I’ve been drinkin’ , I’ve been drinkin
that filth- erm - you know the rest sheepish grin
Drunk in Love - Beyonce (Ft. Jay Z)
Come to my door, baby,
face is clean and shining black as night.
My mother went to answer, you know,
and you looked so fine.
Now I can understand your tears and your shame.
She called you “boy” instead of your name.
When she wouldn’t let you inside.
When she turned and said
“But honey, he’s not our kind.”
She said I can’t see you any more, baby.
Can’t see you anymore.
Janis Ian, “Society’s Child”
At Seventeen
By Janis Ian
I leaned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
Say your prayers little one
Don’t forget my son
To include everyone
I tuck you in, warm within
Keep you free from sin
'Til the sandman he comes
Sleep with one eye open
Gripping your pillow tight
Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We’re off to never-never land
Metallica - Enter Sandman
Life’s become a great big list, of things to do and buy and fix.
At night we pass out before ten.
Are we ever going to have sex again?
Amy Rigby
There are men lost in jail
Crowded fifty to a room
There’s too many rats in this cage of the world
And the women know their place
They sit home and write letters
And when they visit once a year
Well they both just sit there and stare
X - “See How We Are” - from the album “Unclogged”
By the second verse, dear friends
My head will burst, my life will end
So I’d like to start this one off by saying
Live and love
Okkervil River – “John Allyn Smith Sails” - from the album “The Stage Names”
About the death (suicide) of poet John Berryman
My mom’d give me twenty, and say “Stay out till dawn”
When her boyfriend was over and they wanted me gone
I would walk through the woods to the old graveyard
And roll my own tops and think two kinda thoughts
Are we high enough to clear these trees?
I don’t know
Mason Jennings - “Pittsburgh” - from the album “Blood of Man”
love this thread…
You said we should look out further
I guess it wouldn’t hurt us
We don’t have to be around all these coffee shops
Now we’ve got that percolator
Never made a latte greater.
I’m saving 23 dollars a week
We drive to a house in Preston
We see police arresting
A man with his hand in a bag.
Hows that for first impressions
This place seems depressing
It’s a Californian bungalow in a cul-de-sac
Its got a lovely garden
A garage for two cars to park in
Or a lot of room for storage if you’ve just got one
And its going pretty cheap you say
Well it’s a deceased estate
Aren’t the pressed metal ceilings great?
Then I see the handrail in the shower
A collection of those canisters for coffee tea and flour
And a photo of a young man in a van in Vietnam
And I cant think of floorboards anymore
Whether the front room faces south or north
And I wonder what she bought it for
(If you’ve got a
Spare half a million
You could knock it down
And start rebuilding)
repeated 6 times
Courtney Barnett - “Depreston” - from the album “Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit”
She locked herself in the bathroom again
So I am pissing in the yard
I have to laugh when I think how far it’s gone
But things aren’t funny any more
I drew a line into the dirt
And dared her to step right across it
And she did
So I am knocking on the door again
I say, “Do you want to be alone?”
She says, “No I don’t wanna be alone,
But I think that you do.”
Eels - A Line in the Dirt - from the album “End Times”
Stayed in bed all mornin’ just to pass the time.
There’s somethin’ wrong here, there can be no denyin’.
One of us is changin’, or maybe we’ve just stopped tryin’.
Carole King - It’s Too Late Lyrics
I’ve always loved those lyrics, so evocative, feels to me like I walked in on somebody’s breakup. Fun thread PG
@saintfan, that’s funny about the Happy Enchilada song. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen it, but I just found it on youtube…
John Prine is someone I’ve never seen, and I really regret it. I’m not sure what his voice is like now, but I know he had some health problems a few years ago and his voice was damaged pretty badly.
He’s so great I might go see him anyway. I just checked and he’s touring.
Here’s some more from Green Day’s older albums:
I declare, I don’t care no more
I’m burning up and out and growing bored
In my smoked out boring room
My hair is shagging in my eyes
Dragging my feet to hit the street tonight
To drive along these ■■■■ town lights
I’m not growing up, I’m just burning out
And I stepped in line to walk amongst the dead
(Burnout, Green Day Dookie Album Track 1)
Sit around and watch the tube, but nothing’s on
I change the channels for an hour or two
Twiddle my thumbs just for a bit
I’m sick of all the same old ■■■■
In a house with unlocked doors
And I’m ■■■■■■■ lazy
Bite my lip and close my eyes
Take me away to paradise
I’m so damn bored I’m going blind
And I smell like ■■■■
(Longview, Green Day Dookie Album Track 4)
Do you have the time to listen to me whine
About nothing and everything all at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it
Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I’m cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Or am I just stoned
(Basket Case, Green Day Dookie Album Track 7)
Seventeen and strung out on confusion
Trapped inside a roll of disillusion
I found out what it takes to be a man
Well, Mom and Dad will never understand
Secrets collecting dust but never forget
SKELETONS come to LIFE in my closet
I found out what it takes to be a man
Well, Mom and Dad will never understand
WHAT’S HAPPENING TO ME
(Basket Case, Green Day Dookie Album Track 11)
It was raining hard in 'Frisco
I needed one more fare to make my night
A lady up ahead waved to flag me down
She got in at the light.
“Oh, where you going to, my lady blue?”
It’s a shame you ruined your gown in the rain
She just looked out the window, she said
“Sixteen Park side Lane”
Taxi, by Harry Chapin
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
Time in a Bottle, Jim Croce
Oooh. Thanks for the reminder.
He said I was in my early forties
With a lot of life before me
When a moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options and talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
That this might really be the real end
How’s it hit ‘cha when you get that kind of news?
Man, what’d ya do?
And he said
I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I’d been denyin’
Live Like You Were Dying - Tim McGraw
Well, I was born a coal miner’s daughter
In a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler
We were poor but we had love
That’s the one thing that daddy made sure of
He shoveled coal to make a poor man’s dollar
Coal Miner’s Daughter - Loretta Lynn
You took the toaster when you went
You never paid your half the rent
You took the spices from the rack
But you dont have to put them back
Cause in your haste on Halloween
You left your camera on the bed
Where we played roles in black and white
You left a role of black and white
I set the timer and thought of you
And put the lens up to my head
I took a photograph for you
What comes out gray is really red
Richard Shindell–“Are You Happy Now?”
In the deep dark hills of Eastern Kentucky,
That’s the place where I trace my bloodline,
And it’s there I read on a hillside gravestone,
“You’ll never leave Harlan alive.”
–Darrell Scott
You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
South Pacific - Youve Got To Be Carefully Taught
Tom’s Diner - Susanne Vega
"I am sitting
In the morning
At the diner
On the corner
I am waiting
At the counter
For the man
To pour the coffee…"
“Smelly cat, smelly cat
What are they feeding you?
Smelly cat, smelly cat
It’s not your fault”
Phoebe Buffay
:-"