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Good Lyrics Hall of Fame

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by MisterCreosote, Aug 8, 2012.

  1. nmmetsfan

    nmmetsfan Active Member

    Couldn't sing or act, but the man could write songs
     
  2. Zeke12

    Zeke12 Guest

    Might be the coolest guy who ever lived, too.
     
  3. Springsteen has a number of great turns of phrase in this Better Days.

    This couplet in particular:

    "But it’s a sad man my friend who’s livin’ in his own skin
    And can’t stand the company"



    BETTER DAYS
    Well my soul checked out missing as I sat listening
    To the hours and minutes tickin’ away
    Yeah just sittin’ around waitin’ for my life to begin
    While it was all just slippin’ away
    I’m tired of waitin’ for tomorrow to come
    Or that train to come roarin’ ’round the bend
    I got a new suit of clothes a pretty red rose
    And a woman I can call my friend
    These are better days baby
    Yeah there’s better days shining through
    These are better days baby
    Better days with a girl like you

    Well I took a piss at fortune’s sweet kiss
    It’s like eatin’ caviar and dirt
    It’s sad funny ending to find yourself pretending
    A rich man in a poor man’s shirt
    Now my ass was draggin’ when from a passin’ gypsy wagon
    Your heart like a diamond shone
    Tonight I’m layin’ in your arms carvin’ lucky charms
    Out of these hard luck bones

    These are better days baby
    These are better days it’s true
    These are better days
    There’s better days shining through

    Now a life of leisure and a pirate’s treasure
    Don’t make much for tragedy
    But it’s a sad man my friend who’s livin’ in his own skin
    And can’t stand the company
    Every fool’s got a reason for feelin’ sorry for himself
    And turning his heart to stone
    Tonight this fool’s halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell
    And I feel like I’m comin’ home

    These are better days baby
    There’s better days shining through
    These are better days
    Better days with a girl like you

    These are better days baby
    These are better days it’s true
    These are better days
    Better days are shining through
     
  4. albert77

    albert77 Well-Known Member

    Three pages and not a single John Lennon pull? Let me rectify that:

    "Help me if you can, I'm feelin' down,
    And I do appreciate you're bein' 'round.
    Help me get my feet back on the ground.
    Won't you please, please, help me."

    Or this:

    "I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me."

    And, finally:

    "There are places I remember.
    All my life, though some have changed.
    Some forever not for better,
    Some have gone and some remain.
    All these places have their moments
    With lovers and friends I still can recall.
    Some are dead and some are living
    In my life I've loved them all.
     
  5. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    I hate myself for loving you and the weakness that it showed.
    You were just a painted face on a trip down suicide road.
    The stage was set, the lights went out all around the old hotel.
    I hate myself for loving you, and I'm glad the curtain fell.

    I hate that foolish game we played and the need that was expressed.
    And the mercy that you showed to me, whoever would have guessed?
    I went out on Lower Broadway, and I felt that place within,
    That hollow place where martyrs weep and angels play with sin.

    Heard your songs of freedom and man forever stripped,
    Acting out his folly while his back is being whipped.
    Like a slave in orbit, he's beaten 'til he's tame,
    All for a moment's glory and it's a dirty, rotten shame.


    There are those who worship loneliness; I'm not one of them.
    In this age of fiberglass, I'm searching for a gem.
    The crystall ball upon the wall hasn't shown me nothing yet.
    I've paid the price of solitude, but at least I'm out of debt.

    I can't recall a useful thing you ever did for me,
    Except pat me on the back one time when I was on my knees.
    We stared into each other's eyes 'till one of us would break.
    No use to apologize, what difference would it make?


    So sing your praise of progress and of the doom machine.
    The naked truth is still taboo, whenever it can be seen.
    Lady Luck, who shines on me, will tell you where I'm at
    I hate myself for loving you, but I should get over that.
     
  6. I've always thought the opening to Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" is as good as songwriting gets:

    Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train, feelin' near as faded as my jeans
    Bobby thumbed a diesel down, just before it rained, rode us all the way to New Orleans


    Evocative, brilliant imagery, great story telling, the rhymes within the rhymes -- it's got it all. And he sustains it all the way through, too.

    Then there's this from the great Townes Van Zandt:

    Oh Loretta she's a barroom girl
    Wears them sevens on her sleeve
    Dances like a diamond shines
    Tell me lies I love to believe
    Her age is always 22
    Her laughing eyes a hazel hue
    Spends my money like water falls
    Loves me like I want her to

    Oh, Loretta, won't you say to me
    Darling, put your guitar on
    Have a little shot of booze
    Play a blue and wailing song
    My guitar rings a melody
    My guitar sings, loretta's fine
    Long and lazy, blonde and free
    And I can have her any time


    Sweetest at the break of day
    Prettiest in the setting sun
    She don't cry when I can't stay
    'least not till she's all alone
    Loretta, I won't be gone long
    Keep your dancing slippers on
    Keep me on your mind a while
    I'll be back, babe, to make you smile
     
  7. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    My favorite from TVZ:

    The name she gave was caroline
    Daughter of a miner
    Her ways were free
    It seemed to me
    That sunshine walked beside her


    She came from spencer
    Across the hill
    She said her pa had sent her
    'cause the coal was low
    And soon the snow
    Would turn the skies to winter


    She said she'd come
    To look for work
    She was not seeking favors
    And for a dime a day
    And a place to stay
    She'd turn those hands to labor


    But the times were hard, lord,
    The jobs were few
    All through tecumseh valley
    But she asked around
    And a job she found
    Tending bar at gypsy sally's


    She saved enough to get back home
    When spring replaced the winter
    But her dreams were denied
    Her pa had died
    The word come down from spencer


    So she turned to whorin' out on the streets
    With all the lust inside her
    And it was many a man
    Returned again
    To lay himself beside her


    They found her down beneath the stairs
    That led to gypsy sally's
    In her hand when she died
    Was a note that cried
    Fare thee well... tecumseh valley


    The name she gave was caroline
    Daughter of a miner
    Her ways were free
    It seemed to me
    That sunshine walked beside her
     
  8. oxfordcrowe

    oxfordcrowe Member

    I too am glad to see the DBT/Cooley/Isbell love here.

    Surprised a few haven't came up though.

    "Cocaine rich comes quick and that's why the small dicks have it all." — Cooley, "Gravity's Gone"

    Here's one by Patterson — "Aftermath USA." The song would have been great for the "Hangover" scene when they wake up in the Vegas hotel room.

    When I crawled out of bed this morning
    I could tell something wasn't right
    There were cigarettes in the ashtrays
    They weren't your menthol lights
    There were beer bottles in the kitchen
    And broken glass on the floor
    Someone must have slipped me something
    Passed out a couple days before

    The car was in the carport sideways
    Big dent running down the side
    Never seen anything as frightening
    As when I took a look inside
    Smell of musk and deception
    Heel marks on the roof-line
    Bad music on the stereo
    All the seats in recline

    The aftermath staring me right in the face
    I'll get around to breaking even one of these days

    My credit cards have all been maxed out
    The meat in my freezer all thawed
    The IRS laid the facts out
    It's all worse than I thought
    The welfare lady said enough is enough
    The kids ain't been to school in weeks

    Crystal-meth in the bathtub
    Blood splattered in my sink
    Laying around in the aftermath
    It's all worse than you think

    More Cooley — "Cartoon Gold"

    Getting all excited finding nothing that was never there before
    Is like bringing flowers to your Mama and tracking dog shit all over the floor
    Jesus made the flowers but it took a dog to make the story good
    I think about you when I can and sometime when I don't I probably should

    And, Isbell on "GDLL"
    You could come to me by plane, but that wouldn't be the same
    as that old motel room in Texarkana was.
    So I'll take two of what you're having and I'll take all of what you got
    to kill this goddamn lonely, goddamn lonely love.

    The back story of "Margo and Harold" was told by Patterson at a solo show (6-16-12 at Metropolitan Kithen) and it's great. The show can be found on archive.org. I highly recommend giving it a listen if you're a DBT fan.

    I'm scared of the basement of Harold's Pawn Shop,
    I've heard tales of what goes down there.
    Mid-life crises, high on Dilauded, Valium, and crystal meth.
    Harold and Margo, feeling no pain
    Fifty and crazy, big hair and cocaine.

    I can go on and on with DBT lyrics, but here are a few more that I think are pretty good.

    Bill Withers "Use Me"
    Oh sometimes yeah it's true you really do abuse me
    You get in a crowd of high class people and then you act real rude to me
    But oh baby baby baby baby when you love me I can't get enough
    I and I want to spread the news that if it feels this good getting used
    Oh you just keep on using me until you use me up
    Until you use me up

    The Black Crowes "Morning Song"
    If music got to free your mind
    Just let it go cause you never know, you never know

    Blue Mountain "Lakeside"
    Spanish moss in the moonlight
    The distance echo of a dog fight
    Meeting up at midnight
    Under the water tank

    James McMurtry/ Ray Wylie Hubbard "Choctaw Bingo"
    Ruth Ann and Lynn they wear them cut off britches and those skinny little halters
    And they're second cousins to me
    Man I don't care I want to get between 'em
    With a great big ol' hard on like a old bois d' arc fence post
    You could hang a pipe rail gate from
    Do some sister twisters 'til the cows come home
    And we'd be havin' us a time
     
  9. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Well then suddenly, there was no one left standing in the hall
    Yeah, yeah in a flood of tears that no one really ever heard fall at all
    I went searching for an answer up the stairs and down the hall
    Not to find an answer, just to hear the call of a nightbird
    Singing come away, come away, come away...
     
  10. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    Great verse.
     
  11. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Funkadelic could string together some good ones when they wanted to ...

    ... When you base your life on credit
    And your loving days are done
    Checks you signed with love and kisses
    Later come back signed "insufficient funds"
    Y'all get to that
    Can you get (I wanna know)
    I want to know if you can get to that
     
  12. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'
    That's what I said.
    The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand
    Or so I have read.
    My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo.
    I love to sink her with my pink torpedo.

    Big bottom
    Big bottom
    Talk about bum cakes,
    My gal's got 'em.
    Big bottom,
    Drive me out of my mind.
    How can I leave this behind?

    I saw her on Monday, twas my lucky fun day
    You know what I mean.
    I love her each weekday, each velvety cheek day
    You know what I mean.
    My love gun's loaded and she's in my sights
    Big game's waiting there inside her tights

    Big bottom
    Big bottom
    Talk about mud flaps
    My gal's got 'em.
    Big bottom
    Drive me out of my mind.
    How can I leave this behind?
     
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