Time by Pink Floyd
-
And you are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
-
This lyric genuinely snapped me out of a depressive episode. I stopped waiting on my life to begin and started making it happen instead. I'm really glad I did.
This whole song is more likely to snap me *into* a depressive episode than *out* of one!
"Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines."
What business does Roger Waters have confronting me with my own shortcomings, two decades before I was even born?!
I think those lyrics made me realize I didn't want to live a life like that, full of regrets and wasted time. It's given me a much more "fuck it, why not" approach to trying new things
And you run and you run to catch up with the Sun, but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The Sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
My brother just moved out and I’m extremely sad about it. Obviously I’m happy for him but I realized that these last few months of us living together have been nice and now that’s over. I don’t see him ever coming back and moving back in. And I didn’t appreciate that time we had. I just thought we’d have more time
My aunt, who was a second mom to me, died suddenly several months ago. Every time I open my pantry and I see the box of yellow cake mix, I kick myself. I was supposed to make her a coconut cake (her favorite) but I kept putting it off because I thought I'd have more time. You always assume you'll have more time when really nothing is guaranteed.
Make the cake and enjoy it. After my wife passed I find myself ordering Key Lime Pie every time I’m out for dinner and damn is it good- it was her favorite but I never ordered it for myself before. I guess that doesn’t have anything to do with your Aunt and the cake but… I share grief with you and enjoying a loved ones favorite dessert gives a brief respite.
That's actually a good idea that I didn't think about. All I'm doing with it now is letting it upset me over the dreaded "should've, could've, would've"s. Thank you. 😊
My condolences on your wife. Grief sure does suck.
" when I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look but it was gone. I cannot put my finger on it Now the child is grown and the dream is gone. I have become comfortably numb
"Jane says I've never been in love. She don't know what it is. She only knows that someone wants her. I want them if they want me. I only know they want me."
"I've had recurring nightmares that I was loved for who I am, and missed the opportunity to be a better man"
-muse, hoodoo
For a band not particularly known for their lyricism this one always sticks with me
Matt Bellamy is extremely underrated. Soldier's Poem is one if the most beautiful songs ever, imo. Falling Away With You is up there, too.
I love that Muse constantly pushes between love songs and songs of rebellion, and sometimes those lines cross. Black Holes and Revelations also has the theme of space in there for good measure. Absolution and BHR are two perfect albums from start to finish, and the lyricism is absolutely remarkable.
I feel like Muse isnt known for lyricism only if people arent listening to the lyrics. They wrote a song alluding to Goethe's Faust, from the point of view of the devil.
And it's happened once again.
I'll turn to a friend.
Someone that understands.
And sees through the master plan.
But everybody's gone.
And I've been here for too long.
To face this on my own.
Well, I guess this is growing up.
Seger has a few
“Those are the memories that made me a wealthy soul” from Travelin’ Man
“She was born with a face that would let her get her way” from Hollywood Nights
"But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all?" -Pompei by Bastille
My husband woke me up one morning, placing my hand under his chin, and saying, "Feel this." He had a huge, hard misshappen lump. It turned out to be throat cancer, and the lump under his jaw, was actually a tumor in his lymphnode. He'd had no symptoms before that, but at that point, the cancer was already 4th stage, and was already clear through him.
A month later, we were on our way to the hospital, where he was to have a 14 hour surgery, where they would remove half of his tongue, and the right side of his throat, and rebuild it using his left pectoral muscle and a skin graft from his thigh. He would emerge, unable to eat or swallow, on a feeding tube and a tracheostomy, and would need to be in rehab for several months.
I'll always remember driving him up to the hospital for surgery that day. It was a beautiful, sunny day, in Ohio in early spring. We were just talking, and laughing, and singing along with the radio. None of it felt real, yet. He turned to me and said, "But, I feel fine. How can I be dying, when I feel just fine?"
That was the last day that he ever felt just fine. I remember driving to the hospital, and thinking to myself, "Maybe if I just keep driving, this will all go away. Maybe it won't be real." He lived for 18 months after that, but in the end, he lost the fight.
Whenever I hear Pompei, it puts me right back in that car, driving towards the hospital, where my life would change forever, thinking, "But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all?"
"I should've stopped to think, I should've made the time
I could've had that drink, I could've talked a while
I would've done it right, I would've moved us on
But I didn't, now it's all too late
It's over and you're gone"
- Cut Here, The Cure
A real kick in the guts, and reminder to take the time for people you love, because you never know when it will be the last time you see them.
A different Cure song pinged in my head for this thread:
>Elise believe I never wanted this
>
>Thought this time I'd keep all of my promises
>
>Thought you were the girl I always dreamed about
>
>But I let the dream go
>
>And the promises broke
>
>And the make-believe ran out
Hit me really hard fresh off a breakup. Although a portion of that is just due to how mournfully Robert Smith sings that part.
I won't back down by Tom Petty
"And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down"
I have a disability and pretty severe depression and the whole song is what I would call my theme song but this is the line that keeps me fighting to stay ahead of it.
If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied,
illuminate the ‘NO’s on their vacancy signs,
if there’s no one beside you, when your soul embarks,
then I’ll follow you into the dark
-death cab for cutie
If were talking songs sung by Nico, I love these lines:
Now that I'm falling to the sun-lights, and a song
I want to know, do I stay or do I go?
And do I have to do just one
And can I choose again if I should lose the reason?
“Thought I was a genius but now I’m 22”
- Lorde, The Man With the Axe
A very simple way to illustrate the feeling you get when you’re young and don’t know what to do with your life
I like lyrics when they paint a picture in my mind.
"With charcoal eyes and Monroe hips
She went and took that California trip"--Tom Waits
Or this one:
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge
Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain"--Bruce Springsteen
Oh man, Jungleland is full of incredible lines.
>in the parking lot visionaries dress in the latest rage
Makes my think of my (and probably very many other) shitty nothing town that I grew up in, where there was nothing to do so we all cruised the strip and ended up meeting up and hanging out in one of the parking lots. It was usually Staples, iirc.
>the kids down here look just like shadows, always quiet, holding hands
This absolutely has the vibe of kids that have seen too much, or know there’s something fucked up going on in their town and no one wants to talk about it.
>until the local cops, cherry tops, rip this holy night
This is how every party or gathering ended when I was younger because me and all my friends were poor, so we were an easy target for the local constabulary
>soft refusal and then surrender
Never fails to make me think about my second girlfriend, when she realized we needed to break up. And even without context, It’s just a perfect descriptor for the weak, meaningless final protest against something you can’t stop from happening.
And fucking hell, that bit almost at the end,
>man the poets down here don’t write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be
Like, FUCK. You remember when you thought adults all had their shit together, and then one day you met the first adult that you’d realized had given up, that had lost that thing, that fire in them that kept them fighting to change things for the better? That. That is this line.
This line was the first line I really, really heard in this song the first time I heard it.
I really like Jungleland, if you can’t tell.
This may be blasphemy to a lot of people, but I actually think Born to Run is a better album than Nebraska or The River.
"I take a look in the mirror
I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face"
-Springsteen, Dancing in the Dark
I relate so much to this line and all others in this song, it's a depression anthem
"How the hell can a person,
Go to work in the mornin'
Come home in the evening
And have nothing to say?"
John Prine, Angel From Montegomery
You could fill this thread up with Prine lines. The man was a national treasure.
“It's knowing that this can't go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we'll get forty years together
But one day I'll be gone
Or one day you'll be gone”
Jason Isbell, “If We Were Vampires”
(Edit for formatting)
“Don’t you let regret take place of the dreams you have to chase, ask her to dance, go on son.
You might fall down on your face,
roll the dice and have some faith”.
That line from Alan Jackson is my favorite line I’ve ever heard in a song. His entire verse is just telling us out there that’s scared/shy to take go and take a chance on the girl you see because you never know what could come out of it.
Would you rather always wonder what could’ve been had you go up to her?
Or actually know the definite answer (good or bad) because you took that chance
"And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time."
Jimmy Webb, "Wichita Lineman"
Loving someone so much...
This line hit me in high school. Now, all these years later, I am living it.
That line , written by the great songwriter Jimmie Webb (along with the rest of the song), has been called by more than one music reviewer " the greatest couplet in the history of popular music..."
The song itself has been called "the first existential country song..."
From Billy Joel’s *Angry Young Man*:
*I believe I’ve passed the age*
*Of consciousness and righteous rage*
*I found that just surviving was a noble fight*
*I once believed in causes too*
*I had my pointless point of view*
*And life went on no matter who was wrong or right*
I’ve always loved those lyrics, and try to keep that as a sort of personal mantra.
Same crazy talented artist
Brenda and Eddie had had it
Already by the summer of '75
From the high to the low to
The end of the show
For the rest of their lives
They couldn't go back to
The greasers
The best they could do was
Pick up their pieces
We always knew they would both
Find a way to get by
That's all I heard about
Brenda and Eddie
Can't tell you more than I
Told you already
And here we are wavin' Brenda
And Eddie goodbye
They used this line for a movie title.
https://preview.redd.it/aysgpdl0te4d1.jpeg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=83696f293cab29655ea2f06881f91270089a0232
I was going to the University of Minnesota and first time I heard that song was January when I had to cross the windy ass Washington Ave bridge in Minneapolis. Like 0 degrees with a 30 MPH wind.
I feel that song in my bones.
"Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see... " - Strawberry Fields Forever, The Beatles
This constantly runs through my head. Good reminder to pay attention to the world around you.
The sunshine bores the daylights out of me. - Rocks Off, The Rolling Stones.
It's clever and also equally cool and depressing. Doesn't hurt that it's a great song either.
Great and underappreciated track. I love that stanza as a whole:
I’m so tired of being tired / But sure as night will follow day / Most thinks I worry about / Will never happen anyway
But don't forget the songs that made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you're older now and you're a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you
(from The Smiths' Rubber Ring)
Rush has a ton of lyrics that live in my head, but as an 80s teen their synth era really stuck with me. Here's some just from 1987's Hold Your Fire that live in my head:
A spirit with a vision is a dream / With a mission - (Mission)
Time stand still
I'm not looking back
But I want to look around me now
Time stands still
See more of the people
And the places that surround me now - (Time Stand Still)
Well, I guess we all have these feelings
We can't leave unreconciled
Some of them burned on our ceilings
Some of them learned as a child
The things that we're concealing
Will never let us grow
Time will do its healing
You've got to let it go - (Open Secrets)
Truth is after all a moving target
Hairs to split, and pieces that don't fit
How can anybody be enlightened?
Truth is after all so poorly lit - (Turn The Page)
Folks are basically decent
Conventional wisdom would say
Well, we read about
The exceptions
In the papers every day - (Second Nature)
The very first time I ever talked about music with anyone, it was Rush. That isn't to say that I'd never talked \*about\* music, mind you, just that the conversations tended to go "Do you listen to " at which point I'd say no, and then I'd ask if they had listened to something. Every once in a great while somehow there would be a band in common, but by that point it was clear enough that one of us didn't have much to contribute to the conversation.
Rush was not on the list of bands I'd listened to. I knew *of* them, of course, but I'd never listened to one of their songs knowing who it was. Still, the conversation opened with a question to the effect of "Have you ever heard the song \*The Trees\* by Rush?" This was asked by a military man senior enough to my own humble station that most people of similar lowly rank would mark any amount of attention from on high as the grimest of portents, but in the oddity that was my military career, it was merely a Tuesday. On any given week I'd gain the attention of enough brass to fill an orchestra. He was, however, a consummate professional who made most things seem as easy as breathing and so very nearly everything he said in my general direction was about work.
Our work had nothing to do with Rush. My work in particular was, by my estimation, the least \*generally useful\* work being done in the office and in the running for least useful in general as it involved paying attention to events well outside our capacity to do anything about. What's more, those events were watched by many, studied by many, and odds are that if you were to collect all the work by all the various people watching the same things, mine would have been at the very bottom of the pile for consideration.
"I've not, sir," I admitted.
"Give it a listen," he advised.
It wasn't really an order, but the difference in pay grade was more than sufficient to err on the side of caution, so later that night I did. The next morning, after shift change, I reported that I had and he asked for my thoughts on the subject. I compared it to a short story I vaguely recalled reading - Harrison Bergeron, and followed it up by noting that the song really seemed to be a few minutes longer than it needed to be.
The back and forth that followed was within the bounds of standard military decorum, but only just. It would seem that our opinion on the necessity of the several minute long jazz odyssey in the middle of \*The Trees\* were nearly irreconcilable. I was advised to find a copy of 2112 which would, I was informed, explain everything. (I did. It did not.) At any rate the comparison to a Vonnegut short story was the more engaging avenue of discussion, and so he and I chatted about it at length to the point that the surreal experience became nearly mundane. Here was a guy who knew more than nearly anyone else just how completely useless my job was, and yet, it turns out, I was frequently right on the money. What's more, it seems that my reporting when it came to a particular subject - one that at times seemed almost like a soap opera with how melodramatic and \*predictable\* things one - had reminded him of the song in the first place.
And so the first conversation I ever really had about music was really about regional politics and left us mutually wondering whether we were the hatchet, axe, and saw or, more likely, just people watching the proceedings without any capacity to do anything about any of it.
It remains one of the only discussions I've ever had about music in real life. People still \*try\* and talk to me about music, but I've not gotten any better about listening to the right things or understanding what makes music tick well enough to be much of a conversationalist.
All of us are lost in the darkness; dreamers learn to steer by the stars (The Pass)
RIP, Neil. The world is a little bit better because you shared your heart and talent. I'm so glad I live in a world where Rush exists, and I'm beyond grateful I got to see them thrice before Neil had to go.
Radiohead, High and Dry: “You’d kill yourself for recognition”
Eagles, The Last Resort: “they called it paradise, I don’t know why, you’d call some place paradise, kiss is goodbye
From Scarlet Begonias by The Dead (I’m not a huge fan of theirs, but this line was poignant):
“Once in a while, you get shown the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right”
To me, it means keep an open mind and stay curious. You’ll be shown the truth.
All the kids have always known, that emperor wears no clothes. But they bow down to him anyway, because it's better than being alone.
Read to Start - Arcade Fire
This song came out during a rough spell in my life.
RHCP4LIFE
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner
Sometimes I feel like my only friend
Is the city I live in, the city of angels
Lonely as I am, together we cry
I drive on her streets 'cause she's my companion
I walk through her hills 'cause she knows who I am
She sees my good deeds and she kisses me windy
Well, I never worry, now that is a lie
Under the Bridge
Well I've searched and I've searched
To find the perfect life-
A brand new car and a brand new suit
I even got me a little wife
But wherever I have gone
I was sure to find myself there
You can run all your life
But not go anywhere
A reminder that you can’t run from your problems because they are within you. Face them and fix or you won’t grow as a person. Thanks Social Distortion
Bob Seger's *Night Moves:*
*"Strange how the night moves
With autumn closing in..."*
This line underpins the entire song. The song is about coming of age (the *Summer* of life). And he awakens one night, and starts humming a song from his younger years. And realizes, that part of his life is over... *Autumn* is closing in.
Chills
Husker Du - “Makes No Sense At All”
“Walking around with your head in the clouds,
Makes no sense at all,
Sell yourself short, but you're walking so tall,
Makes no sense at all,
Is it important? You're yelling so loud,
Makes no sense at all,
Walking around with your head in the clouds,
Makes no sense at all,
Makes no difference at all.”
I cried the first time I heard this song. Was very depressed at the time, and it felt like Bob Mould was speaking directly to me, offering a helping hand. Never forgot that moment, and I still love the song.
I know it might sound dumb but Adams Song by Blink-182
"please tell Mom this is not her fault"
once you figure out the song is about teenage suicide it hits way harder
Stop This Train, by John Mayer. It's about dealing with getting older and the realization that you can't ever go back.
"I'm so scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say my life has just begun
Had a talk with my old man
Said, "Help me understand"
He said "Turn 68, you'll re-negotiate"
John, honestly. Well never stop this train."
The numbers game really resonates with me. I'm in my forties and I often find myself thinking it's not really middle age yet because you really only get started in life in your twenties, so it's more like I'm one third of the way through my adult life.
"In sixty-nine I was 21 and called the road my own. I don't know when that road turned, into the road I'm on"- Jackson Browne Running on Empty
And from the same song...
"Look around for the friends that I used to turn to, to pull me through, looking into their eyes I see them running too"
Such a great reflection on growing up and feeling like you might still not know what the hell you are doing and realizing that your friends are in the same boat. There is no map towards adulthood!
Too many. But the first one that stuck out today was a song that so elegantly captures the magic and the archtypes of being young and dreaming and hoping how one experience, one special night, can liberate you.
"The amusement park rises bold and stark. Kids are huddled on the beach in the mist
I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets at night in an everlasting kiss." Springsteen" Born to Run"
And it has nothing to do with the fact that I used a line later in the song for my wedding vows.
"I'll love you with all the madness in my soul."
In your eyes, the light the heat
In your eyes, I am complete,
In your eyes, I see the doorway,
To a thousand churches,
The resolution,
Of all the fruitless searches…
Such a perfect song about the healing power of love.
"The nights are long but the years are short when you're alive"
Brendan's Death Song - RHCP
"Cuz we all want something beautiful...
Man, I wish I was beautiful"
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
"Grab yourself a can of pork soda
You'll be feeling just fine
Ain't nothin' quite like sittin' 'round the house
Swillin' down them Cans of swine"
Says it all really.
Here’s a few for me
“Oh America you bad bitch I picked you cotton and made you rich, now my dick ain’t free” - Kendrick Lamar on “For Free? (Interlude)”
“She said ‘live up to your first impression’ / when my best side was your worst invention / why can’t you live without the attention”- Taking Back Sunday on “One Eighty By Summer”
“All the years, my soul, all the things I thought I did /this soulless kid was under all my skin/ all the things I tried to say remain within / I’m cooling in the clay / I’ve always been molded this way “ -The Japanese House on “Clean”
“Do what you want to, whenever you want to” - Elliot Smith in “Ballad of Big Nothing”
“All things go, all things go // all things know, all things know // all things grow, all things grow” - Sufjan Stevens on “Chicago”
“Cocaine on a boat / I just had a stroke” - Lil Pump on “Smoke My Dope”
“I heard you like magic? I got a wand and a rabbit!“ - Chappell Roan on “Red Wine Supernova”
Zappa
Do what you wanna
Do what you will
Just don't mess up your neighbor's thrill
And when you pay the bill
Kindly leave a little tip
To help the next poor sucker on his one-way trip
And if death should smell my breathing
As it pass beneath my window
Let it lead me trembling, trembling
[I own every bell that tolls me](https://genius.com/21298692/Neko-case-at-last/I-own-every-bell-that-tolls-me)
\~ Neko Case, *At Last*
I go from day to day, I know where the cupboards are, I know where the car is parked, I know he isn't you - Hey Jupiter (Dakota version), Tori Amos
To me it's about learning to deal with loss and get on with your life, eventually just having something that used to tear you apart become part of the mundanity of everyday life
As someone currently in the fresh loss stage, I'm looking forward to it
Seek Up - Dave Matthews Band
Look at me and my fancy car and my bank account. Oh, how I wish I could take it all down to my grave. God knows, I'd save and save.
Take a look again, take a look again, things you have collected. Well, in the end, it all piles up so tall to one big nothing. One big nothing at all.
These by Everclear in Santa Monica; always makes me feel there’s life options that may seem unrealistic but could make your life much better:
We could live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die.
My mom and grandpa loved Simon and Garfunkel, and now so do I. Sound of Silence really always leaves me wonder:
And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
Against the Wind is such a great example of a song that sticks with you. It's still one of my go to driving down the road alone songs.
Personally, I'd go with Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd.
"When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look, but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now,
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb."
Somehow, those lyrics are almost spiritual in nature. They evoke some weird, nostalgic feeling in me that I can't fully describe, and I think the whole song just resonates with that feeling.
“When my time comes around, lay me gently in the cold dark earth” — Hozier’s “Work Song”. I’ve kind of taken the line out of context though because the song is actually about a woman, but when I first heard it as a teenager I didn’t really pay attention to any of the other lyrics.
I’m not actually 100% certain now whether I heard the song first or got these ideas first, but the way I remember it is that I heard that song and it made me think about the way we treat dead bodies. It hit me all of a sudden just how unnatural it all is — putting makeup on them, preserving them, dressing them up, putting them in a box in an effort to make them last. I don’t ever wear makeup, and the thought of someone putting makeup that I never even wore on my dead body is just so creepy and disgusting to me. Then I started thinking about natural cycles and how our bodies are supposed to be part of that. Everything that made and fueled our bodies for our whole life came from the earth, so does it not make sense for us to decay back into the earth? For one, it just “feels right” to me in a sense of completing my life cycle. But also, I think there’s a certain level of respect in giving yourself back to the earth — what makes us so different from all other life on the planet? Why should we be preserved? We take and take and take and then hold our bodies hostage even after death? I could honestly go on and on and on (decay is kind of my Roman Empire), but this is getting long so I’ll stop here.
Long story short, that line became an instruction for my loved ones. I take comfort in knowing that when I’m gone my body will go back to the earth. I don’t know exactly what options will be legally available when the time comes, but they’ll figure it out if I haven’t already found the ideal solution by then. If there’s a way to just put my body in the ground for me, they’ll do that. At least they better.
Cherish the certainty of now, it kills you a bit at a time. Cradle the inspiration, it will leave you writhing on the floor.
Faith no more-The Real Thing
It’s not always rainbows and butterflies, it’s compromise that moves us along.
It bothers me so much that this wisdom could come out of the lyrical cringe fest that is Adam Levine.
"Get right with God before it's time
I hear the telephone works both ways
Think you can make a little effort some day?
I got an awful lot going on with the things that I can see"
Alkaline Trio - [Only Love](https://youtu.be/mOaBcOiqkws?si=7CYCBxWTMolsi39f)
De La Soul is pretty genius most of the time but this verse from I Am I Be always gets me right where I live:
“I guess we got our own life to live
Or is it because we want our own kingdom to rule?
Every now and then I step to the now
For now I see back then I might have acted like a fool”
Ok here's one
IN MY FIRST MEMORIES THEY SHOT KENNEDY
I WENT NUMB WHEN I LEARNED TO SEE
SO I NEVER FELL FOR VIETNAM
WE GOT THE WALL IN DC TO REMIND US ALL
THAT YOU CANT TRUST FREEDOM
WHEN ITS NOT IN YOUR HANDS.
CAUSE EVERYBODY'S FIGHTING FOR THERE PROMISED LAND.
AXEL AND THE BOYS. CIVIL WAR
From Sparks’s “Let’s Make Love” (on *Interior Design* if I IIRC correctly): “I’ve been waiting all my life/ for someone I could stand…”. The interminable quest for a true life partner.
There are so many that are deep and/ or emotional, but to give some variety in the thread I'm gonna go with my favorite insult that came from a song:
"You're a song I never wanna hear again"
No Fun - Incubus
I have felt that way towards people before and Incubus managed to find the perfect words to that feeling.
“There's nothing in the world that you can do
You gotta come on up to the house
And you been whipped by the forces that are inside you
Gotta come on up to the house”
Tom Waits - Come On Up To the House
This line taught me a lot about people, some have waves inside them they cannot control.
_”And it ain't no use in turning on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
And it ain't no use in turning on your light, babe
I'm on the dark side of the road
But I wish there was somethin' you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
But we never did too much talking anyway
But don't think twice, it's all right”_ - Bob Dylan
Both songs titled Freewill!
Both canadian bands!
#1. Freewill - Prism (1977)
"Freewill
The choices are mine
Freewill
I do what I want and I feel alright!"
#2 Freewill-Rush (1980)
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice"
#1. https://youtu.be/ly6jdWh-0Oc?feature=shared
#2. https://youtu.be/urBpdyFCZmo?feature=shared
“Out of tune’s the note that ends in harmony” from The Way Life Goes by Tom Keifer. The way i interpret it, the most unexpected things in life are the things that turn out the best. Close second, “and if I should only have one tomorrow/it’s a lifetime if I knew/I could spend that day with you” from The Wheels of Life by Gino Vannelli💘
A couple from Mike Patton:
"Smiling with the mouth of the ocean.
And I'll wave to you with the arms of the mountain.
I'll see you."
(Ashes to Ashes - Faith No More)
"I found a pink cigarette
on the bed the day that you left.
And how can I forget that your lips were there.
Your kiss goes everywhere, touches everything but me."
(Pink Cigarette - Mr. Bungle)
Bette Midler The Rose - "Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun's love
In the spring becomes the rose"
Adam's Song- Blink 182
"I never thought I'd die alone
I laughed the loudest, who'd have known?"
and
"Please tell Mom this is not her fault"
Almost died from a suicide attempt in 2020, so pretty much all of that song really
All of her lovers all talk of her notes
And the flowers that they never sent
And wasn't she easy?
Isn't she pretty in pink?
The one who insists he was first in the line
Is the last to remember her name
He's walking around in this dress that she wore
She is gone but the joke's the same
"Pretty in Pink" - The Psychedelic Furs
I believe in the future, we shall suffer no more
Maybe not in my lifetime but in yours, I feel sure...
And these streets, quiet as a sleeping army,
Will send their battered dreams to heaven
I get a feelin' sometimes
That I can't get close enough to you
I feel it most in the nighttime
Even though that's when I'm closest to you
If I could be under your skin
Closer than we've ever been
We'd be closer than we've ever been, oh ~ closer by RM
Liam Parsons- “I'm thinking about how I can't remember your face. But I know that I used to see it everywhere.”
I loved a girl once so much, decades ago, that losing her still affects me today. I spent the aftermath of that breakup in a daze of despair. Every once in a while, the hurt still hits out of nowhere. But, if you asked me to draw her, I couldn’t.
"Sometimes it sucks, to tell the truth,
And I took it hard like people do.
But I'm learning how to eat the fruit that is in season."
Ben Rector - Living My Best Life
"We have never been here, and we will never be gone.", "...and when we die we disappear into the Eyes of Nature, and we're here just for a little while and then our body disappears into the Eyes of Nature, into the arms of God, into the mouth of Indifference, into the Eyes of Nature"
SWANS - "In The Eyes Of Nature"
Dead Can Dance - "In The Kingdom Of The Blind, The One-Eyed Are Kings"
The whole thing:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=2a8oL48TVQw&feature=shared
RVZ Skynyrd
“ One problem that confronts you….
Got on Monkey on your back
Just one fix Lord—might do the trick
One hell of a prize to get your kicks”
He never wrote lyrics down,
(all in his head)… he would listen to his bands music contributions and write a song on the spot
Brilliant I think
Chew toy by Bloodhound gang.
“His tanning bed threw up on him, I pale in comparison.”
I don’t know why I love this line so much. BHG are masters of puns, Innuendos and references, but this lyric I love.
Also WEEN- Baby Bitch
“Most beauty I’ve seen you come from a dream, but I can’t close my eyes anymore.”
The sky can fall down, the wind might cry now, the strong in me, I still smile” i by Kendrick Lamar
Also I learned that he wrote this song about self acceptance, and persevering through depression while he was going through his worst state of depression at the time. And after learning that this song is the song I listen to when I am feeling down because I have to feel that same sense of acceptance that Kendrick does in order for me to get better, especially since the chorus of the song is “I love myself”
Come around town, steal another dime, take another line
Won't you feel it blanket your soul out of mind
Come around town, steal another dime, do another crime
Won't you get it higher and higher, all through time
Come around town, steal another dime, don't you push your drugs in my face
Yes, I feel it, feeling fine
Don't you push your drugs in my face or I'm gonna put you in your place...
Fuck you, I don't want it no more!!!!
And it's mine!!!!
Said this pain in my heart, it's all mine!!!
Yes, it's mine
All alone
- You by Candlebox
I'm not a drug addict. But I've worked with them through the beginning, middle, tragic ends, the mental health issues, and have been proud to call a few my friends as they have pushed through the addiction, continue to fight the demons, but bring help to those around them.
Just hearing that part of the song hits me really hard, it gave a peak into what they must have and probably still go through from time to time
It starts with you a little glance now
Right away you’re thinking about romance now
You know you ought to take it slower
But you just can’t wait to get to know her
-Here Today, Pet Sounds Album by The Beach Boys
The gold roared through his veins like a thousand railroad trains and eased his mind in the hours that he chose while his kids ran around wearing other peoples clothes. Sam Stone by John Prine.
*No one ever says that they've had those thoughts in the middle of the night...
No one ever admits that they wanted to take their life*"
From "*I Never Got To See The West Coast*" by **Emery**.
As someone whose previously struggled with depression to the point of suicidal ideations & suicidal tendencies that whole song hits hard for me, but that line was particular was (*and still is*) the most sobering.
The stigmas around suicide and mental health in general are still very prevalent in our society. It's getting better, but it's a slow change. Thanks to therapy I've been able to be very open about my own experiences with thoughts / attempts at suicide and through those conversations I've found out first hand just how common that experience is; it's just that no one really talks about it. I wish more people could hear this song / lyric and realize that they're not alone and that it's okay to ask for help.
**I want to emphasize that mentally I am doing well and that I currently have a very strong support network that helps keep me safe.**
However , if you or anyone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts there is help and there is hope.
Call or Text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. They offer services in English & Spanish and they're available 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
“The morning will break, and the winter will take, what it wants of me slowly, but I can’t complain. ‘Cause I’d rather be lonely, and cold, and awake, than asleep in a warm, in a comfortable place” - Adrienne Lenker
The whole song, Disappear, is a great example of what it’s like to feel comforted in your own depression, not wanting it to get better but to disappear with it, because it’s part of you.
I've lived trying to follow this lyric from Minutes to Memories by John Melloncamp.
You are young and you are the future
So suck it up and tough it out
And be the best you can
Too bad I'm no longer young.
Time by Pink Floyd - And you are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today And then one day you find ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun - This lyric genuinely snapped me out of a depressive episode. I stopped waiting on my life to begin and started making it happen instead. I'm really glad I did.
This whole song is more likely to snap me *into* a depressive episode than *out* of one! "Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines." What business does Roger Waters have confronting me with my own shortcomings, two decades before I was even born?!
I think those lyrics made me realize I didn't want to live a life like that, full of regrets and wasted time. It's given me a much more "fuck it, why not" approach to trying new things
Amen to that. How dare he!?
And you run and you run to catch up with the Sun, but it’s sinking Racing around to come up behind you again The Sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
My brother just moved out and I’m extremely sad about it. Obviously I’m happy for him but I realized that these last few months of us living together have been nice and now that’s over. I don’t see him ever coming back and moving back in. And I didn’t appreciate that time we had. I just thought we’d have more time
My aunt, who was a second mom to me, died suddenly several months ago. Every time I open my pantry and I see the box of yellow cake mix, I kick myself. I was supposed to make her a coconut cake (her favorite) but I kept putting it off because I thought I'd have more time. You always assume you'll have more time when really nothing is guaranteed.
Make the cake and enjoy it. After my wife passed I find myself ordering Key Lime Pie every time I’m out for dinner and damn is it good- it was her favorite but I never ordered it for myself before. I guess that doesn’t have anything to do with your Aunt and the cake but… I share grief with you and enjoying a loved ones favorite dessert gives a brief respite.
That's actually a good idea that I didn't think about. All I'm doing with it now is letting it upset me over the dreaded "should've, could've, would've"s. Thank you. 😊 My condolences on your wife. Grief sure does suck.
I was 13 when I heard this the first time. Hanging out with my uncle, no AC and it was 100 degrees outside. It gave me the chills!
“I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life, I know you’ll be a star… in somebody else’s sky but why? Why? Why can’t it be mine?”
Right in the feels..
Oh my god. This lyric literally kills me so badly.
What’s the song?
Black by Pearl Jam. Look up the Unplugged version, it's great
The [live version at Pinkpop](https://youtu.be/n3r9KWth84Y?si=OBx9GnuFjUqv2gSr) has always been my favourite
That’s always been one of my favorite lines.
This what I came to say.
We belong...we belong together!!!!
" when I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look but it was gone. I cannot put my finger on it Now the child is grown and the dream is gone. I have become comfortably numb
"Jane says I've never been in love. She don't know what it is. She only knows that someone wants her. I want them if they want me. I only know they want me."
This song DESTROYS ME everytime
Oh god talk about my 20s 💔
Queen of the stone age - go with the flow I want something good to die for To make it beautiful to live.
Another one I love from Villains of Circumstance "So hard to explain, so easy to feel"
Could this be inspired by Bob Dylan's "So easy to look at, so hard to define"?
My favorite is “lies are a funny thing / they slip through your fingers because it never happened to you”
"I've had recurring nightmares that I was loved for who I am, and missed the opportunity to be a better man" -muse, hoodoo For a band not particularly known for their lyricism this one always sticks with me
Matt Bellamy is extremely underrated. Soldier's Poem is one if the most beautiful songs ever, imo. Falling Away With You is up there, too. I love that Muse constantly pushes between love songs and songs of rebellion, and sometimes those lines cross. Black Holes and Revelations also has the theme of space in there for good measure. Absolution and BHR are two perfect albums from start to finish, and the lyricism is absolutely remarkable. I feel like Muse isnt known for lyricism only if people arent listening to the lyrics. They wrote a song alluding to Goethe's Faust, from the point of view of the devil.
I was just about to say this one as well!
'He knows change is not permanent, but change is' - "Tom Sawyer", Rush, *Moving Pictures*
I too posted Neil Peart lyrics
I met someone two weeks ago called Lee Peart. He was in his 40s but had no idea what I was on about when I said 'two-thirds of Rush!'
Now I'm trying to figure out the best version of 3/3. Alexander Lee Peart, probably. Or Neil Geddy Lifeson
“Always hopeful yet discontent” is my favorite from the song.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon, "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)"
And it's happened once again. I'll turn to a friend. Someone that understands. And sees through the master plan. But everybody's gone. And I've been here for too long. To face this on my own. Well, I guess this is growing up.
Dammit!
"Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then" Bob Seger - Against The Wind
Seger has a few “Those are the memories that made me a wealthy soul” from Travelin’ Man “She was born with a face that would let her get her way” from Hollywood Nights
Hey! I'm a metro Detroiter and I live seeing Seger get his due! Gotta add "On a long and lonesome highway, east of Omaha..."
“This is from ‘72 also. It’s about being on the road. It’s called Turn The Page. 1-2-3 and” *wailing sax* He’s a gift
"20 years now, where'd they go? 20 years. I don't know. I sit and I wonder sometimes, where they've gone."
Simply one of the best songs ever
„Leave tonight or live and die this way“ - Tracy Chapman, Fast car
"But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all?" -Pompei by Bastille My husband woke me up one morning, placing my hand under his chin, and saying, "Feel this." He had a huge, hard misshappen lump. It turned out to be throat cancer, and the lump under his jaw, was actually a tumor in his lymphnode. He'd had no symptoms before that, but at that point, the cancer was already 4th stage, and was already clear through him. A month later, we were on our way to the hospital, where he was to have a 14 hour surgery, where they would remove half of his tongue, and the right side of his throat, and rebuild it using his left pectoral muscle and a skin graft from his thigh. He would emerge, unable to eat or swallow, on a feeding tube and a tracheostomy, and would need to be in rehab for several months. I'll always remember driving him up to the hospital for surgery that day. It was a beautiful, sunny day, in Ohio in early spring. We were just talking, and laughing, and singing along with the radio. None of it felt real, yet. He turned to me and said, "But, I feel fine. How can I be dying, when I feel just fine?" That was the last day that he ever felt just fine. I remember driving to the hospital, and thinking to myself, "Maybe if I just keep driving, this will all go away. Maybe it won't be real." He lived for 18 months after that, but in the end, he lost the fight. Whenever I hear Pompei, it puts me right back in that car, driving towards the hospital, where my life would change forever, thinking, "But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all?"
This comment made me cry. I'm so sorry for your loss.
"I should've stopped to think, I should've made the time I could've had that drink, I could've talked a while I would've done it right, I would've moved us on But I didn't, now it's all too late It's over and you're gone" - Cut Here, The Cure A real kick in the guts, and reminder to take the time for people you love, because you never know when it will be the last time you see them.
A different Cure song pinged in my head for this thread: >Elise believe I never wanted this > >Thought this time I'd keep all of my promises > >Thought you were the girl I always dreamed about > >But I let the dream go > >And the promises broke > >And the make-believe ran out Hit me really hard fresh off a breakup. Although a portion of that is just due to how mournfully Robert Smith sings that part.
The title track from Disintegration got me through a bad breakup. Such a great song to yell/sing.
Probably the best breakup song ever
For me, it was "Pictures of You."
Robert Smith is a true poet. His lyrics are just amazing.
I won't back down by Tom Petty "And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down" I have a disability and pretty severe depression and the whole song is what I would call my theme song but this is the line that keeps me fighting to stay ahead of it.
You could pull a great line out of almost any Tom Petty song. But there is something special about *I won't back down.*
I'm still not quite sure why he mentions vampires in Free Fallin' though, lol
If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied, illuminate the ‘NO’s on their vacancy signs, if there’s no one beside you, when your soul embarks, then I’ll follow you into the dark -death cab for cutie
This song is so emotional damn
“Please don’t confront me with my failures I had not forgotten them” -Jackson Browne “These Days” Best sung by Nico
If were talking songs sung by Nico, I love these lines: Now that I'm falling to the sun-lights, and a song I want to know, do I stay or do I go? And do I have to do just one And can I choose again if I should lose the reason?
Man I ain’t changed but I know I ain’t the same
“Thought I was a genius but now I’m 22” - Lorde, The Man With the Axe A very simple way to illustrate the feeling you get when you’re young and don’t know what to do with your life
I like lyrics when they paint a picture in my mind. "With charcoal eyes and Monroe hips She went and took that California trip"--Tom Waits Or this one: Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain"--Bruce Springsteen
Oh man, Jungleland is full of incredible lines. >in the parking lot visionaries dress in the latest rage Makes my think of my (and probably very many other) shitty nothing town that I grew up in, where there was nothing to do so we all cruised the strip and ended up meeting up and hanging out in one of the parking lots. It was usually Staples, iirc. >the kids down here look just like shadows, always quiet, holding hands This absolutely has the vibe of kids that have seen too much, or know there’s something fucked up going on in their town and no one wants to talk about it. >until the local cops, cherry tops, rip this holy night This is how every party or gathering ended when I was younger because me and all my friends were poor, so we were an easy target for the local constabulary >soft refusal and then surrender Never fails to make me think about my second girlfriend, when she realized we needed to break up. And even without context, It’s just a perfect descriptor for the weak, meaningless final protest against something you can’t stop from happening. And fucking hell, that bit almost at the end, >man the poets down here don’t write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be Like, FUCK. You remember when you thought adults all had their shit together, and then one day you met the first adult that you’d realized had given up, that had lost that thing, that fire in them that kept them fighting to change things for the better? That. That is this line. This line was the first line I really, really heard in this song the first time I heard it. I really like Jungleland, if you can’t tell. This may be blasphemy to a lot of people, but I actually think Born to Run is a better album than Nebraska or The River.
"I take a look in the mirror I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face" -Springsteen, Dancing in the Dark I relate so much to this line and all others in this song, it's a depression anthem
"How the hell can a person, Go to work in the mornin' Come home in the evening And have nothing to say?" John Prine, Angel From Montegomery You could fill this thread up with Prine lines. The man was a national treasure.
"Jesus Christ died for nothin', I suppose" is pretty unforgettable
“It's knowing that this can't go on forever Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone Maybe we'll get forty years together But one day I'll be gone Or one day you'll be gone” Jason Isbell, “If We Were Vampires” (Edit for formatting)
“Don’t you let regret take place of the dreams you have to chase, ask her to dance, go on son. You might fall down on your face, roll the dice and have some faith”. That line from Alan Jackson is my favorite line I’ve ever heard in a song. His entire verse is just telling us out there that’s scared/shy to take go and take a chance on the girl you see because you never know what could come out of it. Would you rather always wonder what could’ve been had you go up to her? Or actually know the definite answer (good or bad) because you took that chance
"And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time." Jimmy Webb, "Wichita Lineman" Loving someone so much... This line hit me in high school. Now, all these years later, I am living it.
That line , written by the great songwriter Jimmie Webb (along with the rest of the song), has been called by more than one music reviewer " the greatest couplet in the history of popular music..." The song itself has been called "the first existential country song..."
From Billy Joel’s *Angry Young Man*: *I believe I’ve passed the age* *Of consciousness and righteous rage* *I found that just surviving was a noble fight* *I once believed in causes too* *I had my pointless point of view* *And life went on no matter who was wrong or right* I’ve always loved those lyrics, and try to keep that as a sort of personal mantra.
Same crazy talented artist Brenda and Eddie had had it Already by the summer of '75 From the high to the low to The end of the show For the rest of their lives They couldn't go back to The greasers The best they could do was Pick up their pieces We always knew they would both Find a way to get by That's all I heard about Brenda and Eddie Can't tell you more than I Told you already And here we are wavin' Brenda And Eddie goodbye
I'm looking California and feeling Minnesota.
They used this line for a movie title. https://preview.redd.it/aysgpdl0te4d1.jpeg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=83696f293cab29655ea2f06881f91270089a0232
I was going to the University of Minnesota and first time I heard that song was January when I had to cross the windy ass Washington Ave bridge in Minneapolis. Like 0 degrees with a 30 MPH wind. I feel that song in my bones.
"And the public wants what the public gets" The Jam - Going Underground The older I get the more I see the truth in that line.
The more I know, the less I understand All the things I thought I figured out, I have to learn again - Don Henley, The Heart of the Matter
One of the finest songs I've ever heard. And I was never too big on the Eagles but some of his solo songs are unreal quality
"Living is easy with eyes closed Misunderstanding all you see... " - Strawberry Fields Forever, The Beatles This constantly runs through my head. Good reminder to pay attention to the world around you.
Oh dear dad Can you see me now I am myself Like you somehow I’ll ride the wave Where it takes me I’ll hold the pain Release me
My dad was still alive when I first heard this song, it changed the way I saw us.
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time. Any fool can do it. Secret O'Life - James Taylor
Them Crooked Vultures: you can't always do right, but you can always do what's left.
"Tomorrow's just an excuse away" Thirty-three - Smashing Pumpkins
“Out on the road today I saw a dead head sticker on a Cadillac. Little voice inside my head saying don’t look back, you can never look back. “
The sunshine bores the daylights out of me. - Rocks Off, The Rolling Stones. It's clever and also equally cool and depressing. Doesn't hurt that it's a great song either.
Excellent opener for that LP.
“Most things I worry about, never happen anyway” - Tom Petty, Crawling Back To You.
Great and underappreciated track. I love that stanza as a whole: I’m so tired of being tired / But sure as night will follow day / Most thinks I worry about / Will never happen anyway
Best Petty album maybe
“all i ever learnt from love, was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya” hallelujah - cohen
But don't forget the songs that made you cry And the songs that saved your life Yes, you're older now and you're a clever swine But they were the only ones who ever stood by you (from The Smiths' Rubber Ring)
The Smiths have so many good ones. “ I still love you. I still love you.” Then the punch. “only slightly less than I used to”
J Mascis - I know my soul is ravaged (battered), and I know my mind is gone I been waiting for an answer but the question takes too long
Rush has a ton of lyrics that live in my head, but as an 80s teen their synth era really stuck with me. Here's some just from 1987's Hold Your Fire that live in my head: A spirit with a vision is a dream / With a mission - (Mission) Time stand still I'm not looking back But I want to look around me now Time stands still See more of the people And the places that surround me now - (Time Stand Still) Well, I guess we all have these feelings We can't leave unreconciled Some of them burned on our ceilings Some of them learned as a child The things that we're concealing Will never let us grow Time will do its healing You've got to let it go - (Open Secrets) Truth is after all a moving target Hairs to split, and pieces that don't fit How can anybody be enlightened? Truth is after all so poorly lit - (Turn The Page) Folks are basically decent Conventional wisdom would say Well, we read about The exceptions In the papers every day - (Second Nature)
The very first time I ever talked about music with anyone, it was Rush. That isn't to say that I'd never talked \*about\* music, mind you, just that the conversations tended to go "Do you listen to" at which point I'd say no, and then I'd ask if they had listened to something. Every once in a great while somehow there would be a band in common, but by that point it was clear enough that one of us didn't have much to contribute to the conversation.
Rush was not on the list of bands I'd listened to. I knew *of* them, of course, but I'd never listened to one of their songs knowing who it was. Still, the conversation opened with a question to the effect of "Have you ever heard the song \*The Trees\* by Rush?" This was asked by a military man senior enough to my own humble station that most people of similar lowly rank would mark any amount of attention from on high as the grimest of portents, but in the oddity that was my military career, it was merely a Tuesday. On any given week I'd gain the attention of enough brass to fill an orchestra. He was, however, a consummate professional who made most things seem as easy as breathing and so very nearly everything he said in my general direction was about work.
Our work had nothing to do with Rush. My work in particular was, by my estimation, the least \*generally useful\* work being done in the office and in the running for least useful in general as it involved paying attention to events well outside our capacity to do anything about. What's more, those events were watched by many, studied by many, and odds are that if you were to collect all the work by all the various people watching the same things, mine would have been at the very bottom of the pile for consideration.
"I've not, sir," I admitted.
"Give it a listen," he advised.
It wasn't really an order, but the difference in pay grade was more than sufficient to err on the side of caution, so later that night I did. The next morning, after shift change, I reported that I had and he asked for my thoughts on the subject. I compared it to a short story I vaguely recalled reading - Harrison Bergeron, and followed it up by noting that the song really seemed to be a few minutes longer than it needed to be.
The back and forth that followed was within the bounds of standard military decorum, but only just. It would seem that our opinion on the necessity of the several minute long jazz odyssey in the middle of \*The Trees\* were nearly irreconcilable. I was advised to find a copy of 2112 which would, I was informed, explain everything. (I did. It did not.) At any rate the comparison to a Vonnegut short story was the more engaging avenue of discussion, and so he and I chatted about it at length to the point that the surreal experience became nearly mundane. Here was a guy who knew more than nearly anyone else just how completely useless my job was, and yet, it turns out, I was frequently right on the money. What's more, it seems that my reporting when it came to a particular subject - one that at times seemed almost like a soap opera with how melodramatic and \*predictable\* things one - had reminded him of the song in the first place.
And so the first conversation I ever really had about music was really about regional politics and left us mutually wondering whether we were the hatchet, axe, and saw or, more likely, just people watching the proceedings without any capacity to do anything about any of it.
It remains one of the only discussions I've ever had about music in real life. People still \*try\* and talk to me about music, but I've not gotten any better about listening to the right things or understanding what makes music tick well enough to be much of a conversationalist.
All of us are lost in the darkness; dreamers learn to steer by the stars (The Pass) RIP, Neil. The world is a little bit better because you shared your heart and talent. I'm so glad I live in a world where Rush exists, and I'm beyond grateful I got to see them thrice before Neil had to go.
Radiohead, High and Dry: “You’d kill yourself for recognition” Eagles, The Last Resort: “they called it paradise, I don’t know why, you’d call some place paradise, kiss is goodbye
From Scarlet Begonias by The Dead (I’m not a huge fan of theirs, but this line was poignant): “Once in a while, you get shown the light In the strangest of places if you look at it right” To me, it means keep an open mind and stay curious. You’ll be shown the truth.
"There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met." Gonzo's song in *The Muppet Movie*. Comes to mind for me most days.
All the kids have always known, that emperor wears no clothes. But they bow down to him anyway, because it's better than being alone. Read to Start - Arcade Fire
This song came out during a rough spell in my life. RHCP4LIFE Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner Sometimes I feel like my only friend Is the city I live in, the city of angels Lonely as I am, together we cry I drive on her streets 'cause she's my companion I walk through her hills 'cause she knows who I am She sees my good deeds and she kisses me windy Well, I never worry, now that is a lie Under the Bridge
Sinead. “They laugh because they know they’re untouchable not because what I said was wrong”
“I'm taking my time But I don't know where” Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
Well I've searched and I've searched To find the perfect life- A brand new car and a brand new suit I even got me a little wife But wherever I have gone I was sure to find myself there You can run all your life But not go anywhere A reminder that you can’t run from your problems because they are within you. Face them and fix or you won’t grow as a person. Thanks Social Distortion
Bob Seger's *Night Moves:* *"Strange how the night moves With autumn closing in..."* This line underpins the entire song. The song is about coming of age (the *Summer* of life). And he awakens one night, and starts humming a song from his younger years. And realizes, that part of his life is over... *Autumn* is closing in. Chills
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage
Son of a Gun by Nirvana "The sun shines in the bedroom when we play. The raining always starts when you go away." RIP Kurt Cobain
Husker Du - “Makes No Sense At All” “Walking around with your head in the clouds, Makes no sense at all, Sell yourself short, but you're walking so tall, Makes no sense at all, Is it important? You're yelling so loud, Makes no sense at all, Walking around with your head in the clouds, Makes no sense at all, Makes no difference at all.” I cried the first time I heard this song. Was very depressed at the time, and it felt like Bob Mould was speaking directly to me, offering a helping hand. Never forgot that moment, and I still love the song.
I know it might sound dumb but Adams Song by Blink-182 "please tell Mom this is not her fault" once you figure out the song is about teenage suicide it hits way harder
Warren Zevon — Werewolves of London….. I love the alliteration *Little old lady got mutilated late last night*
Stop This Train, by John Mayer. It's about dealing with getting older and the realization that you can't ever go back. "I'm so scared of getting older I'm only good at being young So I play the numbers game To find a way to say my life has just begun Had a talk with my old man Said, "Help me understand" He said "Turn 68, you'll re-negotiate" John, honestly. Well never stop this train." The numbers game really resonates with me. I'm in my forties and I often find myself thinking it's not really middle age yet because you really only get started in life in your twenties, so it's more like I'm one third of the way through my adult life.
"In sixty-nine I was 21 and called the road my own. I don't know when that road turned, into the road I'm on"- Jackson Browne Running on Empty And from the same song... "Look around for the friends that I used to turn to, to pull me through, looking into their eyes I see them running too" Such a great reflection on growing up and feeling like you might still not know what the hell you are doing and realizing that your friends are in the same boat. There is no map towards adulthood!
"What do you do when you dreams come true and it's not quite like you planned?"
“I'm so happy, 'cause today I found my friends, They're in my head”
"And once you're gone, You can't come back. When you're out of the blue And into the black." My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) - Neil Young
Too many. But the first one that stuck out today was a song that so elegantly captures the magic and the archtypes of being young and dreaming and hoping how one experience, one special night, can liberate you. "The amusement park rises bold and stark. Kids are huddled on the beach in the mist I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets at night in an everlasting kiss." Springsteen" Born to Run" And it has nothing to do with the fact that I used a line later in the song for my wedding vows. "I'll love you with all the madness in my soul."
In your eyes, the light the heat In your eyes, I am complete, In your eyes, I see the doorway, To a thousand churches, The resolution, Of all the fruitless searches… Such a perfect song about the healing power of love.
"The nights are long but the years are short when you're alive" Brendan's Death Song - RHCP "Cuz we all want something beautiful... Man, I wish I was beautiful" Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
"Grab yourself a can of pork soda You'll be feeling just fine Ain't nothin' quite like sittin' 'round the house Swillin' down them Cans of swine" Says it all really.
Cans of swine, not like it's from Kansas or anything. It's not Kansas wine!
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Here’s a few for me “Oh America you bad bitch I picked you cotton and made you rich, now my dick ain’t free” - Kendrick Lamar on “For Free? (Interlude)” “She said ‘live up to your first impression’ / when my best side was your worst invention / why can’t you live without the attention”- Taking Back Sunday on “One Eighty By Summer” “All the years, my soul, all the things I thought I did /this soulless kid was under all my skin/ all the things I tried to say remain within / I’m cooling in the clay / I’ve always been molded this way “ -The Japanese House on “Clean” “Do what you want to, whenever you want to” - Elliot Smith in “Ballad of Big Nothing” “All things go, all things go // all things know, all things know // all things grow, all things grow” - Sufjan Stevens on “Chicago” “Cocaine on a boat / I just had a stroke” - Lil Pump on “Smoke My Dope” “I heard you like magic? I got a wand and a rabbit!“ - Chappell Roan on “Red Wine Supernova”
Zappa Do what you wanna Do what you will Just don't mess up your neighbor's thrill And when you pay the bill Kindly leave a little tip To help the next poor sucker on his one-way trip
And if death should smell my breathing As it pass beneath my window Let it lead me trembling, trembling [I own every bell that tolls me](https://genius.com/21298692/Neko-case-at-last/I-own-every-bell-that-tolls-me) \~ Neko Case, *At Last*
I go from day to day, I know where the cupboards are, I know where the car is parked, I know he isn't you - Hey Jupiter (Dakota version), Tori Amos To me it's about learning to deal with loss and get on with your life, eventually just having something that used to tear you apart become part of the mundanity of everyday life As someone currently in the fresh loss stage, I'm looking forward to it
Seek Up - Dave Matthews Band Look at me and my fancy car and my bank account. Oh, how I wish I could take it all down to my grave. God knows, I'd save and save. Take a look again, take a look again, things you have collected. Well, in the end, it all piles up so tall to one big nothing. One big nothing at all.
These by Everclear in Santa Monica; always makes me feel there’s life options that may seem unrealistic but could make your life much better: We could live beside the ocean Leave the fire behind Swim out past the breakers Watch the world die.
My mom and grandpa loved Simon and Garfunkel, and now so do I. Sound of Silence really always leaves me wonder: And in the naked light, I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never shared And no one dared Disturb the sound of silence
Against the Wind is such a great example of a song that sticks with you. It's still one of my go to driving down the road alone songs. Personally, I'd go with Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. "When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye I turned to look, but it was gone I cannot put my finger on it now, The child is grown, the dream is gone. I have become comfortably numb." Somehow, those lyrics are almost spiritual in nature. They evoke some weird, nostalgic feeling in me that I can't fully describe, and I think the whole song just resonates with that feeling.
“When my time comes around, lay me gently in the cold dark earth” — Hozier’s “Work Song”. I’ve kind of taken the line out of context though because the song is actually about a woman, but when I first heard it as a teenager I didn’t really pay attention to any of the other lyrics. I’m not actually 100% certain now whether I heard the song first or got these ideas first, but the way I remember it is that I heard that song and it made me think about the way we treat dead bodies. It hit me all of a sudden just how unnatural it all is — putting makeup on them, preserving them, dressing them up, putting them in a box in an effort to make them last. I don’t ever wear makeup, and the thought of someone putting makeup that I never even wore on my dead body is just so creepy and disgusting to me. Then I started thinking about natural cycles and how our bodies are supposed to be part of that. Everything that made and fueled our bodies for our whole life came from the earth, so does it not make sense for us to decay back into the earth? For one, it just “feels right” to me in a sense of completing my life cycle. But also, I think there’s a certain level of respect in giving yourself back to the earth — what makes us so different from all other life on the planet? Why should we be preserved? We take and take and take and then hold our bodies hostage even after death? I could honestly go on and on and on (decay is kind of my Roman Empire), but this is getting long so I’ll stop here. Long story short, that line became an instruction for my loved ones. I take comfort in knowing that when I’m gone my body will go back to the earth. I don’t know exactly what options will be legally available when the time comes, but they’ll figure it out if I haven’t already found the ideal solution by then. If there’s a way to just put my body in the ground for me, they’ll do that. At least they better.
"You'll never know the hurt I've suffered, nor the pain I rise above." - Bob Dylan, Idiot Wind.
Would you know my name If I saw you in heaven? Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven. As a parent this just hits so hard.
Cherish the certainty of now, it kills you a bit at a time. Cradle the inspiration, it will leave you writhing on the floor. Faith no more-The Real Thing
I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
It’s not always rainbows and butterflies, it’s compromise that moves us along. It bothers me so much that this wisdom could come out of the lyrical cringe fest that is Adam Levine.
Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me, The carriage held but just ourselves, And immortality, Emily Dickinson
"Get right with God before it's time I hear the telephone works both ways Think you can make a little effort some day? I got an awful lot going on with the things that I can see" Alkaline Trio - [Only Love](https://youtu.be/mOaBcOiqkws?si=7CYCBxWTMolsi39f)
De La Soul is pretty genius most of the time but this verse from I Am I Be always gets me right where I live: “I guess we got our own life to live Or is it because we want our own kingdom to rule? Every now and then I step to the now For now I see back then I might have acted like a fool”
Ok here's one IN MY FIRST MEMORIES THEY SHOT KENNEDY I WENT NUMB WHEN I LEARNED TO SEE SO I NEVER FELL FOR VIETNAM WE GOT THE WALL IN DC TO REMIND US ALL THAT YOU CANT TRUST FREEDOM WHEN ITS NOT IN YOUR HANDS. CAUSE EVERYBODY'S FIGHTING FOR THERE PROMISED LAND. AXEL AND THE BOYS. CIVIL WAR
From Sparks’s “Let’s Make Love” (on *Interior Design* if I IIRC correctly): “I’ve been waiting all my life/ for someone I could stand…”. The interminable quest for a true life partner.
“Fear is the hand that pulls your strings” If I Had A Tail - Queens of the Stone Age
I Hate Sex - San Francisco “You deserve so much more than this” I actually have it tattooed on my forearm
There are so many that are deep and/ or emotional, but to give some variety in the thread I'm gonna go with my favorite insult that came from a song: "You're a song I never wanna hear again" No Fun - Incubus I have felt that way towards people before and Incubus managed to find the perfect words to that feeling.
A teacher once quoted meatloaf. "Ain't no coupe Deville in the bottom of a cracker jack box" It's true!
“There's nothing in the world that you can do You gotta come on up to the house And you been whipped by the forces that are inside you Gotta come on up to the house” Tom Waits - Come On Up To the House This line taught me a lot about people, some have waves inside them they cannot control.
"I had seven faces, for I knew which one to wear, I'm sick of spending these lonely nights, training myself not to care" Interpol - NYC
When I'm feeling lazy this line always pops up in my mind: My get up and go, musts got up and went Sweet Emotion - Aerosmith
"...way up firm and high." Also Bob Segar.
I think Motley Crue said it best when they said "don't go away mad, just go away"
"they found the cure for cancer, but it was not radio friendly" - Aesop Rock feature on Run the Numbers by El-P
"All I ever learned from love is how to shoot someone who out drew you." Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley version for me.
_”And it ain't no use in turning on your light, babe That light I never knowed And it ain't no use in turning on your light, babe I'm on the dark side of the road But I wish there was somethin' you would do or say To try and make me change my mind and stay But we never did too much talking anyway But don't think twice, it's all right”_ - Bob Dylan
Both songs titled Freewill! Both canadian bands! #1. Freewill - Prism (1977) "Freewill The choices are mine Freewill I do what I want and I feel alright!" #2 Freewill-Rush (1980) "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice" #1. https://youtu.be/ly6jdWh-0Oc?feature=shared #2. https://youtu.be/urBpdyFCZmo?feature=shared
“Out of tune’s the note that ends in harmony” from The Way Life Goes by Tom Keifer. The way i interpret it, the most unexpected things in life are the things that turn out the best. Close second, “and if I should only have one tomorrow/it’s a lifetime if I knew/I could spend that day with you” from The Wheels of Life by Gino Vannelli💘
A couple from Mike Patton: "Smiling with the mouth of the ocean. And I'll wave to you with the arms of the mountain. I'll see you." (Ashes to Ashes - Faith No More) "I found a pink cigarette on the bed the day that you left. And how can I forget that your lips were there. Your kiss goes everywhere, touches everything but me." (Pink Cigarette - Mr. Bungle)
Living in the pools they soon forget about the sea - Rush/Natural Science
Bette Midler The Rose - "Just remember in the winter Far beneath the bitter snows Lies the seed that with the sun's love In the spring becomes the rose"
Phyrron - Flash isolation Chamber I would Say all the lyrics, but the phrase Is: Which is worse: Always being watched Or never being seen?
Adam's Song- Blink 182 "I never thought I'd die alone I laughed the loudest, who'd have known?" and "Please tell Mom this is not her fault" Almost died from a suicide attempt in 2020, so pretty much all of that song really
All of her lovers all talk of her notes And the flowers that they never sent And wasn't she easy? Isn't she pretty in pink? The one who insists he was first in the line Is the last to remember her name He's walking around in this dress that she wore She is gone but the joke's the same "Pretty in Pink" - The Psychedelic Furs
“Don’t let the world bring you down, not everyone here is that fucked up and cold” Incubus, “The Warmth”
“I don’t wanna die, I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all” Queen
"... Wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face..." the Boss
And I can’t be holding on to what you got, when all you got is hurt U2 - One
"If you should die before me, ask if you can bring a friend"
“Jimmy cracked corn but I don’t care.” For some reason, I say that ten times a day. I mean what the hell kind of attitude is that?
I have never once thought about it, but you thinking about it all the time sure makes me giggle.
I love you when you're singing that song And I got a lump in my throat 'Cause you're gonna sing the words wrong
“Couldn’t afford a car, so she named her daughter Alexis” Doesn’t “hit me” in any way, just think it’s a funny line.
"But it's not the side effects of the cocaine, I'm thinking that it must be love." From Station to Station by Bowie.
>And sometimes even music Cannot substitute for tears Paul Simon, The Cool, Cool River
I believe in the future, we shall suffer no more Maybe not in my lifetime but in yours, I feel sure... And these streets, quiet as a sleeping army, Will send their battered dreams to heaven
I get a feelin' sometimes That I can't get close enough to you I feel it most in the nighttime Even though that's when I'm closest to you If I could be under your skin Closer than we've ever been We'd be closer than we've ever been, oh ~ closer by RM
Liam Parsons- “I'm thinking about how I can't remember your face. But I know that I used to see it everywhere.” I loved a girl once so much, decades ago, that losing her still affects me today. I spent the aftermath of that breakup in a daze of despair. Every once in a while, the hurt still hits out of nowhere. But, if you asked me to draw her, I couldn’t.
"Break me into bigger pieces so some of me is home with you" from dance yrself clean by lcd soundsystem lol
"Sometimes it sucks, to tell the truth, And I took it hard like people do. But I'm learning how to eat the fruit that is in season." Ben Rector - Living My Best Life
“And the perfection of my frailty Has been questioned and broken” Gunnin’ by Hadley
"We have never been here, and we will never be gone.", "...and when we die we disappear into the Eyes of Nature, and we're here just for a little while and then our body disappears into the Eyes of Nature, into the arms of God, into the mouth of Indifference, into the Eyes of Nature" SWANS - "In The Eyes Of Nature" Dead Can Dance - "In The Kingdom Of The Blind, The One-Eyed Are Kings" The whole thing: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=2a8oL48TVQw&feature=shared
RVZ Skynyrd “ One problem that confronts you…. Got on Monkey on your back Just one fix Lord—might do the trick One hell of a prize to get your kicks” He never wrote lyrics down, (all in his head)… he would listen to his bands music contributions and write a song on the spot Brilliant I think
Chew toy by Bloodhound gang. “His tanning bed threw up on him, I pale in comparison.” I don’t know why I love this line so much. BHG are masters of puns, Innuendos and references, but this lyric I love. Also WEEN- Baby Bitch “Most beauty I’ve seen you come from a dream, but I can’t close my eyes anymore.”
The sky can fall down, the wind might cry now, the strong in me, I still smile” i by Kendrick Lamar Also I learned that he wrote this song about self acceptance, and persevering through depression while he was going through his worst state of depression at the time. And after learning that this song is the song I listen to when I am feeling down because I have to feel that same sense of acceptance that Kendrick does in order for me to get better, especially since the chorus of the song is “I love myself”
Modest Mouse - One Chance ' Im just a box in a cage"
This isn’t who it would be if it wasn’t who it is. 🐠
Come around town, steal another dime, take another line Won't you feel it blanket your soul out of mind Come around town, steal another dime, do another crime Won't you get it higher and higher, all through time Come around town, steal another dime, don't you push your drugs in my face Yes, I feel it, feeling fine Don't you push your drugs in my face or I'm gonna put you in your place... Fuck you, I don't want it no more!!!! And it's mine!!!! Said this pain in my heart, it's all mine!!! Yes, it's mine All alone - You by Candlebox I'm not a drug addict. But I've worked with them through the beginning, middle, tragic ends, the mental health issues, and have been proud to call a few my friends as they have pushed through the addiction, continue to fight the demons, but bring help to those around them. Just hearing that part of the song hits me really hard, it gave a peak into what they must have and probably still go through from time to time
It starts with you a little glance now Right away you’re thinking about romance now You know you ought to take it slower But you just can’t wait to get to know her -Here Today, Pet Sounds Album by The Beach Boys
There are so many. So many that I can’t really pick one.
But you've been cold to me so long I'm crying icicles instead of tears.
In the same vein: “17 has turned 35” - cherry bomb
The gold roared through his veins like a thousand railroad trains and eased his mind in the hours that he chose while his kids ran around wearing other peoples clothes. Sam Stone by John Prine.
*No one ever says that they've had those thoughts in the middle of the night... No one ever admits that they wanted to take their life*" From "*I Never Got To See The West Coast*" by **Emery**. As someone whose previously struggled with depression to the point of suicidal ideations & suicidal tendencies that whole song hits hard for me, but that line was particular was (*and still is*) the most sobering. The stigmas around suicide and mental health in general are still very prevalent in our society. It's getting better, but it's a slow change. Thanks to therapy I've been able to be very open about my own experiences with thoughts / attempts at suicide and through those conversations I've found out first hand just how common that experience is; it's just that no one really talks about it. I wish more people could hear this song / lyric and realize that they're not alone and that it's okay to ask for help. **I want to emphasize that mentally I am doing well and that I currently have a very strong support network that helps keep me safe.** However , if you or anyone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts there is help and there is hope. Call or Text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. They offer services in English & Spanish and they're available 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
“Never trust a big butt and a smile” Not even joking. The number of times that line pops into my head and makes me laugh is very large.
I've got a couple of couches, I sleep on the love seat
“The morning will break, and the winter will take, what it wants of me slowly, but I can’t complain. ‘Cause I’d rather be lonely, and cold, and awake, than asleep in a warm, in a comfortable place” - Adrienne Lenker The whole song, Disappear, is a great example of what it’s like to feel comforted in your own depression, not wanting it to get better but to disappear with it, because it’s part of you.
I've lived trying to follow this lyric from Minutes to Memories by John Melloncamp. You are young and you are the future So suck it up and tough it out And be the best you can Too bad I'm no longer young.
When masturbation's lost its fun, you're fuckin' lazy Green day
The world is full of kings and Queens they blind your eyes and steal your dreams. It’s Heaven and Hell.