The world's best lyrics

[Joey Shabadoo]

Down now from your cross!
Down now from your papal heights,
from that churlish suicide, petulant child!

Crass again

 

[Deleted User]

"Like a one eyed cat peeping in a seafood store".

We know what you meant Bill.

 

[Cycleops]

Someone else who was a great poet, but rather different to Cohen was Ian Dury. For alliteration you can't beat Billericay Dickie:

View: https://youtu.be/7eR6btdbhv8

Good evening, I'm from Essex
In case you couldn't tell
My given name is Dickie
I come from Billericay
And I'm doing very well
Had a love affair with Nina
In the back of my cortina
A seasoned-up hyena
Could not have been more obscener
She took me to the cleaners
And other misdemeanours
But I got right up between her
Rum and her Ribena
Well, you ask Joyce and Vicky
If candy-floss is sticky
I'm not a blinking thicky
I'm Billericay Dickie
And I'm doing very well
I bought a lot of Brandy
When I was courting Sandy
Took eight to make her randy
And all I had was shandy
Another thing with Sandy
What often came in handy
Was passing her a mandy
She didn't half go bandy

 

[Chromatic]

Little Star Of Bethlehem

Silent invisible conversation
Correction: the coathanger should be upside-down
Oh little star
Froggy and Toady carried off the tangerine seeds one by one
And came back for the popcorn after dinner
Froggy said, "I saw you soaking in a tub of water lilies behind the sea
Sometimes I ask around noon over the bay?

Froggy and Toady carried off tangerine seeds one by one
And came back for the popcorn after dinner
Asking, "Will you have some?"
Correction: the coathanger should be upside-down

Oh little star of Bethlehem
Silent invisible conversation
I'll meet you at the railroad station

Silent invisible conversation
Saw you in the bathtub soaking with the water lilies behind the shed
Sometimes I ask around noon?

Froggy and Toady carried off the tangerine seeds one by one
And came back for the popcorn after dinner
Asking, "Will you please have some?"
Correction: the coathanger should be upside-down

Oh little star of Bethlehem
Silent invisible conversation
I'll meet you at the railroad station

Morning, morning, morning
Good morning Mister Percy, here's
What you say, don't you eat
Every time I see you there? Don't you know
I don't care any longer
Sing this song
Don't you know I'm going along

Flashing traffic
Say, Mister Froggy and the Toady carried off the seeds one by one
Tangerine, tangerine seeds one by one

Oh little star of Bethlehem
Silent conversation
Don't you know I need some

Silent conversation
Oh no, it's a correction
The coathanger should be upside-down
Up on the moon you really don't need to hang your coat up
Because you know it's gonna go down
Correction: going up
Gravity man has turned himself around
And sing the same song he says,
"Up and down, don't know the words"

Oh little, oh little star of Bethlehem
Silent invisible conversation
You know you're grand

F-Froggy Froggy and Toady Toady
Tangerine seeds one by one
After dinner, pick up the popcorn
Asked you, do you want some?
Oh little star of Bethlehem
Silent conversation, invisible (.................)
What you know, pop, don't you know, pop
Soda pop is best in the morning
When you don't have nothing to talk about
Don't you know the light's out?
Can't you move a little higher?

Froggy and Toady carried off the tangerine seeds one by one
And came back for the popcorn after dinner
Oh will you, will you please have some popcorn
Little star of Bethlehem?

Silent invisible conversation
I'll meet you at the railroad station

I wonder which way today, today
Oh little star of Bethlehem
Silent invisible conversation

Correction, correction, the coathanger should be upside-down
On the moon, looney tune

Oh, Froggy and Toady carried off the tangerine seeds one by one
And came back for the popcorn after dinner
Asking, "Do you want some?"
Asking, "Do you want water lilies in your bathtub?
Water lilies in your bathtub?
Water lilies in your bathtub?
Water lilies in your bathtub?
Water lilies in your bathtub?"
Silent invisible conversation
I'll meet you, meet you
Meet you, meet you, meet you, meet you, meet you at the railroad station

 

[MontyVeda]

My 19 yr old Daughter loves Oasis which proves good music lasts. Brilliant thread by the way.

when the youngsters at work tell me how amazing Oasis are, I tend to reply "they were sh!te in the 90s and they're even worse now everyone thinks they're legends." ...good music lasts and sh!t sticks

 

[Deleted User]

when the youngsters at work tell me how amazing Oasis are, I tend to reply "they were sh!te in the 90s and they're even worse now everyone thinks they're legends." ...good music lasts and sh!t sticks

Depends if you like them I suppose, clearly you don't and that's the beauty of music. I think The Smiths and Joy Division were absolute shyte but many disagree.

 

[newts]

Ian Dury wrote great lyrics, my favourite;-

Einstein can't be classed as witless.
He claimed atoms were the littlest.
When you did a bit of splitting-em-ness
Frighten everybody shitless
There ain't half been some clever bastards.
Probably got help from their mum
(who had help from her mum).
There ain't half been some…

 

[Yellow Fang]

Murder on the terraces
Fools in high places
It's all so sickening
And we're so satisfied

The Jam - In the Street Today

 

[Proto]

Getting Away With It - James, these lines always crack me:

Daniel drinks his weight
Drinks like Richard Burton
Dance like John Travolta, now

 

[Chromatic]

I think this one is an exception as Leonard Cohen is an accomplished poet:

View: https://youtu.be/2zjLBWnZGTU
Such a beautiful song.

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh, let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a…

I like this by Leonard Cohen.


"Everybody Knows"

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows

 

[Craig the cyclist]

Two lovers kissing in the tranquility of solitude.

Brilliant!

Two lover missing the tranquility of solitude

 

[Craig the cyclist]

He joined up for just three years
It seemed a small amount
But, they didn't tell him that the first two didn't count

At the age of 17, how was he to know?
That at the age of 21, he'd still have one to go?

Tin Soldiers- SLF

 

[ColinJ]

More poem than song, but John Cooper Clarke's Beasley Street still takes some beating...

It was on his album Snap, Crackle & Bop, released in 1980 during the first Thatcher government. The observant among you will notice the curious glitch at 1:33. Apparently, the BBC didn't like...

Keith Joseph smiles and a baby dies
In a box on Beasley Street

So it was broadcast as "--- smiles and a baby dies..."

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Gimme Gimme Gimme a man after midnight,
take me to the doctors at the break of the day

- Abba

 

[Cycleops]

I like this by Leonard Cohen.


"Everybody Knows"

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows

Wins the prize for the most cynical. Agreed, brilliant.