My baby brother (who, despite being 23, is still my baby brother) recently asked visitors to his website to contribute their favourite song lyrics of all time.
I've been mulling the question over for a while, and I think that I've now come up with the answer.
Shockingly, the song in question wasn't written by The Beatles, who are far and away the greatest band ever. Nor is it from such lyrical Gods as Bob Dylan, Morrissey or Kurt Cobain. The song doesn't even feature on my favourite album of all time and was never released as a single.
The lyrics to The Stone Roses' Tightrope are, in my humble opinion, those to the greatest love song ever written. It may be from their second album Second Coming, which was vastly inferior to their debut (which, as I may have previously mentioned, is the greatest album ever crafted in the history of recorded music, and should be issued to everyone along with their birth certificate), but the lyrics manage to convey love in poetic terms that most people wouldn't associate with the band.
The lyrics to the song are below. What's your favourite song lyric?
Tightrope
You should have been an angel, it would've suited you
My gold-leafed triptych angel, she knows just what to do
In the half light of morning, in our world between the sheets
I swear I saw her angel wing, my vision was complete
And I know I'll never want another lover, my sweet
Can there be more in this world than the joy of just watching you sleep?
I don't know just what to feel
Won't someone tell me my love's real?
Are we etched in stone or just scratched in the sand
Waiting for the waves to come and reclaim the land?
Will the sun shine all sweetness and light
Burn us to a cinder, our third stone satellite?
I'm on a tightrope, baby, nine miles high
Striding through the clouds on my ribbon in the sky
I'm on a tightrope, one thing I've found
I don't know how to stop, and it's a long, long, long, long way down
She's all that ever mattered, and all that ever will
My cup, it runneth over, I'll never get my fill
The boats in the harbour slip from their chains
Head for new horizons, let's do the same
I'm on a tightrope, baby, nine miles high
Striding through the clouds, on my ribbon in the sky
I'm on a tightrope, one thing I've found
I don't know how to stop, and it's a tightrope baby nine miles high
Striding through the clouds, on my ribbon in the sky
I'm on a tightrope, one thing I've found
I don't know how to stop, and it's a long, long, long, long way down
Amazing that you brought this up, since not even an hour ago I was waiting on line at the deli meats section of my local meat market, and the radio was playing one of my two favorites song of all-time, "To Love Somebody" by The Bee Gees (the other being "Pictures of You" by the Cure).
ReplyDeleteIts name alone suggests it is also a love song, and whichever version (Nina Simone, Janis Joplin, Bee Gees) I hear matters not. It's just an awesome frickin' song.
And I must have rewinded (rewound?) and replayed "Pictures of You" a gazillion times on a very shoddy Walkman during high school. Thems was some serious good times.
I'm going apologize in advance because I'm about to swamp your comments here, but I'm posting 3 favs of mine, all from Canadian Song MASTER, Gordon Lightfoot. I am so thrilled to be going to see him for the very first time on May 10th!!! Some of my favourite songs of his are from the year I was born or thereabouts but they are wondeful, enduring songs. Whenever I hear him sing, I feel so Canadian...I know that's weird and corny, but it's true.
ReplyDelete1. Carefree Highway
Pickin up the pieces of my sweet shattered dream
I wonder how the old folks are tonight
Her name was ann and Ill be damned if I recall her face
She left me not knowin what to do
Carefree highway, let me slip away on you
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you
Turnin back the pages to the times I love best
I wonder if shell ever do the same
Now the thing that I call livin is just bein satisfied
With knowin I got no one left to blame
Carefree highway, got ta see you my old flame
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you
Searchin through the fragments of my dream-shattered sleep
I wonder if the years have closed her mind
I guess it must be wanderlust or tryin to get free
From the good old faithful feelin we once knew
Carefree highway, let me slip away on you
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you
Let me slip away on you
Carefree highway, got ta see you my old flame
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you
2. If You Could Read My Mind (my personal all-time fav by Lightfoot)
If you could read my mind
If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
bout a ghost from a wishin well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as Im a ghost that you cant see
If I could read your mind love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind that drugstores sell
When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
But heroes often fail
And you wont read that book again
Because the endings just too hard to take
Id walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script
Enter number two
A movie queen to play the scene
Of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love, lets be real
* I never thought I could act this way *
And Ive got to say that I just dont get it
I dont know where we went wrong
But the feelins gone
And I just cant get it back
If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
bout a ghost from a wishin well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
But stories always end
And if you read between the lines
Youll know that Im just tryin to understand
The feelins that you lack
I never thought I could feel this way
And Ive got to say that I just to get it
I dont know where we went wrong
But the feelins gone
And I just cant get it back
3. The Summer Side of Life
He came down throught fields of green
On the summer side of life
His love was ripe
There were no illusions
On the summer side of life
Only tenderness
And if you saw him now
Youd wonder why he would cry
The whole day long
There were young girls everywhere
On the summer side of life
The talked all night
To the young men that they knew
On the summer side of life
Goin off to fight
And if you saw them now
Youd wonder why they would cry
The whole day long
He came down through field of green
On the summer side of life
He prayed all night
Then he walked into a house
Where love had been misplaced
His chance to waste
And if you saw him now
Youd wonder why he would cry
The whole day long
Not a full lyric, just a snippet but a fantastic one...
ReplyDelete"Jesus looked like David Essex in a nightdress..."
Siren : Eddi Reader
My two cents on Gordon Lightfoot: Best song of his was "Ribbon of Darkness." Not a big fan of "If You Could Read My Mind" but overall, homeboy is *crazy* talented.
ReplyDeleteErica: I do like "To Love Somebody", but I'm not a big fan of The Bee Gees. I much prefer the Nina and Janis versions - I think Nina Simone is the greatest singer EVER! And I'm not sure if I've heard Pictures of You.
ReplyDeleteChickie: I agree with you regarding "If You Could Read My Mind" - a great song. I'm not too familiar with Lightfoot's other work though.
Kid: Another lyric that always makes me smile is from Super Furry Animals' "Hermann Loves Pauline", which tells the story of Albert Einstein: "Hermann loved Pauline and Pauline loved Hermann; They made love and gave birth to a little German; They called him MC Squared because he rapped like no other; An asthma sufferer like Ernesto Guevara".