Music is as old as mankind but to my mind there only few lyrics that really stand out without the voice that sings it and the instruments that play in the background. What I´m aiming at are lyrics of poetic value, that enrich everyday life by their insights, depth and meaning. Here are some of my favourites: "The blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and has overturned the order of the soul." (The Future / Leonard Cohen) "A soul in tension that’s learning to fly, condition grounded but determined to try, can’t keep my eyes from the circling skies, tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I." (Learning to Fly / Pink Floyd) "The man in me will hide sometimes to keep from being seen, But that's just because he doesn't want to turn into some machine." (The Man In Me / Bob Dylan) Please feel welcome if you also want to contribute some of your favourite music.
Come on guys! Is music really that volatile, that you can´t remember any of its lines? Here are some more from me: "Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be." (Come as you are / Nirvana) "You don't need a weather man, to know which way the wind blows." (Subterranean Homesick Blues / Bob Dylan) "Don´t follow leaders, watch the parking meters." (Subterranean Homesick Blues / Bob Dylan)
"I'm glad that my breasts are small and humble so you don't confuse them with mountains." It can be a big problem.
"Come on people now, smile on your brother and everybody get together, try to love one another right now." (Territorial pissings / Nirvana)
So, well then, I´ll continue my one man show: "All the years we'd spent with feeling ended with a cry, if I never lived without you, now you know I'd die." (Expecting To Fly / Neil Young) "There's an unceasing wind that blows through this night, and there's dust in my eyes that blinds my sight, and silence that speaks so much louder that words, of promises broken." (Sorrow / Pink Floyd)
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! Anyone participating in this thread MUST cite the artist of the quoted lyrics, just as the OP has done. Posts missing citation will be deleted. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!
.... Red water in the bathroom sink. Fever and the scum brown bowl. Blue Steel still begging, but it's indistinct. Someone's HI-Fi drumming Jelly Roll. Concrete concentration camp. Bashing in veins for peace. Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire. Fall into Lady Release. "Come with me, I know the way," she says. "It's down, down, down the dark ladder. Do you want to contact somebody first? I mean what does it really matter? You're going to come now. Or you're going to come later" ~ Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire (1972) by Joni Mitchell
I'm so far away, each step that I take's on my way home. Bon Jovi - Bed of roses. In fact, the whole song!
Dear God in his wisdom took you by the hand, God in his wisdom made you understand. God in his wisdom took you by the hand, God in his wisdom made you understand. God in his wisdom took you by the hand, God in his wisdom made you understand. God in his wisdom took you by the hand, God in his wisdom made you understand. In this colony, in this colony, in this colony, in this colony. Ian Curtis/Joy Division, Colony, 1980 Factory Records. 'In this colony, in this colony, is this coloneeee, In thus colo...fuck, my knee, fuck it.' Mat, bedroom [every couple of years have a little solo session, y'know, old times.]
Marillion used to be interesting. Like Garden Party, which probably loses something for we Americans: ------------------- Garden party held today, Invites call the debs to play, Social climbers polish ladders, Wayward sons again have fathers. "Hello, dad!" Edgy eggs and queuing cumbers, Rudely wakened from their slumbers, Time has come again for slaughter, On the lawns by still "Cam" waters. It's a slaughter. Champagne corks are firing at the sun, again, Swooping swallows chased by violins again, Strafed by Strauss they sulk in crumbling eaves, again, Oh God not again! Aperitifs consumed en masse, Display their owners on the grass, Couples loiter in the cloisters, Social leeches quoting Chaucer. Doctor's son a parson's daughter, Where, why not, and should they oughta, Please don't lie upon the grass, Unless accompanied by a fellow. (May I be so bold as to perhaps suggest Othello} Punting on the Cam is jolly fun they say, Beagling on the downs, oh please do come they say, Rugger is the tops, a game for men they say, Garden Party held today they say, Good God they say. -------------------- Or this one. Anything Fish-era will be more interesting than usual, if nothing else: -------------------- Vodka intimate, an affair with isolation in a Blackheath cell. Extinguishing the fires in a private hell, provoking the heartache to renew the license Of a bleeding heart poet in a fragile capsule, propping up the crust of the glitter conscience. Wrapped in the christening shawl of a hangover, baptised in the tears from the real. Drowning in the liquid seize on the Piccadilly line, rat race Scuttling through the damp electric labyrinth. (Caress Ophelia's hand with breathstroke ambition, An albatross in the marrytime tradition) Sheathed within the Walkman wear the halo of distortion, Aural contraceptive aborting pregnant conversation. (She turned the harpoon and it pierced my heart She hung herself around my neck) From the Time-Life-Guardians in their conscience bubbles, Safe and dry in my sea of troubles Nine to five with suitable ties I'm cast adrift as their side-show, peepshow, stereo hero, Becalm, bestill, bewitch, drowning in the real. The thief of Baghdad hides in Islington now, Praying deportation for his sacred cow, A legacy of romance from a twilight world, The dowry of a relative mystery girl. A Vietnamese flower, a Dockland union, A mistress of release from a magazine's thighs, This Magdalene contracts more than favours, The feeding hands of western promise hold her by the throat A son of a swastika of '45 parading a peroxide standard, Graffiti disciples conjure testaments of hatred, Aerosol wands whisper where the searchlights trim the barbed wire hedges, This is Brixton chess. A knight for Embankment folds his newspaper castle, A creature of habit, begs the boatman's coin, He'll fade with old soldiers in the grease stained roll call, And linger with the heartburn of Good Friday's last supper. Son watches father scan obituary columns in search of absent school friends, While his generation digests high fiber ignorance, Cowering behind curtains and the taped up painted windows, Decriminalised genocide, provided door to door Belsens, Pandora's box of holocausts gracefully cruising satellite infested heavens, Waiting - the season of the button. The penultimate migration, Radioactive perfumes, for the fashionably, for the terminally insane." (Marillion - Fugazi)
Some more from me: "Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze? Cold comfort for change? And did you exchange a walk on part in a war for a lead role in a cage?" (Wish You Were Here / Pink Floyd) "There are no answers here, when you look out, you don't see in. There was no promise made, the part you've played, the chance you took. There's no way out of here, when you come in, you're in for good." (There's no way out of here / David Gilmour) "All that you touch, all that you see, all that you taste, all you feel. All that is now, all that is gone, all that`s to come, and everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon." (Eclipse / Pink Floyd)
Pink Floyd line I like from Dogs (the album Animals): "...and it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around." Marillion and Pink Floyd probably give me the most fun in terms of lyrics. And Dylan - gotta have him in there too.
It's Polly Samson that writes most of Gilmour's lyrics. The other Floyd stuff posted here are Roger Waters' lyrics. 'The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face, and these visions of Johanna have now taken her place.' Bob Dylan Visions of Johanna 'My My, Hey Hey, Rock n roll is here to stay, It's better to burn out than to fade away, My my, hey hey.' Neil Young Hey Hey, My My (Into the black)
Those are actually by Chet Powers. It's a much older song, Get Together (best known version by the Youngbloods). The start of Territorial Pissings is Nirvana's bassist dicking around with it. The Manics are still solid with only Nicky Wire's words, but my favourite lyricist is/was Richey Edwards. Everything he wrote was phenomenal, although often depressing/controversial/grotesque. For example: "From feudal serf to spender This wonderful world of purchase power Just like lungs sucking on air Survival's natural as sorrow, sorrow, sorrow Under neon loneliness, motorcycle emptiness All we want from you are the kicks you've given us" (Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness) On a different wavelength, IMO the Les Miserables musical is the best adaptation of anything ever, partly because of Kretzmer's lyrics (English version). It's hard to pick favourites, and the poignancy may be lost in isolation, but I do love what the echo between these two songs says: "Will you give all you can give So that our banner may advance? Some will fall and some will live; Will you stand up and take your chance? The blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of France" (Les Miserables - Do You Hear the People Sing?) "Don't you fret, Monsieur Marius I don't feel any pain A little fall of rain Can hardly hurt me now You're here - that's all I need to know And you will keep me safe And you will keep me close And rain will make the flowers grow" (Les Miserables - A Little Fall of Rain)
Every time I hear this song I get chills, but here's some lyrics that really get to me. "Glass half empty, glass half full Well either way you won't be going thirsty Count your blessings not your flaws" "There's method in my madness There's no logic in your sadness You don't gain a single thing from misery Take it from me" and of course the chorus "You've got it all You lost your mind in the sound There's so much more You can reclaim your crown You're in control Rid of the monsters inside your head Put all your faults to bed You can be king again" King by Lauren Aquilina Then here's another one that is like a headrush of emotions, mostly inspiration to keep moving on despite the darkness and self-doubt. "Sometimes I'm afraid of the thoughts inside Nowhere to hide inside my mind I'm scared that you'll compare and I'll look a lifetime past repair I second guess myself to death, I re-solicit every step What if my words are meaningless? What if my heart's misleading this? I try to capture every moment as it comes to me Bottle up the memories and let them keep me company" "Try as I might to keep it together Why is recovery taking forever Fool the whole world, just until I get better I'm terrified I'll be faking forever" Then the chorus comes in... "When the hope of morning starts to fade in me I don't dare let darkness have its way with me And the hope of morning makes me worth the fight I will not be giving in tonight" Hope of Morning by Icon for Hire Finally the last song I will drop is a medley that's like an emotional journey to listen to... I can't explain it you just have to listen but I'll put in some lyrics that I absolutely love. "One more confession, discretion's not what I need to sell, I never needed a reason for keeping secrets from myself And now that's just how I tell I'm wide awake I'll wreck this if I have to tell me what good would that do I'll wreck this if I have to" "I just need a minute, I just need a breath, It gets very hard to drink to my continued success Slow down, it's better in the worst way, It's getting better in the worst way" "I could take it If you need to take this out on someone. If this is just a part I portray, I don't know how it got this way" Masterpiece Theatre III by Mariana's Trench Thanks for reading! (BTW all of Les Mis should go on here... just saying XD)
But it was long ago and it was far away, oh God it seems so very far. And if life is just a highway then the soul is just a car. And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are.
I once had a car where that line was actually on the rear view mirror!. I was cold and you were fire And I never knew how the pyre Could be burning On the edge of the ice field (Jim Steinman/Meatloaf) Has to be one of my faves
Some more great lines taken from the movie "Killing Zoe": "Farewell my friends i'm bound for canaan, i'm travelling through the wilderness, your company has been delightful, you just leave my mind distressed." (Canaan / Tomandandy)
And one more that appears to be rather mysterious: "Well the many began to scan around for the next plateau, some said it was Greenland and some say Mexico. Others decided it was nowhere, except for where they stood, but those were all just guesses, wouldn't help you if they could." (Plateau / Nirvana)
"I am still alive. Do i deserve to be? Is that the question? And if so, who answers?" (Alive / Pearl Jam)
"I get up when I want except on Wednesdays When I get rudely awakened by the dustmen" ~ Blur, Parklife "And you have never been in love" Until you've seen the dawn rise Behind the home for the blind" ~ Morrisey, First of the Gang to Die
So here some last ones from me, the theme is the passing of time: "There'll be war, there'll be peace. But everything one day will cease. All the iron turned to rust, All the proud men turned to dust." (Childhoods End / Pink Floyd) "The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast, the slow one now will later be fast, as the present now, will later be past." (The Times They Are A Changing / Bob Dylan)
"I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes, You'd know what a drag it is to see you." (Bob Dylan, Positively 4th Street).
Three silver foxes Started licking my ass So I twisted my nuts To keep from cumming too fast Steel Panther - Gangbang at the Old Folks Home.
