Part of Your World by Ashman and Menken.
No love for the dry cleaner from Dayton, Ohio?
…he also was a baritone who sang while hanging clothes.
He practiced scales while pressing tails and sang at local shows.
His friends and neighbors praised the voice that poured out from his throat.
They said that he should use his gift instead of cleaning coats.
Cliched, perhaps, using a Hallmark Card rhyme scheme? Maybe. But taken together with the gorgeous rendition of “Oh Night Divine” by the baritone in the background, the lyrics that Harry Chapin uses to tell the story of Mr. Martin Tanner of Dayton, Ohio, are, IMHO, indeed beautiful. Thanks for reminding me about Chapin.
Gives me chills (although in fairness, it’s not just the lyrics - that guitar in the background is haunting)…
*And when the world began
I’d been asleep forever
I opened one eye
'Twas then it was I
Got the whim to wake
And when the weight of space
Rolled like it was an ocean
One became one
Father and son
Watched the sunrise break*
-Pete Townshend’s wonderful tribute, “God Speaks of Marty Robbins”
Solo acoustic 2005
“Many people are happy
And many people are sad
Some people have many things
That others can only wish they had”
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
~“This One’s For the Children” by the New Kids on the Block. This one has been a favorite song of mine just because of the strong message it sends, telling the listener to reach out to those around and try to be a rock for those cared about.
“525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?”
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
~“Seasons of Love” from the musical, Rent. I know, I know, “We spit on love songs!” But, I don’t believe this song sings of a romance between a man and a woman insomuch as it sings about the strength in loving life itself.
As much as I like NMH, you are wrong. Leonard Cohen is the be all, end all.
“Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army counters”
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
Indeed.
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
Good choice!
How about “Hear You Me” by Jimmy Eat World?
There’s no one in town I know
You gave us some place to go.
I never said thank you for that.
I thought I might get one more chance.
This song is so beautifully haunting and spectacularly in a medium-slow 3/4 time that I’m going to have to go find a girl to dance with right now.
(I don’t think it’s a love song or song about a snogging partner’s general rockingness. I always heard it as a friend who died, but maybe it’s a partner.)
Angels never know it’s time
To close the book and gracefully decline,
The song has found a tale.
My, what a jealous pool is she.
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
“Ripples” - Genesis
Aimee Mann’s got a bunch, but here are two that I like. They both resonate with me deeply, and they feel right when you sing them.
“Humpty Dumpty”, about a drug addict
*Say you were split, you were split in fragments
And none of the pieces would talk to you
Wouldn’t you want to be who you had been?
Well, baby I want that too.
. . .
Get out while you can
Baby, I’m pouring quicksand
And sinking is all I had planned
So better just go.*
“High on Sunday 51”, concerning the addict’s relationship with her SO
We have crossed the Rubicon
Our ship awash, our rudder gone
The rats have fled but I’m hanging on
Let me try, baby, try.
Another one with personal resonance. I was in a relationship that I was determined to save single-handedly once, before I ever heard this song. The first time I heard it, I was crying by the end.
Alanis Morissette, “That Particular Time”:
*I’ve always wanted for you what you’ve wanted for yourself
and yet I wanted to save us high water or hell
and I kept on ignoring the ambivalence you felt
and in the meantime I lost myself
in the meantime I lost myself
I’m sorry I lost myself
. . .
at that particular moment I knew staying with you meant deserting me
that particular month was harder than you’d believe but I still left
at that particular time*
Next up is a Dido song, “Do You Have a Little Time?” Another very personal song, as I have often felt myself on the periphery of the people I care about.
If you should stop for a while
You will find me standing by
Over here at the side of your life
I’d like to hold you still, remind you of all you’ve missed
If you have a little time
If you have a little time that is
Then we have some in Spanish, with non-professional personal translations:
Gloria Estefan, “No Llores” (Don’t Cry)
Si vas a entregar el alma
If you’re going to hand over your soul
Hazlo libre de temores
Do it without any worries
Si del amar mucho se aprende
If there’s much to be learned from love
Se aprende más de los errores
You’ll learn more from the mistakes
La Quinta Estación, “Para No Decirte Adíos” (So I Didn’t Have To Tell You Goodbye)
Y no
Me dejaste otra opción
And you didn’t leave me another choice
Que arrancarme la piel y aguantar el dolor
Than to rip it off my skin and bear the pain
Y no
Escuché al corazón
And I didn’t listen to my heart
Sí, borré de mi memoria el recuerdo de tu voz
Yeah, I erased the memory of your voice from my mind
Me marché sin hacer ruido para no decirte adiós.
I took off without making a sound so I didn’t have to tell you goodbye
I know I have others, but it’s late and I’m starting to feel that Ativan I just took, so this is it for today.
I was going to post this if no one else did.
What, no Joni Mitchell yet?
Peridots and periwinkle blue medallions
Gilded galleons spilled across the ocean floor
Treasure somewhere in the sea and he will find where
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
I met you on a midway at a fair last year
And you stood out like a ruby in a black man’s ear
You were playing on the horses, you were playing on the guitar strings
You were playing like a devil wearing wings, wearing wings
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
Out of the fire like Catholic saints
Comes Scarlett and her deep complaint
Mimicking tenderness she sees
In sentimental movies
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
Out in the wind in crinolines
Chasing the ghosts of Gable and Flynn
Through stand-in boys and extra players
Magnolias hopeful in her auburn hair
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
Edith in his bed
A plane in the rain is humming
The wires in the walls are humming
Some song some mysterious song
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
I’m porous with travel fever
But you know I’m so glad to be on my own
Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger
Can set up trembling in my bones
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
I’ll ply the fire with kindling now
I’ll pull the blankets up to my chin
I’ll lock the vagrant winter out and
I’ll fold my wandering in
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
*
And Janis Ian/Kye Fleming:
The seagulls of summer have flown
The sailors have wintered their boats
Come sit by the fire
And tell me your secrets
Love isn’t kept easily
[ LYRICS DELETED ]
All quotations are partial lyrics only, not complete songs.
I’ve always loved this song.
This next song, I only enjoy the first part of it. I actually don’t really like the rest of it, but I always thought these beginning lyrics were great:
And to prove that I haven’t managed to kill that hopeless romantic streak inside of me, this Regina Spektor song’s lyrics always struck a chord with me:
I also would like to echo that Eva Cassidy rendition of Fields of Gold. That’s a beautiful cover of a beautiful song.
Big and Rich -** Live This Life**:
Met a kid on a bridge last night
Contemplating freedom
Met a kid on a bridge last night
And he said
I’m tired of this maddening life
And I’m ready to go meet Jesus
And I said he’s a friend of mine
Met him just last night
And it’s alright
Yeah it’s all right
Yeah
For some reason, I always get some dust in my eye at “And it’s all right”, I just picture the singer reaching a hand out to this kid in need.
Another Big and Rich song - 8th of November
He said goodbye to his mamma
As he left South Dakota
To fight for the Red, White, and Blue.
He was nineteen and green with a new M-16
Just doing what he had to do.
First off, this song is just a sad song, about an American Airborne brigade being ambushed in Vietnam, and one of the survivors of that battle sitting in a bar remembering it. Also, since I joined the military recently, this verse strikes a particular chord with me.
I remember the day after I graduated from Basic, spending my last day of Town Pass with my family, and looking down at my service blues that I was wearing and thinking “What the hell have I gotten myself into!?” as the commitment I had made finally sunk in with me.
O beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
…
slight hijack: can anyone translate this Linda Ronstadt song for me? (thanks)–this is first verse:
Lo siento mi vida
Yo sé que ya terminó
Corazones quebrados
Esperanza que se fué
Cuando brille la luna
Yo sé que no dormirás
Ni tú
Ni yo
Ya ha llegado el triste pesar
Debemos siempre separarnos
And from Snow Patrol, one of my all-time favorite songs: “Chasing Cars”
I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own
I sing in a gospel quartet, and I can think of tons of songs that would fit this thread. One example: when we do our monthly sing a a nursing home, we allow time in the middle for requests. Someone always requests How Great Thou Art. I like those lyrics.
Another song that comes to mind is The Bold Fenian Men:
RR
It was Happy Dance Time when I stumbled across The Waters of March
Afloat, adrift,
A flight, a wing,
A hawk, a quail,
The promise of spring
And the riverbank talks
of the waters of March,
It’s the promise of life
It’s the joy in your heart
Cat Stevens
The Wind
I listen to my words but
They fall far below
I let my music take me where
My heart wants to go
I love that stanza- it makes me want to be a musician and be able to coomunicate through music.
Wow! I have been grooving to this song for several weeks now, to the point where, well… look at my location. It has a remarkable ability to lift my spirits, no matter how many times I hear it. Can’t believe you actually selected it. And I love One Headlight, too. Do you want to be my music buddy?
I guess I’ll contribute to the thread with an Elliott Smith song, King’s Crossing. It’s always struck me as the most beautifully desperate song I’ve heard, with images that are all over the place, yet relentlessly push forward a certain grim fatalism that reaches out just a little as well.