Best Lyrics Ever - Prog & Related

[alanterrill]

Peter Hammill's 'Just Good Friends'. A great description of an affair that's run its course and is drawing to an end. That would make it a great song in itself but what makes it special for me is knowing that when he wrote it he wasn't describing an actual love affair, but had decided to break with his record company and go it alone, producing his own records ; thus the whole thing is an extended metaphor.

Drawing back the curtains,
sluggish city daylight in the afternoon...
here's that special silence,
just before you walk out of the hotel room.
Each time we're so close I assume
that we'll never be again.
Oh, how long can we pretend
that we're just good friends?
A casual affair is all that you can spare
from your emotional change;
a calendar of meetings, strangers on the street
the best we ever arrange.
Now I just can't stand all the pain,
all the constant make and mend:
how long must we pretend
that we're just good friends?
I gave you my devotion,
hiding nothing up my sleeve.
If I walked clean out of your life
would you even notice me leave?
So much tangled-up emotion,
should I stay or should I go?
If I walked clean out of your life
how long would it take you to know?
Are we such good friends?
You used to say "I love you",
you used to say "You make me feel alive and young".
Now we're just a habit,
a flavour, once a month, to titillate your tongue.
Oh, how sordid this has become
as the means approach the end –
oh, how long can we pretend
that we're still good friends?
I gave you my devotion,
hiding nothing up my sleeve.
If I walked clean out of your life
would you even notice me leave?
So much tangled-up emotion,
should I stay or should I go?
If I walked clean out of your life
how long would it take you to know?
Are we such good friends?
Are we still good friends?

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

"Take a little trip back with father Tiresias,
Listen to the old one speak of all he has lived through.
I have crossed between the poles, for me there's no mystery.
Once a man, like the sea I raged,
Once a woman, like the earth I gave.
But there is in fact more earth than sea"

You mayu already know this, but this entire song is paraphrased lines from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Pete Townshend:

The incense burned away, and the stench began to rise,
And lovers, now estranged, avoided catching each others' eyes.

And girls who lost their children cursed the men who fit the coil,
And men not fit for marriage took their refuge in the oil.
No one respects the flame quite like the fool who's badly burned;
From all this, you'd imagine that there must be something learned.

Bernie Taupin (Elton John):

While Mona Lisas and mad hatters, sons of bankers, sons of lawyers,
turn around and say Good morning to the night,
for unless they see the sky
(but they can't and that is why)
they know not if it's dark outside or light.

And for the lovers of word-play, there's Adrian Belew:

Hat bandanna Graham cracker jackhammer in
A nail file suit your self-serviceman
The world's my oyster soup kitchen floor wax museum
Autographed pictures of Shakespeare fishing
Gear head phone Madison Square garden hose
The world's my oyster soup kitchen floor wax museum

[Adm.Kirk]

When I think about the beginnings of the genre I've always felt Dylan was a cornerstone as far as lyrics writing, in much the same way The Beatles were the ones who broke down the barriers to experimentation with the music. Certainly people like Steve Howe and Keith Emerson were influenced by Dylan.

Bill

[Buddhabreath]

Too too many to chose from, even if I keep it to Peter Hammill already twice-sighted. Well this one occurred to me right away:

Dropping the Torch

We play games and every move
is noted down as a subsequent cause
and effectively chains our freedom and will to live;
we settle in to simple survival,
hanging on our pleasures grimly...
we must never let them go.

Our prison walls are slowly built,
stone by stone and day by day;
no provision for escape,
entombed alive in safety
and decay.

Time sets around us in killing frames,
black border round our names.
Our fingers lose their grip
and the torch slips.

The enemy for everyone
is everyone, inside.
I feel the hand of security
creep on me with ice-cold fingers
and crush my flower of freedom;
I've lost the course of my adventure,
all the things I'd meant to do are lost.

There is only one flame each
to keep alive in the wind.
But finally we snuff them out
all by ourselves.

We set traps and, in the end,
fall into our own snares
and have nowhere to go.

Time ever moves more slowly;
life gets more lonely
and less real.

[Munster]

Roy Harper’s The Game (parts 1 – 5) has some great lines. It is a long song so I won’t put them all down, but two of the best verses go:

There are no certain answers and no time to understand
The rules are set to paradox, coercion and blind faith
The goal’s a changing paradise, a moment out of date
The dream is righteous grandeur fit to flood the
Universe
The fact is more than meets the eye but less than runs
The earth, running the earth.

And:

And the prisoner of the present paces up and down
Inside his cell
He's the living replacement, somersaulting from this
Psychic well
Screaming : ‘I'm the sponsor of a hell’
Voices like the sea inside a shell
Telling me I cannot stake a claim
Possession is a clue but not the game
So please leave this world as clean as when you came.

[Buddhabreath]

... and speaking of Pete Townshend, I've always liked the White City Album which has some great lyrics IMO including:

I Am Secure

My room looks out to the wide open spaces
My heart is touched by awakening faces
I see the panic of people in motion
I can stand here, look out on an ocean

I am a wall awaiting a catchword
I see the city laid out like a patchwork
Alone, I am free from hatred and blindness
I hope that this life is frozen and timeless

My man is here, we grow old by inches
Tomorrow I'll walk among heroes and princes
I feed the boys, I hear secrets whispered
I know the hearts that are battered and blistered

I am secure in this world of apartheid
This is my cell, but it's connected to starlight


Another great trove of great lyrics is found (of course) in the songs of the seminal artist Joni Mitchell. For example:

Amelia

I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
It was the strings of my guitar
Amelia * it was just a false alarm

The drone of flying engines
Is a song so wild and blue
It scrambles time and seasons if it gets thru to you
Then your life becomes a travelogue
Of picture post card charms
Amelia it was just a false alarm

People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Others just come to harm
Oh, Amelia it was just a false alarm

I wish that he was here tonight
It's so hard to obey
His sad request of me to kindly stay away
So this is how I hide the hurt
As the road leads cursed and charmed
I tell Amelia it was just a false alarm

A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm

Maybe I've never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitudes
And looking down on everything
I crashed into his arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm

I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust


I could do this literally all day as I recall songs that touch me, but I'll try to refrain and read with interest what others think are great lyrics.

[Brainforest]

How good is this lyric? So good that few notice that there are no rhymes in it

America
(Paul Simon)

Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together
I've got some real estate here in my bag
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner's pies
And we walked off to look for America

Cathy, I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
Michigan seems like a dream to me now
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus, playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said, be careful, his bowtie is really a camera

Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat
We smoked the last one an hour ago
So I looked at the scenery
She read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

Cathy, I'm lost, I said though I knew she was sleeping
And I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come to look for America
All come to look for America
All come to look for America

[soundsweird]

There Goes (not) Rhymin' Simon

[Progbear]

↑↑The answer song, “Starbright Park” by Quantum Jump. Lyrics by Martin Hall:

August at our elbow, like a sandy bitch on heat
Mongols at the window, beaming in defeat
We knew the world was out there, whoring in the wheat
And we thought we all were children

Aztecs in the market for a Barry Gabardine
Filling up old Kodaks in the Terrapin Ravine
We drew a little confort from a terrible routine
And we thought we all were children

Cathy, we were all wrong
Driving in the dark
Moby and America said their au revoirs
Oh in Starbright Park

Rabble on the turnpike from the city of St. John
Cathy in a raincoat, ready to be gone
And we thought we all were children (Cathy we were all wrong)

Me and Moriarty taking turns behind the wheel
Anybody out there? Anybody real?
And we thought we all were children

Cathy, we were all wrong
Driving in the dark
Moby and America said their au revoirs
Oh in Starbright Park

Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes
We smoked the last ones an hour ago
Oh I'm empty and I'm aching and it's all I've ever known
And we thought we all were children
Cathy I'm alone

Full of codeine and remorse
And we thought we all were children
Children of divorce
Quote: "living is a horizontal fall"
And we thought we all were children
Listen to me

Cathy, we were all wrong
Driving in the dark
Moby and America said their au revoirs
Oh in Starbright Park

All gone to look for America

[Crystal Plumage]

The "best" is not easy. Being a big Paatos fan, the lyrics to Paatos' Precious always get to me. Written before we found out Petronella's sister died of cancer later.

Not long, not long
That's what he said – there's nothing you can do
You were young and in love
Your life was still ahead of you
And in silence you prayed
Be strong, be strong
Will you find the strength to carry on?
Without hope and all is fear
There's no one looking out for you my dear
And in silence you prayed
How long the nights that you stayed awake
So sleepless
And alone
All alone
Did you know how precious life would feel
When time's your enemy?
Did you know how precious life would feel
When time's your enemy?
No words, no words
Just keep it all inside, inside
It's a curse but denial
Might just be what's keeping you alive
And in silence you prayed
How long the nights that you stayed awake
So sleepless
And alone
All alone
Did you know how precious life would feel
When time's your enemy?
Did you know how precious life would feel
When time's your enemy?

[SunRunner2]

you mayu already know this, but this entire song is paraphrased lines from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

No, I didn't realize that is was taken from that source. Thank you for pointing it out.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

When I think about the beginnings of the genre I've always felt Dylan was a cornerstone as far as lyrics writing, in much the same way The Beatles were the ones who broke down the barriers to experimentation with the music. Certainly people like Steve Howe and Keith Emerson were influenced by Dylan.

Bill

Sorry, Bill, but Dylan has to take a second seat to the late great Leonard Cohen (IMIO). He should have won the Nobel for literature...

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

OK, some Cohen snippets:

Bird on the Wire (1969):

I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
he said to me, "You must not ask for so much."
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
she cried to me, "Hey, why not ask for more?"

Who By Fire (1974):

And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
and who by avalanche, who by powder,
who for his greed, who for his hunger,
and who shall I say is calling?

Dance Me to the End of Love (1984):

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love

And one complete song, Joan of Arc (1971):

Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc
as she came riding through the dark;
no moon to keep her armour bright,
no man to get her through this very smoky night.
She said, "I'm tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
a wedding dress or something white
to wear upon my swollen appetite."
Well, I'm glad to hear you talk this way,
you know I've watched you riding every day
and something in me yearns to win
such a cold and lonesome heroine.
"And who are you?" she sternly spoke
to the one beneath the smoke.
"Why, I'm fire," he replied,
"And I love your solitude, I love your pride."

"Then fire, make your body cold,
I'm going to give you mine to hold,"
saying this she climbed inside
to be his one, to be his only bride.
And deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and high above the wedding guests
he hung the ashes of her wedding dress.

It was deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and then she clearly understood
if he was fire, oh then she must be wood.
I saw her wince, I saw her cry,
I saw the glory in her eye.
Myself I long for love and light,
but must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?

[simon moon]

Some great ones so far.

Peter Hammill for sure wrote tons of great lyrics. The other Peter, Gabriel, also wrote some great lyrics.

I find it hard to beat Pain of Salvation's, "A Trace of Blood" for the shear palpability you can feel for the anguish Daniel Gildenlow and his wife felt when she had a stillbirth.

These lyrics puts one in the medical room with Gildenlow and his wife as they experience her stillbirth.

A Trace of Blood

Touching ground
Going home to those I miss
Safe and sound
Weeks of exile turn to bliss
But there's something in her voice
when she is calling me
A trace of blood to lead me through roads of agony
With blood taste in my mouth
and clouds before my eyes,
I kneel beside the bed where my bleeding dryad lies

Three young souls in misery

Hitting ground
Nausea wakes me up at dawn
Hopes are found
Dissected, turned and then withdrawn
A chair of steel and wire
Her legs are open wide
Helpless in myself I stand there cold beside
The doctors stay away
Leave us with this dismay
To see the colours of a miracle fade and turn to grey

Then a cry and rivers of blood
flow so sadly, bringing you
Our dreams pour into a cold tray
Two young souls in misery
Missing you

I never knew your name, but I will miss you just the same
I was to live for you
I lost the will to live at all the day you came
It'll never be the same, but I will love you just the same
You were to be the first, how wonderful
Now I will always fear to hope again

The irony of seeing me whispering through her skin
so joyfully to our child there deep within
Or of when she called to me to tell me cheerfully
that she had seen your shape on a hospital screen
And of nurses being concerned
that you never moved or turned
Too late we see the warnings
Too late we learn!!

I never saw your face and now you're gone without a trace
Except the trace of blood
that's deeply scarred into my eyes to fill your place
It'll never be the same, but I will love you just the same
I was prepared to be your father
How can I ever prepare for that again?

Still I follow that trace of blood
always leading back to you
Hollow years of damming that flood
Two young souls in misery
Missing you... missing you...

[rcarlberg]

Too too many to chose from, even if I keep it to Peter Hammill already twice-sighted.

And cited.

[thos]

Speak to me of summer,
Long winters longer
than time can remember
setting up of other roads
to travel on in old accustomed ways

I still remember
the talks by the water
the proud sons and daughters
that knew the knowledge of the land
spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways

[rcarlberg]

Hey mister man on the street
Excuse me
Do you have a few moments to spare?
Oh yeah
Don't worry I'm not trying to sell you anything you wouldn't want
I'm just a questionnaire

Tell me what you think about this low-fat diet shampoo
Do you think it's crunchy, half-crunchy or not crunchy at all?
Put a tick in the appropriate box
There's nothing to it

Yes no don't know I don't care
I'm only a questionnaire
Only a questionnaire

Please mister man on the street
Believe me
I'm only doing my job and I need to know
Oh oh ho
Everything about you
Take it easy all you gotta do is answer yes or no

Tell me what you think about the devil and the deep blue sea
Do you think there's one true god, a false god or
No god at all?
(no god at aaaaaaaall)
Put a tick in the appropriate box
There's nothing to it

Yes no don't know I don't care
I'm only a questionnaire
Yes no don't know I don't care
I'm only a questionnaire
Only a questionnaire

Now can ya
Tell me what you think about how easy it can be to buy a gun
Do you think it's crazy, half-crazy or not crazy at all?
Put a tick in the appropriate box...

..

[flowerking]

Two excerpts from Schooltree's the Big Slide (part of the brilliant Heterotopia):

my illustrious career
in handjobs blow and beer
it’s the end beginning all too clear
my degeneration is complete
the end of history
when icons crumble to the sea

...

my head is a hole
someone please amputate my soul
in this perfect world
all the bullshit swirls
the mind of the everygirl
all the lights that catch your eye
the glittering of lies
where hope can go to die

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Speak to me of summer,
Long winters longer
than time can remember
setting up of other roads
to travel on in old accustomed ways

I still remember
the talks by the water
the proud sons and daughters
that knew the knowledge of the land
spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways

Yeah, it sounds nice, fits the music very well, but what the Hell is it about? I don't believe even Anderson could answer that one coherently.

[moecurlythanu]

^ I doubt he could say hello coherently.

[Adinfinitum]

Tony Banks' masterpiece

One for the Vine - drink up!

Fifty thousand men were sent to do the will of one
His claim was phrased quite simply
Though He never voiced it loud
I am He, the chosen one

In His name they could slaughter
For His name they could die
Though many there were believed in Him
Still more were sure He lied
But they'll fight the battle on

Then one whose faith had died
Fled back up the mountainside
But before the top was made
A misplaced footfall made Him stray
From the path prepared for Him
Off of the mountain on to a wilderness of ice

This unexpected vision
Made them stand and shake with fear
But nothing was His fright compared
With those who saw him appear
Terror filled their minds with awe

Simple were the folk who lived
Upon this frozen wave
So not surprising was their thought
This is He, Gods chosen one

Who's come to save us from
All our oppressors
We shall be kings on this world

"Follow me
I'll play the game you want me
Until I find a way back home"

"Follow me
I give you strength inside you
Courage to win your battles"

No, no, no, this can't go on
This will be all that I fled from
Let me rest for a while

He walked into a valley
All alone
There He talked with water
And then with the vine

They leave me no choice
I must lead them to glory
Or most likely to death

They traveled cross the plateau
Of ice up to its edge
Then they crossed a mountain range
And saw the final plain
Still He urged the people on

Then, on a distant slope
He observed one without hope
Flee back up the mountainside
He thought He recognized Him by His walk

And by the way He fell
And by the way He stood up
And vanished into air

[Buddhabreath]

Yeah, it sounds nice, fits the music very well, but what the Hell is it about? I don't believe even Anderson could answer that one coherently.

I actually think this is one of Jon's better lyrics - I agree it doesn't necessarily make sense but it has a nice impressionistic feel and rhythm to it. Jezus, what the hell happened to me? Now I'm defending Jon Anderson lyrics!

[Crystal Plumage]

Peter Nicholls' (IQ) lyrics sometimes have that Jon Anderson feel. The sound of the words is more important than the actual meaning. Here's one of my favorites (Fascination;a song about obsession):

Roses, I am chrome
No, she's not at home
Shot down to the bone
Sitting here alone
She walks towards me now
She lives, I don't know how
I can hardly move
I can hardly believe in even nothing
I hide you in bullets, I had it all
Still dragged from shock to shock
One drink to let me sink
If I never see you again
If I'm jaded, stretched or cleaned
Don't tell me, I guessed
While you bled for me less
I love what you used to be

[thos]

I actually think this is one of Jon's better lyrics - I agree it doesn't necessarily make sense but it has a nice impressionistic feel and rhythm to it. Jezus, what the hell happened to me? Now I'm defending Jon Anderson lyrics!

Well, it *is* his 75th birthday today...