Boot

I was having this discussion with someone the other day. We were trying to think of song lyrics that were powerful enough by themselves without musical accompaniment to be read as poetry. Bob Dylan comes to mind, as does some Neil Young. What would you throw into the mix? Provide lyrics or links to lyrics if possible.

<small>Mods: I realize this might be better suited for Music Talk, but since I'm looking for lyrics as poetry rather than discussing the music itself, I thought maybe Other was more appropriate.</small>

colossus

This is part of a trilogy of sorts...

Warm Wet Circles
Lyrics: Dick
Music: Dick/Kelly/Mosley/Rothery/Trewavas
On promenades where drunks propose to lonely arcade mannequins
Where ceremonies pause at the jeweller's shop display
Feigning casual silence in strained romantic interludes
Till they commit themselves to the muted journey home
And the pool player rests on another cue
Last nights hero picking up his dues
A honeymoon gambled on a ricochet
She's staring at the brochures at the holidays

Chalking up a name in your hometown
Standing all your mates to another round
Laughing at the world till the barman wipes away the warm wet circles
The warm wet circles

I saw teenage girls like gaudy moths
A classroom's shabby butterflies
Flirt in the glow of stranded telephone boxes
Planning white lace weddings from smeared hearts and token proclamations
Rolled from stolen lipsticks across the razored webs of glass
Sharing cigarettes with experience with her giggling jealous confidantes
She faithfully traces his name with quick bitten fingernails
Through the tears of condensation that'll cry through the night
As the glancing headlights of the last bus kiss adolescence goodbye
In a warm wet circle

Like a mothers kiss on your first broken heart, a warm wet circle
Like a bullet hole in Central Park, a warm wet circle
And I'll always surrender to the warm wet circles

She nervously undressed in the dancing beams of the Fidra lighthouse
Giving it all away before it's too late
She'll let a lovers tongue move in a warm wet circle
Giving it all away and showing no shame
She'll take a mother's kiss on her first broken heart a warm wet circle
She'll realise that she played her part in a warm wet circle

joltaddict

all I need is one mic, one beat, one stage
One ***** front, my face on the front page
Only if I had one gun, one girl and one crib
One God to show me how to do things his son did
Pure, like a cup of virgin blood; mixed with
151, one sip'll make a ***** flip
Writin names on my hollow tips, plottin ****
Mad violence who I'm gon' body, this hood politics
Ackowledge it, leave bodies chopped in garbages
Seeds watch us, grow up and try to follow us
Police watch us {*siren*} roll up and try knockin us
One knee I ducked, could it be my time is up
But my luck, I got up, the cop shot again
Bus stop glass bursts, a fiend drops his Heineken
Richochetin between the spots that I'm hidin in
Blackin out as I shoot back, **** gettin hit! [more sirens]
This is my hood I'ma rep, to the death of it
'til everybody come home, little niggaz is grown
Hoodrats, don't abortion your womb, we need more warriors soon
Sip from the star sun and the moon
In this life of police chases street sweepers and coppers
Stick-up kids with no conscience, leavin victims with doctors
IF YOU REALLY THINK YOU READY TO DIE, WITH NINES OUT
THIS IS WHAT NAS IS BOUT, ***** THE TIME IS NOW!

[whispering again]
all I need is one mic..
All I need is one mic.. that's all I need
All I need is one mic.. all I need niggaz
All I need is one mic.. yeah

[gradually getting louder]
All I need is one blunt, one page, and one pen
One prayer - tell God forgive for one sin
Matter fact maybe more than one, look back
at all the hatred against me, **** alla them
Jesus died at age 33, there's thirty-three shots
from twin glocks there's sixteen apiece, that's thirty-two
Which means, one of my guns was holdin 17
Twenty-seven hit your crew, six went into you
Everybody gotta die sometime; hope your funeral
never gets shot up, bullets tear through the innocent
Nothin is fair, niggaz roll up, shootin from wheelchairs
My heart is racin, tastin revenge in the air
I let the **** slide for too many years, too many times
Now I'm strapped with a couple of macs, too many nines
If y'all niggaz really wit me get busy load up the semis
Do more than just hold it explode the clip until you empty
There's nothin in our way - they bust, we bust, they rust, we rust
Lead flyin, feel it? I feel it in my gut
THAT WE TAKE THESE BITCHES TO WAR, LIE 'EM DOWN
CAUSE WE STRONGER NOW MY ***** THE TIME IS NOW!!

[whispering again]
All I need is one mic.. that's all I need, that's all I need
All I need is one mic.. there's nuttin else in the world
All I need is one mic.. that's all a ***** need to do his thing y'know
All I need is one mic..

[starting loud this time, getting quieter]
ALL I NEED IS ONE LIFE, ONE TRY, ONE BREATH, I'M ONE MAN
WHAT I STAND FOR SPEAKS FOR ITSELF, THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND
Or wanna see me on top, too egotistical
Talkin all that slick ****, the same way these bitches do
Wonder what my secrets is, niggaz'll move on you
only if they know, what your weakness is I have none
Too late to grab guns I'm blastin cause I'm a cool *****
Thought I wouldn't have that ass done? Fooled you niggaz
What you call a infinite brawl, eternal souls clashin
War gets deep, some beef is everlastin
Complete with thick scars, brothers knifin each other
up in prison yards, drama, where does it start?
You know the block was ill as a youngster
Every night it was like a cop would get killed, body found in the dumpster
For real a hustler, purchased my Range, niggaz throwin dirt on my name
Jealous cause fiends got they work and complain
Bitches left me cause they thought I was finished
Diamonds are blindin, I never make the same mistakes
Movin with a change of pace, lighter load, see now the king is straight
Swellin my melon cause none of these niggaz real
Heard he was, tellin police, how can a kingpin squeal?
This is crazy, I'm on the right track I'm finally found
You need some soul searchin, the time is now

All I need is one mic.. that's all I ever needed in this world, **** cash
All I need is one mic.. **** the cars, the jewelry
All I need is one mic.. to spread my voice to the whole world

Geofferson

Two songs come to mind...

Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ballad of Curtis Lowe

Well, I used to wake the morning,
Up before the rooster crowed,
Searchin' for soda bottles
To get myself some dough.

Run 'em down to the corner,
Down to the country store.
Cash 'em in, and give my money
To a man named Curtis Lowe.

Old Curt was a black man
With white, curly hair.
When he had a fifth of wine
He did not have a care.

Used to only play dobro,
Used to play across his knee
I'd give old Curt my money,
He'd play all day for me.

Play me a song, Curtis Lowe, Curtis Lowe.
I've got your drinking money, tune up your dobro.
People said he was useless, them people all were fools,
Cause Curtis Lowe is the finest picker to ever play the blues.

He looked to be sixty,
And maybe I was ten.
Mama used to whip me,
But I'd go see him again.

I'd clap my hands, stomp my feets,
Try to stay in time.
He'd play me a song or two
Then have another drink of wine.

Play me a song, Curtis Lowe, Curtis Lowe.
I've got your drinking money, tune up your dobro.
People said he was useless, them people all were fools,
Cause Curtis Lowe is the finest picker to ever play the blues.

On the day old Curtis died,
Nobody came to pray.
Old preacher said some words
And they chunked him in the clay.

Well, he lived a lifetime
Of playing the black-man blues.
And on the day he lost his life
That's all he had to lose.

Play me a song, Curtis Lowe, Curtis Lowe.
I wish that you was here, so everyone would know.
People said he was useless, them people all were fools,
Cause Curtis, you're the finest picker to ever play the blues.

AC/DC's Ride On

It's another lonely evening
And another lonely town
But I ain't too young to worry
And I ain't too old to cry
When a woman gets me down
Got another empty bottle
And another empty bed
Ain't too young to admit it
And I'm not too old to lie
I'm just another empty head

That's why I'm lonely
I'm so lonely
But I know what I'm gonna do -

I'm gonna ride on
Ride on
Ride on, standing on the edge of the road
Ride on, thumb in the air
Ride on, one of these days I'm gonna
Ride on, change my evil ways
Till then I'll just keep dragging on

Broke another promise
And I broke another heart
But I ain't too young to realize
That I ain't too old to try
Try to get back to the start
And it's another red light nightmare
Another red light street
And I ain't too old to hurry
Cause I ain't too old to die
But I sure am hard to beat

But I'm lonely
Lord I'm lonely
What am I gonna do -

Ride on
Ride on, got myself a one-way ticket
Ride on
Ride on, going the wrong way
Ride on, gonna change my evil ways
Ride on, one of these days
One of these days

Ride on
Ride on
I'm gonna ride on
Ride on, looking for a truck
Ride on
Ride on, keep on riding
Riding on and on and on

Beautiful stuff

Thanh

Any Sarah Mclachlan song:

Possession

listen as the wind blows
from across the great divide
voices trapped in yearning
memories trapped in time
the night is my companion
and solitude my guide
would i spend forever here
and not be satisfied

and i would be the one
to hold you down
kiss you so hard
i'll take your breath away
and after i'd wipe away the tears
just close your eyes dear

through this world i've stumbled
so many times betrayed
trying to find a honest word
to find the truth enslaved
oh you speak to me in riddles
and you speak to me in rhyme
my body aches to breathe your breath
your words keep me alive

and i would be the one
to hold you down
kiss you so hard
i'll take your breath away
and after i'd wipe away the tears
just close your eyes dear

into this night i wander
it's morning that i dread
another day of knowing of
the path i fear to tread
oh into the sea of waking dreams
i follow without pride
nothing stands between us here
and i won't be denied

and i would be the one
to hold you down
kiss you so hard
i'll take your breath away
and after i'd wipe away the tears
just close your eyes dear
i'll hold you down
kiss you so hard
i'll take your breath away
and after i'd wipe away the tears
just close your eyes

xmiyux

That is my favourite McLachlan song ever.

Static Cling

Word. Any news on a new album? I heard her singing "Blackbird" on the radio the other day... is this off a previously released album (maybe her B-sides album?), or off an upcoming one?

madcougar

I think most songs written by Sting could be considered poetry. Two of my favorites are Ghost Story and Why Should I Cry For You?

TeeSeeJay

Any song by Simon & Garfunkel.

Most of Jethro Tull's Minstrel In The Gallery album; for instance:

"REQUIEM"
Well, I saw a bird today --- flying from a bush and the
wind blew it away.
And the black-eyed mother sun scorched the butterfly
at play --- velvet veined.
I saw it burn.
With a wintry storm-blown sigh, a silver cloud blew
right on by.
And, taking in the morning, I sang --- O Requiem.
Well, my lady told me, ``Stay.''
I looked aside and walked away along the Strand.
But I didn't say a word, as the train time-table blurred
close behind the taxi stand.
Saw her face in the tear-drop black cab window.
Fading in the traffic; watched her go.
And taking in the morning, heard myself singing ---
O Requiem.
Here I go again.
It's the same old story.
Well, I saw a bird today --- I looked aside and walked
away along the Strand.

"PIG-ME AND THE WHORE"
``Big bottled Fraulein, put your weight on me,'' said the
pig-me to the whore,
desperate for more in his assault upon the mountain.
Little man, his youth a fountain.
Overdrafted and still counting.
Vernacular, verbose; an attempt at getting close to
where he came from.
In the doorway of the stars, between Blandford Street
and Mars;
Proposition, deal. Flying button feel. Testicle testing.
Wallet ever-bulging. Dressed to the left, divulging
the wrinkles of his years.
Wedding-bell induced fears.
Shedding bell-end tears in the pocket of her resistance.
International assistance flowing generous and full
to his never-ready tool.
Pulls his eyes over her wool.
And he shudders as he comes.
And my rudder slowly turns me into the Marylebone
Road.

xmiyux

That cut is from the I Am Sam soundtrack which consists of various artists covering Beatles songs. It's actually a pretty good soundtrack - although her doing Blackbird is one of the best cuts on it.

xmiyux

I would also say anything by Leonard Cohen is poetry - and i have a really hard time picking just one to quote to show this. I really like pretty much everything he has odne in his entire career except for a few scary things in the 70's (Death of a Ladies Man in particular) but here are some lyrics to one song:

Take This Waltz
(after Lorca)

Now in Vienna there's ten pretty women
There's a shoulder where Death comes to cry
There's a lobby with nine hundred windows
There's a tree where the doves go to die
There's a piece that was torn from the morning
And it hangs in the Gallery of Frost
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws
Oh I want you, I want you, I want you
On a chair with a dead magazine
In the cave at the tip of the lily
In some hallways where love's never been
On a bed where the moon has been sweating
In a cry filled with footsteps and sand
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take its broken waist in your hand

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz
With its very own breath of brandy and Death
Dragging its tail in the sea

There's a concert hall in Vienna
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews
There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking
They've been sentenced to death by the blues
Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture
With a garland of freshly cut tears?
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz it's been dying for years

There's an attic where children are playing
Where I've got to lie down with you soon
In a dream of Hungarian lanterns
In the mist of some sweet afternoon
And I'll see what you've chained to your sorrow
All your sheep and your lilies of snow
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
With its "I'll never forget you, you know!"

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz ...

And I'll dance with you in Vienna
I'll be wearing a river's disguise
The hyacinth wild on my shoulder,
My mouth on the dew of your thighs
And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
With the photographs there, and the moss
And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty
My cheap violin and my cross
And you'll carry me down on your dancing
To the pools that you lift on your wrist
Oh my love, Oh my love
Take this waltz, take this waltz
It's yours now. It's all that there is

Goat3001

A personal fav:

Metallica- For Whom The Bell Tolls

Make his fight on the hill in the early day
Constant chill deep inside
Shouting gun on they run through the endless grey
On they fight for they are right, yes but who's to say?
For a hill men would kill why? they do not know
Suffered wounds test their pride
Men of five still alive through the raging glow
Gone insane from the pain that they surely know

For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls

Take a look to the ski just before you die
It's the last time you will

Blackened roar massive roar fills the crumbling sky
Shattered goals fills his soul with a ruthless cry
Stranger now are his eyes to this mystery
He hears the silence so loud
Crack of dawn all is gone except the will to be
Now they see what will be blinded eyes to see

For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls

Rob

My senior year in high school we were to bring in work from a modern poet. This is what I brought in, and read in front of the class. It has internal rhyme (For a hill men would kill...), antithesis (...hear the silence so loud). I got an A. I never said it was Metallica. Just said the poet was James Hetfield. The stoners knew.

Now being a Rock fan, you wouldn't expect this from me, but I really appreciate Duran Duran's musical and lyric writing talent. My favorite lyric is this:

"The Seventh Stranger"

Those words are all remainders
Echos growing in the heart of twilight
They lay back laughing at naivety's star
Awakened all those whispers
The dusty shadow of a passing favor
I wouldn't say that you were ruthless or right
I couldn't see from so far
Was I chasing after rainbows
One thing for sure you never answered when I called
And I wiped away the water from my face to look through the eyes of a stranger
For rumors in the wake of such a lonely crowd
Trading in my shelter for danger I'm changing my name just as the sun goes down
In the eyes of the stranger

Can't tell the real from reflection
When all these faces look the same to me
In every city such a desolate dream
Some days are strange to number
Some say the seventh sounds a little bit stranger
A year of Sunday's seems to have drifted right by
I could've sworn in one evening
And I'm not seized in desperation
No steel reproaches on the table from before
But I still can feel those splinters of ice
I look through the eyes of a stranger
For rumors in the wake of such a lonely crowd trading in my shelter for danger
I'm changing my name just as the sun goes down in the eyes of the stranger

I must be chasing after rainbows
One thing for sure you never answer when I call
And I wipe away the water from my face to look through the eyes of a stranger
For rumors in the wake of such a lonely crowd trading in my shelter for danger
I'm changing my name just as the sun goes down
Walking away like a stranger
From rumors in the wake of such a lonely crowd trading in my shelter for danger
I'm changing my name just as the sun goes down in the eyes of the stranger
In the eyes of the stranger
In the eyes of the stranger

ike0000

Most Pink Floyd songs lyrics are pretty poetic when you look at the words without the music.

Kal-El

I would have to go with "Ghost" by the Indigo Girls. Lyrics when I get home.

Burnt Alive

I consider all songs to be poetry.

Gdrlv

I consider a lot of Robbie Fulks' songs to be poetry...the guy's a genius songwriter...

Night Accident

"Can you hear me now, John" said the voice in my ear
"In God's name, give me a sign
For the rumble of wheels, I swear it grows near
And the sound brings a chill to my spine
Through the broken windshield, the world looks all wrong
But it's us, not the world, turned sideward
And this ain't the county two-lane that we're on, it's the tracks of the Burlington Northern."

"See the wide, crooked trail down the muddy bank, John,
Now the broken brush clings to the ground
See the eyes that the light each second fades from
And the two twisted arms hanging down
See the black mesh of wire, the tangle of steel
That traps us together inside
And hear these last, true words I reveal
For I know this night I must die."


"She came with a hand of kindness outstretched
In the time of my heart's deepest need
But as day turned to night, and kindness to flesh
Our bodies trembled with greed
And when the first rays of the morning crept in
The memory of another had died
But by the ring that she wore, I knew I had sinned
And I knelt before Jesus and cried."


"You've been like a brother since I was young
Your love has been constant and true
Oh, the moments we've shared are numberless, John
And my hours with her so few
A hand rises now to summon my soul
And the black depths before me loom
Just forgive me this wrong I've done you, my friend
And I'll go in peace to my doom.


Then breathless with joy came the voice in my ear:
"Straight ahead of us, John, can you see?
At the top of the hill, in the moonlight so clear
A man walks alone through the trees
Like a lamp to the lost, God's mercy shines down
Now deliverance lies just within sight
sound the horn, sound the horn, dear John, do it now
Don't sit there and stare at the night."


A blanket of calm lies draped o'er this earth to shroud all misery and toil
But below us, still red with the blood of its birth, a blaze of pure fury uncoils
As vengeful as hands on a crippled man's throat
Silently tightening their hold
As sure as the path of the 5:19
As down through the valley it rolls.

Banks of the Marianne

On the banks of the Marianne, he climbed aground
He looked out at the water and traced a line down
Just an hour til darkness, and 4 miles to swim
He closed his eyes and let her wash over him
And all the power she could command
Fell away at the touch of his hand

By the depths of his love, he was helplessly stirred
So he tamed a wild river and named it for her
And the world would remember the way they were then
When she was his harbor and her strength pulled him in
And the distance he'd gone for her light
He would win back the hard way tonight

To the ends of the earth
Til the rivers run dry
Til the last breath of life in the man
Til he gives up the fight
Til the sun falls tonight
On the banks of the Marianne

On the banks of the Marianne, the relics of kings
Lie strangely abandoned like children's playthings
The thrones of white plastic and cheap Naugahide
Stacked under a tarpaulin, safe from the tide
An ashtray, a bottle half full
Anything the undertow couldn't pull

The horizon ahead of him is frozen in time
It's balm to his soul and it's a trick of his mind
In the wind he hears phrases gentle and low
From a song on the radio ten years ago
And it hangs overhead like a prayer
To the one waiting for him somewhere

To the ends of the earth
Til the rivers run dry
Til the last breath of life in the man
Til he gives up the fight
Til the sun falls tonight
On the banks of the Marianne

Now the water is heavy, his arms are like lead
And the whiskey has drenched every nerve in his head
And the fist in his stomach springs upward in rage
Knocks the light from his eyes and it pounds at the cage
And his prayers come falling like rain
On the waters that carry her name

sebastianv50

Imagine - John Lennon

pantala

The Dreaming Tree by Dave Matthews Band. It reads like a poem and is the most "poem-like" of all their songs. It is rarely played live due to the rather non-repeating nature of the lyrics (Dave has problems remembering words sometimes).

Standing here
The old man said to me
Long before these crowded streets
Here stood my dreaming tree
Below it he would sit
For hours at a time
Now progress takes away
What forever took to find

Now he's falling hard
He feels the falling dark
How he longs to be
Beneath his dreaming tree
Conquered fear to climb
A moment froze in time
When the girl who first he kissed
Promised him she'd be his

Remembered mother's words
There beneath the tree
No matter what the world
You'll always be my baby
Mommy come quick
The dreaming tree has died
The air is growing thick
A fear he cannot hide
The dreaming tree has died

Oh have you no pity
This thing I do
I do not deny it
All through this smile
As crooked as danger
I do not deny
I know in my mind
I would leave you now
If I had the strength to
I would leave you up
To your own devices
Will you not talk
Can you take pity
I don't ask much
But won't you speak
Please

From the start
She knew she had it made
Easy up 'til then
For sure she'd make the grade
Adorers came in hordes
To lay down in her wake
She gave it all she had
But treasures slowly fade

Now she's falling hard
She feels the fall of dark
How did this fall apart
She drinks to fill it up
A smile of sweetest flowers
Wilted so and soured
Black tears stain the cheeks
That once were so admired

She thinks when she was small
There on her father's knee
How he had promised her
You'll always be my baby
Daddy come quick
The dreaming tree has died
I can't find my way home
There is no place to hide
The dreaming tree has died
Oh if I had the strength
Take me back
Save me please

DrRingDing

i've been listening to dylan's two most recent studio albums. and he is an absolute genius. i'll excerpt a few of his songs:

"I know you haven't made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong
I've known it from the moment that we met
No doubt in my mind where you belong

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue
I'd go crawling down the avenue
There's nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love"
-"To Make You Feel My Love" from Time Out of Mind

"When the last rays of daylight go down
Buddy, you'll roll no more
I can hear the church bells ringing in the yard
I wonder who they're ringing for
I know I can't win
But my heart just won't give in
Last night I danced with a stranger
But she just reminded me you were the one
You left me standing in the doorway crying
In the dark land of the sun"
-"Standing in the Doorway" from Time Out of Mind

"Well, the devil's in the alley, mule's in the stall
Say anything you wanna, I have heard it all
I was thinkin' about the things that Rosie said
I was dreaming I was sleeping in Rosie's bed

Walking through the leaves, falling from the trees
Feeling like a stranger nobody sees
So many things that we never will undo
I know you're sorry, I'm sorry too"
-"Mississippi" from Love and Theft

Time and love has branded me with its claws
Had to go to Florida, dodgin' them Georgia laws
Poor boy, in the hotel called the Palace of Gloom
Calls down to room service, says, "Send up a room"
-"Po' Boy" from Love and Theft

Last night 'cross the alley there was a pounding on the walls
It must have been Don Pasquale makin' a two a.m. booty call
To break a trusting heart like mine was just your style
Well, I cried for you - now it's your turn to cry awhile
-"Cry A While" from Love and Theft

the moods on these two albums are so enormously distinct - Time Out of Mind is depressing and sad, while Love and Theft has an overall feeling of joyfulness. but they are absolutely two of the best albums ever, IMO.
-di doctor-

Butters

I've always been a fan of Duran Duran's lyrics. Here's my favorite.

"Secret Oktober"

Wise on a birthday party
In a world full of surprising fireworks
And sudden silence (shhh)
Lies on a strangers bed
The new day breaks like a speeding train or an old friend
Ever expected but never knocking
Holding your own in a battered car
All night parties cocktail bars
And smile when the butterfly escapes the killing jar

Sure eyes awake before the dancing is over
Wise or naked in secret oktober

Freefall on a windy morning shore
Nothing but a fading track of footsteps
Could prove that you'd ever been there
Spoken on a cotton cloud
Like the sound of gunshot taken by the wind
And lost in distant thunder
Racing on a shining plain
And tomorrow you'll be content to watch as the lightning plays along the wires and you'll wonder

Sure eyes awake before the dancing is over
Wise or naked in secret oktober
Sure eyes awake before the dancing is over
Wise or naked in secret oktober

Giles

everything is open
nothing is set in stone
rivers turn to ocean
oceans tide you home
home is where the heart is
but your heart had to roam
drifting over bridges
never to return
watching bridges burn

you're driftwood floating underwater
breaking into pieces, pieces, pieces
just driftwood hollow and of no use
waterfalls will find you, bind you,
grind you

nobody is an island
everyone has to go
pillars turn to butter
butterflying low
low is where your heart is
but your heart has to go
drifting under bridges
never with the flow

and you really didn't think it would happen
but it it really is the end of the line
so I'm sorry that you turned to driftwood
but you've been drifting for a long, long time

everywhere there's trouble
nowhere's safe to go
pushes turn to shovels
shoveling the snow
frozen you have chosen
the path you wish to go
drifting now forever
and forever more
until you reach your shore

you're driftwood floating underwater
breaking into pieces, pieces, pieces
just driftwood hollow and of no use
waterfalls will find you, bind you,
grind you
and you really didn't think it would happen
but it it really is the end of the line
so I'm sorry that you turned to driftwood
but you've been drifting for a long, long time
you've been drifting for a long, long time
you've been drifting for a long, long time
drifting for a long, long time

TRAVIS "Driftwood"

grunter

Generally this is true.

Except in the case of Lenny Kravitz who couldn't write a decent lyric to save his friggin' dreadlocks.

(Or Gavin Rossdale now that I think of it - who's idea of lyrics consist of copying out entries from the antonyms category in Roget's Thesaurus.)

Boot

With the music perhaps, but look at the lyrics themselves and I would say the majority of songs are not poetry.

These are great examples, folks. Keep 'em coming!

Penny Lane

This was the only song that came to my mind, but looking over it I'm not sure it would work. The lyrics are definitely touching, if not moving. They make you think.

"Ashes of the American Flag" - Wilco

The cash machine is blue & green
for a hundred in twenties and a small service fee.
I could spend three dollars
and sixty-three cents
on Diet Coca Cola
And unlit cigarettes.

I wonder why we listen to poets
And nobody gives a *****.
How hot & sorrowful
This machine begs for luck.
All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if i could come back new.

I want a good life
With a nose for things;
Fresh wind & bright sky
To enjoy my suffering;
A hole without a key
If i break my tongue
Speaking of tomorrow
How will it ever come?

Oh, all my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if i could come back new.

I am down on my hands & knees
Every time the doorbell rings
I shake like a toothache
When i hear myself sing
Oh, my lies are only wishes
I know I would die if i could come back new.

I would like to salute
The ashes of American flags;
And all the fallen leaves
filling up shopping bags...