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Fun Stuff => BAND => Topic started by: Will on 26 Aug 2006, 07:53
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Any other lyric-whores out there care to share who some of their favorites are? Doesn't necessarily have to be any one style of music, just who grabs your attention with their words. Anyone who influences you in your own writing (if you write, that is)?
I've been completely enthralled with Converge (they're my favorite band) since I first heard the Jane Doe album. Anyone who's heard Converge knows you can't understand a damn word he "sings," so I checked out the lyrics on their site and discovered that for that particular time in my life, it was like I was reading my own biography. I just love the imagery that is conveyed in some of their lines...
"And I spent the last of days burning my oldest of bridges
And I spent my last of night killing the best of friends
In the company of thieves, liars, beggars and whores
I'll lay waiting, just waiting for my time to come"
Anyone else want to share some of their favorites?
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Sam Beam.
Amanda Plummer.
Roger Waters.
Mikael Akerfeldt.
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I second Sam Beam.
Also:
Elliott Smith
Cat Stevens
whoever wrote the lyrics for the arcade fire
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Elliot Smith was great just for how simple some of his songs could be, and yet they would say so much...
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Dan Weyandt from Zao - dude wrote a love song about zombies in the last album!
Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou...
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Well, the ones that influence me are mostly up the alley of Jeff Tweedy, Conor Oberst, and this guy Dan Mecher (I think i'm spelling it wrong). He's a musician from Cincinnati who's in a band called the Turnbull AC's. www.myspace.com/turnbullacs.
I would also like to mention Thom Yorke, Ian Curtis, and Robert Smith, but I feel like they don't influence me so much as I just admire them.
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Martin Walkyer of Skyclad is in a league of his own.
Others whose lyrics I greatly enjoy would include;
Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus is pretty awesome.
Mike Patton has really enjoyable lyrics, not very emotional, but he tells great stories.
Frank Black deserves a mention as well, his references to the old testament are pretty entertaining.
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For story-telling type lyrics, I don't think you get much better than Nick Cave...of course, I'm sure that someone is going to correct me sooner or later - which is fine by me! More music to discover, hooray!
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Nigel Blackwell from Half Man Half Biscuit. typical lyric:
“In the kingdom of the blind,
The one-eyed man is king.
But in the kingdom of the bland,
It’s nine o’clock on ITV”.
2nd for Nick Cave
Ray Davies
Loudon Wainwright
Elvis Costello
Gil-Scott Heron
Paul Weller
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Well I have several favourite lyricists and godammit I'm going to post examples of all of them.
1. Roger Waters
'If you should go skating on the thin ice of modern life
Dragging behind you the silent reproach of a million tear-stained eyes
Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice appears under your feet
You slip out of your depth and out of your mind'
Pink Floyd - The Thin Ice
'Babe, don't leave me now
I need you to beat to a pulp on a saturday night
To put through the shredder in front of my friends'
Pink Floyd - Don't Leave Me Now
'The silver in her hair shines in the cold November air'
Pink Floyd - The Gunner's Dream
A master of imagery, pretension and the human condition.
2. Syd Barrett
'I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
It's got a basket a bell that rings and things to make it look good
I'd give it to you if I could but I borrowed it'
Pink Flyod - Bike
Bike is a textbook in how to rhyme, and how not to rhyme. Psychedelic genius.
3. Graham Coxon
'Do you go to the country?
It isn't very far
There's people there who'll hurt you
Because of who you are'
Blur - Coffee And TV
An underrated lyricist...mainly because he's awful half the time. But once in a while he comes up with something great.
4. Rivers Cuomo
'Goddamn you half-Japanese girls
You do it to me every time
The redhead said you shred the cello
And I'm jello, baby'
Weezer - El Scorcho
Discordant melodies, odd chord progressions, a muddy guitar tone and some of the quirkiest, most worrying and most interesting lyrics I've ever heard.
5. Noel Gallagher (no, really)
'It's the little things that make me so happy
All I want to do is live by the sea'
Oasis - (It's Good) To Be Free
'When you look in the mirror and you're tying up your buttons and bows
And as you face your disease you can squeeze into the Emperor's clothes
You found your gun in a paper bag
You get your history from the Union Jack'
Oasis - Mucky Fingers
Most of his lyrics are total bollocks, but once in a while he comes up with something that I find really affecting, although the former example shows how I can get affected by stupid shit.
6. Jeff Tweedy (duh)
'The cash machine is blue and green
For a hundred in twenties and a small service fee
I could spend three dollars and sixty-three cents
On diet coca-cola and unlit cigarettes
I wonder why we listen to poets
When nobody gives a fuck
How hot and sorrowful
This machine begs for luck
All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new'
Wilco - Ashes Of American Flags
'Distance has no way of making love understandable'
Wilco - Radio Cure
A combination of surrealist weirdness and wonderfully open emotion.
7. John Lennon
'Here I stand head in hand, turn my face to the wall
If she's gone I can't go on, feeling two foot small
Everywhere people stare, each and every day
I can see them laugh at me, and I hear them say'
The Beatles - You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Probably a genius, even if his solo work was patchy as hell.
8. Zack de la Rocha
'The teacher stands at the front of the class
But the lesson plan he can't recall
The student's eyes don't perceive the lies
Plastered on every fucking wall'
Rage Against The Machine - Take The Power Back
A militant left-winger of the best kind.
9. Eminem (again, I mean it)
I won't bother copying and pasting all of Stan.
'They say music can alter moods and talk to you
But can it load a gun up for you and cock it too?
Well if it can then next time you assault a dude
Tell the judge it was my fault; then I'll get sued
See what these kids do is, they hear about us toting pistols
They wanna get one, they think this shit's cool
Not knowing we're really just protecting ourselves we entertainers
Of course this shit's effecting our sales you ignoramus'
Sing For The Moment
Everyone will take the piss for this choice, but I stand by it. Especially for the second example, if only for probably being the first rapper to use 'ignoramus' in a rhyme.
10. Nick Cave
'I went to bed last night and my moral code got jammed
I woke up this morning with a frappucino in my hand'
Abattoir Blues
'I don't believe in an interventionist God
I know darling that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask him
Not to intervene with me and you
Not to lay hand on your head, leave you as you are
If he felt he had to direct you, direct you into my arms
Into my arms, oh Lord, into my arms
I don't believe in the existence of angels
Looking at you, I wonder if that's true
But if I did I would summon them together
Ask them to watch over you
To each burn a candle for you, make bright and clear your path
And to walk like Christ in grace and love and guide you into my arms'
Into My Arms
'L is for love
O is for only you that I do
V is for loving virtually all that you are
E is for loving almost everything you do
R is for rape me
M is for murder me
A is for answering all of my prayers
N is for knowing your loverman's going to be the answer to all of yours'
Loverman
Simply a genius. Probably the only lyricist I appreciate more than even Bob Dylan. He has such variation too, he can do a soppy love song with the rest of them (although they usually contain a blatant sex reference just to blindside you) but also write the darkest lyrics you'll hear.
11. Neil Hannon
'Take the National Express when your life's in a mess, it'll make you smile
All human life is here from the feeble autier to the screaming child
To the studel(sp?) who knows that to have one of those would be suicide
To the family man manhandling the pram with paternal pride
On the National Express there's a jolly hostess selling crisps and tea
She'll provide you with drinks and theatrical winks for a sky-high fee
Mini-skirts were in style when she danced down the aisle back in '63
But it's hard to get by when your arse is the size of a small country'
The Divine Comedy - National Express
Where Hannon gets his ideas from I'll never know. The rhymes and jokes in his songs boggle my mind, especially in National Express.
12. Ian Curtis
'Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders,
Here are the young men, well where have they been?
We knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chamber,
Pushed to the limit, we dragged ourselves in,
Watched from the wings as the scenes were replaying,
We saw ourselves now as we never had seen.
Portrayal of the trauma and degeneration,
The sorrows we suffered and never were free.'
Joy Division - Decades
'I was there in the back stage,
When first light came around.
I grew up like a changeling,
To win the first time around.
I can see all the weakness.
I can pick all the faults.
Well I concede all the faith tests,
Just to stick in your throats.
I hung around in your soundtrack,
To mirror all that you've done,
To find the right side of reason,
To kill the three lies for one,
I can see all the cold facts.
I can see through your eyes.
All this talk made no contact.
No matter how hard we tried.
I can still hear the footsteps.
I can see only walls.
I slid into your man-traps,
With no hearing at all.
I just see contradiction,
Had to give up the fight,
Just to live in the past tense,
To make believe you were right.'
Joy Division - Warsaw
Depressing, dark, affecting, but occasionally with a glimmer of hope, such as on 'Transmission.'
13. Shane McGowan
I'm not going to bother copying and pasting 'Fairytale of New York' which is the most obvious example, but just about every Pogues song has fantastically witty lyrics (especially for a guy who was drunk 24/7) with a smattering of filth and fury.
14. Billie Joe Armstrong
'Going straight will get you nowhere.'
Green Day - Jaded
'I cannot speak
I've lost my voice
Speechless and redundant'
Green Day - Redundant
'Shoplifter you'll never learn
When you commit the crime
Shoplifter you're getting burned
And now you're gonna do the time
It's not considered stealing unless you're getting caught
And you've been caught stealing
Trying to take something you haven't got'
Green Day - Shoplifter
An underrated lyricist. Can be dark, can be witty, can be funny, can be boneheaded, and can be subversive.
15. Bob Dylan (no shit)
There are way too many Bob Dylan songs to list here, because lyrics are his strong point, and over 29 albums (not counting the new one on Monday) he's done so many great songs with brilliant lyrics I can't think of two or three to put down. However, I can think of the single line from 'Visions of Johanna' which I think totally epitomises his genius:
'The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face.'
How the hell do you go about coming up with a line like that? It's so surreal, there's simultaneously nothing and everything going on in it. It blows my mind.
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Seconding the Nick Cave, Shane McGowan and adding:
Tom Waits: He's amazing pure and simple.
Well the smart money's on Harlow and the moon is in the street
And the shadow boys are breaking all the laws
And you're east of East Saint Louis and the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause
And Napoleon is weeping in a carnival saloon
His invisible fiancee's in the mirror
And the band is going home, it's raining hammers, it's raining nails
And it's true there's nothing left for him down here
from Time.
Will Oldham: it's not that technical but really affecting:
She loves a soul that I have never been
A dog among dogs, a man among men
And every day when I come home to her
She holds a phantom, she kisses and she hugs him
And I am not averse to how she loves him
Why must I live and walk unloved as what I am ?
Why can't I be loved as what I am ?
A wolf among wolves and not as a man among men
From Wolf Among Wolves.
others I like are Cedric Bixler-Zavala(At the Drive-In/Mars Volta), Henriette Sennenvaldt(Under Byen), Colin Meloy(The Decemberists) and so on.
I really enjoy good lyrics to the point where it might determine if I like a band or not.
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An example of Aaron from mewithoutYou that I love:
Wearing black canvas slippers in that frog-on-a-lily-pad pose we sewed buttons and zippers to pink Chinese silk and olive night clothes if you can someday stop by somehow we'll show you the pictures and fix you some tea (see, my dad's getting a bit older now, and just unimaginably lonely)
--from Four Word Letter, Pt. 2--
I also like JR Hayes from Pig Destroyer...he's demented as all fuck, but some of his lines are brilliant:
Certain things fascinate me.
First I went blind and then the sun went out.
The way you hold a match so steady.
How heaven is collapsing under so much joy.
--from Evacuating Heaven--
My knuckles are bleeding on your front door
and these flowers are wilting in the rain.
They were for you and now they are for no one.
They are irrelevant as mercenaries in times of peace.
--from Junkyard God--
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OK- Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Nick Cave etc. all go without saying. Any new business?
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1) Ryan Adams
2) Mike Doughty
3) Thom Yorke
4) Will Scheff
5) Craig Finn
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James Taylor! Not all of his stuff is great, but my name is James, my nickname in residence was baby james, and I love the song 'Sweet Baby James'. Whatever.
There's a song that they sing as they take to the highway, a song that they sing as they take to the sea, a song that they sing of their home in the sky, maybe you can believe it if it helps you to sleep, but singing works just fine for me
Thanks for making me feel better at night, James.
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Put music to our troubles, and we'll dance them away..."
From a mewithoutYou song, can't remember which one
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Bruce Springsteen
In the parking lot the visionaries
Dress in the latest rage
Inside the backstreet girls are dancing
To the records that the DJ plays
Lonely-hearted lovers
Struggle in dark corners
Desperate as the night moves on
Just one look
And a whisper, and they're gone
Jim Morrison
Before you slip into unconsciousness
I'd like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss
Jeff Mangum
Two headed boy
With pulleys and weights
Creating a radio played just for two
In the parlor with a moon across her face
And through the music he sweetly displays
Silver speakers that sparkle all day
Made for his lover who's floating and choking with her hands across her face
And in the dark we will take off our clothes
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep inside
Now your eyes ain't moving now
They just lay there in their climb
Spencer Krug
Well I've got a hand
So I've got a fist
So I've got a plan
It's the best that I can do
And I'll save, using god's hands
But god doesn't always have the best god damn plans does he?
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I'll do some examples of mine too:
Ryan Adams
Can you still have any famous last words
If you're somebody nobody knows,
I don't know
Somebody go and ask Clair
She's been dead twenty years just look at her hair
Strawberry blonde with curls
She gets her hair done then she gossips
With the younger waitress girls at the bar
The old Irish rose
Drinking strawberry wine
Until it comes out her nose
She spent too much time on the other side,
And she forgot to let the daylight in
Mike Doughty
Your back curves like a creeping vine
With the answers in the fluid in the stem of the spine
In the black-coffee bowl of your eye
Why do you overestimate the size of the lie?
I’ve seen
The dangers of
Your rising sign
But i swear
I’d like
To drink the fuel straight from your lighter
It’s all inside the wrist, it’s
All inside the way you time it
I resent the way you make me like myself
Thom Yorke
I am the key to the lock in your house
That keeps your toys in the basement
And if you get too far inside
You'll only see my reflection
It's always best when the light is off
I am the pick in the ice
Do not cry out or hit the alarm
You know we're friends 'til we die
And either way you turn
I'll be there
Open up your skull
I'll be there
Climbing up the walls
Craig Finn
i guess you're old enough to know. kids out on the east coast. roughly twenty years old. got coaxed out by a certain perfect ratio. of warm beer to the summer smoke. and the meat loaf to the billy joel. certain songs they get so scratched into our souls.
she goes low on the seats when she gets high in her car. she looks shallow but shes neck deep in the steamy dreams of the guys along the harbor bars. she's pulling out her shirttails and jacking up her socks. stern and stoned and confident, coming up towards the jukebox. born into the only songs that everybody finally sings along.
Will Scheff
You love a stone, because it’s dark, and it’s old, and if it could start being alive you’d stop living alone. And I think I believe that, if stones could dream, they’d dream of being laid side-by-side, piece-by-piece, and turned into a castle for some towering queen they’re unable to know. And when that queen’s daughter came of age, I think she’d be lovely and stubborn and brave, and suitors would journey from kingdoms away to make themselves known. And I think that I know the bitter dismay of a lover who brought fresh bouquets every day when she turned him away to remember some knave who once gave just one rose, one day, years ago.
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I'll second Tommy with the lyricists in Fugazi, but also Frank Black, back when he was Black Francis of the Pixies.
oh, and conor oberst. i mean, his lyrics are so brilliant. /sarcasm
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Robert Smith-
Remembering
You standing quiet in the rain
As I ran to your heart to be near
And we kissed as the sky fell in
Holding you close
How I always held close in your fear
Remembering
You running soft through the night
You were bigger and brighter and whiter than snow
And screamed at the make-believe
Screamed at the sky
And you finally found all your courage
To let it all go
Isaac Brock-
Well, Cowboy Dan's a major player in the cowboy scene
He goes to the reservation drinks and gets mean
He drove the desert, fired his rifle in the sky
And says, "God if I have to die you will have to die"
Well, Cowboy Dan's a major player in the cowboy scene
He goes the the reservation drinks and gets mean
"I didnt move to the city, the city moved to me
And I want out desperately"
Colin Meloy-
Your parents were anxious,
Your cool was contagious
At the old school.
You left without leaving
A note for your grieving
Sweet mother, while
Your brother was so cruel.
And here in the alleys
Your spirits were rallied
As you learned quick to make a fast buck.
In bathrooms and barrooms,
On dumpsters and heirlooms,
We bit our tongues.
Sucked our lips into our lungs
'til we were falling.
Such was our calling.
[/i]
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I'll try to skip anyone already mentioned
Morrissey (mostly with The Smiths)
Brian McMahan (Slint)
David Bowie
Michael Stipe (REM)
Stuart Murdoch (Belle and Sebastian)
David Byrne (both with Talking Heads and solo)
Chan Marshall (Cat Power)
Douglas Pearce (Death In June)
Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA, no, seriously)
Lou Reed (up till the 80s)
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Bob Dylan is an all time great songwriter. As well as Dylan Serj Tankian, Michael Stipe and Dave Mustaine write some great lyrics.
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Mark Olivier "Mr. E" Everett
Look at all the people with the flowers in their hands
They put the flower on the box that's holding all the sand
That was once... that was once you
I still have never heard anyone put such real anguish into his music.
I also like Isaac Brock,
We kiss on the mouth but still cough down our sleeves
Beck,
Who could ever be so cruel,
Blame the devil for the things you do
It’s such a selfish way to lose
The way you lose these wasted blues
And whoever writes the lyrics for The Shins
These are the muddy waters
I am swimming in to make a living
Were I to drown in them
It should come as no surprise
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Martin Walkyer of Skyclad is in a league of his own.
"Court is now in session, Mother Nature presides,
The jury are our children, whose futures we've denied.
The evidence conclusive, we have no alibi,
The victim was our planet, the verdict: MATRICIDE!"
Skyclad - Our Dying Island
"She whispered of her innocence - (a plea I must contest)
While baptising helpless sinners with a missionary zest
She will exorcise your demons - then exercise your thighs
Await your 'second-coming' with a hunger in her eyes.
Her sweetmeats are the souls of men - she'll gorge herself to bursting
And for yours her heart is thirsting - as a spider craves a fly
No mortal man could ever hope to suit her as a suitor
Sh'll rewrite the Kama Sutra if you'd care to watch her try"
Skyclad - Spinning Jenny
"D.J.s, V.J.s, pimps and trollops,
never mind music - this is bollocks!"
Skyclad - Penny Dreadful
"What did we learn in history lessons?
How to sit quiet at the back of a class
with so many things open to questions,
it's too late to cry - there's no one to ask.
Life's an education - a multiple equation,
everybody finds their own solution in the end.
"To be or not to be" is a very lengthy question,
has somebody please got a sharpened pencil they can lend?
Marching in time down a production line,
what did that teach you about life in the dole queue?
The Law of Relativity - (life's relative misery).
The Law of Probability - (it's probably contrived).
Newton's Law of Gravity - (we face a grave reality).
The Law that runs the jungle - (only the strong survive)."
Skyclad - History Lessens
And countless, countless more, which I will post probably in the future. Incredible stuff. Nothing I've ever seen in the field of lyrics actually written for music equals it for me.
Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus is pretty awesome.
The man says it like it is. Almost brutal.
"Here I am, drunk and bored.
And even I don't wanna drink anymore.
And here you are, drunk and scared.
You finally realised: Life's not fair."
Sol Invictus - Here Am I
"This is the longest road to nowhere
Although it's shorter than you think
When the shutters comes down
When the chain breaks its link
Can love triumph
Will hate fall
Can good win?
Probably not at all
The tide will go out and not return
The flame will die and never again burn
I will fall asleep and never awake
The next page of the diary won't have a date
Can love triumph
Will hate fall
Can good win?
Probably not at all
With vile defeats
I limp towards December
Full of vile deceits
But destined not to be remembered"
Sol Invictus - December Song
" They're making the last film
They say that it's the best
And we all helped make it
It's called "The Death of the West"
The kids from Fame will all be there
Free Coca-Cola for you
And Eurodisney is here
Just for me and you
The death of the west
They're making the last film
They say that it's the best
And we all helped make it
It's called "The Death of the West"
A star has risen on northern skies
And on that star we'll be crucified
And the chains of gold around this world
They're ruled by those who lie
The death of the west"
Sol Invictus - The Death of the West
and so forth.
Also, gotta add Dave Tibet of Current 93. I'll put in some stuff by him later.
I think what really makes Martin and Tony is not just the lyrics, but the raw power of their delivery and their sheer integrity. These guys never have sold out and never will sell out. It's also the totality of the experience. I have almost every song ever written by both these lyricists, and the worlds or experiences they create are just enriched with each song. Martin in particular I feel like I know like a friend through his lyrics.
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David Byrne was always my favorite. Observations so honest and uncoated that they sound surreal compared to more bombastic songwriting.
I love Bob Pollard as a lyricist as well.
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4. Rivers Cuomo
'there's the pitch
slow and straight
all i have to do is swing
and i'm a hero
but i'm a zero'
Weezer - Perfect Situation
Discordant melodies, odd chord progressions, a muddy guitar tone and some of the quirkiest, most worrying and most interesting lyrics I've ever heard.
WHAT.
just kidding, dude. Rivers Cuomo was a damn good lyricist before he forgot how to write songs.
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oh, and conor oberst. i mean, his lyrics are so brilliant. /sarcasm
i'm actually going to defend oberst despite the fact i don't like his music a whole lot. simply for performing this song on syndicated television in america -
"When The President Talks To God"
whether or no these are 'good' lyrics doesn't really matter to me.
the fact that he is saying what the killers or panic at the disco are not is admirable.
i'll give him props for that, but conor oberst's lyrics as a whole (mostly for bright eyes, i kinda dig the desaparecidos) get on my nerves.
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penny rimbaud, from crass:
I am no feeble Christ not me. He hangs in glib delight upon his
cross, above my body. Christ forgive. FORGIVE? I vomit for you
Jesu. Shit forgive. Down from your cross. Down from your papal
heights, from that churlish suicide petulant child. Down from
those pious heights, royal flag bearer, goat, billy. I vomit for you.
Forgive? Shit he forgives. He hangs in crucified delight nailed to
the extent of his vision, his cross, his manhood, violence, guilt,
sin. He would nail my body upon his cross, suicide visionary,
death reveller, rake, rapist, lifefucker, Jesu, earthmover Christus,
gravedigger, you dug the graves of Auschwitz, the soil of
Treblinka is your guilt, your sin, master, master of gore, enigma.
You carry the standard of your oppression. Enola is your gaiety.
The bodies of Hiroshima are your delight, the nails are your only
trinity, hold them in your corpsey gracelessness, the image I
have had to suffer. The cross is the virgin body of womanhood
that you defile. You nail yourself to your own sin. Lame arse Jesus
calls me sister there are no words for my contempt, every
woman is a cross in his filthy theology, his arrogant delight. He
turns his back upon me in his fear, he dare not face me.
Fearfucker. Share nothing you Christ, sterile, impotent, fucklove
prophet of death. You are the ultimate pornography, in your
cuntfear, cockfear, manfear, womanfear, unfair, warfare, warfare,
warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare.
Jesus died for his own sins, not mine.
mike kinsella, whose every written word to me is genius, but for our current purposes, i choose these:
Well, just between you and me
I don't know what I'm doing here
In your room, close to you
Full of shit and free beer
My brother, the bartender
I tip him well, and I drink for free
Well, he takes good care of me; he takes care of me
Anyway, I'm here
I'm a bicycle; I'm too tired to ride home
If it's okay with you, can I take off these shoes, stay the night
Well, just between you and me
This thing between you and me
Might not be anything worth singing about
Or it might be just what I need
Someone to take my mind off things
At the end of a long day
Someone to take my pants off for me
At the end of a long night
Either way, we're here
We're two bicycyles, ridden, too tired to know
Which one of us two
Was dumb enough to choose the other as a lover
other good ones are:
joe queer (the queers)
brandon tussey (a radio with guts/the connie dungs)
paul simon, and
phil elverum.
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Hmm I don't think anyones said it so I will
Shane McGowan
One summer evening drunk to hell
I stood there nearly lifeless
An old man in the corner sang
Where the water lilies grow
And on the jukebox johnny sang
About a thing called love
And its how are you kid and whats your name
And how would you bloody know?
In blood and death neath a screaming sky
I lay down on the ground
And the arms and legs of other men
Were scattered all around
Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed
Then prayed and bled some more
And the only thing that I could see
Was a pair of brown eyes that was looking at me
But when we got back, labeled parts one to three
There was no pair of brown eyes waiting for me
And a rovin a rovin a rovin Ill go
For a pair of brown eyes
I looked at him he looked at me
All I could do was hate him
While ray and philomena sang
Of my elusive dream
I saw the streams, the rolling hills
Where his brown eyes were waiting
And I thought about a pair of brown eyes
That waited once for me
So drunk to hell I left the place
Sometimes crawling sometimes walking
A hungry sound came across the breeze
So I gave the walls a talking
And I heard the sounds of long ago
From the old canal
And the birds were whistling in the trees
Where the wind was gently laughing
And a rovin a rovin a rovin Ill go
For a pair of brown eyes
Hmm also Johnny Cash
Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
Then I washed my face and combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.
I'd smoked my mind the night before
With cigarettes and songs I'd been picking.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid
Playing with a can that he was kicking.
Then I walked across the street
And caught the Sunday smell of someone frying chicken.
And Lord, it took me back to something that I'd lost
Somewhere, somehow along the way.
On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.
In the park I saw a daddy
With a laughing little girl that he was swinging.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school
And listened to the songs they were singing.
Then I headed down the street,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringing,
And it echoed through the canyon
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.
On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.
-
brandon tussey (a radio with guts/the connie dungs)
I LOVE YOU.
-
Aside from whats been mentioned by others, theres two lyricists I really enjoy.
The first is Elena Schirenc (Hollenthon)- I love the way she mixes fantasy themes with the wonderfully vivid words she uses.
"Reprisal - Malis Avibus"
The ticking hour of Father Time releases memories locked in mind
A wandering beggar digging holes in all unspoken deeds of old
A yellow death lay on his face, a smile so fixed not of this race
Indeed he'd known where he would go, to where he feared it clearly showed
The devil I can safely tell
Has neither hoof, nor tail, nor sting
Nor is he, as some sages swear,
A spirit, neither here nor there
In nothing-yet in everything
He is what we are-a gentleman
A statesman spinning his web of crimes,
A swindler, living as he can
The ticking hour of Father Time released the memories locked in mind
The clock's monotonous tick obscured to most this man's so lonely cry
He'd said that with his clenched teeth, he'd seize the earth from underneath
He'd seize the earth from underneath, and drag it with him down to hell
Eclipse - Vita Nova
Dowager of wandering empires knocking at death's door
Putrid winds carried the voices wailing in the night
Solitude of land Europa; battalions ominous
Conquest dressed in ivory garb attack from east and west
Baleful ballad tragic spews
From her lips of lurid blue
Infantries of bony vampires draining one by one
From the headlands plunge like death-birds;predators descend
Prancing, laughing, undertakers don tools of dusky trade
Puppeteers in childish play,ghoulish marionettes
Baleful ballad tragic spews
From her lips of lurid blue
In a dream I saw her
Drape her cloak from sea to sea
In dawn of life she came to flee with lonesome shadows before noon
Who dare impede her timely flight or rob of quarry due?
The coy, unwilling silent bride; Misery stands by her side
The demon mourner bathes in tears of those she left behind
The Calm Before The Storm
No cypress shades the grave
But gentle violets weep with dew
Weave on war-torn bones
Buried nameless in eternal sands
Sound no trumpet of mourn
Forget not the wandering soul
One with this brazen earth
With vilest of worms to dwell
No sunshine reverent
But stoic storm clouds soak scarlet ground
Wash the bloodstained face
Vanished nameless in eternal sands
Listen closely
Dreadful and grand
The hush of the null and void
Slave to fate kings and desperate men
Await the splendor
Dreadful and grand
Lingering shadows undead
Slave to fate, kings and desperate men
Forget not wandering souls
With vilest of worms to dwell
The other lyricist is Fenriz of Darkthrone fame.
I really enjoy Fenriz's lyrics, he put a lot more thought into them then most BM bands do. From the vivid and introspective musings like "Sempiternal Sepulchrality"
Oh, once again, I kneel before this altar
Out in the moist chilly forest I proclaim
The Autumn leaves that fall
And those still attached to the trees
The Breeze that blew my hair
The one I've known through all these years...
The songs I never forgot -
A past that is now Lost....
To the seemingly straightforwards social critique of "Information Wants to be Syndicated"
Three inch health
Population copulation
Twice bitten
Lay down the law
It's great to see...
I've become what you hate
I grow
Information wants to be syndicated
Blame unintentionalism
Scared of pride
Hate what you don't understand
(I am) laughing all the way to the grave
It's great to see...
I've become what you hate
I grow
Information wants to be syndicated
Uninformed
Ill Informed
Comfortably dumb
Easily formed
Hail fuckin' darkness
Then there's my favorite, one of the only BM 'Love' songs I've ever heard, the awesome "Natassja in Eternal Sleep"
Alcohol is in my veins...
Tears fall as I think of you.
The true memory you left me with
is a key to the wine of melancholy.
I drown myself in the deepest of sorrows-
As you Burned on that stake they burnt
my soul as well.
Your pure feelings, your flaming hate;
it was not enough.
Natassja, my beloved satanic witch,
The power in your eyes and yourself.
Worked for the noble in man.
Pass the bottle, pass the knife,
Pass me your unholy crafts.
I shall never forget you, the best
of all there is, I lick your cold lips,
I embrace your coffin as I sigh in woe.
You never kissed the priest, you never
Drank the blood of jesus. Weird, they say -
well, turn it upside down like you did,
and they kill, kill, and they take you away...
Now, centuries later, I do yours and my sign.
You live in me, like you moved in with my soul.
Your resurrection is the spirit of you -
Installed in me. So now, your thougths
and your pains are my wine; and Natassja:
I'll get these goddam angels drunk...
-
Hmm also Johnny Cash
Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt...
That's a Kris Kristoferson song. The more you know...
-
Oh bloody hell really? Alright then....
I hear the train a comin'; it's rollin' 'round the bend,
And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when.
I'm stuck at Folsom Prison and time keeps draggin' on.
But that train keeps rollin' on down to San Antone.
When I was just a baby, my mama told me, "Son,
Always be a good boy; don't ever play with guns."
But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
When I hear that whistle blowin' I hang my head and cry.
I bet there's rich folk eatin' in a fancy dining car.
They're prob'ly drinkin' coffee and smokin' big cigars,
But I know I had it comin', I know I can't be free,
But those people keep a movin', and that's what tortures me.
Well, if they freed me from this prison, if that railroad train was mine,
I bet I'd move on over a little farther down the line,
Far from Folsom Prison, that's where I want to stay,
And I'd let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away.
-
Warren Zevon. Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner is, for some reason, one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard; however, he's also got deadpan humor to spare. Example:
He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom
Excitable boy, they all said
And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy
After ten long years they let him out of the home
Excitable boy, they all said
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy
And MC Frontalot, if for no other reason than the following:
MC Frontalot: the arch criminal for some reason not
Sought by authorities, though I been running wild for days
They's surely gonna track me down
I'm the #1 menace for miles around
With the littering, the loitering, the mattress tags
All the piratated mp3s I grabs
All the cable I stole, a certain bathroom wall I wrote on
I'm so cruel & cold you put a coat on
I even cheat on my tax!
From this life of crime there could be no turning back
Riding all around on my bike with no helmet
Commit mail fraud whenever I see a mailman
Got a jaywalking ticket, I crumpled it up!
Still bump the bootleg cause I'm hanging tough
Crime spree that I'm on
Breaking the law until the break of the dawn
Then I'll break it again, then I'll break it some more
(MC Frontalot, you're so hardcore)
Crime spree that I'm on
Breaking the law until the break of the dawn
Yo, it seems like I break it all the time
(This MC led a life of crime)
There's others, but I'm feeling lazy.
-
I'm also a real big fan of the lyrics from Pedro The Lion's "Control" album...they're so damn cynical I can't help but love it
-
Isaac Brock is truly brilliant. I've never heard philosophical concepts of such complexity put into such simple, small-american wording. He's even a good commentator. He reminds me of Bob Dylan, actually, except...well, you know.
Did anyone mention John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats? The way he creates stories and describes scenes is beautiful. I can easily write pages and pages about any one of his songs.
-
I totally forgot about Sufjan..
Sufjan Stevens
Casimir Pulaski Day
Golden rod and the 4-H stone
The things I brought you
When I found out you had cancer of the bone
Your father cried on the telephone
And he drove his car to the Navy yard
Just to prove that he was sorry
In the morning through the window shade
When the light pressed up against your shoulder blade
I could see what you were reading
Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications you could do without
When I kissed you on the mouth
Tuesday night at the bible study
We lift our hands and pray over your body
But nothing ever happens
I remember at Michael's house
In the living room when you kissed my neck
And I almost touched your blouse
In the morning at the top of the stairs
When your father found out what we did that night
And you told me you were scared
Oh the glory when you ran outside
With your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied
And you told me not to follow you
Sunday night when I cleaned the house
I find the card where you wrote it out
With the pictures of your mother
On the floor at the great divide
With my shirt tucked in and my shoes untied
I am crying in the bathroom
In the morning when you finally go
And the nurse runs in with her head hung low
And the cardinal hits the window
In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing
Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications when I see his face
In the morning in the window
Oh the glory when he took our place
But he took my shoulders and he shook my face
And he takes and he takes and he takes
-
Wes Eisold from American Nightmare/Give Up The Ghost and Some Girls...one of my favorite lines comes from the song "AM/PM":
My parents fell in love and all I got was life, and all I ever wanted was to not be alone..."
also the dude from Modern Life Is War...
there's been so much talk of so many slashed up wrists...but we're much too young to be dwelling on thoughts like this. so scrape your heart up from the bottom of the bottom of the barrel. keep your faith in the path that's growing narrow. kill the doubt inside your head. we overcome. we push ahead.
-
Also did someone say Elvis Costello yet?
See her picture in a thousand places
'cause she's this year's girl.
You think you all own little pieces
of this year's girl.
Forget your fancy manners,
forget your English grammar,
'cause you don't really give a damn
about this year's girl.
Still you're hoping that she's well-spoken
'cause she's this year's girl.
You want her broken with her mouth wide open
'cause she's this year's girl.
Never knowing it's a real attraction,
all these promises of satisfaction,
while she's being bored to distraction
being this year's girl.
Time's running out. She's not happy with the cost.
There'd be no doubt, only she's forgotten
much more than she's lost.
A bright spark might corner the market
in this year's girl.
You see yourself rolling on the carpet
with this year's girl.
Those disco synthesizers,
those daily tranquilizers,
those body building prizes,
those bedroom alibis,
all this, but no surprises for this year's girl.
All this, but no surprises for this year's girl.
All this, but no surprises for this year's girl.
-
GERARD WAY
I'M TELLING YOU I'M OK
TRUST ME
I'M NOT OK
I'M NOT OK I'M NOT O FUCKING K
WHAT A GENIUS
-
The Long Winters' John Roderick.
Student, why do you dream of me
When you dream of your acre of trees?
It was agreed I came to burn leaves
It's all I ever claimed to do
A ploughman i'll never grow into
...
My arms miss you
My hands miss you
The stars sing, i've got their song in my head
Oh, I don't want my words twisted
I don't want you to listen to close
Or wait for me impatiently
And I hope I can keep seeing you
As long as you don't say you're falling in love
Adding to the praise previously heaped on Spencer Krug, here's an interview snippet regarding "Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts."
CMG: Like, what’s a “Hungry Ghost”?
SK: It’s – ok I’m going to forget the details now, so I’m going to sound kind of dumb…But in one particular Buddhist religion – and don’t ask me why I referred to something Buddhist – but there are these neat characters in Buddhism that are these tortured characters. They symbolize one of the levels of Hell. I forget the name for it – but there are a bunch of different levels of Hell, and one of them is this level where hypocrites and liars go; not the worst sins, sort of middle-ground punishment. And when they get there, they turn into hungry ghosts, that’s the best translation for it. And hungry ghosts are always thirsty, and always hungry. They’re sort of like that character Tantalus in Greek mythology: he can’t eat or drink, but he’s always hungry or thirsty. And these ghosts, they have really tiny throats, so if they try to eat, it chokes them and they die, because they only have these little straws for throats. I THINK that when they drink water it turns into fire.
CMG: That happens to my grandfather.
SK: Yeah, so Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts is addressing my own generation, I guess. Insatiable thirsts, and hunger for whatever…
And let's face it, dude from Okkervil River. Will Sheff's stuff oughta be eligible for AP English kids to use on the exam. Look at Black Sheep Boy's habit of referencing preceding songs or the songs that follow: it's one dizzyingly allusory piece, and it succeeds on the strength of its actual poetic merit. The entire album is a case in point of his skills.
EDIT: I wish I could get ahold of some Novillero lyrics to prove it, but I'm lazy. Guys got skills, though: "Aim Right For The Holes In Their Lives" and "Habit Over Heart" are both stellar songs that lyrically live up to their titles.
-
GERARD WAY
I'M TELLING YOU I'M OK
TRUST ME
I'M NOT OK
I'M NOT OK I'M NOT O FUCKING K
WHAT A GENIUS
DUDE
GO LISTEN TO THE SONG, IT'S I'M NOT HAWOAAAAOKEY.
-
HI'M NAH-HOT HOAW-KAY
-
Bruce Springsteen knows how to write a simple song that connects to the audience and is quite frankly a king when it comes to story telling.
Tom Waits makes you feel dirty with his lyrics. Just plain dirty.
But my all time favourite lyricist is Billy Bragg. Getting out sociopolitical ideas whilst being heartbreakingly funny is something that takes a genius.
-
Another lyricists I really enjoy is Bruce Dickinson, whilst Steve Harris writes the majority of Maiden's music / lyrics I really like the stuff Bruce comes up with both in Maiden and he's solo albums.
from "Revelations"
Just a babe in the black abyss,
No reason for a place like this,
The walls are cold and souls cry out in pain,
An easy way for the blind to go,
A clever path for the fools who know
The secret of the Hanged Man - the smile of his lips.
The light of the Blind - you'll see,
The venom that tears my spine,
The Eyes of the Nile are opening - you'll see.
From "Powerslave"
Now I am cold but a ghost lives in my veins,
Silent the terror that reigned -
Marbled in stone
A Shell of a man God preserved -
From thousand ages,
But open the gates of my hell -
I'll strike from the grave
And then there is he's William Blake inspired stuff, which I think is just brilliant.
From "Chemical Wedding"
How happy is the human soul
Not enslaved by dull control
Left to dream and roam and play
Shed the guilt of former days
Walking on the foggy shore
Watch the waves come rolling home
Through the veil of pale moonlight
My shadow stretches out its hand
And so we lay, we lay in the same grave
Our chemical wedding day
and from "Killing Floor"
So this is dreamtime, and all is quiet
So this is dreamtime, and all is night
You've never been held by the hand of God
Who's rocking the cradle, if he is not?
He turned the oil into his blood
Panzer divisions burning in the mud
The stain of freedom, he's washed it out
Who's rocking the cradle, I have no doubt
Sleeping eyes awake
To see his hooded gaze
Whispers on the wind
The darker side of ecstasy
Satan has left his killing floor
-
Well, if we're talking about secondary writers for Iron Maiden, I still like Adrian Smith if only for 2 Minutes to Midnight.
The bodybags and little rags
of children torn in two
and the jellied brains
of those who remain
they put the finger right on you
As the madmen play on words
and make us all dance to their song
to the tune of starving millions
to make a better kind of gun!
-
Dalek
Hrishkish Hirway
Duncan Sumpner
Michael Franti
All are great lyricists. But a wise writer once told me that bad poetry usually makes great songs (and sometimes vice versa). I don't find too much influence for my writing in music, or rather I'm not influenced often by lyricists. The actual music may inspire me to compose a thought or a sketch based on the sound and image created by the song, but rarely do the lyrics, taken on their own, hold any type of value for me.
-
i'm gonna have to say jello biafra. his lyrics weren't anything too poetic, but they were to the point and powerful for what they were meant. his spoken word stuff is pretty good too, in my opinion better than alot of his music.
-
Jeffery Lewis.
If you haven't heard him, do so now. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A6999853
(for moondog)
-
Captain Beefheart is a very under-appreciated lyricist, in my opinion.
Human bark,
beautiless hide from beauty.
Bow your eyes and heads to the duty of the dead,
suck the ground;
breathe life into the dead dinosaurs.
Let the past demons rear up and belch fire into the air of now.
The rug's wearing out that we walk on
soon it will fray and we'll drop
dead into yesterday
Must the breathing pay for those who breathe in and don't
breathe out?
There'd be no gain, brothers, if no one would play
and for your games count me and all that can see,
breathe in and out hungry today and eat hearty tomorrow,
or eat away and be eaten some day.
No seed shall sow in salt water.
If the dinosaur cries with blood in his eyes,
and eats our babies for our lies,
belches fire into our skies.
Maybe I'll die but he'll be rumbling through
your petrified forest.
Here's another of his I particularly enjoy: http://beefheart.com/walker/lyrics/tmr/billscorpse.htm
-
9. Eminem (again, I mean it)
[...]
Everyone will take the piss for this choice, but I stand by it. Especially for the second example, if only for probably being the first rapper to use 'ignoramus' in a rhyme.
Nah, FWIW I remember a tune on Del Tha Funkee Homosapien's album back in the day (the one with 'Mr Dobalina') where he rhymes "entertain us" and "ignoramus". Eminem may have a crazy amount of talent, but he's not exactly revolutionary.
Not a lot of fun in the favourite lyrics so far. I guess (judging by nonsense like Skyclad) people primarily rate lyrics that they think express right-on sentiments?
-
What do you mean nonsense?
Yes, Martin Walkyier has it spot on, but he also has an incredible facility with the english language. He employs a range of poetic devices beyond simple ABAB rhymes, he builds up complex metaphors and throws off genuinely amusing puns, he has highly original concepts for songs, and he has a genuine love of language that comes out through all of this as well as his 'Shakespeare on speed' delivery and his broad and interesting choice of vocabulary, amongst other things. It's some hefty stuff, but always fun and original.
Skyclad - The Womb of the Worm
"Black hat stranger - affluent as effluent
Hides behind his mirror shades and crocodile smile
Preying on the weak, the vulnerable and innocent
All things pure and virginal he will defile.
Shepherd of a flock of black sheep - he knows his charges well
Their thirst for life is drowning down in his snow filled hell...
They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie
They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie.
Slaves to the only god they know,
Drawn by the song of the cosmic diva
The lord of the flies is a dandy beau
King of the hill in the new Bohemia
Where does he come from, their redeemer
Where does he dwell? (they never learn)
What is the prize for the true believer?
Rotting away in the "Womb of the Worm"?
Death is the hand of a handsome stranger - (he speaks, heads turn)
Babes unaware of impending danger - quickening dead in the "Womb of the Worm"
They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie
They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie.
At the gravesides of sad lonely children
Reason sits with a tear in her eye
Killed in their prime - tell me why were they taken?
It's not them but "the Worm" that should die.
"Stabat Mater Dolorosa" - a grieving mother's sad refrain
Chasing dragons in the subway, to kill the time and ease the pain.
Words of "the Worm":
"Don't be afraid - just take my hand
'cause life's too short to be a bore
Try it once, you'll understand
Why they keep coming back for more."
Form an orderly line outside death's door
If you want to taste his sweet amnesia
He's never short of clientele
Though most of them die from a fatal seizure
Another mother cries to a chat-show host
(she speaks - my stomach churns)
I hear how a young kid - now a young ghost
Died a sickening death in "the Womb of the Worm."
They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie
They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie."
Skyclad - Great Blow For A Day Job
"Hear my tale - I'm Norman Normal, always humble, mild and meek.
In my bank a lowly banker - run-down brach on nowhere street
'till one day a stranger called - a fetid bible black he laughed,
said "Sonny I don't want your money, I don't need an overdraft.
Boy you have a great potential, don't you let it go to waste.
My offer ends - so it's essential that you hurry on (make haste!).
For a life of milk and honey sign along the dotted line...
Thirty years of girls and money - at the end your soul is mine!"
No one can dissuade me - I'm donw on my knees,
my conscience says "No" - my libido "Yes please!"
If I put my pen to paper for eternity I'm damned.
If I don't I'll never be the singer in a fiddel band.
Can anyone blame me? - I don't think they'd dare,
my soul says "No way" - But my mouth cries "Oh yeah!"
Here I am - your good friend norman, not so humble anymore.
Others age - but I look younger, stronger that I did before.
I used to drive a Fiat Panda - now a lime green Cadillac.
Guess my story goes to show not all the devils' own dig black.
I know there is a price I must pay for my thirty years misspent,
when my satanic manager recoups my soul (100%).
I'll meet him at the crossroads, midnight chimes - my time has come
to party with the 'porno-queens' down by the shores of Acheron.
I'll party on in Acheron!
No one could dissuade me - I fell to my kness,
my conscience said "No" - my libido "Yes please!"
I have put my pen to paper and eternally am damned,
I've squandered my immortal soul by singing in a fiddle band.
Could anyone blame me? - I don't think they dare,
my soul said "No way" - but my mouth cried "Oh yeah!"
'Evil I did dwell - Lewd did I live' -
It's a small price to pay for the gift that he gives.
Was it all worth it? - I'm too drunk to tell,
I swap my cocaine for the brimstone of hell.
The end."
Skyclad - Polkageist!
"One day whilst out exploring
In some far-flung foreign corner,
I took respite from my journey
To admire the local fauna.
When from the twilight distance
A peal of bells and laughter,
set my heart-strings fluttering
like bats through chapel rafters.
On entering a clearing I did sense
Impending peril, beheld a Gypsy wench
With flashing eyes bright, sharp and feral.
She smiled at me so sweetly
(bit a lip that smacked of danger),
Gave a look fit to disarm
This poor, unwitting stranger.
[Chorus]
Her rhythm pounced upon me
it trounced me in a trice.
That charm she wove about me
gripped me tight as any vice.
(She spoke in tongues above me).
Though I cast my eyes to Christ,
you'd need the virtue of a saint
to not succumb, and overcome this
Polkageist.
Arms of ivory strummed perfection
summond me toward the middle.
Pan warmed up his pipes
heard Herne a plucking at the fiddle.
She wrapped herself about me
(felt her hot breath at my ear);
Danced a horizontal polka
down the path to Hell I fear.
We're on a path to Hell I fear!
[Chorus]
Her rhythm pounced upon me
it trounced me in a trice.
That charm she wove about me
gripped me tight as any vice.
(She spoke in tongues above me).
Though I cast my eyes to Christ,
you'd need the virtue of a saint
to not succumb, and overcome this
Polkageist.
The Horny Huntress:
"A spirit sent to haunt you
taunting all your earthly days.
Satyrs vaunt
cavorting to the reel Cernunnos plays.
I head our wild procession
(every beast from man to mouse),
finds freedom in possession
Polkageist is in the house!"
Juice of fruit beyond forbidden
dripping slowly from her fingers,
she took my hand and led me
to that place where cunning lingers.
[Chorus]
Her rhythm pounced upon me
it trounced me in a trice.
That charm she wove about me
gripped me tight as any vice.
(She spoke in tongues above me).
Though I cast my eyes to Christ,
you'd need the virtue of a saint
to not succumb and overcome this
Polkageist."
This is, in my opinion, leagues ahead of most other lyricists I can think of. A perfect concoction of melancholy (Some 'clad song titles include 'The Silver Clouds Dark Lining', 'Land of the Rising Slum', 'A Bellyful of Emptiness' etc.) silliness and brilliant, individual poetry. I've never seen anything that touches it. When combined with their general musical exellence and innovation, it's what makes them far and away my favourite band of all time.
-
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. No competition for my favorites.
In the corner
Of my eye
I saw you in Rudy's
You were very high
You were high
It was a cryin' disgrace
They saw your face
On the counter
By your keys
Was a book of numbers
And your remedies
One of these
Surely will screen out the sorrow
But where are you tomorrow
I can't cry anymore
While you run around
Break away
Just when it
Seems so clear
That it's
Over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here
Down to Greene Street
There you go
Lookin' so outrageous
And they tell you so
You should know
How all the pros play the game
You change your name
Like a gangster
On the run
You will stagger homeward
To your precious one
I'm the one
Who must make everything right
Talk it out till daylight
I don't care anymore
Why you run around
Break away
Just when it
Seems so clear
That it's
Over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here
-
I agree with Jello Biafra.
Also Lou Reed.
-
I totally forgot Serge Gainsbourg.
Je t'aime, je t'aime
oh, oui je t'aime!
moi non plus
oh, mon amour...
comme la vague irrésolu
je vais, je vais et je viens
entre tes reins
je vais et je viens
entre tes reins
et je me retiens
je t'aime, je t'aime
oh, oui je t'aime!
moi non plus
oh mon amour...
tu es la vague, moi l'île nue
tu va, tu va et tu viens
entre mes reins
tu vas et tu viens
entre mes reins
et je te rejoins
je t'aime, je t'aime
oh, oui je t'aime!
moi non plus
oh, mon amour...
comme la vague irrésolu
je vais, je vais et je viens
entre tes reins
je vais et je viens
entre tes reins
et je me retiens
tu va, tu va et tu viens
entre mes reins
tu vas et tu viens
entre mes reins
et je te rejoins
je t'aime, je t'aime
oh, oui je t'aime!
moi non plus
oh mon amour...
l'amour physique est sans issue
je vais, je vais et je viens
entre tes reins
je vais et je viens
et je me retiens
Non! Maintenant viens!
I love you, I love you
oh, yes I love you!
me either
oh, my love…
like irresolute vagueness
I go, I go and I come between your kidneys
I go and I come
between your kidneys
and I retain myself
I love you, I love you
oh, yes I love you!
me either
oh my love…
you are the wave, me the naked island
you go, you go and you come
between my kidneys
you go and you come
between my kidneys
and I join you
I love you, I love you
oh, yes I love you!
me either
oh, my love…
like irresolute vagueness
I go, I go and I come between your kidneys
I go and I come
between your kidneys
and I retain myself
you go, you go and you come
between my kidneys
you go and you come
between my kidneys
and I join you
I love you, I love you
oh, yes I love you!
me either
oh my love…
the physical love is without exit
I go, I go and I come between your kidneys
I go and I come
and I retain myself
Not! Now come!
Odes to humpin' abound, though really a grasp of French helps to truly understand how positively filthy he is.
-
Not a lot of fun in the favourite lyrics so far. I guess (judging by nonsense like Skyclad) people primarily rate lyrics that they think express right-on sentiments?
Or maybe different people have different ideas of what constitutes good lyrics and you should stop being an elitist jackass.
-
Well, if we're talking about secondary writers for Iron Maiden, I still like Adrian Smith if only for 2 Minutes to Midnight.
The bodybags and little rags
of children torn in two
and the jellied brains
of those who remain
they put the finger right on you
As the madmen play on words
and make us all dance to their song
to the tune of starving millions
to make a better kind of gun!
Bruce Dickinson wrote those lyrics and Adrian wrote the music, at least in my copy of Powerslave its credited that way...
Adrian is still a pretty good lyricist my favorite he has written is "Sea of Madness"
-
My MP3 file credits Smith only for the song, but if you have a physical copy of the album, I'm sure yours is right. My bad.
-
These two are pretty diverse stylistically, but both I love for their use of language, the way they construct things.
Leonard Cohen: (Love Calls You by Name)
You thought that it could never happen
to all the people that you became,
your body lost in legend, the beast so very tame.
But here, right here,
between the birthmark and the stain,
between the ocean and your open vein,
between the snowman and the rain,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.
The women in your scrapbook
whom you still praise and blame,
you say they chained you to your fingernails
and you climb the halls of fame.
Oh but here, right here,
between the peanuts and the cage,
between the darkness and the stage,
between the hour and the age,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.
Shouldering your loneliness
like a gun that you will not learn to aim,
you stumble into this movie house,
then you climb, you climb into the frame.
Yes, and here, right here
between the moonlight and the lane,
between the tunnel and the train,
between the victim and his stain,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.
I leave the lady meditating
on the very love which I, I do not wish to claim,
I journey down the hundred steps,
but the street is still the very same.
And here, right here,
between the dancer and his cane,
between the sailboat and the drain,
between the newsreel and your tiny pain,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.
Where are you, Judy, where are you, Anne?
Where are the paths your heroes came?
Wondering out loud as the bandage pulls away,
was I, was I only limping, was I really lame?
Oh here, come over here,
between the windmill and the grain,
between the sundial and the chain,
between the traitor and her pain,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.
Nivek Ogre: (Love in Vein)
Through the window, blowing in, message ensured
walk within car passes terminal empty cracks started
showing through unlisted mystery a dead child was thrown
through a window wind opens windows carry promises true will unleash us
dogs bite flesh, biting, exposing,
freezing the soul, whirlwind blowing through the
crashes ceiling no fantasies gone ages ago
crashes through privacy gone ages ago
freezes hands, pale, lighter,
frozen paintings, illumination, illumination gone,
illumination, illumination gone, illumination not wrong,
sides heaving, chest boxed in, I will find the real
you/finally heal you, lighter, hand in smokes,
my treasures, there to know, I write a note,
tossed aside, tossed aside, shines through a
powder, baby the real you, blood shines through a powder,
reads the real you, love shines through a
powder, feel the real you, shines
through a powder, final curtain, what's become of me and you?
-
Step right up
step right up
step right up
Everyone's a winner, bargains galore
That's right, you too can be the proud owner
Of the quality goes in before the name goes on
One-tenth of a dollar
one-tenth of a dollar
we got service after sales
You need perfume? we got perfume
how 'bout an engagement ring?
Something for the little lady
something for the little lady
Something for the little lady, hmm
Three for a dollar
We got a year-end clearance, we got a white sale
And a smoke-damaged furniture
you can drive it away today
Act now, act now
and receive as our gift, our gift to you
They come in all colors, one size fits all
No muss, no fuss, no spills
you're tired of kitchen drudgery
Everything must go
going out of business
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Going out of business sale
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skip the middle man
Don't settle for less
How do we do it?
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volume, volume, turn up the volume
Now you've heard it advertised, don't hesitate
Don't be caught with your drawers down
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You can step right up, step right up
That's right, it filets, it chops
It dices, slices, never stops
lasts a lifetime, mows your lawn
And it mows your lawn
and it picks up the kids from school
It gets rid of unwanted facial hair
it gets rid of embarrassing age spots
It delivers a pizza
and it lengthens, and it strengthens
And it finds that slipper that's been at large
under the chaise longe for several weeks
And it plays a mean Rhythm Master
It makes excuses for unwanted lipstick on your collar
And it's only a dollar, step right up
it's only a dollar, step right up
'Cause it forges your signature.
If not completely satisfied
mail back unused portion of product
For complete refund of price of purchase
Step right up
Please allow thirty days for delivery
don't be fooled by cheap imitations
You can live in it, live in it
laugh in it, love in it
Swim in it, sleep in it
Live in it, swim in it
laugh in it, love in it
Removes embarrassing stains from contour sheets
that's right
And it entertains visiting relatives
it turns a sandwich into a banquet
Tired of being the life of the party?
Change your shorts
change your life
change your life
Change into a nine-year-old Hindu boy
get rid of your wife
And it walks your dog, and it doubles on sax
Doubles on sax, you can jump back Jack
see you later alligator
See you later alligator
And it steals your car
It gets rid of your gambling debts, it quits smoking
It's a friend, and it's a companion
And it's the only product you will ever need
Follow these easy assembly instructions
it never needs ironing
Well it takes weights off hips, bust
thighs, chin, midriff
Gives you dandruff, and it finds you a job
it is a job
And it strips the phone company free
take ten for five exchange
And it gives you denture breath
And you know it's a friend, and it's a companion
And it gets rid of your traveler's checks
It's new, it's improved, it's old-fashioned
Well it takes care of business
never needs winding
Never needs winding
never needs winding
Gets rid of blackheads, the heartbreak of psoriasis
Christ, you don't know the meaning of heartbreak, buddy
C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon
'Cause it's effective, it's defective
it creates household odors
It disinfects, it sanitizes for your protection
It gives you an erection
it wins the election
Why put up with painful corns any longer?
It's a redeemable coupon, no obligation
no salesman will visit your home
We got a jackpot, jackpot, jackpot
prizes, prizes, prizes, all work guaranteed
How do we do it
how do we do it
how do we do it
how do we do it
We need your business
we're going out of business
We'll give you the business
Get on the business
end of our going-out-of-business sale
Receive our free brochure, free brochure
Read the easy-to-follow assembly instructions
batteries not included
Send before midnight tomorrow, terms available
Step right up
step right up
step right up
You got it buddy: the large print giveth
and the small print taketh away
Step right up
you can step right up
you can step right up
C'mon step right up
(Get away from me kid, you bother me...)
-
springsteen (of course)
Most Everything but especcially:
there's a dark cloud rising from
the desert floor
i packed my bags and I'm heading
straight into the storm
gonna be a twister to blow
everything down
that ain't got the faith to stand itsground
blow away the dreams that tear you apart
blow away the dreams that break your heart
blow away the lies
that leave you nothing but lost and broken hearted
tim buckley
(see "song to the siren")
mark knopfler
(see "romeo and juliet")
leonard cohen
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
paul simon
asking only workmen's wages
i come lookin' for a job
but i get no offers,
just a come on from the whores on seventh avenue
i do declare
there were times i was so lonesome
that i took some comfort there
this is simply for this one part of this one song
despite the fact that its perhaps the most emo thing ever,
but whoever in Brand new that wrote this:
every minute is a mile.
i've never felt so hollow.
i'm an old abandoned church with broken pews
and empty aisles.
dar williams
(see 'iowa')
harry chapin
also for a whole bunch, but
especially for
Remember when the music
Came from wooden boxes strung with silver wire
And as we sang the words, it would set our minds on fire,
For we believed in things, and so we'd sing.
Remember when the music
Brought us all together to stand inside the rain
And as we'd join our hands, we'd meet in the refrain,
For we had dreams to live, we had hopes to give.
Remember when the music
Was the best of what we dreamed of for our children's time
And as we sang we worked, for time was just a line,
It was a gift we saved, a gift the future gave.
Remember when the music
Was a rock that we could cling to so we'd not despair,
And as we sang we knew we'd hear an echo fill the air
We'd be smiling then, we would smile again.
Oh all the times I've listened, and all the times I've heard
All the melodies I'm missing, and all the magic words,
And all those potent voices, and the choices we had then,
How I'd love to find we had that kind of choice again.
Remember when the music
Was a glow on the horizon of every newborn day
And as we sang, the sun came up to chase the dark away,
And life was good, for we knew we could.
Remember when the music
Brought the night across the valley as the day went down
And as we'd hum the melody, we'd be safe inside the sound,
And so we'd sleep, we had dreams to keep.
And I feel that something's coming, and it's not just in the wind.
It's more than just tomorrow, it's more than where we've been,
It offers me a promise, it's telling me "Begin",
I know we're needing something worth believing in.
Remember when the music
Came from wooden boxes strung with silver wire
And as we sang the words, it would set our minds on fire,
For we believed in things, and so we'd sing.
...probably the most eloquent rendition of and a damn good dream of what music should be and music should do in a song
-
Bob Dylan and Pete Townsend. Enough Said.
-
i love the usual guys- Bob Dylan is my poet-god, and Colin Meloy breaks my heart. but recently its all about Craig Finn of the Hold Steady. Everything he sings is just quotable and perfect. I showed some to a poet friend and she just went nuts
"Kids on the East Coast/about 20 years old/know the perfect ratio of warm beer to the summer smoke/Meatloaf to the Billy Joel" - 'Certain Songs
Thanks Craig. You just summed up alot of my Connecticut childhood in 4 pefect lines. And almost every single line in every single Hold Steady song is like that! And he'll have a lyric echo another song ("Tramps like us/and we like tramps") and then the band will play something that echos the song being quoted ('Thunder Road', in that case)
Just... wow.
-
My love for Waits and Cave and Cohen and Dylan and Costello KNOWS NO LIMIT, but i'm not talking about them here because saying they're amazing lyricists and write incredible poetry and are gods that walk the Earth isn't saying anything that hasn't been said a million times before
But Craig Finn... there isn't enough Craig Finn love
-
Also, whoever writes the lyrics for the Lucksmiths. http://www.thelucksmiths.com.au/
We can wander round the football ground
As the sun sets on the grandstand
If it gets a little cold there
We can hold hands in the goal square
It’s getting dark and baby don’t the shops shine bright
I’ve been here for hours
I can’t see the florist for the flowers
And I can’t see the point in hanging around
I know we’ve done all this before
But once more won’t hurt
So let’s do it once more
Bereft of ideas
We live here but we’re sightseers
Somewhere over the railway line
There’s a light on in your loungeroom
Do you remember when I found you fast asleep?
You were so slow to your feet
I didn’t mean to yell
It’s just that I’m a little jealous
‘Cause you can do the Rubik’s Cube and I can’t
Have you been drinking?
’Cause it’s not too late to start
There’s still a week
Before they come and pull the place apart
And I was thinking
I have sorrows to be drowned
Too complete to contemplate
Without a friend around
...
So act surprised
It’s been a while since I came calling
I know it’s late
But old times’ sake and all that junk
I’ll be alright
We’ll make tonight tomorrow morning
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows you’re drunk
And of course Dylan, Cohen and Simon[/quote]
-
Not a lot of fun in the favourite lyrics so far. I guess (judging by nonsense like Skyclad) people primarily rate lyrics that they think express right-on sentiments?
Or maybe different people have different ideas of what constitutes good lyrics and you should stop being an elitist jackass.
Hang on, you quoted me suggesting one way in which people might have different ideas from mine re: what constitutes good lyrics ... and then you told me off for not thinking that people have different ideas?
Nitpicking aside, fair enough on the elitism call and sorry for being so dismissive, Khar and other fans of Skyclad.
To be completely honest, I looked up Skyclad to check they weren't some kind of lesser-known Spinal Tap after that first post. I thought the lyrics were that bad... but from the second batch of lyrics I can see that the guy's at least erudite, just completely at odds with my tastes and (lyrical) interests.
-
9. Eminem (again, I mean it)
[...]
Everyone will take the piss for this choice, but I stand by it. Especially for the second example, if only for probably being the first rapper to use 'ignoramus' in a rhyme.
Nah, FWIW I remember a tune on Del Tha Funkee Homosapien's album back in the day (the one with 'Mr Dobalina') where he rhymes "entertain us" and "ignoramus". Eminem may have a crazy amount of talent, but he's not exactly revolutionary.
I wasn't implying he was revolutionary. I just thought it was hilarious to use 'ignoramus' in a rhyme.
-
Spinal Tap? Okay, Skyclad writes songs about sex, and I've quoted two of them (though they're not exactly about sex, per se, they're about paganism), but what's the link between some of the stuff I quoted first, ie:
"What did we learn in history lessons?
How to sit quiet at the back of a class
with so many things open to questions,
it's too late to cry - there's no one to ask.
Life's an education - a multiple equation,
everybody finds their own solution in the end.
"To be or not to be" is a very lengthy question,
has somebody please got a sharpened pencil they can lend?
Marching in time down a production line,
what did that teach you about life in the dole queue?
The Law of Relativity - (life's relative misery).
The Law of Probability - (it's probably contrived).
Newton's Law of Gravity - (we face a grave reality).
The Law that runs the jungle - (only the strong survive)."
and
"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'
That's what I said
The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand
Or so I have read
My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo
I'd like to sink her with my pink torpedo
Big bottom, big bottom
Talk about bum cakes, my girl's got 'em
Big bottom drive me out of my mind
How could I leave this behind?"
-
Sorry, I didn't mean something stylistically identical to Spinal Tap, just a similarly well-crafted parody of a slightly different flavour of rock music - sneering, cynical, and political - more like, say, Roger Waters on his solo albums. I do find those puns just achingly bad... did no one else make lame jokes about Hamlet and 2B pencils when you were a kid? Wasn't it on the Muppets or something?
-
I think that Spinal Tap should be included here for the comedy genius of their lyrics.
"Working on a sex farm...bothering your livestock."
-
Sorry, I didn't mean something stylistically identical to Spinal Tap, just a similarly well-crafted parody of a slightly different flavour of rock music - sneering, cynical, and political - more like, say, Roger Waters on his solo albums. I do find those puns just achingly bad... did no one else make lame jokes about Hamlet and 2B pencils when you were a kid? Wasn't it on the Muppets or something?
Actually, I don't think it is a joke about 2B pencils.
At least, I've never seen it as such.
Any which way, it's better than just going "SKOOLS ARE PRISONS" or doing a song about twee tricycling pandas on the moon or something.
-
Sorry, I didn't mean something stylistically identical to Spinal Tap, just a similarly well-crafted parody of a slightly different flavour of rock music - sneering, cynical, and political - more like, say, Roger Waters on his solo albums. I do find those puns just achingly bad... did no one else make lame jokes about Hamlet and 2B pencils when you were a kid? Wasn't it on the Muppets or something?
Hey man, I don't like the Skyclad lyrics either.
I just didn't want to say anything for fear of starting an argument.
Oh wait...
Oh no.
-
Jeffery Lewis.
If you haven't heard him, do so now. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A6999853
(for moondog)
jeffery lewis is a legend.
not so much about lyricists, but here's a couple of my favourite sets of lyrics.
the first is by the good life, a song called album of the year. one of the finest pieces of story telling i've heard.
The first time that I met her I was throwing up in the ladies room stall. She asked me if I needed anything; I said, “I think I spilled my drink”. And that’s how it started (or so I’d like to believe)…
She took me to her mother’s house outside of town where the stars hang down. She said she’d never seen someone so lost, I said I’d never felt so found – and then I kissed her on the cheek… and so she kissed me on the mouth.
Spring was poppin’ daises up ‘round rusted trucks and busted lawn chairs. We moved into a studio in Council Bluffs to save a couple bucks. Where the mice came out at night, neighbors were screaming all the time. We’d make love in the afternoons to Chelsea Girls and Bachelor No. 2, I’d play for her some songs I wrote, she’d joke and say I’m shooting through the roof, I’d say, “They’re all for you, dear, I’ll write the album of the year.”
And I know she loved me then, I swear to God she did. It's way she’d bite my lower lip and push her hips against my hips and dig her nails so deep into my skin.
The first time that I met her I was convinced I had finally found the one. She was convinced I was under the influence of all those drunken romantics – I was reading Fante at the the time – I had bukowski on the mind. She got a job at Jacob’s serving cocktails to the local drunks. Against her will. I fit the the bill: I perched down at the end of the bar, She Said, “Space is not just a place for stars – I gave you an inch, you want a house with a yard.” And I know she loved me once, but those days are gone. She used to call me everyday from a pay phone on her break for lunch – just to say she can’t wait to come home.
The last time that I saw her she was picking through which records were hers. Her clothes were packed in boxes, with some pots and pans and books and a toaster. Just then a mouse scurried across the floor….we started laughing ‘til it didn’t hurt.
for sheer brutality shellac's prayer to god does it for me every time.
To the one true God above:
here is my prayer -
not the first you've heard, but the first I wrote.
(not the first, but the others were a long time ago).
There are two people here, and I want you to kill them.
Her - she can go quietly, by disease or a blow
to the base of her neck,
where her necklaces close,
where her garments come together,
where I used to lay my face...
That's where you oughta kill her,
in that particular place.
Him - just fucking kill him, I don't care if it hurts.
Yes I do, I want it to,
fucking kill him but first
make him cry like a woman,
(no particular woman),
let him hold out, hold back
(someone or other might come and fucking kill him).
Fucking kill him.
Kill him already, kill him.
Fucking kill him, fucking kill him,
Kill him already, kill him.
Fucking kill him, fucking kill him,
Kill him already, kill him.
Just fucking kill him! Fucking kill him,
Fucking kill him already, kill him.
Ah Fucking kill him, fucking kill him,
Kill him already, kill him.
Kill him already, kill him already
Kill him, fucking kill him.
Just fucking kill him, fuckin kill him,
Kill him already, kill him.
Fuckin kill him, kill him,
Fucking kill him already, kill him.
Kill him, fucking kill him,
Kill him, just fucking kill him.
Kill them already, kill them already,
Kill him.
-
I was listening to Nevermore in my car today and I was reminded about Warrell Danes lyrics, their really good.
from "The Heart Collector"
To see the actor without tears
Dark rivers carve the years between the lines of self control
In my psychotic karmic fear, I own your tears anyway
And I am you and we are not afraid
From "Medicated Nation"
Slithering slow and serpentine coiled around your spine
My willing victim so sublime, one taste and you are mine
Did you remember to feed me while I was broken and bleeding?
Preaching words obsidian on the wings of shattered man
The sightless wait oblivious to the scourge that stains their hands
All you feel and all you do, the medication controls you
From "This Godless Endevor"
All the faithful fall onto their knees
And praise the priests of industrial disease
We contemplate oblivion as we resonate our dissonance
In godless random interpretation
The universe still expands, mankind still can't understand
How to define you, so hide your face and watch us exterminate ourselves over you
-
I'm too lazy to read all of this so I'm going to assume that KharBevNor has already mentioned Martin Walkyier as the best lyrisist ever. So, I'd like to say ....
He's right.
-
Did anyone mention Marilion? No?
Marillion - He Knows You Know
Light switch, yellow fever, crawling up your bathroom wall
Singing psychedelic praises to the depths of a china bowl
You've got venom in your stomach, you've got poison in your head
You should have listened to the priest at the confession
When he offered you the sacred bread
He knows, you know, he knows, you know
H e knows, you know, but he's got problems
Fast feed, crystal fever, swarming through a fractured mind
Chilling needles freeze emotion, the blind shall lead the blind
You've got venom in you stomach, you've got poison in your head
When your conscience whispered, the vein lines stiffened
You were walking with the dead
He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
He's got experience, he's got experience, he knows, you know
But he's got problems, problems, problems
He knows... slash wrist, scarlet fever, crawled under your bathroom door
Pumping arteries ooze their problems through the gap that the razor tore
You've got venom in your stomach, you've got poison in your head
You should have listened to your analyst's questions
When you lay on his leather bed
He knows, you know, he knows, you know
He he knows, you know, but he's got problems
Blank eyes, purple fever, streaming through the frosted pane
You learned your lesson far to late from the links in a chemist chain
You've got venom in your stomach, you've got poison in your head
You should have stayed at home and talked with father
Listen to the lies he fed
He knows, you know, he knows, you know,
He knows, you know, but he's got problems
He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
He's got experience, he's got experience, he knows, you know
You know, you know, you know
Marillion - Forgotten Sons
Armalite, street lights, nightsights
Searching the roofs for a sniper, a viper, a fighter
Death in the shadows he'll maim you, he'll wound you, he'll kill you
For a long forgotten cause, on not so foreign shores
Boys baptised in wars
Morphine, chill scream, bad dream
Serving as numbers on dogtags, flakrags, sandbags
Your girl has married your best friend, loves end, poison pen
Your flesh will always creep, tossing turning sleep
The wounds that burn so deep
Your mother sits on the edge of the world
W when the cameras start to roll
Panoramic viewpoint resurrect the killing fold
Your father drains another beer, he's one of the few that cares
Crawling behind a Saracen's hull from the safety of his living room chair
Forgotten sons, forgotten sons, forgotten sons
And so as I patrol in the valley of the shadow of the tricolour
I must fear evil, for I am but mortal and mortals can only die
Asking questions, pleading answers from the nameless faceless watchers
That stalk the carpeted corridors of Whitehall
Who orders desecration, mutilation, verbal masturbation
I in the guarded bureaucratic wombs
Minister, minister care for your children, order them not into damnation
To eliminate those who would trespass against you
For whose is the kingdom, the power, the glory forever and ever, Amen
Halt who goes there, Death, approach friend
You're just another coffin on its way down the emerald aisle
When your children's stony glances mourn your death in a terrorist's smile
The bomber's arm placing fiery gifts on the supermarket shelves
Alley sings with shrapnel detonate a temporary hell
Forgotten Sons
From the dole queue to the regiment a profession in a flash
But remember Monday signings when from door to door you dash
On the news a nation mourns you unknown soldier, count the cost
For a second you'll be famous but labelled posthumous
Forgotten sons, forgotten sons
Peace on earth and mercy mild, Mother Brown has lost her child
Just another Forgotten Son
Marillion - Emerald Lies
To be the prince of possession in the gallery of contempt
Suffering your indiscreet discretions and you ask me to relent
As you accumulate flirtations with the calculated calmness of the whore
I am the harlequin - diamonded costume dripping shades of green
I am the harlequin - sense strangers violate my sanctuary
Prowl my dreams
Plundering your diaries, I'll steal your thoughts innocence
Ravaging your letters, unearth your plots innocence
To don the robes of Torquemada, resurrect the inquisition
In that tortured subtle manner inflict questions within questions
Looking in shades of green through shades of blue
I trust you trust in me to mistrust you
Through the Silk Cut haze to the smeared mascara
A 40 watt sun on a courtroom drama
And the coffee stains gather till the pale kimono
Set the wedding rings dancing on the cold linoleum
And accusations moths that circle on the light
Char their wings and spiral senseless suicidal flight
You packed your world within a suitcase, hot tears melt this icy palace
Dissolve a crystal swallowed by the night
Looking in shades of green through shades of blue
Looking in shades of green through shades of blue
Marillion - Fugazi
Vodka intimate, an affair with isolation in a Blackheath cell
Extinguishing the fires in a private hell
Provoking the heartache to renew the licence
Of a bleeding heart poet in a fragile capsule
Propping up the crust of the glitter conscience
Wrapped in the christening shawl of a hangover
Baptised in the tears from the real
Drowning in the liquid seize on the Piccadilly line, rat race
Scuttling through the damp electric labyrinth
Caress Ophelia's hand with breathstroke ambition
An albatross in the marrytime tradition
Sheathed within the Walkman wear the halo of distortion
Aural contraceptive aborting pregnant conversation
She turned the harpoon and it pierced my heart
She hung herself around my neck
From the Time-Life-Guardians in their conscience bubbles
Safe and dry in my sea of troubles
Nine to five with suitable ties
Cast adrift as their side-show, peepshow, stereo hero
Becalm bestill, bewitch, drowning in the real
The thief of Baghdad hides in Islington now
Praying deportation for his sacred cow
A legacy of romance from a twilight world
The dowry of a relative mystery girl
A Vietnamese flower, a Dockland union
A mistress of release from a magazine's thighs
Magdalenes contracts more than favours
The feeding hands of western promise hold her by the throat
A son of a swastika of '45 parading a peroxide standard
Graffiti conjure disciples testaments of hatred
Aerosol wands whisper where the searchlights trim the barbed wire hedges
This is Brixton chess
A knight for Embankment folds his newspaper castle
A creature of habit, begs the boatman's coin
He'll fade with old soldiers in the grease stained roll call
And linger with the heartburn of Good Friday's last supper
Son watches father scan obituary columns in search of absent school friends
While his generation digests high fibre ignorance
Cowering behind curtains and the taped up painted windows
Decriminalised genocide, provided door to door Belsens
Pandora's box of holocausts gracefully cruising satellite infested heavens
Waiting, the season of the button, the penultimate migration
Radioactive perfumes, for the fashionably, for the terminally insane, insane
Do you realise? Do you realise?
Do you realise, this world is totally fugazi
Where are the prophets, where are the visionaries, where are the poets
To breach the dawn of the sentimental mercenary
-
Sufjan Stevens and John Darnielle. Definitely John Darnielle.
-
i'm really surprised noone has mentioned this yet, but what about gunther?
you touch my tralala, oh my ding ding dong
what we really need are more lyricists who use shitty synonyms for penis.
-
Gavin from dredg...
I'm the addict on the corner
I'm the lawyer in the tower
I'm the body with the coroner
No, the leader with all the power
You're the pillow - the cool side
The sand during high tide
The cocktail poolside
The water when clouds collide
From the inside out, we were formed
From the inside out, we will fall
Soon this all will come to an end
I'm a local but a foreigner
Still the addict, yet I'm sober
Still the body with the coroner
Many friends, yet still a loner
You're the pillow - the cool side
The sand during high tide
The cocktail poolside
The water when clouds collide
From the inside out, we were formed
From the inside out, we will fall
Soon this all will come to an end
Soon this all will come to an end
From the inside out, we were formed
From the inside out, we will fall
Soon this all will come to an end
Soon this all will come to an end
-
I'm too lazy to read all of this so I'm going to assume that KharBevNor has already mentioned Martin Walkyier as the best lyrisist ever. So, I'd like to say ....
He's right.
It is done and done.
And double done!
Also, I have got to give some love out to Ronny Dorfler, of Cryptic Wintermoon. If only just for Supersatan, which is simply perfection. I would normally transfer this from block caps, but they're pretty much all that do it justice. I've bolded what surely must be the greatest four lines in the history of music.
"I AM HERE BACK FROM THE DEAD
TO PAINT THE WORLD IN BLOOD RED
WATCH OUT THE HELL IN MY EYES
WHEN I TAKE THE HARVEST WITH MY SCYTHE
BRINGING FIRE AS I RIDE
I WILL SEND BOMBS OUT IN THE NIGHT
JUST LISTEN WHAT I HAVE TO TELL
CAUSE I WISH YOU FUCKING HELL
IT WON`T BE NICE TO
MEET UP WITH ME
CAUSE ALL I WANNA DO
IS TO FISTFUCK YOU
I AM THE SUPERSATAN
BIG BLOCK INSTEAD OF BALLS
YOUR FEAR IS GASOLINE
FOR MY SUPERNATURAL DEATHMACHINE
I AM THE RACING HATE
666 MY LICENSE PLATE
SO FUCK YOU ALL
I`M COMING ROUND TO SATANIZE
TO SLAUGHTER AND TO PULVERIZE
YEA I`M COMING ROUND
I GUESS YOU DO NOT REALLY LOVE ME
BUT RIDING WITH THE EVIL GIVES ME PLEASURE TOO
I AM THE SUPERSATAN
BIG BLOCK INSTEAD OF BALLS
YOUR FEAR IS GASOLINE
FOR MY SUPERNATURAL DEATHMACHINE
I AM THE RACING HATE
666 MY LICENSE PLATE
I AM THE LOVING DARKNESS THAT SWEETLY EMBRACES YOUR SOUL
RACING WITH THE HAND OF DOOM WILL BE VERY COOL
HEY LITTLE MOTHERFUCKER I WILL MAKE YOU A FOOL
I AM THE SUPERSATAN YOUR FEAR IS GASOLINE
NOT WEAPONS KILL ME BUT I FUCK YOU"
Oh YES.
On a similiar note, everything Hreidmarr ever wrote for The Count Nosferatu Kommando. GET A GUN! SHOOT AT RANDOM!
-
Fuck me, not even Marduk's lyrics are that good...
-
There are a few Impaled Nazarene songs (Armageddon Death Squad, Ghettoblaster, Total War/Winter War, Sadogoat) that kinda come close, but, essentially, yeah. Great band.
Oh, and whilst we're on this track, I gotta mention Cronos and the mighty Venom. For this:
"Black is the night, metal we fight
Power amps set to explode
Energy screams, magic and dreams
Satan records the first note.
We chime the bell, chaos and hell
Metal for maniacs pure.
Fast melting steel, fortune on wheels
Brain haemorrhage is the cure
For BLACK METAL
lay down your soul to the gods rock `n' roll
Freaking so wild, nobody's mild
Giving it all that you've got.
Wild is so right, metal tonight
Faster than over the top.
Open the door, enter hells core
Black is the code for tonight
Atomic force, feel no remorse
Trunk up the amps now it's night
BLACK METAL
lay down your soul to the gods rock `n' roll
metal ten fold through the deadly black hole
riding hells stallions bareback and free
faking our chances with raw energy
Come ride the night with us
Rock hard and fight
United my legions we stand
Freak hard and wild for us
Give up your souls
Live for the guest satans band
Against the adds, black metal gods
Fight to achieve our goal
Tasting a spell, leather and hell
Black metal gods rock `n' roll
Building up steam, nuclear screams
War-heads are ready to fight
Black leather hounds, faster than sound
Metal our purpose in life.
BLACK METAL
lay down your soul to the gods rock `n' roll
black metal"
But more this:
"Teacher caught me masturbating
underneath the desk
she looked at me and winked her eye
said "see you after class"
I heard the school bell ring that told
me that the day was done
she called me back and locked
the door my lessons just begun
Teachers pet
Teachers wet
Sitting down she crossed her
legs her skirt crept up her thigh
feeling something start to rise
my thought began to fly
You've been a naughty boy she said
now that you can't conceal
I'll have to punish you
the best way that I feel
Teachers pet
Teachers wet
She took my hand and gently placed it
in between her thighs
with open legs and heavy breath
she slowly closed her eyes
Her flesh was aching and her
hands began to stray
on thing that I know for sure
I won't forget today
Teachers pet
Teachers wet
Pulled me down forwards her mound
teacher tasted sweet
sixty-nine - I don't mean lines
this was teachers treat
Played hide and seek with teachers mouth
her lips were warm and wet
Now today I've had my way
and teacher won't forget
Teachers pet
Teachers wet"
\m/
-
conor oberst and ed maraschino. The dude from Hey Mercedes is good too, as well as bear vs. shark. there's a lot of good stuff in this book, revolution on canvas.
-
I think someone mentioned him before, but I love some of Noel Gallagher's songs, especially Live Forever. And I will stand by the Conor Oberst people, if only because I think The First Day of My Life is the sweetest song I've ever heard (to be honest, though, his voice does annoy me).
I also like NOFX's lyrics, mostly for the clever rhyming and such.
-
what we really need are more lyricists who use shitty synonyms for penis.
Psh. Only a simpleton would think "Ding Dong Song" is about a creepy dude with a mullet asking a girl to touch his penis. Its obviously a scathing criticism of modern politics and the current situation in the Middle East.
-
If we're talking about crude sexual overtones, I would like to remind whoever it was praising Bruce Dickinson last page of this little gem...
Bruce Dickinson - Dive! Dive! Dive!
"Dive! Dive! Dive!
Put an opening shot. Across your bows.
Got tunnel vision. Pull the sheets in now.
Let'em flap. Let'em rip.
This man of war gonna sink your ship.
Gonna blow you midships.
Gonna dive tonight.
There's no release when your deep down inside.
Davey Jones gonna keep your bones.
No monkey buisness. Now your on your own.
Turn your stern and cover me.
We're rolling swell. Just an old sea dog like me.
Gonna blow you midships.
Gonna dive tonight.
There's no release till your deep down inside.
[CHORUS:]
Dive! Dive! Dive!
Dive! Dive! Dive!
Dive! Dive! Dive!
No muff too tuff.
We dive at five.
Seaman Staines is down below.
Torpedoes loaded. He's ready to go.
Wait to discharge. Waiting to release.
I see where the bones came up from below.
Gonna blow you midships.
Gonna dive tonight.
There's no release till your deep down inside.
[CHORUS.]"
-
Listen you assholes, I already posted Serge Gainsbourg. There's only room for one filthy-minded genius in this thread, and he's occupying that spot.
-
If we're talking about crude sexual overtones, I would like to remind whoever it was praising Bruce Dickinson last page of this little gem...
Bruce Dickinson - Dive! Dive! Dive!
"Dive! Dive! Dive!
Put an opening shot. Across your bows.
Got tunnel vision. Pull the sheets in now.
Let'em flap. Let'em rip.
This man of war gonna sink your ship.
Gonna blow you midships.
Gonna dive tonight.
There's no release when your deep down inside.
Davey Jones gonna keep your bones.
No monkey buisness. Now your on your own.
Turn your stern and cover me.
We're rolling swell. Just an old sea dog like me.
Gonna blow you midships.
Gonna dive tonight.
There's no release till your deep down inside.
[CHORUS:]
Dive! Dive! Dive!
Dive! Dive! Dive!
Dive! Dive! Dive!
No muff too tuff.
We dive at five.
Seaman Staines is down below.
Torpedoes loaded. He's ready to go.
Wait to discharge. Waiting to release.
I see where the bones came up from below.
Gonna blow you midships.
Gonna dive tonight.
There's no release till your deep down inside.
[CHORUS.]"
Whats wrong with gratuitous sexual humour, there's a few songs like that on Tatooed Millionaire.
-
Nothing wrong at all.
I'm just sayin'.
-
Ben Folds.
I love a good story in my music.
-
I second Ben Folds...
The Ben Folds Live album is one that makes a regular appearance in my rotation...and yes, I sing along.
-
I'm also behind the Jeff Mangum-ness. But for my money I'm an especially depraved and easy whore for Craig Finn and Colin Meloy. Stories songs are an art that is ignored way to much. Narratives are teh hottseckz and both guys do an amazing job with them.
-
Man, now that I'm on my sudden and random "Wilco used to be meh but now they're in my top 5" transition, I realize how great a songwriter and lyricist Jeff Tweedy is. She's a Jar's "she begs me not to hit her" was so unexpected and brilliant. The way he changes "she begs me not to miss her" into that was so unsettling, it gave me chills.
-
Man, now that I'm on my sudden and random "Wilco used to be meh but now they're in my top 5" transition, I realize how great a songwriter and lyricist Jeff Tweedy is. She's a Jar's "she begs me not to hit her" was so unexpected and brilliant. The way he changes "she begs me not to miss her" into that was so unsettling, it gave me chills.
That's the genius of that one song. The ENTIRE song changes with the last line.
-
Man, now that I'm on my sudden and random "Wilco used to be meh but now they're in my top 5" transition, I realize how great a songwriter and lyricist Jeff Tweedy is. She's a Jar's "she begs me not to hit her" was so unexpected and brilliant. The way he changes "she begs me not to miss her" into that was so unsettling, it gave me chills.
There's a great bit in David Sylvian's 'When The Poets Dream of Angels' a bit like that...
Mellow as fuck song, vaguely Spanish sounding acoustic guitar, hand percussion wandering about, Sylvian kicks in with his low croon: "He kneels beside her once more, and whispers a promise..." (ah, it's romantic, we think) "Next time I'll break every bone in your body" ... ouch. He's usually a bit earthy and earnest for my tastes (same reason I'll probably never enjoy Dylan etc, whether or not I can appreciate them) but every now and then I really dig it.
So many good lyrics confound expectations I reckon. It's a bit clever-clever, but I like Nilsson's 'One' - "One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do" ... it completely leads you up the garden path as to what the word "number" means and then "do" makes it clear he's using the word in a different sense from what you first thought. Well, probably in two senses, I suppose. Either way, it's cool, and a cooler image than if he meant "number" like, you know, just maths.
Edit: Actually, this is also one reason why many ESL lyricists can be pretty interesting. Beck is right to use his ESL buddies as a source of inspiration. The only example I can think of at the moment is the Notwist - eg. 'One with the Freaks' ... grammatically that's sweet, but surely the boring, conventional approach would be "one of the freaks"? Of course maybe Herr Acher is well aware of what he's doing there... but then there's things like 'Solitaire': "We never will manage to be rude - only twice." Oof. Really unnatural grammar, putting "never" in the wrong place and that weird exception having said "never", but it's also pretty awesome, I reckon.
-
Man, I don't think I've posted any Dave Tibet lyrics yet. I've been listening to a lot of Current 93 recently and have remembered just how fantastic some of it is. The intonation and passion he puts into it as he sings is incredible.
Current 93 - A Song For Douglas After He's Dead
"He crouches on the floor
There's a mask on the wall
And he leafs through the pages of a book
But wait as he may in the shadow of other leaves
His heart it embraces to times long since scorched
The horizon folds over with a purple sunrise
And the wind carries smoke from a world that is burning
The smoke locks in his hair and he's covered with patterns
And the descent of his life-trees on his camouflaged soul
With a winter of memories carved powder-bone white
Beyond his skull's form a scorpion lies
In the crunch of the snow as his darkness increases
A twilight of ice encircles his teeth
There's a swastika carved
In the palm of his hand
There's a crooked cross
That is caught in his mind
There waits a falling sun in his eyes
There's the honour of violence on his lips
His father waits for him near the Towers of Silence
Where they worship the fires so long ago quenched
Under two willow trees with elhaz inverted
The fork of life snapped -
There father and son
Will mingle in dust
As if life itself
Has been mostly illusion but partially real
And partially pain
And over some wall
If you look through the rubble
Amongst ruins of churches where life conquers death
Though empires cannot last
Where blood and soil's concepts
Have faltered and failed
A cloud still sows teeth
As the world disappears...
This is a song for Douglas
After he's dead
This is a song for my Douglas
His Mercury dances"
Current 93 - Happy Birthday Pigface Christus
(First verse sung as 'Silent Night'):
"In menstrual night
When red is black
And Christus crawls
From Mary's crack
Wrapped in tatters
And flailing in mud
Child defiled
With tears and blood
Pigface Christus is born
Pigface Christus is born
In menstrual night
When red is black
And darkness crawls
Out of the crack
Some were born
In fields of mourning
Some were ripped
In fields of rape
Some bowed down
In echoed splendour
All were torn
In fields of tears
Crushed by church
And raped by father
Bled by mother
Torn and tearing
In scarlet playgrounds
On iron railways
Christ's pale body
Crucified
Time was
Time is
Time shall be no more
Some with tears
And some with laughter
Some in sadness
All in vain
In fields fresh crippled
The glint of sickles
The scars of sunset
The sound of reaping
You and I
On threshing floors
Lost and losing
Parched and preying
All have numbers
None have names
All have numbers
None have names
Time was
Time is
Time shall be no more
Here open the gates of heaven
Here open the gates of hell
Time was
Time is
Time shall be no more
In menstrual night
We rack and burn in the menstrual night
In menstrual night
We fall asleep in the menstrual night
In menstrual night
We shall return to the menstrual night
In menstrual night
On our knees in the menstrual night"
This is basically one of my favourite songs of all time, and it is christian! That is how good this guy is.
Current 93 - Horsey
"Horses are riding into her arms.
She lost her own way years ago.
Her sister calls her from the far side of night,
And she falls with that call,
It's the only way out.
She tells me "I love you,"
But it's only a game.
So she slips through the silence,
She's fixing a time
To slide back into darkness;
Again with a smile.
"Don't touch me - I'm falling,"
She laughs in the night.
"Don't touch me - I'll return,
When the wheel comes around.
You see we're all born to suffer,
We're all born to fall,
In a grey-shaded world
That calls us to Zero."
Her mothers mouth slits
and her sister lies taken
She touches my body;
But I crouch up to die.
Down the Ramblas we're walking;
In Reykjavik we're talking.
The snow is moon-cold,
The room freezes over.
She's reading a book
She finished it years ago.
She's tearing up papers - she's tearing up life,
But she only starts thinking
When her blood is brown.
And gold is the colour
She promised me she'd wear,
And Christ's blood turns black,
His body she wears.
But she dips him in waters,
Confession of faith.
It's hard to believe you
When you spit in my face.
And I don't want to touch you;
I don't want to lie
In the brownredgold slumber
That you've taken to ride.
I remember I was thinking only of you,
But you shattered me nightly,
You broke all the rules.
I found myself falling,
And then, and then, and then...
Through the wreckage of this parched life
And the pain of the next one
I said, "This is over!
All of this is dust!"
But still the wind calls:
Imperium.
When you rage at the conqueror
You only rage at yourself
When you torture the annointed
You torture yourself!
And you've listened to Pe'ath
But not to the Cross
So you sparkle for seconds
And dissolve into mist
And the fog closes in
And you talk about Crowley
You think it's a game,
But the game is just you!
When will you stop hiding,
In the heart of your nightmare.
When the cold tramways beckon?
When the cold tramways stop?
And christ! I was thinking that you're about to die.
It is blue on the outside; it is blue on the inside.
You said as you buckled, as if you would die:
"There's no point in living...there's no point in life!"
And sometimes I hear you,
At the back of my mind.
And a Golden Dawn opens...
But no light appears.
It closes at ten,
But the time is now midnight.
Oh, I wanted to hold you,
But you're destined to fall."
-
Aesop Rock
She'd never spoken once throughout the spanning of her life
Until the day she leaned forward, grinned and pulled the nurse aside
And she said:
"Look, I've never had a dream in my life
Because a dream is what you wanna do, but still haven't pursued
I knew what I wanted and did it till it was done
So i've been the dream that I wanted to be since day one!"
Well!
The nurse jumped back,
She'd never heard Lucy even talk,
'Specially words like that
She walked over to the door, and pulled it closed behind
Then Lucy blew a kiss to each one of her pictures
And she died.
Animal Collective
And my dear dear dear khalana
I talk too much about you
Their ears are getting tired of me singing all the night through
Lets just talk together
You and me and me and you
And if theres nothing much to say
Well, silence is a bore
Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
And we can do the zarathustra
We can do the broken fist
We can tear down all the borders
Or abbreviate the list
And when finally the finish line
emerges from the mist we'll sound
a soft alarm
Colin Meloy
And I say your uncle was a crooked French Canadian
And he was gut-shot running gin
And how his guts were all suspended in his fingers
And how he held 'em
How he held 'em, held 'em in
Spencer Krug
We've both been very brave
Walk around with both legs
Wait for the scary day
We both pull the tricks out of our sleeves
-
wes eisold:
This is the soundtrack
To saying goodbye
We are making out
With desperate days
So turn the volume up high
(You love it)
God bless repeat - play nights
Heartbreaks and fights
And all the pretty pretty girls
With the tired tired eyes
Sitting out parties
To be with your headphones
Reciting your last words
And writing your last notes
ben nichols:
Smoking the cigarettes more than I should
My hands won't stop shaking and that can't be good
I would forget you if only I could
Think about anything else
Slow dance at the end of the night
And everyone's looking who cares if it's right
Your head on my chest I held you so tight
I don't care what they have to say
paul gonzenbach:
Hello, good evening and goodnight. I’ve stayed too long and said too much.
Hello, good evening and goodnight. It’s far too late for me to say what I
should say to you, or should have said two years ago by now. And so, goodnight.
Hello defeat. It’s been a while... ok, it’s not been that long. You, you’ve
been hiding out in me wasting all your wasted knowlege, wasted on me.
Nothing could ever be easier for me, nothing could feel as good, as saying
goodbye. Yeah, yeah, I could be gone today. I could be miles away by
sunrise.
-
No Children
I hope that our few remaining friends
give up on trying to save us.
I hope we come out with a fail-safe plot
to piss off the dumb few that forgave us.
I hope the fences we mended
fall down beneath their own weight.
And I hope we hang on past the last exit,
I hope it's already too late.
And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here
someday burns down.
And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away,
and I never come back to this town again.
In my life, I hope I lie,
and tell everyone you were a good wife.
And I hope you die,
I hope we both die.
I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow;
I hope it bleeds all day long.
Our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises;
we're pretty sure they're all wrong.
I hope it stays dark forever,
I hope the worst isn't over.
And I hope you blink before I do,
and I hope I never get sober.
And I hope when you think of me years down the line,
you can't find one good thing to say.
And I'd hope that if I found the strength to walk out,
you'd stay the hell out of my way.
I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me,
hand in unlovable hand.
And I hope you die,
I hope we both die.
This song always makes me smile.
-
Hooray! Another Wes Eisold fan on the forum!
I seriously think the lines from AM/PM -
"my parents fell in love and all I got was life, and all I ever wanted was to not be alone"
and
"I was counting the good things about this city, the only good thing is that you aren't here"
are some of the best he ever wrote
-
I can't help myself I'm going to have to go with Daemon from Limbonic Art, words cannot express how much I love this band. The Lyrics are really good, if a little dark and perculiaur at first.
From "Moon in the Scorpio"
A mirror blank, the ocean above in decoy
Superior forces that hurt or destroy
Take me astray into the moonlight above
Through twilight eyes as a spectre's shadow
From "Under Burdens of Life's Holocaust"
Deep in the heart of despair
Sentenced to walk among the living
In the face of the enemy
I drown in tormenting oppression
Like a lonely candle burning
I blaze as the darkness is emerging
And I yearn for the art to bleed
When the moon is drained by all its light
And the stars they shine like serpent eyes
I`m feeling death's desire for me
From "The Black Hearts Nirvana"
Hallowed be the darkness that coronates my soul
Deep within its shelter I seek my highest goals
I shall release what is conquered
From that which I now posses
All lifeforce is abandoned
Into the arms of death
From "The Supreme Sacrifice"
Thoughts are tyrants
That always return
To rape and torment the heart
As darkness sweeps
The face of Earth
I enter the chambers
Of bleeding art
**
They probably seem abit cheesy written down like that but they fit the music perfectly and credit has to be given to some of the rhyming schemes me uses. How's this for nifty.
"In the dark caves of oblivion
Bad blood rises from
The Mega Therion
From vast stalactite halls
So undivine
Through the misty
Corridors of time
As one lives one shall die"
Rhyming 'Oblivion' with 'Mega Therion' genius...
-
Hope no ones said this one yet but what about Wesley Willis?
-
My tastes are all for the Darnielle, Vanderslice, Cave and Murdoch school of writing. I like the scene to be set such that I can taste it.
-
Travis Morrison of the Dismemberment Plan has been my favorite for a while now.
Oh and David Byrne, goes without saying.
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Neutral Milk Hotel, or, whoever is in charge of their writing.
The only girl I ever loved
Was born with roses in her eyes
And then they buried her alive
One evening 1945
With just her sister by her side
Only weeks before the guns
All came and rained on everyone
Now she's a little boy in Spain
Playing pianos filled with flames
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Neil Fallon, singer of Clutch
The writer stands above his page
And thinks it strange that at his age
He cannot find the proper words
To describe his only world
One would think that in a life
Where no two snowflakes are alike
One would have a brilliant rhyme
For each and every bit of time
He's right u know
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Andrew Wood (R.I.P.)
I been talkin' to my altar
Life is what you make it
And if you make it death well then rest
your soul away
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Tom Waits
Davenports and kettle drums
And swallow tail coats
Table cloths and patent leather shoes
Bathing suits and bowling balls
And clarinets and rings
And all this radio really
Needs is a fuse
A tinker, a tailor
A soldier's things
His rifle, his boots full of rocks
And this one is for bravery
And this one is for me
And everything's a dollar
In this box
Cuff links and hub caps
Trophies and paperbacks
It's good transportation
But the brakes aren't so hot
Neck tie and boxing gloves
This jackknife is rusted
You can pound that dent out
On the hood
A tinker, a tailor
A soldier's things
His rifle, his boots full of rocks
Oh and this one is for bravery
And this one is for me
And everything's a dollar
In this box
Arlo Guthrie
And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a
study in black and white of my fingerprints. And the only reason I'm
singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar
situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a
situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into
the shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say "Shrink, You can get
anything you want, at Alice's restaurant.". And walk out. You know, if
one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and
they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them.
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in
singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an
organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said
fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and
walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.
Bob Geldof
The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload.
And nobody's gonna go to school today,
She's going to make them stay at home.
And daddy doesn't understand it,
He always said she was as good as gold.
And he can see no reason
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.
The telex machine is kept so clean
As it types to a waiting world.
And mother feels so shocked,
Father's world is rocked,
And their thoughts turn to
Their own little girl.
Sweet 16 ain't so peachy keen,
No, it ain't so neat to admit defeat.
They can see no reasons
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.
All the playing's stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys a while.
And school's out early and soon we'll be learning
And the lesson today is how to die.
And then the bullhorn crackles,
And the captain crackles,
With the problems and the how's and why's.
And he can see no reasons
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to die?
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.
Cat Stevens
It's not time to make a change,
Just relax, take it easy.
You're still young, that's your fault,
There's so much you have to know.
Find a girl, settle down,
If you want you can marry.
Look at me, i am old, but i'm happy.
I was once like you are now, and i know that it's not easy,
To be calm when you've found something going on.
But take your time, think a lot,
Why, think of everything you've got.
For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.
How can i try to explain, when i do he turns away again.
It's always been the same, same old story.
From the moment i could talk i was ordered to listen.
Now there's a way and i know that i have to go away.
I know i have to go.
It's not time to make a change,
Just sit down, take it slowly.
You're still young, that's your fault,
There's so much you have to go through.
Find a girl, settle down,
If you want you can marry.
Look at me, i am old, but i'm happy.
(son-- away away away, i know i have to
Make this decision alone - no)
All the times that i cried, keeping all the things i knew inside,
It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it.
If they were right, i'd agree, but it's them you know not me.
Now there's a way and i know that i have to go away.
I know i have to go.
Paul Simon
When you're weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes, i will dry them all;
I'm on your side. when times get rough
And friends just can't be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
When you're down and out,
When you're on the street,
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you.
I'll take your part.
When darkness comes
And pains is all around,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Sail on silvergirl,
Sail on by.
Your time has come to shine.
All your dreams are on their way.
See how they shine.
If you need a friend
I'm sailing right behind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.
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Paul Simon
Sonny sits by his window and thinks to himself
How it's strange that some rooms are like cages
Sonny's yearbook from high school
Is down from the shelf
And he idly thumbs through the pages
Some have died
Some have fled from themselves
Or struggled from here to get there
Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls
Runs his hand through his thinning brown hair
Well I'm accustomed to a smoother ride
Maybe I'm a dog that's lost his bite
I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more
I don't expect to sleep the night
Some people say a lie is just a lie
But I say the cross is in the ballpark
Why deny the obvious child?
Andrew Bird (uneven sometimes--in his weaker moments he relies too much on gimmicky and rather empty wordplay, but if you ask me his best songs completely make up for that)
Friends, Greenland is a place where souls go to dry out
It is a vast and terrifying place of ice fields and tundra
Bereft of fire and in the horror of its imposing irrelevance
There is a peace
The peace of pain
The peace of nothing
Well friends, I'm going there
Fear is lying dying in the sands
And it's breathing from the gills of my Greenland
very close behind is a whole group whose lyrics I really enjoy but I don't know if I could pick just a few to list...um, right now at least, Stuart Murdoch, The Ditty Bops (Abby and Amanda claim, at least, to co-write every song. I don't know who is more responsible for lyrics), and Colin Meloy. The top tier rotate a lot.
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Travis Morrison of the Dismemberment Plan has been my favorite for a while now.
Oh and David Byrne, goes without saying.
He was for me also, but then I gave a close listen to Change and his solo stuff. At least the former's music is rad; the latter just sucks in general. It's as if he began a decline after E&I.
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Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou...
definitely my favourite. guys a true poet.
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Travis Morrison of the Dismemberment Plan has been my favorite for a while now.
Oh and David Byrne, goes without saying.
He was for me also, but then I gave a close listen to Change and his solo stuff. At least the former's music is rad; the latter just sucks in general. It's as if he began a decline after E&I.
I absolutley LOVE the lyrical work on Change, I do agree Travistan was lame as hell though.
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Some of Change was great (Automatic, The Other Side) but the rest gets pretty iffy. When I hear him say "It's not like we were married/it was three or four months" or "it's my life and its gonna be good", I cringe.
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Neutral Milk Hotel, or, whoever is in charge of their writing.
That'd be Jeff Mangum. I have tossed off bedroom bootleg ramblings of his that I consider genius
'My dream girl don't exist
At the age of 5 she slit her wrists
She didn't know i'd be coming around
So they buried her in the ground'
its the way he sings it... my god.
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Jeff Magnum (as just said), Elliott Smith, Jeff Tweedy.
Magnum is so...fucking.......brilliant.
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It's mangum, not magnum. And I'll admit he's pretty good. I like the unusual concepts, for example In the Aeroplane Over the Sea all being about having a crush on Anne Frank. Very similiar ideas to a lot of neo-folk sometimes. Which reminds me to post more awesome Dave Tibet lyrics:
Current 93 - The Carnival is Dead and Gone
Dear Sir, Dear Lady
This carnival is dead and gone
And never, anyway-alas, this party never yet began
The chairs and tables dust of dust
Yes verydust of veryrust of verymust and farewelltrust
(I thought I saw You in the crowd, dearheart
You turned away from me and dissolved into light)
The broken lights and faded buntings
Call to us all: The Inmost Light
And don't glarewide Your eyes in wonder
They will flick back inside Your mind
And on the bonescreen of Your skull
They watch no musichall salutes
(So thoroughly modern now we are)
But the last reel of all time
The Inmost Night
(Its frames are glared and slow and out of focus
Valentino, Vallee, Moss-all dead!
The Inmost Night)
And the little bells go tinkle
And Your eyes begin to twinkle
And the joints and sinews crack
It's the expansion of Your mind Death
Death
Death
Death
(The Inmost Night)
The cat's face glares from shiny card
The deadcat from my past
You tumble, You froth and fun forever:
An orchestra from another time
Another world all dead
(The churchbells silent; the rainstainedglass of GOD is smashed)
And You take Your choice,You sup with the devil,
You choke on Your pride for ever and ever)
My memory of my Inmost Light
It tumbles, froth and fun forever
Vulvaicmemories imagined of my wouldbelife
Well that won't be
And that won't be
And that won't be
And for my troubles and my pain
And for the losses and the Wains
I get a picture in my mind
The slyly smily smiling kiss
Of Your sweet Heart and Face
And Your legs in some final benediction
Your inmostwarmheart says ta-ra
The Inmost Light
And I wished to die inside of You
And push up into Your heart so violently that
Facetoface with matrix creatrix am
The Inmost Light
The Inmost Night
All the Pretty Little Horses is all just a fantastic album, when it's all put together especially.
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Ehh... to single any one (or any handfull) out seems a bit wrong. Right now, I'm really digging Matt Skiba again
"I wish you would take my radio
to bathe with you...
Plugged in and ready to fall"
from Radio, by Alkaline Trio
fun stuff!
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Psssst...
Tim Kasher anyone?
More so in The Good Life than Cursive...
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Jeff Magnum (as just said), Elliott Smith, Jeff Tweedy.
Magnum is so...fucking.......brilliant.
The bassist for the Dead Boys? I don't think he wrote any of their lyrics, but I could be wrong.
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Glen Richards from Augie March:
"We will adjust to this new condition of living like a man with his entrails now out him not in,
after certain techniques of torture accustoms himself to a new condition of living...train.
Thoughtful godless men find god in them at the age of twenty-five
but in a year death gains favor and they think themselves the more alive,
You'll find them in the loose caboose where the pills are kept and the stupid juice,
This one has a sleeping wheel, this one has a willing noose
- Onward and on to the ends of love, pricked vanity, habit and ruse.
Onward and on to a premature silence where death finds too much use. "
Bit dense, but he's really really good and something about his voice... yeah.
Owen Ashworth from Casiotone for the Painfully Alone:
Woke up with fingers crossed
In a boy's bed with your pants off.
After polite declines of coffee and toast,
walked home itching in last night's clothes.
Past the Phone Booth and the Beauty Bar,
the broken windows of your neighbors' cars.
Through the backdoor to a message from Sis,
asking, "Who was your New Year's kiss?"
Took the afternoon to piece it all,
plus a half a dozen phone calls.
Crashed a party with Larissa and Chris
in pursuit of a New Year's kiss.
Not the way that you'd imagined it.
On a balcony with champagne lips.
But in a pantry against the pancake mix,
you had your New Year's kiss.
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Where's the love for Stephen Malkmus here? I must say he writes some good lyrics. Other great mentions hmm. David Berman, Lou Reed, Robert Pollard, Colin Meloy, Craig Finn, Roger Waters, Jeff Mangum, Black Francis, Thom Yorke, and quite possibly Stephin Merritt.
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Warren Zevon. Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner is, for some reason, one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard; however, he's also got deadpan humor to spare. Example:
FUCK YES.
i love Nick Cave's lyrics, but the rub is I'm not really a fan of the music. In fact I find it pretty much unlistenable :lol:
Maynard James Keenan
Krystoffer Rygg (Ulver)
Donald Fagen (Steely Dan)
Devin Townsend (check out his solo stuff)
Neil Peart (Rush)
Peter Gabriel
Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)
Cedric Bixler Zavala (The Mars Volta)- yes, really.
Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls)
Daniel Gildenlow (Pain Of Salvation)
EDIT: To say +1 for Darnielle and Folds and mention my favouritr hip-hop lyricists:
Eyedea
Atmosphere
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien (especially on 3030)
MCA from the Beastie Boys
Pretty much all of J5
Sage Francis
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My favorites are the obvious Jeff Mangum and John Darnielle.
Jeff
Now she's a little boy in Spain/ playing pianos filled with flames
Those two lines, for whatever reason, immediately slay me. I think it's the way the words sound and feel when said, more than the imagery.
John
The most remarkable thing about seeing you standing in the doorway is that it is you, and you are standing in the doorway
Um.
Also Will Sheff of Okkervil River because his songs make me cry.
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Nick Cave is definitely my fave lyricist!
I live in a town called Millhaven
And it's small and it's mean and it's cold
But if you come around just as the sun goes down
You can watch the whole town turn to gold
It's around about then that I used to go a-roaming
Singing La la la la La la la lie
All God's children they all gotta die
My name is Loretta but I prefer Lottie
I'm closing in on my fifteenth year
And if you think you have seen a pair of eyes more green
Then you sure didn't see them around here
My hair is yellow and I'm always a-combing
La la la la La la la lie
Mama often told me we all got to die
You must have heard about The Curse Of Millhaven
How last Christmas Bill Blake's little boy didn't come home
They found him next week in One Mile Creek
His head bashed in and his pockets full of stones
Well, just imagine all the wailing and moaning
La la la la La la la lie
Even little Billy Blake's boy, he had to die
Then Professor O'Rye from Millhaven High
Found nailed to his door his prize-winning terrier
Then next day the old fool brought little Biko to school
And we all had to watch as he buried her
His eulogy to Biko had all the tears a-flowing
La la la la La la la lie
Even God's little creatures, they have to die
Our little town fell into a state of shock
A lot of people were saying things that made little sense
Then the next thing you know the head of Handyman Joe
Was found in the fountain of the Mayor's residence
Foul play can really get a small town going
La la la la La la la lie
Even God's children all have to die
Then, in a cruel twist of fate, old Mrs Colgate
Was stabbed but the job was not complete
The last thing she said before the cops pronounced her dead
Was, "My killer is Loretta and she lives across the street!"
Twenty cops burst through my door without even phoning
La la la la La la la lie
The young ones, the old ones, they all gotta die
Yes, it is I, Lottie. The Curse Of Millhaven
I've struck horror in the heart of this town
Like my eyes ain't green and my hair ain't yellow
It's more like the other way around
I gotta pretty little mouth underneath all the foaming
La la la la La la la lie
Sooner or later we all gotta die
Since I was no bigger than a weavil they've been saying I was evil
That if "bad" was a boot that I'd fit it
That I'm a wicked young lady, but I've been trying hard lately
O fuck it! I'm a monster! I admit it!
It makes me so mad my blood really starts a-going
La la la la La la la lie
Mama always told me that we all gotta die
Yeah, I drowned the Blakey kid, stabbed Mrs. Colgate, I admit
Did the handyman with his circular saw in his garden shed
But I never crucified little Biko, that was two junior high school psychos
Stinky Bohoon and his friend with the pumpkin-sized head
I'll sing to the lot, now you got me going
La la la la La la la lie
All God's children have all gotta die
There were all the others, all our sisters and brothers
You assumed were accidents, best forgotten
Recall the children who broke through the ice on Lake Tahoo?
Everyone assumed the "Warning" signs had followed them to the bottom
Well, they're underneath the house where I do quite a bit of stowing
La la la la La la la lie
Even twenty little children, they had to die
And the fire of '91 that razed the Bella Vista slum
There was the biggest shit-fight this country's ever seen
Insurance companies ruined, land lords getting sued
All cause of wee girl with a can of gasoline
Those flames really roared when the wind started blowing
La la la la La la la lie
Rich man, poor man, all got to die
Well I confessed to all these crimes and they put me on trial
I was laughing when they took me away
Off to the asylum in an old black Mariah
It ain't home, but you know, it's fucking better than jail
It ain't such bad old place to have a home in
La la la la La la la lie
All God's children they all gotta die
Now I got shrinks that will not rest with their endless Rorschach tests
I keep telling them they're out to get me
They ask me if I feel remorse and I answer, "Why of course!
There is so much more I could have done if they'd let me!"
So it's Rorschach and Prozac and everything is groovy
Singing La la la la La la la lie
All God's children they all have to die
La la la la La la la lie
I'm happy as a lark and everything is fine
Singing La la la la La la la lie
Yeah, everything is groovy and everything is fine
Singing La la la la La la la lie
All God's children they gotta die
;)
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Sage Francis is amazing...both what he's done solo, and with non-Prophets.
One of my favorites of his:
They've said it every year but this times it seems like
The end is near and i'm in line to see the light
How far does this black tunnel go
I got a car but the gas is running low
And as long as i've known the bumps and creeks of this house
It's starting to make the types of sounds that only comes from people's mouths
You cant tell me it's still settling
Built on an indian burial ground killing everything
The childhood scar on my chin is back again
That old jump over my own leg dance move has to end
I've seen better days in my night terrors
I was a bike messenger without a bike and i would write letters
Ask directions to your whereabouts
Before the slow walk the rest of the show-offs were pealing out
To many hares only one tortise
Thats why I left this city, too fast paced for this HO-HUM TAURUS
By the time i developed the pictures
They're as blurry as my memory of constant life fixtures
If distance is a girl's best friend
Tell them bitches in the rough who think that love comes with DIAMONDS
Slave labor, you made me work for what I couldnt have
Diamonds cut, but coal burns and nothing lasts forever
Dont know why I bothered saving any of your letters,they're just aged paper
Crumbling
Slave labor, you made me work for what I couldnt have
Diamonds cut, the cold burns and nothing lasts
Wonder why I saved your urn of ashes
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My favorites are the obvious Jeff Mangum and John Darnielle.
Jeff
Now she's a little boy in Spain/ playing pianos filled with flames
Those two lines, for whatever reason, immediately slay me. I think it's the way the words sound and feel when said, more than the imagery.
John
The most remarkable thing about seeing you standing in the doorway is that it is you, and you are standing in the doorway
Um.
Also Will Sheff of Okkervil River because his songs make me cry.
I heard that Mangum might come back if he gets to tour with the Mountain Goats.
I don't believe it, but it would be awesome.
Those are two of my fave lyrics
Atom and his Package cover that second song (Going to Georgia). Its... odd. And maybe a bit wrong
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I heard that Mangum might come back if he gets to tour with the Mountain Goats.
You win for the most exciting rumor of the day. I will have to search for that Atom and his Package song... but I reallllly don't like them at all. But Going to Georgia is just so good!
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Syriak
from Feasting Fools:
"I like my eggs broiled and that's it!"
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I'm going to add Henry Rollins to my previous list, for the entirety of 'TV Party' and for this part of 'Six Pack:'
My Girlfriend asks me which one I like better
(Six Pack) I hope the answer don't upset her...
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Jeff Mangum
Two headed boy
With pulleys and weights
Creating a radio played just for two
In the parlor with a moon across her face
And through the music he sweetly displays
Silver speakers that sparkle all day
Made for his lover who's floating and choking with her hands across her face
And in the dark we will take off our clothes
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep inside
Now your eyes ain't moving now
They just lay there in their climb
Spencer Krug
Well I've got a hand
So I've got a fist
So I've got a plan
It's the best that I can do
And I'll save, using god's hands
But god doesn't always have the best god damn plans does he?
I second these. Mangum is just brilliant and wolf parade, but even moreso frog eyes, have fantastic lyrics as well.
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Shaun Ryder, Dean Ween, John Linnell, Chuck D, Rennie Sparks, Brian Eno, bladdiddy blah