Friday OT #1 - How’s That Working Out For You, Being Clever?

[mj4cy]

I'd have to add the first line of the first song in Hamilton, "Alexander Hamilton", its the perfect run on sentence that gives you a ton of history.....


"How does a bastard, orphan, son of a *****
And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot
In the Caribbean by providence impoverished
In squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?"

 

[CloneHead]

Here are some lyrics from a few songs I enjoy

Jacskson Brown
Ready or Not

"But I let her do some of my laundry
And she slipped a few meals in between
And the next thing I remember, she was all moved in
And I was buying her a washing machine'

Warren Zevon
Poor, Poor Pitiful Me

"Well, I met a girl in West Hollywood
I ain't naming names
She really worked me over good
She was just like Jesse James
She really worked me over good
She was a credit to her gender"

Linda Ronstadt version switches girl to boy and she to he

Jimmy Buffett Pencil Thin Mustache

"Yeah, they send you off to college, try to gain a little knowledge
But all you want to do is learn how to score"

A song by David Crosby, just a relevant today as it was in the Vietnam era

What Are Their Names

"I wonder who they are
The men who really run this land
And I wonder why they run it
With such a thoughtless hand
Tell me what are their names
And on what street do they live?
I'd like to ride right over
This afternoon and give
Them a piece of my mind
About peace for mankind
Peace is not
An awful lot
To ask"

 

[20eyes]

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
if I was to say to you
I didn't set your house on fire

But that's just the way I am
Have to take it for a fact
Life can really burn you up
When you're a pyromaniac

so

If you love somebody
why not set them on fiii-re?!?

The lyricism of the Dead Milkmen is truly remarkable. The way they lead with the Doors and then hit you with the absurd gonzo subject matter is so satisfying. Those records are so goddamned much fun...

 

[Angie]

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
if I was to say to you
I didn't set your house on fire

But that's just the way I am
Have to take it for a fact
Life can really burn you up
When you're a pyromaniac

so

If you love somebody
why not set them on fiii-re?!?

The lyricism of the Dead Milkmen is truly remarkable. The way they lead with the Doors and then hit you with the absurd gonzo subject matter is so satisfying. Those records are so goddamned much fun...

I was just listening to this song literally yesterday!

 

[20eyes]

The entire Cramps catalogue is packed with great lyrics but some of my favorites are from Drug Train off 1983's Off The Bone.

I've seen Elvis with your mother
On the Drug Train

Sherlock Holmes looks for clues
It 's something to do
On the Drug Train

Sigmund Freud is slippin and slidin
with ALL of your friends
On the Drug Train

The references being to barbiturates and diazepam which became widely abused by suburban housewives (and Elvis) in the '60s.

Sherlock Holmes being an opium addict.

Sigmund Freud's cocaine addiction (and it's exploding popularity in the '70s into the 80s).

I also love that they use Miltown (brand name for the drug Meprobamate) as a stop on the Drug Train.

They were experts at seedy and unsavory pop culture references.

 

[Farnsworth]

Now I done grew up
Round some people living their life in bottles
Granddaddy had the golden flask
Back stroke every day in Chicago
Some people like the way it feels
Some people wanna kill their sorrows
Some people wanna fit in with the popular
That was my problem
I was in the dark room
Loud tunes, looking to make a vow soon
That I'ma get f*cked up, fillin' up my cup
I see the crowd mood
Changing by the minute and the record on repeat........

source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/k/kendricklamarlyrics/swimmingpoolsdranklyrics.html

 

[Farnsworth]

I don't know what's better. Getting laid or getting paid. All I know is when I'm getting one the others getting away.

 

[cytor]

For those of you that unfortunately lost a close friend or family member to suicide.... This song touches on the topic and begs the person to "please don't go through with it" Very powerful song.

Someone set a bad example
Made surrender seem all right
The act of a noble warrior
Who lost the will to fight
And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Done with life on a razor's edge
Nothing's what you thought it would be
All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
Turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back and slam the door on me

 

[Farnsworth]

What if my best days are the days I've left behind?
And what if the rest stays the same for all my life?
I'm running with my eyes closed, so it goes
You live and then you die
But the hardest pill to swallow is the meantime
Are the best days just the ones that we survive?

 

[Farnsworth]

For those of you that unfortunately lost a close friend or family member to suicide.... This song touches on the topic and begs the person to "please don't go through with it" Very powerful song.

Someone set a bad example
Made surrender seem all right
The act of a noble warrior
Who lost the will to fight
And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Done with life on a razor's edge
Nothing's what you thought it would be
All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
Turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back and slam the door on me

If I could rewind time
Then I'd like to let you know
Just one thing before your time go
That every moment you were living was a blessing to me
And I saw inside of you things that others couldn't see
Now people put you down for the way that you lived
But those people never knew you the way that I did
Don't be ashamed of who you were or how you died
I know you just wanted to find the brighter side...

Songs about Bradley Nowells

 

[CascadeClone]

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
if I was to say to you
I didn't set your house on fire

But that's just the way I am
Have to take it for a fact
Life can really burn you up
When you're a pyromaniac

so

If you love somebody
why not set them on fiii-re?!?

The lyricism of the Dead Milkmen is truly remarkable. The way they lead with the Doors and then hit you with the absurd gonzo subject matter is so satisfying. Those records are so goddamned much fun...

My freshman year roommate listened to them. You are the 1st person in 30 years since then that has brought them up.

I used to sing that song once in a while, just since it was funny.

He also listened to the Ramones, Metallica (before the Black album) and DRI.

 

[Farnsworth]

For clever lyrics I was registering to Bloodhound Gangs Hooray for Boobies and forgot how funny it is

 

[coolerifyoudid]

I've always liked these lyrics from Offspring's "Staring at the Sun". It's indicative of my societal views on a lot of days:

Everyone's around, but no one does a damn thing
It brings me down, but I won't let them
If I seem bleak
Well you'd be correct
And if I don't speak
It's 'cause I can't disconnect
But I won't be
Burned up by the reflection
Of the fire in your eyes

Also from the same song:

There's more to living than only surviving
Maybe I'm not there
But I'm still trying

 

[Pat]

Maybe the best single phonetic line ever to say out loud:

”Little old lady got mutilated late last night.”

Although, the first verse of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” is up there.

I’ve been on a Zevon kick lately, he’s ridiculous.

(In best Sophia Petrillo voice) Picture it: Omaha, summer of 1999. Had just finished my freshman year at ISU, and, because I knew people that knew people, got myself guest-listed for the Counting Crows show. Opening act: Cracker. “Great,” I think to myself, “I like their one song.”

Turns out I knew almost every song they played, and loved them all. And I think every song has at least one laugh-out-loud clever lyric. “Eurotrash Girl” is basically an 8-minute joke.

Personal favorite from Seven Days:

So we were standing around, fading in and out of fashion
While Amerikids dug Eurobeats
Well we know all of the doormen and other bartendresses
And there ain't nothing that you got that we don't need
Did I say that right?

 

[Gonzo]

Every time I take a look
Inside that old and fabled book
I'm blinded and reminded of
The pain caused by some old man in the sky

- Sturgill Simpson, Turtles All the Way Down

 

[NickTheGreat]

I thought that my drinking just to get drunk was a waste of precious booze
But now I know that there's a time and there's a place to where I can choose
To walk the fine line between self-control and self-abuse

- The Barenaked Ladies, Alcohol

Posting BNL is almost cheating. There's tons of good wordplay in their stuff

 

[Cy Hard]

You mean like...

If I had a million dollars
I'd buy you a monkey
Haven't you always wanted a monkey!?

But yes I suppose they do.

 

[cmjh10]

These are the only clean lyrics in the song, but it’s a good one.

I bet she didn't think twice about Amarillo
Hell, Denver all but once crossed her mind
She's flyin' down 40 like a bat out of hell for Memphis
She left me all alone in Montgomery tonight

 

[Pope]

Every Sunday morning;
It seems all I hear;
Is that we should love you;
But love you out of fear;
It only makes you further;
No, not very near;

Dear Lord please tell me so;
Should we trust all that we're told?

Then they say temptation;
Is just your way;
Of testing us all;
Like it's some kind of game;
Then for those who fail Lord;
Please tell me who's to blame;

Dear Lord please tell me so;
Should we trust all that we're told?

The path leads to you;
Must go through them they say;
And they claim their path;
Is the only way;
Of course for us to use it;
Well we all have to to pay;

Dear Lord please tell me so;
Should we trust all that we're told?

And then they try to teach us;
That we're apart;
Yet I feel you Lord;
Deep here in my heart;
I wish that you had made it;
Clear from the start;

Dear Lord please tell me so;
Should we trust all that we're told?


Why is it that the one thing;
We all hold most dear;
Is controlled by others;
Through their use of fear;
Just wished that you had made it;
All crystal clear;

Dear Lord please tell me so;
Should we trust all that we're told?

 

[cyclones500]

The ones who love us the best
Are the ones we'll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
But the ones who love us the least
Are the ones we'll die to please
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand

- Paul Westerberg, The Replacements, Bastards of the Young

As I tend to think any time a good lyrics/clever lyrics theme comes about, I immediately think of a batch of Westerberg. Then I want to post all my favorites but don't have enough time. (And it also takes away from a ton of other lyrics/songwriters I like)