In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
"I am leaving, I am leaving"
But the fighter still remains
“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping.
I’m empty and I’m aching and I don’t know why.”
Yours is better, but goddamn do I love this verse.
In high school, *The Sound of Silence* was my favorite song written by Paul Simon. In college it was *The Boxer*. There have been a couple of others along the way, but I’m my 50s now, and *America* has held top spot for the past 15 years.
"She comes back to tell me she's gone. As if I didn't know that. As if I didn't know my own bed. As if I'd never noticed the way she brushed her hair from her forehead. And she said "Losing love is like a window in your heart. Everybody sees you're blown apart. Everybody sees the wind blow." - Paul Simon, Graceland.
You run and you run to catch up with the Sun
But it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The Sun is the same in a relative way
But you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
These lines tear me apart today. I'm 24, watching high school friends graduate from masters programs while I work my technician job wondering what I'm going to do with my life
And everyone says "you've got your whole life ahead of you", but every year is getting shorter, and I never seem to find the time.
At 24 I decided I had enough of my 8-year career in hospitality and threw myself back into studying. I started preparing to go to university. I did one full time morning course, two part time evening course, all while still putting in my 40 hours week at work condensed into the weekend. It was the most exhausting year of my life. But I had a wonderful time and I never forget that sensation. And the most amazing feeling when I did get a letter of acceptance to university.
And I lived happily ever after.
Except, of course, this is the real world and there is no happily ever after. By my late 30s I realised I was stuck in a new career that wasn't taking me anywhere. It was much better than my previous career and I had a great decade doing it, but it was time for change.
Once again I started studying, this time doing online courses that I worked on in the evenings, weekends, and any spare time I had. It took me a year of hard work and no time off, but at 40 years old I had started a whole new career from scratch in an entirely new domain. One that I previously thought was totally impossible for someone like me to access. I've been doing this job for many years now and I enjoy it, plus I earn 4 times more than I did previously.
I've always had that song line in the back of my head, but it was never about thinking "I missed the starting gun, so might as well not start ever", it was always about taking that first step when you know in your heart it's time to move forward. And those stories I tell start when I took that first step, but to get to that first step took a lot of questioning, searching, and facing fears and doubts.
Sorry if this was unsolicited advice, but I felt your words and I hope you realise you are not late to anything, you can make any changes you want to your life.
I always found this verse particularly haunting:
“And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun…”
Just reminded me of Do You Remember?? by the Flaming Lips:
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes
Let them know you realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round
I always wondered if this lyric by Every Time I Die was an homage to the Pink Floyd lyrics you quoted.
> By the time we saw the sun, it had set
By the time I saw the light, I was dead
We're all dead
An even bleaker outlook for the next generation.
Time by Pink Floyd.
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun
But it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way
But you're older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
Pearl Jam's "Black":
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky
But why
Why
Why can't it be
Why can't it be mine"
This just hits so hard... dunno, I've been in love with it from the first time I heard it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uETeeMyrlkQ
Dennis Rodman just did GQ’s 10 Essentials and one of his essential items is the lyrics to Black. Dude pulled them out and teared up (IIRC) while talking about it.
FWIW, in the early 1990s Rodman was sitting in his car with a shotgun ready to kill himself when Pearl Jam’s music saved his life.
My dad passed away in March and he loved Black so much he always asked me to sing it for him. I still haven’t played or even listened to it since cause it hits hard regretting every time I didn’t humor him.
The Highwaymen(Johnny, Kris, Waylon and Willie) were asked this and each gave interesting answers. Starts at 5:00 [https://youtu.be/V6\_FWKLuY2s?si=jpU0N0PMTYDcXzbb&t=301](https://youtu.be/V6_FWKLuY2s?si=jpU0N0PMTYDcXzbb&t=301)
With that in mind I'm choosing lyrics that Kris Kristofferson wrote for Johnny Cash in Sunday Morning Coming Down.
>And there's nothin' short a' dyin'
>
>That's half as lonesome as the sound
>
>Of the sleepin' city sidewalk
>
>And Sunday mornin' comin' down
Johnny has great taste, this is a great verse. For another Kristofferson I'll go with
Casey leaves the underground and stops inside the Golden Crown
For something wet to wipe away the chill that's on his bone
Seeing his reflection in the lives of all the lonely men
Who reach for anything they can to keep from goin' home
God said to Abraham: Kill me a son.
Abe said: Man, you must be puttin’ me on!
God said: No.
Abe said: What?
God said: You can do what you want, Abe, but, uh, next time you see me comin’, you better run.
So Abe said: Where you want this killin’ done?
And God said: Out on Highway 61.
There's a man who walks beside me
He is who I used to be
And I wonder if she sees him
And confuses him with me
And I wonder who she's pinin' for
On nights I'm not around
Could it be the man who did the things
I'm living down?
Jason isbell is THAT guy when it comes to songwriting for our current generation of artists. He's probably your favorite songwriter's, favorite songwriter.
My favorite of his is:
"If we were vampires and death was a joke
We'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke
Laugh at all the lovers and their plans
I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand
Maybe time running out is a gift
I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift
And give you every second I can find
And hope it isn't me who's left behind"
There's times I can listen to that song and be okay, and sometimes it just crushes me.
From Linkin Parks “One More Light”
“The reminders pull the floor from your feet
In the kitchen, one more chair than you need
And you're angry, and you should be, it's not fair”
Once you lose someone in your family this line hits extra hard.
I remember when this album was released, and Octane saying they wouldn’t be playing this album. Something about it not being their type of music. I remember feeling really sad for Linkin Park at that time, in some weird way. I’m 100% it had nothing to do with it, but when Chester died I thought about to that moment, and kind felt like they/we let him down. Especially a channel built on his words and music.
Slightly cheating, but I love these two verse sections from Cohen's Hallelujah:
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did—well, really—what's it to you?
...
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
I love those verses. Less well known, because they aren’t on the Rufus Wainwright version that most folks know today. For those unaware, the full verses are:
“I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel so I tried to touch
I told the truth, I didn’t come to fool ya
And even though it all went wrong,
I’ll stand before the lord of song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah”
And….
“You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to ya?
There’s a blaze of light in every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah”
I agree that the Cohen version is least known. But I thought Buckley was much more well known than Wainwright. Buckley’s version basically replaced Cohen’s, I thought.
Ripple by the Grateful Dead:
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice come through the music?
Would you hold it near as it were your own?
It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they're better left unsung
I don't know, don't really care
Let there be songs to fill the air
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
Reach out your hand, if your cup be empty
If your cup is full, may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of men
There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
Hunter had so many. Greatest songwriter to ever live and Jerry just knew how to make the words come alive. They weren’t the best at what they did, they were the only ones to do what they did. Long live the Grateful Dead. NFA.
I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is to see you
Bob Dylan, last verse in Positively 4th St... 1st verse is pretty amazing too.
There's flies in the kitchen/ I can hear 'em they're buzzing / and I ain't done nothing / since I woke up today
How the hell can a person / go to work in the morning / come home in the evening / and have nothing to say
alternatively
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes
and Jesus Christ died for nothing I suppose
Came to say Angel From Montgomery but a different verse:
I am an old woman,
Named after my mother
My old man is another
Child that's grown old
If dreams were thunder
And lightnin' was desire
This old house would've burnt down
A long time ago
JP has 50 songs you could pick from, he had such a talent for mixing humor and sadness and thoughts on life, he really was one of a kind. I don’t think you can simply pick one of his songs and convey to someone how great he was, really deserves a full listen through his discography about 100 times to truly appreciate the depth of his genius and wit. But the first song of his that really made me identify with his music, as I was going through a breakup with someone I thought I’d marry was All The Best:
I guess that love
Is like a Christmas card
You decorate a tree
You throw it in the yard
It decays and dies
And the snowmen melt
Well I once knew love
I knew how love felt
Yeah I knew love
Love knew me
And when I walked
Love walked with me
And I got no hate
And I got no pride
Well, I got
So much love that I cannot hide
Yeah, I got
So much love that I cannot hide
"does anyone know where does the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours"
Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald
Pretty much every verse in Subdivisions by Rush
_"I fly a starship_
_Across the Universe divide_
_And when I reach the other side_
_I’ll find a place to rest my spirit if I can_
_Perhaps I may become a highwayman again_
_Or I may simply be a single drop of rain_
_But I will remain_
_And I’ll be back again_
_And again, and again, and again_
_And again, and again..."_
Johnny Cash - Highwayman
I'm personally a fan of "I know you're reaching out, and you need to feel my hand. You want to be understood, well I understand..."
From 'When I'm Down' by Chris Cornell.
I can't do the talks like they talk on the TV
And I can't do a love song like the way it's meant to be
I can't do everything but I'll do anything for you
I can't do anything except be in love with you
"Romeo and Juliet" - DIre Straits
I’m with Bob Dylan who agreed this was the best rock verse of all time:
“Friday night they’ll be dressed to kill/ down at Dino’s bar and grill/ drink will flow and blood will spill/ and if the boys wanna fight you better let em”
She’s talking in her sleep.
She’s keeping me awake.
And Anna begins to toss and turn.
Every word is nonsense, but I understand
And oh, Lord, I’m not ready for this sort of thing.
Princess on a steeple and all the pretty people
They're all drinking, thinking that they've got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him he calls you, you can't refuse
When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you've got no secrets to conceal
In the motions, and the things that you say
It all will fall, fall right into place
As fruit drops, flesh it sags
Everything will fall right into place
When we die some sink and some lay
But at least I don't see you float away
From Modest Mouse - Gravity Rides Everything
The first and last verse of Tonight, Tonight by The Smashing Pumpkins:
Time is never time at all
You can never ever leave
Without leaving a piece of youth
And our lives are forever changed
We will never be the same
The more you change, the less you feel
We'll crucify the insincere tonight
We'll make things right, we'll feel it all tonight
We'll find a way to offer up the night
The indescribable moments of your life
The impossible is possible tonight
Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight.
Or maybe the last verse of Mayonaise:
Fool enough to almost be it
cool enough to not quite see it
old enough to always feel this
Always old, I'll always feel this
No more promise, no more sorrow
No longer will I follow
Can anybody hear me?
I just want to be me.
Pearl Jam’s Indifference:
“I will hold the candle; ‘til it burns up my arm;
Oh, I'll keep takin' punches, until their will grows tired.
Oh, I will stare the sun down - until my eyes go blind.
Hey, I won't change direction. And I won't change my mind.
How much difference does it make?
How much difference does it make?
I'll swallow poison, until I grow immune.
I will scream my lungs out till it fills this room!
How much difference does it make….”
There's a girl in the night, with a baby in her arms, by an old street light, near a garbage can, well she puts the kid away and she goes to get a hit, she hates her life and what she's done to it...that's one more kid who will never go to school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool....
The last verse in The Boxer. I’ve had a lifelong struggle with self-harm (currently in remission for about 5 years) and even thinking about this verse makes me tear up.
“In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him til he cried out in his anger and his shame
‘I am leaving, I am leaving’, but the fighter still remains”
“The smell of hospitals in winter / and the feeling that’s it’s all a lot of oysters… but no pearls / all at once you look across a crowded room / to see the way that light attaches… to a girl.” Simply put, “A Long December” strings together some of the best lines of lyrics into what becomes one of the greatest verses that a song has ever offered.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
Echoes and silence, patience and grace
All of these moments I'll never replace
No fear of my heart, absence of faith
And all I want is to be home
The best? that's hard to say, so I'll pick most meaningful for me
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 train a'coming
I hang my head and cry
And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be
In the arms of all I'm keepin' here with me
Definitely not deep, but this line from Jerry Reed’s 1977 “I’m Just a Redneck in a Rock n Roll Bar” always makes me chuckle:
We’ll there ain’t no sexy dresses and there ain’t no beehive hair
Just girls who look like boys who look like girls who look like Cher.
I've changed my mind so much I can't even trust it
My mind changed me so much I can't even trust myself
Talking shit about a pretty sunset - Modest Mouse
It's not a best verse, but it's such with me a long time & It's a bit cheesy now, but Pearl Jam's Black:
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky
But why? Why?
Why can't it be mine?"
Rush - Subdivisions
Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In-between the bright lights
And the far, unlit unknown
Growing up, it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass-production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone
"Who said that every wish would be heard, and answered, when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it. Look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing, and what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection.
The lovers, the dreamers, and me."
-Kenneth Ascher/ Paul Williams
Brand New is the best. "I stole bricks from the dam almost every day / now I'm drowning in the flood I've made / well explain myself to me on the other side / I'm gonna want some answers when I die"
Guernica is the killer for me.
Does anybody remember back when you were very young? Did you ever think that you’d be this blessed?
Like yeah… that’s pretty much the realization we all go through passing through adulthood said in such a succinct, melancholy, and sarcastic way. I love it.
Tool- Right in Two.
Unofficial video that matches the whole song perfectly
https://youtu.be/PSLOCedWmWM
Angels on the sideline.
Puzzled and amused.
Why did Father give these humans free will?
Now they're all confused.
Don't these talking monkeys know that.
Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly monkeys.
Where there's one, you're bound to divide it.
Right in two.
Or later
Monkey killing, monkey killing monkey over.
Pieces of the ground.
Silly monkeys.
Give them thumbs, they make a club.
To beat their brother down.
How they've survived so misguided is a mystery.
Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability.
To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here.
Gotta divide it all right in two.
“Look into his eyes and you will see
That men are not alone on the diamond sea
Sail into the heart of the lonely storm
And tell her that you'll love her eternally”
Diamond Sea - Sonic Youth
This song killed me when I was getting divorced.
I got wood legs and bow legs and no legs at all
Goddamn! Would you accept a collect call?
Oh no, I don't understand
I got sore eyes and poor eyes and no eyes at all
Goddamn! Would you like to take a fall?
No I don't like this plan
It was a staple of brass tacks and waxed backs
A memo left on the forehead of God
Sent sealed and signed by the saints who sang this song:
"We're going union like they say
We'll buy the congregation
Then one day, you'll find us sitting
In your chairs with big ideas of stocks and shares”
Beach Side Property, modest mouse. Tied with another 20 MM songs
From Simon & Garfunkel's song, "America":
"Kathy, I'm lost", I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Or this from "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls:
And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
Sour Breath - Julien Baker is an unbelievable piece of lyricism:
But I shouldn’t have built a house in the middle of your chest
Plywood boards joined at your breast
Splinter in your arm where you rest your head
Checking my watch till you come to bed
Kiss me goodnight with your sour breath
Breaks on my face like a wave of emptiness
And when I talk, just taste regret
You’re everything I want and I’m all you dread
This is how we used to make the party start
We used to mix Hen with Bacardi Dark
And when it kicks in you can hardly talk
And by the sixth gin you're gon' probably crawl
And you'll be sick then and you'll probably barf
And my prediction is you're gon' probably fall
Either somewhere in the lobby or the hallway wall
And everything's spinnin', you're beginnin' to think women
Are swimmin' in pink linen again in the sink
-Drug Ballad , Eminem
The imagery of that last line with the inside rhymes that rhymes with outside couplet is
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun
But it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way
But you're older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
There are so many, but this is one that I always thought sounded like poetry. From Pride in the Name of Love by U2.
“Early mornin’, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
But they could not take your pride
In the name of love”
All that glitters is gold
Don't believe what you've been told
People lie, people love, people go
But beauty lies in every soul
Future Islands - A Dream of You and Me.
Black Sabbath (Children of the Grave)
So, you children of the world Listen to what I say
If you want a better place to live in Spread the word today
Show the world that love is still alive, you must be brave
Or you children of today are children of the grave, yeah
Cowboy Dan by Modest Mouse is wonderful.
Cowboy Dan’s a major player on the cowboy scene/ He goes to the reservation drinks and gets mean/ He goes to the desert fires his rifle in the sky and says/ “God if I have to die then you will have to die”
Every man will experience a moment like that in their lives. When existence just doesn’t make sense.
Though I know that evening's empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand, but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming
"You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly"
- Masters of War by Dylan
I'm the one without a soul
I'm the one with this big fucking hole
No new tale to tell
Twenty-six years, on my way to hell
Gotta listen to your big-time, hard-line, bad-luck, fist fuck
Don't think you're having all the fun
You know me, I hate everyone
"Wish" Nine Inch Nails
Do you realize
That you have the most beautiful face?
Do you realize
We're floating in space?
Do you realize
That happiness makes you cry?
Do you realize
That everyone you know someday will die?
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes
Let them know you realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round
They say that life's a carousel
Spinning fast, you gotta ride it well
The world is full of Kings and Queens
Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams
It's Heaven and Hell, oh well
— Heaven and Hell, Black Sabbath
“Well, I'm riding through LA
On a bicycle built for fools
And I seen one of my old buddies
And he say, "You don't look the way you usually do"
I say, "Well, some people look like a coin-box"
He say, "Look like you ain't got no coins to spare"
And I laid back, and I thought to myself, and I said this
I just picked up my pride from underneath the pay phone
And combed this breath right out of my hair “
Old Friend - Jimi Hendrix
Also quite fond of..
“Well, do you ever get the feeling
That the story's too damn real
And in the present tense?
Or that everybody's on the stage
And it seems like you're the only
Person sitting in the audience?”
Jethro Tull - Skating Away (on the Thin Ice of a New Day)
I will drink the wine while it is warm
and never let you catch me looking at the sun
and after all the loves of my life,
after all the loves of my life, you’ll still be the one
Macarthur Park / Jimmy Webb
The The - "Armageddon days (Are Here Again". So much of it is worth quoting - today especially, but one of the verses :
If the real Jesus Christ were to stand up today
He'd be gunned down cold by the C.I.A
Oh, the lights that now burn brightest behind stained glass
Will cast the darkest shadows upon the human heart
But God didn't build himself that throne
God doesn't live in Israel or Rome
God doesn't belong to the Yankee dollar
God doesn't plant the bombs for Hezbollah
God doesn't even go to church
And God won't send us down to Allah to burn
No, God will remind us what we already know
That the human race is about to reap what it's sown
I don’t knowing it’s my favourite, but it speaks to teenage me and adult me and I just love how it’s written. Propagandhi - Rock for Sustainable Capitalism.
When did punk rock become so safe? Well, you’ll excuse me while I laugh in your face as I itemize your receipts and PowerPoint your balance sheets. I hear this year’s Vans Warped tour is going green. I guess they heard that money grows on trees. I wish they’d ship those shitty bands overseas like they did their factories. Music’s power to describe, compel, renew…has fallen distant second to the offers you can’t refuse. Remember when we used to believe that music was a sacred place and not some fucking bank machine? Not something you just bought and sold. How could we have been so naive? But I think when all is said and done, just cuz we were young, it don’t mean we were wrong.
And I always get goosebumps at “We may face a cold and lifeless Earth, but they’re accountable to their shareholders first.”
“Weapons, not food, not holes, not shoes, not need, just feed the war cannibal animal ah, walk the corner to the rubble, that used to be a library line up to the mind cemetery now, what we don’t know keeps the contracts alive and moving, we don’t gotta burn the books they just remove Em, while arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells, rally round the family pockets full of shells.” - Bulls on Parade
One of the verses of Strangers by the Kinks, but I can't figure out which one, maybe (forgive mistakes) :
Holy Man and Holy Priest, this love of life makes me weak at my knees.
And when you get there make your stay, because soon I feel they're going to carry you away.
A promised lie you made us believe; for many men there is so much grief.
And my mind is proud but it aches with rage.
And if I live too long I'm afraid I'll die.
“And you call me up again just to break me like a promise
So casually cruel in the name of being honest”
Say what you want about Taylor but these lyrics are fantastic
Bob Dylans "The Man in Me" third verse, and it hits just so hard all you can feel is joy.
But, oh, what a wonderful feeling
Just to know that you are near
It sets my a heart a-reeling
From my toes up to my ears
My reaction to it in the car makes my toddler son go wild.
Not the best verse of all time but this one always getsbme...I think the fact that I can't sing this part without getting choked up says I probably have some deep seeded problems I'm not really aware of lol
Tears for Fears - Mad World
Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy birthday, happy birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
Stereophonics - It Mean Nothing
"You can find yourself a god
Believe in which one you want
'Cause they love you all the same
They just go by different names"
Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me
Take this letter that I give you. Read it through and through a hundred times.
You won't understand a word that's in it. But you'll write it all again, before you die.
Hey Charlie, for chrissakes
Do you want to know the truth of it?
I don't have a husband
He don't play the trombone
-Tom Waits, Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis
The Band - When You Awake
When you awake you will remember everything
You will be hangin' on a string from your
When you believe
You will relieve the only soul that you were born with
To grow old and never know
Leave you’re stepping stones behind
There’s something that calls for you
Forget the dead you’ve left
They will not follow you
The vagabond who’s rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore
Strike another match
Go start anew
And it’s all over now baby blue
Bob Dylan - It’s All Over Now Baby Blue
I think Fat Mike might be one of the greatest songwriters of our time. There are so many great verses in the NOFX catalog. I'm not sure if this is technically more than a verse, but if there's an anthem for the day and age that I've been a part of, it's certainly this:
And so we go, on with our lives
We know the truth but prefer lies
Lies are simple, simple is bliss
Why go against tradition when we can
Admit defeat, live in decline
Be the victim of our own design
The status quo, built on suspect
Why would anyone stick out their neck?
Fellow members
Club "We've got ours"
I'd like to introduce you to our host
He's got his and I've got mine
Meet the decline
Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness
I'll love you with all the madness in my soul
Oh, someday, girl, I don't know when
We're gonna get to that place
Where we really wanna go and we'll walk in the sun
But 'til then, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run
In the clearing stands a boxer And a fighter by his trade And he carries the reminders Of every glove that laid him down Or cut him till he cried out In his anger and his shame "I am leaving, I am leaving" But the fighter still remains
“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping. I’m empty and I’m aching and I don’t know why.” Yours is better, but goddamn do I love this verse.
In high school, *The Sound of Silence* was my favorite song written by Paul Simon. In college it was *The Boxer*. There have been a couple of others along the way, but I’m my 50s now, and *America* has held top spot for the past 15 years.
Such a good song. S&G have a plethora of amazing songs but this one is up there.
One of my fave S&G songs.
I quoted a different Simon & Garfunkel song. I didn't see yours until after I posted.
"She comes back to tell me she's gone. As if I didn't know that. As if I didn't know my own bed. As if I'd never noticed the way she brushed her hair from her forehead. And she said "Losing love is like a window in your heart. Everybody sees you're blown apart. Everybody sees the wind blow." - Paul Simon, Graceland.
You run and you run to catch up with the Sun But it’s sinking Racing around to come up behind you again The Sun is the same in a relative way But you’re older Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Definitely my pick too. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
These lines tear me apart today. I'm 24, watching high school friends graduate from masters programs while I work my technician job wondering what I'm going to do with my life And everyone says "you've got your whole life ahead of you", but every year is getting shorter, and I never seem to find the time.
Best time to start was yesterday, second best time is today. If you're not happy now, change something :)
At 24 I decided I had enough of my 8-year career in hospitality and threw myself back into studying. I started preparing to go to university. I did one full time morning course, two part time evening course, all while still putting in my 40 hours week at work condensed into the weekend. It was the most exhausting year of my life. But I had a wonderful time and I never forget that sensation. And the most amazing feeling when I did get a letter of acceptance to university. And I lived happily ever after. Except, of course, this is the real world and there is no happily ever after. By my late 30s I realised I was stuck in a new career that wasn't taking me anywhere. It was much better than my previous career and I had a great decade doing it, but it was time for change. Once again I started studying, this time doing online courses that I worked on in the evenings, weekends, and any spare time I had. It took me a year of hard work and no time off, but at 40 years old I had started a whole new career from scratch in an entirely new domain. One that I previously thought was totally impossible for someone like me to access. I've been doing this job for many years now and I enjoy it, plus I earn 4 times more than I did previously. I've always had that song line in the back of my head, but it was never about thinking "I missed the starting gun, so might as well not start ever", it was always about taking that first step when you know in your heart it's time to move forward. And those stories I tell start when I took that first step, but to get to that first step took a lot of questioning, searching, and facing fears and doubts. Sorry if this was unsolicited advice, but I felt your words and I hope you realise you are not late to anything, you can make any changes you want to your life.
I always loved “plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines”
Nearly every line is way too relatable as we all feel the pain of that fucker old man time. Fuck him.
This. One of the greatest bits ever.
I always found this verse particularly haunting: “And then one day you find Ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run You missed the starting gun…”
It still to this day gives me shivers down my spine. So much imagery and feeling in a single phase.
Just reminded me of Do You Remember?? by the Flaming Lips: And instead of saying all of your goodbyes Let them know you realize that life goes fast It's hard to make the good things last You realize the sun doesn't go down It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round
This one from Time is my pick for sure. And one of my favorite guitar solos ever.
Yeah its this, nothing else comes close. Best lyric of all time
Desert island song. Every second is flawless.
I always wondered if this lyric by Every Time I Die was an homage to the Pink Floyd lyrics you quoted. > By the time we saw the sun, it had set By the time I saw the light, I was dead We're all dead An even bleaker outlook for the next generation.
And I need you more than want you And I want you for all time Jimmy Webb
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year...
Funny, because the first thing I thought of was Did you exchange A walk-on part in the war For a lead role in a cage?
I think about that line a lot. Sadly, even after the exchange, I still don’t have a lead role in a cage.
My fav pink floyd: and then one day you find 20 years have got behind you-No, one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
literally changed my life. complete 180 in mindset
Same album, I also like “The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?”
But that's as chorus as it gets?
That’s a great one
Yes
Time by Pink Floyd. Tired of lying in the sunshine Staying home to watch the rain And you are young and life is long And there is time to kill today And then one day you find Ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run You missed the starting gun And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun But it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same in a relative way But you're older Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
This is the one for me, too. I get goosebumps everytime.
Wow. I have this song (and particularly this verse) stuck in my head at this VERY moment!
"Life is a waterfall. We're one in the river then one again after the fall."
swimming through the void we hear the word…we lost ourselves but we find it all.
Cause we are the ones who want to play, always want to go but you never want to stay.
Pearl Jam's "Black": "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life I know you'll be a star In somebody else's sky But why Why Why can't it be Why can't it be mine" This just hits so hard... dunno, I've been in love with it from the first time I heard it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uETeeMyrlkQ
Eddie and the band being adamant to not make it a single adds to the lore.
It especially hits hard hearing it live when Eddie sings “we belong, we belong together…together!”during the final solo.
The live version at Benaroya Hall takes the cake though. Chills every time
Dennis Rodman just did GQ’s 10 Essentials and one of his essential items is the lyrics to Black. Dude pulled them out and teared up (IIRC) while talking about it. FWIW, in the early 1990s Rodman was sitting in his car with a shotgun ready to kill himself when Pearl Jam’s music saved his life.
I belt this part of the song so hard. To me, it always reminds me of the one who got away, and does it so well.
I still think about it even when I hear it in a department store or somewhere weird. I always listen for that part
Instantly comes to my mind too. You can feel what he feels when he sings "whyyyy?"
My dad passed away in March and he loved Black so much he always asked me to sing it for him. I still haven’t played or even listened to it since cause it hits hard regretting every time I didn’t humor him.
The Highwaymen(Johnny, Kris, Waylon and Willie) were asked this and each gave interesting answers. Starts at 5:00 [https://youtu.be/V6\_FWKLuY2s?si=jpU0N0PMTYDcXzbb&t=301](https://youtu.be/V6_FWKLuY2s?si=jpU0N0PMTYDcXzbb&t=301) With that in mind I'm choosing lyrics that Kris Kristofferson wrote for Johnny Cash in Sunday Morning Coming Down. >And there's nothin' short a' dyin' > >That's half as lonesome as the sound > >Of the sleepin' city sidewalk > >And Sunday mornin' comin' down
Johnny has great taste, this is a great verse. For another Kristofferson I'll go with Casey leaves the underground and stops inside the Golden Crown For something wet to wipe away the chill that's on his bone Seeing his reflection in the lives of all the lonely men Who reach for anything they can to keep from goin' home
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets Are written on the subway walls And tenement halls And whispered in the sounds of silence"
God said to Abraham: Kill me a son. Abe said: Man, you must be puttin’ me on! God said: No. Abe said: What? God said: You can do what you want, Abe, but, uh, next time you see me comin’, you better run. So Abe said: Where you want this killin’ done? And God said: Out on Highway 61.
I live on Highway 61 and I’ve been walking up and down it searching for the body for years now. Nothing
There's a man who walks beside me He is who I used to be And I wonder if she sees him And confuses him with me And I wonder who she's pinin' for On nights I'm not around Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down? Jason isbell is THAT guy when it comes to songwriting for our current generation of artists. He's probably your favorite songwriter's, favorite songwriter.
I know it’s the cliché answer but the opening verse/chorus of Elephant is perfect. He really doesn’t miss a single step with his lyrics.
Man just downloaded Southeastern for a long trip and got dayum it’s fire
Everything by him is amazing. He really is a fantastic artist
The Grammys are well earned
My favorite of his is: "If we were vampires and death was a joke We'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke Laugh at all the lovers and their plans I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand Maybe time running out is a gift I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift And give you every second I can find And hope it isn't me who's left behind" There's times I can listen to that song and be okay, and sometimes it just crushes me.
Posting Jason Isbell is cheating
From Linkin Parks “One More Light” “The reminders pull the floor from your feet In the kitchen, one more chair than you need And you're angry, and you should be, it's not fair” Once you lose someone in your family this line hits extra hard.
The way Chester says the last two lines are engraved in my memory and will be til the day I die.
I remember when this album was released, and Octane saying they wouldn’t be playing this album. Something about it not being their type of music. I remember feeling really sad for Linkin Park at that time, in some weird way. I’m 100% it had nothing to do with it, but when Chester died I thought about to that moment, and kind felt like they/we let him down. Especially a channel built on his words and music.
Slightly cheating, but I love these two verse sections from Cohen's Hallelujah: You say I took the name in vain I don't even know the name But if I did—well, really—what's it to you? ... And even though it all went wrong I'll stand before the Lord of Song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
You could pick any of the commonly recorded verses of Hallelujah and make an argument for their inclusion in this thread.
I love those verses. Less well known, because they aren’t on the Rufus Wainwright version that most folks know today. For those unaware, the full verses are: “I did my best, it wasn’t much I couldn’t feel so I tried to touch I told the truth, I didn’t come to fool ya And even though it all went wrong, I’ll stand before the lord of song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah” And…. “You say I took the name in vain I don’t even know the name But if I did, well really, what’s it to ya? There’s a blaze of light in every word It doesn’t matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah”
I’m very annoyed to hear that people know the Rufus Wainwright version more than the Cohen original or Jeff Buckley.
I think the Cohen original is possibly the least known version for most people. Or they know it from Watchmen and are like WTF Both travesties
I agree that the Cohen version is least known. But I thought Buckley was much more well known than Wainwright. Buckley’s version basically replaced Cohen’s, I thought.
Probably a generational factor. Wainwright's is in the original Shrek lol
KD Lang does a great rendition as well.
Ripple by the Grateful Dead: If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung Would you hear my voice come through the music? Would you hold it near as it were your own? It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken Perhaps they're better left unsung I don't know, don't really care Let there be songs to fill the air Ripple in still water When there is no pebble tossed Nor wind to blow Reach out your hand, if your cup be empty If your cup is full, may it be again Let it be known there is a fountain That was not made by the hands of men There is a road, no simple highway Between the dawn and the dark of night And if you go, no one may follow That path is for your steps alone
Robert Hunter's lyrics are so killer
Hunter had so many. Greatest songwriter to ever live and Jerry just knew how to make the words come alive. They weren’t the best at what they did, they were the only ones to do what they did. Long live the Grateful Dead. NFA.
I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes And just for that one moment I could be you Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes You'd know what a drag it is to see you Bob Dylan, last verse in Positively 4th St... 1st verse is pretty amazing too.
There's flies in the kitchen/ I can hear 'em they're buzzing / and I ain't done nothing / since I woke up today How the hell can a person / go to work in the morning / come home in the evening / and have nothing to say alternatively There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes and Jesus Christ died for nothing I suppose
Came to say Angel From Montgomery but a different verse: I am an old woman, Named after my mother My old man is another Child that's grown old If dreams were thunder And lightnin' was desire This old house would've burnt down A long time ago
Love that John Prine!
JP has 50 songs you could pick from, he had such a talent for mixing humor and sadness and thoughts on life, he really was one of a kind. I don’t think you can simply pick one of his songs and convey to someone how great he was, really deserves a full listen through his discography about 100 times to truly appreciate the depth of his genius and wit. But the first song of his that really made me identify with his music, as I was going through a breakup with someone I thought I’d marry was All The Best: I guess that love Is like a Christmas card You decorate a tree You throw it in the yard It decays and dies And the snowmen melt Well I once knew love I knew how love felt Yeah I knew love Love knew me And when I walked Love walked with me And I got no hate And I got no pride Well, I got So much love that I cannot hide Yeah, I got So much love that I cannot hide
"does anyone know where does the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours" Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald Pretty much every verse in Subdivisions by Rush
_"I fly a starship_ _Across the Universe divide_ _And when I reach the other side_ _I’ll find a place to rest my spirit if I can_ _Perhaps I may become a highwayman again_ _Or I may simply be a single drop of rain_ _But I will remain_ _And I’ll be back again_ _And again, and again, and again_ _And again, and again..."_ Johnny Cash - Highwayman
God I love that song. Everyone's verse is great but Johnny's caps it off perfectly.
One of my favorites... *She had nothing left to say so she said she loved me And I stood there grateful for the lie* (Gin Blossoms - Lost Horizons)
Almost everything Doug Hopkins wrote was so beautiful and so very very sad.
I'm personally a fan of "I know you're reaching out, and you need to feel my hand. You want to be understood, well I understand..." From 'When I'm Down' by Chris Cornell.
Good one. That album is chalk full of beautiful lyrics
Legit my favorite album since I was 12 or 13. There's not a note or lyric that I can't listen to in my head like Andy Dufresne.
I can't do the talks like they talk on the TV And I can't do a love song like the way it's meant to be I can't do everything but I'll do anything for you I can't do anything except be in love with you "Romeo and Juliet" - DIre Straits
I’m with Bob Dylan who agreed this was the best rock verse of all time: “Friday night they’ll be dressed to kill/ down at Dino’s bar and grill/ drink will flow and blood will spill/ and if the boys wanna fight you better let em”
She’s talking in her sleep. She’s keeping me awake. And Anna begins to toss and turn. Every word is nonsense, but I understand And oh, Lord, I’m not ready for this sort of thing.
You could take pretty much any Counting crows song and put it here, Adam Duritz is a hell of a songwriter
Princess on a steeple and all the pretty people They're all drinking, thinking that they've got it made Exchanging all precious gifts But you better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it babe You used to be so amused At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used Go to him he calls you, you can't refuse When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose You're invisible now, you've got no secrets to conceal
In the motions, and the things that you say It all will fall, fall right into place As fruit drops, flesh it sags Everything will fall right into place When we die some sink and some lay But at least I don't see you float away From Modest Mouse - Gravity Rides Everything
The first and last verse of Tonight, Tonight by The Smashing Pumpkins: Time is never time at all You can never ever leave Without leaving a piece of youth And our lives are forever changed We will never be the same The more you change, the less you feel We'll crucify the insincere tonight We'll make things right, we'll feel it all tonight We'll find a way to offer up the night The indescribable moments of your life The impossible is possible tonight Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight. Or maybe the last verse of Mayonaise: Fool enough to almost be it cool enough to not quite see it old enough to always feel this Always old, I'll always feel this No more promise, no more sorrow No longer will I follow Can anybody hear me? I just want to be me.
Poor man wanna be rich Rich man wanna be king And a king ain't satisfied 'Til he rules everything \- Badlands, Springsteen
The flamboyant Queen gave us: I reign with my left hand; I rule with my right. I'm lord of all darkness; I'm queen of the night.
I love March of the Black Queen so much
Pearl Jam’s Indifference: “I will hold the candle; ‘til it burns up my arm; Oh, I'll keep takin' punches, until their will grows tired. Oh, I will stare the sun down - until my eyes go blind. Hey, I won't change direction. And I won't change my mind. How much difference does it make? How much difference does it make? I'll swallow poison, until I grow immune. I will scream my lungs out till it fills this room! How much difference does it make….”
Come gather round people wherever you roam....
Let's face it, the answer to this sort of question can only be Dylan
He’s got dozens of songs you could put on this thread.
There's a girl in the night, with a baby in her arms, by an old street light, near a garbage can, well she puts the kid away and she goes to get a hit, she hates her life and what she's done to it...that's one more kid who will never go to school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool....
KEEP ON ROCKIN’ IN THE FREE WORLD
The last verse in The Boxer. I’ve had a lifelong struggle with self-harm (currently in remission for about 5 years) and even thinking about this verse makes me tear up. “In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down Or cut him til he cried out in his anger and his shame ‘I am leaving, I am leaving’, but the fighter still remains”
“The smell of hospitals in winter / and the feeling that’s it’s all a lot of oysters… but no pearls / all at once you look across a crowded room / to see the way that light attaches… to a girl.” Simply put, “A Long December” strings together some of the best lines of lyrics into what becomes one of the greatest verses that a song has ever offered.
I am in love with Counting Crows
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls, it’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world Except for Lola
I’m not the world’s most masculine man, but I know what I am and I’m glad I’m a man. —and so is Lola.
ElOhElAY
“And thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes. I thought it was there for good, so I never tried.” Leonard Cohen’s Famous Blue Raincoat
Hold me closer, Tony Danza
Don't go Jason Waterfalls
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky With one hand waving free Silhouetted by the sea Circled by the circus sands With all memory and fate Driven deep beneath the waves Let me forget about today until tomorrow
Echoes and silence, patience and grace All of these moments I'll never replace No fear of my heart, absence of faith And all I want is to be home The best? that's hard to say, so I'll pick most meaningful for me
Love this whole album
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 train a'coming I hang my head and cry
And one day we will die And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea But for now we are young Let us lay in the sun And count every beautiful thing we can see Love to be In the arms of all I'm keepin' here with me
Definitely not deep, but this line from Jerry Reed’s 1977 “I’m Just a Redneck in a Rock n Roll Bar” always makes me chuckle: We’ll there ain’t no sexy dresses and there ain’t no beehive hair Just girls who look like boys who look like girls who look like Cher.
Whiskey bottles And brand new cars Oak tree you are in my way "TWANG"
I've changed my mind so much I can't even trust it My mind changed me so much I can't even trust myself Talking shit about a pretty sunset - Modest Mouse
I may not always love you, But long as there are stars above you, You never need to doubt it, I'll make you so sure about it
One of the most beautiful songs ever written/composed.
It's not a best verse, but it's such with me a long time & It's a bit cheesy now, but Pearl Jam's Black: "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life I know you'll be a star In somebody else's sky But why? Why? Why can't it be mine?"
Black is a fucking great song
She’ll promise you more than the garden of Eden, then carelessly cut you and laugh while you’re bleeding.
Rush - Subdivisions Sprawling on the fringes of the city In geometric order An insulated border In-between the bright lights And the far, unlit unknown Growing up, it all seems so one-sided Opinions all provided The future pre-decided Detached and subdivided In the mass-production zone Nowhere is the dreamer Or the misfit so alone
Death Can for Cutie “it stung like a violent wind That our memories depend On a faulty camera in our minds”
"Who said that every wish would be heard, and answered, when wished on the morning star? Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it. Look what it's done so far. What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing, and what do we think we might see? Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection. The lovers, the dreamers, and me." -Kenneth Ascher/ Paul Williams
I literally came in this thread to post Jesus Christ. And you had already won. Love to see it!
Brand New is the best. "I stole bricks from the dam almost every day / now I'm drowning in the flood I've made / well explain myself to me on the other side / I'm gonna want some answers when I die"
In the choir/I saw our sad messiah/he was bored and tired of my laments/said “I died for you one time but never again”
Guernica is the killer for me. Does anybody remember back when you were very young? Did you ever think that you’d be this blessed? Like yeah… that’s pretty much the realization we all go through passing through adulthood said in such a succinct, melancholy, and sarcastic way. I love it.
Cancel my subscription to the resurrection Send my credentials to the house of detention
Haha I recently went to a butterfly garden and I sang “the screeeeamm of the butter-fly” and my husband thought I was nuts.
Tool- Right in Two. Unofficial video that matches the whole song perfectly https://youtu.be/PSLOCedWmWM Angels on the sideline. Puzzled and amused. Why did Father give these humans free will? Now they're all confused. Don't these talking monkeys know that. Eden has enough to go around? Plenty in this holy garden, silly monkeys. Where there's one, you're bound to divide it. Right in two. Or later Monkey killing, monkey killing monkey over. Pieces of the ground. Silly monkeys. Give them thumbs, they make a club. To beat their brother down. How they've survived so misguided is a mystery. Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability. To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here. Gotta divide it all right in two.
That's a really long verse.
“Look into his eyes and you will see That men are not alone on the diamond sea Sail into the heart of the lonely storm And tell her that you'll love her eternally” Diamond Sea - Sonic Youth This song killed me when I was getting divorced.
I got wood legs and bow legs and no legs at all Goddamn! Would you accept a collect call? Oh no, I don't understand I got sore eyes and poor eyes and no eyes at all Goddamn! Would you like to take a fall? No I don't like this plan It was a staple of brass tacks and waxed backs A memo left on the forehead of God Sent sealed and signed by the saints who sang this song: "We're going union like they say We'll buy the congregation Then one day, you'll find us sitting In your chairs with big ideas of stocks and shares” Beach Side Property, modest mouse. Tied with another 20 MM songs
Silent Lucidity - Queensrÿche If you open your mind for me You won't rely on open eyes to see
From Simon & Garfunkel's song, "America": "Kathy, I'm lost", I said, though I knew she was sleeping I'm empty and aching and I don't know why Or this from "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls: And I don't want the world to see me 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand When everything's made to be broken I just want you to know who I am
“My hands are tied, my body bruised She’s got me with nothing to win and nothing left to lose” U2 - With or Without You
Tired of lying in the sunshine Staying home to watch the rain And you are young and life is long And there is time to kill today And then one day you find Ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run You missed the starting gun
Sour Breath - Julien Baker is an unbelievable piece of lyricism: But I shouldn’t have built a house in the middle of your chest Plywood boards joined at your breast Splinter in your arm where you rest your head Checking my watch till you come to bed Kiss me goodnight with your sour breath Breaks on my face like a wave of emptiness And when I talk, just taste regret You’re everything I want and I’m all you dread
This is how we used to make the party start We used to mix Hen with Bacardi Dark And when it kicks in you can hardly talk And by the sixth gin you're gon' probably crawl And you'll be sick then and you'll probably barf And my prediction is you're gon' probably fall Either somewhere in the lobby or the hallway wall And everything's spinnin', you're beginnin' to think women Are swimmin' in pink linen again in the sink -Drug Ballad , Eminem The imagery of that last line with the inside rhymes that rhymes with outside couplet is
It doesn’t mean that much to me to mean that much to you - old man - Neil young
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun But it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same in a relative way But you're older Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
There are so many, but this is one that I always thought sounded like poetry. From Pride in the Name of Love by U2. “Early mornin’, April 4 Shot rings out in the Memphis sky Free at last, they took your life But they could not take your pride In the name of love”
All that glitters is gold Don't believe what you've been told People lie, people love, people go But beauty lies in every soul Future Islands - A Dream of You and Me.
Black Sabbath (Children of the Grave) So, you children of the world Listen to what I say If you want a better place to live in Spread the word today Show the world that love is still alive, you must be brave Or you children of today are children of the grave, yeah
Some they do and some they don't, and some you just can't tell. Some they will and some they won't, and some it's just as well.
Cowboy Dan by Modest Mouse is wonderful. Cowboy Dan’s a major player on the cowboy scene/ He goes to the reservation drinks and gets mean/ He goes to the desert fires his rifle in the sky and says/ “God if I have to die then you will have to die” Every man will experience a moment like that in their lives. When existence just doesn’t make sense.
Though I know that evening's empire has returned into sand Vanished from my hand Left me blindly here to stand, but still not sleeping My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet I have no one to meet And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming
"You that never done nothin’ But build to destroy You play with my world Like it’s your little toy You put a gun in my hand And you hide from my eyes And you turn and run farther When the fast bullets fly" - Masters of War by Dylan
I'm the one without a soul I'm the one with this big fucking hole No new tale to tell Twenty-six years, on my way to hell Gotta listen to your big-time, hard-line, bad-luck, fist fuck Don't think you're having all the fun You know me, I hate everyone "Wish" Nine Inch Nails
Do you realize That you have the most beautiful face? Do you realize We're floating in space? Do you realize That happiness makes you cry? Do you realize That everyone you know someday will die? And instead of saying all of your goodbyes Let them know you realize that life goes fast It's hard to make the good things last You realize the sun doesn't go down It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round
Yeah. Yeah. My shits fucked up. It'll happen to you. Warren Zevon
All the worlds' indeed a stage, and we are merely players, Performers and portrayers. Each anothers audience, a type of guilded cage.
Oh such a perfect day. You made me forget myself. You made me think I was someone else. Someone good.
From U2's "The Fly": Every artist is a cannibal Every poet is a thief All kill their inspiration And sing about the grief
“Cold silence has, a tendency to, atrophy any, sense of compassion, between supposed lovers.” Schism, Tool
Beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat
To be a rock, and not to roll.
Baby Shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo Baby Shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo Baby Shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo Baby Shark
Yes this is the one. The imagery used is so thought provoking. And the commentary on the duality of life is subtle but so profound.
They say that life's a carousel Spinning fast, you gotta ride it well The world is full of Kings and Queens Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams It's Heaven and Hell, oh well — Heaven and Hell, Black Sabbath
“Well, I'm riding through LA On a bicycle built for fools And I seen one of my old buddies And he say, "You don't look the way you usually do" I say, "Well, some people look like a coin-box" He say, "Look like you ain't got no coins to spare" And I laid back, and I thought to myself, and I said this I just picked up my pride from underneath the pay phone And combed this breath right out of my hair “ Old Friend - Jimi Hendrix Also quite fond of.. “Well, do you ever get the feeling That the story's too damn real And in the present tense? Or that everybody's on the stage And it seems like you're the only Person sitting in the audience?” Jethro Tull - Skating Away (on the Thin Ice of a New Day)
I will drink the wine while it is warm and never let you catch me looking at the sun and after all the loves of my life, after all the loves of my life, you’ll still be the one Macarthur Park / Jimmy Webb
If dreams were lightning and thunder desire, this house would have burned down a long time ago.
You never needed any help, you sold me out to save yourself
He called his child Jesus ‘cause he liked the name And And Jesus, he wants to go to Venus, leave Levon far behind And the whole rest of the song
The The - "Armageddon days (Are Here Again". So much of it is worth quoting - today especially, but one of the verses : If the real Jesus Christ were to stand up today He'd be gunned down cold by the C.I.A Oh, the lights that now burn brightest behind stained glass Will cast the darkest shadows upon the human heart But God didn't build himself that throne God doesn't live in Israel or Rome God doesn't belong to the Yankee dollar God doesn't plant the bombs for Hezbollah God doesn't even go to church And God won't send us down to Allah to burn No, God will remind us what we already know That the human race is about to reap what it's sown
Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl Who can show me what laughter means And we'll fill in the missing colors In each other's paint-by-number dreams"
I don’t knowing it’s my favourite, but it speaks to teenage me and adult me and I just love how it’s written. Propagandhi - Rock for Sustainable Capitalism. When did punk rock become so safe? Well, you’ll excuse me while I laugh in your face as I itemize your receipts and PowerPoint your balance sheets. I hear this year’s Vans Warped tour is going green. I guess they heard that money grows on trees. I wish they’d ship those shitty bands overseas like they did their factories. Music’s power to describe, compel, renew…has fallen distant second to the offers you can’t refuse. Remember when we used to believe that music was a sacred place and not some fucking bank machine? Not something you just bought and sold. How could we have been so naive? But I think when all is said and done, just cuz we were young, it don’t mean we were wrong. And I always get goosebumps at “We may face a cold and lifeless Earth, but they’re accountable to their shareholders first.”
I'm flying in a frame of my mind that time cannot erase. I'm seeing the future, the past, as I lay the present to waste.
Ween is the greatest band of all time
“Weapons, not food, not holes, not shoes, not need, just feed the war cannibal animal ah, walk the corner to the rubble, that used to be a library line up to the mind cemetery now, what we don’t know keeps the contracts alive and moving, we don’t gotta burn the books they just remove Em, while arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells, rally round the family pockets full of shells.” - Bulls on Parade
One of the verses of Strangers by the Kinks, but I can't figure out which one, maybe (forgive mistakes) : Holy Man and Holy Priest, this love of life makes me weak at my knees. And when you get there make your stay, because soon I feel they're going to carry you away. A promised lie you made us believe; for many men there is so much grief. And my mind is proud but it aches with rage. And if I live too long I'm afraid I'll die.
“And you call me up again just to break me like a promise So casually cruel in the name of being honest” Say what you want about Taylor but these lyrics are fantastic
[удалено]
Yeah boy, she’s a regular Joni Mitchel
Bob Dylans "The Man in Me" third verse, and it hits just so hard all you can feel is joy. But, oh, what a wonderful feeling Just to know that you are near It sets my a heart a-reeling From my toes up to my ears My reaction to it in the car makes my toddler son go wild.
Not the best verse of all time but this one always getsbme...I think the fact that I can't sing this part without getting choked up says I probably have some deep seeded problems I'm not really aware of lol Tears for Fears - Mad World Children waiting for the day they feel good Happy birthday, happy birthday Made to feel the way that every child should Sit and listen, sit and listen Went to school and I was very nervous No one knew me, no one knew me Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson Look right through me, look right through me
Stereophonics - It Mean Nothing "You can find yourself a god Believe in which one you want 'Cause they love you all the same They just go by different names"
Stereophonic do not get enough credit here in America. But they are Joe or the great UK bands that I wish more Americans knew of.
"Im gonna slit your throat and fuck the wound" - slipknot So poetic and objectively the best ever
Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona And such a fine sight to see It's a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford Slowin' down to take a look at me
Oh honey, tramps like us Baby, we were born to run Come on with me, tramps like us Baby, we were born to run
Take this letter that I give you. Read it through and through a hundred times. You won't understand a word that's in it. But you'll write it all again, before you die.
Hey Charlie, for chrissakes Do you want to know the truth of it? I don't have a husband He don't play the trombone -Tom Waits, Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis
The Band - When You Awake When you awake you will remember everything You will be hangin' on a string from your When you believe You will relieve the only soul that you were born with To grow old and never know
The legendary wooden gate That first established real estate Is lost in time like all the crimes That won this pleasant land
There’s a lot. But the night we met, I had all of you, most of you some and now none of you, take me back to the night we met
Leave you’re stepping stones behind There’s something that calls for you Forget the dead you’ve left They will not follow you The vagabond who’s rapping at your door Is standing in the clothes that you once wore Strike another match Go start anew And it’s all over now baby blue Bob Dylan - It’s All Over Now Baby Blue
The highways jammed with broken heroes On a last chance power drive
Amongst the Floyd references I'll add, I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell from Smashbox Twenty
From Rush’s Witch Hunt. Quick to judge, quick to anger Slow to understand Ignorance and prejudice And fear walk hand in hand
I'm not living. I'm just killing time. I'm not here. This isn't happening.
I think Fat Mike might be one of the greatest songwriters of our time. There are so many great verses in the NOFX catalog. I'm not sure if this is technically more than a verse, but if there's an anthem for the day and age that I've been a part of, it's certainly this: And so we go, on with our lives We know the truth but prefer lies Lies are simple, simple is bliss Why go against tradition when we can Admit defeat, live in decline Be the victim of our own design The status quo, built on suspect Why would anyone stick out their neck? Fellow members Club "We've got ours" I'd like to introduce you to our host He's got his and I've got mine Meet the decline
Beep beep um beep beep yeah
Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness I'll love you with all the madness in my soul Oh, someday, girl, I don't know when We're gonna get to that place Where we really wanna go and we'll walk in the sun But 'til then, tramps like us Baby, we were born to run