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

Right, well here's the start of the first thread of lyrics. For my own safetly and health, could you please refrain from adding daft, non-lyric connected things - in other words, let each post have a lyric.

So, give me the lyric, the song it's from, the artist(s) and why you love it so. I've put a few of my own to start you off.

Madness - The Communicator

Yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is a mystery,
Today us a gift,
That's why we call it the present.

It does you good to remember this from time-to-time. What's done is done, what's to come will come and enjoying today is the most important thing to do. I wake up to see this plastered in large letters across my wall every morning.

David Bowie - Changes

And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds,
Are immune to your consultations,
They're quite aware what they're going through.

Now here's someone who really does believe that children are our hope for the future. Try and live up to that, eh?

The Divine Comedy - Sunrise

Who cares where national borders lie,
Who cares whose laws you're governed by,
Who cares what name you call a town,
Who cares when you're six feet beneath the ground.

Now, if this doesn't define the whole underlying ridiculousness of war and pain and misery, I don't know what does.

Metallica - No leaf Clover

And so it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel,
it just a freight train coming your way...

Not very good English, not very well put, but a nice point. I'm sure LodeStone will argue that it's Terry Pratchett plagarism but that's not the point, we're here for songs, not books, and that is a good example of a well know thought, in a song lyric...
Lovely!

Pardon Me - Incubus

A decade ago,
I never thought that I'd be,
A twenty-three, on the verge,
of spontaneous combustion,
woe is me.

Maybe this highlights how little we know about our personal future or how the world will change, and when looking back realising how lucky it is almost that you have survived, or maybe it's jist rather cool!

Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen

Thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good, so I never tried

Just gives me goosebumps!!

In reply to the Metallica lyric, there's a lyric by Fish which I prefer but is similar:

The light at the end of the tunnel is just a wrecker's fire.

Nick Cave - (Are You) The Obe That I've Been Waiting For

And we will know, won't we? The stars will explode in the sky
But they don't do they? Stars have their moment and then they die.


I could go on but I don't want to clog up the thread too much...

Chig.

And another one by Nick Cave, from the same album:

If I could relive one day of my life,
If I could relive just a single one
You on the balcony, my future wife
Oh, who could have known but noone

It's lines like these that make Nick Cave such a brilliant songwriter. The Song (Who could have known but noone) is full of sorrow over a relationship gone bad, but all you hear are just inuendoes, indicating that the singer still doesn't know. This lack of certainty is compensated by the sad mood of the song. It just gives me the creeps...

Yelbakk

Bruce Springsteen - The River

[...] Now all them things that seemed so important,
Well, they vanished right into the air
I just act like I don't remember,
And Mary acts like she don't care.
But I remember us riding in my brother's car
Her body tan and wet
Down by the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
They haunt me like a curse.
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
That sends me down to the River
Thogh I know the river is dry [...]

Again, it's the feeling of loss, or worse still, of losing that I love abou this song.

Yelbakk

Speaking of sorrow - I always liked the following from Script for A Jester's Tear by Marillion about lost love. (Although it's a bit dated now...)

I never did write that love song, The words just never seemed to flow.
Now sad in reflection did I gaze through perfection
And examine the shadows on the other side of morning
And examine the shadows on the other side of mourning
Promised wedding now a wake.

Alphaville - Lassy Come Home

[...] Lonely girl, dancing in the music hall,
A lightning struck her silver starship
And turned it into stone
And now it's falling all the time
Into the void beyond her grey eyes
Somewhere a telephone is ringing
But nobody is at home:
Hello Junky, Sweetheart,
Listen now, this is your captain calling:
Your captain is dead.
Keep on riding, sir.
Openup the door and shout it out:
Lassy Come Home

Alphaville was an Austrian band from the 80's. Lassy Come Home has a beautiful melody, a slow ballad. The lines quoted above are the climax of the song. The lyrics are full of allusions, but you can never really get a grip on what the song actually is about. And while you are wondering, your thoughts go off into their own direction and you never know where they might end up...
I love that.

On a side note: I really like this idea of collecting lines from songs, poems, etc.
Yelbakk

Meat Loaf - That's When Rock'n' Roll Dreams Come True

You can't run away forever
But there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start

Maybe he sang "full head start", I haven't heard the song in a long time, my memory might fail me. Anyway, a nice description how to deal with things, don't you think?

Besides, song titles are also quite interesting: In "Unchained Melody", you never hear the words unchained and melody; in MC Hammer's "Pray" the word pray is used over a hundred times. Blur has "Song 13", which is not the 13th track on the album; German Punk Rock Band "DIE ÄRZTE" (The Doctors) have a song called "N48.3" which is a code used by doctors to encode diseases: N48.3 means Priapism. Look it up in you dictionary... Meat Loaf, on the other hand, likes to have very explicit song titles: "Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are"...

Yelbakk

Queen - The Show Must Go On

Empty Spaces, what are we living for?
Abandoned Spaces, I Guess we know the score
On and On, Does anybody know what we are looking for?

Another Hero, Another Mindless Crime,
Behind the curtain, In the pantomime
Hold the line, Does anybody want to take it anymore?

Show Must Go On
Show Must Go On
Inside My Heart is breaking
My Make-up may be faking but my smile....
Still stays on

I Love this song. It's moving in a way!

aka

Nirvana - Drain You

One baby to another said
I'm lucky to have met you
I don't care what you think
Unless it is about me
It is now my duty to completely drain you
A travel through a tube
And end up in your infection
Chew your meat for you
Pass it back and forth in a passionate kiss
From my mouth to yours because I like you
Wish eyes so dilated,
I've become your pupil
You've taught me everything
Without a poison apple
The water is so yellow, I'm a healthy student
Indebted and so grateful -
Vacuum out the fluids
Sloppy lips to lips
You're my vitains because I'm like you

Dunno why, but this song really gets me going mental! It's got such a great tune, and I've heard it a lot lately because of friends who're always listening to it. It reminds me of a lot of good nights out!

I Don't know why the reply to my message was moderated, but i have an idea what the replier said, though i'm not going to say in case i'm wrong... Was the next reply a song with swearing in it? I Mean, they do ask for self-moderation if you feel the need to swear, you know!!

aka

Indeed they ask for self-moderation, but what if the song IS "explicit" and we would just be quoting?
Like, remember the little dialogue at the beginning of CopKiller by Ice-T, or whoever it was? Nice lines full of F-words and a sudden eruption of gunfire. Mind you, I don't like that song, but what if I did and wanted to post it here...?

Ohmigod, I sound like a Zaphodista...

Yelbakk

exactly. what if?

I HAVE to post another Queen Song, i'm sorry!:
I'm Going Slightly Mad
#..When the outside temperature rises
and the meaning is oh so clear
One Thousand and one yellow daffodils
begin to dance to dance in front of you, oh yeah

Are they tryin' to tell you somethin'?
You're missin' that one final screw
You're simply not in the pink, my dear,
to be honest you haven't got a clue..

CHORUS)-> I'm Going Slightly Mad
I'm Going Slightly Mad
It finally happened
It finally happened
It finally happened; I'm slightly mad..#

aka