List song lyrics that I like

So…maybe someday I’ll get over this rabid Talking Heads kick. But I hope not.

I am not the morbid type; I don’t sit around planning out my own funeral or anything. Still…I think I would like a recording or performance of this song at my funeral.

Everyone is trying to get to the bar.
The name of the bar, the bar is called Heaven.
The band in Heaven plays my favorite song.
They play it once again, they play it all night long.

Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.

There is a party, everyone is there.
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time.
When the party’s over it will start again.
Won’t be any different, it will be exactly the same.

Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.

When this kiss is over it will start again.
It will not be any different, it will be exactly the same.
It’s hard to imagine that nothing at all
could be so exciting, could be so much fun.

Heaven is a place where nothing every happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing every happens.

Lost my shape – Trying to act casual!
Can’t stop – I might end up in the hospital
I’m changing my shape – I feel like an accident
They’re back!-To explain their experience

Isn’t it weird
Looks too obscure to me
Wasting away
And that was their policy

I’m ready to leave – I push the fact in front of me
Facts lost – Facts are never what they seem to be
Nothing there! – No information left of any kind
Lifting my head – Looking for danger signs

There was a line
There was a formula
Sharp as a knife
Facts cut a hole in us
There was a line
There was a formula
Sharp as a knife
Facts cut a hole in us

I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…
I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…
I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…
The feeling returns
Whenever we close out eyes
Lifting my head
Looking around inside

The island of doubt – It’s like the taste of medicine
Working by hindsight – Got the message from the oxygen
Making a list – Find the cost of opportunity
Doing it right – Facts are useless in emergencies

The feeling returns
Whenever we close out eyes
Lifting my head
Looking around inside

Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don’t do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
Facts are nothing on the face of things
Facts don’t stain the furniture
Facts go out and slam the door
Facts are written all over your face
Facts continue to change their shape

I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…
I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…
I’m still waiting…I’m still waiting…

It would be much easier to list the S&G lyrics I DON’T like, but here’s one I’m particularly enamored with. Paul Simon just has the talent to make simple rhymes without sounding trite.

I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls

And from the shelter of my mind
Through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets
To England where my heart lies

My mind’s distracted and diffused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you’re asleep
And kiss you when you start your day

And as a song I was writing is left undone
I don’t know why I spend my time
Writing songs I can’t believe
With words that tear and strain to rhyme

And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you

And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I

Is it totally cliche of me to like this song? I think it is. I don’t care. I love it anyway.

I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they’re real
I’ve been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believe that the pictures are
All I can feel

Remembering you standing quiet in the rain
As I ran to your heart to be near
And we kissed as the sky fell in
Holding you close
How I always held close in your fear
Remembering you running soft through the night
You were bigger and brighter and whiter than snow
And screamed at the make-believe
Screamed at the sky
And you finally found all your courage
To let it all go

Remembering you fallen into my arms
Crying for the death of your heart
You were stone white
So delicate
Lost in the cold
You were always so lost in the dark
Remembering you how you used to be
Slow drowned
You were angels
So much more than everything
Hold for the last time then slip away quietly
Open my eyes
But I never see anything

If only I’d thought of the right words
I could have held on to your heart
If only I’d thought of the right words
I wouldn’t be breaking apart
All my pictures of you

Looking so long at these pictures of you
But I never hold on to your heart
Looking so long for the words to be true
But always just breaking apart
My pictures of you

There was nothing in the world
That I ever wanted more
Than to feel you deep in my heart
There was nothing in the world
That I ever wanted more
Than to never feel the breaking apart
All my pictures of you

Wow, I had no idea Malvina Reynolds wrote this one! She was a folk music hero and author of so many amazing and meaningful songs. I thought that this was a “churchy” song – I learned it in Sunday School and it had Christian lyrics added to it (Jesus-y lyrics, I mean). Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not really a Jesus-y song originally – it’s bigger than that! And it’s something worth remembering. Haven’t thought of this song in YEARS, but it says a lot in just a few words. RIP Malvina, and thanks.

Magic Penny

Love is something if you give it away,
Give it away, give it away.
Love is something if you give it away,
You end up having more.

It’s just like a magic penny,
Hold it tight and you won’t have any.
Lend it, spend it, and you’ll have so many
They’ll roll all over the floor.

For love is something if you give it away,
Give it away, give it away.
Love is something if you give it away,
You end up having more.

This song is nothing profound, and yet I got really excited the first time I heard it…mainly because I’ve had the same experience and this described it to a tee. Well, it was a maroon Plymouth Acclaim, but otherwise the song is me. Or was.

i’ve been driving around town
with my head spinning around
everywhere i look i see
your ‘96 jeep cherokee

you’re a bully and a clown
you made me cry and put me down
after all that ive been through
you’d think i’d hate the sight of you

but with every jeep i see
my broken heart still skips a beat
i guess its just my stupid luck
that all of boston drives that same black fucking truck

it could be him or am i tripping
and i’m crashing into everything
and thinking about skipping town a while
until these cars go out of style…

i try to see it in reverse
it makes the situation hundreds of times worse
when i wonder if it makes you want to cry
every time you see a light blue volvo driving by

so dont tell me that you’re off to see the world
i know you wont get very far
dont call me if you get another girl baby
just call me if you get another car

the number of them is insane
every exit’s an exboyfriend memory lane
every major street’s a minor heart attack
i see a red jeep and i want to paint it black

it could be him or am i tripping
and i’m crashing into everything
i can’t wait til you trade that fucker in
by then they will have stuck me in the looney bin

it could be him my heart is pounding
its just no use i’m surrounded
but someday i’ll steal your car and switch the gears
and drive that cherokee straight off this trail of tears

Well, this is totally appropriate to how I’m feeling at the moment – a little wistful, a little happy.

I went home for Christmas
To the house that I grew up in
Going back was something after all these years
I drove down Monterey Street
And felt a little sadness
When I turned left on Laurel and the house appeared
And I snuck up to that rocking chair
Where the winter sunlight slanted on the screened-in porch
And I stared out past the shade tree
That my laughing daddy planted on the day that I was born

CHORUS
And I let time go by so slow
And I made every moment last
And I thought about years
How they take so long
And they go so fast

Across the street the Randol’s oldest daughter must have come home
Her two boys built a snowman by the backyard swings
I thought of old man Randol
And his Christmas decorations
And how he used to leave them up ‘til early spring
And I thought of all the summers
That I paced that porch and swore I’d die of boredom there
And I thought of what I’d give to feel another summer linger
Where a day feels like a year

CHORUS

Then the door flew open, and my mother’s voice was laughing
As she called back to my daddy, “Come and look who’s here!”
And I thought about years

My fave verse:

Days up and down they come
Like rain on a conga drum
Forget most, remember some
But don’t turn none away
Everything is not enough
Nothin’ is too much to bear
Where you been is good and gone
All you keep is the gettin’ there
To live is to fly
Low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes

Moves like a fist through the traffic
Anger and no one can heal it
Shoves a little bump into the momentum
It’s just a little lump
But you feel it
In the creases and the shadows
With a rattling deep emotion
The cool, cool river
Sweeps the wild, white ocean

Yes Boss. The government handshake
Yes Boss. The crusher of language
Yes Boss. Mr. Stillwater,
The face at the edge of the banquet
The cool, the cool river
The cool, the cool river

I believe in the future
I may live in my car
My radio tuned to
The voice of a star
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edge of a thunderstorm
And these old hopes and fears
Still at my side

Anger and no one can heal it
Slides through the metal detector
Lives like a mole in a motel
A slide in a slide projector
The cool, cool river
Sweeps the wild, white ocean
The rage of love turns inward
To prayers of devotion
And these prayers are
The constant road across the wilderness
These prayers are
These prayers are the memory of God
The memory of God

And I believe in the future
We shall suffer no more
Maybe not in my lifetime
But in yours I feel sure
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm
And these streets
Quiet as a sleeping army
Send their battered dreams to heaven, to heaven
For the mother’s restless son
Who is a witness to, who is a warrior
Who denies his urge to break and run

Who says: Hard times?
I’m used to them
The speeding planet burns
I’m used to that
My life’s so common it disappears
And sometimes even music
Cannot substitute for tears

I truly love this whole song, but this one verse makes me smile every darn time I hear it.

She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe
“I thought you’d never say hello,” she said
“You look like the silent type.”
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century.
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin’ coals
Pourin’ off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you,
Tangled up in blue.

Dylan is the master of encapsulation, and right there, he’s summed up the whole reason I value literature so much, and the wonder of encountering a kindred spirit across the centuries and through the dusty pages. Lovely.