Favorite Song Lyrics

Well, this is a poem, of course, but I'm sure somewhere along the way, someone has set it to music. Maybe I'll follow up with a little more Cash & Company. ;)

The Highwayman
Alfred Noyes

The wind was a torrent of darkness upon the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight looping the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding--
Riding--riding--
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door.

He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, and a bunch of lace at his chin;
He'd a coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of fine doe-skin.
They fitted with never a wrinkle; his boots were up to his thigh!
And he rode with a jeweled twinkle--
His rapier hilt a-twinkle--
His pistol butts a-twinkle, under the jeweled sky.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred,
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter--
Bess, the landlord's daughter--
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

Dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim, the ostler listened--his face was white and peaked--
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter--
The landlord's black-eyed daughter;
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say:

"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart; I'm after a prize tonight,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light.
Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

He stood upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair in the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the sweet black waves of perfume came tumbling o'er his breast,
Then he kissed its waves in the moonlight
(O sweet black waves in the moonlight!),
And he tugged at his reins in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.

He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon.
And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon over the purple moor,
The redcoat troops came marching--
Marching--marching--
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

They said no word to the landlord; they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed.
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets by their side;
There was Death at every window,
And Hell at one dark window,
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

They had bound her up at attention, with many a sniggering jest!
They had tied a rifle beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
"Now keep good watch!" and they kissed her. She heard the dead man say,
"Look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way."

She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

The tip of one finger touched it, she strove no more for the rest;
Up, she stood up at attention, with the barrel beneath her breast.
She would not risk their hearing, she would not strive again,
For the road lay bare in the moonlight,
Blank and bare in the moonlight,
And the blood in her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her love's refrain.

Tlot tlot, tlot tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hooves, ringing clear;
Tlot tlot, tlot tlot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding--
Riding--riding--
The redcoats looked to their priming! She stood up straight and still.

Tlot tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment, she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight--
Her musket shattered the moonlight--
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him--with her death.

He turned, he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the casement, drenched in her own red blood!
Not till the dawn did he hear it, and his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs in the golden noon, wine-red was his velvet coat
When they shot him down in the highway,
Down like a dog in the highway,
And he lay in his blood in the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.

And still on a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a gypsy's ribbon looping the purple moor,
The highwayman comes riding--
Riding--riding--
The highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard,
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred,
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter--
Bess, the landlord's daughter--
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
 
Creed - One.

Affirmative may be justified, take from one, give to another.
The goal is to, be unified take my hand, be my brother...
The payment, silenced the masses, sanctified, by oppression..
Unity took, a back seat sliding further, into regression.

Chorus:

One oh One, the only way is One.
One oh One, the only way is One.
I feel angry, I feel helpless, wanna change the world yeah..
I feel violent I feel alone, don't try and change my mind no..

Society blind by color, why hold down one to raise another???
Discrimination now on both sides seeds of hate, blossom further..
The world is headed for mutiny, when all we want is unity..
We may rise and fall, but in the end, we meet our fate together!

Chorus:

One oh One, the only way is One.
One oh One, the only way is One.
I feel angry I feel helpless, wanna change the world yeah..
I feel violent I feel alone, don't try and change my mind no..
I feel angry I feel helpless, wanna change the world yeah..
I feel violent I feel alone, don't try and change my mind no..

I feel angry I feel helpless, wanna change the world yeah..
I feel violent I feel alone, don't try and change my mind no..
I feel angry I feel helpless, wanna change the world yeah..
I feel violent I feel alone, don't try and change my mind.
 
Sorry it's a religious one but I love it, makes me cry.

Make A Prayer

O people
In a hut made of tin and clay
A small boy dreams away
Of clean water and a meal a day
And not to fear mines as he plays each day

O people
Somewhere dark and out of the way
Aids has found yet another prey
To save his life he just couldn’t pay
Tell me what we’re going to do

For our brothers in Durban
For our sisters in Darfur
Show me what we’re going to do
Are we just going to sit there?
Nice and cosy on our armchairs
Will we not even make a prayer?

You might ask yourself
Why should I help these people?
They’ll tell you why
We’re not so different from you
We have dreams just like you
But they were buried with the
bodies of our loved ones

O people
Are we deaf, dumb, and blind?
What is going through our minds?
Don’t we care for the rest of mankind?

O people
We claim to love peace and justice
Why do we preach what we don’t practice?
Let’s help them out of this darkness

Tell me what we’re going to do
For our brothers in Ethiopia
For our sisters in Rwanda
Show me what we’re going to do
Are we just going to sit there?
Nice and cosy on our armchairs
Will we not even make a prayer?

lyrics: Sami Yusuf & Bara Kherigi
 
This one is my inspiration when the going gets tough

Free

What goes through your mind?
As you sit there looking at me
Well I can tell from your looks
That you think I’m so oppressed
But I don’t need for you to liberate me

My head is not bare
And you can’t see my covered hair
So you sit there and you stare
And you judge me with your glare
You’re sure I’m in despair
But are you not aware
Under this scarf that I wear
I have feelings, and I do care

CHORUS:
So don’t you see?
That I’m truly free
This piece of scarf on me
I wear so proudly
To preserve my dignity...

My modesty
My integrity
So don’t judge me
Open your eyes and see...
“Why can’t you just accept me?” she says
“Why can’t I just be me?” she says
Time and time again
You speak of democracy
Yet you rob me of my liberty
And all I want is equality
Why can’t you just let me be free?

For you I sing this song
My sister, may you always be strong
From you I’ve learnt so much
How you suffer so much
Yet you forgive those who laugh at you
You walk with no fear
Through the insults you hear
Your wish so sincere
That they’d understand you
But before you walk away
This time you turn and say:

But don’t you see?
That I’m truly free
This piece of scarf on me
I wear so proudly
To preserve my dignity
My modesty
My integrity
So let me be
She says with a smile
I’m the one who’s free

lyrics: Sami Yusuf & Bara Kherigi
 
Bette Midler - Wind beneath my wings.

Ohhhh, oh, oh, oh, ohhh.
It must have been cold there in my shadow,
to never have sunlight on your face.
You were content to let me shine, that's your way.
You always walked a step behind.

So I was the one with all the glory,
while you were the one with all the strength.
A beautiful face without a name for so long.
A beautiful smile to hide the pain.

Did you ever know that you're my hero,
and everything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,
for you are the wind beneath my wings.

It might have appeared to go unnoticed,
but I've got it all here in my heart.
I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it.
I would be nothing without you.

Did you ever know that you're my hero?
You're everything I wish I could be.
I could fly higher than an eagle,
for you are the wind beneath my wings.

Did I ever tell you you're my hero?
You're everything, everything I wish I could be.
Oh, and I, I could fly higher than an eagle,
for you are the wind beneath my wings,
'cause you are the wind beneath my wings.

Oh, the wind beneath my wings.
You, you, you, you are the wind beneath my wings.
Fly, fly, fly away. You let me fly so high.
Oh, you, you, you, the wind beneath my wings.
Oh, you, you, you, the wind beneath my wings.

Fly, fly, fly high against the sky,
so high I almost touch the sky.
Thank you, thank you,
thank God for you, the wind beneath my wings.

 
Insane Clown Posse - Walk into the Darkness..

In the name of the witch I cut the head off a mule I gutted it, i Put it on and then I wore it to school that ain't the only thing I wore. I wore a clip and some rounds a ___ killa with this mule head and i'm clippin 'em down because i'm all outta choices and my voice is unheard you and your boys get the worst I aim you forehead it burst. I'm evil. Fires in my sky. I see no diamonds it's true. aim for your guts and blow your breakfast out behind you. I'm one with the darkness.

Walk into the darkness a place for those who chose to give a ____less
Wicked dark and heartless we keep it nutty and bloody for everbody here
I'm going to hell and I'm knowing it well and i got noproblemshowing it and going to jail.

I see the witch is preaching every night on channel 13 he wants some money with the number on the screen. I hit the scene i'm shootin up somebodys funeral. Someone I don't know my thoughts are fried with homicide. I fire out of control the preacher tried to reach his caddy in his mink white robe but now he's like a sheep slaughtered on the side of the road as for that crooked choir. I set that place up on fire as they came out batted they heads like I was Mark McGwire. I'm in the darkness

Walk into the darkness a place for those who chose to give a ____less
Wicked dark and heartless we keep it nutty and bloody for everybody here
I'm going to hell and I'm knowing it well and I got no problem showing it and going to jail

Walk till you fall into the darkness of hell you gettin raped in hell by Satans tail and all you _____ with them _____ believe you gettin _____ by a 27 foot dragon while chewing your face up it ain't pretty in hell and the only light be the fire that you squirm in while you burning all night and when the Wraith take you his grip is hard as a nail he'll turn your world upside down and make it rain hell....

Walk into the darkness he'll turn your world upside down and make it rain hell...
wicked dark and heartless he'll turn your world upside down and make it rain hell...
Walk into the darkness he'll turn your world upside down and make it rain hell...
wicked dark and heartless he'll turn your world upside down and make it rain hell...

I'm going to hell and I'm knowing it well and I got no problem showing it and going to jail
 
I love this song...


Insane Clown Posse - Under The Moon

I'm still here under the moon [2x]

I was just a child but you seemed like so much more
The way you would approach me and drift across the floor
I'd see you in the hall, and you'd kiss me with a smile
I never understood it, was I even worth your while?
The others kids at school, they would hate me and they'd spit
Cuz I was just a no one, to them I wasn't ____
But you would always help me and stand there by my side
We were only seventeen, we'd be together till we died...

But then it all happened on the ever dreadful day
Somebody tried to rape you and now I'll make him pay
You pointed him out to me, my thoughts began to race
I took my daddy's forty-five and shot him in the _____ face!!!
I did it all for you, and though I'm facing years
I would do the time just to equal all your tears
The last thing that you told me when I left the courtroom
Is that we'd always be together, cuz we're both under the moon

I'll forever love you, even if you're doomed
We'll always be together cuz we're both under the moon

I sit here in my cell and the walls are made of stone
I justified your pain, but now I sit alone
I write another letter, I write one every day
I never got a letter back, I write em anyway
I try to call collect, your number has been changed
I'm staring at the lightbulb and I start to feel the rage
You never came to visit me, I sit facing the glass
No one's on the other side, now it's in the past

My head is always spinning, I'm pounding at the wall
I feel like I'm forgotten, no sign of you at all
You're probably getting married, you're probably getting ____
I'll break out of this cage and try to cut that mother_____ up
I curl up in the corner, my body will corrode
My teeth are turning into dust, skin is growing mold
I'm staring at the window of my eternal doom
I know that you are out there, somewhere underneath the moon

Many, many years, many more to go
Does she still remember? god, he only know
I now become a savage, they chain me to a wall
I still can see your body, I still can hear your call
I'm nothing but a maggot, I'm locked away and lost
The world it doesn't want me, my dignity is tossed
And to the girl for whom I feel this doom
Look here, ___ you and the moon

Hey!___ you and the moon [5x]

I'm still here under the moon
I'm still here under the moon (still under the moon)
 
Chi Coltrane - Go like Elijah

Someday my time to die will come
When that will be, I do not know
I only know that when I have to go

OohYeah, when I go, I wanna go
Just let me go yeah, when I go
I want to go Lord, let me go
Just let me go like Elijah when I go

I want to rise right up into the sky
And ride white horses with fiery eyes
Lord for my sins I apologize

Just let me go, I want to go
When my time comes for me to go
I want to go like Elijah when I go

I don't want no tombstone above my head
And I don't want no pinebox for my bed
And I don't want anyone to say I'm dead

Oohooh, when I go, I wanna go
Just let me go, when I go,
I want to go Lord,let me go
just let me go like Elijah when I go

I want to rise right up into the sky
And ride white horses with fiery eyes
Lord for my sins I apologize

Just let me go, I want to go
When my time comes for me to go
Just let me go like Elijah when I go

I don't want no one cryin' Or feelin' sad
Or standin' in the rain without their hat
I wanna go up happy, imagine that

OohYeah,lord when I go, Just let me go,
I want to go, Yeah, when I go, just let me go
Lord when I go, I want to go like Elijah when I go

I want to rise right up into the sky
And ride white horses with fiery eyes
Lord for my sins I apologize

Just let me go, I want to go
When my time comes for me to go
Just let me go like Elijah when I go
I want to go like Elijah when I go
Just let me go like Elijah when I go
 
Don't Change
INXS

I'm standing here on the ground
The sky above won't fall down
See no evil in all direction
Resolution of happiness
Things have been dark
For too long

Don't change for you
Don't change a thing for me

I found a Love I had lost
It was gone for too long
Hear no evil in all directions
Execution of bitterness
Message recieved loud and clear

Don't change for you
Don't change a thing for me

I'm standing here on the ground
The sky above won't fall down
See no evil in all directions
Resolution of happiness
Things have been dark
For too long

Don't change for you
Don't change a thing for me

 
BABYLON ZOO - SPACEMAN(freaking love this song...)
Pungent smells
They consumate my home
Beyond the black horizon
Trying to take control
See my girl
She shivers in her bones
The sun and zenith rising
Trying to take us all

Theres a fire between us
So where is your god?
Theres a fire between us
I can't get off the carousel

The sickening taste of homophobic jokes
Images of fascist folks
Beam me up 'cause I can't breathe

Spaceman
I always wanted you to go into space man.
Intergalactic christ

Its time to terminate this great white world
Morbid fascination
Television takes control
Decimation
Different races fall
Electronic information tampers with your soul

Theres a fire between us
So where is your god?
Theres a fire between us
I can't get off the carousel - I can't get of this world

The sickening taste of homophobic jokes
Images of fascist folks
Beam me up 'cause I can't breathe

Spaceman
I always wanted you to go into space man-Intergalactic christ

Babylon Zoo

Spaceman
I always wanted you to go into space man-Intergalactic christ
 
In The Meantime
Spacehog

...and in the end we shall achieve in time
the thing they call divine
when all the stars will smile for me,
then all is well and well was all for all
and forever after,
maybe in the meantime wait and see
We love the all the all of you
Our lands are green and sky is blue
When all in all we're just like you
We love the all of you
...and when I cry for me I cry for you
with tears of holy joy
for all the days you've still to come,
and did I ever say I'd never play
or fly toward the sun
maybe in the meantime something's gone
CHORUS
Well that sounds fine so I'll see ya sunshine
Give my love to the future of the humankind
OK, OK, that's not OK
and while it's on my mind there's a girl to fit the crime
of a future lovers dream that we've still to find
But In the Meantime
CHORUS
 
Walking on a thin line

Sometimes in my bed at night
I curse the dark and a pray for light
And sometimes, the light’s no consolation
Blinded by a memory
Afraid of what it might do to me
And the tears and the sweat only mock my desperation

Don’t you know me I’m the boy next door
The one you find so easy to ignore
Is that what I was fighting for?
Walking on a thin line
Straight off the front line
Labeled as freaks loose on the streets of the city
Walking on a thin line
Straight off the front line
Take a look at my face, see what it’s doing to me

Taught me how to shoot to kill
A specialist with a deadly skill
A skill I needed to have to be a survivor
It’s over now or so they say
Well, sometimes, it don’t turn out that way
Cause your never the same when you’ve been under fire

Don’t you know me I’m the boy next door
The one you find so easy to ignore
Is that what I was fighting for?
Walking on a thin line
Straight off the front line
Labeled as freaks loose on the streets of the city
Walking on a thin line
Straight off the front line
Take a look at my face, see what it’s doing to me​

-performed by Huey Lewis and the News
 
Country Boy Can Survive


The preacher man says it's the end of time
And the Mississippi River she's a goin' dry
The interest is up and the Stock Markets down
And you only get mugged
If you go downtown

I live back in the woods, you see
A woman and the kids, and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun rifle and a 4-wheel drive
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

I can plow a field all day long
I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn
We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain't too many things these ole boys can't do
We grow good ole tomatoes and homemade wine
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

Because you can't stomp us out
And you cant make us run
Cause one-of- em old boys raisin ole shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma'am
And if you ain't into that we don't give a damn

We came from the West Virginia coalmines
And the Rocky Mountains and the and the western skies
And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

I had a good friend in New York City
He never called me by my name, just hillbilly
My grandpa taught me how to live off the land
And his taught him to be a businessman
He used to send me pictures of the Broadway nights
And I'd send him some homemade wine

But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife
For 43 dollars my friend lost his life
Id love to spit some beechnut in that dudes eyes
And shoot him with my old 45
Cause a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

Cause you can't stomp us out and you can't make us run
Cause one-of-em old boys raisin ole shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma'am
And if you ain't into that we don't give a damn

We're from North California and south Alabam
And little towns all around this land
And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive​

-Hank Williams, Jr.
 
I Got It Honest


It ain't nothin' but a small frame house on an acre lot
It ain't that much diff'rent from any other house on the block
And it may not look like we got all our share of the promise
But at least one thing's for sure, I got it honest

Roll out of the sack every mornin', head on down to the mill
Give 'em all I got for eight, 'cause that's the deal
If you'll check out my paycheck
Well, you'll see that there ain't that much on it
But ev'ry single penny I'm paid, I got it honest

I never had to hang my head in shame
For puttin' a price tag on my name
Never turned my back on what I believe
Or let my heart be ruled by greed
'Cause buddy if I didn't earn it, I don't want it
That way I can always say, I got it honest

Now you ain't looking at some dude
That was born with a Silver spoon in his mouth
And I might seem like some kind of low-life
To that high-falutin' crowd
But I'm plain spoken, straight talkin'
And damn proud of what I have acomplished
Some folks appreciate that and some don't
But, I got it honest

Now when I die, I may not leave my kids a fortune
But I hope they know'd my life stood for things that were important
And I'll hand out the same sturdy old values of my daddy and my momma
It made me every ounce of what I am and I got it honest

I never had to hang my head in shame
For puttin' a price tag on my name
Never turned my back on what I believe
Or let my heart be ruled by greed
'Cause brother if I didn't earn it, I don't want it
That way I can always say, I got it honest
Friend there ain't no doubt about it, I got it honest

-Aaron Tippin
 
Sylvia's Mother by Dr. Hook

Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's busy"
"Too busy to come to the phone"
Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's tryin'"
"To start a new life of her own"
Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's happy"
"So why don't you leave her alone?"

CHORUS
And the operator says "40 cents more for the next 3 minutes"
Ple-ease Mrs. Avery, I just gotta talk to her
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just wanna tell 'er goodbye

Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's packin'"
"She's gonna be leavin' today"
Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's marryin' "
"A fella down Galveston way"
Sylvia's mother says "Please don't say nothin'"
"To make her start cryin' and stay"

CHORUS

Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's hurryin' "
"She's catchin' the nine o'clock train"
Sylvia's mother says "Take your umbrella"
"cause Sylvie, it's startin' to rain"
And Sylvia's mother says "thank you for callin'"
"And, sir, won't you call back again?"

CHORUS

Tell her goodbye

FADE
Please
Tell her goodbye

****************************************************

I'm not sure if I posted these before (if I did, well, here they are again.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)
Jim Croce

Operator, well, could you help me place this call
See, the number on the matchbook is old and faded
She's living in L.A. with my best old ex-friend Ray
A guy she said she knew well and sometimes hated

{Refrain}
But, isn't that the way they say it goes
But let's forget all that
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell them I'm fine and to show
I've overcome the blow
I've learned to take it well
I only wish my words could just convince myself
That it just wasn't real
But that's not the way it feels

Operator, well, could you help me place this call
'Cause I can't read the number that you just gave me
There's something in my eyes - you know it happens every time
I think about the love that I thought would save me

{Refrain}
No, no, no, no, that's not the way it feels

Operator, let's forget about this call
There's no one there I really wanted to talk to
Thank you for your time, you've been so much more than kind
You can keep the dime
 
A Plague of Lighthouse-keepers - Van der Graaf Generator

Still waiting for my saviour, storms tear me limb from limb;
my fingers feel like seaweed...I'm so far out I'm too far in.
I am a lonely man, my solitude is true,
my eyes have borne stark witness
and now my nights are numbered, too.

I've seen the smiles on dead hands,
the stars shine, but they're not for me.

I prophesy disaster and then I count the cost...
I shine but, shining, dying, I know that I am almost lost.
On the table lies blank paper and my tower is built on stone;
I only have blunt scissors, I only have the bluntest home.
I've been the witnessand the seal of death
lingers in the molten wax that is my head.

When you see the skeletons
of sailing-ship spars sinking low
You'll begin to wonder if the points of all the ancients myths
are solemnly directed straight at you...


No time now for contrition, the time for that's long past,
the walls are thin as tissue and if I talk I'll crack the glass.
So I only think on how it might have been,
locked in silent monologue, in silent scream.

I am much too tired to speak
and as the waves crash on the bleak
stones of the tower I start to freak
and find that I am overcome....



"Unreal, unreal" ghost helmsmen scream and fall in through the sky,
not breaking through my seagull shrieks -no breaks until I die.
The spectres scratch on window-slits,
the hollowed faces and mindless grins
are only intent on destroying what they've lost.

I crawl the wall till steepness ends in the vertical fall;
my pail has sailed into the sea -no joking hopes at dawn.
White bone shine in the iron-jaw mask,
lost mastheads pierce the freezing dark
and parallel my isolated tower...
no paraffin for the flame,
no harbour left to gain.



'Alone, alone' the ghosts all call,
pinpoint me in the light.
The only life I feel at all
is the presence of the night.

Would you cry if I died?
Would you catch the final words of mine?
Would you catch my words?
I know that there's no time,
I know that there's no rhyme,
false signs find me.
I don't want to hate, I just want to grow;
why can't I let me live and be free?
...but I die very slowly alone.

I know no more ways, I am so afraid,
myself won't let me just be myself
and so I am completely alone.

The maelstrom of my memory
is a vampire and it feeds on me;
now, staggering madly, over the brink I fall.



Lighthouses might house the key but can I reach the door?

I want to walk on the sea so that I may better find a shore;
but how can I ever keep my feet dry?
I scan the horizon,
I must keep my eyes on all parts of me.

Looking back on the years it seems that I have lost my way:
Like a dog in the night I have run to a manger,
now I am the stranger I stay in.
Ah, well.

All of the grief I have seen leaves me chasing solitary peace;
But I hold experience in my head.
I'm too close to the light,.
I don't think I see right, for I blind me.



Where is the God that guides my hand?
How can the hands of others reach me?
When will I find what I grope for?
Who is going to teach me?
I am me / me are we / we can't see
any way out of here.
Crashing sea, atrophied history:
chance has lost my Guinevere...

I don't want to be one wave in the water
but sea will drag me deep:
one more haggard drowned man.

I can see the lemmings coming, but I know I'm just a man.
Do I join or do I founder? Which can is the best I may?



Oceans drifting sideways, I am pulled into the spell,
I feel you around me, I know you well.
Stars slice horizons where the lines stand much too stark;
I feel I am drowning - hands stretch in the dark.

Camps of panoply and majesty, what is Freedom of Choice?
Where do I stand in the pageantry, whose is my voice?
It doesn't feel so very bad now, I think the end is the start,
begin to feel very glad now:
All things are a part
All things are apart
All things are a part.
 
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconson
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind

When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.
 
(Edit: It's a busy thread at the moment! I was thinking about the "phone call songs" posted earlier, and this one popped into my head. I apologize, lol!)

Dime Box, Texas
(Max Stalling)


There’s only one pay phone in Dime Box, Texas
And it’s out on a side road there—
When a stranger wearin’ dark shades
With tears streamin’ down his face
Makes a call, it’s gonna draw some stares.

Now there’s two kids down the street in a puddle ankle-deep,
Like they was something Norman Rockwell planned--
When their father sees this man,
He runs and grabs their muddy hands
Wonder who he thinks I am?

Good people of Dime Box,
I’m no Charles Manson, and I did not come to snatch a child,
I’ve just rambled many miles, need to talk to her a while,
And find out what this whole thing means.

Now the dogs across the road are eyin’ me but lyin’ low,
They seem to know I don’t want to cause a fuss--
They watch me suffer on the phone, makin’ puddles of my own,
Watch me kick the ground and cuss.

Good dogs of Dime Box, thanks for your understanding—
You know I wouldn’t hurt a flea!
Your good-natured disposition, your kind-hearted intuition—
Wish that you could talk to her for me.

When a man goes drivin’ about, he’s got some things to figure out
Takes it all out on the blue and white—
And he prays to God and Chevy to lighten up the load that’s heavy
And help him understand the how and why.

Good sheriff of Dime Box, thanks for not arresting me,
Though I’d understand it if you had—
My bizarre appearance and my woeful incoherence
I’m sorry for the tears there on your badge

Good people of Dime Box, I’m no sick killer
And I did not come to rob nor steal--
I just had to stop and phone her
And see if it’s still over,
Sounds like that’s how she really feels.
Oh, man, sounds like that’s how she really feels.
 
Telephone Line
ELO


Hello--how are you
Have you been alright, through all those lonely nights,
That's what I'd say, I'd tell you everything,
If you'd pick up that telephone.

Hey--how you feelin'
Are you still the same
Don't you realize the things we did were all for real not a dream,
I just can't believe
They've all faded out of view.

I look into the sky
(The love you need ain't gonna see you through.)
And I wonder why
(The little things are finally coming true.)

[CHORUS]
Telephone line, give me some time, I'm living in twilight
Telephone line, give me some time, I'm living in twilight

O.K. so no--one's answering,
Well can't you just let it ring a little longer
I'll just sit tight, through the shadows of the night
Let it ring for evermore.
 
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