Great Lyrics

I was recently following blog links cause 1.) It's a great way to find cool blogs and 2.)Clicking on things is fun. I came across this one: Mad Below My Feet. In it, the blogger listed her favorite top ten lyrics. Which brings us the third reason I follow links to blogs. It gives me ideas that I can shamelessly rip off. With that in mind, I was inspired to compile my own list.

Being a music junky, it wasn't easy to narrow it down. Even harder was keeping the lyrics to a manageable length. Some songs inspired such devotion that I wanted to transcribe every single word right down to each singer's plaintive "ooo-ooos." Let's just be glad "Hey Jude" didn't make the list. I'd have miles and miles of "na-na-na-na's." And while this is a Top Ten list, I have to confess that I've numbered these things just because I like to organize and classify; bring order and make connections. But in reality, I can't argue that my #3 lyric is truly better than, say, #4. But lists are fun.

When you go through my list it should reveal that yes, I am a sentimental bastard and one's guy's deeply felt lyricism is another person's treacle. Some of my choices are probably going to seem painfully obvious, like say, U2, for example. Can't be helped. When a group becomes realllly successful, familiarity often has the power to diminsh the original work. Well, I feel that Bono's lyricism holds up despite its ubiquitous presence in iPod commericals, elevator music, bars, and yes, even churches. So there. :)

Here we go, here we go, here we go, now...

10.) "No Way Out"-- Peter Gabriel
"The colour in your shirt is darkening,
against the paleness of your skin
I remember how you held the goldfish
swimming around in a plastic bag
swimming around in a plastic bag
You held it up so high
in the bright lights of the fair
It slipped and fell
We looked everywhere

Don't leave us (your eyes are bright, your blood is warm)
Don't leave like this (your heart is strong, you're holding on)
Don't leave me here again (i feel your pulse, i hold your hand)
I'm not quitting on you
There's no one else
You're not quitting on us
there's no way out"

Some beautiful distinct images (the goldfish in the plastic bag, the lights of the fair) works in tandem with the sense of panic and urgency as the narrator tries desperately to hold on to a fallen lover. Whenever I hear this song, I'm *there* holding her hand too, wanting her to make it. I feel it.

9.)"Things Have Changed" -- Bob Dylan

"Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet--
Putting her in a wheel barrow and wheeling her down the
street"

The whole song is full of classic Dylan wry asides, and this one has to be the wryest. (That's probably not a word, but the lyric is so good, I think I'm allowed.) This is why Dylan is a genius... he makes those poetic connections that are inventive, funny, and searingly true. And now I never go anywhere without my wheelbarrow. Metaphorically speaking, of course. ;)

8.) "The Red Shoes" -- Kate Bush

"Oh the minute I put them on
I knew I had done something wrong
All her gifts for the dance had gone
It's the red shoes, they can't stop dancing, dancing
And this curve, is your smile
And this cross, is your heart
And this line, is your path"

Kate Bush's pop-rock fairy tale concoction manages to reveal the darker side of wish fulfilment. The last three lines becomes a mystical possession of sorts-- dark, urgent, compelling. Like the dancer in the song, it becomes impossible not to be swayed by the combination of magic, art, and intent.

7.)"Army" -- Ben Folds Five

"I thought about the army...
I dropped out and joined a band instead

Grew a moustache and a mullet
Got a job at chic-fil-a
Citing artistic differences
the band broke up in May
And in June reformed without me
and they'd got a different name
I nuked another grandma's apple pie
and hung my head in shame"

If there was trophy for slice-of-life self-deprecating rock songs, well, Ben Folds would have his shelves full. Nobody mixes self-loathing and humor quite so well.

6.)"King of Pain"-- Sting

"There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall
(That's my soul up there)
There's a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall
(That's my soul up there)
There's a blue whale beached by a springtide's ebb
(That's my soul up there)
There's a butterfly trapped in a spider's web
(That's my soul up there)"

Okay, if there's anyone better at utilizing this type of strong poetic images into the service of a top 40 pop song, please let me know. Individual isolation plus beautifully cold natural imagery?? Sting makes loneliness sound down right scientific.

5.)"One" -- U2

"Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus?
To the lepers in your head.

Did I ask too much?
More than a lot.
You gave me nothing,
Now it's all I've got.."


Okay, this is the obligatory U2 reference. But the lyrics are painfully fearless and represent an honesty not seen in most top 40 love songs. And make no mistake, it is a love song, just not the kind that they play at weddings. (And if they do, I don't think they've listened to it.) The first time I heard it, I didn't really *hear* it. The second time I caught the lyrics and it was painful. Painful. Like a slap to the face. Because Bono was talking about the way we relate to each other... the desire to understand and connect, and the inevitable conflicts that arise. I love the terrible beauty of the lyric I've excerpted, but the song is, at the end, hopeful, as well as realistic. And the more we understand this emotional dance between each other, the better the chances are that we can make good on hope's promise.

4.)"Without a Trace" --Soul Asylum

"Standing in the sun with a popsicle--
Everything is possible..."

One of my favorite rock couplets of all time. Succinct and deliriously positive, it's a feel-good line that resonates because when Dave Pirner sings it, you believe it. And what a wonderful feeling that is.

3.) "Tom's Diner"-- Suzanne Vega

"Oh, this rain
It will continue
Through the morning
As I'm listening

To the bells
Of the cathedral
I am thinking
Of your voice...

And of the midnight picnic
Once upon a time
Before the rain began..."

Distinct little details create a vivid ordinary world and each one has value. But when Suzanne drifts inward, to the vistas of her own memory, the song's lyricism shows us how objects and sounds become the placeholders for emotional connections. The bells of the cathedral lead to a voice which leads to a midnight picnic that occurred before the storm. She gives us what looks like a sketch and urges us to finish-- to fill in the details, and we do.

2.)"Short Skirt, Long Jacket"-- Cake
"I want a girl with smooth liquidation
I want a girl with good dividends
At Citi Bank we will meet accidently
We will start to talk when she borrows my pen
She wants a car with a cup holder armrest
She wants a car that will get her there
She is changing her name from Kitty to Karen
She is trading her MG for a white, Chrysler LeBaron
I want a girl with a short skirt and a
looooooooong jacket."

Think Suzanne Vega with a dead-pan sense of humor and you can start to feel Cake's vibe. (Mmmm, Cake.) Basically, the band has created the best personals ad ever, giving us very specific details on the guy's dream girl. It's goofy fun and everytime I listen to it I think, "yeah, I want a girl like that too."

1.) "Wishlist"-- Pearl Jam

"I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off.
I wish I was a sacrifice but somehow still lived on.
I wish I was a sentimental ornament you hung on
The christmas tree, I wish I was the star that went on top,
I wish I was the evidence
I wish I was the grounds for fifty million hands up raised and opened toward the sky."

Okay, the cumulative effect of hearing the entire song does give it power, but even just sampling a particular excerpt (like my favorite, up there) doesn't diminish the impact. If life is constantly about change and flux, then "wishlist" taps into the desire to want to be a beautiful and poetic thing... Pearl Jam gives us a different idea of beauty that differs from the surface, conventional definition. A word or phrase can be so perfect it attains a beautiful symmetry. The desire to be both the sentimental ornament and the star on top is a universal desire. In this way, this stretching of the boundaries points the way towards active participation in our lifelong series of changes. If we make up our own definition of beauty, we take our life into our own hands. We become who we are supposed to be.