“I’m just scraping the social dogma, from the bottom of my soul.” (Chumbawumba)
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.”
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
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.
“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
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.
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…”
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)
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)
I rely a bit too heavily on alchol and irony
Get clobbered by courtesy
In love with love and lousy poetry
-The Weakerthans
“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
Ah, just about anything by the people’s poet Billy Bragg
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.
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
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
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
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
“The wages of sin are a bad reputation and too many friends”
- Rainmakers
My all-time favorite…
‘I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then’ - Bob Seger “Against the Wind”
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.
"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
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…
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.
If I could be, who you wanted… if I could be, who you want.
All the time…all the time.
Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees
~~ 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…