What is your single favourite line of lyrics?

He came home from the war with a party in his head and an idea for a fireworks display.

Yes, Swordfishtrombones is getting a spin tonight.

Sean

'I have seen the future, it is murder.'

Mr Cohen in one of his more cheerful moments of lucidity. It applies any time when there are people around you.

la la lar la la lar lar
la la laaaar la la lar



Cowboy Junkies Sweet jane

ps. Did I get the spelling right ???
the spacing kept disappearing so sorry if the timing is a bit out - this ain't naim software obviously

s'cusi dove il bar
se para collo pou eine toe bar
s'il vous plait ou est le bar
oi, where's the f*@king bar john!

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,

But you won't find the answer
Even when the wind blows;
'Cause the answer, my friend
is in front..
Right there in front of your nose
Everybody knows

- Kevin Ayers from Whatevershebringswesing

A great album IMHO

But I agree Bob D came out with some great lines and I still think Bobby's all right, he's a natural born poet, he's just out of sight.

One of my favourite lines is from Lou Reed in his VU days

There are problems in these times
But none of them are mine
Baby, I'm beginning to see the light.

Also liked Alice when he said

And if I am elected
I promise the formation of a new party
A third party, the Wild Party!
I know we have problems,
We got problems right here in Central City,
We have problems on the North, South, East and West,
New York City, Saint Louis, Philadelphia, Los Angeles,
Detroit, Chicago,
Everybody has problems,
And personally, I don't care

Though his best lyrics were Cold Ethyl.

Well ahead of it's time...

Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just
Dont care
I cant take the smell, I cant take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldnt get far
Cause the man with the tow-truck repossessed my car
Chorus:
Dont push me, cause Im close to the edge
Im trying not to loose my head
Its like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

Standing on the front stoop, hangin out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes
Blow
Crazy lady, livin in a bag
Eating out of garbage piles, used to be a fag-hag
Search and test a tango, skips the life and then go
To search a prince to see the last of senses
Down at the peepshow, watching all the creeps
So she can tell the stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got so so so ditty
She had to get a pimp, she couldnt make it on her
Own

Chorus:
Its like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from goin under

My brothers doing fast on my mothers t.v.
Says she watches to much, is just not healthy
All my children in the daytime, dallas at night
Cant even see the game or the sugar ray fight
Bill collectors they ring my phone
And scare my wife when Im not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Cant take the train to the job, theres a strike
At the station
Me on king kong standin on my back
Cant stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
Midrange, migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think Im going insane, I swear I might
Hijack a plane!

Chorus:

My son said daddy I dont wanna go to school
Cause the teachers a jerk, he must think Im a
Fool
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think itd be
Cheaper
If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper
I dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
Cause its all about money, aint a damn thing
Funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and
Honey
They push that girl in front of a train
Took her to a doctor, sowed the arm on again
Stabbed that man, right in his heart
Gave him a transplant before a brand new start
I cant walk through the park, cause its crazy
After the dark
Keep my hand on the gun, cause they got me on the
Run
I feel like an outlaw, broke my last fast jaw
Hear them say you want some more, livin on a
Seesaw

Chorus:

A child was born, with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but hes frowning too
Cause only God knows what you go through
You grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way
Youll admire all the number book takers
Thugs, pimps, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them
Smugglers, scrambles, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers and even pan-handlers
You say Im cool, Im no fool
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now youre unemployed, all null n void
Walking around like youre pretty boy floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you done did
Got send up for a eight year bid
Now your man is took and youre a may tag
Spend the next two years as an undercover fag
Being used and abused, and served like hell
Till one day you was find hung dead in a cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young

quote:

Originally posted by Briz Vegas:
la la lar la la lar lar
la la laaaar la la lar



Cowboy Junkies Sweet jane

ps. Did I get the spelling right ???
the spacing kept disappearing so sorry if the timing is a bit out - this ain't naim software obviously

Yeah, and Juliet Lewis dancing beneath the desert sky to this in NBK remains an enduring image of my youth.

"and all the things I ever held important..... are now the things I hold most in contempt....."

"You left your ring by the soap, now is that love" - Squeeze.

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen Tate:
Well ahead of it's time...

Dont push me, cause Im close to the edge
Im trying not to loose my head
Its like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

Grandmaster Flash - The Message maybe more true now than ever...scary

quote:

Originally posted by John M:
So close your tired eyes little one
And crawl within my reach
Oh and wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims
And we'll ride tonight on the beach
Out where the surfers sat wet and cold
As they watch the skies
There'll be a silence to match their own

What's this?

Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus.

quote:

Originally posted by TomK:

quote:

Originally posted by John M:
So close your tired eyes little one
And crawl within my reach
Oh and wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims
And we'll ride tonight on the beach
Out where the surfers sat wet and cold
As they watch the skies
There'll be a silence to match their own

What's this?

Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run. Not a huge boss fan but I do love this song and most of his lyrics.

I recognise the "velvet rims" but the rest of it's from no version I've ever heard, and certainly isn't from the released version. The verse in question is actually:

Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend
I want to guard your dreams and visions
Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims
and strap your hands 'cross my engines
Together we could break this trap
We'll run till we drop, baby we'll never go back
h-Oh, Will you walk with me out on the wire
`Cause baby I'm just a scared and lonely rider
But I gotta know how it feels
I want to know if love is wild
Babe I want to know if love is real


Just curious where you got these lyrics as they don't sound very Boss-like.

"Little old lady got mutilated late last night..."

Definitely the most fun to sing.

quote:

Originally posted by TomK:


Just curious where you got these lyrics as they don't sound very Boss-like.

Right, I forgot to say they were transposed from a live show in July 74 at the Bottom Line in NY when the song was a bit of a work in progress. He regularly sang diff lyrics I have heard. I have a bunch of live stuff. I really love the album lyrics, but this version has special meaning to me. Boss-like no, but since he did come up playing on the jersey shore, near where this show was captured, (and where I do a lot of surfing,) it is not completely out of context, right?

I'd been going to suggest those lyrics had a youthful awkwardness and naivety about them so they almost sounded like a student trying to write a "Boss like" song. When he had his contract hassles between Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town he got bored singing the standard versions and changed lyrics and arrangements quite drastically. Bootlegs from that period are quite interesting for that reason.

I always thought Born to Run sounded like a speeded up version of Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind.

I used to be indecisive but now I’m not to sure – by The The. album: Soul Mining

"I plough the fields of Heaven"...Dylan at his best

Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey.
I ache in the places where I used to play.

Leonard Cohen

Oh Dear, Miss Morse, I want you, Oh yes, I do, I want you.
Dit Dit Dah Dit, Dit Dit Dah, Dah Dit Dah Dit, Dah Dit Dah

Tom Rapp (Pearls Before Swine)

Favourite lyrics for this week:

God is a concept by which we measure our pain

I will say it again

God is a concept by which we measure our pain

(John Lennon Plastic Ono Band 1970)