Metacritic.com
Film Video/DVD Music Games Books TV
Metacritic    Metacritic Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Music  Hop To Forums  General Music Discussion    Favorite Lyric(s)
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
4-star Rating (2 Votes) Rate It!  Login/Join 
Slacker
Posted Hide Post
More Paul Simon:
"Many's the time I've been mistaken,
and many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken,
and certainly misused.
Ah, but I'm all right, I'm all right.
I'm just weary to my bones.
Still you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant,
so far away from home,
so far away from home.
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered.
I don't have a friend who feels at ease.
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered,
or driven to its knees.
Ah, but it's all right. It's all right.
For we've lived so well so long.
Still, when I think of the road we're travelin' on,
I wonder what's gone wrong.
I can't help but wonder what's gone wrong.

And I dreamed I was dying.
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly,
and looking back down at me, smiled reassuringly.
And I dreamed I was flying,
and high up above my eyes could clearly see
the Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea.
And I dreamed I was flying.

And we come on the ship they call the Mayflower.
We come on the ship that sailed the moon.
We come in the age's most uncertain hours,
and sing an American tune.
Oh, and it's all right, it's all right,
it's all right.
You can't be forever blessed.
Still tomorrow's gonna be another working day
and I'm tryin' to get some rest;
that's all - I'm trying to get some rest."
Written in 1973, and when he sang it at the first post-9/11 "Saturday Night Live," it was as if it were written for the occasion.

Less seriously:
Mark Knopfler
"You promised me everything.
You promised me thick and thin.
Now you say, oh, Romeo, I used to have a thing with him.
Juliet, when we made love you used to cry.
Said I love you like the stars above;
I love you 'til I die."
 
Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
"Forum Moderator"
Super Bad-Ass Jedi
Posted Hide Post
quote:

Every day, I wake up and pray to Jah
And he increases the number of clocks by exactly one
Everybody's comin' home for lunch these days
Last night there were skinheads on my lawn
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling
Some people say that bowling alleys got big lanes
Some people say that bowling alleys all look the same
There's not a line that goes here that rhymes with anything
I had a dream last night, but I forget what it was
I had a dream last night about you, my friend
I had a dream--I wanted to sleep next to plastic
I had a dream--I wanted to lick your knees
I had a dream--it was about nothing


Pure Genius.


-----
We were wasps with new wings, now we're bugs in the jar.

 
Location: MichiganReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Enthusiast
Posted Hide Post
Billy Bragg & Wilco
Mermaid Avenue Vol. II
"Remember the Mountain Bed"

quote:
Do you still sing of the mountain bed we made of limbs and leaves:
Do you still sigh there near the sky where the holly berry bleeds:
You laughed as I covered you over with leaves, face, breast, hips and thighs,
You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes.

Rosin smells and turpentine smells from eucalyptus and pine
Bitter tastes of twigs we chewed where tangled woodvines twine
Trees held us in on all four sides so thick we could not see
I could not see any wrong in you, and you saw none in me.

Your arm was brown against the ground, your cheeks part of the sky,
As your fingers played with grassy moss, and limber did you lie:
Your stomach moved beneath your shirt and your knees were in the air
Your feet played games with mountain roots as you lay thinking there.

Below us the trees grew clumps of trees, raised families of trees, and they
As proud as we tossed their heads in the wind and flung good seeds away:
The sun was hot and the sun was bright down in the valley below
Where people starved and hungry for life so empty come and go.

There in the shade and hid from the sun we freed our minds and learned
Our greatest reason for being here, our bodies moved and burned
There on our mountain bed of leaves we learned life’s reason why
The people laugh and love and dream, they fight, they hate to die.

The smell of your hair I know is still there, if most of our leaves are blown,
Our words still ring in the brush and the trees where singing seeds are sown
Your shape and form is dim, but plain, there on our mountain bed
I see my life was brightest where you laughed and laid your head...

I learned the reason why man must work and how to dream big dreams,
To conquer time and space and fight the rivers and the seas
I stand here filled with my emptiness now and look at city and land
And I know why farms and cities are built by hot, warm, nervous hands.

I crossed many states just to stand here now, my face all hot with tears,
I crossed city, and valley, desert, and stream, to bring my body here:
My history and future blaze bright in me and all my joy and pain
Go through my head on our mountain bed where I smell your hair again.

All this day long I linger here and on in through the night
My greeds, desires, my cravings, hopes, my dreams inside me fight:
My loneliness healed, my emptiness filled, I walk above all pain
Back to the breasts of my woman and child to scatter my seeds again.


Radiohead
Itch
"Killer Cars"

quote:
Too hard on the brakes again
What if these brakes just give in?
What if they don't get out of the way?
What if there's someone overtaking?
I'm going out for a little drive
And it could be the last time you see me alive
There could be an idiot on the road
The only kick in life is pumping his steel

Wrap me up in the back of the trunk
Packed with foam and blind drunk
They won't ever take me alive
'Cause they all drive...

Don't die on the motorway
The moon would freeze, the plants would die
I couldn't cope if you crashed today
All the things I forgot to say
I'm going out for a little drive
And it could be the last time you see me alive
What if the car loses control?
What if there's someone overtaking?

Wrap me up in the back of the trunk
Packed with foam and blind drunk
They won't ever take me alive
'Cause they all drive killer cars

Wrap me up in the back of the trunk
Packed with foam and blind drunk
No they won't ever take me alive
'Cause they all drive killer cars
They all drive killer cars
They all drive killer cars
 
Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
"Forum Moderator"
Super Bad-Ass Jedi
Posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by i swim in deep park:
Billy Bragg & Wilco
Mermaid Avenue Vol. II
"Remember the Mountain Bed"


Lyrics by Woody Guthrie


"Naked Woman, Naked Man
Where did you get that nice sun tan?"
 
Location: Behind the Orange CurtainReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Apprentice Guru
Posted Hide Post
My all-time favorite lyrical chunk comes from "Distant Sun" by Crowded House (the bridge):

I'm lyin' on the table, washed out in a flood
Like a Christian fearing vengeance from above
I don't pretend to know what you want,
But I offer love

...
 
Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Know-It-All
Posted Hide Post
quote:
The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton
The Mountain Goats

the best ever death metal band out of denton
were a couple of guys, who'd been friends since grade school.
one was named cyrus, and the other was jeff.
and they practiced twice a week in jeff's bedroom.

the best ever death metal band out of denton
never settled on a name.
but the top three contenders, after weeks of debate,
were satan's fingers, and the killers, and the hospital bombers.

jeff and cyrus believed in their hearts they were headed
for stage lights and lear jets, and fortune and fame.
so in script that made prominent use of a pentagram,
they stenciled their drumheads and guitars with their names.

this was how cyrus got sent to the school
where they told him he'd never be famous.
and this was why jeff,
in the letters he'd write to his friend,
helped develop a plan to get even.
when you punish a person for dreaming his dream,
don't expect him to thank or forgive you.
the best ever death metal band out of denton
will in time both outpace and outlive you.
hail satan!
hail satan tonight!
hail satan!
hail hail!


I heard this for the first time just a few weeks back, and it instantly became a favorite.
 
Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Participant
Posted Hide Post
Duk Koo Kim

looking out on my roof last night
woken up from a dream
i saw a typhoon coming in close
bringing the clouds down to the sea
making the world look gray and alone
taking all light from my view
keeping everyone in
and keeping me here with you

around you now, i can't sleep no more baby
around you still, don't want to leave yet

woken up from a dream last night
somewhere lost in war
i couldn't feel my feet or hands
i didn't feel right anymore
i knew there I'd die alone
with no one to reach to
but an angel came down
and brought me back to you

i'd rather leave this world forever baby
than let life go the way it's going

watching an old fight film last night
Ray Mancini vs. Duk Koo Kim
the boy from Seoul was hanging in good
but the pounding took to him
and there in the square he lay alone
without face without crown
and the angel who looked upon
never came down

you never know what day could pick you baby
out of the air, out of nowhere

come to me once more my love
show me love I've never known
sing to me once more my love
words from your younger years
sing to me once more my love
songs that i love to hear

birds gather 'round my window
fly with everything i love about the day
flowers, blue and gold and orange
rise with everything i love about the day

walk with me down these strange streets
how have we come to be here
so kind are all these people
how have we come to know them

You seem to be suffering from delusions of adequacy.
 
Location: my lounge roomReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Participant
Posted Hide Post
"The World Keeps Turning" Tom Waits

Who knows where the sidewalk ends
Well, the road will turn and the road will bend
They always say he marks the sparrow's fall
How can anyone believe it all?

Well, the band has stopped playing but we keep dancing
The world keeps turning, the world keeps turning
On his hand he wore the ring of another
And the world keeps turning, the world keeps turning
Just so beautiful my mother and I listened to this song and we cried.

"If I Have to Go"
"There's nothing for me, in this world full of strangers
It's all someone else's idea
I don't belong here, and you can't go with me"

"Tell all the others, you'll hold in your arms
That I said I'd come back for you
I'll leave my jacket to keep you warm
That's all that I can do"
So sad prefect lyrics for the way I think it would feel to lose a loved one such as a husband makes me cry every time.

You seem to be having delusions of adequacy.
 
Location: my lounge roomReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Jedi
Posted Hide Post
The best song lyrics I can think of are in "Idiot Wind". In fact, Blood on The Tracks is probably has the best lyrics of any album off the top of my head. I'm not going to post the whole song, just the last verse and refrain (it's got a hell of a lot of lyrics.)

"I can't feel you anymore
I can't even touch the books you've read
Every time I crawl past your door
I been wishin' I was somebody else instead
Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy
I followed you beneath the stars
Hounded by your memory
And all your ragin' glory

I been double-crossed now for the very last time
And now I'm finally free
I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me
You'll never know the hurt I suffered
Nor the pain I rise above
And I'll never know the same about you
Your holiness or your kind of love
And it makes me feel so sorry

Idiot wind
Blowing through the buttons of our coats
Blowing through the letters that we wrote
Idiot wind
Blowing through the dust upon our shelves
We're idiots, babe
It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves"

I'm listening to it right now. Awesome.
 
Location: Valparaiso, INReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Guru
Posted Hide Post
I could quote the whole song (and album) in this thread, but my two favourite passages of The Queen Is Dead are:

And so, I checked all the registered historical facts
And I was shocked into shame to discover
How I'm the 18th pale descendant
Of some old queen or other

and

So, I broke into the palace
With a sponge and a rusty spanner
She said : "Eh, I know you, and you cannot sing"
I said : "That's nothing - you should hear me play piano"


"I know that human beings and fish can co-exist peacefully"
 
Location: GlasgowReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
"Forum Moderator"
Super Bad-Ass Jedi
Posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Lady In Mango:
"If I Have to Go"
"There's nothing for me, in this world full of strangers
It's all someone else's idea
I don't belong here, and you can't go with me"

"Tell all the others, you'll hold in your arms
That I said I'd come back for you
I'll leave my jacket to keep you warm
That's all that I can do"
So sad prefect lyrics for the way I think it would feel to lose a loved one such as a husband makes me cry every time.
I championed that song everywhere on here last year. As a matter of fact, I think I was the only one who had that song in his "Best Songs of 2006" list. I also love the pain-staking lyrics, his frail voice, along with the beautiful music. It is a gorgeous song.


-----
If you don't love me, I'm sorry.
 
Location: TexasReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Jedi
Posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by less_success:

I been double-crossed now for the very last time
And now I'm finally free
I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me
You'll never know the hurt I suffered
Nor the pain I rise above
And I'll never know the same about you
Your holiness or your kind of love
And it makes me feel so sorry

I'm listening to it right now. Awesome.


I was always particularly partial to this verse, l_s. "Idiot Wind" also features Dylan's most impassioned vocal, IMO. Winning stuff.
 
Location: AustraliaReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
"Forum Moderator"
Super Bad-Ass Jedi
Posted Hide Post
"Idiot Wind" is a killer. Hard to match it but I also love this one, from the same album:


"'Twas in another life time,
One of toil and blood.
When blackness was a virtue
And the road was full of mud.
I came in from the wilderness,
A creature void of form.
"Come in" she said, "I'll give you,
Shelter from the storm."

And if I pass this way again,
You can rest assured,
I'll always do my best for her
On that I give my word.
In a world of steel eyed death and men
Who are fighting to be warm,
Come in she said, I'll give you
Shelter from the storm.

Not a word was spoke between us.
There was little risk involved.
everything up to that point,
Had been left unresolved.
Try imagining a place
Where it's always safe and warm
Come in she said I'll give you
Shelter from the storm.

I was burned out from exhaustion
I was buried in the hail.
Poisoned in the bushes
An' blown out on the trail
Hunted like a crocodile,
Ravaged in the corn
Come in she said I'll give you
Shelter from the storm

Suddenly I turned around
And she was standing there
With silver bracelets on her wrists
And flowers in her hair.
She walked up to me so gracefully
And took my crown of thorns
Come in she said I'll give you,
Shelter from the storm.

Now there's a wall between us
Something has been lost.
I took too much for granted
I got my signals crossed
Just to think that all began
On an uneventfull morn
Come in she said I'll give you
Shelter from the storm

Well the deputy walks on hard nails
And the preacher rides a mount
But nothing really matters much
It's doom alone that counts
And the one-eyed undertaker
He blows a futile horn
Come in she said I'll give you
Shelter from the storm

I've heard newborn babies wailin'
Like a mornin' dove
And old men with broken teeth
Stranded without love.
Do I understand your question,
man Is it hopeless and forlorn.
Come in she said I'll give you
Shelter from the storm.

In a little hill top village
I gambled for my clothes
I bargained for salvation
And they gave me a leathal dose.
I offered up my innocence
And got repaid with scorn
Come in she said I'll give you
Shelter from the storm

Well I'm livin' in a foreign country
But I'm bound to cross the line.
Beauty walk a razors edge,
Someday I'll make it mine.
If I could only turn the clock back
To when God and her were born
Come in she said I'll give you
Shelter from the storm."
 
Location: State of InsanityReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Jedi
Posted Hide Post
How about the lyrics on Antics by Interpol? Each songs contains so much thruth.


http://www.myspace.com/impostorwaiting

I don't want to go, but i can't say i had a good time to be anything
 
Location: Quebec, CanadaReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Jedi
Posted Hide Post
quote:
I was always particularly partial to this verse, l_s. "Idiot Wind" also features Dylan's most impassioned vocal, IMO. Winning stuff.
Yep, his vocals are as affecting on "Idiot Wind" as they ever were. Especially when he says "Blowing through the dust upon our shelves" in the last chorus. Check out this clip from Hard Rain. Pretty different version, but it's still pretty damn good.

quote:
If I could only turn the clock back
To when God and her were born
Another classic lyric from Dylan.
 
Location: Valparaiso, INReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
"Forum Moderator"
Jedi
Posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Lady In Mango:
Duk Koo Kim.....


I love love love this song, but I never realized how good the lyrics are. In fact, I never had any idea what the lyrics were at all.


--------------------------------------------------
Anatomy to me is a homesick stomach and a broken heart
 
Location: NE IndianaReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Jedi
Posted Hide Post
Paul Westerberg is one of the finest lyricists ever. Check out Bastards of Young, found on Tim by the Replacements:

"The ones who love us best, are the ones we'll lay to rest,
visit their graves on Saturdays at best.
The ones who love us least, are the ones we'll die to please
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to under-stan-and."

Find me a song that expresses these sentiments as poetically or succintly, and I'll take my hat off to 'em.


Oh, could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been,
Or weep as I could once have wept, o'er many a vanished scene;
As springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though they be,
So, midst the withered waste of life, those tears would flow to me.
 
Location: The ever silent spaces of the EastReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Jedi
Posted Hide Post
I prefer Satomi Matsuzaki-style lyrics Razzer.


☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺
Go Liminal State Bobcats!
 
Location: Back, after an eternal hiatusReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Know-It-All
Posted Hide Post
As far as kiss-offs go, I've always been partial to this one from Television's "Careful":

"Your wine (whine?) is just sour grapes/pour me a glass anytime I'm not there"
 
Location: Toronto, CanadaReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Jedi
Posted Hide Post
quote:
Posted by philosopher eric
"A white moon appears
Like a hole in the sky
The mangroves go quiet.
In la Brisa de la Palma
A teenage Rasputin
Takes the sting from a gin.
'When a woman learns to walk
She's not dependent anymore'
A line from her letter: May 24
And out on the bay
The current is strong
A boat can go lost"


These lyrics from 'Bye, Bye Pride' by the Go-Betweens, are indeed about my hometown Cairns in Northern Australia.

I was so thrilled the first time I heard the song, mostly cause it is a great song about my home, not merely a song about the streets I grew up on.


Oh, could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been,
Or weep as I could once have wept, o'er many a vanished scene;
As springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though they be,
So, midst the withered waste of life, those tears would flow to me.
 
Location: The ever silent spaces of the EastReply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
 Previous Topic | Next Topic powered by eve community Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7  
 

Metacritic    Metacritic Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Music  Hop To Forums  General Music Discussion    Favorite Lyric(s)

©2006 CNET Networks Inc. All rights reserved.
 
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | BOOKS | TV | About Metacritic