Great song lyrics

[Mumbleypeg]

How about a thread with our favorite lyrics! I thought of this today while listening to some great music on Sirius XM station Willie’s Roadhouse, so the first that come to mind are some humorous ones I heard today. Feel free to post song lyrics - funny, thoughtful, clever, whatever, from any musical genre.

Here’s some for starters -

“It was always so easy to find an unhappy woman, til I started looking for mine”. - Moe Bandy

“The devil made me do it the first time. The second time I did it on my own.” - Billy Joe Shaver

Post some of yours - what have you got?

Ken

[beresman]

How about: "You're so open minded that your brain fell out" -- Steve Taylor

[eveled]

Because you’re mine, I walk the line.

Always makes me realize, I’d be dead or in prison if I hadn’t met my wife. So many decisions made over the years would have been different if I wasn’t walking the line.

[Ridgegrass]

"Empty rooms that echo as I climb the stairs, Empty clothes that drape and fall on empty chairs".-Don McLean, pure emotion

"The silence of a fallin' star lights up a purple sky"- Hank Williams. Just pure poetry

'There's so much more between us than this table". -Bill Anderson

'She put the bottle to her head and pulled the trigger" -Bill Anderson and John Randall

"Looking back just to see the wood smoke rising, he turned and drove on down that dusty lane,
but in his heart burned the question, not surprising, "Will I ever come down this road again". -Unkown

"You don't know about lonely, until it's chiseled in stone" -Vern Gosdin , finality

"You know he'd be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly" -John Denver, elation

[wlf]

For obvious reasons these lyrics meant a lot over the years.

"Country roads, take me home,
to the place I belong WV "


" One is the loneliest number "

[saltwaterebel]

"My daddy told me~~ a long time ago~~ there two things~~there are two things you should know~~and in these two things you must have pride~~that's your horse and woman~~ cause both of them you ride" Ronnie VanZant

[Gtrclktr-351]

"If I knew the way I would take you home." Robert Hunter

[Mumbleypeg]

I’m just an old chunk of coal. But I’m gonna be a diamond some day. - Billy Joe Shaver.

You fathers and you mothers
Be good to one another.
Please try to raise your children right.
Don’t make them feel forsaken
Don’t let the darkness take them.
Please lead them safely to the light. - Billy Joe Shaver

Ken

[1967redrider]

I've often wondered how a drunken Irishman remembers all of this-

Tim Finnegan lived in Watling Street
A gentleman Irishman mighty odd
He seen a brogue so soft and sweet
And to rise in the world he carried the hod
Tim had a sort of a tipplin' way
With a love of the liquor now he was born
To help him on with his work each day
Had a "drop of the craythur" every morn
Whack fol-the-dah, oh dance to your partner
Welt the floor, your trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told ya?
Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake
One mornin' Tim felt rather full
His head felt heavy which made him shake
Fell from a ladder and he burst his skull
So they carried him home his corpse to wake
Rolled him up in a nice clean sheet
Laid him out upon the bed
A gallon of whiskey at his feet
A barrel of porter at his head
Whack fol-the-dah, oh dance to your partner
Welt the floor, your trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told ya?
Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake
His friends assembled at the wake
And Mrs. Finnegan called for lunch
First they brung in tea and cake
Then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch
Biddy O'Brien began to cry
"Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see?
Tim mavourneen, why did you die?"
"Aarrgh, shut your gob" said Paddy McGee
Whack fol-the-dah, oh dance to your partner
Welt the floor, your trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told ya?
Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake
Patty O'Connor took up the job
"Ah Biddy, " says she, "You're wrong, I'm sure"
Biddy gave her a belt in the gob
Then left her sprawlin' on the floor
Then the war did soon enrage
Woman to woman and man to man
Shillelagh-law was all the rage
And a row and a ruction soon began
Mickey Maloney lowered his head
And a bottle of whiskey flew at him
Missed, and fallin' on the bed
The liquor scattered over Tim
Tim revives! See how he rises!
Timothy risin' from the bed
Sayin': "Whirl your liquor around like blazes
Thunderin' Jaysus! Do you think I'm dead?"
Whack fol-the-dah, oh dance to your partner
Welt the floor, your trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told ya?
Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake!


Or maybe it's the booze that helps?

[Mumbleypeg]

I’d like to lean into the wind and tell myself I'm free
But your softest whisper's louder than the highway's call to me. - Townes Van Zandt

Ken

[eveled]

'She put the bottle to her head and pulled the trigger" -Bill Anderson and John Randall

A beautiful and sad song, I never knew Whispering Bill co wrote it. Can you believe it was released 20 years ago!??

[eveled]

Well you never know how far from home you’re feeling. Until you’ve watched the shadows cross the ceiling.

John Prine.

What a beautiful way to describe a sleepless night. Watching the shadows cross the ceiling.

He was an amazing writer.

[Ridgegrass]

Oh yeah, Bill Anderson wrote some pop crap but when he wanted to, he could turn a phrase with the best of them. J.O'.

[jerryd6818]

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads

All my memories gather 'round her
Miner's lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice in the mornin' hour, she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
Drivin' down the road, I get a feelin'
That I should've been home yesterday, yesterday

John Denver

[jerryd6818]

Old Rattler

Rattler was a good old dog as blind as he could be
But every night at suppertime I believe that dog could see

Here Rattler here here Rattler here
Call old Rattler from the barn here Rattler here

Rattler breaked the other night I thought he treed a coon
When I come to find him he’s barkin’ at the moon

Rattler was a friendly dog even though he was blind
He wouldn’t hurt a living thing he was so very kind

One night I saw a big fat coon climb into a tree
I called Ol’ Rattler right away to fetch him down for me

But Rattler wouldn’t fetch for me because he liked that coon
I saw them walking paw in paw later by the light of the moon

Grandpa had a muley cow muley since she was born
It took a jaybird forty years to fly from horn to horn

Now old Rattler’s dead and gone like all the good dogs do
Don’t put on the dog yourself or you’ll be going there too

Done by Grandpa Jones and many others.

And thousands more by hundreds of artists.
I like it all. Blues, Rock-N-Roll, Country, Blue-Grass, etc, etc...............

[Ridgegrass]

"His horse was fast as polished steel"--Pancho and Lefty

"And that old pot-bellied stove ain't smoked a log in ten Decembers"--The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore, Steve Goodman

[eveled]

You don’t find roses growing on stalks of clover. Lynn Anderson

[Ridgegrass]

"There's cowboys, drunks, and Christians, mostly white, and black and blue.
They've all dialed the phone collect to home from 16th Avenue." -Tom Schuyler "16th Avenue".

Can't imagine any voice but Lacy J. Dalton's singing this one. Her masterpiece.

[wlf]

If this thread had been named poetry , it probably wouldn't be as popular , but that's what good lyrics are.

John K , I used to work with those Irishman.

Love "Pancho and Lefty" John.

"And now you wear your skin like iron
And your breath as hard as kerosene"

Dylan
" His clothes are dirty, but his hands are clean"

[Mumbleypeg]

Several have mentioned Pancho and Lefty but none have given credit to its author, the late great Townes Van Zandt. Townes was a brilliant and prolific songwriter, but a troubled soul who like so many great songwriters, left us too soon. A product of his own demons.

Pancho and Lefty has been covered by many artists, most of whom are more well-known than Townes ever was. Its a great song, but IMHO he wrote others that are better.

And I agree Lyle - songwriters are the poets of our day. Writing poetry has always been a tough way to make a living but in today's world, songs are probably the only way to have any chance of making a living at it.

Ken

[hardman]

"What a shot you would be if you could shoot at me with those angry eyes." From Angry Eyes by Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina.

"Do what you say, say what you mean, one thing leads to another." From a satire of politicians by The Fixx.

[Mumbleypeg]

“I am guilty of a dreadful selfish crime. I have wasted all my precious time.” - Robert Earl Keen

“There's two kinds of people in the world. The day people and the night people. And it's the night people's job to get the day people's money.” - Ray Wylie Hubbard

“The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days.” - Ray Wylie Hubbard

Ken

[Ridgegrass]

'I Wanna Die Out On The Highway and Rot Away, Like Some Ol' High Line Pole,
And Rest This Ramblin' Fever In My Soul" -------The Great American Poet, Merle Haggard'

[Ridgegrass]

"Old Red He's Gettin' Older, And Last Saturday He Stumbled, And You Know I just Can't Bear To Let Him Go".
And Little Casey She's Still Growin" , And She's Started Askin' Questions, And There's Just Some Things A Man Just Doesn't Know"....

Dan Seals, "Everything That Glitters Is Not Gold". ( That song would bring a tear to a glass eye. )

[Ridgegrass]

"If you could find it in your heart, to say the fire for me still burns,
I'd find a place to turn around, down this road of no return."
Vern Gosdin: "Do You Believe Me Now?"