Most moving, poignant or thought-provoking song lyrics

Music Room
21

I Know it was a Vietnam Protest Song but !!!

So your brother’s bound and gagged
And they’ve chained him to a chair
Won’t you please come to Chicago just to sing
In a land that’s known as freedom how can such a thing be fair
Won’t you please come to Chicago for the help that we can bring

We can change the world rearrange the world
It’s dying - to get better

Politicians sit yourselves down, there’s nothing for you here
Won’t you please come to Chicago for a ride
Don’t ask jack to help you 'cause he’ll turn the other ear
Won’t you please come to Chicago or else join the other side

We can change the world rearrange the world

It’s dying - if you believe in justice
Dying - and if you believe in freedom
Dying - let a man live his own life
Dying - rules and regulations, who needs them open up the door

Somehow people must be free I hope the day comes soon
Won’t you please come to Chicago show your face
From the bottom of the ocean to the mountains of the moon
Won’t you please come to Chicago no one else can take your place

We can change the world rearrange the world
It’s dying - if you believe in justice
Dying - and if you believe in freedom
Dying - let a man live his own life
Dying - rules and regulations, who needs them open up the door

22

My favourite verse from one of Mr D’s best.

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23

Indeedy. Me too.

24

Moving words. I hadn’t heard of John Prine - but you might like to amend ‘Prince’ in your intro… I searched John Prince before recognising it was a different name at the end.

25

Two songs from the same album (First and Last) An album i Loved the first time I heard it and Love even more today.

So here I am once more in the playground of the broken hearts
One more experience, one more entry in a diary, self-penned
Yet another emotional suicide overdosed on sentiment and pride
Too late to say I love you, too late to re-stage the play
Abandoning the relics in my playground of yesterday
I’m losing on the swings, I’m losing on the roundabouts
I’m losing on the swings, I’m losing on the roundabouts
Too much, too soon, too far to go, too late to play, the game is over
The game is over

So here I am once more in the playground of the broken heart
I’m losing on the swings, losing on the roundabouts, the game is over, over
Yet another emotional suicide overdosed on sentiment and pride
I’m losing on the swings, losing on the roundabouts, the game is over
Too late to say I love you, too late to re-stage the play
The game is over

I act the role in classic style of a martyr carved with twisted smile
To bleed the lyric for this song to write the rites to right my wrongs
An epitaph to a broken dream to exorcise this silent scream
A scream that’s borne from sorrow

I never did write that love song, the words just never seemed to flow
Now sad in reflection did I gaze through perfection
And examine the shadows on the other side of the morning
And examine the shadows on the other side of mourning
Promised wedding now a wake

The fool escaped from paradise will look over his shoulder and cry
Sit and chew on daffodils and struggle to answer why?
As you grow up and leave the playground
Where you kissed your prince and found your frog
Remember the jester that showed you tears, the script for tears

So I’ll hold our peace forever when you wear your bridal gown
In the silence of my shame the mute that sang the sirens’ song
Has gone solo in the game, I’ve gone solo in the game
But the game is over
Can you still say you love me

Armalite, street lights, nightsights
Searching the roofs for a sniper, a viper, a fighter
Death in the shadows he’ll maim you, he’ll wound you, he’ll kill you
For a long forgotten cause, on not so foreign shores
Boys baptised in wars
Morphine, chill scream, bad dream
Serving as numbers on dogtags, flakrags, sandbags
Your girl has married your best friend, loves end, poison pen
Your flesh will always creep, tossing turning sleep
The wounds that burn so deep

Your mother sits on the edge of the world
W when the cameras start to roll
Panoramic viewpoint resurrect the killing fold
Your father drains another beer, he’s one of the few that cares
Crawling behind a Saracen’s hull from the safety of his living room chwair
Forgotten sons, forgotten sons, forgotten sons

And so as I patrol in the valley of the shadow of the tricolour
I must fear evil, for I am but mortal and mortals can only die
Asking questions, pleading answers from the nameless faceless watchers
That stalk the carpeted corridors of Whitehall

Who orders desecration, mutilation, verbal masturbation
I in the guarded bureaucratic wombs

Minister, minister care for your children, order them not into damnation
To eliminate those who would trespass against you
For whose is the kingdom, the power, the glory forever and ever, Amen
Halt who goes there, Death, approach friend

You’re just another coffin on its way down the emerald aisle
When your children’s stony glances mourn your death in a terrorist’s smile
The bomber’s arm placing fiery gifts on the supermarket shelves
Alley sings with shrapnel detonate a temporary hell
Forgotten Sons

From the dole queue to the regiment a profession in a flash
But remember Monday signings when from door to door you dash
On the news a nation mourns you unknown soldier, count the cost
For a second you’ll be famous but labelled posthumous

Forgotten sons, forgotten sons
Peace on earth and mercy mild, Mother Brown has lost her child
Just another Forgotten Son

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26

For me Atmosphere from Joy Division. Listening to this after Mr Curtis’ untimely death I find quite chilling -

Walk in silence
Don’t walk away, in silence
See the danger
Always danger

Endless talking
Life rebuilding
Don’t walk away

Walk in silence
Don’t turn away, in silence
Your confusion
My illusion

Worn like a mask of self-hate
Confronts and then dies
Don’t walk away

People like you find it easy
Naked to see
Walking on air
Hunting by the rivers, through the streets, every corner

Abandoned too soon
Set down with due care
Don’t walk away in silence
Don’t walk away

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27

Two great songs - I was thinking of posting the Script for a jester’s tear lyric myself!

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28

Doesn’t get more moving than Nina Simone’s ‘Why is the king of love, is dead’. Written by Simone’s bass player Gene Taylor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3jiFbOMr8E.

29

Care to post the lyric here for others to read, which is the idea of this thread?

30

Lyrics change with each version of the song. So not exact as the the version I included.

We want to do a tune
Written for today, for this hour
For Dr. Martin Luther King
We’ve stated before that the whole program is dedicated to his memory
But this tune is written about him, and for him and so
We had yesterday to learn it and so we’ll see

Once upon this planet earth
Lived a man of humble birth
Preaching love and freedom for his fellow man

He was dreaming of a day
Peace would come to earth to stay
And he spread this message all across the land

Turn the other cheek he’d plead
Love thy neighbor was his creed
Pain humiliation death, he did not dread

With his Bible at his side
From his foes he did not hide
It’s hard to think that this great man is dead (oh yes)

Will the murders never cease
Are thy men or are they beasts?
What do they ever hope, ever hope to gain?

Will my country fall, stand or fall?
Is it too late for us all?
And did Martin Luther King just die in vain?

Cos he’d seen the mountain top
And he knew he could not stop
Always living with the threat of death ahead

Folks you’d better stop and think
'Cause we’re heading for the brink
What will happen now that he is dead?

He was for equality
For all people, you and me
Full of love and good will, hate was not his way

He was not a violent man
Bigotry had sealed his fate
We can all shed tears but it won’t change a thing

Teach your people, will they ever learn
Must you always kill with burn and burn with guns
And kill with guns and burn
Don’t you know how we gotta react?
Don’t you know what it will bring?

Well see he’d seen, the mountaintop
And he knew he could not stop
Always living with the threat of death ahead

Folks you’d better stop and think
Cause everybody knows were on the brink
What’s will happen now that the king of love is dead?

Cause see he’d seen, the mountaintop
And he knew he could not stop
Always living with the threat of death ahead

Folks you’d better stop and think and feel again
For we’re headed for the brink
What’s gonna happen now? In all of our cities?
My people are rising; they’re living in lies
Even if they have to die
Even if they have to die at the moment they know what life is
Even at that one moment that ya know what life is
If you have to die, it’s all right
Cause you know what life is
You know what freedom is for one moment of your life
What’s gonna happen now that the King is dead?

I heard, that um, well we’ve heard all kinds of stories
But I heard That this was his favorite song near the end of his life

Last year or a year ago, maybe a little longer than that now
Lorraine Hansberry left us, and she was a dear friend
She had her favorite song, that Langston Hughes left us
Coltrane left us, Otis Redding left us
Who can go on, do you realize how many we have lost?

Then it really gets down to reality, doesn’t it?
Not a performance, not microphones and all that crap
But really something else

We’ve lost a lot of them, in the last two years
But we have remaining, Monk, Miles

Audience: Nina!
Ms. Simone: I love you too

And of course, for those we have left we are thankful
But we can’t Afford any more losses, oh no, oh my god
They’re shooting us down one by one
Don’t forget that
Because they are
Killing us one by one

Well all I have to say is that those of us who
Know how to protect those of us that we love
Stand by them and stay close to them
And I say that if there’d been a couple of more a
little closer to Dr. King he wouldn’t have got it
Just a little closer to him, stay there, stay there
We can’t afford any more losses

He had seen the mountain top
And he knew he could not stop
Always living with the threat of death ahead
Folks you’d better stop and think
For we’re almost to the brink
What will happen, now that the King is dead?

31

David Sylvian - Orpheus

Standing firm on this stony ground
The wind blows hard
Pulls these clothes around
I harbour all the same worries as most
The temptations to leave or to give up the ghost
I wrestle with an outlook on life
That shifts between darkness and shadowy light
I struggle with words for fear that they’ll hear
But orpheus sleeps on his back still dead to the world

Sunlight falls, my wings open wide
There’s a beauty here I cannot deny
And bottles that tumble and crash on the stairs
Are just so many people I knew never cared
Down below on the wreck of the ship
Are a stronghold of pleasures I couldn’t regret
But the baggage is swallowed up by the tide
As orpheus keeps to his promise and stays by my side

Tell me, I’ve still a lot to learn
Understand, these fires never stop
Believe me, when this joke is tired of laughing
I will hear the promise of my orpheus sing

Sleepers sleep as we row the boat
Just you the weather and I gave up hope
But all of the hurdles that fell in our laps
Were fuel for the fire and straw for our backs
Still the voices have stories to tell
Of the power struggles in heaven and hell
But we feel secure against such mighty dreams
As orpheus sings of the promise tomorrow may bring

Tell me, I’ve still a lot to learn
Understand, these fires never stop
Please believe, when this joke is tired of laughing
I will hear the promise of my orpheus sing

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32

I’ve always enjoyed Lou Reed’s play on words and this is imo a perfect example. New York City Man.

It can only lead to trouble if you break my heart
If you accidentally crush it on the ides of March
I’d prefer you were straight forward
You don’t have to go through all of that
I’m a New York city man, baby, and say “go” and that is that

New York city man, you just say “go” and that is that
I’m a New York city man, you just say “go” and that is that

It’s far too complicated to make up a lie
That you’d have to remember and really why
I wouldn’t want to be around you
If you didn’t want to have me around
I’m a M-A-N-N man, you blink your eyes and I’ll be gone

M-A-N-N man, you blink your eyes, honey, I love you, I’ll be gone
New York city man, you blink your eyes and I’ll be gone

Brutus made a pretty speech but Caesar was betrayed
Lady Macbeth went crazy but Macbeth ended slain
Ophelia and Desdamona dead leaving Hamlet in a play
But I’m no Lear with blinded eyes, say “go” and I am gone

The stars have shut their eyes up tight
The earth has changed it’s course
A Kingdom sits on a black knight’s back
As he tries to mount a white jeweled horse
While a clock full of butterflies on the hour
Releases a thousand moths
You say “leave” and I’ll be gone
Without any remorse
No letters faxes phones or tears
There’s a difference between bad and worse

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33

This one cuts me to the bone, maybe partly because I remember watching the Tiananmen Square events on TV. News of the massacre was suppressed in China, even in Hong Kong, they only finding out through Western media.

Watching TV

We were watching TV
In Tiananmen Square
Lost my baby there
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes
She was a short order pastry chef
In a Dim Sum dive on the Yangtze tideway
She had a shiny hair
She was a daughter of an engineer
Won’t you shed a tear
For my yellow rose
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes
She had a perfect breasts
She had high hopes
She had almond eyes
She had yellow thighs
She was a student of philosophy
Won’t you grieve with me
For my yellow rose
Shed a tear
For her bloodstained clothes
She had shiny hair
She had perfect breasts
She had almond eyes
She had yellow thighs
She was a daughter af an engineer

So get out your pistols
Get out your stones
Get out your knives
Cut them to the bone
They are the lackeys of the grocer’s machine
They built the dark satanic mills
That manufacture hell on earth
They bought the front row seats on Calvary
They are irrelevant to me
And I grieve for my sister

People of China
Do not forget do not forget
The children who died for you
Long live the Republic
Did we do anything after this
I’ve feeling we did

We were watching TV
Watching TV
We were watching TV
Watching TV

She wore a white bandanna that said
Freedom now
She thought the Great Wall of China
Would come tumbling down
She was a student
Her father was an engineer
Won’t you shed a tear
For my yellow rose
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes

Her grandpa fought old Chiang Kai-shek
That no-good low-down dirty rat
Who used to order his troops
To fire on women and children
Imagine that imagine that
And in the spring of’48
Mao Tse-tung got quite irate
And he kicked that old dictator Chiang
Out of the state of China
Chiang Kai-shek came down in Formosa
And they armed the island of Quemoy
And the shells were flying across the China Sea
And they turned Formosa into a shoe factory
Called Taiwan

And she is different from Cro-Magnon man
She’s different from Anne Boleyn
She is different from the Rosenbergs
And from the unknown Jew
She is different from the unknown Nicaraguan
Half superstar half victim
She’s a victor star conceptually new
And she is different from the Dodo
And from the Kankabono
She is different from the Aztec
And from the Cherokee
She’s everybody’s sister
She’s a symbolic of our failure
She’s the one in fifty million
Who can help us to be free
Because she died on TV
And I grieve for my sister

Roger Waters

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34

If you understand or if you don’t
If you believe or if you doubt

There’s a universal justice
And the eyes of truth
Are always watching you

From Enigma: Cross of changes :relieved:

35

I could wax on this topic for some time, but I’ll start with the final verse of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, which often gets edited out (notably in the well-known Jeff Buckley version):

I did my best, but it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah.

To my mind, this brings the Biblical imagery from earlier in the song full circle and allows it to make sense in the context of a human life. Without this final verse, the earlier verses can come across as gratuitously meaningless religious imagery.

Mark

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36

Alongside his excellent ‘Tower of Song’

“Now, you can say that I’ve grown bitter but of this you may be sure
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor
And there’s a mighty judgment coming, but I may be wrong
You see, you hear these funny voices in the Tower of Song”

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37

Makes me think about the beautiful story from Famous Blue Raincoat too, Cohen can so poignantly paint the emotional conflicts that we can face as humans in our lives:
_

It’s four in the morning, the end of December
I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better
New York is cold, but I like where I’m living
There’s music on Clinton Street all through the evening

I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert
You’re living for nothing now, I hope you’re keeping some kind of record

Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?

Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You’d been to the station to meet every train, and
You came home without Lili Marlene

And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody’s wife

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well, I see Jane’s awake
She sends her regards

And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I’m glad you stood in my way

If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Well, your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried

And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear

Sincerely, L Cohen

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38

Bowie doesn’t come to mind when you think of protest songs but Fantastic Voyage off the Lodger album is one one my favourite tracks. Short sweet and straight to the piont.

In the event
that this fantastic voyage
Should turn to erosion
and we never get old
Remember it’s true, dignity is valuable
But our lives are valuable too

We’re learning to live with somebody’s depression
And I don’t want to live with somebody’s depression
We’ll get by, I suppose
It’s a very modern world,
but nobody’s perfect

It’s a moving world,
but that’s no reason
To shoot some of those missiles
Think of us as fatherless scum
It won’t be forgotten
'Cause we’ll never say anything nice again, will we?

And the wrong words make you listen
In this criminal world
Remember it’s true, loyalty is valuable
But our lives are valuable too

We’re learning to live with somebody’s depression
And I don’t want to live with somebody’s depression
We’ll get by I suppose
But any sudden movement I’ve got to write it down
They wipe out an entire race and I’ve got to write it down
But I’m still getting educated but I’ve got to write it down
And it won’t be forgotten
'Cause I’ll never say anything nice again, how can I?

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39

At times of elections this song always comes to my mind:

The Last Electioneer

The Politician pleads before you
You hear the words but you’ll ignore them
Love of life and liberty are going to take a fall

Well, well, well well I’m only human
You’re not sure and I’m not certain
Have you listened to the liars practising
Their smiling faces blank and grey?

I bring good news to all the people
I’ll heal the sick we’ll all be equal
No moreworking - buying - consuming - dying -
Everything is taken care of
No more hiding in the dark of night
Trust in me I am the light
I’m good I’m honest
No-one else is left
So will you vote for me?

Vote for me!

Edgar Broughton

40

I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song
I’m twenty-two now, but I won’t be for long
Time hurries on
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
And they wither with the wind
And they crumble in your hand
Once my heart was filled with the love of a girl
I held her close, but she faded in the night
Like a poem I meant to write
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
And they wither with the wind
And they crumble in your hand
I threw a pebble in a brook
And watched the ripples run away
And they never made a sound
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
And they wither with the wind
And they crumble in your hand
Hello, hello, hello, hello
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye, good-bye
That’s all there is
And the leaves that are green turn to brown.

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