Best lyrics you've ever read (written)?

[Chepney]

Well I can't get along little doggie
No I can't get along little doggie
I can't even get a short little doggie
I can't get a doggie at all

 

[monty]

Any of you guys know a song that may be called 'Tie my Pecker to a Tree'. Used to sing it when we were kids but I can't remember all the words. (No comments out of you Mutt)

 

[migo]

Almost anything John Lennon...

Here's one:

Mind Games(1973)

We're playing those mind games together
Pushing the barriers planting seeds
Playing the mind guerrilla
Chanting the Mantra peace on earth
We all been playing those mind games forever
Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil
Doing the mind guerrilla
Some call it magic the search for the grail

Love is the answer and you know that for sure
Love is a flower you got to let it grow,
You got to let it grow.

So keep on playing those mind games together
Faith in the future out of the now
You just can't beat on those mind guerrillas
Absolute elsewhere in the stones of your mind
Yeah we're playing those mind games together
Projecting our images in space and in time

Yes is the answer and you know that for sure
Yes is surrender you got to let it go

So keep on playing those mind games together
Doing the ritual dance in the sun
Millions of mind guerrillas
Putting their soul power to the karmic wheel
Keep on playing those mind games together
Raising the spirit of peace and love
(I want you to make love, not war
I know you've heard it before)

 

[phillybean]

Let me get the jokes out of the way, first:
"Evil Dick" by Body Count
'Evil . . . Dick. Evil dick likes warm small spaces, evil dick leaves gooey tell-tale traces. Evil dick.'
"De-do-do-do de-da-da-da" The Police, my favorite band ever.

For real, though, Tom Waits is fantastic. As is Stevie Wonder.

And does anybody know of Brak from Cartoon Planet? His song "I'm a Cucumber" OH MY GOD! I almost wept it is so beautiful.
"I'm a Cucumber, I'm a Cucumber, I'm a Cucumber, I'm a Cucumber, I'm a Cucumber, I'm a Cucumber, Please don't send me to the pickle farm. Ba-doo. Bah-da-ba-dooby-do."

 

[Roland Saul]

How about ELP? Lennon/MacCartney of course, Dylan of course, and this is not a joke, Keith Richards (more poetic than Mick ever was). Sort of a minimalist thing, but talented no doubt.

Waters/Gilmour? The guy that wrote Carpet Crawlers? Moody Blues?

 

[Cakey2]

There's a band called the Silver Jews. They have a song called 'advice for the graduate' which is basically built around a load of cliche advice, of which the best is

'on the last day of your life
don't forget to die'

inspired.

Oh, back to Will Oldham, I can't remember the exact line, but on his latest, he has something like ' thinking of death is good,
it makes hosing a lot of fun'

????

Dead Flag Blues by Godspeed You Black Emporer!?
Maybe I'm getting a bit obscure ?
'We're trapped in the the belly of this horrible machine,
And the machine is bleeding to death'
'The skyline was beautiful on fire'
'I opened up my wallet... and it was full of blood'
spring immediately to mind...

matt

 

[Delso]

Kris Kristofferson, when he was a professional songwriter, rather than a "singer/songwriter" - even then he could pull off a good one, e.g. "Jesus was a Capricorn".

 

[6footbong]

how can you leave out Kurdt Cocaine?

 

[Lambo]

Dangling Conversation - Simon & Garfunkel

We May Never Pass This Way Again - Seals &
Crofts
The Rose - Performed by Bette Midler

 

[JimH]

Roland, although ELP might not stand out to most people, but I think there's some good stuff there. I particularly like the imagery of the lyrics in Pirates as well as the marriage of the lyrics and music in that one.

The only Carpet Crawlers I know of is the Genesis song. Not sure who wrote the lyrics but it's most likely Peter Gabriel.

 

[Qasper]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JimH:
Roland, although ELP might not stand out to most people, but I think there's some good stuff there. I particularly like the imagery of the lyrics in Pirates as well as the marriage of the lyrics and music in that one.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

WOW! I had no clue about ELP. This is exactly why I posted this thread... I read Pirates and others... The style obviously differs from Dylan or other greats, but is in no way lessened in doing so... Thanks for the cue (pun) guys...

PS. Lambo: ARE YOU KIDDING ME? "The dangling conversation" is just... well, I guess it's what I'd want to someday be able to write: The imagery, the sincerity... The truth... *Ugh, my stomach hurts* I've got my work cut out.

Funny thing is, I have no clue what it actually sounds like... The song doesn't ring a bell at all. I'll have to find a way to listen to it... Before they shut Napster down, that is...

-Q-

 

[Lambo]

Favorite Lyrics:
In My Life - The Beatles
God Only Knows - Beach Boys
Father To Son - Phil Collins


[This message has been edited by Lambo (edited 06-21-2000).]

 

[Lambo]

Into White - Cat Stevens

[This message has been edited by Lambo (edited 06-21-2000).]

 

[dragonworks]

Wont you hurry up and execute me, so I can be
on my miserable way.
I'm the one who has to die when its my turn to die so let me live my life the way I want to.
There aint no life nowhere.
Giant lipstick tube shaped things continue to
rain and cause grief and pain
Lonely Lonely Lonely
I come back to find the stars misplaced.
Never to hear surf music again.
Are you expierienced?
And I continue to burn the midnight lamp.
And let them laugh, laugh at me.
White collar conservative flashing down the
street pointing there plastic finger at me.
Brothers help me there trying to package and
sell me.
Their seems to be some form of intelligent life.
Its like Im living at the bottom of a grave.

 

[kmar]

Can I get a witness on early Dan Fogelberg? He tops the chart when it comes to lyrics that MEAN something. And he does it with great imagery. He is also one heckuva musician. I think he's incredibly under-rated. His first 5 records are always close to my changer.

 

[dragonworks]

How about
Justin Haywood
Al Stewert
Jack Bruce

Not necessarily in that order.

 

[virtual.ray]

Has anyone mentioned Billy Joel yet? "As we stand upon the ledges of our lives,with our respective similarities,it's either sadness or euphoria."

 

[KaBudokan]

Yeah everyone has some really good ones listed. Bowie is definitely in there for me. Lyrics that stand on there own. I gotta say though, having recently seen him in concert, I gotta say Lou Reed is fresh in my mind. Very caustic, he makes his point so incredibly. Blunt and beautiful. This one's maybe deeper than others, but pretty killer. I was blown away when I first heard this and read the lyrics.

Dime Store Mystery

He was lying banged and battered, skewered and bleeding
talking crippled on the Cross
Was his mind reeling and heaving hallucinating
fleeing what a loss

The things he hadn't touched or kissed his senses
slowly stripped away
Not like Buddha not like Vishnu
life wouldn't rise through him again

I find it easy to believe
that he might question his beliefs
The beginning of the Last Temptation
Dime Story Mystery

The duality of nature, Godly nature,
human nature splits the soul
Fully human, fully divine and divided
the great immortal soul

Split into pieces, whirling pieces, opposites
attract
From the front, the side, the back
the mind itself attacks

I know the feeling, I know it from before
descartes through Hegel belief is never sure
Dime Store Mystery, Last Temptation

I was sitting drumming thinking thumping pondering
the Mysteries of Life
Outside the city shrieking screaming whispering
the Mysteries of Life

There's a funeral tomorrow
at St. Patrick's the bells will ring for you
Ah, what must you have been thinking
when you realized the time had come for you

I wish I hadn't thrown away my time
on so much Human and so much less Divine
The end of the Last Temptation
The end of a Dime Store Mystery

 

[Pbass75]

radiohead has some pretty cool lyrics....and faith no more

 

[Salabim]

Greendays 'the grouch'
"the world owes me so F**k you!"

Nah, when i comes down to it, i think that Ben Folds has come up with some of the best:

'Here i stand,sad and Free'
i cant walk, i cant see
what i've done, oh god,
what have i done?'

(Evaporated - Whatever and ever Amen)

Tim