Lyrics

[Crocefisso]

I've recently discovered a French singer by the name of Jacques Brel. More than anything else, what I love is the poetry of his lyrics, which in my mind stand head and shoulders above most. This is my favourite of his songs, with English subs.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za_6A0XnMyw

 

To those that perhaps don't see why, I love Brel's lyrics here because: they follow a rhyme-scheme but there is no arbitrary rhyming; they are coherent (more than can be said for most), and there are a lot of poetic images and phrases (for example, the pearls of rain being in reality tears). In another song, Brel uses double entendre to allude constantly to prostitution (not the best to post here).

 

People often say to me that they realise lyrics are often a bit pants but 'don't listen to the music for the lyrics'. In these cases, I wonder why they don't just listen to music without lyrics if they're not listening to the words.

 

I just wondered where other people stand on lyrics, whether they make a difference to their enjoyment of a song, and whether I'm the only one who finds most lyrics utterly devoid of meaning.

[RpgGamer]

related videos:

 

 

 

LOL

[Hedgehog]

I've always like Oceansize's lyrics. They're poetic and elegant, and they fit so well with the mood of the song.

 

Examples:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP0Vpzzr9QQ

 

[spoiler=Lyrics]I can hold you all together

You wont fall

With the troops that we assembled

and the bond we've forged

Though this sketch is getting old now

The cracks don't show

 

Time wont change a thing when I'm gone

Don't grip the wheel too tightly, my son

Everything you need is done

I would've thought we'd won by now

but oh no

 

I have known no other method

So don't presume there's wisdom

When all that I am is time now

and the cold

The fruition in the detail is all that drives me

 

I am not the picture, now I am the frame

 

 

 

[spoiler=Lyrics]left lying but i was still shaking

came out but i was broken, i bask in the sunshine

but i'm tied to the machine, and got stuck in a difficult scene

 

is it all you ever needed, all you could ever want?

 

oh waiter, waiter make that call, i miss a queue what calls her forward

as a secret band plays on i’m pleased as always, pleased

oh danger, danger cause of fall, i never claimed i knew it all

i start to wonder what went wrong and i wonder what i could’ve done

my heart amounts to 50 tonnes and pulls me under, pulls me under

pulls me under, pulls me under

 

(breathe it, breathe it)

pleased as always you’ll bring it far too near

(breathe it, breathe it)

it’s just like this was never meant to be

yeah i can recollect but i’m pleased as always and feel for you my dear

and please just say it, i’m not missing you but all will become clear

who do you run to? and who do you run to?

 

oh i try to find the words to say but i always stumble, always delayed

i’ve lost myself, i’ve lost my way, i’ll pull you under, pull you under

 

(breathe it, breathe it)

pleased as always you’ll bring it far too near

(breathe it, breathe it)

it’s just like this was never meant to be

yeah i can recollect but i’m pleased as always and feel for you my dear

and please just say it, I’m not missing you and all will become clear

and who do you run to?

clear, and who do you run to?

clear, and who do you run to?

 

clear, and who do you run to?

 

[Omar]

Jacques Brel was great, used to listen to him in the car with my dad on the way to/from school.

Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou is probably my favourite singer/lyricist, half because of his performance and half because of the lyrics themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8YANZ0yIDQ

 

Hervé Salters, aka General Elektriks, is clever too.

[hide]Take back the instant when you brushed him off your shirt

You tried to drag him to the trash

You tried to trade him in for cash

Take back the instant when you blew him off your path

With a kiss reading 20 below zero

Tomorrow is a no-go, a no-go

Cold, cold moment when the first doubt shot through your head

A black ink drip running through your veins

Pregnant second dripping through the hour-glass

When the lure of men who would be kings

Made you lose the man who was wearing you ring

He didn’t match your luscious thoughts tonight

You couldn’t look him in the eye

Awkward is the embrace when it’s not tight, not tight

And so the jewel you once both had is left crumpled like a collapsed lung

When all you had to do was hang out in the sun, hang out in the sun

 

Sir, you feel so dignified, your watch is very ornate

But you were just born in the right place

Just born in the right race

You’re climbing Mount Everest now, granting wishes from above

Favors are yours to give, lies are yours to live

Take Back The Instants that lead you to believe

That the earth shakes ‘cuz you’re not happy

That the sun rises ‘cuz you’re not sleepy

You got the loudest parade in town

Clowns, assassins and crooks

You got ladies in see-through gowns

Reading extracts from your books

Beggars are trailing at the back

Waving from the cardboard float

You’re thinking that from up close

Statistics can be such a drag

Your cup is full now, blood is the color of this wine

And it’s dripping from the ceiling, and it’s making the chandeliers ring

And the instant the ballroom overflows

Your thrones turn into your gallows[/hide]

[RpgGamer]

alright alright, I'll post a serious one. La Dispute is in my strong opinion a brilliantly poetic band. Everything I've ever aspired to be as a modern poet can be found in the fundamentals of La Dispute's Wildlife. I'll just link one song, and if you dig it check out the rest. It's truly heart wrenching stuff. Few albums will ever make you feel the same.

 

[hide=Safer in the Forest/Love Song for Poor Michigan]I’ve been watching a slow thaw come around.

I’ve been waiting in the cold and hazy blue.

I’ve been driving alone out to the edge of town.

I’ve been thinking too much of you.

 

Last snowfall left splinters and some winters never end; neither wane nor wear.

And sunshine is like lovers and some summers just pretend; only warm the air.

It’s that I’m tired of the feeling here. It’s too near to death, it’s too jobless year-round.

It’s not the weather in the city or the highway moan.

Not the streets or the buildings, neither wooden nor stone.

Every reason to leave this place behind, why I should be alone,

Are made of flesh and bone.

 

I’ve been thinking of exile.

I’ve been thinking hit the highway and head up North.

I’ve been thinking cross the bridge and don’t turn back.

The only warmth is a warmth alone.

 

He packed up, took 75 northbound to a brand new life and

Waved goodbye to the world in the rearview mirror. Saw it clearer in hindsight,

The shape of its skyline traced in a flame from the windows ablaze,

The people restless and the streetlights glowing like

Many beacons in the sea or like a lantern lit

For the ones still lost out in the dead of the night.

Like lightning striking darkness once, no thunder, no pain.

 

Have you ever watched a slow thaw come around?

Have you waited in the cold and hazy blue?

There’s an airport there out near the edge of town.

I’ve been thinking too much of you.

 

Settled in that still forest like another phantom or another shadow cast by choice.

A noiseless chorus blows through the leaves and trees and brings a peace at last

From a place where the song kept changing just when he was starting to get it.

When he was starting to trust there’d be a day he’d find a way to keep the rust at-bay,

There’d be a day he’d find a hum to help him muffle the past.

Like thunder underwater, he hears it fading and feels no pain at all.

 

To a Boring, Desperate City,

It’s been weeks since I’ve been around you. Has the fear begun to fade away like sunlight when it sinks into the lake? Are they now building up, or breaking down and boarding up the fronts? Has the whole town been foreclosed now? And what happened to those youthful dreams sunk deep in the river weak? Or got tangled up in weeds or else they’re stumbling drunk on Wealthy Street? Or making plans to leave? I need to leave. I can’t marry this place. I won’t bury the past. I just need a change of scenery. I will hold these old streets sweetly in my head like her. And I will praise their bravery always till the end. Let tongues confess the plague of joblessness a temporary illness. Let us wave their flag from there to here then over and again and let us hope for better things though we may not ever get them.

 

We will rise again from ashes one day. Until then, just roll me away.

I need to leave but swear I will carry you in me until the end.

 

So, Tuebor, my home!

 

Your desperate friend,[/hide]