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lorax
12-20-2009, 05:51 PM
It struck me today that the real superstar poets of our age are almost all musicians. In this spirit, let's see what your favourite bits of lyric, or bits of lyric that really affect you in some way, are.

I'll kick it off:

"...I'm all alone now / I smoke my friends down to the filter..." - Tom Waits, A Little Drop of Poison

"...All hail to the resident gassbag..." - Green Day, Holiday

"...the escalator takes it personally / and the clothes dryer professionally..." - Squirrel Nut Zippers, Trou Macaque

Bob
12-20-2009, 06:06 PM
Sticking with Tom Waits....( from "The Black Riders")

November has tied me
To an old dead tree
Get word to April
To rescue me
November's cold chain
Made of wet boots and rain
And shiny black ravens
On chimney smoke lanes
November seems odd
You're my firing squad
November

island cassie
12-20-2009, 06:09 PM
cool!!

momoese
12-20-2009, 06:50 PM
Let's cruise! the chocolate stew was u know who
I told u to jam the frequency
This sector's chartered by you

Ween
"Poop Ship Destroyer"
"Pure Guava" (1992)

lorax
12-21-2009, 10:31 AM
"... while Frank Sinatra sings stormy weather / the flies and spiders get along together..." Cake, Frank Sinatra

"...And the moon is swimming naked / and the summer night is fragrant / with a mighty expectation of relief..." - Leonard Cohen, Closing Time

"...Oh how we danced / and we swallowed the nights / for it was all ripe for dreaming..." - Tom Waits, Rain Dogs

"...Por beber del veneno malevo de tu amor / Yo quedé moribundo y lleno de dolor / Respiré de ese humo amargo de tu adiós / Y desde que tú te fuiste yo solo tengo la camisa negra / porque negra tengo el alma..."
(translation: "...For drinking the evil poison of your love / I am now close to death and filled with pain / I breathed in the bitter smoke of your goodbye / and since you've gone I have only my black shirt / because my soul is blackened...") - Juanes, La Camisa Negra (oddly enough, this is a happy song.)

Jack Daw
12-21-2009, 11:03 AM
Sorry, Beth, but I will pass on this one. It's just that I would have to translate it all and .... .... well, it's the end of semester/term... Pretty conclusive. ;)

Simply Bananas
12-21-2009, 08:42 PM
They say that patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings.
Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you king.
There's only one step down from here, baby,
It's called the land of permanent bliss.
What's a sweetheart like you doin' in a dump like this?~~Bob Dylan

momoese
12-21-2009, 10:21 PM
I was made with a heart of stone
To be broken
With one hard blow
I've seen the ocean
Break on the shore
Come together with no harm done...

Jane's Addiction "Ocean Size"

CValentine
12-21-2009, 11:06 PM
"I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
So the days flow through my eyes
But the days still seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consolations
They're quite aware of what they're going through" - 'Changes' ~ David Bowie

"Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
And can I sail through the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
Oh oh I don't know, oh I don't know" - 'Landslide' ~ Fleetwood Mac

"A heart that's full up like a landfill
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won't heal

You look so tired and unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us
I'll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide" - 'No Surprises' ~ Radiohead

Great Thread Lorax!!!! :) ~Cheryl

Richard
12-22-2009, 12:54 AM
"There's no sense in going further--it's the edge of cultivation,"
So they said, and I believed it--broke my land and sowed my crop--
Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station
Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop:

Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang interminable changes
On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated--so:
"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges--
"Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"

... (continues)

The Explorer, by Rudyard Kipling (http://pages.prodigy.net/krtq73aa/explore.htm).

lorax
12-22-2009, 09:57 AM
Oh, and I don't think I mentioned it... There's no reason that it can't be a fragment that made you giggle. There's a strong tradition of comic / nonsense poetry!

"... My pulse will be quickenin' / with each drop of strichenin / we feed to a pigeon / it just takes a smidgen! / To poison the pigeons in the park! " - Tom Lehrer, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

and from the same song...

"... When they see me coming / the birdies all try and hide / but they still go for peanuts / all coated in cyanide..."

guerich
12-22-2009, 10:42 AM
How do your pistol and your Bible and your Sleeping pills go? Did you bury the carnival Lions and all?

lorax
12-22-2009, 11:36 AM
Sixteen cars are out by my back door
Boys in blue are calling my name
Semiautomatics up on the rooftop
They just want to talk to me
I told them what they wanted to hear
The only thing that I knew
49 tons of diesel locomotive
Couldn't drag me back to you.

- Fred J. Eaglesmith and the Flying Squirrels, 49 Tons

guerich
12-22-2009, 12:44 PM
:woohoonaner:Young British Soldier- Rudyard Kipling, one of my favorites. My best friends' a butcher, he has sixteen knives-Roland-Interpol.