"No matter how I struggle and strive
I'll never get out of this world alive".
Hank Williams, of course |
If I remember correctly, is was an unpaid for war in Iraq that had something to do with the debt, amongst many other factors creating the situation facing whoever took over in '09. Of course, it's easier to, as Larry David put in one of his Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes, "blame the black man". It's amazing how the guy who inherited the largest surplus in U.S. history and turned it into the largest (up to that time) deficit isn't held responsible for doing so by a certain kind of person. |
Wow, I wasn't aware that certain people are claiming the "liberal media" is disseminating a "lie", that the U.S. debt is due in large part to the unpaid for Iraq war, amongst other causes (including the "Corporate Welfare" handed out by the last President, the only one in U.S. history to veto not a SINGLE spending Bill, many of them brought to his desk by those not-tax-the-rich-and-spend Republicans). |
Oh no, I didn't intend to insinuate that skin color had anything to do with it (whether or not it does is an entirely different matter). But the President blamed for many things not actually of his making (the "Socialist domestic policy" in this country certainly didn't originate in the past seven years, but that's too complicated a subject to be discussing here, fer cryin' out loud!) does happen to be half-black (that he is called black when he is equally white just proves that racism in this country is still alive and well, all protestations to the contrary aside). Whenever I see a situation wherein that happens, I think of that episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to quote it! |
B. Dylan : "Idiot winds, I’m surprised we can even feed ourselves". Who else would include himself in such a condemnation? |
Great one tostadosunidos! |
I believe I already offered this one, but it bears repeating, especially as my bother-in-law has just been diagnosed with stage four liver cancer, with six months to live. From the hillbilly genius Hank Williams: "No matter how I struggle and strive I'll never get out of this wor...urld alive" Have truer worlds ever been spoken?! |
Paul Simon: "One man's ceiling.....is another man's floor". |
In one of the sexiest songs I’ve ever heard (it makes Prince sound like a Jr. High School boy), Lucinda Williams in her song "Essence" sings:
"Baby, sweet baby.........you’re my drug come on and let me..........taste your stuff"
"Baby, sweet baby..........bring me your gift what surprise you gonna.........help me with?"
"Baby, sweet baby.........whisper my name shoot your love..........into my vein"
"Baby, sweet baby..........kiss me hard make me wonder..........who’s in charge"
"Baby, sweet baby..........I wanna feel your breath even though you like to..........flirt with death"
"Baby, sweet baby..........can’t get enough please come find me (or does she say confine me?)..........and help me get f*cked up"
Those are the verses; there are also the choruses. Yes, in the literal sense it's about shooting up, but that's also a metaphor. Drummer Jim Keltner and the rest of her band create an absolutely killer groove to match the lyrics. This song is a masterpiece!
Excuse me, I hafta go wake up my girlfriend ;-).
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The complete lyrics in Lucinda Williams' song "West" on the album of the same title are the sweetest, most endearing I've heard in a long, long time. The chord sequence and melody are also magnificent, absolutely beautiful. Heart-wrenching, actually. |
Oops. "West" is a fantastic song, but it was "Are You Alright?" that I meant to single out for it's lyrical content. It you weren't in love when the song begins, you will be by the time it ends. |
"I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes You'd know what a drag it is to see you". |
Oops, reading back a few pages I saw that tostadosunidos had already quoted the Dylan line I did above, for which I had shortly thereafter complimented him. The old gray matter ain’t what it useta be. Iris Dement: "God may forgive you, but I won’t Yes Jesus loves you, but I don’t" |
"Sugar Baby" is on the "Love And Theft" (quotation marks in the title, as if to say..... ;-), album, which I have raving about for quite awhile here on Audiogon. It doesn’t seem to get mentioned much, but’s it’s a favorite of mine. |
Great postings @cd318. Printing out his lyrics puts the lie to the people who questioned the validity of Dylan’s 2016 Nobel prize for literature. Literature snobs! I also find Joni Mitchell’s recent critique of Dylan absurd. I admit to having never cared for her, but she is no where close to being on his level. Her critiquing Dylan would have been like The Monkees critiquing The Beatles ;-). For me, Dylan's John Wesley Harding album was as revolutionary as were the three early masterpieces of his that you mention. Thank God for his motorcycle accident! That got him off the speed, and into the basement with The Hawks (soon to become The Band), where they reinvented Rock 'n' Roll! |
ghosthouse, I’ve long been intrigued by the subject of the genesis of songs, not possessing that gift and talent myself. I’m sure Iris has heard "Black Diamond Bay", but she didn’t write "No Time To Cry" until almost twenty years after that song came out. The songs share the TV news theme, but the sentiment of the two is very different. Both great songwriters! |
The third verse of Iris Dement’s "No Time To Cry", one of my absolute favorite songs:
"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 And I take a beer from the ’fridgerator 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, I’ve got no time to cry"
Reading the lyrics doesn’t come close to conveying the devastating heartbreak in Iris’ singing of them. The song has been recorded by two of my all-time favorite singers, Merle Haggard and Kasey Chambers, both of them also superior songwriters themselves. You can hear the song on You Tube, and then go buy the album it is on, Iris’ My Life. Not a single bad song on it, one of my "Perfect Albums". |
slaw, I listened to that Lucinda song just last night. The way she sings "Oh my baby" is SO lascivious! It leaves no doubt what she is implying ;-) . |
@tostadosunidos, thanks for the reminder of why Dylan is the most revolutionary lyricist in Pop music history. "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" was recorded about a year before The Beatles recorded their original boy/girl love songs like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You". It took Lennon a couple of years to come to terms with what Bob was doing, and it completely changed his (and many others') songwriting (for better or worse). |
I may have already nominated one or more of these, but they're worth repeating:
- "No matter how I struggle and strive, I'll never get out of this world alive". Hank Williams didn't have to wait long; he died at only 29 years of age.
- "How can I miss you when you won't go away". Dan Hicks spoke for everyone who couldn't get rid of a bad spouse (ask me how I know ;-) .
- "God may forgive you, but I won't". Iris Dement is a genius.
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