The Good Lyrics Thread

[fluke]

Allthough many say it was his worst period, I love the Johnny version of that song..

[DCHISHOLM]

One of Springsteen´s finest:

HIGHWAY PATROLMAN

Bruce Springsteen


My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state
I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number eight
I always done an honest job as honest as I could
I got a brother named Frankie and Frankie ain't no good

Now ever since we was young kids it's been the same come down
I get a call on the shortwave Frankie's in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away
But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way

Yeah me and Frankie laughin' and drinkin'
Nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band
Played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good

Well Frankie went in the army back in 1965
I got a farm deferment, settled down, took Maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin' till it was like we were gettin' robbed
Frankie came home in `68, and me, I took this job

Yeah we're laughin' and drinkin'
Nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria
as the band Played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family he ain't no friend of mine

Well the night was like any other, I got a call `bout quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad bleedin' hard from his head
There was a girl cry'n' at a table and it was Frank, they said

Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
Well I musta done one hundred and ten through Michigan county that night
It was out at the crossroads, down `round Willow bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates. Behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through them county roads
Till a sign said "Canadian border five miles from here"
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his tail-lights disappear

Yeah me and Frankie laughin' and drinkin'
Nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band
Played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good

Wonderful lyrics Duke and a brilliant song.This was one of the best on the Seeger sessions live in Dublin and sends a tingle down my spine when I listen to it. Youngstown lyrics are also great IMO. I'll put them down on here later....

[Darla]

Romeo And Juliet by Dire Straits

a lovestruck romeo sings the streets a serenade
laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made
finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade
says something like you and me babe how about it?

juliet says hey it's romeo you nearly gimme a heart attack
he's underneath the window she's singing hey la my boyfriend's back
you shoudn't come around here singing up at people like that
anyway what you gonna do about it?

juliet the dice were loaded from the start
and i bet and you exploded in my heart
and i forget i forget the movie song
when you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong juliet?

come up on different streets they both were streets of shame
both dirty both mean yes and the dream was just the same
and i dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real
how can you look at me as i was just another one of your deals?

when you can fall for chains of silver you can fall for chains of gold
you can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold
you promised me everything you promised me thick and thin
now you just say oh romeo yeah you know i used to have a scene with him

juliet when we made love you used to cry
you said i love you like the stars above i'll love you till i die
there's a place for us you know the movie song
when you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong?

i can't do the talk like they talking on the tv
and i can't do a love song like the way its meant to be
i can't do everything but i'd do anything for you
i can't do anything except be in love with you

and all i do is miss you and the way we used to be
all i do is keep the beat and bad company
all i do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme
julie i'd do the stars with you any time

juliet when we made love you used to cry
you said i love you like the stars above i'll love you till i die
there's a place for us you know the movie song
when you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong?

a lovestruck romeo sings the streets a serenade
laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made
finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade
says something like you and me babe how about it? [/i]

[DCHISHOLM]

Just being lazy earlier so here you go Youngstown - Bruce Springsteen.
ps. Used to Love Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits in my teens so thanks Darla for the memories.



Here in northeast Ohio
Back in eighteen-o-three
James and Dan Heaton
Found the ore that was linin' Yellow Creek
They built a blast furnace
Here along the shore
And they made the cannonballs
That helped the Union win the war

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

Well my daddy worked the furnaces
Kept 'em hotter than hell
I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer
A job that'd suit the devil as well
Taconite coke and limestone
Fed my children and make my pay
Them smokestacks reachin' like the arms of God
Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
Sweet Jenny I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

Well my daddy come on the Ohio works
When he come home from World War Two
Now the yard's just scrap and rubble
He said "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do."
These mills they built the tanks and bombs
That won this country's wars
We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam
Now we're wondering what they were dyin' for

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

From the Monongahela valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalachia
The story's always the same
Seven hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

And Youngstown
And Youngstown
My sweet Jenny I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

When I die I don't want no part of heaven
I would not do heaven's work well
I pray the devil comes and takes me
To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell

[The Duke of Ingmar]

Wonderful lyrics Duke and a brilliant song.This was one of the best on the Seeger sessions live in Dublin and sends a tingle down my spine when I listen to it. Youngstown lyrics are also great IMO. I'll put them down on here later....

I was surprised that the Highway Patrolman worked so well on the Live in Dublin, and I love both this version and, of course, the original one from the "Nebraska" album.
As with my other favourite "Nebraska" song, "Atlantic City", it seems to me that any attempt to arrange a full band version doesn´t work out (although the Live in Dublin sounds a lot better that the MTV plugged).

Still, Bruce occasionally writes haunting lyrics, most of which can be found on "Nebraska".

Fluke, I know a lot of Springsteen fans who say that "Nebraska" is their least favourite Bruce album. But that´s maybe only because it was so different to all the stuff he´d done before. To me, it´s one of his best.


Here´s my favourite lyrics by Nick Cave, another true poet:

Nobodys Baby Now
Nick Cave


I've searched the holy books
I tried to unravel the mystery of Jesus Christ, the saviour

I've read the poets and the analysts
Searched through the books on human behaviour

Chorus:
I travelled this world around
For an answer that refused to be found
I don't know why and I don't know how
But she's nobody's baby now


I loved her then and I guess I love her still
Hers is the face I see when a certain mood moves in
She lives in my blood and skin

Her wild feral stare, her dark hair
Her winter lips as cold as stone
Yeah, I was her man

But there are some things love won't allow
I held her hand but I don't hold it now
I don't know why and I don't know how
But she's nobody's baby now


This is her dress that I loved best
With the blue quilted violets across the breast
And these are my many letters
Torn to pieces by her long-fingered hand
I was her cruel-hearted man

And though I've tried to lay her ghost down
She's moving through me, even now
I don't know why and I don't know how
But she's nobody's baby now
She's nobody's baby now
Nobody's baby now
She's nobody's baby now

[Johan From Sweden]

Here is a Great one by SATOR I bet Walshy have heard it before

I'D RATHER DRINK THAN TALK
(Kiesbye/Norberg)

It's another Saturday night
and I'm out on my own
I need a drink I'm so messed up
I wanna be alone
Got some money in my pocket
and some trouble in my mind
Don't wanna talk about it
I haven't got enough time

So why don't you
Shut up take a walk
I'd rather drink than talk...

It's another Saturday night
Don't wanna talk to you
You're nothing but a waste of time
Don't like you're attitude

So why don't you...

Well I've had enough
Come on give me a break
Don't wanna hear about your life
It's more than I can take
No I don't wanna know
I've got better things to do
Why don't you leave me alone
I've got no time for you

So why don't you ...

[firehazard]

...I know a lot of Springsteen fans who say that "Nebraska" is their least favourite Bruce album. But that´s maybe only because it was so different to all the stuff he´d done before. To me, it´s one of his best.

Absolutely right. Most days it's my favourite Bruce album of all. And the lyrics are just brilliant. And, much though I love the originals, I thought both Highway Patrolman and Atlantic City were astounding on the SSB tour.

[The Duke of Ingmar]

Here´s a beautiful (though a bit sad) one from Mr Kristofferson.

DARBY´s CASTLE

See the ruin on the hill where the smoke is hanging still
Like an echo of an age long forgotten;
Theres a story of a home crushed beneath those blackened stones
And the roof which fell before the beams were rotten.
Cecil darby loved his wife, and he laboured all his life
To provide her with material possessions;
And he built for her a home of the finest wood and stone
And the building soon became his sole obsession.

Oh, it took three hundred days for the timbers to be raised
And the silhouette was seen for miles around;
And the gables reached as high as the eagles in the sky -
But it only took one night to bring it down,
When darbys castle tumbled to the ground.

Though they shared a common bed there was precious little said
In the moments that were set aside for sleeping:
For his busy dreams were filled with the rooms hed yet to build
And he never heard young ellen darby weeping.
Then one night he heard a sound, as he laid his pencil down,
And he traced it to her door and turned the handle;
And the pale light of the moon through the window of the room
Split the shadows where two bodies lay entangled.

Oh, it took three hundred days for the timbers to be raised
And the silhouette was seen for miles around;
And the gables reached as high as the eagles in the sky -
But it only took one night to bring it down,
When darbys castle tumbled to the ground.

[Gurrier]

This song is about The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian ... ganisation

ASIO - Redgum

White door, ninth floor, silent number, it's autumn on a cold avenue
Telex intercept, he sips a cigarette, warms up his V.D.U.

He gets his kicks from microchips, orders from the C.I.A.
Birobugs and lasers, casual surveillance, boardrooms and communiques

Don't use your phone and don't use mine
Don't speak treason, they're tapping the li-ine

Break-in, stake out, tell it in code
Everything is legal, anything goes
The nights gettin' darker and the ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO

Trained in the ghettos of the Lebanon, truncheons and an M16
Selling skag, a U.N. flag, now he's trading in securities

Darwin rendezvous, a B-52, trenchcoat slightly creased
From a coup in Asia, A U.S. Air Force major
Buying dirty laundry, swearin' it's for peace

Infiltration, we'll never know
Just like Chile but the bruises don't show-ow

Break-in, stake out, tell it in code
Everything is legal, anything goes
The nights get darker and the ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO

Spook behind the bar, unmarked car, rumour hangs like stale perfume
Flushing under beds, sniffin' out the Reds, nobody can feel immune

No names, no stress, no blame, no press
Clean when the dirty work's done
Allocate a budget, special branch thugs
Do it for the practice, do it for the fun

Midnight, flashlight, crash on the door
Rats on the table, blood on the floor-oor

Break-in, stake out, tell it in code
Everything is legal, anything goes
The nights get darker and the ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO


Bad Religion write some pretty mind blowing lyrics as well despite them once being described as "the bloodied corpse of thesauras rock" haha

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cFg9m5LGwxM

Stranger Than Fiction - Bad Religion

a febrile shocking violent smack
the children are hoping for a heart attack,
tonight the windows are watching,
the streets all conspire,
and the lamppost can't stop crying,
if I could fly high above the world,
would I see a bunch of living dots spell the world stupidity?,
or would I see hungry lover homicides,
loving brother suicides,
and olly olly oxenfrees,
who pickaside and hide

the world is scratching at my door,
my morning papers got the scores,
the human interest stories, and the obituary

cockroach naps and rattling traps,
how many devils can you fit upon a match head?,
caringosity killed the Kerouac cat,
sometimes truth is stranger than fiction

in my alley around the corner,
there's a wino with feathered shoulders,
and a spirit giving head for crack and he'll never want it back,
there's a little kid and his family eating crackers like thanksgiving
and a pack of wild desperados scornful of living

the worlds is scratching at my door....

cradle for a cat, Wolfe looks back,
how many angels can you fit upon a match?
I want to know why Hemingway cracked,
sometimes truth is stranger than fiction

life is the crummiest book I ever read,
there isn't a hook, just a lot of cheap shots,
pictures to shock and characters an amateur would never dream up

[Guest]

The last few verses of 'up the junction' by Squeeze, everybody's been talking about bands and people who I supposed are all considered credible and Squeeze are viewed by some people I suppose as something of a novelty band but, and I hate myself for saying it because I sound like someone reviewing a fucking Hugh Grant 'comedy' but they're 'quintessentially' English.
(Lazy spelling, apologies if it's wrong)
It's all very well and good listening to songs about Highway Patrol men and all this business and don't get me wrong I love Bruce Springsteen but sometimes it's nice to have a lyric you can relate to a bit, one of the reasons I like bands like Squeeze, Space, Billy Bragg.

'This Morning at four fifty, I took her rather nifty, down to an incubator where forty minutes later, she gave birth to a daughter within a year a walker she looked just like her mother, if there could be another.

And now she's two years older, her mother's with a soldier she left me when my drinking become a proper stinging, the devil came and took me from bar to street to booky, no more nights by the telly no more nights nappies smelling.

Alone here in the kitchen, I feel there's something missing I'd beg for some forgiveness but begging's not my business and she won't write a letter although I always tell her and so it's my assumption I'm really up the junction. '

People might take the piss but to me, they're great lyrics, anyone agree? *looks hopeful*

[firehazard]

...People might take the piss but to me, they're great lyrics, anyone agree? *looks hopeful*

Agree, Squeeze were a great band, with some excellent songs. I used to listen to them a lot back in the day. I don't listen so much now, not sure how well the music has lasted.

I do know what you mean about lyrics you can relate to. There are London bands I've always liked partly for that reason. Going back, apart from the ones you've mentioned, bands such as The Kinks, The Clash, The Jam, and of course The Pogues.

But a good lyric's a good lyric. And the best lyrics are great whoever/wherever you are. Bruce is a fantastic songwriter.

[Niall]

...I know a lot of Springsteen fans who say that "Nebraska" is their least favourite Bruce album. But that´s maybe only because it was so different to all the stuff he´d done before. To me, it´s one of his best.

Absolutely right. Most days it's my favourite Bruce album of all. And the lyrics are just brilliant. And, much though I love the originals, I thought both Highway Patrolman and Atlantic City were astounding on the SSB tour.

i love all springsteen albums equally, i dont really have a favourite, it depends on which one im currently listening to

[Jon]

I remember seeing Squeeze on the Babylon And On tour, and had a great time until they split the audience down the middle for a round robin singalong.
I didn't really get much from them after that

[Guest]

I've read a few places that they were set to be the new Lennon and McCartney, don't think they ever quite reached that stage somehow but still a great band.
Yeah, definitely The Kinks, 'Come Dancing' and 'Dead end Street' spring to mind.
And 'That's Entertainment' by The Jam, what a classic.
Seen Billy Bragg perform that at Hackney and his version wasn't bad either.

Contradicting what I said in the first place now about lyrics you can relate to, I'm a huge fan of Tom Waits lyrics and since I'm not an American hobo from the 1930's I can't say I can relate to his lyrics But still so many great lines.

'She grew up on a farm there, there's a place on my arm where I've written her name next to mine'

Is one I have had in my head today from the song Johnsburg, Illinois (not sure if I've spelt it right?) Which is a plain but nice song.

On a similar subject, the old hobo song 'Big rock candy mountain' has some wonderful lyrics and I can't for the life of me remember them but I'm sure they'll be on the internet somewhere.

[O'Blivion]

On a similar subject, the old hobo song 'Big rock candy mountain' has some wonderful lyrics and I can't for the life of me remember them but I'm sure they'll be on the internet somewhere.

As is EVERYTHING!

Big Rock Candy Mountain
by Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock

One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hiking and he said boys I'm not turning
I'm headin for a land that's far away beside the crystal fountains
So come with me we'll go and see the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars are all empty and the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees
Where the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains all the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth and the hens lay soft boiled eggs
The farmer's trees are full of fruit and the barns are full of hay
Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains you never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol come a-trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats and the railroad bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew and of whiskey too
You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains the jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again as soon as you are in
There ain't no short handled shovels, no axes saws or picks
I'm a goin to stay where you sleep all day
Where they hung the jerk that invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

I'll see you all this coming fall in the Big Rock Candy Mountains


Written by Harry McClintock (far right) in 1928 and performed in 1940 by
Pete Seeger with Woody Guthrie. McClintock was a country music composer,
labor organizer for the IWW, and also recorded "Hallelujah! I'm A Bum" in
1926.