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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

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Dyolf · 07-29-2007 08:59 AM

Polly Samson
rocker

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.....

I like Polly's style too......'Pocketful Of Stones' is brilliant, and so's OAI's title cut.

Yeah, Pete Townshend is a great lyricist.

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 Cool

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

Devil

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