Most Evocative Lyrics

[tiger_mn]

I had a dream of a winter garden
A midnight rendezvous
Silver, Blue and frozen silence
What a fool I was for you

I had a dream of the open water
I was swimming away out to sea
So deep I could never touch bottom
What a fool I used to be
- "Presto", Rush (Neal Peart is a genius)

How do you know when it's time for you to go
How can you stop when you don't know where to start
How can you go back when you don't know why you're here
How can you see when your eyes begin to fade
How will you hear when you've heard it all before
How do you do all the things you want to do
How much can you take when you've taken all you can
How can you act when you've never seen the script
How can you choose when you don't know which is right
How far can you go if you've been there before
How can you shine if you've never seen the sun
How does a man become a man without a child
How can you heal someone who doesn't want to heal doesn't want to heal
-"Questions", INXS

[manekineko]

Here are lyrics from old songs that have always evoked emotions in me, especially now, with the stuff going on in my life.

How Soon Is Now – The Smiths

I am human and I need to be loved
just like everybody else does.
_________________________________

Unsatisfied – The Replacements

Look me in the eye
and tell me that I’m satisfied.
Were you satisfied?
Look me in the eye
and tell me that I’m satisfied.
And now are you satisfied?

Everything goes
well, anything goes, all of the time.
Everything you dream of
is right in front of you
and everything is a lie…

…I’m so, I’m so unsatisfied
I’m so dissatisfied…

________________________________

Just Too Easy – Romeo Void

How fair can I be?
How big’s this mistake
You have a cigarette and I have a headache
Nothing makes me lonelier
Than a phone call to you
You’re waiting for nothing to be
Nowhere soon
Tomorrow you’ll pick up paper like you do
Turn to the sports page
The financial news
What escapes your attention is easily read
You look like you think you’d be better off dead

You’re always fallin’ apart
It was just too easy to break your heart
Just too easy to break your heart

[manekineko]

I really identify with these modern songs. They are brilliant songs in all aspects—the fact that I identify with the lyrics makes them all the more perfect. So perfect, that I’m going to post the entire lyrics of each song. Indulge me.
___________________________
Complacent – Assemblage 23

This song completely blows me away every time I hear it. From the dark throbbing industrial beat to the cold, monotone vocal delivery, to the alternately sparkly and wailing synthesizer, to the lyrics that hit me in my soul, I am completely addicted to this song.


Complacent
You're growing complacent
You forgot what it all meant
And chose the path of convenience

The road you took to where you're standing now
Was fraught with obstacles that tore you down
They made you drown

The path of least resistence called your name
A status quo you tried hard to maintain
But it wasn't the same

Sweet denial, take your leave
You must have others to deceive
I'm so tired of drifting backwards standing still
So throw the towel in, if you must
Give up hope and give up trust
And I promise you'll drift backwards standing still

***Something changed in you when you gave up
When you decided that you had tried enough
The price was too much***

The inconsistencies seemed plain to see
A swift departure from reality
How blind can you be?

Sweet denial, take your leave
You must have others to deceive
I'm so tired of drifting backwards standing still
So throw the towel in, if you must
Give up hope and give up trust
And I promise you'll drift backwards standing still

Sung to sleep by sychophantic choirs
You preferred the company of liars
Who made you feel admired

But one by one they turned their backs on you
The ranks of your detractors grew and grew
When they learned the truth

Sweet denial, take your leave
You must have others to deceive
I'm so tired of drifting backwards standing still
So throw the towel in, if you must
Give up hope and give up trust
And I promise you'll drift backwards standing still

______________________________________________


Modern Way – Kaiser Chiefs

I know 'cos I've seen it
It was great and I want it
There's no point in sitting
Going crazy on my own
Do you know what
I was put here in the world for
Could you tell me
In three words or more

It's the only way of getting out of here
It's the only way of getting out of here

Take a lesson
From the ones who have been there
My brain is not damaged
But in need of some repair
Hold on to the basics
But we can change all our tactics
There's no point in sitting
Going crazy on your own

It's the only way of getting out of here
It's the only way of getting out of here
This is the modern way
Of faking it everyday
And taking it as we come
And we're not the only ones
Is that what we used to say
This is the modern way

I know where I'm going
And that we are in the knowing
***And I will stop at nothing
Just to get what I want***
It's the only way of getting out of here
It's the only way of getting out of here
This is the modern way
Of faking it everyday
And taking it as we come
And we're not the only ones
Is that what we used to say

This is the modern way
This is the modern way
Of faking it everyday
And taking it as we come
And we're not the only ones
Is that what we used to say
This is the modern way

______________________________________

Once in a Lifetime - Wolfsheim

It's getting dark... too soon... a threatening silence...
Surrounding me... a wind comes up from the islands...
When distance fades to stormy grey
Washed out from the deep of the ocean
Here I will stand to face your wrath...
While all the others are praying

***Calm down my heart... don't beat so fast...
Don't be afraid just once in a lifetime***
Calm down my heart… don’t beat so fast…
Don’t be afraid just once in a lifetime

No rain can wash away my tears
No wind can soothe my pain
You made me doubt, you made me fear
But now I'm not the same
You took my wife, my unborn son...
Torn into the deep of the ocean
***I don't pretend that I love you
'Cause there is nothing left to lose***

And when silence comes back to me
I find myself feeling lonely
Standing here on the shores of destiny
I find myself feeling lonely
I had a life to give... many dreams to live...
Don't you know that you're losing so much this time
Beyond the waves... I will be free
While all the others are praying

Calm down my heart... don't beat so fast...
Don't be afraid just once in a lifetime
Calm down my heart… don’t beat so fast…
Don’t be afraid just once in a lifetime

No rain can wash away my tears
No wind can soothe my pain
You made me doubt, you made me fear
But now I'm not the same
You took my wife, my unborn son...
Torn into the deep of the ocean
I don't pretend that I love you
'Cause there is nothing left to lose

The love in you, it does not burn,
There is no lesson you can learn
And there are sounds you cannot hear,
And there are feelings you can't feel

Calm down my heart... don't beat so fast...
Don't be afraid just once in a lifetime

I don't pretend that I love you
And this time I'm not scared of you

[design_femme]

manekineko:

oooh! Someone likes the EBM/industrially/blippy/dancey stuff like me!

I LOVE the wolfsheim song. And even though I don't know much about Assemblage 23, what I have heard from them is pretty cool.

You just reminded me another set of EBM lyrics that kill me:

You love to be in this moment
The past is the past
The future unformed
You prefer to be in this minute with me
Create it yourself on concrete…

A certain place in the mythology of romance
Covered with initials of forgotten lovers
Multiple layers of reflections
Shape this very image of ourselves

- Concrete by Haujobb

I think these lyrics nail how I view my past.

[ben_at_work]

If you can play on the fiddle
How's about a British jig and reel?
Speaking King's English in quotation
As railhead towns feel the steel mills rust water froze
In the generation
Clear as winter ice
This is your paradise

There ain't no need for ya
Go straight to hell boys

Y'wanna join in a [Chorus]
Of the Amerasian blues?
When it's Christmas out in Ho Chi Minh City
Kiddie say papa papa papa papa-san take me home
See me got photo photo
Photograph of you
Mamma Mamma Mamma-san
Of you and Mamma Mamma Mamma-san
Lemme tell ya 'bout your blood bamboo kid.
It ain't Coca-Cola it's rice.

Straight to hell
Oh Papa-san
Please take me home
Oh Papa-san
Everybody they wanna go home
So Mamma-san says

You wanna play mind-crazed banjo
On the druggy-drag ragtime U.S.A.?
In Parkland International
Hah! Junkiedom U.S.A.
Where procaine proves the purest rock man groove
and rat poison
The volatile Molatov says-

Pssst...
Hey chico we got a message for ya...
Vamos vamos muchacho
From alphabet city all the way A to Z, dead, head

Go straight to hell

Can you really cough it up loud and strong
The immigrants
They wanna sing all night long
It could be anywhere
Most likely could be any frontier
Any hemisphere
No man's land and there ain't no asylum here
King Solomon he never lived round here

Go straight to hell boys

- The Clash

I don't know how evocative it is, but i always picture a video in my head of joe strummer as a soldier in vietnam standing over a dying Vietcong soldier that he just shot looking at a picture of the soldiers parents that he pulled from his uniform pocket and thinking of the dying soldier as a kid with his family. Crazy, Huh?

[Frau_Blucher]

Straight to Hell is an intensely moving song Ben. I get a different meaning though. I see the boat people and especially the amerasian offspring of american soldiers and vietnamese women who were basically made dispensible once we got tired of the war. Yeah, we promised a good life in the US, and some of them got that. I think lots more were alienated by a strange new culture, never adjusted, and ultimately led shattered lives being torn from their culture and homeland. And also many many more got screwed and were left behind. It's a sordid and embarrassing bit of history that's been repeated in the past in the Philippines, Korea, post-war Europe, etc ala Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon.

I was lucky to be an amerasian child of two great parents who stayed togher, but this song still moves the hell out of me. I think of these kids as kindred souls who by blind chance weren't as lucky as me. There was a 60 minutes piece about 20 years ago that examined these people, revisiting these kids back in Vietnam. Many of the them were by then early teens, outcast from society and living terrible lives. This one mother still had the picture of the GI father and was struggling to give her only son a good life. The son was clearly everything to her, yet when asked if she would give him up so he could live in america, be with his dad and have a chance at a future, she paused deeply and said yes. Man, this song has always been all about that to me - unmet obligations, false promises, the cocksure attitude that america is somehow all-great, etc. It's some heavy shit.

[Astroboy66]

#1 marvymarv and Blir,you two are an amazing treasure trove of 80's New Wave knowledge,not to mention the contributions of others.good on ya!
#2 New Wave was not my strongsuit at all in the 80's,but i always have liked it.through this site All of you are opening my eyes to another wonderful dimension of music,i TY[:)]
#3 i only have 2 songs that i can recall right now that made an impact on me-Love Vigilantes has stuck with me always,i could post all the lyrics,that song is so tremendous to me in depicting the absolute devastation that war truly brings.no matter what war it was,that song for me,so simply,poignantly and heart-wrenchingly,details how many triumphantly brave souls died,solitarily,singular in their deaths,with no one ever knowing how truly brave they were.*Sometimes the bravest meet death with their deeds known only to heaven*S.L.A.Marshall-which somehow,in some way,allows us to do what we're doing now...and the bitter irony,a family so much in love,is forever seperated because of hatred.
"I want to see,
my family,
my wife and child,waiting for me,
I've got to go home I've been so alone you see..."

"I'm not expecting to grow flowers in a desert,
but i can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime,
in a big country,dreams will stay with you,
like a lover's voice fire's the mountainside,
stay alive
stay alive,
so take that look out of here,it doesn't fit you,
because it's happened doesn't mean you've been discarded
pull up your head off the floor?come up screaming,
cry out for everything you ever might have wanted"

on shear terms of evocative,not only the lyrics,but the music,makes my heart and mind leap with joy and hope,within and above all the wondrous canyons,bays,forests and blue skies life has to offer.you want evocative,well those songs evoke alot in me[8D]

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Astroboy66[/i]
<br>#1 marvymarv and Blir,you two are an amazing treasure trove of 80's New Wave knowledge,not to mention the contributions of others.good on ya!
#2 New Wave was not my strongsuit at all in the 80's,but i always have liked it.through this site All of you are opening my eyes to another wonderful dimension of music,i TY[:)]
#3 i only have 2 songs that i can recall right now that made an impact on me-Love Vigilantes has stuck with me always,i could post all the lyrics,that song is so tremendous to me in depicting the absolute devastation that war truly brings.no matter what war it was,that song for me,so simply,poignantly and heart-wrenchingly,details how many triumphantly brave souls died,solitarily,singular in their death,with no one ever knowing how truly brave they were.*Sometimes the bravest meet death with their deeds known only to heaven*S.L.A.Marshall-which somehow,in some way,allows us to do what we're doing now...and the bitter irony,a family so much in love,is forever seperated because of hatred.
"I want to see,
my family,
my wife and child,waiting for me,
I've got to go home I've been so alone you see..."
[/quote]
First, please trust me that we're hacks compared to some of the knowledge that's on here, especially some of the quiet folks. Second, it was a TRIP when New Order opened this year's NYC Hammerstein concert with Love Vigilantes and Barney at the end saying "That was a song about Vietnam." Incredible...and incredibly relevant today. It's definatley in the same pantheon as Straight to Hell for me.

[Astroboy66]

ah,you are very gracious[;)]but alas,yes,i have accepted that somewhere there is Always someone stronger,smarter,better-looking,taller,etc.;than ourselves,but i still apprecciate your contributions to my expanding NW80's knowledge.and yes to me Love Vigilantes is about Vietnam(please read "we were soldiers once...and young)to understand the tremendously brave soldiers on BOTH sides...i only wish i could have seen that NYC opening....before i get to far off topic i am dropping into the captivating,melancholy and uplifting rollercoaster ride that belongs to "The Cure"[8D]
*scrambles to find out about Straight To Hell*

[WolverineSyr]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Astroboy66[/i]

"I'm not expecting to grow flowers in a desert,
but i can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime,
in a big country,dreams will stay with you,
like a lover's voice fire's the mountainside,
stay alive
stay alive,
so take that look out of here,it doesn't fit you,
because it's happened doesn't mean you've been discarded
pull up your head off the floor?come up screaming,
cry out for everything you ever might have wanted"
[/quote]

Don't forget the next part which always got me - one of my absolute favorite lines in any song:

I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered.
I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert,
But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime..

I love that song - I see it about transitions from idealistic young person to adult, about inner strength, about realizing what's important and possible.

[design_femme]

My god, I was just thinking about posting "Straight to Hell". That song haunts me.

And, with all the news about Kate Bush's upcoming CD, it got me thinking about "Pull Out the Pin" as well:

Just one thing in it
It's me or him
and I love life,
So I pull out the pin.

[Astroboy66]

and on that note,in a momentary lapse of masculinity,another song i can never get out of my head
"when i tell him that i'm falling in love
why does he say
hush hush keep it down now voices carry...
hush hush keep it down now voices carry...

i wish he would let me talk..."

i must admit back then it was the music,not the words that grabbed me.even though i realize what a slap-in-the-face it is to dodo heads everywhere, it is alluring,haunting,provocative and so soothingly smooth,which reaffirms why women are Out of This World!!!WOOHOOO!!![:o)]

[Randall Roq]

It has to be The Clash "Charlie Don't Surf"

The lyrics become more relevant every day:

The reign of the super powers must be over
So many armies can't free the earth
Soon the rock will roll over
Africa is choking on their coca cola

It's a one a way street in a one horse town
One way people starting to brag around
You can laugh, put them down
These one way people gonna blow us down

"...the oclelot must kill every day to live"

[Randall Roq]

Another beauty is Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen






"Fate

Up against your will

Through the thick and thin

He will wait until

You give yourself to him


In starlit nights I saw you

So cruelly you kissed me

Your lips a magic world

Your sky all hung with jewels

The killing moon

Will come too soon


Fate

Up against your will

Through the thick and thin

He will wait until

You give yourself to him"

I always thought this song would been an amazing theme song for a James Bond film.




"...the oclelot must kill every day to live"

[design_femme]

randall, I never thought of that before… that's brilliant! I totally hear it now. [:)]