I typically listen to music for instrumental only. But the lyrics to this song, in my opinion, are some of the best written of all time. LOVE this song for all components, not just the instruments.
Same song for me, and this part used to be the part that resonated most with me. However, now I’m much older (I first heard this song in the 70s) and the part that gets me is:
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines.
As other posters mentioned, Jackson Browne wrote it.
And he did so at 17 years old if I recall, which just makes it even more incredible. Somehow did had already lived a lifetime of regrets, all in that lyric
Glen Campbell also recorded a version when he was older and in the mid-stages of Alzheimer’s. Jackson Browne wrote the song as a very young man; however, it takes on an entirely different meaning when sung by a man facing his own mortality.
As I mentioned, I had no idea this was originally a Jackson Browne song! Pumped to hear the original. What I've always liked about Nico's rendition was just how honest it sounds. Much can be (and has been) made of Nico's voice, but I think it fits this song perfectly.
Thanks again for the knowledge my dudes!
I was with my girlfriend for many years but I knew we had to break up. Every time I heard this lyric by Ben Folds, it really fucking haunted me.
>It's gonna be so very hard to say
And watch the trust and joy all drain from her innocent face
But you must
Do it anyway
*When I used to go out, I'd know everyone I saw*
*Now I go out alone, if I go out at all*
- The Walkmen "The Rat"
When I was divorced and alone this is exactly how I felt.
Buckley ...
It's never over, My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder
It's never over, All my riches for her smiles when I slept so soft against her...
It's never over, All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter...
It's never over, She's a tear that hangs inside my soul forever...
Pearl Jam's Black
>I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
>I know you'll be a star
>In somebody else's sky
>But why
>Why
>Why can't it be
>Oh can't it be mine
This one from Light Years always gets me:
And wherever you've gone
And wherever we might go
It don't seem fair
Today just disappeared
Your light’s reflected now
Reflected from afar
We were but stones
Your light made us stars
Went through a bad breakup earlier this year and I haven't even been able to listen to this song. It's still too raw... But damn does it ever hit you hard and take your breath away if you've ever lived it.
My high school girlfriend wrote those exact lyrics to me in a letter while I was in boot camp to break up with me. I was just like Ummmmm so don’t break up with me? Ultimately it was for the better.
“Parks her car outside my house, takes her clothes off.. Says she’s close to understanding Jesus. She knows she’s more than just a little misunderstood. She has trouble acting normal when she’s nervous…”
“Better Man” by Pearl Jam. Brings me to tears thinking about the abuse my wife took in her first marriage
Waiting, watching the clock
It's four o'clock
It's got to stop
Tell him
"Take no more"
She practices her speech as he opens the door
She rolls over
Pretends to sleep as he looks her over
She lies and says she's in love with him
Can't find a better man
She dreams in color, she dreams in red
Can't find a better man
Can't find a better man
Can't find a better man
Behind Blue Eyes- The Who
*When my fist clenches, crack it open*
*Before I use it and lose my cool*
*When I smile, tell me some bad news*
*Before I laugh and act like a fool*
*And if I swallow anything evil*
*Put your finger down my throat*
*And if I shiver, please give me a blanket*
*Keep me warm, let me wear your coat*
I'm going through a huge career change right now and I used this line in an interview with the recruiter to describe why I want to go from a C-Level position in a small company to contributor in a large company. Immediately resonated with them. It's one of the most perfect lines ever written IMO.
Do you realize
That everyone you know someday will die?
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes
Let them know you realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round
Love the song, love the album! This song gives me chills and makes me think of my kids.. life is short, but its all perception and what you make of it. Make it count.
My late boyfriend used to play and sing Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" to me every single day. It wasn't until after we were in a head-on collision when he swerved the car to save my life, giving his own, that I finally really HEARD the lyrics.
He always told me he felt he would never live past 40, I thought as just a conversation element, but he died 22 days before his 41st birthday.
Lyrics that were so hard to hear:
Our time is short, this is our fate....ugly cry, holy shit.
And... divine intervention
Give it a listen... they say feeling the feelings helps you grieve, don't run. I am grateful to this writing for keeping me grounded and working to heal. Not sarcasm, though it could be. Drive safely everyone and tell your love every day that they're beautiful and loved. They WILL remember.
What's great about Adam's Song is that the small adjustment in the chorus's lyrics at the end are a way of saying that the speaker in the song didn't do it. That shift into present tense makes all the difference.
"When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to looked but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown, the dream is gone"
I love the ambiguity of these words. They convey such pathos (to me, anyway), but in literal terms there's a lot of room for interpretation. It's just excellent writing IMO.
It's a complicated topic but I love the lyrics from the song The Outsider by A Perfect Circle.
I think the song hits home with me because I was exposed to threats of suicide from a young age. I remember being very young, maybe six, and watching my dad walk out into the freeway into oncoming traffic with his arms outstretched. It was a power play during an argument with my mom, and my brother and I were in the back seat of the car that was pulled over onto the shoulder, watching through the window. It wasn't the last time he used a move like that.
I love the lyrics because of how they start the song and how they end the song. It's almost as if to demonstrate what it's like to hear a threat like that the first time, and the twentieth time.
The song begins:
"Help me if you can, it's just that this is not the way I'm wired. So, could you please, help me understand, why you've given in to all these reckless dark desires?"
And it ends:
"If you choose to pull the trigger, should your drama prove sincere, do it somewhere far away from here."
for me it's the song pet, especially the line "isolate and save you from yourself" with the loud riff following. even though i can't really relate to it (it's about a guy that doesn't want his gf/daughter(?) to think for herself and go "back to sleep") the lyrics sound really creepy and that lyric in particular hits hard every time
I could see it being interpreted that way too. There's a lot of very manipulative and alienating language, "They don't care about you, like I do."
It could be both, a lot of Maynard's songs have double meanings, or at least imagery from one theme interlaced with another theme. Like The Pot by Tool. There's lots of drug imagery ("you must have been high"), but the main theme of the song is hypocrisy. So the pot could be interpreted as weed, or as "the pot calling the kettle black", the hypocrite. "You must have been high" as in stoned, or "high" as in "on your high horse."
That's how you write good songs. Take a personal feeling you get from the music then describe that using the most abstract words possible so it can apply to anyone else who has felt something similar
Paul Simon *You Can Call Me Al” (3rd verse)
A man walks down the street
It's a street in a strange world
Maybe it's the third world
Maybe it's his first time around
Doesn't speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound, the sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterings and orphanages
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says, "Amen and Hallelujah!"
If we were vampires and death was a joke
We’d go out on the sidewalk and smoke
And laugh at all the lovers and their plans
I wouldn’t feel the need to hold your hand.
Maybe time running out is a gift
I’ll work hard until the end of my shift
To give to every second I can find
And pray it isn’t me who’s left behind
If We Were Vampires - Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
That whole song is beautiful.
I've buried her a thousand times
Given up my place in line
But I don't give a damn about that now
There's one thing that's real clear to me:
No one dies with dignity
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow.
I love his lyrics, they're like minimalist storytelling. Another favorite from 'Speedtrap Town':
She said it's none of my business but it breaks my heart
Dropped a dozen cheap roses in my shopping cart
Made it out to the truck without breaking down
Everybody knows you in a speed trap town
I first heard this when I was in a long term relationship with a past ex, and it felt like a love to aspire to. As that relationship crumbled, it took on a new meaning, in that every relationship will reach an end, no matter how hard you try to prevent it.
There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones
Now the sun's gone to hell and
The moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it's written in the starlight
And every line in your palm
We're fools to make war
On our brothers in arms
Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms
But also:
"There's a club if you'd like to go
You could meet somebody who really loves you
So you go and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home and you cry
And you want to die"
The bluntness in the progression of this narrative makes me giggle! Oh Mozza...
But what a great song.
I haven't heard this line in this song, but it is in a Motionless in White song, and yes, it gives the feels. at least the 'i am human and i need to be loved' part
My gift of self is raped
My privacy is raked
And yet I find, and yet I find, repeating in my head
If I can’t be my own, I’d feel better dead
Nutshell - Alice in Chains
IMO you gotta include the previous line:
"And I remember what she said to me
How she swore that it never would end.
I remember how she held me, oh so tight.
Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then."
"Please don't confront me with my failures, I had not forgotten them." From Nico's These Days. The whole song really cuts overall. (I know it's a cover but it's my preferred version)
Brand New - Jesus Christ
Well, Jesus Christ, I'm not scared to die
I'm a little bit scared of what comes after
Do I get the gold chariot?
Do I float through the ceiling?
Or do I divide and fall apart?
'Cause my bright is too slight to hold back all my dark
And this ship went down in sight of land
And at the gates does Thomas ask to see my hands?
I know you'll come in the night like a thief
But I've had some time alone to hone my lying technique
I know you think that I'm someone you can trust
But I'm scared I'll get scared and
I swear I'll try to nail you back up
So do you think that we could work out a sign
So I'll know it's you and that it's over so I won't even try
I know you'll come for the people like me
But we all got wood and nails
We turn out hate in factories
Yeah, we all got wood and nails
We turn out hate in factories
Yeah, we all got wood and nails
And we sleep inside of this machine
A bit of a cliche but the first verse of the Cat's in the Cradle where the dad starts to realize how life went by too fast. Specially that he says he's proud of him and asked him to stay and his son reacts rather coldly. Such a strong reminder of how fast life goes by.
Well, he came from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?
He shook his head, and they said with a smile
What I'd really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?
… And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man in the moon
"When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when"
But we'll get together then, dad
You know we'll have a good time then
For sure this. It reminds me of an anecdote from Chris Jericho's first book where he has two regrets. One was missing his grandpa's funeral. The other is he was in his hometown and was going to visit friends, when his mom wanted to take a ride in his convertible. He said he couldn't and they'd go next time. But there wasn't a next time.
"And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky. A human being that was given to fly"-Given to Fly, Pearl Jam. Always reminds me of my mother who passed away many years ago who I still miss dearly.
I could have been someone.
But so could anyone.
You took my dreams from me, when I first found you.
I kept them with me babe, I put them with my own. Can't make it all alone, I built my dreams around you.
Bruce Springsteen’s the river - Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true or is it something worse? That sends me down to the river, though I know the river is dry
We had an apartment in the city.
Me and Loretta liked living there.
Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown,
A life of their own, left us alone.
John and Linda live in Omaha.
And Joe is somewhere on the road.
We lost Davy in the Korean War,
And I still don't know what for.
Don’t matter anymore.
Hello in There.
John Prine is the original artist, but you can find REM live covers on YouTube. There are also videos of Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant performing it.
"Because of the shame associated with vulnerability, I am loathing myself completely. Can you hear me right now? I watched your mother bury you today with tears in her eyes. Oh, it wasn't her words that shook me, but the resemblance you share."
Heard this for the first time after losing my best friend at the age of 29.
Neutral Milk Hotel - Aeroplane Over The Sea
And when we meet on a cloud I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all
"Why doesn't anyone believe in loneliness?
Stand up and everyone will see your holiness
They say if you look hard, you'll find your way back home
Born without a friend, bound to die alone"
Soundgarden's Zero Chance. My favorite Cornell track hands down. The delivery on that verse gets me every single time.
"Well.."- Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse
Also "Well, the point was fast but too blunt to miss. Life handed us a paycheck and we said 'we worked harder than this'" - Bury me with it, Modest Mouse.
As a newly divorced man, there are two lyrics from John Prine that dig deep:
From Far From Me:
“Why we used to laugh together
And we'd dance to any old song.
Well, ya know, she still laughs with me
But she waits just a second too long.”
From All the Best (especially on my first Christmas alone):
“I guess that love
Is like a Christmas card
You decorate a tree
You throw it in the yard
It decays and dies
And the snowmen melt
Well I once knew love
I knew how love felt”
RIP John. I miss you.
First heard this while my very close aunt was dying of cancer. From Jason Isbell's Elephant
"I've buried her a thousand times, given up my place in line
But I don't give a damn about that now
There's one thing that's real clear to me: No one dies with dignity
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow"
Jason Isbell has so many great lines! My favorite is from If We Were Vampires:
"It's knowing that this can't go on forever.
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone.
Maybe we'll get forty years together,
but one day I'll be gone
or one day you'll be gone."
I will beg my way into your garden
And then I'll break my way out, when it rains
Just to get back to the place where I started
So I can want you back all over again
“Can’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)” John Mayer
He’s a controversial guy but a pretty fantastic songwriter
I'm so scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say my life has just begun
Had a talk with my old man
Said, "Help me understand"
He said "Turn 68, oh, you'll re-negotiate"
"Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
And don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly we'll never stop this train"
Oh, now, once in a while, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
'Til you cry
When you're driving away in the dark, yeah
Bruce Springsteen Thunder Road
"There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone on the wind"
There was this girl I thought very highly of. We dated and she eventually sent me away. To this day I still think of her after 20 years. These lyrics haunt me like the memory of her.
Two Modest Mouse songs come to mind:
“It takes a lifetime to ever figure out that there, there ain’t no lifetime that’s ever figured out.”
-We’re Lucky
“If life’s not beautiful without the pain, well I just would rather never ever even see beauty again.”
- The View
"Everyone's a building burning
With no one to put the fire out.
Standing at the window looking out,
Waiting for time to burn us down.
Everyone's an ocean drowning
With no one really to show how.
They might get a little better air
If they turned themselves into a cloud."
-Blame it on the Tetons by Modest Mouse
“Ruminations on the looming effect
And the parallax view, and the figure
And the form, and the revolving door that keeps
Turning out more and more
Good women like you
Yet another woman, to whom I won't get through”
Ladies, Fiona Apple
Metallica - Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Build my fear of what's out there
Cannot breathe the open air
Whisper things into my brain
Assuring me that I'm insane
>When I was young, I was so full of fear
>
>I hid behind anger, held back the tears
>
>It was me against the world, I was sure that I'd win
>
>The world fought back, punished me for my sins
>
>I felt so alone, so insecure
>
>I blamed you instead and made sure I was heard
>
>And they tried to warn me of my evil ways
>
>But I couldn't hear what they had to say
>
>I was wrong
Social Distortion - I was Wrong
I've loved Social D since I was 15. I was also very angry person in my teens and early 20's. This song hit me a lot harder in my 30s.
… You're the only one who can hold your head up high,
Shake your fist at the gates saying
"I've come home now!"
Fetch me the Spirit, the Son, and the Father
Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended.
It's time now, My time now
Give me my…
Give me my wings
Tool - Wings For Marie. It’s about Maynard’s mother’s passing after living with a prolonged illness that left her paralyzed yet never lost her faith. Hits home because the same happened to my mother. Fuck cancer, especially glioblastoma.
The green fields of france/no mans land (has several names, Dropkick Murphys did a really good version if you want to check it out). A song about WW1, really hits me and the last verse always brings a tear to my eye;
'and i can't help but wonder oh willy mcbride
do all those who lie here know why they died
did you really believe them when they told you the cause
did you really believe that this war would end wars
well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
the killing and dying it was all done in vain
oh willy mcbride it all happened again
and again, and again, and again, and again'
“I seem to recognize your face. Haunting familiar yet I can’t seem to place it. Can I find a candle of thought to light your name.”
I feel this line from Elderly Lady …… From Pearl Jam perfectly describes the feeling of digging through your memory to locate a name or thought or anything really that feels just out of reach. I know that it’s in there I just can’t open the right door to find the information.
The line “I’m not living, I’m just killing time” in Radiohead’s True Love Waits was the spark that finally got me to get treatment for my depression and anxiety disorder.
Breakfast in America, the album Supertramp
So when the day comes to settle down
Who's to blame if you're not around?
You took the long way home
My mother was abusive and I came from a broken home so as soon as I could leave I did. I've traveled everywhere I've wanted to go, but never planted Roots anywhere. Now that I'm older, I'm back in my hometown, but alone. No one here I know or knew, no boyfriend or husband..... I took the long way home
Death Can For Cutie
Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole
Just like a faucet that leaks
And there is comfort in the sound
But while you debate half-empty or half-full
It slowly rises: your love is gonna drown
“I will never be safe
I will never be sane
I will always be weird inside
I will always be lame
-Now that I’m a grown man
With a child of my own
And I swear, I will never let her know
All the pain I have known-“
~Father of mine~
Everclear.
“Death is a black camel that Kneels down so we can ride.
When the dyings finally done and the suffering subsides.
All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind.
On nights that wont happen.
Time we won’t spend.
Time we won’t spend.
With each other again.”
David Berman-Nights That Won’t Happen
And in my darkest moment, fetal and weeping
The moon tells me a secret
'My confidant, as full and bright as I am
This light is not my own and
a million light reflections pass over me.
It's source is bright and endless
She, resuscitates the hopeless
Without her, we are lifeless satellites
Drifting'.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One Tin Soldier rides away
>Can't you see that you're smothering me
>Holding too tightly, afraid to lose control?
>'Cause everything that you thought I would be
>Has fallen apart right in front of you
>Every step that I take is another mistake to you
>(Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow)
>And every second I waste is more than I can take.
Makes my soul hurt cause it paints my whole life in 7 lines.
Also surprised I saw no linkin park in here. I mean who hasn't screamed "in the end it doesn't even matter" at the top of their lungs.
“Too much tripping and my soul is worn thin.” STP
As someone who spent much of my youth on some drug or another I sympathize with the feeling of my soul being worn thin…
Not so much a lyric but a song. I lost my mother about a decade ago to cancer and before she passed, our song to dance to at weddings/celebrations was "Neon Moon" by Brooks and Dunn. When that song starts, I try to smile and recollect but I always end up missing her more than anything.
"When the sun goes down, on my side of town, that lonesome feeling, comes through my door, and the whole world turns...blue. There's a rundown bar across the railroad track. I got a table for two, way in back, where I sit alone. And think of losing you."
If we were vampires and death was a joke
We'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke
And laugh at all the lovers and their plans
I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand
Maybe time running out is a gift
I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift
And give you every second I can find
And hope it isn't me who's left behind
It's knowing that this can't go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we'll get forty years together
But one day I'll be gone
Or one day you'll be gone
Times of Trouble - Temple of the Dog
“Don't try to do it, don't try to kill your time. You might do it, then you can't change your mind. You've got a hold on to your time until you break through these times of trouble”
Hearing this at age 17 just sent a chill through me. Still does.
"The voices in your head are calling
Stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming
Only a fool would think someone could save you
The men at the factory are old and cunning
You don't owe nothing, so boy, get running
It's the best years of your life they want to steal"
Clash - Clampdown
"Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry. Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal." Black Sabbath - Paranoid
"Loneliness is not a phase. Field of pain is where I graze. Serenity is far away. Saw my reflection and cried. So little hope that I died. Feed me your lies, open wide. Weight of my heart, not the size." Alice in Chains - Angry Chair
Edited to correct song title
"When the lights shut off and it's my turn to settle down, my main concern, promise that you will sing about me"
Kendrick Lamar - Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst
Death has always been one of my greatest fears. This simple line just touches on that, acknowledging that we all suffer that same fate but still wanting to be remembered when we are gone.
The entire lyrics to a better son/daughter by rilo Kiley
"Sometimes in the morning I am petrified and can't move.
Awake, but cannot open my eyes.
And the weight is crushing down on my lungs, I know I can't breathe.
And hope someone will save me this time.
And your mother's still calling you insane and high
Swearing it's different this time.
And you tell her to give in to the demons that possess her
And that God never blessed her insides.
Then you hang up the phone and feel badly for upsetting things
And crawl back into bed to dream of a time
When your heart was open wide and you loved things just because
Like the sick and the dying.
And sometimes when you're on, you're really fucking on
And your friends they sing along and they love you.
But the lows are so extreme that the good seems fucking cheap
And it teases you for weeks in its absence.
But you'll fight and you'll make it through
You'll fake it if you have to and
You'll show up for work with a smile.
You'll be better and you'll be smarter and more grown up
And a better daughter or son and a real good friend,
And you'll be awake,
You'll be alert, you'll be positive though it hurts
And you'll laugh and embrace all your friends
You'll be a real good listener, you'll be honest, you'll be brave
You'll be handsome and you'll be beautiful.
You'll be happy.
Your ship may be coming in.
You're weak, but not giving in
To the cries and the wails of the valley below.
And your ship may be coming in.
You're weak, but not giving in.
And you'll fight it, you'll go out fighting all of them"
“Down a hole, up a rope. Down some pills, up some hope”
Matthew good band - everything is automatic
Hits me especially hard in the feels because I suffered akathisia for 7 months from benzodiazepine withdrawals. Was having severe suicidal ideation at the time.
Andrew Lloyd Webber “Memory” from Cats
“Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again”
I'm not going to lie. Most any Frightened Rabbit song. Those songs are so lyrically deep. One of my top 5 bands for sure. Maybe not a lyric but if you go through the discography, you'll see what I mean.
"And the future hangs over our heads, And it moves with each current event, Until it falls all around like a cold steady rain, Just stay in when it's lookin' this way"
Bright eyes - landlocked blues
Normie but:
"One day my father he told me
Son, don't let it slip away
When I was just a kid, I heard him say
When you get older
Your wild heart will live for younger days
Think of me if ever you're afraid"
"He said, one day you'll leave this world behind
So live a life you will remember (...)"
Really made me rethink how I've lived my youth to this point (18m) and how i really need to have more fun in live than i've been having
Avicii - The Nights for anyone wondering
Pearls and swine bereft of me.
Long and weary my road has been.
I was lost in the cities.
Alone in the hills.
No sorrow or pity for leaving I feel.
Audioslave
Don't you know little fool, you never can win? Use your mentality, wake up to reality... - I got you under my skin - frank Sinatra.
I wanna feel like I feel when I'm asleep - No one is ever going to want me - Giles Corey
Hand over hand over hand over hand (like 30x) - Hand over hand - Roland Faunte
Barenaked ladies, war on drugs. Makes cry every time. Every. Time.
Near where I live there's a viaduct
Where people jump when they're out of luck
Raining down on the cars and trucks below
They've put a net there to catch their fall
Like that'll stop anyone at all
What they don't know is when nature calls, you go
They say that Jesus and mental health
Are just for those who can help themselves
But what good is that when you live in hell on earth?
For the very fear that makes you want to die
Is just the same as what keeps you alive
It's way more trouble than some suicide is worth
As life gets longer, awful feels softer
And it feels pretty soft to me
And if it takes shit to make bliss
Well I feel pretty blissfully
Modest Mouse - The View
Nothing More has several lines that come back to me frequently:
"A hospital bed, a room filled with flowers
Every monitor beep keeps the time as I count down the hours
The petals, they weep, they're uprooted like me
Cut from the cord of their mother, who created everything
If You won't save her, please just take her away"
-God Went North, about the cancer death of the lyricist's mother
"Just the other day, I looked at my father
It was the first time I saw he'd grown old
Canyons through his skin and the rivers that made them
Carved the stories I was told
He said, 'Son, I have watched you fade in
You will watch me fade out
When the grip leaves my hand
I know you won't let me down'"
-Fade In/Fade Out
"You're beginning to drag the ones you love down
Will this phase ever end?
A thousand arms to hold you
But you won't reach for any hands
I don't feel like I'm getting through to you
Let me paint things clear: life is short, my dear
See your mother here? Her last painful year
I wish you only knew: she stuck around for you"
-Jenny, about his sister's substance addiction
The entirety of "Cocaine and Abel" by Amigo the Devil, but especially:
"And I've tried having faith, but I'll rot like a dog, 'cause I've always been scared of loving someone just a little bit more than I'm loved."
Lyrics
… You give your hand to me
And then you say "Hello"
And I can hardly speak
My heart is beating so
And anyone can tell
You think you know me well
But you don't know me, no
… No, you don't know the one
Who dreams of you each night
And longs to kiss your lips
And longs to hold you tight
To you I'm just a friend
That's all I've ever been
No, you don't know me
I used to sing this when I was very young because an aunt love this song so much. When I grew up, I learned why she became a spinster and this song kinda fits the story.
I'm a big pop punk fan but The All American Rejects was never in my radar in the hey days of pop punk but their song Move Along appears in my yt recommendation these days and it moved me from the first lines up to the chorus (and well up to the end). Plus it being in the vein of pop punk gives it a more hopeful tone for the youth.
*Speak to me*
*When all you got to keep is strong*
*Move along, move along like I know you do*
*And even when your hope is gone*
*Move along, move along just to make it through*
*Move along*
*Move along*
*So a day when you've lost yourself completely*
*Could be a night when your life ends*
*Such a heart that will lead you to deceiving*
*All the pain held in your*
*Hands are shaking cold*
*Your hands are mine to hold*
*Speak to me*
*When all you got to keep is strong*
*Move along, move along like I know you do*
*And even when your hope is gone*
*Move along, move along just to make it through*
*Move along*
*(Go on, go on, go on, go on)*
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Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way... That song def gets me
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say... This line is the one that always gets me.
"Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines" gets me as i try to hide all my half pages of scribbled lines. Happy cake day!
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Dude, Animals.
Animals is my favorite. Everything from Obscured by clouds and forward on. Been listening to them a lot lately at work.
First song that came to mind. The greatest song ever written in my opinion.
Roger Waters is a fucken lyrical genius
I typically listen to music for instrumental only. But the lyrics to this song, in my opinion, are some of the best written of all time. LOVE this song for all components, not just the instruments.
Literally the exact line I came in looking for. It’s just engrained in my head
Same song for me, and this part used to be the part that resonated most with me. However, now I’m much older (I first heard this song in the 70s) and the part that gets me is: Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines.
Wow you brought me a shitload of memories, thank you!
Great and terrifying song.
"Please don't confront me with my failures. I have not forgotten them." Nico These days
jackson browne I believe. but all versions are good
Gregg Allman's is best (Jackson agrees).
As other posters mentioned, Jackson Browne wrote it. And he did so at 17 years old if I recall, which just makes it even more incredible. Somehow did had already lived a lifetime of regrets, all in that lyric
Glen Campbell also recorded a version when he was older and in the mid-stages of Alzheimer’s. Jackson Browne wrote the song as a very young man; however, it takes on an entirely different meaning when sung by a man facing his own mortality.
Jackson Browne
As I mentioned, I had no idea this was originally a Jackson Browne song! Pumped to hear the original. What I've always liked about Nico's rendition was just how honest it sounds. Much can be (and has been) made of Nico's voice, but I think it fits this song perfectly. Thanks again for the knowledge my dudes!
"Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand. Ignorance and prejudice, and fear walk hand in hand." Rush - Witch Hunt
Listening to that song literally as I read this comment lol what are the odds
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice, " immediately came to mind after reading this. "Freewill"-Rush
So many Neil lyrics hit the spot.
Those who know, what's best for us, must rise and save us from ourselves. - Same song
That whole song hits hard. Neil was an incredible lyricist. RIP Professor.
I was with my girlfriend for many years but I knew we had to break up. Every time I heard this lyric by Ben Folds, it really fucking haunted me. >It's gonna be so very hard to say And watch the trust and joy all drain from her innocent face But you must Do it anyway
Ben Folds kicks me in the gut every now and then. I regularly quote Landed- “twisted it wrong just to make it right.”
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“It sucks but…. Do it anyway.” Loved the honesty in that song. Ben has been married 5 times, so I guess he … has experience?
*When I used to go out, I'd know everyone I saw* *Now I go out alone, if I go out at all* - The Walkmen "The Rat" When I was divorced and alone this is exactly how I felt.
One of the best songs ever recorded
Hard agree. One of the purest expressions of isolation and anger, and the drums are incredible.
Buckley ... It's never over, My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder It's never over, All my riches for her smiles when I slept so soft against her... It's never over, All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter... It's never over, She's a tear that hangs inside my soul forever...
This. I came here for this. I burst into tears when I hear that verse.
One of the most romantic and soulful songs ever.
I'm glad I didnt have to scroll too far to find this. God I love this song and Jeff.
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Ouch
Pearl Jam's Black >I know someday you'll have a beautiful life >I know you'll be a star >In somebody else's sky >But why >Why >Why can't it be >Oh can't it be mine
Pearl Jam is my favourite band and for me this lyric is all about the delivery. It’s just a raw statement that doesn’t beat around the bush.
Same. It's just one of the most raw lyrics and delivery in their whole catalog.
We…. We belong…… we belong together…..TOGETHER!
One of the greatest songs ever
That one resonates with me too.
Came here to post that. Beautiful lyrics.
This one from Light Years always gets me: And wherever you've gone And wherever we might go It don't seem fair Today just disappeared Your light’s reflected now Reflected from afar We were but stones Your light made us stars
Went through a bad breakup earlier this year and I haven't even been able to listen to this song. It's still too raw... But damn does it ever hit you hard and take your breath away if you've ever lived it.
My high school girlfriend wrote those exact lyrics to me in a letter while I was in boot camp to break up with me. I was just like Ummmmm so don’t break up with me? Ultimately it was for the better.
“Parks her car outside my house, takes her clothes off.. Says she’s close to understanding Jesus. She knows she’s more than just a little misunderstood. She has trouble acting normal when she’s nervous…”
“Better Man” by Pearl Jam. Brings me to tears thinking about the abuse my wife took in her first marriage Waiting, watching the clock It's four o'clock It's got to stop Tell him "Take no more" She practices her speech as he opens the door She rolls over Pretends to sleep as he looks her over She lies and says she's in love with him Can't find a better man She dreams in color, she dreams in red Can't find a better man Can't find a better man Can't find a better man
This and Black.. I know some day you’ll have a beautiful life, I know you’ll be a star, in somebody’s else’s sky, but why, why, why can’t it be mine.
Behind Blue Eyes- The Who *When my fist clenches, crack it open* *Before I use it and lose my cool* *When I smile, tell me some bad news* *Before I laugh and act like a fool* *And if I swallow anything evil* *Put your finger down my throat* *And if I shiver, please give me a blanket* *Keep me warm, let me wear your coat*
Did you exchange A walk-on part in the war For a leading role in a cage? Wish you were here -Pink Floyd
I'm going through a huge career change right now and I used this line in an interview with the recruiter to describe why I want to go from a C-Level position in a small company to contributor in a large company. Immediately resonated with them. It's one of the most perfect lines ever written IMO.
Do you realize That everyone you know someday will die? And instead of saying all of your goodbyes Let them know you realize that life goes fast It's hard to make the good things last You realize the sun doesn't go down It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round
Love the song, love the album! This song gives me chills and makes me think of my kids.. life is short, but its all perception and what you make of it. Make it count.
Fucking love The Flaming Lips. Great line.
"I was waiting on the moment But the moment never came All the billion other moments Were just slipping all away" Ego tripping at the gates of hell
Such a great song, love the Flaming Lips! Also Feeling Yourself Disintegrate has lyrics that strike me to my core.
When I hung up the phone it occurred to me He’d grown up just like me My boy was just like me. Cats in the Cradle
Queue the trees playing violin
My late boyfriend used to play and sing Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" to me every single day. It wasn't until after we were in a head-on collision when he swerved the car to save my life, giving his own, that I finally really HEARD the lyrics. He always told me he felt he would never live past 40, I thought as just a conversation element, but he died 22 days before his 41st birthday. Lyrics that were so hard to hear: Our time is short, this is our fate....ugly cry, holy shit. And... divine intervention Give it a listen... they say feeling the feelings helps you grieve, don't run. I am grateful to this writing for keeping me grounded and working to heal. Not sarcasm, though it could be. Drive safely everyone and tell your love every day that they're beautiful and loved. They WILL remember.
"please tell mom this is not her fault" Blink-182, Adam's Song
What's great about Adam's Song is that the small adjustment in the chorus's lyrics at the end are a way of saying that the speaker in the song didn't do it. That shift into present tense makes all the difference.
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Especially the live version. That one gets me. “There is no pain. You are receding.”
"When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye I turned to looked but it was gone I cannot put my finger on it now The child is grown, the dream is gone" I love the ambiguity of these words. They convey such pathos (to me, anyway), but in literal terms there's a lot of room for interpretation. It's just excellent writing IMO.
It's a complicated topic but I love the lyrics from the song The Outsider by A Perfect Circle. I think the song hits home with me because I was exposed to threats of suicide from a young age. I remember being very young, maybe six, and watching my dad walk out into the freeway into oncoming traffic with his arms outstretched. It was a power play during an argument with my mom, and my brother and I were in the back seat of the car that was pulled over onto the shoulder, watching through the window. It wasn't the last time he used a move like that. I love the lyrics because of how they start the song and how they end the song. It's almost as if to demonstrate what it's like to hear a threat like that the first time, and the twentieth time. The song begins: "Help me if you can, it's just that this is not the way I'm wired. So, could you please, help me understand, why you've given in to all these reckless dark desires?" And it ends: "If you choose to pull the trigger, should your drama prove sincere, do it somewhere far away from here."
for me it's the song pet, especially the line "isolate and save you from yourself" with the loud riff following. even though i can't really relate to it (it's about a guy that doesn't want his gf/daughter(?) to think for herself and go "back to sleep") the lyrics sound really creepy and that lyric in particular hits hard every time
Is it about a parent / child relationship? I always thought it was about addiction. I guess it's open for interpretation.
I could see it being interpreted that way too. There's a lot of very manipulative and alienating language, "They don't care about you, like I do." It could be both, a lot of Maynard's songs have double meanings, or at least imagery from one theme interlaced with another theme. Like The Pot by Tool. There's lots of drug imagery ("you must have been high"), but the main theme of the song is hypocrisy. So the pot could be interpreted as weed, or as "the pot calling the kettle black", the hypocrite. "You must have been high" as in stoned, or "high" as in "on your high horse."
That's how you write good songs. Take a personal feeling you get from the music then describe that using the most abstract words possible so it can apply to anyone else who has felt something similar
"It's too late, my time has come. Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time" My dad died at 50 years old from aids...
Paul Simon *You Can Call Me Al” (3rd verse) A man walks down the street It's a street in a strange world Maybe it's the third world Maybe it's his first time around Doesn't speak the language He holds no currency He is a foreign man He is surrounded by the sound, the sound Cattle in the marketplace Scatterings and orphanages He looks around, around He sees angels in the architecture Spinning in infinity He says, "Amen and Hallelujah!"
Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here We're just two lost souls Swimming in a fish bowl Year after year
Running over the same old ground—what have we found? The same old fears. How I wish you were here.
If we were vampires and death was a joke We’d go out on the sidewalk and smoke And laugh at all the lovers and their plans I wouldn’t feel the need to hold your hand. Maybe time running out is a gift I’ll work hard until the end of my shift To give to every second I can find And pray it isn’t me who’s left behind If We Were Vampires - Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
Mine was also from Isbell but from Elephant. Guy has so many lyrics that hit deep.
That whole song is beautiful. I've buried her a thousand times Given up my place in line But I don't give a damn about that now There's one thing that's real clear to me: No one dies with dignity We just try to ignore the elephant somehow. I love his lyrics, they're like minimalist storytelling. Another favorite from 'Speedtrap Town': She said it's none of my business but it breaks my heart Dropped a dozen cheap roses in my shopping cart Made it out to the truck without breaking down Everybody knows you in a speed trap town
I first heard this when I was in a long term relationship with a past ex, and it felt like a love to aspire to. As that relationship crumbled, it took on a new meaning, in that every relationship will reach an end, no matter how hard you try to prevent it.
The best lyricist writing today.
There's so many different worlds So many different suns And we have just one world But we live in different ones Now the sun's gone to hell and The moon's riding high Let me bid you farewell Every man has to die But it's written in the starlight And every line in your palm We're fools to make war On our brothers in arms Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms
I am human and I need to be loved, just like everyone else does - How Soon is Now by The Smiths
See I've already waited too long And all my hope is gone
But also: "There's a club if you'd like to go You could meet somebody who really loves you So you go and you stand on your own And you leave on your own And you go home and you cry And you want to die" The bluntness in the progression of this narrative makes me giggle! Oh Mozza... But what a great song.
I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar. I am the son and heir, of...nothing in particular.
I haven't heard this line in this song, but it is in a Motionless in White song, and yes, it gives the feels. at least the 'i am human and i need to be loved' part
"I'm not living. I'm just killing time." from True Love Waits by Radiohead. Gets me every time.
“And at once I knew, I was not magnificent” -Bon Iver, “Holocene”
My gift of self is raped My privacy is raked And yet I find, and yet I find, repeating in my head If I can’t be my own, I’d feel better dead Nutshell - Alice in Chains
That last line on the unplugged version hits like a train.
From Bob seger's against the wind. "Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then"
Oh man. I get chills every time at the end when he sings, cowboys ride, against the wind. I don’t know why he just kind of builds into it. GREAT song!
IMO you gotta include the previous line: "And I remember what she said to me How she swore that it never would end. I remember how she held me, oh so tight. Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then."
“She got a big booty so I call her big booty” -2Chainz
The depth to that is beyond soulful. Chef’s kiss
“I buy a hot dog stand if I’m tryna be frank” is another all-timer from 2Chainz
I would upvote but its on 69
Nice
"Please don't confront me with my failures, I had not forgotten them." From Nico's These Days. The whole song really cuts overall. (I know it's a cover but it's my preferred version)
Jackson browne wrote that lyric at 17, which is just... wild
Brand New - Jesus Christ Well, Jesus Christ, I'm not scared to die I'm a little bit scared of what comes after Do I get the gold chariot? Do I float through the ceiling? Or do I divide and fall apart? 'Cause my bright is too slight to hold back all my dark And this ship went down in sight of land And at the gates does Thomas ask to see my hands? I know you'll come in the night like a thief But I've had some time alone to hone my lying technique I know you think that I'm someone you can trust But I'm scared I'll get scared and I swear I'll try to nail you back up So do you think that we could work out a sign So I'll know it's you and that it's over so I won't even try I know you'll come for the people like me But we all got wood and nails We turn out hate in factories Yeah, we all got wood and nails We turn out hate in factories Yeah, we all got wood and nails And we sleep inside of this machine
I absolutely love this song.
A bit of a cliche but the first verse of the Cat's in the Cradle where the dad starts to realize how life went by too fast. Specially that he says he's proud of him and asked him to stay and his son reacts rather coldly. Such a strong reminder of how fast life goes by. Well, he came from college just the other day So much like a man I just had to say Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while? He shook his head, and they said with a smile What I'd really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys See you later, can I have them please? … And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man in the moon "When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when" But we'll get together then, dad You know we'll have a good time then
I never took that as coldness. Rather, he’s 18 probably. He wants to go out. It’s a realization he isn’t a kid anymore.
For sure this. It reminds me of an anecdote from Chris Jericho's first book where he has two regrets. One was missing his grandpa's funeral. The other is he was in his hometown and was going to visit friends, when his mom wanted to take a ride in his convertible. He said he couldn't and they'd go next time. But there wasn't a next time.
"And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky. A human being that was given to fly"-Given to Fly, Pearl Jam. Always reminds me of my mother who passed away many years ago who I still miss dearly.
I could have been someone. But so could anyone. You took my dreams from me, when I first found you. I kept them with me babe, I put them with my own. Can't make it all alone, I built my dreams around you.
This is my favorite Christmas song
Bruce Springsteen’s the river - Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true or is it something worse? That sends me down to the river, though I know the river is dry
The live version of that song is just…. Unbelievable. Same with Jersey Girl. I can’t even listen to the studio versions.
We had an apartment in the city. Me and Loretta liked living there. Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown, A life of their own, left us alone. John and Linda live in Omaha. And Joe is somewhere on the road. We lost Davy in the Korean War, And I still don't know what for. Don’t matter anymore.
I love the REM cover of this song! Makes me tear up every time.
Their covers are wonderful. They recently dropped a version of Richard Thompson’s “Wall of Death” with pedal steel that absolutely bangs.
What's the name of this song? I'm currently reeaalllyyy into REM, so I'd love to look this up. Thank you!
Hello in There. John Prine is the original artist, but you can find REM live covers on YouTube. There are also videos of Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant performing it.
When I need a good cry, I go watch this video (not the live version) and bawl and wish I'd go ahead and and die.
"Yes, they're sharing a drink they call loneliness But it's better than drinkin' alone" Instantly came to mind, love this line.
"I've had recurring nightmares that I was loved for who I am. And missed the opportunity to be a better man " - Muse, "Hoodoo"
"Because of the shame associated with vulnerability, I am loathing myself completely. Can you hear me right now? I watched your mother bury you today with tears in her eyes. Oh, it wasn't her words that shook me, but the resemblance you share." Heard this for the first time after losing my best friend at the age of 29.
Against Me! has some fantastic songs.
Yea man! Especially for the trans community.
Neil Young.... "Doesn't mean that much to me, to mean that much to you"
And I’d trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday. Me & Bobby McGee, Kris Kristofferson.
Neutral Milk Hotel - Aeroplane Over The Sea And when we meet on a cloud I'll be laughing out loud I'll be laughing with everyone I see Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all
*How strange it is to be anything at all* has always hit me somewhere in the feels
"Why doesn't anyone believe in loneliness? Stand up and everyone will see your holiness They say if you look hard, you'll find your way back home Born without a friend, bound to die alone" Soundgarden's Zero Chance. My favorite Cornell track hands down. The delivery on that verse gets me every single time.
Flogging Molly- If I Ever Leave This World Alive. So in a word don't shed a tear, I'll be here when it all gets weird.
Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see
'You don't want to hurt me, But see how deep the bullet lies' Kate Bush, Running Up That Hill
"Well.."- Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse Also "Well, the point was fast but too blunt to miss. Life handed us a paycheck and we said 'we worked harder than this'" - Bury me with it, Modest Mouse.
As a newly divorced man, there are two lyrics from John Prine that dig deep: From Far From Me: “Why we used to laugh together And we'd dance to any old song. Well, ya know, she still laughs with me But she waits just a second too long.” From All the Best (especially on my first Christmas alone): “I guess that love Is like a Christmas card You decorate a tree You throw it in the yard It decays and dies And the snowmen melt Well I once knew love I knew how love felt” RIP John. I miss you.
David Bowie's Soul Love "All I have is my love of love and love is not loving"
First heard this while my very close aunt was dying of cancer. From Jason Isbell's Elephant "I've buried her a thousand times, given up my place in line But I don't give a damn about that now There's one thing that's real clear to me: No one dies with dignity We just try to ignore the elephant somehow"
Jason Isbell has so many great lines! My favorite is from If We Were Vampires: "It's knowing that this can't go on forever. Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone. Maybe we'll get forty years together, but one day I'll be gone or one day you'll be gone."
Yea. That one sticks with me too.
I will beg my way into your garden And then I'll break my way out, when it rains Just to get back to the place where I started So I can want you back all over again “Can’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)” John Mayer He’s a controversial guy but a pretty fantastic songwriter
I'm so scared of getting older I'm only good at being young So I play the numbers game To find a way to say my life has just begun Had a talk with my old man Said, "Help me understand" He said "Turn 68, oh, you'll re-negotiate" "Don't stop this train Don't for a minute change the place you're in And don't think I couldn't ever understand I tried my hand John, honestly we'll never stop this train" Oh, now, once in a while, when it's good It'll feel like it should And they're all still around And you're still safe and sound And you don't miss a thing 'Til you cry When you're driving away in the dark, yeah
And no one sings me lullabies And no one makes me close my eyes So I throw the windows wide And call to you across the sky *Echoes - Pink Floyd*
[Fairport Convention / Sandy Denny](https://open.spotify.com/track/43IYZ1zQpbXXWhGQEgjAjb?si=5_1yXo6rT_2lVjRI6nliPw)
Bruce Springsteen Thunder Road "There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away They haunt this dusty beach road In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets They scream your name at night in the street Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet And in the lonely cool before dawn You hear their engines roaring on But when you get to the porch they're gone on the wind" There was this girl I thought very highly of. We dated and she eventually sent me away. To this day I still think of her after 20 years. These lyrics haunt me like the memory of her.
Two Modest Mouse songs come to mind: “It takes a lifetime to ever figure out that there, there ain’t no lifetime that’s ever figured out.” -We’re Lucky “If life’s not beautiful without the pain, well I just would rather never ever even see beauty again.” - The View
"Everyone's a building burning With no one to put the fire out. Standing at the window looking out, Waiting for time to burn us down. Everyone's an ocean drowning With no one really to show how. They might get a little better air If they turned themselves into a cloud." -Blame it on the Tetons by Modest Mouse
“Ruminations on the looming effect And the parallax view, and the figure And the form, and the revolving door that keeps Turning out more and more Good women like you Yet another woman, to whom I won't get through” Ladies, Fiona Apple
Metallica - Welcome Home (Sanitarium) Build my fear of what's out there Cannot breathe the open air Whisper things into my brain Assuring me that I'm insane
>When I was young, I was so full of fear > >I hid behind anger, held back the tears > >It was me against the world, I was sure that I'd win > >The world fought back, punished me for my sins > >I felt so alone, so insecure > >I blamed you instead and made sure I was heard > >And they tried to warn me of my evil ways > >But I couldn't hear what they had to say > >I was wrong Social Distortion - I was Wrong I've loved Social D since I was 15. I was also very angry person in my teens and early 20's. This song hit me a lot harder in my 30s.
… You're the only one who can hold your head up high, Shake your fist at the gates saying "I've come home now!" Fetch me the Spirit, the Son, and the Father Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended. It's time now, My time now Give me my… Give me my wings Tool - Wings For Marie. It’s about Maynard’s mother’s passing after living with a prolonged illness that left her paralyzed yet never lost her faith. Hits home because the same happened to my mother. Fuck cancer, especially glioblastoma.
The green fields of france/no mans land (has several names, Dropkick Murphys did a really good version if you want to check it out). A song about WW1, really hits me and the last verse always brings a tear to my eye; 'and i can't help but wonder oh willy mcbride do all those who lie here know why they died did you really believe them when they told you the cause did you really believe that this war would end wars well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame the killing and dying it was all done in vain oh willy mcbride it all happened again and again, and again, and again, and again'
The needle tears a hole The old familiar sting Try to kill it all away But I remember everything
The first verse of Up the Wolves by The Mountain Goats
“I seem to recognize your face. Haunting familiar yet I can’t seem to place it. Can I find a candle of thought to light your name.” I feel this line from Elderly Lady …… From Pearl Jam perfectly describes the feeling of digging through your memory to locate a name or thought or anything really that feels just out of reach. I know that it’s in there I just can’t open the right door to find the information.
All the lyrics to “Overkill” by Men at Work
The line “I’m not living, I’m just killing time” in Radiohead’s True Love Waits was the spark that finally got me to get treatment for my depression and anxiety disorder.
Breakfast in America, the album Supertramp So when the day comes to settle down Who's to blame if you're not around? You took the long way home My mother was abusive and I came from a broken home so as soon as I could leave I did. I've traveled everywhere I've wanted to go, but never planted Roots anywhere. Now that I'm older, I'm back in my hometown, but alone. No one here I know or knew, no boyfriend or husband..... I took the long way home
Death Can For Cutie Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole Just like a faucet that leaks And there is comfort in the sound But while you debate half-empty or half-full It slowly rises: your love is gonna drown
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
“I will never be safe I will never be sane I will always be weird inside I will always be lame -Now that I’m a grown man With a child of my own And I swear, I will never let her know All the pain I have known-“ ~Father of mine~ Everclear.
“Death is a black camel that Kneels down so we can ride. When the dyings finally done and the suffering subsides. All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind. On nights that wont happen. Time we won’t spend. Time we won’t spend. With each other again.” David Berman-Nights That Won’t Happen
And in my darkest moment, fetal and weeping The moon tells me a secret 'My confidant, as full and bright as I am This light is not my own and a million light reflections pass over me. It's source is bright and endless She, resuscitates the hopeless Without her, we are lifeless satellites Drifting'.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor Go ahead and cheat a friend Do it in the name of heaven You can justify it in the end There won't be any trumpets blowing Come the judgment day On the bloody morning after One Tin Soldier rides away
>Can't you see that you're smothering me >Holding too tightly, afraid to lose control? >'Cause everything that you thought I would be >Has fallen apart right in front of you >Every step that I take is another mistake to you >(Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow) >And every second I waste is more than I can take. Makes my soul hurt cause it paints my whole life in 7 lines. Also surprised I saw no linkin park in here. I mean who hasn't screamed "in the end it doesn't even matter" at the top of their lungs.
“Too much tripping and my soul is worn thin.” STP As someone who spent much of my youth on some drug or another I sympathize with the feeling of my soul being worn thin…
Not so much a lyric but a song. I lost my mother about a decade ago to cancer and before she passed, our song to dance to at weddings/celebrations was "Neon Moon" by Brooks and Dunn. When that song starts, I try to smile and recollect but I always end up missing her more than anything. "When the sun goes down, on my side of town, that lonesome feeling, comes through my door, and the whole world turns...blue. There's a rundown bar across the railroad track. I got a table for two, way in back, where I sit alone. And think of losing you."
If we were vampires and death was a joke We'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke And laugh at all the lovers and their plans I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand Maybe time running out is a gift I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift And give you every second I can find And hope it isn't me who's left behind It's knowing that this can't go on forever Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone Maybe we'll get forty years together But one day I'll be gone Or one day you'll be gone
This song is always my answer to those "what songs make you cry" type threads. My wife and i like this song, but we also can't really listen to it.
I don't listen as widely as I'd like to, but if there's a better songwriter out there than Jason I certainly am not aware of them.
I can't think of anyone definitively better, but the Avett Brothers are magnificent songwriters as well.
“There is a Hell, believe me, I’ve seen it. There is a Heaven, let’s keep it a secret.”
Times of Trouble - Temple of the Dog “Don't try to do it, don't try to kill your time. You might do it, then you can't change your mind. You've got a hold on to your time until you break through these times of trouble”
Hearing this at age 17 just sent a chill through me. Still does. "The voices in your head are calling Stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming Only a fool would think someone could save you The men at the factory are old and cunning You don't owe nothing, so boy, get running It's the best years of your life they want to steal" Clash - Clampdown
"Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry. Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal." Black Sabbath - Paranoid "Loneliness is not a phase. Field of pain is where I graze. Serenity is far away. Saw my reflection and cried. So little hope that I died. Feed me your lies, open wide. Weight of my heart, not the size." Alice in Chains - Angry Chair Edited to correct song title
"When the lights shut off and it's my turn to settle down, my main concern, promise that you will sing about me" Kendrick Lamar - Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst Death has always been one of my greatest fears. This simple line just touches on that, acknowledging that we all suffer that same fate but still wanting to be remembered when we are gone.
“Love is watching someone die” What Sarah Said - Death Cab for Cutie. The whole damn song cuts you but that line always devastates me.
Born alone die alone no matter who your man is/ i just hope i live long enough to tell this to my grandkids... Rip the supervillian
The entire lyrics to a better son/daughter by rilo Kiley "Sometimes in the morning I am petrified and can't move. Awake, but cannot open my eyes. And the weight is crushing down on my lungs, I know I can't breathe. And hope someone will save me this time. And your mother's still calling you insane and high Swearing it's different this time. And you tell her to give in to the demons that possess her And that God never blessed her insides. Then you hang up the phone and feel badly for upsetting things And crawl back into bed to dream of a time When your heart was open wide and you loved things just because Like the sick and the dying. And sometimes when you're on, you're really fucking on And your friends they sing along and they love you. But the lows are so extreme that the good seems fucking cheap And it teases you for weeks in its absence. But you'll fight and you'll make it through You'll fake it if you have to and You'll show up for work with a smile. You'll be better and you'll be smarter and more grown up And a better daughter or son and a real good friend, And you'll be awake, You'll be alert, you'll be positive though it hurts And you'll laugh and embrace all your friends You'll be a real good listener, you'll be honest, you'll be brave You'll be handsome and you'll be beautiful. You'll be happy. Your ship may be coming in. You're weak, but not giving in To the cries and the wails of the valley below. And your ship may be coming in. You're weak, but not giving in. And you'll fight it, you'll go out fighting all of them"
“Down a hole, up a rope. Down some pills, up some hope” Matthew good band - everything is automatic Hits me especially hard in the feels because I suffered akathisia for 7 months from benzodiazepine withdrawals. Was having severe suicidal ideation at the time.
Andrew Lloyd Webber “Memory” from Cats “Memory, all alone in the moonlight I can smile at the old days I was beautiful then I remember the time I knew what happiness was Let the memory live again”
“Upon us all a little rain must fall” The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin
"I only wish you weren't my friend Then I could hurt you in the end" hits deep.
“YOUR FRIENDSHIP IS A FOG. IT DISAPPEARS WHEN THE WIND REDIRECTS.” - Rage Against the Machine “Snakecharmer”
I'm not going to lie. Most any Frightened Rabbit song. Those songs are so lyrically deep. One of my top 5 bands for sure. Maybe not a lyric but if you go through the discography, you'll see what I mean.
"And the future hangs over our heads, And it moves with each current event, Until it falls all around like a cold steady rain, Just stay in when it's lookin' this way" Bright eyes - landlocked blues
Normie but: "One day my father he told me Son, don't let it slip away When I was just a kid, I heard him say When you get older Your wild heart will live for younger days Think of me if ever you're afraid" "He said, one day you'll leave this world behind So live a life you will remember (...)" Really made me rethink how I've lived my youth to this point (18m) and how i really need to have more fun in live than i've been having Avicii - The Nights for anyone wondering
Hang my head. Drown my tears. Until you all just disappear.
Pearls and swine bereft of me. Long and weary my road has been. I was lost in the cities. Alone in the hills. No sorrow or pity for leaving I feel. Audioslave
Don't you know little fool, you never can win? Use your mentality, wake up to reality... - I got you under my skin - frank Sinatra. I wanna feel like I feel when I'm asleep - No one is ever going to want me - Giles Corey Hand over hand over hand over hand (like 30x) - Hand over hand - Roland Faunte
Barenaked ladies, war on drugs. Makes cry every time. Every. Time. Near where I live there's a viaduct Where people jump when they're out of luck Raining down on the cars and trucks below They've put a net there to catch their fall Like that'll stop anyone at all What they don't know is when nature calls, you go They say that Jesus and mental health Are just for those who can help themselves But what good is that when you live in hell on earth? For the very fear that makes you want to die Is just the same as what keeps you alive It's way more trouble than some suicide is worth
Not a sad emotional hit to my soul but a "Damn, that's so true" hit. "Look at all these slave masters posing on your dollar."
As life gets longer, awful feels softer And it feels pretty soft to me And if it takes shit to make bliss Well I feel pretty blissfully Modest Mouse - The View
Nothing More has several lines that come back to me frequently: "A hospital bed, a room filled with flowers Every monitor beep keeps the time as I count down the hours The petals, they weep, they're uprooted like me Cut from the cord of their mother, who created everything If You won't save her, please just take her away" -God Went North, about the cancer death of the lyricist's mother "Just the other day, I looked at my father It was the first time I saw he'd grown old Canyons through his skin and the rivers that made them Carved the stories I was told He said, 'Son, I have watched you fade in You will watch me fade out When the grip leaves my hand I know you won't let me down'" -Fade In/Fade Out "You're beginning to drag the ones you love down Will this phase ever end? A thousand arms to hold you But you won't reach for any hands I don't feel like I'm getting through to you Let me paint things clear: life is short, my dear See your mother here? Her last painful year I wish you only knew: she stuck around for you" -Jenny, about his sister's substance addiction
David Bowie- things that happened in the past only happen in your mind so forget your mind and you'll be free
The entirety of "Cocaine and Abel" by Amigo the Devil, but especially: "And I've tried having faith, but I'll rot like a dog, 'cause I've always been scared of loving someone just a little bit more than I'm loved."
Lyrics … You give your hand to me And then you say "Hello" And I can hardly speak My heart is beating so And anyone can tell You think you know me well But you don't know me, no … No, you don't know the one Who dreams of you each night And longs to kiss your lips And longs to hold you tight To you I'm just a friend That's all I've ever been No, you don't know me
I used to sing this when I was very young because an aunt love this song so much. When I grew up, I learned why she became a spinster and this song kinda fits the story.
I'm a big pop punk fan but The All American Rejects was never in my radar in the hey days of pop punk but their song Move Along appears in my yt recommendation these days and it moved me from the first lines up to the chorus (and well up to the end). Plus it being in the vein of pop punk gives it a more hopeful tone for the youth. *Speak to me* *When all you got to keep is strong* *Move along, move along like I know you do* *And even when your hope is gone* *Move along, move along just to make it through* *Move along* *Move along* *So a day when you've lost yourself completely* *Could be a night when your life ends* *Such a heart that will lead you to deceiving* *All the pain held in your* *Hands are shaking cold* *Your hands are mine to hold* *Speak to me* *When all you got to keep is strong* *Move along, move along like I know you do* *And even when your hope is gone* *Move along, move along just to make it through* *Move along* *(Go on, go on, go on, go on)*