Entertainment For Lively Minds
Line of the year?
What was/were the best line(s) from a song you heard this year that was new to you?
Nick Cave did some good work on Dig Lazarus Dig!!!(also happens to be one of best albums of year):
we've been scribbled in the margins
of a story that is patently absurd
(lie down here & be my girl)
and
he said -- everything is messed up round here /everything is banal
and jejune / there is a planetary conspiracy / against the likes of you
and me / in this idiot
constituency of the moon -- (well, he knew exactly who to blame)
and we call upon the author to explain!
Should you choose to participate please note I am looking for a fragment, a few lines, not whole song lyrics, taken from new music (can be old but new to you).
Thank you for your time.
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A done deal?
Judging from the Festive Fifty voting, I predict the most votes for Elbow's "You are the only thing in any room you're ever in".
A pedant writes:
That same song ("Starlings") also contains my Lyrical Solecism of the Year: "I haven't dreamed of you and I", which drives I crazy every time me hear it.
Yes
Mr Garvey deserves recognition for that one (the former). He has his moments of top wordsmithery to be fair.
Bugger!
The first thing that popped into my head and Archie's already stolen my thunder!
However I could pick a number of other wonderful lines from that album:
"So yes I guess I'm asking you to back a horse that's good for glue - and nothing else"
"Image on image like beads on a rosary pull through my head as the music takes hold"
"We made the moon our mirrorball"
"There'll be twisted karaoke at the Aniseed Lounge"
"We're swapping the turf for the sand and the surf and the sin"
And the best:
"Never very good at goodbyes. So (gentle shoulder charge) love you, mate."
A fine example of why you shouldn't look to pop for poetry
Most of it is nonsense.
Viz Weller's No bonds shall ever tear me from she. Where do you start?
It's rare
but it exists - where lyrics really are worth quoting and reach the height of the best of the poetic. Bob shows that it can be done and a line be packed full of meaning:
Maggie's Farm
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
or
Like a Rolling Stone
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.
It's worth higlighting the brilliance of such lines that can resonate and hit home.
I love Like A Rolling Stone
despite having decided years ago that, to me, the lyrics mean next to nothing.
How does it feel?
The words I quote there seem pretty straight forward to me. It's all about being fooled by those who seem so fantastical and impressive to you only to find they'll betray you and let you down - seems to have a pretty universal meaning, and well we've all been there one way or another haven't we? Mind you I think Dylan does get away with a lot in other songs in the name of surrealism. But it might just be me that's lacking.
Probably just me...
...but I don't believe I've ever been "fooled by those who seem so fantastical and impressive to you only to find they'll betray you and let you down".
Not doubting for a second that it strikes a chord with you, Sven. I'm just not as convinced as our focus-group-focused media of the homogeneity (or even existence) of the Human Condition. I, for example, am a white male the wrong side of 40 who grew up in the UK but has never been to a football match in his adult life, has never seen The Sweeney and remains unmoved by most of Led Zeppelin's canon. (That said, the enthusiasm of Mark Ellen's Zepcast was infectious).
OK maybe not for you in this case
But one of the things I find with literature, and some song lyrics, is that they can speak of an experience, emotion, feeling, whatever you want to call it, that I recognise (and many others do also I am sure), and I find that to be a powerful quality of such art. It's like Morrissey saying about how he doesn't know why he gives valuable time to people who he'd much rather kick in the eye. Yeah I know exactly what he means. I've had that feeling too and it's great to hear someone singing that and putting it into such well chosen words - it's one of the great things about literature and some song lyrics, I believe. Not to feel like some bland shared experience where we all sing along a la Coldplay. The outstanding quality of the words used is key!
My favourite Elbow lines:
The fix is in
The odds that we got were delicious
The fix is in
The jockey was cocky and vicious
Costello Vs The Internet
Two lovers rocking up and down
In elevator, fifteen minutes later
They'll make a killing in the market
They know how to work it, on that closed circuit
- No Hiding Place, Momofuku
Juvenile I know, but Chris Difford Fat as a Fiddle
Now I have tits just like my mum
I'm out breath before I run
I like to eat because it's fun
Months later it's still cracking me up. It's the way he sings'em.
National Shite Day
I try to put everything into perspective
Set it against the scale of human suffering
And I thought of the Mugabe government
And the children of the Calcutta railways
This works for a while
But then I encounter Primark FM
Overhead a rainbow appears
In black and white...
(Half Man Half Biscuit - National Shite Day)
http://www.chrisrand.com/hmhb/csi-ambleside/national-shite-day/
Inner City Pressure
Flight of the Conchords:
You've lost perspective, like a picture by Escher
Inner city pressure
That is...
brilliant.
I believe, from the same song, comes the line
Man behind the counter starts to abuse me.
Hey man, I just want some muesli.
Evening of Swing
And a plague fell upon the retail park
and a storm rose over Henman Hill
and the Christening Party Arsehole
who hitherto had blurred
my conception of man as nature's final word
was feeling from the lava
his sat nav pleading thus
"I'm not from round here mate - you should have got the bus"
NIgel wins this game every year
Another of his contenders:
I'm gonna feed our children non-organic food
I'm gonna feed our children non-organic food
I'm gonna feed our children non-organic food
And with the money saved, take 'em to the zoo
Not long now before lollypop men are called Darren
[my brother's called Darren]
Killer 2nd line!
"i thank you for your understanding, i won’t be long,
and for the things around the house you left unthrown"
It's from the criminally unrecognised David Ford. It's called Go to Hell.
Jeepers, I think it was on a word coverdisc, Heppo did a string about a video the chap did, playing all the music live, with tapes, if you catch my, in one go and still you ungrates didn't vote him for a replay in the best of year disc.
(Impending yule is working on my goodwill to all, you may notice....)
"What do you want for tea?"
"I want crisps"
From the Kaiser Chiefs, Never Miss a Beat.