Great lyrics - "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die...."

[flapjackdavey]

nit no not

no nit not

nit nit folly bololy

Alifee my lada

Alifee my lada .

[flapjackdavey]

seaweed tangle in a home from home

reminds me of your rocky bottom

wait for the paprerweight

err... on the good side

such as when we collapse

into the water we'll go head over heals

we'll not grow fat inside the mamary gland.

:))

[????]

"But I know he's a moron, Gordon is a moron

Just 'cos he's better looking than me, just 'cos he's cool and trendy"

[Jah Lush]

When there's no future

How can there be sin

We're the flowers in the dustbin

We're the poison in your human machine

We're the future you're future

God save the queen

We mean it man

We love our queen

God saves

God save the queen

We mean it man

And there is no future

In England's dreaming

[Keef]

Now I'm falling asleep

And she's calling a cab

While he's having a smoke

And she's taking a drag

Now they're going to bed

And my stomach is sick

And it's all in my head

But she's touching his chest, Now

He takes off her dress, Now

Let me go

Teenage / young man angst in words!

[KidKruger]

Don't laugh - but there are people in this world

Born as boys - and fighting to be girls

People standing in their way

Some are straight and some are gay

Calling them the drag queens

Say you can't be one of us

You only have yourself to blame

You don't fit

Don't laugh - but there are people in this town

Be polite say a whiter shade of brown

People that they gotta fight

Some are black and some are white

Calling them the half-breeds

Say you can't be one of us

You only have yourself to blame

You don't fit

That's what you're there for - square pegs in square holes

Round pegs in round

You get too big then they can't make new holes

So they'll cut you down

All ugly sisters must wear glass slippers

Or get out of town

But don't cry - if the people in your street

Lead a life that's more or less complete

Little problems every day

Little problems go away

Kid yourself you're fighting for life

Kid yourself you fight for love

But maybe in some other lifetime

You won't fit

And if you don't fit

You're fit for nothing at all

[Keef]

We are two mariners, ships' sole survivors, In this belly of a whale

Its ribs our ceiling beams, Its guts our carpeting, I guess we have some time to kill

You may not remember me, I was a child of three, and you, a lad of eighteen

But I remember you, and I will relate to you, how our histories interweave

At the time you were a rake and a roustabout.

Spending all your money on the whores and hounds

Oh Ohhhhh

You had a charming air all cheap and debonair, my widowed mother found so sweet

And so she took you in, her sheets still warm with him, now filled with filth and foul disease

As time wore on you proved a debt-ridden drunken mess.

Leaving my mother, a poor consumptive wretch

Oh Ohhhhh

And then you disappeared, your gambling arrears, the only thing you left behind

And then the magistrate reclaimed our small estate, and my poor mother lost her mind

Then one day in spring my dear sweet mother died

But before she did, I took her hand as she, dying, cried:

Oh Ohhhhh

"Find him, bind him

Tie him to a pole and break

His fingers to splinters

Drag him to a hole until he

Wakes up naked

Clawing at the ceiling

Of his grave

*sigh*"

It took me fifteen years, to swallow all my tears among the urchins in the street

Until a priory took pity and hired me to keep their vestry nice and neat

But never once in the employ of these holy men

Did I ever once turn my mind from the thought of revenge

Oh Ohhhhh

One night I overheard the Prior exchanging words, with a penitent whaler from the sea

The captain of his ship, who matched you toe to tip, was known for wanton cruelty

The following day I shipped to sea with a privateer

And in the whistle of the wind I could almost hear...

Oh Ohhhhh

"Find him, bind him

Tie him to a pole and break

His fingers to splinters

Drag him to a hole until he

Wakes up naked

Clawing at the ceiling

Of his grave

"There is one thing I must say to you

As you sail across the sea

Always, your mother will watch over you

As you avenge this wicked deed"

And then that fateful night, we had you in our sight, after twenty months at sea

Your starboard flank abeam, I was getting my muskets clean, when came this rumbling from beneath

The ocean shook, the sky went black, and the captain quailed

And before us grew the angry jaws of a giant whale

Oh Ohhhhhhhhhh

Ohhhhh

Don't know how I survived, crew all was chewed alive, I must have slipped between his teeth

But, O! What providence!

What divine intelligence!

That you should survive as well as me

It gives my heart great joy to see your eyes fill with fear

So lean in close, and I will whisper the last words you'll hear

Ohh Ohhhhh

[Jah Lush]

I am tall and I am thin

Of an enviable hight

And I've been known to be quite handsome

In a certain angle and in certain light

Well I entered into O'Malley's

Said, O'Malley I have a thirst

O'Malley merely smiled at me

Said you wouldn't be the first

I knocked on the bar and pointed

To a bottle on the shelf

And as O'Malley poured me out a drink

I sniffed and crossed myself

My hand decided that the time was nigh

And for a moment it slipped from view

And when it returned, it fairly burned

With confidence anew

Well the thunder from my steely fist

Made all the glasses jangle

When I shot him, I was so handsome

It was the light, it was the angle

Huh! hmmmmmm

Neighbours! I cried, friends!

I screamed

I banged my fist upon the bar

I bear no grudge against you!

And my dick felt long and hard

I am the man for which no God waits

But for which the whole world yearns

I'm marked by darkness and by blood

And one thousand powder-burns

Well, you know those fish with the swollen lips

That clean the ocean floor

When I looked at poor O'Malley's wife

That's exactly what I saw

I jammed the barrel under her chin

And her face looked raw and vicious

Her head it landed in the sink

With all the dirty dishes

Her little daughter Siobhan

Pulled beers from dusk till down

And amongst the townfolk she was a bit of a joke

But she pulled the best beer in town

I swooped magnificent upon her

As she sat shivering in her grief

Like the Madonna painted on the church-house wall

In whale's blood and banana leaf

Her throat it crumbled in my fist

And I spun heroically around

To see Caffrey rising from his seat

I shot that motherfcuker down

Mmmmmmmmmm yeah yeah yeah

I have no free will, I sang

As I flew about the murder

Mrs Richard Holmes, she screamed

You really should have heard her

I sang and I laughed, I howled and I wept

I panted like a pup

I blew a hole in Mrs Richard Holmes

And her husband stupidly stood up

As he screamed, you are an evil man

And I paused a while to wonder

If I have no free will then how can I

Be morally culpable, I wonder

I shot richard holmes in the stomach

And gingerly he sat down

And he whispered weirdly, no offense

And then lay upon the ground

None taken, I replied to him

To which he gave a little cough

With blazing wings I neatly aimed

And blew his head completely off

I've lived in this town for thirty years

And to no-one I am a stranger

And I put new bullets in my gun

Chamber upon chamber

And I turned my gun on the bird-like Mr Brookes

I thought of Saint Francis and his sparrows

And as I shot down the youthful Richardson

It was St Sebastian I thought of, and his arrows

Hhhhhhhhhh mmmmmmmmmmmm

I said, I want to introduce myself

And I am glad that all you came

And I leapt upon the bar

And shouted out my name

Well Jerry Bellows, he hugged his stool

Closed his eyes and shrugged and laughed

And with an ashtray as big as a fcuking really big brick

I split his head in half

His blood spilled across the bar

Like a steaming scarlet brook

And I knelt at it's edge on the counter

Wiped the tears away and looked

Well, the light in there was blinding

Full of God and ghosts of truth

I smiled at Henry Davenport

Who made an attempt to move

Well, from the position I was standing

The strangest thing I ever saw

The bullet entered through the top of his chest

And blew his bowels out on the floor

Well I floated down the counter

Showing no remorse

I shot a hole in Kathleen Carpenter

Recently divorced

But remorse I felt and remorse I had

It clung to every thing

From the raven's hair upon my head

To the feathers on my wings

Remorse sqeezed my hand in it's fradulent claw

With it's golden hairless chest

And I glided through the bodies

And killed the fat man Vincent West

Who sat quietly in his chair

A man become a child

And I raised the gun up to his head

Executioner-style

He made no attempt to resist

So fat and dull and lazy

Did you know I lived in your street? I said

And he looked at me as though I were crazy

O, he said, I had no idea

And he grew as quiet as a mouse

And the roar of the pistol when it went off

Near blew that hat right off the house

Hmmmmmm uh uh

Well, I caught my eye in the mirror

And gave it a long and loving inspection

There stands some kind of man, I roared

And there did, in the reflection

My hair combed back like a raven's wing

My muscles hard and tight

And curling from the business end of my gun

Was a query-mark of cordite

Well I spun to the left, I spun to the right

And I spun to the left again

Fear me! fear me! fear me!

But no one did cause they were dead

Huh! hmmmmmmmmm

And then there were the police sirens wailing

And a bull-horn squelched and blared

Drop your weapons and come out

With your hands held in the air

Well, I checked the chamber of my gun

Saw I had one final bullet left

My hand, it looked almost human

As I raised it to my head

Drop your weapon and come out!

Keep your hands above your head!

I had one one long hard think about dying

And did exactly what they said

There must have been fifty cops out there

In a circle around O'Malley's bar

Don't shoot, I cried, I'm a man

Unarmed!

So they put me in their car

And they sped me away from that terrible scene

And I glanced out of the window

Saw O'Malley's bar, saw the cops and the cars

And I started counting on my fingers

Aaaaaah one aaaaaah two aaaaaah three aaaaaaah four

O'Malley's bar O'Malley's bar.

[flapjackdavey]

and here is the dowry of the lepar

a walnut shell and a peck of pepper.

[Jah Lush]

John Willmot, penned his poetry riddled with the pox

Nabakov wrote on index cards, at a lectern, in his socks

St John of the Cross did his best stuff imprisoned in a box

And Johnny Thunders was half alive when he wrote Chinese Rocks

[Sue]

If you are aiming to be the record holder for length of lyric posted, Jah Lush, watch it or I will post the whole of Desolation Row :))

[Acid Casual]

That is pretty amazing. In fact, the whole album is amazing. Some of Gil Scott-Heron's best work is on his lesser know, pre-Brian Jackson days albums. And that one is a gem.

titch juicy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Jagged jigsaw pieces

> Tossed about the room

> I saw my grandma sweeping

> With her old straw broom

> But she didn't know what she was doing

> She could hardly understand

> That she was really sweeping up..

> Pieces of a man

>

> I saw my daddy greet the mailman

> And I heard the mailman say

> "Now don't you take this letter to heart now

> Jimmy

> Cause they've laid off nine others today"

> But he didn't know what he was saying

> He could hardly understand

> That he was only talking to

> Pieces of a man

>

> I saw the thunder and heard the lightning!

> And felt the burden of his shame

> And for some unknown reason

> He never turned my way

>

> Pieces of that letter

> Were tossed about that room

> And now I hear the sound of sirens

> Come knifing through the gloom

> But they don't know what they are doing

> They could hardly understand

> That they're only arresting

> Pieces of a man

>

> gil scott heron

[Acid Casual]

You could pretty much fill a dozen pages of this thread with The Smiths offerings...

jaybee82 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> "I was looking for a job and then I found a job,

> and heaven knows I'm miserable now"

>

>

> Never fails to make me smile :)

[Acid Casual]

Without a hint of irony (and I am not a Madonna fan post 1987) but this just captures what being young should be about...

"Only when I'm dancing can I feel this free"

Also not a big Beatles fan (in relative terms) but also...

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly"

Like The Smiths and Gil Scott-Heron, you could also go on all day with Terry Callier Lyrics. Ordinary Joe and Ride, Sweet Ride stand out for me personally though.

[jollybaby]

She's not like the others

With their papers and their headphones on

She reads novels by French authors with loose morals

She can do no wrong

Don't know why but really like that bit of the Divine Comedy Commuter Love

[Sue]

Now I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this

The fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you

She tied you

To a kitchen chair

She broke your throne, and she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before

I know this room, I've walked this floor

I used to live alone before I knew you.

I've seen your flag on the marble arch

Love is not a victory march

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know

What's really going on below

But now you never show it to me, do you?

And remember when I moved in you

The holy dove was moving too

And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain

I don't even know the name

But if I did, well really, what's it to you?

There's a blaze of light

In every word

It doesn't matter which you heard

The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much

I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch

I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you

And even though

It all went wrong

I'll stand before the Lord of Song

With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah

[Mick Mac]

What's that song called Sue?

[flapjackdavey]

Still waiting for my saviour, storms tear me limb from limb;

my fingers feel like seaweed...I'm so far out I'm too far in.

I am a lonely man, my solitude is true,

my eyes have borne stark witness

and now my nights are numbered, too.

I've seen the smiles on dead hands,

the stars shine, but they're not for me.

I prophesy disaster and then I count the cost...

I shine but, shining, dying, I know that I am almost lost.

On the table lies blank paper and my tower is built on stone;

I only have blunt scissors, I only have the bluntest home.

I've been the witnessand the seal of death

lingers in the molten wax that is my head.

When you see the skeletons

of sailing-ship spars sinking low

You'll begin to wonder if the points of all the ancients myths

are solemnly directed straight at you...

No time now for contrition, the time for that's long past,

the walls are thin as tissue and if I talk I'll crack the glass.

So I only think on how it might have been,

locked in silent monologue, in silent scream.

I am much too tired to speak

and as the waves crash on the bleak

stones of the towerI start to freak

and find that I am overcome....

"Unreal, unreal" ghost helmsmen scream and fall in through the sky,

not breaking through my seagull shrieks -no breaks until I die.

The spectres scratch on window-slits,

the hollowed faces and mindless grins

are only intent on destroying what they've lost.

I crawl the wall till steepness ends in the vertical fall;

my pail has sailed into the sea -no joking hopes at dawn.

White bone shine in the iron-jaw mask,

lost mastheads pierce the freezing dark

and parallel my isolated tower...

no paraffin for the flame,

no harbour left to gain.

'Alone, alone' the ghosts all call,

pinpoint me in the light.

The only life I feel at all

is the presence of the night.

Would you cry if I died?

Would you catch the final words of mine?

Would you catch my words?

I know that there's no time,

I know that there's no rhyme,

false signs find me.

I don't want to hate, I just want to grow;

why can't I let me live and be free?

...but I die very slowly alone.

I know no more ways, I am so afraid,

myself won't let me just be myself

and so I am completely alone.

The maelstrom of my memory

is a vampire and it feeds on me;

now, staggering madly, over the brink I fall.

Lighthouses might house the key but can I reach the door?

I want to walk on the sea so that I may better find a shore;

but how can I ever keep my feet dry?

I scan the horizon,

I must keep my eyes on all parts of me.

Looking back on the years it seems that I have lost my way:

lLike a dog in the night I have run to a manger,

now I am the stranger I stay in.

Ah, well.

All of the grief I have seen leaves me chasing solitary peace;

But I hold experience in my head.

I'm too close to the light,.

I don't think I see right, for I blind me.

Where is the God that guides my hand?

How can the hands of others reach me?

When will I find what I grope for?

Who is going to teach me?

I am me / me are we / we can't see

any way out of here.

Crashing sea, a trophied history:

chance has lost my Guinevere...

I don't want to be one wave in the water

but sea will drag me deep:

one more haggard drowned man.

I can see the lemmings coming, but I know I'm just a man.

Do I join or do I founder? Which can is the best I may?

Oceans drifting sideways, I am pulled into the spell,

I feel you around me, I know you well.

Stars slice horizons where the lines stand much too stark;

I feel I am drowning - hands stretch in the dark.

Camps of panoply and majesty, what is Freedom of Choice?

Where do I stand in the pageantry, whose is my voice?

It doesn't feel so very bad now, I think the end is the start,

begin to feel very glad now:

All things are a part

All things are apart

All things are a part.

[Jah Lush]

Bob Dylan - Desolation Row

They're selling postcards of the hanging

They're painting the passports brown

The beauty parlor is filled with sailors

The circus is in town

Here comes the blind commissioner

They've got him in a trance

One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker

The other is in his pants

And the riot squad, they're restless

They need somewhere to go

As Lady and I look out tonight

From Desolation Row

Cinderella, she seems so easy

"It takes one to know one," she smiles

And puts her hands in her back pocket

Bette Davis style

And in comes Romeo, he's moaning

"You belong to me I believe"

And someone says," You're in the wrong place, my friend

You better leave"

And the only sound that's left

After the ambulances go

Is Cinderella sweeping up

On Desolation Row

Now the moon is almost hidden

The stars are beginning to hide

The fortune telling lady

Has even taken all her things inside

All except for Cain and Abel

And the hunchback of Notre Dame

Everybody is making love

Or else expecting rain

And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing

He's getting ready for the show

He's going to the carnival tonight

On Desolation Row

Now Ophelia, she's 'neath the window

For her I feel so afraid

On her twenty-second birthday

She already is an old maid

To her, death is quite romantic

She wears an iron vest

Her profession's her religion

Her sin is her lifelessness

And though her eyes are fixed upon

Noah's great rainbow

She spends her time peeking

Into Desolation Row

Einstein disguised as Robin Hood

With his memories in a trunk

Passed this way an hour ago

With his friend, a jealous monk

Now, he looked so immaculately frightful

As he bummed a cigarette

Then he went off sniffing drainpipes

And reciting the alphabet

Now you would not think to look at him

But he was famous long ago

For playing the electric violin

On Desolation Row

Doctor Filth, he keeps his world

Inside of a leather cup

But all his sexless patients

They're trying to blow it up

Now his nurse, some local loser

She's in charge of the cyanide hole

And she also keeps the cards that read

"Have mercy on his soul"

They all play on penny whistles

You can hear them blow

If you lean your head out far enough

From Desolation Row

Across the street they've nailed the curtains

They're getting ready for the feast

The Phantom of the Opera

A perfect image of a priest

They're spoonfeeding Casanova

To get him to feel more assured

Then they'll kill him with self-confidence

After poisoning him with words

And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls

"Get outta here if you don't know

Casanova is just being punished for going

To Desolation Row"

Now at midnight all the agents

And the superhuman crew

Come out and round up everyone

That knows more than they do

Then they bring them to the factory

Where the heart-attack machine

Is strapped across their shoulders

And then the kerosene

Is brought down from the castles

By insurance men who go

Check to see that nobody is escaping

To Desolation Row

Praise be to Nero's Neptune

The Titanic sails at dawn

And everybody's shouting

"Which side are you on?"

And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot

Fighting in the captain's tower

While calypso singers laugh at them

And fishermen hold flowers

Between the windows of the sea

Where lovely mermaids flow

And nobody has to think too much

About Desolation Row

Yes, I received your letter yesterday

About the time the door knob broke

When you asked how I was doing

Was that some kind of joke?

All these people that you mention

Yes, I know them, they're quite lame

I had to rearrange their faces

And give them all another name

Right now, I can't read too good

Don't send me no more letters, no

Not unless you mail them

From Desolation Row

[Sue]

:)):)):))

xxxxxx

OK you win, don't think I can think of anything longer :))

[Sue]

Mick Mac Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> What's that song called Sue?

xxxxx

Sorry, cut and pasted :)

[Mick Mac]

I have fallen for another she can make her own way home

And even if she asked me now I'd let her go alone

See I used to see her in the chapel when she went to sunday mass

When she'd go up to receive I'd kneel down there and let her pass................The glory of her ass

I used to love her, I used to love her once, long long time ago

I used to love her, I used to love her once, long long time ago

It's gone, all my loving is gone, wow oh wow oh

Well it's gone, long, long gone

You remember her collecting for Concern on christmas eve

She was on a 48 hour fast, just water and black tea

Well I walked up and made an ostentacious contribution

And I winked at her to tell her I'd seduce her in the future

.........................When she's feeling looser

[legalbeagle]

Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

We'll do it all

Everything

On our own

We don't need

Anything

Or anyone

If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know

How to say

How I feel

Those three words

I said too much

They're not enough

If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told

Before we get too old

Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time

Chasing cars

Around our heads

I need your grace

To remind me

To find my own

If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told

Before we get too old

Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am

All that I ever was

Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where

Confused about how as well

Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

[HonaloochieB]

kpc Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright

Oh and that's alright with me

The Boss

No disrespect KPC, but good a song as Thunder Road is, it's not worth quoting in its entirety.

Those lines above are a tiny bit of genius.

To go from 'beauty' to 'alright', punctuated with a 'hey' is inspired and then the follow up of it being 'alright' with him is so good, that it surely makes any chap want to get involved with a woman who's not a beauty, but alright, because that'll be alright by him.

It's those little lines of songs that just make you want to live them, and this is one and a half.

Utter perfection, The Boss.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Too long to quote, but this is brilliant:

Paradise by the dashboard light