I've got something in my pants, and it's a lyrical stance

[vovat]

I had another weird dream last night. At one point, bethje and I were on some railroad tracks, and a phantom train went right through us. In my waking life, I realize that this was probably inspired by this same thing happening in Ghostbusters 2, with the name "Phantom Train" coming from Final Fantasy VI. In the dream itself, though, I thought of a non-existent scene in the Nightmare on Elm Street films where Freddy Krueger turns into a train. Actually, I suppose something like that COULD have happened in those movies. Maybe in the nightmare of someone whose parents were killed in a train wreck, or something like that?

Later in the dream, I found an Oz book at a thrift store, except it wasn't a regular Oz book. I think it was something about the care of Ozian flowers, and there were a lot of blank, diary-like sections. It looked handmade, and I'd seen it in that same store before. If I were to find such a thing in real life, I'd probably buy it immediately, unlike in the dream. Now that I think of it, that would be a good beginning for a story. Somebody finds a gardening book, and it turns out to actually be FROM Oz. That's kind of similar to the scene in The Giant Horse of Oz where a second-hand store owner in Boston finds a book of magic in an old suit. Unfortunately, this is just a catalyst to get a new character (a live statue named Benny) to Oz, and the store owner and the book are quickly written out of the story. There are all kinds of throw-away phenomena like this in the series, and it might be cool to expand upon some of them.

At another point in the dream, I was at some show involving dancers, and I kept moving around in the bleachers. I don't remember too much about it beyond that.

Anyway, it's time for the long-awaited (if you consider a day or so "long") lyrics post. In this post, travspence wrote:

"parilous posted a link to Vh1's list of best song lyrics. Most of them sucked. Off the top of my head, I could think of better lyrics than most of the ones they had."

Here are some lyrics that I think are really good. I won't say they're the best by any means, or even my favorites. (I think "best" and "favorite" can be two different things, although they're both subjective. That's a matter for another day, though.) They're just ones that come to mind. They probably also give some indication as to what I've been listening to as of late.


1. "It looks a lot like engine oil
And tastes like being poor and small
And popsicles in summer"
--Neko Case, Deep Red Bells

2. "I set my watch three hours ahead, just like the pilot said
So I'm ahead of my time, which should explain the wine I drink when I get out of bed"
--Carolyn Mark, The Way Back

3. "I treated you like radium
I treated you like God
You were my glass menagerie
Did you not find that odd?
I dwelt within, and went without
And broke my virgin flesh
I performed acts of devotion
As if you were Ganesh"
--The Magnetic Fields, (Crazy For You But) Not That Crazy

(NOTE: This post will probably make it clear why I was thinking of that song.)

4. "Do I remember when it was springtime
Braidin' daisy's in my hair?
Now its December, I stand on the freeway
In my soiled underwear

I don't care if you're beautiful and young
Your day will come
You sing in the rain and run with the sun
But your day will come

Your day will come
Yes it's true
'Cause it's not your teeth that are decaying, it's you"
--The Minus 5, Your Day Will Come

(NOTE: I also discussed this song back here.)

5. "It's so nice to have integrity,
I'll tell you why
If you really have integrity,
It means your price is very high"
--Tom Lehrer, Selling Out

6. "I will never say the word 'procrastinate' again
I'll never see myself in the mirror with my eyes closed
I didn't apologize for when I was eight, and I made my younger brother have to be my personal slave
Did a large procession wave their torches as my head fell in the basket
And was everybody dancing on the casket?
Now it's over, I'm dead, and I haven't done anything that I want
Or I'm still alive and there's nothing I want to do"
--They Might Be Giants, Dead

(NOTE: I had actually gotten pretty tired of this song, having heard it at a lot of TMBG concerts in a fairly brief period of time. I listened to Flood yesterday, though, and I remember how cool the lyrics to the song are.)

7. "You heard the sun today
There she blows, there she blows
You saw the wind a'shining
You don't know, you don't know
You felt a tree that does fall
You don't know, that's OK
You don't have much taste for bouquet

I'm bored with the valleys and bored with the peaks
So I bought a ticket to the freaks
I saw a chicken with two heads
Saw something else that was headless
Then P.T. said see the egress
'Cause you move when the salesman speaks

I superabound
But I still got nothing to do

A space is made by telephone
They thought time would be overthrown
And they compiled a wish list
From Mars duels to a dish kissed
I tried to talk to the ishist
But he was debating with his clone

I superabound
But I still got nothing to do
Well, they thought it was a coup
But they still got nothing to do

You must see my domicile
I had it built in decastyle
The other day at the potlach
Come visiting was a sasquatch
He said although I'm a mismatch
Could I stay just for awhile?
'Cause the likes of us are few
And we still got nothing to do"
--Frank Black, Superabound

(NOTE: Yeah, that's pretty much the whole song, but it's a good one. Not as good without actually listening to it, of course. Still, any lyric that involves both P. T. Barnum and sasquatches is likely to be a winner. Incidentally, someone on the forum recently asked Frank himself what an "ishist" is, and he said he couldn't remember.)

8. "Well, there's really no excuse
And aren't you sick of self-abuse
And are you really seeking salvation?
'Cause mountains have been moved
And theories have been proved
All within the duration"
The Posies, Under Easy

(I think this might be my favorite Posies song. I don't know that many other Posies fans, but the ones I've come across tend to rate Frosting on the Beater as their favorite album, which is kind of weird, as I've had a hard time getting into that one. I mean, the first few songs on that record are really cool, but on Failure, ALL the songs are really cool. So I'm not sure why it seems to be ignored. Oh, well. I'm comfortable with not holding the majority opinion.)

9. "Awaken you dreamers
Asleep at your desks
Parrots and lemurs
Populate your unconscious grotesques
Please let some out
Do it today
But don't let the loveless ones sell you a world wrapped in grey"
--XTC, Wrapped In Grey

(NOTE: This is a beautiful song. It was apparently released as a single, and then very quickly pulled by Virgin. I guess there's a reason why I can think of two different songs criticizing that record company.)

10. "When I lay down to sleep, I feel the world spin
Slightly off axis, it's shaped like a fig
And when I lie next to you, I shiver and shake
You tell me you love me, I dream I'm awake"
--Camper Van Beethoven, She Divines Water


Incidentally, I think this is the post that travspence was referring to. I agree that the lyrics listed aren't very good choices. If I were going to choose a Smiths lyric, I would have gone with, "In my life, why do I smile at people who I'd much rather kick in the eye?" I guess that's just my preference toward the humorous showing.

Comments

[travspence.livejournal.com]

If we needed any more proof that VH1 is full of crap, that list they made is more than enough. :-)

I don't have nearly enough Magnetic Fields in my collection.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Who picks those things, anyway? I'm sure whoever it is knows more songs than I do, but I'm still not sure how they have the authority to decide the "best" of whatever. I guess that rolls off the tongue a lot more easily than "favorite lyrics of some committee of lamers chosen by a basic cable channel." :P

Which Magnetic Fields albums do you have? I think the only one I still don't have is The Wayward Bus/Distant Plastic Trees, although they also have some EP's, and Stephin Merritt has a lot of other musical projects. I have one 6ths album, which is pretty cool.

[travspence.livejournal.com]

None, actually. Just some random tracks. I do have one of the Future Bible Heroes EPs, though.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I got some FBH stuff from eMusic. It's pretty cool, but I like the Magnetic Fields' music better.

[obsessical.livejournal.com]

I loooooove Dead. So, so, much.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

It was a stand-out track for me when I first heard Flood, as were "We Want A Rock" and "Whistling In The Dark."

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Wow-- I looked at the VH1 list with a grain of salt, thinking, "well, you all have quite intellectual and sophisticated taste in lyrics; maybe it's not THAT bad," but NO. MAN. What on earth is so special about ANY of those lyrics? Except maybe the Who one. That is a good one. (Although I always feel slightly paranoid about it when I'm singing along in the car, like I want to add to any of the little fate-demons who are listening, "NOT ACTUALLY! I'D ACTUALLY PREFER TO GET OLD FIRST!") And "Another Brick In the Wall pt 2" is SO OVERDONE! Of all the AMAZING Floyd lyrics in the world, all anybody ever remembers is the anti-school one, and it's not even really all that anti-school in the context of the album (it's anti-having-a-sucky-childhood). Anyway, it reminds me a bit of why I don't like whiny modern rock, people liked Staind and whatnot-- because not only is the music unoriginal and boring, but the lyrics too; and the lyrics are what the sappy kids who like that music like about it, they're like, "oh, the lyrics are so sad and true!" and I'm like, "the lyrics are someone saying 'woe is me' in forced rhyme. Where's the imagry? The poetry? The wordplay? The universality and ambiguity? Have you ever READ any lyrics from somebody like, say, Paul Simon? Someone who's actually an awesome lyricist?" Okay then....

I think "Dead" is my favorite TMBG song. But mind you, I'm not a raving fan like the rest of you-- I only know whatever songs are on the tape Josh Gildea made me in college. Oh, and the ones on No! too.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

What other TMBG songs have you heard? As you might or might not know, they have a song called "Hope That I Get Old Before I Die," which is a clever twist on the Who lyric. And probably more true for most people, including the surviving members of The Who.

I think saying lyrics are good because they're "true" is kind of ridiculous. I mean, identifying with lyrics can make you like them better, but being true doesn't make them GOOD, you know? And I like a lot of lyrics that have absolutely no relevance to my life. (Indeed, I'd say most of the ones I listed in this post qualify as pretty much irrelevant to my own experiences.)

By the way, have you been in contact with Josh at all recently? I e-mailed him a few years ago, but haven't heard from him since.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Well, it was a pretty EXTENSIVE mix tape so it's a long list... still, seemingly just a small portion of what's out there.

No, I haven't heard from Josh since the summer of '01 when I randomly ran into him in downtown Pittsburgh (he having cut off all his hair, it took me a moment to figure out who this guy was who was calling my name so exhuberantly from across the street)... so now he's supposedly in the midwest somewhere and I know nothing more than that!

Yeah... most of my favorite songs are about drugs.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

still, seemingly just a small portion of what's out there.

Well, their first album came out twenty years ago, and they have more songs than average per album, so they've definitely amassed a pretty significant body of work by now. More than that, though, they've let the public hear a lot of unreleased material through Dial-A-Song and the Internet.

[jenhime.livejournal.com]

As much as I loved seeing Bowie in the VH1 list -- and insomuch as Heroes is one of my favorite songs -- I still have to wonder at the lyric choice. "We can be heroes, just for one day" is rather... dull. I would hvae chosen something more interesting: "you're such a wonderful person, but you've got problems" or "Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie. Strung out on Heaven's high, hitting an all time low" or even "Got your mother in a whirl; She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl". Hell, if they were looking for iconic, why not "Ziggy played guitar"?

I don't know. I shouldn't complain. After all, I doubt my list (if I could make one) would make anyone any happier. :)

[bethje.livejournal.com]

You stole #1 from me, because I said it was one of my favorite lyrics, Stealo.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I also stole your cat for this icon!