h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Let's not talk about music, Let's talk about lyrics.
And let me be the first to point out that it would be preferable to talk about lyrics written after 1970 as they relate to at least SOME part of modern life.

Enjoy and please get me lots of feedback.

Well, based soley on lyrics, the best "modern" songwriters are Freddie Mercury, Dave Matthews, Bono (from U2)...and the writer for the Goo-Goo Dolls, I think...my boyfriend insists on Danny Elfman (no.)

Well, there's another thread that gave me the idea for this one and that one was about Genesis, Yes, King Crimson. You know, all the more pretentious songwriters(nothing wrong with that by the way..).

Anyway I came up with something that I think does sound a bit like the stuff that Jon Anderson(Yes) came up with.

See if you can figure it out..

___________________________________
Cut it up, cut it up, cut it down

Some you win and some you lose
And so it is, and so it will be...
Some you lose and well, some you lose
As it is, so shall it be (for eternity)
Guaranteed to be hateful
cross as a bee
Doin' time for my sister
who's doin' time for me

James, janet, jimi and jim,
john, brian, phil and tim
L.S.D., L.S.D., L.S.D., L.S.D.,
L.S.D. and fame did them in
Fruit tree, magic tree, leaves like a crown
cut it up, cut it up, cut it up, cut it up,cut it down

Blasting furnace without controls
We die, take us in, you sell our souls
Kneel in reverence for the Lord of the dark
The ties that bind tear us apart

Restricted area, no entrance allowed
As the king lost his head the jester just bowed
Lightyears away, he lit up the sign (SMOKE!)
I claim my name, this space is mine

Virtual voice said : 'welcome to the show'
Man I don't need to understand, I just want to know.
________________________________________


...So fire away...

Some of my favourite lyricists in no particular order:-
1. Morrissey (whilst in The Smiths)
Fave song (for lyrics)- "Reel Around The Fountain"
2. Elvis Costello (master of the barbed pun)
Fave song- "Accidents Will Happen"
3. Richard Butler (ex-Psycehedelic Furs)
Fave song- "Imitation of Christ"
4. Bob Dylan (all except his God-bothering stuff)
Fave song- "Visions of Johanna"
5. David McComb (of The Triffids)
Fave song- "Hometown Farewell Kiss"
6. Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett / Roger Waters)
Fave songs- "See Emily Play" / "Us And Them"
7. Ian MacCulloch (Bunnyman)
Fave song- "My Kingdom"
8. Julian Cope (ex-Teardrop Explodes)
Fave song- "Tiny Children"
9. Kate Bush (where did she go???)
Fave song- "Suspended In Gaffa"
10. Bono (out of U2, h2g2 researcher number 2 apparently)
Fave song- "Faraway (So Close)"
11. Ian Curtis (Joy Division)
Fave song- "Twenty Four Hours"
12. Ray Davies (Kinks)
Fave Song- "Autumn Almanac"
13. Richey Manic/Nicky Wire (Manic Street Preachers)
Fave Song- "Roses In The Hospital"
14. Thom Yorke (Radiohead)
Fave Song- "Street Spirit"

There are loads more, but these were off the top of my head.
I think a lot of songriters care about their words these days, it's just that there is more crud being bought up by record companies on the basis of being easily marketable. The record companies seem to prefer to sign tone-deaf people who look good and dance well to those who look normal but write great songs.

Wow..long post. Sorry!
After all that, for a laugh check out this site:
http://www.kissthisguy.com

WOW ! A response !!! Thank you so much Mr. Fool Sir.

Yeah well as the weekend approaches I can see myself drawing up a beautiful list of great lyrics. Let me get back on that one.

BTW : www.lyrics.ch

I know it well! A great site.
It's such a shame that 'THE POWERS THAT BE' closed down the wonderful OLGA site. That was always my favourite site on the web. It was perfect for impromptu drunken jam sessions.

Tell me about it 'cause I don't know about it ?

OLGA was the OnLine Guitar Archive and was a site where people posted up their interpretations of the chords and the lyrics for songs.

By the time it got closed down there were transcriptions of thousands of songs by artists and bands from the '50s thru to the '90s.
Some of the stuff on it was plain wrong, especially lyrically, and someone would have a song in a whole other key to the one it was recorded in, or plain major chords where a A13#7b2 or whatever should have been, but it was majorly useful as a starting point for cracking how to play a particular song.
For example, there were about 30 or so Nick Drake tunes up there which were transcribed by someone who *really* knew their onions. It had details of what strange tuning you needed to play each song, where to put a capo, tablature for arpeggiated tunes like Black Eyed Dog.
The R.E.M. section had at least two entries for every song they'd ever done.

Anyway, OLGA got closed down because the music publishers kicked up a mighty fuss and threatened them with huge lawsuits if they persisted.
As OLGA existed mainly on University-run servers in the US, the Universities pulled the plug on it pretty bloody quickly.
When you consider all the MP3 files out there these days, OLGA was pretty small potatoes on the 'illegal use of copyright front' as it was all just text files.

Although you can still find OLGA mirror sites in certain countries outside of the reach of capitalism, the posts are few and far between nowadays so it isn't being updated to reflect the latest songs.

Sorry, long post...but this was such a great site that I had to explain.

I'll try to find one of these mirror-sites and take a look.

BFN,

TM.

Some really great lyrics(in random order) :

1. Back in New York City - Genesis(from The Lamb)
So you think I'm a though kid
Is that what you heard ?
Well I like to see some action
and it gets into my blood
They call me the trailblazer, Rael electric razor
I'm the pitcher in the chaingang, we don't believe in pain
'Cause we're only as strong as the weakest link in the chain

2. EVERYTHING(and I mean everything) by Loudon Wainwright III upto 1985 and a lot of the stuff after that.
Woke up this morning, didn't feel that bad
Last night was definitely not one of the worst I ever had
Ate a nice dinner, drank a few drinks
Didn't think about you honey no matter what you think
Went up to my motelroom I went straight to bed
Didn't moan, didn't cry and I did not wish I was dead
I'm allright...

3. Time - Pink Floyd
This is superfluous but o.k. :
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day...

4. If I had a rocketlauncher - Bruce Cockburn
Here comes the helicopter, second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered only God can say
If I had a rocketlauncher
I'd make somebody pay...

5. Broken - Tears for Fears
Between the freedom and the need to work it out
I start believing everything will be allright
Broken, we are broken
In my mind's eye
One little boy angers one little man
Funny how...time flies

6. Jungleland - Bruce Springsteen(from Born to Run)
In the tunnels of town
The Rat's own dream guns him down
Shots echo down them hallways in the night
Noone watches when the ambulance pulls away
As the girl shuts out the bedroomlights...

And the absolute best part of that song is the part where it's about himself :

Outside the street's on fire in a real deathwaltz
between what's flesh and what's fantasy
and the poets down here don't write nothing at all
they just stand back and let it all be...


Well O.K. I was going to make it a top ten but I hadn't thought of the excerpts.


Get Me Quotes I haven't heard please...


TM.

Hawkwind lyrics are in a class of their own - Michael Moorcock used to be their lyricist, but they didn't think he was strange enough...

e.g.
SPIRIT OF THE AGE

I would have liked you to be deep frozen too
and waiting still as fresh in your flesh for my return to Earth,
but your father refused to sign the forms to freeze you.
Let's see - you'd be about sixty now,
and long dead by the time that I return to Earth.
My timeheld dreams are full of you as you were,
still underage.

Your android replica's playing up again,
it's no joke.
When she comes she moans another's name.
But that's the spirit of the age.

I am a clone, I am not alone.
Every fibre of my flesh and bone is identical to the others.
Everything I say and do is in the same tone as my test-tube brother's voice,
there is no choice between us
and if you had ever seen us
you'd rejoice in your uniqueness
and consider every weakness
something special of your own.
Being a clone, I have no flaws to identify -
even this doggerel that pours from my pen
has just been written by another twenty thousand telepathic men -
it says "Oh for the wings of any bird,
other than a battery hen".
But that's the spirit of the age.

You might even call this 'Cyberrock' ! Not bad for what was basically a 70-ies band. There's another one like that ; Greenslade.

Yesterday was a friend
the place where the growingpains end
I have a choice but why choose ?
both sides of the coin and I lose
The book of excesses
well I've read and I've practiced
The older I got the younger I acted
I want to go back in life
Silently I weep at matinees, who'll weep for me...

They had incredible artwork on the covers of all three albums.

Oh well, unsung heroes...

Michael Moorcock wrote some great lyrics, but the best stuff was written by Bob Calvert who, incidentally, wrote the lyrics to Spirit of the Age with Dave Brock - Still cool lyrics though.
For Moorcock check out Sonic Attack

These are words to a song called "Monkeyland" by 80's UK band The Chameleons which are rather nice:

I shake my head and shiver
They smile and they stab my back
As they shake my hand
Send out an SOS please
I'm marooned in Monkeyland.

I'm idly staring at the sky
Did anybody hear me cry
A billion stars are a moving sight
To all you out there reading this tonight
It's just a trick of the light

I have to know what is real and what is illusion
Tell me how does it feel beyond this confusion?
Is there anyone there?

Do I dismiss this with a sigh?
And let the answers pass me by?
Is my creator God or a man?
Does someone somewhere care and understand?
It's just a trick of the light.

Is there anyone there?
Life's an optical illusion like other optical illusions
Beware

Hello Wisest,

That is quite good indeed. How 'bout ;

No clouds, a sleepy calm
sunbaked earth is cooled by gentle breeze
and trees with rustling leaves
Only endless days without a care
nothing must be done

Silent as a day can be
Far off sounds of others on their chosen run
As they do all those things
they feel give life some meaning
Even if they're dull

It's time to stop this dreaming
must rejoin the real world
As revealed in orange light
with a smoky atmosphere

The trees and I are shaken by
the same wind but whereas
the trees will lose their withered leaves
I just can't seem to let them loose
And they can't refresh me
those hot winds of the south
I feel like an alien
A stranger in an alien place...

T. Banks
a.k.a. The Banks of Genesis...

I like that TM. Here's one by Australian band The Triffids called The Jerdacuttup Man which the writer wrote after seeing the remains of a guy dug up and exhibited in the London British Museum...

I live under glass in the British museum
I am wrinkled and black, I am ten thousand years
I once lost in business, I once lost in love
I took a hard fall, I couldn't get up

I was frozen out in the lean winter years
When the dollars were few and the faces were mean
I was frozen in business and frozen in love
I took a ten minute nap, man I never woke up

Old and lonely, dirty and cold
I'm a Jerdacuttup man

They stitched up my eyelids so l couldn't see
They sewed up my mouth so very carefuly
They stitched up the wound they had made in my side
They wrapped me up tight and they threw me inside

I tried to object but the words didn't come
Say, "You're making a mistake, boys, you've got the wrong one,
I'm a little out of shape, but I'm too young to go!"
But my throat just seized up and it started to snow

Old and lonely, dirty and cold
l'm a Jerdacuttup man

They soaked me in brine and thy stewed me in juice
Thy took out my eyes and replaced them with glass
And with skin made of leather, and teeth made of dice
I slept in the peat under ten feet of ice

I had no luck in business and no luck in love
I guess I'm a fool, you could say I'm a chump
I'm shrivelled and black and my bandage is torn
But my fingers are cold, won't you please take me home?

Old and lonely, dirty and cold
I am the Jerdacuttup Man

And here's one that's a little less deep by Elvis Costello from his "King of America" album called 'The Big Light', and I think we've all felt like this a few times:

Well I had a little feeling to have a big night
And I woke up feeling small and not so brave and not quite right
I had to face the who am I and where is she and what did I do
But worst of all I had to face the big light

Chorus:
The big light came through my window and it opened up my eyelids
And it snapped them up like roller blinds and told me things that I did
I can't face another day and night of good ideas and complications
And I'm thankful that I didn't open another bottle of inspiration

When the hangover this morning had a personality
And I cast my shattered mind over selected memories
I didn't even touch the light switch so I knew I'd never see
The Haggard face that would be staring back at me

Chorus

Well I had a little feeling to have a big time
And I woke up to alarm bells like a big church chime
I had to face the who am I and who is she and what did I do
But worst of all I had to face the big light

Chorus

Yeah, ouch...my head hurtzzz...

Well Elvis always was a unique guy wasn't he ? As for the Triffids would you believe I have heard of them.? Was a while ago though. Good lyrics that and that reminds me, I don't think I've contributed one of my personal favourites here(lyrically probably my alltime favourite). I'll put up a serious one and a funny one.


Hitting you.

Long ago I hit you, we were in the car
You went crazy in the backseat, it had gone too far
And I pulled the auto over, hit you with all my might
And I knew right away that it was too hard and I'd never make it right
I was aiming for your buttocks but I struck your outer thigh
You had on a bathingsuit and right before our eyes
Suntanned skin turned to crimson where the hand had hit
And my palm stung from hitting you so hard had I hit it

I tried to say I'm sorry and I tried to clean the slate
But with that struck I blew at thee I knew it was too late...

These days thing are awful between me and you
All we do is argue like two people who are through
I blame you, your friends, your school, your mother and MTV
Last night I almost hit you, that blame belongs to me..

Long ago I hit you, we were in the car
You went crazy in the backseat, it had gone too far
And I pulled the auto over, hit you with all my might
I knew right away it was too hard and I'd never make it right.


ON THE OTHER HAND !!!

(And I don't know if I know this one by heart completely )

The Acid Song

I had not taken acid for twelve years
But one night last summer I did
I was adrift in a barroom
acting like a jerk and a kid
I knew we were asking for trouble
Trouble was what we would get
Five of us dropped in the girlsroom
Psychedelicized and sang quintet

Well that bathroom got crowded in no time
Our minds were all blown in one flash
Everyone in there got ugly
We exited out of there fast
Back in the bar we were happy(feeling great, no problem)
Back in the bar we were fine
'Till Johnny turned into a Nazi
And Mary threw up all her whine

Well we had to get out of there
Soon we were out on the streets
The sidewalk began to perspire
We had glass and dogshit on our feet
We went home to Mary's appartment
to listen to the Greatful Dead !
On the way there we lost Johnny
He had opted for Bellevue instead


Spoken word :

Boy I'm really glad we did this...what ?...I know my hair's on fire...i't like incense or something. Your face is melting !? All the colours of the rainbooowwww...Wanna hold some fruit ? Aw come on, hold some fruit...hug that cantilobe..Here look here, Grapes ! There with us you see....Naw, I don't know were the dollar will take us...


VERSE

Well we had to get out of that city
Bobby was bringing me down
Mary was sure she had cancer
I was sure I was James Dean
We went to the lake to go swimming
Lord we were dying for a swim
Mary said water cures cancer
I asked her to please call me Jim...

Yes acid is usually dangerous
The mild manner can quickly turn mean
LSD will surely derange us
Unless you posses Varzedrine
So next time you wanna go out there
And you feel like twistin' your head
Think twice before dropping acid
Hold out for mushrooms instead....



Well.....O.K. just one more then


They got drunk last night
Had a terrible all out fight
She was determined and he saw it his way
He threw a tantrum and she threw an ashtray
They got drunk again last night...

How's this for a fine how do you do ?
He's unfaithful and she's untrue
They're there own masters and they're there own bosses
They reserve the right to employ doublecrosses
How's this for a fine how do you do.?

You would need a chair and a whip
To control their relationship
Once they were lovers and practically best friends
Now he's into bondage and she's into revenge
You would need a chair and a whip...

And if one of them should die
Well I suppose that the other would cry
There would be tears of sorrow and great grief
Or else there would be tears of release and relief
If one of them should die.....


Ofcourse all songs are written and copyrighted by the great Loudon Wainwright III.

Keep 'em comin' Mr. Wisest Sir and were are all the others..?

TM.

Ever checked out Tool? (No, not the kind you find in your garden shed, I'm talking about the band) Quite challenging lyrics, I'd say. Some times macabre, some times razor-sharp, some times not understandable at all. (http://toolshed.down.net)

Not specifically no but your URL is incorrect. Give us the right one plse.....

TM.