Anxiety said:

What's yer fave Thin White Lyric?

I can't believe that nobody has mentioned Joni Mitchelle yet?



She is the full package, amazing lyrics that combine astonishing imagery and confessional content combined with a great ear for chord changes, and that VOICE, WOW! Dylan may have won the Pulitzer but Joni wins hearts...

Other mentions,

The O'Jays,


Curtis Mayfield,

Carefully looking back over the thread I see that a few people have mentioned Joni, all the same she deserves a picture!

[Edited 5/7/08 2:25am]
[Edited 5/7/08 2:26am]
[Edited 5/7/08 2:27am]

Ryan Adams, probably one of the most prolific, smartest lyricists of our time:



and another one:

Mark Oliver Everett ('E') from eels:

abierman said:

I like this one:

Now, I've been a desperate man
And I been sheltered by a lonely dream
But there's a stranger here
Looking back above the bathroom sink
And every night I throw you out
Leave you stranded on the boulevard
You know that I use you up
I used you like I used 'em all

Well the band's singing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You're all gone
Yeah, you're all gone

If I could have a simple love
How would it feel and what would it mean?
I'd only trade you away
For Mary Magdalene
Oh, it wouldn't make me insane
Yeah, and it wouldn't make me the king
Then I wouldn't have to wait
Wait around for the real thing

Well the band's singing hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You're all gone
Yeah, you're all gone

Hallelujah
You're all gone

Rococomojo said:

One of my fave Joni's:



I pulled up behind a Cadillac
We were waiting for the light
And I took a look at his license plate
It said "JUST ICE"
Is justice just ice?
Governed by greed and lust?
Just the strong doing what they can
And the weak suffering what they must?

And the gas leaks
And the oil spills
And sex sells everything
And sex kills
Sex kills

Doctors' pills give you brand new ills
And the bills bury you like an avalanche
And lawyers haven't been this popular
Since Robespierre slaughtered half of France
And Indian chiefs with their old beliefs know
The balance is undone, crazy ions
You can feel it out in traffic
Everyone hates everyone

And the gas leaks
And the oil spills
And sex sells everything
And sex kills
Sex kills

All these jackoffs at the office
The rapist in the pool
Oh and the tragedies in the nurseries
Little kids packin' guns to school
The ulcerated ozone
These tumors of the skin
This hostile sun beating down on
This massive mess we're in

And the gas leaks
And the oil spills
And sex sells everything
And sex kills
Sex kills
Sex kills
Sex kills
Sex kills

Ace said:

World War 24


Porcelain doll
Your mother runs an antique shop
She takes some stuff, I take a lot
We sleep all day
Slow response
I'm feelin' like an afterthought
I guess I'm kinda lost in space
And London's okay
She don't even ask what time it is anymore
Dressed up like its World War 24

Sugar sweet
She loves it when it hits her teeth
The river hides the carousel
In London, oh well
Coma comes
Like bullets from a candy gun
Delivers us into the sun
Of London, my love
She don't even ask what time it is anymore
Dressed up like its World War 24

And if we get too high
We'll burn this town
We'll burn this town
We'll burn this town
Oh, baby, bring me down
Oh, baby, bring me down
Oh, baby, bring me down
Oh, baby, bring me down
I'm all yours
I'm all yours
I'm all yours

Rococomojo said:

"The Circle Game" by Joni- wise and wonderful

Steve Winwood

BlaqueKnight said:

The lyrics to Love & Hapiness says it all right there. Case Closed.

Kate Bush- Moments of Pleasure

Sade- Pearls

Fragile

If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrow's rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime's argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
How fragile we are how fragile we are



Love Is The 7th Wave
In the empire of the senses
You're the queen of all you survey
All the cities all the nations
Everything that falls your way
There is a deeper wave than this
That you don't understand
There is a deeper wave than this
Tugging at your hand

Every ripple on the ocean
Every leaf on every tree
Every sand dune in the desert
Every power we never see
There is a deeper wave than this
Swelling in the world
There is a deeper wave than this
Listen to me girl

Feel it rising in the cities
Feel it sweeping over land
Over borders, over frontiers
Nothing will its power withstand
There is no deeper wave than this
Rising in the world
There is no deeper wave than this
Listen to me girl

All the bloodshed, all the anger
All the weapons, all the greed
All the armies, all the missiles
All the symbols of our fear
There is a deeper wave than this
Rising in the world
There is a deeper wave than this
Listen to me girl

At the still point of destruction
At the centre of the fury
All the angels, all the devils
All around us can't you see
There is a deeper wave than this
Rising in the land
There is a deeper wave than this
Nothing will withstand

I say love is the seventh wave

A Woman's Gotta Have It
Fella's I wonder would you mind if I talked to ya for a minute. You know, sometimes we have the tendency, or should I say we forget, what a woman needs every now and then. That is if you wanna keep your thing together. Listen to me now)

Do the things that keeps the smile on her face
Say the things that make her feel better everyday.
Then you got to stay on your p's and q's. If you don't, the woman you can easily lose.

Whoa oa oa I, Oh I had a love and I lost her, and no one can help me share the pain that she caused me. Ohhh, a woman's gotta have it, I believe, she's gotta know that she's needed around. When you kiss her, you gotta make her feel it, everytime boy, she wants to know that she's not walkin' on shakey ground. Ohhhh, yeah. Well, think it over. Think it over my brother. Don't take for granted the smile on her face. Check a little bit closer, you might find a tear trace. Maybe the girl might never say another word, but you gotta make sure that her voice is heard.

Whoa Ohhh Ohhh I, had a love, a true love and I lost it, I'm suffering all this pain that that love caused me. A woman gotta have it, you got to give it to her, she's got to know that she's needed around, when you kiss her, you gotta make her feel it, she wanna know that she's not walkin' on shakey ground. Yeah.

So if you've got a love, and you wanna keep her, you got to give her what she wants when she wants it, where she wants it, and how she wants it. Every doggone time she feels she needs it. What I'm tryin' to say, a woman gotta have it. hey, hey, hey, a woman gotta have it. Fade

Bobby Blue Bland

Joni Mitchell


Paprika Plains
It fell from midnight skies
It drummed on the galvanized
In the washroom, women tracked the rain
Up to the make-up mirror
Liquid soap and grass
And Jungle Gardenia crash
On Pine-Sol and beer ...
It's stifling in here ...
I've got to get some air ...
I'm going outside to get some air

Back in my hometown
They would have cleared the floor
Just to watch the rain come down!
They're such sky oriented people--
Geared to changing weather ...
I'm floating off in time
I'm floating off
I'm floating off in time

When I was three feet tall
And wide eyed open to it all
With their tasseled teams they came
To McGee's General Store
All in their beaded leathers
I would tie on colored feathers
And I'd beat the drum like war ...
I would beat the drum like war
I'd beat the drum
I'd beat the drum like war

But when the church got through
They traded their beads for bottles
Smashed--on Railway Avenue
And they cut off their braids
And lost some link with nature
I'm floating into dreams
I'm floating off
I'm floating into my dreams

I dream paprika plains
Vast and bleak and God forsaken
Paprika plains
And a turquoise river snaking

(Where crows gaze--vigilant on wires
Where cattle graze the grasses
Far from the digits of business hours
The moon clock wanes and waxes--
But here all time is stripped away
Nowhere on these plains
Is a sprout or an egg in evidence
To measure loss or gain ...
Only a little Indian band
Come down from some windy mesa
No women to make them food and child
No expressions on their faces
I'm low in a helicopter
And the wind from whirling blades
Flaps their woven blankets
And flags their raven braids
How came they to this emptiness?
How came they to this dream?
How came I to this view
From a flying machine
Of earth and air and water
And a band of Indian men
Without herds or flocks or crops
Or families or fires to tend?
Like a phoenix up from ashes now
A blanket figure springs
With a fist raised up to turquoise skies
Like liberty
And at the point of vanishing
Where the sky and the earth meet
A bomb blooms
Deadly mushroom
White
Gold
Heat
Like a phoenix up from ashes
Up from violent mysteries
And growing 'till the giant blast
Is to it like a golfer's tee
there comes a child's beach ball
And memory takes me back
to the beach to toss it up
to the garage to get it patched
A pink and yellow beach ball
Rolling
Grand
Detached
Turning the blues and greens of earth
From space probe photographs
I float out of the hovercraft
Naked as infancy
And weightless
And drifting
Horizontally
Like a filing to a magnet
Like the long descent of rain
I am drawn
I fall against the ball
And lose paprika plains
I suckle at my mother's breast
I embrace my mother earth
I remember perforated blinds
Over the crib of my birth
And just as Eve succumbed
To reckless curiosity
I take my sharpest fingernail
And slash the globe to see
Below me--
Vast Paprika plains
And the snake the river traces
And a little band of Indian men
With no expressions on their faces.)

The rain retreats
Like troops to fall on other fields and streets
Meanwhile they're sweet talking and name calling
And brawling on the fringes of the floor
I spot you through the smoke
With your eyes on fire
From J&B and coke
As I'm coming through the door
I'm coming back
I'm coming back for more!
The band plugs in again
You see that mirrored ball begin to sputter lights
And spin
Dizzy on the dancers
Geared to changing rhythms
No matter what you do
I'm floating back
I'm floating back to you!

Dirty Laundry
I make my living off the evening news
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry

Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I dont have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry

Kick em when theyre up
Kick em when theyre down
Kick em when theyre up
Kick em when theyre down
Kick em when theyre up
Kick em when theyre down
Kick em when theyre up
Kick em all around

We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
Comes on at five
She can tell you bout the plane crash with a gleam
In her eye
Its interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry

Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a
Running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry

You dont really need to find out whats going on
You dont really want to know just how far its gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry

Kick em when theyre up
Kick em when theyre down
Kick em when theyre up
Kick em when theyre down

Kick em when theyre up
Kick em when theyre down
Kick em when theyre stiff
Kick em all around

Dirty little secrets
Dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybodys pie
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry

We can do the innuendo
We can dance and sing
When its said and done we havent told you a thing
We all know that crap is king
Give us dirty laundry!

MsLegs said:

I prefer:

A lot of things have happened
Since the last time we spoke
Some of them are funny
Some of 'em ain't no joke
And I trust you will forgive me
If I lay it on the line
I always thought you were a friend of mine

Sometimes I think about you
I wonder how you're doing now
And what you're going through

The last time I saw you
We were playing with fire
We were loaded with passion
And a burning desire
For every breath, for every day of living
And this is my Thanksgiving

Now the trouble with you and me, my friend
Is the trouble with this nation
Too many blessings, too little appreciation
And I know that kind of notion—well, it just ain't cool
So send me back to Sunday school
Because I'm tired of waiting for reason to arrive
It's too long we've been living
These unexamined lives

I've got great expectations
I've got family and friends
I've got satisfying work
I've got a back that bends
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving

Have you noticed that an angry man
Can only get so far
Until he reconciles the way he thinks things ought to be
With the way things are

Here in this fragmented world, I still believe
In learning how to give love, and how to receive it
And I would not be among those who abuse this privilege
Sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge

And I don't mind saying that I still love it all
I wallowed in the springtime
Now I'm welcoming the fall
For every moment of joy
Every hour of fear
For every winding road that brought me here
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving

For everyone who helped me start
And for everything that broke my heart
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving

You Joni fans do her no favours by quoting her most longwinded and obscure lyrics. I think her two most astute lyrics were "The Circle Game" and "Woodstock". Here is the latter of those two. The "Yasgur" referred to here is Max Yasgur, the owner of the land on which that famous hippy festival was held. Joni perfectly encapsulates the spirit of that era in this song, but also the feeling many still have, that all our technology has cut us off from nature and our true selves.

Woodstock

I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
I asked him, "Where are you going?"
And this he told me

He said "I'm going down to Yasgur's farm,
I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band.
I'm gonna camp out on the land
And try and get my soul free.

We are stardust, we are golden,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden."

"Then can I walk beside you?
I've come here to lose the smog,
And I feel like I'm a cog in something turning

Well, maybe it's just the time of year,
Or maybe it's the time of man.
I don't know who I am,
But life is for learning."

We are stardust, we are golden,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration.

And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky,
They were turning into butterflies
Above our nation.

We are stardust, we are golden,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

We are stardust,we are billion year old carbon,
we are golden
We just got caught up in some devil's bargain
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

To some semblance of a garden

midnightmover said:

Uh, no.

Wouldn't you say Woodstock is a hippy-dippy tribute to a utopia that never existed and could never exist? And, funnily enough, Joan didn't even attend.

As for The Circle Game, surely you're not telling me you feel this twentysomething-penned treacle is better work than something like Sex Kills?

MsLegs said:

Now there's one of my main men right there. That's what you get with a lot of blues lyrics; the wisdom of true experience - often hard-won triumph over adversity, and never losing your sense of humour.

For easily available examples from this artist, just check out some of the songs on Hooker's 'The Healer' album, including the title.

Like many bluesmen of his generation, John couldn't read or write, but he used his memory and drew on the wisdom of a semi-oral culture combined with his own experiences, to create his unique blues vision.

Blues lyrics deep down are often about the very nature of existence itself, and how you can relate or not relate to the world you find yourself in, good, bad or indifferent.

So plenty of pearls of wisdom there, all put to one of the funkiest beats ever invented.

I'm heading down to Hooker Central for some more life lessons right now.

Miles said:

You're dead on it with your decription of Hooker's sense of rhythm. Afterall, this is the man that created Boogie Chillum.

Bob Marley


[/img]http://www.top-10.us/Bob-Marley.jpg[img]

[/img]http://www.tafaristudiohome.cwc.net/Bob%20Marley.jpg[img]

Redemption song:
Old pirates, yes, they rob i;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took i
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the and of the almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? ooh!
Some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.

Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
---
/guitar break/
---
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.
Wont you help to sing
Dese songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever had:
Redemption songs -
All I ever had:
Redemption songs:
These songs of freedom,
Songs of freedom


No woman no cry
No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry.

Said - said - said: I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in trenchtown,
Oba - obaserving the ypocrites
As they would mingle with the good people we meet.
Good friends we have, oh, good friends weve lost
Along the way.
In this great future, you cant forget your past;
So dry your tears, I seh.

No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry.
ere, little darlin, dont shed no tears:
No, woman, no cry.

Said - said - said: I remember when-a we used to sit
In the government yard in trenchtown.
And then georgie would make the fire lights,
As it was logwood burnin through the nights.
Then we would cook cornmeal porridge,
Of which Ill share with you;
My feet is my only carriage,
So Ive got to push on through.
But while Im gone, I mean:
Everythings gonna be all right!
Everythings gonna be all right!
Everythings gonna be all right!
Everythings gonna be all right!
I said, everythings gonna be all right-a!
Everythings gonna be all right!
Everythings gonna be all right, now!
Everythings gonna be all right!

So, woman, no cry;
No - no, woman - woman, no cry.
Woman, little sister, dont shed no tears;
No, woman, no cry.

I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in trenchtown.
And then georgie would make the fire lights,
As it was logwood burnin through the nights.
Then we would cook cornmeal porridge,
Of which Ill share with you;
My feet is my only carriage,
So Ive got to push on through.
But while Im gone:

No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry.
Woman, little darlin, say dont shed no tears;
No, woman, no cry.

Eh! (little darlin, dont shed no tears!
No, woman, no cry.
Little sister, dont shed no tears!
No, woman, no cry.)

COMPUTERBLUE1984 said:

Late Great Peter Tosh


I AM THAT I AM

I AM THAT I AM
I'm not in this world
To live up to your expectations
Neither are you here to live up to mine, yeah

I don't owe no one
No obligation
No I don't mean none
So everything is fine, fine

CHORUS
I said I am that I am
I am I am Iam
(4x)

Don't underestimate
My ability
Don't definate my character
Don't belittle
My authority
It is time you recognized my quality

CHORUS

Learn to love
To love your brother
Don't covet your neighbor

Flee from the city
It's getting shitty
It is full of out-a-quity(Inequity)

CHORUS

I am the rock of the ages
You cannot move I at all
I am the son of lightining
You cannot move I at all
Son of Jacob
Cannot move me at all
I am the son of Moses
You can't move I at all
I am the son of David
You cannot move I at all

I am a firm ripe diamond
You cannot move I at all
You could a shed more tears
You cannot move I at all

You could a full of evil
You cannot move I at all
You could a try more nuttin'
You cannot move I at all

And you can try make a something
That can't move I at all
And could a come with ism
You can't move I at all

And could come with skism
That can't move I at all

I would have to agree with some orgers and put Bowie in this category. He is a rarity among his peers. He has/had high brow aspirations (theatre, literature, film, the occult) that seeped its way into his music on a routine basis. Some people think it may be pretentious, but the lyrics are always fascinating *especially the 1970's era)



The Man Who Sold The World:

We passed upon the stair, we spoke of was and when
Although I wasnt there, he said I was his friend
Which came as some surprise I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone, a long long time ago

Oh no, not me
I never lost control
Youre face to face
With the man who sold the world

I laughed and shook his hand, and made my way back home
I searched for form and land, for years and years I roamed
I gazed a gazely stare at all the millions here
We must have died along, a long long time ago

Who knows? not me
We never lost control
Youre face to face
With the man who sold the world

Who knows? not me
We never lost control
Youre face to face
With the man who sold the world

Ace said:

You don't have to sign up to the whole hippy manifesto in order to appreciate "Woodstock". The idea that we all come from the earth and that we've gradually lost touch with that is far from hippy nonsense. The longing to return to some primal essence may be vague, but it runs deep in the human psyche. Religion is largely about the same thing, whether people realize it or not. What's great about "Woodstock" is how concisely and poetically Joni summed up that longing which united the Woodstock generation, but which has always been there, bubbling under the surface of our daily lives.

As for "The Circle Game", yes, I'm telling you it's far better than "Sex Kills", both as a song and as a lyric by itself. If we're talking about "wiseness" then maybe it doesn't belong here, but I mention it because like "Woodstock" it's a flawless summation of a universal theme. In this case, the simple passage of time. With this song it's the way she says it rather than just what she's saying. The carousel metaphor is just perfect. "We're captive on the carousel of time/ We can't return, we can only look/ Behind from where we came/ And go round and round and round in the circle game". Man, that's the whole story right there. The earth turns, the planets revolve around each other and we're just stuck on the carousel, going round and round. She nailed it. That's great writing.
[Edited 5/17/08 6:34am]

L'Trimm are deep thinkers.

"we're Tigra and bunny and we like the boom."

I just think these are beautiful words.

The Circle Game

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, "When you're older", must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town
And they tell him,
"Take your time, it won't be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down"

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

Ace said:

Oh, I just realized why you took offense. You thought I was criticizing your quoting "Sex Kills". Nah, I was thinking more of "Paprika Plains". It's a bit too much like a conscious experiment to me.