If life is a rock and the radio rolls me...

[Rico]

It’s poetry in motion
she turned her tender eyes to me
as deep as any ocean
as sweet as any harmony
mm - but she blinded me with science
“she blinded me with science!”
and failed me in biology

When I’m dancing close to her
“blinding me with science - science!”
I can smell the chemicals
“blinding me with science - science!”
“Science!”
“Science!”

mm - but it’s poetry in motion
and when she turned her eyes to me
as deep as any ocean
as sweet as any harmony
mm - but she blinded me with science
and failed me in geometry

When she’s dancing next to me
“blinding me with science - science!”
“Science!”
I can hear machinery
“blinding me with science - science!”
“Science!”

It’s poetry in motion
and now she’s making love to me
the spheres’re in commotion
the elements in harmony
she blinded me with science
“she blinded me with science!”
and hit me with technology

“good heavens Miss Sakamoto - you’re beautiful!”
I -
I don’t believe it!
there she goes again!
she’s tidied up, and I can’t find anything!
all my tubes and wires
and careful notes
and antiquated notions

but! - it’s poetry in motion
and when she turned her eyes to me
as deep as any ocean
as sweet as any harmony
mm - but she blinded me with science
“she blinded me with - with science!”
she blinded me with -

[happyheathen]

The incredible dreck
of Barbra and Neil:
It used to be so natural…
To talk about forever
But used-to-bes don’t count anymore
They just lay on the floor
Till we sweep them away

…And you don’t bring me flowers anymore

[Rico]

Wishin’ on a fallin’ star
Watchin’ for the early train
Sorry boy, but I’ve been hit by purple rain
Aw, come on Joe, you can always change your name
Thanks alot son, just the same
Ventura Highway, in the sunshine
Where the days are longer
The nights are stronger than moonshine!
you’re gonna go, I know

[happyheathen]

Oh the games people play now,
Every night and every day, now
Never meaning what they say, now
Never saying what they mean.

And they while away the hours,
In their ivory towers
'Til they’re covered up in flowers
In the back of a black limosine…

p.s. giddyup, giddyup 409…

[Rico]

(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

Oh Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

Come take my hand
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

You got me rockin’ and a rollin’
Rockin’ and a reelin’

Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

I went to a dance, looking for romance,
Saw Barbara Ann so I thought I’d take a chance

On Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

Come take my hand
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

You got me rockin’ and a rollin’
Rockin’ and a reelin’

Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

Oh Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

Come take my hand
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

You got me rockin’ and a rollin’
Rockin’ and a reelin’

Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

Tried Betty Lou
Tried Peggy, too
Tried Mary Lou
But I knew they wouldn’t do

Like Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

Come take my hand
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

You got me rockin’ and a rollin’
Rockin’ and a reelin’

Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

You got me rockin’ and a rollin’
Rockin’ and a reelin’

Barbara Ann
(Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann)

[happyheathen]

“Barbara Ann”?! you really want Beach Boys fluff?

Take this:

There’s a world where I can go and tell my secrets toooo
In my room, in my room
In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears
In my room, in my room

Do my dreaming and my scheming
Lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing
Laugh at yesterday

Now it’s dark and I’m alone
But I won’t be afraid
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room

[Rico]

She’s got stars in her eyes & knobs on her knees now
Her crazy grass shift really sways in the breeze now
Ridin’ down a-heavy you’re lyin’ in the sand
She’s the hippest surfer girl in the land

And she’s my Honolulu Lulu
She’s my Honolulu Lulu
Queen of the surfer girls

Well, she handles all the big ones every year in Macaja
& all the surfers know her from Ricaud to Baja
When the beach is quiet & you know we’re out of luck
We pray for surf while making out in our truck

(chorus)

Just me & Honolulu Lulu
Me & Honolulu Lulu
Queen of the surfer girls

Yeah she’s my Honolulu Lulu
Yeah my Honolulu Lulu
Queen of the surfer girls

I tell you once upon a time, you know she got a little bold
When she tried to hook a spinner but her wax wouldn’t hold
Over the falls ‘stead of hangin’ 10
But then she’d paddle out & try it again

But she’s my Honolulu Lulu
She’s my Honolulu Lulu
Queen of the surfer girls

[happyheathen]

try this:

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again…

[happyheathen]

Down by the river,
I shot my baby…

"There’s a story told of a very gentle boy
And the girl who wore his ring
Through the wintery snow
The world they knew was warm
For their hearts were full of spring

As the days grew old
And the nights passed into time
And the weeks and years took wind
Genle boy, tender girl
Their love remained still young
For their hearts were full of spring

Then one day they died
And their graves were side by side
On a hill where robins sing
And they say violets
Grow there the whole year round
For their hearts were full of spring"

[LindyHopper]

I can’t believe no one’s posted this one yet…

Take a letter, Maria
Address it to my wife
Say I won’t be comin’ home
Gonna start a new life

[Hometownboy]

Apologies for the delay. Yesterday turned out to be theDAY OF THE TAXES with much wearing of sackcloth and ashes and rending of the hair. So much so that we’re waving the white flag and calling in the pros. So today, it’s time to march back into the fray.

With a small question: Are we limiting ourselves to rock era music? Sure there are no clean breaks, as pop and other forms, even big band stuff, fercryin’outloud, showed up in the late 50s and even into the 60s (Jimmy Dorsey’s “So Rare,” Mambo King Perez Prado’s “Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White” and “Patricia,” Horst Jankowski’s “Walk in the Black Forest,” Hugo Winterhalter’s “Canadian Sunset.” etc.)

BUT I’ve always felt that Billboard’s definition of When Rock Began as 1955 with “Heartbreak Hotel” works just fine, so I’ll pick a nit with Patti Page’s 1953 “Doggie in the Window.”
On the other hand, if if we want to delve into the pre-rock 50s, there are a large number of VERY strange lyrics available.

So a longwinded way of setting up

They say don’t go on Wolverton Mountain
If you’re looking for a wife
'Cause Clifton Clowers has a pretty young daughter
He’s mighty handy with a gun and a knife.

Her tender lips are sweeter than honey
And Wolverton mountain protects her there
The bears and birds tell Clifton Clowers
If a stranger should wander there.

All of my dreams are on Wolverton Mountain
I want his daughter for my wife
I’ll take my chances and climb that mountain
Though Clifton Clowers, he may take my life.

Her tender lips are sweeter than honey
And Wolverton mountain protects her there
The bears and birds tell Clifton Clowers
If a stranger should wander there.

I’m going up on Wolverton Mountain
It’s too lonesome down here below
It’s just not right to hide his daughter
From the one who loves her so

Her tender lips are sweeter than honey
And Wolverton mountain protects her there
The bears and birds tell Clifton Clowers
If a stranger should wander there

But I don’t care about Clifton Clowers
I’m gonna climb up on his mountain
I’m gonna take the girl I love
I don’t care about Clifton Clowers
I’m a gonna climb up on that mountain
And I’ll get the one I Iove
I don’t care about Clifton Clowers,
I’m gonna find the one I love,
I don’t care about Clifton Clowers
I’m gonna find the one I love (repeat and fade)

[Godfrey_Daniels]

You want vile? You want disgusting? OK, you asked for it…

JOHNNY ANGEL

Johnny angel how I love him
He’s got something that I can’t resist
But he doesn’t even know that I exist
Johnny angel how I want him
How I tingle when he passes by
Everytime he says hello
My heart begins to fly

I’m in heaven I get carried away
I dream of him and me
And how it’s gonna be
Other fellas call me up for a date
But I just sit and wait
I’d rather concentrate on

Johnny angel 'cause I love him
And I pray that someday he’ll love me
And together we will see
How lovely heaven will be

I’m in heaven I get carried away
I dream of him and me
And how it’s gonna be
Other fellas call me up for a date
But I just sit and wait
I’d rather concentrate on

Johnny angel 'cause I love him
And I pray that someday he’ll love me
And together we will see
How lovely heaven will be

Johnny angel you’re an angel to me
Johnny angel you’re an angel to me…

[Hometownboy]

Actually, the song itself isn’t bad, it’s the attitude that’s a bit fawning, though not a match for the sick one exhibitied by “Johnny Get Angry” quoted by happyheathen on page 4.

No, for vile, you want to remember (or forget) one of the most shameful chapters in Billboard Top 100 history, the time in 1961 when not only did the bane of teenagers and rockers everywhere, Lawerence Welk not only got on the charts, but made NUMBER ONE. (Oh, the humanity!) with a relentlessly recursive little tune called Calcutta.

Story follows:
Original melody titled “Tivoli Melody,” by Heino Gaze
English words by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance

A middle/near eastern tune in name only–more accurately, it’s actually a piece of Euro-kitsch. A light and bouncy melody, originally written to evoke the amusement park atmosphere of the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. It kicked around Germany for a few years as “Take Me Dreaming,” then “Nicolette,” until Werner Muller recorded it as “Kalkutta Liegt am Ganges.” Randy Wood, president of Dot, played record to his leading band leader, Lawrence Welk, who Americanized it as “Calcutta.” Welk’s cover featured the novelty of a harpsichord playing the melody, but the song was relegated to a B-side behind the quaint folk song, “My Grandfather’s Clock.” Distributed to radio stations, the dusty old folk tune was ignored in favor of “Calcutta.” The melody caught on and the single shot to #1 in mid-February 1961.
Yes, there were lyrics (though just a few) and I’ve been racking my brain and googling like crazy for them. A fragment…

…very plain to see
that the music of Calcutta
…to me

No, it’s no good. I can’t return that which I spent decades trying to erase. Perhaps other, more demented minds can help. (shudder!)

[Rico]

**Hometownboy, ** all the sources I could find say that Calcutta was an instrumental only. No words available.

Now, on to the dreck…

I’m comin’ home, I’ve done my time
Now I’ve got to know what is and isn’t mine
If you received my letter telling you I’d soon be free
Then you’ll know just what to do
If you still want me
If you still want me
Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree
It’s been three long years
Do ya still want me?
If I don’t see a ribbon round the old oak tree
I’ll stay on the bus
Forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree

Bus driver, please look for me
'cause I couldn’t bear to see what I might see
I’m really still in prison
And my love, she holds the key
A simple yellow ribbon’s what I need to set me free
I wrote and told her please

Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree
It’s been three long years
Do ya still want me?
If I don’t see a ribbon round the old oak tree
I’ll stay on the bus
Forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree

Now the whole damned bus is cheerin’
And I can’t believe I see
A hundred yellow ribbons round the old oak tree

I’m comin’ home

:eek:

[happyheathen]

See strangecurrencies’s entry , PAGE 2!!! :rolleyes:

now for rules:

Fenris (now MIA, the wuss) suggested ‘no novelties’ sadly, I must concurr.

the 1955 and newer rule is acceptable (though I will miss “Teddy Bear’s Picnic”, “Dry Bones” HOWEVER, “We’ll Meet Again” stays by virtue of having been used in Dr. Strangelove etc.

The usual rule is ‘sold over a million at retail’. How say ye?

And are album cuts (never released as singles) OK?

without further ado…
In May of nineteen forty-one the war had just begun
The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns
The Bismark was the fastest ship that ever sailed the sea
On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees

Out of the cold and foggy night came the British ship The Hood
And ever’ British seaman he knew and understood
They had to sink the Bismark the terror of the sea
Stop those guns as big as steers and those shells as big as trees
We’ll find that German battleship that’s mak’in’ such a fuss
We gotta sink the Bismark ‘cause the world depends on us
Hit the deck a-runnin’ boys and spin those guns around
When we find the Bismark we gotta cut 'er down…

[Hometownboy]

Rico , yeah the sources listed it as an instrumental because 90% it was, but there were a few lines worth of lyrics (maybe 6 or 8, no more.) It was a fashion with some of the instrumentals of the time to have maybe one chorus that was sung. I used to have to play that song from time to time at a small middle of the road station in the late 60s and sadly can confirm from personal experience.

happyheathen Post-55 sounds good to me, even though the Teddy Bears’ Picnic is rooted deep in my childhood…Not sure how many of the above quoted are million-sellers, but I will try to keep mine in the Top 40 at least. To that end, if we’re gonna do war songs…

In 1814 we took a little trip
along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a’comin.
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin’ on
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We looked down the river and we seen the British come.
And there must have been a hundred of’em beatin’ on the drum.
They stepped so high and they made the bugles ring.
We stood by our cotton bales and didn’t say a thing.

We fired our guns and the British kept a’comin.
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
on down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn’t fire our muskets til we looked 'em in the eyes
We held our fire til we seen their faces well.
then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave 'em…well.

We fired our guns and the British kept a’comin.
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
on down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn’t go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn’t catch 'em
on down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We fired our cannon til the barrel melted down.
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind
and when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.

We fired our guns and the British kept a’comin.
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
on down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
and they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn’t go.
they ran so fast that the hounds couldn’t catch 'em
on down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Hup 2, 3, 4. Sound off 3, 4… Hup 2, 3, 4.
Sound off 3, 4… Hup 2, 3, 4

[Hometownboy]

Oops, forgot to respond to the album cuts question. I guess I’d go with ones that actually got airplay as opposed to those that were just included on albums with hits. I mean, there were some true stinker tracks added for filler even on good albums.
And novelties… Yeah, much as I ache to quote Nervous Norris’ Transfusion, I expect that it, and the entire Chipmonk ouevre would be out of bounds. For that matter, some might say that both of the tunes immedately above skirt noveltydom, but I think it could be argued otherwise.

Speaking of arguments, the lovely and talented Mrs. Hometownboy is due back within minutes, and will want her computer back. (Much of my stuff is done from my work machine or in odd bits of time at home when she is not and I can use hers. I really, really hate to post and run. Apologies…

When you left me all alone at the record hop
Told me you were going out for a soda pop
You were gone for quite a while
Half an hour or more
You came back and man oh man,
This is waht I saw

Lipstick on your collar told a tale on you
Lipstick on your collar said you were untrue
Bet your bottom dollar you and I are through
Lipstick on your collar told a tale on you

You said it belonged to me made me stop and think
Then I noticed yours was red, mine was baby pink
Who walked in but Mary Jane lipstick all a mess
Were you smoochin’ my best friend guess the answers yes
Lipstick on your collar told a tale on you
Lipstick on your collar said you were untrue
Bet your bottom dollar you and I are through
Lipstick on your collar told a tale on you

[happyheathen]

Witch ? Fenris ?, other poseurs ?
Dum,dum,DUM,dum,dedum, dum, dum…

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, honey,
don’t you know that I love you?
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, baby,
don’t you know that I’ll always be true?

Oh, won’t you come with me
and take my hand?

Oh, won’t you come with me
and walk this land?

Please take my hand!
"Pretty eyes of mid-summer’s morn,
They call her _____ "

fill in the blank, :wally

[Rico]

There he sits with a pen and a yellow pad
What a handsome lad, that’s my boy
B-R-L-F-Q spells mom and dad
Well that ain’t too bad, 'cause that’s my boy
Well you can have your TV and your nightclubs
And you can have your drive-in - picture show
I’ll stay here with my little man near
We’ll listen to the radio
Biding my time watching Scotty grow

Making a castle out of building blocks
And a cardboard box, that’s my boy
Micky Mouse says it’s thirteen o’clock
Well that’s quite a shock, but that’s my boy
In four short years I’ve gone from rags to riches
And what I did before that, I don’t know
So let it rain on my windowpane
I got my own rainbow
And we’re sitting here shining, watching Scotty grow

Riding on daddy’s shoulders up to bed
Old sleepyhead, that’s my boy
Gotta have a drink of water and a story read
A teddybear named Fred, that’s my boy
What’s that you say momma, come on and keep your feet warm?
Well save me a place I’ll be there in a minute or so
I think I’ll stay right here
And say a little prayer before I go
Me and God are watching Scotty grow
Me and God are watching Scotty grow

[happyheathen]

Ummm :rolleyes:

Hometownboy, page 4, a couple of posts BEFORE my post chiding people to NOT post duplicates…
Sha, na, nada, nada,
Live for today…