Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
kalakal dropped an idea for Medium Cool into the comments of an overnight thread.
How about one on song lyrics?
ie where the lyrics have really been meaningful/made an impact/encapsulated feelings, emotions or situation to someone. Could be personal, political or societal.
Seems like a fun idea to me, so let’s try it.
I’ll start. Since it’s Medium Cool, I don’t mind interpreting the topic loosely. I’ll just say that one Ramones album totally captures one period in my life. Not the lyrics so much as the vibe of the music. It was almost entirely a happy-fun period of my life, though it did include the only time my Dad got really mad at me. Ever! The Ramones were inadvertently at the center of it, and I swear my Dad wasn’t the same with me for about 6 months. Shocking for this daddy’s girl to have my Dad mad at me at all, let alone for so long!
Let’s go!
Update: In case it’s helpful in posting lyrics, if you use Shift-RETURN instead of RETURN, you won’t get the black line in between.
Author Jennifer Schiff – A Mocktail for Murder! (Take 2)
Villago Delenda Est
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
like a watercolor in the rain.
Baud
Good song.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
And your breath’s as hard as kerosene
Townes Van Zandt, opening lyrics to The Ballad of Poncho and Lefty.
Villago Delenda Est
I don’t want to hold her down
Don’t want to break her crown
When she says,
I like the night life baby”
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Also love this lyric from “Sunday Morning Coming Down”
I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one more for dessert
So I fumbled through my closet through my clothes to find my cleanest dirty shirt.
Then I washed my face and comed my hair and stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.
Villago Delenda Est
I’m going to be really heavy on late 70s early 80s stuff, you know, from college and my early military years. For example:
Lido missed the boat that day, he left the shack
But that was all he missed, and he ain’t comin’ back
At a tombstone bar in a juke joint car, he made a stop
Just long enough to grab a handle off the top
Next stop, Chi-town, Lido put the money down, let it roll
He said, “One more job oughta get it
One last shot ‘fore we quit it
One for the road”
Paul in Jacksonville
“Who’s gonna drive you home tonight?” A period in my life when I had a short affair with a married woman who was trying to leave her old-enough-to-be-her-father husband. Husband worked as a buyer for a major customer of the company I was working for. She had a substance abuse problem, and spent many a night out until the wee hours, only a few of which were with me.
Villago Delenda Est
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Warm beer and cold pizza, both from the night before.
Breakfast of Champions.
raven
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
delphinium
Always liked these lyrics, captures the love for someone and somewhere:
In the heart of the night
In the cool southern rain
There’s a full moon in sight
Shining down on the Pontchartrain
And the river she rises
Just like she used to do
She’s so full of surprises
She reminds me of you…
There’s a night bird singing
Right on through till the dawn
And the streets are still ringing
With people carrying on…
raven
You can’t let go and you can’t hold on,You can’t go back and you can’t stand still,If the thunder don’t get you then the lightning will.Won’t you try just a little bit harder,
Suzanne
I saw The War on Drugs last night, so it is fresh in my mind. The first song of theirs that I ever heard was “Pain”, and I instantly loved it. This lyric has always stood out:
Villago Delenda Est
This part of “Brandy” always gets to me, I find it so evocative, in my mind I can see the moonlit streets she’s walking on:
At night when the bars close down
Brandy walks through a silent town
And loves a man who’s not around
She still can hear him say
BellaPea
@delphinium: I always loved that song, by Poco. Jim Messina (of Loggins and Messina fame) was a member of that group.
WaterGirl
PSA: In case it’s helpful in posting lyrics, if you use Shift-RETURN instead of RETURN, you won’t get the blank line in between.
1
2
3
vs.
1
2
3
Villago Delenda Est
@Paul in Jacksonville: I immediately thought of “Lyin’ Eyes” when I read your paragraph, applies as well as The Cars here.
Pete Downunder
Best country music lyric:
We knew when we started, this could never last,
We have too little future, and way too much past
Statler Brothers. When the Magic Turns to Memories
CaseyL
Erm… this one is from my high school days. It had a huge impact on me: “White Rabbit.”
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head
Feed your head
I don’t know if the lyrics (and the way Grace Slick sang them) was intended to make someone want to try acid, and even then I had a huge philosophical objection to the idea that rock music “made kids want to try drugs,” but that song definitely made me want to try acid. No other drug-celebrating song had that effect on me.
October Light
From The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys by Traffic
If you see something that looks like a star
And it’s shooting up out of the ground
And your head is spinning from a loud guitar
And you just can’t escape from the sound
Don’t worry too much, it’ll happen to you
We were children once, playing with toys
And that thing that you’re hearing is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys
From Heroin by the Velvet Underground
I don’t know just where I’m going
But I’m gonna try for the kingdom, if I can
‘Cause it makes me feel like I’m a man
When I put a spike into my vein
And I’ll tell ya, things aren’t quite the same
When I’m rushing on my run
And I feel just like Jesus’ son
And I guess that I just don’t know
Ivan X
As a teen, the words and music of New Order kept me going. It’s hard to explain, because they don’t look like much on paper; their predecessor, Joy Division, was more poetic, and yet, not quite as resonant for me. Swans lyrics, on the other hand, which were also part of those years, were a blunt force instrument, and not for the faint of heart.
I could never really separate lyrics from music, to be told, since one didn’t make sense without the other, to me. I flatly rejected my poor 10th grade English teacher’s attempt to reach her students by having us compare a poem and a song, submitting for each the designed-for-suffering Vogon poetry from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and twelve minutes of abrasive industrial percussion by Ministry, with the accompanying essay arguing for the invalidity of comparing an artistic medium in which words were the complete work versus one in which words are only a component. (I got a B, since she felt the essay was well written and the argument was amusing, but that in the end, I hadn’t done the assignment.)
Melancholy Jaques
One verse and the refrain from one my all time favorites:
Well, it was nearly summer, we sat on your roofYeah, we smoked cigarettes and we stared at the moonAnd I showed you stars you never could seeBabe, it couldn’t have been that easy to forget about me
***
Baby, even the losersGet lucky sometimesEven the losersKeep a little bit of prideThey get lucky sometimes
Villago Delenda Est
@Pete Downunder: Pretty good.
As a counter, I offer this:
That’s why you’re losing all your hair
That’s why you’re overweight, uh huh
That’s why you flipped your pick-up truck
Right off the inner state, that’s right
Scout211
I’m confused. What black line? I’m on an iPad and I don’t see any black lines. Or shift+return, for that matter.
kalakal
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m a big fan of Al Stewart’s lyrics, you beat me to it with Year of the Cat
though I might have picked
“In a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they’ve turned back time
You go walking through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime”
delphinium
On a different vibe, also like these lines from the song Leave Me Alone:
Four in the morning, but we’re having such a lovely time.
Mad as a hatter with a dagger and a dollar sign.
Kelly
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: My favorite Townes Van Zandt “To live is to Fly”
Chorus:
Well to live is to fly
All low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes
Ah shake the dust off of your wings
And the tears out of your eyes
Melancholy Jaques
These lyrics from Springsteen’s “The River” are close enough to things that actually happened that the always evoke a little pain and a little tear.
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don’t remember
Mary acts like she don’t care
But I remember us riding in my brother’s car
Her body tan and wet, down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I’d lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she’d take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
They haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true
Or is it something worse?
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Lyle Lovett has a bunch of great lyrics. Like so many I don’t even really want to get started.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Kelly: That’s a great song too.
Mr. Prosser
Now I find myself on the mountainside
Where the rivers change direction
Across the Great Divide.
Nanci Griffiths
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
If there’s anything that you want
If there’s anything that you need
There’s no need to be evasive
Money talks and it’s persuasive
Elvis Costello
Melancholy Jaques
@Melancholy Jaques:
Didn’t get back in time to edit.
Well, it was nearly summer, we sat on your roof
Yeah, we smoked cigarettes and we stared at the moon
And I showed you stars you never could see
Babe, it couldn’t have been that easy to forget about me
***
Baby, even the losers
Get lucky sometimes
Even the losers
Keep a little bit of pride
They get lucky sometimes
Suzanne
Another one, from the Tragically Hip, that I have always loved:
Abnormal Hiker
@Scout211: blank line i believe
kalakal
Little Feat had some goodies
And you know you’re over the hill
When your mind makes a promise your body can’t fill
Old Folks Boogie
SaltWaterCleanse
When my wife or I are excessively pleased with something we’ve accomplished, we sing or text to the other:
What’s your name?
Who’s your daddy
He rich, is he rich like me?
Baud
West of the Rockies
All of Fast Car is extraordinary.
Kelly
Steve Earle “Mercenary Song”
And we’re bound for the border
We’re soldiers of fortune
And we’ll fight for no country but we’ll die for good pay
Under the flag of of the greenback dollar
Or the peso down Mexico way
Dexf
@Suzanne: You’ll never go wrong with the Hip and Gordie Downie. For me:
lollipopguild
@Pete Downunder: Do not forget “Counting Flowers on the Wall”
Suzanne
@SaltWaterCleanse: When I’m excessively pleased with something or someone, this is what I end up singing:
Villago Delenda Est
@kalakal: The whole thing is just lovely, lyrically and musically.
Splitting Image
I’ve always been fond of “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” by Bruce Cockburn.
When you’re lovers in a dangerous time
Sometimes you’re made to feel as if your love’s a crime—
But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight—
Got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight
U2 quoted the last line of this stanza in “God Part II”.
From the same album, the song “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” concludes “If I had a rocket launcher, some son of a bitch would die”.
kalakal
The lyrics to the whole song have always moved me deeply but to save space just the first 2 verses
“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.”
The Beatles – In My Life
Central Planning
@WaterGirl: If you put a space after a period you will also not get that blank line.
Like this
WaterGirl
@Scout211: BLANK, not Black. I corrected the autocorrect.
kalakal
@Villago Delenda Est: Couldn’t agree more
Raven
Merle
If it’s sleepin’ on some vacant bench in City Square
Or if I’m workin’ on some road gang
Or just livin’ off the fat of our great land
I never been nobody’s idol but at least I got a title
And I take a lot of pride in what I am
MattF
Gillian Welch, The Way It Goes, summarizes a period of my life. Can’t post the lyrics because it alludes to a certain feline trade that WP objects to.
zhena gogolia
My latest favorite song, which I never heard until a few weeks ago. Mr. Natural, Bee Gees. Although like most of their songs, it needs the melody and the ineffable voices.
[Verse 1: Robin Gibb]
Burning embers, I still remember
All of those little things
But I don’t feel it so much
’cause I am so out of touch
With my heart and it won’t sing
Rusty rainbows
That’s how the pain goes
Turning me inside out
Well, I come home at night
And you are out of my sight
Yes, I’m dying and there ain’t no doubt
Well, I’m dying and there’s no way out
[Hook: Robin Gibb]
Well, I try, try, try, try, try
Mr. Natural, come on baby
When I walk in the rain you won’t know that I’m crying
A smile on my face and I’m trying
[Post-Hook: Barry Gibb and Robin Gibb]
I’m trying to understand
That a love that is lost can never be found again
And you see me dance, I look like a happy man
[Verse 2: Barry Gibb]
Just when I think I’m getting it over
An old friend I should see
He said he knew you well
And baby I could tell
You know, he knew you even more than me
I went home laughing
And inside I’m crying
We had a special thing
You know I loved you so much
But girl I’m so out of touch
With my heart and it won’t sing
You know my heart just won’t sing
I love the enjambment of “I’m so out of touch / With my heart and it won’t sing.”
kalakal
@WaterGirl: Doesn’t seem to work on my Android
BigJimSlade
Well, since this started with the Ramones, how about “Beat on the brat with a baseball bat “ for trump?
zhena gogolia
@kalakal: Yeah, one of the very greatest.
WaterGirl
@Central Planning: I use visual mode, and all that gets me is a bullet list.
Omnes Omnibus
Hand in hand
No, don’t ask me to apologize
I won’t ask you to forgive me
If I’m going to go down
You’re going to come with me
Hand in hand
tommyspoon
After my divorce, I leaned heavily on Pearl Jam’s “rearviewmirror”. The chorus healed me and helped me to move on with my life:
saw things so much clearer
once you once you
saw things so much clearer
once you once you
saw things so much clearer
once you were in my rearview mirror
Central Planning
This from John Hiatt’s Have a Little Faith In Me gets me every time:
‘Cause I’ve been loving you for such a long time, baby
Expecting nothing in return
Just for you to have a little faith in me
You see time, time is our friend
‘Cause for us there is no end
All you gotta do is have a little faith in me (Have a little faith, ooh)
I will hold you up, I’m gonna hold you up
Because your love gives me strength enough
So have a little faith in me (Have a little faith)
All I want ya to do for me, baby
All ya gotta do is just to have a little bit of faith in me(Have a little faith)
Scout211
@Abnormal Hiker: @WaterGirl: oh, blank line!
Thank you. 😊
WaterGirl
@kalakal: As in mobile phone? I guess I should have said on a computer. I could never type all that out on a phone!
Memory Pallas
Smart Patrol
Nowhere to go
Suburban robots that monitor reality
Common stock
We work around the clock
We shove the poles in the holes
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I like that. What song is that?
Wyatt Salamanca
Sickness can surely take the mind
Where minds can’t usually go
Come on the amazing journey
And learn all you should know
A vague haze of delirium
Creeps up on me
All at once a tall stranger
I suddenly see
He’s dressed in a silver-sparked
Glittering gown
And his golden beard flows
Nearly down to the ground
Nothing to say, and nothing to hear
And nothing to see
Each sensation makes a note
In my symphony
Amazing Journey – The Who
I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead;
I just need some 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, and “No!”, was all he said.
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free;
Take a load off Fanny, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on me.
I picked up my bag, I went lookin’ for a place to hide;
When I saw Carmen and the Devil walkin’ side by side.
I said, “Hey, Carmen, come on, let’s go downtown.”
She said, “I gotta go, but m’friend can stick around.”
The Weight – The Band
Scout211
@WaterGirl: There’s a lot of lyrics available online so copy/paste is easier than typing.
Omnes Omnibus
And life is grand
And I will say this at the risk of falling from favor
With those of you who have appointed yourselves
To expect us to say something darker
And love is real
And though I realize this is not a deep observation
To those of you who find it necessary
To conceal love or obscure it, as is the fashion
kalakal
The cleverest rhyme I’ve come across is by Noel Coward in Mad dogs and Englishmen
“It’s one of those rules that the greatest fools obey
Because the sun is much too sultry and one must avoid its ultry-violet ray”
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Baud: Beware of autocorrect. “Well I’d left home just a week before…”
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Hand in Hand, Elvis Costello
artem1s
Deap Vally
Smile More
People think they know what kind of girl I am
They take one look, they think they understand
And they’re always surprised when they meet me
Apparently I’m terribly misleading
Courtney Barnett
History Eraser
We drank green margaritas
Danced with sweet senoritas
And we all went home as winners of a kind
You said, “I guarantee we’ll have more fun
Drink till the moon becomes the sun
And in the taxi home I’ll sing you a Triffids song”
In my brain I rearrange
The letters on the page
To spell your name
Sleater-Kinney
Jumpers
My falling shape will draw a line
Between the blue of sea and sky
I’m not a bird, I’m not a plane
I took a taxi to the gate
I will not go to school again
Four seconds was the longest wait
Baud
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
It was copy paste. The error was in the original.
Memory Pallas
I cried the first time I heard this part of the song:
Place one zero after any number
And you’ve multiplied that number by ten (See how easy that is?)
Place two zeros after any number
And you’ve multiplied that number by one hundred (See how simple that is?)
Place three zeros after any number
And you’ve multiplied that number by one thousand
Et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad astra, forever and ever
With Zero, my hero, how wonderful you are
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Omnes Omnibus: Camper Van Beethoven!
I’ve got an electric guitar and half a bottle of warm beer
I’ve got some funny ideas about what sounds good
What sounds good
Better shut us down! Better shut us down!
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Well, the smart money’s on Harlow and the moon is in the street
And the shadow boys are breaking all the laws
And you’re east of East Saint Louis and the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause
Tom Waits
Piety, keep me strong
When you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way
From your first cigaret to your last dyin’ day
Splitting Image
My favourite Beatles lyric is from one of George Harrison’s songs: “It’s All Too Much”.
Set me on a silver sun, for I know that I’m free
Show me that I’m everywhere, and get me home for tea.
It’s like the entire spacey and psychedelic atmosphere of the late 1960s condensed into one line. And you can’t have too many songs about tea.
Kelly
Jerry Jeff Walker “Last Night I Fell in Love Again”
So last night I looked at you brand new and I saw all the reasons why I married you
What a lovely woman you turned into and how lucky I am to be in love with you
And I’m taking time to say just how much I do
‘Cause last night I fell in love again with you
And tonight I’m gonna do the same thing too
Scout211
Omnes Omnibus
Bad lovers face to face in the morning
Shy apologies and polite regrets
Slow dances that left no warning of
Outraged glances and indiscreet yawning
Good manners and bad breath get you nowhere
Even presidents have newspaper lovers
Ministers go crawling under covers
She’s no angel
He’s no saint
They’re all covered up with white washed grease paint
And you say…
[Chorus:]
The teacher never told you anything but white lies
But you never see the lies
And you believe
Oh you know you have been captured
You feel so civilized
And you look so pretty in your new lace sleeves
(I can do Elvis Costello lyrics all day.)
Mr. Bemused Senior
Central Planning
And a fun one (and possibly educational) from ScribbleMonster and His Pals Chocolate Milk:
They say that chocolate′s been around
Since 600 B.C.
But that doesn’t matter very much to me
When they mixed it up with milk
That′s my favorite date
‘Cause chocolate’s pretty good
But chocolate milk′s great!
Thank the Swiss, who on a whim
Mixed their chocolate with their skim
I love chocolate milk
piratedan
I used to be disgusted
Now I try to be amused
Since their wings have got rusted
You Know the Angels wanna wear my Red shoes
there’s oodles more but I’m sure others want to play too :-)
Frankensteinbeck
Song lyrics have a big effect on my books. Sometimes I slip in a line just to acknowledge the song’s importance.
For the last book it was “Calling all the monsters!”
For my WIP it’s “At the end of the night we’re all killing machines.”
Trivia Man
“All I want to know is, are you kind?”
Extended from Uncle John’s Band by the Grateful Dead
Think this through with me
Let me know your mind
Whoa, oh, what I want to know
Is are you kind?
Ain’t no time to hate
Barely time to wait
Whoa, oh, what I want to know
Where does the time go?
MagdaInBlack
@Kelly: And followed closely by his
“Derby Day”
Yeah, Susan you are a jewel
‘Bout the rarest I’ve ever seen
And I wish I could polish off all the edges
Of my craziest dreams
But you know the way I am
There’s nothin’ you could do
‘Cause anything you don’t want me to do
Say go ahead and tell me to
Yeah, and it must have been one hell of a starry night
Yeah, the moon was so bright
Guess it must have knocked out all of your lights
I guess that’s the night that you fell
For my silvery line
kalakal
A song whose lyrics made a deep impression was Time by Pink Floyd. As in ‘don’t waste your life waiting for something to turn up’
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull dayYou fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand wayKicking around on a piece of ground in your home townWaiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rainAnd you are young and life is long, and there is time to kill todayAnd then one day you find ten years have got behind youNo one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinkingRacing around to come up behind you againSun is the same, in a relative way, but you’re olderShorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the timePlans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled linesHanging on in quiet desperation is the English wayThe time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say
WaterGirl
@Scout211: I am on the phone so little that I still don’t have the hang of selecting text to copy. So frustrating when i try it.
John Revolta
@Omnes Omnibus: There’s so many great EC lyrics, I can’t hardly pick any out………..these have been on my mind a lot lately though
Crowds surround loudspeakers hanging from the lampposts, listening to the murder mystery
Meanwhile someone’s hiding in the classroom, forging the books of history
Never mind, there’s a good film showing tonight where they hang everybody who can read and write
Oh that could never happen here, but then again it might
CaseyL
And, oh gods, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” That song never ceases to wreck me. I start crying at, like, the first line.
However, one of the lines from it:
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
“The rooms of her ice-water mansions” makes me shiver in a very different way, because I can absolutely see, in my mind’s eye, the icy depths shot through with faint light…and I keep thinking, I’d like to see that in person because it must be so beautiful which is terrifying to my rational mind for obvious reasons.
(I feel the same way about deep space: I want to be there, I want to see the nebulae close up and personal. That very same sense of over-the-top frozen beauty that needs no human agency.)
TBone
So hard to choose, so I’ll go with recent summer day stomp:
“Bron-Y-Aur Stomp”
Ah, caught you smiling at me
That’s the way it should be
Like a leaf is to a tree, so fine
Ah, all the good times we had
I sang love songs so glad
Always smiling, never sad, so fine
As we walk down the country lanes
I’ll be singing a song, hear me calling your name
Hear the wind within the trees
Telling Mother Nature ’bout you and me
Well, if the sun shines so bright
Or on our way it’s darkest night
The road we choose is always right, so fine
Ah, can your love be so strong
When so many loves go wrong
Will our love go on and on and on and on and on?
As we walk down the country lanes
I’ll be singing a song, hear me calling your name
Hear the wind within the trees
Telling Mother Nature ’bout you and me
My, my
La la la
Come on now, it ain’t too far
Tell your friends all around the world
Ain’t no companion like a blue-eyed Merle
Come on now, well, let me tell you
What you’re missing, messing ’round them brick walls
So of one thing I am sure
It’s a friendship so pure
Angels singing all around my door, so fine
Yeah, ain’t but one thing to do
Spend my natural life with you
You’re the finest dog I knew, so fine
When you’re old and your eyes are dim
There ain’t no old Shep gonna happen again
We’ll still go walking down country lanes
I’ll sing the same old song, hear me call your name.
– Led Zeppelin
Kelly
Steve Goodman “Men Who Love Women Who love Men”
Went out on 42nd street
That’s where the elite all retreat to greet
You can see them coming from everywhere
Every kind of man and woman you will find there
There are men who love women who love men
There are women who love women every now and then
There are men who love men because they can’t pretend
They are men who love women who love men
There are those who make love for pay
And there are those who make love anyway
And over in the bar with a bottle of scotch
There are those who would rather just watch
All the men who love women who love men
And the women who love women every now and then
There are men who love men because they can’t pretend
They are men who love women who love men
There are those who make love to machines
That don’t talk back and are easy to clean
And there are those who will tell you out loud
That they can only make love in a crowd
A crowd of men who love women who love men
And women who love women every now and then
There are men who love men because they can’t pretend
They are men who love women who love men
In the pursuit of true love’s joy
Boys will be girls and girls will be boys
But sometimes it’s hard to know what to do
When you don’t know who you’re talking to
’cause there are men who love women who love men
There are women who love women every now and then
There are men who love men because they can’t pretend
They are men who love women who love men
Just look at that parking lot
I was born to rock the boat
Some may sink but we will float
Grab your coat let’s get out of here
Your my witness
I’m your mutineer
Warren Zevon
prostratedragon
@Piety, keep me strong:
Puerto Rico’s in America!
SpaceUnit
I got some lyrics for you. Eat a bunch of shrooms and boogie down to this . . .
They’re Eating the Dogs
It’s some really deep shit.
Matt McIrvin
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Another one of Elvis Costello’s really gets me:
And as I walk on, through troubled times,
My spirit gets… so downhearted, sometimes
So where are the strong, and who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony, sweet harmony?
‘Cause each time I feel it slipping away, it just makes me wanna cry:
What’s so funny ’bout peace, love, and understanding? OHHHHH…
What’s so funny ’bout peace, love, and understanding?
Salty Sam
“Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone,
Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you…”
I always loved JT’s “Fire and Rain” , but this song took on huge personal significance when my first wife, Suzanne, was dying from an immune system disorder, and “the plans they made” involved withdrawing life support a few days before Christmas.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: I’ll be that guy. The song was written by Nick Lowe.
Trivia Man
@kalakal: Those lyrics often run through my head, great contribution.
AliceBlue
And in the hard light of an angry sun
No one remembers what was said or done
Tender are the words they choose
You win, I win, we lose
Jackson Browne, “Tender is the Night”
Kelly
@MagdaInBlack: Very fine
Trivia Man
More Grateful Dead, this one from Black Peter and I think about the first two lines several times a week.
See here, how everything
Lead up to this day
And it’s just like
Any other day
That’s ever been
Sun going up
And then the
Sun, it going down
Shine through my window and
My friends, they come around
A Ghost to Most
I’ve based much of how I have lived my life on the lyrics of Jackson Browne on For Everyman and Late For The Sky. YMMV.
hitchhiker
My go-to is Michael Peter Smith, who wrote the lovely waltz, Spoon River — pretty good cover here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeHZQHABIWg
All of the riverboat gamblers are losing their shirts
All of the brave union soldier boys sleep in the dirt
But you know and I know there never was reason to hurt
When all of our lives were entwined to begin with
Here in Spoon River
Another Michael Smith tune is The Dutchman, which I learned one night at our local song circle. Two Irish guys had showed up out of nowhere .. they played it for us and there was utter silence when they were done. After that we sang it every time.
The Dutchman’s not the kind of man
Who keeps his thumb jammed in the dam
That holds his dreams in,
But that’s a secret that only Margaret knows.
When Amsterdam is golden in the summer,
Margaret brings him breakfast,
She believes him.
He thinks the tulips bloom beneath the snow.
He’s mad as he can be,
but Margaret only sees that sometimes,
Sometimes she sees her unborn children in his eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=429PaSejZCE
Sheila in nc
@raven: God I love Bonnie Raitt
hotshoe
Jason Isbell has been my favorite songwriter/musician for a decade now; I can hardly choose amongst just his songs much less amongst all other songs which run through my mind, but this one seems like the kind of blessing we need nowadays:
I hope you find something to love
Something to do when you feel like giving up
A song to sing or a tale to tell
Something to love, it’ll serve you well
Pretty easy to sing along with: Something to Love
Paul in Jacksonville
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes it does. “Drive” was in heavy rotation on the FM during that time in my life.
Villago Delenda Est
@Just look at that parking lot:
Stranded in Honduras
I’m a desperate man
Send Lawyers Guns and Money
The shit has hit the fan
From the unofficial anthem of Joint Task Force Bravo, Palmerola Air Base, Honduras, 1985
banditqueen
…So here we are on this planet
Just taking everything for granted
If you think you’ve caught on to something
Don’t let go
Go go go go go
You restless soul, you’re going to find it
Go go go go go
You restless soul, you’re going to find it
Oh, yes you did, you found it
Oh, yes you did, you found it
Oh, yes you did, you found it (Go; Sparklehorse/Flaming Lips)
Matt McIrvin
They Might Be Giants’ “Ana Ng” has a lot of that young-lonely-dreamer energy I remember from way back:
All alone at the ’64 World’s Fair
Eighty dolls yelling “small girl after all”
Who was at the DuPont pavilion?
Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?
Or the time when the storm tangled up the wires
To the horn on the pole at the bus depot
And in back of the edge of hearing
These are the words that the voice was repeating:
Ana Ng and I are getting old and we still haven’t walked in the glow of each other’s majestic presence
Listen, Ana, hear my words, they’re the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you
As I was driving once I saw this painted on a bridge:
“I don’t want the world… I just want… your… half”
They don’t need me here and I know you’re there
Where the world goes by like the humid air
And it sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks until it goes away,
And the truth is, we don’t know anything…
zhena gogolia
@Salty Sam: That’s so sad.
zhena gogolia
@Trivia Man: Great one.
Villago Delenda Est
@Salty Sam: Words fail me. For you, that song must hurt.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: ty saved me from being “that guy”, although EC’s gift of turning into an anthem instead of a ballad was astute.
Lowe does have a gift tho….
All Men Area Liars
Time Wounds All Heels
Stick It Where The Sun Don’t Shine
I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock and Roll)
Salty Sam
Yeah, she did a definitive cover- the song was written by Mose Allison.
Sheila in nc
There are places I remember all my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better, some have gone, but some remain
All these places have their moments, with lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead and some 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
John Lennon. I had this song at my wedding. It buries the lede.
laura
“And I don’t give a damn ’bout my bad reputation”
Tom Waits – Old 55
Well, my time went so quickly
I went lickety-splickly
Out to my old ’55
As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy
God knows, I was feeling alive
Now the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I’d stayed a little longer
Oh, Lord, lemme tell you that the feeling’s getting stronger
And at six in the morning, gave me no warning
I had to be on my way
Well there’s trucks all a-passing and and the lights all a-flashing
I’m on my way home from your place
And now the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I’d stayed a little longer
Oh, Lord, lemme tell you the feeling’s getting stronger
And my time went so quickly
I went lickety-splickly
Out to my old ’55
As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy
God knows, I was feeling alive
And now the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Freeway cars and trucks
Freeway cars and trucks
lgerard
Nothing Painted Blue’s description of child birth from Another Child Bride
Hard labor for those imprisoned
Contractions like don’t’ and isn’t’
Just look how the baby glistened
Traveling down that slide
Matt McIrvin
@Sheila in nc: I just heard the local high-school chorus sing “In My Life” yesterday, at the city music festival! Lovely song.
Sheila in nc
@Salty Sam: Right, I knew that!
Peke Daddy
Bruce Springsteen, Badlands.
“For those with a notion, a notion deep inside,
That it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive…”
No One of Consequence
“You get a shiver in the dark,
it’s rainin’ in the park,
and meantime.
South of the river you stop and hold everything.
A band is blowing dixie,
Double-four time
You feel aright when you hear the music ring.
Well you step inside
But you don’t see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain
You hear the jazz go down
Competition in other places
Oh, but the horns they blowin’ that sound.
Way on down south
Way on down south in London town.
(Seems simple enough until your doing a stunt vocalist bit for a power trio, and you’ve bragged to the lead vocalist/bassPlayer that he screws up some lyrics of the dozens/hundeds of songs he knows…)
*YOU* try doing this live:
“Then a crowd of young boys,
They’re foolin’ around in a corner.
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies
And their platform souls.
They don’t give a damn
‘Bout any trumpet, playing, band
It ain’t what they call
Rock and Roll…”
Peace,
-NOoC
Salty Sam
Thanks. Time is a great healer.
Not really, it’s still a personal favorite, with added significance. There was a day it came on the car radio and I had to pull over to recover…
Another Scott
We plan to see Marky Ramone Tuesday night. Should be a fun show!
“Red dogs under illegal legs … She’s filing her nails while they’re draggin’ the lake…” – “Watching the Detectives” – Elvis Costello
“Here by the sea and sand
Nothin’ ever goes as planned
I just couldn’t face goin’ home
It was just a drag on my own
They finally threw me out
My mom got drunk on stout
My dad couldn’t stand on two feet, as he lectured about morality
And now I guess the family’s complete, with me hangin’ round on the street
Or here on the beach…” – “Sea and Sand” – The Who
“No, I can’t forget this evening
Or your face as you were leaving
But I guess that’s just the way the story goes
You always smile but in your eyes your sorrow shows
Yes, it shows
No, I can’t forget tomorrorow
When I think of all my sorrows
When I had you there but then I let you go
And now it’s only fair that I should let you know
What you should know…” – “Without You” – written by Badfinger but Nilsson’s version is nearly perfect.
Lyrics are really important in songs that stick with me. I’m not much of a country music fan, but Willie Nelson wrote (and performed) some really great songs.
Now to check out the thread!
Cheers,
Scott.
Craig
In the day we sweat it out on the streets
Of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through the mansions of glory
In suicide machines
Sprung from cages on Highway 9
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected, and steppin’ out over the line
Kelly
John Prine “Angel from Montgomery”
If dreams were thunder
And lightnin’ was desire
This old house would’ve burnt down
a long time ago
Ajabu
Don’t ask why it’s you and you alone
When the rest of the world gets the meat
You end up with the bone
Ain’t no reason or rhyme
It just be’ that way sometimes
from one of my own CD’s (my Composition – It Be’s That Way*
* Inspired by my Jamaican grandpa who said that frequently…
MagdaInBlack
Deleted, cause that didn’t work outs so good.
Villago Delenda Est
You can see the summit but you can’t reach it
It’s the last piece of the puzzle but you just can’t make it fit
Doctor says you’re cured but you still feel the pain
Aspirations in the clouds but your hopes go down the drain
Howard Jones, “No One is to Blame”
Trivia Man
You don’t make friends with salad
You don’t make friends with salad
You don’t make friends with salad
-Homer
TBone
@Ajabu: 💙
Craig
Fake Plastic Trees- Radiohead.
She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns
He used to do surgery
For girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins
And it wears him out
It wears him out
It wears him out
It wears
Sheila in nc
@Kelly: Yess
When I was a young girl, I had me a cowboy
Villago Delenda Est
@Craig: THE BOSS!
Omnes Omnibus
Even though she sleeps upon your satin
Even though she wakes you with a kiss
Do not say the moment was imagined
Do not stoop to strategies like this
As someone long prepared for this to happen
Go firmly to the window, drink it in
Exquisite music, Alexandra laughing
Your first commitments tangible again
[Chorus]
And you who had the honor of her evening
And by that honor had your own restored—
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving
Alexandra leaving with her lord
hitchhiker
@Sheila in nc:
I have that song in a playlist, and one day I was fooling around with my 3 yr old grand-twins, showing them things in my phone. That song came on, and young Lottie, said, very pleased, “That’s the song Daddy sings to us when we’re going to sleep!”
I learned that song when I was in 8th grade, her Daddy was born in 1990, she was born in 2021, and Lennon is somehow in all of us in this radically intimate way.
hueyplong
They say that patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings
Steal a little and they throw you in jail
Steal a lot and they make you king
hotshoe
@Villago Delenda Est:
No one besides me and my ex get what a great mnemonic this is for being ready-to-go; it was our inside joke for years. Obviously not literal lawyers and guns for the trip to the grocery store, but it’s a good analogy for phone, keys, and wallet. Sing a verse, pat your pockets, yep ready to go.
Well, if you’re adventuring to Honduras, ya probably need a little more backup than just phone and car keys ;)
p.a.
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.
Matt McIrvin
I think about this one a lot, pondering my old quasi-bohemian friends:
Of all of the people that I used to know
Most never adjusted to the great big world
I see them lurking in bookstores, working for the public radio
Carrying their babies in a sack on their back
Moving careful and slow…
All of these people are much brighter than I
In any fair system, they would flourish and thrive
But they barely survive
They eke out a living
They barely survive…
Randy Newman, “It’s Money That Matters”
Villago Delenda Est
@Trivia Man: “Mom!”
“I don’t mean to take sides, I just got caught up in the moment”
Princess
Don’t run back inside, darling. You know just what I’m here for. So you’re scared and you’re thinking that maybe we ain’t that young anymore. Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night. You ain’t a beauty, but hey, you’re alright. Oh, and that’s alright with me
Barbara
@CaseyL: Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
It’s such a simple lyric, evoking horror and despair.
Craig
Carly Simon.
You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive
Well you said that we made such a pretty pair and that you would never leave
But you gave away the things you loved
And one of them was me
I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee and
You’re so vain
Just look at that parking lot
@Kelly: Thanks for the John Prine entry. I was just thinking it wouldn’t be right for this conversation to end without have him included.
delphinium
Angela by The Lumineers:
When you left this town, with your windows down
And the wilderness inside
Let the exits pass, all the tar and glass
‘Til the road and sky align…
And your Volvo lights lit up green and white
With the cities on the signs
But you held your course to some distant war
In the corners of your mind…
Were you safe and warm in your coat of arms
With your fingers in a fist
Did you hear the notes, all those static codes
In the radio abyss?
Omnes Omnibus
Been traveling these wide roads
For so long
My heart’s been far from you
Ten thousand miles gone
[Refrain]
Oh, I wanna come near and give
Every part of me
But there’s blood on my hands
And my lips are unclean
Trivia Man
Once in a while you get shown in the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right
Scarlet Begnoias
Alice
You thought God was an architect, now you know
He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow
And everything you built it’s all for show, goes up in flames
In 24 frames
Jason Isbell, 24 Frames
lowtechcyclist
The refrain of Vampire Weekend’s “Harmony Hall” which was on the airwaves in the fall of 2019, seemed eerily predictive of where we’d find ourselves in just a few months:
I don’t wanna live like this, but I don’t wanna die
I remember thinking at the time, “there’s surely some middle ground in there.” Then along came Covid, and suddenly there wasn’t.
Craig
Blondie. Picture This
All I want is a room with a view
A sight worth seeing, a vision of you
All I want is a room with view, oh-oh
I will give you my finest hour
The one I spent watching you shower
I will give you my finest hour, oh yeah
All I want is a photo in my wallet
A small remembrance of something more solid
All I want is a picture of you
Picture this, a day in December
Picture this, freezing cold weather
You got clouds on your lids and you’d be on the skids
If it weren’t for your job at the garage
If you could only oh-oh
Picture this, a sky full of thunder
Picture this, my telephone number
One and one is what I’m telling you, oh yeah
All I want is 20-20 vision
A total portrait with no omissions
All I want is a vision of you, oh-oh
If you can picture this, a day in December
Picture this, freezing cold weather
You got clouds on your lids and you’d be on the skids
If it weren’t for your job at the garage
If you could only oh-oh
Picture this, a sky full of thunder
Picture this, my telephone number
One and one is what I’m telling you
Get a pocket computer
Try to do what you used to do yeah
Kelly
Tom Waits “Looking for the Heart of a Saturday Night”
Well, you gassed her up, behind the wheel
With your arm around your sweet one in your Oldsmobile
Barrelin’ down the boulevard
You’re looking for the heart of Saturday night
You got paid on Friday, your pockets are jingling
Then you see the lights and you get all tingling
‘Cause you’re cruising with a six
You’re looking for the heart of Saturday night
Omnes Omnibus
@Craig:
Go melt back in the night
Everything inside is made of stone
There’s nothing in here moving
And anyway I’m not alone
You say you’re looking for someone
Who’ll pick you up each time you fall
To gather flowers constantly
And to come each time you call
A lover for your life and nothing more
[Refrain]
But it ain’t me, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe
It ain’t me you’re looking for, babe
TBone
Literary genius Jim Morrison
Awake
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child,
my sweet one.
Choose the day and
choose the sign of your day
The day’s divinity
First thing you see.
A vast radiant beach
in a cool jeweled moon
Couples naked race down by its quiet side
And we laugh like soft, mad children
Smug in the woolly cotton brains of infancy
The music and voices are all around us.
Choose, they croon, the Ancient Ones
The time has come again
Choose now, they croon,
Beneath the moon
Beside an ancient lake
Enter again the sweet forest
Enter the hot dream
Come with us
Everything is broken up and dances.
lowtechcyclist
Semisonic’s 1998 hit, “Closing Time” had the refrain:
Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end
which perfectly described where I was as I gave up on being a college professor and started a new career as a government statistician.
Piety, keep me strong
‘Twould have been better for us both if we’d never
In this wild wicked world had never met
For the pleasure we’ve both seen together
I am sure, love, I’ll never forget
Oh, I’m thinking tonight of my blue eyes
Who is sailing far over the sea
Oh, I’m thinking tonight of him only
And I wonder if he ever thinks of me
Maybelle Carter (edited for clarity)
Omnes Omnibus
Now you ask me if I’m sincere
That’s the question that I always fear
Verse seven is never clear
But I’ll tell you what you want to hear
I try to give you all you want
But giving love is not my strongest point
If that’s the case, it’s pointless going on
I’d rather be alone
delphinium
@Craig: Heh, was going to post that as well.
kalakal
“You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime you’ll find
You get what you need”
MagdaInBlack
@Kelly: The Jerry Jeff version is also one of my favorites.
eta: Obvious I just plain like Jerry Jeff 😉❤️
Princess
Well I’m goin’ out
I’m goin’ out lookin’ for a cynical girl
Who’s got no use for the real world
I’m lookin’ for a cynical girl
Well I hate TV
There’s gotta be somebody other than me
Who’s ready to write it off immediately
I’m lookin’ for a cynical girl
Well I’ll know right away by the look in her eye
She harbors no illusions and she’s worldly-wise
And I’ll know when I give her a listen that she
She’s what I’ve been missin’
What I’ve been missin’
hotshoe
@Alice:
Yep!
Craig
@Omnes Omnibus:
https://youtu.be/1ST9TZBb9v8?si=C-X2WO7I8QytVn5d
Well, I’ll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that’s not unusual
It’s just that the moon is full
And you happened to call
And here I sit
Hand on the telephone
Hearing a voice I’d known
A couple of light years ago
Heading straight for a fall
As I remember your eyes
Were bluer than robin’s eggs
My poetry was lousy you said
Where are you calling from?
A booth in the midwest
Ten years ago
I bought you some cufflinks
You brought me something
We both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust
Well, you burst on the scene
Already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond
You strayed into my arms
And there you stayed
Temporarily lost at sea
The Madonna was yours for free
Yes, the girl on the half-shell
Could keep you unharmed
Now I see you standing
With brown leaves falling all around
And snow in your hair
Now you’re smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there
Now you’re telling me
You’re not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
‘Cause I need some of that vagueness now
It’s all come back too clearly
Yes, I loved you dearly
And if you’re offering me diamonds and rust
I’ve already paid
Delk
I was grounded
while you filled the skies
I was dumbfounded by truths
you cut through lies
I saw the rain-dirty valley
you saw Brigadoon
I saw the crescent
you saw the whole of the moon!
Sheila in nc
@kalakal: Jeez, tell me about it! That’s life right there!
Craig
@delphinium: great song. Something about it always breaks me up crying.
banditqueen
…Life goes by so fast
You only want to do what you think is right.
Close your eyes and then it’s past;
Story of my life
And I went down my old neighborhood
The faces have all changed there’s no one left to talk to
And the pool hall I loved as a kid
Is now a Seven Eleven
I went downtown to look for a job
I had no training, no experience to speak of.
I looked at the holes in my jeans
And turned and headed back… (Story of my life; Social Distortion)
Kelly
@MagdaInBlack: Jerry Jeff is the best sing along with the stereo while on a long drive guy there ever was.
Miki
Best lyrics evah for me are from Annie Ross – Twisted
I learned them from listening to Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark, 50 years ago, and I can still sing them, amazingly enough.
My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
The way he described it
He said I’d be better dead than live
I didn’t listen to his jive
I knew all along
That he was all wrong
And I knew that he thought
I was crazy but I’m not
Oh no
My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
He said I’d need treatment
But I’m not that easily led
He said I was the type
That was most inclined
When out of his sight
To be out of my mind
And he thought I was nuts
No more ifs or ands or buts
They say as a child
I appeared a little bit wild
With all my crazy ideas
But I knew what was happening
I knew I was a genius…
What’s so strange when you know
That you’re a wizard at three
I knew that this was meant to be
Now I heard little children
Were supposed to sleep tight
That’s why I got into the vodka one night
My parents got frantic
Didn’t know what to do
But I saw some crazy scenes
Before I came to
Now do you think I was crazy
I may have been only three
But I was swinging
They all laugh at angry young men
They all laugh at Edison
And also at Einstein
So why should I feel sorry
If they just couldn’t understand
The idiomatic logic
That went on in my head
I had a brain
It was insane
Oh they used to laugh at me
When I refused to ride
On all those double-decker buses
All because there was no driver on the top
My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
But I said dear doctor
I think that it’s you instead
Because I have got a thing
That’s unique and new
To prove it I’ll have
The last laugh on you
‘Cause instead of one head
I got two
And you know two heads are better than one
Craig
Cole Porter. So many great songs. Miss Otis Regrets.
When she woke up and found that her dream of love was gone
Madam
She ran to the man who had led her so far astray
And from under her velvet gown
She drew a gun and shot her love down
Madam
Miss Otis regrets, she’s unable to lunch today
lowtechcyclist
Best song ever about insomnia: the Go-Go’s “You Can’t Walk in Your Sleep (if you can’t sleep)“:
Downed that pill hours ago, time is passing oh so slow
Watch the clock, you’re waiting, it’s five o’clock and the world is waking
That’s the way things went tonight, tossed and turned though you were tight
exhaustion brings on desperation, well there’s still some consolation:
you can’t walk in your sleep if you can’t sleep,
you can’t talk in your sleep if you can’t sleep
.
Trivia Man
@TBone:
Five to one, baby
one in five
No on here
gets out alive
They got the guns, yeah
but we got the numbers
Gonna win, yeah
we’re taking over
TBone
“Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand”
I’ve been downhearted baby
I’ve been down-
I’ve been downhearted baby
Ever since the day we met
Ever since the day we met
[x2]
Jan lays down and wrestles in her sleep
Moonlight spills on comic books
And superstars in magazines
An old friend calls and tells us where to meet
Her plane takes off from Baltimore
And touches down on Bourbon Street
We sit outside and argue all night long
About a god we’ve never seen
But never fails to side with me
Sunday comes and all the papers say
Ma Teresa’s joined the mob
And happy with her full time job
I’ve been downhearted baby
I’ve been down-
I’ve been downhearted baby
Ever since the day we met
Ever since the day we met
[x2]
Am I alive or thoughts that drift away?
Does summer come for everyone?
Can humans do as prophets say?
And if I die before I learn to speak
Can money pay for all the days I lived awake
But half asleep?
A life is time, they teach you growing up
The seconds ticking killed us all
A million years before the fall
You ride the waves and don’t ask where they go
You swim like lions through the crest
And bathe yourself in zebra flesh
I’ve been downhearted baby
I’ve been downhearted baby
Ever since the day we met
I’ve been downhearted baby
I’ve been down-
I’ve been downhearted baby
Ever since the day we met
Ever since the day we met
kalakal
Tom Lehrer – so many to chose from so here’s the one with the hardest lyrics to remember
“There’s antimony, arsenic, aluminum, seleniumAnd hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rheniumAnd nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germaniumAnd iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium”
Another Scott
“Where do we go from here?
The Sun is shining
Look into a nighttime sky
A star is calling
[Pre-Chorus]
As seasons change
Why are you so afraid?
In darkness, you’ll see a new light
…” – “Fall” – Berlin
Cheers,
Scott.
TBone
@Trivia Man: 💜
BettyPageisaBlonde
I can picture ev’ry move that a man could make;
Gettin’ lost in her lovin’ is your first mistake.
Sundown, you better take care
If I find you bin creepin’ round my back stairs.
Sometimes I think it’s a sin
When I feel like I’m winnin’ when I’m losin’ again
Jobeth
Dylan – after my husband died this song hits really hard, especially this part
But I’ll see you in the sky above
In the tall grass
In the ones I love
You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go
Craig
There was a young girl whose heart was a frown
‘Cause she was crippled for life and she couldn’t speak a sound
And she wished and prayed she could stop living
So she decided to die
She drew her wheelchair to the edge of the shore
And to her legs she smiled, “You won’t hurt me no more.”
But then a sight she’d never seen made her jump and say
“Look, a golden winged ship is passing my way.”
And it really didn’t have to stop
It just kept on going
And so castles made of sand
Slips into the sea eventually
Trivia Man
It’s funny, I love words and the conveyance of precise meaning with the precise word. Written eloquence moves my soul. BUT – I rarely listen to lyrics. Occasionally a chorus or a single passage will resonate but even in those songs the rest of it is just La La La to me. Even the songs I sing by heart. To me lyrics are much more about the sound of the words than the meaning. Usually. But some intrigue me enough to read them, that seems to be how I internalize meaning and not at all through listening. This is an example, pertinent now as much as it ever has been. For many many levels of meaning.
Lift every voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.
zhena gogolia
@Trivia Man: That’s a great one.
Matt McIrvin
Strangest and most evocative description of the inexorable passage of time:
Time is flying like an arrow
And the clock hands move so fast it makes the wind blow
And it makes the pages of the calendar go
Flying out the window
One by one
Till a hundred years are on the front lawn
And the old familiar things are mostly all gone
But the old sombero just keeps hovering on
Hovering sombrero, hover on…
– They Might Be Giants, “Hovering Sombrero”
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Well, I left home just a week before
And I’d never ever met a Jedi before
but Obi-wan, he set me straight of course,
he said, “go to Yoda and he’ll show you the Force.”
.
Villago Delenda Est
I must say, I’m impressed by the Juiceitariat’s lyrics favorites.
Sheila in nc
Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” came out right after my daughter was born, so I couldn’t hear it for years without breaking down.
On another level, I had a great appreciation for Jason Isbell’s “If We Were Vampires” especially the chorus:
It’s knowing that this can’t go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we’ll get forty years together
But one day I’ll be gone
Or one day you’ll be gone
delphinium
@Craig: Yeah that one and How to Disappear Completely can do that to me, as well as couple others.
raven
@Sheila in nc: It’s a Mose Allison song but she does kill it.
lowtechcyclist
@Jobeth:
I was just thinking about that song! I was gonna go with:
Flowers on the hillside, bloomin’ crazy
Crickets talkin’ back and forth in rhyme
Blue river runnin’ slow and lazy
I could stay with you forever and never realize the time
.
I love the imagery.
Craig
PE. Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos.
I got a letter from the government the other dayI opened and read it, it said they were suckersThey wanted me for their army or whateverPicture me givin’ a damn, I said, “Never”Here is a land that never gave a damnAbout a brother like me and myself because they never didI wasn’t wit’ it, but just that very minuteIt occurred to me, the suckers had authorityCold sweatin’ as I dwell in my cellHow long has it been they got me sittin’ in the state pen?
prostratedragon
Mose Allison with a song for our times:
What do you fo after you’ve ruined your life?
Where do you go?
Who do you know that will give you anything to go with,
“Good-bye?”
Do you tell your friends?
Can you face your wife?
What do you do after you ruin your life?
What do you do after you’ve blown the game?
No alibis.
Cut down to size,
And you know nothing’s ever going to
Be the same. Do you
Change your ways, or just go down in flames?
What fo you do after you’ve blown the game?
What do you do after you’ve been found out?
No place to hide, no friend to guide
You on your little psychic walkabout.
Do you seek the truth in times when lies are right?
What do you do?
Here’s looking at you!
What do you do after you’ve ruined your life.
raven
I know the way
That I feel about you
I’m never going to run away
I’m never going to run away
Never knew the day
When I lived without you
I’m never going to run away
I’m never going to run away
I came to you when no one could hear me
I’m sick and weary of being alone
Empty streets and hungry faces
The world’s no place when you’re on your own
A heart needs a home
Some people say
That I should forget you
But I’m never going to be a fool
I’m never going to be a fool
A better life, they say
If I’d never met you
But I’m never going to be a fool
No I’m never going to be a fool
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
Sheila in nc
@Trivia Man: Absolutely, and great example.
Your comment also made me think about how important the music is to my appreciation of the words. Some pieces that occur to me are significant to my ears mostly because of their musical setting. I know I am particularly partial to pop songs that move between major and minor, for example.
raven
I lost you awhile ago
But still I don’t know why
I can’t say your name
Without a crow flying by
Gotta watch my back now
That you turned me around
Got me walking backwards
Into my hometown
Throw me a rope
On the rolling tide
What did you want me to be?
You said it’s him or me
The way you made it
That’s the way it will be
It was seven years on the burning shore
With gatling guns and paint
Working the lowlands door-to-doorLike a Latter Day Saint
Then you turn me out
At the top of the stairs
You took all the glory
That you just couldn’t share
I’ve never been so disabused
Never been so madI’ve never been served anything
That tasted so bad
You might need a friend
Any day now, any day
Oh my brother, be careful
You are drifting away
Throw me a rope
On the rolling tide
What did you want me to be?
You said it’s him or me
The way you made it
That’s the way it will be
The way you made it
That’s the way it will be
JCJ
I have always liked the opening of “One Tree Hill” from U2:
We turn away
To face the cold
Enduring chill
As the day begs
The night for mercy love
A sun so bright
It leaves no shadows
Only scars
Carved into stone
On the face of earth
Miki
@prostratedragon: I saw him many times in the 90s at the Artists Quarter in St Paul.
Dang. I’m old.
Matt McIrvin
I know the animals… are laughing at us
They don’t even know… what a joke is!!
I won’t follow… animals’ advice!
I don’t care… if they’re laughing at us!
They’re never there when you need them!
They’re NEVER there when you call them!
They’re never there when you need them!
They’re NEVER there when you call them! Down… down… down!
They say they don’t need money
They’re living on nuts and berries!
They say animals don’t worry
Do you know animals are hairy?
They think they know what’s best
They’re makin’ a fool of us!
They ought to be more careful!
They’re settin’ a bad example!
They live untroubled lives
They think that everything’s nice!
They like to laugh at people!
They’re settin’ a bad example!
–Talking Heads, “Animals”
Princess
I kept the faith and I kept voting
Not for the iron fist but for the helping hand
For theirs is a land with a wall around it
And mine is a faith in my fellow man.
Jobeth
@lowtechcyclist: I could fill this post with Dylan lyrics. How many guys did I sing this to in my head?
I ain’t a-saying you treated me unkind
You could’ve done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right
Craig
Sturgill Simpson.
Well now Lord, if you can hear me, won’t you throw a damn dog a bone?
‘Cause if the Devil shows up with a better deal
This old soul’s going down
I sing ’em real pretty, I sing ’em real sad
All the people in the crowd say he ain’t half-bad
Well, they call me King Turd up here on Shit Mountain
If you want it, you can have the crown
Citizen Dave
@banditqueen: The writer of this is indie legend, the late great Daniel Johnston. He started by selling his first album by mail order. Not copies. Whenever he got an order, he’d play through all the songs in his bedroom, and send the new cassette copy out.
Took awhile to get to Bob Dylan (an actual Nobel winner for literature), and Tom Waits. My other top ones are Neil Young and Nick Cave. Willie Nelson. Dylan’s Tangled Up in Blue is pure genius with time shifts and shifts in perspective. There is a great youtube explainer of it
(Plus the other day he banged a wrench on the microphone as he sang Desolation Row (another genius lyrical song)
ETA: Hey, no Van Morrison? Leonard Cohen, who spent years writing some songs.
banditqueen
Thank you for the days
Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me
I’m thinking of the days
I won’t forget a single day, believe me
I bless the light
I bless the light that lights on you, believe me
And though you’re gone
You’re with me every single day, believe me
Days I’ll remember all my life
Days when you can’t see wrong from right
You took my life
But then I knew that very soon you’d leave me
But it’s alright
Now I’m not frightened of this world, believe me
I wish today could be tomorrow
The night is dark
It just brings sorrow, let it wait
Thank you for the days
Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me
I’m thinking of the days
I won’t forget a single day, believe me (Days; Kinks)
rekoob
No love for the lyrics of Sir William Schwenck Gilbert? “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” and its various spinoffs, including Tom Lehrer, were great tongue-twisters.
Peter, Paul, and Mary sang the movement songs of my childhood.
“Once in Royal David’s City”, the opening Carol of the Festival of Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, every Christmas Eve and “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” (a hymn Adam Silverman quotes often) are among the sacred music I treasure.
Trivia Man
@Craig: Wow – see my comment at #177. I have been listening to this song for 50 years – and had no idea what any of the words were except the chorus.
RevRick
Since most of my early years listening to pop music was on crappy AM car radios or the equally crappy alarm clock radio in my bedroom, I often had a hard time hearing the lyrics. So really I draw a blank here. Basically, it was pleasant sounding noise.
One thing I’ve realized of late is how completely the pop music of rock and roll obliterated the big band music of my parents generation. It’s as if it never existed. But when we speak of pop music aren’t we actually reflecting on its evanescence? And that leads to the further question of who’s pop music?
I am not a big fan of nostalgia. For me, the more interesting question is not what lyrics have stuck with you, but why do they have meaning for you?
Anyway, for me, the lyrics that have stuck most with me are the ones I have sung so many Sundays in church. And the one I most get choked up by is “We Would Be Building.” And I know that part of that’s due to its pairing with the haunting melody of Finlandia. It’s a poignant combination of sadness and hope, of aspiration in the face of daunting challenges. For me, it’s the archetypal hymn for progressive Christianity.
This afternoon, my wife and I went to the Allentown Symphony Orchestra to hear their performance of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, you know dun, dun, dun, duh. It starts out foreboding, but by the end Beethoven transformed that four note sequence into something heroic. For me, that’s music to face Trumpism with.
The concert opened with a piece by Emilie Mayer, a 19th century female composer, followed by a trumpet concerto by Arturuinian, featuring the Norwegian trumpet player, Tine Thing Helseth (she was magnificent), and then Piazzzola’s Libertango.
We left feeling uplifted.
raven
Goodbye momma goodbye to you too pa
Little sister you’ll have to wait a while to come along
Goodybye to this house and all it’s memories
We just got too old to say we’re wrong
Got to make one last trip to my bedroom
Guess I’ll have to leave some stuff behind
It’s funny how the same old crooked picturesJust don’t seem the same to me tonight
There ain’t no use in shedding lonely tears mamma
There ain’t no use in shouting at me pa
I can’t live no longer with your fears mamma
I love you but that hasn’t helped at all
Each of us must do the things that matter
All of us must see what we can see
It was long ago you must remember
You were once as young and scared as me
I don’t know how hard it is yet mamma
When you realize you’re growning old
I know how hard is not to be youngerI know you’ve tried to keep me from the cold
Thanks for all you done it may sound hollow
Thank you for the good times that we’ve known
But I must find my own road now to follow
You will all be welcome in my home
Got my suitacse I must go now
I don’t mind about the things you said
I’m sorry Mom I don’t know where I’m going
Remember little sister look ahead
Tomorrow I’ll be in some other sunrise
Maybe I’ll have someone at my side
Mamma give your love back to your husband
Father you’ve have taught we well goodbye
Goodbye Mamma goodbye to you too pa
RevRick
@Trivia Man: Yikes! That was our closing hymn in church today.
Trivia Man
@lowtechcyclist: That whole album is such a mood. Anybody who hasn’t heard it … 5 stars.
Bob Dylan, Blood On the Tracks
Matt McIrvin
@kalakal:
Little Johnny Jones, he was a US pilot
And no shrinking violet was he
He was mighty proud when World War III was declared
He wasn’t scared, no sirree
And this is what he said on
His way to Armageddon:
So long, Mom, I’m off to drop the bomb
So don’t wait up for me
But though I may roam, I’ll come back to my home
Although it may be
A pile of debris
Remember, Mommy
I’m off to get a Commie
So send me a salami
And try to smile somehow…
I’ll look for you when the war is over…
An hour and a half from now
raven
@Trivia Man: Iife is jet plane, it moves to fast
raven
… Now when I was a young man,
I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray’s green basin to the dusty outback
Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in 1915, my country said “sonIt’s time you stopped rambling, there’s work to be done”
So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gunAnd they marched me away to the war
… And the band played
Waltzing Matilda
As the ship pulled away from the quay
And amidst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears
We sailed off for Gallipoli
… So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to AustraliaThe legless, the armless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to beAnd thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve, to mourn, and to pity
… But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then they turned all their faces away
…
Craig
@Trivia Man: Me too. Despite the tons of lyrics I’m posting here, usually lyrics just slide by me. Melvins, one of my favorite bands, their singer is just phonetically making up words half the time. Maurice White of Earth Wind and Fire said, Never let the lyric get in the way of the groove.
kalakal
@Matt McIrvin:
Say your last Te Deum
When you see that ICBM
hells littlest angel
Maybe go out, maybe stay home.
Maybe call mom on the telephone
Trivia Man
@RevRick: I have selected it in four different congregations* as my solo piece when the choir takes a break. Happy to say many had never even heard of it, hopefully it stirred something in them.
2 Unitarian, 1 Mormon, and 1 Presbyterian
prostratedragon
@Jobeth: That one’s on a regular on my interior playlist, with “It Ain’t Me, Babe.” From another lyricist, also partial to, “Just get on the bus, Gus. There’s no need to discuss much.”
Chris
This won’t mean much to anybody who’s not French, but L’avenir est un long passé (“the future is a long past”) by Manau (Celtic pop band from the late nineties) popped up in my playlist in 2016 shortly after the election and really hit the spot, albeit in all the worst ways. The first couple verses picture a guy in the trenches in WWI and then a guy in the resistance in WWII, then it gets unsubtly darker by linking to the present (“after Hitler, the Front”) with musings about whether we’re doomed to do this shit over and over.
What makes it really bitter, though, is that the song is from 1999. When it was written, the FN existed, but even its 2002 breakthrough hadn’t happened yet and it was still viewed as a cautionary tale more than a real threat by a lot of the mainstream. Likewise the American and other equivalents. There’s something gross about looking back and thinking, of all the things from my childhood that had to predict the future, it had to be this song.
There’s another thing about the album; it’s largely the odd song out, in what’s mostly just a bunch of songs celebrating Celtic (Brittany) culture with no other overtones. If L’avenir est un long passé makes you dark and broody over the things in modern France, the entire rest of the album makes you think, well, here’s a bunch of white people celebrating their heritage and pride without any hint of ill-intent towards anyone else. Is that so fucking hard? Why the fuck can’t people do that instead of endlessly looking for other people to fuck up?
Trivia Man
@Matt McIrvin: So sad to say this is too appropriate even today, 60 years after he wrote it.
When someone makes a move
Of which we don’t approve
Who is it that always intervenes?
U.N. and O.A.S.,
They have their place, I guess
But first send the Marines!
We’ll send them all we’ve got
John Wayne and Randolph Scott
Remember those exciting fighting scenes?
To the shores of Tripoli
But not to Mississippoli
What do we do? we send the Marines!
For might makes right
And till they’ve seen the light
They’ve got to be protected
All their rights respected
Till somebody we like can be elected!
Members of the Corps
All hate the thought of war
They’d rather kill them off by peaceful means
Stop calling it aggression
Ooh, we hate that expression!
We only want the world to know
That we support the status quo
They love us everywhere we go
So when in doubt
Send the Marines!
frosty
@kalakal: Daniel Radcliffe sings “The Elements”. Fast!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAaiYKF0cs
Craig
Willie.
After carefully considerin’ the whole situation
I stand with my back to the wall
Walkin’ is better than runnin’ away
And crawlin’ ain’t no good at all
And if guilty’s the question
Truth is the answer
I’ve been lyin’ to me all alone
There ain’t nothin’ worth savin’
Except one another
And before you’ll wake up
I’ll be gone
‘Cause after carefully considerin’ the whole situation
I stand with my back to the wall
Walkin’ is better than runnin’ away
And crawlin’ ain’t no good at all
After carefully considerin’ the whole situation
I stand with my back to the wall
Walkin’ is better than runnin’ away
And crawlin’ ain’t no good at all
And crawlin’ ain’t no good at all
Trivia Man
@frosty: I was at work singing Tom, and my chef turned and gave me a death glare. If you understood that, you would NOT THINK IT WAS FUNNY! He was German. The line was “Heil hail the Wermacht, I mean the Bundesvere. Hail to our loyal allies.”
And before that I am sure his ears pricked at “Once all the Germans were warlike and mean, but that couldn’t happen again. We taught them a lesson in nineteen eighteen and they’ve hardly bothered us since then.”
I knew he was an immigrant from Germany, but I doubt it occurred to me that it would be or could be offensive or touchy.
p.a.
VU, Sunday Morning:
Sunday morning, praise the dawning
It’s just a restless feeling by my side
Early dawning, Sunday morning
It’s just the wasted years so close behind
Watch out, the world’s behind you
There’s always someone around you who will call It’s nothing at all
Sunday morning and I’m falling
I’ve got a feeling I don’t want to know
Early dawning, Sunday morning
It’s all the streets you crossed, not so long ago
Watch out, the world’s behind you
There’s always someone around you who will call It’s nothing at all
Watch out, the world’s behind you
There’s always someone around you who will call It’s nothing at all
Sunday morning
Sunday morning
Sunday morning
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick: I think that with popular music, there are lyrics people and music people. Most of the people I know seem to be music people and don’t even listen to the lyrics most of the time. I listen to lyrics and the bands I like best often have clever, funny, mordant lyrics.
The subject of setting words to the “Finlandia” hymn reminds me of my favorite one of those, Lloyd Stone’s “Song Of Peace”, which takes the tunnel vision of every nationalistic hymn ever written face on:
This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
O hear my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine
Peter, Paul and Mary apparently recorded a famous version, but I first heard it from a community choir and found it really affecting.
Kelly
John Prine’s “Bruised Orange” was the song that came to me after my first wife’s last appointment with her oncologist. She had been treated for metastatic breast cancer for 5 years. There was nothing left to do but hospice. She died 3 weeks later. Her death was so random.
My heart’s in the ice house, come hill or come valley
Like a long ago Sunday when I walked through the alley
On a cold winter’s morning to a church house
Just to shovel some snow
I heard sirens on the train tracks, howl naked, gettin’ nuder
“An altar boy’s been hit by a local commuter”
Just from walking with his back turned
To the train that was coming so slow
You can gaze out the window, get mad and get madder
Throw your hands in the air, say, “What does it matter?”
But it don’t do no good to get angry
So help me, I know
For a heart stained in anger grows weak and grows bitter
You become your own prisoner as you watch yourself sit there
Wrapped up in a trap of your very own
Chain of sorrow
I been brought down to zero, pulled out and put back there
I sat on a park bench, I kissed the girl with the black hair
And my head shouted down to my heart
“You better look out below!”
Hey, it ain’t such a long drop, don’t stammer, don’t stutter
From the diamonds in the sidewalk to the dirt in the gutter
And you’ll carry those bruises to remind you wherever you go
You can gaze out the window, get mad and get madder
Throw your hands in the air, say, “What does it matter?”
But it don’t do no good to get angry
So help me, I know
For a heart stained in anger grows weak and grows bitter
You become your own prisoner as you watch yourself sit there
Wrapped up in a trap of your very own
Chain of sorrow
Timill
@kalakal: Two, four, six, eight
Time to transsubstantiate…
Craig
I don’t think I saw a Stones song in all these posts, which seems odd.
When the train left the station
It had two lights on behind
Yeah, when the train left the station
It had two lights on behind
Whoa, the blue light was my baby
And the red light was my mind
All my love was in vain
TBone
@raven: that title will always remind me of one of the greatest onscreen kisses of all time, IMO (end of this clip):
https://youtu.be/s9sIPJ-yGjc
Melancholy Jaques
@Craig:
I have to be that guy sometimes. Stones cover of Robert Johnson.
SomeRandomGuy
Ghost, by Indigo Girls, has some amazing lyrics. (Link is to Youtube lyric video for the “demo” in case it differs from the album.)
“
Mike in Oly
Indigo Girls – Closer to Fine (leaving the chorus for last)
I’m trying to tell you something ’bout my life
Maybe give me insight between black and white
And the best thing you ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously
It’s only life after all, yeah
Well, darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable
And lightness has a call that’s hard to hear
And I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it
I’m crawling on your shores
And I went to see the doctor of philosophy
With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee
He never did marry or see a B-grade movie
He graded my performance, he said he could see through me
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind
Got my paper and I was free
I stopped by the bar at 3 A.M.
To seek solace in a bottle or possibly a friend
And I woke up with a headache like my head against a board
Twice as cloudy as I’d been the night before
And I went in seeking clarity
I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains
We go to the doctor, we go to the mountains
We look to the children, we drink from the fountain
Yeah, we go to the Bible, we go through the workout
We read up on revival, we stand up for the lookout
There’s more than one answer to these questions
Pointing me in a crooked line
And the less I seek my source for some definitive
(The less I seek my source)
Closer I am to fine
Death Panel Truck
God is a concept
By which we measure our pain
I’ll say it again
God is a concept
By which we measure our pain
RevRick
@Matt McIrvin: I regularly used it around Memorial Day and Fourth of July.
NotMax
Gilbert & Sullivan.
Take yer pick, which one really doesn’t matter.
;)
linnen
I have a few from different periods.
“Don’t answer Me” – Alan Parsons Project
Don’t answer me
Don’t break the silence, don’t let me win
Don’t answer me
Stay on your island, don’t let me in
Run away and hide from everyone
Can you change the things we’ve said and done?
“Brothers in Arms” – Dire Straits
Now the sun’s gone to hell and
The moon’s riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it’s written in the starlight
And every line in your palm
We’re fools to make war
On our brothers in arms
“Safety Dance” – Men Without Hats
Say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come
From out of this world
Leave the real one far behind
“Seasons in the Sun” – Terry Jacks
We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song
Like the seasons have all gone
“Paradise (What about Us?)” – Within Temptation
What about us
Isn’t it enough
No we’re not in paradise
This is who we are
This is what we’ve got
No it’s not our paradise
But it’s all we want
And it’s all that we’re fighting for
Thought it’s not paradise
S Cerevisiae
Late to the party as usual so I’ll just leave a verse from a guy who’s lyrics always come to mind after he covers a song:
”I met him in a swamp
down in Dagoba
where it bubbles all the time
like a giant carbonated soda
S O D A soda…”
Gloria DryGarden
Bridge over troubled waters, Simon and Garfunkel
also “sounds of silence”, which I’ve sung for years and only recently found out in a taped interview, it’s partly about art helping his blind friend through college, a really amazing story
beethovens 9th has a bunch of great lyrics in the last movement.
of note : Lisa Gerard/ dead can dance. She sings in made up languages, but goddess, her vocals speak. It makes me see canyons and desert landscapes where the silence has its own presence. It’s like she’s singing out the beauty of the earth, teasing it out, and translating it into a music of haunting wonder and mystery.
StringOnAStick
Just for how perfectly evocative the short phrase is:
“Maybe there’s a God above, but all I ever learned from love, was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya.”
That’s a description of pure pain of failed relationship, right there.
SFBayAreaGal
tomtofa
Late and a dead thread, so maybe this is appropriate:
Closing Time
Ah we’re drinking and we’re dancing
And the band is really happening
And the Johnny Walker wisdom running high
And my very sweet companion
She’s the Angel of Compassion
She’s rubbing half the world against her thigh
And every drinker every dancer
Lifts a happy face to thank her
The fiddler fiddles something so sublime
All the women tear their blouses off
And the men they dance on the polka-dots
And it’s partner found, it’s partner lost
And it’s hell to pay when the fiddler stops:
It’s closing time
Ah we’re lonely, we’re romantic
And the cider’s laced with acid
And the Holy Spirit’s crying, “Where’s the beef?”
And the moon is swimming naked
And the summer night is fragrant
With a mighty expectation of relief
So we struggle and we stagger
Down the snakes and up the ladder
To the tower where the blessed hours chime
And I swear it happened just like this:
A sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
The Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can’t say much has happened since
But closing time
I loved you for your beauty
But that doesn’t make a fool of me:
You were in it for your beauty too
And I loved you for your body
There’s a voice that sounds like God to me
Declaring, declaring, declaring that your body’s really you
And I loved you when our love was blessed
And I love you now there’s nothing left
But sorrow and a sense of overtime
And I missed you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex
Looks like freedom but it feels like death
It’s something in between, I guess
It’s closing time
Yeah we’re drinking and we’re dancing
But there’s nothing really happening
And the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night
And my very close companion
Gets me fumbling gets me laughing
She’s a hundred but she’s wearing
Something tight
And I lift my glass to the awful truth
Which you can’t reveal to the ears of youth
Except to say it isn’t worth a dime
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
And it’s once for the devil and it’s once for Christ
But the boss don’t like these dizzy heights
We’re busted in the blinding lights
Of closing time
Oh the women tear their blouses off
And the men they dance on the polka-dots
It’s closing time
And it’s partner found, it’s partner lost
And it’s hell to pay when the fiddler stops
It’s closing time
I swear it happened just like this:
A sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
It’s closing time
The Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can’t say much has happened since
But closing time
I loved you when our love was blessed
I love you now there’s nothing left
But closing time
I miss you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex
It’s closing time
TBone
The entirety of Decade, but especially this:
– Neil Young
jimmy higgins
Butch Hancock is one of this country’s finest living songwriters.
Thirst is not the answer, oceans come and go
I loved her seven seas worth, Lord I loved her so
But she let me down so easy, one slow drop at a time
I would’ve killed myself but it made no sense
Committing suicide in self defense
But I lost everything I brought her
When she said babe, you’re just a wave, you’re not the water
Centuries ago we were living on the gold coast
She was still in love with a long, gone, cold ghost
I was only trying to turn back the tide of her tears
I felt like an endless ocean, rolling through the fog
Full emotion drifting like a weather beaten log
I even thought that I out-thought her
Til she said babe, you’re just a wave, you’re not the water
[there’s more]
cope
Last!
When I was reading James Gleick’s “Chaos: Making a New Science”, I realized Jim Morrison nailed it with
“The future’s uncertain and the end is always near” with “the end” being a strange attractor.
Kevin Nute
You’ll be different in the spring, I know
You’re a seasonal beast
Like the starfish that drift in with the tide, with the tide
So until your blood runs to meet the next full moon
Your madness fits in nicely with my own, with my own
Your lunacy fits neatly with my own
My very own
We’re not alone
Robert Wyatt- Sea Song
hw3
The The – The Beat(en) Generation
released 7/11/1989
[Verse 1]
When you cast your eyes upon the skylines
Of this once proud nation
Can you sense the fear and the hatred
Growing in the hearts of its population
And youth, oh youth, are being seduced
By the greedy hands of politics and half truths
[Chorus]
The beaten generation
The beaten generation
Reared on a diet of prejudice and mis-information
billcinsd
A couple of ones from Paul Westerberg
Replacements “I Hate Music”
I hate my father
one day I won’t
Replacements “Bastards of Young”
The ones that love us best
are the ones we’ll lay to rest
visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones that love us least
are the one’s we’ll die to please
If it’s any consolation I don’t begin to understand