Ray
Gong. Either off Angels Egg or Pothead Pixies I think. I had some of their elpees when I was young. Swear I cant remember.
BMU
Not to be contrary but to me vocals are just the thing that gets in the way of hearing the guitar, don't really care about lyrics at all.
OK I guess I do feel like headbanging when I hear In Flames'
I feel like sh*t
But at least I feel something
Not that I feel like sh*t, I have a great life, it just makes me wanna headbang and go "yeah" pointlessly. ?
Bob-Dubery
Somebody played a great song at TJs tonight. I know the song, and I know who wrote it. It's by Dougie McLean, but I know very little about him (so please don't ask). The song is called "Garden Valley"
This is really not my home
Oh where are you my lovely Bonny?
I'm afraid and all alone
There is no peace for me
I'm sitting in the stranger's room
Playing at the stranger's table
Shining empty like the moon
There is no peace for me
But in the darkness struggle cold
I think about a garden valley
Gentle as the leaves unfold
Singing out across the bay
Distant and so far away
There is no peace for me
I'm blinded by your city lights
I wander through these fearful places
The colours fade to black and white
There is no peace for me
And these are not the friends I know
These are not their smiling faces
A desert that no-one should know
There is no peace for me
But in the darkness struggle cold
I think about a garden valley
Gentle as the leaves unfold
Singing out across the bay
Distant and so far away
There is no peace for me
Now I know and feel it well
Poor immigrants deep sunken feeling
Standing at the gates of Hell
There is no peace for me
Burned out by their master's greed
Cruel exile transportation
Robbed of every love and need
There is no peace for me
The version I know is by Irish singer Cara Dillon
Bob-Dubery
X-rated Bob wrote:
Somebody played a great song at TJs tonight. I know the song, and I know who wrote it. It's by Dougie McLean, but I know very little about him (so please don't ask). The song is called "Garden Valley"
This is really not my home
Oh where are you my lovely Bonny?
I'm afraid and all alone
There is no peace for me
And blah blah blah....
One thing about "Garden Valley" is that it shows how great songwriting doesn't necessarily boil down to neat little "lyric bites". The magic in this song is the way the narrative perspective shifts outward towards the end of the song. That change in perspective suddenly puts a different spin on the preceding verses, invites us to consider them in a different context. Not all of Paul Simon's great songs boiled down to a catchy phrase like "still crazy after all these years".
MIKA-the-better-one
I reckon RAP, has provided some of the best lyrics to music, maybe because thats there main focus.... I think alot of people make the generalisation on rap after hearing basically only radio rap, which is pretty crap, however thats like rating all rock on the jonas brothers.... Not very effective.
I would chalenge people to have a good listen to some decent rap, and not just lsten to lil wayne, and Jay Z....
Bands I struggle with lyrics for are often metal bands, I find they often try to sing about how pained they are, trying to imply they are more damaged than the next person, which I think is a load of crap,,,,,,,,,, all that pain they sing of is just life, so not really pain.
Good lyrics or songwriters hmmmmm....... I like stuff that does not need to much intelextualising, its so pretensious to imply deep lyrics I think.
MEwithoutyou...... a band I doubt many will know write amazing lyrics........... and dont over do the whole angry nonsense or the deep rubbish
Bob-Dubery
Renesongs wrote:
I love good lyrics for me it makes a good piece of music an awesome and powerful creation. Pretentious glib or just plain bad lyrics can ruin even the best music. Hence I despise RAP (Rhythm and Poetry) with a passion. RAP kind of spits, swears and waves it's genitals at you whereas good heartfelt lyrics can give you hope, empathy, identity, love, tragedy or just sheer craziness
I think we have to be careful with generalisations like this. Not all RAP is about gangstas slapping bitches around. And there are rock acts that have lyrics that promote racism, or that describe a pretty seedy life style. I could make a case for some songs getting worryingly close to paedophilia. Whitney Houston, who early in her career made a big deal of her christian convictions and presented a pretty wholesome image, had a big hit with a song about having an affair with somebody else's husband.
You can find plenty of objectionable lyrics in plenty of genres.
lindsmuse
Oh no that Cara dillon song made me blub!!!! What a beautiful song - the lyrics - everything!!! I imagined this being sung by that guy with the real deep growly gratey voice - can't remember his name - Tom somebody. Like a rough tough guy. To hear it sung so sweetly wow!
Bob-Dubery
lindsmuse wrote:
Oh no that Cara dillon song made me blub!!!! What a beautiful song - the lyrics - everything!!! I imagined this being sung by that guy with the real deep growly gratey voice - can't remember his name - Tom somebody. Like a rough tough guy. To hear it sung so sweetly wow!
You thinking of Tom Waits? That song would not be out of place for him.
Cara Dillon is a marvellous singer. If you look around on Youtube you will find a clip of her doing the traditional song "The Streets Of Derry" as a duet with Paul Brady who is a great interpretative singer.
Renesongs
This has been one of my favourite's. It's about the fortunes of a guy that runs a drug lab, probably heroin
Kid Charlemagne - Walter Beker & Donald Fagen
While the music played you worked by candlelight
Those San Francisco nights,
You were the best in town
Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl
You turned it on the world
That's when you turned the world around
Did you feel like Jesus ?
Did you realize
That you were a champion in their eyes ?
On the hill their stuff was laced with kerosene
But yours was kitchen clean
Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motorhome
Every A Frame had your number on the wall
You musta had it all
You go to L.A. on a dare and you go it alone
Could you live forever
Could you see the day
Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away
Chorus
Get along
Get along Kid Charlemagne
Get along Kid Charlemagne
Now your patrons have all left you in the red
Your low rent friends are dead
This life can be very strange
All those day-glo freaks who used to paint their face
They've joined the human race, some things will never change
Son you were mistaken
You are obsolete
Look at all the white men on the street
Chorus
Clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail
Those test tubes and the scale
Just get it all out of here
Is there gas in the car ?
Yes there's gas in the car!
I think the people down the hall know who you are
Careful what you carry
Cause the man is wise
You are still an outlaw in their eyes
Chorus
singemonkey
It's not one or two, but a great many recurring lyrics for me. A friend once said that I had a lyric for any moment - like when we were watching a little bird and I sang a line from Barrett's "Birdie hop/ he do/ He hop along..."
Some of them that come to me often:
Still, you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant,
So far away from home
- Paul Simon
I told him, get me a suzette
And could you please make it crepe?
- Bob Dylan
On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the Blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada!
With your face sketched on it twice
- Joni Mitchell
I'd given my nurse the weekend off
My meals were ill prepared
My typewriter stood mute as a tomb
And my piano crouched in the corner of the room with all its teeth bared
All its teeth bared
Hallelujah
- Nick Cave
They are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever
- Leonard Cohen
It's the seaside town
That they forgot to bomb, come
Come, come, nuclear bomb
- Morrissey
Some say he took up with a Salvation Army band
Played dirty water from a swordfish trombone
- Tom Waits
The skin of a robot
vibrates with pleasure,
Matrons and gigolos
carouse in the parlour,
The hand-grenade eyes,
Impotent and blind
- Beck
And many more.
chris77
I also like storyteller lyrics, two of my favourites being Tweeter and the Monkeyman - The Traveling Wilburies and Boy named Sue - Johny Cash. I love being able to visualize a song And as cliched as the lyrics might seem, My Way and Thats Life by Frank Sinatra is actually quite brilliant. No really!, google them...
lindsmuse
Just came across these wise words!
'And in the end
The love you take
is equal to the love
You take ...
Goodnight'
(Beatles)
Bob-Dubery
chris77 wrote:
I also like storyteller lyrics, two of my favourites being Tweeter and the Monkeyman - The Traveling Wilburies and Boy named Sue - Johny Cash. I love being able to visualize a song
Storytelling in song can be very powerful.
A couple of years ago I went to see Martin Carthy in London. I was a bit surprised (very pleasantly) by the performance because for all his skill as a guitarist Carthy is not presenting himself as a folk guitarist. What he does really is story telling, presents songs with great stories in them and then presents the story to you and everything is about selling you the story. Ever since I've been very interested in the story-telling aspect of song.
When I play live I like to do songs with a story in them. I think I might be operating with a broad interpretation of the word "story", some of what I loosely call story songs are sort of situational songs where there is no narrative, the song just jumps straight into a situation or the middle of a story or into an emotional state - but we recognise that situation and relate to it, it's something universal. "Heartbreak Hotel" is such a song.
[deleted]
Pretty much says everything, doesn't it?
lindsmuse
Ohmigod thats so cheesy -you can see where Saturday Night Live get some of their ideas from!! ? He looks like a vampire! This is hilarious!
