Lyrical Bliss

[Travelin' Man]

Are there lyrics, be they from any genre of music, that send you into lyrical euphoria? Lyrics that riddle your flesh with goose bumps and/or make your nerve endings tingle? Maybe it's just a simple inner connection to them that you feel. Who knows and who the hell cares?

Please share with the rest of the class!

I posted in Džedaj's Mr./Man thread a few days ago. I'll start by posting those same lyrics here.

From "Old Man" by Neil Young...

Love lost, such a cost,
Give me things
that don't get lost.
Like a coin that won't get tossed
Rolling home to you.

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

One of my favorite lyrical sections to any song ever is the end of Guns N' Roses' "Coma":


"You got a one way ticket
On your last chance ride
Gotta one way ticket
To your suicide
Gotta one way ticket
An' there's no way out alive

An' all this crass communication
That has left you in the cold
Isn't much for consolation
When you feel so weak and old
But if home is where the heart is
Then there's stories to be told
No you don't need a doctor
No one else can heal your soul

Got your mind in submission
Got your life on the line
But nobody pulled the trigger
They just stepped aside
They be down by the water
While you watch 'em waving goodbye

They be callin' in the morning
They be hangin' on the phone
They be waiting for an answer
When you know nobody's home
And when the bell's stopped ringing
It was nobody's fault but your own

There were always ample warnings
There were always subtle signs
And you would have seen it comin'
But we gave you too much time
And when you said that no one's listening
Why'd your best friend drop a dime
Sometimes we get so tired of waiting
For a way to spend our time

An' "It's so easy" to be social
"It's so easy" to be cool
Yeah it's easy to be hungry
When you ain't got shit to lose
And I wish that I could help you
With what you hope to find
But I'm still out here waiting watching reruns of my life
When you reach the point of breaking know it's gonna take some time
To heal the broken memories that another man would need just to survive...."​

 

[Death on Credit]

Nothing gets me higher than a good lyric. At the moment, these are probably my two favorite songs, lyrically:

Abandoned Love by Bob Dylan
I can hear the turning of the key
I’ve been deceived by the clown inside of me
I thought that he was righteous but he’s vain
Oh, something’s a-telling me I wear the ball and chain

My patron saint is a-fighting with a ghost
He’s always off somewhere when I need him most
The Spanish moon is rising on the hill
But my heart is a-tellin’ me I love ya still

I come back to the town from the flaming moon
I see you in the streets, I begin to swoon
I love to see you dress before the mirror
Won’t you let me in your room one time ’fore I finally disappear?

Everybody’s wearing a disguise
To hide what they’ve got left behind their eyes
But me, I can’t cover what I am
Wherever the children go I’ll follow them

I march in the parade of liberty
But as long as I love you I’m not free
How long must I suffer such abuse
Won’t you let me see you smile one time before I turn you loose?

I’ve given up the game, I’ve got to leave
The pot of gold is only make-believe
The treasure can’t be found by men who search
Whose gods are dead and whose queens are in the church

We sat in an empty theater and we kissed
I asked ya please to cross me off-a your list
My head tells me it’s time to make a change
But my heart is telling me I love ya but you’re strange

One more time at midnight, near the wall
Take off your heavy makeup and your shawl
Won’t you descend from the throne, from where you sit?
Let me feel your love one more time before I abandon it


Street Fighting Man by the Rolling Stones
Ev'rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy
'Cause summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy
Well then what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock 'n' roll band
'Cause in sleepy London town
There's just no place for a street fighting man
No!

Hey! Think the time is right for a palace revolution
'Cauce where I live the game to play is compromise solution
Well then what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock 'n' roll band
'Cause in sleepy London town
There's no place for a street fighting man
No!
Get down

Hey! Said my name is called disturbance
I'll shout and scream, I'll kill the king, I'll rail at all his servants
Well, what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock 'n' roll band
'Cause in sleepy London town
There's no place for a street fighting man
No
Get down

 

[CREAM'd]

I just love this song,such meaning,such depth,such purpose,it's an inspirational piece of lyrical genius.

Aqua Barbie Girl


I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world
Life in plastic,it's fantastic
You can brush my hair,undress me everywhere
Imagination,life is your creation

Come on Barbie,lets go party,ah, ah, ah yeah
Come on Barbie,lets go party,ooh ooh ooh,ooh ooh ooh
Come on Barbie,lets go party,ah, ah, ah yeah
Come on Barbie,lets go party,ooh ooh ooh,ooh ooh ooh

Oh,i'm having so much fun!
Well,Barbie,we're just getting started
Oh,i love you Ken.

 

[AboutAGirl]

I'm a lyrics-oriented guy so I've got quite a few of these. Hope you don't mind if I post a few videos.



-- No explanation needed. Everything about life... summed up right here.



-- Especially the "No more songs tonight... I'm driving till the break of day." I do a lot of things (especially concerts) where I'll go 3 or 4 hours for something and then come back the same day, so there are a lot of times where I'll be out there having a good time and then it's like "Well, no more songs tonight, it's 1am and I've gotta get home before it's tomorrow." Very good memories, but a little bittersweet too.



-- Especially the part "while I'm out on this raging sea, about to capsize." Have you ever felt like you're going through something incalculably immense while everyone around you is just going about their day, feeling quite together and alright? This whole song sums up how I felt a year ago better than anything could.

Oh I could go on and on...

 

[LG]

Here's one of my all time favorites, and it's a tribute to a real event. Gordon Lighfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty.
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early.
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was the witch of November come stealin'.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the Gales of November came slashin'.
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind.

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'.
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya.
At Seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
May have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral.
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'.
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early!​

 

[ladyislingering]

songs that basically make my head explode with how incredible the lyrics flow:

Roxy Music - "More Than This"



Patti Smith - "Because the Night"



Sparks - "Equator"



Carpenters - "Another Song"



I could perhaps go on for ages, but those are the ones that come to mind most immediately.

 

[Džedaj]

From "Old Man" by Neil Young...

Love lost, such a cost,
Give me things
that don't get lost.
Like a coin that won't get tossed
Rolling home to you.

Actually that same line is mine favorite too and reference with tossing coin makes me go crazy. However, best lyrics I ever heard comes from Led Zepp, Rain Song.

"This is the springtime of my loving -
the second season I am to know
You are the sunlight in my growing -
so little warmth I've felt before.
It isn't hard to feel me glowing -
I watched the fire that grew so low.

It is the summer of my smiles -
flee from me Keepers of the Gloom.
Speak to me only with your eyes.
It is to you I give this tune.
Ain't so hard to recognize -
These things are clear to all from
Time to time.

Talk Talk -
I've felt the coldness of my winter
I never thought it would ever go.
I cursed the gloom that set upon us...
But I know that I love you so

These are the seasons of emotion
and like the winds they rise and fall
This is the wonder of devotion -
I see the torch we all must hold.
This is the mystery of the quotient -
Upon us all a little rain must fall"

There's something in last verse that just kicks me off. Plant's voice that perfectly highlight peaks of lyric flow is just beautiful, and when he repeats after final verse "Just a little rain?", I instantly start tremble out of joy.

Lots of Bob Dylan's song made me sad or thoughtful just because of lyrics and the way he sang them, like "Boots Of Spanish Leather", "Mr. Tambourine Man", "Ballad Of Hollis Brown", "Visions Of Johanna", "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and others.

I didn't pay much attention to lyrics before, I always look after melody and solo. But I'm glad I learned how lyrics can sometimes be soul of song, and in Dylan's case, most important part of each song.

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

I've always loved this section of The Darkness' "English Country Garden". It has this superb sense of innocence that warms my heart.


"Frolicking in the summer fields were we
I fell for you and you grew to like me

I carved "U 4 Me" in the bark of a tree
In an English Country Garden
We rolled around kissing on the ground
In an English Country Garden
You succumbed to my charms, fell asleep in my arms
In an English Country Garden
Beneath the stars above I fell in love
In an English Country Garden"

 

[Travelin' Man]

Actually that same line is mine favorite too and reference with tossing coin makes me go crazy.

I'm with you all the way there, Džedaj. That's the line that gets me.

Another fave is Pink Floyd's Goodbye Blue Sky...

"Oooooooo ooo ooo ooooh
Did you see the frightened ones
Did you hear the falling bombs
Did you ever wonder
Why we had to run for shelter
When the promise of a brave new world
Unfurled beneath a clear blue sky
Oooooooo ooo ooooo oooh
Did you see the frightened ones
Did you hear the falling bombs
The flames are all long gone
But the pain lingers on
Goodbye blue sky
Goodbye blue sky
Goodbye
Goodbye.................."


Good stuff. *nods*