I was listening to some music recently and got into a discussion of specific lines in songs which are truly memorable, either because of their impact on the culture or their impact on oneself. Certainly there are brief phrases or lines from songs or poems which have been far better remembered than the original piece, have been used as book titles, etc. It's easy to think of many examples from Shakespeare or Longfellow or Emily Dickinson. But this process is ongoing, and certainly there are words from the music of our lifetime and culture which have achieved at least personal significance for each of us. Please post one or more such lines, and perhaps a little bit about what it means to you.113 responses total.
From Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon:
"Listen, son," said the man with the gun,
"There's room for you inside."
To me, this is one of the most chilling images in all of pop music.
I imagine the concentration camp guard motioning a boy into the gas
chamber, already nearly full of people.
From George Bedard & the Kingpins, "I'm My Own Dog"
"Whenever I whine, I let myself in,
scratch myself right under my chin.
"Howl at the moon when it gets dark,
keep myself awake at night when I bark,
...'cuz I;'m my own dog, yeah yeah."
This is sort of my attitude ever since I got divorced years ago.
It's hard, if not impossible, for me to imagine anyone doing
stuff for me ever again.
I can't remember the *whole* quote, but:
"..for us, it's unattainable,
the idiotism of perfection."
and that's from "Onion" by Wislava Szymborska, the Nobel prize winner for
poetry thiis year. It's applicable to my life because it gives me some
justification for my grades to my slave-driver teachers. (;
Now linked to music. "j music" at the next Ok: prompt to discuss all aspects of recorded music as well as music performence.
I love the words to "30 Years", Betty Carter sings it. . .they change a little each time, though. Hmm, words I can actualy remember, though. . . "Let the Moment go, don't forget it for a moment, though. . . When you've had an "and" and you're back to "or". . . makes the "or" mean more than it did before. . . Now I understand, and it'd time to leave the woods!" I guess that's meaningful to me because I need to reminded of letting ands go for ors and ors go for ands, or I get sickeningly sentimental.
My favorite would have to be from nine inch nails Ringfinger: "If I was twice the man I could be, I'd still be half of what you need" Just cause for a long time there I was one obsessed little bugger.
Song by Mariah Carey, Hero "And then a hero comes along, With a strength to carry on, And you cast you fear aside, And you know you can survive, So when you feel that hope is gone, Look inside you and be strong, And you finally see the truth, That a hero lies in you" I always reminded myself of these lines whenever I'm feeling down and upset about things. The song somehow makes me feel that there *is* hope after all.
"I've been all around the world, and seen so many faces.
Young and old, a story told, filling in my spaces."
--Yes, "paralells" from the Going for the One Album
Yes has to be my alltime favorite "rock" group, but I don't
quite think all their music is of that genere. At any rate,
their positive upbeat and different view of thw world has been
something of an inspiration for me since I first heard the
"Fragile" album with "Roundabout" back in 1974 or so.
"there's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear ..."
"Well I used to go crazy for days at a time
Now I'm taking my time with my days.
Haven't found the answers like some that I know
I'm just stuck in a fairly nice maze."
-Jimmy Buffett, "Stranded on a Sandbar"
The point being, if you quit trying to understand the world, it can be pretty
nice. I don't do that all the time, but once in a while.
I like mine with lettuce and tomato,
Heinz 57 and French fried potatoes,
A big Kosher pickle and a cold draft beer,
So, good gosh almighty, which way do I steer?
- Jimmy Buffett, "Cheeseburger in Paradise"
The line people remember from NIN is generally the famou "I wanna f--- you like an animal" though for me the entirety of "Big Man With a Gun" stands out. Excellent use of imagery... truly haunting. to me, one of the more significant lines I've heard is from Lights Out by the newsboys. "Don't go shutting down tilll the trumpet sounds and the battle is won." It echos my habit of not giving up on things till the very end.
Anything by REM. For me, the most moving and intense seeming are the ones
off 'Automatic for the People'. Even 'Everybody Hurts', which everyone I know
seems to hate, means a lot to me, corny though it may be.
"Well when you feel life ain't worth living, you've got to stand up
and take a look around, then you look way up to the sky.
And when your deepest thoughts are broken, then you better
keep dreaming, boy, 'cause when you stop dreaming it's time to die."
--Blind Melon
"When I look at the television, I want to see me staring right back at me."
--Counting Crows
The two most stiking lines for me are:
"If I could speak in tongues of flame/I'd burn forever with your name."
-October Project "One Dream"
and
"So tired, of playin', playin' with your bow and arrows
gonna give my heart away, leave it to the other girls to play.
For I've been a temptress too long..."
-Portishead "Glory Box"
They just seta mood for me, that makes me feel so real.
This response has been erased.
Re 15. On the same subject:
It's so easy to dream of the days gone by,
It's a hard thing to think of the times to come
But the grace to accept every moment as a gift
Is a gift that is given to some
Chorus: What can you do with your days, but work and hope
Let your dreams bind your work and your play
What can you do with each moment of your life
But love 'til you've loved it away ...
(Bob Franke, "Thanksgiving Eve")
Or to get back to shorter excerpts:
"You know there ain't no Devil, there's just God when he's drunk."
Tom Waits, "Heartattack & Vine"
The two songs that I've heard that are most important to me are "Roll the
Bones" by Rush, and "Ironic" by Alanis Morisette. I'm sure that reveals lots
of strange things about me. :) Anyway, quotes:
Why are we here? Because we're here, Roll the Bones.
Why does it happen? Because it happens, Roll the Bones.
Roll the Bones.
Rush, "Roll the Bones"
It's like rain, on your wedding day.
It's a free ride, when you've already paid.
It's the good advice, that you just didn't take.
And who would have thought, it figures.
Life has a funny way of sneeking up on you when you think
everything's okay, and everything's going right.
And life has a funny way of helping you out when when
you think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up
in your face.
And isn't it ironic?
Alanis Morissette, "Ironic"
"Somewhere down in my sole there is an echo of my youth.
Som pithy little saying that contains a grain of truth.
If patience is a virtue, persistence is its mark.
It's better to light a candle, than stand and curse the dark.
But if we stand together we can turn this world around,
Hold your ground."
Just means Don't give up. :-)
something about: "when the pirates own the flag and sell us sermons on restraint" from Harry Chapin, lamenting the crass commercialization of national icons and other things. "i was so much older then, i'm younger than that now" about getting over the early onset of maturity by... david crosby? i have numerous others, but i haven't listened to so much of my music for so long that they've faded. i'll have to report back.
re #20 "younger than that now," is by Bob Dylan off his early LP Another Side of Bob Dylan.
(and the song's title is "My Back Pages"..)
ahh yes. i was remembering a cover of it by the byrds, i think... and then associating that with crosby via stills, who was in the byrds... amazing how the mind doesn't work...
The unseen bondage of those who live to gamble:
"There are unsmiling faces and bright plastic chains
and a wheel in perpetual motion
And they follow the races and pay out the gains
with no show of an outward emotion
"And they think it will make their lives easier
for God know up to now it's been hard
But the game never ends when your whole world depends
on the turn of a friendly card
No the game never ends when your whole world depends
on the turn of a friendly card
"There's a sign in the desert that lies to the west
where you can't tell the night from the sunrise
And not all the King's horses and all the King's men
can prevent the fall of the unwise
"......
"There are unsmiling faces in fetters and chains
on a wheel in perpetual motion
Who belong to all races and answer all names
with no show of an outward emotion
"And they think it will make their lives easier
but the doorway before them is barred
And the game never ends when your whole world depends
on the turn of a friendly card
No the game never ends when your whole world depends
on the turn of a friendly card"
(The Turn of a Friendly Card by
The Alan Parsons Project)
Um, I realize I contributed to this, but I really meant "lines" to be one or two or maybe a verse, not entire songs. No matter how interesting the song may be, yards and yards of song lyrics only annoy and bore your readers.
Well, I'm neither annoyed nor bored, but that's just me.
"What is the point of this story? What information pertains?
The though that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts
And our brains."
--Paul Simon
"Got to be good looking 'cause he's so hard to see."
--The Beatles
"I'm gonna blow this damn candle out,
I don't want Nobody comin' over to my table
I got nothing to talk to anybody about
All good dreamers pass this way some day
Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafes
Only a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings and fly away
Only a phase, these dark cafe days."
--Joni Mitchell
I love Joni Mitchell.
For all of Joni Mitchell's fans, here are some more memorable lyrics from her: They paved paradise; put in a parking lot With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot. Don't it always seem to know That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone. They paved paradise; put in a parking lot.
oh, boy, you guys just put in something that could keep me WAY too
amused....:)
well, lets just start with rush, pink floyd, styx, and supertramp, and move
from there. :)
"All the worlds indeed a stage, and we are mearly players
Performers and portryaers
Each anothers audieance outside that guilded cage"
Camera Eye, Rush
"But when your born to run, it's so hard to just slow down"
Back in the Highlife
"Luxemburg is next to go, and who knows, maybe Monoco
We'll try to stay serene and calm, when Alabama gets the bomb!"
Who's Next, Tom Leher (it's about the cold war)
This response has been erased.
We came up, from the subway
To the music midnight makes
With Charlie's bass and Lester's saxophone
And taxi horns and brakes
(Joni)
here's one of my favs: If i had a million dollars by Bare Naked Ladies "if i had a million dollars... i'd buy you a monkey.... havnt you always wanted a monKEY!?!?!!? :)" ****i dedicate this quote to Megan... my heart beat****
"Children growing up, old friends getting older.
Freeze this moment a little bit longer;
Make each sensation a little bit stronger."
-- "Time Stand Still" by Rush
"I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints."
-- "Only the Good Die Young" by Billy Joel
"I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead"
- Jimmy Buffett, "Growing Older But Not Up"
"and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere there in space
because there's bugger all down here on hearth!"
Monty Python
"To love another person is to see the face of God.." -Les Mis I'm not a religious type (just the opposite) but that quote always gets me in the heart.
This response has been erased.
Counting flowers on the wall;
That don't bother me at all.
Playing solitaire 'til dawn
With a deck of fifty-one.
Smoking cigarettes and watching "Captain Kangaroo."
Now don't tell me I've nothing to do.
- Statler Brothers, "Flowers On The Wall"
(Wow! Another Statler's fan! Neato)
[reminds me, i used to do that tune... /rush]
I like the Statler's as well, as I do most country music.
"Look up on the wall baby, and hand me down my shootin' iron
Look up on the wall baby, and hand me down my shootin' iron
Call your mama long distance, tell her to expect your body home
You've done me so wrong, you're way out on that boot hill"
-Stevie Ray Vaughan "Boot Hill"
Rise again, rise again. Though your heart it be broken
And life about to end.
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend,
Like the Marry Ellen Carter rise again.
Stan Rogers
So come all you fine young fellows who've been beaten to the ground.
This weatern life's no paradise, but it's better than lying down.
Oh, the streets aren't clean, and there's nothin' green, and the hills are
dirty brown.
But the government dole will rob your soul back there in your home town.
So bid fair well to the eastern town you never more will see.
There's self respect and a steady cheque in this refinery.
You will miss the green and the hills and streams and the dust will fill
your nose.
But you'll be free, and just like me, an idiot, I suppose.
Stan Rogers
She was bred in Old Kentucky,
But she's just a crumb down here.
She's knock-kneed and double jointed
With a cauliflower ear.
Someday we'll get married,
And if the vegetables aren't too dear,
I'll cut me up a slice
Of her cauliflower ear,
'Cause that ain't rationed.
- Curly (of the Three Stooges) in "I Can Hardly Wait"
"ARE WE NOT MEN?" "WE ARE DEVO!"
heeeeee. . .
okay, here's one of my favorties:
We go to the playground in the witertime
the sun is fading fast upon the slides into the past
upon the swings of indecision
in the wintertime
We play that we're actors on a movie screen
I will be ---? and you will be Dean
YOu stand with your hands in your pocket
and lean against the wall
YOu can be bogart and I will be BeCall
-Suzanne Vega
"So we asked for some tea, and she said, "No! We only have iced."
So we jumped up on the table and shouted "ANARCHY!"
<eg> "Punk Rock Girl" -- Dead Milkmen
Heh. THe Dead Milkmen's song "Bitchin' Camaro" was a big hit on campus when I was a freshman in college. I didn't know they were still around.
The strange thing is that I'm very heavily into music (I play at least one instrument at a pro level, and several more at lesser skill levels), but I don't find anything interesting about lyrics themselves. I think Tom Waits writes some great stuff, and I like songs, but in general I listenr more to *sounds* rather than words. Right now I'm listening to some Japanese pop music.
Some music is like that for me--it doesn't matter what the lyrics are. Other music, I find the best way to listen is to read along on the liner notes so I don't miss a word. It doesn't even seem to depend on the quality of the lyrics.
I have no musical talent, but I am rather good at seaprating out different parts in a musical piece and analyzing them. It comes in handy when I want to know what guitaars are doing what in a song.
"All we are is dust in the wind" - Kansas
I used to feel the same way about it, scott, but I hung out with a couple of people who do alot of work with word and music this year, and my husbands a librettist, and I've come to be more intereted in words. . .some of them are quite beautiful, and some of the most amazing songs have this really amazing subtle iterplay betwen the words and the music. . .
"Long December, and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last... I can't remember all those times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass" --Counting Crows "Time is never time at all. You can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth." --Smashing Pumpkins "The more you suffer, the more it shows you really care." --Offspring
Usually, I am more strongly moved by instrumental passages because of the
language barriers they transcend and the poignancy of emotion they can convey.
But here are two lyrical lines that stand out strongly in my mind:
"In a world full of people, only some want to fly-- isn't that crazy?"
--Seal
"Get the balance right!"
--Martin Lee Gore of Depeche Mode
OK, I did stumble across a couple I like
Took the Cannonball down to the ocean
Watched the diesel disappear beneath the tumbling waves
Counting Crows "Ghost Train"
Wearing full black leather and my best fishing hat...
Primus "Harold of the Rocks"
Ooh...Ghost Train--I love that one.
I'm surprised you didn't quote the full stanza, the last two lines are the
best:
Love is a ghost train howling on the radio
Remember everything she said when only memory remains.
there's a line i tend to remember on my glummer days, and in an odd
way it usually cheers me up a bit:
"i'm a bad dream i just had today"
---- jethro tull
This response has been erased.
Just because you disagree with what they're saying doesn't mean they're not beautiful lyrics.
"Thank God we're not God's fault"
from 'The Preacher & The Prof', discussing evolution
versus creation by Dr. Jane Robinson
Here's to the weeping widow, here's to the unborn child
Mercy on the mourners, someone's mourning all the while
See the one-horse wonder, there by the wishing well
Here's to the rain and thunder, here's to the tolling bell
Thanks to Mother Mercy, thanks to Father Time
Another life is over, and we're walking down the line.
From one of Priscilla Herdman's albums.
I used to use "Mercy on the Mourners" as my conf. name during the war in
Bosnia.
remember wearing flowers in your hair
remember how we promised that we would always care
remember peace and freedom and the brotherhood of man
remember the rainbow and the dove
remember love.
chorus of 'rainbow adn the dove' from _dreamsinger_, by marae price.
God didn't make little green apples,
And it don't rain in Indianapolis
In the summertime.
- "Little Green Apples" written by Bobby Russell
P.S. Try telling that "It don't rain in Indianapolis" bit to the drivers in
the "Indianapolis 500!"
It isn't summer yet. :-)
Once beneath the stars, the universe was ours.
Love was all we knew, and all I knew was you.
I wonder if you know, I wonder if you think about me,
Once upon a time in your wildest dreams.
Moody blues
i went to see the doctor of philosophy with a poster of rasputin and a beard down to his knee he never did marry, or see a b-grade movie he graded my performance, he said he could see through me i spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper and i was free... -indigo girls, 'closer to fine'
<applause for bru for quoting one her favorite passages> =) Yes, Mark, the Dead Milkmen are still popular among most of us, along with the Dead Kennedys. Actually, us = twentysomethings, so maybe high schools really wouldn't recognize the old punk lyrics. =( Shame really... <bg>
#64 reminded me of
I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies
In my lover's bed
With a wide open country in my eyes
And these romantic dreams in my head
-Bruce Springsteen, "No Surrender"
Katie once told me that all you really need in life is someone to love,
something to do, and something to look forward to. I think that's what
Bruce means, too.
Funny, I just heard that quote from my gym teacher (Katie's, not Bruce's)
I like that philosophy!
lesse.. I know a few..
---You ain't know a thing less you got that swing..-- Somethin; like
dat.. I love Ellign er ellign doh.. ellington
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi
--Garrison Keilor
<sorry>
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more-
- Bob Dylan
i believe the line in #71 is attributable to peter schickele (sp?) a.k.a. pdq bach.
Peter Shickele is PDQ Bach?
Learn something new every day!
This response has been erased.
I did not know that. That's really neat.
wow. i didn't know that was news....
"sitting on the floor
with a bottle in my hand
in my confusion
it the safest place to land
now i can't stand"
tara maclean, that's me
(HIGHLY reccomend this album....:)
"my name is kaine
and i am now un-able"
cowboy mouth, janie says
This response has been erased.
"Mabye I'm wrong,
mabye I'm right,
mabye I'm some kind of lunatic."
Queensryche, Gonna Get Close To You
This response has been erased.
RE #82 Valerie, the correct lyrics to that Billy Joel song ("You May Be
Right"), go as follows:
You may be right.
I may be crazy,
But I just might be the lunatic you're looking for.
This response has been erased.
Maybe I'm right, or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'll find a place in this world, or never belong. I gotta be me! I gotta be me! What else can I be but what I am?
RE #85 That was from "I Gotta Be Me" by Sammy Davis Jr. BTW, the first two lines have "Whether" in place of "Maybe."
"You and your think-tank entourage are all counter-culture demigods, you're so technical, you go hacking around the world.."
(Re: long time ago. Did I really say Garrison Keilor? ACK!)
how about this old standby: bye bye miss american pie drove my chevy to the levy but the levy was dry some good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye singing 'this will be the day that i die, this will be the day that i die...'
This response has been erased.
"free nelson mandela" "21 years in captivity, are you so blind that you can not see, are you so deaf that you can not hear, are you so dumb that you can not speak?" i think that says alot about the world we live in
"I met her in a pub down in Nottingham
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like
Coca-Cola.
C-O-L-A cola."
- "Lola" by the Kinks
(P.S. You may want to substitute "cherry cola" for "Coca-Cola.")
This response has been erased.
re: 89 i think it's levee. levy is to charge a tax.
Well, a chevy could incur gas tax.... "Angie...I still love you, Maybe it's time to say goodbye" I have this song only on Tori Amos's 'crucify' EP, which has both originals and covers on it, so I don't know if it's hers or someone else's. Regardless, it sums up the last stages of a relationship perfectly for me.
Interestingly enough, it turns out to have been written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards...
No! <feigns shock..> Didn't they have something to do with that "can't get no contentment" song, too?
;)
OK. I'm making a fool of myself and I know it. Anybody else here ever here
of the musical Pippin? The tunes haven't worn well at all, but I have totally
fallen in love with the lyrics.
Rivers belong where they can ramble
Eagles belong where they can fly
I've got to be where my spirit can run free
Got to find my corner of the sky.
-corner of the sky
So he ran from all the deeds he'd done,
he ran from things he'd just begun
He ran from himself, which was mighty
far to run
Out into the country where he'd played
as a boy
Cause he knew he had to find him
some simple joys.
-simple joys
Hi Tricia, welcome to the music conference, or the old Agora conference, wherever you are reading this from! I've heard of this musical, though I know absolutely nothing about it.
Hello (yet again) Tricia... It's a '70s musical, I belive, krj, but snowth probably knows better.
Yeah. It's '72. *Very* '72. Real good, for what it was, but it hasn't aged well at all. It had Ben Vereen in it, though, who I absolutely adore. Too much watching Zoobliezoo when I was a young muppet, I guess.
re #93: pub should be "swamp." Ain't ya ever seen _The Empire Strikes Back_?
<Snowth giggles at the thought of a pub on Degoba>
"When you were here before couldn't look you in the eye you're just like an angel, your skin makes me cry you float like a feather in a beautiful world I wish I was special you're so fucking special but I'm a creep i'm a weirdo what the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here I don't care if it hurts I want to have control I want a perfect body I want a perfect soul I want you to notice when I'm not around you're so fucking special I wish I was special." -Radiohead, Creep It seems odd that despite this song was released almost 6 years ago, I never noticed it's existance until a couple of years ago while surfing the net. Same pity that I am just now responding to this thread, huh?
"Creep" was basically the only single from "Pablo Honey" to get significant airplay. "The Bends" was Radiohead's breakthrough album, largely on the strength of the singles "Fake Plastic Trees" and "High and Dry". The follow-up album, "OK Computer" was a big hit with the critics but didn't get much airplay. I guess I never figured out what was all that special about "OK Computer" myself..
"When I'm in doubt I just whip it on out... I got me a rock'n roll band. It's a Free For All!" ---t. nugent
"Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen. I don't know when, but just saying it could even make it happen." - Kate Bush These lines always cheer me up.
"Imagination, like a muscle, will increase with exercise..." - Peter Blegvad "Your name in my mouth quenches thirst like water." - ibid. (a beautiful image, IMO)
Ooh, I _love_ that second one. Who the heck is Peter Blegvad?
My vague memory is that Peter Blegvad hangs out with the Henry Cow & Slapp Happy crowd, but is more of a linear singer-songwriter than most of those guys. I've got a disc of his in a box somewhere. :(
Yeah, that's right. One of my all-time favorite artists. Sadly, most of his stuff is either not available domestically or else it's out of print.
(Thank you, Valerie, for bringing this item to my attention. :/ )
Lessee.
Every time I tried to tell you, the words just came out wrong.
So I'll have to say "I love you" in a song.
J Croce
I'd save every day like a treasure just to spend them with you.
J Croce
Let's forget about this call, nobody there I really wanted to
talk to.
J Croce
And the operator said, "Forty cents more for the next three
minutes, please", Mrs Avery I just wanted to tell her goodbye.
Dr Hook and
the Medicine
Show.
You have several choices: