Favorite Song Lyrics of All Time. What Say You?

Spanish Johnny drove in from the underworld last night
With bruised arms and broken rhythm in a beat-up old Buick
But dressed just like dynamite
He tried sellin' his heart to the hard girls over on Easy Street
But they sighed "Johnny it falls apart so easy
And you know hearts these days are cheap"

The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays
Roy Orbison's singing for the lonely
Hey, that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again

Don't run back inside, darling
You know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey, you're alright
Oh, and that's alright with me

You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
End up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just to cover it up, now

Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A., now

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hands
Send me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said, "Son, if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said, "Son, don't you understand, now?"

I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off all the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms, now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go

I got a ’69 Chevy with a 396
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
She’s waiting tonight, down in the parking lot
Outside the 7-Eleven store

Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch
And he rides with me from town to town
We only run for the money, got no strings attached
We shut ’em up, and then we shut ’em down

Tonight, tonight the strip’s just right
I wanna blow ’em off in my first heat
Summer’s here and the time is right
For racin’ in the street

We take all the action we can meet
And we cover all the northeast state
When the strip shuts down, we run ’em in the street
From the fire roads to the interstate

Here in North East Ohio, back in 1803
James and Danny Heaton found the ore that was linin' Yellow Creek
They built a blast furnace here along the shore
And they made the cannonballs that helped the Union win the war

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here, darlin', in Youngstown

Well, my daddy worked the furnaces
Kept 'em hotter than hell
I come home from 'Nam, worked my way to scarfer
A job that'd suit the devil as well

Taconite coke and limestone
Fed my children and make my pay
Them smokestacks reachin' like the arms of God
Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
Sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here, darlin', in Youngstown

Well, my daddy come on the Ohio works
When he come home from World War II
Now the yard's just scrap and rubble
He said, "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do"

Yeah, these mills they built the tanks and bombs
That won this country's wars
We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam
Now we're wondering what they were dyin' for

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here, darlin', in Youngstown

From the Monongahela valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalachia
The story's always the same

700 tons of metal a day
Now, sir, you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

In Youngstown
In Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here, darlin', in Youngstown

When I die, I don't want no part of heaven
I would not do heaven's work well
I pray the devil comes and takes me
To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell

Lights out tonight, trouble in the heartland
Got a head-on collision smashin' in my guts, man
I'm caught in a crossfire that I don't understand
But there's one thing I know for sure, girl

I don't give a damn for the same old played-out scenes
Baby, I don't give a damn for just the in-betweens
Honey, I want the heart, I want the soul, I want control right now
You better listen to me, baby

Talk about a dream, try to make it real
You wake up in the night with a fear so real
You spend your life waiting for a moment that just don't come
Well, don't waste your time waiting

Badlands, you gotta live it everyday
Let the broken hearts stand as the price you've gotta pay
Keep pushin' 'til it's understood
And these badlands start treating us good

Working in the fields 'til you get your back burned
Working 'neath the wheels 'til you get your facts learned
Baby, I got my facts learned real good right now
You better get it straight, darling

Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied 'til he rules everything
I wanna go out tonight, I wanna find out what I got

Well, I believe in the love that you gave me
I believe in the faith that could save me
I believe in the hope and I pray that some day
It may raise me above these

Badlands, you gotta live it everyday
Let the broken hearts stand as the price you've gotta pay
Keep pushin' 'til it's understood
And these badlands start treating us good
Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa

For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
I wanna find one face that ain't looking through me
I wanna find one place, I wanna spit in the face of these

So is Lola glad or a man?  This makes me laugh every time.

I always interpreted that as Lola being a man and also glad that the narrator is a man.

Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah/Lake Shore Drive (1972)

(I used to think these lyrics were magical.)

There's a road I'd like to tell you about, lives in my home town
Lake Shore Drive, the road is called and it'll take you up or down
From rats on up to riches, fifteen minutes you can fly
Pretty blue lights along the way, help you right on by
And the blue lights shining with a heavenly grace, help you right on by

And there ain't no road just like it
Anywhere I found
Running south on Lake Shore Drive heading into town
Just slippin' on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound

And it starts up north from Hollywood, water on the driving side
Concrete mountains rearing up, throwing shadows just about five
Sometimes you can smell the green if your mind is feeling fine
There ain't no finer place to be, than running Lake Shore Drive
And there's no peace of mind, or place you see, than riding on Lake Shore Drive

And there ain't no road just like it
Anywhere I found
Running south on Lake Shore Drive, heading into town
Just slippin' on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound

And it's Friday night and you're looking clean
Too early to start the rounds
A ten minute ride from the Gold Coast back, make sure you're pleasure bound
And it's four o'clock in the morning and all of the people have gone away
Just you and your mind and Lake Shore Drive, tomorrow is another day
And the sunshine's fine in the morning time, tomorrow is another day

And there ain't no road just like it
Anywhere I found
Running south on Lake Shore Drive, heading into town
Just snaking on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound

Townes Van Zandt/Waiting Around To Die

Sometimes I don't know where this dirty road is taking me
Sometimes I don't even know the reason why
But I guess I'll keep a-gamblin', lots of booze and lots of ramblin'
But it's easier than just a-waitin' around to die

Oh one time, friends, I had a ma, even had a pa
Well, he beat her with a belt once 'cause she cried
She told him to take care of me, headed down to Tennessee
Well, it's easier than just a-waitin' around to die

I came age and I found a girl in a Tuscaloosa bar
Oh, she cleaned me out and hit it on the sly
Well, I tried to kill the pain, I bought some wine and hopped a train
Seemed easier than just a-waitin' around to die

Had a friend, said he knew where some easy money was
We robbed a man, and brother did we fly
But the posse caught up with me and drug me back to Muskogee
And it's two long years a-waitin' around to die

Oh, but now I'm out of prison
I got me a friend at last
He don't drink or steal or cheat or lie
Oh, his name's codeine
He's the nicest thing I've seen
Well, together we're gonna wait around and die
Yeah, together we're gonna wait around and die