submissions

Sly And The Family Stone – Time Lyrics	11 years ago
what happened here? the lyrics i submitted a few years ago were for the song "time", from "there's a riot goin' on". now i see they've been changed to the lyrics for "in time", from the album "fresh", and the formatting is all messed up. what gives?

submissions

Bruce Springsteen – Wages of Sin Lyrics

16 years ago

this song is amazing...i'm not sure what else to compare it to in bruce's massive catalogue of songs. it doesn't feel much like anything else he's ever done. right off the bat, the odd, almost dissonant unresolved guitar chords are out of character, and the whole song has this almost dreamlike quality to it. the recording date puts it at about the time of the electric "nebraska" album that we may never get to hear, but if there are more songs like this in the vaults i hope bruce decides to release it someday.

submissions

Iggy Pop – Nightclubbing Lyrics

16 years ago

lou reed doesn't sing on this or any other iggy pop song...all of those voices are iggy's. the "stoned guitar part" was played by david bowie, who ended up playing most of the instruments on the album. i like the story about how just the two of them recorded the song after the other musicians had left the studio, and while iggy said he was happy with it the way it was, david suggested real drums would sound better. iggy disagreed and defended the drum machine: "it kicks ass! it's better than a drummer!" and the rest, as they say, is a song that trent reznor sampled the kick drum from.

submissions

Tim Buckley – Jungle Fire Lyrics	16 years ago
i should also add that this song is about tim's wife judy---it's essentially his abstract rendering of a terrible car accident she was in before they met one another, and the "life" breathing deep inside is her son taylor who was still in the womb at the time.

submissions

Tim Buckley – Jungle Fire Lyrics	16 years ago
when tim sings "and life breathes...from deep...inside", and on the last word he draws it out but hits a flat note, and then turns it into an insane yodel and stretches it out even farther...that has to be one of my favourite moments in any song i've ever heard.

submissions

Big Star – Nightime Lyrics

16 years ago

i once spent a little less than two weeks in a small tourist town in italy...i was in high school at the time, and suddenly found myself away from everyone i knew, with no friends who spoke my language and not much of anything to do. the conditions of the place i was staying and the people i was with were far from ideal. it wasn't one of the better vacations i've had, though i did what i could to make the best of it. had i been with different travel companions, i probably would have had a good time. anyway, i found myself listening to big star's "third" a lot while i was there, and this song in particular became a touchstone for me. when alex chilton would sing, "i hate it here...get me out of here," i felt like he was giving voice to my ennui and unease. i couldn't help cracking a smile every time. outside of that context it's still a beautiful song, but i think now it will always remind me of that place and time in my life.

submissions

Big Star – Dream Lover Lyrics

16 years ago

such a beautiful, twisted song. in someone else's hands it would simply be a pretty ballad, but alex twists it into something much stranger and more disturbing. i love the way he drawls "play it for me, guitarist", letting lee baker improvise a great, ragged solo. and then there's that wordless grunting that almost turns into screaming...the whole "third" album still sounds ahead of its time, or removed from time altogether.

submissions

The Beach Boys – Baby Blue Lyrics	16 years ago
one of dennis' best songs, and some of carl's best singing. the fact that this is being left off of the forthcoming two-cd "pacific ocean blue" reissue is criminal. i think i might prefer the version with whistling during the bridge instead of dennis' voice...it makes the song seem sadder somehow.

submissions

The Beach Boys – Love Surrounds Me Lyrics

16 years ago

i disagree. i think the two songs dennis contributed are just about the only things worth listening to on an otherwise subpar album, and his last great gifts to the beach boys. by giving up those songs he effectively gutted his projected solo album "bambu" and was never able to finish it in his lifetime. this track and "baby blue" are the last cries from the soul of a drowning man. dennis' torn voice is right for the song, and the contrast between his voice and brother carl's is poignant to say the least. the wordless singing over the fade is a particularly great moment.

submissions

The Carpenters – Super Star Lyrics

16 years ago

interesting how the line "i can hardly wait to be with you again" was originally "i can hardly wait to sleep with you again", but richard carpenter changed it so as not to be risque. perhaps a little thread leftover from when the song was known as "groupie", as wilyuncfox mentioned. either way, karen had one of the most beautiful voices i've ever heard. i think she could have invested just about any song with a level of depth and feeling that wouldn't have been there otherwise. she was underrated as a drummer, too.

submissions

Scott Walker – Patriot (A Single) Lyrics	16 years ago
it took me years before it hit me what an unsettling image this is: "cripple fingers hit the rounds of shells / some had clinging vine; some had specks." i think scott's lyrics are probably inspired by nightmares as much as anything else, and they've probably inspired some nightmares in turn.

submissions

Harry Nilsson – Cuddly Toy Lyrics	16 years ago
harry admitted he was writing about a gang-bang here, but couched in such a way that most people wouldn't realize what the words were actually referring to. the fact that the monkees had a hit with this song cracks me up.

submissions

Harry Nilsson – Don't Leave Me Lyrics	16 years ago
harry's scatting kills me every time...when his voices circle themselves and soar in unexpected directions. not many people could drop the "beep beep yeah" line from "drive my car" by the beatles into a ballad and actually make it sound like it meant something, but harry did just that. the guy was brilliant.

submissions

Harry Nilsson – Easier For Me Lyrics

16 years ago

it's criminal that this song isn't better known. harry's voice was kind of ragged at this point, still recovering from the madness of "pussy cats", but if anything it makes the song even more affecting. it sounds like it could have been an old standard sung by a particularly weary sinatra or someone along those lines, and yet harry wrote it himself and i don't think anyone has ever covered it. ironic that the two biggest hits he had were with songs written by other people, while his songs were bigger hits in the hands of other bands.

submissions

Dan Hartman – I Can Dream About You Lyrics

16 years ago

dan hartman was a one-man band...played all the instruments and sang all the vocal parts himself, produced the music, the whole nine yards. i would hear this song on the radio from time to time when i was growing up. really, it's the only song of his i've ever heard, and i think one of the only hits he ever had on his own. there's something about it that's always haunted me, and it's hard to put my finger on just what it is...i guess a lot of people would dismiss it as a typical 80s pop song trying to emulate the motown sound, but there's just something about it that grabs me, even now, years later. maybe it's a sense of longing. something deeper lurking beneath the glossy surface. maybe it's the octave vocals..."mo...ving...sidewalks. i don't see under my feet." whatever it is, i dig it.

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