Got a song in your heart?

Saffron · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:28 am Post subject: Got a song in your heart?

Some great poems have been set to music with great success; like W.B. Yates wonderful Song of the Wandering Aengus (sung by Judy Colins). The corollary is that there are lots of song lyrics that can stand alone as poetry. Funny thing though, some lyrics are naked without their accompaniment. In talking with DWill, we noticed that some song lyrics that we thought were just brilliant in the context of the music, were nearly meaningless without the notes to back them up. Anyway, DW suggested adding a thread for song lyrics to the poetry forum. So, for DWill -- here it is!

Saffron · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:37 am Post subject:

I love this!! It is my new favorit song.

Love Minus Zero/No Limit
Bob Dylan

My love she speaks like silence,
Without ideals or violence,
She doesn't have to say she's faithful,
Yet she's true, like ice, like fire.
People carry roses,
Make promises by the hours,
My love she laughs like the flowers,
Valentines can't buy her.

DWill · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject:

We could have a Bob Dylan thread, I'm sure. My own favorite is "Tangled Up in Blue." I wonder what percentage of the category "songs" consists of lovesongs. Much more than half, I'd guess. Here's a favorite lovesong by Tom Petty. I think it's different from most of the rest, and it gets to me.

A Face In The Crowd
Tom Petty/Jeff Lynne

Before all of this ever went down
In another place, another town,
You were just a face in the crowd
Out in the street walking around
A face in the crowd

Out of a dream, out of the sky
Into my heart, into my life

And you were just a face in the crowd
Out in the street, thinking out loud
A face in the crowd

Out of a dream, out of the sky
Into my heart, into my life

And you were just a face in the crowd
Out in the street, thinking out loud
A face in the crowd
A face in the crowd
A face in the crowd

DWill

DWill · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:57 am Post subject:

Maybe this thread coluld be like the DJ doing song dedications? Well, that could be fun, right? So, this one goes out to someone we know, Saffron.
I thought of it solely based on a word in the 4th stanza. See if you know what it is, Saffron. Everyone probably knows this Stephen Sondheim song, "Send in the Clowns." Judy Collins did a nice rendition of this.

Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.

Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can't move.
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.

Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours,
Making my entrance again with my usual flair,
Sure of my lines,
No one is there.

Don't you love farce?
My fault I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here.

Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer,
Losing my timing this late
In my career?
And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Well, maybe next year.

Saffron · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:14 am Post subject:

farce

DWill · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:57 pm Post subject:

correctamundo!

Saffron · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:02 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the song. Now I have to spin one back. Hummm, what could it be. When I hear Simon and Garfunkel's The only living boy in new york it makes me think of you -- It's close, but the NYC part is wrong. I'll have to keep thinking.

The only living boy in New York.
I get the news I need on the weather report.
I can gather all the news I need on the weather report.
Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile.
Da-n-da-da-n-da-da-n-da-da here I am
The only living boy in New York

Saff

DWill · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:44 pm Post subject:

I love that old S & G song! I don't think they ever sang that one live.

Will

Saffron · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:46 pm Post subject:

Got it! This is one of the first songs I remember liking and singing as a kid. To DWill -- Carol King's You've Got a Friend. I like it best sung by James Taylor.

When you're down and troubled
and you need a helping hand
and nothing, whoa nothing is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me
and soon I will be there
to brighten up even your darkest nights.

You just call out my name,
and you know wherever I am
I'll come running, oh yeah baby
to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer, or fall,
all you have to do is call
and I'll be there, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You've got a friend.

If the sky above you
should turn dark and full of clouds
and that old north wind should begin to blow
Keep your head together and call my name out loud
and soon I will be knocking upon your door.

You just call out my name and you know wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer or fall
all you got to do is call
and I'll be there, yeah, yeah, yeah.

.....well, that's enough of it.

DWill · Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:00 pm Post subject:

Saffron,
Singing it as a kid? That one came out in my heyday! But thanks.
DWill

Saffron · Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:33 pm Post subject:

Saffron · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 8:25 pm Post subject: John Prine

John Prine needs to mentioned. He's not for everyone, but his lyrics are poetry. Here are bits and pieces of some of my favorite songs.

Angel From Montgomery
©John Prine

I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that's grown old
If dreams were lightning thunder was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago

Chorus:
Make me an angel that flies from Montgom'ry
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go

Spanish Pipedream (AKA Blow Up Your TV)
© John Prine

She was a level-headed dancer on the road to alcohol
And I was just a soldier on my way to Montreal
Well she pressed her chest against me
About the time the juke box broke
Yeah, she gave me a peck on the back of the neck
And these are the words she spoke

Hello In There
©John Prine

Chorus:
Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger,
And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day.
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello."

Paradise
©John Prine

When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

Chorus:
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

bohemian_girl · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:39 am Post subject:

This is one of my favourites. It's not too well known though

Beloved by Wendy Matthews

Here I am, I'm right here
Oh I wish you could feel me
Standing so close
I'm right beside you dear
I fly around this old man house
I float through our walls
I scream and I call
While I watch you without me
All I feel, all I am now
Is this love I have for you
Each night it's you
You I lay beside
Close my eyes, never to sleep
I tell you all the things I should have said
But you'll never know
How could I act such a part
As to love the one who breaks my heart
I had to go�
So put your hands here round my waist
Though you cannot feel my touch dear
And dance with me as you did before
I'm bound forever to this house
I can never go beyond that door
I dance alone
So when you think of me, smile
It's the only way that I can see
That you still care for me
Close my eyes, never to sleep
I tell you all the things I should have said
But you'll never know
How could I act such a part
As to love the one who breaks my heart
I had to go�
Here I am, I'm right here
How I wish you could see me dear
Oh my dear

DWill · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:40 am Post subject:

If I had modern computer capability, I'd go ahead and listen to that song. I thinks it's interesting that song lyrics, to see them on the page, often look pretty over-the-top, gushing, but with the music there I accept them very well and often feel moved. Thanks for posting that.
DWill

Rose Kolarich · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 3:01 am Post subject: Joanna Newsom

Lately I've fallen for the songs of new-folk (I think, it's hard to pinpoint her music into a genre, I've never heard anything like it before) singer and harpist Joanna Newsom. Her lyrics read like poetry, here's

Bridges and Balloons

We sailed away on a winter's day
With fate as malleable as clay
But ships are fallible, I say
And the nautical, like all things, fades
And I can recall our caravel
A little wicker beetle shell
With four fine maste and lateen sails
Its bearings on Cair Paravel

Oh my love
Oh it was a funny little thing
To be
The ones
To've seen

The sight of bridges and balloons
Makes calm canaries irritable
And they caw and claw all afternoon
Catenaries and dirigibles
Brace and bouy the living room
A loom of metals warp woof wimble
And a thimblesworth of milky moon
Can touch hearts larger than a thimble

Oh my love
Oh it was a funny little thing
To be
The ones
To've seen

Oh my love
Oh it was a funny little thing
It was a funny funny little thing

And here's the youtube link for another of her songs "The Sprout and the Bean" if anyone's interested:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=IYl0uLrXP7U

(Keep in mind she's got a love-hate voice).


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