Lyrically Perfect Songs

[Stagger_Lee]

Roger Miller

Do-Wacka-Do

I hear tell you’re doin’ well,
Good things have come to you.
I wish I had your happiness
And you had a do-wacka-do,
Wacka do, wacka-do, wacka-do.

They tell me you’re runnin’ free,
Your days are never blue.
I wish I had your good-luck charm
And you had a do-wacka-do,
Wacka do, wacka-do, wacka-do.

Yeah, I see you’re goin’ down the street in your big Cadillac,
You got girls in the front, you got girls in the back,
Yeah, way in back, you got money in a sack,
Both hands on the wheel and your shoulders rared back
root-doot-doot-doot-doot, do-wah,

I hear tell you’re doin’ well,
Good things have come to you.
I wish I had your happiness
And you had a do-wacka-do,
Wacka do, wacka-do, wacka-do.


Yeah, I see you’re goin’ down the street in your big Cadillac,
You got girls in the front, you got girls in the back,
Yeah, way in back, you got money in a sack,
Both hands on the wheel and your shoulders rared back
root-doot-doot-doot-doot, do-wah,

I hear tell you’re doin’ well,
Good things have come to you.
I wish I had your good-luck charm
And you had a do-wacka-do,
Wacka do, wacka-do, wacka-do.

[Dominic]

I've never heard that it was about a soldier leaving for Vietnam before...u sure about that?

And John Denver gets no respect, you know? Underrated talent.

[RJT]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i think we just did this thread within a month or so...

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, indeed. Here ya go, OP:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...umber=12076678

[/ QUOTE ]

The linked thread is not the same topic as the OP here.

[niss]

[ QUOTE ]
I've never heard that it was about a soldier leaving for Vietnam before...u sure about that?

And John Denver gets no respect, you know? Underrated talent.

[/ QUOTE ]

Denver says that the song was not written about Vietnam, but as far as I know the song took on that context when PP&M did it (and I believe that was their intention).

[cwsiggy]

Dark Side of the Moon as a whole is close to lyrically perfect.

[Syko_Skotty]

John Mayer's lyrics are my current favorite:

When you're dreaming with a broken heart
The waking up is the hardest part

You roll out of bed and down on your knees
And for a moment you can hardly breathe
Wondering was she really here
Is she standing in my room?

No, she's not
Cause she's gone, gone, gone, gone, gone.

When you're dreaming with a broken heart
The giving up is the hardest part

She takes you in with her crying eyes
Then all at once you have to say goodbye
Wondering could you stay my love
Will you wake up by my side?

No, she can't
Cause she's gone, gone, gone, gone, gone.

Do I have to fall asleep with roses in my hand?
Do I have to fall asleep with roses in my hand?
Do I have to fall asleep with roses in my hand?
Do I have to fall asleep with roses in my, roses in my hands?
Would you get them if I did?

No, you won't
Cause you're gone, gone, gone, gone, gone.

When you're dreaming with a broken heart
The waking up is the hardest part.



<font color="blue">"Welcome to the real world", she said to me
Condescendingly
Take a seat
Take your life
Plot it out in black and white
Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings
And the drama queens
I'd like to think the best of me
Is still hiding
Up my sleeve

They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something's better
On the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there's no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you've got to rise above

So the good boys and girls take the so called right track
Faded white hats
Grabbing credits
Maybe transfers
They read all the books but they can't find the answers
And all of our parents
They're getting older
I wonder if they've wished for anything better
While in their memories
Tiny tragedies

They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something's better
On the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there's no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you got to rise above

I am invincible
As long as I'm alive

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there's no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you've got to rise above

I just can't wait til my 10 year reunion
I'm gonna bust down the double doors
And when I stand on these tables before you
You will know what all this time was for </font>

<font color="green"> Hold on to whatever you find, baby
Hold on to whatever will get you through
Hold on to whatever you can, baby
Cause I don’t trust myself when I’m loving you

I’m not the man I used to be
I haven't told it to my heart just yet
I will talk my love a thousand roses
I might leave it on the water...
Hold onto whatever you get, baby
Hold onto whatever will get you through
Don’t know how much longer I’ll be here, babe
Cause I don’t trust myself
Loving you
Say, who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
You better call oh my...
You better call oh my...

I won’t talk myself forever in your arms
And then I’ll whistle to get out when I’m there
Cause I can’t tell you what I think I really want
Cause when it comes down to it, I don’t really care
I don’t even care anymore
Hold onto whatever you want, baby
Hold onto whatever will get you through
Don’t know how much longer I’ll be around, baby
Cause I don’t trust myself when I’m loving you
Say it now, who do you love?
I gotta get proof
Everyone's loving
I've been waiting my life
Oooooh

Hold on to whatever you want, baby
Hold on to whatever will get you through
Leave right now, I'm tired of talking baby
Cause I don’t trust myself loving you

Hold onto whatever you want, baby
Hold onto what you thought you needed
The wind round here blows everything away
And I don’t trust myself on loving you
I don’t trust myself on loving you
I don't trust myself on loving you
I don't trust myself on loving you </font>

<font color="purple"> 1,2,1,2,3, Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could
Now we see everything is going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change it's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They woulda never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on the door
When you trust your television
What you get is what you got 'cause when they own the information ooohhh,
They can bend it all they want!
That's why we're waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It's not that we don't care
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We're still waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Now we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change.</font>

<font color="brown"> We got the afternoon
You got this room for two
One thing I've left to do
Discover me
Discovering you

One mile to every inch of
Your skin like porcelain
One pair of candy lips and
Your bubblegum tongue

Cause if you want love
We'll make it
Swim in a deep sea
Of blankets
Take all your big plans
And break 'em
This is bound to be awhile

Your body is a wonderland
Your body is a wonder (I'll use my hands)
Your body is a wonderland

Something 'bout the way the hair falls in your face
I love the shape you take when crawling towards the pillowcase
You tell me where to go and
Though I might leave to find it
I'll never let your head hit the bed
Without my hand behind it

You want love?
We'll make it
Swim in a deep sea
Of blankets
Take all your big plans
And break 'em
This is bound to be awhile

Your body is a wonderland
Your body is a wonder (I'll use my hands)
Your body is a wonderland

Damn baby
You frustrate me
I know you're mine all mine all mine
But you look so good it hurts sometimes

Your body is a wonderland
Your body is a wonderland (I'll use my hands)
Your body is a wonderland
Your body is a wonderland</font>

[Coffee]

Theres a letter on the desktop
That I dug out of a drawer
The last truce we ever came to
In our adolescent war
And I start to feel the fever
From the warm air through the screen
You come regular like seasons
Shadowing my dreams

And the mississippis mighty
But it starts in minnesota
At a place that you could walk across
With five steps down
And I guess thats how you started
Like a pinprick to my heart
But at this point you rush right through me
And I start to drown

And theres not enough room
In this world for my pain
Signals cross and love gets lost
And time passed makes it plain
Of all my demon spirits
I need you the most
Im in love with your ghost
Im in love with your ghost

Dark and dangerous like a secret
That gets whispered in a hush
(dont tell a soul)
When I wake the things I dreamt about you
Last night make me blush
(dont tell a soul)
And you kiss me like a lover
Then you sting me like a viper
I go follow to the river
Play your memory like a piper

And I feel it like a sickness
How this love is killing me
Id walk into the fingers
Of your fire willingly
And dance the edge of sanity
Ive never been this close
Im in love with your ghost

Unknowing captor
You never know how much you
Pierce my spirit
But I cant touch you
Can you hear it
A cry to be free
Oh Im forever under lock and key
As you pass through me

Now I see your face before me
I would launch a thousand ships
To bring your heart back to my island
As the sand beneath me slips
As I burn up in your presence
And I know now how it feels
To be weakened like achilles
With you always at my heels

This bitter pill I swallow
Is the silence that I keep
It poisons me I cant swim free
The river is too deep
Though Im baptized by your touch
I am no worse than most
In love with your ghost

You are shadowing my dreams
(in love with your ghost)
(in love with your ghost)
(in love with your ghost)

-Indigo Girls

Threw you the obvious and you flew
with it on your back, a name in your recollection,
thrown down among a million same.
difficult not to feel a little bit disappointed
and passed over
when i've looked right through
to see you naked and oblivious
and
you don't see me.but i threw you the obvious
just to see if there's more behind the eyes
of a fallen angel,
the eyes of a tragedy.
here i am expecting just a little bit
too much from the wounded.
but i see through it all
and see you.
so i threw you the obvious
to see what occurs behind the eyes of a fallen angel,
eyes of a tragedy.
oh well. apparently nothing.
you don't see me.
you don't see me at all.

- A Perfect Circle

[whiskeytown]

everytime we do this I tell you bastards - I'm a student of songwriting - and Townes was the best - [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] - he actually used to compose first as poetry and then add music - he wanted his songs to be read and some are so complex they almost have to be -

As Guy Clark would say, there's not a wasted word in this song, and yet it leaves so much space - so much room and so much said and yet unsaid - Anyone who's serious about songwriters needs to rent "Be Here To Love Me" -

(that goes double for you Dominic - Townes was the mold from which some of the greatest Alt-Country was cut - he transcended almost all genres [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img])

Poncho and Lefty -

Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath's as hard as kerosene
You weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams

Pancho was a bandit boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
Wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words
That's the way it goes

All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him hang around
Out of kindness I suppose

Lefty he can't sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty's mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain't nobody knows

All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose

The poets tell how Pancho fell
Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel
The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold
So the story ends we're told
Pancho needs your prayers it's true,
But save a few for Lefty too
He just did what he had to do
Now he's growing old

A few gray federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him go so wrong
Out of kindness I suppose

[Aces McGee]

Chris Cornell's "Euphoria Morning" deserves some mention as a lyrically great album.

All songs are really a form of poetry, but Cornell's lyrics on this album are the rare ones that sound good spoken with accompaniment as well as sung to music.

I don't know how much to trust Internet lyric sites and I don't have time at the moment to take a look through and make edits when and if applicable, but briefly glancing through, it looks like this link has it at least mostly right: web page

[Aces McGee]

[ QUOTE ]
All songs are really a form of poetry, but Cornell's lyrics on this album are the rare ones that sound good spoken without accompaniment as well as sung to music.


[/ QUOTE ]

FMP.

-McGee