Bronze Age Babies: Discuss: Thought-Provoking Song Lyrics

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Discuss: Thought-Provoking Song Lyrics

Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse?

The River, Bruce Springsteen
The River, 1980

20 comments:

Anthony said...: Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?; March 24, 2012 at 6:35 AM
Anonymous said...: "I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar"
Morrissey was never less than brilliant in the 80s and his (The Smith's)lyric spoke for the disenfrancised Thatcher youth in a way that, I imagine, Dylan did for US youth in the 60s, but from a more fragile/vulnerable standpoint.; March 24, 2012 at 8:17 AM
Redartz said...: "On the stone an ancient hand
In a faded yellow green
Made alive a worldly wonder
Often told but never seen
Now and ever bound to labor
On the sea and in the sky
Every man and beast appeared
A friend as real as I...

Steely Dan, " The Caves of Altamira". Hard to say whether I enjoy their jazz/rock melodies or their esoteric lyrics more. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen wrote the book on cool in the 70's.

Anthony- great song; it really evokes mental images of the wintry fury of Lake Superior; a haunting ballad indeed.; March 24, 2012 at 9:02 AM
Anonymous said...: She loves you
Yeah yeah yeah; March 24, 2012 at 10:35 AM
Anonymous said...: "I've looked at life from both sides now, from win and lose, and still somehow, it's life's illusions I recall, I really don't know life...at all."; March 24, 2012 at 11:46 AM
Edo Bosnar said...: Penultimate Anonymous - I see your "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" and raise you a:
"Round round get around
I get around
Yeah
Get around round round I get around..."; March 24, 2012 at 12:16 PM
Garett said...: "There's no need for turning back
Cause all roads lead to where I stand
And I believe I'll walk them all
No matter what I may have planned"
-Don McLean

"I am Superman, and I can do anything!"
-The Clique/REM; March 24, 2012 at 12:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Great call on "The Caves Of Alt....". SD's best song from, IMHO, their best album "The Royal Scam" (I always thought "Aja", though it remains the industy staaandard for production, was a bit unfocused). If anyone has them, the lyrics to the Doors' "The WASP - Texas Radio & the Big Beat" are astonishing and every line bursts with visuals worthy of Gil Kane cover art- constructing pyramids, the dying Pharoah,the thin raft, crawling out of the Virginia swamps,the feaather-wearing natives in the forest, the starless night sky, etc. - incredible stuff that will never seem outdated. I'd have to (in terms of visuals) place Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and Judy Collins' "Pretty Polly" in the same category.Ironic that all three of those tunes came out in the late Silver Age! .; March 24, 2012 at 2:07 PM
Anonymous said...: Bird bird bird
Bird's the word; March 24, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Edo Bosnar said...: Hmm, the Anonymous above actually took what would have been my serious contribution to this discussion, i.e. "Texas Radio and the Big Beat" (by the way, are all these Anonymouses, or is it Anonymi, Anonymice (?), the same person or different individuals?)
Anyway, I'll just leave it with the end of a song I often find myself singing, and which often provokes serious contemplation:
"We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here."; March 24, 2012 at 2:44 PM
Jimmy Porter said...: I'd always misinterpreted a line in The Byrds' "Turn, Turn, Turn":

A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing
----

Then it kicks into that sweet guitar solo...

Anyway, I always thought the "time to embrace" was like a moment to physically embrace, rather than what I now think the lyric means, which is to accept or not accept the goings on during a certain period of time.

Pete Seeger and The Book of Ecclesiastes..talk about your "odd couple"!; March 24, 2012 at 2:56 PM
david_b said...: Garett, nice mention of Don McLean, one of my favorite songs ever.. Let me add 'Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding's all you see' and the Wilburys 'End of the Line', FULL of great lines but won't quote 'em all here, like 'I'm just happy to be here, happy to be alive'.

How about the Dylan's 'Jokerman' or 'Sweetheart Like You'...? Look 'em up.; March 24, 2012 at 3:29 PM
david_b said...: Sorry, finally got off my BB and onto my laptop. 'Sweetheart Like You' lines are typical Dylan, very moodily sung..:

"Just how much abuse will you be able to take ?
Well, there's no way to tell by that first kiss

You know you can make a name for yourself
You can hear them tires squeal
You can be known as the most beautiful woman
Who ever crawled across cut glass to make a deal.

Snap out of it baby, people are jealous of you
They smile to your face, but behind your back they hiss
What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this ?"

And of course, former-Stone Mick Taylor offering the sweetest of guitar solos..; March 24, 2012 at 3:54 PM
Anonymous said...: I'd go for "Imagine" by John Lennon. Also the first lines of "God" by same.
--Matt alias Anonymous; March 24, 2012 at 4:10 PM
spiderkev said...: Then like a sinner at the Gates of Heaven I'll come crawling on back to you.; March 24, 2012 at 4:21 PM
Anonymous said...: I've always been partial to the lyrics to Batman, but Spiderman...Wow! The gold standard in superhero lyrics. I never get tired of this song.

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like flies
Look Out!
Here comes the Spiderman.

Is he strong?
Listen bud,
He's got radioactive blood.
Can he swing from a thread
Take a look overhead
Hey, there
There goes the Spiderman.

In the chill of night
At the scene of a crime
Like a streak of light
He arrives just in time.

Spiderman, Spiderman
Friendly neighborhood Spiderman
Wealth and fame
He's ignored
Action is his reward.

To him, life is a great big bang up
Whenever there's a hang up
You'll find the Spider man.

James Chatterton; March 24, 2012 at 5:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Sorry for any undue irreverence there. How about this:

The sea refuses no river
Whether starving or ill
Or strung on some pill
Just 'cos you own the land
There's no unique hand plugs the dam
The sea refuses no river
And the river is where I am

The Sea Refuses No River-Pete Townshend 1982

or

Life is what happens when you're making other plans

Beautiful Boys-John Lennon 1980

James Chatterton

James Chatterton; March 24, 2012 at 6:07 PM
Karen said...: The older I get the more I appreciate Jackson Brown and these days:

Well I've been out walkin'
I don't do that much talkin' these days
These days
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do for you
And all the times I had the chance to

And I had a lover
And it's so hard to risk another these days
These days
Now if I seem to be afraid to live the life that I have made in song
Well, it's just that I've been losin' for so long

Well I'll keep on movin', movin' on
Things are bound to be improvin' these days
One of these days
These days I'll sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them; March 25, 2012 at 2:02 AM
Garett said...: "Sittin' around on a beanstalk
Ain't a way to reach for the sky"
-Where's Lula

My band! I wasn't going to promote myself here, but since it's day 2 for this topic...you can have a listen here:
http://www.reverbnation.com/whereslula
:); March 25, 2012 at 1:08 PM
Fred W. Hill said...: Lots of great lyrics. "Imagine", "How Soon Is Now?", and "Wish You Were Here" are in my favorite songs list. Another Lennon classic for me, "I read the news today, oh, boy, about a lucky man who made the grade ...."
Oh, and just got back from the Reason Rally held in Washington, DC, last Saturday. We got rained on, but had some fun anyhow listening to a lot of great speakers and several great songs, including Bad Religion's "American Jesus".; March 26, 2012 at 2:58 PM