I have always been the kind of person who primarily listens to song lyrics when listening to music. (For example, my girlfriend listens to the music and sometimes completely misses the text.) And lately I have been looking at songs differently. Nowadays when I listen to lyrics I can't help but focus on the story they're telling and so very often it just makes me feel a lot. There are some artists out there whose songs tell such a vivid story I can almost see it, I almost feel like I'm there with them. A genre in which this happens a lot, for me, is country. And one artist who I think is a master at it is... Taylor Swift. Just take a look at the first verse of her song All Too Well: This sets the scene for me so much, I can hardly explain it. The song is about a breakup and then at the near end of the song, after detailing how they fall apart, she sings: In a 5-minute song she has managed to make me feel like I lived the beginning, the middle and the end of a beautiful, yet doomed relationship. And that darned throwback to that scarf, that goes right to the heart. There's a bunch of other songs that make me feel as if I was in a certain moment. If You Only Knew and Unity by Shinedown; How Long Will I Love You, originally by The Waterboys, but the linked version by Jon Boden, Sam Sweeney & Ben Coleman packs that extra bit of emotion. So what are the songs that always manage to transport you to another world, that somehow draw you in so much that it almost feels like you're living it?
The old guard... Nazareth, Queen, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Kansas. Freddie Mercury's Killer Queen is sheer bloody poetry. The old song by Kansas, Dust in the Wind is what life means to me. The beauty of the moment we can never relive. I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity Dust in the wind All they are is dust in the wind
Kansas are insane songwriters! Absolutely love them. And Freddie is one of a kind, I can't quite think of anyone who compares
Modern day rap music. It moves me from wherever its being played to wherever it isn't. On topic - This song, While I'm not a follower of any of Abrahams religions, that song is just a masterpiece to me.
Add Yess, Boston, Journey and Scorpions to that list. Love the rock-ballad songs. Those are some of the only lyrics I can listen to.
I had a good laugh, thanks for that! And also for that video. I love that song and this was an amazing rendition. This is my personal favorite:
Billie Holiday's "I'm a Fool to Want You" is a big one. That song is pure pain and longing and heartbreak, and her voice was wrecked with heroin when she recorded it. The standard "I'll Be Seeing You" is my favorite bittersweet memories song of goodbye. That's my goodbye to a friend song. The Billie Holiday version was used as the last message NASA sent to Opportinity, which was a poignant choice. I posted those two in the music thread before I saw this thread. "Zoey Jane" by Staind always gets me, because it reminds me of my dad. We were really close when I was little, but alcohol changed him so I have no memory of that person. The lyrics are words a lot of kids would want to hear from their parent, I think. The song that's guaranteed to wring tears out of me if it's sung well is this one. The melody is haunting, and the lyrics compliment them perfectly. This performance is particularly beautiful:
Trasformations, memory lanes, going deep inside mind and feelings, past friends, simple complexity... just something that I don't talk much about, used or unused life options....
Steven Wilson is a phenomenal songwriter. Listen to The Raven That Refused to Sing or Heartattack in a Layby. Also, Neal Morse has written and performed brilliant concept albums. Sola Scriptura comes to mind. They're both musical geniuses though.
Fun fact: I grew up in the 1980s, and have always been a big fan of heavy metal. Back then (and to some degree even today), people joked that if you want to be a singer, but can't sing, there's always heavy metal. You don't need to sing. All you need to do is shout random words (often offensive) into the microphone as loud as you can. But in truth, many heavy metal bands have some of the best lyrics I've ever heard, and it's often for tons of occasions. Take war, as a good example. I'm strongly against war, and I have heard plenty of anti-war songs that really get to me. Take Warfair by Clawfinger. It's a really angry song, and starts off with: Do you know how it feels to be down in the dirt With a bullet in your breast and blood on your shirt Lying in a bloodpool down in a pit Covered with the corpse and the blood and the shit How does it feel to have a gun to your head When you know that you'd be much better off dead Looking right down through the barrel of a gun Don't try to tell me that you think it's fun And right there is the true horror or war. War isn't fun. War isn't going half across the globe to be a hero. War is pure terror, and Clawfinger nails it. But there are tons of songs for any occasion, of course. Manowar called themselves the Kings of Metal, and especially their early stuff was a bit... weird. We're talking the band dressing up as straight from a Conan comic book on the covers of their albums, and sure, they might have the word "Hail Satan!" in the lyrics of a song. When they're not singing about fighting, drinking and all that stuff. But even they have their brilliant moment, like the song Blood Brothers: When the world turns you away A friend will not say no There is strength that we all have It's not the strength we show And in your darkest hour In your darkest nights Whatever life will do I am here for you They also have the song Father, and translated it to at least 16 different languages, to please the fans all over the world. Who does that? But I really appreciate the gesture. It's a really beautiful song on its own, but it's also one of the few songs my father loved as much as me. He died about a year and a half ago, and the song still makes me cry every time. Not bad for a heavy metal band. All you need to do to be a heavy metal singer is should offensive stuff into a microphone, after all. Or so people say. Clawfinger - Warfair Manowar - Blood Brothers Manowar - Father (English version, lyrics included)
Winger, Steely Dan, Silly Wizard, Led Zep, Van Halen (pre Hagar), The Cars, Mastodon. That sort of thing. Folk music from the British isles and America is a favorite of mine as well, especially in terms of lyrics.
Iron Maiden is easily one of the oldest, Brittish heavy metal bands around today (and still active!), and unlike most bands, they have kept making excellent music all these years. In fact, the very last song on their very last album to date is one of my favorite songs of all time, and certainly one that moves me on so many levels. Not bad. The song is called Empire Of The Clouds, and tells the tragic story of an airship simply called R101. Not a very catchy name, and it's understandable people almost forgot all about it. Especially with a certain Hindenburg having a similar fate a few years later. But it's not just the lyrics and story I like. The full story is that the airship was the biggest, baddest airship at the time, not so different from Titanic two decades earlier. The song starts really slow, indicating the early morning, peace, and all that. But it doesn't take long before warnings of a storm comes, and the song starts getting "heavier" (more guitars, drums and all that.) After the airship sets off, the guitars interestingly starts with a loud rythm with three short notes, then three long, then three short over and over. In case you don't know, that's morse code for SOS. Now the song really kicks in, and we're facing full storm. This goes on for a while, before things finally calm down again, as the airship finally crashes into the ground, killing almost everyone. There were 54 people onboard. 48 of them died. The final lines of the song makes me cry every time, even simply by writing them. Now a shadow on a hill, the angel of the east The empire of the clouds may rest in peace And in a country churchyard laid head to the mast Eight and forty souls who came to die in France
A few more comes to mind. Sonata Arctica has a great song called Shamandalie I really love. I know the name might sound weird at first, but it's actually just "sham and a lie" put together into one word. The song is about two kids who used to be best friends, but then love got involved, and that was that. Love denied, friendship died. It's a song that's really special to me, as it happened to me. We used to be best friends, but I like girls, and she did not. So that was that. Guns N' Roses also have some beautiful songs. November Rain is an obvious one, and another one that's very personal to me. But they have lesser known songs too, like Estranged. The whole song could have been about me, but I especially love the last part: I'll never find anyone to replace you Guess I'll have to make it through, this time - oh this time Without you I knew the storm was getting closer And all my friends said I was high But everything we've ever known's here I never wanted it to die And, of course, there's one of my favorite GnR songs of all time. Coma. I've always loved it, and it's yet another song that could so easily have been about me. It's about suicide, and let's just say I've tried that a few times in my past. But my father did commit suicide a year and a half ago, and it made the song way more powerful than it already was. You live your life like it's a coma Won't you tell me why we'd wanna? With all the reasons you give, it's It's kinda hard to believe But who am I to tell you that I've seen Any reason why you should stay? Maybe we'd be better off without you, anyway You got a one way ticket, on your last chance ride Got a one way ticket to your suicide Got a one way ticket, and there's no way out alive An' all this crass communication that has left you in the cold Isn't much for consolation when you feel so weak and old But if home is where the heart is, then there's stories to be told No, you don't need a doctor, no one else can heal your soul Got your mind in submission, got your life on the line But nobody pulled the trigger, they just stepped aside They be down by the water While you watch 'em waving goodbye They be calling in the morning, they be hanging on the phone They be waiting for an answer, but you know nobody's home When the bell's stopped ringing It was nobody's fault, but your own There were always ample warnings There were always subtle signs And you would have seen it coming But we gave you too much time And when you said that no one's listening Why'd your best friend drop a dime? Sometimes, we get so tired of waiting for a way to spend our time An' it's so easy to be social It's so easy to be cool Yeah, it's easy to be hungry, when you ain't got shit to lose And I wish that I could help you with what you hope to find But I'm still out here, waiting Watching reruns of my life When you reach the point of breaking Know it's gonna take some time To heal the broken memories That another man would need just to survive
As for what song moves me: I have so many. But there is one that holds a special place in my heart. My favorite song to listen to on a quiet road, or parked near a lake at night. Honestly, it's my favorite song, period.
