Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Arts and Entertainment => Topic started by: iddu on 04 February, 2013, 09:24:49 am
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"Can't swim so I took a boat, to an island so remote
Only Johnny Depp has ever been to it before"
;D
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One from a recent album purchase:
"...I like driving backwards, in the fog,
'Cos it doesn't remind me of anything..."
From Chris Cornell - Songbook (the song is Doesn't Remind Me)
And, though not lyrics, one track that ALWAYS makes me grin like a loon, with just the opening notes, is "Jump Around" by House of Pain, it's one of those songs that you can't help but smile and jump around to...
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"There's a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets!"
National Shite Day by Half Man Half Biscuit. A funny line from a very intense song.
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One from a recent album purchase:
"...I like driving backwards, in the fog,
'Cos it doesn't remind me of anything..."
From Chris Cornell - Songbook (the song is Doesn't Remind Me)
A Tune of Splendid :thumbsup: Well I remember the entire Brixton Academy leaping up and down to that...
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"...I like driving backwards, in the fog,
'Cos it doesn't remind me of anything..."
From Chris Cornell - Songbook (the song is Doesn't Remind Me)
It's "Travelling backwards" isn't it?
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"...I like driving backwards, in the fog,
'Cos it doesn't remind me of anything..."
From Chris Cornell - Songbook (the song is Doesn't Remind Me)
It's "Travelling backwards" isn't it?
Nope, just checked it and it's definitely "Driving backwards"
ETA, on "Songbook" he does sort of mumble it a bit.
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, one track that ALWAYS makes me grin like a loon, with just the opening notes, is "Jump Around" by House of Pain, it's one of those songs that you can't help but smile and jump around to...
One of my colleagues has that as his ring tone. Excellent.
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"I get up around 7, get out of bed around 9"
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"...I like driving backwards, in the fog,
'Cos it doesn't remind me of anything..."
From Chris Cornell - Songbook (the song is Doesn't Remind Me)
It's "Travelling backwards" isn't it?
Nope, just checked it and it's definitely "Driving backwards"
ETA, on "Songbook" he does sort of mumble it a bit.
He definitely says travelling in a live version I've got. Maybe he doesn't want to encourage kids to drive backwards :P
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Odd.
Maybe he just makes it up as he goes along? :D
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Well, there are an awful lot of things that don't remind him of anything :P
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Going completely off at a tangent to the OP, I wonder, if he does the things that don't remind him of anything enough, will they eventually remind him of things that remind him of nothing, at which point his brain disappears up it's own orifice?
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There's a great lyric in the Mountain Goats' New Chevrolet in Flames:
"O would that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth, cos your mouth is sweeter than wine and has a more complicated history than the American South".
And, obviously, the way John Lydon makes "anarchist" and "antichrist" rhyme when he sings Anarchy in the UK.
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I hope my legs don't break
walking on the moon
A very rational fear methinks.
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Lots of bands get pissed off with their record companies, so write inappropriate or rubbish songs just to fulfil contractual agreements. I think the best example of this is Schoolboy Blues by The Stones.
Just imagine the record company execs outrage when they first heard the lines:
"Where can I get my cock sucked? Where can I get my arse fucked?"
Unsurprisingly, it didn't get released at the time, but they'd given Decca the one last single they owed them. Always makes me smile :)
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"There's a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets!"
National Shite Day by Half Man Half Biscuit. A funny line from a very intense song.
There are plenty of candidates from HMHB songs. That's a good'un. So's this...
"G is for the gnarled face of someone who's on 90,000 a week/ And reckoned he should have had a throw-in"
I'm always charmed by the winsome whimsy of Belle & Sebastian, among my favourite lines being this line from Another Sunny Day, in which a boy playing football is being watched by a girl he fancies:
"I saw you in the corner of my eye on the sidelines/ Your dark mascara bids me to historical deeds"
d.
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Anything by Tom Lehrer, the Harvard Bard, is a marvellous antidote to a crap day:
http://iankitching.me.uk/humour/lehrer/
;D
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I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
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"Little old lady got mutilated late last night..."
-Werewolves Of London by Warren Zevon
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Fuck you, Mr Smith
But fuck's too nice a word for it
Put a stick in there, and twist it
Mr Smith ~ The Dear Janes.
Mr Smith was an A&R man from Geffen Records...
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"Quick, run, hide, here comes Dave Stewart / Walking up the drive, with that look in his eye / That 'Let's do a project' look, about third-rate Swiss agit-prop"
"Nero fiddles while Gordon Burns"
"A woman who described herself as 'A little bit Bridget, a little bit Ally, a little bit Sex And The City' and chose to call her baby boy Fred as a childishly rebellious attempt at a clever reaction to those who might have expected her to call him Julian or Rupert. Bit of advice: call him Rupert, it fits, and besides it’s a good name. Don’t be calling him Fred or Archie, with all its cheeky but lovable working class scamp connotations, unless you really do have plans for him to spend his life in William Hill’s waiting for them to weigh in at Newton Abbot."
"Not long now before lollipop men are called Darren"
"Your optimism strikes me like junk mail addressed to the dead"
"I tried to put everything into perspective, set it against the scale of human suffering. And I thought of the Mugabe government, and the children of the Calcutta Railways. This worked for a while, but then I encountered Primark FM."
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It's wrong to wish on space hardware.
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Does the photograph show the wrong man, cause there is no soul star holding your hand?
(which is a 'frown' one, obv)
Mr Pharmacist, won't you help me out today, in your usual lovely way?
I get that as an earworm everytime I see the staff pharmacist and he must wonder why I always smirk like that when I see him.
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Yet more Half Man Half Biscuit:
"I'm off to see the Bootleg Beatles as the Bootleg Mark Chapman"
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How many lyrics 'work' as plain text?
Seeing this thread I thought of a few I like, but I hear them in the context of the tune and the backing.
I bought a "Book of Classic Lyrics" type book once (for about tuppence), and it left me completely cold (apart from about 5 from songs I already knew). Can't help thinking that if I quote some of my favourites, they'll come across the same way - just bad poetry, or pointless ramblings.
Often it's just cos you don't the right phrasing off the page. Lines look like they don't scan, but sung right, they do!
[sorry to be such a downer, man!]
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Dylan - can't even remember the song, but something like:
I said, they said that to Jesus
They said, you're not him
Oh, and you still can't beat Joe Jackson's
Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street
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Dylan - can't even remember the song, but something like:
I said, they said that to Jesus
They said, you're not him
You know they refused Jesus too?
He said, you're not him
Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
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Chaka Demus & Pliers - Tease Me
"I will never forget the first time we kissed It's like striking goal, catching a big fish"
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I want the future now,
I want to see it on the screen,
I want to break the bounds
that make our lives so mean.
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"Excuse me while I suck your blood,
excuse me when I phone you,
I've got every one of your records, man,
doesn't that mean I own you?"
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"That's a lousy life for the washed up wife of a permanently plastered, pissed up bastard"
Baddie's Boogie - Babyshambles
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My dislexia jean kicked in when I glanced at this thread title and I momentarily though it said "Lycra that makes you grin (or frown)..."
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This is a song to all my friends
They take the challenge to their hearts
Challenging preconceived ideas
Saying goodbye to long standing fears
Don't crack up
Bend your brain
See both sides
Throw off your mental chains
I don't wanna be hip and cool
I don't wanna play by the rules
Not under the thumb of the cynical few
Or laden down by the doom crew
It's getting 'Challenging preconceived ideas' into the rhyme scheme without it becoming a ponderous Sting-style song that makes me smile. That and the memory of the dancer with the type of plastic chains you see in suburban gardens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FagjnIgUk6Q
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And the devil asked me to supper
He said "Careful with the spoons"
And God said "Oh ignore him
I've got all your albums"
And I said "Yes, but who's got all the tunes?"
When I Was Dead ~ Robyn Hitchcock.
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"Underneath the shade of the Average Tree,
Where they handed out mediocrity,
I saw you with Alchemy under your arm,
Standing in the middle of a loooooong queue"
A Lilac Harry Quinn - HMHB
"The singer out of Slipknot went to Rome to see the Pope, (repeat to the tune of Glory, Glory Hallelujah)
And the Pope said to his aide:
'Who the fucking hell are Slipknot, (repeat)
In relation to me getting out of bed?'"
Vatican Broadside - HMHB
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So you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts,
What's so amazing about really deep thoughts?,
Boy, you'd best pray that I bleed real soon,
How's that thought for you?
Silent All These Years - Tori Amos
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From Bob Dylan's "Masters of War"
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.
Though I think it should also be quoted at the investment bankers.
The preceeding verse also strikes home:
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.
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Robyn Hitchcock.
Nice choice Mr L. I'd struggle to choose one Hitchcock lyric that makes me grin (or frown...) I'll go for:
Please don't call me Reg. It's not my name.
(Not yet)
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Stop that dope smoking, stop that masturbation
Take the Lord into your heart and stop that fornication
We're building us an army, gonna knock out Satan
Visa or Mastercard, our operators are waiting
Drive by Truckers - Too much sex (too little Jesus)
Not sure why but it always makes me grin.
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It's wrong to wish on space hardware.
+1
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Mike Oldfield - 'Moonlight Shadow'
Four a.m. in the morning,
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
As opposed to four a.m in the evening? Just grates.
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How many lyrics 'work' as plain text?
Seeing this thread I thought of a few I like, but I hear them in the context of the tune and the backing.
I bought a "Book of Classic Lyrics" type book once (for about tuppence), and it left me completely cold (apart from about 5 from songs I already knew). Can't help thinking that if I quote some of my favourites, they'll come across the same way - just bad poetry, or pointless ramblings.
Often it's just cos you don't the right phrasing off the page. Lines look like they don't scan, but sung right, they do!
[sorry to be such a downer, man!]
It's a good point. Has anyone ever read Jim Morrison's poetry? :facepalm:
They all make sense within the song, though, so it's worth finding them if you don't know 'em.
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"Distant cousins, there's a limited supply. And we're down to the dozens, and this is why. Big-eyed beans from Venus. Oh my oh my."
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - Big-Eyed Beans from Venus
;D
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Happy Memories! I saw Beefheart at the Go-Go in Newcassel in about 1968.
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A few lines which a college roommate dislexitized, so whenever I hear them I think of him:
" and there's a wino down the road " ( and as we wind on down the road )
" bopper Ann, bop bop bop bopper Ann " (Barbara Ann)
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This one's very rude, but is a singalong classic with a trombone accompaniment.
Snuff - Arsehole
What an arsehole
What a fucking wanker
What a toss-pot ,a toe rag ,a fart in a jar
I've been dreaming
a dream that keeps recurring
Turn the corner you're there
Turns into a nightmare
Wake with a shout
I'm an arsehole
I'm a fucking wanker
'cos I can't get to grips with what the fuck you're about
I'm an arsehole
I'm a fucking wanker
I'm a toss-pot BASTARD a toe rag FUCKWIT fart in a jar
we're all arseholes
We're a bunch of wankers
We're a bunch of toss-pots FUCKWITS toe rags GOBSHITES farts in a jar
You're all arseholes
You're a bunch of wankers
You're a bunch of toss-pots FUCKWITS toe rags WETWIPES farts in a jar
We're all arseholes
We're a bunch of wankers
We're a bunch of toss-pots FUCKWITS toe rags GOBSHITES farts in a jar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG_YDUEWSHo
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"I heard a lovely rumour,
That Bette Midler had a tumour,
So gleefully I went to tell my friends,
But they said it was a lie
And she wasn't going to die
'And by the way, have we got news for you',
And they told me that the man I had always known as Dad
Hadn't met my Mum when I was born
And they told me that I am
But I hope to god I'm not
The Bastard son of Dean Friedman."...
And they mocked me in my mocks
And embroidered in my socks
"the Bastard son of Dean Friedman"
I was at The Robin2 in Bilston on 15/9/2010 at a HMHB gig, when a large, bearded gentleman appeared on stage. None other than Dean Friedman. A good sport, as well as a cheesy 70s singer.
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A few of Shaun Ryder's finest:
The Pope he got the Nazis
To clean up their messes
In exchange for gold and paintings
He gave them new addresses
Well I might be the honky,
But i'm hung like a donkey
Everybody on this stagecoach likes robbin' and bashin'
Big blacks and blonds smokin' miles and miles of hash
That's sweet, the bigger the tree the better the time
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How many lyrics 'work' as plain text?
Seeing this thread I thought of a few I like, but I hear them in the context of the tune and the backing.
I bought a "Book of Classic Lyrics" type book once (for about tuppence), and it left me completely cold (apart from about 5 from songs I already knew). Can't help thinking that if I quote some of my favourites, they'll come across the same way - just bad poetry, or pointless ramblings.
Often it's just cos you don't the right phrasing off the page. Lines look like they don't scan, but sung right, they do!
[sorry to be such a downer, man!]
It's a good point. Has anyone ever read Jim Morrison's poetry? :facepalm:
They all make sense within the song, though, so it's worth finding them if you don't know 'em.
I like spotting lines that feel like the rest of the song is built around - squeeze are great for those, like at the end of Is that Love?:
The more you more you more you cool down / The easier love is found - a great couple of lines that must have started the song
Take me I'm yours / Because dreams are made of this again. the whole song is clearly written around those two lines
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I love the lyricism of Squeeze. Labelled with Love's my favourite. However, some of their lines do grate:
I got a job with Stanley
He said I'd come in handy
That feels like they were just in a hurry when writing Up the Junction, though it doesn't feel too out of kilter with the rest of the lyrics.
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Some of Difford's lyrics are very odd, a bit like English as a second language, for instance:
But behind the chalet
My holiday's complete
And I feel like William Tell
Maid Marian on her tiptoed feet
Pulling mussels from a shell
William Tell and Maid Marian? "Robin Hood" would have scanned perfectly well, since "Tell" and "shell" don't actually need to rhyme.
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Not as bad as Thinn Lizzy.
Tonight there's gunna be a jailbreak,
Somewhere in this town.
:facepalm: :D
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Zoo time is she and you time
The mammals are your favourite type, and you want her tonight
Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat
You hear the thunder of stampeding rhinos, elephants and tacky tigers
This town ain't big enough for both of us
And it ain't me who's gonna leave
Flying domestic flying
And when the stewardess is near do not show any fear
Heartbeat increasing heartbeat
You are a khaki-coloured bombadier it's Hiroshima that you're nearing
This town ain't big enough for both of us
And it ain't me who's gonna leave
Daily, except for Sunday
You dawdle in to the cafe where you meet her each day
Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat
As twenty cannibals have hold of you, they need their protein just like you do
This town ain't big enough for both of us
And it ain't me who's gonna leave
Shower, another shower
You've got to look your best for her and be clean everywhere
Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat
The rain is pouring on the foreign town, the bullets cannot cut you down
This town ain't big enough for both of us
And it ain't me who's gonna leave
Census, the latest census
There'll be more girls who live in town though not enough to go round
Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat
You know that:
This town isn't big enough,
not big enough for both of us
This town isn't big enough,
not big enough for both of us
And I ain't gonna leave
Bonkers!
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Tips for Teens by Sparks is up there as well.
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The Bard of Barking:
She said "do these seats fold down"
I said "if you pull that handle"
All the time she'd been waiting for
Something with a little more
And all her mates on the new estates
Were walking out in confetti and sunshine
Her mother read her mail
And her dad was a policeman
Which I must say worried me
But some things have just got to be
So we passed very fast like ships in the night
Or cars in a contraflow system
Some people say love is blind
But I think that's just a bit short-sighted
Some people just want it now
It doesn't matter where or how
Satisfaction takes a second place
So long as they can get excited
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While we're with Sir William:
"How can you lie there and think of England / when you don't even know who's on the team?"
+1 to AWL re Up The Junction. I HATE that line!
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Has no one yet nominated Macarthur Park for the ultimate frown?
I'd like to believe the urban legend that it was written for a bet, don't really care if it wasn't.
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Grins for these:
Boy wants a car from his Dad
Dad says "First you gotta cut that hair"
Boy says,"Hey Dad, Jesus had long hair"
and Dad says "That's right son; Jesus walked everywhere"
Silver Jews - The Frontier Index
Herman loves Pauline and Pauline loves Herman
They made love and gave birth to a little German
SFA
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Not so much grin as hear for the first time and half way through realise the subject and think "has he really done this."
Hollow Point - Chris Wood
Awake arise you drowsy sleeper
Awake arise it’s almost day.
No time to lie, no time to slumber,
No time to dream your life away.
It was a gorgeous summer's morning
It was a gorgeous summer's day.
His cotton jacket was all he carried
As he walked out to face the day.
As he was walking he was wondering
With a little dream as a young man will
And never heard footsteps behind him
By the bus stop at Tulse Hill.
But from his front door they’d had him covered.
They were right behind him from the start.
And though the video was buggered
Someone decided he looked the part.
Here comes the bus, the front doors hiss
He climbs aboard and so do they.
And now he swings down to his seat -
It’s just another working day.
But there was something in the air that morning
As they came down to Brixton town.
They sealed the station without warning -
There was something going down.
And so they journeyed on and onward.
He called his friend just to explain
How he would be late and not to worry,
And so to Stockwell Tube he came ….
Now he’s on their cameras, he’s on their radar,
He’s on their crackling radios,
His Oyster Card is in his pocket,
At 10am through the gates he goes.
And down and down dropped the moving staircase,
Deeper down go the others too.
And through the hour glass the sand is falling -
There is nothing they can do ….
When the train comes in they are right beside him.
Some say three and some say four,
Some say the cameras they were not working
As he sat down near the open door.
If he’d have stopped, if he’d have listened …
Commissioner said that it was no good -
He said they gave him no instructions
That an innocent man could have understood.
Just a Brazilian electrician -
Christ only knows what he came here for.
The hollow point was the ammunition.
Now it’s our turn now for some shock and awe….
Awake arise you drowsy sleeper,
Awake arise it’s almost day.
No time to lie, no time to slumber,
No time to dream your life away.
It was a gorgeous summer's morning,
It was a gorgeous summer's day.
His cotton jacket was all he carried
As he walked out to face the day.
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I love the lyricism of Squeeze. Labelled with Love's my favourite. However, some of their lines do grate:
I got a job with Stanley
He said I'd come in handy
That feels like they were just in a hurry when writing Up the Junction, though it doesn't feel too out of kilter with the rest of the lyrics.
I liked Labelled With Love so much, I bought the LP with it on. It's very good but the way they deliberately set out to have every single rhyme on the record not quite rhyme is arch and heavy-handed, I think - and not a little irritating. It would have been easier to get most of it to rhyme "properly"!
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Frown: "She blew my nose and then she blew my mind" - Honky Tonk Women, Rolling Stones
Grin: "I blew up your body but you blew my mind" - In Every Dream Home A Heartache, Roxy Music
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How about Shake Your Euphemism (http://youtu.be/XQZVd76ShrM) by Blue Man Group? Not exactly highbrow Shakespearean prose, but it raises a grin. Lots of slightly different versions depending upon where they are performing (TV versions with the best quality youtube videos tend to be cleaned up), but it goes pretty much like this:-
It is time now to create the ultimate dance party.
You may already have a catchy melody, and a fierce groove, but that's not enough.
To take things over the top, you will need to employ the greatest weapon in the dance party arsenal:
you will need to start shaking your rear end.
Or as some people call it...
Your hind-quarters
Your backside
Your bottom
Your buttocks
Your rump
Your posterior
Your heiny
Your keister
Your tush
Your buns
Your bum cakes
Your junk-in-the-trunk
Your badonk-a-donk
Your squash tart
Your fanny
Your double-slug
Your wiggle bags
Your mud flaps
Your rump rockets
Your flesh pot
Your second face
Your bounce house
The jiggle twins
Jar Jar Binks
Your bubble pop
Your medicine ball
Your sonic boom
Ladies and gentlemen, please stand up.
and
SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE...
Your booty.
It's time to shake that freckle-muffin
It's time to bake that turkey stuffin'
Let your smiley bulldog loose
And put some goose in your caboose
Wiggle that rump-hump
It's time to jiggle that jump-pump
Dance to the beat that the DJ cuts
There's no "if"s or "and"s
JUST BUTTS.
Let's get it going,
Keep it going, don't stop
Use your bum to stir that soup
And shake it all around like
Blue Man Group
Shake your moneymaker
Your sit-biscuit
Your mumbler
Your chocolate cluster
Your rock tumbler
Your fun-cooker
Your subwoofer
Your horn section
Your Frodo
John Madden
Your launch pad
Moscow
The Outback
Your rotunda
The closer
The crock pot
Your jumbo-tron
You need to start moving your airbags
The happy walrus with no tusks
Your two boneless friends
Your George Foreman grill
Your dinner with André
The place where all burritos go
Minneapolis and St. Paul
Your giant fluffy bears
Ollie vs. Frasier
Your Elvis Aaron Presley
Your buttercup
Your monster truck
Your magnese
Your life's work
Your waffle iron
Your skin smurf
Your wiggle cloud
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to set your air balloons free.
It's time to shake that freckle-muffin
It's time to bake that turkey stuffin'
Let your smiley bulldog loose
And put some goose in your caboose
Wiggle that rump-hump
It's time to jiggle that jump-pump
Dance to the beat that the DJ cuts
There's no "if"s or "and"s
JUST BUTTS.
Let's get it going,
Keep it going, don't stop
Use your bum to stir that soup
And shake it all around like
Blue Man Group
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"Excuse me while I suck your blood,
excuse me when I phone you,
I've got every one of your records, man,
doesn't that mean I own you?"
and:
If Christ had been born defective
To fulfil the maker's plan
Would it be as easily accepted
That God made man?
and many more
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Weary of the Waltz
And mashed potato schmaltz
Rhododendron
Is a nice flower
Evergreen
It lasts forever
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But it can't beat Strand power!
(Er... wtf?)
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The Sphynx and Mona Lisa
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Lolita and Guernica...
Anyhoo, I'm reviving this thread because the sight of some Dairylea in the office fridge made this pop into my head...
"If you ever wondered how / You get triangles from a cow / You need butter, milk and cheese / And an equilateral chainsaw"
I don't think I'll need to say who's responsible for that one.
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Lolita and Guernica...
Anyhoo, I'm reviving this thread because the sight of some Dairylea in the office fridge made this pop into my head...
"If you ever wondered how / You get triangles from a cow / You need butter, milk and cheese / And an equilateral chainsaw"
I don't think I'll need to say who's responsible for that one.
Thanks to google I got that one, but not after thinking it was "X, Y and ZEE" by PWEI.
FWIW, the yours lyrics work to the tune of the PWEI song, and I thought the next line would be:
"Forests, profits, plastic High Streets"
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"Caught between that world and this, I'd sell my soul for a Bond girl's kiss" - James; nice sentiment
"and it's raining ice picks on your steel shores" - Soundgarden; great hard image!
"I am the operator of my pocket calculator" - Kraftwerk; makes me smile a lot that one.
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Screw making love
It's way too ambitious
Let's get down on the rug
After you finish the dishes
Amy Rigby, Are We Ever Going To Have Sex Again.
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I bought her a dozen snow white doves
I did her dishes in rubber gloves
I called her Honeybee, I called her love
But she just still didn't want to
She just never wants to DAMN!
I sent her every type of flower
I played her a guitar by the hour
I petted her revolting little Chihuahua
But still she just didn't want to
etc....
Grinderman - No Pussy Blues
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"Little old lady got mutilated late last night" - Werewolves Of London, Warren Zevon
Pure poetry!
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Grinderman - No Pussy Blues
Amazing song.
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"It's best to wake up all greasy and far away from home"
Leave the Mirror Alone by Herman Dune.
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The rhythm section, section, section sticks, sticks, sticks, sticks together, gether, gether, gether
The Dancing Did
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John Ottaway and Wild Willy Barret.
"Walking along a beach in force 10 gale I saw some hippies, saving a whale"
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Oh, and you still can't beat Joe Jackson's
Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street
"They say that looks don't count for much well there goes your proof"
Makes me grin every time I hear it.
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The opening few lines from Any Dream Will Do and no matter how many tmes I hear it, I still think it is daft.
I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain
To see for certain what I thought I knew
Like it makes sense ;D
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The version at our school replaced "the curtain" with "my foreskin".
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NWA, Express yourself
"You ain't swift, movin' like a tortoise.
Full of rigor mortis."
-
Madam Butterfly,
she loved me to sleep,
in a town without pity,
where the water runs deep.
She said be easy baby.
There ain't nothing worth stealing in here.
That Bob Dylan, Tight Connection To My Heart.
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The Group Who Couldn't Say - Grandaddy
The tale I'm gonna tell
Is about the group who couldn't say
Together they discovered with each other the perfection of an outdoor day
They'd won some kinda prize
For selling way more stuff than the other guys
They were the shrewdest unit-movers
So their bosses got 'em tours of the countryside
Holly saw a certain bird
But she couldn't work up any words
She kinda lost her shoes and lost her mind
And smashed her phone upon a fallen pine
And Darryl couldn't talk at all
He wondered how the trees had grown to be so tall
He calculated all the heights and widths and density
For insurance purposes
And at the desktop there's crying sounds
For all the projects due
And no one else is around
And the sprinklers that come on at 3am
Sound like crowds of people asking
"Are you happy what you're doing?"
Becky wondered why
She'd never noticed dragonflies
Her drag and click had never yielded
Anything as perfect as a dragonfly
And then the supervisor stood
Right in the creek and it felt really good
And that's about the time he finally had realised the importance of this day
And that's about the time he realised
That he was with the group who couldn't say
And they felt so good it hurt forget the words
They were the group who couldn't say
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Whole songs now, eh?
Pete Atkin/Clive James, Perfect Moments
Perfect moments have a clean design
Scoring edges that arrest the flow
Skis cut diamonds in the plump of snow
Times my life feels like a friend of mine
Perfect moments wear a single face
Variations on each other's theme
Renoir's mistresses in peach and cream
Rembrandt's mother in a ruff of lace
Perfect moments bear a single name
They're placed together though they never meet
Charlie Chaplin policing Easy Street
Charlie Parker playing My Old Flame
Perfect moments should redeem the day
Their teeming richness ought to be enough
To take the sting out of the other stuff
A perfect bitch it doesn't work that way
-
Must you tell me all your secrets
When it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing?
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Whole songs now, eh?
I wouldn't normally quote a whole song but I think that Grandaddy song needs the context.
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Don't get smart or sarcastic
He snaps back just like elastic
Spare us the theatrics and the verbal gymnastics
We break wise guys just like matchsticks
'The Loved Ones' by the wonderful (or smart-aleck, YMMV) Elvis Costello.
Due to excellent contacts, me and Mrs Ant have laminates for his gig at Brisl Colston Hall next month.
We're going to a lot of excellent gigs in Brisl over the next couple of months.
edit:
Also Flo and Eddies excellent chorus to Elenore, reputedly after The Turtles' record company demanded more songs with "y'know, more 'Pride and Joy' etc."
Elenore, gee I think you're swell
And you really do me well
You're my pride and joy, et cetera
Elenore, can I take the time
To ask you to speak your mind
Tell me that you love me better
-
Another HMHB line, but I was just listening to some Lou Barlow, which reminded me of:
"I could have been Lou Barlow, but I'm more like Ken Barlow".
-
There are two lots of CDs I reach for in times of grumpiness. Those of HMHB (Singing Sealed Knot Society, let’s see you try and do this one: Luton Town – Millwall, nineteen eighty-five) and those of the late Michael Marra.
For those not in the know, Tom Waits wants to be Michael Marra, they have just never met.
There is a dry, dark humour running through much of Marra's work. Opening lines: "Now and then a policeman is born...a silence fills the air."
You probably have to be from Dundee to appreciate but "If Dundee Was Africa" is pure joy, viz:
If Dundee was Africa
And Fife was Antarctica
If Arbroath was India
And Perth was Peru
In that darkest of continents
How happy I'd be
Cause that would mean Aberdeen
Was deep in the Mediterranean Sea
And a'body would agree
That's a no bad place for Aberdeen tae be
-
I've been to Aberdeen so... ;D
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"Marry Me"
Well, my daddy didn't pull out, but he never apologized
Rock and Roll means well, but it can't help tellin' young boys lies.
A baby on the way's a good enough reason to get you out alive
Get you out without having to swallow any pride.
All my friends are restless, all they do is talk it down,
Two or eight lanes, it don't matter, it's just another town.
There's a fool on every corner, on every street, in every one
And I'd rather be your fool nowhere than go somewhere and be no one's
So Marry Me, Sweet Thing won't you Marry Me
Your Mama thinks I beat anything she's ever seen.
This old town's alright with me, there's nowhere I'd rather be.
Long as they stay mad at one another, they can't get mad at me
Every time I leave here something bad happens to me
Like a busted hand or finding some man laying where I sleep
She don't mean nothing to me, that's just how it goes round here
It's a cartoon town, I play my part, and I ain't spoke her name in years
So Marry Me.........
I don't want anything I done to be nobody's fault
Even if they got more money and mouth than they got balls.
That's just how it went down, right or wrong, it's just that way.
Just cause I don't run my mouth don't mean I got nothing to say....
Marry Me.........
The Drive by Truckers
One of favourite driving songs. Makes me grin and bounce my head like a loon.
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I've been to Aberdeen so... ;D
Standing waiting by the trains
Keeking at a rat's remains
Smells of fishmeal, puke and drains
That's Aberdeen, my Aberdeen.
Composed in the distant (pre-oil) past while awaiting the train down to Edinburgh at godawful o'clock on a Monday morning, with a hangover. Gorge still twitches at the memory.
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Well we've got no class
And we've got no principles / principals
always makes me smile. ;D
I don't really like Alice Cooper, but I think these lines are very clever.
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Well we've got no class
And we've got no principles / principals
always makes me smile. ;D
I don't really like Alice Cooper, but I think these lines are very clever.
You might find a lot of Cooper's lyrics would amuse you. He's an astonishingly witty wordsmith.
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Low - What Part of Me
Sometimes it scares to death
Sometimes it takes all my breath
Talking, talking and pleading all night
It must be somewhere to reach the other side
What part of me don't you know?
What part of me don't you want?
What part of me don't you know?
What part of me don't you want?
Partly because it is lovely song and partly because, to me, it is one of those songs that appears, on the surface, to be really sad, but is actually totally different.
To me, the chorus is not "Why don't you like X" but how do I change X, for you?"
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There's Basie, Miller, Satchmo, and the king of all, Sir Duke / And with a voice like Ella's ringing out, there's no way the band can lose.
Irks.
-
John Ottaway and Wild Willy Barret.
"Walking along a beach in force 10 gale I saw some hippies, saving a whale"
And John Otway on his own (with a bit of help from The Trammps):
Science tells you love's just a chemical reaction in the brain
So let me be your Bunsen burner (http://www.johnotway.com/bunsensingle.html)let me be your naked flame!
One of my university housemates bought me this as a joke. Profoundly silly.
-
Had a love affair with Nina
In the back of my Cortina
A seasoned up hyena could not have been more obscener
She took me to the cleaners
And other misdemeanours
But I got right up between her
Rum and her Ribena
and much else. His lyrics were always funny.
-
"Sugar turns to alcohol"
Feelgoods.
-
Lyrics that make you wince?
Some bunch of illiterate 60's wankers perpetrated a dirge called Juliette which contained the execrable line
"the things you do reminiscent of you".
-
The world is just a great big onion
And pain and fear are the spices that make you cry
Oh, baby, and the only way to get rid of this great big onion
Is to plant love seeds until it dies, uh-huh
Okay, Marvin, tell me again why you want to get rid of the world... ???
-
I've been listening to the radio
Trying to find some self expression
I've been listening to the Women's Hour
I've been listening to Gardener's Question Time
But everything I try to grow - I can't even grow a dandelion
-
And, obviously, the way John Lydon makes "anarchist" and "antichrist" rhyme when he sings Anarchy in the UK.
Pretty VaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaCUNT!
(I'd actually never noticed it, sooper roode at the time and I reckon would still not get airtime to this day).
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"Son, I am able," she said
"Though you scare me."
"Watch," said I "beloved,"
I said, "Watch me scare you though,"
Said she, "Able am I son."
Not an actual palindrome.
-
Now some they do and some they don't
And some you just can't tell
And some they will and some they won't
With some it's just as well
Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger (a song about one-night-stands)
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I can genuinely say most of The Moody Blues, introduced by my dad, but the thing that really hooked me was the lyrics
Nice to be Here as an example
Nice to be here hope you agree
Lying in the sun
Lovely weather, must climb a tree
The show has just begun
All the leaves start swaying
To the breeze that's playing
On a thousand violins
And the bees are humming
To a frog sat strumming
On a guitar with only one string
I can see them they can't see me
I feel out of sight
I can see them they can't see me
Much to my delight
And it seems worth noting
Water rats were boating
As a lark began to sing
The sounds kept coming
With Jack Rabbit loudly drumming
On the side of a biscuit tin
with solos at the end of each verse. Justin Hayward said he tried to do his on only one string, but had to use two.
And then there's the lines
Blasting, billowing, bursting forth
With the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes
Man with his flaming pyre
Has conquered the wayward breezes
Climbing to tranquility
Far above the cloud
Conceiving the heavens
Clear of misty shroud
I'd love to work out the energy equivalent of a butterfly sneeze
Driftwood is another of my faves.
Do you get the impression I could go on here
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most of The Moody Blues, introduced by my dad
Yeah, thanks Dave ::-)
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-
Well, I get up at seven, yeah
And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin'
Yes, I'm workin' all the time
It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man
They call me the workin' man
I guess that's what I am
'Cause I get home at five o'clock
And I take myself out an ice cold
Rush - Working Man - brilliant song but...
I wish....
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He doesn't specify how long his commute is either.
-
Now some they do and some they don't
And some you just can't tell
And some they will and some they won't
With some it's just as well
Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger (a song about one-night-stands)
Some girls will, some girls won't
Some girls need a lot of lovin' and some girls don't
Well, I know I've got the fever but I don't know why
Some say they will and some girls lie
Some Girls-Racey
Same sentiment, different style.
Both released in 1979, when the charts had literally every type of record in them from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Supertramp vs Racey .
By far the best line on this theme is Tiger Feet by Mud.
I've got a feeling in my knees
It's a feeling only you can please.
Usually emotions are heart, head or stomach. but for Les it was the knees. Classic.
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Is it still over?
Are we still through?
Since my phone still ain't ringing
I assume it still ain't you
Bell/Henley for Randy Travis
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Lou Reed, from the excellent New York album. From 1989 !
"Well I know one thing that really is true
this here's a zoo and the keeper ain't you
And I'm sick of it
I'm Sick of You"
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There's Basie, Miller, Satchmo, and the king of all, Sir Duke / And with a voice like Ella's ringing out, there's no way the band can lose.
Irks.
Freaky - I was just rereading this thread and Sir Duke comes on the radio (BBC R2).
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Time, he's waiting in the wings
He speaks of senseless things
His script is you and me, boy
Time, he flexes like a whore
Falls wanking to the floor
His trick is you and me, boy
Thank you, Tom Robinson, for reminding me, even if you couldn't play it on your time themed show.
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Well, I get up at seven, yeah
And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin'
Yes, I'm workin' all the time
It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man
They call me the workin' man
I guess that's what I am
'Cause I get home at five o'clock
And I take myself out an ice cold
Rush - Working Man - brilliant song but...
I wish....
“I get up around 7
Get outta bed around 9..”
Guns ‘n Roses Mr Brownstone.
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Hey, hey, human gonna do The Strain
I'm gonna grip the seat I'm gonna pull your chain
Barbed-wire bum baby, be like me
We're gonna do the strain on the lavatory
We're gonna e-eeeeeeeeease it out
We're gonna squee-eeeeeeeeeeze it out
So get a grip on your seat. We're gonna get relief somehow
[guitar solo]
Nnnnnggggggh!
Nnnnnggggggh!
[talking]
Every time I settle down and try to read a book
The telephone starts ringing so I leave it off the hook
The Jehovah's Witness come knocking at my door
I try to tell them nicely but they still come back for more
Straining, complaining--No! I'm not complaining
I just got a lot of shit in me - gotta get it out!
Nnnnnggggggh!
Nnnnnggggggh!