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Other music forums => Various Artists, Lyrics, Discographies => Topic started by: Ovi on January 24, 2012, 08:26:47 PM

Title: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Ovi on January 24, 2012, 08:26:47 PM
Name your favourite song-writer/lyricist (I don't know if both words mean the same thing or not) except Lennon or McCartney and post some of his most representative or just favourite lyrics. You must pick only one, so choose wisely. :)
Title: Re: Lyrics
Post by: Joost on January 24, 2012, 11:09:21 PM
Van Dyke Parks, hands down. I usually don't have a clue what his lyrics literally mean, but they still make a whole lot of sense to me. He just creates amazing atmospheres through words, and his lyrics project beautiful little surrealistic movies in my mind.

Cabinessence

Light the lamp and fire mellow,
Cabin essence timely hello,
Welcomes the time for a change.

Lost and found, you still remain there.
You'll find a meadow filled with grain there.
I'll give you a home on the range.

Who ran the iron horse? (10x)

I want to watch you windblown facing
Waves of wheat for your embracing.
Folks sing a song of the grange.

Nestle in a kiss below there.
The constellations ebb and flow there.
And witness our home on the range.

Have you seen the grand coolie workin' on the railroad? (3x)

Over and over,
The crow cries uncover the cornfield.
Over and over,
The thresher and hover the wheat field.


Surf's Up

A diamond necklace played the pawn
Hand in hand some drummed along, oh
To a handsome mannered baton

A blind class aristocracy
Back through the opera glass you see
The pit and the pendulum drawn

Columnated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping?

Hung velvet overtaken me
Dim chandelier awaken me
To a song dissolved in the dawn

The music hall a costly bow
The music all is lost for now
To a muted trumpeter swan

Columnated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping, Brother John?

Dove nested towers the hour was
Strike the street quicksilver moon
Carriage across the fog
Two-Step to lamp lights cellar tune

The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne
The glass was raised, the fired-roast
The fullness of the wine, the dim last toasting
While at port adieu or die

A choke of grief heart hardened I
Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry

Surf's Up
Aboard a tidal wave
Come about hard and join
The young and often spring you gave
I heard the word
Wonderful thing
A children's song

A child is the father of the man (2x)

A children's song
Have you listened as they played
Their song is love
And the children know the way
Title: Re: Lyrics
Post by: Ovi on January 25, 2012, 02:06:58 PM
I agree, Joost. Van Dyke could be brilliant. I've always wondered, how can you come up with a lyric such as "Over and over,
The crow cries uncover the cornfield.". Have you listened to any of his solo work? Is there something that is worth listening to?

Anyway, my vote goes to Roger Waters. His lyrics as a part of Pink Floyd from 1973 to 1983 never stop to amaze me. Both complex and written about things such as isolation or war, yet very easy to relate to. He came in studio while they were working for 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' in 1973 with the whole "concept" already built through the lyrics he had written all by himself. His lyrics became better and better through the next years and each of the band's next albums, 'Wish You Were Here', 'Animals', 'The Wall' and 'Final Cut" have lyirically glimpses of genius everywhere. I'll post some lyrics for each of those albums :

"The sun is the same
In a relative way
But you're older...
Shorter of breath
And one day closer to death." from 'Time' off of 'The Dark Side of The Moon', 1973.

"Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me" from 'Echoes' off of 'Meddle', 1972. (though credited to the whole band, the lyrics are pure Roger).

"You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
Blown on the steel breeze...
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!" from 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond I-V' off of 'Wish You Were Here', 1975.

"And after a while, you can work on points for style
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You'll get the chance to put the knife in!" from 'Dogs' off of 'Animals', 1977.

"Finally I understand the feelings of the few
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
We were all equal in the end..." from 'Two Suns In The Sunset' off of 'The Final Cut', 1983.

(http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4404/29909622048256467256322.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/406/29909622048256467256322.jpg/)

"Whoa, thanks a lot man!"  :)
Title: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Ovi on January 25, 2012, 02:23:14 PM
Do I have to copy my post or will it be moved here?
Title: Re: Lyrics
Post by: Joost on January 25, 2012, 02:27:36 PM
I agree, Joost. Van Dyke could be brilliant. I've always wondered, how can you come up with a lyric such as "Over and over,
The crow cries uncover the cornfield.".


That one is actually a bit cheap.

Over and over,
The crow cries and hovers the wheat field
Over and over,
The thresher uncovers the cornfield.


Makes a bit more sense this way, doesn't it?  ;D

Have you listened to any of his solo work? Is there something that is worth listening to?


I have a few of his solo albums, but I don't really like them. Except for this song:

Van Dyke Parks - Clang Of The Yankee Reaper (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VvsWDjZvlc#)
Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: tkitna on January 26, 2012, 07:22:45 AM
Brian Wilson
Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: nimrod on January 26, 2012, 09:52:40 AM
Peter Green (founder of Fleetwood Mac)

Man Of The World


Shall I tell you about my life
They say I'm a man of the world
I've flown across every tide
And I've seen lots of pretty girls

I guess I've got everything I need
I would't ask for more
And there's no one I'd rather be
But I just wish that I'd never been born


And I need a good woman
to make me feel like a good man should
I don't say I'm a good man
Oh, but I would be if I could

I could tell you about my life
And keep you amused I'm sure
About all the times I've cried
And how I don't want to be sad anymore
And how I wish I was in love


Neil Young
Ambulance Blues

Back in the old folky days
The air was magic when we played.
The riverboat was rockin'
In the rain
Midnight was the time
For the raid.

Oh, Isabela, proud Isabela,
They tore you down and
Plowed you under.
You're only real
With your make-up on
How could I see you
And stay too long?

All along the Navajo Trail,
Burn-outs stub their toes
On garbage pails.
Waitresses are cryin'
In the rain
Will their boyfriends
Pass this way again?

Oh, Mother Goose,
She's on the skids
Shoe ain't happy,
Neither are the kids.
She needs someone
That she can scream at
And I'm such a heel
For makin' her feel so bad.

I guess I'll call it
Sickness gone
It's hard to say
The meaning of this song.
An ambulance can only
Go so fast
It's easy to get buried
In the past
When you try to make
A good thing last.
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/n/neil_young/ambulance_blues.html (http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/n/neil_young/ambulance_blues.html) ]
I saw today
In the entertainment section
There's room at the top
For private detection.
To Mom and Dad
This just doesn't matter,
But it's either that
Or pay off the kidnapper.

So all you critics sit alone
You're no better than me
For what you've shown.
With your stomach pump and
Your hook and ladder dreams
We could get together
For some scenes.

Well, I'm up in T.O.
Keepin' jive alive,
And out on the corner
It's half past five.
But the subways are empty
And so are the cafes.

Except for the Farmer's Market
And I still can hear him say:
You're all just p*ssin'
In the wind
You don't know it but you are.

And there ain't nothin'
Like a friend
Who can tell you
You're just p*ssin'
In the wind.

I never knew a man
Could tell so many lies
He had a different story
For every set of eyes
How can he remember
Who he's talking to?
Cause I know it ain't me,
And hope it isn't you.
Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Joost on January 26, 2012, 10:04:59 AM
Wait, wasn't this thread originally about lyricists only?

If the question's about songwriters, I'll obviously change my answer to Brian Wilson.
Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Ovi on January 26, 2012, 12:29:51 PM
Wait, wasn't this thread originally about lyricists only?

If the question's about songwriters, I'll obviously change my answer to Brian Wilson.

It's the same thread. I intended it to be strictly about lyricists, so you can stay with Van Dyke. :)
Title: Re: Lyrics
Post by: Ovi on January 26, 2012, 12:36:16 PM
That one is actually a bit cheap.

Over and over,
The crow cries and hovers the wheat field
Over and over,
The thresher uncovers the cornfield.


Makes a bit more sense this way, doesn't it?  ;D



It does, indeed. Never thought of that. :)


I have a few of his solo albums, but I don't really like them. Except for this song:

Van Dyke Parks - Clang Of The Yankee Reaper ([url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VvsWDjZvlc#[/url])


Quite interesting, thanks for sharing. What about 'Orange Crate Art', his 1995 album with Brian Wilson?
Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Ovi on January 26, 2012, 12:38:35 PM
Great lyrics nimrod, especially the Neil Young ones. :)
Title: Re: Lyrics
Post by: Joost on January 26, 2012, 12:54:50 PM
Quite interesting, thanks for sharing. What about 'Orange Crate Art', his 1995 album with Brian Wilson?

'Orange Crate Art' is a cool and pleasant album with really romantic, mellow, old fashioned music in a bit of a 1930s/1940s vein. Unfortionately Brian's vocals don't sound all that great. I've never been a fan of the so called "Wall of Brians" (multi-layered harmonies with all the vocals sung by Brian himself) to begin with.
Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Klang on January 26, 2012, 04:54:11 PM

Very favorite? Hard to say...

I think Elvis Costello has a great body of work. Very talented.

 :)

Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Hombre_de_ningun_lugar on April 11, 2012, 08:20:56 PM
Pete Townshend, of course.
Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Hello Goodbye on April 12, 2012, 01:53:56 AM
Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan - Visions Of Johanna Live 1966 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5MKThhfnHA#)



Visions Of Johanna

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded, though we're all doin our best to deny it
And Louise holds a handful of rain, tempting you to defy it
Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft
But there's nothing really nothing to turn off
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind.

In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain
And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the D-train
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it's him or them that should be insane
But Louise she's all right she's just near
She's delicate and seems like veneer
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here
The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place.

Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously
And when bringing her name up
He speaks of her farewell kiss to me
He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all
Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall
Oh, how can I explain?
It's so hard to get on
And these visions of Johanna they kept me up past the dawn.

Inside the museums, Infinity's going up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while
But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles
See the primitive wallflower freeze
And the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeez
I can't find my knees"
Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel.

The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him
Saying, "Name me somebody that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him"
But like Louise always says "Ya can't look at much, can ya man?"
As she herself prepares for him
And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed
The fiddler, he now steps to the road
He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads
While my conscience explodes
The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain.



Bob Dylan, the quintessential poet, lyricist and songwriter.
Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Maccafan95 on April 12, 2012, 03:09:23 AM
Quote
Bob Dylan, the quintessential poet, lyricist and songwriter.

Agreed

1. Bob Dylan

It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding

Darkness at the break of noon
 Shadows even the silver spoon
 The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
 Eclipses both the sun and moon
 To understand you know too soon
 There is no sense in trying
 
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
 Suicide remarks are torn
 From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
 Plays wasted words, proves to warn
 That he not busy being born is busy dying
 
Temptation’s page flies out the door
 You follow, find yourself at war
 Watch waterfalls of pity roar
 You feel to moan but unlike before
 You discover that you’d just be one more
 Person crying
 
So don’t fear if you hear
 A foreign sound to your ear
 It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing
 
As some warn victory, some downfall
 Private reasons great or small
 Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
 To make all that should be killed to crawl
 While others say don’t hate nothing at all
 Except hatred
 
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
 As human gods aim for their mark
 Make everything from toy guns that spark
 To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
 It’s easy to see without looking too far
 That not much is really sacred
 
While preachers preach of evil fates
 Teachers teach that knowledge waits
 Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
 Goodness hides behind its gates
 But even the president of the United States
 Sometimes must have to stand naked
 
An’ though the rules of the road have been lodged
 It’s only people’s games that you got to dodge
 And it’s alright, Ma, I can make it
 
Advertising signs they con
 You into thinking you’re the one
 That can do what’s never been done
 That can win what’s never been won
 Meantime life outside goes on
 All around you
 
You lose yourself, you reappear
 You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
 Alone you stand with nobody near
 When a trembling distant voice, unclear
 Startles your sleeping ears to hear
 That somebody thinks they really found you
 
A question in your nerves is lit
 Yet you know there is no answer fit
 To satisfy, insure you not to quit
 To keep it in your mind and not forget
 That it is not he or she or them or it
 That you belong to
 
Although the masters make the rules
 For the wise men and the fools
 I got nothing, Ma, to live up to
 
For them that must obey authority
 That they do not respect in any degree
 Who despise their jobs, their destinies
 Speak jealously of them that are free
 Cultivate their flowers to be
 Nothing more than something they invest in
 
While some on principles baptized
 To strict party platform ties
 Social clubs in drag disguise
 Outsiders they can freely criticize
 Tell nothing except who to idolize
 And then say God bless him
 
While one who sings with his tongue on fire
 Gargles in the rat race choir
 Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
 Cares not to come up any higher
 But rather get you down in the hole
 That he’s in
 
But I mean no harm nor put fault
 On anyone that lives in a vault
 But it’s alright, Ma, if I can’t please him
 
Old lady judges watch people in pairs
 Limited in sex, they dare
 To push fake morals, insult and stare
 While money doesn’t talk, it swears
 Obscenity, who really cares
 Propaganda, all is phony
 
While them that defend what they cannot see
 With a killer’s pride, security
 It blows the minds most bitterly
 For them that think death’s honesty
 Won’t fall upon them naturally
 Life sometimes must get lonely
 
My eyes collide head-on with stuffed
 Graveyards, false gods, I scuff
 At pettiness which plays so rough
 Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
 Kick my legs to crash it off
 Say okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?
 
And if my thought-dreams could be seen
 They’d probably put my head in a guillotine
 But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only


2.Bruce Springsteen

For You

Princess cards she sends me with her regards
 Whoa, barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see her you gotta look hard
 Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted
 To her Cheshire smile I'll stand on file, she's all I ever wanted
 Oh, but you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
 Honey, get your carpetbaggers off my back
 You wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks
 You said, "Here's your mirror and your ball and jacks"
 But they're not what I came for, and I'm sure you see that too
 
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
 I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
 And your cloud line urges me, oh, and my electric surges free
 
Oh, crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
 Oh, reveal yourself all now to me girl while you've got the strength to speak
 'Cause they're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
 But I could give it all to you now if only you could ask
 Whoa, and don't call for your surgeon, even he says it's too late
 It's not your lungs this time, it's your heart that holds your fate
 Don't give me my money, honey, I don't want it back
 You and your pony face and your union jack
 We'll take your local joker and teach him how to act
 I swear I was never that way even when I really cracked
 Didn't you think I knew that you were born with the power of a locomotive
 Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?
 And your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
 You could laugh and cry in a single sound
 Alright
 Mmm
 
And your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
 Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god
 
You were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
 Oh, remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
 And the band they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
 Yeah, that ragged, jagged melody, she still clings to me like a leech
 But that medal you wore on your chest always got in the way
 Like a little girl with a trophy so soft to buy her way
 We were both hitchhikers but you had your ears tuned to the roar
 Of some metal-tempered engine on an alien, distant shore
 So you left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
 And it's not that nursery mouth I came back for
 It's not the way you're stretched out on the floor
 'Cause I've broken all your windows and I've rammed through all your doors
 And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
And you should know that's true
 
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
 I came for you, for you, I came for you, your life was one long emergency
 And your cloud line urges me, oh, and my electric surges free
 Oooooh, ooh ooh


3. Neil Young

After The Goldrush

Well, I dreamed I saw the knights in armor coming
 Sayin' something about a queen
 There were peasants singin' and drummers drumming
 And the archer split the tree
 There was a fanfare blowin' to the sun
 That floated on the breeze
 Look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies
 Look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies
 
I was lyin' in a burned out basement
 With a full moon in my eyes
 I was hopin' for a replacement
 When the sun burst through the skies
 There was a band playin' in my head
 And I felt like getting high
 Thinkin' about what a friend had said,
 I was hopin' it was a lie
 Thinkin' about what a friend had said,
 I was hopin' it was a lie
 
Well, I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying
 In the yellow haze of the sun
 There were children crying and colors flying
 All around the chosen ones
 All in a dream, all in a dream
 The loading had begun
 Flyin' mother nature's silver seed
 To a new home in the sun
 Flyin' mother nature's silver seed
 To a new home in the sun


I also enjoy Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor as songwriters.  :)
Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Klang on April 12, 2012, 09:03:35 AM
He's far less well known than the greats already mentioned, but I'm a real fan of Fred Eaglesmith. A native Canadian pigeon-holed into the folk genre, his sounds can be quite varied. Anyway, I think he's a fine lyricist. Here's one that's probably among his best known...

Wilder Than Her

Well I'm wilder than her
What else can I say
But I guess that's why
She fell in love with me
She's a house on fire
She's got all those charms
I'm a house on fire too
But I got four alarms
And I'm wilder than her
Drives her out of her mind
I guess she thought that she was just one of a kind
But she's a summer storm
I'm a hurricane
One just blows through town
One blows the town away
And I'm wilder than her
When we go driving in our cars
Racing through the night
She can drive as fast as me
But she stops at all the lights
She says it's 'cause I'm crazy
She's probably right
But I think that the reason is
Is that I'm twice as wild
Because I'm wilder than her
Drives her out of her mind
I guess she thought that she was just one of a kind
But she's a summer storm
I'm a hurricane
One just blows through town
One blows the town away
And I'm wilder than her
But when she takes my hand
And she looks me in the eye
I see something that I've never seen in my life
She takes the fire
And turns it down low
She takes the night
And makes it not so cold
She takes the distance
Breaks it into miles
She makes my life just a little less wild
Because I'm wilder than her
Drives her out of her mind
I guess she thought that she was just one of a kind
But she's a summer storm
I'm a hurricane
One just blows through town
One blows the town away
And I'm wilder than her

 :)

Title: Re: Your Favorite Songwriter Other Than Any Of The Beatles
Post by: Strawberry Field on April 15, 2012, 03:27:25 PM
1. Neil Finn

She Goes On

Pretty soon you'll be able to remember her
Lying in the garden singing
Right where she'll always be
The door is always open

This is the place that I loved her
And these are the friends that she had
Long may the mountain ring
To the sound of her laughter
And she goes on and on

In her soft wind I will whisper
In her warm sun I will glisten
'Till we see her once again
In a world without end

We owe it all to Frank Sinatra
The song was playing a she walked into the room
After the long weekend
They were a lifetime together

Appearing in the eyes of children
In the clear blue mountain view
The colouring in the sky
And painting ladders to heaven
And she goes on

In her soft wind I will whisper
In her warm sun I will glisten
'Till we see her once again
In a world without end

In her soft wind I will whisper
In her warm sun I will glisten
And I always will remember
In a world without end
She goes on


2. Jackson Browne

The Pretender

I'm going to rent myself a house
in the shade of the freeway
I'm going to pack my lunch in the morning
and go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again
Amen, say it again, amen

I want to know what became of the changes
we waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams
of some greater awakening
I've been aware of the time going by
they say in the end it's the wink of an eye
And when the morning light comes streaming in
you'll get up and do it again, yeah

Caught between the longing for love
and the struggle for the legal tender
Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
and the junk man pounds his fender
Where the veterans dream of the fight
fast asleep at the traffic light
And the children solemnly wait
for the ice cream vendor
Out into the cool of the evening
strolls the pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
begin and end there

Ah the laughter of the lovers
as they run through the night
Leaving nothing for the others
but to choose off and fight
And tear at the world with all their might
while the ships bearing their dreams
sail out of sight

I'm going to find myself a girl
who can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
in each other's paint-by-number dreams
And then we'll put out dark glasses on
and we'll make love until our strength is gone
And when the morning light comes streaming in
we'll get up and do it again
Get it up again

I'm going to be a happy idiot
and struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
to the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
in those things that money can buy
Thought true love could have been a contender

Are you there?
Say a prayer for the pretender
who started out so young and strong
only to surrender

Say a prayer for the pretender
Are you there for the pretender?
Say a prayer for the pretender
Are you prepared for the pretender?


3. Bruce Springsteen

Racing In The Street

I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
She's waiting tonight down in the parking lot
Outside the Seven-Eleven store
Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch
And he rides with me from town to town
We only run for the money got no strings attached
We shut 'em up and then we shut 'em down

Tonight, tonight the strip's just right
I wanna blow 'em off in my first heat
Summer's here and the time is right
For racing in the street

We take all the action we can meet
And we cover all the north east state
When the strip shuts down we run 'em in the street
From the fire roads to the interstate
Some guys they just give up living
And start dying little by little, piece by piece
Some guys come home from work and wash up
And go racing in the street

Tonight, tonight the strip's just right
I wanna blow 'em all out of their seats
Calling out around the world, we're going racing in the street

I met her on the strip three years ago
In a Camaro with this dude from L.A.
I blew that Camaro off my back and drove that little girl away
But now there's wrinkles around my baby's eyes
And she cries herself to sleep at night
When I come home the house is dark
She sighs "Baby did you make it all right"
She sits on the porch of her daddy's house
But all her pretty dreams are torn
She stares off alone into the night
With the eyes of one who hates for just being born
For all the shut down strangers and hot rod angels
Rumbling through this promised land
Tonight my baby and me we're gonna ride to the sea
And wash these sins off our hands

Tonight tonight the highway's bright
Out of our way mister you best keep
'Cause summer's here and the time is right
For racing in the street


4. Tom Waits

Time

Well, the smart money's on Harlow
And the moon is in the street
The shadow boys are breaking all the laws
And you're east of East St. Louis
And the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause
Napoleon is weeping in the Carnival saloon
His invisible fiancé is in the mirror
The band is going home
It's raining hammers, it's raining nails
Yes, it's true, there's nothing left for him down here

And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
That you love
And it's Time Time Time

And they all pretend they're Orphans
And their memory's like a train
You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away
And the things you can't remember
Tell the things you can't forget that
History puts a saint in every dream
Well she said she'd steak around
Until the bandages came off
But these mamas boys just don't know when to quit
And Matida asks the sailors are those dreams
Or are those prayers
So just close your eyes, son
And this won't hurt a bit

And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
That you love
And it's Time Time Time

Well, things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl
The boys just dive right off the cars
And splash into the street
And when she's on a roll she pulls a razor
From her boot and a thousand
Pigeons fall around her feet
So put a candle in the window
And a kiss upon his lips
Till the dish outside the window fills with rain
Just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart
And pay the fiddler off till I come back again

And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
That you love
And it's Time Time Time


---

Though I should put Brian Wilson at the very top, but he's not considered a great LYRIC songwriter, at all really. He is simply the greatest melody-maker that ever lived (says me).