Back in the mid-70s when The Boomtown Rats were first getting things together, Bob Geldof was heavily influenced by the opening line from the Dr Feelgood song All through the City. The words that had such a strong influence on him were “Stand and watch the towers burning at the break of day”. Bob was so inspired, that one of the first things he did when coming to England was to seek out the burning gas flares at the oil refinery at Canvey Island (photo above), that the Feelgood’s had waxed so lyrically about.
Bob seems to have been blown away by those words – proving if nothing else that the appreciation of lyrics is a personal thing. I like some of Dr Feelgood’s music, but that line doesn’t do it for me the way it did for Bob Geldof. What I am sure about though, is that anything the Feelgoods wrote has been surpassed many times over by Bob’s own song writing.
One of the best examples of this is from Bob’s solo song Thinking Voyager II Type Things, which is overflowing with beautiful imagery from start to finish. Perhaps the high-point of the song is the line “Let's traipse the high bronze of the evening sky like crack crazed kings”.
“The high-bronze of the evening sky….” it really doesn’t get better than that – though there are loads of examples were Bob keeps trying!!!
But an appreciation of song lyrics doesn’t have to seek out the inner poet. Sometimes complex emotions can be captured in a few simple words. For example, in Ian Dury’s What A Waste, we get the line “First-night nerves every one-night stand”. For me, this feels like a long treatise on personal insecurity and inadequacy, distilled into just seven simple words.
I could go on – most of the music I like is characterised by what the song is saying to me and the words the artist has used. What I’m wondering is how many wonderful examples of the song-writer’s craft are out there that I’ve never heard.
Please bombard me with your personal favourite lines from songs – it doesn’t matter why they are special to you – all that matters is you like them.
For clever lyrics I've yet to find anyone better than Carter USM. So many plays on words and phrases in virtually every song there are too many to list; but for fans of linguistic wordplay I highly recommend, especially for anyone familiar with London geography. Just randomly picked an example below, a song I think (don't know) is about prostitution and the lack of opportunity for some. It's a good example of their paraphrasing other songs, a very common Carter trait (e.g. The Only Living Boy in New Cross, Surfin' USM, Sealed with a Glasgow Kiss, The Taking of Peckham 123, Twenty Four Minutes from Tulse Hill, etc etc etc). The first album being called 101 Damnations gives some insight straightaway.
This particular illustration is called "England". Link follows for anyone who might want to sing along....
I was born under a wandering star
In the second council house of Virgo
Forceply removed from the belly of my ma
And raised on milk and Pernod
So just lie back and think of England
Because I slid down banisters
For judges and barristers
Readers' wives' husbands
With toothless decay
I've been GBH'd and ABH'd
For a packet of B & H
I've been taken
And I've been driven away
I was fornicating
Before I could read or write
And now I can't stop, sir
I graduated from the University of Life
And the school of hard knocks, sir
And my telephone is always ringing
And my number is triple-X directory
Call 0898 treble three
Talk dirty to me
Oh come all ye unfaithful,
Joyful, triumphant and pathetically weak
I've been Amsterdamned, Reeperbahned,
Wham bam no thank you ma'amed
If the spirit is willing
Then the telephone is cheap
And if you want to step outside love
You can step outside love with me
You can step outside with me
And if we ever meet again
Don't know where
And I don't care when
I'm gonna help you with your sickness
Like a Jehovah's Witness
You'll be born again
And again, and again
Just lie back, close your eyes
And think of England
And what England's done for me
I won't believe in heaven and hell No saints, no sinners, no devil as well The pearly gates, no thorny crown You're always letting us humans down The wars you bring, the babes you drown Those lost at sea and never found And it's the same the whole world round The hurt I see helps to compound The Father, Son, and holy ghost Is just somebody's unholy hoax And if you're up there you'll perceive That my heart's here upon my sleeve If there's one thing I don't believe in
It's you Dear God
XTC's Dear God, written by Andy Partridge final verse sums up my atheism. World is just filled with crazy wars and injustice it's laughable the idea that there is some sort of master creator overlooking the whole thing. Rats Nice n Neat is along the same lines.
Leonard Cohen’s, ‘Anthem’ - the line, “There is a crack, a crack in everything.. That’s how the light gets in” gets me.. When I find myself getting locked in by all the busyness in my live and the troubles in the world, and worry about this and that I have to remember to take a breath and release - calm my mind and soul and let that light shine in..