We are billion year old carbon

[Leaffan]

Apparently, according to Joni Mitchell in Woodstock.

I’ve heard this song approximately a billion times (mostly by Crosby, Stills and Nash) and never once did I notice this phrase. I assumed it had something to do with the “devil’s bargain” and never paid any attention to it.

I’m usually a very lyrically aware person, and how I missed this FOREVER is astounding to me.
Any other lyrics that jumped out at you after a long period?

[dropzone]

“I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats.

@Wikipedia

According to Geldof, he wrote the song after reading a telex report at Georgia State University’s campus radio station, WRAS, on the shooting spree of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who fired at children in a school playground at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, USA on 29 January 1979, killing two adults and injuring eight children and one police officer. Spencer showed no remorse for her crime and her full explanation for her actions was “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day”.

I didn’t know that at the time, but some years later it clicked. Not the “I don’t like Mondays” line but “And daddy doesn’t understand it, / He always said she was as good as gold,” because I remembered Spencer’s father saying that she was “good as gold.” Funny what sticks in your head.

[BlankSlate]

I never heard the billion year old carbon line either, and know that I know I can’t remember what I imagined it was.

I was dumbfounded recently to learn that Kate Bush was singing Jeux Sans Frontieres in Peter Gabriel’s Games Without Frontiers. I thought it was Gabriel singing she’s so popular high-pitched.

[August_West]

@BlankSlate

I never heard the billion year old carbon line either, and know that I know I can’t remember what I imagined it was.

I was dumbfounded recently to learn that Kate Bush was singing Jeux Sans Frontieres in Peter Gabriel’s Games Without Frontiers. I thought it was Gabriel singing she’s so popular high-pitched.

^ Don’t worry, everyone thought that!

[Leaffan]

@August_West

^ Don’t worry, everyone thought that!

Me included!

[WOOKINPANUB]

Well, I for one did not

(I thought it was “she is so funky now” :smack:)

[Just_Asking_Questions]

No, it was “she’s so fun to lay”. Dam rock songs - always with the sex. Zex und zex und zex!

And, seriously? “billion year old carbon”? Wow. I always thought it was “caught in the devil’s bargain.” Or something close.

[Eonwe]

@BlankSlate

I was dumbfounded recently to learn that Kate Bush was singing Jeux Sans Frontieres in Peter Gabriel’s Games Without Frontiers. I thought it was Gabriel singing she’s so popular high-pitched.

Wow! I never understood who she was, or why she was so popular . . . this explains it!

mind blown :smack:

[Just_Asking_Questions]

In the Matthews Southern Comfort version (the first one I heard) they omit the line completely.

We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden

As an aside - I like that version. It always gave me a bit of a “sci-fi” feel. It’s about lost traveling aliens, trying to find their way home, rather than dirty hippies at a badly-organized rock concert.

[outlierrn]

IIRC, its billion year old carbon in the first 2 verses, and devils bargain in the 3rd.

[Just_Asking_Questions]

@outlierrn

IIRC, its billion year old carbon in the first 2 verses, and devils bargain in the 3rd.

Huh! You speak the truth.

Now I’m going to have to listen when I get home. I don’t trust my memory any more…