Bottles and Bones, Califone What Sara Said, Death Cab for Cutie Fake Plastic Trees, Radiohead
Those come to mind as great, “poetry with music” songs, but there are many more.
Between the Bars by Elliott Smith is a beautiful but sad song about alcohol addiction. These lyrics about how it robs you of potential while at the same time making you feel like anything is possible really hit home for me.
Drink up baby, stay up all night
With the things you could do
You won’t but you might
The potential you’ll be
That you’ll never see
The promises you’ll only make
Let the products sell themselves
Fuck advertising commercial psychology
Psychological methods to sell should be destroyed
———————
But our land isn’t free
So I work my youth away
In the place of a machine
I refuse to be a slave
Shit from an old notebook and This ain’t no picnic both by minutemen
And I’m not dead yet so I guess I’ll be alright
In “Way less sad” by AJR
At the moment?
I’m not searching the sky for a reason to live 'Cause I found beauty right here and found the passion to give So let me give you my heart, let me give you my tears Let me give you my life, let me give you my fears
I’ve always interpreted it as someone finding an alternative to suicide, by helping those around them.
Will nicht immer alles müssen was ich kann Eine Hand in den Sternen, die andere bietet Getränke an. Ich kann mit allen zehn Füßen in zwanzig Türen Und mit dem elften in der Nase Ballette aufführen
Aber wenn ich könnte wie ich wollte würd ich gar nichts wollen. Ich weiß aber das alle etwas wollen sollen.Wir sind Helden
Translation:
I don’t always want to have to what I can
One hand in the stars the other one is offering drinks
I can stand with all my ten feet in twenty doors
And with the eleventh up my nose I can perform balletts
But if I could how I wanted, I wouldn’t want anything. Though, I know that everybody has to want something.”en jaksa mutta jatkan / tämän yhden mäen vielä / sateen jälkeen täältä näkee kauas”
Vorna - Kauas
Don’t know exactly why, but this has always got to me, hits some spot nothing else prior ever had, and nothing else still has not since.
Translated to English, it’s something like:
“I have no will or energy, but I shall climb / this one last hill / after the rain you can see so far from here”
It doesn’t translate well, but something about it really resonates with me. I’ve lived with clinic depression for so long, and I’ve been so close to giving in, but always just choosing to climb that one last hill gives some perspective and after all these years… here I am.
I’m too tired to continue, but I’ll fight this one more fight before I fall to my eternal slumber. And after the fight, as the dust settles, the rains stop… well, the view is beautiful. The world is beautiful. But I’m tired… too tired to go on. So I shall only fight this one more fight before I get my peace. One last glance at the beauty. Ah, one more fight, but no more, and I’ll return back up this hill and this view shall be my last. But it’s so beautiful. Only one more fight, and… And so on and so on.
It just feels like I belong in those words.
This world, it turns on the thought of you dead.
- local H, misanthrope.
If you want, a second to breathe, I’ll give you all of my love, give you all that you need
- Sjowgren, seventeen
That question is too hard, so I will just answer with the latest lyrics I brought up to anyone - was listening to Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls, not a lyrical powerhouse. But the very beginning is one of the best beginnings -
“And I’d give up forever to touch you” is such a strong opening.
Usually for me it’s more a combination of the lyrics and delivery, not just the words.
“Calling all friends and people I met on the way down
Calling all friends and people I don’t even know
Calling on high I want to believe there’s a way now
I’m too tired to pretend I don’t want to be alone”- Low Stars
I like to remind myself it’s ok to reach out for a connection to other people.
- Low Stars
How violent is hope
Love only knows
The Pogues - Pont Mirabeau
People I see
Just remind me of mooing
Like a cow on the grass
And that’s not to say
That there’s anything wrong
With being a cow anyway
But people are people
With the added advantage
Of the spoken word
We’re getting on fine
But I feel more of a man
When I get with the herd
From Elegant Chaos by Julian Cope https://youtu.be/Bj1pAd92E3k
Not sure if they’re my favourite, but always liked this sequence in Bulls on Parade:
Weapons, not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war, cannibal animal, I
Walk the corner to the rubble
That used to be a library, line up to the mind cemetery now
What we don’t know keeps the contracts alive and movin’
They don’t gotta burn the books, they just remove 'em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells
Rally 'round the family, pockets full of shells„Filmriss“ by Knochenfabrik („blackout“ by Bonefactory) in a way one of the saddest songs I know.
Great cover with more emphasis on the sadness of the topic
Wir hatten uns nicht vorgenommen
Jemals auf die Welt zu kommen
Und trotzdem is es irgendwie passiert
Als wir uns schließlich selbst erkannten
Und alles ziemlich scheiße fanden
Hatten wir das Wichtigste kapiert
Denn solange wir noch kriechen können, geht noch einer rein
Wir trinken uns den Schädelknochen leer
Denn so hohl wie unser Leergut, wollen wir für immer sein
Alles andre intressiert uns längst nicht mehrWe never planned to be born, and yet, somehow, it happened
When we finally recognized ourselves and thought everything was pretty shitty, at least we figured out what really mattered:
Because as long as we can still crawl, there’s room for one more we drink until our skulls are empty
Because we want to be forever as hollow as our empty bottles.
Everything else doesn’t matter anymore
“Cause love’s such an old-fashioned word And love dares you to care for The people on the edge of the night And love dares you to change our way of Caring about ourselves This is our last dance This is our last dance This is ourselves Under pressure.”
