Best Lyrics Ever - Prog & Related

[SunRunner2]

We've observed some of the dismal, worst lyrics of all time in that previous discussion. How about some glimmering examples of the great lyrical compositions that have been produced in the realm of progressive rock. I offer these three gems for your consideration:

Strawbs
"I sense Autumn coming on
The sun sinking red and deep
The fires burning in the fields
As late Summer falls asleep.
The leaves begin to scatter
As the North wind calls their name
Folding gently back into
The silent earth from which they came.

Jade Warrior
"Ivy tapping on my window, wine and candle glow
Skies that promise snow have gathered overhead
Buttered toast and creamy coffee, table laid for two
Lovely having you to share a smile with me

On the wall the clock is chiming, hours passing by
And for you and I the wind sings winter songs
In the village people gather at the Lamplight Inn
Drinking liquid sin to keep the cold away"

Genesis
"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"

[rcarlberg]

These may not mean much, but they're literate:

With one breath, with one flow
You will know
Synchronicity

A sleep trance, a dream dance,
A shared romance,
Synchronicity

A connecting principle,
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible.
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectible
Yet nothing is invincible.

If we share this nightmare
Then we can dream
Spiritus mundi.

Effect without a cause
Sub-atomic laws, scientific pause
Synchronicity

[Grumpyprogfan]

Not prog, but John Lennon's "Imagine".

[rcarlberg]

Not prog, but John Lennon's "Imagine".

Indeed. Simple. Profound. Spiritual.

[rcarlberg]

Also, I really like self-referential lyrics:

Just in case you think it's a waste –
In the end, choosing notes to see if they make friends
A D# minor flattened 5th will go to C
Dotted crotchets usually divide by three
We don't really know now exactly what we mean
Still we had the gist of it till the chords changed...
...unexpectedly...
An interesting thought came over me:
I'd feel better somewhat wetter, drinking tea in the sea
And dream of you – and your nice black knickers...

[kenschwartz]

well, if we are going with self-referential lyrics, i offer up the peter blegvad gem:

Imagine a world where this was the only song
& against your will
You had to sit & listen to it all day long
until it made you ill
Until it made you ill

Imagine a world where this was the only song
& against your will
You had to sit & listen to it all day long
until it made you ill
Until it made you ill

Imagine a world where this was the only song
& against your will
You had to sit & listen to it all day long
until it made you ill
Until it made you ill

Imagine a world where this was the only song
& against your will
You had to sit & listen to it all day long
until it made you ill
Until it made you ill

Imagine a world where this was the only song
& against your will
You had to sit & listen to it all day long
until it made you ill
Until it made you ill

etc.

[UnderAGlassMoon]

For me, Echolyn has always had some great lyrics. This is my particular favorite. It brought me solace when my Dad passed away.

Never The Same

What can I say?
What can I do you for you?
Some are here for but a moment
Then are taken in an instant to eternity
Remember life and what's been shared with you
That you have shared

It's funny how we feel closer
With the ones that we love
When they're farthest away
You can feel them so near
Just 'round the corner the memory still clear

"Do not stand at my grave and cry
I am not there I did not die."
I say to you I will see you again
On the other side someday

"There's never endings only discovery,"
I tell myself over and over again
Some leave their mark in our hearts then go

It's hard to continue onward
When forever comes down it comes down so heavy
Too final to forget
You've got to believe there's something more

After the song is over
The dance goes on, so dance away
When all is said and done
Remember what's been given, not taken away
But you struggle and you strain
As the undertow pulls you down

The years will spare the rod and soften the hardest blow
...but I am never the same
With time comes a certain fading and erasing
...but I am never the same

In each man
There lies a start that has no end
A means to be more
A light that shines in its own special way

Left with cold distance
I'll always be with you
We weather the cycle
I'll always be there
So fragile to balance
Too potent to harness
Life charges past the mortal in man

Remember all the life you shared every day
There's never any endings
...but I'll never be the same

[Garden Dreamer]

Great choice, Glass Moon! It did the same for me when my dad passed.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Absolutely everything by Luis Alberto Spinetta.

[syncopatico]

Adrian Belew -- Men In Helicopters :

Wouldn't it be great
To see the African plains
Before they lay them to waste
And only the bones remain?
Wouldn't it be poetry
To shoot holes in the poachers we see
With an elephant gun?

Men in helicopters fly
Shooting rhinos from out of the sky
Why do we always assume
The planet is ours to ruin?

What a legacy we're leaving behind
What a legacy

Wouldn't it be something
For the men killing dolphin
To be caught up by their necks
In their greedy fishing nets?
Wouldn't it be irony
If the tuna fish canneries
Were to fall into the sea?

The dolphins and the whales still left alive
Cry to the stars in the deep blue night:
"There's nowhere to hide
The people on earth will not be denied"

What a legacy we're leaving behind
What a legacy

Wouldn't it be odd
If there really was a God
And he looked down on earth
And saw what we've done to Her?
Wouldn't it be just
If He pulled the plug on us
And took away the sun?

Men in helicopters fly
Shooting rhinos from out of the sky
Why do we always assume
The planet is ours to ruin?

The dolphins and the whales still left alive
Cry to the stars in the deep blue night:
"There's nowhere to hide
The people on earth will not be denied"

What a legacy we're leaving behind
What a legacy we're leaving behind

[dropforge]

These may not mean much, but they're literate:

Love that song.

[SongForAmerica]

Would you believe the world is calling?
A cry without a sound.
--Rare Bird

Knowledge and reason
Change like the season,
A jester's promenade.
--Kansas

Don't surround yourself with yourself.
--Yes

If I claim to be a wise man
It surely means that I don't know.
--Kansas

Don't cash your freedoms in for gold.
--Styx

She comes running in a silk dress,
Like a water color in the rain.
--Al Stewart

The promise will come when the promise is made.
--Yes

[flowerking]

Man Erg VdGG (Peter Hammill:
And I, too, live inside me and very often don't know who I am,
I know, I'm not a hero, I hope that I'm not damned
I'm just a man, and killers, angels, all are these,
Dictators, saviors, refugees
In war and peace
As long as Man lives

Tori Amos' Precious Things: Just because you can make me cum that doesn't make you Jesus

Frank Zappa:
If you let those tv preachers
Make a monkey out of you!
Jesus will think you're a jerk
And it would be true!

[SteveSly]

"Well if it seems to be real, it's illusion
For every moment of truth, there's confusion in life
Love can be seen as the answer, but nobody bleeds for the dancer
And it's on and on, on and on and on and on and on and on and on

They say that life's a carousel
Spinning fast, you've got to ride it well
The world is full of kings and queens
Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams
It's heaven and hell, oh well

And they'll tell you black is really white
The moon is just the sun at night
And when you walk in golden halls
You get to keep the gold that falls
It's heaven and hell,.........."

[Steve983]

Great choice, Glass Moon! It did the same for me when my dad passed.

Me too, that song is such a masterpiece.

[SunRunner2]

Outstanding offerings here, some of which I am unfamiliar with but plan on looking into. The Al Stewart line reminds me of how impressive his lyrical contributions were; both from a poetic beauty sense and historically speaking. Recall this magical stanza:

"The fishing boats go out across the evening water
Smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border
The wind whips up the waves so loud
The ghost moon sails among the clouds
Turns the rifles into silver on the border".

[moecurlythanu]

"Just one crazy moment while the dice are cast
He looks into the future and remembers what is past
Wonders what he's doing on this battlefield
Shrugs to his shadow, impatient, too proud yet to kneel

In his wake he leaves scorched earth and work in vain;
Smoke drifts up behind him - he is free again
Free to run before the onslaught of a deadly foe
Leaving nothing fit for pillage, hardly leaving home
It's far too late to turn, unless it's to stone
Charging madly forward, tracks across the snow;
Wind screams madness to him, ever on he goes
Leaving spoor to mark his passage, trace his weary climb
Cross the moor and make the headland -
Stumbling, wayward, blind
In the end his footprints extend as one single line

This latest exponent of heresy is goaded into an attack
Persuaded to charge at his enemy
Too late, he knows it is
Too late now to turn back, too soon by far to falter
The past sits uneasily at his rear
He's walking right into the trap
Surrounded, but striving through will and fear
Ahead of him he knows there waits an ambuscade
But the dice slip through his fingers
And he's living from day to day
Carrying his world around upon his back
Leaving nothing behind but the tell-tale of his track


He will not be hostage, he will not be slave
No snare of past can trap him, though the future may
Still he runs and burns behind him in advanced retreat;
Still his life remains unfettered - he denies defeat
It's far too late to turn, unless it's to stone
Leave the past to burn - at least that's been his own

Scorched earth, that's all that's left when he's done;
Holding nothing but beholden to no-one
Claiming nothing, out of no false pride, he survives
Snow tracks are all that's left to be seen
Of a man who entered the course of a dream
Claiming nothing but the life he's known
- this, at least, has been his own"

[wiz_d_kidd]

I like all of the lyrics in King Crimson's CIRKUS (off the Lizard album), but the beginning is just heavenly (literally)...

Night - her sable dome scattered with diamonds
fused my dust from a light year.
Squeezed me to her breast, sowed me with carbon,
strung my warp across time.
Gave me each: a horse, sunrise and graveyard.
Told me only I was her.
Bid me face the east, closed me in questions,
built the sky for my dawn...

[SteveSly]

Outstanding offerings here, some of which I am unfamiliar with but plan on looking into. The Al Stewart line reminds me of how impressive his lyrical contributions were; both from a poetic beauty sense and historically speaking. Recall this magical stanza:

"The fishing boats go out across the evening water
Smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border
The wind whips up the waves so loud
The ghost moon sails among the clouds
Turns the rifles into silver on the border".

Agree, Al Stewart is one of the all time great lyric writers. I will go with:

"They crossed over the border, the hour before dawn
Moving in lines through the day
Most of our planes were destroyed on the ground where they lay
Waiting for orders we held in the wood
Word from the front never came
By evening the sound of the gunfire was miles away
Ah, softly we move through the shadows, slip away through the trees
Crossing their lines in the mists in the fields on our hands and on our knees
And all that I ever
Was able to see
The fire in the air glowing red
Silhouetting the smoke on the breeze
All summer they drove us back through the Ukraine
Smolensk and Viasma soon fell
By autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel
Closer and closer to Moscow they come
Riding the wind like a bell
General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill
Winter brought with her the rains, oceans of mud filled the roads
Gluing the tracks of their tanks to the ground while the sky filled with snow
And all that I ever
Was able to see
The fire in the air glowing red
Silhouetting the snow on the breeze
In the footsteps of Napoleon the shadow figures stagger through the winter
Falling back before the gates of Moscow, standing in the wings like an avenger
And far away behind their lines the partisans are stirring in the forest
Coming unexpectedly upon their outposts, growing like a promise
You'll never know, you'll never know which way to turn, which way to look you'll never see us
As we're stealing through the blackness of the night
You'll never know, you'll never hear us
And the evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming
The morning roads lead to Stalingrad, and the sky is softly humming
Two broken Tigers on fire in the night
Flicker their souls to the wind
We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin
It's been almost four years that I've carried a gun
At home it will almost be spring
The flames of the Tigers are lighting the road to Berlin
Ah, quickly we move through the ruins that bow to the ground
The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down
And all that I ever
Was able to see
The eyes of the city are opening
Now it's the end of the dream
I'm coming home, I'm coming home, now you can taste it in the wind, the war is over
And I listen to the clicking of the train-wheels as we roll across the border
And now they ask me of the time that I was caught behind their lines and taken prisoner
"They only held me for a day, a lucky break, " I say they turn and listen closer
I'll never know, I'll never know why I was taken from the line and all the others
To board a special train and journey deep into the heart of holy Russia
And it's cold and damp in the transit camp, and the air is still and sullen
And the pale sun of October whispers the snow will soon be coming
And I wonder when I'll be home again and the morning answers "Never"
And the evening sighs, and the steely Russian skies go on forever....."

[hewhoknows]

Genesis - Afterglow

Like the dust that settles all around me,
I must find a new home.
The ways and holes that used to give me shelter,
Are all as one to me now.
But I, I would search everywhere
Just to hear your call,
And walk upon stranger roads than this one
In a world I used to know before.
I miss you more.

Than the sun reflecting off my pillow,
Bringing the warmth of new life.
And the sounds that echoed all around me,
I caught a glimpse of in the night.
But now, now I've lost everything,
I give to you my soul.
The meaning of all that I believed before
Escapes me in this world of none, no thing, no one.

And I would search everywhere
Just to hear your call,
And walk upon stranger roads than this one
In a world I used to know before.
For now I've lost everything,
I give to you my soul.
The meaning of all that I believed before
Escapes me in this world of none,
I miss you more.

[The Dark Elf]

Roy Harper has a way with words...

All along the ancient wastes the thin reflections spin
That gather all the times and tides at once we love within
That build the edges round the shrouds that cloud the setting sun
And carry us to other days and other days to one
And full the single stillness of the mirror that is made
By each and every one of all the colours in a shade
Inside each eye is sitting like the sword inside the blade
And longs for once upon a chance to open love's cascade
For here we stand – hand to hand
Fighting for the Promised Land

And you try to tell me with consternation
That you have found me a brand new lock
Then you try to warn me that there's only one combination
One new sling – the same old rock

There is a famous straggler stood on the edge of time
Who held the staff but did not feel the pain
He multiplied the mystery with utterance sublime
And crossed his heart for those who died insane

His friend a restless mouthpiece 7000 years of age
Trends to flash a face to shape his ways
Everlasting light is burning bright inside his cage
He's only got to breathe to fan the blaze

Such a groove to have him here on-board Her Ladyship
The man who makes his living out of bed
Such a gas to see him flying through his ceaseless lip
One day, someday soon, he'll lose his head
And withering in the galleries with eyes fixed on the door
Are who and you and me and thanks a lot
And those who see but cannot stand to walk on any floor
For fear that good is something bad is not

But loud and clear is the call
In black and white across your wall
Damn it all, man, can't you see

And you try to tell me with consternation
That you have found me a brand new lock
Then you try to warn me that there's only one combination
One new sling – the same old rock

[Crawford Glissadevil]

Not the best ever, but pretty damn good. Off ELP Works. Outstanding wordplay. Multiple words within words, beginning with Om in a moment, double entendres abound. Very tight lyrically, the way wordplay electrifies the wisdom passed from the madman to his son. The Lord's Prayer twist ending each verse. The additional characters of the optimist and the pessimist added in the last two verses. An excellent coda rhyme ending series.

Crafted lines like ,

"You needn't be well to be wealthy
But you've got to be whole to be holy"



"Hallowed Be Thy Name"

There may be an om in moment
But there's very few folk in focus
Not the first, not the last, not the least
You needn't be well to be wealthy
But you've got to be whole to be holy
Fetch the rope, fetch the clock, fetch the priest
Oh this planet of ours is a mess
I bet Heaven's the same
Look the madman said, "Son,
As a friend, tell me what's in a name"
Hallowed be thy name.

I give you the state of statesmen
And the key to what motivates them
On the left, on the right, on the nail
Still I don't see a man in a mansion
That an accurate pen won't puncture
Go to town, go to hell, go to jail
And there's bars and saloons
Where the jukebox plays blues in the night
Till the madman says "Son,
Time to go we could both use some light"
And thy will be done

We live in an age of cages
The tale of an ape escaping
In the search for some truth he can use
But many a drunk got drunker
And mostly a thinker, thunker
Set the place, set the time, set the fuse,
The optimist laughed and the pessimist cried in his wine
And the madman said "Son,
Take a word they'll all wake given time"
Let thy kingdom come

The madman and I got drunker
Till both thought the other tank you
And we laughed all the way to the stars
The optimist asked for a taste of the pessimist's wine
And the madman said "Son,
How do you feel?" I said "Me? I feel fine
Lead me into temptation
Into temptation
I said into temptation
I need my allocation of recreation
I want a revelation in degradation
No hesitation, give me variation, give me inspiration"

[The Dark Elf]

I would suggest the wordplay in Jethro Tull's A Passion Play is not simply clever (as Ian Anderson lyrics usually are), but the album's composition as a whole is a well researched rendition of the Passion Plays (better referred to as Mystery Plays) of the late Middle-Ages/early Tudor epoch, when such "Morality Plays" would be seen in town streets and squares prior to the playhouses and actual dramas and comedies of Elizabethan England. Springing originally from Easter Pageants, where indeed the devil and the Resurrection were integral parts of "Passion Plays", the Mystery/Morality Plays expanded on the theme to include prostitutes, criminals and various other reprobates who eventually were "saved" by divine intervention. And not many rock lyrics allude to Revelations, Mark Ch. 2, v.9, Shakespeare, Aleister Crowley, Blake, Dante, Voltaire or Milton.

Hail! Son of kings make the ever-dying sign
cross your fingers in the sky for those about to BE.
There am I waiting along the sand.
Cast your sweet spell upon the land and sea.
Magus Perde, take your hand from off the chain.
Loose a wish to still, the rain, the storm about to BE.
Here am I (voyager into life).
Tough are the soles that tread the knife's edge.
Break the circle,stretch the line, call upon the devil.
Bring the gods, the gods' own fire.
In the conflict revel.
The passengers upon the ferry crossing, waiting to be born,
renew the pledge of life's long song rise to the reveille horn.
Animals queuing at the gate that stands upon the shore
breathe the ever-burning fire that guards the ever-door.
Man - son of man - buy the flame of ever-life
(yours to breathe and breath the pain of living): living BE!
Here am I! Roll the stone away
from the dark into ever-day.
There was a rush along the Fulham Road
into the Ever-passion Play.

[arabicadabra]

As much as our friendship resembles that of Barney the orderly and Hannibal Lecter, I must admit that the guitarist in my band Pinnacle writes some really good lyrics sometimes. Here's one:

You fell asleep to the murmuring flow
Of the stream beneath your window
In the depths of night how do you know
If dream or dreamer makes the time run slow?

Flow with the stream to a far away place
Back to the life you left behind
Younger days with the sun on your face
And the future undefined

Who draws the line between singer and song
And what if they were one in the same all along?

And who are you when at night you dream,
Drifting way beyond the stars?
Would the one you dream of being now
Dream of being who you are?

When a new day comes as it always does
Which half of you will fall away?
And will whoever you are now
Return to dream another day?

[Crawford Glissadevil]

You got that right Dark Elf. Like a maelstrom Passion Play spins me round and sucks me down into a stark wonderland. Deeper than deep.