Lyrically Speaking....

[lolapunk]

Canary in a Coalmine - The Police

First to fall over when the
ATMOSPHERE is less than perfect
Your sensibilities are shaken
By the slightest defect

You live your life like
A canary in a COALMINE
You get so dizzy even
Walking in a straight line


coalmine

[Siren]

This is from memory, so I might be wrong...

Working in a coal mine, going down down

Working in a coal mine, woo I'm 'bout to slip down

from "Working In A Coal Mine" by, among others, The Judds

next: slip

[lolapunk]

Good on ya, mate... I was thinking that very song but with a twist of Devo.

Slip Slidin' Away - Paul Simon

SLIP slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your DESTINATION
The more you're slip slidin' away

destination

[Siren]

There ain't no easy way to start this conversation
So I'll just say what's on my mind
Once our hearts both shared a common DESTINATION
To love until the end of time

Lately we've been drifting further from each other
Someone's gotta take the wheel
I won't wait until it's too late to recover
So let me tell you how I feel

I'll do anything if it'll bring our hearts together
I'll stand and fight or get down on my knees
If we can fix what's wrong and just go on in love forever
Baby I'll be BEGGING, please

from "Please" by The Kinleys (Damn, I love that song!)

next: begging

[lolapunk]

Love Has No Pride - Bonnie Raitt

If I could buy your love, I'd truly try my friend
And if I could pray, my prayer would never end
But if you want me to beg, I'll fall down on my KNEES
Asking for you to come back...
I'd be pleading for you to come back...
BEGGING for you to come back to me.


knees

[Phalon]

from Figured You Out by Nickelback

"I like your pants around your feet
I like the dirt that's on your knees
And I like the way you still say please
While you're looking up at me
You're like my favourite damn disease"

disease

[Siren]

My hat don't hang on the same nail too long
My EARS can't stand to hear the same old song
And I don't leave the highway long enough to bog down in the mud
'cause I've got ramblin' fever in my blood

Caught this ramblin' fever long ago,
When I first heard a lonesome whistle blow
If someone said I ever gave a damn
They damn sure told you wrong
I've had ramblin' fever all along

Ramblin' fever,
The kind that can't be measured by degrees
Ramblin' fever
There ain't no kind of cure for my DISEASE

from "Ramblin' Fever" by Merle Haggard

next: ears

[mabd]

Back to Penny Lane

In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he's had the pleasure to know.
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say hello.

On the corner is a banker with a motorcar,
The little children laugh at him behind his back.
And the banker never wears a mack
In the pouring rain, very strange.

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes.
There beneath the blue suburban skies
I sit, and meanwhile back

In penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass
And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen.
He likes to keep his fire engine clean,
It's a clean machine.

SKIES

Maeve

[fallenangel]

Pavement Cracks~ Annie Lennox

The city streets are wet again with rain
But I'm walkin' just the same
Skies turn to the usual grey
When you turn to face the day
And love don't show up in the pavement cracks
All my water colours fade to black
I'm goin' nowhere and I'm ten steps back
All my dreams have fallen flat

(Love don't show in the pavement cracks
There will be no turning back)

next word : Colours

[lolapunk]

from Everybody Knows - Dixie Chicks

Tell me now if you came sneaking up behind
Would you know me and see behind the smile
I can change like COLORS on a wall
Hoping no one else will find what lies beneath it all
I think I hide it all so well

Stepping out, everyone can see my face
All the things I can't erase from my life
Everybody knows
Standing out so you won't forget my name
That's the way we play this game of life
Everybody knows

Looking through the crowd
I search for something else
But every time I turn around
I run into myself
Here I stand
CONSUMED with my surroundings
Just another day
Of everybody looking
I swore they'd never see me cry
You'll never see me cry


consumed

[mabd]

Black Is The Colour
words and music traditional

Black is the colour of my true love's hair
Her lips are like some roses fair
She has the sweetest smile and the gentlest hands.
I love the ground whereon she stands

I love my love and well she knows
I love the ground whereon she goes.
And I wish the day, it soon will come
That she and I will be as one

I'll go to the Clyde and I'll mourn and weep
Where satisfied I never shall be
I'll write her a letter, just a few short lines
And suffer death ten thousand times

This is an old song dating with tune origins probably dating to the 18th century. The lyrics were first recorded in around 1916. It is an Irish traditinal song, but the reference to the Clyde suggests a Scottish origin.

GROUND

Maeve

[lolapunk]

Maeve, I'll transpose the minutes on your posting time and call it a tie. And rock, paper, scissors is out of the question because I never play fair.

All I Really Want - Alanis Morissette ...and yes, there's a lot of lyrics here...

Do I stress you out
My sweater is on
Backwards and inside out
And you say how appropriate

I don't want to
Dissect everything today
I don't mean to
Pick you apart, you see
But I can't help it

There I go jumping before
The gunshot has gone off
Slap me with a splintered ruler

And it would knock me to the floor
If I wasn't there already
If only I could hunt the hunter

And all I really want
Is some patience
A way to calm the angry voice
And all I really want
Is deliverance

Do I wear you out
You must wonder why I'm
Relentless and all strung out
I'm CONSUMED by the
Chill of solitary

I'm like Estella
I like to reel it in
And then spit it out
I'm frustrated by your apathy

And I am frightened by the
Corrupted ways of this land
If only I could meet the maker

And I am fascinated
By the spiritual man
I'm humbled by his
Humble nature, yeah

What I wouldn't give
To find a soulmate
Someone else to
Catch this drift

And what I wouldn't give
To meet a kindred

Enough about me
Let's talk about you
For a minute
Enough about you
Let's talk about
Life for a while

The conflicts, the craziness
And the sound of pretenses
Falling all around, all around

Why are you so petrified of silence
Here, can you handle this

Did you think about your bills
Your ex, your deadlines
Or when you think you're gonna die
Or did you long
For the next distraction

And all I need now
Is intellectual intercourse
A soul to dig the
Hole much deeper

And I have no concept of time
Other than it is flying
If only I could kill the killer

And all I really want
Is some peace, man
A place to find a common GROUND
And all I really want
Is a wavelength

And all I really want
Is some comfort
A way to get my hands untied
And all I really want
Is some JUSTICE


justice

[mabd]

lolapunk said:

Maeve, I'll transpose the minutes on your posting time and call it a tie. And rock, paper, scissors is out of the question because I never play fair.

All I Really Want - Alanis Morissette ...and yes, there's a lot of lyrics here...

Whoa, Doc Da Li Lo La Punkchell, how did you get inside my head? I stopped when I read your post, dragged up Alanis and (here's where it is really strange) and chose justice. Honest, I really did --and even giggled cause I got wavelength in it for Phalon.

Since you're here and all and it's trash night, wanna help? <ducking and running>

If I Had a Hammer
Peter, Paul, and Mary

If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land
I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warning,
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters,
all over this land.

If I had a bell, I'd ring it in the morning,
I'd ring it in the evening, all over this land
I'd ring out danger, I'd ring out a warning
I'd ring out love between my brothers and my sisters,
all over this land.

If I had a song, I'd sing it in the morning,
I'd sing it in the evening, all over this land
I'd sing out danger, I'd sing out a warning
I'd sing out love between my brothers and my sisters,
all over this land.

Well I got a hammer, and I got a bell,
and I got a song to sing, all over this land.
It's the hammer of Justice, it's the bell of Freedom,
it's the song about Love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land.

It's the hammer of Justice, it's the bell of Freedom,
it's the song about Love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land.

WARNING

Maeve

[fallenangel]

Back Door Man ~ Sarah Mclachlan

You open your eyes look around
You feel the earth it wanders
Out from under your feet the ground
is not firm but soft and weak like skin
under the touch cannot stop to falter
Now the damage is done the certainties gone
The spirits altered

And now the angry morning
Gives the early signs of warning
You must face alone the plans you make
Decisions they will try to break

Our hands are tied on the table
Maybe you can try at the back door man
While the helpless line up on the doorsteps
'Cause its all they can do to try to get through
All of your life you've lived in a world as pure
As Eden's sixth day- Now all you've been allowed
Is taken away- they will not let you be so proud
And you have felt the fear growing inside
Protest follows far and wide- they'll see how long
It will take 'till you fall- from so much denied

next word: DECISIONS

[mabd]

Want More
Bob Marley

Now you get what you want,
Do you want more? (want more)
Now you get what you want,
Do you want more? (want more)

You think it's the end,
But it's just the beginning.
You think it's the end,
But it's just the beginning.
Go down back-biter, down back-bite; down back-biter,
down back-bite!

Down back-biter, down back-biter; down back-biter,
down back-bite!

They stab you in the back
And they claim that you're not looking.
But Jah have them in the region
In the valley of decision.
They stab you in the back
And they claim that you're not looking.
But Jah have them in the region
In the valley of decision.

REGION

Maeve

[lolapunk]

I see your Marley and raise you one.

Duppy Conqueror - Bob Marley

Don't try to cold me up on this bridge, now
I've got to reach mount zion -
The highest REGION
So if you're a bull-bucker,
Let me tell you this -
I'm a duppy conqueror, CONQUEROR!

conqueror

[mabd]

I'll see your Marley and raise you an oldie..

Heroine Barbarian
Kevin Wald
(sung to The Pirates of Penzance)

[We join our operetta already in progress. The infamous Pirates of Pergamum have just seized a bevy of beautiful Mytilenean maidens, and are attempting to carry them off for matrimonial purposes. Gabrielle intervenes, with a recitative (well, it's better than a pan flute solo):]

Gabrielle: Hold, scoundrels! Ere ye practice acts of villainy
Upon the peaceful and agrarian,
Just bear in mind, these maidens of My-TIL-ene[1]
Are guarded by a buff barbarian!

Pirates: We'd better all rethink our cunning plan;
They're guarded by a buff barbarian.

Maidens: Yes, yes, she is a buff barbarian.

[Xena leaps in from the wings, with a tremendous war cry, does a mid-air somersault, and lands on her feet on the Pirate King's chest.]

Xena: Yes, yes, I am a buff barbarian!

[The orchestra starts up.]

I am the very model of a heroine barbarian;
Through Herculean efforts, I've become humanitarian.
I ride throughout the hinterland -- at least that's what they call it in
Those sissy towns like Athens (I, myself, am Amphipolitan).

I travel with a poet who is perky and parthenian[2]
And scribbles her hexameters in Linear Mycenian[3]
(And many have attempted, by a host of methods mystical,
To tell if our relationship's sororal or sapphistical).

Chorus:
To tell if their relationship's sororal or sapphistical!
To tell if their relationship's sororal or sapphistical!
To tell if their relationship's sororal or sapphisti-phistical!

Xena: My armory is brazen, but my weapons are ironical;
My sword is rather phallic, but my chakram's rather yonical[4]
(To find out what that means, you'll have to study Indo-Aryan[5]).
I am the very model of a heroine barbarian!

Chorus:
To find out what that means, we'll have to study Indo-Aryan --
She is the very model of a heroine barbarian!

Xena: I wake up every morning, ere the dawn is rhododactylous[6]
(Who needs to wait for daylight? I just work by sensus tactilis[7].)
And ride into the sunrise to protect some local villagers
From mythologic monsters or from all-too-human pillagers.
I hurtle towards each villain with a recklessness ebullient
And conqueror him with my swordwork and my alalaes ululient[8];
He's frightened for his head, because he knows I'm gonna whack it -- he's
Aware that his opponent is the Basileia Makhetes!

[The music crashes to a halt, as the Chorus stares at Xena in utter confusion. She sighs.]

It's Greek. It means "Warrior Princess"!

[Light dawns on the Chorus, and the music resumes.]

Sheesh ...

Chorus:
He knows that his opponent is the Basileia Makhetes!
He knows that his opponent is the Basileia Makhetes!
He knows that his opponent is the Basileia Makhe-makhetes,

Xena: Because I've got my armor, which is really rather silly, on
(It's cut so low I feel like I'm the topless tow'rs of Ilion,
And isn't any use against attackers sagittarian[9]).
I am the very model of a heroine barbarian!

Chorus:
It isn't any use against attackers sagittarian --
She is the very model of a heroine barbarian!

Xena: In short, when I can tell you how I break the laws of gravity,
And why my togs expose my intermammary concavity,
And why my comrade changed her dress from one that fit more comfily
To one that shows her omphalos[10] (as cute as that of Omphale[11]),
And why the tale of Spartacus appears in Homer's versicon[12],
[She holds up a tomato:]
And where we found examples of the genus Lycopersicon[13],
And why this Grecian scenery looks more like the Antipodes,
You'll say I'm twice the heroine of any in Euripides!

Chorus:
We'll say she's twice the heroine of any in Euripides!
We'll say she's twice the heroine of any in Euripides!
We'll say she's twice the heroine of any in Euripi-ripides!

Xena: But though the kinked chronology, confusing and chimerical
(It's often unhistorical, but rarely unhysterical),
Would give a massive heart attack to any antiquarian,
I am the very model of a heroine barbarian!

Chorus:
'Twould give a massive heart attack to any antiquarian --
She is the very model of a heroine barbarian!

[As the orchestra plays the final chords, a wild Xenaesque melee ensues, and the curtain has to be brought down.]

Notes:

[1] Actually, "Mytilene" would properly be accented on the third syllable; Gabrielle always did have trouble with rhymes. (Mytilene, incidentally, is a city on the isle of Lesbos -- the hometown of the poet Sappho, as a matter of fact. It is not clear what, if anything, Gilbert is trying to imply here.)
[2] parthenian: virginal.
[3] Linear Mycenian: Mycenian is the ancient dialect of Greek which was written in Linear B (a form of Greek writing that predates the adoption of the alphabet). The implication is that Gabrielle does her writing in Linear B; if Xena takes place around the time of the Trojan war, this is chronologically reasonable.
[4] yonical: "Yonic" is the female counterpart to "phallic".
[5] Indo-Aryan: The language group consisting of Sanskrit and its close relatives. Both "chakram" and "yonic" are of Sanskrit derivation.
[6] rhododactylous: rosy-fingered. (Homer makes frequent reference to rhododaktulos eos -- "rosy-fingered dawn".)
[7] sensus tactilis: Latin for "the sense of touch".
[8] "Alalaes" are war-cries (the Greeks spelled a Xena-like war cry as alala or alale) and "ululient" is a coined term, apparently meaning "characterized by ululation".
[9] sagittarian: archer-like.
[10] omphalos: belly-button.
[11] Omphale: Legendary queen of Lydia. From context, we must assume that she had a cute belly-button; however, no known classical source seems to address this vital issue.
[12] versicon: a coined term, apparently meaning "collection of verse".
[13] Lycopersicon: the biological genus to which tomatoes are assigned. (The tomato is a New World plant, and was entirely unknown in the Old World in pre-Columbian times. Thus, having tomatoes in a Xenaish context is an even greater anachronism than having Homer tell the tale of Spartacus.)

[Siren]

Maeve, that is just...just....brilliant. Too too funny!

[lolapunk]

Whoa...

[Phalon]

BOLL, Maeve!

No time to find something for "barbarian" now though - gotta clean the spewed coffee off my screen before it dries.

[Scrappy Amazon]

HA! I think I can trump your barbarian!

Romanian National Anthem

"Awaken Thee, Romanian!"
Awaken thee, Romanian, shake off the deadly slumber
The scourge of inauspicious barbarian tyrannies
And now or never to a bright horizon clamber
That shall to shame put all your nocuous enemies.
It's now or never to the world we readily proclaim
In our veins throbs and ancestry of Roman
And in our hearts for ever we glorify a name
Resounding of battle, the name of gallant Trajan.
Do look imperial shadows, Michael, Stephen, Corvinus
At the Romanian nation, your mighty progeny
With arms like steel and hearts of fire impetuous
It's either free or dead, that's what they all decree.
Priests, rise the cross, this Christian army's liberating
The word is freedom, no less sacred is the end
We'd rather die in battle, in elevated glory
Than live again enslaved on our ancestral land.

enslaved

Oh.....and Ms. Punk? My friend, me comadre, il mio amica, mon ami....I have a gift for you.




By the way....I almost went with inauspicious or tyrannies...but it's too close to christmas to get shot at. *g

[fallenangel]

Possession ~ Sarah Mclachlan

listen as the wind blows
from across the great divide
voices trapped in yearning
memories trapped in time
the night is my companion
and solitude my guide
would i spend forever here
and not be satisfied

and i would be the one
to hold you down
kiss you so hard
i'll take your breath away
and after i'd wipe away the tears
just close your eyes dear

through this world i've stumbled
so many times betrayed,
trying to find an honest word,
to find the truth enslaved,
oh you speak to me in riddles and
you speak to me in rhymes
my body aches to breathe your breath,
your words keep me alive,

and i would be the one
to hold you down,
kiss you so hard,
i'll take your breath away
and after i'd wipe away the tears,
just close your eyes dear

next word : RHYMES

[mabd]

The Ballad of Lucy Jordan
Marianne Faithfull

The morning sun touched lightly on the eyes of Lucy Jordan
In a white suburban bedroom in a white suburban town
As she lay there beneath the covers dreaming of a thousand lovers
Till the world turned to orange and the room went spinning round

At the age of thirty-seven she realized she’d never
Ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair
So she let the phone keep ringing and she sat there softly singing
Little nursery rhymes she’d memorized in her daddy’s easy chair

Her husband, he’s off to work and the kids are off to school
And there are, oh, so many ways for her to spend the day
She could clean the house for hours or rearrange the flowers
Or run naked through the shady street screaming all the way

At the age of thirty-seven she realized she’d never
Ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair
So she let the phone keep ringing as she sat there softly singing
Pretty nursery rhymes she’d memorized in her daddy’s easy chair

The evening sun touched gently on the eyes of Lucy Jordan
On the roof top where she climbed when all the laughter grew too loud
And she bowed and curtsied to the man who reached and offered her his hand
And he led her down to the long white car that waited past the crowd

At the age of thirty-seven she knew she’d found forever
As she rode along through Paris with the warm wind in her hair

CURTSIED

Maeve

[fallenangel]

oh Maeve here ya go

"Click Me"

[fallenangel]

couldnt come up with curtsied/ how about curtsy

Backstreet Girl ~ Rolling Stones

I don't want you to be high
I don't want you to be down
Don't want to tell you no lie
Just want you to be around

Please come right up to my ears
You will be able to hear what I say

Don't want you out in my world
Just you be my backstreet girl

Please don't be part of my life
Please keep yourself to yourself
Please don't you bother my wife
That way you won't get no help

Don't try to ride on my horse
You're rather common and coarse anyway

Don't want you out in my world
Just you be my backstreet girl

Please don't you call me at home
Please don't come knocking at night
Please never ring on the phone
Your manners are never quite right

Please take the favors I grant
Curtsy and look nonchalant, just for me

Don't want you part of my world
Just you be my backstreet girl

next word: FAVORS

[mabd]

Hello, Lonely Woman
Neil Young

Well, hello lonely woman
Won't you take a walk with me.
I know a place where we can go
Grab a bite to eat.

Hello lonely woman.
Are you feeling all right?
Well, you look just like heaven
On a clear, clear night.

Well, I know you're a lonely woman
And I know what's on your mind
I won't ask you any favors
I'm familiar with your kind.

I know you need me
Like a river needs rain
I won't ask you any favors
Until I pass this way again.

EAT

Maeve

[Siren]

Must be doing something wrong baby I don't know
But the gold fish are floating at the top of the bowl
And the dog he won't EAT he just lays around
All night long he makes a lonesome sound

I know I had it coming and it's all my fault
But baby come back
Before you KILL us all

from "Before You Kill Us All" by Randy Travis

next: kill

[lolapunk]

The Queen and the Soldier - Suzanne Vega

The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door
He said, "I am not fighting for you any more"
The queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before
And slowly she let him inside.

He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill
And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all KILL
But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will
Only first I am asking you why."

Down in the long narrow hall he was led
Into her rooms with her tapestries red
And she never once took the crown from her head
She asked him there to sit down.

He said, "I see you now, and you are so very young
But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won
And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun
And now will you tell me why?"

The young queen, she fixed him with an ARROGANT eye
She said, "You won't understand, and you may as well not try"
But her face was a child's, and he thought she would cry
But she closed herself up like a fan.

And she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread
It cuts me inside, and often I've bled"
He laid his hand then on top of her head
And he bowed her down to the ground.

"Tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel
As you are living here alone, and you are never revealed
But I won't march again on your battlefield"
And he took her to the window to see.

And the sun, it was gold, though the sky, it was gray
And she wanted more than she ever could say
But she knew how it frightened her, and she turned away
And would not look at his face again.

And he said, "I want to live as an honest man
To get all I deserve and to give all I can
And to love a young woman who I don't understand
Your highness, your ways are very strange."

But the crown, it had fallen, and she thought she would break
And she stood there, ashamed of the way her heart ached
She took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait
She would only be a moment inside.

Out in the distance her order was heard
And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word
And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred
The battle continued on


arrogant

[mabd]

DaLoLaLi Chellunk, that last one is amazing. Brilliant. Teach me more... I had never really listened to the lyrics..

You might know of these folks, fronted by Yona Dunsford and Carol Douet, they're righteously hot. <grin>

America for Beginners
Latin Quarter

What's keeping the White House white
Is it chalk, Is it fog, Is it fear?
Are they staying up most of the night
And sending somebody out for a beer?
Is it bed-time for Bonzo?
Is it time for a change?
Is it flavor-free TV dinners?
It's a hard thing to take, when they make a mistake
America for Beginners.

The sound of a bell with a crack
Even the swingers are swinging right
The vigilantes are on the way back
With prime-time 'fight the good fight'.
What a start to a day
It starts three times with a "K"
There's no sponsored hour for sinners
They'll bring back the hot seat
And turn up the heat
America for Beginners

You wear designer jeans after dark
And your shirts are sharp-cut in satin
But won't you watch out for Central Park
And apartments in uptown Manhattan.
It's a sign of the times
Better stay arrogant

Because they've only got time for winners.
Just keep living for fun, you son of a gun
America for Beginners .

BEGINNERS

Maeve

[lolapunk]

I shall look up Latin Quarter, they're obviously not who I thought they were.
Susanne Vega's early stuff is amazing to me; she was the first artist I noticed in my younger years who told stories in her songs. Somewhere around her Solitude Standing release her sound shifted, to my ears anyway, and she probably became one of the first artists I snobbishly said success had watered down the talent. So not fair. 'Luka' was her first big hit, maybe her only actually, and 'Tom's Diner,' a song she did acapella, was put to a dance groove by some English duo (I think duo) and it ruined the song. But she made some money on it, so I can't knock her for that. 'The Queen and the Soldier' and 'Marlene On the Wall' exemplify her talent, I'd recommend a collection that has both of those songs on it.