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Best and Worst prog lyrics
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Rush (both from the song territories with the last one from the Manhatten project):

Best: "A whole wide world an endless universe yet we keep looking through the eye glass in reverse. Don't feed the people but we feed the machines. Can't really say what international means.

Worst (and from the same song): "Better people better food better beer."

Also from same album:  "All the brightest boys to play with the biggest toys."


Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - September 17 2023 at 18:08
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cstack3 View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Psychedelic Paul Psychedelic Paul wrote:

The best and the worst lyrics all in one song....

ELP - Still You Turn Me On

Every day a little sadder
A little madder
Someone get me a ladder 

Yeah, that one always struck me as pretty damn bad!!  LOL

He could have used "puff adder" (One of the most widespread venomous snakes, puff adders are native to Africa and parts of the Saudi Arabian peninsula),  "bladder,"  "fatter" (certainly applied to Greg Lake) and so forth.  Those all would have been better than "ladder." 
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JD View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

Why do so many prog-critics complain about lyrics regarding "Fairies," "Elves" etc.??

I'm hard-pressed to think of any prog music with those lyrics! 
Neal Morse sings about his imaginary friend a lot. Similar to fairies and elves to me.   
LOLLOL   Classic, Richard Dawkins would be proud of you for that one !

Edited by JD - September 17 2023 at 16:13
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Psychedelic Paul View Drop Down
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The best and the worst lyrics all in one song....

ELP - Still You Turn Me On

Every day a little sadder
A little madder
Someone get me a ladder 
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Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

Why do so many prog-critics complain about lyrics regarding "Fairies," "Elves" etc.??

I'm hard-pressed to think of any prog music with those lyrics! 
Neal Morse sings about his imaginary friend a lot. Similar to fairies and elves to me.   


Comparing Neal Morse's friend to fairies and elves is like comparing homepathy to magic. :)

Anyway, if you want some real prog fantasty shіt there's always Three Magicians Suite Part 1 by Banzai.


Edited by Hrychu - September 17 2023 at 15:19
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Grumpyprogfan View Drop Down
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Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

Why do so many prog-critics complain about lyrics regarding "Fairies," "Elves" etc.??

I'm hard-pressed to think of any prog music with those lyrics! 
Neal Morse sings about his imaginary friend a lot. Similar to fairies and elves to me.   
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Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

Why do so many prog-critics complain about lyrics regarding "Fairies," "Elves" etc.??

I'm hard-pressed to think of any prog music with those lyrics! 


Because nothing screams Prog as much as Blind Guardian.

Prog, and I think Prog fans, have often been very associated with the fantasy genre generally by people. So you have things like Uriah Heep's Demons and Wizards, Hawkwind music, numerous references to Lord of The Rings (Camel with Nimrodel..., Rush with Rivendell...).

I heard someone once ask something like, "As you like Prog, does that men you are also into Dungeons & Dragons?" I think it's broad fantasy stereotype associated with Prog, and with kinds of heavy rock and power metal.... And I think the cape and costumes add to that fantasy image.

Edited by Logan - September 17 2023 at 11:38
"Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself" (The Prisoner, 1967).
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Why do so many prog-critics complain about lyrics regarding "Fairies," "Elves" etc.??

I'm hard-pressed to think of any prog music with those lyrics! 
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Originally posted by wiz_d_kidd wiz_d_kidd wrote:


LOL
this one never gets old LOL
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"Instrumental music is an expression that words can never capture." -- Peter Baumann
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^Nothing Oasis did is worse than 'slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball, where were you while we were getting high?"
The Wheel of Time Turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the shadow.

Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time...
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Oasis
Best:
  • Cast No Shadow
  • Gas Panic
Worst:
  • Little James
  • Stop Crying Your Heart Out (the music is kickass but the lyrics are too vanilla and repetitive)
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Originally posted by Frets N Worries Frets N Worries wrote:

^Lyrics aren't that bad, better than something I'd write

Thanks!  I'd LOVE to put stuff online, but it is all on cassette tapes, and I have to have them digitized etc. 

I play bass with Squire's technique, play Fripp-like fuzz tone guitar leads, and have a whiny, nasal Eno-esque voice!  It has made for hilarious music with my friends over the years!  Watch this space....
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Originally posted by JD JD wrote:


ELP Worst
Go down gently
With your face to the east
The sun may be rising
But we haven't finished the feast

I'm gonna love you
Like nobody ever loved you
Climb on my rocket
And we'll fly
Sick
Ok, we get it Greg, you're getting laid.


oh yeah, horrid, I hope the "taste of my love" does have the meaning many think it has. 
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JD View Drop Down
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I'll start with these...

ELP Best
Cold and misty morning, I heard a warning borne in the air
About an age of power where no one had an hour to spare,
Where the seeds have withered, silent children shivered, in the cold
Now their faces captured in the lenses of the jackals for gold.
Thumbs Up
Beautifully poetic

ELP Worst
Go down gently
With your face to the east
The sun may be rising
But we haven't finished the feast

I'm gonna love you
Like nobody ever loved you
Climb on my rocket
And we'll fly
Sick
Ok, we get it Greg, you're getting laid.



Edited by JD - September 16 2023 at 21:11
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Frets N Worries View Drop Down
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^Lyrics aren't that bad, better than something I'd write
The Wheel of Time Turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the shadow.

Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time...
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cstack3 View Drop Down
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Worst?  My own, hands down. 

From my non-hit, "Romanian Fluids"....

The Black Sea washes the broken shore
And the barrier shapes all around....
I cast my eyes on a blackened moon
That the shoreline police haven't found....
The air is so cold in the presence of these
Uncountable fluids I see.....
Their story relayed is retold in the waves
And the burden is now placed on me.....

(backstory - I visited Romania in 1979, when it was Communist and under the rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu.) 
The country was overrun with intimidating military police, carrying AK-47s.  It was a very interesting trip.  I did hear "Awaken" on Romania radio!


Edited by cstack3 - September 16 2023 at 18:45
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richardh View Drop Down
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ELP Best
The Endless Enigma Pt1
From The Beginning
The Sheriff (their only humourous track that ever worked)
Trilogy
Pirates
Memoirs Of An Officer and a Gentleman Pt1
The Sage

ELP Worst
A Taste Of My Love
Daddy
Still You Turn Me On
Jeremy Bender
Tiger In A Spotlight
Benny The Bouncer
Lucky Man (might be controversial but its always struck me as a bit silly lyric wise ''He had white horses and ladies by the score'' Lake was no budding Bob Dillon for sure although I do love his work on Trilogy. After that Pete Sinfield got involved and Lake often didn't write the lyrics)
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Here is my corrected my initial post. I need to pay more attention.

Rush
Subdivisions - great lyrics

"Growing up, it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass-production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone"

I Think I'm Going Bald - not so great lyrics

"I looked in the mirror today
My eyes just didn't seem so bright
I've lost a few more hairs
I think I'm going bald"

Edited by Grumpyprogfan - September 17 2023 at 07:17
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Originally posted by Frets N Worries Frets N Worries wrote:

^I do love that line, and you're how I found it
 
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I'm not sure what my favourite Peter Hammill / VdGG lyric is. There are so many great ones to choose from. The one you quote is from a song that speaks to me personally, especially when I was younger. Plus it has an awesome ending.
 
No, I know how to behave in the restaurant now, I don't tear at the meat with my hands. If I've become a man of the world somehow, that's not necessarily to say I'm a worldly man.
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