Songs with wonderful lyrics ?

Loving The Bucket, nice one grimep

The problem with Leonard Cohen is that while his lyrics may be great, he’s a dire “singer” and should probably have done a Bernie Taupin and got someone else to actually be the frontman. Pink Floyd are the opposite: they certainly know how to play, it’s just a pity Rick from the Young Ones wrote the lyrics.

Given all the self-indulgent 6th form crap on this thread my vote goes for “Didgeridoo”, by Aphex Twin. Bah humbug!

:D

Drinking in the morning sun
Blinking in the morning sun
Shaking off a heavy one
Heavy like a loaded gun
What made me behave that way?
Using words I never say
I can only think it must be love
Oh, anyway, it’s looking like a beautiful day
Someone tell me how I feel
In silly wrong, but vivid right
Oh, kiss me like a final meal
Yeah, kiss me like we die tonight
‘Cause holy cow, I love your eyes
And only now I see the light
Yeah, lying with you half awake
Oh, anyway, it’s looking like a beautiful day
When my face is chamois creased
If you think I wink, I did
Laugh politely at repeats
Yeah, kiss me when my lips are thin
‘Cause holy cow, I love your eyes
And only now I see the light
Yeah, lying with you half awake
Stumbling over what to say
Well, anyway, it’s looking like a beautiful day
So, throw those curtains wide
One Day Like This a year would see me right
Throw those curtains wide
One Day Like This a year would see me right
Throw those curtains wide
One Day Like This a year would see me right, for life
Throw those curtains wide
One Day Like This a year would see me right for life

Given all the self-indulgent 6th form crap on this thread my vote goes for “Didgeridoo”, by Aphex Twin. Bah humbug!

I mention I resisted posting Come on You Slags, and Beetles.

But now you’ve gone and done it… Milkman:

I think Miley really nails the sentiment of the simple yet poignant lyrics

Hmm. I actually think the opposite. Miley has swagger she’s belting it out, but Dolly is pleading and it’s far more emotional to me.

This is something I’ve noticed with covers often. Certain songs are more than just music and lyrics, they are personal and emotional soliloquies. The writer has put their soul into it, and if you want to cover it you have to do more than just sing, you have to act. Lots of covers are like ‘oh hey everyone loves this song let’s all sing along’ when they are about heartbreak.

Ok so. now I’ve just watched four videos of that song including the Destructo remix which contains some of the most joyful and fantastic dancing I’ve seen in ages, and got me thinking about how many years it’s been since I actually danced at all.

Verse 1]
In the West End of Derby lives a working man
He says “I can’t fly but me pigeons can
And when I set them free
It’s just like part of me
Gets lifted up on shining wings”

[Verse 2]
Charlie Hudson’s pigeon loft was down the yard
Of a rented house in Brook Street where life was hard
But Charlie had a dream
And in 1913
Charlie bred a pigeon that made his dream come true

[Verse 3]
There was gonna be a champions’ race from Italy
We got out the maps, all that land and sea
“Charlie, you’ll lose that bird”
But Charlie never heard
He put it in a basket and sent it off to Rome

[Verse 4]
On the day o’ the big race a storm blew in
A thousand birds were swept away and never seen again
“Charlie we told you so
Surely by now you know
When you’re living in the West End there ain’t many dreams come true”
My favourite at the moment
Just about every track on Soul mining by The The

I don’t know of it’s been mentioned, but I just listened to The Boxer for the first time in ages, it tells a lot of story from a few words.

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, mhmm

When I left my home and my family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of a railway station running scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know

Asking only workman’s wages
I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there

Now the years are rolling by me
They are rocking evenly
I am older than I once was
And younger than I’ll be, that’s not unusual
It isn’t strange after changes upon changes
We are more or less the same
After changes we are more or less the same

Then I’m laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone, going home
Where the New York City winters aren’t bleeding me
Leading me, going home

In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
And cut him ’til he cried out
In his anger and his shame
“I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains, mhmm

The problem with Leonard Cohen is that while his lyrics may be great, he’s a dire “singer”

Yes, but:

All my favourite singers couldn’t sing

Which is a lyric from a Silver Jews song called We Are Real by the late, great David Berman.  One of the finest lyricists of all time in my book.  American Water is a brilliant album.

I’d also mention Kate Stables of This is The Kit.  She’s a phenomenal lyricist and somewhat under appreciated I think.

When Leonard first was asked to sing one of his songs on stage, he refused, saying, “but I can’t sing”. The promoter said, “None of you guys can sing. If i wanted to hear a good singer, I’d go to the opera”. LC’s voice is an acquired taste, granted, but in his own words, “All the ladies go moist and the judge has no choice, a singer must die for the lie in his voice”.

Reminds me of when Kris Kristofferson was asked to record an album of his songs
“I can’t sing, I sound like a frog”
“Yeah but you sound like a frog that can communicate”

The scene was a small roadside cafe
The waitress was sweepin’ the floor
Two truck-drivers drinkin’ their coffee
And two okie-kids by the door
How much are them candies, they asked her
How much have you got, she replied
We’ve only a penny between us
Them’s two for a penny, she lied
And the daylight grew heavy with thunder
And the smell of the rain on the wind
Ain’t it just like a human
Here comes that rainbow again
One truckdriver called to the waitress
After the kids went outside
Them candies ain’t two for a penny
So what’s it to you, she replied
In silence they finished their coffee
Got up and nodded godbye
She called, hey, you left too much money
So what’s it to you, they replied
And the daylight grew heavy with thunder
And the smell of the rain on the wind
Ain’t it just like a human
Here comes that rainbow again

Easterhouse anyone:

You know how things are, when you get to talking
About the state of the world, everyone’s got an opinion
I was talking to some boys who were friends of a friend
And we stopped to pass the time as we had nothing else to do
Someone made a chance remark, and then an argument got started
We were talking about Russia, the things they say go on
And something he saw on the TV, a TV documentary

On the lack of basic freedom, human liberty
I said now, now listen, you ought to save your sympathy
Wе need it more than they, as far as I can see
We all know thеy’re in chains, you only think that you are free
And it’s the Russian working man ,who knows exactly where he stands

They tell you, in England, we’re all entitled to a say
But nothing too extreme, that’s not the English way

Your political delusions, have bound you hand and foot
And anyone who questions is an agitator, infiltrator

Get back to Russia, I hear you say
Get back to Russia, but there ain’t no way
Still it would be nice
Leningrad in spring must be a pretty sight
Sit down by the Volga, all that cool blue water

I said now, now listen, nobody tells it like it is
Don’t believe that things were always just like this
There have been very different times
Before the Labour Party line
When those who sit upon our backs did not have such an easy ride

We were not satisfied
Our anger could not be denied
To soothe our discontent we got a voice in parliament
Representatives to tell you that the class who buy and sell

Expect that you should do your duty, die for King and Country

We’ve got the Labour Party, a patriotic party
Who led you off to war and told you “this is what you’re fighting for”
And noble, patriotic, foolishly believed them
And the flag is what they wrapped them in;
The ones who gave their lives

And after it was over and they counted up the spoils of war
They let you have a welfare state, a pension when you reach old age
Talked about equality, a stake in this society
They’ve sold you down the line, what’s more
They’ve sold you down the line

They tell you, in England, we’re all entitled to a say
But nothing too extreme, that’s not the English way

Get back to Russia, I hear you say
Get back to Russia, but there ain’t no way
England made me and here I’ll stay
England made me, let England deal with me

Leningrad in spring must be a pretty sight
Sit down by the Volga, all that cool blue water

You can’t get Levi jeans
Or pictures of James Dean
But these things I have seen
They don’t mean that much to me

They tell you, in England, we’re all entitled to a say
But nothing too extreme, that’s not the English way

Your political delusions, have bound you hand and foot
And anyone who questions is an agitator, infiltrator

Get back to Russia, I hear you say
Get back to Russia, but there ain’t no way
England made me and here I’ll stay
England made me, let England deal with me