What's your favorite lyric from a song?

I wear my body like a caravan
Gypsy rover in a magic land
Misty mountains where the eagles fly
Lonely valleys where the lost ones cry
I had a little letter full of paper
Inky scratches everywhere
Always looking, looking for a paradise island
Help me find it everywhere

Ducks on a Pond - Incredible String Band

Rape , Murder , It’s just a shot away !!!  The Rolling Stones. Gimme Shelter. 

A little late to the party here, but my favorite sng lyrics are by Queen.  The song '39 to be exact.

Steely Dan's "Do It Again" -- get knocked down, get up, do it again -- my theme song.

@roxy54 

Just curious; what do those lyrics mean to you?

To me they suggest a mind that's struggling to make sense of its new reality.

A mind that has now sunk to its lowest possible level.

A mind escaping by way of hallucinating an affinity with some form of underwater parasite that has devolved it's grip on language and logic.

Shades of Kafka's Metamorphosis? Or just alcoholic sickness?

It's all too easy to get into cod psychology given what was was happening in Wyatt's life at that point, but a comfortable listen it certainly is not.

Like I said, earlier, I'm never wromg! 😉

@joes44 

I was actually asking cd318, but thanks for the explanation, because I didn't really get yours either.

roxy54

I have no idea, I'm never wrong.!

IMHO, An enlighitening experience , If you realize that a position that you've held for a long period of time turns out to be incorrect.

@cd318 

Just curious; what do those lyrics mean to you?

" to find you're wrong whenever you're right is good for you"

BAND 801

ALBUM  Listen now

SONG  That falling feeling

Alifib by Robert Wyatt

No nit not
Nit no not
Nit nit folly bololey
Alife my larder
Alife my larder

I read that the snooker player Steve Davis recommended that Rock Bottom was album was everyone should listen to, and he wasn't the only one, so eventually I did.

Once heard, you'll know why it's called Rock Bottom.

When you believe in things that you don't understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain't the way.

-and-

Although your mind's opaque
Try thinking more if just for your own sake.

(First by Stevie Wonder, second by the Beatles)

Never heard another lyric with the word "opaque"

Now that I think of it, they are good advice for audiophiles!

@brunomarcs 

Sorry, but who's DAC? If that's the most brilliant thing he ever wrote, I'm glad that I missed the rest. How many hundreds of songs have that same theme? It's a country music staple.

Well I'm up and gone at the break of damn 

working like a regular dog

to keep my woman and the lights and the water and the phone turned on. 
 

DAC: time off for bad behavior. DAC said this was the coolest thing he ever written and I agree 

"Chicks dig me because I rarely wear underwear, and when I do,
it's usually something unusual"

Relevant then. More so today:

"I read the news today, oh boy"

We understand your paranoia
But we don’t want to play your game
You think you’re cool and know what you are doing
666 is your name
So while you’re jerking off each other
You better bear this thought in mind
Your time is up you better know it
But maybe you don’t read the signs

Free the people now
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now
Free the people now
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now

Well, you were caught with your hands in the kill
And you still got to swallow your pill
As you slip and you slide down the hill
On the blood of the people you killed

Stop the killing (free the people now)
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now
Stop the killing (free the people now)
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now

Well you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?

So you think you can love me and leave me to die?

Queen | Bohemian Rapsody

"On the first night we met, I said, well darling, let's make a deal.   If anybody ever asks us, we'll just tell them we met in jail"

Recovery -  Frank Turner

Two degrees in be-bop. A Phd in swing. He's the master of rhythm. He's the rock 'n roll king.     -Lowell George

Thunder Road Bruce Springsteen

"Well, I got this guitar, and I learned how to make it talk
And my car’s out back, if you’re ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door’s open but the ride, it ain’t free"

Sometimes, no matter how carefully you plan things, you just have to make an instant decision.

It could be a life changing decision.

A prune is not a vegetable.

A cabbage is a vegetable.

@larsman 

Thanks for that. It's Mike's funeral this Wednesday.

No one is truly alone when it comes to bereavement, but it is mostly a solitary experience. I hope you found a way through it.

Anyway I did try piano myself for a while but my musical memory could barely remember where middle C was.

I soon gave up after hearing my sister practice. Somehow without any coaching she was soon playing recognisable tunes!

She soon gave it up though, as she wanted to play guitar and be in a band.

Alas for her she didn't have as much luck there.

People forget, but guitar can be tough on the fingers.

Here's a lyric that's been coming to mind recently. I kind of underappreciated it previously.

Ride on fine white stallion

Take me anywhere

Ride on fine white stallion

Where you me take I don't care 

Ride on fine white stallion

I'd go anywhere with you

Take me to a new world with new things to find

Help me leave the old world behind.

(Fine White Stallion - Mike Hazelwood)

Well you gassed her up
And you're behind the wheel
With your arm around your sweet one
In your Oldsmobile
Barrellin' down the boulevard
You're lookin' for the heart of Saturday night

Tom Waits

@cd318 - I'm sorry to hear about Mike; I know how horrible losing your best friend is. 

Interesting that you tried to learn guitar and got as far as 'Jingle Bells' - I tried guitar and bass, but my hands just don't want to deal with fretted instruments, so now I'm teaching myself piano. Just finished 'Kumbaya' and am now on to 'London Bridge'.... 🤣

@larsman 

Well, that's just it, nothing can recreate memories and feelings for me better than music.

Perhaps they're forever intertwined together, somewhere outside space/time?

I'd certainly like to think so.

Everytime I hear Chirpy Cheep Cheep I'm back in the school playground, or if I hear Like a Rolling Stone being blasted out I'm back in college, the moment I walked into the Liberal Studies room in the late '70s and encountered some of the more adventurous students on the course.

I even gave my best shot at learning guitar but only got as far as Jingle Bells, note by note.  I did hear some folks mention chords, but I had no idea what they were.

I'm in my late 50s but 2 recent bereavements within 12 months have now left me feeling older but a lot less scared of the future.

My best friend Mike suddenly passed away in hospital at the end of May and right now I feel something in me has also died with him.

Oh well, life must go on for those of us left, whichever way it will, and music can certainly help to recreate a better frame of mind.

Anyway, here's a lyric from one of Mike's favourites:

Hey, baby, yesterday has just departed 

And tomorrow hasn't started

All what really matters is right now

And you should live a lifetime in each minute

Take the sweetness home within it

Yesterday has gone without a sound

[Cupid's Inspiration - Yesterday has Gone]

@cd318 - I'm 70 years old, and when it comes to music, I'm indie and post-punk kid all the way, with a good dose of reggae and metal - age ain't nuthin' but a number! I remember when those bands you mention were really popular in the early 90's; I've even seen The Wedding Present a few times! 

@larsman,

It was actually my sister that used to play them back in the 90s.

She was then, and would probably like to think she still is now, an Indie kid.

That was the time I’d hear her playing the Stone Roses, House of Love, the Wedding Present etc before she fell in love with Kurt Cobain and then got into Metallica and System of a Down.

More recently she’s in with a London crowd that likes to model their dance scene on the 1970s work of the likes of David Mancuso, and all that entails.

Anyway, I’ll check out the ’Revenge of the Goldfish’ album. It’s always nice to have a real world recommendation.

Any band that can produce a song as strong as ’This is How it Feels’ is worth checking out.

@cd318 - Holy cow - another fan of Inspiral Carpets! 'This Is How It Feels' is one of my favorites of their's (beautiful melody, too), along with the 'Revenge of the Goldfish' album....

If you're feeling low, really low, and this can happen to any of us for whatever reason, there aren't too many songs as good as expressing a total sense of desolation as this one.

Inspiral Carpets - This is How it Feels

There's a funeral in the town

Some guy from the top estate

Seems they found him under a train

And yet he had it all on a plate  

So this is how it feels to be lonely

This is how it feels to be small

This is how it feels

When your word means nothing at all

Brand New, Science Fiction ‐ A fantastic concept effort. IMHO, the entire CD contains some of the best lyrics I've heard. From "Logic\Teeth" 

"...But you're no tailor, you're no surgeon, none of your cuts go very straight
Every new layer you uncover reveals something else you hate
And then you cracked your head, and broke some bones
And when you glued them back together you found out you did it wrong..."

N

Thanks for sharing information about  juicewrld hats beanies.

What kind of juice are you drinking rosewell82?

Is this Lou Reed’s best lyric?

I like to hear juice wrld song and wear their merchandise as well such as juice wrld hats beanies.

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.

Oh yeah edcyn, that's a real winner. Surprised that nobody mentioned it sooner.

I just did a marathon cruise (or is that slog?) through this thread. Hey, cd318! Hats off for Jimmy Webb's MacArthur Park!

How 'bout some David Seville? "Ooo eee, ooh ahh ahh, ting tang walla-walla bing bang. Ooo eee, ooh ahh ahh, ting tang walla walla bing bang."

Another year older and what have you done?

wish i didn't know now what I didn't know then...Against the Wind...

As the morning turned my way
Sea birds flying through this hazy face
And I came back here to replace your place in my life

And didn’t you know that I’m not the world’s strongest man
When it comes to you and your world I’m lost
Can’t you see the towers of mine they could shine like a dime
Take me back again to your warm design

"If you look at your reflection at the bottom of the well
What you see is only on the surface
When you try to see the meaning, hidden underneath
The measure of the depth can be deceiving
The bottom has a rocky reputation"

-The Confessor (Joe Walsh)

@roxy54

That’s what you might call a real haunting song of loss.

It reminded me of this one originally written by Nick Cave, but performed here by Shane McGowan.

-----

Lucy

Last night I lay trembling
The moon it was low
It was the end of love
Of misery and woe

Then suddenly above me
Her face buried in light
Came a vision of beauty
All covered in white

Now the bell-tower is ringing
And the night has stole past
O Lucy, can you hear me?
Wherever you rest

Comin' back to Me - Jefferson Airplane

A very sad love song.

(49) Jefferson Airplane - Comin' back to me (with lyrics) - YouTube

The most embarrassingly confessional first verse I've heard must be this one. 

The Wedding Present - 'Nobody's Twisting Your Arm'.

And when I called your house
I'm sure your sister thought that I was somebody else
I heard a laugh down the phone
And then the answer came that you weren't at home (ohh)

Another year older and what have you done.

Political World Bob Dylan

We live in a political world
Where mercy walks the plank
Life is in mirrors
Death disappears
Up the steps into the nearest bank.

Thankfully music can provide a welcome respite but there's no way of escaping the fact in 2022.

Jeez cd318, I only listened for about 30 seconds a couple of days ago, but I would never have guessed that it was the Kinks performing. The original version has Dave performing the vocal which was pretty unusual.