For some reason, certain arrangements of basic parts of speech attached to pitch and cadence got themselves permanently attached to my (remaining) brain cells.
What are your favs?
Here's my Top 3.
#1:
"Her teeth were like the stars above because they come out every night." Homer and Jethro, Live at the Country Club (Side one)
#2:
"They'll never forgot you, until somebody new comes along." (I think you know this one)
#3:
I had an internal UFC level battle going on in my head for this position, with no less than 11 contenders duking it out. So, I just gave up, and passed the baton to you guys.
The light in this place is really bad
Like being at the bottom of a stream
Any minute now
I’m expecting to wake up from a dream
Means so much, the softest touch
By the grave of some child, who neither wept or smiled
I pondered my faith in the rain
I’ve been dreamin’ of you, that’s all I do
And it’s driving me insane
Somewhere dawn is breaking
Light is streaking ‘cross the floor
Church bells are ringing
I wonder who they’re ringing for
Travel under any star
You’ll see me wherever you are
The shadowy past is awake and so vast
I’m sleeping in the palace of pain
I’ve been dreamin’ of you, that’s all I do
But it’s driving me insane
Maybe they’ll get me, maybe they won’t
But whatever it won’t be tonight
I wish your hand was in mine right now
We could go where the moon is white
For years they had me locked in a cage
Then they threw me onto the stage
Some things just last longer than you thought they would
And they never, ever explain
I’ve been dreamin’ of you, that’s all I do
And it’s driving me insane
Well, I eat when I’m hungry, drink when I’m dry
Live my life on the square
Even if the flesh falls off my face
It won’t matter, long as you’re there
Feel like a ghost in love
Underneath the heavens above
Feel further away than I ever did before
Feel further than I can take
Dreamin’ of you is all I do
But it’s driving me insane
Everything in the way is so shiny today
A queer and unusual fall
Spirals of golden haze, here and there in a blaze
Like beams of light in the storm
Maybe you were here and maybe you weren’t
Maybe you touched somebody and got burnt
The silent sun has got me on the run
Burning a hole in my brain
I’m dreamin’ of you, that’s all I do
But it’s driving me insane
Well my mamma loved me
But my daddy don't
I'm tryin' to work it all out
But I probably won't
I got a woman waiting
At the top of the stairs
It's the wrong thing to do
But I don't care
Just do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours
Another's steps have grown
In the end, there is one dance you'll do alone
Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
Just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Don't let the uncertainty turn you around (the world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound
Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive and the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But you'll never know
From Joni Mitchell “Circle Game”
Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
From Robert Hunter “New Speedway Boogie”
I spent a little time on the mountain
I spent a little time on the hill
Heard some say: Better run away
Others say you better stand still
Now I don't know, but I been told
It's hard to run with the weight of gold
Other hand I have heard it said
It's just as hard with the weight of lead
- Hank Williams: "No matter how I struggle and strive, I’ll never get out of this world alive." Hillbilly wisdom.
- Loretta Lynn: "You ain’t woman enough to take my man." "Don’t come home a-drinkin’ (with lovin’ on your mind)."
- Cornell Hurd: "If you play with my mind (you’re gonna get your hands dirty)."
- "God Only Knows", music by Brian Wilson, lyrics by Tony Asher. Combined they create the most glorious song in the history of recorded music. Brian's use of inversion, modulation, and counterpoint in the song display his intuitive understanding of music theory. As close to J.S. Bach as anyone in Pop music has gotten.
- Iris DeMent: "Now I sit down on the sofa and I watch the evening news
There’s a half a dozen tragedies from which to pick and choose
The baby that was missing was found in a ditch today
And there’s bombs a-flying, and people dying, not so far away
I’ll take a beer from the ’frigerator and go sit out in the yard
And with a cold one in my hand I’m gonna bite down and swallow hard
Because I’m older now, and I’ve got no time to cry."
Merle Haggard liked "No Time To Cry" enough to record it himself, the highest compliment one songwriter can pay another.
By the shelter in the middle of a roundabout a Nurse is selling puppies from a tray and thought she feels as if she's in a play she is anyway. Penny Lane The Beatles. Bob Dylan Not Dark Yet. I feel like my soul has turned into steel , I've still got the scars that the Sun didn't heal. The skin on my body is so naked and tough , I can't even remember what I came here to get away from.
@jpwarren58- nope, unless you can point me to a specific show where they said 'Cadillac', as far as I know it's always been 'headlight', and that's why it goes 'I'd shine my light through the cool Colorado rain'. A 3-syllable word would sound wrong there. It's a traditional song that's been covered by a lot of people, including the Dead, Hot Tuna, and many others.
Dylan, Springsteen, Patti Smith, Lennon/McCartney and King/Goffin- now we're talkin'! Then thing that always amazed me about Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow is that Gerry Goffin wrote the lyrics so amazingly from a female perspective.
God said to Abraham kill me a son and Abe say man you must be puttin me on. God said no and Abe say what. God said you can do what you wanna but the next time you see me comin man you better run. Abe say where you want this killing done and God said out on Highway 61. Johnny Winter and Bob Dylan.
I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is to see you
I believe everything we dream
can come to pass through our union
we can turn the world around
we can turn the earth's revolution
we have the power
People have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The power to dream, to rule
to wrestle the world from fools
it's decreed the people rule
it's decreed the people rule
we have the power
People have the power
we have the power...
Tonight you're mine completely
You give your love so sweetly
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
But will you love me tomorrow?
Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment's pleasure?
Can I believe the magic of your sighs?
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Tonight with words unspoken
You say that I'm the only one
But will my heart be broken
When the night (when the night)
Meets the morning (meets the morning) sun?
I'd like to know that your love
Is a love I can be sure of
So tell me now, and I won't ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?
So tell me now, and I won't ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Will you still love me?
So many! Yes, King Crimson's "Epitaph' timeless! Another one that's stayed with me from youth, Who's 'Won't Get Fooled Again', "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss", again simply timeless, always applicable to those who make the rules of the game. Nick Cave also has great lyrics, love the spirituality.
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
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
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
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
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
Wow, many great ones posted above - I'll go with King Crimson Epitath, prescient for 1967 .. knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules
The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
The silence drowns the screams
Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl, a cracked and broken path
If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Between the iron gates of fate
The seeds of time were sown
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known
Well, knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind I fear
Is in the hands of fools
The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams
Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl, a cracked and broken path
And if we make it, we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Crying!
Crying!
Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Crying!
Crying!
Some say they're going to a place called Glory, and I ain't saying it ain't a fact
But I've heard that I'm on the road to purgatory and I don't like the sound of that
Well, I believe in love and I live my life accordingly
But I choose to let the mystery be.
I'm not selling molasses I'm not pushing tea
I don't appeal to the masses and they don't appeal to me
I'm not peddling fiction I'm not packaging youth
I've got a predilection for the truth
Quite a diatribe against the record industry and the dumbed down society by Graham Parker!
If anything, I’ve discovered the scope of the emotional connection, intensity, and complexity of the poetry within this group that integrates with what we call "music." Some lyrics just make you smile. Others seek to produce a cognition where it appears, at least, that they (the songwriter/poet) "figured it out" and willing to help us work through the chaos. Or simply comment on the absurdity of it all. Then, there are lyrics that are just plain silly. Which is okay, too.
I recall that some of those messages resonated with me based on my life conditions and emotional state at the time. White Snake’s "And here I go again on my own" was one such personal message, back in 1986.
Turn! Turn! Turn!", a monster #1 hit by the Byrds, also known as or subtitled "To Everything There Is a Season", is a song written by Pete Seeger in 1959.
The lyrics – except for the title, which is repeated throughout the song, and the final two lines – consist of the first eight verses of the third chapter of the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes
It's in the order of their hedgerows
It's in the way their curtains open and close
It's in the look they give you down their nose
All part of decency's jigsaw, I suppose
Heard the neighbour slam his car door
Don't he realise this is Respectable Street?
What d'you think he bought that car for?
'Cause he realise this is Respectable Street
Now they talk about abortions
In cosmopolitan proportions to their daughters
As they speak of contraception
And immaculate receptions on their portable
Sony Entertainment Centers
Heard the neighbour slam his car door
Don't he realise this is Respectable Street?
What d'you think he bought that car for?
'Cause he realise this is Respectable Street
Now she speaks about diseases
And which sex position pleases best her old man
Avon lady fills the creases
When she manages to squeeze in past the caravans
That never move from their front gardens
Heard the neighbour slam his car door
Don't he realise this is Respectable Street?
What d'you think he bought that car for?
'Cause he realise this is Respectable Street
It's in the order of their hedgerows
It's in the way their curtains open and close
It's in the look they give you down their nose
All part of decency's jigsaw, I suppose
Sunday church and they look fetching
Saturday night, saw him retching over our fence
Bang the wall for me to turn down
I can see them with their stern frown as they dispense
The kind of look that says they're perfect
Heard the neighbour slam his car door
Don't he realise this is Respectable Street?
What d'you think he bought that car for?
'Cause he realise this is Respectable Street
He realise this is Respectable Street
He realise this is Respectable Street
He realise this is Respectable Street
Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he’s gone
Has anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he’s gone
Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he’s gone
Didn’t you love the things that they stood for?
Didn’t they try to find some good for you and me?
And we’ll be free
Someday soon, it’s gonna be
One day
Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
I thought I saw him walkin’
Up over the hill
With Abraham, Martin and John
The Eastern world, it is explodin'
Violence flarin', bullets loadin'
You're old enough to kill but not for votin'
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'?
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin'
But you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction
Don't you understand what I'm trying to say?
Can't you feel the fear that I'm feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there's no running away
There'll be no one to save with the world in a grave
Take a look around you boy, it's bound to scare you, boy
But you tell me over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction
Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin'
I'm sittin' here just contemplatin'
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation
Handful of Senators don't pass legislation
And marches alone can't bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin'
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction
Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
Ah, you may leave here for four days in space
But when you return, it's the same old place
The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead but don't leave a trace
Hate your next door neighbor but don't forget to say grace
And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend
You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction
You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction
Caught in the pouring rain he crouches beneath her awning
And there through the screen spies his lady of esteem
Not alone
And there's rapture on her face
Within a man's embrace
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