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- mabewa - 07-29-2007 07:32 AM
OK, so Roger and Syd are two of my favorite lyricists, but I'm a major lyrics guy, so I have a lot of other favorite lyricists too. For example, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Steve Earle, John Lennon, Shane McGowan (the Pogues), Leonard Cohen, David Lowery (Camper Van Beethoven), Samuel Pearlman (Blue Oyster Cult producer), Woody Gutherie, Bob Marley, Paul Westerberg (the Replacements), Rosanne Cash, Tom Waits, just to name a very few. Let's use this thread to share some of our favorite non-Floyd lyrics--anything is fair game. I'll start with a Patti Smith lyric from 1988--this one kinda blows my mind. Somehow, I kinda get the feeling that Roger got influenced just a tiny bit by this one. Patti is the God(dess) of lyrics!
Where duty calls
In a room in Lebanon
they silently slept
They were dreaming crazy dreams
in foreign alphabet
Lucky young boys
cross on the main
The driver was approaching
the American zone
The waving of hands
The tiniest train
They never dreamed
they'd never wake again
Voice of the Swarm
We follow we fall
Some kneel for priests
Some wail at walls
Flag on a match head
God or the law
And they'll all go together
Where duty calls
United children
Child of Iran
Parallel prayers
Baseball Koran
I'll protect Mama
I'll lie awake
I'll die for Allah
In a holy war
I'll be a ranger
I'll guard the streams
I'll be a soldier
A sleeping Marine
Refrain
In the heart of the ancient
Ali smiles
In the soul of the desert
the sun blooms
Awake
into the glare of all out little wars
Who pray to return to salute
the coming and dying of the moon
Oh sleeping sun
Assassin in prayer
laid a compass deep
Exploding dawn
and himself as well
Their eyes for his eyes
Their breath for his breath
All to his end
And a room in Lebanon
Dust of scenes
Erase and blend
May the blanket of Kings
Cover them and him
Forgive them Father
They know not what they do
From the vast portals
of their consciousness
they're calling to you
- Dyolf - 07-29-2007 08:59 AM
Polly Samson
- whong - 07-29-2007 09:34 AM
Pete Townshend is an awesome lyricist. A favorite of mine is definitely "Slit Skirts". Anyone who can get away with using "recriminations fester" effectively in a song lyric is worthy of note, imo.....
I like Polly's style too......'Pocketful Of Stones' is brilliant, and so's OAI's title cut.
- mabewa - 07-29-2007 04:55 PM
Yeah, Polly is way underrated. A lot of people seem to obsess on the fact that she's Dave's wife, and don't even pay attention to her lyrics.
And, yeah, Pete Townshend is one of the best. I think we can be pretty sure that he influenced Roger, too: both The Wall and Radio KAOS, for example, have elements that seem influenced by Tommy.
Anyway, here is another lyric that really moves me, by Rush's Neil Peart. Some of Peart's stuff can be pretty corny or self-righteous, but when he's writing emotional stuff, he hits hard. This is one of the best anti-suicide songs ever written, IMHO:
"The Pass"
Proud swagger out of the school yard
Waiting for the world's applause
Rebel without a conscience
Martyr without a cause
Static on your frequency
Electrical storm in your veins
Raging at unreachable glory
Straining at invisible chains
And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Can't face life on a razor's edge
Nothing's what you thought it would be
All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
Turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back
And slam the door on me
It's not as if this barricade
Blocks the only road
It's not as if you're all alone
In wanting to explode
Someone set a bad example
Made surrender seem all right
The act of a noble warrior
Who lost the will to fight
And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Done with life on a razor's edge
Nothing's what you thought it would be
No hero in your tragedy
No daring in your escape
No salutes for your surrender
Nothing noble in your fate
Christ, what have you done?
Edited By mabewa on 1185757058
- Dyolf - 07-29-2007 04:58 PM
whong Wrote:Pete Townshend is an awesome lyricist. A favorite of mine is definitely "Slit Skirts". Anyone who can get away with using "recriminations fester" effectively in a song lyric is worthy of note, imo.....Yeah, Pete Townshend is a great lyricist.
I like Polly's style too......'Pocketful Of Stones' is brilliant, and so's OAI's title cut.
- mabewa - 07-30-2007 07:31 AM
...and the lyric master himself:
A Hard Rain's-a-Gonna Fall
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin',
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin',
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin',
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
- TiedyeVikki - 07-30-2007 10:14 AM
I don't know if I necessarily have a FAVORITE lyricist, but there are many I consistantly enjoy and who really touch me. Jackson Brown is one, here are a few examples...
For A Dancer
Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I dont remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must have thought youd always be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now youre nowhere to be found
I dont know what happens when people die
Cant seem to grasp it as hard as I try
Its like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I cant sing
I cant help listening
And I cant help feeling stupid standing round
Crying as they ease you down
cause I know that youd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
(right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play
(theres nothing you can do about it anyway)
Just do the steps that youve been shown
By everyone youve ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours
Anothers steps have grown
In the end there is one dance youll do alone
Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Dont let the uncertainty turn you around
(the world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound
Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But youll never know
Late For The Sky
The words had all been spoken
And somehow the feeling still wasnt right
And still we continued on through the night
Tracing our steps from the beginning
Until they vanished into the air
Trying to understand how our lives has led us there
Looking hard into your eyes
There was nobody Id ever known
Such an empty surprise to feel so alone
Now for me some words come easy
But I know that they dont mean that much
Compared with the things that are said when lovers touch
You never knew what I loved in you
I dont know what you loved in me
Maybe the picture of somebody you were hoping I might be
Awake again I cant pretend and I know Im alone
And close to the end of the feeling weve known
How long have I been sleeping
How long have I been drifting alone through the night
How long have I been dreaming I could make it right
If I closed my eyes and tried with all my might
To be the one you need
Awake again I cant pretend and I know Im alone
And close to the end of the feeling weve known
How long have I been sleeping
How long have I been drifting alone through the night
How long have I been running for that morning flight
Through the whispered promises and the changing light
Of the bed where we both lie
Late for the sky
The Pretender
Im going to rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway
Im going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
Ill go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
Ill get up and do it again
Amen
Say it again
Amen
I want to know what became of the changes
We waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams
Of some greater awakening
Ive been aware of the time going by
They say in the end its the wink of an eye
And when the morning light comes streaming in
Youll get up and do it again
Amen
Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender
Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
And the junk man pounds his fender
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light
And the children solemnly wait
For the ice cream vendor
Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls the pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
Begin and end there
Ah the laughter of the lovers
As they run through the night
Leaving nothing for the others
But to choose off and fight
And tear at the world with all their might
While the ships bearing their dreams
Sail out of sight
Im going to find myself a girl
Who can show me what laughter means
And well fill in the missing colors
In each others paint-by-number dreams
And then well put out dark glasses on
And well make love until our strength is gone
And when the morning light comes streaming in
Well get up and do it again
Get it up again
Im going to be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
Thought true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the pretender
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender
--Vik
- mabewa - 07-30-2007 04:48 PM
Alright! I forgot about Jackson Browne. He does have a way with words, doesn't he?
- whong - 07-30-2007 05:50 PM
Yeah...Jackson Browne has some really good material! This is a favorite of mine, that's sadly forgotten from 1980's 'Hold Out'.....
"That Girl Could Sing"
She was a friend to me when I needed one
Wasn't for her I don't know what I'd done
She gave me back something that was missing in me
She could of turned out to be almost anyone
Almost anyone--
With the possible exception
Of who I wanted her to be
Running into the midnight
With her clothes whipping in the wind
Reaching into the heart of the darkness
For the tenderness within
Stumblin' into the lights of the city
And then back in the shadows again
Hanging onto the laughter
That each of us hid our unhappiness in
Talk about celestial bodies
And your angels on the wing
She wasn't much good at stickin' around--but
She could sing...
In the dead of night
She could shine a light
On some places that you've never been
In that kind of light
You could lose your sight
And believe there was something to win
You could hold her tight
With all your might
But she'd slip through your arms like the wind
And be back in flight
Back into the night
Where you might never see her again
The longer I thought I could find her
The shorter my vision became
Running in circles behind her
And thinking in terms of the blame
But she couldn't have been any kinder
If she'd come back and tried to explain
She wasn't much good a saying goodbye--but
That girl was sane....
- quickpost - 07-31-2007 01:46 AM
check out the macc lads for lyrics!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bc00V2oark
now can i just say that the sound IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK
- mabewa - 07-31-2007 06:10 AM
OK, so here are the lyrics for Steve Earle's song "Jerusalem." Earle has just been getting better and better in the last decade or so--to me, he's really becoming the new Dylan. Some people have said that this song is like the "Imagine" for the new millennium, so maybe he's got some Lennon in him, too. Methinks that Roger likes this song, too...
Jerusalem
(Steve Earle)
I woke up this mornin' and none of the news was good
And death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood
And the man on my TV told me that it had always been that way
And there was nothin' anyone could do or say
And I almost listened to him
Yeah, I almost lost my mind
Then I regained my senses again
And looked into my heart to find
That I believe that one fine day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem
Well maybe I'm only dreamin' and maybe I'm just a fool
But I don't remember learnin' how to hate in Sunday school
But somewhere along the way I strayed and I never looked back again
But I still find some comfort now and then
Then the storm comes rumblin' in
And I can't lay me down
And the drums are drummin' again
And I can't stand the sound
But I believe there'll come a day when the lion and the lamb
Will lie down in peace together in Jerusalem
And there'll be no barricades then
There'll be no wire or walls
And we can wash all this blood from our hands
And all this hatred from our souls
And I believe that on that day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem
We must believe that one fine day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem
- TiedyeVikki - 07-31-2007 02:26 PM
How about Van Morrison? :music:
Moondance
Well it's a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I'm trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
You know the night's magic
Seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight
Seems to shine in your blush...
Can I just have one a' more moondance with you, my love?
Can I just make some more romance with a' you, my love?
Well I wanna make love to you tonight
I can't wait till the morning has come
And I know now the time is just right
And straight into my arms you will run
And when you come my heart will be waiting
To make sure that you're never alone
There and then all my dreams will come true dear
There and then I will make you my own
And every time I touch you, you just tremble inside
And I know how much you want me that, you can't hide...
Can I just have one a' more moondance with you, my love?
Can I just make some more romance with a' you, my love?
Well it's a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I'm trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
You know the night's magic
Seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight
Seems to shine in your blush...
One more moondance with you
In the moonlight
On a magic night
la, la, la, la, there's a moonlight
On a magic night
Can't I just have one more dance
With you my love?
- whong - 07-31-2007 03:11 PM
Nice! Van's the Man! Classy tune, that. Almost Brubeckian in it's style.
- whong - 08-01-2007 02:47 PM
Big time favorite of mine......by Sting.
"The Soul Cages"
The boy child is locked in the fisherman's yard
There's a bloodless moon where the ocean died
A shoal of nightstars hang fire in the nets
And the chaos of cages where the crayfish lie
Where is the fisherman, where is the goat?
Where is the keeper in his carrion coat?
Eclipse on the moon when the dark bird flies
Where is the child with his father's eyes?
There are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
He's the king of the ninth world
The twisted son of the fog bells toll
In each and every lobster cage
A tortured human soul
These are the souls of broken factories
The subject slaves of the broken crown
The dead accounting of old guilty promises
These are the souls of the broken town
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
'I have a wager' the brave child spoke
The fisherman laughed, though disturbed at the joke
'You will drink what I drink but you must equal me
And if the drink leaves me standing,
A soul shall go free'
'I have here a cask of most magical wine
A vintage that blessed every ship in the line
It's wrung from the blood of the sailor's who died
Young white bodies adrift in the tide'
'And what's in it for me my pretty young thing?
Why should I whistle, when the caged bird sings?
If you lose a wager with the king of the sea
You'll spend the rest of forever in the cage with me'
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
A body lies open in the fisherman's yard
Like the side of a ship where the iceberg rips
One less soul in the soul cages
One last curse on the fisherman's lips
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
Swim to the light Swim to the light
He dreamed of the ship on the sea
It would carry his father and he
To a place they could never be found
To a place far away from this town
A Newcastle ship without coals
They would sail to the island of souls
- whong - 08-01-2007 02:58 PM
...and another, equally good...
"The Wild Wild Sea"
I saw it again this evening,
Black sail in a pale yellow sky
And just as before in a moment,
It was gone where the grey gulls fly
If it should happen again I shall worry
That only a strange ship could fly
And my sanity scans the horizon
In the light of a darkening sky
That night as I walked in my slumber
I walked into the sea strand
And I swam with the moon and her lover
Until I lost sight of the land
I swam till the night became morning
Black sea in the reddening sky
Found myself on the deck on a rolling ship
So far where no grey gulls fly
All around me was silence
As if mocking my frail human hopes
And a question mark hung in the canvas
For the wind that had died in the ropes
I may have slept for an hour
I may have slept for a day
For a woke in a bed of white linen
And the sky was the colour of clay
At first just a rustle of canvas
And the gentlest breath on my face
But a galloping line of white horses
Said that soon we were in for a race
The gentle sigh turned to a howling
And the grey sky she angered to black
And my anxious eyes searched the horizon
With the gathering sea at my back
Did I see the shade of a sailor
On the bridge through the wheelhouse pane
Held fast to the wheel of the rocking ship
As I squinted my eyes in the rain
For the ship had turned into the wind
Against the storm to brace
And underneath the sailor's hat
I saw my father's face
If a prayer today is spoken
Please offer it for me
When the bridge to heaven is broken
And you've lost on the wild wild sea
Lost on the wild wild sea...
- whong - 08-01-2007 03:17 PM
...and one last one(and no...I'm not trying to hijack the thread!)...this one really hit home for me, about a year after I got divorced....especially for a guy not given to this type of thing.
"Ghost Story"
I watch the Western sky
The sun is sinking
The geese are flying South
It sets me thinking
I did not miss you much
I did not suffer
What did not kill me
Just made me tougher
I feel the winter come
His icy sinews
Now in the fire light
The case continues
Another night in court
The same old trial
The same old questions asked
The same denial
The shadows closely run
Like jury members
I look for answers in
The fire's embers
Why was I missing then
That whole December?
I give my usual line:
I don't remember
Another winter comes
His icy fingers creep
Into these bones of mine
These memories never sleep
And all these differences
A cloak I borrow
We kept our distances
Why should it follow,
I must have loved you
What is the force that binds the stars?
I wore this mask to hide my scars
What is the power that pulls the tide
I never could find a place to hide
What moves the Earth around the sun
What could I do but run and run and run
Afraid to love, afraid to fail
A mast without a sail
The moon's a fingernail and slowly sinking
Another day begins and now I'm thinking
That this indifference was my invention
When everything I did sought your attention
You were my compass star
You were my measure
You were a pirate's map,
Of buried treasure
If this was all correct
The last thing I'd expect
The prosecution rests
It's time that I confess:
I must have loved you
Edited By whong on 1186010308
- cevor - 08-01-2007 03:39 PM
ok...
Peter Gabriel
When the night shows
the signals grow on radios
All the strange things
they come and go, as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
still waiting for the swollen Easter tide
There's no point in direction we cannot
even choose a side.
I took the old track
the hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
they were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
and as the nail sunk in the cloud, the rain
was warm and soaked the crowd.
Lord, here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
in any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.
When the flood calls
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You're a thousand minds, within a flash
Don't be afraid to cry at what you see
The actors gone, there's only you and me
And if we break before the dawn, they'll
use up what we used to be.
Lord, here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
in any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.
[Repeat chorus once]
- cevor - 08-01-2007 03:43 PM
Kate Bush
I look at you and see
My life that might have been:
Your face just ghostly in the smoke.
They're setting fire to the cornfields
As you're taking me home.
The smell of burning fields
Will now mean you and here.
This is where I want to be.
This is what I need.
This is where I want to be.
This is what I need.
This is where I want to be,
But I know that this will never be mine.
Ooh, the thrill and the hurting.
The thrill and the hurting.
I know that this will never be mine.
I want you as the dream,
Not the reality.
That clumsy goodbye-kiss could fool me,
But I'm looking back over my shoulder
At you, happy without me.
This is where I want to be.
This is what I need.
This is where I want to be.
This is what I need.
This is where I want to be,
But I know that this will never be mine.
Ooh, the thrill and the hurting
Will never be mine.
The thrill and the hurting,
It will never be mine.
It can never be.
The thrill and the hurting
Will never be mine.
another perhaps..
Pray God you can cope.
I stand outside this woman's work,
This woman's world.
Ooh, it's hard on the man,
Now his part is over.
Now starts the craft of the father.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking
Of all the things I should've said,
That I never said.
All the things we should've done,
Though we never did.
All the things I should've given,
But I didn't.
Oh, darling, make it go,
Make it go away.
Give me these moments back.
Give them back to me.
Give me that little kiss.
Give me your hand.
(I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.)
I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
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.
Edited By cevor on 1186011895
- cevor - 08-01-2007 03:49 PM
Adrian Belew
I come back...come back
you see my return
my returning face is smiling
smile of a waiting man...
I be home soon soon soon
soon cry on your shoulder
your shoulder against my burning tears
tears of a waiting man...
one two three four one two three...
I wait every moment
I wait, wait for my chance
I wait for my friend to say
hello, you waiting man
feel no fret feel no fret feel no fret
you can wait and feel no fret
and so I wait so I wait so I wait so I wait
I return face is smiling
be home soon cry on your shoulder
tears of a waiting man
every moment wait for my chance
my friend say hello feel no fret
you can wait and I wait and I wait
and home I am...
or
Oh they're touching
They're touching each other
They're feeling
They push and move
And love each other, love each other
They fit together like two hands...
I am a face
in the painting on the wall
I pose and shudder
And watch from the foot of the bed
Sometimes I think I can
Feel everything...
The wind is blowing
My hair in their direction
The wind is bending my hair
There are no windows in the painting
No open windows, no open windows, no...
Edited By cevor on 1186012167
- mabewa - 08-01-2007 05:23 PM
Great stuff! Whong, I should give Sting's solo work more of a chance. I'm a big Police fan, and listened to his early solo stuff, but then kind of give him up. And, Cevor, it's nice to see a Kate Bush lyric. Her lyrics are VERY literate.
My next one is from the 80's underground band The Replacements, written by Paul Westerberg. Westerberg has a great way with words--he often exploits double or triple meanings of words and phrases in his songs. For example, in the song below "Nobody" means literally "no-one," and "Nobody" in the sense of "a nothing person" and finally as the name of the protagonist. It's also a great description of attending your ex's wedding. All kinds of great mixed emotions in this song:
Nobody
heartaches, on your wedding day
double takes when they look my way
knees quake, there ain't a shotgun in the place
you liked the frosting, but you just bought the cake
your eyes can't fake
still in love with nobody
and I won't tell nobody
the bridegroom
drags you 'cross that room
said I do
but honey you were just a kid
your eyes said I did
still in love with nobody
nobody, nobody
and I won't tell nobody
take a look
on your wedding night
in your wedding book
see what name I signed
hey
love nobody,
nobody, nobody
then nobody
nobody, nobody, nobody
hips shake
to the band for old time's sake
now you make your getaway
and you're waving to the stage
but on the last page says
love nobody
nobody, nobody
and I won't tell nobody
nobody, nobody
yeah you're still in love with nobody
nobody, nobody
and I used to be nobody
nobody, nobody
not anymore
Edited By mabewa on 1186017862
- Jumpy - 08-02-2007 12:17 AM
whong Wrote:Yeah...Jackson Browne has some really good material! This is a favorite of mine, that's sadly forgotten from 1980's 'Hold Out'.....
- mabewa - 08-03-2007 06:26 AM
OK, so here's some more Neil Peart. Weirdly enough, there is a fair amount of Peart's lyrics that I don't particularly like--sometimes he gets way too intellectualized or self-righteous for my taste. It's when he writes emotional, personal lyrics that he's at his best for me. The following lyric is genuinely devastating--if you've ever been to the emotional place that this song describes, you'll recognize it. If your life ever completely falls apart, sometimes keeping moving, literally, is the most effective way to survive. Peart wrote this song after both his wife and daughter died within a short period of time, and he dealt with the devastation by riding a motorcycle around North America.
Ghost Rider
Pack up all those phantoms
Shoulder that invisible load
Keep on riding north and west
Haunting that wilderness road
Like a ghost rider
Carry all those phantoms
Through bitter wind and stormy skies
From the desert to the mountain
From the lowest low to the highest high
Like a ghost rider
Keep on riding North and West
Then circle South and East
Show me beauty, but there is no peace
For the ghost rider
Shadows on the road behind
Shadows on the road ahead
Nothing can stop you now
There's a shadow on the road behind
There's a shadow on the road ahead
Nothing can stop you now
Sunrise in the mirror
Lightens that invisible load
Riding on a nameless quest
Haunting that wilderness road
Like a ghost rider
Just an escape artist
Racing against the night
A wandering hermit
Racing toward the light
From the White Sands
To the Canyonlands
To the redwood stands
To the barren lands
Sunrise on the road behind
Sunset on the road ahead
There's nothing to stop you now
Nothing can stop you now
- TiedyeVikki - 08-03-2007 12:05 PM
One of the master wordsmiths when it comes to clever, descriptive, double-meaning lyrics is Ian Anderson... both these songs are from the album Songs From The Wood...
"Velvet Green"
Walking on velvet green. Scots pine growing.
Isn't it rare to be taking the air, singing.
Walking on velvet green.
Walking on velvet green. Distant cows lowing.
Never a care: with your legs in the air, loving.
Walking on velvet green.
Won't you have my company, yes, take it in your hands.
Go down on velvet green, with a country man.
Who's a young girls fancy and an old maid's dream.
Tell your mother that you walked all night on velvet green.
One dusky half-hour's ride up to the north.
There lies your reputation and all that you're worth.
Where the scent of wild roses turns the milk to cream.
Tell your mother that you walked all night on velvet green.
And the long grass blows in the evening cool.
And August's rare delight may be April's fool.
But think not of that, my love,
I'm tight against the seam.
And I'm growing up to meet you down on velvet green.
Now I may tell you that it's love and not just lust.
And if we live the lie, let's lie in trust.
On golden daffodils, to catch the silver stream
that washes out the wild oat seed on velvet green.
We'll dream as lovers under the stars ---
of civilizations raging afar.
And the ragged dawn breaks on your battle scars.
As you walk home cold and alone upon velvet green.
Walking on velvet green. Scots pine growing.
Isn't it rare to be taking the air, singing.
Walking on velvet green.
Walking on velvet green. Distant cows lowing.
Never a care: with your legs in the air, loving.
Walking on velvet green.
"Hunting Girl"
One day I walked the road and crossed a field
to go by where the hounds ran hard.
And on the master raced: behind the hunters chased
to where the path was barred.
One fine young lady's horse refused the fence to clear.
I unlocked the gate but she did wait until the pack had disappeared.
Crop handle carved in bone;
sat high upon a throne of finest English leather.
The queen of all the pack,
this joker raised his hat and talked about the weather.
All should be warned about this high born Hunting Girl.
She took this simple man's downfall in hand;
I raised the flag that she unfurled.
Boot leather flashing and spurnecks the size of my thumb.
This highborn hunter had tastes as strange as they come.
Unbridled passion: I took the bit in my teeth.
Her standing over --- me on my knees underneath.
My lady, be discrete.
I must get to my feet and go back to the farm.
Whilst I appreciate you are no deviate,
I might come to some harm.
I'm not inclined to acts refined, if that's how it goes.
Oh, high born Hunting Girl,
I'm just a normal low born so and so.
--Vik
- Dyolf - 08-03-2007 04:07 PM
Jon Anderson is an amazing lyricist, one of my all-time favourites.
<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>And You And I</span>
Part 1 - Chord Of Life
A man conceived a moment's answers to the dream.
Staying the flowers daily, sensing all the themes.
As a foundation left to create the spiral aim,
A movement regained and regarded both the same,
All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you.
Changed only for a sight of sound, the space agreed.
Between the picture of time behind the face of need,
Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid,
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid,
All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you.
Oh.
Coins and crosses
Never know their fruitless worth;
Cords are broken,
Locked inside the mother earth.
They won't hide, hold, they won't tell you,
Watching the world, watching all of the world,
Watching us go by.
And you and I climb over the sea to the valley,
And you and I reached out for reasons to call.
Part 2 - Eclipse - This is the best bit
Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid,
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid,
As a movement regained and regarded both the same,
All complete in the side of seeds of life with you.
Part 3 - The Preacher, The Teacher
Sad preacher nailed upon the coloured door of time;
Insane teacher be there reminded of the rhyme.
There'll be no mutant enemy we shall certify;
Political ends, as sad remains, will die.
Reach out as forward tastes begin to enter you.
Ooh, ooh.
I listened hard but could not see
Life tempo change out and inside me.
The preacher trained in all to lose his name;
The teacher travels, asking to be shown the same.
In the end, we'll agree, we'll accept, we'll immortalize
That the truth of the man maturing in his eyes,
All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you.
Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid,
As a moment regained and regarded both the same,
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid,
A clearer future, morning, evening, nights with you.
Part 4 - Apocalypse
And you and I climb, crossing the shapes of the morning.
And you and I reach over the sun for the river.
And you and I climb, clearer, towards the movement.
And you and I called over valleys of endless seas.
----
It's one song, and to listen to it you wouldn't know it was written in 4 parts.
- mabewa - 08-03-2007 06:15 PM
Ah, Vik as soon as I started reading your post about all of the double-meanings in Ian Anderson's lyrics, I started thinking of Hunting Girl, and sure enough, you posted it! Very naughty and very funny song! Both songs you posted are about outdoor sex, very poetically written. I gotta get a copy of Songs From the Wood--haven't heard it in YEARS!
- FLOYDFOLOWEROF11 - 08-03-2007 06:51 PM
My Chem ( don't know who does there lyrics.) and Kurt Cobain
"Welcome To The Black Parade
When I was a young boy,
My father took me into the city
To see a marching band.
He said, "Son when you grow up,
would you be the savior of the broken,
the beaten and the damned?"
He said "Will you defeat them,
your demons, and all the non-believers,
the plans that they have made?"
"Because one day I'll leave you,
A phantom to lead you in the summer,
To join The Black Parade."
When I was a young boy,
My father took me into the city
To see a marching band.
He said, "Son when you grow up,
would you be the savior of the broken,
the beaten and the damned?"
Sometimes I get the feeling she's watching over me.
And other times I feel like I should go.
And through it all, the rise and fall, the bodies in the streets.
And when you're gone we want you all to know.
We'll carry on,
We'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone believe me
Your memory will carry on
We'll carry on
And in my heart I can't contain it
The anthem won't explain it.
A world that sends you reeling from decimated dreams
Your misery and hate will kill us all.
So paint it black and take it back
Let's shout it loud and clear
Defiant to the end we hear the call
To carry on
We'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone believe me
Your memory will carry on
We'll carry on
And though you're broken and defeated
Your weary widow marches
On and on we carry through the fears
Ooh oh ohhhh
Disappointed faces of your peers
Ooh oh ohhhh
Take a look at me cause I could not care at all
Do or die, you'll never make me
Because the world will never take my heart
Go and try, you'll never break me
We want it all, we wanna play this part
I won't explain or say I'm sorry
I'm unashamed, I'm gonna show my scar
Give a cheer for all the broken
Listen here, because it's who we are
I'm just a man, I'm not a hero
Just a boy, who had to sing this song
I'm just a man, I'm not a hero
I! don't! care!
We'll carry on
We'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone believe me
Your memory will carry on
We'll carry on
And though you're broken and defeated
Your weary widow marches on
Do or die, you'll never make me
Because the world will never take my heart
Go and try, you'll never break me
We want it all, we wanna play this part (We'll carry on)
Do or die, you'll never make me (We'll carry on)
Because the world will never take my heart (We'll carry on)
Go and try, you'll never break me (We'll carry)
We want it all, we wanna play this part (We'll carry on)
HEART SHAPED BOX
She eyes me like a Pisces when i am weak
I've been locked inside your Heart-Shaped box for weeks
I was drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish i could eat your cancer when you turn black
Hey!
Wait
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hate
Haight
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
...your advice
Meat-eating orchids forgivee no one just yet
Cut myself on angel's hair and bab's breath
Broken hymen of you highness i'm left black
Throw down your umbilical noose so i can climb right back
Hey!
Wait
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hate
Haight
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
... your advice
She eyes me like a Pisces when i am weak
I've been locked inside your Heart-Shaped box for a week
I was drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish i could eat your cancer when you turn black
Hey!
Wait
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hate
Haight
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait
I've got a new complaint
Forerver in debt to your priceless advice
...your advice
....your advice
...your advice
awsome!
- mabewa - 08-03-2007 07:27 PM
Yeah, Kurt Cobain wrote some very good lyrics in his short life. My favorite by him might be "All Apologies."
Anyway, another one of my fave lyricists is David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven, a band heavily influenced by early Floyd, and also of the more conventional, grungier Cracker. A lot of Lowery's lyrics are hilarious satire, although he can also write heartbreakingly beautiful stuff. The lyric below is definitely in the funny category, although it is basically a kind of strange protest song. I love the idea of this hillbilly winning the lottery and taking revenge on Middle America:
When I Win the Lottery (Camper Van Beethoven)
Well I lost an eye in Mexico
Lost two teeth where I don't know
People see me comin' and they move to the other side
of the road.
I robbed a liquor store or two
Made myself at home a few times
Borrowed myself a car when I needed it.
I got me a shack at the bottom of the road
Fixin' cars and givin' tows
Spend all my money on the lottery.
When I win the lottery gonna buy all girls on my block
A color TV and a bottle of French perfume
When I win the lottery gonna donate half my money to
the city
So they have to name a street or a school or a park
after me
When I win the lottery
Never run a flag up a pole
Like Mr. Red, White, and Blue down the road
But I never called myself a hero for killing an unknown communist.
Now I can walk into any old bar
Find a fight without looking too hard
But I never killed someone I don't know just 'cause
someone told me to.
And when I win the lottery
Gonna buy the house next to Mr. Red, White and Blue
And when I win the lottery
Gonna buy Post 306 American Legion, paint it red with
five gold stars.
When I win the lottery.
When the end comes to this old world
The righteous will cry and the rest will curl up
And God won't take the time to sort your ashes from
mine.
'Cause we zig and zag between good and bad
Stumble and fall on right and wrong
'Cause the tumbling dice and the luck of the draw
just leads us on.
And when I win the lottery, gonna buy all the girls
on my block
Silver-plated six shooters and a quart of the finest
highland scotch
'Cause when I win the lottery, the righteous will shake
their heads and say that
God is good but surely works in mysterious ways.
When I win the lottery.
- Kimbers Sheep - 08-03-2007 09:24 PM
Kayleigh by Marillion (Fish) I always thought this was a perfect song about love gone bad
Do you remember chalk hearts melting on a playground wall
Do you remember dawn escapes from moon washed college halls
Do you remember the cherry blossom in the market square
Do you remember I thought it was confetti in our hair
By the way didn't I break your heart?
Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heart
So sorry, I never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine
Kayleigh is it too late to say Im sorry?
And kayleigh could we get it together again?
I just cant go on pretending that it came to a natural end
Kayleigh, oh I never thought I'd miss you
And kayleigh I thought that wed always be friends
We said our love would last forever
So how did it come to this bitter end?
Do you remember barefoot on the lawn with shooting stars
Do you remember loving on the floor in belsize park
Do you remember dancing in stilettoes in the snow
Do you remember you never understood I had to go
By the way, didn't I break your heart?
Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heart
So sorry, I never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine
Kayleigh I just wanna say I'm sorry
But kayleigh Im too scared to pick up the phone
To hear you've found another lover to patch up our broken home
Kayleigh I'm still trying to write that love song
Kayleigh its more important to me now you're gone
Maybe it will prove that we were right
Or even prove that I was wrong
Edited By Kimbers Sheep on 1186205109
- cevor - 08-04-2007 01:34 AM
I was so going to post this one KS! This song really broke Marillion to the American audience...I should've put Fish in favorite vocalist as well....
In '85 I had a 6 year relationship end with a girl named Kelly and the band I was managing decided to cover Psuedo Silk Kimono/Kayleigh/Lavender...so I got to hear it all of the time! :Oo:
Here's another classic Fish lyric....reminds me of a dear friend...
Sugar Mice
I was flicking through the channels on the TV
On a Sunday in Milwaukee in the rain
Trying to piece together conversations
Trying to find out where to lay the blame
But when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one here that's left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain
I heard Sinatra calling me through the floorboards
Where you pay a quarter for a partnership in rhyme
To the jukebox crying in the corner
While the waitress is counting out the time
For when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one really left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain
'Cos I know what I feel, know what I want I know what I am
Daddy took a raincheck
' Cos I know what I want, know what I feel I know what I need
Daddy took a raincheck, your daddy took a raincheck
Ain't no one in here that's left to blame but me
Blame it on me, blame it on me
Well the toughest thing that I ever did was talk to the kids on the phone
When I heard them asking questions I knew that you were all alone
Can't you understand that the government left me out of work
I just couldn't stand the looks on their faces saying, "What a jerk"
So if you want my address it's number one at the end of the bar
Where I sit with the broken angels clutching at straws and nursing our scars
Blame it on me, blame it on me,
Sugar mice in the rain, your daddy took a raincheck
Edited By cevor on 1186220115
- Metabog - 08-04-2007 01:48 AM
Roger Waters is definately my favorite lyricist. I've grown apart from floyd lately and consider Dream Theater better now, but I still think Roger is a musical genius.
- Jumpy - 08-04-2007 08:12 AM
Don Henley is far from my favorite lyricist, but his words can be clever and biting. I think his masterpiece by far is "The Last Resort," the song that closes Hotel California.
This composition is not only the most poetic thing Henley has written, but it's the perfect bookend to the song "Hotel California," which opens the album. In this song, Henley subtly refers back to the corruption and greed of the album's title track, and sadly notes the passing of the paradise that was California.
She came from Providence,
the one in Rhode Island
Where the old world shadows hang
heavy in the air
She packed her hopes and dreams
like a refugee
Just as her father came across the sea
She heard about a place people were smilin'
They spoke about the red man's way,
and how they loved the land
And they came from everywhere
to the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand
or a place to hide
Down in the crowded bars,
out for a good time,
Can't wait to tell you all,
what it's like up there
And they called it paradise
I don't know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
while the town got high
Then the chilly winds blew down
Across the desert
through the canyons of the coast, to
the Malibu
Where the pretty people play,
hungry for power
to light their neon way
and give them things to do
Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought 'em
And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea
You can leave it all behind
and sail to Lahaina
just like the missionaries did, so many years ago
They even brought a neon sign: Jesus is coming
Brought the white man's burden down
Brought the white man's reign
Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here
We satisfy our endless needs and
justify our bloody deeds,
in the name of destiny
and in the name of God
And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it's like up there
They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye
Edited By Jumpy on 1186244079
- TiedyeVikki - 08-05-2007 12:11 AM
James Taylor can write some pretty touching lyrics... this one is a classic for a reason...
Fire and Rain
Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Susanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to
I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again
Won't you look down upon me, Jesus
You've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way
Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again
Been walking my mind to an easy time my back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around
Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground
Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now
Thought I'd see you one more time again
There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you fire and rain, now
And he can be comical too... I remember when I lived in Hagerstown MD I used to listen to a classic radio station out of Baltimore that used this song as an intro to their traffic report...
Traffic Jam
(chorus)
Damn this traffic jam
How I hate to be late
It hurts my motor to go so slow
Damn this traffic jam
Time I get home my supper'll be cold
Damn this traffic jam
Well I left my job about 5 o'clock
It took fifteen minutes go three blocks
Just in time to stand in line
With a freeway looking like a parking lot
- chorus -
Now I almost had a heart attack
Looking in my rear view mirror
I saw myself the next car back
Looking in the rear view mirror
'bout to have a heart attack
I said
- chorus -
Now when I die I don't want no coffin
I thought about it all too often
Just strap me in behind the wheel
And bury me with my automobile
- chorus -
Damn...
Now I used to think that I was cool
Running around on fossil fuel
Until I saw what I was doing
Was driving down the road to ruin
(mabewa, I thought you'd like that last verse! :D :p )
--Vik
- Jumpy - 08-05-2007 05:34 AM
I can't help noticing a recurring theme of loneliness and love gone bad in many of the favorite lyrics in this thread... you all ok? :D
- cevor - 08-05-2007 05:37 AM
Jumpy Wrote:I can't help noticing a recurring theme of loneliness and love gone bad in many of the favorite lyrics in this thread... you all ok? :Dhow long have you been married????? :p
- TiedyeVikki - 08-05-2007 04:01 PM
I don't know how I went this long in this thread without mentioning this... one of my absolute favorite lyricists has to be Robert Hunter... his lyrics were a huge part of the The Grateful Dead's magic. Here are several of my favorites, and incidentally the first three below were written in the same afternoon, over a half bottle of retsina...
RIPPLE
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice come through the music
Would you hold it near as it were your own?
It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they're better left unsung
I don't know, don't really care
Let there be songs to fill the air
(Chorus)
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of men
There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
(Chorus)
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
You who choose to lead must follow
But if you fall you fall alone
If you should stand then who's to guide you?
If I knew the way I would take you home
BROKE-DOWN PALACE
Fare you well my honey
Fare you well my only true one
All the birds that were singing
Have flown except you alone
Goin to leave this Broke-down Palace
On my hands and my knees I will roll roll roll
Make myself a bed by the waterside
In my time - in my time - I will roll roll roll
In a bed, in a bed
by the waterside I will lay my head
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
River gonna take me
Sing me sweet and sleepy
Sing me sweet and sleepy
all the way back back home
It's a far gone lullaby
sung many years ago
Mama, Mama, many worlds I've come
since I first left home
Goin home, goin home
by the waterside I will rest my bones
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
Goin to plant a weeping willow
On the banks green edge it will grow grow grow
Sing a lullaby beside the water
Lovers come and go - the river roll roll roll
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
TO LAY ME DOWN
To lay me down
once more
To lay me down
with my head
in sparkling clover
Let the world go by
all lost in dreaming
To lay me down
one last time
To lay me down
To be with you
once more
To be with you
with our bodies
close together
Let the world go by
like clouds a-streaming
To lay me down
one last time
To lay me down
To lay me down
To lay me down
To lay me down
One last time
To lay me down
To lie with you
once more
to lie with you
with our dreams
entwined together
To lie beside you
my love still sleeping
to tell sweet lies
one last time
and say goodnight
to lay me down,
to lay me down
to lay me down
one last time
to lay me down
to lay me down
one last time
to lay me down
BOX OF RAIN
Look out of any window
any morning, any evening, any day
Maybe the sun is shining
birds are winging or
rain is falling from a heavy sky -
What do you want me to do,
to do for you to see you through?
this is all a dream we dreamed
one afternoon long ago
Walk out of any doorway
feel your way, feel your way
like the day before
Maybe you'll find direction
around some corner
where it's been waiting to meet you -
What do you want me to do,
to watch for you while you're sleeping?
Well please don't be surprised
when you find me dreaming too
Look into any eyes
you find by you, you can see
clear through to another day
I know it's been seen before
through other eyes on other days
while going home -
What do you want me to do,
to do for you to see you through?
It's all a dream we dreamed
one afternoon long ago
Walk into splintered sunlight
Inch your way through dead dreams
to another land
Maybe you're tired and broken
Your tongue is twisted
with words half spoken
and thoughts unclear -
What do you want me to do
to do for you to see you through
A a box of rain will ease the pain
and love will see you through
Just a box of rain -
wind and water -
Believe it if you need it,
if you don't just pass it on
Sun and shower -
Wind and rain -
in and out the window
like a moth before a flame
It's just a box of rain
I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it
or leave it if you dare
But it's just a box of rain
or a ribbon for your hair
Such a long long time to be gone
and a short time to be there
--Vik
- Dyolf - 08-05-2007 04:06 PM
More from the genius that is Jon Anderson:
<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>Homeworld (The Ladder)</span>
Nothing can take us far enough
Emotion... far enough together
As the light shines so bright
Bright enough to let us in
Nothing can bridge our souls'
Devotion... fast enough together
As the power proves you right
Right enough to let you begin
So many displaced among the future dreamers
Realised their doubles
Took a new step
A question of origin
Only in the recent past
Seeking for to realise
Skyward shone
Like beacons
A question of origin
Ten thousand millions free
To the westward light
The dreamers represent
This arc of peace
As the poets entranced
The anchor redeemed
Secrets of science
The history of the future
Was surely made
Just what keeps us so alive
Just what makes us realise
Our home
Is our world, our life
Home is our world
Nothing can take us far enough
Emotion... far enough together
As the light shines so bright
Bright enough to let us in
Nothing can bridge our souls
Devotion... fast enough together
As the power proves you right
Right enough to let you begin
Speak so fast to the prophets
Of the living
Looking for the signs
Spanning out the centuries
Search for truth
Ancient ones... they watch
And listen
Carry our wishes...
Took upon themselves to guide us
Through the endless skies
Just what keeps us so alive
Just what makes us realise
Our home
Is our world, our life
Our hope is our world, our life
I have seen the passion
That's in the hope that everyone
Will find their way into
The secret of
The home of your heart
Living within the vision
Within the power, beyond belief
We see that hate destroys the soul
Of anyone who tries to teach i
I have seen the dream
That's in your heart
That's in your eyes
To bring you closer to the one
It's what keeps us so alive
It's what makes us realise
Our home is our world, our life
Just what keeps us so alive
Just what makes us realise
Our home
Is our world, our life
Home is our world, our life
Send, ascending to the secrets
All is pure and clear to resolve
Nothing can change us now
Send, ascending to the future
Nothing can ever change us now
We follow the sun
We follow the sun
We follow the sun
Truth is a simple place
Here for us all to see
Reach as it comes to you
As it comes to me
As I will always need you inside my heart
Peace is a word we teach
A place for us all to reach
Sing as it sings to you
As it sings to me
As I will always need you inside my heart
- Great song!
- FLOYDFOLOWEROF11 - 08-05-2007 04:29 PM
I really like Ozzy's Killer of giants so here.
If none of us believe in war
Then can you tell me what the weapons for
Listen to me everyone
If the button is pushed
Therell be nowhere to run
Giants sleeping giants winning wars
Within their dreams
Till they wake when its too late
And in gods name blaspheme
Killer of giants threatens us all
Mountains of madness standing so tall
Marches of protest not stopping the war
Or the killer of giants
The killer of giants
Mother nature people state your case without its worth
Your seas run dry your sleepless eyes are turning red alert
Killer of giants threatens us all
Mountains of madness standing so tall
Rising so proudly it has nowhere to fall
This killer of giants
This killer of giants
Killer of giants threatens us all
Mountains of madness standing so tall
Marches of protest not stopping the war
Oh the killer of giants
Oh the killer of giants
Killer of giants
Killer of giants
- TiedyeVikki - 08-05-2007 04:37 PM
I'm sorry, I can't help myself, I have to post some more Robert Hunter lyrics! :upside: See, Jumpy, they're not ALL about love gone bad... some are about death, lol...
DIRE WOLF
In the timbers of Fennario
the wolves are running round
The winter was so hard and cold
froze ten feet neath the ground
Don't murder me
I beg of you don't murder me
Please
don't murder me
I sat down to my supper
T'was a bottle of red whiskey
I said my prayers and went to bed
That's the last they saw of me
Don't murder me
I beg of you don't murder me
Please
don't murder me
When I awoke, the Dire Wolf
Six hundred pounds of sin
Was grinnin at my window
All I said was "come on in"
Don't murder me
I beg of you don't murder me
Please
don't murder me
The wolf came in, I got my cards
We sat down for a game
I cut my deck to the Queen of Spades
but the cards were all the same
Don't murder me
I beg of you don't murder me
Please
don't murder me
In the backwash of Fennario
The black and bloody mire
The Dire Wolf collects his due
while the boys sing round the fire
Don't murder me
I beg of you don't murder me
Please
don't murder me
BLACK PETER
All of my friends come to see me last night
I was laying in my bed and dying
Annie Beauneu from Saint Angel
say "the weather down here so fine"
Just then the wind
came squalling through the door
but who can
the weather command?
Just want to have
a little peace to die
and a friend or two
I love at hand
Fever roll up to a hundred and five
Roll on up
gonna roll back down
One more day
I find myself alive
tomorrow
maybe go
beneath the ground
See here how everything
lead up to this day
and it's just like
any other day
that's ever been
Sun goin up
and then the
sun it goin down
Shine through my window and
my friends they come around
come around
come around
People may know but
the people don't care
that a man could be
as poor as me...
"Take a look at poor Peter
he's lyin in pain
now let's go run
and see"
Run and see
hey, hey,
run and see
--Vik
- FLOYDFOLOWEROF11 - 08-05-2007 04:57 PM
- mabewa - 08-05-2007 05:35 PM
I BELIEVE that the lyrics of Killer of Giants was actually written by Bob Daisley, who wrote most of Ozzy's early lyrics.
Yeah, Robert Hunter wrote some great stuff for the Greatful Dead. I'm not a huge Dead fan, but some of their stuff is great, and I really like his lyrics.
As for marriage, I've been married for years, and yet I can still relate to songs of lonliness. I guess... It's not that I miss the darkest times in my life, but I feel that it makes me more human to remember them, and music helps me do that.
But, to get back to the protest lyrics, here is an all-time great: John Fogerty of CCR. This guy definitely has a way with words:
Fortunate Son
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",
they point the cannon right at you.
It ain't me,
it ain't me.
I ain't no senator's son.
It ain't me,
it ain't me.
I ain't no fortunate one.
Some folks are born
silver spoon in hand,
Lord don't they help themselves.
But when the tax man comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale.
It ain't me,
it ain't me.
I ain't no millionaire's son.
It ain't me,
it ain't me.
I ain't no fortunate one.
Some folks inherit
star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war.
And when you ask them,
"How much should we give?"
They only answer "More! More! More!"
It ain't me,
it ain't me.
I ain't no military son.
It ain't me,
it ain't me.
I ain't no fortunate one.
It ain't me,
it ain't me.
I ain't no Fortunate Son.
- Jumpy - 08-05-2007 06:08 PM
cevor Wrote:Long enough, my friend... :DJumpy Wrote:I can't help noticing a recurring theme of loneliness and love gone bad in many of the favorite lyrics in this thread... you all ok? :Dhow long have you been married????? :p
Long e-nuff...
(I can still relate to the love-gone-wrong songs, though, even if my love hasn't gone wrong... yet.
- mabewa - 08-06-2007 07:51 AM
Quote:Long enough, my friend... :D
Long e-nuff...
(I can still relate to the love-gone-wrong songs, though, even if my love hasn't gone wrong... yet.
Hear, hear!
Personally, I think that losing one's ability to relate to the love-gone-wrong songs is a pretty dangerous state... "my love hasn't gone wrong... yet" is what I call realistic thinking. Love is famously unreliable, that's why so many great love-gone-wrong songs will continue to be written until the end of time!
Edited By mabewa on 1186415533
- FLOYDFOLOWEROF11 - 08-06-2007 01:37 PM
nice point mabewa.
- FLOYDFOLOWEROF11 - 08-07-2007 01:12 AM
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Load up on guns, bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
She's overboard and self-assured
I know, i know , a dirty word
Hello, hello , hello how low,
Hello, hello, hello,how low,
Hello, hello, hello...
With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid, and contagious
Here we are now , entertain us
A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido,
Yeah
I'm worse at what I do best
And for that gift I feel blessed
Our little group has always been
And always will until the end
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello
With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now entertain us
A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido,
Yeah
And i forget just why i taste
Oh yeah, i guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, it's hard to find
Oh well, whatever, nevermind
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello
With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contageous
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido,
A denial (x9)
- quickpost - 08-07-2007 04:10 AM
okay, lets see how the swear parser handles the dead kennedy's song too drunk to **** ..
"Too Drunk To ****"
Went to a party
I danced all night
I drank 16 beers
And I started up a fight
But now I am jaded
You're out of luck
I'm rolling down the stairs
Too drunk to ****
Too drunk to ****
Too drunk to ****
Too drunk, to ****
I'm too drunk, too drunk, too drunk
To ****
I like your stories
I love your gun
Shooting out truck tires
Sounds like loads and loads of fun
But in my room
Wish you were dead
You ball like the baby
In Eraserhead
Too drunk to ****
Too drunk to ****
Too drunk, to ****
It's all I need right now
Too drunk to ****
Too drunk to ****
Too drunk to ****
Too drunk, to ****
I'm sick soft gooey and cold
Too drunk to ****
I'm about to drop
My head's a mess
The only salvation is
I'll never see you again
You give me head
It makes it worse
Take out your ******' retainer
Put it in your purse
I'm too drunk to ****
You're to drunk to ****
Too drunk to ****
It's all I need right now Oh baby
I'm melting like an ice cream bar
Oh baby
And now I got diarrhea
Too drunk to ****
Yeah, Yeah
Yeah, Yeah
Yeah, Yeah
Oooohhh
:D so true so true :laugh:
- mabewa - 08-07-2007 05:02 PM
Jello Biafra wrote some wickedly funny stuff!
- Narrow Way - 08-07-2007 05:59 PM
Some really good stuff so far. Alot of hard acts to follow, so, I'll here's something pretty strong.
Doc Dart
The Crucif*cks
Wisconsin
"Resurrection"
It's not a habit
It's not a weakness
It's not a problem
I can't believe all this
It's not a coma
I'm not in pieces
You know it's just like you to try and screw me up,
when you know the only place that I'm going is far away from here
word must have gotten around that I can heal
promise me you'll stay away,daddy-o and It's a deal
- FLOYDFOLOWEROF11 - 08-07-2007 07:28 PM
MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE LYRICS
"Famous Last Words"
Now I know
That I can't make you stay
But where's your heart?
But where's your heart?
But where's your...
And I know
There's nothing I could say
To change that part
To change that part
To change...
So many
Bright lights, they cast a shadow
But can I speak?
Well is it hard understanding
I'm incomplete
A life that's so demanding
I get so weak
A love that's so demanding
I can't speak
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
Honey if you stay, I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
Can you see
My eyes are shining bright
Cause I'm out here
On the other side
Of a jet black hotel mirror
And I'm so weak
Is it hard understanding
I'm incomplete
A love that's so demanding
I get weak
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
Honey if you stay, I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
Honey if you stay, I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
These bright lights have always blinded me
These bright lights have always blinded me
I say
I see you lying next to me
With words I thought I'd never speak
Awake and unafraid
Asleep or dead
(How can I see, I see you lying) 'Cause I see you lying next to me
(How can I see, I see you lying) With words I thought I'd never speak
(How can I see, I see you lying) Awake and unafraid
(How can I see, I see you lying) Asleep or dead
'Cause I see you lying next to me
With words I thought I'd never speak
Awake and unafraid
Asleep or dead
'Cause I see you lying next to me
With words I thought I'd never speak
Awake and unafraid
Asleep or dead
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
(Or dead)
Honey if you stay, I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
(Or dead)
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
(Or dead)
Honey if you stay, I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
(Or dead)
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
(Or dead)
Honey if you stay, I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home
Awsome
- mabewa - 08-08-2007 06:53 AM
OK, to get back to the super-depressing stuff, here's "A Pair of Brown Eyes" by Shane MacGowan of The Pogues. This is a shockingly brilliant lyric--I especially love the combination of images of war, the drunk protagonist's agonizing loneliness, and the beautiful imagery of nature. It really brings home both the beauty and agony of life, all at the same time.
A Pair Of Brown Eyes
One summer evening drunk to hell
I stood there nearly lifeless
An old man in the corner sang
Where the water lilies grow
And on the jukebox Johnny sang
About a thing called love
And it's how are you kid and what's your name
And how would you bloody know?
In blood and death 'neath a screaming sky
I lay down on the ground
And the arms and legs of other men
Were scattered all around
Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed
Then prayed and bled some more
And the only thing that I could see
Was a pair of brown eyes that was looking at me
But when we got back, labeled parts one to three
There was no pair of brown eyes waiting for me
And a rovin' a rovin' a rovin' I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
I looked at him he looked at me
All I could do was hate him
While Ray and Philomena sang
Of my elusive dreams
I saw the streams, the rolling hills
Where his brown eyes were waiting
And I thought about a pair of brown eyes
That waited once for me
So drunk to hell I left the place
Sometimes crawling sometimes walking
A hungry sound came across the breeze
So I gave the walls a talking
And I heard the sounds of long ago
From the old canal
And the birds were whistling in the trees
Where the wind was gently laughing
And a rovin' a rovin' a rovin' I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
- Philintheflesh - 08-08-2007 09:29 AM
Elvis Costello used to write some great acerbic lryics...
Watching The Detectives
Nice girls not one with a defect,
cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct.
Red dogs under illegal legs.
She looks so good that he gets down and begs.
She is watching the detectives.
"ooh, he's so cute!"
She is watching the detectives
when they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.
They beat him up until the teardrops start,
but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart.
Long shot of that jumping sign,
Visible shivers running down my spine.
Cut to the baby taking off her clothes.
Close-up of the sign that says,"We never close"
You snatch a tune and match a cigarette,
She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet.
I don't know how much more of this I can take.
She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake.
chorus
You think you're alone until you realize you're in it.
Now fear is here to stay. Love is here for a visit.
They call it instant justice when it's past the legal limit.
Someone's scratching at the window. I wonder who is it?
The detectives come to check if you belong to the parents
who are ready to hear the worst about their daughter's disappearance.
Though it nearly took a miracle to get you to stay,
it only took my little fingers to blow you away.
Just like watching the detectives.
Don't get cute!"
It's just like watching the detectives.
I get so angry when the teardrops start,
but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart.
Watching the detectives.
It's just like watching the detectives.
- Oobleck42 - 08-08-2007 01:41 PM
"Moment" by Akron/Family
The word of our Lord scratched in sand,
By the spittle drenched flannel of man.
We struggle to stand higher,
But our feet are attached to the land.
Our souls are just arches in bones.
We've been crushed by sticks,
buried 'neath stones.
We struggle to stand higher,
But our feet are attached to the land.
The moment is over,
The idea that you,
Were the same when it started as
When it is through.
Is the reason that old friends have
Problems with new thoughts,
And the new clothes that you
Bought for them to see you in.
- TiedyeVikki - 08-08-2007 05:37 PM
Lots of good stuff here. Watching The Detectives... wow, that brings back memories, lol. I don't think we've mentioned Neil Young yet, have we? Here are a couple of my favorites, lyric-wise...
THRASHER
They were hiding behind hay bales,
They were planting in the full moon
They had given all they had for something new
But the light of day was on them,
They could see the thrashers coming
And the water shone like diamonds in the dew.
And I was just getting up, hit the road before it's light
Trying to catch an hour on the sun
When I saw those thrashers rolling by,
Looking more than two lanes wide
I was feelin' like my day had just begun.
Where the eagle glides ascending
There's an ancient river bending
Down the timeless gorge of changes
Where sleeplessness awaits
I searched out my companions,
Who were lost in crystal canyons
When the aimless blade of science
Slashed the pearly gates.
It was then I knew I'd had enough,
Burned my credit card for fuel
Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand
With a one-way ticket to the land of truth
And my suitcase in my hand
How I lost my friends I still don't understand.
They had the best selection,
They were poisoned with protection
There was nothing that they needed,
Nothing left to find
They were lost in rock formations
Or became park bench mutations
On the sidewalks and in the stations
They were waiting, waiting.
So I got bored and left them there,
They were just deadweight to me
Better down the road without that load
Brings back the time when I was eight or nine
I was watchin' my mama's t.v.,
It was that great grand canyon rescue episode.
Where the vulture glides descending
On an asphalt highway bending
Thru libraries and museums, galaxies and stars
Down the windy halls of friendship
To the rose clipped by the bullwhip
The motel of lost companions
Waits with heated pool and bar.
But me I'm not stopping there,
Got my own row left to hoe
Just another line in the field of time
When the thrashers comes, I'll be stuck in the sun
Like the dinosaurs in shrines
But I'll know the time has come
To give what's mine.
AFTER THE GOLDRUSH
Well, I dreamed I saw the knights in armor coming,
saying something about a queen.
There were peasants singing and drummers drumming
and the archer split the tree.
There's a fanfare blowing to the sun
that was floating on the breeze.
Look at Mother Nature on the run in the nineteen seventies.
Look at Mother Nature on the run in the nineteen seventies.
I was lying in a burned out basement
with the full moon in my eyes.
I was hoping for replacement
when the sun burst through the sky.
There was a band playing in my head
and I felt like getting high.
I was thinking about what a friend had said, I was hoping it was a lie.
Thinking about what a friend had said, I was hoping it was a lie.
Well, I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying
in the yellow haze of the sun,
there were children crying and colors flying
all around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream the loading had begun.
Flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home.
A MAN NEEDS A MAID
My life is changing in so many ways
I don't know who to trust anymore
There's a shadow running thru my days
Like a beggar going from door to door.
I was thinking that maybe I'd get a maid
Find a place nearby for her to stay.
Just someone to keep my house clean,
Fix my meals and go away.
A maid. A man needs a maid.
A maid.
It's hard to make that change
When life and love turns strange.
And old.
To give a love, you gotta live a love.
To live a love, you gotta be "part of".
When will I see you again?
A while ago somewhere I don't know when
I was watching a movie with a friend.
I fell in love with the actress.
She was playing a part that I could understand -
A maid. A man needs a maid.
A maid.
When will I see you again?
I was thinking that maybe I'd get a maid
Find a place nearby for her to stay.
Just someone to keep my house clean,
Fix my meals and go away.
A maid - A man needs a maid.
To give a love, you gotta live a love.
To live a love, you gotta be "part of".
When will I see you again?
A while ago somewhere I don't know when
I was watching a movie with a friend.
I fell in love with the actress.
She was playing a part that I could understand -
A maid - A man needs a maid.
When will I see you again?
--Vik
- mabewa - 08-09-2007 05:36 PM
DUDE! I was thinking about posting the lyrics of Thrasher myself! I'm glad that someone else thinks that this is one of NY's best lyrics. I just love the imagery in that song. That song is like a personal anthem for me.
Supposedly it's a metaphor for his relationship with Crosby, Stills and Nash... they became dinosaurs and got frozen in time, but NY just kept on moving. But, I love how you can interpret the song in any way you want. Personally, I like to think of the "thrashers" as being punk rock, although I don't think that the word "thrash" would be applied to punk for another decade or so.
Here's another great lyric from "Rust Never Sleeps." Supposedly, this one was originally written for Lynyrd Skynyrd--such a great story song:
Powderfinger
Look out, Mama,
there's a white boat
comin' up the river
With a big red beacon,
and a flag,
and a man on the rail
I think you'd better call John,
'Cause it don't
look like they're here
to deliver the mail
And it's less than a mile away
I hope they didn't come to stay
It's got numbers on the side
and a gun
And it's makin' big waves.
Daddy's gone,
my brother's out hunting
in the mountains
Big John's been drinking
since the river took Emmy-Lou
So the powers that be
left me here
to do the thinkin'
And I just turned twenty-two
I was wonderin' what to do
And the closer they got,
The more those feelings grew.
Daddy's rifle in my hand
felt reassurin'
He told me,
Red means run, son,
numbers add up to nothin'
But when the first shot
hit the docks I saw it comin'
Raised my rifle to my eye
Never stopped to wonder why.
Then I saw black,
And my face splashed in the sky.
Shelter me from the powder
and the finger
Cover me with the thought
that pulled the trigger
Think of me
as one you'd never figured
Would fade away so young
With so much left undone
Remember me to my love,
I know I'll miss her.
- Dyolf - 08-09-2007 05:42 PM
- Jumpy - 08-09-2007 11:06 PM
Neil Young -- Tell Me Why
Sailing heart-ships thru broken harbors
Out on the waves in the night
Still the searcher must ride the dark horse
Racing alone in his fright.
Tell me why, tell me why
Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself,
When your old enough to repay but young enough to sell?
Tell me lies later, come and see me
I'll be around for a while.
I am lonely but you can free me
All in the way that you smile
Tell me why, tell me why
Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself,
When your old enough to repay but young enough to sell?
Tell me why, tell me why
Tell me why, tell me why
I AM A CHILD
I am a child, i'll last a while.
You can't conceive of the pleasure in my smile.
You hold my hand, rough up my hair,
It's lots of fun to have you there.
God gave to you, now, you give to me,
I'd like to know what you learned.
The sky is blue and so is the sea.
What is the color, when black is burned?
What is the color?
You are a man, you understand.
You pick me up and you lay me down again.
You make the rules, you say what's fair,
It's lots of fun to have you there.
God gave to you, now, you give to me,
I'd like to know what you learned.
The sky is blue and so is the sea.
What is the color, when black is burned?
What is the color?
I am a child, i'll last a while.
You can't conceive of the pleasure in my smile.
- mabewa - 08-10-2007 06:14 AM
To keep going with the Neil Young, and to get back to the anti-war lyrics:
Shock and Awe
Back in the days of shock and awe
We came to liberate them all
History was the cruel judge of overconfidence
Back in the days of shock and awe
Back in the days of "mission accomplished"
Our chief was landing on the deck
The sun was setting on a golden photo op
Back in the days of "mission accomplished"
Thousands of bodies in the ground
Brought home in boxes to a trumpet's sound
No one sees them coming home that way
Thousands buried in the ground
Thousands of children scarred for life
Millions of tears from a soldier's wife
Both sides are losing now
Heaven takes them in
Thousands of children scarred for life
We had a chance to change our mind
But somehow wisdom was hard to find
We went with what we knew and now we can't go back
But we had a chance to change our mind.
- cevor - 08-10-2007 09:30 AM
Rotten Apple
Hey Ah Na Na
Innocence is over
Hey Ah Na Na
Over
Hey Ah Na Na
Ignorance is spoken
Hey Ah Na Na
Spoken
Hey Ah Na Na
Confidence is broken
Hey Ah Na Na
Broken
Hey Ah Na Na
Sustenance is stolen
Hey Ah Na Na
Stolen
Hey Ah Na na
Arrogance is potent
Hey Ah Na Na
Potent
[chorus]
Yea, What I see is unreal
I've written my own part
Eat of the apple, so young
I'm crawling back to start
Hey Ah Na Na
I repent tomorrow
Hey Ah Na Na
Tomorrow
Hey Ah Na na
I suspended my sorrow
Hey Ah Na Na
Sorrow
[Chorus]
Hey Ah Na Na
A romance has fallen
Hey Ah Na Na
Fallen
Hey Ah Na Na
Recommend you borrow
Hey Ah Na Na
Borrow
[Chorus]
Hey Ah Na Na
Hey Ah Na Na
Hey Ah Na Na
Nutshell
We chase misprinted lies
We face the path of time
And yet I fight,
and yet I fight
This battle all alone
No one to cry to
No place to call home
My gift of self is raped
My privacy is raked
And yet I find, yet I find
Repeating in my head
If I can't be my own
I'd feel better dead
enough said...
Edited By cevor on 1186767278
- whong - 08-10-2007 09:36 AM
So long as we're using Neil Young's lyrics pretty heavily here.....can't resist this one from his newest....
"Let's Impeach The President"
Let's impeach the President for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door
Who's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war
Let's impeach the President for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones
What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government's protection
Or was someone just not home that day?
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Let's impeach the president for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected
Thank god he's cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There's lots of people looking at big trouble
But of course our president is clean.
- mabewa - 08-12-2007 06:21 AM
You gotta give Bush credit for one thing: he's inspired the greatest spurt of protest music since the 60's!
To continue in that vein, here's another recent protest song, albeit one with a much more abstract message than "Let's Impeach the President." The message of this song? "Pride comes before a fall."
Ashes To Ashes (Steve Earle)
A long time ago before the ice and the snow
There were giants that walked this land
And with each step they took, the mighty mountains shook
And the trees took a knee and the seas rolled in
Then one day they say the sky gave way
And death rained down, it made a terrible sound
There was fire everywhere and nothin' was spared
That walked on the land or flew through the air
And when it all was over
The slate wiped clean with a touch
There God stood and he saw it was good
And He said "ashes to ashes and dust to dust"
Then the sea gave birth and it crawled up on the dirt
And stood up and took a look around
Said "I'm the next big thing and the gift that I bring
Comes directly from God, so there ain't no holdin' me down"
So he crowned himself king
Now no one remembers his name
But the seed that he sowed took the show on the road
There was blood on their hands and a plague on the land
They drew a line in the sand and made their last stand
They said "God made us in his image
And it's in God that we trust"
When asked about the men that had died by their hands
They said "ashes to ashes and dust to dust"
Now, nobody lives forever
Nothin' stands the test of time
Oh, you heard 'em say "never say never"
But it's always best to keep it in mind
That every tower ever built tumbles
No matter how strong, no matter how tall
Someday even great walls will crumble
And every idol ever raised falls
And someday even man's best laid plans
Will lie twisted and covered in rust
When we've done all that we can but it slipped through our hands
And it's ashes to ashes and dust to dust
- Jumpy - 08-12-2007 07:02 AM
I just haven't had the urge to check out that recent Neil album. Seems too in your face... you guys seem to like it, though.
- cevor - 08-12-2007 07:10 AM
Jumpy Wrote:I just haven't had the urge to check out that recent Neil album. Seems too in your face... you guys seem to like it, though.the trend reminds me of Paul Simon's Graceland..too predictable, intentional...band-wagonish?
- mabewa - 08-12-2007 08:44 AM
Quote:I just haven't had the urge to check out that recent Neil album. Seems too in your face... you guys seem to like it, though.
I think it's pretty darn good--his best since Sleeps With Angels. It's immediate, passionate, and has good melodies and lyrics. Personally, I don't care what Neil is singing about, but when he's on, he's on!
- Philintheflesh - 09-02-2007 06:10 AM
Robert Calvert used to write some engaging, entertaining lyrics with Hawkwind...often sci-fi based...in the periods when he hadn`t either been sacked, re-instated, sacked again, or when he wasn`t in the loony-bin. Bob had frequent breakdowns...& what they nowadays call "bi-polar" episodes...he once tried to kill Lemmy with a carving knife.
Hawkwind - Steppenwolf
You can see my eyes are lupine
The liquid golden fires glare
My loping walk, my slinking spine
Are signs that there is something there
The way my nostrils flare for odours
The way my ears prick up for sound
My hair's electrically aware
Tells me things for miles around
I am a man-wolf, I am a wolf man
I have half a canine mind
I have half the mind of man
I am neither of one kind
Maybe it was only an hallucination
I'm no stranger to such things
I made a thorough investigation
The image had a power that clings
To my jaded imagination
My brain has found the bells it rings
Like a wolf my wilful loafing
My languishing alone in my lair
Where you will never hear me laughing
I'm half in love with dark and despair
The Moon's a howling, mouth of mercury
Quicksilver quivering in the sky
It echoes like a cave of chromium
That'll vacuum up my soul when I die
I am a wolf man, I am a man-wolf
A freak, a fiend, a figment of mind
A species of the steppes and city
I am neither of one kind
Dissolving in the slendour of this desolation
The forest has been filled by a fog
Exactly a description of my isolation
I made a note of it in my log
To the secret of all creation
I follow my own trail like a dog
I am a wolf man who walks alone in the gas lamp
Shadows of the streets at night
I am a man-wolf upright on two feet in the
city dressed somberly as a man
I am a wolf man under skies heavy with snow
My eyes are convex lenses of ebony embedded
in amber
I am a man-wolf
The fat bourgeois and his dopple ganger
are buried in their solid glare
Twin specimens of insect set for display
I am a man-wolf, the man in me would kill the wolf
I am a wolf man, the wolf in me would eat the man
I am a wolf man, who despises the striving of common men
Who sees them at work, at their daily tasks
at factories and office desk
Who watches them at evening, elbows lift at tavern tables,
heads lolling in song
Ich weiss nicht wat ik zagen zollen
I saw a neon sign reflected in a pool of liquid sky
It was not what I expected I was only walking by
The sign said "to the magic theatre"
It is not for everyone
It is but for madmen only, the first performance has begun
I looked up to see that notice where the lights were
shining from
Nothing but blank wall was there
and their reflection too was gone
Maybe it was only an hallucination
I'm no stranger to such things
I made a thorough investigation
The image had a power that clings
To my jaded imagination
My brain has found the bell it rings
Hawkwind - Flying Doctor (about an Aussie medic who consumes his own supply...inspired :D: )
He sneaks through the door of the surgery
He's got the drug cabinet key
He did something funny and he tied up his arm
It's just the flying doctor, no cause for alarm
He sprinkled out a powder and spread out a line
He sniffed it up his nostril and he's feeling so fine
Feeling so fine, it feels like he's flying
Feeling so fine, it feels like he's flying
His receptionist saw him, it certainly shocked her
She said "Look out, you'd better duck,
Here comes the Flying Doctor"
Out in the outback, there's been an outbreak
and the Flying Doctor's got nothing to take
He went to the cabinet, the cabinet was bare
His eyes dilated, you can see by his stare.
Called up his base on the radio,
He said; "My supplies are running low,
They're running low, you can see where they go
They're running low, I see where they go"
Out in the outback with my Percival Proctor
Look out you'd better duck,
Here comes the Flying Doctor
He's got the cabinet key,
The cabinet key, the cabinet key...
"This is the Flying Doctor calling Wallarolla base
Wallorola base come in please...
I want to talk to you about my drugs situation...
My drug situation is rather tight...
About as tight as a kangaroo's khyber, I'd say"
Cabinet key, cabinet key...
"Wake up ! - One, two, three, four"
A Sheila in the bush by a Koolahbar tree
Needed an urgent appendectomy
The Flying Doctor like a true Australian,
Performed the operation with a sardine can
He made a rough incision and tried to chew it out,
He had no anaesthetic, so she started to shout,
She started to shout, when he was chewing it out,
She started to shout, he tried to chew it right out,
He balled up his fist and scientifically socked her,
Look out you'd better duck,
Here comes the Flying Doctor
Cabinet key, cabinet key, cabinet key...
Hawkwind - 10 Seconds of Forever
In the tenth second of forever
I thought of the sea and a white yacht drifting.
In the ninth second of forever
I remembered a warm room where voices played.
In the eighth second of forever
I thought of the life I would not lead.
In the seventh second of forever
I thought of a leaf, a stone, a plastic fragment of a child's toy.
In the sixth second of forever
I saw your mouth whispering something I could (not) hear.
In the fifth second of forever
I thought of the vermillion deserts of Mars, the jewelled forests of Venus.
In the fourth second of forever
I could remember nothing that I did not love.
In the third second of forever
I thought of rain against a window, I thought of the wind.
In the second second of forever
I thought of a pair of broken shades lying on the tarmac.
In the first and final second of forever
I thought of the long past that had led to now
And never...
Never...
Never...
Hawkwind - Deathtrap
In the back of my neck I can feel a strange sensation
Feels like I'm heading for the crisis of all creation
Only those with death-wish understand my situation
Feels like Jesus Christ heading for the stations
of the cross, in my death trap, death trap
Running in my death trap, death trap
Chicken running in my death trap, death trap
Heading for the crossroads of fiery crucifixion
Lighting up the night sky with bitterness distinction
While I hold the wheel of fate, smell of burning friction
I feel like a hero heading for extinction
It's the shell of steel or plastic
Monkey on elastic, going up and down...
Crank shaft cracking up...
Oil pressure going down...
Brake drums blowing out...
Tyres on fire now...
Differential seize up,...unbalanced cam shaft
Worn out pistons rings,... brake fade, brake fade
hydraulic leak out,... radiator overheat
Monkey on elastic, going up and down
Shell of steel or plastic, turning round
Shell of steel or plastic
Monkey on elastic, going up and down
Robert Calvert
1945-88
R.I.P.
- BusStopRatBag - 09-03-2007 02:03 PM
Gene Ween from Ween writes amazing lyrics.
The Argus by Ween
Yesterday we lost our lives, tomorrow we were born
Fortune smiled upon us, sacrifice the Argus
All that he might help us see
Magna eyes the track for miles, looking for disease
Puzzled by the mountains - tricked by the sea
and the Argus is practiced compassion
with an eye on you, as one is on me
will the god eye grant his forgiveness
and allow he that's lived, a reason to see
Counting days and building walls, bells ring so's to warn
All the signs that guide us, chosen by the Argus
Tell me has chosen you
Led by form we'll shed our soul
Trusting like a child
See the dark face that saved us
Drink from his empty eyes
and the Argus is practiced compassion
with an eye on you, as one is on me
will the god eye grant his forgiveness
letting droplets of light erupt from the sea...
Lying in beds of garlic and orchids, he closes an eye, which closes another
and in sleep he dreams, of watching and looking and feather clouds dancing
He curls up his lid and sleeps...
Swirling with visions on man's confusion
All of the work, done just to appease him
The Argus he cries, though love has it's place in the sun
It's only man's fear that carries him on...
- Dyolf - 09-03-2007 02:59 PM
Jumpy Wrote:I just haven't had the urge to check out that recent Neil album. Seems too in your face... you guys seem to like it, though.I don't.
:p
RE: favorite lyricists and examples of their work - let's share! - TiedyeVikki - 11-05-2007 09:24 AM
Now here's an old thread that's worthy of reviving!
I always meant to mention Natalie Merchant here. The only CD of hers I own is Tigerlilly, but I love every song on it, largely because of her lyrics (not to mention her beautiful, almost haunting, delivery). A few examples:
"Seven Years"
How did I love you?
there was no measuring
far above this dirty world
far above everything
in your tower over it
you were clean
so warm and insightful
were you in my eyes
I was sure the rightful
guardian of my life
damn you betrayer
how you lied
but for seven years
you were loved
I laid golden orchid crowns
around your feet
for seven years
I bowed down
to touch the ground
so wholly your devotee
you were
all I could see
I've got my sight now
I see everything you hid
so don't you try to right now
all the wrong you did
I might forget you
but not forgive
but for seven years
you were loved
I laid golden orchid crowns
around your feet
for seven years
I bowed down
to touch the ground
so wholly your devotee
for seven years
you were so revered
I made offerings of
anything and everything I had
you were
all I could see
"San Andreas Fault"
Go west
paradise is there
you'll have all that you can eat
of milk and honey over there
you'll be the brightest star
the world has ever seen
sun-baked slender heroine
of film and magazine
go west
paradise is there
you'll have all that you can eat
of milk and honey over there
you'll be the brightest light
the world has ever seen
the dizzy height of a jet-set life
you could never dream
your pale blue eyes
strawberry hair
lips so sweet
skin so fair
your future bright
beyond compare
it's rags to riches
over there
San Andreas Fault
moved it's fingers
through the ground
earth divided
plates collided
such an awful sound
San Andreas Fault
moved its fingers
through the ground
terra cotta shattered
and walls came
tumbling down
o promised land
o wicked ground
build a dream
tear it down
o promised land
what a wicked ground
build a dream
watch it fall down
"Beloved Wife"
(This one actually makes me cry, thinking of my Mom's death, and my Dad... they were married 53 years.
)You were the love
for certain of my life
you were simply my beloved wife
I don't know for certain
how I'll live my life
now alone without my beloved wife
my beloved wife
I can't believe
I've lost the very best of me
you were the love
for certain of my life
you were simply my beloved wife
I don't know for certain
how I'll live my life
now alone without my beloved wife
my beloved wife
I can't believe
I've lost the very best of me
you were the love
for certain of my life
for 50 years simply my beloved wife
with another love I'll never lye again
it's you I can't deny
it's you I can't defy
a depth so deep
into my grief
without my beloved soul
I renounce my life
as my right
now alone without my beloved wife
my beloved wife
my beloved wife
my love is gone she suffered long
in hours of pain
my love is gone
now my suffering begins
my love is gone
would it be wrong if I should
surrender all the joy in my life
go with her tonight?
my love is gone she suffered long
in hours of pain
my love is gone
would it be wrong if I should
just turn my face away from the light
go with her tonight?
--Vik