Figured we might need a place for discussing lyrics and such. So anyways, what are you guys' favorite lyrics? Who if your favorite lyricist? What are your interpretations of some lyrics? How much do you think lyrical quality contributes to the quality of an overall song? etc etc
My favorite lyricist is John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. I really love the lyrics from No Children, especially
"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"
In a song all about how much he hates his ex wife, the tons of self loathing and such suggests to me that he still really loves her. It tells me that she doesn't love him anymore, so he's determined to hate her. kind of like the lyrics in Night Light, "Dream of waking up someday and wanting you less than I do this is a dream / Though it's never gonna come true"
I also love the Lennon/McCartney lyrics, but I don't really have any major interpretations for any of them right now.
so anyways, what do you all like?
"Rock and roll will never die because Neil Young said so."
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”Run. Faster. Don't let anything distract you. FOOD.”
I love the lyrics from that whole Muse album, the Resistance. It's completely based on the book 1984 by George Orwell, which is one of my favourite books, so that might have somethimg to do with it.
My favourite lyricist is Johnathan Higgs from the band Everything Everything. If you haven't heard of them, look them up. His lyrics can be crazy and confusing, but they're genius
_.•__WE THINK TOO MUCH AND FEEL TOO LITTLE.
(_______. + ‘ ¯ ‘ +.
_‘ + . _ . ‘ ____•._))
"She's wordy and verbose
Prolific and prone to prose
Always sick and has a cold
Stuffed nose she's got to blow
I've got many cold remedies, many old enemies
I've got a girl that kick their ass like River from Serenity"
The song is "Nrrrd Grrrl" by MC Chris. Pretty self explanatory. But the first two lines to me are pure fricken poetry. Look at the use of alliteration. Just kill me now it's so beautiful.
I love just everything Joanna Newsom writes, but the lyrics to "Good Intentions Paving Company" are so good. Every line of it. It's long, but I couldn't choose just a single phrase of it.
Twenty miles left to the show.
Hello, my old country, hello.
Stars are just beginning to appear,
And I have never in my life before been here.
And it's my heart, not me, who cannot drive
At this conclusion you arrived.
Watching me sit here bolt upright and cry
For no good reason at the Eastering sky.
And the tilt of this strange nation,
And the will to remain for the duration,
Waving the flag.
Feeling it drag.
Like a bump on a bump on a log, baby.
Like I'm in a fist fight with a fog, baby.
Step-ball-chain and a piourette,
And I regret. I regret,
How I said to you, "Honey, just open your heart,"
When I've got trouble even opening a honey jar,
And that right there is where we are.
And I've been 'fessing double fast,
Addressing questions nobody asked.
I'll get this joy off of my chest,
And I will love you 'till the noise has long since passed.
And I did not mean to shout, just drive.
Just get us out, dead or alive.
A road so long to mention. Lord, it's something to see.
Laid down by the Good Intentions Paving Company.
All the way to the thing we've been playing at, darling.
I can see that you're wearing your staying hat, darling.
For the time being, all is well.
Won't you love me a spell?
This is blindness beyond all conceiving.
Well, behind us the road is leaving, yeah leaving,
And falling back,
Like a rope gone slack.
Well, I saw straight away that the lay was steep,
But I fell for you, honey, easier that falling asleep,
And that right there is the course I keep.
And no amount of talking is going to soften the fall,
But, like after the rain, step out of the overhang, that's all.
It had a nice ring to it when the ol' Opry House rang,
So with a solemn auld lang, signed, sealed, delivered, I sang.
And there is hesitation, and it always remains,
Concerning you, me, and the rest of the gang.
And in our quiet hour I feel I see everything,
And am in love with the hook upon which everyone hangs.
And I know you meant to show the extent to which you gave a goddang.
You ranged real hot and real cold, but I'm sold. I am at home on that range.
And I do hate to fold right here at the top of my game,
When I've been trying with my whole heart and soul to stay right here in the right lane.
But it can make you feel over and old. Lord, you know it's a shame,
When I only want for you to pull over and hold me 'til I can't remember my own name.
"I sailed a beaten ship without a camera through the fog
And held the hand of darkness in the mire"- Ryan Adams
"If freedom means doing what I want well
Don't I gotta want something
Won't you tell me that we want something more than just more beer
and my friend if that ain't true
Won't you lie to me tonight?"- Ramshackle Glory
"And you smile
As you ease the gun from my hand
And I'm frozen with joy
Right where I stand."- The Mountain Goats
"And I won't answer my phone
And I'll never leave this bedroom
And I'll avoid you like the plague
Cause I can't give you what you want."- Waxahatchee
"If we aren't dead yet
Then let's not live as ghosts and
If we aren't in jail
Then we can leave the house and
I'll give you all reason to hope in
The spray paint that's all over downtown."- Pat The Bunny
"Here's to the rest of the world
I guess that you deserve something
You worked so hard
At trying to be just like everyone else
Except people like me."- Whiskeytown
"So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky
As someone told me lately
Everyone deserves the chance to fly
And if I'm flying solo
At least I'm flying free
To those who'd ground me
Take a message back from me:
Tell them how I am defying gravity
I'm flying high defying gravity
And soon I'll match them in renown." -Defying Gravity, from Wicked
"Day after day
Give me clouds and rain and gray
Give me pain if that's what's real
It's the price we pay to feel." -Light, from Next to Normal
"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise." -Do You Hear the People Sing, from Les Mis
For your business and your name,
Tell him to go and PIZZZAA himself,
Tell his friends to do the same.
For a man who'd trade his liberty
For a safe and dreamless sleep
Doesn't deserve the both of them and neither shall he keep." Sons of liberty by frank turner
In general, frank turner is a great songwriter, but this might be my favorite peace of text by him.
Also, I recently got into Eminem, his skill is astonishing. I don't really like gangster rap, but he does impress me with his ridiculously well-crafted rhymes and extremely personal lyrics. Obviously, that does not apply to all of his stuff, I like maybe a third, but those that do hit the mark...
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"What they say is "Nothing lasts forever" then what makes love the exception?" Hey Ya!
"I want you, I want you, I want you
On a chair with a dead magazine
In the cave at the tip of the lilly,
In some hallway where love's never been
On a bed where the moon has been sweating,
In a cry filled with footsteps and sand
...
There's a concert hall in Vienna
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews
There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking
They've been sentenced to death by the blues
Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture
With a garland of freshly cut tears?" - Take This Waltz
Since No Children has already been taken I'll go with:
"Raskolnikov felt sick but he couldn't say why
When he saw his face reflected in his victim's twinkling eye
Some things you'll do for money and some you'll do for fun" - Love Love Love
Wearing a necklace made of hearts that you'd dragged through the mud
And I guess I wasn't quite sure what to say to you
But then I saw mine, almost reached out to grab it
Said, darling, you're the only one on earth I want to have it
But now I'm not so sure that was true
After the hell you put it through
But there was no sharp pain this time
Just the ghost of your presence compressing my chest like a vine
An unshakable absence
Like most of my insides crawled out of my mouth and went west
But that's fine
We cast our hearts in plaster
We imagined our bodies were fashioned of stone
But they chipped at the brick and mortar
We found out that we're only layers of skin hiding bones - La Dispute
Underneath the bridge
The tarp has sprung a leak
And the animals i've trapped
Have all become my friends
And i'm living off of grass
And the drippings from my ceiling
It's okay to eat fish
'Cos they don't have any feelings- Nirvana
"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts."
_.•__WE THINK TOO MUCH AND FEEL TOO LITTLE.
(_______. + ‘ ¯ ‘ +.
_‘ + . _ . ‘ ____•._))
My legs are dangling off the edge,
The bottom of the bottle is my only friend,
I think I'll slit my wrists again and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone.
My legs are dangling off the edge,
A stomach full of pills didn't work again,
I'll put a bullet in my head and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone.
[Verse 1: Charlie Scene]
Gone too far and yeah I'm gone again,
It's gone on too long, tell you how it ends,
I'm sitting on the edge with my 2 best friends,
Ones a bottle of pills, ones a bottle of gin,
I'm 20 stories up, yeah I'm up at the top,
I'll polish off this bottle, now it's pushing me off,
Asphalt to me has never looked so soft,
I bet my momma found my letter, now shes calling the cops,
I gotta take this opportunity before I miss it,
'Cause now I hear the sirens and they're off in the distance,
Believe me when I tell you that I've been persistent,
'Cause I'm more scarred, more scarred than my wrist is,
I've been trying too long, with too dull of a knife,
But tonight I made sure that I sharpened it twice,
I never bought a suit before in my life,
But when you go to meet God, you know you wanna look nice.
[Charlie Scene:]
So if I survive, then I'll see you tomorrow, yeah I'll see you tomorrow.
[Chorus: Charlie Scene]
My legs are dangling off the edge,
The bottom of the bottle is my only friend,
I think I'll slit my wrists again and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone,
My legs are dangling off the edge,
A stomach full of pills didn't work again,
I'll put a bullet in my head and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone.
[Verse 2: Johnny 3 Tears]
We hit the sky, there goes the light, no more sun, why's it always night?
When you can't sleep, well, you can't dream,
When you can't dream, well, what's life mean?
We feel a little pity, but don't empathize
The old are getting older, watch a young man die,
A Mother and a Son and someone you know, smile at each other and realize you don't,
You don't know what happened to that kid you raised,
What happened to the Father, who swore he'd stay?
I didn't know 'cause you didn't say,
Now Momma feels guilt, yeah Momma feels pain,
When you were young, you never thought you'd die,
Found that you could but too scared to try,
You looked in the mirror and you said goodbye,
Climb to the roof to see if you could fly.
[Charlie Scene:]
So if I survive, then I'll see you tomorrow, yeah I'll see you tomorrow.
[Chorus: Charlie Scene]
My legs are dangling off the edge,
The bottom of the bottle is my only friend,
I think I'll slit my wrists again and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone,
My legs are dangling off the edge,
A stomach full of pills didn't work again,
I'll put a bullet in my head and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone.
[Ava, Johnny 3 Tear's Daughter:]
I wish that I could fly, way up in the sky,
Like a bird so high,
Oh I might just try,
I wish that I could fly, way up in the sky,
Like a bird so high,
Oh I might just try,
Oh I might just try.
zealots of stockholm [free information]
Heathen
It's a struggle just to keep breathing
Existential asthmatic, puff puff pass addict
Crafmatic, making moves but they sleeping on me
We can kick it like it's FIFA, homie
Nevertheless, I got that fresh like it was Crest
Crying cause I'm stressed. TMJ or TMI, it's a lie that you're living
I never understood the hate on a nigga's preference
When every marriage is a same sex marriage
Same sex everyday, monotonous
Lost god never pray, forgotten us
Lost love, never say just like our parents
Too much power ain't enough power
Brain splattered like I've fallen off a Watchtower
Any anybody can walk into any Denny's
And wait until I'm walking in it with a gun that they 3D printed and I finish it
Kinison said if you gonna miss heaven...
Why do it by two inches?
Old money and new bitches
I keep forgetting
The smell of the warm summer air
I live in a town
Where you can't smell a thing
You watch your feet
For cracks in the pavement
Up above
Aliens hover
Making home movies
For the folks back home
Of all these weird creatures
Who lock up their spirits
Drill holes in themselves
And live for their secrets
They're all uptight
Uptight.. [x7]
I wish that they'd swoop down in a country lane
Late at night when I'm driving
Take me on board their beautiful ship
Show me the world as I'd love to see it
I'd tell all my friends
But they'd never believe
They'd think that I'd finally lost it completely
I'd show them the stars
And the meaning of life
They'd shut me away
But I'd be all right
All right..
I'm just uptight
Uptight.. [x7]
"Now I see. You're jealous. You're jealous of humans aren't you? According to you, humans are supposed to be a lot weaker than homunculi. And yet, even if they get discouraged after being beaten, and even if they get close to falling down after losing their paths, they continue to get up and fight. Everyone around them helps them get back up. And you're envious of that."
~Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist
"Now I see. You're jealous. You're jealous of humans aren't you? According to you, humans are supposed to be a lot weaker than homunculi. And yet, even if they get discouraged after being beaten, and even if they get close to falling down after losing their paths, they continue to get up and fight. Everyone around them helps them get back up. And you're envious of that."
~Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist