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  #41  
Unread 05-20-2017, 05:13 PM
Catherine Chandler's Avatar
Catherine Chandler Catherine Chandler is offline
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Simon & Garfunkel lyrics are full of similes, metaphors and striking images. One in particular is "Poem on the Underground Wall."
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  #42  
Unread 05-21-2017, 11:34 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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Yes, I agree, but the lyrics are all Simon's.

Joni Mitchell has some nice ones. "Both Sides Now" is pretty exquisite.

And Woody Guthrie:

And I went walking that ribbon of highway
And saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me the golden valley
This land was made for you and me


But these are almost random selections, since I think there's a vast reservoir of magnificent images to be found in songs.
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  #43  
Unread 05-26-2017, 09:52 AM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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Paul Simon's solo work is equally full of startling and beautiful lyrics, from 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover onward.
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  #44  
Unread 05-26-2017, 05:09 PM
William A. Baurle William A. Baurle is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Isbell View Post
Paul Simon's solo work is equally full of startling and beautiful lyrics, from 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover onward.
It's great to see all the love for Paul Simon. In a perfect world, he'd be recognized as one of the most important poets of C20. Dylan gets his well-deserved accolades, but Simon - while he's mega-famous as a musician and lyricist - is still under-valued as a poet, in the fullest sense.

***

The Boxer

I am just a poor boy
Though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises
All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest

When I left my home and my family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station
Running scared,
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places
Only they would know

Lie la lie, lie la la la lie lie
Lie la lie, lie la la la la lie la la lie


Asking only workman's wages
I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores
On Seventh Avenue
I do declare
There were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there

Lie la lie, lie la la la lie lie
Lie la lie, lie la la la la lie la la lie


Then I'm laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone
Going home
Where the New York City winters
Aren't bleeding me
Leading me
Going home

In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of ev'ry glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
"I am leaving, I am leaving"
But the fighter still remains

Lie la lie, lie la la la lie lie
Lie la lie, lie la la la la lie la la lie
Lie la lie, lie la la la lie lie...

Last edited by William A. Baurle; 05-26-2017 at 05:13 PM.
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  #45  
Unread 05-27-2017, 10:36 PM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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I agree, Bill. Or how about "Kathy's Song"?

"I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls.

And from the shelter of my mind
Through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets
To England where my heart lies.

My mind's distracted and diffused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you're asleep
And kiss you when you start your day.

And a song I was writing is left undone
I don't know why I spend my time
Writing songs I can't believe
With words that tear and strain to rhyme.

And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you.

And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I"

Paul Simon (with Simon and Garfunkel).
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  #46  
Unread 05-29-2017, 03:31 PM
James Brancheau James Brancheau is offline
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This should win the the best lyrics in the worst song award. I do think Simon to be better than Dylan lyrically (tho some will, and have, disagreed). I think the difference, the substantial difference, is the voice. That intangible, or seemingly intangible, factor. It adds another dimension to the experience, how the work communicates. So I often find it hard to judge songs as poems. But it's that voice, that difference, that is most interesting to me.


A man walks down the street
He says why am I soft in the middle now
Why am I soft in the middle
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don't want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard
Bonedigger Bonedigger
Dogs in the moonlight
Far away my well-lit door
Mr. Beerbelly Beerbelly
Get these mutts away from me
You know I don't find this stuff amusing anymore

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al

A man walks down the street
He says why am I short of attention
Got a short little span of attention
And wo my nights are so long
Where's my wife and family
What if I die here
Who'll be my role-model
Now that my role-model is
Gone Gone
He ducked back down the alley
With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl
All along along
There were incidents and accidents
There were hints and allegations

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al

A man walks down the street
It's a street in a strange world
Maybe it's the Third World
Maybe it's his first time around
He doesn't speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound
The sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says Amen! and Hallelujah!

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al
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  #47  
Unread 05-29-2017, 10:30 PM
William A. Baurle William A. Baurle is offline
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Wow, talk about PC overkill. I was checking out a certain Jethro Tull song, No Lullaby, on Metro Lyrics, and above the lyrics was a warning:

Advisory - the following lyrics contain explicit language:


Scratching my head, and knowing the song virtually by heart, I couldn't imagine what they were talking about. Then I realized their system must have flagged one or both of these words:

"Keep your eyes open
and prick up your ears...

***

...out there in the night
to snatch you if you fall.

Now that's highlarious. It's 1984 all over again.
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  #48  
Unread 06-02-2017, 08:44 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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I haven't noticed much good lyrically from anyone lately... but that's just me being lazy... I always return to the classics, such as this picasso-like lyric from Tom Waits.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/tomwaits/burmashave.html

In my eye, Waits is every bit the poet that Dylan is.
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  #49  
Unread 06-02-2017, 04:28 PM
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Gail White Gail White is offline
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I love "The Boxer" too but I can't believe in all these pages no one has yet mentioned "Hello Darkness." The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls...
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  #50  
Unread 06-02-2017, 04:48 PM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Gail, "The Sound of Silence" is the lyric you're referring to -- Simon and Garfunkel.

Here is a version of it that is astoundingly, disturbingly, hauntingly beautiful performed by -- Yep, a group called Disturbed. A must see and listen:

https://youtu.be/Bk7RVw3I8eg
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