Songs you love because of the lyrics.

Cafe Society
1

I’m sure this has been done, but this time it will be different if you post 2-4 lines from the song. I heard that you can’t post lyrics to full songs, which would really be pointless anyway. People won’t read your lyrics anyway. They might read 2-4 lines however. No less than two. No more than four. Here goes.

Beach Boys- God Only Knows.

If you should ever leave me
Well life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me

Johnny Cash- Cocaine Blues
Early one mornin’ while makin’ the rounds
I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down

Johnny Cash- A Boy Named Sue

My name is Sue!
How do you do!
Now you gonna die!

2

“We Didn’t Start the Fire”–Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell (sp?), Joe DiMaggio

…and so forth

“She Moves in Mysterious Ways”–U2

To touch is to heal, to hurt is to steal
If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel
On your knees, boy

“City of New Orleans”–Steve Goodman
And the sons of pullman porters and the sons of engineers
Ride their father’s magic carpets made of steel
Mothers with their babes asleep are rockin’ to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

“The Coast”–Paul Simon
We are standing in the sunlight
The early morning sunlight
In the harbor church of St. Cecilia
To praise a soul’s returning to the earth
To the rose of Jericho and the bougainvillea

There are soooo many by Paul Simon, but I’ve got to include “The Boxer”
I am just a poor boy, though my story’s seldom told.
I have squandered my resistance,
For a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises.

3

“How Dare You” by Basia. It’s basically about a woman (the “narrator”) whose boyfriend is pretty nasty to her, but it ends up as one of the great “Fuck You!” songs ever. The chorus through most of the song starts:

So now you think I’m yours
And you don’t have to try
Seems nothing I do is right

On the last verse (which I’ve always seen as sort of the final straw for her) it actually goes:

So now you think I’m yours
And you don’t have to try
Seems nothing you do is right
Another one I like for the same reason is a song from My Fair Lady, after Eliza runs away from Higgins’ house after the Embassy Ball, called “Without You”.

*Without you’re pulling it, the tide comes in,
Without your twirling it the Earth can spin,
Without your pushing them, the clouds roll by,
If they can do without you, ducky, so can I *

And, just to cheapen my reputation, there’s one line in Cher’s “Life After Love” that I adore…

’cos I’ve had time to think it trough
And maybe I’m too good for you, ooh

I’m seeing a pattern here…

4

That would be Cher’s “Believe”… :smack:

I think I need to hand in my gay card…

5

From “Voice from the Beehive” an '80s girl group that had maybe three records but couldn’t catch fire. Their “Honey Lingers” album is still one of my all-time favorites.

The song “Look at Me” is a real cynical take on how preoccupied we are with ourselves. The first stanza is a not-too-subtle reference to Tammy Bakker (remember, this was written when the televangelists was a big issue):

*Psycho-eyes and monster thighs, she preaches from the TV
“Just give me some money and I swear I’ll save your soul, it’s easy!”
You can read the Good Book til you feel bad about yourself
And just one small donation will save you from burning down in hell

But everyone thinks that we’re the next best thing to heaven
Do a little looking, we do not look so good
We’re all so busy with our problem-drama stories
We’re all so busy with our failures, and all our glories

And everybody’s saying ‘Look at me’ ‘Look at me"
Everybody looking for somethin’ no one else can see
The earth is dyin’, babies are cryin’
And everybody’s sayin’ “Oh, yeah, but look at me”*

6

Good Intentions - by Toad the Wet Sprocket from the In Light Syrup album.

Describes my life perfectly.

I’m not afraid things won’t get better
But it feels like this has gone on forever
You have to cry with your own blue tears
Have to laugh with your own good cheer

full lyrics

7

Lyrics by Shel Silverstein, actually.

8

Oh, where to start!

Snack Attack by Godley & Creme

I feel like Kojak sitting in a Cadillac, I gotta eat, I gotta eat a flapjack
A stack, a rack, a six-pack, Jack, just call me Jack Kerouac
Click clack, open up the hatchback, I could eat a bubble car or a packamack
Patty cake, patty cake, Big Mac, good god it’s a snack attack!

(the lyrics to this song stand on their own, without music. It’s about a fat guy with his jaw wired shut to make him lose weight, and he can only suck liquids through a straw.)

9

Vincient (Starry, Stary Night) - Don McClean

  • Starry, starry night
    Portraits hung in empty halls
    Frameless heads on nameless walls
    With eyes that watch the world and can’t forget
    Like the strangers that you’ve met
    The ragged men in ragged clothes
    The silver thorn, a bloody rose
    Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow*

America - Paul Simon

Kathy, I’m lost, I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why

Stranger To The Rain - Stephen Schwartz

OH, SHED NO TEARS FOR ME
LIGHT NO CANDLE FOR MY SAKE
THIS JOURNEY I’LL BE MAKING
IS ONE WE ALL MUST MAKE
SHOULDER TO THE WIND
I’LL TURN MY FACE INTO THE SPRAY
AND WHEN THE HEAVENS OPEN
LET THE DROPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY
IF THEY FINALLY WASH AWAY THE STAIN
FROM A DAUGHTER OF THE RACE OF CAIN
I AM NOT A STRANGER TO THE RAIN
LET IT RAIN …

Blackbird - Lennon and McCartney

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

My Funny Valentine - Rodgers/Hart

My funny valentine
Sweet comic valentine
You make me smile with my heart

Take This Waltz - Leonard Cohen

Now in Vienna there’s ten pretty women
There’s a shoulder where Death comes to cry
There’s a lobby with nine hundred windows
There’s a tree where the doves go to die
There’s a piece that was torn from the morning
And it hangs in the Gallery of Frost
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws

So many incredible songwriters, far too many to list here, and don’t get me wrong, I love funny songs too – Tom Lehrer and Al Yankovic being some of the funniest and brightest writers of humorous lyrics.

There are great lyrics if you look for them – there are bad ones too

10

Old Man by Neil Young.

11

The Oblivions “Bad Man”

Time was in a vacuum, when I wanted to be free.
But now my adolescence has all but left me.
I could have stayed another day, it would be wrong.
And you would just grow tired of me, before too long.

I say no. I must go.
I’m not the one you want, though I know you think so
I’m a bad man
I’m a bad man
I’m a bad man
I’m a bad man
But I’m…
Too good for you
My Suzie true.

Time is an obsession, and that is just for me.
You can tell by the sound of my shoes baby I am gonna leave.
Even if you plead to me, and say you were so true.
It’s too late for long goodbyes… we are through.

Yeah, it’s just a breakup song, but I love way that the perception of time in the first and the last verse are described.

12

Do You Realize? by The Flaming Lips

You realize that life goes fast
It’s hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn’t go down
It’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

and ends with

Do You Realize - that you have the most beautiful face

I love the line about the sun setting being an illusion. I wish all pop songs were this clever. And the way he sings the last line puts a lump in my throat.

13

The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel

In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade,
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down,
Or cut him 'til he cried out in his anger and his shame,
“I am leaving, I am leaving.”
But the fighter still remains.

I love everything about this song. The despair and loneliness of the lyrics with the emotion and power of the music. I find it to be a very overwhelming song.

14

Deep and meaningful

Eagles: The Last Resort

And you can see them there
On Sunday mornings
Stand up and sing about
What it’s like up there
They call it paradise
I don’t know why
Call someplace paradise
Kiss it goodbye

Gibberish and meaningless

Bee Gees: Don’t Forget to Remember

You’re the mirror of my soul
So take me out of my hole

Funniest

Les Mis: Master of the House

This weighs a ton
Travel’s a curse
But here we strive
To lighten your purse
Here the goose is cooked
Here the fat is fried
And nothing’s overlooked
Till I’m satisfied

“Master of the house?”
Isn’t worth me spit!
“Comforter, philosopher”
And lifelong shit!
Cunning little brain
Regular Voltaire
Thinks he’s quite a lover
But there’s not much there
What a cruel trick of nature
Landing me with such a louse
God knows how I’ve lasted
Living with this bastard in the house!

15

from Celluloid Heroes by The Kinks. I want a 50 minute version of this song. It makes me sad he only touched on 7 stars.

from “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her” by Simon & Garfunkel. The imagery just makes me so hungry for a woman to wake up with.

16

Best Self-Deprecatory Lyrics

Doctor Hook: Cover of the Rolling Stone

Well, we’re big rock singers, we got golden fingers and we’re loved everywhere we go
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth at ten thousand dollars a show
We take all kinds of pills, that give us all kind of thrills but the thrill we’ve never known
Is the thrill that’ll get you when you get your picture on the cover of The Rolling Stone

Chorus: Rolling Stone, wanna see my picture on the cover
Wanna buy five copies for my mother
Wanna see my smilin’ face, on the cover of The Rolling Stone

17

“I was God’s Own Drunk!
And a fearless man…
it hung 'im up.”
- Don’t know who wrote it - Buffett used to perform it.

18

The Assasscin Song"–Tim Rice/Stephen Oliver from the musical “Blondel”

I preferred a
little murder.
If I am coin a phase, for killing I have a yen.
Being naughty
is my forte.
I’m an A-double-S, an A-double-S-I-N.

19

Since we already had some Man in Black, my favourites are:

When I was just a baby,
My Mama told me, “Son,
Always be a good boy,
Don’t ever play with guns,”
But I shot a man in Reno,
Just to watch him die

And:

We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout,
We’ve been talkin’ 'bout Jackson, ever since the fire went out.

followed a little later in the same song by:

When I breeze into that city, people gonna stoop and bow. (Hah!)
All them women gonna make me, teach 'em what they don’t know how

Johnny Cash is the epitome of cool.

20

Sister Golden Hair - by America

Now I ain’t ready
For the altar
But I do agree there’s times
When a woman sure can be a freind of mine
Another song that has me pegged.