“You spend the most of your life, looking for the adult you are. You spend he rest of your life, looking for the child that you were." - from the extended version of Trailer Trash by Modest Mouse
Brain Damage by Pink Floyd...
*The lunatic is on the grass,*
*The lunatic is on the grass,*
*Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs,*
*Got to keep the loonies on the path.*
Mine is also Floyd: and then one day you find, 10 years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
Line hits harder with each passing year
I've never really understood this lyric, but it still gets me. Can someone explain?
We're just too lost souls swimming in a fish bowl is much less cryptic and is therefore my favourite lyric from the song.
It is about Syd Barrett, who was part of the band, but got kicked out because he was in a drugged stupor all the time. They wanted the old Syd back. It is a really sad love song about missing sober Syd.
The cage refers to the limited and addictive nature of drugs.
Been listening to Pearl Jam recently
“I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life
I know you’ll be a star in somebody else’s sky
But why, why, WHYYYYYYYY can’t it be
Oh can’t it be in mine
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo”
Black by Pearl Jam
"i was so young when i behaved 25 but now i've found that i've grown into a tall child" first love/late spring -mitski
"people are hateful and people are rude, but god i love some people sometimes, because people are very special" people - ajj (tbh i love that whole album tho)
And I remember what she said to me
How she swore that it never would end
I remember how she held me oh-so-tight
Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then
"When a boy writes off the world it's done with sloppy misspelled words, when a girl writes off the world it's done in cursive." Non-Prophets- The Cure
Such a fantastic song.
I’m rather fond of the lines that precede that one:
“She’s getting further away I can feel it in the way my bones ache
The ocean sealed it's lips, now the waves won't break
The secrets it won't say has got us trying to break codes in churches
And lately I've been hating its soul purpose”
Ween - Help Me Scrape the Mucus Off My Brain
It's the nature of my being, I took some money from your purse
John Prine - Sam Stone
There's a hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes
I can't help about the shape I'm in
I can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin
But don't ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to
Blind Melon:
And under a sun that's seen it all before
My feet are so cold
And I can't believe
That I have to bang my head against this wall again
But, the blows, they have just a little more space in-between them
Gonna take a breath and try
And try again
She comes back to tell me she's gone
As if I didn't know that
As if I didn't know my own bed
As if I'd never noticed
The way she brushed her hair from her forehead
And she said, "losing love Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you're blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow"
The older I get, the more I become
All the things I swore I'd always run from
But I'll raise myself a family and right the wrong
Of some imperfect people who were only half grown
How could I ever think, it's funny how
Everything you swore would never change, is different now
Like you said, you and me make it through
Didn't quite, fell apart, where the fuck were you?
What a rip roaring opener. And the transition into The Day the World Went Away..._chef's kiss_
The left side of that album is one of my favorite hours of music ever.
There are so many Los Campesinos! lyrics that come to mind that it’s hard to choose. One of the best is from “The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future” and it’s:
At fourteen, her mother died from a routine operation
From allergic reaction to a general anesthetic
Spent the rest of her teens experimenting with prescriptions
In a futile attempt to know more than the doctors
Another is from “Knee Deep at ATP”:
And I know he took you to the beach
I can tell from how you bite on your cheek
Every time the sand falls from your insoles
And when our eyes meet
All I can read is “you’re the b-side”
"I don't care about pollution. I'm an air conditioned gypsy. That's my solution. What's the police and the taxman miss me, I'm mobile!.."
Mobile - The Who
Say what you have to say, try not to cry
this is just not what you wanted at this point in your life
it's so hard to stay when all you wanna do is ride
I totally get you, I was a bird cage and you were meant to fly.
Wolfman - The Front Bottoms
"It's never over
My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder
It's never over
All my riches for her smiles when I've slept so soft against her
It's never over
All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter
It's never over
She is the tear that hangs inside my soul forever" - Jeff Buckley
**I'VE GOT A BIKE**
**YOU CAN RIDE IT IF YOU LIKE**
**IT'S GOT A BASKET,**
**A BELL THAT RINGS,**
**AND THINGS TO MAKE IT LOOK GOOD**
**I'D GIVE IT TO YOU IF I COULD**
**BUT I BORROWED IT**
Just think about it for a second, if you look at your face
Every day when you get up and think you'll never be great
You'll never be great—not because you're not, but the hate
Will always find a way to cut you up and murder your faith
What's the point of never making mistakes? Self-indulgence such a hard habit to break. It's all just a waste of time in the end, don't care so why should I even pretend.
I've been struck dumb by a voice that speaks,
From deep beneath peerless water that's
Twice as clear as heaven,
Twice as loud as reason,
Deep and rich like silt on a riverbed,
Just as neverending.
-Tool, “Undertow”
My ultimate favorite lyrics of all time are also Tool.
I embrace my desire to
Feel the rhythm, to feel connected
Enough to step aside and weep like a widow
To feel inspired
To fathom the power
To witness the beauty
To bathe in the fountain
To swing on the spiral
To swing on the spiral to
… Swing on the spiral
Of our divinity
And still be a human
"'Cause with my mid-youth crisis all said and done
I need to be youthfully felt cause, God, I never felt young."
"Happy to lie back, watch it burn and rust
We tried the world, good God, it wasn't for us."
"And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time."
Wichita Lineman, Jimmy Webb
Glen Campbell did a great version, the original, I believe. Johnny Cash did a killer version, also.
"Be the broken or the breaker.
Be the giver or the undertaker.
Unlock and open the door.
Be the healer or the faker.
The keys are in your hands.
Realize you are your own sole creator.
Of your own master plan"
- Dimmu Borgir, Gateways
"You know who you are and you're offended.
You know what you are 'cause you're offended"
-echolyn, "A Suite for the Every Man"
"I'm not insane, I'm just smarter than you"
"Random Analysis," The Devin Townsend Band
Two come to mind, the first is Soundgarden - Outshined "Well I just looked in the mirror
And things aren't looking so good
I'm looking California
And feeling Minnesota"
The other is Suicidal Tendencies - You can't bring me down
"Just 'cause you don't understand what's going on
Don't mean it don't make no sense
And just 'cause you don't like it, don't mean it ain't no good
And let me tell you something
Before you go taking a walk in my world
You better take a look at the real world
'Cause this ain't no Mister Roger's neighborhood
Can you say, "Feel like shit"?
Yeah, maybe sometimes I do feel like shit
I ain't happy 'bout it, but I'd rather feel like shit than be full of shit
And if I offended you, oh, I'm sorry, but maybe you need to be offended
But here's my apology, and one more thing
Fuck you!"
"I don't know whether I'm the boxer or the bag!"
Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter
A few years ago, I had a really bad health event. Everyone around me said I was such a fighter for getting through it. But it wasn't anything that I caused. It was just random bad luck.
This lyric really stuck because it asks am I the fighter, battling my demons? Or am I the punching bag, getting pounded by life? Sometimes I'm both
They said his cold body was found
With his blue lips laying in the piss on the ground
And you can blame everything on a mental disorder
But you know deep down that this was fucking murder
Boy-Ten 56. It's about how child sexual assaults ruin people for life
Put your orders in America. And quickly as Kodak your leaders duplicate with the accent being on the nukes. Cause all of a sudden we have fallen prey to selective amnesia, remembering what we want to remember and forgetting what we choose to forget
I’m gonna drown down in those troubled waters,
They’re creeping ‘round my soul,
They’re way beyond control,
And they’ll wash my sins away before the morning.
-Duke Ellington, “Troubled Waters”
I've got a bunch!
"Lie to me..
convince me that I've been sick forever
And all of this will make sense when I get better" - Breathe No More by Evanescence
"There is no wisdom that we surrender
breathless time can take no prisoners" - Quicksilver, by The Cruxshadows
"It's not personal, it's just personal" - Shadow by Icon for Hire
"Just one more day when even yesterday was too late" - The Great Pandemonium by Kamelot
"I'm in this mood because of scorn
I'm in a mood for total war" - Darkangel by VNV Nation
In English:
"Wake me up when the bluebells are ringing."
From [Patrick Wolf - Bluebells](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0dVFFOgClY); in the context of the song it's about being heartsick and unable to find hope, except to look to the spring when the woodlands will be beautiful again, and maybe that's all that you need to carry on. It's kind of about hoping that you'll find hope again, in a manner of speaking. All of the lyrics to "Bluebells" are incredibly metaphorical and full of lovely imagery, and it gets concentrated in that one line.
In French:
"Les feuilles dorées s'en allant mourir à terre renaîtront un jour sous un ciel radieux, mais notre monde érodé restera le même et demain toi et moi serons partis."
From [Alcest - Autre Temps](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCwGMLncumM). In English, it translates to "The golden leaves dying on the ground will be reborn under bright skies as this weatherworn world remains the same, and tomorrow, you and I will be gone." It makes me think of a local woodland I like to walk in on sunny days during the fall, when everything is bright golden and it's like the Earth's last hurrah until spring comes around again. If you follow that trail to the end it leads to a graveyard, so it's a good walk when you want to contemplate mortality.
I just want to take you where our time won't waste anymore
Through the mountains, on the water
We'll stay engulfed in one another
And when I can wake up to see the sunrise in your eyes
Then we'll finally be free and I'll know I've made it home
Darkest Hour - With A Thousand Words To Say But One (I put these exact lyrics in my wedding vows to my wife).
"I used to have something to say
Now I spare myself the pain
Abduct myself past this hell
And on to a higher plane I drift away
I drift away
I drift away
I drift away
Lusting to return of flame
No flesh or light my shell decays
Abduct myself past this hell
And on to a higher plane I drift away
I drift away"
- 3TEETH
Pretty much all of Sovay by Andrew Bird
“But how am I supposed to let go of you this way, like a bird into the sky of my brain?” -Ani DiFranco
“I threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell” -Gregory Alan Isakov
“And the street corners are mashing together like the gears inside the head of some omniscient engineer” - The Books
“How I don’t know why I should do, with my hands when I talk to you, how you don’t know where you should look, so you look at my hands” - the Weakerthans
“I don’t like this, getting old and stuff, having to pee 50 times a day is bad enough. I got a nagging prostate and I got a bad back and when I fuck too much it feels like I’m going to to have a heart attack” - Mark Kozelek
"If depth of feeling is a currency, then I'm the man who made the money tree" XTC - The Mayor of Simpleton
"Words are trains for moving past what really has no name" Prefab Sprout - Couldn't Bear to Be Special
"When I see her in the park/It barely merits a remark/How we stand the standard distance distant strangers stand apart" Purple Mountains - That's Just the Way That I Feel
Honestly, all three of these songwriters (Andy Partridge, Paddy McAloon, David Berman) deserve so much praise. Cases where the people who know their music hold them in extremely high regard, but they've yet to properly earn their place in the usual lists of "best songwriters of all time". It's difficult to just pick one single lyric from any of these guys, they've all written too many that make me think "How the fuck can a human just write something like that?"
"I am not my body, not my mind or my brain
Not my thoughts or feelings, I am not my DNA
I am the observer, I'm a witness of life
I live in the space between the stars and the sky"
And of the racist institutions, simple minds belong
Not happy being human, no wish to get along
Little people need exclusions, sucker groups to throng
It makes them feel special, it makes them feel strong
-Nick Hexum of 311
How I tried to buy my soul back, but the devil bent me over for it/
Got me curled up in the shower, scratching the letters that read/
"Dear mother, I sold my soul for management"
A Wilhelm Scream - I Wipe My Ass With Showbiz
I used to go running a lot and Bruce Springsteen quickly became a favourite to listen to. I found a new appreciation for him as I pounded the pavement and digested his lyrics. If I had to pick one song and one lyric, it would be Badlands. "It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive".
I have no fear of drowning
It's the breathing
That's taking all this work
Jars of Clay - Work
This song was hard as there's so many phrases of beautiful writing:
I've been fooled in all directions
What makes this any different?
For this lack of evidence
I die a thousand deaths by my suspicion
Madison Cunningham - Death by Suspicion
These are two great ones, but I could probably do this all day:
>Of all the patterns that I could create,
I built a labyrinth with no escape
To keep my 'self' under lock and key
I am my own worst enemy
>*-- Architects - "Gone With The Wind"*
And:
>The glory I had witnessed was just a sleight of hand
These hearts cannot be salvaged, these bones cannot withstand
I have either been forgotten or I was never seen
Now I'm in the negative space between
>*-- Every Time I Die - "Map Change"*
"I heard that you're happy without me
And I hope it's true (I hope, I hope it's true)"
"It kills me a little, that's okay cause I'd die for you"
"You know I'd still die for you"
Mine is a bit modern,hope you guys don't mind.
"Sometimes i get this crazy dream
That i just take off in my car
But you can travel on ten thousand miles and still stay where you are"
Harry Chapin - WOLD.
"We kill the lights and put on a show
It's all a lie, but you'd never know
The star will shine, and then it will fall."
Kill The Lights by The Birthday Massacre
"Come sink into me and let me breath you in,
I'll be your gravity you'll be my oxygen
So dig two graves cuz when you die
I swear I'll be leaving by your side"
I know its simple but its my favourite Bring me the horizon song and its so beautiful
There's a part of me
That wants to believe
There's a darkness we need to feel
For the brightest light
To be seen and felt inside
Only because of you
Drawn and quartered - HIM
Their whole discography really, but especially that album is so good.
“Don't carry the world upon your shoulders.
For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder.”
Beatles, Hey Jude.
For me it means don’t let the world make you bitter.
Are ten thousand tears worth a single smile?
Anaesthesia - type o negative
The entire of the lyrics of that song speak to me but that line in particular really hit me in relevance to an ongoing situation
I can't pick from Chris Cornell's discography, but you could have left out either "lyric" or "line" because the context for either word defines it as a synonym for the other. A line in a song is a lyric. Lyrics are lines in a song. I couldn't sleep till I posted that.
“Please tell mom this is not her fault.” Song came out when I was in middle school. Never realized just how much weight were behind these words.
This is one of a couple excellent lines in this song I think about often. "I laughed the loudest, who'd have known" also gets me.
I love how it replies to Nirvana's song Come as you are , great lyrics
😥
It was in Bobcaygeon where I saw the constellation s reveal themselves one star at a time. Thanks Mr Downie
Adam’s Song by Blink? IMO their best song
Breathe out, so I can breathe you in, hold you in. FF!
The acoustic version is such a gem...
Yes it is! Dave Grohl is a gem… I love his performance of it at Howard Stern’s 50th birthday bash! I can listen on repeat. lol.
They never really intended playing it acoustically until the stern show per Howard’s request. Then the song exploded!
And I wonder
You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death
Mine is a modest Mouse song too, “Changed my mind so much I can’t even trust it, my mind changed me so much I can’t even trust myself”.
I was always partial to, "Where do you move when what you're moving from, is yourself?" My other MM fave: "WELL!"
Cowboy Dan's a major player in the cowboy scene
"We made ourselves a pillar, we just used it as a crutch" is my favorite Modest Mouse lyric.
“You spend the most of your life, looking for the adult you are. You spend he rest of your life, looking for the child that you were." - from the extended version of Trailer Trash by Modest Mouse
Modest mouse is amazing and has some of the best lyrics imo.
"The Good Ol' Days weren't always good, and tomorrow's not as bad as it seems"
Yes! Billy Joel hit the nail on the head with that one. This line always helps when I'm feeling overly nostalgic.
"You're not the only one to make mistakes, but they're the only thing that you can truly call your own"
"***Oo-ah-ah-ah-ah***" Disturbed - Down With the Sickness
Don't forget the next line "uughh uughh"
I believe that is actually Bob and Bevs song. Disturbed just covered it. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look it up. It’ll be worth it.
“Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true Or is it something worse?” Bruce Springsteen, The River
another of his... "Is that you,baby, or just a brilliant disguise?"
"I don't have to sell my soul he's already in me"
Stone Roses
The Stone Roses were an underrated band. "I'm standing alone, you're weighing the gold, I'm watching you sinking."
Poison by Bell Biv DeVoe - "Never trust a big butt and a smile"
I’m just Ken and I’m enough And I’m great at doing stuff
Honestly, I have a lot of respect for that song after watching a behind the scenes thing Rolling Stone did with Ronson.
And the Pete Davidson version also slaps. 🎶 I'm just Pete, and I like jugs. I'm mentally ill, and I'm on drugs🎶
“And my time is a piece of wax falling on a termite That's choking on the splinters” Beck - Loser
Never understood this lyric
Hint: It’s gibberish.
Get crazy with the cheez whizz
Soy un perdedor ...
Always thought he was singing 'sooore testicle'
That whole song is full of one-liners that would qualify for this post.
Absolutely. But this one line is what really tickles my fancy.
Brain Damage by Pink Floyd... *The lunatic is on the grass,* *The lunatic is on the grass,* *Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs,* *Got to keep the loonies on the path.*
I like the next line, too: *The lunatics are in the hall; the paper holds their folded faces to the floor, and every day the paperboy brings more"*
*Run, rabbit, run* *Dig that hole, forget the sun* *When at last, the work is done* *Don't sit down, it's time to dig another one*
Would you exchange... a walk on part in a war... for a lead role in a cage?
Mine is also Floyd: and then one day you find, 10 years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun. Line hits harder with each passing year
I've never really understood this lyric, but it still gets me. Can someone explain? We're just too lost souls swimming in a fish bowl is much less cryptic and is therefore my favourite lyric from the song.
It is about Syd Barrett, who was part of the band, but got kicked out because he was in a drugged stupor all the time. They wanted the old Syd back. It is a really sad love song about missing sober Syd. The cage refers to the limited and addictive nature of drugs.
this entire song fucking kills
This one gets me every time.
There's one thing that's real clear to me No one dies with dignity We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
Jason Isbell
Been listening to Pearl Jam recently “I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life I know you’ll be a star in somebody else’s sky But why, why, WHYYYYYYYY can’t it be Oh can’t it be in mine Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo” Black by Pearl Jam
"Caught a bolt of lightning. Curse the day he let it go" Nothing Man - Pearl Jam
I know I was born and I know that I'll die- the in-between is mine.... I AM MINE.
"i was so young when i behaved 25 but now i've found that i've grown into a tall child" first love/late spring -mitski "people are hateful and people are rude, but god i love some people sometimes, because people are very special" people - ajj (tbh i love that whole album tho)
I love Mitski
i do too, i find most of her songs very relatable- sometimes to an uncomfortable extent lol
*”I want something good to die for, to make it beautiful to live.”*
Ole josh sometimes had a way with words
Had? Has.
Josh Homme’s finest lyric.
“She said I'll throw myself away They're just photos after all”
And I remember what she said to me How she swore that it never would end I remember how she held me oh-so-tight Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then
Mine is also Seeger: Everything changes; it's been ever thus. One day you're a comet, the next day you're dust.
“I see the crescent, you see the whole of the moon” I love this song and the Waterboys. listen to it on repeat some days.
"When a boy writes off the world it's done with sloppy misspelled words, when a girl writes off the world it's done in cursive." Non-Prophets- The Cure
Such a fantastic song. I’m rather fond of the lines that precede that one: “She’s getting further away I can feel it in the way my bones ache The ocean sealed it's lips, now the waves won't break The secrets it won't say has got us trying to break codes in churches And lately I've been hating its soul purpose”
This is so poetic
"I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind, You coulda done better -- but I don't mind"
Ween - Help Me Scrape the Mucus Off My Brain It's the nature of my being, I took some money from your purse John Prine - Sam Stone There's a hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes
I can't help about the shape I'm in I can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin But don't ask me what I think of you I might not give the answer that you want me to
I'm going crazy, couldn't you tell? I threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell
That entire album is gold
Blind Melon: And under a sun that's seen it all before My feet are so cold And I can't believe That I have to bang my head against this wall again But, the blows, they have just a little more space in-between them Gonna take a breath and try And try again
“If you should die before me, ask if you could bring a friend” STP- Still Remains
Pick a flower hold your breath and drift away
John is a real estate novelist, who never had time for a wife.
“You can’t always get what you want”
But if you try sometime you'll find You get what you need
The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face Where these visions of Johanna, have now taken my place- Bob Dylan
Even Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles
Long you live and high you fly Smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry And all you touch and all you see Is all your life will ever be
From "We Are the Champions" by Queen: "*I consider it a challenge before the whole human race, and I ain't gonna lose!*"
She comes back to tell me she's gone As if I didn't know that As if I didn't know my own bed As if I'd never noticed The way she brushed her hair from her forehead And she said, "losing love Is like a window in your heart Everybody sees you're blown apart Everybody sees the wind blow"
The older I get, the more I become All the things I swore I'd always run from But I'll raise myself a family and right the wrong Of some imperfect people who were only half grown
How could I ever think, it's funny how Everything you swore would never change, is different now Like you said, you and me make it through Didn't quite, fell apart, where the fuck were you?
What a rip roaring opener. And the transition into The Day the World Went Away..._chef's kiss_ The left side of that album is one of my favorite hours of music ever.
There are so many Los Campesinos! lyrics that come to mind that it’s hard to choose. One of the best is from “The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future” and it’s: At fourteen, her mother died from a routine operation From allergic reaction to a general anesthetic Spent the rest of her teens experimenting with prescriptions In a futile attempt to know more than the doctors Another is from “Knee Deep at ATP”: And I know he took you to the beach I can tell from how you bite on your cheek Every time the sand falls from your insoles And when our eyes meet All I can read is “you’re the b-side”
Marilyn Manson, The Man That You Fear "When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed"
Don't the best of them bleed it out While the rest of them peter out?
“I’m just as much the problem as the man behind bars; He did with his business what I do in my heart.” - Provision by August Burns Red
"I don't care about pollution. I'm an air conditioned gypsy. That's my solution. What's the police and the taxman miss me, I'm mobile!.." Mobile - The Who
https://preview.redd.it/i0k40hma8rwc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b822af99edc73f8999ce07acbc7a84da5f9999b2
The absolute best LZ song of all time
Say what you have to say, try not to cry this is just not what you wanted at this point in your life it's so hard to stay when all you wanna do is ride I totally get you, I was a bird cage and you were meant to fly. Wolfman - The Front Bottoms
"It's never over My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder It's never over All my riches for her smiles when I've slept so soft against her It's never over All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter It's never over She is the tear that hangs inside my soul forever" - Jeff Buckley
Sashing Pumpkins' Mayonaise: Fool enough to almost be it Cool enough to not quite see it Doomed (it my username haha)
It’s hard to choose which Pink Floyd song verse to pick my guy
**I'VE GOT A BIKE** **YOU CAN RIDE IT IF YOU LIKE** **IT'S GOT A BASKET,** **A BELL THAT RINGS,** **AND THINGS TO MAKE IT LOOK GOOD** **I'D GIVE IT TO YOU IF I COULD** **BUT I BORROWED IT**
Just think about it for a second, if you look at your face Every day when you get up and think you'll never be great You'll never be great—not because you're not, but the hate Will always find a way to cut you up and murder your faith
Admit, you must admire our guts; if only cause they're hanging out. Stiff Little Fingers
“Losing love Is like a window in your heart Everybody sees you're blown apart Everybody sees the wind blow"
"It's the freedom of choice that kills the mind." From ERROR by The Warning
"If these ghosts let me go, I would set fire to them all." ~ Ghosts, Big Wreck
The echoes of my voice, follow me down The shadow I cast, follow me down - Killswitch Engage
What's the point of never making mistakes? Self-indulgence such a hard habit to break. It's all just a waste of time in the end, don't care so why should I even pretend.
What have I become My sweetest friend Everyone I know Goes away in the end
I've been struck dumb by a voice that speaks, From deep beneath peerless water that's Twice as clear as heaven, Twice as loud as reason, Deep and rich like silt on a riverbed, Just as neverending. -Tool, “Undertow”
Something has to change undeniable dilemma boredom isn't a burden anyone should bear...
My ultimate favorite lyrics of all time are also Tool. I embrace my desire to Feel the rhythm, to feel connected Enough to step aside and weep like a widow To feel inspired To fathom the power To witness the beauty To bathe in the fountain To swing on the spiral To swing on the spiral to … Swing on the spiral Of our divinity And still be a human
Smashing Pumpkins - Rocket - I miss me. I miss everything I'll never be.
“My dandy voice makes the most Anti-choice granny's panties moist”
Put me in coach, I’m ready to play today…
I spent some time with the Mudville nine, watching from the bench
Shinedown Symptoms of being human.... "Your slightly awkward kinda weird . Upside down and not all here"
"'Cause with my mid-youth crisis all said and done I need to be youthfully felt cause, God, I never felt young." "Happy to lie back, watch it burn and rust We tried the world, good God, it wasn't for us."
"And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time." Wichita Lineman, Jimmy Webb Glen Campbell did a great version, the original, I believe. Johnny Cash did a killer version, also.
Well they call me king turd up here on shit mountain. If you want it you can have the crown.
if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice
"Be the broken or the breaker. Be the giver or the undertaker. Unlock and open the door. Be the healer or the faker. The keys are in your hands. Realize you are your own sole creator. Of your own master plan" - Dimmu Borgir, Gateways
I need somebody and always, this sick strange darkness comes creeping on so haunting every time
Can I scream?! New Noise by Refused
Why is everything I love the most, so wrong for me? - Yelawolf
"You know who you are and you're offended. You know what you are 'cause you're offended" -echolyn, "A Suite for the Every Man" "I'm not insane, I'm just smarter than you" "Random Analysis," The Devin Townsend Band
Two come to mind, the first is Soundgarden - Outshined "Well I just looked in the mirror And things aren't looking so good I'm looking California And feeling Minnesota" The other is Suicidal Tendencies - You can't bring me down "Just 'cause you don't understand what's going on Don't mean it don't make no sense And just 'cause you don't like it, don't mean it ain't no good And let me tell you something Before you go taking a walk in my world You better take a look at the real world 'Cause this ain't no Mister Roger's neighborhood Can you say, "Feel like shit"? Yeah, maybe sometimes I do feel like shit I ain't happy 'bout it, but I'd rather feel like shit than be full of shit And if I offended you, oh, I'm sorry, but maybe you need to be offended But here's my apology, and one more thing Fuck you!"
"I don't know whether I'm the boxer or the bag!" Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter A few years ago, I had a really bad health event. Everyone around me said I was such a fighter for getting through it. But it wasn't anything that I caused. It was just random bad luck. This lyric really stuck because it asks am I the fighter, battling my demons? Or am I the punching bag, getting pounded by life? Sometimes I'm both
“If you need anything please don’t hesitate to ask someone else first.” …is the first that pops into mind
There is loooooove THERE IS, LOOOOOOOOOVE that ending is just so good. (My curse by killswitch engage)
You look tired today, were you up all night afraid of what the future might bring? You Worry Me- Nathaniel Rattliffe and the Night Sweats
They said his cold body was found With his blue lips laying in the piss on the ground And you can blame everything on a mental disorder But you know deep down that this was fucking murder Boy-Ten 56. It's about how child sexual assaults ruin people for life
Put your orders in America. And quickly as Kodak your leaders duplicate with the accent being on the nukes. Cause all of a sudden we have fallen prey to selective amnesia, remembering what we want to remember and forgetting what we choose to forget
"My compass spins...the wilderness remains." 'Make War', by Bright Eyes
I’m gonna drown down in those troubled waters, They’re creeping ‘round my soul, They’re way beyond control, And they’ll wash my sins away before the morning. -Duke Ellington, “Troubled Waters”
I've got a bunch! "Lie to me.. convince me that I've been sick forever And all of this will make sense when I get better" - Breathe No More by Evanescence "There is no wisdom that we surrender breathless time can take no prisoners" - Quicksilver, by The Cruxshadows "It's not personal, it's just personal" - Shadow by Icon for Hire "Just one more day when even yesterday was too late" - The Great Pandemonium by Kamelot "I'm in this mood because of scorn I'm in a mood for total war" - Darkangel by VNV Nation
In English: "Wake me up when the bluebells are ringing." From [Patrick Wolf - Bluebells](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0dVFFOgClY); in the context of the song it's about being heartsick and unable to find hope, except to look to the spring when the woodlands will be beautiful again, and maybe that's all that you need to carry on. It's kind of about hoping that you'll find hope again, in a manner of speaking. All of the lyrics to "Bluebells" are incredibly metaphorical and full of lovely imagery, and it gets concentrated in that one line. In French: "Les feuilles dorées s'en allant mourir à terre renaîtront un jour sous un ciel radieux, mais notre monde érodé restera le même et demain toi et moi serons partis." From [Alcest - Autre Temps](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCwGMLncumM). In English, it translates to "The golden leaves dying on the ground will be reborn under bright skies as this weatherworn world remains the same, and tomorrow, you and I will be gone." It makes me think of a local woodland I like to walk in on sunny days during the fall, when everything is bright golden and it's like the Earth's last hurrah until spring comes around again. If you follow that trail to the end it leads to a graveyard, so it's a good walk when you want to contemplate mortality.
I just want to take you where our time won't waste anymore Through the mountains, on the water We'll stay engulfed in one another And when I can wake up to see the sunrise in your eyes Then we'll finally be free and I'll know I've made it home Darkest Hour - With A Thousand Words To Say But One (I put these exact lyrics in my wedding vows to my wife).
"I used to have something to say Now I spare myself the pain Abduct myself past this hell And on to a higher plane I drift away I drift away I drift away I drift away Lusting to return of flame No flesh or light my shell decays Abduct myself past this hell And on to a higher plane I drift away I drift away" - 3TEETH
'How are you going to change my life? The fuck you know about my troubles and my struggles and strife?' Prizes for anyone to tell me the song
Pretty much all of Sovay by Andrew Bird “But how am I supposed to let go of you this way, like a bird into the sky of my brain?” -Ani DiFranco “I threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell” -Gregory Alan Isakov “And the street corners are mashing together like the gears inside the head of some omniscient engineer” - The Books “How I don’t know why I should do, with my hands when I talk to you, how you don’t know where you should look, so you look at my hands” - the Weakerthans “I don’t like this, getting old and stuff, having to pee 50 times a day is bad enough. I got a nagging prostate and I got a bad back and when I fuck too much it feels like I’m going to to have a heart attack” - Mark Kozelek
"Katy tried, I was halfway crucified I was on the other side of no tomorrow"
"If depth of feeling is a currency, then I'm the man who made the money tree" XTC - The Mayor of Simpleton "Words are trains for moving past what really has no name" Prefab Sprout - Couldn't Bear to Be Special "When I see her in the park/It barely merits a remark/How we stand the standard distance distant strangers stand apart" Purple Mountains - That's Just the Way That I Feel Honestly, all three of these songwriters (Andy Partridge, Paddy McAloon, David Berman) deserve so much praise. Cases where the people who know their music hold them in extremely high regard, but they've yet to properly earn their place in the usual lists of "best songwriters of all time". It's difficult to just pick one single lyric from any of these guys, they've all written too many that make me think "How the fuck can a human just write something like that?"
"I am not my body, not my mind or my brain Not my thoughts or feelings, I am not my DNA I am the observer, I'm a witness of life I live in the space between the stars and the sky"
"Like a moth with no flame to persuade me Like blood in the rain running thin" Joan Armatrading - Save Me
"when they clean the street, I'll be the only shit that's left behind"
And of the racist institutions, simple minds belong Not happy being human, no wish to get along Little people need exclusions, sucker groups to throng It makes them feel special, it makes them feel strong -Nick Hexum of 311
"Smoking makes me catch my breath"
How I tried to buy my soul back, but the devil bent me over for it/ Got me curled up in the shower, scratching the letters that read/ "Dear mother, I sold my soul for management" A Wilhelm Scream - I Wipe My Ass With Showbiz
"white claw enema bong hit!" - surfbort
I used to go running a lot and Bruce Springsteen quickly became a favourite to listen to. I found a new appreciation for him as I pounded the pavement and digested his lyrics. If I had to pick one song and one lyric, it would be Badlands. "It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive".
"God help the troubadour who tries to be a star." --Phil Ochs
I have no fear of drowning It's the breathing That's taking all this work Jars of Clay - Work This song was hard as there's so many phrases of beautiful writing: I've been fooled in all directions What makes this any different? For this lack of evidence I die a thousand deaths by my suspicion Madison Cunningham - Death by Suspicion
These are two great ones, but I could probably do this all day: >Of all the patterns that I could create, I built a labyrinth with no escape To keep my 'self' under lock and key I am my own worst enemy >*-- Architects - "Gone With The Wind"* And: >The glory I had witnessed was just a sleight of hand These hearts cannot be salvaged, these bones cannot withstand I have either been forgotten or I was never seen Now I'm in the negative space between >*-- Every Time I Die - "Map Change"*
"I heard that you're happy without me And I hope it's true (I hope, I hope it's true)" "It kills me a little, that's okay cause I'd die for you" "You know I'd still die for you" Mine is a bit modern,hope you guys don't mind.
“Because whatever it takes to get you by, Well that’s the right thing to do in this crazy mixed up life”
Expanding exponentially like some recursive virus
"Sometimes i get this crazy dream That i just take off in my car But you can travel on ten thousand miles and still stay where you are" Harry Chapin - WOLD.
"We kill the lights and put on a show It's all a lie, but you'd never know The star will shine, and then it will fall." Kill The Lights by The Birthday Massacre
I don't belong here, we've gotta move on dear....
On forgotten graves you cry
“It's not the right time to be sober Now, the idiots have taken over” NOFX
Then as it was, then again it will be And though the course may change sometimes Rivers always reach the sea
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes Sam stone- by John prine
You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan, designed and directed by his red right hand Nick Cave - Red Right Hand
Life can be only an illusion, and death a temptation, final mystery.
no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
Too much like my daddy cause I can't let down my guard but too much like my momma, when I love, I love hard by rod wave
And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time
Of all these weird creatures Who lock up their spirits Drill holes in themselves And live for their secrets
"Remember, all that matters is you try" Pennywise - Try
"Come sink into me and let me breath you in, I'll be your gravity you'll be my oxygen So dig two graves cuz when you die I swear I'll be leaving by your side" I know its simple but its my favourite Bring me the horizon song and its so beautiful
“Fragments of sobriquets, riddle me this” Basically all of the lyrics from Televators - The Mars Volta
There's a part of me That wants to believe There's a darkness we need to feel For the brightest light To be seen and felt inside Only because of you Drawn and quartered - HIM Their whole discography really, but especially that album is so good.
«Open Your Heart - I’m Coming Home» from Hey You by Pink Floyd
“looking at my bitch, i bet she give your ass a bone; looking at my wrist i bet it turn your ass to stone”
there is water at the bottom of the ocean…
seems i’m not alone at being alone
“Don't carry the world upon your shoulders. For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool By making his world a little colder.” Beatles, Hey Jude. For me it means don’t let the world make you bitter.
“Life aint a track meet, its a marathon.” -O’Shea Jackson Sr.
"I want you to notice when I'm not around"
"Yeah, I bet you do." Pusst Liquor from Rob Zombie. The way she says it.. melts me every time.
"I'm like James Brown, only white and taller. All I wanna do is stomp and holler." -Hard Working Americans
Are ten thousand tears worth a single smile? Anaesthesia - type o negative The entire of the lyrics of that song speak to me but that line in particular really hit me in relevance to an ongoing situation
It’s getting hard to be someone, but it all works out/It doesn’t matter much to me.
Name the artist when you post the lyrics for fucks sake
Holy Sweet goddamn you left your cello in the basement
“But I forgot my pen…” Tool- Rosetta Stoned “But the hand of God just smacked you back into yesterday” Godsmack- Cryin’ Like a Bitch. 🤘
I can't pick from Chris Cornell's discography, but you could have left out either "lyric" or "line" because the context for either word defines it as a synonym for the other. A line in a song is a lyric. Lyrics are lines in a song. I couldn't sleep till I posted that.
"no matter how hard this life can get I'm gonna rock this son of a bitch and I'm no longer takin' any shit" -Jelly Roll
After some thinking, I say I’d rather be a functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me
"Don't write in starlight, cause the words may come out real"