But something I noticed with those albums that take a while to get me in, is when someone points out a particular lyric to me, it can make the song jump out. The song then becomes a hook on which to hang the rest of the album. Maybe it's because I'll be listening more intentionally. Maybe it's because the lyric connects me to the person who told me about it. Or maybe it's just because it's a damn good way of stringing words together and I want to hear whether it was a fluke or whether the writer really does have a gift. It raises my already high esteem for fine songwriters, and shows up the shabbiness of the lazier pop songwriters even more.
I think the thing that kicked me off on this was talking with G about Joni Mitchell, and the song Little Green in particular.
- Just a little green
Like the colour when the spring is born
There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow
Just a little green
Like the nights when the northern lights perform
There'll be icicles and birthday clothes and sometimes there'll be sorrow
What are some of your favourite lyrics? And why?
She went over to his apartment,
ReplyDeleteclutching her decision,
and he said, “Did you come here
to tell me goodbye?”
So she built a skyscraper of
procrastination
then she leaned out the twenty-fifth floor window of her reply.
(Ani Difranco, “School Night”, Revelling/Reckoning)
Normally I don't pay much attention to lyrics but that one caught my attention.
oh yes. That's a heartbreaker, that one.
ReplyDeleteIt will come as some surprise to you that I like these lyrics by M. Ward from 'Undertaker':
ReplyDelete'Oh love is so good when you're treated like you should be
the sky goes on forever in a symphony of song.
And how the water can flow
like it's streaming out a fountains
and all you got to do is find a sword and a stone.'
this was the first Sufjan song I fell in love with - To be alone with you from Seven Swans.
ReplyDeleteI'd swim across Lake Michigan
I'd sell my shoes
I'd give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room
To be alone with you
You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your ghost
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree
I've never known a man who loved me