Favorite Song Lyrics

19   7.5  

O SUPERMAN (FOR MASSENET)
by Laurie Anderson



O Superman
O Judge
O Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad

O Superman
O Judge
O Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad

Hi, I'm not home right now
But if you want to leave a message
Just start talking at the sound of the tone

"Hello, this is your mother
Are you there?
Are you coming home?
Hello, is anybody home?
Well, you don't know me
But I know you
And I've got a message
To give to you
'Here come the planes'
So you better get ready
Ready to go
You can come as you are
But pay as you go
Pay as you go"

And I said
"Okay, who is this really?"

And the voice said
"This is the hand, the hand that takes
This is the hand, the hand that takes
This is the hand, the hand that takes
Here come the planes
They're American planes
Made in America
Smoking or non-smoking?"

And the voice said
"Neither snow nor rain
Nor gloom of night
Shall stay these couriers
From the swift completion
Of their appointed rounds
Cause when love is gone
There's always justice
And when justice is gone
There's always force
And when force is gone
There's always Mom"

Hi Mom!

So hold me, Mom
In your long arms
So hold me, Mom
In your long arms
In your automatic arms
Your electronic arms
In your arms
So hold me, Mom
In your long arms
Your petrochemical arms
Your military arms
In your electronic arms

(See also: "From the Air," "Another Day in America")

englishmajor's rating:

17   8.1  

PARIS 1919
by John Cale



She makes me so unsure of myself
Standing there but never ever talking sense
Just a visitor, you see
So much wanting to be seen
She'd open up the doors and vaguely carry us away

It's the customary thing to say or do
To a disappointed proud man in his grief
And on Fridays she'd be there
But on Mondays not at all
Just casually appearing from the clock across the hall

You're a ghost
La la la la la la la la la
You're a ghost
La la la la la la la la la
I'm the church and I've come
To claim you with my iron drum
La la la la la la la la la la

The Continent's just fallen in disgrace
William William William Rogers put it in its place
Blood and tears from Old Japan
Caravans and lots of jam
The maids of honor singing, crying, singing tediously

You're a ghost
La la la la la la la la la
Yes, you're a ghost
La la la la la la la la la
I'm the bishop and I've come
To claim you with my iron drum
La la la la la la la la la la

Efficiency, efficiency they say
Get to know the date and tell the time of day
As the crowds begin complaining
How the Beaujolais is raining
Down on darkened meetings on the Champs-Élysées

You're a ghost
La la la la la la la la la
You're a ghost
La la la la la la la la la
And I'm the church and I've come
To claim you with my iron drum
La la la la la la la la la la

(See also: "Hanky Panky Nohow," "Guts," "Sanities")

englishmajor's rating:

58   7.5  

MARGARET VS. PAULINE
by Neko Case



Everything's so easy for Pauline
Everything's so easy for Pauline
Ancient strings set feet alight
To speed to her such mild grace
No monument of tacky gold
They smoothed her hair with cinnamon wave
And they placed an ingot in her breast
To burn cool and collected
Fate holds her firm in its cradle
And then rolls her for a tender pause to savor
Everything's so easy for Pauline

The girl with the parking-lot eyes
Margaret is the fragment of a name
Her bravery's mistaken
For the thrashing in the lake
Of a make-believe monster
Whose picture was fake
Margaret is the fragment of a name
Her love pours like a fountain
Her love steams like rage
Her jaw aches from wanting
And she's sick from chlorine
But she'll never be as clean
As the cool side of satin, Pauline, Pauline

Two girls ride the Blue Line
Two girls walk down the same street
One left a sweater sitting on the train
And the other lost three fingers at the cannery
Everything's so easy for Pauline, for Pauline, for Pauline

(See also: "The Virginian," "Deep Red Bells," "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood")

englishmajor's rating:

2   8  

THE BOILER
by Rhoda Dakar with The Special AKA

(trigger warning)



I went out shopping last Saturday
I was getting some gear and this guy offered to pay
"Who's the hunk?" I think to myself
So many years I've been left on the shelf
An old boiler

And then we went walking back down the high street
And I felt really proud cause he looked so neat
He was a real hard man, tough as they come
He said I was cool but I still felt like
An old boiler

He bid me come out, how could I say no?
He said, "meet me at eight, round at my place, you know?"
With my new gear on and a blow-dried hairdo
But in my mind I knew I was still
An old boiler

We danced all night long to a nice steady beat
But my hair went to frizz in the terrible heat
My mascara ran and so did my tights
Confirming in my sight I must be
An old boiler

So we came out this club, hot and sweaty
Cause we'd been dancing all night
And he says to me, "well, babe, what you doing then?"
"Well, I think I might get a cab," I said casually
"No, no, no, come back to my place
I only live just round the corner
You can go home in the morning, you hear?"
"Well, I don't think so
I mean, I've only known you a day
It's a bit soon, isn't it?
Give me a ring sometime, yeah?"
But then he starts to get mad
"Listen here, girl
I bought that gear you've got on
I paid you in here tonight
I bought you all them drinks and you want to go home?
I should've been feeding you cocoa"
And then he stormed off
Well, I felt all right, like
"Well, you would, wouldn't you?"
So I ran after him, caught him up
And here we are, walking down the street
About a hundred mile per hour
Arm in arm, no talking
Atmosphere you could've cut with a knife
There was no one about
Nothing to take your mind off it, you know?
No cars, not even the occasional stray animal
It was cold and wind's whistling through the trees
Blowing newspapers against me legs
So I tripped as I tried to keep up with him
There was all of these alleyways and railway bridges, stink of piss
Then all of a sudden he grabbed hold of my arm
And he starts to drag me up one of these alleyways
And he starts to hit me really hard across the face, you know?
He was hitting me and grabbing at me
It was awful because he was so big
Hitting me, he was, and tearing at my clothes
And there was nothing I could do, I was helpless
And then he tried to rape me
And there was nothing I could do
So all I could do is scream

14   6  

THE FACE OF THE EARTH
by The Dismemberment Plan



As kisses go it wasn't anything out of the ordinary
The alkaline lips, her fingers wrapped around my belt
She had to go, she took a step back in and then she started to smile
I heard a funny sound, then everything seemed to shift

A crazy wail, a funny shudder of a bad magnetic event
A ghost ran through us moving like the shadow of a cloud
And I wasn't sure, I thought something happened but I didn't know what
The moment seemed to fade, then I turned my eyes back to her

That's when I saw, I freeze the look of pre-alert and study it still
Her smile starts to loosen, her pupils yawn wide
And then she's blown from the face of the earth

There wasn't any wind, no noise, no nothing
Just a body jerked skyward
Limbs flailing like an unloved marionette at impossible speed
Receding away like a faraway dot
I can see her still, scream for help but no one answered
She was turning end on end like a long-lost astronaut
I felt the summer air reclaim me, the chirp of a bird, the whisper of leaves
And I was frozen to the face of the earth

I never really knew the way she lived her life
I tried a couple numbers but they never called back
I didn't know her family or friends at all
With no one to call, summer turned to fall
I gave up

It's been a couple years and I guess I'm fine about it
It's not like we were married, it was three or four months
Nothing's really different, but it seems like I spend my life in planes
Which is kind of strange
But I don't know

(See also: "Back and Forth," "Superpowers," "The Other Side")

englishmajor's rating:

8   6.8  

YOUME & MEYOU
by Einstürzende Neubauten



They build a ship each wintertime
For launch to sea before the storm
They don't just go from A to B
They go around and come around again
Cause out there's always a construction site
A Starbucks and yet another Guggenheim

Youme knows what Meyou wants
Meyou knows what Youme wants
And it's granted

No more tassels on the hotel key
A phone line, a laptop, and a box of tangerines
They turn houses into homes
Where earthquakes live with car alarms
Mature mild-mannered catastrophes
They gift each other a thousand names
Then take them off, take them off again
Like excessive jewelry

So Youme knows what Meyou wants
Meyou knows what Youme wants
And it's granted

They defend each other against the past
If the future isn't bright, at least it's colorful
So burn the ship come spring
They fail, fail, and try again
Fall off a cliff, succeed, and fall, fall again
They have proven quite effectively
That bumblebees indeed can fly
Against the field's authority
They invent each other ever anew
Still they won't have a different view
Of everyone or anything
Defend themselves against the whims of fate
Question the statistics, accelerate the status quo
Deny the rules of gravity
But they don't use the word
Once dropped, it might break
They do not say that they have loved
For who can say "we were killed yesterday"?

Youme knows what Meyou wants
Meyou knows what Youme wants
And it's granted

englishmajor's rating:

16   7.8  

BACKWATER
by Brian Eno



Backwater
We're sailing at the edges of time
Backwater
We're drifting at the waterline

We're floating in the coastal waters
You and me and the porter's daughters
Ooh, what to do, not a sausage to do?
And the shorter of the porter's daughter
Tips her hand to the deadly waters
Ooh, what to do in a tiny canoe?

Black water
There were six of us but now we are five
We're all talking
To keep the conversation alive

There was a senator from Ecuador
Who talked about a meteor
That crashed on a hill in the south of Peru
And was found by a conquistador
Who took it to the emperor
And he passed it on to a Turkish guru

His daughter
Was slated for becoming divine
He taught her
He taught her how to split and divide

But if you study the logistics
And heuristics of the mystics
You will find that their minds rarely move in a line
So it's much more realistic
To abandon such ballistics
And resign to be trapped on a leaf in the vine

Backwater
We're sailing at the edges of time
Backwater
We're drifting at the waterline

We're floating in the coastal waters
You and me and the porter's daughters
Ooh, what to do, not a sausage to do?
And the shorter of the porter's daughter
Tips her hand to the deadly waters
Ooh, what to do in a tiny canoe?

(See also: "The Fat Lady of Limbourg," "Mother Whale Eyeless," "Kurt's Rejoinder")

englishmajor's rating:

39   7.5  

THIS LAMB SELLS CONDOS
by Final Fantasy



No hope for the village, no hope for the village
A merchant's in our midst and with a barrel fist
He's colored every surface, he's slapped up a portrait
And yes, it is his own, he's gonna take your home
Have you seen our visitor, look over the treetops
Newly conjured erections are making him a killing
And Richmond Street is illing, so the graduates are willing
To buy into the pillage, now there's no hope for the village

Prisoners, be silent
Be silent and be sharp

When he was a young man he conjured up a Fire Mare
Burnt off both his eyebrows and half a head of hair
And then as an apprentice he took a Drowish mistrees
Who bestowed upon his youthfulness a sense of champagne chic
His seduction, his seduction to the world of construction
Now his mind will start to wander when he's not at his computer
And his massive genitals refuse to cooperate
No amount of therapy can hope to save his marriage

Prisoners, be silent
Be silent and be sharp
Can you hear them talking?
Listen, listen through the wall

"Nothing to do, nothing to do
Living rent-free is boring me
Got no use for my PE degree
Got no use for my pedigree"

"I feed you every morning and ask so little
But you belittle all the work, all the work that I do
When you take that walk without permission
I'm not defensive, I'm just saying this cause I love you
You know I hate it when your friends are in the pool
Old money stinks, send those faggots back to Forest Hill
Contentment, what contentment, I am bald and impotent
Is that what it's about, oh honey, honey, shut your mouth!"

(See also: "The Butcher," "E for Estranged")

englishmajor's rating:

2   4  

HOLLYWOOD GEM
by Long Fin Killie



Think about it, this picture
"How I'd love to throttle you"
A song and dance for the same old bit part
Total strangers ask me for a fight

Tired of your roles
It's only half the picture
Censored like a funky mother
Trying to break a language barrier
With men that speak like I do
Another golden prospect floats by

Think about it, this picture
How they'd love to lynch you
Another tom with a chip on his shoulder
"This nigger's gone way too far"

Hollywood ruins another gem
Another myth in melanin

Think about it, this picture
Wait till they get their hands on you
A livid prick, dissing bitches
Gun-toting, jewelerized, foul-mouthed

Tired of your roles
It's only half the picture
Censored like a funky mother
Trying to break a language barrier
With men that speak like I do
Another golden prospect floats by

Hollywood breaks another gem

englishmajor's rating:

66   8  

YES
by Manic Street Preachers



For sale, dumb cunt's same dumb questions
Oh, virgins, listen, all virgins are liars, honey
And I don't know what I'm scared of or what I even enjoy
Dulling, get money back, nothing turns out like you want it to

And in these plagued streets of pity you can buy anything
For two hundred anyone can conceive a god on video
He's a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock
Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want

I eat and I dress and I wash and I still can say "thank you"
Puking, shaking, sinking, I still stand for old ladies
Can't shout, can't scream, hurt myself to get pain out

I "t" them, twenty-four seven, all year long
Purgatory's circle, drowning here, someone will always say "yes"
Funny place for the social, for the insects to start caring
Just an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff

In these plagued streets of pity you can buy anything
For two hundred anyone can conceive a god on video
He's a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock
Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want, if you want

I eat and I dress and I wash and I still can say "thank you"
Puking, shaking, sinking, I still stand for old ladies
Can't shout, can't scream, I hurt myself to get pain out
Power produces desire, the weak have none
There's no lust in this coma, even for a fifty
Solitude, solitude, the eleventh commandment

The only certain thing that is left about me
There's no part of my body that has not been used
Pity or pain to show displeasure's shame
Everyone I've loved or hated always seems to leave

And in these plagued streets of pity you can buy anything
For two hundred anyone can conceive a god on video
He's a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock
Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want, if you want

Power produces desire, the weak have none
There's no lust in this coma, even for a fifty
Solitude, solitude, the eleventh commandment
Don't hurt, just obey, lie down, do as they say
May as well be heaven, this hell smells the same
These sunless afternoons, I can't find myself

englishmajor's rating: