Best line from a song?

[milod]

Alas, the cerebral take is itself tends to work against some stuff. T.S. Eliot wrote some cutesy poems, but never as a songwriter, for example. Although "The Hollow Men" might make a modern "death metal" sorta piece, I guess.

 

When I was a kid I wrote a Dylanesque sorta thing called Cecil the Sandalman - yupper it sure was the hippie era.

 

Now... I've been working on a cupla rodeo song lyrics and music. Most of what I've messed with has been more along the lines of fingerpickin' instrumental or ... Hmmmm. Come to think of it I did write one a couple of years ago about how one should finger G chords. <grin> Send me your email addy and I'll try to dig an MP3 out that I used to practice against.

 

m

[DanvillRob]

Alas, the cerebral take is itself tends to work against some stuff. T.S. Eliot wrote some cutesy poems, but never as a songwriter, for example. Although "The Hollow Men" might make a modern "death metal" sorta piece, I guess.

 

When I was a kid I wrote a Dylanesque sorta thing called Cecil the Sandalman - yupper it sure was the hippie era.

 

Now... I've been working on a cupla rodeo song lyrics and music. Most of what I've messed with has been more along the lines of fingerpickin' instrumental or ... Hmmmm. Come to think of it I did write one a couple of years ago about how one should finger G chords. <grin> Send me your email addy and I'll try to dig an MP3 out that I used to practice against.

 

m

 

DanvillRob@aol.com

 

I'd LOVE to hear it.

 

I'm sure I could write lyrics, if I put my mind to it....but when I try to write music, it just ends up being a song I know by someone else....

[BT Bob]

In terms of pure imagery, I've always loved the opening of Mr Springsteen's Thunder Road:

 

"The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves.

Like a vision, she dances across the porch as the radio plays

Roy Orbison singing for the lonely.

Hey, that's me, and I want you only."

 

Like a scene from a movie. Brilliant.

[Shnate McDuanus]

The whole song is excellent in terms of the lyrics, but here's just the chorus (because I could probably get banned for posting any other lines from it.)

 

White trash get down on your knees

Time for cake and sodomy

 

That's Marilyn Manson's "Cake and Sodomy."

[SG FAN]

Sometimes the most simple statements say the most, I think Waylon and Willie said it best:

 

" The only two things in life that make it worth livin' is guitars that tune good and firm feelin' women" :)

[cookieman15061]

Cookie...

 

The Vietnam thing may have triggered some rather obvious "stuff" in Anglophone, especially U.S. culture, but the bottom line is that it was the whole generation across the political spectrum that was questioning stuff.

 

In fact, that let to some interesting marketing studies that referred to what we mostly nowadays call "baby boomers" as being the "challenger" generation. Politically to the right or left, it was more of a "show me and prove it" bunch who challenged the authorities of the day.

 

Yeah, politics came into it, but assuming there had been no Vietnam war per se, I think we would have seen music reflect that "challenger" mode every bit as much but just in different ways.

 

The combo environment also played a role in that since it was more improvisational than big band stuff where the sheet music was the "authority."

 

Check out some of the "teen exploitation" movies of the late 1950s and early '60s and you'll see a lot of that perspective. In most, of course, the rebel either goes down the tubes or reforms; in real life, he or she didn't. Look at the "Leader of the Pack" bit of music. Terror of Highway 101. Etc., etc.

 

I also agree that country tends to be more personal. But note too how it also went into a degree of "rebellion" mode in the 50s through the 70s. Again, it may have sounded "politically conservative" from some perspectives, but it was largely still a matter of the individual vs. whatever "machine" was perceived. E.g., "Oakie from Muskogee."

 

m

 

There in lies my point M.

Throughout the history of this nation the most stressful and difficult times has brought some of our most profound and moving music.

I'm just not seeing it today or is this generations spokespersons/ songwriters content with our current situation as a nation.

[DanvillRob]

There in lies my point M.

Throughout the history of this nation the most stressful and difficult times has brought some of our most profound and moving music.

I'm just not seeing it today or is this generations spokespersons/ songwriters content with our current situation as a nation.

 

 

+100

[damian]

Ma, ma ma mow, ma ma ma, ma ma mow, the bird is a word....

[grampa]

We were waist deep in the Big Muddy

But the big fool said to move on.

[bonzoboy]

"We'll hold hands and we'll watch the sun rise from the bottom of the sea." Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendix. That song and Foxy Lady are the epitome of erotic poetry.

[DanvillRob]

Ma, ma ma mow, ma ma ma, ma ma mow, the bird is a word....

 

I actually saw the Rivingtons at a "sock hop" in Bellview, WA.... 1963, I think.

[milod]

In ways I'm not surprised about a lack of topical music today compared to earlier periods.

 

During the depression there was some, but it tended to be on the fringe; Guthrie for example. Meanwhile swing was being created and people listened to the radio and still went to movies. Will Rogers made the comment about America being the only place where people drove to the poorhouse in their cars. It's not so bad today and who's going to write a song about Bernie Madoff except as an exercise in humor?

 

We don't have the semi-popular criminals like Pretty Boy Floyd to write a piece about "some will rob you with a sixgun, some with a fountain pen."

 

The "wars" in the Middle East have at least a generally tacit approval, but not that there aren't any "heroes" or nasty politicians being pointed toward in general culture regardless that I'm sure one might find some. In a sense, at best or worst, it's kinda apolitical.

 

So... music takes the generalist perspective even more strongly today than in the depression with youthful angst and country personal concerns.

 

Where next? I dunno.

 

m

[LPguitarman]

Just about any lyric that Neil Peart ever wrote:

 

"The more that things change, the more they stay the same"... RUSH Circumstances

 

"There's no bread, let 'em eat cake, there's no end to what they'll take"... RUSH Bastille Day (may not be totally original, but used well in the song).

 

Too many more to list or think of at this moment.

 

One of my favorite non-RUSH lyrics, LOL, I do listen to other things beside RUSH:

 

"The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they took the last train for the coast, the day the music died"... American Pie by Don McClain.

[grampa]

In ways I'm not surprised about a lack of topical music today compared to earlier periods.

 

During the depression there was some, but it tended to be on the fringe; Guthrie for example. Meanwhile swing was being created and people listened to the radio and still went to movies. Will Rogers made the comment about America being the only place where people drove to the poorhouse in their cars. It's not so bad today and who's going to write a song about Bernie Madoff except as an exercise in humor?

 

We don't have the semi-popular criminals like Pretty Boy Floyd to write a piece about "some will rob you with a sixgun, some with a fountain pen."

 

The "wars" in the Middle East have at least a generally tacit approval, but not that there aren't any "heroes" or nasty politicians being pointed toward in general culture regardless that I'm sure one might find some. In a sense, at best or worst, it's kinda apolitical.

 

So... music takes the generalist perspective even more strongly today than in the depression with youthful angst and country personal concerns.

 

Where next? I dunno.

 

m

 

There is topical music today in the singer-songwriter Americana genre, Steve Earle and Greg Brown for example. Times are very tough now but we are drugged into a stupor by "popular" culture and are able to ignore the fact. We don't want to hear about the hard times and would prefer to hear about some lurid murder story.

[Daryl M]

There are SO many, too many to choose. I did hear one the other day that caught my ear. I'm not a big Kenny Chesney fan, but I heard him sing a line..."it's always your favorite sins, that do you in.."

 

True enough

[MrNylon]

The Beatles - Abbey Road - The End

 

Then in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love, you make...

Thanks; John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

[jaxson50]

They made love in the mountains, they made love in the streams,

 

They made love in the valleys, they made love in their dreams.

 

But when they were finished there was nothing to say,

 

Cause mostly they made love from ten miles away.

 

Just Sayin'

[charlie brown]

There are so many, but one I've always loved, is:

"Life is what happens to you, while you're busy making other plans" (Beautiful Boy/Darling Boy)

John Lennon

 

CB

[pippy]

Just about any lyric that Neil Peart ever wrote:

 

"The more that things change, the more they stay the same"... RUSH Circumstances

 

I'm not sure how to break the sad news, but "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" wasn't exactly coined by Neil Peart.......unless, of course, he was Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in a previous life (like, 1849).......

 

P.

[damian]

" I know, it's only rock and roll, but I like it. "

[cookieman15061]

There is topical music today in the singer-songwriter Americana genre, Steve Earle and Greg Brown for example. Times are very tough now but we are drugged into a stupor by "popular" culture and are able to ignore the fact. We don't want to hear about the hard times and would prefer to hear about some lurid murder story.

 

 

Or watch Jersey Shore or The Housewives Of Who The Hell Knows Where.till their brains are numb.

 

 

 

[Cthulhu fhtagn]

"Whole Lotta Love" -- Led Zeppelin

 

"I'm gonna give you every inch of my love."

 

[cam011235]

TOOL Lateralus done to a Fibonnaci sequence

 

(1) Black,

(1) then,

(2) white are,

(3) all I see,

(5) in my in·fan·cy,

(8) red and yel·low then came to be,

(5) rea·ching out to me,

(3) lets me see.

(2) There is,

(1) so,

(1) much,

(2) more and

(3) beck·ons me,

(5) to look through to these,

(8) in·fi·nite pos·si·bil·i·ties.

(13) As be·low so a·bove and be·yond I im·ag·ine,

(8) drawn be·yond the lines of rea·son.

(5) Push the en·ve·lope.

(3) Watch it bend.

[DanvillRob]

TOOL Lateralus done to a Fibonnaci sequence

 

(1) Black,

(1) then,

(2) white are,

(3) all I see,

(5) in my in·fan·cy,

(8) red and yel·low then came to be,

(5) rea·ching out to me,

(3) lets me see.

(2) There is,

(1) so,

(1) much,

(2) more and

(3) beck·ons me,

(5) to look through to these,

(8) in·fi·nite pos·si·bil·i·ties.

(13) As be·low so a·bove and be·yond I im·ag·ine,

(8) drawn be·yond the lines of rea·son.

(5) Push the en·ve·lope.

(3) Watch it bend.

 

 

I have NO IDEA what any of that means!

[Shnate McDuanus]

Can't believe nobody's hit this one yet:

If you smile at me, I will understand

'Cause that is something everybody everywhere does

in the same language.

 

"Wooden Ships"