Lyrics You Love

[Sydneyfan]

You know those lyrics that just stay in your head long after the song is finished? Post them here.

Two of my favourites:


Will I starve in this eclipse while you treat every hungry kiss Like one more mouth to feed? - Josh Ritter, One More Mouth




The day being clear
The sky being bright
He came up on the left
Like a streak of light
Like a drunken fuck
On a Saturday night
Up came the Bottle of Smoke

-Bottle Of Smoke, The Pogues

[foggy]

I love that Josh Ritter lyric. I have literally thousands of favorite lyrics. I'll just add one right now that I've always loved by Nick Drake from his song Northern Sky:

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky.

[Sydneyfan]

I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea....that's lovely.

One more I really enjoy -

Friday's for funerals
Saturday's for brides
Guess I'll take Sunday as mine
Cause on weekends I perform miracles
Turning paycheques into wine
One working weeks' wage at a time - Paycheques, Tex Perkins

[foggy]

Pretty much anything Leonard Cohen wrote is fantastic, he even talks with the heart of a poet. I really love his Chelsea Hotel #2. I'll quote just a bit of it:

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."

[blueone]

The King's crossing was the main attraction
Dominoes falling in a chain reaction
The scraping subject ruled by fear told me
Whiskey works better than beer
The judge is on vinyl, decisions aren't final
And nobody gets a reprieve
And every wave is tidal
If you hang around you're going to get wet
I can't prepare for death any more than I already have
All you can do now is watch the shells
The game looks easy, that's why it sells

Frustrated fireworks inside your head
Are going to stand and deliver dark instead
The method acting that pays my bills
Keeps the fat man feeding in Beverly Hills
I got a heavy metal mouth, it hurls obscenity
And I get my check from the trash treasury
Because I took my own insides out

It don't matter cause I have no sex life
And all I wanna do now is inject my ex wife
I've seen the movie
And I know what happens
It's Christmas time
And the needle's on the tree
A skinny Santa is bringing something to me
His voice is overwhelming
But his speech is slurred
And I only understand every other word

Open your parachute and grab your gun
Float down like an omen, a setting sun
Read the part and return at five
It's a hell of a role if you can keep it alive
But I don't care if I fuck up
I'm going on a date
With a rich white lady
Ain't life great?
Gi'me one good reason not to do it
(Because We love you)
So do it.

This is the place where time reverses
And dead men talk to all the pretty nurses
Instruments shine on a silver tray
Don't let me get carried away
Don't let me get carried away
Don't let me be carried away


King's Crossing - Elliott Smith

How can you write that song and not commit suicide? :(

[maddiehope]

Oh my God, this is going to take me forever...and I'll probably end up posting a dozen times - I apologize ahead of time...

Danko/Manuel - The Drive-By Truckers

Let the night air cool you off.
Tilt your head back and try to cough.
Don't say nothing 'bout the things you never saw.
Let the night air cool you off.

I ain't living like I should.
A little rest might do me good.
Got to sinking in the place where I once stood.
Now I ain't living like I should.

Can you hear that singing? Sounds like gold.
Maybe I can only hear it in my head.
Fifteen years ago we owned that road
now it's rolling over us instead.

Richard Manuel is dead.

God forbid you call their bluff.
Like the nightmares ain't enough.
Remember when we used to think that we were tough?
God forbid you call their bluff.

First they make you out to be
the only pirate on the sea.
Then they say Danko would have sounded just like me.
"Is that the man you want to be?"

Can you hear that song? It sounds like gold.
Maybe I could make it bigger overseas.
Fifteen years ago we owned this road
now it only gives us somewhere else to leave.

Something else you can't believe.

Can you hear that singing? Sounds like gold.
Maybe I can hear poor Richard from the grave
singin' where to reap and when to sow
when you've found another home you have to leave.

Something else you can't believe.


Jesus, SO...MANY...LYRICS...GOING...THROUGH...HEAD!!! :banghead

[timmyhoover]

Beeswing
Richard Thompson

I was nineteen when I came to town
They called in the Summer of Love
They were burningbabies, burning flags
The Hawks against the Doves

I took a job in the STeamie
Down on Cauldrum Street
I fell in love with a laundry girl
Was working next to me

CHORUS
She was a rare thing
Fine as a beeswing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child
She was running wild, she said
As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay
And you wouldn't want me any other way

Brown hair zig-zag round her face
And a look of half-surprise
Like a fox caught in the headlights
There was an animal in her eyes

She said, young man, O can't you see
I'm not the factory kind
If you don't take me out of here
I'll surely lose my miind

CHORUS

We busked around the market towns
And picked fruit down in Kent
And we could tinker lamps and pots
And knives wherever we went

And I said that we might settle down
Get a few acres dug
Fire burning in the hearth
And babies on the rug

She said O man, you foolish man
It surely sounds like hell
You might be lord of half the world
You'll not own me as well

CHORUS

We was camping down the Gower one time
The work was pretty good
She thought we shouldn't wait for frost
And I thought maybe we should

We were drinking more in those days
And tempers reached a pitch
Like a fool I let her run
With the rambling itch

Last I hear she's sleeping out
Back on Derby beat
White Horse in her hip pocket
And a wolfhound at her feet

And they say she even marriend once
A man named Romany Brown
But even a Gypsy caravan
Was too much settliing down

And they say her flower is faded now
Hard weather and hard booze
But maybe that's just hte price you pay
For the chains you refuse

She was a rare thing
Fine as a beeswing
And I missher more than ever words could say
If I could just taste
All of her wildness now
If I could hold her in my arms today
Then I wouldn't want her any other way

[Sydneyfan]

Every time, every year
The travelers come and go
You see them landing with their pale wings
And flying back to the snow
And the summer comes marching in
With his heavy boots on
Kicking along the blacktop
Sidewalks of A1A
The young girls in their bare feet
Cigarettes smoking
Looking every which way
Wishing and hoping

And you want the night just to let you sleep
And be on his way
Wrap you up in some cool sheets
And have nothing to say

Isn't hard sometimes
Isn't it lonely?
How I still hang around here
And there's nothing to hold me

-Florida, Patty Griffin

[maddiehope]

After "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" I always sing the last verse again:

I started out on Burgandy but soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough
But the joke was on me there was nobody even there to bluff
I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough

[Sydneyfan]

This has been stuck in my head for two days running.....


There are things I will do
For a hatchet job too.
Ante up, there's a new kid in town,
It won't take long
For what's red hot and blonde
To be ashes on the ground

The Manhattan skyline
A bed and a byline
I've come and I've cradled your face
I won't be the last one to commit crimes of passion
With a shoot-out and a chase.

Over and over and over and over
I'm beckoning, begging
I keep hanging on
Going once, going twice,
Mercy God, Jesus Christ
I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone

- I'm Gone, Shawn Colvin

[Sydneyfan]

Reason number 101 why I love Justin Rutledge's songwriting.

This Is War

I've got Alaska on my mind
the mountain range a crooked spine
frostbitten moon among the pines
sometimes it snows

The rear view mirror telling lies
of where we've been and how times flies
if you can't look me in the eyes
then so it goes

Take your dress
from off the floor
I'm not the man
I was before
Ain't this what we've
been fighting for?

My father lived an honest man
he made a living by his hands
quiet men take quiet stands
sometimes he fell

Beauty's house I'll never find
I can't see the vineyard for the vines
I want to hear your hand in mine
Ocean In A Shell

It's in the air
It's on the shore
It's in our bed
It's at the door
Ain't this what we've
been fighting for?
Honey this is war

[Blindtiger]

Whenever I think of lyrics that blow me away, I always remember these...

Carve your name
Carve your name in ice and wind
Search for where
Search for where the rivers end
Or where the rivers start
Do everything that’s in you
That you feel to be your part
But never give your love, my friend,
Unto a foolish heart

Leap from ledges
Leap from ledges high and wild
Learn to speak
Speak with wisdom like a child
Directly from the heart
Crown yourself the king of clowns
Or stand way back apart
But never give your love, my friend,
Unto a foolish heart

Shun a friend
Shun a brother and a friend
Never look
Never look around the bend
Or check a weatherchart
Sign the mona lisa
With a spray can, call it art
But never give your love, my friend,
Unto a foolish heart

A foolish heart will call on you
To toss your dreams away
Then turn around and blame you
For the way you went astray
A foolish heart will cost you sleep
And often make you curse
A selfish heart is trouble
But a foolish heart is worse

Bite the hand
Bite the hand that bakes your bread
Dare to leap
Where the angels fear to tread
Till you are torn apart
Stoke the fires of paradise
With coals from hell to start
But never give your love, my friend
Unto a foolish heart

-Written by Robert Hunter
-Music by Jerry Garcia
-Recorded by the Grateful Dead

[foggy]

They're tearing up streets again.
They're building a new hotel.
The Mayor's out killing kids to keep taxes down,
and me and my anger sit folding a paper bird,
letting the curtains turn to beating wings.
Wish I had a socket-set to dismantle this morning.
And just one pair of clean socks.
And a photo of you.

When you get off work tonight,
meet me at the construction site,
and we'll write some notes to tape to the heavy machines,
like "We hope they treat you well. Hope you don't work too hard.
We hope you get to be happy sometimes."
Bring your swiss-army knife, and a bottle of something,
and I'll bring some spraypaint and a new deck of cards.

Hey I found the safest place to keep all our tenderness.
Keep all those bad ideas. Keep all our hope.
It's here in the smallest bones, the feet and the inner-ear.
It's such an enormous thing to walk and to listen.
I'd like to fall asleep to the beat of you breathing
in a room near a truck stop on a highway somewhere.
You are a radio. You are an open door.
I am a faulty string of blue Christmas lights.
You swim through frequencies.
You let that stranger in, as I'm blinking off and on and off again.

We've got a lot of time.
Or maybe we don't, but I'd like to think so, so let me pretend.
These are my favorite chords.
I know you like them too.
When I get a new guitar, you can have this one and sing me a lullaby.
Sing me the alphabet. Sing me a story I haven't heard yet.

[SkortBrun]

Like a cloud his fingers explode
On the typewriter ribbon, the shadow grows
His hearts in a bowl behind the bank
And every evening when he get home
To make his supper and eat it alone
His black shirt cries
While his shoes get cold

It's just a dream he keeps having
And it doesnt seem to mean anything
And it doesnt seem to mean anything

One summer, a suicide
Another autumn, a travelers guide
He hits snooze twice before he dies
And every evening when he get home
To make his supper and eat it alone
His black shirt cries
While his shoes get cold

It's just a dream he keeps having
And it doesnt seem to mean anything
It's just a dream he keeps having

He feels lucky to have you here
In his kitchen, in your chair
Sometimes he forgets that youre even there

It's just a dream he keeps having
And it doesnt seem to mean anything
It's just a dream he keeps having
It's just a dream
And it doesnt seem to mean anything

"Summerteeth" by Wilco

[ArkhamAsylum]

This has always been one of my favorites when it comes to memorable lyrics.




I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel
I was staring in my empty coffee cup
I was thinking that the gypsy wasn't lyin'
All the salty margaritas in Los Angeles
I'm gonna drink 'em up

And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill

Don't the sun look angry through the trees
Don't the trees look like crucified thieves
Don't you feel like Desperados under the eaves
Heaven help the one who leaves

Still waking up in the mornings with shaking hands
And I'm trying to find a girl who understands me
But except in dreams you're never really free
Don't the sun look angry at me

I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel
I was listening to the air conditioner hum
It went mmmmmm..

Look away...
(Look away down Gower Avenue, Look away....)

Warren Zevon "Desperados Under The Eaves"

[littleamen]

Sittin in the kitchen, a house in Macon
Loretta's singing on the radio
Smell of coffee, eggs, and bacon
Car wheels on a gravel road

Been there (not Macon, specifically, but there)
Heard that (on the radio)
Smelled that (bacon frying mixed with greasy-spoon coffee)
Heard that too (pulling in our driveway)

[Sydneyfan]

Mary you're covered in roses, you're covered in ashes
You're covered in rain
You're covered in babies, you're covered in slashes
You're covered in wilderness, you're covered in stains
You cast aside the sheet, you cast aside the shroud
Of another man, who served the world proud
You greet another son, you lose another one
On some sunny day and always you stay, Mary

Jesus says, Mother I couldn't stay another day longer
Flys right by and leaves a kiss upon her face
While the angels are singin' his praises in a blaze of glory
Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place

Mary, she moves behind me ,
She leaves her fingerprints everywhere
Everytime the snow drifts, everytime the sand shifts
Even when the night lifts, she's always there

Mary you're covered in roses, you're covered in ruin
you're covered in secrets
You're covered in treetops, you're covered in birds
who can sing a million songs without any words
You cast aside the sheets, you cast aside the shroud
of another man, who served the world proud
You greet another son, you lose another one
on some sunny day and always you'll stay
Mary.


A song Patty Griffin wrote for her grandmother.

[littleamen]

While we're given love to Patty....
from Long Ride Home, one of my fav songs ever

"Long Ride Home"

Long black limousine
Shiniest car I've ever seen
The back seat is nice and clean
She rides as quiet as a dream
Someone dug a hole six long feet in the ground
I said goodbye to you and I threw my roses down
Ain't nothing left at all in the end of being proud
With me riding in this car, and you flying through the clouds

I've had some time to think about you
And watch the sun sink like a stone
I've had some time to think about you
On the long ride home

[ewok.online]

Well a person can work up a mean mean thirst
after a hard day of nothin' much at all
Summer's passed, it's too late to cut the grass
There ain't much to rake anyway in the fall

And sometimes I just ain't in the mood
to take my place in back with the loudmouths
You're like a picture on the fridge that's never stocked with food
I used to live at home, now I stay at the house

And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?

Well a drinkin' buddy that's bound to another town
Once the police made you go away
And even if you're in the arms of someone's baby now
I'll take a great big whiskey to ya anyway

Everybody wants to be someone's here
Someone's gonna show up, never fear
'Cause here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one who feels ashamed?

Kneeling alongside old Sad Eyes
He says opportunity knocks once then the door slams shut
All I know is I'm sick of everything that my money can buy
The fool who wastes his life, God rest his guts

First the lights, then the collar goes up, and the wind begins to blow
Turn your back on a pay-you-back last call
First the glass, then the leaves that pass, then comes the snow
Ain't much to rake anyway in the fall...


The Replacements - Here Comes A Regular
this song is what I use to describe my life, as of late.

[burgerqueen]

I've always loved the lyrics to this:

So be it, I'm your crowbar
If that's what I am so far
Until you get out of this mess
And I will pretend
That I don't know of your sins
Until you are ready to confess
But all the time, all the time
I'll know, I'll know
And you can use my skin
To bury secrets in
And I will settle you down
And at my own suggestion,
I will ask no questions
While I do my thing in the background
But all the time, all the time
I'll know, I'll know
Baby-I can't help you out, while she's still around
So for the time being, I'm being patient
And amidst this bitterness
If you'll just consider this-even if it don't make sense
All the time-give it time
And when the crowd becomes your burden
And you've early closed your curtains,
I'll wait by the backstage door
While you try to find the lines to speak your mind
And pry it open, hoping for an encore
And if it gets too late, for me to wait
For you to find you love me, and tell me so
It's ok, don't need to say it.


Fiona Apple - "I Know"

[Jimmy James]

Bob Dylan - With God on Our Side

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

[Sydneyfan]

I love the imagery in this song.



Well, the streetlights shine down on Blessing Avenue
Lovers they walk by, holding hands two by two
A breeze crosses the porch, bicycle spokes spin 'round
My jackets on, I'm out the door
And tonight I'm gonna burn this town down

The girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes, pass me by

A kids rubber ball smacks
Off the gutter 'neath the lamp light
Big bank clock chimes
Off go the sleepy front porch lights
Downtown the stores alight as the evening's underway
Things been a little tight
But I know their gonna turn my way

And the girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes, pass me by

Frankie's diner, an old friend on the edge of town
The neon sign spinning round
Like a cross over the lost and found
The fluorescent lights flick over Pop's Grill
Shaniqua brings the coffee and asks "Fill?" and says "Penny for your thoughts now my boy, Bill"

She went away, she cut me like a knife
Hello beautiful thing, maybe you could save my life
In just a glance, down here on magic street
Loves a fool's dance
And I ain't got much sense, but I still got my feet

The girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes, pass me by

The girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes, pass me by


Girls in Their Summer Clothes - Springsteen.

[Quincy]

I love the imagery in this song.



Oh C, the coffee shop called, you left your beret there again.

[Sydneyfan]

Oh C, the coffee shop called, you left your beret there again.

Great, I hope my copy of Chant Your Way to Inner Peace and Weight Loss by Yogi Bhare was with it, I've searched the yurt from top to bottom looking.



ps: STFU :lol

[Quincy]

Chant Your Way to Inner Peace and Weight Loss by Yogi Bhare

How's that working out for you?

[Sydneyfan]

How's that working out for you?

Not so good. I figured out a way to chant and eat at the same time.

[Quincy]

At least you've stopped punching the baby seal

[Sydneyfan]

At least you've stopped punching the baby seal

The wisdom of Yogi Bhare has taught me much. Even if the seal deserves it, no punching from now on. :upyours

[Quincy]

I just kick an otter now anyway.

[Sydneyfan]

I just kick an otter now anyway.

Every otter you kick turns your aura a little blacker - The Dalai Lama

[Quincy]

What if it's the same dead one?

[Sydneyfan]

What if it's the same dead one?

Oh, dead otters are no prob. Kai? Thx, Bai. -The Dalai Lama

[Quincy]

Me and Mr. Lama roll deep.

[sbors]

There's just no easy way to say
That everything you thought was right was wrong today
That is all, Go away.
--That is all, Slobberbone

She had faded jeans and soft black leather
She had eyes so blue they looked like weather
When she needed me, I wasn't around
That's the way it goes, it'll all work out.
--It'll all work out, Tom Petty

I like lyrics that make me think someone can be a great writer by stating the obvious in a simple way that is somehow poetic.

[Libertine4Life]

France - The Libertines

The Ideal girl in London from France
Came over then left me
She left me entranced
Now I have to get by once again on my own
Nothing but memories

So I remember your eyes that unique shade of brown
While these blue eyes of mine they stay closed
I kissed you goodbye
On the N109 I choked as I watched the bus go

Choking and smoking to your angelic soul
choking and smoking myself into a hole
Where the only way out is to sleep and to dream
And to cry out your name.

[clewis]

All of Tom Waits' "Chocolate Jesus."

[hildegoat]

I love Rhett Miller's lyrics. This is from Adelaide, definitely one of my favorite Old 97s songs:

Her eyes are all but fixed upon her coffee cup
And looking down she tells you things are looking up

[Libertine4Life]

I love Rhett Miller's lyrics.[/I]

i like the lyrics in 'Come Around'

[littleamen]

There's just no easy way to say
That everything you thought was right was wrong today
That is all, Go away.
--That is all, Slobberbone

She had faded jeans and soft black leather
She had eyes so blue they looked like weather
When she needed me, I wasn't around
That's the way it goes, it'll all work out.
--It'll all work out, Tom Petty

I like lyrics that make me think someone can be a great writer by stating the obvious in a simple way that is somehow poetic.

:upyours Love that Petty song.

[Layne]

Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Now I don’t know where I am
I don’t know where I’ve been
But I know where I want to go


- Bright Eyes, First Day of my Life

[Sydneyfan]

This train don't stop at the stations of the cross
No reasons left to believe
Trying to stay awake gave yourself a caffeine headache
To hide the taste of sleep

In choosing to forget you cut away the safety net that holds your heart, holds your heart
And you go in search of youth touching up your empire roots
But these days we don't know how to march
Satisfied with a knife in your spine you're bloodless

So tell me again what am I feeling you know me so well
So what am I feeling and how can you tell
I've got a feeling you don't know

We think that we're the ones we're the bright unconquered suns
Wait a while we'll watch the light grow stale
And we smell so very clean but we're the
Oil in this machine and this machine
This machine is going wrong

So choose your sides when it comes to the fight you're bloodless
So tell me again what am I feeling you know me so well
So what am I feeling and how can you tell
I've got a feeling you don't know

You choose your side but in the fight I see your blood run white, your blood run white
And I've seen it all before and I see it again

And I see it again
So what am I feeling you know me so well
So what am I feeling and how can you tell
I've got a feeling you don't know.

Bloodless - Tom McRae