Do you have a prized or favorite lyric?

[Jack of All Parades]

"Hallelujah"

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4&ob=av2e


PD got me thinking the other day with his admission that he has had a long time interest in lyrics, perhaps even trying to write his own. I too share a long time fascination with lyrics and words and with the skill that goes into making them work. When it happens it is a breathtaking event as I stumble upon one in my musical listening. I am always taken aback at the beautiful conjunction of word, melody and harmony. I offer this thread as a way for anyone to riff on a favorite- why it moves and amazes them. I start with this timeless offer by Leonard Cohen by way of Jeff Buckley.

It is for me an epitome of lyric excellence. Cohen has taken an eternal theme- past and perhaps lost love- and gives it a very modern and personal spin. He takes one of the great ancient chant words, bringing it from the harp and mouth of the musical king, David, and then transforms it to an anguished cry of pain and loss coming from his own mouth in the twentieth century. The insistent refrain of Hallelujah anchors and elaborates the pain the singer is remembering; the shift between sacred and profane is stimulating and brilliant. The simplicity[that is ultimately encompassing] is breathtaking. This is a song and lyric that I never tire of hearing.

I also relate to this song through the extraordinary version done by Jeff Buckley- he performs the rare feat of elevating a beautiful song to another level with his vocal sensitivity to the song. I saw him do this at Sine-E many years ago and his voice has never left my ears since that night.

[terryhurley]

I'm afraid I am not as eloquent as Christopher but offer up two of my personal favourites - the first being George Harrison's "See Yourself"...........

It's easier to tell a lie than it is to tell the truth
It's easier to kill a fly than it is to turn it loose
It's easier to criticize somebody else
Than to see yourself

It's easier to give a sigh and be like all the rest
Who stand around and crucify you while you do your best
It's easier to see the books upon the shelf
Than to see yourself

It's easier to hurt someone and make them cry
Than it is to dry their eyes
I got tired of fooling around with other people's lies
Rather I'd find someone that's true

It's easier to say you won't than it is to feel you can
It's easier to drag your feet than it is to be a man
It's easier to look at someone eles's wealth
Than to see yourself

George was/is such an influence on me personally and this lyric, quite a simple one to be honest and nowhere near George's best, still shapes my thinking every day.

The other is Billy Bragg's "The Home Front"...


Father mows the lawn and Mother peels the potatoes
Grandma lays the table alone
And adjusts a photograph of the unknown soldier
In this Holy of Holies, the Home
And from the TV an unwatched voice
Suggests the answer is to plant more trees
The scrawl on the wall says what about the workers
And the voice of the people says more salt please

Mother shakes her head and reads aloud from the newspaper
As Father puts another lock on the door
And reflects upon the violent times that we are living in
While chatting with the wife beater next door
If paradise to you is cheap beer and overtime
Home truths are easily missed
Something that every football fan knows
It only takes five fingers to form a fist

And when it rains here it rains so hard
But never hard enough to wash away the sorrow
I'll trade my love today for a greater love tomorrow
The lonely child looks out and dreams of independence
From this family life sentence

Mother sees but does not read the peeling posters
And can't believe that there's a world to be won
But in the public schools and in the public houses
The Battle of Britain goes on
The constant promise of jam tomorrow
Is the New Breed's litany and verse
If it takes another war to fill the churches of England
Then the world the meek inherit, what will it be worth

Mother fights the tears and Father, his sense of outrage
And attempts to justify the sacrifice
To pass their creed down to another generation
'Anything for the quiet life'
In the Land of a Thousand Doses
Where nostalgia is the opium of the age
Our place in History is as
clock watchers, old timers, window shoppers

Bragg has two or three songs that always move me to tears. This is one. I love everything about this - just reading it now, I realise it works well as a piece of poetry (unlike George's one above) and does what all good lyrics should - gets your brain in gear.

Plus I love good puns, hence the attraction (sorry!) to EC's lyrics.

[Jeremy Dylan]

I've got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild
I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child
The solitary star announcing vacancy burned out as we arrived
They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived
And they were surprised to see us
So they greeted us with palms
They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms

And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in bedlam
I wish that I could take something for drowning out the noise
Wailing echoes down the corridors

I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial
I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye
And everything I thought fanciful and mocked as too extreme
Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams
And I'm practicing my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi
And if I hold my hand outstretched
A little bird comes to me

And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in bedlam
Escaping from the fingers that were stretching through the bars
Wailing echoes down the corridors

The player piano picks out "Life Goes On"
The ring tone rang out "Jerusalem"
Into the pit of sadness
Where the wretched plunge
We've buried all the innocents
Now we must bury revenge

They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a Mustang
They drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle
They dangled flags and other rags along a coloured thread of twine
They dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine

Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces
Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces
Then my thoughts returned to vengeance, but I put up no resistance
Though I seemed a long way from my home
It really was no distance

And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in bedlam
Bowing like an actor acknowledging applause
Playing the Crusader who was conquering the Moors
When he knew the consequences, but he won't admit the cause
Wailing echoes down the corridors

[Jack of All Parades]

"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"


Here I stand head in hand
Turn my face to the wall
If she's gone I can't go on
Feelin' two-foot small

Everywhere people stare
Each and every day
I can see them laugh at me
And I hear them say


Hey you've got to hide your love away
Hey you've got to hide your love away

How can I even try
I can never win
Hearing them, seeing them
In the state I'm in

How could she say to me
Love will find a way
Gather round all you clowns
Let me hear you say

Hey you've got to hide your love away
Hey you've got to hide your love away

Lennon-McCartney

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgI8o6SFirQ

Perhaps my favorite Beatle song and one of my personal favorite lyrics. Just a picture perfect and beautiful ballad-which through sparse instrumentation- is all the more powerful as it tells a universal truth- love is hard- and does it with supreme simplicity, guitar strums, a poignant and pained voice and sparse rhythms.

It is a 'sad' song about a joyful subject- being in love. Simply laid out[deceptively so], it is a duplicitous lyric. What starts out in the first verse as a declarative statement that the singer could be losing his lover is by the fourth verse a statement of self loathing that questions whether "love will find a way" and is perhaps spoiling for a fight with the challenge 'let me hear you say". The second verse is full of a startlingly painful paranoia that love can provide; the self-questioning of being stared at and being laughed about. The third verse continues that self criticism with the queries "How could I even try" and "I can never win". In between there is no resolution for the maddening fury that the emotions of love can put a person through. I have always loved this non resolution. The questioning of the state of being in love is subtle, dynamic and like real life perhaps unknowable.

The song is further aided by the singing of Lennon as he poignantly catches self-doubt in his voice. The aching pause in the chorus around 'Hey' always catches my breath. I find it so sad that he would ever question his ability to sing, never thinking he had a great voice[for me it mirrors the ambiguity I find in the lyric.] He does and it is used to great effect in this memorable song.

[adge]

this is 'One of the broken' by Prefab Sprout

Hi, this is God here,
Talking to me used to be a simple affair
Moses only had to see a burning bush
And he'd pull up a chair
Well it's been a long time since we talked in that way
If you're wondering what to say...

Sing me no deep hymn of devotion
Sing me no slow sweet melody
Sing it to one, one of the broken
And brother you're singing, singing to me

I remember King David
With his harp and his beautiful, beautiful songs
I answered his prayers
And showed him a place where his music belongs
It's not too far from here come get up off your knees
If you're looking for ways to please...

Sing me no psalm you're not King David
Sing me no high hushed Glory Be
Sing it to one, one of the broken
And brother you're singing, singing to me

Sing me no deep hymn of devotion
Sing me no slow sweet melody
Sing it to one, one of the broken
And brother you're singing, singing to me


I love the well meaning arrogance of this lyric -Paddy's playing at being God, but while he starts off Old Testament, he definitely finishes, with a kind of modern take on the New Testament.
it's inescapable message of 'love one-another' presented unpretentiously, it has even the most hard baked atheist reaching for the prayer matt.

[Jack of All Parades]

"Things"

Things I wanna tell you
How you make me feel
How you look to me
And how good it feels
Things I don't wanna tell you
Every little thing's all right
What I was before
And where I was last night

Always things
All these things
Always things

Things I try to tell you but come out oh so wrong
Seem to feel pretty good, seem to last pretty long
Things I don't wanna tell you
Now there ain't no doubt
You lit a fire in me
Can't seem to put out

Always things
All these things

Things I long to tell you but I don't know how
Things I don't wanna tell you but I have to now
Packed my things

Things I'm bound to tell you like that dress looks great on ya
I could use some breathing room but I'm still in love with you
Things I'd never tell you, down the line someday
You'll be a song I sing, a thing I give away
Pack my things today, I packed my things today

Paul Westerberg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcfCBb-amUc


One of my favorite lyrics of the last twenty some years. It is sophisticated word play with just one word- things. The permutations this word is put through is engaging as it acts as a buffer for all the emotions a person can have for a lover. The 'things' that bind and render us as human beings in love with one another. What is a binding 'thing' today will ultimately be a 'thing' I can give away sometime in the future. This song has always encapsulated a relationship for me from beginning to end. I also love the subtle Beatle reference with 'every little thing'. I have also always admired how Westerberg is able to be so ruminative with his voice in this song. You can hear him thinking in the vocal.

[Jack of All Parades]

"I Threw It All Away"

I once held her in my arms
She said she would always stay
But I was cruel
I treated her like a fool
I threw it all away

Once I had mountains in the palm of my hand
And rivers that ran through ev’ry day
I must have been mad
I never knew what I had
Until I threw it all away

Love is all there is, it makes the world go ’round
Love and only love, it can’t be denied
No matter what you think about it
You just won’t be able to do without it
Take a tip from one who’s tried

So if you find someone that gives you all of her love
Take it to your heart, don’t let it stray
For one thing that’s certain
You will surely be a-hurtin’
If you throw it all away

Bob Dylan
Copyright © 1969 by Big Sky Music; renewed 1997 by Big Sky Music

Just a supreme song of regret, echoed in the spooky organ and Bob's aching voice. Brought back to mind for me by the recent Stars album "The Five Ghosts" and its revisiting of the theme of regret. No fancy word play but a subtle, simple and evocative noting of lost and callously thrown away opportunities which ultimately leave one hurt and regretful. I have always enjoyed the echoing of the Beatles grand theme all you need is love; of the positive effects of that emotion, but with a darker spin provided by bob, and the damage that can be done to a person if 'you try' to live without it. The evocation of love with natural presences like mountains and ever flowing rivers is a great image-one that I find sustaining.

Enjoy the listen!
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... o8mhShhn_M

[adge]

it also expresses a modern neurosis regarding love, that it can never live up to the hype-except in the imagination.

'Once I had mountains in the palm of my hand
And rivers that ran through ev’ry day
I must have been mad
I never knew what I had
Until I threw it all away'

the contradiction is succinctly made by Dylan, seriously if you have a mountain in your hand, you'd know!

[adge]

'Somewhere' lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

There's a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere.

There's a place for us,
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we're halfway there.
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow,
Some day,
Somewhere!

there's always a place for misplaced optimism in my book, but when it's so ambiguously expressed it actually becomes a universal.
It isn't just Tony or Maria's ironic optimism that's heard, but the sound of anyone who is displaced, oppressed or imagines a better place somewhere-out there-Twickenham perhaps?

Sondheim claims his stuff isn't political, but the truth it is! In what is essentially a middle class medium. From 'West Side Story', Sweeney Todd' to 'Assassins' Sondheim infuses his work with social and political commentary that sets it apart from other musical theatre.

[Jack of All Parades]

Do not know if I follow you with the 'neuroses' read but am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Agree with you on the 'physical' world images- the irony in the fact that such substantial items were in the singer's grasp and allowed to be thrown away; the equating of their worth with that of his discarded love is a solid and damning image. Thank you for making me revisit and remind myself of that.

[adge]

what i mean by neurosis, is the modern (i dunno, i mean post enlightenment-or at least post romantic) conception of love, which seems to have a attained a kind of transcendental nature-becoming the object of sanctification in itself (jettisoning Kant's categorical imperative along the way-he he)
It isn't that i don't believe in love per ce, but the social construct that currently passes for romanticism, as a modern invention, rivals gunpowder in terms of it's effects on mankind.
Dylan has thrown away, that, which is now so meaningful-post-hoc. What i'm suggesting is that there is a connection between the casualness of many modern relationships-their transient nature, utility etc, and the elevation of love as supreme existential state.
it's not Dylan's choice of mountain and rivers that's the issue here, but the obviousness which they represent, an obviousness, obviously missed!

[Jack of All Parades]

That is probably more than I would want to read into the lyric- Kant's categorical imperative!- I think even Dr. Christopher Ricks would be hesitant to go there with these lines. I just like the notion that love has a 'solid' physical value in the lines which can be equated with physical objects in the world as well as the weight and form of a human being. Am not certain if Dylan ever meant to take it as far as you seem to go. Nice to see a different take, though.

[Jack of All Parades]

"Restless Farewell"

Oh all the money that in my whole life I did spend
Be it mine right or wrongfully
I let it slip gladly to my friends
To tie up the time most forcefully
But the bottles are done
We've killed each one
And the table's full and overflowed
And the corner sign
Says it's closing time
So I'll bid farewell and be down the road.

Oh ev'ry girl that ever I've touched
I did not do it harmfully
And ev'ry girl that even I've hurt
I did not do it knowin'ly
But to remain as friends we need the time
And make demands and stay behind
And since my feet are now fast
And point away from the past
I'll bid farewell and be down the line.

Oh ev'ry foe that ever I faced
The cause was there before we came
And ev'ry cause that ever I fought
I fought it full without regret or shame
But the dark does die
As the curtain is drawn and somebody's eyes
Must meet the dawn
And if I see the day
I'd only have to stay
So I'll bid farewell in the night and be gone.

Oh ev'ry thought that's strung a knot in my mind
I might go insane if it couldn't be sprung
But it's not to stand naked under unknowin' eyes
It's for myself and my friends my stories are sung
But the time ain't tall
Yet on time you depend and no word is possessed
By no special friend
And though the line is cut
It ain't quite the end
I'll just bid farewell till we meet again.

Oh a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract, and bother me
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face
And the dust of rumors covers me
But if the arrow is straight
And the point is slick
It can pierce through dust no matter how thick
So I'll make my stand
And remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn.

Bob Dylan 1963

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... I0zLbnWKnA

Ironic that this comes from the pen of a twenty some year old. Dylan's version of a Sinatra saloon song and it's 5 o'clock in the morning and assessments are being taken. Have always thought it an excellent look back song complete with the no regrets theme- live life and flaunt 'carpe deim'. Neat, tight images with a tremendous hubris at such an early age. Enjoy the video as I believe it is perceptive as a choice by Dylan to sing at an 80th birthday tribute to Sinatra. Tops his "My Way" theme song most definitely and I have always loved the look on Sinatra's face as he may well be in his early dotage at that point. Both artists merit that 'rebel' label and it is a non to subtle acknowledgment by Dylan of such a label being earned by Sinatra, as well.

[adge]

Cornfield Ablaze =Prefab Sprout

I saw you from the tractor
The harvest had begun
You were the love child of two gods
I was the farmer's awkward son
You left Mount Olympus
To find your soul mate
I left a scribbled note, quote
"Dear Pa, this here harvest can wait"

You took a match to my dry August days
Cornfield ablaze, cornfield ablaze
Flames licked the sky, that was some summer haze
Cornfield ablaze, cornfield ablaze
How do I love you, let me count the ways
Cornfield ablaze

Pa don't be angry,
The fields that were host
To the corn and the wheat,
The fact is they're toast
In self defence I'm obliged to point out
There'll always a risk of combustion
When there's been a drought

You took a match to my dry August days
Cornfield ablaze, cornfield ablaze
Flames licked the sky, that was some summer haze
Cornfield ablaze, cornfield ablaze
How do I love you, let me count the ways
Cornfield ablaze

Imagine if the firemen worked and worked for days
And still the cornfield stayed ablaze...

Her hair it was golden,
Her hair it was yarn
We were playing with fire
In the number one barn
Carried away like two sparks on a breeze
Then we fused into one at a thousand degrees

You overwhelmed agricultural man
Cornfield ablaze, cornfield ablaze
You wild pyromaniac daughter of Pan
Cornfield ablaze, cornfield ablaze
You took a scarecrow and made him a man

I think Paddy kind of shoehorns the agricultural metaphor into the song somewhat, but the last line 'you took a scarecrow and made him a man' is sublime, and any song with it in has to be special.
oh and 'you wild pyromaniac daughter of Pan' that's a good one too.

[adge]

Morrissey Christian Dior


Christian Dior
You wasted your life
On aroma and clothes
Fabric and dyes
Christian Dior
You wasted your life
On grandeur and style
And making the poor rich smile

You could have run wild
On the backstreets of Lyon or Marseille
Reckless and legless and stoned
Impregnating women
Or kissing mad street boys from Napoli
Who couldn't even write their own name

Christian Dior
You wasted your life
Sensually stroking the weaves of a sleeve

You could have run wild
On the backstreets of Lyon or Marseille
Reckless and legless and stoned
Impregnating women
Or kissing mad street boys from Napoli
Who couldn't even spell the wrong name

Christian Dior
Christian Dior

When you look at me
Failure is all that you see
I discipline my days just like
Christian Dior

I could've run loudly and proudly
All forcible entry
And morally bankrupt
And never non-violent
And drawn to what scares me
And scared of what bores me
Years alone will never be returned

Christian Dior

Lionise maverick
Design if you can
The way to just be a man
To just be a man

Christian Dior
Christian Dior
Christian Dior

Ok so if you're gonna have a shot at the bourgeoisie, what better way to do it.
Contempt, is the mother of revolution.

[alexv]

Christopher, love the YouTube performance. Much better than the original. The original, done during his original folkie phase, pales in comparison to this version, even though his croaky voice gets in the way in spots (when he sings or croaks or whines “farewell” you sort of have to cover your ears). But that’s Dylan. And, strangely, Dylan and Sinatra share quite a few parallels. Although I can’t imagine Sinatra’s take on this performance. He seemed a little senile by this point, so who knows if he was even focusing, but you gotta believe that this is not “singing” by his standards, even in later years. Of course, Sinatra, like Dylan, got razzed early on for his singing style, so there’s a parallel.

Anyway, the song itself is typical Dylan: so how could a 23 year old write a song like this?

Well, if you are Dylan you start by borrowing the melody. It’s from The Parting Glass, an Irish standard. He probably heard the Clancy Brothers do it and appropriated it. The lyrics are even similar, although he throws in the section about the rumours and gossip presumably, according to Expecting Rain, as a reply to some stuff a reporter was putting out about him. He’s supposed to have penned the song in one day. Typical Dylan, both the appropriating and the speed.

It’s a great lyric, but listen how in the YoutTube version he changes the lyrics freely. The second stanza in particular. Typical Dylan. He’s perverse in that he writes great lyrics and then feels free to improvise. In this he also is similar to Sinatra who would, famously, take a Cole Porter song and add some “ring a ding dings” along the way.

But enough carping, there are some great lines in this song, so who cares where he got the idea or melody from, these are pure Dylan:

“But to remain as friends
we need the time
And make demands and stay behind
And since my feet are now fast And point away from the past
I'll bid farewell and be down the line.”

Meaning….

Girl friends= time + demands + staying behind
Bob= moving fast away from the past
So….see ya

“Oh ev'ry foe that ever I faced
The cause was there before we came
And ev'ry cause that ever I fought
I fought it full without regret or shame”

A cause is a cause is a cause.

“Oh ev'ry thought that's strung a knot in my mind
I might go insane if it couldn't be sprung
But it's not to stand naked under unknowin' eyes
It's for myself and my friends my stories are sung”

I tell stories so my friends and I can enjoy, so bug off!! I’ll bet you EC would kill to write that one.

[Jack of All Parades]

Alex- you are dead on and can we just say Dylan did it ' his way. Inspired choice by him for that show. Agree EC would probably give a shekel or two to write such a lyric.

My daughter called today being the good Japanese student that she is and reminded me that today is Respect for Elders day in Japan. It got me thinking about such a day and this lyric came immediately flooding into my head:

Hello In There

We had an apartment in the city,
Me and Loretta liked living there.
Well, it’d been years since the kids had grown,
A life of their own left us alone.
John and Linda live in Omaha,
And Joe is somewhere on the road.
We lost Davy in the Korean war,
And I still don’t know what for, don’t matter anymore.

Chorus:
Ya’ know that old trees just grow stronger,
And old rivers grow wilder ev’ry day.
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, "hello in there, hello."

Me and Loretta, we don’t talk much more,
She sits and stares through the back door screen.
And all the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we’ve both seen.
Someday I’ll go and call up Rudy,
We worked together at the factory.
But what could I say if asks "what’s new? "
"nothing, what’s with you? nothing much to do."

Repeat chorus:

So if you’re walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes,
Please don’t just pass ’em by and stare
As if you didn’t care, say, "hello in there, hello."

John Prine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVkhQJ7vYes

Maybe because I have had my own recent brush with mortality with my embolism or Michael Douglas' startling depiction the other night in the movie "Solitary Man" of an aging man trying to come to grips with his aging and the fear of 'disappearing' both physically and in the thoughts of other people this lyric has always been acutely in my mind. It is the supreme song for me about being 'old' and about the passage of time. This is done with just pristine images, concrete and eternal. I have always admired how it is anchored in the here and now, with real people and real pain and loneliness and an empathy that I find rarely in a lyric. This is that rare thing- a perfect song. There is nothing I would want cut out or added.

[Jack of All Parades]

"Wish List"


I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off
I wish I was a sacrifice but somehow still lived on
I wish I was a sentimental ornament you hung on
The Christmas tree, I wish I was the star that went on top
I wish I was the evidence, I wish I was the grounds
For 50 million hands upraised and open toward the sky

I wish I was a sailor with someone who waited for me
I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as me
I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good
I wish I was the full moon shining off a Camaro's hood

I wish I was an alien at home behind the sun
I wish I was the souvenir you kept your house key on
I wish I was the pedal brake that you depended on
I wish I was the verb 'to trust' and never let you down

I wish I was a radio song, the one that you turned up
I wish...
I wish...

Pearl Jam

At first glance, or listen, it would appear to be an innocuous listing of cliches. But closer listening turns those cliches into very specific and concrete evocations of love for another as imaged in rather ordinary and, to a large extent sentimental, items or concepts or 'wishes'. It is that simplicity which gives the song its power. The singer does not strain for fanciful metaphors instead anchoring the expression of love in ordinary everyday items and feelings that because of their ordinariness grow beyond the mundane and instead become things beautiful and perhaps universal that all listeners can relate to on an individual level.

This is also an excellent example of where a song is helped by the musical accompaniment as Grossard's guitar chords echo the longing in Vedder's voice. I cannot have these lyrics without the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yLprM-bEOs

[adge]

Jerusalem by Blake.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green
And was the holy lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen

And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark Satanic mills

Bring me my bow of burning gold
Bring me my arrows of desire
Bring me my spears o'clouds unfold
Bring me my chariot of fire

I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
'Til we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land
'Til we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land

I've loved this song from kid, the tune is immense, and the heady lyricality of it all is simply too much.
Blake's obvious ambiguity is a treat-it takes a certain kind of religious fruitcake to write stuff like this, touched by the magic wand of deistic certitude, no i'll resist the temptation to say genius, but hey, if you can chat with angels you're special.
Billy Bragg wants it for national anthem, well who wouldn't. Some have seen it as a revolutionary call to arms, for others a socialist anthem, of course it could just be about transforming ourselves into gods own special army.
As Clinton never said, it's the ineffability stupid!

[adge]

Jerusalem by Blake.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green
And was the holy lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen

And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark Satanic mills

Bring me my bow of burning gold
Bring me my arrows of desire
Bring me my spears o'clouds unfold
Bring me my chariot of fire

I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
'Til we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land
'Til we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land

I've loved this song from kid, the tune is immense, and the heady lyricality of it all is simply too much.
Blake's obvious ambiguity is a treat-it takes a certain kind of religious fruitcake to write stuff like this, touched by the magic wand of deistic certitude, no i'll resist the temptation to say genius, but hey, if you can chat with angels -you're special.
Billy Bragg wants it for national anthem, well who wouldn't. Some have seen it as a revolutionary call to arms, for others a socialist anthem, of course it could just be about transforming ourselves into gods own special army.
As Clinton never said, it's the ineffability stupid!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Jerusalem occupies a unique cultural place in this country. Nothing else compares:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_did_th ... cient_time

Wow, a Moz song I'd never heard of! I thought I knew most of the b-sides from recent years, often because they feature in setlists and therefore bootlegs. Listening now on Spotify. Great stuff. Suitably sad.

The thing about great lyrics is they're lyrics, not poems. I prefer not to read them but to imbibe them whilst listening. I have an aversion to reading lyrics whilst listening, which is a drag as you internalise them far less easily this way, and I often find I don't know bits of favourite songs. I like lyric sheets in order to be able to check words, but I also liked the Joy Division outlook that if you printed the lyrics, you were somehow explaining the song or reducing it, which in a way is nonsense, but good nonsense.

Interesting stuff about Dylan and The Parting Glass. The original song I would describe as a favourite lyric. One I'd like at my funeral, please.

I'll proffer one, because the covers band I play in was having a crack at it this evening and it's long been one of my favourite songs, both on 'Speaking in Tongues' and in the mesmerising 'Stop Making Sense' dancing with the lamp performance. Byrne said of it that he liked other people's love songs and wanted to write one of his own, making it sound like a cerebral exercise, though I believe he had to be truly in love to write the words and meant every last word. It's got so many great and deeply moving lines in it - simple but incredibly affecting, and of course best listened to rather than read.

'Sing into my mouth'; 'I'm just an animal looking for a home/Share the same space for a minute or two'; 'Out of all those kinds of people, you've got a face with a view.' I can't get enough. I think it is one of the all-time great lyrics about being in love:

This Must be the Place (Naive Melody)

Home is where I want to be
Pick me up and turn me round
I feel numb - born with a weak heart
I guess I must be having fun
The less we say about it the better
Make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground
Head in the sky
It's ok I know nothing's wrong . . nothing

Hi yo I got plenty of time
Hi yo you got light in your eyes
And you're standing here beside me
I love the passing of time
Never for money
Always for love
Cover up and say goodnight . . . say goodnight

Home - is where I want to be
But I guess I'm already there
I come home - she lifted up her wings
Guess that this must be the place
I can't tell one from another
Did I find you, or you find me?
There was a time Before we were born
If someone asks, this is where I'll be . . . where I'll be

Hi yo We drift in and out
Hi yo sing into my mouth
Out of all those kinds of people
You got a face with a view
I'm just an animal looking for a home
Share the same space for a minute or two
And you love me till my heart stops
Love me till I'm dead
Eyes that light up, eyes look through you
Cover up the blank spots
Hit me on the head Ah ooh

[adge]

songs aren't poems, this is true, but i think the distinction between recorded music-pop music and songs, is at least as important.
The combination of music and words, or even just the sound of the voice, where the words are un-discernible, act upon the nervous system in an entirely different way, the music transforms both their meaning-and how we understand them.
If you think about 'She loves you' by the Beatles for example, it's virtually inane as an isolated lyric,-but the words ignite- only as part of the song/production, the same could be said of many songs.
Recorded music-pop, has also altered the way we think of a song, 'Blue Monday' is the antithesis of the folk song, it's not meant to be sung, but listened to-the song acts upon us, we are the passive recipients of it-the group now acts in a totemic sense.
It's interesting that the much of the inanity in pop, is a result of a culture which springs, primarily from adolescence, -it's a culture that often treats articulate utterance as a capitulation to the adult world, and is often straitjacketed by it's opposition to articularity and what it represents.

[terryhurley]

songs aren't poems, this is true, but i think the distinction between recorded music-pop music and songs, is at least as important.
The combination of music and words, or even just the sound of the voice, where the words are un-discernible, act upon the nervous system in an entirely different way, the music transforms both their meaning-and how we understand them.
If you think about 'She loves you' by the Beatles for example, it's virtually inane as an isolated lyric,-but the words ignite- only as part of the song/production, the same could be said of many songs.
Recorded music-pop, has also altered the way we think of a song, 'Blue Monday' is the antithesis of the folk song, it's not meant to be sung, but listened to-the song acts upon us, we are the passive recipients of it-the group now acts in a totemic sense.
It's interesting that the much of the inanity in pop, is a result of a culture which springs, primarily from adolescence, -it's a culture that often treats articulate utterance as a capitulation to the adult world, and is often straitjacketed by it's opposition to articularity and what it represents.

nice comment adge

[alexv]

On adge's comment about the inane, Steve Allen, a sometimes inane but sometimes brilliant, US comedian/talk show host/sometimes songwriter, used to riff on the inanity of Beatles lyrics (back in the late 60s when Beatles lyrics were talked about in hushed tones), and would use She Loves You as his main prop. He would mouth the lyrics, and then look at the audience and say something like: "Deep stuff, hey?" Always got a laugh. As adge notes, even silly sounding pop lyrics writen by teenagers can be redeemed by the music. Where would Bernie Taupin be without Elton?

Otis, I too love that Talking Head song. It is a true love song, maybe the only one Byrne ever wrote. Byrne, at the time was going out with or married to a photographer. That's where that line about the camera comes from. Talking Heads songs are a great example of adge's point about pop music/poems. I always found that Byrne's lyrics were mostly gibberish, but were turned into great pop songs by the melodies, arrangements and his definitely quirky singing style.

Here's my offering in that vein:

You say you stand by your man
Tell me something I don't understand
You said you loved me and that's a fact
and then you left me, said you felt trapped

Well some things you can't explain away
But the heartache's in me till this day

CHORUS
You didn't stand by me
No, not at all
You didn't stand by me
No way

All the times
When we were close
I'll remember these things the most
I see all my dreams come tumbling down
I can't be happy without you round

So alone I keep the wolves at bay
and there is only one thing that I can say

CHORUS

You must explain why this must be
Did you lie when you spoke to me

Did you stand by me
No, not at all

Now I got a job
But it don't pay
I need new clothes
I need somewhere to stay
But without all of these things I can do
But without your love I won't make it through

But you don't understand my point of view
I suppose there's nothing I can do

CHORUS X 2

You must explain why this must be
Did you lie when you spoke to me

Did you stand by me
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way



Steve Allen would have a field day with this, but it's a great pop song.

[Jack of All Parades]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYK7bEo1Z4M

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... qg_ZGcuybs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q7KXWzA2fQ

Some musical support for all your offerings, Alex, Otis and Adge as I too agree that most pop songs scan ridiculously on the printed page, appearing very often as inane verbiage. However, when combined with the melody, and if you are lucky harmony, the words often do come alive. Found it immensely amusing a few years back when Sting's collected writings were published. They for the most part lay flat upon the page and were frequently not helped by the accompanying music, either.

Alex that is a sound pick. I always liked how the lyric and song also played off the 'stand by me' sentiment as made so popular by Ben E King. Great choice. Otis saw Talking Heads do that song so many years ago- a very pleasant memory. Adge, never saw the song performed, though read the poem and sang it enough times in church as a hymn.