I'm not sure what we're having to prove...I think some songs rely on lyrical content, while others don't and I don't make a distinction between them. I'm not much of a poetry person, either, so you'll find me hard-pressed to rush to poetry's defense as a 'higher' form. Personally, I am more moved by prose.
Why, though, do song lyrics necessarily have to stand on their own? No one expects that poetry should be able to be set to music, <subtle dig> bongos notwithstanding.
Anyway, I've always enjoyed the lyrics of James Mercer from the Shins.
Quote:
Gold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth.
Only, i don't know how they got out, dear.
Turn me back into the pet that i was when we met.
I was happier then with no mind-set.
And if you'd 'a took to me like
A gull takes to the wind.
Well, i'd 'a jumped from my tree
And i'd a danced like the king of the eyesores
And the rest of our lives would 'a fared well.
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Quote:
Since then it's been a book you read in reverse
So you understand less as the pages turn
Or a movie so crass
And awkwardly cast
That even I could be the star.
I don't look back as much as a rule
And all this way before murder was cool
But your memory is here and I'd like it to stay
Warm light on a winter day.
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Quote:
We've got rules and maps and guns in our backs
but we still can't just behave ourselves
even if to save our own lives, so says I, we are a brutal kind.
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Quote:
A cold and wet November dawn
and there are no barking sparrows
just emptiness to dwell upon.
I fell into a winter slide
and ended up the kind of kid who goes down chutes too narrow
just eking out my measly pies.
But I learned fast how to keep my head up 'cause I
know there is this side of me that
wants to grab the yoke from the pilot and just
fly the whole mess into the sea.
Another slow train to the coast
some brand new gory art from way on high
I sink and then I swim all night.
I watch the ice melt on the glass
while the eloquent young pilgrims pass
and leave behind their trail
imploring us all not to fail.
Of course I was raised to gather courage from those
lofty tales so tried and true
if you're able, I'd suggest it 'cause this
modern thought can get the best of you.
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Quote:
you may notice certain things before you die.
mail them to me should they cause
your algebra to fail.
cole and macey lost their eyes
to the finer points
roll them up in coffee cake and dine.
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Quote:
As someone sets light to the first fire of autumn
we settle down to cut ourselves apart.
Cough and twitch from the news on your face
and some foreign candle burning in your eyes.
Held to the past, too aware of the pending
chill as the dawn breaks and finds us up for sale.
Enter the fog, another low road descending
away from the cold lust, your house and summertime.
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Quote:
Just put yourself in my new shoes,
And see that I do what I do,
Because the old god still offends,
(Their pudgy hearts and slimy hands)
They got nothing left on which we depend.
So enlist every ounce
Of your bright blood,
And off with their heads.
Jump from the hook,
You're not obliged to swallow anything you despise
That you despise.
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Quote:
This lass
Some fifteen odd years
Is widely known
To have spat
In her teacher's lap
And will not take it back
For now I see
How after all their crap
She rightly came to that.
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Quote:
So we just skirt the hallway sides,
A phantom and a fly,
Follow the lines and wonder why
There's no connection.
And week of rolling eyes,
And cheap shots from the trite,
And we're off to Nemarca’s porch again,
Another afternoon with the goat head tunes,
And pilfered booze.
We wandered through her mama's house,
And milk from the window lights
Family portrait circa ninety-five,
This is that foreign land,
With the sprayed on tans,
And it all feels fine,
Be it silk or slime
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I also enjoy the lyrics of Bob Dylan, Donald Fagen, Tom Waits, Aimee Mann, Rickie Lee Jones, Chuck D, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, PJ Harvey, Exene Cervenka and lots more that I'm sure I'm forgetting right now.