Favourite lyrics

One of my all time favourite lyrics are for the song What Are You Doin' To Me from Greenslade's s/t album. Some of the clever bits:

"You murdered the love that I once had for you
When you put in the boot 'cos the shoe would't do
Well if that's how you feel woman I love you too"

"You led me a dance but my feet didn't see
That it wasn't the vicar that you had to tea
I'm a one woman man but you're faithful to three"

"You left me a nut when I wanted a screw
You left me a crossword with only one clue
I fell out with love babe, when I fell out with you"

The "left me a nut when I wanted a screw" is so clever.

Not to mention 'the poet' Pete Sinfield's lyrics for King Crimson. I also really like his lyrics for the PFM albums Photos Of Ghosts and The World Became The World. Very poetical stuff. However, I didn't like his lyrics at all on ELP's execrable Love Beach: sickly and some really forced rhymes in places.

What are your favourite lyrics?

I enjoy the lyrics in "The Light" by Spock's Beard, "I AM THE CATFISH MAN. I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!"

One of the reasons I'm an early Genesis fan are Gabriel's brilliant lyrics, it's hard to believe a guy so young (on those days of course) could narrate such coherent stories about different topics like mythology (Fountain of Salmacis), politics (The Knife), History (Can-Utility and the Coastliners), religion with poetry (Supper's Ready), biology (The Return of the Giant Hogweed), Sci Fi (Get 'em Out by Friday), etc.

But my favorite lyrics are from “In the Cage”, this song expresses the strongest felling, PANIC, the claustrophobic lyrics combined with the breath talking music and Peter's classic semi yodelling (get me out of this cage!), make the listener feel Rael's desperation as if  he was really trapped in the cage, and the solitude when his brother John turns hid head and leaves him.

The description is absoluutely clear and he chooses the exact words, one of my all time favorites:

There's sunshine in my stomach
Like I just rocked my baby to sleep.
There's sunshine in my stomach
And I can't keep me from creeping sleep,
Sleep, deep in the deep.

Rockface moves to press my skin
White liquids turn sour within
Turn fast-turn sour
Turn sweat-turn sour.
Must tell myself that I'm not here.
I'm drowning in a liquid fear.
Bottled in a strong compression,
My distortion shows obsession
In the cave.
Get me out of this cave!

If I keep my self-control,
I'll be safe in my soul.
And the childhood belief
Brings a moment's relief,
But my cynic soon returns
And the lifeboat burns.
My spirit just never learns.

Stalactites, stalagmites
Shut me in, lock me tight.
Lips are dry, throat is dry.
Feel like burning, stomach churning,
I'm dressed up in a white costume
Padding out leftover room.
Body stretching, feel the wretching
In the cage
Get me out of this cage!

In the glare of a light,
I see a strange kind of sight;
Of cages joined to form a star
Each person can't go very far;
All tied to their things
They are netted by their strings,
Free to flutter in memories of their wasted wings.

Outside the cage I see my Brother John,
He turns his head so slowly round.
I cry out help! before he can be gone,
And he looks at me without a sound.
And I shout 'John please help me!'
But he does not even want to try to speak.
I'm helpless in my violent rage
And a silent tear of blood dribbles down his cheek,
And I watch him turn away and leave the cage.
My little runaway.

In a trap, feel a strap
Holding still. Pinned for kill.
Chances narrow that I'll make it,
In the cushioned straight-jacket.
Just like 22nd Street,
When they got me by my neck and feet.
Pressures building, can't take any more.
My headaches charge. My earaches roar.
In the pain
Get me out of this pain.

If I could change to liquid,
I could fill the cracks up in the rock.
But I know that I am solid
And I am my own bad luck.
But outside John disappears and my cage dissolves,
and without any reason my body revolves.

Keep on turning,
Keep on turning,
Turning around,
spinning around.

Iván

I love the lyrics on Peter Gabriel's 'Modern Love'.They are very witty:

Hey.I'm feeling so dirty,you're looking so clean

All you can give is a spin in your washing machine

I fly off to Rome with my prima bella

She leaves me in the rain with telescopic umbrella

Ooh the pain - Modern love can be a strain

I trusted my Venus was untouched in her shell

But the pearls in her oyster were as tacky as hell

For Lady Godiva I came ingognito

But her driver has stolen her red hot magneto 

Ooh the pain- modern love can be a strain

I don't know why they leave me in the lurch

To carry on the search

It's driving me up the wall

Pity when I have so much passion

Romance is out of fashion

Can't handle modern love at all

So I worship Diana by the light of the moon

When I pull out my pipe she screams out of tune

In Paris my heart sinks when I see the Mona Lisa

She gives me the wink,then she shows me the freezer

Ooh the pain -Modern love can be a strain

Neil Peart is, in my opinion, the greatest lyricist ever. one needs only to read one of his songs to get a sample of his incredible wit. How about the Trees?

There is unrest in the forest,
There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.
The trouble with the maples,
And they're quite convinced they're right;
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade
There is trouble in the forest,
And the creatures all have fled,
As the maples scream "oppression"
And the oakss just shake their heads
So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
"The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light"
Now theres no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

Is that not one of the greatest songs ever?  You could argue all day over what the trees represent. Some say the maples represent Canada, while the oaks represent Britain, and the song describes Canada's falling out with their mother country. Some see it as a metaphor for the difference between the rich and the poor, and the solution many people would like to see adopted: 'clear-cutting'

Aquarius wrote: One of my favourite Rush songs is Losing it.

Is that the song with a violin-like keyboard solo ? If so, this belongs also to my personal favourite Rush songs.

Marillion : Assassing

Listen as the syllables of slaughter cut with calm precision
Patterned frosty phrases rape your ears and sow the ice incision
Adjectives of annihilation
Bury the point beyond redemption
Venomous verbs of ruthless candour
Plagiarise assassins fervour
Apocalyptic alphabet casting spells
The creed of tempered diction

Script For a Jester's Tear

I act the role in classic style
Of a martyr carved with twisted smile
To bleed the lyric for this song
To write the rites to right my wrongs
An epitaph to a broken dream
To exorcise this silent scream
A scream that's born from sorrow

Fish wrote from beyond the heart - from the deepest recesses of his tortured soul. Magnificent lyrics, with a very dark beauty - IMO .

bityear wrote: Peter Gabriel is my fave, and I think he hit his highest point with "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"..a wondrous, beautiful fairytale, full of fantasy but without being as pompous or consciously weird as some other lyricists at the time, like Pete Sinfield. Greg Lake also made great lyrics, I guess "Karn Evil 9" was mainly Sinfield's fault. On the other hand, Dream Theater and Flower Kings have got really BAD lyrics. Overly pompous and self-indulgent lyrics. Flower Kings can probably be excused for not having English as their native language, but Roine Stolt made some awful lyrics in Swedish together with KaiPa as well. He's a hell of a songwriter, though. Yeah.

I agree about Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. 'Carpet Crawlers' is one of my favourites in particular.

Not sure why you don't like Sinfield though.Your use of words such as 'pompous' and 'self indulgent' sounds to me like the sort of lazy criticism that came from punk's apologists.Sinfield has written some excellent lyrics such as those on King Crimson's 'Epitaph' or ELP's 'Pirates'.I can't imagine what your listening to that I'm not hearing.

Also not sure what you're trying to say about Ronnie Stolt.How can he be 'one hell of a songwriter' if his lyrics are so bad.Please give some specific examples to enlighten me.