Smokey Robinson played with words as well as anyone:
‘Outside I’m masquerading
Inside my hope is fading
I’m just a clown since you put me down
My smile is my make up
I wear since my break-up with you …’
Smokey Robinson, Tracks of my Tears
And Townes van Zandt wrote the finest damn set of lyrics ever composed by someone-who-is-not-Leonard-Cohen:
‘Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath’s as hard as kerosene
You weren’t your mama’s only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams’
Dial me a Valentine
She’s a smooth operator
It’s all so calculated
She’s got a calculator
She’s my soft touch typewriter
And I’m her great dictator
White lies, alibis, say anything but say that it’s true.
Now we could sit like lovers, staring in each other’s eyes,
but the magic of the moment might become too much for you.
You’re upstairs with the boyfriend while I’m left here to listen.
I hear you calling his name, I hear the stutter of ignition.
Ooh, I know what you’re doin’.
I know where you’ve been.
I know where, but I don’t care,
'cause there’s no such thing as an original sin.
“I tripped the light fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kind of seasick
The crowd called out for more.”
or
“She wandered through the garden fence
and said, ‘I’ve brought at great expense
a potion guaranteed to bring
relief from all your suffering.’
And though I said, ‘You don’t exist,’
she grasped me firmly by the wrist
and threw me down upon my back
and strapped me to her torture rack”
or
“Outside the gates of Cerdes sits the two-pronged unicorn
who plays at relaxation time a rhinestone flugelhorn
whilst mermaids lace carnations into wreaths for ailing whales
and Neptune dances hornpipes while Salome sheds her veils.”
or
“When you knew that I had given all the kindness that I had
did you think that it might be time to stop?
When you knew that I was through
that I’d done all I could do
did you really have to milk the final drop?”
Anything by Warren Zevon.
Especially “The French Inhaler”
“When the lights came on at two, I caught a glimpse of you, and your face looked like something death brought with him in a suitcase.”
“I thought you’d be an actress
I thought you’d be a star
So I drank up all the money
Yes I drank up all the money
With these phonies in this Hollywood bar
With these friends of mine in this Hollywood bar…”
My favorite Warren Zevon lyrics (couldn’t choose just one verse, so here’s the entire lyric): Mr. Bad Example
I started as an altar boy, working at the church
Learning all my holy moves, doing some research
Which led me to a cash box, labeled “Children’s Fund”
I’d leave the change, and tuck the bills inside my cummerbund
Al Stewart has written some of the most beautiful lyrics ever. He paints pictures with his phrases. A lot of his songs are based on people from history and that makes them even more poignant.
For example, his song “Old Admirals” is based on the life of Admiral John Fisher, one of the most important people in British Naval History. It contains a verse that sums up what it is like to be old and overlooked:
And I had no clue who Hanno the Navigator was until I heard Stewart’s song about him.
From the Wiki article:
From the song:
I could go on, but you would be better served by listening to his music yourself.
With/without
And who’ll deny it’s what the fighting’s all about?
-and-
You were caught in the crossfire
of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
The sky fell over cheap Korean monster-movie scenery
And spilled into the mezzanine of the crushed-capsule hotel
Between the Disney abattoir and the chemical refinery
I knew I was in trouble but I thought I was in Hell
Will Sheff from Okkervil River is a fantastic lyricist:
The heart wants a trail away from “alone,”
so the heart turns a sale into a well-worn milestone
towards hard-won soft furniture, fought-for fast food,
defended end table that holds paperbacks and back U.S. News.
~ The War Criminal Rises and Speaks
You would probably die before you shot up 9 miles high
Your eyes dilated as light played upon the sight
Of TVC16 as it sings you goodnight
Relaxed as hell and locked up in cell 45
~Plus Ones
And I think that I know the bitter dismay
of a lover who brought
fresh bouquets every day
when she turned him away
to remember some knave
who once gave
just one rose, one day,
years ago.
~ A Stone
Red is my favorite color - red like your mother’s eyes, after a while of crying about how you don’t love her.
~Red
“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 notice
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”
from the same song:
“The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar” (it helps to know what a National guitar is, though)
“And I’d give up forever to touch you.”
-Goo Goo Dolls, “Iris” The whole song is great, but the last two lines are awesome:
I have squandered my resistance for a pocket full of mumbles such are promises
All lies and jests,
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
-Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”
Sad, simple but great:
“I’ll close my eyes, then I won’t see
The love you don’t feel when you’re holding me
Morning will come, and I’ll do what’s right
Just give me till then to give up this fight.”
-Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”
Irony done right
Through tear-filled eyes I watch as you ride by, oh yeah
A chauffeur, a chauffeur at the wheel dressed up so fine
Well I’ll never, I’ll never love another
Oh my heart, all my dreams, yeah they’re with you
In that long black limousine
Second, clarkstar, if your comment is intended as some sort of insult, insults are not permitted in this forum. If it’s intended as threadshitting, then it’s not relevant to this thread. If you don’t like the lyrics people are citing, that’s your point of view; underhand cracks like what you posted are inappropriate.
-Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”