Your favourite song lyrics
Can you choose a single song whose lyrics stand out from all the songs you’ve ever loved?
So many candidates. So many wonderful lyrics.
I think mine will have to be Joe Cocker’s interpretation of You Are So Beautiful for its pure, direct, uncluttered honesty.
I’m afraid this system won’t let you embed YouTube videos in comments, but you can link to a song and tell us why you love the lyrics. What’s your favourite?
Don White said,
August 29, 2008 at 11:14 am
Hi David,
I’m going to be a bit egotistical here and say my all-time favourite song is one that I originally wrote back in 1990 and then updated in 2005. It’s called “The Over Sixty Blues” and it’s a lament on the fact of ageing and may I say, I resemble the song.
Grateful We’re Not Dead usually get at least one request to do the song any time we perform but seeing as we’re usually entertaining an older crowd they can relate to it.
If anyone would care to read the lyrics they can find them at
http://gratefulwerenotdead.blogspot.com/2007/09/songs-over-sixty-blues.html
David Bridger said,
August 29, 2008 at 11:16 am
Magic, Don!
Mike said,
August 29, 2008 at 11:43 am
One of my favourite songs by Rush.
David Bridger said,
August 29, 2008 at 11:46 am
Thanks for sharing, Mike.
Rhonda LaShae said,
August 29, 2008 at 12:01 pm
My favorite song lyrics are from a bonus track on an album released in 1989.
There is no video of it but the song is from Edie Brickell, “Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars”. The song is “I Do” and the lyric that caught me and still does to this day is
I want someone to follow , who doesn’t lead the way, I want someone to listen
who won’t repeat what I say…
There is a sample from the entire album Amazon.
David Bridger said,
August 29, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I like that lyric, Rhonda.
timelady said,
August 29, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Nick Cave – Are You The One I’ve Been Waiting For?
I’ve felt you coming girl, as you drew near
I knew you’d find me, cause I longed you here
Are you my destiny? Is this how you’ll appear?
Wrapped in a coat with tears in your eyes?
Well take that coat babe, and throw it on the floor
Are you the one I’ve been waiting for?
As you’ve been moving, surely toward me
My soul has comforted and assured me
That in time my heart it will reward me
And that all will be revealed
So I’ve sat and I’ve watched an ice-age thaw
Are you the one I’ve been waiting for?
Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built
Out of longing great wonders have been willed
They’re only little tears, darling, let them spill
And lay your head upon my shoulder
Outside my window the world has gone to war
Are you the one I’ve been waiting for?
O we will know… won’t we?
The stars will explode in the sky
But they don’t… do they?
Stars have their moment and then they die
There’s a man who spoke wonders though I’ve never met him
He said, “He who seeks finds and who knocks will be let in”
I think of you in motion and just how close you are getting
And how every little thing anticipates you
All down my veins my heart-strings call
Are you the one I’ve been waiting for?
David Bridger said,
August 29, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Powerful lyrics! I’m not surprised you love them, timelady.
Brian said,
August 29, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Wow there are so many I could add… but here’s one
The Bitterest Pill by The Jam
In your white lace and your wedding bells
You look the picture of contented new wealth
But from the on-looking fool who believed your lies
I wish this grave would open up and swallow me alive
For the bitterest pill is hard to swallow
The love I gave hangs in sad coloured, mocking shadows
When the wheel of fortune broke, you fell to me
Out of grey skies to change my misery
The vacant spot, your beating heart took its place
But now I watch smoke leave my lips and fill an empty room
For the bitterest pill is hard to swallow
The love I gave hangs in sad coloured, mocking shadows
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took it for a hundred years, I couldn’t feel any more ill
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took it for a hundred years, I couldn’t feel any more ill
Now autumn’s breeze blows summer’s leaves through my life
Twisted and broken dawn, no days with sunlight
The dying spark, you left your mark on me
The promise of your kiss, but with someone else
For the bitterest pill is mine to swallow
The love I gave hangs in sad coloured, mocking shadows
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took it for a hundred years, I couldn’t feel anymore ill!
David Bridger said,
August 29, 2008 at 1:57 pm
More powerful words! Thank you, Brian.
elizaw said,
August 29, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I usually listen to the sort of music that fits my current writing project… this one doesn’t, but it’s a favorite for lyrics. Loreena McKennitt, Night Ride Across the Caucasus.
Here’s one of the verses:
Take me with you on this journey
Where the boundaries of time are now tossed
In cathedrals of the forest
In the words of the tongues now lost
Find the answers, ask the questions
Find the roots of an ancient tree
Take me dancing, take me singing
I’ll ride on till the moon meets the sea
David Bridger said,
August 29, 2008 at 9:09 pm
That’s beautiful, Eliza.
thekidds said,
August 30, 2008 at 2:39 am
Most of my all time favorite songs are hymns. “Eternal Father” brings tears to my eyes because it’s the Sailors’ Hymn and my father was a Navy man.
Eternal Father strong to save
Whose hand has bound the restless wave.
Who bids the mighty ocean deep
It’s own appointed promise keep.
Oh hear us when we call to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
David Bridger said,
August 30, 2008 at 8:13 am
That is a lovely hymn. Thank you.
jamiemollart said,
August 30, 2008 at 9:53 pm
For me it’s got to be Dylan, he is a poet like no other, and my favourite Dylan track is tangled up in blue, amazing song
Early one mornin the sun was shinin,
I was layin in bed
Wondrin if shed changed at all
If her hair was still red.
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like mamas homemade dress
Papas bankbook wasnt big enough.
And I was standin on the side of the road
Rain fallin on my shoes
Heading out for the east coast
Lord knows Ive paid some dues gettin through,
Tangled up in blue.
She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam, I guess,
But I used a little too much force.
We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out west
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best.
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin away
I heard her say over my shoulder,
Well meet again someday on the avenue,
Tangled up in blue.
I had a job in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much
And one day the ax just fell.
So I drifted down to new orleans
Where I happened to be employed
Workin for a while on a fishin boat
Right outside of delacroix.
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind,
I seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind, and I just grew
Tangled up in blue.
She was workin in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer,
I just kept lookin at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear.
And later on as the crowd thinned out
Is just about to do the same,
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me, dont I know your name?
I muttered somethin underneath my breath,
She studied the lines on my face.
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe,
Tangled up in blue.
She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe
I thought youd never say hello, she said
You look like the silent type.
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an italian poet
From the thirteenth century.
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin coal
Pourin off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you,
Tangled up in blue.
I lived with them on montague street
In a basement down the stairs,
There was music in the cafes at night
And revolution in the air.
Then he started into dealing with slaves
And something inside of him died.
She had to sell everything she owned
And froze up inside.
And when finally the bottom fell out
I became withdrawn,
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin on like a bird that flew,
Tangled up in blue.
So now Im goin back again,
I got to get to her somehow.
All the people we used to know
Theyre an illusion to me now.
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenters wives.
Dont know how it all got started,
I dont know what theyre doin with their lives.
But me, Im still on the road
Headin for another joint
We always did feel the same,
We just saw it from a different point of view,
Tangled up in blue.
David Bridger said,
August 30, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I’m listening to it now, Jamie.
jamiemollart said,
August 31, 2008 at 4:45 pm
It’s amazing- I’ve just put it back on, in fact the whole album Blood on the Tracks reads like poetry rather than songs. He’s a genius!
j3black said,
September 1, 2008 at 5:18 am
I was recently reminded of Peter Gabriel’s “Mercy Street,” which is about and inspired by poet Anne Sexton. For me, no one has captured as brilliantly the feeling of searching without finding, a feeling that can and does devastate too many artist.
—————————
Looking down on empty streets, all she can see
Are the dreams all made solid
Are the dreams made real
All of the buildings, all of the cars
Were once just a dream
In somebody’s head
She pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam
She pictures a soul
With no leak at the seam
Let’s take the boat out
Wait until darkness
Let’s take the boat out
Wait until darkness comes
Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey
Nowhere in the suburbs
In the cold light of day
There in the midst of it so alive and alone
Words support like bone
Dreaming of Mercy Street
Wear your inside out
Dreaming of mercy
In your daddy’s arms again
Dreaming of Mercy Street
swear they moved that sign
Dreaming of mercy
In your daddy’s arms
Pulling out the papers from drawers that slide smooth
Tugging at the darkness, word upon word
Confessing all the secret things in the warm velvet box
To the priest, he’s the doctor
He can handle the shocks
Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips
Of kissing Mary’s lips
Dreaming of Mercy Street
Wear your insides out
Dreaming of mercy
In your daddys arms again
Dreaming of Mercy Street
swear they moved that sign
Looking for mercy
In your daddy’s arms
Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy
Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy
Anne, with her father is out in the boat
Riding the water
Riding the waves on the sea
David Bridger said,
September 1, 2008 at 7:31 am
Powerful words, James. Thank you.
Larelle Read said,
September 9, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I don’t know why really, I think there’s a dark sentiment in it, but I love The Smith’s “There’s A Light That Never Goes Out”
And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-tonne truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure – the privilege is mine
I love the whole song, but the chorus gets me *right there* <3
David Bridger said,
September 9, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Can’t beat a nice bit of emo in the morning.
I agree, Larelle. Those are arresting lyrics.