# Pithy song lyrics you wish you'd written?... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2001, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312 "2001-11-08T23:49:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/21 "2001-11-09T03:56:47Z")
“I’m just scraping the social dogma, from the bottom of my soul.” (Chumbawumba) ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/22 "2001-11-09T04:04:03Z")
How the hell could I forget Tom Waits? “Hell’s boiling over, And heaven is full. We’re all chained to the world, And we all gotta pull.” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/23 "2001-11-09T04:20:33Z")
From _The Beautiful South_ P.D.Heaton: He was just a social drinker but social every night He enjoyed a pint or two or three or four _Woman in the Wall_ They say I drink to much, to me, well that’s just profound How do you know you can’t swim, until you have drowned? _Window Shopping for Blinds_ The perfect love song it has no words it only has death threats _Something That You Said_ Deep so deep, the number one I hope to reap Depends upon the tears you weep, so cry, lovey cry, cry, cry, cry _Song for Whoever_ ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/24 "2001-11-09T04:27:00Z")
Just recently: “I touch the fire and it freezes me I look into it and it’s black Why can’t I feel? My skin should crack and peel I want the fire back” And all the rest from “Walk Through the Fire” by Joss Wheadon. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/25 "2001-11-09T04:38:08Z")
“The dust that Poncho bit down south/ended up in Lefty’s mouth.” Townes Van Zandt “I got a two-pack habit and a motel tan.” Steve Earle “That old time feelin’ goes sneakin’ down the hall/like an old gray cat in winter keepin’ close to the wall.” Guy Clark ---
**Author:** ![HoldenCaulfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/22d042/32.png) [@HoldenCaulfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoldenCaulfield)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/26 "2001-11-09T05:58:56Z")
The whole song _Behind Blue Eyes_ by The Who is gold, especially the chorus, but particularly this line form the bridge: “And if I swallow anything evil / Put your finger down my throat.” I love that line. Great thread, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/27 "2001-11-09T06:25:17Z")
A couple from Warren Zevon: “And if California slides into the ocean, Like the mystics and statistics say it will, I predict this motel will be standing, until I pay my bill.” A lyric about Elvis: “Left behind by the latest trends, Eatin’ fried chicken with his regicidal friends…” ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/28 "2001-11-09T06:58:46Z")
There’s so many, I’m sure I’ll have to post later when I think of some other’s but right off the top of the ol’ head, how about these: (I have to start with this one, in case I make any mistakes 😉 ). “I was handsome I was strong I knew the words of every song Did my singing please you? ‘No! The words you sang were wrong’” (Leonard Cohen - ‘Teachers’) “Darling, you’re the punishment for all my former sins” (Nick Cave - ‘I Let Love In’) “I’ll Be Your Mirror, reflect what you are In case you don’t know I’ll be the wind, the rain and the sunset The light at your door, to show that you’re home When you think the night has seen your mind That inside you’re twisted and unkind Let me stand to show that you are blind Please put down your hand … cause I see you” (Velvet Underground ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’) “My life is like unto a bargain store And I may have just what you’re lookin’ for If you don’t mind the fact that all the merchandise is used But with a little mending it could be as good as new” (Dolly Parton - ‘The Bargain Store’ And another Lennie one … “I lit a thin green candle To make you jealous of me But the room just filled up with mosquitoes They heard that my body was free” (Leonard Cohen - One of Us Must Be Wrong) ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Damage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@Mister\_Damage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Damage)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/29 "2001-11-09T07:56:54Z")
Yeesh, I could probably go on forever… this is a long one - some may wish to skip on to the last chapter, which is a good bit, and has Marvin in it. A few favorites that I’ve been listening to recently: **The Angels** (a.k.a. Angel City) _Wasted Sleepless Nights_ Knocking at the window standing in the rain Ulysses smiles as he takes his pills Streetwalker knows his middle name She understands why he’s dressed up to kill Poor little rich boy born to the thin woman The papers said he’d never be deprived The dust shifted in and out of time He lost his grip on his privileged life _Face the Day_ Let me keep on sleeping Forget that I’m alone One day of faceless living is 24 hours too long Give me the night, it’s more forgiving Hold back the light from my eyes Please stay, invisible darkness Can’t see the tears I cry _Can’t Shake It_ Young man in Morocco Buys a diamond ring Takes it across the water Just to see what luck it brings Young girl dressed in midnight Sets his blood on fire You can’t buy my soul with gold But my heart is up for hire _City out of Control_ Inside the canyons of glass and towering steel The shadows and the footsteps that never stop to feel … Up on the corner, newsboy’s daily blues Of love and lies and accidents, and passing strangers’ views … You make connections You win elections That ain’t gonna be enough 'Cause the city is out control _Storm the Bastille_ While nameless faces sit for portrait painters About to see it all again … Whose hand is seen as open? Whose hands are bound? Who wears the cap? Who wears the crown? **Tool** _Opiate_ Choices always were a problem for you What you need is someone strong to guide you Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow What you need is someone strong to guide you Like me… If you want to get your soul to heaven Trust in me now don’t you judge or question You are broken now but faith can heal you Just do everything I tell you to do _Hooker with a Penis_ All you know about me is what I’ve sold you, dumbfuck I sold out long before you ever even heard my name I sold my soul to make a record, dipshit And you bought one _Aenema_ Some say a comet will fall from the sky Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves Followed by fault lines that cannot sit still Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits Some say the end is near Some say we’ll see Armageddon soon I certainly hope we will **Lard** _War Pimp Renaissance_ Yippie tai-yai yai-yai yo! Evil Commie empire’s gone! Yippie tai-yai yai-yai yay! Now we’re the only ones! Let there be peace on earth? Whatever gave you that idea? Economy depends on guns We’ll have an arms race with ourselves _Generation Execute_ I went to Blockhead Video To rent a tape of people makin’ love Couldn’t find no love in here “it’s a family store, see here” Settled for “Faces of Death” But they had rented it to some kid **Richard Thompson** _Read About Love_ I do everything I’m supposed to do Something’s wrong and it must be you I know the ways of a woman I’ve read about love When I touch you there, it’s supposed to feel nice That’s what it says in reader’s advice I’ve never been to heaven but at least I’ve read about love …not to mention _Superman’s Song_ by the Crash Test Dummies, a whole lot of XTC, but most especially _Dear God_, tons of stuff by Rage Against the Machine, Midnight Oil, The Police, Pete Townshend, The Who, Pink Floyd, Soundgarden… the list goes on (and on and on and on) ---
**Author:** ![RocknRoll\_Killing\_Machine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5daacb/32.png) [@RocknRoll\_Killing\_Machine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RocknRoll_Killing_Machine)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/30 "2001-11-09T08:25:40Z")
I rely a bit too heavily on alchol and irony Get clobbered by courtesy In love with love and lousy poetry -The Weakerthans ---
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/31 "2001-11-09T08:43:00Z")
“Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?” - Bruce Springsteen, “The River” “Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness - I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul” - Springsteen, “Born to Run” “Now I’m stranded all alone in the gas station of love, and I have to use the self-service pumps” - Weird Al, “One More Minute” “We’re just two lost souls living in a fishbowl, year after year” - Pink Floyd, “Wish You Were Here” “I wish I were like you, easily amused” - Nirvana, “All Apologies” “…but not a real green dress, that’s cruel…” - Barenaked Ladies, “If I Had $1000000” “She memorized every pencil-crayon color in the box…her blue-green eyes complement the burnt sienna in her locks” - BNL, “Life, In a Nutshell” “And Go-cart Mozart is checking out the weather chart to see if it was safe outside…” - Springsteen, “Blinded by the Light” “Bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse assail him, impale him, with monster-truck force” - Cake, “The Distance” That’s more than enough for now, I think ---
**Author:** ![milo\_minderbinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@milo\_minderbinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milo_minderbinder)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/32 "2001-11-09T12:59:00Z")
Ah, just about anything by the people’s poet **Billy Bragg** [A New England](http://www.web.net/~smorton/Billy_Bragg/A_New_England.html) I saw two shooting stars last night I wished on them but they were only sattelites Is It wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish I wish I wish you’d care. [It Says Here](http://www.billybragg.co.uk/releases/singles/between_wars/between4.html) Those braying voices on the right of the House Are echoed down the Street of Shame Where politics mix with bingo and tits In a strictly money and numbers game Where they offer you a feature On stockings and suspenders Next to a call for stiffer penalties for sex offenders [The Saturday Boy](http://www.billybragg.co.uk/releases/albums/brewing_up/brew5.html) She danced with me and I still hold that memory Soft and sweet And I stare up at her window As I walk down her street But I never made the first team, I just made the first team laugh And she never came to the phone She was always in the bath I had to look in the dictionary To find out the meaning of unrequited While she was giving herself for free At a party to which I was never invited [Island of no Return](http://www.billybragg.co.uk/releases/albums/brewing_up/brew6.html) I hate this flat land, there’s no cover for sons and fathers and brothers and lovers I can take the killing, I can take the slaughter But I don’t talk to Sun reporters I never thought that I would be Fighting fascists in the Southern Sea I saw one today and in his hand Was a weapon that was made in Birmingham [The Busy Girl Buys Beauty](http://www.billybragg.co.uk/releases/albums/life_riot_spy/life6.html) The busy girl buys beauty The pretty girl buys style And the simple girl buys What she’s told to buy Through the brightly lit eyes Of the glossy romance of fashion Where she can learn… Top tips for the gas cook Successful secrets of a sexual kind The daily drill for beautiful hair In a mail order paradise… milo ---
**Author:** ![moodtobestewed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@moodtobestewed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moodtobestewed)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/33 "2001-11-09T13:43:35Z")
“The wages of sin are a bad reputation and too many friends” - Rainmakers ---
**Author:** ![Daytona\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@Daytona\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daytona_Dave)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/34 "2001-11-09T13:47:47Z")
My all-time favorite… ‘I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then’ - **Bob Seger** “Against the Wind” ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/35 "2001-11-09T14:09:16Z")
From “You’re The Top,” by Cole Porter You’re the top! You’re Mahatma Gandi. You’re the top! You’re Napolean brandy. You’re the purple light of a summer night in Spain, You’re the National Gallery, Your’re Garbo’s salary, You’re cellophane! You’re sublime, you’re a turkey dinner. You’re the time of the Derby winner. I’m a toy ballon that is fated soon to pop. But if, Baby, I’m the bottom, You’re the top! Porter goes on like this, cataloging the greats of the world for 7 choruses. Now that is GREAT lyric writing. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Big\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/36 "2001-11-09T14:41:22Z")
"Tell me I’m a sinner, I’ve got news for you. I spoke to God this morning, and he don’t like you. You’re telling all the people, about the original sin. He says he knows you better than you’ll ever know him." –“I don’t want to change the world” by Ozzy Osbourne ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/37 "2001-11-09T15:56:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by xanadu \* > \*\*How could I forget this one? > > “I was bruised and battered and > I couldn’t tell what I felt > I was unrecognizable to myself > Saw my reflection in a window > I didn’t know my own face > […] > The night has fallen, I’m lyin’ awake > I can feel myself fading away > So recieve me brother with your faithless kiss > Or will we leave each other alone like this > On the streets of Philadelphia” (Bruce Springsteen) \*\* Good call, this one is full of great lyrics. My favorite: At night I could hear the blood in my veins Just as black and whispering as the rain On the streets of Philadelphia Damn if the hairs on the back of my neck don’t stand on end every time I hear that part… ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/38 "2001-11-09T16:03:34Z")
This summer I swam in a public place And a reservoir to boot At the latter I was informal At the former I wore my suit I wore my swimming suit (Loudon Wainwright III) You’re supposed to sit on your ass and nod at stupid things Man, that’s hard to do And if you don’t they’ll screw you And if you do, they’ll screw you too (Warren Zevon) Columbus sailed for Italy Columbus sailed for Spain Columbus sailed a wishing well Columbus died in chains Died in chains (Kinky Friedman) I smile like Chicago (Robert Fripp) and way too many others by Ben Folds, Richard Thompson, and Skip Spence to name. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Nice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@D\_Nice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Nice)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/39 "2001-11-09T16:05:49Z")
_If I could be, who you wanted… if I could be, who you want. All the time…all the time._ **Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees** ---
**Author:** ![tapioca\_tundra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@tapioca\_tundra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapioca_tundra)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312/40 "2001-11-09T16:08:28Z")
~~ I meant to include this in another like tread but was too buzzed… of course the radiohead thread reminded me… shell smashed, juices flowing wings twitch, legs are going don’t get sentimental it always ends up drivel one day, I am gonna grow wings a chemical reaction hysterical and useless… also, …floor collapsing falling bouncing back and one day, I am gonna grow wings… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pithy-song-lyrics-you-wish-youd-written/92312.md?page=3)