Powerful lyrics

Colfire,

Have you found the Fates Warning record Awaken the Guardian yet? This is from a song, Guardian, that used to make me bawl when I was young, and even more so when I found out it wasn’t about fantasy, but was inspired by Karen Quinlan:

Pace the Hallway, blind man
For a million miles of stars his mind has seen
Think you may, he lives in darkness
We’re the dark, he’s seen the light of dreams
Karen - she’s - been asleep forever
I know she hears me, she has so much to say
The machine shoots sparks, through her eggshell mind
A tear streams from her face
Into my hand, into my heart

I will wish upon a star
I believe in you
And if my will has strayed afar
I remember you, will you remember me
I the one you sentenced
Penance unabsolved
Answer me, see my will
Have you forgotten me?

There’s tonnes of songs that mean more to me, but even when I’ve gotten bored of the music and band, these words still have the power to make me stop and think about the idea of the soul.

HenrySpencer

The Dancer slows her frantic pace
Im Pain and desperation,
Her aching limbs and downcast face
Aglow with perspiration.

Stiff as wire, her lings on fire,
With just the briefest pause -
Then flooding through her memory,
The echoes of old applause.

She limps across the floor
And closes he rbedroom door…

The writer stares with glassy eyes -
Defies the empty page,
His beard is white, his face is lined
And streaked with tears of rage.

Thirty years ago, how the words would flow
With passion and precision,
But now his mind is dark and dulled
By sickness and indecision

And he stares out the kitchen door
Where the sun will rise no more…

Some are born to move the world -
To live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about
The tings we’d like to be

Sadder still to watch it die
Then never to have known it
For you - the blind who once coule see -
The bell tolls for thee…

RUSH - “Losing It” from Signals

Go out and tell our story, let it echo far and wide. Make them hear you, make them hear you. How justice was our battle and how justice was denied. Make them hear you, make them hear you. And say to those who blame us for the way we chose to fight that sometimes there are battles that are more than black or white. And I could not put down my sword when justice was my right, make them hear you. Go out and tell our story to your daughters and your sons, make them hear you, make them hear you. And tell them in our struggle we were not the only ones, make them hear you, make them hear you. Your sword can be a sermon or the power of the pen. Teach every child to raise his voice and then, my brothers, then! Will justice be demanded by ten million righteous men, make them hear you. When they hear you, I’ll be near you again.

Make Them Hear You, from Ragtime.

xizor: the best line in tom sawyer is CLEARLY “he knows changes are’t permenant, but change is”. clearly . no use arguin’. :slight_smile:

quasar: the thing that always got to me about imagine is john’s concept of a perfect world.
“imagine there’s no heaven,
it’s easy if you try.
just ground below us (?)
above us only sky.
imagine all the people
living for today”
when i imagine that i cringe! “imagine all the people whose antisocial tendancies are just barely held in check by the threat of eternally burning suddenly realizing that there is no afterlife to reward them for behaving…”
oh well, whatever.

one of My personal favorite music lines is
“mother chants here litany of boredom and frustration,
but we know all her suicides are fake.”
-police

-luckie

Ah, one of my favorites, Luckie. Sychronicity 2. Thanks. That’s one more line of the song that I can actually understand. :slight_smile: I have a lot of trouble deciphering most rock lyrics. Then I go look them up on the web and say “DAMN! How was I not able to understand that?”

More great lyrics (and if I bungle any of these, don’t blame me. Blame the website I C&P’d them from) :

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still haven’t made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that’s clear-
I will choose Free Will.

—Rush - Freewill
Here’s another that’s not necessarily powerful, but it’s powerful in my mind since I agree with it so much :

Sometimes building ivory towers
Sometimes knocking castles down
Sometimes building you a stairway –
Lock you underground
It’s that old-time religion
it’s the kingdom they would rule
It’s the fool on television
Getting paid to play the fool

Big money goes around the world
Big money give and take
Big money done a power of good
Big money make mistakes
Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul…
—Rush - The Big Money

And another Rush song while I’m at it :

Imagine a place where it all began
They gathered from across the land
To work in the secrecy of the desert sand
All of the brightest boys
To play with the biggest toys ‹
More than they bargained for…
Imagine a man when it all began
The pilot of “Enola Gay”
Flying out of the shockwave on that August day
All the powers that be, and the course of history,
Would be changed for evermore…

—The Manhattan Project

Oh, what the hell. One more :

Lessons taught but never learned
All around us anger burns
Guide the future by the past
Long ago the mould was cast
For they marched up to Bastille Day
La guillotine claimed her bloody prize
Hear the echoes of the centuries
power isn’t all that money buys.

—Rush - Bastille Day
You know, I’d be hard pressed to find an artist with half of the diversity of subject matter that Rush brings to the table. It’s refreshing to throw in a CD and not have to put up with any tired old love songs.

Oh and while I’m on the subject of Rush …

ColdFire, since I know you like both bands, I was just wondering if you had ever heard Dream Theater’s cover of Red Barchetta? I think it friggin’ rules. If you haven’t heard it, you really should go download it immediately.

Neutron, DT’s version is about as good as a cover can get - awesome version. Still, it doesn’t beat the original, IMHO.

All hail the boys from Toronto :wink:

The The

Was our love too strong to die, or were we just to weak to kill it.

Omigod Ogre, I can’t believe you started with this. Whenever I mention New Model Army, the reaction is usually along the lines of “who?”. To me there’s so much poetry in their lyrics. My absolute favourites.

My personal choice:

“I want to be a hero and a villain
And a father, and a son
Take care of my body and abuse it still
Until everything goes numb.
So lets make this dance and never fear,
Is there any real reason why we’re all here?
Live too fast, and still not die
And never get old.”

New Model Army “Before I Get Old”

Here’s another one that never fails to bring me to tears.
The The, “Love Is Stronger Than Death”

LoveLoveLove
LoveLoveLove

Me & my friend were walking
In the cold light of mourning.
Tears may blind the eyes but the soul is not deceived
In this world even winter ain’t what it seems.

Here come the blue skies Here comes springtime.
When the rivers run high & the tears run dry.
When everything that dies.
Shall rise.

LoveLoveLove is stronger than death.
LoveLoveLove is stronger than death.

In our lives we hunger for those we cannot touch.
All the thoughts unuttered & all the feelings unexpressed
Play upon our hearts like the mist upon our breath.
But, awoken by grief, our spirits speak
“How could you believe that the life within the seed
that grew arms that reached
And a heart that beat.
And lips that smiled
And eyes that cried.
Could ever die?”

Here come the blue skies Here comes springtime.
When the rivers run high & the tears run dry.
When everything that dies.
Shall rise.

LoveLoveLove is stronger than death.
LoveLoveLove is stronger than death.

Shall rise. Shall rise.
Shall rise. Shall rise.

New Model Army…hmm…was that Gary Numan’s old band…or am i thinking of the Tubeway army?

Here is another VnV nation song…Further:
*At the end of days, at the end of time.
When the Sun burns out will any of this matter.
Who will be there to remember who we were?
Who will be there to know that any of this had meaning for us?
And in retrospect I’ill say we’ve done no wrong.
Who are we to judge what is right and what has purpose for us?
With designs upon ourselves to do no wrong,
running wild unaware of what might come of us.

The Sun was born, so it shall die,so only shadows comfort me
I know in darkness I will find you giving up inside like me.
Each day shall end as it begins
and though you’re far away from me
I know in darkness I will find you giving up inside like me

Without a thought I will see everything eternal,
forget that once we were just dust from heavens far.
As we were forged we shall return, perhaps some day.
I will remember you and wonder who we were.*

…and.one more Skinny Puppy…Smothered Hope:
withered rope you hang what’s empty can’t remain to put it simply in time cry the hollow words to sing with false disguise smothered hope fly from sorrow for a new divine tomorrow i just don’t want to know anymore life shifts up and down everybody knows it’s wrong
why don’t you care? now do it seem fair?
it’s not in the rhyme or reason so it goes with every season
crawl to top fall through bottom first hand love is really rotten slice of life find what’s plenty inch towards a sanctuary [fight/light] with me inside the womb
i know everyone everybody knows it’s me
it’s my voice my voice cries out obscenity
sightless eye regard my past sometimes it should
i just don’t want to know anymore.

Hey y’all. Thanks for the great response! I’d caution some of you about one thing, however. Excerpts! Excerpts! Excerpts! It’s legal to pull out your favorite bits from a song, but not to quote the whole thing. Careful…

Batz Maru- What does your name mean, anyhow? I’ve been a fan of Masters of Reality for about 10 years now. They now have three studio albums (Masters of Reality, Sunrise on the Sufferbus, and Welcome to the Western Lodge,) and one live album (How High the Moon.) All of them are absolutely brilliant. My advice is to run out to get them as soon as possible. :slight_smile:

Charley- Oh yeah. “Before I Get Old” is a great song. I’m continually amazed by New Model Army’s songwriting ability. They are total badasses. I’m glad I’m not alone. Here’s another one of my favorite passages (from “Here Comes the War”) :

“Today as you listen to this song
Another 394,000 children are born into this world.
They break like waves of hunger and desire
upon these eroded shores…
…they shout “Give us our fair share!”
“Give us justice!”
Here comes the war.”

HalberMensch242- :slight_smile: I don’t think Gary Numan ever had anything to do with New Model Army. Two radically different styles of music.

Thanks again for all the great lyrics, y’all. You’ve given me quite a few songs to check out. I’m always on the prowl for new music.

*Death defying, mutilated
On this scab in the Earth
Crawling out of dirty holes
Their morals, their morals disappear

Yesterday a morning came
A smile upon your face
Ceaser’s palace, morning glory
Silly human, silly human race*

“Yours is no Disgrace” - Yes

*They shoot without shame
In the name of a piece of dirt
For a change of accent
Or the color of your shirt

Better the pride that resides
In a citizen of the World
Than the pride that divides
When a colorful rag is unfurled

A whole wide world, an endless universe
But we keep looking through the eyglass in reverse
Don’t feed the people, but we feed the machine
Can’t really feel what international means
In different circles we keep holding our ground
Indifferent circles we keep spinning round and round
And round*

“Territories” - Rush

  • The breath of the morning I keep forgetting.
    The smell of the warm summer air.
    I live in a town where you can’t smell a thing,you watch your feet for cracks in the pavement.
    Up above aliens hover making home movies for the folks back home, of all these weird creatures who lock up their spirits, drill holes in themselves and live for their secrets.
    They’re all uptight.
    I wish that they’d swoop down in a country lane, late at night when I’m driving.
    Take me on board their beautiful ship, show me the world as I’d love to see it. I’d tell all my friends but they’d never believe, they’d think that I’d finally lost it completely.
    I’d show them the stars and the meaning of life.
    They’d shut me away.
    But I’d be alright.
    I’m just uptight.*
    - Radiohead, “Subterranean Homesick Alien”

From Urge Overkill, one of the saddest damn songs ever written:

We’ve been together since we were five
Emma was so pretty, she was a star in everyone’s eyes.
When she said she’d be a movie queen, nobody laughed.
Face like an angel, she could be anything.

Emma, Emmaline
Gonna write your name high on that silver screen
Emmaline
Gonna make you the biggest star this world has ever seen.

At seventeen we were wed.
Worked day and night to earn our daily bread.
Every day Emma would go out searching for that play,
That never, ever came her way.

You know, sometimes, she’d come home so depressed,
I’d hear her crying in the bathroom feeling so distressed.
I’d remember back to when she was five,
To the words that used to make Emmaline come alive.

It was a cold and dark December night
When I opened up the bedroom door
To find her lying still and cold upon the bed
A love letter, lying on the bedroom floor. It read:
Darling, I love you.
But I just can’t keep on living on dreams no more.
I tried so very hard not to leave you alone.
I just can’t keep on trying no more.

Emmaline!

*I used to know this old scarecrow
He was my song - My joy and sorrow
Cast alone beween the furrows
Of a field no longer sown
By anyone

I held a dandelion
That said the time had come
To leave upon the wind
Not to return
When summer burned the Earth again*

“Curtains” - Bernie Taupin

Oh, I’m a good old Rebel,
Now that’s just what I am;
For this “fair land of Freedom”
I do not care a damn.
I’m glad I fit against it-
I only wish we’d won.
And I don’t want no pardon
For anything I’ve done.

I hates the Constitution,
This great Republic too;
I hates the Freedmen’s Buro,
In uniforms of blue.
I hates the nasty eagle,
With all his brag and fuss;
But the lyin’, thievin’ Yankees
I hates’ em wuss and wuss.

We got three hundred thousand
Befo’ they conquered us.
They died of Southern fever
And Southern steel and shot;
And I wish it was three million
Instead of what we got.

I can’t take up my musket
And fight’ em now no mo’,
But I ain’t a-goin’to love’ em,
Now that is sartin sho’;
And I don’t want no pardon
For what I was and am;
And I won’t be reconstructed,
And I do not give a damn.
These are the lyrics of the most powerful song I can think of. It’s an American folk song, circa 1866 or so. Unreconstructed Rebel is also known as I’m a Good Old Rebel It was originally printed in 1914 in Collier’s Weekly. The words are by Major Innes Randolph, a member of J.E.B. Stuart’s staff. You can hear a MIDI of this song at http://www.contemplator.com/folk2/rebel.html

Bang! by some stupid band called the cats. these people are, like, way disturbed. the bang is actually a gunshot on the CD.
i’m sitting here today
wondering when it’s going to pay
to sit in this stinking hell-hole
and do my job
they pay me just enough
so i can’t take a day off
and i think it’s time i went
and got a gun

BANG - bye boss
BANG - bye jerk
BANG - bye twit on the phone
BANG - to the chick who won’t shut up
BANG - to the moron and i go home
FREE!

so now that they’re all dead
the classifieds i read
but i see there’s no good jobs
out there for me
so i picked up this guitar
and i strummed out a few chords
and now i’m rich
cause this song’s at # 3

i was sitting here today
wondering when it’s ever gonna pay
to sit in this stinking hell-hole
and do my job
they paid me just enough
so i couldn’t take a day off
but i got even when i went
and got my gun

Chorus

Chorus

A girl

You’re showing your age, kid :wink:

The original is by Hot Chocolate, a very bad 70’s Disco Group. Not that Urge Overkill is a textbook example of quality - do they even write songs of their own?