Post your favorite lyrics

OK, here's a few short excerpts that I've always liked. There's lots more I'll probably post later.....

Neil Young - Ohio

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,

We're finally on our own.

This summer I hear the drumming,

Four dead in Ohio.

The most amazing thing about this song is that it was written immediately after Neil Young saw the pictures from the Kent State massacre in 1970, and the song was recorded (by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) and released to the public only a week later. It immediately became an anthem to a generation.

Neil Young - This Old House

This old house of ours is built on dreams

And a businessman don't know what that means.

There's a garden outside she works in every day

And tomorrow morning a man from the bank's

Gonna come and take it all away.

(The singer has been up all night because his house is being foreclosed the next morning - song is about 15 years old, but sounds like it could have been written today.)

Bob Dylan - Sweetheart Like You

They say that patriotism is the last refuge

To which a scoundrel clings.

Steal a little and they throw you in jail,

Steal a lot and they make you king.

I'm not even going to try to interpret most of Dylan's lyrics, but I think his political stance is obvious in these lines.

James Brown - The Payback

I don't know karate, but I know KA-RAZY!

(sung to the guy who was "gettin' down with my girlfriend" - classic line from a classic song)

Nick Lowe - Switchboard Susan

When I'm near you girl, I get an extension.

And I don't mean Alexander Graham Bell's invention.

(Nick is singing to the telephone operator he's in love with but has never met. I won't bother explaining further.......)

One of my favorite songs is American Pie by Don McLean. The lyrics are amazing. This song is said to be about the death of Buddy Holly in 1959 and about the change in music from the 1950's to the late 1960's.

You can go online and get a full explanation of the lyrics. It's very interesting...

I'm very passionate about well-written spiritual music, and some of the best comes from a band most people wouldn't expect to be spiritual. These lyrics come from a two-part song. For the full experience you have to watch the music video.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=7128833

Tool - Parabol

So familiar and overwhelmingly warm
This one, this form I hold now.

Embracing you, this reality here,
This one, this form I hold now, so
Wide eyed and hoopeful.

Wide eyed and hoopefully wild.
We barely remember what came before this precious moment,
Choosing to be here right now. Hold on, stay inside...
This body holding me, reminding me that I am not alone in
This body makes me feel eternal. All this pain is an illusion.

Tool - Parabola

We barely remember who or what came before this precious moment,
We are Choosing to be here, right now. Hold on, stay inside...
This hoooooly realityy, this hoooooly experience.
Choosing to be here in...
This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal all this pain is an illusion.

Alive!

In this holy reality, in this holy experience. Choosing to be here in...
This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal all this pain is an illusion...

Twirling round with this familiar parable.
Spinning, weaving round each new experience.
Recognize this as a holy gift and, celebrate this
chance to be alive and breathing

This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality.
Embrace this moment. Remember. we are eternal.
all this pain is an illusion.

Radiohead... need I say more? Below are the lyrics to one of my favorites.

Thom Yorke said about this song, "Street Spirit is our purest song, but I didn't write it. It wrote itself. We were just its messengers; its biological catalysts. Its core is a complete mystery to me, and, you know, I wouldn't ever try to write something that hopeless. All of our saddest songs have somewhere in them at least a glimmer of resolve. Street Spirit has no resolve. It is the dark tunnel without the light at the end. It represents all tragic emotion that is so hurtful that the sound of that melody is its only definition........

I can't believe we have fans that can deal emotionally with that song. That's why I'm convinced that they don't know what it's about. It's why we play it towards the end of our sets. It drains me, and it shakes me, and hurts like hell every time I play it, looking out at thousands of people cheering and smiling, oblivious to the tragedy of its meaning, like when you're going to have your dog put down and it's wagging its tail on the way there. That's what they all look like, and it breaks my heart. I wish that song hadn't picked us as its catalysts, and so I don't claim it. It asks too much. I didn't write that song."

Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Rows of houses all bearing down on me
I can feel their blue hands touching me
All these things in all positions
All these things will one day take control
And fade out again and fade out

This machine will not communicate these thoughts
And the strain I am under
Be a world child form a circle before we all go under
And fade out again and fade out again

Cracked eggs dead birds
Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death can see it's beady eyes
All these things into frution
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out again.

The video is also amazing, check it out if you haven't seen it.

The epitome of San Fransico 60's rock...

Crown of Creation- Jefferson Airplane

You are the Crown of Creation
You are the Crown of Creation
and you've got no place to go.

Soon you'll attain the stability you strive for
in the only way that it's granted
in a place among the fossils of our time.

In loyalty to their kind
they cannot tolerate our minds.
In loyalty to our kind
we cannot tolerate their obstruction.

Life is Change
How it differs from the rocks
I've seen their ways too often for my liking
New worlds to gain
My life is to survive
and be alive
for you.

[img]http://www.youtube.com/v/InZS5jQTSvc&hl=en[<img] 

From the late 70's Suite Madame Blue - Styx

Time after time I sit and I wait for your call
I know I'm a fool but what can I say.
Whatever the price I'll pay for you, Madame Blue
Once long ago, a word from your lips and the world turned around.
But somehow you've changed, you're so far away
I long for the past and dream of the days with you, Madame Blue.


Suite Madame Blue, gaze in your looking glass
You're not a child anymore.
Suite Madame Blue, the future is all but past.
Dressed in your jewels, you made your own rules
You conquered the world and more ....heaven's door

(Instrumental)

America....America...America...America...
America....America...America...America...
America....America...America...America...
America....America...America...America...
America....America...America...America...
America....America...America...America...


Red white, and blue, gaze in your looking glass
You're not a child anymore.
Red, white, and blue, the future is all but past.
So lift up your heart, and make a new start
And lead us away from here.

Written in 1963......thought provoking words, even more so today....

Bob Dylan - With God On Our Side

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

One of my favorite "socially aware" songwriters is Tracy Chapman. Here's a very moving song from an excellent, but relatively unsung, album she released in 1995 called New Beginning. Sorry I didn't quite post this in time for Earth Day....

The Rape Of The World

Mother of us all
Place of our birth
How can we stand aside
And watch the rape of the world

This the beginning of the end
This the most heinous of crimes
This the deadliest of sins
The greatest violation of all time

Mother of us all
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world

You've seen her stripped mined
You've heard of bombs exploded underground
You know the sun shines
Hotter than ever before

Mother of us all
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world

Some claim to have crowned her a queen
With cities of concrete and steel
But there is no glory no honor
In what results
From the rape of the world

Mother of us all
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world

She has been clear-cut
She has been dumped on
She has been poisoned and beaten up
And we have been witness
To the rape of the world

Mother of us all
Place of our birth
How can we stand aside
And watch the rape of the world

If you look you'll see it with your own eyes
If you listen you will hear her cries
If you care you will stand and testify
And stop the rape of the world

Stop the rape of the world
Mother of us all
Mother of us all
Mother of us all
Mother of us all...

In light of the fact that I'm going to the upcoming Radiohead concert, I put up a song that's pure classic.

Karma Police - Radiohead

Karma police, arrest this man, he talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge, hes like a detuned radio
Karma police, arrest this girl, her hitler hairdo, is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party
This is what you get, this is what you get
This is what you get, when you mess with us

Karma police, Ive given all I can, its not enough
Ive given all I can, but were still on the payroll
This is what you get, this is what you get
This is what you get, when you mess with us
And for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself
And for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself

For a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself