The best lyrics EVER

[littlemissattitude]

Originally Posted by gillman

John Denver was looked at "musically" as INSIGNIFICANT & "Square" & generally disrespected by even his own Music Label. And by his own ADMISSION his personal life had several shadows .

I think John Denver was a good lyricist and a good singer. I saw him in concert once, and really enjoyed the show. He was never my favorite singer of his genre* (folk-pop/country), but he had good intentions I think, and that has to count for something.

*As a note, Gordon Lightfoot is my favorite singer of this genre, and I offer here part of the lyrics from one of his songs:

There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

---"Canadian Railroad Trilogy"

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

[QUOTE=gillman] DRESS the way that describes who you are & all that you're searching for
(albeit not to harm or disrespect your brother).
_
QUOTE]

True.

Speaking of Gordon Lightfoot, he has some realy good songs. It's been a long time since I've listened to him, but Canadian Railroad Trilogy has to be one of his best. Through random association this jogged memories of one of my favourite Bob Dylan lyrics. Dylan, of course, has been writing amazing lyrics all his life, as easily and naturally as the rest of us breathe, but somehow these lines from The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll have always stood out for me:

Hattie Carroll was a maid of the kitchen.
She was fifty-one years old and gave birth to ten children
Who carried the dishes and took out the garbage
And never sat once at the head of the table
And didn't even talk to the people at the table
Who just cleaned up all the food from the table
And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level,

[Amidala]

E tangi ana Koe
Hine, E Hine!
Kua ngenge ana koe
Hine, E Hine!
Kati to pouri ra
Noho i te Aroha
Te ngakau o te Matua
Hine, E Hine
~~~~~
Plaintive all through the night -
Hine, E Hine!
Weeping till morning light -
Hine, E Hine!
From my care why try to leap
There is love for you
Mother's arms their strength will keep
Hine, E Hine!
~~
Hine, E Hine! Maori for "little one"
Te Reinga, the spirit land
Aroha, Darling

[gillman]

Hey Amidala,,,,,,,,,that was nice (is it Hawaiian)? Here's one of mine I wrote for one of my ORDINARY PEOPLE Hero's. She risked her life to save an endangered REDWOOD TREE & a vanishing eco-system back in 1997.

There's a story of a girl who loved the wilderness
and BUTTERFLY became her chosen name
she came from far away to find lifes meaning
and the secrets in the wind and pouring rain

she heard the redwood forest was in danger
and the Spotted Owl might soon no longer be
so she offered up her life in Nature's service
as she searched herself to ask "WHO IF NOT ME"?
(chorus)
and her eyes were opened
and she could see the stars again
that light had not been there in quite awhile
and she caught a glimpse
of the wisdom of the ages
and the freedom born from a pure heart under trial
stand up for all that's right
and find your smile
and reach the SKY
just like a BUTTERFLY

[Amidala]

Its Maori, from New zealand

[retroauro]

Take This Waltz

Now in Vienna there's ten pretty women
There's a shoulder where Death comes to cry
There's a lobby with nine hundred windows
There's a tree where the doves go to die
There's a piece that was torn from the morning
And it hangs in the Gallery of Frost
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws
Oh I want you, I want you, I want you
On a chair with a dead magazine
In the cave at the tip of the lily
In some hallways where love's never been
On a bed where the moon has been sweating
In a cry filled with footsteps and sand
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take its broken waist in your hand

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz
With its very own breath of brandy and Death
Dragging its tail in the sea

There's a concert hall in Vienna
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews
There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking
They've been sentenced to death by the blues
Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture
With a garland of freshly cut tears
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz it's been dying for years

There's an attic where children are playing
Where I've got to lie down with you soon
In a dream of Hungarian lanterns
In the mist of some sweet afternoon
And I'll see what you've chained to your sorrow
All your sheep and your lilies of snow
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
With its 'I'll never forget you, you know!'

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz ...

And I'll dance with you in Vienna
I'll be wearing a river's disguise
The hyacinth wild on my shoulder,
My mouth on the dew of your thighs
And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
With the photographs there, and the moss
And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty
My cheap violin and my cross
And you'll carry me down on your dancing
To the pools that you lift on your wrist
Oh my love, Oh my love
Take this waltz, take this waltz
It's yours now. It's all that there

Originally Posted by I, Brian

I don't actually listen to the lyrics much in songs - when I hear singing I hear melody and tune, rather than grammar and semantics.

However, there are some songs where the words - or, at least the delivery of those words - really grips me.

One is Talk Talk's "I believe in you" - something about the delivery of the first verse is emotionally haunting:

Hear it in my spirit
I've seen heroin for myself
On the street so young laying wasted
Enough ain't it enough
Crippled world
I just can't bring myself to see it starting


Another song I just love the lyrics to is Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne". It's simply a beautiful and evocative song.

[Amidala]

I have recently developed a love for Damien Rice

cannonball

there’s still a little bit of your taste in my mouth
there’s still a little bit of you laced with my doubt
it’s still a little hard to say what's going on
there’s still a little bit of your ghost your witness
there’s still a little piece of your face i haven't kissed
you step a little closer to me
still i can't see what's going on
stones taught me to fly
love taught me to lie
life taught me to die
so it's not hard to fall
when you float like a cannonball
there’s still a little bit of your song in my ear
there’s still a little bit of your words i long to hear
you step a little closer each day
so close that i can't see what's going on
stones taught me to fly
love taught me to lie
life taught me to die
so it's not hard to fall
when you float like a cannon
stones taught me to fly
love taught me to cry
so come on courage
teach me to be shy
'cause it's not hard to fall
and i don't want to scare her
it's not hard to fall
and i don't wanna lose
it's not hard to grow
when you know that you just don't know
_____
eskimo

tiredness fuels empty thoughts
i find myself disposed
brightness fills empty space
in search of inspiration
harder now with higher speed
washing in on top of me so
i look to my eskimo friend when i’m down down down
rain it wets muddy roads
i find myself exposed
tapping does but irritate
in search of destination
harder now with higher speed
washing in on top of me so
i look to my eskimo friend when i’m down down down
_______


Oh dont blame me for the bad grammer I just c/p'd

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

What sort of music does he play?

[Amidala]

Hard to say some have described it as mellow, others as folk. usualy just consists of his voice and a guitar,

Not to everyones taste but I certainly like it, he has a rough unusual voice and his lyrics are very deep

www.damienrice.com

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Seem interesting. I'm downloading a couple of his songs, let's see...

[Amidala]

Great,Interested to hear what you think

[edtherom]

Van Morrison has a [several, actually] great song on his first album, Astral Weeks, called, oddly enough, Astral Weeks...

The first line is:

"If I entered in the slipstream, 'tween the viaducts of your dreams..."



and the chorus begins :

"Would you find me, would you kiss my eyes, and lay me down, in silence, easy, to be born again..."

Joni Mitchell's "Song to a Seagull" and "Cactus Tree" also come to mind.

..

[littlemissattitude]

I like Van Morrison. "Moondance" is one of my favorite songs.

Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I'm trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
And all the night's magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush

Anyone who uses the word "marvelous" in a song lyric is all right with me.

[silvercloak]

Well obviously Ja Rule's "Pop Niggas" for shizzle.


How many niggas hit the scene like Rule
Benley GT, pushin through bock flooded, with jewels
H-2 with the hungerous Rule beside me
Armed up the army, don't play that with nobody
Rule, Murder & Gotti
We hittin bitches like Lowe's be hittin switches, 16 at a time
Times that behind with me down we lose and find
X style the night that they mind we ? the times
With renegades prowling this bitch with braids
Leather gloves with dark shades and sowed off day
Reminiscing the Cleo, she go to living life flawless
Who the boss, you know this
Who the GOD, who fawlging
Hit me im giving niggas 1 to 3
Y'all need 1 to 3 hours to accomplish what we have built here
You nigga know this is Rule here
I'm cocking back, I got an idea

[Chorus]
Just hop nigga, hop nigga, just hop niggas, cuz I pop niggas
When you see the Rule comin'
Clear the block niggas, hop niggas, just hop nigga, cuz I pop niggas
When you see the chrome run
Hop nigga, hop nigga, just hop nigga, cuz i pop niggas
When you see the Rule comin'
Clear the block niggas, hop nigga, just hop nigga, cuz I pop niggas
When you see the chrome run

[Ja Rule]
Y'all niggas wanna see the N-G
I'll go watch it like its a hundred and ten of me
Guns bustin' in every direction, the public enemy
But naah I aint Chuck B, Its Rule baby
Y'all niggas wanna get it crazy, come on y'all cant fade me
The music is slavery, roll up and haze
Because most niggas is lazy cotton pickers
Wish they'd find out its me and my niggas they gone
Cuz they prisoners of they own home, we party and get it on
LIVE IT UP! As soon as we hit em home
We tuckin away the chrome and humpin up on some hoes
We dem niggas you love to hate...I know
Who cares I been blowin your bitch back out for years
Plus she shared so many tears for me
While you was away, was around the time I made "Put It On Me"
So homie, stay from 'round here you aint know, this is Rule here
I'm cockin back, I got an idea

[Chorus]

[P. Williams]
Yeah, you feelin hot tonight well look it here playboy we could go outside
[x2]
HUH, you feelin hot tonight well look it here lil' mama we could go outside
[x2]

[Ja Rule]
Certain niggas need to be kissed in the ground that I walk
Shuttin up when I talk, its Rule in full floss
5-0 is tellin him X marks the speasy
How niggas gettin dis money, it can't be this easy
Believe me, I see between cracks and crevices
Angelic and devilish, who thinks better than this
The shell love and angel live in the darkest angles, this is Rule here
I'm cockin back I got an idea

[Chorus]

[P. Williams]
Yeah, you feelin hot tonight
well look it here playboy we could go outside [x2]
HUH, you feelin hot tonight
well look it here lil' mama we could go outside [x2]

Haha, just kidding. Elliot Smith is great lyricist and songwriter. He was nominated for a grammy for "Miss Misery", and his song "Needle In the Hay" was background music for the suicide scene in "The Royal Tenenbaums". In October of 2003, eerily similar to the scene in the movie he died when he cut his wrists.

Your hand on his arm
The hay stack charm around your neck
Strung out and thin
Calling some friend trying to cash some check
He’s acting dumb
That’s what you’ve come to expect
Needle in the hay
(Repeat 3 Times)

He’s wearing yr clothes
Head down to toes a reaction to you
You say you know what he did
But you idiot kid
You don’t have a clue
Sometimes they just get caught in the eye
You’re pulling him through
Needle in the hay
(Repeat 3 Times)

Now on the bus
Nearly touching this dirty retreat
Falling out 6th and powell a dead sweat in my teeth
Gonna walk walk walk
Four more blocks plus one in my break
Down downstairs to the man
He’s gonna make it all ok
I can’t beat myself
I can’t beat myself
And I don’t want to talk
I’m taking the cure so I can be quiet
Whenever I want
So leave me alone
You ought to be proud that I’m getting good marks
Needle in the hay
(Repeat 4 Times)

[polymorphikos]

The Dying Stockman (a ballad I found in a book of aussie folk-songs).

A strapping young stockman lay dying, his saddle supporting his head,
His mates all around him were crying, as he raised on his elbow and said:

Chorus

"Wrap me up in my stockwip and blanket,
And bury me deep down below,
Where the dingos and crows won't molest me,
In the shade where the coolibahs grow.

"Then cut you two stringy-bark saplings, place one at my head and my toe,
Carve on them crossed stockwhips and saddle,
To show there's a stockman below.

Chorus

"Then bury me deep in some gully, where the sweet-scented kurrajongs wave,
Where the breeze from the bush can blow o'er me, and the wildflowers grow on my grave.

Chorus

"Oh, had I the flight of the bronzewing, far over the plains would I fly;
Straight to the land of my childhood, and there I'd be willing to die.

Chorus

"Hark! There's wail of a dingo, watchful and weird; I must go,
For he tolls the death-knell of a stockman, in the gloom of the scrub down below.

Chorus

"There's tea in the battered old billy, put the panikins out in a row,
And we'll drink to the next merry meeting, in the land where the good stockmen go.

Chorus

"And oft in the shades of the twilight, when the soft winds are whispering low,
And the darkening shadows are falling, sometimes think of the stockman below."

Probably not the best lyrics I've ever heard, but there's a something to them, and they reminded me of growing-up in the country.