Ideally Bob Dylan lyric but anything goes
Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk-on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?
Oh my god yes, this would be my top non dylan lyric
NIN Hurt - " I hurt myself today To see if I still feel, I Focus on the pain The only thing that’s real…"
Can’t really choose a favorite, but it would have to be something from Leonard Cohen -
Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack, a crack in everything,
That’s how the light gets in.My ‘favorites’ change daily, so here’s today’s: That’s the Way That the World Goes Round -John Prine
I know a guy that’s got a lot to lose. He’s a pretty nice fellow but he’s kind of confused. He’s got muscles in his head that ain’t never been used. Thinks he own half of this town.
Starts drinking heavy, gets a big red nose. Beats his old lady with a rubber hose, Then he takes her out to dinner and buys her new clothes. That’s the way that the world goes 'round.
That’s the way that the world goes 'round. You’re up one day and the next you’re down. It’s half an inch of water and you think you’re gonna drown. That’s the way that the world goes 'round.
I was sitting in the bathtub counting my toes, When the radiator broke, water all froze. I got stuck in the ice without my clothes, Naked as the eyes of a clown. I was crying ice cubes hoping I’d croak, When the sun come through the window, the ice all broke. I stood up and laughed thought it was a joke That’s the way that the world goes 'round.
Streetlight Manifesto - Here’s to Life
Hemingway never seemed to mind
The banalities of a normal life
And I find
It get’s harder every timeSo he aimed the shotgun into the blue
Placed his face in between the two and sighed:
“Here’s to life”I like this too
From BNL,
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of taking off my shirt
There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
You who choose to lead must follow
But if you fall you fall alone
If you should stand then who’s to guide you?
If I knew the way I would take you home
What song is this? It reminded me of ‘when you leave that way you can never come back’. You should give that a go, the ollie austin version is my preferred take.
Edit: oooooh thats ripple
Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they’ll listen now
For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night
You took your life, as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you
- Vincent by Don McLean
I think I like this better than American Pie, TBH. Not as catchy but overall a better song.
I can’t say how poetic it is since I suck at that type of stuff, but:
Somewhere out there beneath the pail moonlight
Someone’s thinking of me and loving me tonight
- Linda Ronstadt (or whoever voiced Fievel because I absolutely love the version used in the movie)
Pail Moonlight seems like something you could catch, in a pail. ;)
Jimmy Webb’s song “Wichita Lineman” made famous by Glen Campbell, ….“And I need you more than want you, And I want you for all time”.
not sure if this is very ‘poetic’ but here’s my favorite
Hated by life itself
In the end, we’ll die anyway
You will, I will, one day all of us will rot away like fallen leaves
But regardless, we live on frantically–
Shouldering our lives, frantically, we live–
Killing, struggling, laughing, shouldering it all
Living, living, living, living-- just live
(song is hated by life itself, original is in japanese so this is a translation)
Oh one more:
An Amazon girl lives in Dumfries
Hey-oh, chicken on a raft
She only has kids in twos and threes
Hey-oh, chicken on a raft
Her sister lives in Maryhill
Hey-oh, chicken on a raft
She says she won’t but I think she will
Hey-oh, chicken on a raft
From Dylan, I’ve always been partial to this, from Mr Tambourine Man:
And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrowI love the way it deviates from previous verses by including a couple more lines than them, which he just sort of works in there.
Beyond Dylan, I really like Leonard Cohen’s lines in So Long, Marianne:
Now I need your hidden love
I’m cold as a new razor blade.
You left when I told you I was curious…
I never said that I was braveAnd from R.E.M. loads of examples, but the first that springs to mind is some of the imagery in Driver 8:
I saw a treehouse on the outskirts of the farm
The power lines have floaters so the airplanes won’t get snagged
The bells are ringing through the town again
The children look up, all they hear is sky-blue bells ringingAnd later:
He piloted this song in a plane like that one
She is selling faith on the Go Tell Crusade
Locomotive 8, Southern Crescent, hear the bells ring again
The fields of wheat is looking thinJust so evocative of travelling through a vast, open countryside.
Take a look at the original post, mr tambourine man is my favourite too! Don’t thin i’ve heard driver 8, will give it a go
Oh, ha ha, I didn’t even realise that this was a cross post! How funny that we picked the exact same lyric :-)
Ok, in that case I’ll add this one, from Ballad of a Thin Man:
You raise up your head and you ask, “Is this where it is?”
And somebody points to you and says, “It’s his”
And you say, “What’s mine?” and somebody else says, “Well, what is?”
And you say, “Oh my God, am I here all alone?”Yeeeep love the ballad of a thin man, I think we both like the same era of dylan most. I would bet Blonde on Blonde is your favourite album (despite neither of these songs being on it). Or highway 61 revisited if I’m wrong
Highway 61 for me, although I do love Blonde on Blonde too and it was the first Dylan I ever bought. Big fan of Blood on the Tracks and Desire as well.
Desolation Row vs Like a Rolling Stone vs Ballad of a Thin Man, if you had to pick one …
Don’t make me choose!! ;-)
Probably Rolling Stone though, just for the sheer contempt in the delivery.
How about you?
I plead the fifth
He looked beneath his shirt today
There was a wound in his flesh so deep and wide
From the wound a lovely flower grew
From somewhere deep inside
He turned around to face his mother
To show her the wound in his breast that burned like a brand
But the sword that cut him open
Was the sword in his mother’s hand
The Lazarus Heart - Sting
That’s a yes
Fossilized Apostle and I comb it with a rake. Soul Coughing
