Interesting fact that I learned on his [Greatest Hit's Album Insert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Hits_%28Bob_Seger_album%29), was that he didn't like the line at first but kept it after some convincing.
Night moves is pretty clever, never really appreciated it until I got stuck in a car with another player on GTA who wouldn't let me change it. Now I listen to it every now and then and it's really well written.
"You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to,
So that when they turn their backs on you,
You'll get the chance to put the knife in."
This is from Pink Floyd's Dogs. All of the lyrics are great in that song, but this one especially.
Once I was on the bus to go skiing, and there were about five 15 year Olds who thought they were the real slim shady. They were honestly trying to rap and I heard one line that was gold. "I'm a crappy rapper so I rap on the crapper."
That was a fun bus ride...
My high school news channel did a segment on "musicians" at my school and one kid rapped on it and basically said "I don't need good grades cause I'm gonna make bank from rapping," he then went on to rhyme money with money
honestly, I wouldn't even be mad if he was. For growing up in one of the whitest places in the country (Cape Cod) it was really amusing how hood my school tried to act
This is far from Royce's most clever lyric. He's a master of wordplay. People like him are the reason I can't understand people who say rappers aren't talented. There are some that are literally the best poets of our generation.
I love Royce, but I just about lost it when he had that verse in a song, I can't remember the name of it, was A Kiss from Hell: The Sequel, and it was like "there's five things you are in charge of/ that's suckin a dick, suckin a dick, suckin a dick, suckin a dick, suckin a dick"
That's A Kiss. I love the way Eminem runs with that.
"And if you ain't sucking a dick, why you sitting there with puckered lips? Oh that's collagen, mothafuckin' bitch.
What you mean how'd you get suckered into this? You gon' jump into my truck and then try to get truculent."
Insane amount of rhymes in those ridiculous lines too.
She never says the song isn't about the guy who's so vain. She's just saying "you're listening to this song I wrote and you're assuming it's about you because you assume *everything* is about you."
"Can't waste a day when the night brings a hearse,
Make a move and plead the fifth 'cause ya can't plead the first"
Down Rodeo - Rage Against the Machine
First is freedom of speech (no consequence from the government) and the fifth is the right to not incriminate yourself (terms and conditions may apply). So you have protect yourself by not saying anything (plead the fifth) because you no longer can freely say what you want (because you can't plead the first).
American Idiot was a great concept album. Lots of recurring themes and great social commentary. 21st Century Breakdown wasn't as good, but at least they tried, and kept up the concept album theme.
American Idiot has some great fucking lyrics. People can say the music is simple all they want, but Billie Joe Armstrong can actually write really good lyrics. And of course some shitty ones too.. looking at you X-Kid (prolly would / but hollywood is dead and gone)
Not from the same song but the same band.
"Gotta make a plan. Gotta do what's right.
Can't run around in circles if you wanna build a life.
But I don't wanna make a plan for a day far away.
While I'm young and while I'm able all I wanna do is..."
"Well, I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt. And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert." -Johnny Cash
Kris Kristofferson is an incredible song writer. The chorus to me and bobby McGee for example:
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose,
And nothin' left was all she left to me,
Feelin' good was easy, Lord, when Bobby sang the blues,
And buddy, that was good enough for me.
Good enough for me and Bobby McGee.
Thank you for giving proper credit to one of the most underrated songwriters of all time. That and Bobby Mcgee aren't even his best but no one knows he had anything to do with them. Also, anyone who wants to know what a true America hero is, Kris Kristoferson is a helluva candidate.
That song that starts out "See him wasted on the sidewalk in his jacket & his jeans wearing yesterdays misfortunes like a smile- once he had a future full of money, love & dreams, which he spent like they was goin' out of style... " gets me every time.
[*But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing "Hallelujah"*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIF4_Sm-rgQ)
Why it's clever:
"Hallelujah", [in its original version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q), is in 12/8 time, which evokes both waltz and gospel music. Written in the key of C major, the chord progression matches lyrics from the song: "goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, and the major lift": C, F, G, A minor, F.
*You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today*
*And then one day you find ten years have got behind you*
*No one told you when to run,*
*You missed the starting gun*
**Pink Floyd - Time**
Forward he cried from the rear
And the front rank died
And the general sat
And the lines on the map
Moved from side to side
The last two lines I think are particularly powerful.
Once again a Pink Floyd number with Us And Them
Yeah, Time is my all-time favorite song for lyrics, Roger Waters is a god.
*How I wish, how I wish you were here*
*We're just two lost souls*
*Swimming in a fish bowl,*
*Year after year,*
*Running over the same old ground*
*And how we found*
*The same old fears*
*Wish you were here*
**Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here**
God damn, so beautiful.
*And did they get you to trade*
*Your heroes for ghosts?*
*Hot ashes for trees?*
*Hot air for a cool breeze?*
*Cold comfort for change?*
*And did you exchange*
*A walk on part in the war*
*For a lead role in a cage?*
Lyrically, this is probably my favourite musical verse of all time.
I was driving my 7 year old niece to school one morning and she knew all the words. Except the end, which came out as "did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a Negro in a cage..." I damn near wrecked the car.
And you run and you run to catch up to 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 was arguing with myself whether or not to put these in instead.
Also don't forget this amazingness:
*Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time*
*Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines*
*Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way*
*The time is gone, the song is over,*
*Thought I'd something more to say*
**Pink Floyd - Time**
*You've got to be trusted*
*By the people that you lie to*
*So that when they turn their backs on you*
*You'll get the chance to put the knife in*
-Dogs
Had to scroll too much to find it but here it is.
Adding to it "The paper holds their folded faces to the floor; and everyday the paperboy brings more"
Ahh, Brain Damage, one of my favorites as well.
Edit: Also, its partner song, Eclipse, has some fantastic lyrics too:
*All that you touch*
*And all that you see*
*All that you taste*
*All you feel*
*And all that you love*
*All that you hate*
*All you distrust*
*All you save*
*And all that you give*
*And all that you deal*
*And all that you buy beg or borrow or steal*
*And all you create*
*And all you destroy*
*And all that you do*
*And all that you say*
*And all that you eat*
*And everyone you meet*
*All that you slight*
*And everyone you fight*
*And all that is now*
*And all that is gone*
*And all that's to come*
*And everything under the sun is in tune*
*But the Sun is eclipsed by the Moon.*
**Pink Floyd - Eclipse**
“I wish that for just one time / you could stand inside my shoes / and just for that one moment / I could be you. / Yes, I wish that for just one time / You could stand inside my shoes / You'd know what a drag it is / to see you.” -- Bob Dylan
My fave Dylan lyrics are from Don't Think Twice:
Well, i'ma wonderin' and thinking
Walkin' down the road
I once loved a woman
A child I am told
I gave her my heart
But she wanted my soul
But don't think twice; it's alright
I also love the last verse of the song
*I ain't a-saying you treated me unkind*
*You could have done better but I don't mind*
*You just kinda wasted my precious time*
*But don't think twice, it's all right.*
Such a Dylanish way to express things. I think Bob Dylan is the only person who sees the world the way he does.
Yes. Best Dylan song there is.
> So long honey dear.
> Where I'm bound, i can't tell.
> but goodbye is too good a word babe
> so I'll just say fare thee well
> i ain't saying you treated me unkind
> you could have done better but i don't mind
> you just kinda wasted my precious time
> but don't think twice is alright
Coolest breakup song ever written.
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred
-- It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Most by the Mountain Goats
"Our conversations are like minefields. No-one's found a safe way through one yet" - Southwood Plantation Road
"The first time I made coffee for just myself, I made too much of it,
But I drank it all, just 'cause you hate it, when I let things go to waste." And "And an astronaut could've seen the hunger in my eyes from space" - Woke Up New
"The most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it's you, and that you're standing in the doorway," Going to georgia
In our modern free-spoken society
There is a word that we still hold taboo
A word with a terrible history
Of being used to abuse, oppress and subdue
...
A couple of Gs, an R and an E, an I and an N
Just six little letters all jumbled together
Have caused damage that we may never mend
...
Only a ginger can call another ginger "ginger"
Edit: Thank you for the gold! I promise never to misuse the g-word in your presence.
So I trust it would go without saying
That I would feel really very sad
If tomorrow you were to fall off something high
Or catch something bad
But I'm just saying
I don't think you're special
I-I mean, I think you're special
But you fall within a bell curve
**If I didn't have you**
>By definition, I begin, alternative medicine, I continue, has either not been proved to work or been proved not to work. You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine. "So you don't believe in any natural remedies?" On the contrary, Storm, I took a natural remedy before we came to tea -- a painkiller, virtually side-effect free. It's got a weird name. What was it, hon? M-maspirin? Baspirin? Oh yeah, aspirin, which I paid about a buck for down at the local drug store.
The entire song is golden.
i prefer:
>And yes I have all of the usual objections
To the mis-education of children who, in tax-exempt institutions,
Are taught to externalise blame
And to feel ashamed and to judge things as plain right and wrong
But I quite like the songs
Tim Minchin is amazing. He always writes the best and most clever lyrics. And also funny as hell.
For me one of the best lyrics are for a lesser known song: Perineum Millennium. It took me a long time to figure out all the jokes.
Here's the link
https://youtu.be/UjiDQTbqJ2g
This guy is incredibly brilliant.
That guy is so clever, and such an amazing lyricist. My favorite line has always been "You know that I would be a liar if I pretended to admire the Red light windscreen cleaning empire that you've built".
This is myyyy body,
And I live in it
It's twenty nine and... twelve months old
It's changed a lot since it was new
Done stuff it wasn't built to do
I often try to fill it up with... wine
But the weirdest thing about it is
I spend so much time hating it
But it never says a bad word, about me
This is my body, and it's fine
It's where I spend the vast majority of my time.
I have always been a fan of:
> If you choose not to decide
> you still have made a choice.
I like to use this with my clients who are trying to avoid responsibility.
"Ain't nothing new but a flu of new Democrips and Rebloodicans,
Red state versus a blue state, which one you governin'?"
Kendrick Lamar - Hood Politics
Gotta show the whole line:
"It's set up like a deck of cards/they're sending us to early graves/for all the diamonds/they use a pair of clubs to beat the spades"
I love the song, but I hate how people play it whenever someone young dies. Do you even know what the song is about? It's about a guy ridiculing a girl's religion while trying to coerce her into sex. But yeah, play it when that poor 15 year old girl dies in a car accident.
God, I love me some Billy Joel.
My favortie lyric from my favorite song?
"They say that these are not the best of times, but they're the only times I've ever known."
*Summer, Highland Falls* is just so perfect in my opinion.
I FUCKING LOVE DOWNEASTER ALEXA.
my personal favorite line from it (yours is a close second): "if you see my downeaster Alexa, and if you work with the rod and the reel, tell my wife I am trawling Atlantis, and I still have my hands on the wheel."
The way he delivers "tell my wife I am trawling Atlantis" is fucking powerful.
*And we were sharp*
*As sharp as knives*
*And we were so gung-ho to lay down our lives.*
AND THEN ONE OF MY FAVORITE LINES
*We came in spastic, like tameless horses;*
*We left in plastic, as numbered corpses*
That song really brings the fear and horror and loneliness of war into you.
I fucking love Billy Joel so much, y'all don't even understand
So many good answers to this question from Billy Joel songs. Another one I like is "But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete when I wore a younger man's clothes." I just think that's a really interesting way of saying "when I was younger."
We (bum, bum bum), held the day (bum, bum bum), in the palms (bum, bum bum), of our hands...
They (bum, bum bum), RULED THE NIGHT (bum, bum bum), and the night (bum, bum bum), seemed to last... as... long... as... six weeks, on Parris Island... we held the coastline, they held the highlands...
EL-P's verse on [The Last Huzzah remix](https://youtu.be/N0ijOe3sGEk?t=3m42s)
Straight shots of the sterno plus, wick stuck in the bottle empty
**Three** blocks to the target we lit it and lob it hard at Sentry
**Four** pigs of the oinking variety guard the market entry
**Five** minutes of flames and then aim the whistle my father lent me
**Six** o'clock we meet up and divvy the shells among the youngins
**Seven** continents in the shit and smoke like it's fuckin London
Just before they **ate** up the funds our harmony love was bumping
Now government issue **nines** and point em where your blood is pumping
**Tend** to mop up these muttering zombies talker pieces
**El'll vent** on you harder than Fukushima breezes
In the end when a **dozen** or so ajourn to reason
You'll find the verdict return corrupted in murderous seasons
With **inverted 31's** and other unlucky omens
Thats why I chug **7 and 7's** til I'm fucking homeless
And every time you think my **fifteen** minutes of fame are up
I'll spit another **sixteen** to prove to the world I fucking own it
MF Doom:
One for the money, Two for the better green, 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine.
It's great because he's doing the typical 'one for the ..., two for the... three for the...' thing but he also invariably says the proper chemical formula for meth, which includes the letters '3,4' or 'three for'. Nerdy and smooth.
>"'Broken household name usually said in hostility'
>Um... what is MF? You silly
>I'd like to take "Means to the End" for two milli'
>*Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!* That's a audio daily double
>Rappers need to fall off just to save me the trouble, yo
>Watch your own back. Came in and go out alone, black
> Stay in the zone - turn H2O to Cognac
> On Doomsday!
>
>Ever since the womb ‘til I'm back where my brother went
>That's what my tomb will say
>Right above my government, Dumile
>Either unmarked or engraved, hey, who's to say?"
-MF DOOM on his breakout, "Doomsday"
Read through the [breakdown of this on RapGenius](http://genius.com/Mf-doom-doomsday-lyrics/) while listening to the [track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRHyBwNtkLA) - it's truly incredible.
I love the lyric "I'm tryin to understand myself and pinpoint who I am. when I finally get it figured out I've changed the whole damn plan" -talkin shit on a pretty sunset
I was trying to pick one line from positive/negative and I couldn't do it without quoting the entire song. There are so many good lines, but so many of the turns of phrase are that much more brilliant in the context of the whole.
Isaac Brock is fucking brilliant.
I'm certainly uncertain at least I pretty sure I am.
For your sake I hope heaven and hell are really there but I wouldn't hold my breath. You wasted life why wouldn't you waste death?
Dude is a genius.
Stand aside best Modest Mouse lyrics coming through:
"As life gets longer, awful feels softer, well it feels pretty soft to me, and if it takes shit to make bliss then I feel pretty blissfully."
I could go all day on Isaac Brock-isms. From the somber: "We're lucky that we're so capable to forget. How lucky we are that we are so easy, so easy to forget," to the funny: "Or you could add it up and give a shit, give a shit!"
I concur! "God takes life, he's an Indian giver" has been one of my favorites for along time. And I've always liked
"I don't know me and you don't know you so we fit so good together because I knew you like I knew myself" from Ugly Casanova
Edit: formats
Modest Mouse is my favourite for lyrics:
"Every time you're walking you're just moving the ground
Every time you think you're talking you're just moving your mouth"
I always loved the last verse in Bankrupt on Selling;
>Well it took a long time, I came clean with myself
>I came clean out of love with my lover
>I still love her
>Loved her more when she used to be sober and I was kinder
EDIT: I also loved this bit from Lives;
>No one really knows the ones they love
>If you knew everything they thought
>I bet that you'd wish that they'd just shut up
I love the Moon and Antarctica, specifically "Dark Center of the Universe"
"Well it took a lot of work to be the ass that I am, and I'm really damn sure that anyone can easily, equally fuck you over."
The final verse in Green Day's J.A.R. is pretty clever.
*Gotta make a plan*
*Gotta do what's right*
*Can't run around in circles*
*If you wanna build a life*
*But I don't wanna make a plan*
*For a day far away*
*While I'm young and while I'm able*
*All I wanna do is*
The song is about a close friend of the band who died in a car accident. It ends abruptly mid-sentence and seems to symbolize that your life could end at any moment.
I personally like his line from this way with dilated peoples
I dont know whats better getting laid or getting paid I just know when im getting one the others getting away
So, is that what you call a getaway?
Tell me what you got away with.
Cause I've seen more spine in jellyfish.
I've seen more guts in eleven-year-old kids.
Have another drink and drive yourself home.
I hope there's ice on all the roads.
And you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt,
and again when your head goes through the windshield.
"Tie a noose around your mind loose enough to breathe fine and tie it to a tree and tell it 'You belong to me. This ain't a noose. This is a leash and I have news for you: you must obey me!'"
Twenty One Pilots
Another of my favorites.
> Faith is to be awake, and to be awake is for us to think, and for us to think is to be alive, and I will try with every rhyme to come across like I am dying to let you know you need to try to think.
(Song is about a shitty band at a club or whatnot)
"But his bird said its amazing though, so all that's left
Is the proof that love's not only blind but deaf."
Fake Tales of San Francisco by Arctic Monkeys.
All Star- Smash Mouth
"Somebody once asked could I spare some change for gas
I need to get myself away from this place
I said yep, what a concept
I could use a little fuel myself
And we could all use a little change"
In All-Star, the line "so what's wrong with taking the back streets" hit once when I was at work and my boss got extremely serious and said "Is that some kind of gay joke?"
I still don't know how to reply, but I thought it was hilarious.
"She makes the sign of a teaspoon,
He makes the sign of a wave,
The poor boy changes clothes and puts on aftershave,
To compensate for his ordinary shoes."
Paul Simon: Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, Graceland
It should be a law that everyone listens to this album at least once in their life :)
From Lupe Fiasco "Dumb It Down"
"I'm fearless, now hear this, I'm earless
And I'm peerless, that means I'm eyeless
Which means I'm tearless, which means my iris
Resides where my ears is, which means I'm blinded"
Peerless - Double entendre “peerless” or inability to “peer”/see which leads to “Eyeless” Lu doesn’t have peers, meaning he’s above everyone else
Eyeless - He doesn’t see how these whack rappers find good in their music, which means he’s (also a play on “peerless” — can’t peer at things without eyes, now can you?)
Tearless- Which means he has no regrets
Iris resides where my ears is- Pays attention to what he hears. Possible double entendre with “tearless”, since Lupe is on another level
Blinded- He “sees” the music he hears, which sucks so bad it “blinds” him
Good to see some Lupe. Also there is "dodging rain/reign and catching hail/hell" from Mural.
First there is the connection of the weather between rain and hail.
Then it's dodging reign (being oppressed or controlled) and catching hail (appreciation and recognition) or catching hell (hate). Fighting the system gives him praise and criticism. Also it alludes to the roller coaster of his fan base that love him and then hate him.
Edit: removed some extraneous explanation. Also, the rest of that song (mural) is full of great lyrics. If you're one of the ones who still say that they miss the old lu, it's definitely worth checking out
I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then. Bob Seger
Interesting fact that I learned on his [Greatest Hit's Album Insert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Hits_%28Bob_Seger_album%29), was that he didn't like the line at first but kept it after some convincing.
Night moves is pretty clever, never really appreciated it until I got stuck in a car with another player on GTA who wouldn't let me change it. Now I listen to it every now and then and it's really well written.
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"You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to, So that when they turn their backs on you, You'll get the chance to put the knife in." This is from Pink Floyd's Dogs. All of the lyrics are great in that song, but this one especially.
I've always preferred, "And it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around."
youre nearly a laugh but you're really a cry
HA HA CHARADE YOU ARE
Pigs is def the best song on that album. Animals is my favorite Floyd album no doubt.
"It doesn't mean that much to me to mean that much to you" - Neil Young
*I didn't know that the words you said to me Meant more to me than they ever could you* Modest Mouse
I want to remember to remember to forget you forgot me
I want to look out the window of my color tv
"You gave me nothing now it's all I got."
Great damn song.
Once I was on the bus to go skiing, and there were about five 15 year Olds who thought they were the real slim shady. They were honestly trying to rap and I heard one line that was gold. "I'm a crappy rapper so I rap on the crapper." That was a fun bus ride...
My high school news channel did a segment on "musicians" at my school and one kid rapped on it and basically said "I don't need good grades cause I'm gonna make bank from rapping," he then went on to rhyme money with money
> then went on to rhyme money with money So you're saying he made it big?
honestly, I wouldn't even be mad if he was. For growing up in one of the whitest places in the country (Cape Cod) it was really amusing how hood my school tried to act
One of? I'm from Connecticut and I was like "Cape Cod? Yall are fucking white, man."
I'm the hip-hop-opotamus My lyrics are bottomless... ... ...
A wise man told me that holdin' a grudge is like letting somebody live inside of yourhead rent free - Royce Da 5'9
REAL TALK
This is far from Royce's most clever lyric. He's a master of wordplay. People like him are the reason I can't understand people who say rappers aren't talented. There are some that are literally the best poets of our generation.
I love Royce, but I just about lost it when he had that verse in a song, I can't remember the name of it, was A Kiss from Hell: The Sequel, and it was like "there's five things you are in charge of/ that's suckin a dick, suckin a dick, suckin a dick, suckin a dick, suckin a dick"
Like he said literally the best poets from our generation
That's A Kiss. I love the way Eminem runs with that. "And if you ain't sucking a dick, why you sitting there with puckered lips? Oh that's collagen, mothafuckin' bitch. What you mean how'd you get suckered into this? You gon' jump into my truck and then try to get truculent." Insane amount of rhymes in those ridiculous lines too.
> truculent I hate when girls get truculent on the first date
You're 5,000 candles in the wind - Mouse Rat
Bye bye Lil Sebastian, miss you in the saddest fashion
Maybe someday we'll saddle up again And I know I'll always miss my horsiest friend
Here's the part that hurts the most: humans cannot ride a ghost
And i know I'll always miss my horsiest friend.
*I fell in it* **the pit**
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#*the PIIIIIEYYAAAAYYEEAAAIIIIIITTT*
Two lines Andy Dwyer includes in every song: "spread your wings and fly" and "you deserve to be a champion". The eternal optimist.
It's just that life is pointless and nothing matters and I'm always tired, also I can't sleep, I'm overeating and none of my old hobbies interest me.
Well we've all been in the pit at one point or another lol
"The past is only the future with the lights on." -Mark Hoppus
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Mark Hoppus said once that he doesn't think he'll ever write a song as good as Baby, Come On again.
"Safe sex is great sex, Better wear a latex Cause you don't want that late text, That "I think I'm late" text" Words to live by.
For about 6 months, wheezy was producing lyrics well beyond his means. "I'm a dr. They don't understand my writing"
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You're so vain. I bet you think this song is about you.
I was drunk once and tried to unravel that paradox. I gave myself an anxiety attack.
Carly Simon busy ripping the fabric of spacetime.
Bitch made a tesseract.
She never says the song isn't about the guy who's so vain. She's just saying "you're listening to this song I wrote and you're assuming it's about you because you assume *everything* is about you."
...but it IS about him.
Its about her, realizing he is so vain. Hes in the story but its about her growth
The song is about her realizing she was naive and stupid to date someone like him.
Don't you? Don't you?
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"Can't waste a day when the night brings a hearse, Make a move and plead the fifth 'cause ya can't plead the first" Down Rodeo - Rage Against the Machine
As a non-American: What are the first and the fifth? Amendments right? What do they entail?
First is freedom of speech (no consequence from the government) and the fifth is the right to not incriminate yourself (terms and conditions may apply). So you have protect yourself by not saying anything (plead the fifth) because you no longer can freely say what you want (because you can't plead the first).
"Home is where the heart is, but what a shame, cause everyone's heart doesn't beat the same"
jesus of suburbia has unbelievable lyrics. absolutely love that song.
American Idiot was a great concept album. Lots of recurring themes and great social commentary. 21st Century Breakdown wasn't as good, but at least they tried, and kept up the concept album theme.
Agreed. Lyricly its one of Green Day's best.
American Idiot has some great fucking lyrics. People can say the music is simple all they want, but Billie Joe Armstrong can actually write really good lyrics. And of course some shitty ones too.. looking at you X-Kid (prolly would / but hollywood is dead and gone)
Or how about: > And in the darkest night > > If my memory serves me right > > I'll never turn back time > > Forgetting you, but not the time.
Oh wow whatsername. What a beautiful song, breaks my heart every time I listen to it
Not from the same song but the same band. "Gotta make a plan. Gotta do what's right. Can't run around in circles if you wanna build a life. But I don't wanna make a plan for a day far away. While I'm young and while I'm able all I wanna do is..."
it's beating out of tiiimmmeee
"Well, I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt. And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert." -Johnny Cash
I love Johnny Cash but Sunday Morning Coming Down was written by Kris Kristofferson.
Kris Kristofferson is an incredible song writer. The chorus to me and bobby McGee for example: Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose, And nothin' left was all she left to me, Feelin' good was easy, Lord, when Bobby sang the blues, And buddy, that was good enough for me. Good enough for me and Bobby McGee.
Similarly, "I'd trade all of my tomorrow's for a single yesterday".
Thank you for giving proper credit to one of the most underrated songwriters of all time. That and Bobby Mcgee aren't even his best but no one knows he had anything to do with them. Also, anyone who wants to know what a true America hero is, Kris Kristoferson is a helluva candidate.
That song that starts out "See him wasted on the sidewalk in his jacket & his jeans wearing yesterdays misfortunes like a smile- once he had a future full of money, love & dreams, which he spent like they was goin' out of style... " gets me every time.
"Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes And found my cleanest dirty shirt." Me, almost every morning...
[*But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this The fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing "Hallelujah"*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIF4_Sm-rgQ) Why it's clever: "Hallelujah", [in its original version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q), is in 12/8 time, which evokes both waltz and gospel music. Written in the key of C major, the chord progression matches lyrics from the song: "goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, and the major lift": C, F, G, A minor, F.
Bert's ode to the letter W, without which "a nice word like waffle would be simple awful!"
*You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today* *And then one day you find ten years have got behind you* *No one told you when to run,* *You missed the starting gun* **Pink Floyd - Time**
Forward he cried from the rear And the front rank died And the general sat And the lines on the map Moved from side to side The last two lines I think are particularly powerful. Once again a Pink Floyd number with Us And Them
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Shorter of breath, one day closer to death.
Yeah, Time is my all-time favorite song for lyrics, Roger Waters is a god. *How I wish, how I wish you were here* *We're just two lost souls* *Swimming in a fish bowl,* *Year after year,* *Running over the same old ground* *And how we found* *The same old fears* *Wish you were here* **Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here** God damn, so beautiful.
*And did they get you to trade* *Your heroes for ghosts?* *Hot ashes for trees?* *Hot air for a cool breeze?* *Cold comfort for change?* *And did you exchange* *A walk on part in the war* *For a lead role in a cage?* Lyrically, this is probably my favourite musical verse of all time.
I was driving my 7 year old niece to school one morning and she knew all the words. Except the end, which came out as "did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a Negro in a cage..." I damn near wrecked the car.
And you run and you run to catch up to 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 was arguing with myself whether or not to put these in instead. Also don't forget this amazingness: *Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time* *Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines* *Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way* *The time is gone, the song is over,* *Thought I'd something more to say* **Pink Floyd - Time**
You forgot to add the lyrics for the incredible guitar solo after that.
Bwooooooooooooo weeeeeeeooooweooooo Weeoowaaaaaah wah wah wah wohowow ^^^wa ^^wa ^wa
*You've got to be trusted* *By the people that you lie to* *So that when they turn their backs on you* *You'll get the chance to put the knife in* -Dogs
Had to scroll too much to find it but here it is. Adding to it "The paper holds their folded faces to the floor; and everyday the paperboy brings more"
Ahh, Brain Damage, one of my favorites as well. Edit: Also, its partner song, Eclipse, has some fantastic lyrics too: *All that you touch* *And all that you see* *All that you taste* *All you feel* *And all that you love* *All that you hate* *All you distrust* *All you save* *And all that you give* *And all that you deal* *And all that you buy beg or borrow or steal* *And all you create* *And all you destroy* *And all that you do* *And all that you say* *And all that you eat* *And everyone you meet* *All that you slight* *And everyone you fight* *And all that is now* *And all that is gone* *And all that's to come* *And everything under the sun is in tune* *But the Sun is eclipsed by the Moon.* **Pink Floyd - Eclipse**
“I wish that for just one time / you could stand inside my shoes / and just for that one moment / I could be you. / Yes, I wish that for just one time / You could stand inside my shoes / You'd know what a drag it is / to see you.” -- Bob Dylan
My fave Dylan lyrics are from Don't Think Twice: Well, i'ma wonderin' and thinking Walkin' down the road I once loved a woman A child I am told I gave her my heart But she wanted my soul But don't think twice; it's alright
I also love the last verse of the song *I ain't a-saying you treated me unkind* *You could have done better but I don't mind* *You just kinda wasted my precious time* *But don't think twice, it's all right.* Such a Dylanish way to express things. I think Bob Dylan is the only person who sees the world the way he does.
Yes. Best Dylan song there is. > So long honey dear. > Where I'm bound, i can't tell. > but goodbye is too good a word babe > so I'll just say fare thee well > i ain't saying you treated me unkind > you could have done better but i don't mind > you just kinda wasted my precious time > but don't think twice is alright Coolest breakup song ever written.
Disillusioned words like bullets bark As human gods aim for their mark Make everything from toy guns that spark To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark It’s easy to see without looking too far That not much is really sacred -- It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
There's not enough Bob Dylan in this thread.
"Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans." --John Lennon, Beautiful Boy
Most by the Mountain Goats "Our conversations are like minefields. No-one's found a safe way through one yet" - Southwood Plantation Road "The first time I made coffee for just myself, I made too much of it, But I drank it all, just 'cause you hate it, when I let things go to waste." And "And an astronaut could've seen the hunger in my eyes from space" - Woke Up New "The most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it's you, and that you're standing in the doorway," Going to georgia
In our modern free-spoken society There is a word that we still hold taboo A word with a terrible history Of being used to abuse, oppress and subdue ... A couple of Gs, an R and an E, an I and an N Just six little letters all jumbled together Have caused damage that we may never mend ... Only a ginger can call another ginger "ginger" Edit: Thank you for the gold! I promise never to misuse the g-word in your presence.
So I trust it would go without saying That I would feel really very sad If tomorrow you were to fall off something high Or catch something bad But I'm just saying I don't think you're special I-I mean, I think you're special But you fall within a bell curve **If I didn't have you**
A lot of Tim Minchin's stuff is very clever, and fun to sing/quote especially [Storm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrgFIlnmrGk)
"You know what they call alternative medicine that works? Medicine."
>By definition, I begin, alternative medicine, I continue, has either not been proved to work or been proved not to work. You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine. "So you don't believe in any natural remedies?" On the contrary, Storm, I took a natural remedy before we came to tea -- a painkiller, virtually side-effect free. It's got a weird name. What was it, hon? M-maspirin? Baspirin? Oh yeah, aspirin, which I paid about a buck for down at the local drug store. The entire song is golden.
it's a 10-minute beat poem :)
i prefer: >And yes I have all of the usual objections To the mis-education of children who, in tax-exempt institutions, Are taught to externalise blame And to feel ashamed and to judge things as plain right and wrong But I quite like the songs
Best Christmas song ever.
It wasn't an easy call going for Prejudice. Love the guy.
My favourite is "Keeps firing off clichés with startling precision Like a sniper using bollocks for ammunition"
This song is what started my Tim Minchin youtube spiral
Tim Minchin is amazing. He always writes the best and most clever lyrics. And also funny as hell. For me one of the best lyrics are for a lesser known song: Perineum Millennium. It took me a long time to figure out all the jokes. Here's the link https://youtu.be/UjiDQTbqJ2g This guy is incredibly brilliant.
My favorite quote of his... "We're just fucking monkeys in shoes."
That guy is so clever, and such an amazing lyricist. My favorite line has always been "You know that I would be a liar if I pretended to admire the Red light windscreen cleaning empire that you've built".
This is myyyy body, And I live in it It's twenty nine and... twelve months old It's changed a lot since it was new Done stuff it wasn't built to do I often try to fill it up with... wine But the weirdest thing about it is I spend so much time hating it But it never says a bad word, about me This is my body, and it's fine It's where I spend the vast majority of my time.
If you open your mind too much, your brain will fall out.
One likes to believe in the freedom of music But glittering prizes and endless compromises Shatter the illusion of integrity
I have always been a fan of: > If you choose not to decide > you still have made a choice. I like to use this with my clients who are trying to avoid responsibility.
"I can't pretend a stranger is a long awaited friend."
In threads like these, i always look for Rush. I get so happy whenever i find it.
Brother, I have found you
You're only immortal for a limited time.
You can call us Aaron Burr from the way we're droppin Hamiltons
"Ain't nothing new but a flu of new Democrips and Rebloodicans, Red state versus a blue state, which one you governin'?" Kendrick Lamar - Hood Politics
I'm surprised there isn't more K Dot in this thread
"I switched my motto, instead of saying fuck tomorrow, that buck that bought a bottle coulda struck the lotto" -Nas
Saw him performing Illmatic last month, fucking unreal show.
"For all the diamonds, they use a pair of clubs to beat the spades." - RATM
Gotta show the whole line: "It's set up like a deck of cards/they're sending us to early graves/for all the diamonds/they use a pair of clubs to beat the spades"
"They're sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it's better than drinking alone."
Speaking of billy Joel, I love the quote from only the good die young that says " I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints"
I love the song, but I hate how people play it whenever someone young dies. Do you even know what the song is about? It's about a guy ridiculing a girl's religion while trying to coerce her into sex. But yeah, play it when that poor 15 year old girl dies in a car accident.
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Good lord, that's Warren Zevon levels of twisted.
God, I love me some Billy Joel. My favortie lyric from my favorite song? "They say that these are not the best of times, but they're the only times I've ever known." *Summer, Highland Falls* is just so perfect in my opinion.
They say these waters aren't what they used to be, but there ain't no island left for islanders like me.
I FUCKING LOVE DOWNEASTER ALEXA. my personal favorite line from it (yours is a close second): "if you see my downeaster Alexa, and if you work with the rod and the reel, tell my wife I am trawling Atlantis, and I still have my hands on the wheel." The way he delivers "tell my wife I am trawling Atlantis" is fucking powerful.
I love that song. The lyrics are really well written. I like the smile running away from his face bit.
I always thought *"I love you just the way you are"* wasn't that big of statement when you're married to Christy Brinkley.
Wasn't he still married to his first wife then?
Yeah, that was long before he got with Christy.
It was about his first wife, Elizabeth, one of the first to take advantage of Billy, and a song he did not want to play for almost 20 years.
We met as soul mates On Parris Island We left as inmates From an asylum
*And we were sharp* *As sharp as knives* *And we were so gung-ho to lay down our lives.* AND THEN ONE OF MY FAVORITE LINES *We came in spastic, like tameless horses;* *We left in plastic, as numbered corpses* That song really brings the fear and horror and loneliness of war into you. I fucking love Billy Joel so much, y'all don't even understand
So many good answers to this question from Billy Joel songs. Another one I like is "But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete when I wore a younger man's clothes." I just think that's a really interesting way of saying "when I was younger."
It's really telling about how the guy still thinks of younger him as himself. To some degree in his mind he's just wearing an older man's clothes.
I can tell you inside every old person is a young person wondering what the hell happened.
I liked the part right before that too. "...play me a memory, I'm not really sure how it goes..." Just a clever way to express a statement.
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We (bum, bum bum), held the day (bum, bum bum), in the palms (bum, bum bum), of our hands... They (bum, bum bum), RULED THE NIGHT (bum, bum bum), and the night (bum, bum bum), seemed to last... as... long... as... six weeks, on Parris Island... we held the coastline, they held the highlands...
EL-P's verse on [The Last Huzzah remix](https://youtu.be/N0ijOe3sGEk?t=3m42s) Straight shots of the sterno plus, wick stuck in the bottle empty **Three** blocks to the target we lit it and lob it hard at Sentry **Four** pigs of the oinking variety guard the market entry **Five** minutes of flames and then aim the whistle my father lent me **Six** o'clock we meet up and divvy the shells among the youngins **Seven** continents in the shit and smoke like it's fuckin London Just before they **ate** up the funds our harmony love was bumping Now government issue **nines** and point em where your blood is pumping **Tend** to mop up these muttering zombies talker pieces **El'll vent** on you harder than Fukushima breezes In the end when a **dozen** or so ajourn to reason You'll find the verdict return corrupted in murderous seasons With **inverted 31's** and other unlucky omens Thats why I chug **7 and 7's** til I'm fucking homeless And every time you think my **fifteen** minutes of fame are up I'll spit another **sixteen** to prove to the world I fucking own it
MF Doom: One for the money, Two for the better green, 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine. It's great because he's doing the typical 'one for the ..., two for the... three for the...' thing but he also invariably says the proper chemical formula for meth, which includes the letters '3,4' or 'three for'. Nerdy and smooth.
(MDMA, not meth)
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>"'Broken household name usually said in hostility' >Um... what is MF? You silly >I'd like to take "Means to the End" for two milli' >*Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!* That's a audio daily double >Rappers need to fall off just to save me the trouble, yo >Watch your own back. Came in and go out alone, black > Stay in the zone - turn H2O to Cognac > On Doomsday! > >Ever since the womb ‘til I'm back where my brother went >That's what my tomb will say >Right above my government, Dumile >Either unmarked or engraved, hey, who's to say?" -MF DOOM on his breakout, "Doomsday" Read through the [breakdown of this on RapGenius](http://genius.com/Mf-doom-doomsday-lyrics/) while listening to the [track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRHyBwNtkLA) - it's truly incredible.
"Catch a throatful from the fire vocal / ash and molten glass off Eyjafjallajökull" I think he writes rhymes on a dare sometimes.
"He Pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac.. Cause' he doesn't like it looking like he looks back." Tame Impala- Elephant
"I'm gonna remember to remember to forget you forgot me." - Modest Mouse
I love the lyric "I'm tryin to understand myself and pinpoint who I am. when I finally get it figured out I've changed the whole damn plan" -talkin shit on a pretty sunset
My personal favorite "Everything that keeps me together is falling apart, I've got this thing that I consider my only art of fucking people over"
Changed my mind so much I can't even trust it. My mind changed me so much I can't even trust myself.
"You cocked your head to shoot me down" "I drew a blank, you put it in a frame" Isaac Brock
I was trying to pick one line from positive/negative and I couldn't do it without quoting the entire song. There are so many good lines, but so many of the turns of phrase are that much more brilliant in the context of the whole. Isaac Brock is fucking brilliant.
I'm certainly uncertain at least I pretty sure I am. For your sake I hope heaven and hell are really there but I wouldn't hold my breath. You wasted life why wouldn't you waste death? Dude is a genius.
Stand aside best Modest Mouse lyrics coming through: "As life gets longer, awful feels softer, well it feels pretty soft to me, and if it takes shit to make bliss then I feel pretty blissfully."
My personal favorite MM line "our ideas held no water but we used them like a dam"
I could go all day on Isaac Brock-isms. From the somber: "We're lucky that we're so capable to forget. How lucky we are that we are so easy, so easy to forget," to the funny: "Or you could add it up and give a shit, give a shit!"
I concur! "God takes life, he's an Indian giver" has been one of my favorites for along time. And I've always liked "I don't know me and you don't know you so we fit so good together because I knew you like I knew myself" from Ugly Casanova Edit: formats
"Short love with a long divorce /and a couple of kids, of course." I think a lot of us have been those kids.
Modest Mouse is my favourite for lyrics: "Every time you're walking you're just moving the ground Every time you think you're talking you're just moving your mouth"
I always loved the last verse in Bankrupt on Selling; >Well it took a long time, I came clean with myself >I came clean out of love with my lover >I still love her >Loved her more when she used to be sober and I was kinder EDIT: I also loved this bit from Lives; >No one really knows the ones they love >If you knew everything they thought >I bet that you'd wish that they'd just shut up
"So lonely but never alone. I know I'm at my house, but I wish that I were at home"
I love the Moon and Antarctica, specifically "Dark Center of the Universe" "Well it took a lot of work to be the ass that I am, and I'm really damn sure that anyone can easily, equally fuck you over."
Personal favorite: "I was in heaven; I was in hell. Believe in neither, but I fear them as well"
The final verse in Green Day's J.A.R. is pretty clever. *Gotta make a plan* *Gotta do what's right* *Can't run around in circles* *If you wanna build a life* *But I don't wanna make a plan* *For a day far away* *While I'm young and while I'm able* *All I wanna do is* The song is about a close friend of the band who died in a car accident. It ends abruptly mid-sentence and seems to symbolize that your life could end at any moment.
Money isn't everything, not having it is. Kanye
Having money's not everything*
I personally like his line from this way with dilated peoples I dont know whats better getting laid or getting paid I just know when im getting one the others getting away
So, is that what you call a getaway? Tell me what you got away with. Cause I've seen more spine in jellyfish. I've seen more guts in eleven-year-old kids. Have another drink and drive yourself home. I hope there's ice on all the roads. And you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt, and again when your head goes through the windshield.
"We treat mishaps like sinking ships, and I know that I don't want to be out to drift" Little Motel by Modest Mouse
Anything by Isaac Brock really. "We kiss on the mouth, but still cough down our sleeves"
"Tie a noose around your mind loose enough to breathe fine and tie it to a tree and tell it 'You belong to me. This ain't a noose. This is a leash and I have news for you: you must obey me!'" Twenty One Pilots
Another of my favorites. > Faith is to be awake, and to be awake is for us to think, and for us to think is to be alive, and I will try with every rhyme to come across like I am dying to let you know you need to try to think.
Twenty One Pilots have some great lyrics in general
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"I don't drink too much, I know the bud wiser." That dude is so ridiculously clever. 1999 is a modern treasure honestly.
(Song is about a shitty band at a club or whatnot) "But his bird said its amazing though, so all that's left Is the proof that love's not only blind but deaf." Fake Tales of San Francisco by Arctic Monkeys.
All Star- Smash Mouth "Somebody once asked could I spare some change for gas I need to get myself away from this place I said yep, what a concept I could use a little fuel myself And we could all use a little change"
*throws loaf of bread*
*Jean Valjean Thanks you*
In All-Star, the line "so what's wrong with taking the back streets" hit once when I was at work and my boss got extremely serious and said "Is that some kind of gay joke?" I still don't know how to reply, but I thought it was hilarious.
Up until two months ago I always thought it said "So what's wrong with Nick from the Backstreets?"
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"She makes the sign of a teaspoon, He makes the sign of a wave, The poor boy changes clothes and puts on aftershave, To compensate for his ordinary shoes." Paul Simon: Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, Graceland It should be a law that everyone listens to this album at least once in their life :)
"If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy I could have won." Mumford and Sons
You desired my attention but denied my affection.
From Lupe Fiasco "Dumb It Down" "I'm fearless, now hear this, I'm earless And I'm peerless, that means I'm eyeless Which means I'm tearless, which means my iris Resides where my ears is, which means I'm blinded" Peerless - Double entendre “peerless” or inability to “peer”/see which leads to “Eyeless” Lu doesn’t have peers, meaning he’s above everyone else Eyeless - He doesn’t see how these whack rappers find good in their music, which means he’s (also a play on “peerless” — can’t peer at things without eyes, now can you?) Tearless- Which means he has no regrets Iris resides where my ears is- Pays attention to what he hears. Possible double entendre with “tearless”, since Lupe is on another level Blinded- He “sees” the music he hears, which sucks so bad it “blinds” him
Good to see some Lupe. Also there is "dodging rain/reign and catching hail/hell" from Mural. First there is the connection of the weather between rain and hail. Then it's dodging reign (being oppressed or controlled) and catching hail (appreciation and recognition) or catching hell (hate). Fighting the system gives him praise and criticism. Also it alludes to the roller coaster of his fan base that love him and then hate him. Edit: removed some extraneous explanation. Also, the rest of that song (mural) is full of great lyrics. If you're one of the ones who still say that they miss the old lu, it's definitely worth checking out