December 26, 2014

About that conversation about song lines that we like (and why do we like what we like when we like a song line?).

Blogged 2 days ago, here. One of the participants in the conversation — my ex-husband RLC — sends his list of lyrics:
Everything dies baby that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back.
Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City.
Uh oh! This list begins tellingly. It was only last month that I was saying: "I can't stand Bruce Springsteen, and much as I dislike the Weekly Standard's bellyaching, it's not as bad as listening to Bruce straining histrionically."

Back to Richard's list:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

--

When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon.
Don't turn on the lights, you can read their address by the moon.
And you won't make me jealous if I hear that they sweetened your night:
We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right.

--

It's a wild thyme
I'm doing things that haven't got a name yet.

--

Sometime I'm overcome thinking about
Making love in the green grass
Behind the stadium
With you, my brown-eyed girl

--

Someday everything's gonna be different
When I paint my masterpiece.

--

I never asked for much
I never asked for your crutch
Now don't ask for mine.

--

They brag about your sugar
Brag about it all over town
Put some sugar in my bowl
I feel like laying down

--

The bridge at midnight trembles
The country doctor rambles
Bankers’ nieces seek perfection
Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring
The wind howls like a hammer
The night blows rainy
My love she’s like some raven
At my window with a broken wing

--

She's a hypnotist collector
You are a walking antique

--

If I don't make it
You know my baby will.

--

I'm going back to New York City
I do believe I've had enough.

--

I'm gonna walk before they make me run.

--

I was born in a crossfire hurricane.

--

I'll never be your beast of burden
I'll never be your beast of burden
Never, never, never, never, never, never, never be
I'll never be your beast of burden
I've walked for miles my feet are hurting
All I want is you to make love to me
I don't need beast of burden
I need no fussing
I need no nursing
Never, never, never, never, never, never, never need

--

Oh I am sleeping under strange strange skies
Just another mad mad day on the road
My dreams is fading down the railway line
I'm just about a moonlight mile down the road
I'm hiding sister and I'm dreaming
I'm riding down your moonlight mile

--

I got nasty habits
I take tea at three
Yes and the meat I eat for dinner
Must be hung up for a week

My best friend he shoots water rats and
Feeds them to his sheep
Don't you think there's a place for you
In between the sheets?

--

And all my love come down
All my love come tumblin' down...
Oh, listen listen
To the lion
Oh, listen listen listen
To the lion...
Inside of me

And I shall search my soul
And I shall search my very soul

For the lion...
Inside of me

And all my tears have flown
All my tears like water flown

For the lion...
Inside of me

--

I'm a dweller on the threshold
And I'm waiting at the door
And I'm standing in the darkness
I don't want to wait no more

--

You're the Queen of the slipstream
With eyes that shine
You have crossed many waters to be here
You have drank of the fountain of innocence
And experienced the long cold wintry years.

There's a dream where the contents are visible
Where the poetic champions compose
Will you breathe not a word of this secrecy, and
Will you still be my special rose?

--

I heard Leadbelly and Blind Lemon
On the street where I was born
Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee,
Muddy Waters singin' "I'm A Rolling Stone"
I went home and read my Christmas Humphreys book on Zen
Curiosity killed the cat
Kerouac's "Dharma Bums" and "On The Road"

What's my line?
I'm happy cleaning windows
Take my time
I'll see you when my love grows
Baby don't let it slide
I'm a working man in my prime
Cleaning windows...

--

If you're lost you can look - and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you - I'll be waiting
Time after time

--

I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful

--

Kind woman
Won't you love me tonight...

--

For me to love you now
Would be the sweetest thing 'twould make me sing
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind

--


If she knew what she wants
(He'd be giving it to her)
If she knew what she needs
(He could give her that too)
If she knew what she wants
(But he can't see through her)
If she knew what she wants
He'd be giving it to her
Giving it to her

But she wants everything
(He can pretend to give her everything)
Or there's nothing she wants
(She don't want to sort it out)
He's crazy for this girl
(But she don't know what she's looking for)
If she knew what she wants
He'd be giving it to her
Giving it to her now

--

Let it be known there is a fountain,
That was not made by the hands of men.
There is a road, no simple highway,
Between the dawn and the dark of night,
And if you go no one may follow,
That path is for your steps alone.

Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.

You, who choose to lead, must follow
But if you fall you fall alone.
If you should stand then who's to guide you?
If I knew the way I would take you home.

--

When I was just a little young boy
My mama said soon you'll never get far
I'll tell you the reason if you want to know
'Cause child of mine, there isn't really very far to go

--

Some folks trust to reason
Others trust to might
I don't trust to nothing
But I know it come out right...

If a man among you
Got no sin upon his hand
Let him cast a stone at me
For playing in the band

--
She comes skimmin' through rays of violet, she can wade in a drop of dew,
She don't come and I don't follow, waits backstage while I sing to you.

Well, she can dance a Cajun rhythm, jump like a willys in four wheel drive.
She's a summer love for the spring, fall and winter. She can make happy any man alive

Sugar magnolia...

--

Oh I'm back in the high life again
All the doors I closed one time
Will open up again

--

I do things my own way and I pay a high price

--

I'd rather walk down to the corner store
Than sing hosannas on your golden shore
This old world, this old world.

67 comments:

rcocean said...

Supposin’ you met an elephant?
I'd wrap him up in cellophant!

and

Flying too high with some guy in the sky
Is my idea of nothing to do

Robert Cook said...

I'm a street-walkin' Cheetah
With a heart full of napalm
A runaway son
of the nuclear a-bomb.
I am the world's forgotten boy,
The one who searches to destroy!

"Search and Destroy"
Iggy Pop/James Williamson

Will Cate said...

Well you should see Polythene Pam
She's so good looking but she looks like a man
Well you should see her in drag
Dressed in that polythene bag
Yes you should see Polythene Pam
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Get a dose of her in Jap boots and kilt
She's killer-diller when she's dressed to the hilt
Well she's the kind of a girl
Who makes the News Of The World
Yes you could say she was exactably built
Yeah, yeah, yeah

rhhardin said...


Christmas Oratorio

7. Choral = S und Rezitativ B = ()

Er ist auf Erden kommen arm,

(Wer will die Liebe recht erhöhn,
Die unser Heiland vor uns hegt?)

Daß er unser sich erbarm,

(Ja, wer vermag es einzusehen,
Wie ihn der Menschen Leid bewegt?)

Und in dem Himmel mache reich,

(Des Höchsten Sohn kömmt in die Welt,
Weil ihm ihr Heil so wohl gefällt,)


Und seinen lieben Engeln gleich.


Note that the chorus part rhymes.

Poem written by Martin Luther.

He is on earth come poor (arm)
So that he for us cares (erbarm)
And in the heaven make rich (reich)
And his beloved angels like (gleich)

rcocean said...

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav'd a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

glenn said...

"To See You Through 'Till You're Everything You Want To Be"

Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer

"This Time The Dream's on Me"

Opinh Bombay said...

"Wish I didn't know now, what I didn't know then."
Bob Seger

Opinh Bombay said...


"When the light from the beer sign shines on your face,
It shines on your wedding ring too."
Mel Tillis

eddie willers said...

Well, my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not comin' on
I'm just payin' my rent every day in the Tower of Song

Leonard Cohen

m stone said...

Seems to me that RLC has thrown down the gauntlet.

Meade, your move.

Dave said...

Feeling like I'm a high schoo-ler
Sipping on a warm wine coo-ler
Hot 'cause the party don't stop
I'm in a crop top
Like I'm working at Hoo-ters

-Ke$ha

jerpod said...

I could tell you 'bout the nights when I was lonely
And you were the only one who could talk.
I could tell you that I like your sensitivity
But you know it's the way that you walk.

Elvis Costello

Bob R said...

Once a wise man to the ways of the world
now I've traded those lessons for faith in a girl
Crossed the ocean, thousand years from my home
in this frozen old city of silver and stone

Ships in the harbor and birds on the bluff
don't move an inch when their anchor goes up
And the difference with me is I've fallen in love
Stockholm let me go home
Let me go

And the night, so long, I used to pray for the daylight to come
Folks back home surely have called off the search and gone back to their own

Jeffrey said...

At the dark end of the street
That's where we'd always meet
Just a shadow where we don't belong
Living in darkness to hide our wrong

You and me, at the dark end of the street.

They're gonna find us.
They're gonna find us.
They're gonna find us someday.
We'll steal away to the dark end of the street.

Kurt said...

Flippin' bottle caps through the ring around the moon
All alone on a Saturday night with the stars in bloom
I am a vision of my mother's dream come true
Built this house out in the hills all by my own will
I've got love enough for two but it's just me and this old moon

And the sailors on the water
They all want the captain's daughter
They want her beauty and her youth
To grace their bow out on the sea

Me, I'm getting older and I'm plain
As plain as can be
Got a bank full of mother's dreams
Maybe mother just didn't see that love would be the only thing
Her daughter would ever need

George M. Spencer said...

The saucy lyrics to Jingle Bells no one sings:

A day or two ago
I thought I'd take a ride
And soon, Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side,
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
He got into a drifted bank
And then we got upsot.

A day or two ago,
The story I must tell
I went out on the snow,
And on my back I fell;
A gent was riding by
In a one-horse open sleigh,
He laughed as there I sprawling lie,
But quickly drove away.

Now the ground is white
Go it while you're young,
Take the girls tonight
and sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bobtailed bay
Two forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! you'll take the lead.

Meade said...

Born on a mountain top in Tennessee,
greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so's he knew ev'ry tree,
kilt him a b'ar when he was only three

Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!

When he come home his politickin' done,
the western march had just begun
So he packed his gear an' his trusty gun,
an' lit out grinnin' to follow the sun

He heard of Houston an' Austin so,
to the Texas plains he jest had to go
Where freedom was fightin' another foe,
an' they needed him at the Alamo

His land is biggest an' his land is best,
from grassy plains to the mountain crest
He's ahead of us all meetin' the test,
followin' his legend into the West

Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!

jr565 said...

And I will raise hand up in to the night time sky
And count the stars that shine in your eyes
Just to dig it all and not wonder thsts just fine
And I'll be satisfied not read in between the lines
And I will never grow so old again
And I will walk and tak in gardens all wet with rain.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Two cigarettes from the package gone
You must have thought about it just that long
I never knew you were so strong
I guess I never will

John Hiatt, Adios to California

jr565 said...

Here's wishing you the bluest sky,
And hoping something better comes tomorrow.
Hoping all the verses rhyme,
And the very best of choruses to
Follow all the doubt and sadness.
I know that better things are on the way.

Here's hoping all the days ahead
Won't be as bitter as the ones behind you.
Be an optimist instead,
And somehow happiness will find you.
Forget what happened yesterday,
I know that better things are on the way.

traditionalguy said...

I sense getting old folks wanting their youth back. The best answer lies in grandchildren living in this brave new world and sharing it with Daddy's Daddy.

Every personality is different.

At an Italian/Corsican restaurant tonight at Lake Oconee we enjoyed fellowship with a Wisconsin man and his Minnrsota wife and their kids. the Detroit/Greenbay gamei is Sunday.

The son's friends from Texas, called the twins named Eroc and Derrick, and wives will come on Tuesday and Wednesday at a downtown hotel with 6 forty yard line tickets for TCU v Old Miss. It is a noon game Weds. This New Uears Eve.

TCU 's coach is coach of the year for the second time. but good luck to Ohio State who will have to win their playoff game on the field

without insider deals to help out.

Ann Althouse said...

"Have you been half asleep/And have you heard voices?/ I've heard them calling my name..."

mark said...

..... up against the wall.. mtherphkr
.... ........ tear down the wall

Skeptical Voter said...

We don't need a refrigerator in our house,
We just put the beer next to my baby's cold, cold heart.

or

Just walk on by,
Wait on the corner,
I love you but we're strangers when we meet.

Scott said...

Though the essence is gone,
I have no tears to cry for her
and my only thoughts of her are kind....

Scott said...

So if you’re travelin’ in the north country fair
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine.

Scott said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

What was once black, is now gray... hole. There is hope for an afterlife at the end of oblivion. A resurrection in spirit, if perhaps not in body. Spring forward and apply the make... up.

Joseph Blieu said...

Way down yonder in the Indian nation a Cowboys life is my occupation in the Oklahoma hills where I was born.
across the alley from the Alamo lived a pinto pony and a Navaho. In the oklahoma hills where I was born.

when I was a little bitty baby my momma would rock me in my cradle in the old cotton fields back home.

Laslo Spatula said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laslo Spatula said...

There are nights when I think that Sal Paradise was right
Boys and girls in America, they have such a sad time together
Sucking off each other at the demonstrations, making sure their makeup's straight
Crushing one another with colossal expectations, dependent, undisciplined, sleeping late

She was a really cool kisser and she wasn't all that strict of a Christian
She was a damn good dancer but she wasn't all that great of a girlfriend
He likes the warm feeling but he's tired of all the dehydration
Most nights are crystal clear but tonight it's like he's stuck between stations

On the radio

(from the Hold Steady, the perfect band for eople who like the idea of Bruce Springsteen but can't stand bruce Springsteen himself. Of which I am one.)

I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

From a song I wrote to amuse my friend's little daughter:

When the monkeys come
You better hide your chewing gum
Because the monkeys
Cause trouble
They like to
blow bubbles
And if you shave them
They have stubble
But it only makes them mad.


I've written her several silly songs; worth it for her giggles.


I am Cuddly Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

I am trying to think of a song lyric I like that doesn't involve some form of yearning.

Most (all?) of the ones people have brought up seem to fill that feeling in some way.

Therefore: yearning. Or Bad-Ass. One or the other.

I am Laslo.

Freeman Hunt said...

I want some black-eyed peas
I want some mustard greens
I want some cornpone on the side.
I want my chicken fried with a golden hide.
Aha, San Antone!

When I was a kid I had a locket
With a picture of Davy Crockett

I know a gal named Ann that lives in TexArkan
Who loves a boy in Arkansas
But when they take a ride it's on the Texas side
Aha, San Antone!

Freeman Hunt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dbp said...

You’d make good money and come home early
And you’d kiss me and hold me each night
We would have children and they would be so beautiful
And we’d raise them and all would be right

dbp said...

I know this super highway
This bright familiar sun
I guess that I'm the lucky one
Who wrote that tired sea song
Set on this peaceful shore
You think you've heard this one before
Well the danger on the rocks is surely past
Still I remain tied to the mast
Could it be that I have found my home at last
Home at last

libertariansafetyguy said...

"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."

One of my favorite lyrics from Leonard Cohen!

dbp said...

Well, I hope we're not too messianic
Or a trifle too satanic
We love to play the blues
Well I am just a monkey man
I'm glad you are a monkey, monkey woman too, babe

Unknown said...

Well I guess I should have known from the start
She'd come for a star.
Should have told my imagination not to run too far.
After all the times that I've been burned,
You'd think I would have learned
That it's who you look like,
And not who you are.

chickelit said...

Such a drag to want something sometime
One thing leads to another I know
Was a time wanted you for mine
Nobody knew
You arrived like a day
And passed like a cloud
I made a wish, I said it out loud
Out loud in a crowd
Everybody heard
'twas the talk of the town

Bob R said...

You know, the Sheriff's got his problems too
He will surely take them out on you
In walked the village idiot and his face was all aglow
He's been up all night listening to Mohammed's Radio


Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long
Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio, Mohammed's Radio


Everybody's desperate trying to make ends meet
Work all day, still can't pay the price of gasoline and meat
Alas, their lives are incomplete


Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio, Mohammed's Radio


You've been up all night listening for his drum
Hoping that the righteous might just might just might just come
I heard the General whisper to his aide-de-camp
"Be watchful for Mohammed's lamp"

Bob R said...

Ya hear him howlin' around your kitchen door
Ya better not let him in
Little old lady got mutilated late last night
Werewolves of London again

Bob R said...

Roland searched the continent for the man who'd done him in
He found him in Mombasa in a bar-room drinking gin
Roland aimed his Thompson gun he didn't say a word
But he blew Van Owen's body from there to Johannesburg

dbp said...

I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel
I was staring in my empty coffee cup
I was thinking that the gypsy wasn't lyin'
All the salty margaritas in Los Angeles
I'm gonna drink 'em up

And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill

Don't the sun look angry through the trees
Don't the trees look like crucified thieves
Don't you feel like Desperados under the eaves
Heaven help the one who leaves

Still waking up in the mornings with shaking hands
And I'm trying to find a girl who understands me
But except in dreams you're never really free
Don't the sun look angry at me

I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel
I was listening to the air conditioner hum
It went mmmmmm..

Look away...
(Look away down Gower Avenue, Look away....)

WhoKnew said...

Hey Honey, who'sthat masked man
Standin' out there on the ledge
It's just some fool got a slice of life
Out on the razor's Edge
-Danny O'Keefe

Just like the canals of Mars and the great barrier reef
I come to you beyond belief
-Elvis Costello

Call it separation, independence, divorce if that word fits
Call it what you want to
I'll just call it quits
-Danny O'Keefe

You took my little heart
And ran it round this town
Now you’re gonna find your circus
Needs a brand new clown

And I don’t mind playin’ anytime
You all can get me drunk
But, Baby, I’m sober now
-Danny O'Keefe

JSD said...

We all got holes to fill
And them holes are all that's real
Some fall on you like a storm
Sometimes you dig your own
The choice is yours to make
Time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone
Well, to live's to fly awe low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eye
Awe, shake the dust off of your wings
And the tears out of your eye


The great late Texan, Townes Van Zandt

jr565 said...

"I woke up with a feeling
And found me lying on the floor
I look up at the ceiling
I must be dreaming
When I get that feeling
Oh my Lord I can't take no more
You can't stop that feeling
It just goes on for evermore
What we believe in
Is just a feeling
So thank God for that feeling
Oh my lord I can't take no more
I get the feeling
That I am responding to a call
I am receiving and
I get that meaning
So hats off to that feeling
I could not ask for anymore"

Robert Cook said...

A great, great song celebrating the messy, ecstatic joy of being alive, of being human:

HUMAN BEING, by the New York Dolls...

Well, if you don't like it
Go ahead, find yourself a saint
Go ahead, now try to find a boy
Who's gonna be what I ain't

Now what you need is
A plastic doll with a fresh coat of paint
Who's gonna sit through the madness
And always acts so quaint, I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah"

With your new friend
You're really making a scene
And I see you bouncing around
From machine to machine

And you know they're never real, they're
Never what they seem
And you can try to generate some warmth
And you see just what I mean, I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah"

And if I'm acting like a king
Well, that's cause I'm a human being
And if I want too many things
Don't you know that I'm a human being

And if I've got to dream
Baby baby baby yeah I'm a human being
And when it gets a bit obscene
I'm a human being

I don't got to go around with my head hung down
Just like a human, babe, an unknown human being
And I can hold my head so high
'Cause I'm a human, a riff raff human being

Why won't you give me a little sip?
Why don't you try me on a drag of that cigarette?
Why don't you try to give me something that
I will never ever forget?

But now don't you blow it all on a million dollar bet
Because you're liable to lose it
On the best lovin' you've had yet
I'm beggin' yeah, yeah, oh yeah

And if I'm acting like a king
Well, that's 'cause I'm a human being
I want too many things
Don't you know that I'm a human being

And if I've got to dream
I said, "Well I'm a human being"
And when it gets a bit obscene
I'm a human being

And I don't got to go around with my head hung down
Just like a human, babe an unknown human being
And I can hold my head so high
'Cause I'm a human, a riff raff human being

In fact I'm talking about the human race
You're trying to cover up the big disgrace
I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah"
Oh, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon

Yeah, yeah, oh yeah
Well, I may think that this whole scene is
Just a too appalling for me
Or I may be the type who's just a mad about
Every little thing that I see

But I can color that with mystery
Or make it just what I want it to be
While I'm blowing my change on the fan magazines With all the Hollywood refugees screaming, "Yeah, yeah, oh yeah"

And if I'm acting like a king
I said, "Well, I'm a human being"
And if I want too many things
Don't you know that I'm a human being

If I've got to dream
Baby, baby, baby, I'm a human being
And when it gets a bit obscene
I'm a human being

I'm a human being
I'm a human being
I'm a human being
I'm a human being

jr565 said...

Oh yeah, we're going to the laser show
Oh yeah, we're going to the laser show
Come on baby now don't you know
We're going down to the laser show

They come from Bridgeport, Westport, Darien
Down to the Hayden Planetarium
We're gonna space out to our favorite tunes
We're going straight to the dark side of the moon

Oh yeah, we're going to the laser show
Oh yeah, we're going to the laser show
Come on baby now don't you know
We're going down to the laser show

We're gonna sit back, relax, watch the stars
James and Jason, Kirk and Lars
We're gonna make our way across the galaxy
And then we'll head back home on the L.I.E.

Oh yeah, we're going to the laser show
Oh yeah, we're going to the laser show
Come on baby now don't you know
We're going down to the laser show
-Fountains of Wayne

Perfect evocation of a NY experience that kids of a certain age will relate to.

Jeff said...

From a Willie Nelson song:

And I could cry for the time I've wasted, but that's a waste of time and tears

And I know just what I'd change, if I went back in time somehow, but there's nothing I can do about it now.

And of course just about anything by Leonard Cohen. My favorite of his is
Everybody Knows.

ganderson said...

"There's a girl on the train
leaning on the window pane
reading People Magazine
just to help turn off her brain
and I swear I caught her staring at me
maybe I was staring at her too
Shot to hell on the Acela
Just as well there's nothing else to do"

"thinking a lot about less and less
and forgetting the love we bring"


Doug said...

Speaking of Christmas, and of Springsteen ... the minute I hear him start to bray "Sa-a-a-a-ant Claus is comin't ta town...", I dive for the radio dial. That, and McCartney's "Wonderful (sic) Christmas Time" make me wanna go full Scrooge.

Roger Sweeny said...

Without the rhythm and pitch, so many lyrics sound lame.

Bunk said...

From John Denver....
And Oh! the time that I can lay this tired old body down,
Feel your fingers feather soft upon me,
The kisses that I live for, your love that lights my way,
The happiness that livin with you brings me,

It's the sweetest thing I know of,
Just spending time with you

Mr. D said...

Excuse me, is this the Age of Reason?
Well he's in a matted frame of mind
Don't look at the work, look at the person
For what it's worth, artists are sissys.

That's the obscure one. The less obscure one:

Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop's gonna sanctify me
And if he don't come across
I'm gonna let it roll

shake-and-bake said...

Think I'll drink up a little more wine
To ease my worried mind
And walk down on the street
And leave my blues at home.

jr565 said...

Pioneer of Aerodynamics (little Eiffel, little Eiffel)
They thought he was a real smart Alec
He thought big and they called it a phallic
They didn't know he was panoramic
little Eiffel stands in the archway
keeping low doesn't make no sense
sometimes people can be oh so dense

They didn't want it but he built in anyway
little Eiffel stands in the archway
keep low doesn't make sense
keeping low doesn't make no sense
Little Eiffel stands in the archway

Oh Alexander I see you beneath the archway of aerodynamics.

-you wouldn't think a song about making the Eiffel tower would work. And you may not even know it's about the Eiffel tower when reading the lyrics. Which is why I like the lyrics so much. Oblique but in the best sense.

Meade said...

Ann Althouse said...
"Have you been half asleep/And have you heard voices?/ I've heard them calling my name..."

Okay, I think I get it now.

I hear a voice callin'
it must be our Lord
It's comin' from heaven on high
I hear a voice callin'
I've gained a reward
For the land where we never shall die

eddie willers said...

can't stand bruce Springsteen himself. Of which I am one.

For the song Althouse mentioned in her original post, here's The Band doing the definitive, killer version of:

Atlantic City

RigelDog said...

These are the days of the endless summer
These are the days, the time is now
There is no past, there's only future
There's only here, there's only now.

Oh your smiling face, your gracious presence
The fires of spring are kindling bright
Oh the radiant heart and the song of glory
Crying freedom in the night.

These are the days by the sparkling river
His timely grace and our treasured find
This is the love of the one magician
Turned the water into wine.

RigelDog said...

Is this the sweet sound
That calls the young sailor?
The voice might be one and the same...

Robert Cook said...

One of the greatest songs by the Beach Boys:


I sailed an ocean, unsettled ocean,
Through restful waters and deep commotion
Often frightened, unenlightened
Sail on, sail on sailor

I wrest the waters, fight Neptunes waters
Sail through the sorrows of lifes marauders
Unrepenting, often empty
Sail on, sail on sailor

Caught like a sewer rat alone but I sail
Bought like a crust of bread, but oh do I wail

Seldom stumble, never crumble
Try to tumble, lifes a rumble
Feel the stinging, Ive been given
Never ending, unrelenting
Heartbreak searing, always fearing
Never caring, persevering
Sail on, sail on, sailor

I work the seaways, the gale-swept seaways
Past shipwrecked daughters of wicked waters
Uninspired, drenched and tired
Wail on, wail on, sailor

Always needing, even bleeding
Never feeding all my feelings
Damn the thunder, must I blunder
Theres no wonder all Im under
Stop the crying and the lying
And the sighing and my dying

Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
...

Wilbur said...

Oh, the graveyard
it is a lonesome place

They put you on your back
Throw the mud down in your face

"T.B. Blues" by Jimmie Rodgers
I recommend the version by Leon Redbone.

jr565 said...

"Sunlight coming through the haze
No gaps in the blind
To let it inside
The bed is unmade
Some music still plays

TV, yeah it's always on
The flicker of the screen
A movie actress screams
I'm basking in the shit flowing out of it

I'm stoned in the mall again
Terminally bored
Shuffling round the stores
And shoplifting is getting so last year's thing

X-box is a god to me
A finger on the switch
My mother is a bitch
My father gave up ever trying to talk to me

Don't try engaging me
The vaguest of shrugs
The prescription drugs
You'll never find
A person inside

My face is mogadon
Curiosity
Has given up on me
I'm tuning out desires
The pills are on the rise

How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I've been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left I simply am not here

Scott said...

She moves like she don't care
Smooth as silk, cool as air
Ooh it makes you wanna cry
She doesn't know your name
And your heart beats like a subway train
Ooh it makes you wanna die

Ooh, don't you wanna take her?
Ooh, wanna make her all your own?