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What are your favourite lyrics or songlines?

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rub92me

Don't look back
Joined
24 April 2006
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The thread about what music ASF people are listening to inspired me to start this one. I'll start off with a few:

John Lennon - Working Class Hero
"There is room at the top they are telling you, still.
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill.
If you want to be like the folks on the hill. "

Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind (Bootleg Series Version)
"People see me all the time, and they just can't remember how to act.
Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts."
 
Plenty of good lyrics, but a few I can think of off-hand:

Tom Waits:

"He dreams of a waitress with Maxwell House eyes, marmalade thighs, and scrambled yellow hair."

A lot of Waits' lyrics are great, but that's a particular favourite.

Joni Mitchell has some great lyrics too, with "Coyote" being a favourite:

"Coyote's in the coffee shop
He's staring a hole in his scrambled eggs
He picks up my scent on his fingers
While he's watching the waitresses' legs."

And also from "Big Yellow Taxi":

"They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you dont know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot"

Also rather like those caustic lyrics by Alanis Morriset in "You ougtha know", which I won't repeat here...

There are some very moving jazz lyrics as well, but often the power comes from how they're sung and not just the words themselves.

Cheers,
GP
 
sublimes doin time
its sung sweetly and there's a big gap between the beginning of the sentence and its end...it goes
" I want to hold her...... ...... ....... ...... .....head under water"
it tickles me every time
 
Some others will come to mind but I've especially always liked Elton John's "Yellow Brick Road"

When are you gonna come down
When are you going to land
I should have stayed on the farm
I should have listened to my old man

You know you can't hold me forever
I didn't sign up with you
I'm not a present for your friends to open
This boy's too young to be singing the blues

So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can't plant me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough

Back to the howling old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny back toad
Oh I've finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road

What do you think you'll do then
I bet that'll shoot down your plane
It'll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
To set you on your feet again

Maybe you'll get a replacement
There's plenty like me to be found
Mongrels who ain't got a penny
Sniffing for tidbits like you on the ground


Julia
 
There's another one I like but can't remember all the lyrics - someone will know. It's, I think, Peter Sarstead:

"Where do you go to my lovely, when you're alone in your head?" etc

And then in a totally different style

Jimmy Buffet with


I wish I had a pencil thin moustache
The Boston Blackie kind
A two toned Ricky Ricardo jacket
And an autographed picture of Andy Devine

I remember bein' buck-toothed and skinny
Writin' fan letters to Sky's niece Penny
Oh I wish I had a pencil thin moustache
Then I could solve some mysteries too

Then it's Bandstand, Disneyland, growin' up fast
Drinkin' on a fake I.D.
Yeah, and Rama of the jungle was everyone's Bawana
But only jazz musicians were smokin' marijuana
Yeah, I wish I had a pencil thin moustache
Then I could solve some mysteries too

Then it's flat top, dirty bob, coppin' a feel
Grubbin' on the livin' room floor (so sore)
Yeah, they send you off to college, try to gain a little knowledge,
But all you want to do is learn how to score

Yeah, but now I'm gettin' old, don't wear underwear
I don't go to church and I don't cut my hair
But I can go to movies and see it all there
Just the way that it used to be

Julia
 
Julia said:
There's another one I like but can't remember all the lyrics - someone will know. It's, I think, Peter Sarstead:

"Where do you go to my lovely, when you're alone in your head?" etc
Click to expand...

I think it's along the lines of:

Where do you go to my lovely, when you're alone in your bed?
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to see inside your head
 
Do you still like it with bed instead of head Julia?
Googled it - Peter Sarstedt 1969:
"But where do you go to my lovely
When you're alone in your bed
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes I do "
 
I like songs that tell stories... ballads etc.

Harry Chapin has some excellent ones, Dylan as well.

Slim Dusty did "The Man from Snowy River" in a song so I guess that now counts as lyrics. One of my favs.
 
Days of Old by BB King and Jules Taub

Way back yonder in the days of old
The men was workin' but not savin' any dough
Then came a woman lookin' real cool
She said to herself, "Now, that's my fool"

I'm gonna ball tonight
I'm gonna ball tonight
Well, I can't break the rule
'Cause every man is some woman's fool

I met a girl on the avenue
She was shy and I was blue
Like a teacher and a student in the school
She looked at me and said, "You're my fool"

Then refrains of verses 1 & 2.

Eric Clapton and BB did a great version not so long ago. Absolute rockin'

But then there is the magnificant oratorio Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah"

Hallelujah for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord,
and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah!

Have heard the composition a number of times and it never fails to thrill me.
 
Here 's a bit from Massive attack

This girl I know needs some shelter
She don't believe anyone can help her
She's doing so much harm, doing so much damage
But you don't want to get involved
You tell her she can manage
And you can't change the way she feels
But you could put your arms around her

I know you want to live yourself
But could you forgive yourself
If you left her just the way
You found her

Just a piece of the song Protection

Cheers Martin
 
Favourite song, Old Louis Armstrong singing

Lyrics for: What A Wonderful World

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"

I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world

another is Billy Joel doing Piano Man
 
Fantastic macca one of our favourite songs....thanks

I ain't gonna work
I ain't gonna work no more

Stay in bed
Til' I'm satisfied
And let my head
Take a softer ride

I ain't gonna work
I ain't gonna work no more

I ain't gonna work
I ain't gonna work no more

Find me a schack
Where it's cool inside
Turn my back
On the cold outside

I ain't gonna work
I ain't gonna work no more

I could go back
To the job I had
But the same old thing
Only drives me mad, so

I ain't gonna work
I ain't gonna work no more
Never again
Will I have to be..down

I ain't gonna work
I ain't gonna work no more

Stay in bed
Til' I'm satisfied
And let my head
Take a softer ride

I ain't gonna work
I ain't gonna work no more
 
Some old 1980's Marillion - the Fish era. I'll have a pint of whatever he's on.

On the outskirts of nowhere,
On a ring-road to somewhere,
On the verge of indecision,
I'll always take the roundabout way.

Also so known as "a day in the life of a novice trader"

By the way - he's still at it. I just found a great solo album from him called "Vigil in a wilderness of mirrors"

Prog Rock Forever!!!!!
 
Some excellent stuff so far. I'll throw in another one that always makes me laugh:
Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz
"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz.
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends." etc.
 
A real oldie. The Nearness of You by Hoagy Carmichael. It just ooozes lust!

I need no soft lights to enchant me
If you'll only grant me the right
To hold you ever so tight
And to feel in the night the nearness of you
 
"Gunter glieben glauten globen"

A couple of questions for a Friday night...

1. Which TWO international hit songs during the past 25 years start with these words?

2. Whose voice is it?

No prizes but I'll post the answers in a day or two. I'll post some hints tomorrow night if nobody has got it by then.
 
Billy Holiday's track "Strange Fruit"

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
 
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