Powerful lyrics

My very first IMHO thread!

Have you ever listened to a song and thought that one particular line or set of lines were extremely poignant, powerful, disturbing, or inspired? Sometimes they carry a specific message, and sometimes they’re rather nonsensical, but evoke a vivid image. What are your favorite lines? If this has been done before, I beg forgiveness.

I’ll start.

“They told us of some Second Coming/So we looked to the sky./Well, it’s not a savior that we want/just somebody else to crucify…” -“Waiting,” New Model Army

"…and in many degrees of heat/the fire looked at the meat/and said, “If I cook you, the least you can do is lay there and be sweet.” -“Kill the King,” Masters of Reality

“They surrounded the house, smoked him out, carried him off in chains/the sky turned black and bruised and we had months of heavy rains./Now the ravens nest in the rotted roof of Chenowith’s old place/and no one’s asking Cal about that scar on his face…” -“Murder in the Red Barn,” Tom Waits

“I have seen the flaming sword/there, over East of Eden/burning…in the eyes of/the Maker.” -“The Maker,” Daniel Lanois (performed by Willie Nelson)

Any contributions?

Subdivisions - In the high school halls, In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions - In the basement bars, In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the Suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth
Rush – written in 1982….remind anyone of the shooters at Columbine H.S.?

The body bags and little rags of children torn in two,
And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you.
As the Madmen play on words and make us all dance to their song,
To the tune of starving millions to make a better kind of gun.
Iron Maiden – so true about many of today’s political leaders

If actions could erase all the fear that we suffer,
People segregated no one understands each other,
He’s a different colour but we’re the same kid,
I treat him like my brother he’ll treat me like his,
Well an eye for an eye yea a tooth for a tooth,
Brother against brother should be singing with the group,
The inner cities burning yea it’s screaming black & blue,
The power and the passion of a million youth.
Rancid – about the problem of racism

VENT- Numb

You feed to know, just how she feels inside
You grip her throat, she begins to cry

When you tear,
She will bleed more.
You don’t care,
That she’s screaming.

She was infected.
When will her pain go numb?

It hurts to know.
It hurts to know inside, it won’t go.

The pain will never die.

When she sleeps,
She will feel you.
As she sleeps,
She will see you.

You don’t seem to listen to screams.
So why don’t you listen to me?

No, is all no will ever mean.

At home drawing pictures, of mountain tops
With him on top, arms raised in a vee
As the dead lay in pools of ruin below
Daddy didn’t pay attention to fact that Mommy didn’t care
Oh King Jeremy the Wicked, ruled his world
Jeremy spoke in class today…

Clearly I remember picking on the boy
Seemed a harmless little fuck
Oh but we unleashed a lion
Nashed his teeth and bit the recess lady’s breast…

Daddy didn’t pay attention, and the boy was something that Mommy wouldn’t wear…

Pearl Jam…sounds a little like Columbine too doesn’t it?

Needs2know

Mighty Might Bosstones, “The Impression That I Get” Last verse:

“I’m not a coward I’ve just never been tested
I’d like to think that if I was I would pass
Look at the tested and think 'there but for the grace go I
Might be a coward I’m afraid of what I might find out”

Most anything by Bjork
" All these accidents that happen follow the dot
coincedence makes sense only with you
you don’t have to think, I feel

Emotional landscapes
they puzzle me
and push me up to a
state of emergency
Is where I want to be…" - JOGA

I have a bunch…but i’m only gona post two for now:
VnV Nation- Solitary:
Set me aflame and cast me free. Away, you wretched world of tethers.
Through the endless night and day I have never wanted more.
Always thought that I would stand before the faceless name of justice.
Like some law unto myself, like a child of God again.
And if rain brings winds of change let it rain on us forever
I have no doubt from what I’ve seen that I have never wanted more.
With this line I’ll mark the past as a symbol of beginning.
I have no doubt from what I’ve seen that I have never wanted more.
In this picture stands a man, far away, alone and distant.
Like a solitary field in some nameless foreign land.
All around the points of light start to dim and cease transmitting.
Shadows fell on futile games and then there was nothing more.
Through the screams of falling steel. By the light of flares and wisdom.
All the doubts I could not face. All this time I wanted more.
With a line I’ll mark the past as a symbol of beginning.
To the gods whose names we’ve lost and the names who gave in vain.

Skinny Puppy-Testure:
in nervous convulsion crouches infant ape trembling in mothers shit cage eyes tear less filled with contempt clinic mask experiment with life and death smell lingering noxious mixed scent anxiety omnipotent doctor grinds the cage door revealing loves primal instinct taken away the tiny face terrified rant and rave smash your head against the cage vacuum clicks on high conscious of the pain pass off as humane white coat seems so clean most dirt bleached out of greed force the point of habit eyes burn in a rabbit push the pain test button spines cut trip mucous inflection more die. pills each day what goes around comes back stronger tap into the brain break the skull again smash price research rat lab rent pain in flesh more ill drug store sales sharpen the knife emphasis on money new disease everyday end is seen and coming reseach turns it’s back to gain crush the
spine genocide kitten drags its dead limb continuing all suffering it will come back and win shock paralyse turn trauma burns out the will to live the lying message 5 year genocide 1945 suicide vivisect VI

HalberMensch, you like VnV Nation? They are soooo most excellent.

I freakin love VnV…amazing band, the lyrics are the best i’ve heard in…forever, poetic beyond words and addictive as hell…not to mention incredibly dancable. So glad to find a fellow VnV nation fan…“victory no vengance”!

Victory…not Vengance rather…god…i’m an idiot…how hard is it to spell “not” anyways…

Rush, Tom Sawyer -
No his mind is not for rent,
to any god or government

U2, Mysterious Ways
To touch is to steal,
to hurt is to heal,
if you wanna kiss the sky
better learn how to kneel

From the song “Raindrops” by Tindersticks:

“See what we got here is a tired love.
See what we got here is a lazy love.
It mooches around the house, can’t wait to go out.
What it needs, it just grabs; it never asks.”

  • and later in the same song:

“We sit and watch the divide widen.
We sit and listen to our hearts crumble.”

Sung in a voice that has seen it all. During my divorce, it was just a bit too poignant.

Wow, I think this is the first time I ever ran into someone who knew about Masters of Reality. I loved that tape…

Here’s a piece of a song I like…

Needlework the way, never you betray
life of death becoming clearer
Pain monopoly, ritual misery
chop your breakfast on a mirror

I’m sorry if that post looks like I am implying those lyrics are from Masters of Reality. I accidentally posted before I could accredit those lyrics to Metallica (from ‘Master of Puppets’).

I’m tired of the excuses everybody uses, he’s your kid, do as you see fit,
but get this through that I don’t approve of what you did to you own flesh and blood.

“If you don’t sit on this chair straight
I’ll take this belt from around my waist and don’t think that I won’t use it!”

Answer me and take your time,
what could be the awful crime he could do at such young an age?
If I’m the only witness to your madness offer me some words to balance out what I see and what I hear.
All these cold and rude things that you do I suppose you do because he belongs to you
and instead of love, the feel of warmth you’ve given him these cuts and sores won’t heal with time or age.

I want to say “What’s the Matter here?”
But I don’t dare say.

What’s The Matter Here? [Robert Buck/Natalie Merchant]

“Everytime we say goodbye, you’re frozen in my mind as the child you never will be, you never will be again.
I’ll never be any more to you than a stranger could be.”

– Natalie Merchant, My How You’ve Grown

I’m already crying. I love music so much.

“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.”
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence

Simon and Garfunkle.

Nothing Else Matters by Metallica. I’d repeat my favorite sections but I would be a waste of tears the rest of the evening.

you took a time bomb,
and a case of crackers,
and you made a maelstrom of organic debris,
then you took a work bench,
and a rusty anvil,
and you polished them for everyone to see,
you have created an unhealthy monster,
but you’re nowhere but nowhere to be found,
so I guess I’ll just cope with my provisions,
from now until the day they lay me down

you took a baboon,
and made him perfect,
you took a lion,
and stripped him of his pride,
then you took a million more varieties,
a scalpel and a sartory,
and you stitched up a horrible surprise,
you have created an unsocial monster,
and you’re searched for all over the globe,
and most believe that things would sure be better,
if you’d come down here and tell us what you know

who is to blame for this?
someone tell me please,
his handiwork is flawed,
and it’s there for all to see,
mutations, aberrations and blatant anomalies,
they multiply and give rise to this…monstrosity,

you took the most abundant smallest bits of matter,
and you instilled them with affinity,
and then you stratified accumulations,
weeded out bad variations,
and blended up your unique recipe,
you have created a powerful monster,
with direction and purpose all its own,
and if you were here,
would things be any different?
or are you just a mosaic of thoughts alone?
“Chimaera” by Bad Reilgion - gives a new viewpoint toward the human species and religion

What’s coming through is alive.
What’s holding up is a mirror.
But what’s singing songs is a snake
Looking to turn this piss to wine.

They’re both totally void of hate,
But killing me just the same.

The snake behind me hisses
What my damage could have been.
My blood before me begs me
Open up my heart again.

And I feel this coming over like a storm again.
Considerately.

Venomous voice, tempts me,
Drains me, bleeds me,
Leaves me cracked and empty.
Drags me down like some sweet gravity.

The snake behind me hisses
What my damage could have been.
My blood before me begs me
Open up my heart again.

And I feel this coming over like a storm again.

I am too connected to you to
Slip away, to fade away.
Days away I still feel you
Touching me, changing me,
And considerately killing me.

Without the skin,
Beneath the storm,
Under these tears
The walls came down.

And the snake is drowned and
As I look in his eyes,
My fear begins to fade
Recalling all of those times.

I could have cried then.
I should have cried then.

And as the walls come down and
As I look in your eyes
My fear begins to fade
Recalling all of the times
I have died
and will die.
It’s all right.
I don’t mind.

I am too connected to you to
Slip away, to fade away.
Days away I still feel you
Touching me, changing me,

And considerately killing me.

“H.” by Tool- it makes me cry practically every time I hear it.

Rush - The Pass

And now you’re trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Done with life on a razor’s edge
Nothing’s what you thought it would be

No hero in your tragedy
No daring in your escape
No salutes for your surrender
Nothing noble in your fate
Christ, what have you done?


For anyone that experienced a suicide from nearby, and didn’t understand why anyone could ever do such a thing, this should hit them right there. I know it hits me.

John Lennon’s “Imagine”

I stop whatever I am doing to listen when it plays. Beautiful, eloquent, inspiring.