When listening to music, listeners can be enthralled by all sorts of things. The style of music, instrumentation, production, lyrics, vocals, etc. Or some combination of those things.
The lyrics aren’t necessarily what first and foremost make a song appealing to me, but every so often there are lyrics that simply make me think ‘Wow! That segment of songwriting is indescribable and extraordinary’.
Recently I listened to a song which featured one such verse. A few other songs came to mind as well, which prompted me to wonder if I could come up with 10, to enable me to put together a list for this website.
So here’s the challenge: name a lyric/line/verse/chorus (but not an entire song) that leaves you thinking “Wow! Indescribable and extraordinary lyricism”.
Here are 10 which come to my mind:
Bitter Sweet Symphony (The Verve):
‘Cause it’s a bitter sweet symphony this life,
Trying to make ends meet, you’re a slave to money then you die’
Gimme some truth (John Lennon):
No short-haired yellow-bellied son of Tricky Dick
Is going to Mother Hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope/soap
You can never go home (Moody Blues):
Every happy ending needs to have a start
An innocent man (Billy Joel):
Some people sleep all alone every night instead of taking a lover to bed
Reflections of my life (Marmalade):
The world is a bad place, a bad place, a terrible place to live,
Oh, but I don’t want to die
Turn! turn! turn! (written by Pete Seeger, performed by The Byrds and numerous other artists):
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late
Name of the game (Badfinger):
Saw the railway master and I looked him in the eye
I said, “Would you go much faster if you thought that you would die?”
He said, “Not me, sir, I could not care, in fact, I would not try
For protest would not take me far, it’s different, me not bein’ a star”
I lock my feelings in a jar until another day
The song is over (The Who):
Excepting one note, pure and easy
Playing so free, like a breath rippling by
Ticket to the moon (Electric Light Orchestra):
Remember the good old 1980s
When things were so uncomplicated
I wish I could go back there again
And everything could be the same
Gone Hollywood (Supertramp):
So keep your chin up boy, forget the pain
I know you’ll make it if you try again
There’s no use in quitting
When the world is waiting for you
Now over to you, fellow readers.
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About Liam Hauser
A Queenslander through and through, Liam went out of his comfort zone as he had a thoroughly worthwhile time in Tumut and Gundagai from 2008 to 2016 before enjoying a year in Gunnedah. His strongest sporting interests are State of Origin, Sheffield Shield, Test cricket and the NRL. His sporting CV doesn’t have many highlights, although he once top-scored in a warehouse cricket match with 54 not out at number 10, and shared in an unbroken last wicket stand of 83 with the number 11 who scored an undefeated 52. Liam has written books including State of Origin 40 Years, A Century of Cricket Tests, A History of Test Cricket, The Immortals of Australian Cricket, The Immortals of Australian Rugby League, and The Great Grand Finals: Rugby League's Greatest Contests. Also a huge fan of Electric Light Orchestra.
It seems to me that songs/lyrics/albums tend to be associated mostly with particular places, times, people and/or experiences. They add meaning. Quite a range of songwriters and styles here, Liam.
Shelter from the Storm
I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form
‘Come in,’ she said, ‘I’ll give you shelter from the storm
Nice idea, Liam!
Great stuff Liam
The Sound of Silence
Hello darkness my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Hard to beat as an opening line – or any line for that matter
I am angry, I am ill and I’m as ugly as sin. My irritability keeps me a alive..I’m kicking. – Song From Under the Floorboards, Magazine
Papa was a rolling stone. Wherever he laid his hat was his home. And when he died, all he left us was alone. – Papa was a rolling stone, The Temptations
Well, I woke up Sunday morning. With no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt. And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad. So I had one more for dessert. – Sunday morning coming down, Kris Kristofferson
And I hope that you die. And your death will come soon. I’ll follow your casket. By the pale afternoon. And I’ll watch while you’re lowered. Down to your deathbed. And I’ll stand over your grave. ‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead. – Masters of war, Bob Dylan
Well, I stand up next to a mountain and I chop it down with the edge of my hand. – Voodoo Chile, Jimi Hendrix
I’d never met her type she ignored me and that’s alright. Never to be friends or my body lie on her floor. Her father works, her mother works in exports, but that’s of no importance at all. – Head full of steam, The Go Betweens
When I’m locked in my room.I just want to scream. And I know what they mean. (One more day of eating and sleeping). – Only the Strong, Midnight Oil
I’m high on the hill looking over the bridge to the MCG – Leaps and Bounds, Paul Kelly
Down city streets I would roam, I had no bed I had no home. And there was nothing that I owned, used my fingers as a comb. – Down city streets, Archie Roach
Just a short note. You’ll find the key inside, There’s no one home tonight. But come in anyway. – Short Note, Matt Finish
Nice Liam!
This is such a great theme Liam – and one I will no doubt return to multiple times as lyrics pop into my head.
First, a shout out to Ian W for Short Note – those lyrics you wrote out were one of the first that come to my mind.
Some one liners that stand out for me:
Don’t confront me with my failures, I had not forgotten them (Jackson Browne – These Days)
Tramps like us, baby we were born to run (Springsteen, Born To Run)
Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose (Kristofferson – Bobby McGee)
I melted wax to fix my wings, I done all the dumb things (Paul Kelly – Dumb Things)
When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose (Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone)
I fought the slab and the slab won – The Brady Bunch Lawnmower Massacre.
Nice one Liam. :)
How can you lie there and think of England
When you don’t even know who’s in the team?
– Greetings To The New Brunette, Billy Bragg
I don’t write songs about girls anymore
I have to write songs about women
No more boy meets girl boy loses girl
More like man tries to understand what the hell went wrong
– I’m An Adult Now – TPOH
And another thing
I’ve been wondering lately
-What’s My Scene – Hoodoo Gurus
I used to be disgusted
Now I try to be amused
– Red Shoes – Elvis Costello
With the money from her accident
She bought herself a mobile home
So at least she could get some enjoyment
Out of being alone
– Levi Stubbs’ Tears – Billy Bragg
It started up in Fife, it ended up in tears
– And A Bang On The Ear (The Waterboys)
Albert Einstein was a ladies’ man
when he was working on his universal plan
He was making out like Charlie Sheen
– Genius (Warren Zevon)
“She’s filing her nails while they’re dragging the lake…”
Watching the Detectives, Elvis Costello.
Great idea Liam, and obviously too many to mention, but I do love these lyrics, and yes they’re all sad, reflective songs:
1. Johnny Cash, I Still Miss Someone
At my door the leaves are falling
A cold wild wind will come
Sweethearts walk by together
And I still miss someone
2. Hank Williams, Lonesome Whistle
Just a kid actin’ smart
I went and broke my darlin’s heart
I guess I was too young to know
3. Lucinda Williams, Side of the Road
If only for a minute or two
I wanna see what it feels like to be without you
I wanna know the touch of my own skin
Against the sun, against the wind
4. John Prine, Angel from Montgomery
I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that’s grown old
If dreams were lightning, and thunder were desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago
Cheers
Perhaps my all time (non-Dylan) lyric:
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
‘Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?’
‘Meanwhile in the cargo of escargot / The temperature is rising…’
The above lyric snippet is from ‘Clockwork Creep’, written by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, recorded by 10cc. The song appears on their Sheet Music album (1974).
John Lennon
Mother, I needed you,
But guy didn’t need me.
Wow!!
You.
Bloodbuzz Ohio – The National
“I still owe money to the money, to the money I owe.”
Abel – The National
“My mind’s gone loose inside the shell.”
Powderfinger – Neil Young & Crazy Horse
“Daddy’s rifle in my hand felt reassurin’
He told me red means run son, numbers add up to nothin’.”
That’s Entertainment – The Jam
“Feeding ducks in the park and wishing you were far away.”
Common People – Pulp
“I want to sleep with common people like you.
Well, what else could I do?
I said I’ll … I’ll see what I can do.”
Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash
“But I shot a man in Reno
Just to watch him die.”
White Man in Hammersmith Palais – The Clash
“All over people changin’ their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They’d send a limousine anyway.”
Following My Own Tracks. – The Whitlams
“It’s all a part of understanding
Just how strange life can be
Living a lie becomes so easy
But now I just want to be free.”
Thanks Liam.
Not necessarily “indescribable,extraordinary lyricism” but these are certainly Wow lyrics that made me stop and think.
So don’t you come around here with your auctioneer man
‘Cause you can have the machines, but you ain’t taking my land
(Steve Earle – The Rain Came Down)
I don’t even know what I’m fightin’ for
I ain’t never owned a slave
(Steve Earle – Ben McCullough)
The aimless blade of science
Smashed the pearly gates
(Neil Young – Thrasher)
No matter where I am
I can’t help feeling I’m just a day away
From where I want to be
(Jackson Browne – Your Bright Baby Blues)
Also many moments in Dylan lyrics – With God on Our Side, Masters of War, Only A Pawn In Their Game etc.
Ladies let me tell you about myself
I got a dick for a brain
And my brain
Is gonna sell my ass to you
– Gentleman, Greg Dulli/Afghan Whigs
Who’s that guy, just hanging round your pad?
He’s looking kinda sore, well, you broke up, that’s too bad
I guess it’s fair, if he always pays the rent
And he doesn’t get bent
Abour sleeping on the couch when I’m there
– Bohemian Like You, Courtney Taylor-Taylor/Dandy Warhols
“And I’m lying on the table,
Washed out in the flood
LIke a Christian fearing vengeance from above
I don’t pretend to know what you want
But I offer love”
“Distant Sun”, Crowded House
That song alone has other brilliant, poignant lyrics from the lyrical genius Neil Finn.
A universal truth in 10 words – from Joni Mitchell
‘That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone’
Chuck Berry has too many great lyrics to list but this, from Brown Eyed Handsome Man, written in 1955, even before the Civil Rights movement got truly going, is one of the best opening lines in popular music:
Arrested on charges of unemployment/He was sittin’ in the witness stand/The judge’s wife called up the district attorney/She said “Free that brown-eyed man/If you want your job you’d better free that brown eyed man”
Taylor Swift has likewise too many great lyrics to list, but this song, Mean, written when she was 20, was when I thought, I better pay attention:
And I can see you years from now in a bar/Talking over a football game/With that same big, loud opinion
But nobody’s listening/Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things/Drunk and grumblin’ on about how I can’t sing/But all you are is mean
Love Hayes Carll and he has a stack of better songs than She Left Me for Jesus but these lyrics are pretty cool:
She’s givin’ up whiskey/And taken up wine/Why, she prays for his troubles/And has forgot about mine/I’m a gonna get even/I can’t handle the shame/Why the last time we made love/She even called out his name
And then there’s Jimmy Buffett, again, stack of good songs but West Nashville Grand Ballroom Gown has stayed with me from the first time I heard it way, way back:
She said, “Mama I’m fine if you happen to wonder/I don’t have much money but I still get around
/I haven’t made church in near thirty-six Sundays/So fuck all those West Nashville grand ballroom gowns”
I’ve come late to this because of computer problems. Some of my favorites have been mentioned but I have many more.
Casey’s Last Ride – Kris Kristofferson
“Casey leaves the underground and stops inside the golden crown
For something wet to wipe away the chill that’s in his bones
Seeing his reflection in the lives of all the lonely men
Who reach for anything they can to keep from going home”
Streets of London – Ralph McTell
“Have you seen the old man
Outside the seaman’s mission
Memory fading with
The medal ribbons that he wears.
In our winter city
The rain cries a little pity
For one more forgotten hero
And a world that doesn’t care”
Fourth of July Asbury Park (Sandy) – Bruce Springsteen
“Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie
For tellin’ fortunes better than they do?”
(Back in the late 70s I used these lines from Bruce to introduce an article that I wrote about police profiling young people; it’s a really good lyric)
Bleeker Street – Simon and Garfunkel
“A poet reads his crooked rhyme
Holy, holy is his sacrament
Thirty dollars pays your rent
On Bleecker Street”
The Circle Game – Joni Mitchell
“So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There’ll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
And go round and round and round
In the circle game”
(Love this song. I want it played at my funeral)
Sweet Old World – Lucinda Williams
“Millions of us in love, promises made good
Your own flesh and blood
Looking for some truth, dancing with no shoes
The beat, the rhythm, the blues
The pounding of your heart’s drum together with another one
Didn’t you think anyone loved you
See what you lost when you left this world,
this sweet old world”
The War is Over – Phil Ochs (1968)
“So do your duty, boys, and join with pride
Serve your country in her suicide
Find a flag so you can wave goodbye
But just before the end even treason might be worth a try
This country is too young to die”
(After 5 years of singing songs against America’s invasion of Vietnam Phil Ochs despaired, but it’s a powerful song as is the next song written years earlier)
I Ain’t Marching Anymore – Phil Ochs
“It’s always the old to lead us to the wars
Always the young to fall
Now look at all we’ve won with the saber and the gun
Tell me, is it worth it all?”
I have more lyrics that greatly moved more. I haven’t mentioned any Bob or any Australian songs but this post is already too long. More later.
‘Positively 4th Street’ – Bob Dylan
This has to be the most viscous verbal attack in music I would think. (By the way, my favourite Bob song!)
‘You’ve got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend
When I was down you just stood there grinnin’
You’ve got a lotta nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that’s winnin’
You say I let you down, ya know its not like that
If you’re so hurt, why then don’t you show it?
You say you’ve lost your faith, but that’s not where its at
You have no faith to lose, and ya know it
I know the reason, that you talked behind my back
I used to be among the crowd you’re in with
Do you take me for such a fool, to think I’d make contact
With the one who tries to hide what he don’t know to begin with?
You see me on the street, you always act surprised
You say “how are you?”, “good luck”, but ya don’t mean it
When you know as well as me, you’d rather see me paralyzed
Why don’t you just come out once and scream it
No, I do not feel that good when I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief perhaps I’d rob them
And tho I know you’re dissatisfied with your position and your place
Don’t you understand, its not my problem?
I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is to see you’
Thank you to the FA team for reprising my Warner essay and thought, I should include a few Warner songs here:
Suburban Boy:
I go to the football and I cheer for my team/Go to the football to hear myself scream/I’m just a suburban boy just a suburban boy/Sunday session I’m down at the hotel/Staring at girls that I don’t know well/I’m just a suburban boy just a suburban boy/And I know what it’s like/To be rejected every night/And I’m sure that it must be/Easier for boys from the city.)
Free Kicks:
I knew a man once who held society in his palm/He was a winner and a winger he pushed women in the back with his charm./He was never offside but he was always pretty off when he spoke/And I envied this man ’cause I was such an average bloke/Then one day he broke the rules got drunk at a discotheque/Society threw him out trippin’ up a debutante and grabbing round the neck)
We Want a Kid:
We’ll have a nanny or a granny or manny to serve/And we will be parents ‘cause that’s what we deserve/Promise we’ll be there every other weekend/It’ll never be lonely we’ll buy it some friends
Strange Night:
Tom skidded to a halt in his parents’ garage/We got out to see where he’s hit the verge/There was a bit of blood right across the bumper/I wiped it down with my Christmas jumper/Tom said “It was a pity about that dog/But I couldn’t see nothing, my windows were fogged”/We all agreed it was a top night out/We still had two Emu Export and some Kalgoorlie Stout
A few more have come to mind.
New Dawn Fades – Joy Division
“Different colors, different shades
Over each mistakes were made
I took the blame
Directionless, so plain to see
A loaded gun won’t set you free
So you say”
Runaway Train – Soul Asylum
“Can you help me remember how to smile?
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile
How on earth did I get so jaded?
Life’s mystery seems so faded
I can go where no one else can go
I know what no one else knows
Here I am, just a-drowning in the rain
With a ticket for a runaway train”
“And everything seems cut and dry
Day and night
Earth and sky
Somehow, I just don’t believe it”
Heaven – Talking Heads
“There is a party, everyone is there
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time
When this party’s over, it will start again
Will not be any different, will be exactly the same”