Poetry and Lyrics

[Tathagata]

carrickfergus -

Van Morrisons version will do:


I wished I had you in Carrickfergus,
Only for nights in Ballygrand,
I would swim over the deepest ocean,
The deepest ocean to be by your side.

But the sea is wide and I can't swim over
And neither have I wings to fly.
I wish I could find me a handy boatman
To ferry me over to my love and die.

My childhood days bring back sad reflections
Of happy days so long ago.
My boyhood friends and my own relations.
Have all passed on like the melting snow.

So I'll spend my days in endless roving,
Soft is the grass and my bed is free.
Oh to be home now in Carrickfergus,
On the long road down to the salty sea.

And in Kilkenny it is reported
On marble stone there as black as ink,
With gold and silver I did support her
But I'll sing no more now till I get a drink.

I'm drunk today and I'm rarely sober,
A handsome rover from town to town.
Oh but I am sick now and my days are numbered
Come all ye young men and lay me down.

 

[Guest]

The Future

Leonard Cohen


Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I'm the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
but love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...

 

[Tathagata]

No Regrets

Midge Ure's version is nice:


I know your leavin's too long overdue
For far too long I've had nothin' new to show to you
Goodbye dry eyes I watched your plane
Fade off west of the moon
And it felt so strange to walk away alone

No regrets, no tears goodbye
Don't want you back, we'd only cry, again
Say goodbye, again

The hours that were yours, echo like empty rooms
The thoughts we used to share, I now keep alone
I woke last night and spoke to you,
not thinking you were gone
It felt so strange to lie awake, alone

No regrets, no tears goodbye
Don't want you back, we'd only cry, again
Say goodbye, again

Our friends have tried to turn my nights to day
Strange faces in your place can't keep the ghosts away
Just beyond the darkest hour, just behind the dawn
Still feels so strange to lead my life, alone

I've no regrets, no tears goodbye
Don't want you back, we'd only cry, again
Say goodbye, again


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Tathagata]

Brian Eno
By This River:



Here we are stuck by this river
You and I underneath a sky
That's ever falling down down down
Ever falling down


Through the day as if on an ocean
Waiting here always failing to remember
Why we came came came
I wonder why we came


You talk to me as if from a distance
And I reply with impressions chosen
From another time time time
From another time.

 

[Merrymaker]

K.D. Lang

Season of Hollow Soul
(K.D. Lang/Ben Mink)


Keen to the shifting of wind
I bend to it blind
To rid these kisses of sin
That must stay behind

Sour the fruit of neglect
The core of my doubt
Deprived are my veins you infect
With or without

Fate must have a reason
Why else endure the season
Of hollow soul
The ground on which we leave on
How strangely fuels the season
Of hollow soul hollow soul

Seed of uprooted chance
Are grains of goodbye
Waving boughs so slowly dance
Questioning why

Fate must have a reason
Why else endure the season
Of hollow soul
The ground on which we leave on
How strangely fuels the season
Of hollow soul
La la la la ...
Fate must have a reason
Why else endure the season
Of hollow soul hollow soul

Fate must have a reason
Why else endure the season
Of hollow soul
La la la la ...
Fate must have a reason
Why else endure the season
Of hollow soul
La la la la ...
Fate must have a reason
Why else endure the season
Of hollow soul hollow soul

 

[Tathagata]

Monday - The Jam


Oh baby I'm dreaming of Monday,
Oh baby will I see you again
Oh baby I'm dreaming of Monday.


Rainclouds came and stole my thunder -
Left me barren like a desert
But a sunshine girl like you
It's worth going through -
I will never be embarrassed about love again -

Oh baby I'm dreaming of Monday,
Oh baby will I see you again
Oh baby I'm dreaming of Monday.


Tortured winds that blew me over -
When I start to think that I'm something special
They tell me that I'm not -
And they're right and I'm glad and I'm not -
I will never be embarrassed about that again.

Oh baby I'm dreaming of Monday,
Oh baby will I see you again
Oh baby I'm dreaming of Monday.

 

[Angeline]

Thanks everybody for keeping this thread alive. I'm really liking all the songs posted.

Hold On
Tom Waits

They hung a sign up in out town
"if you live it up, you won't
live it down"
So, she left Monte Rio, son
Just like a bullet leaves a gun
With charcoal eyes and Monroe hips
She went and took that California trip
Well, the moon was gold, her
Hair like wind
She said don't look back just
Come on Jim
(Chorus)
Oh you got to
Hold on, Hold on
You got to hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here
You gotta hold on

Well, he gave her a dimestore watch
And a ring made from a spoon
Everyone is looking for someone to blame
But you share my bed, you share my name
Well, go ahead and call the cops
You don't meet nice girls in coffee shops
She said baby, I still love you
Sometimes there's nothin left to do

Oh you got to
Hold on, hold on
You got to hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here, you got to
Just hold on.


Well, God bless your crooked little heart St. Louis got the best of me
I miss your broken-china voice
How I wish you were still here with me

Well, you build it up, you wreck it down
You burn your mansion to the ground
When there's nothing left to keep you here, when
You're falling behind in this
Big blue world

Oh you go to
Hold on, hold on
You got to hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here
You got to hold on

Down by the Riverside motel,
It's 10 below and falling
By a 99 cent store she closed her eyes
And started swaying
But it's so hard to dance that way
When it's cold and there's no music
Well your old hometown is so far away
But, inside your head there's a record
That's playing, a song called

Hold on, hold on
You really got to hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here
And just hold on.

 

[Angeline]

It's playing right now and it's my song, damnit, so I'm posting it.

Jersey Girl
Tom Waits

Got no time for the corner boys,
down in the street makin' all that noise,
don't want no whores on eighth avenue,
cause tonight i'm gonna be with you.

'cause tonight i'm gonna take that ride,
across the river to the jersey side,
take my baby to the carnival,
and i'll take you on all the rides,
sing sha la la la la la sha la la la.

Down the shore everything's alright,
you're with your baby on a saturday night,
don't you know that all my dreams come true,
when i'm walkin' down the street with you,
sing sha la la la la la sha la la la.

You know she thrills me with all her charms,
when i'm wrapped up in my baby's arms,
my little angel gives me everything,
I know someday that she'll wear my ring.

So don't bother me cause i got no time,
I'm on my way to see that girl of mine,
nothin' else matters in this whole wide world,
when you're in love with a jersey girl,
sing sha la la la la la la.

and i call your name, i can't sleep at night,
sha la la la la la la.

 

[Tathagata]

It's playing right now and it's my song, damnit, so I'm posting it.

Jersey Girl
Tom Waits

Got no time for the corner boys,
down in the street makin' all that noise,
don't want no whores on eighth avenue,
cause tonight i'm gonna be with you.

'cause tonight i'm gonna take that ride,
across the river to the jersey side,
take my baby to the carnival,
and i'll take you on all the rides,
sing sha la la la la la sha la la la.

Down the shore everything's alright,
you're with your baby on a saturday night,
don't you know that all my dreams come true,
when i'm walkin' down the street with you,
sing sha la la la la la sha la la la.

You know she thrills me with all her charms,
when i'm wrapped up in my baby's arms,
my little angel gives me everything,
I know someday that she'll wear my ring.

So don't bother me cause i got no time,
I'm on my way to see that girl of mine,
nothin' else matters in this whole wide world,
when you're in love with a jersey girl,
sing sha la la la la la la.

and i call your name, i can't sleep at night,
sha la la la la la la.

Never apologize for posting Tom Waits

 

[Angeline]

Never apologize for posting Tom Waits

Well, ok.

It's a great lyric, isn't it? And you understand the East Coast boardwalk mentality, I know. So evocative for me.

(edited because I'm trying to do too many things at once. )

 

[Tathagata]

Well, ok.

It's a great lyric, isn't it? And you understand the East Coach boardwalk mentality, I know. So evocative for me.

Most of Tom's stuff is amazing
sometimes it takes a few listens.....

Jersey Girl is one of my favorite song's by him.
It just pisses me off that people think Bruce wrote it

 

[Tathagata]

ok this is kinda long and I apologize but if it weren't for Jim I'd still be writing hallmark greeting card poetry......er not that there's anything Wrong with that....



An American prayer - Jim Morrison



Do you know the warm progress under the stars?
Do you know we exist?
Have you forgotten the keys to the Kingdom?
Have you been borne yet & are you alive?
Let's reinvent the gods, all the myths of the ages
Celebrate symbols from deep elder forests
[Have you forgotten the lessons of the ancient war]
We need great golden copulations
The fathers are cackling in trees of the forest
Our mother is dead in the sea

Do you know we are being led to slaughters by placid admirals
& that fat slow generals are getting obscene on young blood
Do you know we are ruled by T.V.
The moon is a dry blood beast
Guerilla bands are rolling numbers in the next block of green vine
amassing for warfare on innocent herdsmen who are just dying

O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art & perfect our lives
The moths & atheists are doubly divine & dying
We live, we die & death not ends it
Journey we more into the Nightmare
Cling to life our passion'd flower
Cling to cunts & cocks of despair
We got our final vision by clap
Columbus' groin got filled w/ green death
(I touched her thigh & death smiled)

We have assembled inside this ancient & insane theatre
To propagate our lust for life & flee the swarming wisdom of the streets
The barns are stormed
The windows kept & only one of all the rest
To dance & save us
W/ the divine mockery of words
Music inflames temperament
(When the true King's murderers are allowed to roam free a 1000 magicians arise in the land)
Where are the feasts
we were promised
Where is the wine
The New Wine
(dying on the vine)
resident mockery give us an hour for magic
We of the purple glove
We of the starling flight & velvet hour
We of arabic pleasure's breed
We of sundome & the night
Give us a creed
To believe
A night of Lust
Give us trust in
The Night
Give of color
hundred hues
a rich Mandala
for me & you & for your silky pillowed house
a head, wisdom & a bed
Troubled decree
Resident mockery
has claimed thee
We used to believe in the good old days
We still receive In little ways
The Things of Kindness & unsporting brow
Forget & allow
Did you know freedom exists in a school book
Did you know madmen are running our prison
w/in a jail, w/in a gaol, w/in a white free protestant
Maelstrom
We're perched headlong
on the edge of boredom
We're reaching for death
on the end of a candle
We're trying for something
That's already found us
We can invent Kingdoms of our own
grand purple thrones, those chairs of lust
& love we must, in beds of rust
Steel doors lock in prisoner's screams
& muzak, AM, rocks their dreams
No black men's pride to hoist the beams
while mocking angels sift what seems
To be a collage of magazine dust
Scratched on foreheads of walls of trust
This is just jail for those who must
get up in the morning & fight for such unusable standards
while weeping maidens show-off penury & pout ravings for a mad staff
Wow, I'm sick of doubt
Live in the light of certain
South
Cruel bindings
The servants have the power dog-men & their mean women
pulling poor blankets over our sailors
(& where were you in our lean hour)
Milking your moustache?
or grinding a flower?
I'm sick of dour faces
Staring at me from the T.V.
Tower. I want roses in my garden bower; dig?
Royal babies, rubies must now replace aborted
Strangers in the mud
These mutants, blood-meal
for the plant that's plowed
They are waiting to take us into the severed garden
Do you know how pale & wanton thrillful
comes death on strange hour
unannounced, unplanned for like a scaring over-friendly guest you've brought to bed
Death makes angels of us all & gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as raven's claws
No more money, no more fancy dress
This other Kingdom seems by far the best until its other jaw reveals incest & loose obedience to a vegetable law
I will not go
Prefer a Feast of Friends
To the Giant family

 

[Angeline]

Most of Tom's stuff is amazing
sometimes it takes a few listens.....

Jersey Girl is one of my favorite song's by him.
It just pisses me off that people think Bruce wrote it

True, but I've seen Bruce do it and it was pretty amazing--but so is the original version on the cd.

(And the Morrison is wonderful.)

 

[Tathagata]

True, but I've seen Bruce do it and it was pretty amazing--but so is the original version on the cd.

(And the Morrison is wonderful.)

Ever hear Scream Jay's version of " Heart Attack and Vine"?
That's what I call a cover


( Thank's I love his stuff)

 

[Angeline]

Ever hear Scream Jay's version of " Heart Attack and Vine"?
That's what I call a cover


( Thank's I love his stuff)

No! But I imagine it's pretty wild. I was gonna post that lyric cause we're listening to that cd and it's such a great song (but I didn't want to flood the thread too much, lol).

 

[Tathagata]

No! But I imagine it's pretty wild. I was gonna post that lyric cause we're listening to that cd and it's such a great song (but I didn't want to flood the thread too much, lol).

yeah and then I'd have to post "Mr. Seigal" and it would turn into a Tom Waits thread

 

[Tathagata]

I had to post this one
It's on my funeral cd's
; )

I Wish I Was In New Orleans ( In The Ninth Ward)
Tom Waits



Well, I wish I was in New Orleans, I can see it in my dreams,
Arm-in-arm down Burgundy, a bottle and my friends and me

Hoist up a few tall cool ones, play some pool and listen
To that tenor saxophone calling me home
And I can hear the band begin "When the Saints Go Marching In",
And by the whiskers on my chin, New Orleans, I'll be there

I'll drink you under the table, be red-nosed, go for walks,
The old haunts what I wants is red beans and rice
And wear the dress I like so well, and meet me at the old saloon,
Make sure that there's a Dixie moon, New Orleans, I'll be there

And deal the cards roll the dice, if it ain't that old Chuck E. Weiss,
And Claiborne Avenue, me and you Sam Jones and all

And I wish I was in New Orleans, 'cause I can see it in my dreams,
Arm-in-arm down Burgundy, a bottle and my friends and me
New Orleans, I'll be there

 

[Angeline]

What Good am I
Bob Dylan

What good am I if I'm like all the rest,
If I just turned away, when I see how you're dressed,
If I shut myself off so I can't hear you cry,
What good am I?

What good am I if I know and don't do,
If I see and don't say, if I look right through you,
If I turn a deaf ear to the thunderin' sky,
What good am I?

What good am I while you softly weep
And I hear in my head what you say in your sleep,
And I freeze in the moment like the rest who don't try,
What good am I?

What good am I then to others and me
If I've had every chance and yet still fail to see
If my hands are tied must I not wonder within
Who tied them and why and where must I have been

What good am I if I say foolish things
And I laugh in the face of what sorrow brings
And I just turn my back while you silently die,
What good am I?

 

[Sibilaire]

Has always been a favorite, feeling something like this.

3. In Liverpool: Suzanne Vega


In Liverpool
On Sunday
No traffic
On the avenue
The light is pale and thin
Like you
No sound, down
In this part of town
Except for the boy in the belfry
He's crazy, he's throwing himself
Down from the top of the tower
Like a hunchback in heaven
He's ringing the bells in the church
For the last half an hour
He sounds like he's missing something
Or someone that he knows he can't
Have now and if he isn't
I certainly am

Homesick for a clock
That told the same time
sometimes you made no sense to me
if you lie on the ground
in somebody's arms
you'll probably swallow some of their history

And the boy in the belfry
He's crazy, he's throwing himself
Down from the top of the tower
Like a hunchback in heaven
He's ringing the bells in the church
For the last half an hour
He sounds like he's missing something
Or someone that he knows he can't
Have now and if he isn't
I certainly am

I'll be the girl who sings for my supper
You'll be the monk whose forehead is high
He'll be the man who's already working
Spreading a memory all through the sky

In Liverpool
On Sunday
No reason to even remember you now

Except for the boy in the belfry
He's crazy, he's throwing himself
Down from the top of the tower
Like a hunchback in heaven
He's ringing the bells in the church
For the last half an hour
He sounds like he's missing something
Or someone that he knows he can't
Have now and if he isn't
I certainly am

 

[Angeline]

I lovvvvvvvve Lucinda Williams. She's an incredibly gifted musician who is also--imho--quite a poet! (Her daddy was one of some renown and it shows in her talent.)

Fruits of My Labor

Baby, see how I been living
Velvet curtains on the windows too
Keep the bright and unforgiving
Light from shining through

Baby, I remember all the things we did
When we slept together
In the blue behind your eyelids
Baby, sweet baby

Traced your scent through the gloom
'Til I found these purple flowers
I was spent, I was soon smelling you for hours

Lavender, lotus blossoms too
Water the dirt, flowers last for you
Baby, sweet baby

Tangerines and persimmons
And sugarcane
Grapes and honeydew melon
Enough fit for a queen

Lemon trees don't make a sound
'Til branches bend and fruit falls to the ground
Baby, sweet baby

Come to my world and witness
The way things have changed
'Cause I finally did it, baby
I got out of La Grange

Got in my Mercury and drove out west
Pedal to the metal and my luck to the test
Baby, sweet baby

I been tryin' to enjoy all the fruits of my labor
I been cryin' for you boy but truth is my savior

Baby, sweet baby if it's all the same
Take the glory any day over the fame
Baby, sweet baby

 

[Angeline]

Your Sweet Side
Lucinda Williams

You run yourself ragged tryin' to be strong
You feel bad when you done nothin' wrong

Love got all confused with anger and pride
So much abuse on such a little child

Someone you trusted told you to shut up
Now there's a pain in your gut that you can't get rid of

No one heard your screams when you were nine
When bad dreams filled your summertime

So you don't always show your sweet side ...

You're tough as steel and you keep your chin up
You don't ever feel like you're good enough

You've had the blues ever since you were six
Your little tennis shoes and your pick-up sticks

You were screamed at and kicked over and over
Now you always feel sick and you can't keep a lover

Every Christmas there were presents to unwrap
But the things you witnessed when you were five and a half

So you don't always show your sweet side ...

Someone deserted you, the damage is done
Now you don't deserve to be loved by no one

Hands that would feed you when you were two
Were the same hands that beat you black and blue

You get defensive at every turn
You're overly sensitive and overly concerned

Few precious memories no lullabies
Hollowed out centuries of lies

So you don't always show your sweet side ...

I've seen you in the kitchen cookin' me supper
I listened to you bitchin' I watched you suffer

I still love you baby 'cause I know you
Don't mean to do the cruel things you do

I've seen you sewin' buttons on your shirt
I've seen you throwin' up when your stomach hurt

I'll stick by you baby through thick and thin
No matter what kind of shape you're in

'Cause I've seen your sweet side ...

 

[Angeline]

I Envy the Wind

I envy the wind
That whispers in your ear
That howls through the winter
That freezes your fingers
That moves through your hair
And cracks your lips
That chills you to the bone
I envy the wind

I envy the rain
That falls on your face
That wets your eyelashes
and dampens your skin
And touches your tongue
And soaks through your shirt
And drips down your back
I envy the rain

I envy the sun
That brightens your summer
That warms your body
And holds you in her heat
That makes your days longer
And makes you hot
And makes you sweat
I envy the sun
I envy the wind, I envy the rain, I envy the sun, I envy the wind

 

[Merrymaker]

The Doors
Yes, The River Knows


Please believe me
The river told me
Very softly
Want you to hold me, ooo

Free fall flow, river flow
On and on it goes
Breath under water 'till the end
Free fall flow, river flow
On and on it goes
Breath under water 'till the end
Yes, the river knows

Please believe me
If you don't need me
I'm going, but I need a little time
I promised I would drown myself in mystic heated wine

Please believe me
The river told me
Very softly
Want you to hold me, ooo

I'm going, but I need a little time
I promised I would drown myself in mystic heated wine

Free fall flow, river flow
On and on it goes
Breath under water 'till the end
Free fall flow, river flow
On and on it goes
Breath under water 'till the end.

 

[Merrymaker]

Talking Heads
Memories Can't Wait


Do you remember anyone here?
No you don't remember anything at all
I'm sleeping, I'm flat on my back
Never woke up, had no regrets

There's a party in my mind...And it never stops
There's a party up there all the time...They'll
party till they drop
Other people can go home...Other people they can split
I'll be here all the time...I can never quit

Take a walk through the land of shadows
Take a walk through the peaceful meadows
Try not to look so disappointed
It isn't what you hoped for, is it?
There's a party in my mind...And I hope it never stops
I'm stuck here in this seat...I might not stand up

Other people can go home...Everyone else will split
I'll be here all the time...I can never quit

Everything is very quiet
Everyone has gone to sleep
I'm wide awake on memories
There memories can't wait.

 

[Tathagata]

Two nice posts Merry




This Must be the Place (Naive Melody)
-------------------------------------------------

Home is where I want to be
Pick me up and turn me round
I feel numb - burn with a weak heart
(So I) guess I must be having fun
The less we say about it the better
Make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground
Head in the sky
It's ok I know nothing's wrong . . nothing

Hi yo I got plenty of time
Hi yo you got light in your eyes
And you're standing here beside me
I love the passing of time
Never for money
Always for love
Cover up + say goodnight . . . say goodnight

Home - is where I want to be
But I guess I'm already there
I come home - -she lifted up her wings
Guess that this must be the place
I can't tell one from another
Did I find you, or you find me?
There was a time Before we were born
If someone asks, this where I'll be . . . where I'll be

Hi yo We drift in and out
Hi yo sing into my mouth
Out of all tose kinds of people
You got a face with a view
I'm just an animal looking for a home
Share the same space for a minute or two
And you love me till my heart stops
Love me till I'm dead
Eyes that light up, eyes look through you
Cover up the blank spots
Hit me on the head Ah ooh