I know we’ve had a couple of old threads about memorable lyrics, but I hope there will be some interest in this one, concerning song lyrics that have moved you.
Here’s Elton John in ‘Border Song’ with:
“there’s a man over there - what’s his colour? I don’t care! He’s my brother; let us live in peace.”
Love is a temple
Love is a higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can’t be holding on
To what you’ve got
When all you’ve got is hurt
U2 - One
Who hasn’t been there?
Yeah, sure I’ll admit there are times when I miss you
Especially like now when I need someone to hold me
(Cowboy Junkies - Sun Comes Up It’s Tuesday Morning)
Not just the lyric, but the vulnerable way Margo Timmins delivers these lines.
mmm
The Hollies
If I’m laden at all
I’m laden with sadness
That everyone’s heart
Isn’t filled with the gladness
Of love for one another
Fade to Gray by Visage (1980):
Feel the rain like an English summer
Hear the notes from a distant song
Stepping out from a back shop poster
Wishing life wouldn’t be so long
“Peace on earth” was all it said.
Now the crickets are singing
The vesper bells ringing
The cat’s curled asleep in his chair
I’ll go down to Bill’s Bar
I can make it that far
And I’ll see if my friends are still there
Yes, and here’s to the few
Who forgive what you do
And the fewer who don’t even care
And the night comes on
It’s very calm
I want to cross over, I want to go home
But she says, “Go back, go back to the World”
(Leonard Cohen)
Ani DiFranco wrote a song called “School Night”, about a woman saying goodbye to the person she loves, in order to stay with the one she loved first; the whole song is lyrically brilliant, but one verse on particular sticks out to me:
What kind of scale compares the weight of two beauties,
the gravity of duties,
and the groundspeed of joy?
What kind of gauge
can quantify elation,
what kind of equation could I possibly employ?
Still by Alanis Morissette
I think it was written for the movie Dogma, in which AM has a cameo as God. At least that’s where I first heard it.
God is telling us all the atrocities they witnesses humans perpetrating and loves us anyway.
I see you averting your glances
I see you cheering on the war
I see you ignoring your children
And I love you still, and I love you still
I see you altering history
I see you abusing the land
I see you, your selective amnesia
And I love you still, and I love you still
The Jeweller, Pearls Before Swine
The coins are often very old by the time they reach the jeweller.
With his hand and ashes he will try the best he can.
He knows that he can only shine them, cannot repair the scratches.
He knows that even new coins have scars so he just smiles.
He knows the use of ashes.
He worships god with ashes.
“Beetin’ Knockin’ Ringin’,” Jimmy Dawkins
Beetin’ knockin’ and ringin’. Yes, it hurt my heart, too.
Hear you beetin’ knockin’ and ringin’. Yes, it broke my heart in two.
Yes, I’m gonna take you back, baby. In your heart, I hope you can forgive me, too.
I’ll see that and raise you this:
If you don’t believe I’m gone
Watch this train that I crawl on
Lord, I’m 900 miles away from home
900 miles away from
My wife and my child
Lord, I wish I was 900 more
According to the friend who showed me this video, some people sing the last line “And they wish I was 900 more.”
The verse is sung at 16:19.
Among lines about drunken stupors and throwing up in the toilet are these heart breaking gems:
If only you were lonely
If only you was lonely too
If only you was lonely
I’d go home with you
…
And I’ll be dreamin’ of that smile
Without a care in the world
…
I walked out of the kitchen, I was tired as hell
Another day’s here, oh well
Somewhere there’s a smile with my name on it
The Replacements: “If Only You Were Lonely”
Someone I know confided in me that before he discovered his wife’s affair, the lyrics that moved him the most were from a Billy Joel song, You’re my home:
If I travel all my life
And I never get to stop and settle down
Long as I have you by my side
There’s a roof above and good walls all around
You’re my castle, you’re my cabin
And my instant pleasure dome
I need you in my house
'Cause you’re my home
You’re my home
After discovering the affair, that changed to lyrics from a Blind Faith song, Can’t find my way home:
But I can’t find my way home.
But I can’t find my way home.
But I can’t find my way home.
But I can’t find my way home.
Still I can’t find my way home,
And I ain’t done nothing wrong,
But I can’t find my way home.
When things go wrong with you, it hurts me too…
Originally by Tampa Red (1940),
based on an earlier song
Recorded by many artists including:
Elmore James
The Grateful Dead
Junior Wells
Bob Dylan
Eric Clapton
The Eagles - Ol’ '55
This song just fills me up with the hope of a new day. I know how hokey that sounds!
Well my time went so quickly
I went lickety-splickly out to my old '55
As I drove away slowly, feeling so holy
God knows, I was feeling alive
And now the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck, freeway cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade, and I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I’d stayed a little longer
Lord, let me tell you that the feeling’s getting stronger
It kind of reminds me of Randy Newman’s “God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)” though his is undoubdtedly much more cynical:
I burn down your cities-how blind you must be
I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me
That’s why I love mankind
You really need me
That’s why I love mankind
They took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged all the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em
Don’t it always seem to go
You don’t know what you’ve got 'til it’s gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.
-Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi”
Credit where credit is due. Written by Tom Waits. The Eagles did a nice cover.