I’ll raise you a
The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’
That’s what I said.
The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand
Or so I have read
We’ve been doing this longer than you’ve been alive.
Propelled by some mysterious drive.
And they still let me do it as weird as that seems.
And I do it most nights and then again in my dreams.
Infinite hallways in giant hotels.
Dressing room looks 'bout as good as it smells.
The concrete broke your fall…
Why Not Smile - REM
So far, no David Bowie openings. Let me fix that.
[This ain’t rock’n’roll, this is genocide]
As they pulled you out of the oxygen tent
You asked for the latest party
With your silicone hump and your ten inch stump
Dressed like a priest you was
Todd Browning’s freak you was
“Diamond Dogs”
Pushing through the market square
So many mothers sighing
News had just come over
*We had five years left to cry in *
News guy wept and told us
*Earth was really dying *
Cried so much his face was wet
Then I knew he was not lying
“Five Years”
I’m an alligator
I’m a mama-papa comin’ for you
I’m the space invader
I’ll be a rock ‘n’ rollin’ bitch for you
Keep your mouth shut
You’re squawking like a pink monkey bird
And I’m bustin’ up my brains for the words
“Moonage Daydream”
Let’s put our heads together and start a new country up
Our father’s father’s father tried, erased the parts he didn’t like
Let’s try to fill it in, bank the quarry river, swim
We knee-skinned it you and me, we knee-skinned that river red
R.E.M., “Cuyahoga”
If you can play on the fiddle
How’s about a British jig and reel?
Speaking King’s English in quotation
As railhead towns feel the steel mills rust
Water froze
In the generation
Clear as winter ice
This is your paradise
The Clash, “Straight to Hell”
Lightning never strikes anymore but I can’t make it rain
Because it would only lightning again
Roky Erickson, “You Don’t Love Me Yet”
Roky Erickson - “Creature with the Atom Brain”
“Creature with the atom brain
Creature with the atom brain
Why is he acting so strange
Do you think he’s one of them?”
Nothing Compares 2 U (by Prince, performed by Sinead O’Connor)
It’s been seven hours and fourteen days
Since you’ve been away
Murder ballads tend to have the best opening and closing lines.
To bookend the closing lines post I made:
Kate McCannon - Colter Wall
Well the raven is a wicked bird
His wings are black as sin
And he floats outside my prison window
Mocking those within
Another recent murder ballad
Rosemary - Sierra Ferrell
way back on the mountain in our deeply forest hill
where me and my true love, we said “i do”
but nothing lasts forever in today’s world though it seems
when there’s so much evil, evil
This band’s music is fertile ground for such a thread.
‘No light fantastic ever crosses my mind
That meditation stuff can make you go blind
Just crank that volume to the point of pain
Why waste good music on a brain.’
There’s plenty more where that came from.
All God’s children need travelling shoes
Drive your problems from here
All good people read good books
Now your conscience is clear
I hear you talk girl
Now your conscience is clear
In the morning when I wipe my brow
Wipe the miles away
I like to think I can be so willed
And never do what you say
I’ll never hear you
And never do what you say
—Twist in My Sobriety, Tanita Tikaram
That didn’t sound quite right.
It’s been seven hours and fifteen days
Since you took your love away
All aboard Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay
Crazy, but that’s how it goes
Millions of people living as foes
Maybe it’s not too late
To learn how to love
And forget how to hate
-Ozzy
Looks like it’s time for more Dylan:
My love she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence
She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful
Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire
___Love Minus Zero / No Limit
The guilty undertaker sighs
The lonesome organ grinder cries
The silver saxophones say I should refuse you
The cracked bells and washed-out horns
Blow into my face with scorn
But it’s not that way
I wasn’t born to lose you
___I Want You
Your breath is sweet
Your eyes are like two jewels in the sky
Your back is straight your hair is smooth
On the pillow where you lie
But I don’t sense affection
No gratitude or love
Your loyalty is not to me
But to the stars above
___One More Cup of Coffee
This one really paints a picture…
With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down
Helpless people on subway trains
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them
He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town
Oh no, they say, he’s got to go
Go go Godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla, yeah
Godzilla - Blue Öyster Cult
“JEREMIAH . . . WAS A BULLFROG!”
— sung out with 100% sincerity
Ah the man she wanted all her life was hanging by a thread
"I never even knew how much I wanted you, " she said.
His muscles they were numbered and his style was obsolete.
“O baby, I have come too late.” She knelt beside his feet.
"I’ll never see a face like yours in years of men to come
I’ll never see such arms again in wrestling or in love."
And all his virtues burning in the smoky Holocaust
She took unto herself most everything her lover lost.
Leonad Cohen, “Death of a Ladies’ Man”
Are you sure?
Maybe you just liked drinking his wine.
Well, he always had some mighty fine wine.
Patti Smith (sorta) did a cover of Gloria by Van Morrison; she kept the chorus lyrics, but changed the rest. I always liked her opening line:
Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine
Sittin here wishin on the cement floor
Wishin that I had something you wore
“Cactus” by Pixies