Your personal favorite song lyrics of all time

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Lancemc

Blue Crack Addict
Joined
Aug 29, 2004
Messages
17,691
Location
Ba Sing Se
Here's one hell of a task. I want you to choose one song, and only one full song which you believe to be the absolute very best song lyrics ever written, or well, at least your very favorite. Post them here, and why they're your favorite.

I was listening to one particular song when I thought up this thread, but I'm going to think about it a little more before I choose it. Just to be sure. Already I can think of a couple others that might take the cake. Well. We'll see.
 
There's rows and rows of houses
With windows painted blue
With the light from a TV
Running parallel to you

But there is no sunken treasure
Rumored to be
Wrapped inside my ribs
In a sea black with ink

I am so
Out of tune
With you

I am so out of tune
With you

If I had a mountain
I'd try to fold it over
If I had a boat
You know I'd probably roll over

And I leave it on the shore
I'd leave it for somebody
Surely there's somebody
Who needs it more than me

I am so
Out of tune
With you

I am so out of tune
With you

For all the leaves will burn
In autumn fires and then return
For all the fires we burn
All will return

Music is my savior
I was maimed by rock and roll
I was maimed by rock and roll
I was tamed by rock and roll
I got my name from rock and roll
 
:drool:

i've been stuck on Sunken Treasure for some time now,
"for all the fires we burn, all will return"
has been my myspace headline quote thingy.


My all time favorite lyric? Hmm, well that's a toughie. I, too, will have to give this more thought and return. I'm guessing it will be of one of the following: Dylan, Smiths, Ryan Adams, Springsteen, U2, Bright Eyes... maybe(?)
 
She said it wasn't cold, she left her coat unbuttoned
She wore canvas shoes, white canvas shoes
Around her neck she wore a silver necklace
'It was given to me by my father' she said
'It was given to me'
She took the back way home past the lights at Summerhill
Turned left on to the north strand and on, out towards the sea
He said he was an artist but he really painted billboards
In large capital letters, in large capital letters
He was telling jokes, nobody else would listen to him
I saw you that day, your lips were cherry red
Your legs were crossed, your arms wide open
Your hair was coloured gold
And like a field of corn you were blown by the wind
You were blown by the wind

Walk, walk, walk to the water
Walk with me awhile
Walk, walk, walk to the roadside
Walk with me in a light

A room in the Royal hotel, the sea facing views
A man with a suitcase full of things he doesn't need
I'm looking through your window
I'm walking through your doorway
I'm on the outside, let me in
Let me love you
Let me love you
Let me

Walk, walk, walk to the water
Walk with me
Walk, walk, walk to the roadside
Walk with me a while
 
Right. Now. Hahahahaha

I am an antichrist
I am an anarchist
Don't know what I want
But I know how to get it
I wanna destroy, passer-by

Cause I wanna be anarchy
No dogsbody

Anarchy for the UK
Its coming sometime, maybe
I give a wrong time
Stop a traffic line
Your future dream is a shopping scheme

Cause I, I wanna be anarchy
In the city


How many ways to get what to what you want
I use the best
I use the rest
I use the N. M. E.
I use anarchy

Cause I wanna be anarchy
Its the only way to be

Is this MPLA?
Or is this the UDA?
Or is this the IRA?
I thought it was the UK
Or just another country
Another council tennancy

I wanna be anarchy
And I wanna be anarchy
And I wanna be anarchy
You know what I mean
And I wanna be anarchist
Again I'm pissed
DESTROY
 
I jumped in the river and what did I see?
Black-eyed angels swam with me
A moon full of stars and astral cars
All the things I used to see
All my lovers were there with me
All my past and futures
And we all went to heaven in a little row boat
There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt

I jumped into the river
Black-eyed angels swam with me
A moon full of stars and astral cars
And all the things I used to see
All my lovers were there with me
All my past and futures
And we all went to heaven in a little row boat
There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt

There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt
There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt

:drool:
 
^LOVE that song... :drool:

Urge For Going - Joni Mitchell

I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town
It hovered in a frozen sky, then it gobbled summer down
When the sun turns traitor cold
and shivering trees are standing in a naked row
I get the urge for going but I never seem to go

I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in

I had me a man in summertime
He had summer-colored skin
And not another girl in town
My darling's heart could win
But when the leaves fell trembling down
Bully winds did rub their faces in the snow
He got the urge for going And I had to let him go

He got the urge for going
When the meadow grass was turning brown
Summertime was falling down and winter was closing in

The warriors of winter they gave a cold triumphant shout
And all that stays is dying and all that lives is getting out
See the geese in chevron flight flapping and racing on before the snow
They've got the urge for going, they've got the wings to go

They get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in

I'll ply the fire with kindling and pull the blankets to my chin
and I'll the vagrant winter out and bolt my wandering in
I'd like to call back summertime and have her stay jut another month or so
She's got the urge for going and I guess she'll have to go

And she get the urge for going when meadow grass is turning brown
All her empires are falling down
winter's closing in


I love the way it conveys winter and cold, maybe you have to be Canadian to fully appreciate. :wink:
 
It's so tough to put into words why I choose this song. But I know that every time I listen to it it's still like hearing it for the first time-and I have listened to it countless times. It's about despair and hope at the same time, which so many of his songs are about. It's like poetry to me, and it still makes me cry. It's romantic in a real way.

Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen


The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside
darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me

You can hide 'neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting on down the tracks
Oh oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road
oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run
Oh Thunder Road, sit tight take hold
Thunder Road

Well I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back
If you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride it ain't free
And I know you're lonely
For words that I ain't spoken
But tonight we'll be free
All the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets

They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win.
 
Through a long and sleepless night
I thought upon the jury's plight
If what is wrong can feel so right
Then life's no longer black and white
It's four o'clock and all's not well
In my private circle of hell
I contemplate my navel hair
And slowly slide into despair
This rut has fast become a trench
This smell has turned into the stench
Of rotten dreams and stale ideals
The past is snapping at my heels
Oh Danny Boy the pipes are blocked
With bedtime blues and future shock
I know the best is yet to come
But does it always take this long?

I can put on the perfume, even wear the dress sometimes
But I'll always be the bridegroom and never the bride

"You deserve to be horse-whipped
But I've no horse", that joke's so shit
And whips would only make it worse
Don't tempt the lonely and perverse
The casualties of casual sex
The child of three with X-ray specs
The common low in self esteem
The Casanova in your dreams
I'll scream and scream and scream until
I've made myself critically ill
In hospital, in case you're there
In uniform, intensive care
I know you'll be the death of me
But what a cool death that would be
I'd rather die than be deprived
Of Wonderbras and thunder thighs

I can put on the perfume, even wear the dress sometimes
But I'll always be the bridegroom and never the bride

Bored of normality?
Why not go daft?
It's easy to do if you try
Slide right back down that self-confident path
You've just so laboriously climbed
Pickle your liver and addle your brain
Live the Bohemian life
Die young and penniless somewhere in Spain
Then again you could try just to live your own life
In the way that you find most amusing
I DON'T REALLY CARE!

I can put on the perfume, even wear the dress sometimes
But I will always be the bridegroom and I will never be the bride

Through A Long And Sleepless Night-Divine Comedy
 
Like the dust that settles all around me.
I must find a new home.
The ways and holes that used to give me shelter,
Are all as one to me now.

But I, I would search everywhere
Just to hear your call,
And walk upon stranger roads than this one
In a world I used to know before
I miss you more

Than the sun reflecting off my pillow,
Bringing the warmth of new life.
And the sounds that echoed all around me,
I caught a glimpse of in the night.
But now, now I've lost everything,
I give to you my soul.
The meaning of all that I believed before
Escapes me in this world of none, no thing, no one.

And I would search everywhere
Just to hear your call,
And walk upon stranger roads than this one
In a world I used to know before.
For now I've lost everything,
I give to you my soul.
The meaning of all that I believed before
Escapes me in this world of none,
I miss you more.

Afterglow

written by Tony Banks


just forget all those other crappy tunes
go and get wind&wUthering
 
Last edited:
"Three Days" - Jane's Addiction.

Three days was the morning.
My focus three days old.
My head, it landed
To the sounds of cricket bows...

I am proud man anyway...
Covered now by three days...

Three ways was the morning.
Three lovers, in three ways.
We knew when she landed,
Three days she'd stay.

I am a proud man anyway...
Covered now by three days...

We saw shadows of the morning light
the shadows of the evening sun
till the shadows and the light were one.

Shadows of the morning light
the shadows of the evening sun
till the shadows and the light were one...

True hunting is over.
No herds to follow.
Without game, men prey on each other.
The family weakens by the bite we swallow...

True leaders gone,
Of land and people.
We choose no kin but adopted strangers.
The family weakens by the length we travel...


All of us with wings...
All of us with wings...
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!

Erotic Jesus lays with his Marys.
Loves his Marys.
Bits of puzzle,
Fitting each other.

All now with wings!

Oh my Marys!
Never wonder...
Night is shelter
For nudity's shiver...

All now with wings...
 
MrsSpringsteen said:
It's so tough to put into words why I choose this song. But I know that every time I listen to it it's still like hearing it for the first time-and I have listened to it countless times. It's about despair and hope at the same time, which so many of his songs are about. It's like poetry to me, and it still makes me cry. It's romantic in a real way.

Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen


The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside
darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me

You can hide 'neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting on down the tracks
Oh oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road
oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run
Oh Thunder Road, sit tight take hold
Thunder Road

Well I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back
If you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride it ain't free
And I know you're lonely
For words that I ain't spoken
But tonight we'll be free
All the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets

They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win.

Oh wow. Damn. I gotta say you beat me at my own game. I had finally decided that Thunder Road really WAS infact my #1. Haha. Those are simply the most beautiful lyrics I've ever heard, though like you said, it's impossible to explain what they truely mean. Let's just say that nothing else really captures the same emotion in the same way as this song. :up:

My runners up were Springsteen's own "Atlantic City" and Dylan's "If You See Her, Say Hello".
 
It is impossible to simply narrow it down to one song that is better than all the rest! But for now I'll quote this one...

I´ve watched the stars fall silent from your eyes
All the sights that I have seen
I can´t believe that I believed I wished
That you could see
There´s a new planet in the solar system
There is nothing up my sleeve

I´m pushing an elephant up the stairs
I´m tossing up punchlines that were never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground

And all this talk of time
Talk is fine
And I don´t want to stay around
Why can´t we pantomime, just close our eyes
And sleep sweet dreams
Me and you with wings on our feet

I´m pushing an elephant up the stairs
I´m tossing up punchlines that were never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground

I´m breaking through
I´m bending spoons
I´m keeping flowers in full bloom
I´m looking for answers from the great beyond

I want the hummingbirds, the dancing bears
Sweetest dreams of you
Look into the stars
Look into the moon

I´m pushing an elephant up the stairs
I´m tossing up punchlines that were never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground

I´m breaking through
I´m bending spoons
I´m keeping flowers in full bloom
I´m looking for answers from the great beyond

I´m breaking through
I´m bending spoons
I´m keeping flowers in full bloom
I´m looking for answers from the great

(repeat following two verses 3 x each)
I´m breaking through
I´m bending spoons
I´m keeping flowers in full bloom
I´m looking for answers from the great beyond

I´m breaking through
I´m bending spoons
I´m keeping flowers in full bloom
I´m looking for answers from the great, answers from the great, answers!

:heart:
 
I don't know what my ALL-TIME FAVORITE lyrics are, but for me these have always come pretty damn close:


Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.
The photograph on the dashboard,
taken years ago,
turned around backwards so the windshield shows.
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse.
Still, it's so much clearer.
I forgot my shirt at the water's edge.
The moon is low tonight.

Nightswimming
deserves a quiet night.
I'm not sure all these people understand.
It's not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
of recklessness and water.
They cannot see me naked.
These things, they go away,
replaced by everyday.

Nightswimming,
remembering that night.
September's coming soon.
I'm pining for the moon.
And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit
Around the fairest sun?
That bright, tight forever drum
could not describe
nightswimming.

You, I thought I knew you.
You I cannot judge.
You, I thought you knew me,
this one laughing quietly
underneath my breath.
Nightswimming.

The photograph reflects,
every streetlight a reminder.
Nightswimming deserves a quiet
night, deserves a quiet night.
 
They disembarked in '45
And no-one spoke and no-one smiled
There were too many spaces in the line
And gathered at the cenotaph
All agreed with hand on heart
To sheathe the sacrificial knives

But now...
She stands upon Southampton Dock
With her handkerchief, and her summer frock
Clings to her wet body in the rain
In quiet desperation
Knuckles white upon the slippery reins
She bravely waves the boys goodbye, again.


And still the dark stain spreads between their shoulder blades
A mute reminder of the poppy fields and graves
When the fight was over, we spent what they had made, but...
In the bottom of our hearts we felt the final cut.



World War II soldiers returning home to England, only to be sent out again...permanently. Absolutely beautiful lyrics. They might not be the best lyrics of all time, but I certainly find them to be very moving. The imagery always gets to me, particularly the last verse.
 
These lyrics just get me for some reason:

We were talking about the space between us all
And the people, who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth, then it's far too late, when they pass away
We were talking about the love we all could share, when we find it
To try our best to hold it there with our love
With our love, we could save the world, if they only knew

Try to realise it's all within yourself
No one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small
And life flows on within you and without you

We were talking about the love that's gone so cold and the people
Who gain the world and lose their soul
They don't know, they can't see, are you one of them?
When you've seen beyond yourself then you may find
Peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come when you see
We're all one, and life flows on within you and without you
 
WinnieThePoo said:
Roger wrote better then that ;)
try CN , Sheep , SOYCD or the other songs from the Final cut
cheers !!

I'm actually not fond of his lyrics in CN and SOYCD. They're good, obviously, but not his best in my view. Sheep has pockets of incredible lyrics ("wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream" for the win!) but some other not-so-good parts. You could pretty much put all of The Final Cut into a "best lyrics" category because every song (excluding maybe Not Now John) is lyrically strong from start to finish. Southampton Dock has just been resonating more with me lately, which is why I chose it.

Time's also a good one.

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking,
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older;
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death.


I'd call that the best verse ever written.
 
SILVER PALOMINO
by Bruce Springsteen

I was barely 13 years old
She came out of the Guadalupe's on a night so cold
Her coat was frosted diamonds in the sallow moon's glow
My silver palomino
Sixteen hands from her withers to the ground
I lie in bed and listen to the sound
Of the west Texas thunder roll
My silver palomino
I track her into the mountains she loved
Watch her from the rocks above
She'd dip her neck and drink from the winter flows
My silver palomino
Our mustañeros were the very best, sir
But they could never lay a rope on her
No corral will ever hold
The silver palomino

In my dreams bareback I ride
Over the pradera low and wide
As the wind sweeps out the draw
'Cross the scrub desert floor

I'd give my riata and spurs
If I could be forever yours
I'd ride into the serrania where no one goes
For my silver palomino
Summer drought come hard that year
Our herd grazed the land so bare
Me and my dad had to blowtorch the thorns off the prickly pear
And mother, your hand slipped from my hair

Tonight I wake early the sky is pearl, the stars aglow
I saddle up my red roan
I ride deep into the mountains along a ridge of pale stone
Where the air is still with the coming snow
As I rise higher I can smell your hair
The scent of your skin, mother, fills the air
'Midst the harsh scrub pine the grows
I watch the silver palomino
 
GibsonGirl said:




And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking,
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older;
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death.


brilliant:drool:

Time :heart:
 
If I were to pick just a single line or two as my #1 lyrics instead of an entire song, it would definitely be this little verse from R.E.M.'s "I Believe"

Trust in your calling, make sure your calling's true
Think of others, the others think of you
Silly rule golden words make, practice, practice makes perfect,
Perfect is a fault, and fault lines change
 
I'd probably rank Stip as my 4th favorite lyricist of all time.

Something like:

1. Bruce Springsteen
2. Bob Dylan
3. Nick Cave
4. Micheal Stipe
 
Speaking of Bruce...


The rangers had a homecoming in Harlem late last night
And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine over the Jersey state line
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge
Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain
The Rat pulls into town rolls up his pants
Together they take a stab at romance and disappear down Flamingo Lane

Well the Maximum Lawman run down Flamingo chasing the Rat and the barefoot girl
And the kids round here look just like shadows always quiet, holding hands
From the churches to the jails tonight all is silence in the world
As we take our stand down in Jungleland

The midnight gang's assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night
They'll meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light
Man there's an opera out on the Turnpike
There's a ballet being fought out in the alley
Until the local cops, Cherry Tops, rips this holy night
The street's alive as secret debts are paid
Contacts made, they vanished unseen
Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades hustling for the record machine
The hungry and the hunted explode into rock'n'roll bands
That face off against each other out in the street down in Jungleland

In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage
Inside the backstreet girls are dancing to the records that the D.J. plays
Lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners
Desperate as the night moves on, just a look and a whisper, and they're gone

Beneath the city two hearts beat
Soul engines running through a night so tender in a bedroom locked
In whispers of soft refusal and then surrender in the tunnels uptown
The Rat's own dream guns him down as shots echo down them hallways in the night
No one watches when the ambulance pulls away
Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light

Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
Between flesh and what's fantasy and the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night they reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand but they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland
 
Last edited:
Jungleland. :combust:

New York City Serenade is another one of my all-time faves of Bruce's. :love:
 
Lancemc said:
I'd probably rank Stip as my 4th favorite lyricist of all time.

Something like:

1. Bruce Springsteen
2. Bob Dylan
3. Nick Cave
4. Micheal Stipe


Where would Bono rank on your list?

He's in my top 5, that is, if I try to forget such gems as "The air is heavy, heavy as a truck"
 
Lancemc said:
I'd probably rank Stip as my 4th favorite lyricist of all time.

Something like:

1. Bruce Springsteen
2. Bob Dylan
3. Nick Cave
4. Micheal Stipe

1. Lennon/McCartney
2. Bob Dylan
3. Bruce Springsteen
4. Roger Waters
5. Pete Townshend
 
One of my fave songs of all time:

John Lennon-Imagine

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
 
Back
Top Bottom