Todd Snider-
I was looking for a job when I found this one
Don’t need the work like you need the work done
I was looking for a job when I found this one
Don’t need the work like you need the work done
OT: Favorite rock lyrical couplets, 2 lines max. What you like?
- Thread starter MtNittany
- Start date
The ones who love us best are the ones we lay to rest and we visit their graves on holidays at best
She said she was working for the ABC news
It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use.
Elvis Costello
She's a sad tomato
She's three miles of bad road
- R.E.M. Crush with Eyeliner
Do you have the time to listen to me whine
About nothin' and everything all at once?
- Green Day Basket Case
And I wrap my fears around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it
- Indigo Girls Closer to Fine
She's three miles of bad road
- R.E.M. Crush with Eyeliner
Do you have the time to listen to me whine
About nothin' and everything all at once?
- Green Day Basket Case
And I wrap my fears around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it
- Indigo Girls Closer to Fine
Saw Zevon do that in concert--on Halloween!
Mine
Ohhhhh, we're half way there
OOh Oh livin' on a prayer.
and the waitress is practicing politics
as the business man slowly gets stoned
Such a great lyricist. An amazing ability to turn a phrase. Here’s one (though not two lines):
Just stay where you are
Baby, stay away from me
With your eyes like sparks
And my heart like gasoline
Cause all I wanna do is have some fun, I got the feeling I’m not the only one.(SC)
If it makes you happy it can’t be that bad (SC)
An exit to eternal summer slacking, but where were they going without even knowing the way (Fastball)
Is there gas in the car, yes there’s gas in the car (Steely Dan)
She had hair like Jeanie Shrimpton back in 1965, she had legs that never ended I was halfway paralyzed.(Smithereens)
If it makes you happy it can’t be that bad (SC)
An exit to eternal summer slacking, but where were they going without even knowing the way (Fastball)
Is there gas in the car, yes there’s gas in the car (Steely Dan)
She had hair like Jeanie Shrimpton back in 1965, she had legs that never ended I was halfway paralyzed.(Smithereens)
Beating tired bones, tripping through remember when
Once invincible, now the armor's wearing thin
Down in a hole and I don’t know if I can be saved.
See my heart I decorate it like a grave.
And yet I find repeating in my head.
If I can’t be my own…I’d feel better dead
and i know it's not a couplet, but i'll edit it to make it a couplet
I know some day you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star
in somebody else's sky, But why can't it be mine?
Once invincible, now the armor's wearing thin
Down in a hole and I don’t know if I can be saved.
See my heart I decorate it like a grave.
And yet I find repeating in my head.
If I can’t be my own…I’d feel better dead
and i know it's not a couplet, but i'll edit it to make it a couplet
I know some day you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star
in somebody else's sky, But why can't it be mine?
Aint no doubt about it we were doubly blessed
Cause we were barely 17 and we were barely dressed.
Cause we were barely 17 and we were barely dressed.
but I'm near the end and I ain't just got the time
and I'm wasted and I can't find my way home
and I'm wasted and I can't find my way home
“Lucky for you Child,
You look like your mama”
Georgia Rea by John Hiatt
“And there wasn't one Japanese model or make
Just pretty, pretty Cadillacs with Tennessee plates”
Tennessee Plates by John Hiatt
“Everybody told me you can't get far
On 37 dollars and a jap guitar”
Guitar Town by Steve Earle
You look like your mama”
Georgia Rea by John Hiatt
“And there wasn't one Japanese model or make
Just pretty, pretty Cadillacs with Tennessee plates”
Tennessee Plates by John Hiatt
“Everybody told me you can't get far
On 37 dollars and a jap guitar”
Guitar Town by Steve Earle
Rock N Roll’s not good or bad
It’s just the sound of being young
Al Stewart: Class of 58.
Westerberg is an absolute legend. The Mats may be the most influential rock band that few have heard of.
And they showed pretty amazing breadth over their run.
Here’s another from perhaps my favorite of their songs:
“Pretty girl keep growin' up, playin' make-up, wearin' guitar
Growin' old in a bar, ya grow old in a bar”
Here’s one I sing (poorly) often:
Well, a person can work up a mean mean thirst
After a hard day of nothin' much at all
Another classic. I always picture the old Blarney Stone in Hell’s Kitchen NYC when I hear that song.
The noise I was hearing was a million people cheering,
And a child flew past me riding in a star.
Pure and Easy, The Who
Pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in.
Watched myself crawling out as I was crawling in.
Just Dropped In, Kenny Rogers
Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from.
Not Dark Yet, Bob Dylan
And a child flew past me riding in a star.
Pure and Easy, The Who
Pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in.
Watched myself crawling out as I was crawling in.
Just Dropped In, Kenny Rogers
Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from.
Not Dark Yet, Bob Dylan
I wasn't born...so much as I fell out
Nobody seemed to notice me
Nobody seemed to notice me
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
Misunderstanding all you see
Over by the window, there's a pack of cigarettes.
Not my brand, you understand sometimes the girl forgets.
Rupert Holmes: Him
Not my brand, you understand sometimes the girl forgets.
Rupert Holmes: Him
"all my friends say I'll go crazy if I think about you so, well I might as well go crazy I got no place else to go". Not rock , but pretty meaningful.
Because faith is to be awake
And to be awake is for us to think
And for us to think is to be alive
And I will try with every rhyme
To come across like I am dying
To let you know you need to try to think
There are things we can do
But from the things that work there are only two
And then from the two that we choose to do
Peace will win and fear will lose
And there's faith and there's sleep
We need to pick one please
And to be awake is for us to think
And for us to think is to be alive
And I will try with every rhyme
To come across like I am dying
To let you know you need to try to think
There are things we can do
But from the things that work there are only two
And then from the two that we choose to do
Peace will win and fear will lose
And there's faith and there's sleep
We need to pick one please
A friend and I were working on a sitcom idea at one point, about 30 years ago. One of the running gags was going to be using one Westerberg line in every episode. In the pilot episode we were writing, one of the characters refers to his love interest as his “white pearl in a sky of ebony.” The show was based around two guys (us) working together in a liquor store. Alas, the movie Clerks came out with essentially the same idea, filmed about 10-15 miles up the road from us. Killed our momentum.