best song lyrics ever

Parent Cafe
41

<p>Anything on Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush album.</p>

<p>And in a different style, it’s hard to imagine a more poetic songwriter than Leonard Cohen.</p>

<p>Hallelujah </p>

<p>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</p>

<p>Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah</p>

<p>Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair, she broke your throne
she cut your hair and from your lips she drew the halleujah</p>

<p>Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah</p>

<p>Maybe I’ve 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</p>

<p>Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah</p>

<p>There was a time you let me know
What’s real and 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</p>

<p>Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah</p>

<p>Maybe there’s a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It’s not a cry you can hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah</p>

<p>Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah…</p>

42

<p>^^Phil Ochs was wonderful. On Youtube I see young people rediscovering him. Leonard Cohen, oh yes.</p>

<p>I also like rousing sea songs by Stan Rogers, for example, Northwest Passage –</p>

<p>“Ah for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea…”</p>

<p>…and his softer side, as in “Lies”</p>

<p>“Is this the face that won for her the man
Whose amazed and clumsy fingers put that ring upon her hand?
No need to search that mirror for the years
The menace in their message shouts across the blur of tears
So this is Beauty’s finish! Like Rodin’s “Belle Heaulmiere”
The pretty maiden trapped inside the ranch wife’s toil and care
Well, after seven kids, that’s no surprise
But why cannot her mirror tell her lies?”</p>

43

<p>If you like Phil Ochs, I’d like to recommend a cover of No More Songs by Henry Cow, led by the talented German singer Dagmar Krause. (You can find an interesting live performance on YouTube by searching for “Henry Cow No More Songs”.)</p>

44

<p>vballmom, thank you for posting the Hallelujah lyrics. I second your selection.</p>

45

<p>For lyrics you can’t do much better than Bob Dylan:</p>

<p>Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.</p>

<p>More Dylan:</p>

<p>There’s beauty in the silver, singin’ river,
There’s beauty in the rainbow in the sky,
But none of these and nothing else can touch the beauty
That I remember in my true love’s eyes.</p>

<p>Neil Young had his moments too:</p>

<p>Well, I dreamed I saw the silver
Space ships flying in the yellow haze of the sun,
There were children crying
And colors flying all around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun.
They were flying Mother Nature’s
Silver seed to a new home in the sun.</p>

46

<p>Oh yes, to the first Coureur. Oh very yes. Particularly when sung by Judy Collins. Probably the purest female voice I’ve ever heard.</p>

<p>Al Stewart, best known for “Year of the Cat,” which itself has some fine lyrics, and little known for his other 150+ songs except by obsessive cognoscenti.</p>

<p>Laughing Into 1939</p>

<p>Party hat and satin dress
Silver paper curled in her long black hair
Tapping one small elegant shoe in time
Oh, the way she plays with them
Smile at one, then dance with another
Pretty soon they’re forming up a line
And she’s laughing, laughing into 1939
Oh, laughing, laughing into 1939</p>

<p>Oh, the party draws them in
It breathes and moves
To a life its own
In its arms it’s gathering all time
From the dark he watches her
Moving in and out of the bobbing crowd
If she even notices, she gives no sign
And she’s laughing, laughing into 1939
Oh, laughing, laughing into 1939</p>

<p>For tonight is New Year’s Eve
Uncork your spirits and welcome it in
Who knows what it’s got up its sleeve
Can’t wait for it all to begin
Stand by the girl with the purple balloon
The look in her eyes just lights up the room
In the corner of her smile
She’ll be seeing you soon
Under a mistletoe moon</p>

<p>Out on to the balcony
Come the King and Queen
And the crowd go wild
He’s a little bit nervous
But that’s just fine
And they’re laughing, laughing into 1939
Oh, laughing, laughing into 1939</p>

<p>====</p>

<p>Nice music too with a viola bridge to the acoustic guitar.</p>

47

<p>One that is always in the back of my head as a parent:</p>

<p>Cat’s in the Cradle - Harry Chapin</p>

<p>My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin’ 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He’d say “I’m gonna be like you dad
You know I’m gonna be like you”</p>

<p>And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin’ home dad?
I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son
You know we’ll have a good time then</p>

<p>My son turned ten just the other day
He said, “Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let’s play
Can you teach me to throw”, I said “Not today
I got a lot to do”, he said, “That’s ok”
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, “I’m gonna be like him, yeah
You know I’m gonna be like him”</p>

<p>And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin’ home son?
I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son
You know we’ll have a good time then</p>

<p>Well, he came home from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
“Son, I’m proud of you, can you sit for a while?”
He shook his head and said with a smile
“What I’d really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?”</p>

<p>And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin’ home son?
I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son
You know we’ll have a good time then</p>

<p>I’ve long since retired, my son’s moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, “I’d like to see you if you don’t mind”
He said, “I’d love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job’s a hassle and kids have the flu
But it’s sure nice talking to you, Dad
It’s been sure nice talking to you”</p>

<p>And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He’d grown up just like me
My boy was just like me</p>

<p>And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin’ home son?
I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son
You know we’ll have a good time then</p>

48

<p>“Me and Bobby McGee” is a fine effort. But it’s not my favorite Kristopherson song - that would be “Sunday Morning Coming Down”.</p>

<p>“Well I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one more for desert.
I fumbled in my closet through my clothes and found my cleanest dirty shirt.
Then I washed my face and combed my hair, and stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.”</p>

<p>On and on, through various scenes of domestic bliss observed by the narrator, but essentially lost to him.“And Lord, it took me back to something
that I lost somewhere, somehow, along the way.”</p>

<p>That one ranks up there with “It’s Been a Good Year for the Roses,” the best divorce song ever written, and “Pancho and Lefty,” almost a post-modern song - its narrator is decidedly not omniscient; the crux of the story (how Lefty sold out Pancho to the Federales, presumably) is hinted at, rather than spelled out, and so much more powerful for the mystery.</p>

<p>All three of these are country songs, but with lyrical sophistication that least the equal of any jazz standard I can think of. (And I absolutely love playing jazz standards.)</p>

49

<p>Is there anything more beautiful than…</p>

<p>Albatross</p>

<p>The lady comes to the gate dressed in lavender and leather
Looking north to the sea she finds the weather fine
She hears the steeple bells ringing through the orchard all the way from town
She watches seagulls fly
Silver on the ocean stitching through the waves
The edges of the sky</p>

<p>Many people wander up the hills from all around you
Making up your memories and thinking they have found you
They cover you with veils of wonder as if you were bride
Young men holding violets are curious to know if you have cried
And tell you why and ask you why
Any way you answer</p>

<p>Lace around the collars of the blouses of the ladies
Flowers from a Spanish friend of the family
The embroidery of your life holds you in and keeps you out but you survive
Imprisoned in your bones behind the isinglass windows of your eyes</p>

<p>And in the night the iron wheels rolling through the rain
Down the hills through the long grass to the sea
And in the dark the hard bells ringing with pain
Come away alone</p>

<p>Even now by the gate with your long hair blowing
And the colors of the day that lie along your arms
You must barter your life to make sure you are living
And the crowd that has come
You give them the colors and the bells and wind and the dream</p>

<p>Will there never be a prince who rides along the sea and the mountains
Scattering the sand and foam into amethyst fountains
Riding up the hills from the beach in the long summer grass
Holding the sun in his hands and shattering the isinglass?</p>

<p>Day and night and day again and people come and go away forever
While the shining summer sea dances in the glass of your mirror
While you search the waves for love and your visions for a sign
The knot of tears around your throat is crystallizing into your design</p>

<p>And in the night the iron wheels rolling through the rain
Down the hills through the long grass to the sea
And in the dark the hard bells ringing with pain
Come away alone
Come away alone with me.</p>

<p>by Judy Collins</p>

50

<p>vballmom & Bunsen – periodically I have to go on youtube & search “Jeff Buckley” + Hallelujah. Nothing like it! Cohen can really turn a phrase & Buckley sings/plays like his heart is breaking.</p>

51

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<p>My zune is set on shuffle, I absolutely love it whenever Kentucky Ave. comes up. Same for Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis.</p>

<p>My vote for best song lyrics:</p>

<p>“Comes a time, when the blind man takes your hand and says, don’t you see? Gotta make it somehow on the dreams you still believe.”
Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia</p>

52

<p>Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis</p>

<p>Hey Charlie, I’m pregnant and living on 9th Street
Right above a dirty bookstore off Euclid Avenue
And I stopped takin’ dope and I quit drinkin’ whiskey
And my old man plays the trombone and works out at the track</p>

<p>He says that he loves me, even though it’s not his baby
He says that he’ll raise him up like he would his own son
And he gave me a ring that was worn by his mother
And he takes me out dancin’ every Saturday night</p>

<p>And hey Charlie, I think about you everytime I pass a fillin’ station
On account of all the grease you used to wear in your hair
And I still have that record of Little Anthony and the Imperials(2) (3)
But someone stole my record player, now how do you like that?</p>

<p>Hey Charlie, I almost went crazy after Mario got busted
I went back to Omaha to live with my folks
But everyone I used to know was either dead or in prison
So I came back to Minneapolis, this time I think I’m gonna stay</p>

<p>Hey Charlie, I think I’m happy for the first time since my accident
And I wish I had all the money we used to spend on dope
I’d buy me a used car lot and I wouldn’t sell any of ‘em
I’d just drive a different car every day dependin’ on how I feel</p>

<p>Hey Charlie, for chrissakes, if you want to know the truth of it
I don’t have a husband, he don’t play the trombone
I need to borrow money to pay this lawyer, and Charlie, hey
I’ll be eligible for parole come Valentine’s day</p>

<p>Written by: Tom Waits</p>

53

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<p>Don’t know about singer, but Shakespeare was in his own time a songwriter. They aren’t always performed that way today, but back in the original,<em>every</em> Shakespeare play had singing and dancing.</p>

54

<p>I always think that Tom Waits is the most poetical of all living songwriters – Kentucky Avenue always makes me think of Dylan Thomas, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” – maybe it is the flow, the tone of voice, maybe it is the attention to detail, maybe it is the jumping off the roof and chasing the firetruck.</p>

<p>How about Ian Tyson’s Four Strong Winds</p>

<p>Four strong winds that blow lowly,
Seven seas that run high,
All those things that don’t change, Come what may.
but our good times are all gone,
And I’m bound for moving on.
I’ll look for you if I’m ever back this way.</p>

55

<p>The songs I really know on this thread, I can’t read without the music starting up in my head (I know this rhymes.)</p>

<p>Interesting about Kris Kristoferson (and yes I knew he wrote Bobby McGee)…I think in our 20’s it’s Bobby McGee and then, as we get older it’s “Sunday” But, the Willie Nelson version of many of his songs is the most outstanding, imho.</p>

<p>There are certain Dylan songs like that, too. “All Along the Watchtower,” Jimmy…ie…recently Bryan Ferry covered his songs in Dylanesque, and these all pop up on my “most played” list on my ipod. Dylan is a God.</p>

56

<p>The last verse of Kentucky Avenue brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. :frowning: and :)</p>

57

<p>There are some really great lyrics on this thread. One of my favorite songs is “Pay for What You Get” by Dave Matthews:</p>

<p>Work ourselves, fingers to the bone
Suck the marrow, drain my soul
Pay your dues and your debts
Pay your respects
Everybody tells you you pay for what you get
You pay for what you get</p>

<p>Everybody asks me how she’s doing
Has she really lost her mind?
I said, “I couldn’t tell you.
I’ve lost mine.”</p>

<p>Words, words, words
Have you heard
A bird in hand is much better than
Any number free to wander.
Fly away . . . Stay
You pay for what you get
You pay for what you get</p>

<p>etc.</p>

<p>copyright 1994 Dave Matthews</p>

58

<p>Jolynne I think Buckley’s version of Halleluja is the definitive one.</p>

<p>There’s also early Paul Simon (and later, too, of course):</p>

<p>I am just a poor boy, though my story’s seldom told.
I have squandered my resistance,
For a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises.
All lies and jest.
Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.</p>

<p>…I get all the news I need from the weather report…</p>

<p>Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo woo woo).
What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
“Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away” (Hey hey hey, hey hey hey)</p>

59

<p>I actually haven’t been able to get the Halleluja song out of my head since I read the lyrics. I finally caved and played it.</p>

60

<p>How about Stevie Nicks belting out this in Silver Springs!?!</p>

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