday at six
Sometimes on a Sunday
All dependin’ on whatever kinda mood he’s in
I keep his glass filled up with sherry
And sing him all his favorite songs
If a tear comes to his eye he may let a month go by
Before he takes away my key
Oh, that sherry starts to taste real good to me
Hey mama, look at me on Panic Beach
I may be hungry but my rent is free up on Panic Beach
Yeah, I can almost see the palace no longer outta reach
So I’ll do my time then say goodbye to Panic Beach
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Maria McKee, Panic Beach
mz
In the attics of my life
Full of cloudy dreams; unreal
Full of tastes no tongue can know
And lights no eye can see
When there was no ear to hear
You sang to me
I have spent my life
Seeking all that’s still unsung
Bent my ear to hear the tune
And closed my eyes to see
When there were no strings to play
You played to me
In the book of love’s own dreams
Where all the print is blood
Where all the pages are my days
And all my lights grow old
When I had no wings to fly
You flew to me
You flew to me
In the secret space of dreams
Where I dreaming lay amazed
When the secrets all are told
And the petals all unfold
When there was no dream of mine
You dreamed of me
Neil Blumengarten
Rag Against the Machine
p.a.
Lucinda Williams:
If I had my way I’d be in your town
I might not stay but at least I would’ve been around
Cause there’s something about what happens when we talk
Something about what happens when we talk
Does this make sense It doesn’t matter anyway
Is it coincidence or was it meant to be
Cause there’s something about what happens when we talk
Something about what happens when we talk
Conversation with you was like a drug
It wasn’t your face so much as it was your words
Cause there’s something about what happens when we talk
Something about what happens when we talk
Well I can’t stay round cause I’m going back south
But all I regret now is I never kissed your mouth
Cause there’s something about what happens when we talk
Something about what happens when we talk
Cause there’s something about what happens when we talk
Something about what happens when we talk
dedicated to S-
MC Hesher
Listened to this daily for a year and a half.
Bad Religion – The Defense
Nothing comes easier than madness in the world today
Mass paranoia is a mode, not a malady
Yeah, I’d like to watch a thousand cable channels but there’s nothing on
And my high speed connection’s monitored daily by the Pentagon
These things are seldom what they seem
I’m not inclined to enjoy my dream
Won’t go away
(No peace) No peace
(And no friends) And no friends
(We trace)
We trace the mortal edge (With no defense)
To state the obvious
This world is perilous for us
No sense (No sense)
And no guide (No guide)
Ain’t it beautiful to be alive? (Yeah, right)
I won’t resign before the struggle ends
So I’ll construct this sound defense
We are the prey and culture is the predator
I’m running out of time where conditions are positional
Shadows of a doubt cast reluctance and depravity
There’s got to be a way to overcome this grim reality
Is there an option left for me?
I’m not immune to despondency
There’s no way
(No peace) No peace
(And no friends) And no friends
(We trace)
We trace the mortal edge (with no defense)
To state the obvious
This world is perilous for us
No sense (no sense)
And no guide (no guide)
Ain’t it beautiful to be alive? (Yeah, right)
I won’t resign before the struggle ends
So I’ll construct this sound defense
There’s a signpost on the corner and it keeps everybody safe
We were all made in the shade
And your mother’s in the kitchen where she’s patching all the cracks in the wall
We never had a care in the world
(No shade) Too much to sacrifice
(And no light) It’s hard to recognize
(Just black) Traps to compromise
(And white) Obscuring deadly alibis
(My plans) It’s combinational
(Designs) The pressure so intense
So I’ll construct this sound defense
(No way) Nothing’s plainer than the madness in the world today
(No sign) I must conceal myself and steel myself and break away
(No grace) I seek initiatives in matters that are black and white
(No sense) So I’ll construct this sound defense
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
This single lyric has loomed large for me of late:
Level 42,”Lying Still”
kuvasz
“Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world,
the heart has its beaches, its homeland and thoughts of its own.
Wake now, discover that you are the song that the mornin’ brings,
But the heart has its seasons, its evenin’s and songs of its own.”
Eyes of the World, Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia
Villago Delenda Est
@Cacti: Don’t be stupid
Be a smartie
Come and join
The Nazi party
A Ghost to Most
@Penus:
‘A Ghost to Most’ really struck me, obviously, but I live by:
Some people stop living
Long before they die
Work a dead end job
Just to scrape on by
But I keep living
Just to bend that note in two
Now help me with this amp
And a guitar or two
The Living Bubba
AnonPhenom
As I dreamed out last evening by a river of discontent
I bumped right into old Tom Paine
As a-running down the road he went
He said I can’t stop right now my son King Georgy’s after me
He’ll have a rope around my throat and hang me on the liberty tree
And I will dance to Tom Paine’s bones
I will dance to Tom Paine’s bones
I’ll dance in the oldest boots I own
To the rhythm of Tom Paine’s bones
He said I just wrote about freedom and justice for everyone
Ever since the very first word I spoke
I’ve been looking down the barrel of a gun
Well they say I preached revolution but let me say in my defence
All I did wherever I went was to talk a lot of Common Sense
Well old Tom Paine he ran so fast he left me standing still
And there I was a piece of paper in my hand
Standing at the top of the hill
And it read “this is the Age of Reason these are the Rights of Man
Kick off religion & monarchy” it was written there in Tom Paine’s plan
Poor old Tom Paine there he lies
Nobody Laughs and nobody cries
Where he’s gone or how he fares
Nobody knows and nobody cares
jake the antisoshul soshulist
@Doug!:
Johnny Cash version.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
Someday, baby, no trouble for me anymore.
No One of Consequence
@Miss Bianca: Many thanks for the additional info Miss. I deeply appreciate it. Love that song, and wish I could play it. I know I can sing it.
Peace,
– NOoC
snidelywonder
It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won’t see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you
Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I’ve got a feeling
This year’s for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true
A Ghost to Most
Sturgill Simpsons Voices has been running around my head:
How I wish somebody’d make these voices go away
Seems they’re always talking but they don’t have much to say
Well a picture’s worth a 1000 words but a word ain’t worth a dime
We all know they’ll go on talking til the end of time
frosty
Tom Waits, first verse of Fumblin’ With the Blues:
Friday left me fumblin’ with the blues.
And it’s hard to win when you always lose.
‘Cause the night spots spend your spirit,
Beat your head against the wall,
Two dead ends, but you’ve still got to choose.
Yow, that’s grim when you write it out!
DCF
Jimi Hendrix from The Cry Of Love album (‘Straight Ahead’):
Pete Downunder
This wonderful line from a 70’s era country song –
“We have too little future and way too much past”
Anyone know what it’s from? Mr Google has been no help
brendancalling
Supersuckers, “Someday I Will Kill You”
I can’t believe all the crap that comes out of your mouth
Yeah you’re so condescending, that’s all you’re about
Get off your high horse and through your thick head
You’ll wish you’d listened to what I just said
Yeah you’re getting on my last nerve
And it’s time for something that you deserve
Nothing left to say, nothing better to do
Someday I will kill you
This belligerent bullshit had just got to stop
Cause I’m sick of your best, tired of being your cop
Loan me some sketches so shifty and dark
My bite will be so much worse than my bark
Yeah you’re getting on my last nerve
And it’s time for something that you deserve
Nothing left to say, nothing better to do
Someday I will kill you
Let there be death, let there be grief
Let there be loving, let’s make it brief
Can you walk with a heart when you’re out of breath
Can you run with a brain, when you’re scared to death
So now I’m supposed to feel sorry for you
But I think I might puke from the dumb shit you do
So let’s call it quits by now you know why
It’s over for you yeah and now you must die
And you’re getting on my last nerve
And it’s time for something that you deserve
And there’s nothing left to say, nothing better to do
Someday I will kill you
Someday I will kill you
Yeah!
A Ghost to Most
@Ian G.:
My favorite punch line is from Nine Bullets (Pizza Deliverance):
One left over
I’ll save it for my roommate
After all
It’s my roommate’s gun
daryljfontaine
@Pete Downunder: Maybe this?
D
Another Scott
@Pete Downunder: Trio – Broken hearts for you and me from 1981, perhaps?? (It came up when I searched.)
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@daryljfontaine: GMTA!
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
John Revolta
Sounds across the nation
Coming from young hearts and minds
Battered drums and old guitars
Singing songs of passion
It’s the truth that they all look for
The one thing they must keep alive
Will the wolf survive?
Patricia Kayden
@Mary G: Every time I hear that song, I think of George W. Bush.
frosty
@John Barleycorn:
They’ve been popping into my head these days too:
“So long Mom, we’re off to drop the bomb, so don’t wait up for me.”
“First we got the bomb, and that was good, ’cause we love peace and Motherhood,
Then Russia got the bomb, but that’s OK, ’cause the Balance of Power’s maintained that way.
Who’s next?
:
Pete Downunder
@Another Scott: Close but I don’t think that was it. But thanks for the effort.
Pete Downunder
@daryljfontaine: No, I don’t think so, this was a real country type song and I’m pretty sure the lyric was as quoted. Thanks though.
Jim
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news
My head’s been wet with the midnight dew
I’ve been down on bended knee talkin’ to the man from Galilee
He spoke to me in the voice so sweet
I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel’s feet
He called my name and my heart stood still
When he said, “John go do My will!”
Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down
Patricia Kayden
Bob Marley “Zimbabwe”
Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny,
And in this judgement there is no partiality.
So arm in arms, with arms, we’ll fight this little struggle,
‘Cause that’s the only way we can overcome our little trouble.
Brother, you’re right, you’re right,
You’re right, you’re right, you’re so right!
We gon’ fight (we gon’ fight), we’ll have to fight (we gon’ fight),
We gonna fight (we gon’ fight), fight for our rights!
Natty Dread it in-a (Zimbabwe);
Set it up in (Zimbabwe);
Mash it up-a in-a Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);
Africans a-liberate (Zimbabwe), yeah.
No more internal power struggle;
We come together to overcome the little trouble.
Soon we’ll find out who is the real revolutionary,
‘Cause I don’t want my people to be contrary.
And, brother, you’re right, you’re right,
You’re right, you’re right, you’re so right!
We’ll ‘ave to fight (we gon’ fight), we gonna fight (we gon’ fight)
We’ll ‘ave to fight (we gon’ fight), fighting for our rights!
Mash it up in-a (Zimbabwe);
Natty trash it in-a (Zimbabwe);
Africans a-liberate Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);
I’n’I a-liberate Zimbabwe.
(Brother, you’re right,) you’re right,
You’re right, you’re right, you’re so right!
We gon’ fight (we gon’ fight), we’ll ‘ave to fight (we gon’ fight),
We gonna fight (we gon’ fight), fighting for our rights!
To divide and rule could only tear us apart;
In everyman chest, mm – there beats a heart.
So soon we’ll find out who is the real revolutionaries;
And I don’t want my people to be tricked by mercenaries.
Brother, you’re right, you’re right,
You’re right, you’re right, you’re so right!
We’ll ‘ave to fight (we gon’ fight), we gonna fight (we gon’ fight),
We’ll ‘ave to fight (we gon’ fight), fighting for our rights!
Natty trash it in-a Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);
Mash it up in-a Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);
Set it up in-a Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);
Africans a-liberate Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);
Africans a-liberate Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);
Natty dub it in-a Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe).
Set it up in-a Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);
Africans a-liberate Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);
Every man got a right to decide his own destiny.
Jim
The ghost of Tom Joad
Bruce Springsteen
Men walking ‘long the railroad tracks
Going someplace, there’s no going back
Highway patrol choppers coming up over the ridge
Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
Shelter line stretching ’round the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleeping in the cars in the southwest
No home, no job, no peace, no rest
Well the highway is alive tonight
But nobody’s kidding nobody about where it goes
I’m sitting down here in the campfire light
Searching for the ghost of Tom Joad
He pulls a prayer book out of his sleeping bag
Preacher lights up a butt and he takes a drag
Waiting for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last
In a cardboard box ‘neath the underpass
You got a one-way ticket to the promised land
You got a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand
Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock
Bathing in the city’s aqueduct
Go!
Well the highway is alive tonight
Where it’s headed everybody knows
I’m sitting down here in the campfire light
Waiting on the ghost of Tom Joad
Now Tom said, “Mom, wherever there’s a cop beating a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there’s a fight against the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me, Mom, I’ll be there
Wherever somebody’s fighting for a place to stand
Or a decent job or a helping hand
Wherever somebody’s struggling to be free
Look in their eyes, Ma, and you’ll see me”
Yeah!
The highway is alive tonight
Where it’s headed everybody knows
I’m sitting down here in the campfire light
With the ghost of old Tom Joad
Bill Dunlap
I met Wanda when she was employed
behind the counter of the route 60 Bob’s Big Boy.
Bruce: Open All Night
Bonnie
My whole life has been lived around music because I found how much about life could be found in a well-written lyric. Starting with big band music found in the old movies I grew up watching to rock and roll, the music of most of my life. Even when I just needed peace and quiet, music without words from Mozart, Beethoven, and many others. Dylan was a poet as his Nobel award proved; Simon and Garfunkel, extraordinarily thoughtful lyrics when thoughtfulness was needed; the Eagles with so many great songs, many creating a peaceful, easy feeling. I loved Springsteen and his blue-collar music and “spitting in the face of the badlands.” Those really down home blues from Etta James, Bessie Smith, Billy Holiday, etc. And, then, there was Motown; so many great tunes and lyrics from Otis Redding, the Four Tops, etc. However, there is one song that I still remember hearing it for the first time and how I was so struck by the lyrics. I always make sure my 20-something relatives and friends are familiar with these lyrics because they are what life is about. From the Rolling Stones:
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you might find
You get what you need
Steve Holmes
Here’s the bridge of “Goddamn Lonely Love” by Drive-By Truckers
Jason Isbell can really set the scene
Larkspur
This one by Gillian Welch keeps me going sometimes.
There’s gotta be a song left to sing
Cause everybody can’t have thought of everything
One little song that ain’t been sung
One little rag that ain’t been wrung out completely yet
Got a little left
One little drop of falling rain
One little chance to try again
One little bird that makes it every now and then
One little piece of endless sky
One little taste of cherry pie
One little week in paradise and I start thinkin’
There’s gotta be a song left to sing
Cause everybody can’t have thought of everything
One little note that ain’t been used
One little word ain’t been abused a thousand times
In a thousand rhymes
One little drop of falling rain
One little chance to try again
One little bird that makes it home now and then
One little piece of endless sky
One little taste of cherry pie
One little week in paradise and I start thinkin’
Gotta be a song left to sing
Cause everybody can’t have thought of everything
One little song that ain’t been sung
One little rag that ain’t been wrung out completely yet
Till there’s nothing left
LAC
From this woman’s work:
should be crying, but I just can’t let it go
I should be hoping, but I can’t stop thinking
Of all the things we should’ve said,
That we never said.
All the things we should’ve done,
Though we never did.
All the things that you needed from me.
All the things that you wanted for me.
All the things that I should’ve given,
But I didn’t.
Oh, darling, make it go away.
Just make it go away now.
state
@Xboxershorts: Angel from Montgomery – so fine
Villago Delenda Est
Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!
Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We do, We do!
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star?
We do! We do!
Who robs cavefish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do! We DOOOOOOO!
prostratedragon
@Brachiator: Also the Donny Hathaway version, the first I heard. (Anything by either of these singers is likely to be magnificent.)
LibraryGuy
Ellis Paul, for my Rhea
She fell to the mattress
With the grace of an actress
You’re falling like a thief from a roof.
She’s asking for proof, “are you staying? ”
Outside you hear mission bells.
Welcome to maria’s beautiful mess,
In a cluttered apartment on the west side.
She pulls the blinds while,
You watch how her dress falls round her.
Chorus
And the world slows, a clock shows
A wrinkle in the flow of time
And she steps close, her eyes glow,
Lips pop open like a bottle of wine
And she loves like it’s thirst
Like she’s never been hurt,
She dances just like nobody’s watching.
Is this love? Is this cursed?
It feels like the first time falling
Nobody’s watching, nobody’s watching,
Nobody’s watching, watching
Now she puts on some music,
She asks you to choose it
You sang her back a gershwin line.
Now ella is singing holy, soulfully
Bringing up better times
And beneath the tunes,
She’s smiling on an unmade bed
She says, “what’s in the middle that scares you,
Does it dare you
To take a moment and just slow down? ”
Chorus
Pull the curtains all down
On the prince or a clown,
She’s smiling like the mona lisa.
You could conquer this town.
If your feet touched the ground,
But you’re falling boy
I know, I see you
I see you, I see, I see,
I see you
prostratedragon
Frequently on my inner soundtrack of late:
–Irving Berlin, 1936
evap
For every woman who ever made a fool of a man, there’s a woman made a man of a fool. – Nick Lowe
Summer
Oh the passenger
How, how he rides
Oh the passenger
He rides and he rides
He looks through his window
What does he see?
He sees the sight of hollow sky
He sees the stars come out tonight
He sees the city’s ripped back sides
He sees the winding ocean drive
And everything was made for you and me
All of it was made for you and me
Cause it just belongs to you and me
So let’s take a ride and see what’s mine
Doug!
@ChrisB:
That’s a great song.
BBA
Hang on to your hopes, my friend
That’s an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend that you can build them again
Doug!
@john fremont:
Those are great.
maurinsky
When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez when it’s Easter time, too
And your gravity fails and negativity don’t pull you through
– Bob Dylan, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
If there was a better way to go then it would find me
I can’t help it, the road just rolls out behind me
Be kind to me, or treat me mean
I’ll make the most of it, I’m an extraordinary machine
– Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine
When I touch you, do you quiver
from your head down to your liver?
-Nina Simone, Do I Move You
Listen…
There’s anothe national anthem playing,
Not the one you cheer
At the ball park.
[BYCK]
Where’s my prize?…
[PROPRIETOR]
It’s the other national anthem, saying,
If you want to hear-
It says,
[BYCK]
“Bullsh*t!”…
[CZOLGOSZ]
It says, “Never!”-
[GUITEAU]
It says, “Sorry!”-
[OTHERS]
Loud and clear-
Stephen Sondheim, Another National Anthem
firusan
Blind Lemon Jefferson by Nick Cave:
And if that sky serves as his eye
Then that moon’s a cataract
ranchandsyrup
@Elizabelle: hi elizabelle, we’re all doing great! thx for asking. hope the same is true with you and all the fine people in these parts.
ranchandsyrup
girls did dress up today
Summer
Well, God is in heaven
And we all want what’s his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Summer
I’m also partial to this most imaginative rhyming with “bathroom stall”
I saw you outside
The bathroom stall
You were just standing there
Out in the hall
You leaned your hip against
Against the wall
I’d love you anywhere
But Black Leaf Falls
scott alloway
And it’s a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace
And a wound that will never heal
No prima donna, the perfume is on
An old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey
And goodnight to the street sweepers
The night watchman flame keepers and goodnight, Mathilda too.
Tom Waits, a long time ago.
zhena gogolia
@prostratedragon:
Yeah, perfection.
catbirdman
The past few days I’ve been introduced to Cass McCombs, and am quite impressed. These lyrics are sticking with me:
Medusa’s Outhouse
Help me, help me to remember to forget
To forget what hasn’t happened yet
Knock me down that mystic slide again
Tell me, tell me about Medusa’s outhouse
Medusa’s outhouse, and the hornet’s nest
Stone me if I didn’t pass the test
Season of the slug crawling up the vine
Music like a crow in the gold sunshine
Oh, the rest is up to dreams
Don’t leave me hanging upside down
Music, music to forget the little strings
Forget who we are and everything
Undressing in the theater our rayon wings
Calliope dancing on thin air
Ambrosia cotton candy until we’re free from care
All the rest is up to dreams
Don’t leave me hanging, don’t leave me hanging
Don’t leave me hanging upside down
If it’s so easy, you try
Here, you try
Here, if it’s so easy, you try
If it’s so easy, you try
Here, you try
Here, if it’s so easy, you try
Dancing, dancing and music are sisters
Sisters are good listeners
Listeners are good kissers
Say nothing if you don’t wanna stay
Slow down if you’re going my way
All the rest is up to dreams
Don’t leave me hanging, don’t leave me hanging
Don’t leave me hanging, don’t leave me hanging
Don’t leave me hanging, don’t leave me hanging
Don’t leave me hanging, don’t leave me hanging
BillCinSD
You take the skyway, high above the busy little one-way
In my stupid hat and gloves, at night I lie awake
Wonderin’ if I’ll sleep
Wonderin’ if we’ll meet out in the street
But you take the skyway
It don’t move at all like a subway
It’s got bums when it’s cold like any other place
It’s warm up inside
Sittin’ down and waitin’ for a ride
Beneath the skyway
Oh, then one day, I saw you walkin’ down that little one-way
Where, the place I’d catch my ride most everyday
There wasn’t a damn thing I could do or say
Up in the skyway
Paul Westerberg
BillCinSD
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
It beats pickin’ cotton and waitin’ to be forgotten
…
Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom
Elvis in the ground, there’ll ain’t no beer tonight
Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function
It beats pickin’ cotton and waitin’ to be forgotten
…
The ones who love us best are the ones we’ll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones who love us least are the ones we’ll die to please
If it’s any consolation, I don’t begin to understand them
Bastards of Young, Paul Westerberg
catbirdman
Yeah, Westerberg’s got a bunch…
Crackle & Drag
What’s the matter here? You’ll never repair
The lady’s cursed with insight
You’ll never fix her, with a cold stare
She’s all broken inside
She made a good go like a weeping willow
Her limbs clung to the ground
She closed the window and made a pillow
And lay the head down
And as her babies slept, she took a long deep breath
Now they’re zipping her up in a bag
Can you hear her blacks crackle & drag?
And the Cadillac’s waiting to take her away
Can you hear her blacks crackle & drag?
Another head cold, another spirit old
February
Her hair was dirty and she was thirty in 1963
And while her babies slept, she took a long deep breath
And they’re zipping her up in a bag
Can you hear her blacks crackle & drag?
The Cadillac’s waiting to take her away
Can you hear her blacks crackle & drag?
And drag, and drag, and drag
And drag, and drag
She made a good go for a weeping willow
She stuffed some rags on the floor
She closed the window
She made a pillow on the oven door
And took a long deep breath while her babies slept
Now they’re zipping her up in a bag
Can you hear her blacks crackle & drag?
And the Cadillac’s waiting to take her away
Can you hear her blacks crackle & drag?
They’re zipping her up in a bag
Can you hear her blacks crackle & drag?
The Cadillac’s waiting to take her away
Can you hear her blacks crackle & drag?
Hear her blacks crackle & drag
TriassicSands
You come home late and you come home early
You come on big when you’re feeling small
You come home straight and you come home curly
Sometimes you don’t come home at all
So what in the world’s come over you
And what in heaven’s name have you done
You’ve broken the speed of the sound of loneliness
You’re out there running just to be on the run
John Prine — The Speed of the Sound of Lonliness
Ted
I waited for the joke
It never did arrive
–The Afghan Whigs
JimV
Woody Guthrie “Deportees” about the Los Gatos airplane crash, circa 1954:
The sky-plane went down over Los Gatos Canyon
A firebomb of fire that shook all our hills
Who are all these dear friends all falling like dry leaves?
The radio said, they were just deportees.
Peter VE
@Miss Bianca:
“Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee’s wing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
She said “As long as there’s no price on love, I’ll stay.
And you wouldn’t want me any other way”
Beeswing, RT
mere mortal
And though you hold the keys to ruin
Of everything I see
With every prison blown to dust,
My enemies walk free
Though all my kingdoms turn to sand
And fall into the sea
I’m mad about you, I’m mad about you
Atticus Dogsbody
Flame Trees, Cold Chisel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJJV1nruUUA
But, oh! Who needs that sentimental bullshit, anyway
Well, it takes more than just a memory to make me cry
And I’m happy just to sit here at a table with old friends
And see which one of us can tell the biggest lies
And there’s a girl just falling in love near where the pianola stands
With her young local factory auto worker, just holding hands
And I’m wondering if he’ll go or if he’ll stay
Do you remember, nothing stopped us on the field
In our day.
Wyatt Derp
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah. Miss that little hellraiser. I really used to enjoy when people heard Excitable Boy for the first time and tapped their feet to the melody, then listened to the lyrics and didn’t know how to respond. I’m evil that way.
Marty
“Sometimes the best maps cannot guide you
You can’t see what’s ’round the bend.
Sometimes the road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend” _____________ Bruce Cockburn, OC, from “Pacing the Cage”
Atticus Dogsbody
The entire lyrics from “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG48Ftsr3OI
The Pogues version adds some zest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqN1glz4JY
Drobnox
David Bowie’s “Fantastic Voyage”
In the event
that this fantastic voyage
Should turn to erosion
and we never get old
Remember it’s true, dignity is valuable
But our lives are valuable too
We’re learning to live with somebody’s depression
And I don’t want to live with somebody’s depression
We’ll get by, I suppose
It’s a very modern world,
but nobody’s perfect
It’s a moving world,
but that’s no reason
To shoot some of those missiles
Think of us as fatherless scum
It won’t be forgotten
‘Cause we’ll never say anything nice again, will we?
And the wrong words make you listen
In this criminal world
Remember it’s true, loyalty is valuable
But our lives are valuable too
We’re learning to live with somebody’s depression
And I don’t want to live with somebody’s depression
We’ll get by I suppose
But any sudden movement I’ve got to write it down
They wipe out an entire race and I’ve got to write it down
But I’m still getting educated but I’ve got to write it down
And it won’t be forgotten
‘Cause I’ll never say anything nice again, how can I?