In my never ending attempt to make sense of the world, I've assembled this collection of song lyrics which appealed to me on one level or another. Maybe I'll sort them better, but currently they are in roughly the order they were added to my website. Buy some albums, not all of these people are world famous or financially well off. Certain song writers such as Neil Young and Townes Van Zandt are well represented which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me, but other choices are more esoteric and eclectic. You can compare this with my cd collection and see a pretty good correlation.
As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?
And each time I feel like this inside,
There's one thing I wanna know:
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?
Nick Lowe
You can only deal with,
What's before your face.
And the life you're given's no use at all,
If you burn it up in hate.
Bruce Cockburn
I just wanna live the life I please,
I don't want no enemies,
I don't want nothin if I have to fake it.
Never take nothin don't belong to me,
Everything's paid for nothin's free,
If I give you my heart,
Will you promise not to break it?
Lucinda Williams
When the western sky is blue and sparrows whisper low,
I will make my windy way across the desert slow,
To the cities & oasis that have sin & life & hope.
Find me a girl who looks like you, & dance & drink & smoke.
Luke Doucet & Mike Plume
You can paint them a beautiful picture,
But they won't understand.
You can count all your friends,
On the fingers,
Of one scalded hand.
Ron Sexsmith
With a one way ticket to the land of truth,
And my suitcase in my hand,
How I lost my friends,
I still don't understand.
Neil Young
If one could stop time, or make it up,
If two could realize, the best of luck,
If I could locate a god above,
And you only wanted to be loved.
Matthew Sweet
You don't have to say another word,
'Cause I got everything a fool deserves.
Linden/Angelo
17 cars all in my backyard,
Boys in blue are callin' my name,
Semi-automatic up on the rooftop,
They just want to talk to me.
Told them what they want to here,
Only thing I knew,
49 tonnes of diesel locomotive,
Couldn't drag me back to you.
Fred Eaglesmith
There's a skeleton in everybody's closet,
I can think of one or two in my own room,
But I would like to introduce them both to you,
You'd shake their bony hands and so dispell the gloom.
'Cause you're so kind,
I know you would not mind,
You'd send away the ghosts that haunt me now.
And the things I fear,
Just wouldn't seem so near.
Brad Roberts
You can't hide your lying eyes,
And your smile is a thin disguise.
I thought by now you'd realize,
There ain't no way to hide your lying eyes.
The Eagles
Money's just something you throw,
Off the back of a train.
Tom Waits
Had a friend, she once told me,
"You got love, you ain't lonely."
Now she's gone, and left me only,
Looking for what I knew.
Page and Plant
I'm not a loser,
I'm a timebomb.
Wilson/Potvin/Vulama
I got friends that I owe,
I ain't naming names because they know,
Where I stand.
Here I am!
Steve Earle
If you're livin' immature,
Then you're livin' sinister,
You reject the words of the minister.
You best get with your Koran or Bible,
You won't be living long if you're living idle.
The Teacha, that's my title.
KRS-One
A poet's job is never done.
KRS-One
Well believe me baby this ain't no crush,
I think maybe I love you too much.
...
You must think that I'm easy, don't you?
But I got scars that I've never shown you.
Steve Earle
No one understands me completely,
I try to make myself clear.
No one ever believes me,
I couldn't be more sincere.
The Fastbacks (Kurt Bloch)
She sits on the porch of her daddy's house,
But all her pretty dreams are torn.
She stares off alone into the night,
With the eyes of one who hates for just being born.
Bruce Springsteen
These good times are going to kill me,
I see the hammer coming down,
All my contacts, they just use me.
There aint no heart left in this town.
There aint no heart left in this town,
There aint no heart left in this town,
I'm still trying to run with the big boys,
But they don't return my calls.
Waco Brothers
A car pulls up and a shot rings out,
There's whiskey and blood on the floor,
& It's the same old song about sex and revenge
They can't stomach round here anymore.
'Cos Country radio lost its bottle,
Started selling a fantasy,
No drinkin', no killin' and the only D.I.V.O.R.C.E.
Is from reality, from history.
Well here I come I'm the murderous son,
I'm a rounder come back round again,
For half of my crimes,
There is no reason or rhyme,
I just drawing another breath,
Of Drinkin' & Cheatin' & Death
Waco Brothers
I'm just being honest.
Andre 3000
I made myself a promise,
When I was old enough to run.
That I'd never spend one single day,
In that Oklahoma sun.
That I'd never pick cotton.
...
It was fast cars and whiskey
Long legged girls and fun.
I had everything,
That money could bring,
And I took it all with a gun.
And I never picked cotton.
Charles Williams and Bobby George
I don't need your assistance,
Social persistance,
Any problem I got,
I just put my fist in.
Ice-T
I wanna kiss all the Creole gals I see.
Drink all day.
Dance all night.
Do it wrong,
Til we do it right.
Down South in New Orleans,
Prettiest girls I've ever seen.
Life 's a gamble,
Love 's a dream,
Way down South in New Orleans.
Bobby Charles? though even the Band is crediting it to someone else and I seem to change the lyrics some.
Hello darkness my old friend.
I've come to talk with you again.
Paul Simon
I'm having a hard time,
Living the good life,
Well I know.
Hunter - Garcia
Cause I've done everything I know to try and make you mine,
And I think it's gonna hurt me for a long long time.
Gary B. White
He said "I'll love you 'til I die".
She told him "You'll forget in time".
As the years went slowly by,
She still preyed upon his mind.
He kept her picture on his wall,
Went half crazy now and then,
He still loved her through it all,
Hoping she'd come back again.
Kept some letters by his bed,
Dated 1962,
He had underlined in red,
Every single "I love you".
I went to see him just today,
But I didn't see no tears,
All dressed up to go away,
First time I'd seen him smile in years.
He stopped loving her today,
They placed a wreath upon his door,
And soon they'll carry him away,
He stopped loving her today.
You know she came to see him one last time,
We all wondered if she would,
And it kept running through my mind,
This time he's over her for good.
He stopped loving her today,
They placed a wreath upon his door,
And soon they'll carry him away,
He stopped loving her today.
Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman
Centuries ago we were living on the gold coast,
She was still in love with a long gone cold ghost,
I was only trying to turn back the tide of her tears.
I felt like an endless ocean rolling through the fog,
Full emotion drifting like a weather beaten log,
I even thought that I out-thought her,
Till she said "Babe, you're just a wave, you're not the water."
Jimmy Dale Gilmore
Where I'll try to find a doctor,
Who'll prescribe an elixer,
That'll make everything better,
Except my late wife and her lover.
Rhett Miller
I kept the plates spinning, as long as I could,
Things only got worse, they never got good.
Just when my whole world started to crack,
I heard someone laughing behind my back.
Do I look like a circus clown to you?
Does this look like a painted on frown to you?
You're so amused,
I just feel misused,
I must look like a clown to you.
Bill Anderson
See him wasted on the sidewalk in his jacket and his jeans,
Wearing yesterday's misfortunes like a smile.
Once he had a future full of money, love, and dreams,
Which he spent like they was going out of style.
And he keeps right on a changin' for the better or the worse,
Searching for a shrine he's never found.
Never knowing if believing is a blessing or a curse,
Or if the going up was worth the coming down.
Kris Kristofferson
I see you standing on the other side,
I don't know how the river got so wide,
I loved you baby, way back when.
And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed,
But I feel so close to everything that we lost,
We'll never have to lose it again.
Leonard Cohen
If I stumble my way through,
Another year of blindness.
I don't deserve to come down from,
These drugs inside my brain.
And if I stumble my way to,
The people who are mindless,
I guess I'll get what's coming to
Me and my evil wicked ways.
Luke Doucet
If God is great?
And God is good?
Why can't he change the hearts of men?
Maybe God himself,
Is lost and needs help,
Out upon the road to peace?
Tom Waits
Oh if I wallow here...
It's my history to burn,
These are my lessons to learn.
Luke Doucet
I never tried, to burn any bridges,
Though I know I've let some good things go.
Neil Young
I must've cried a million tears,
Or at least ninety six.
I cried myself a river,
And an ocean just for kicks.
Loudon Wainwright III
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Bob Marley
Unhappiness has been her close companion,
Her world is full of jealousy and doubt,
It gets her off to see a person crying,
She's just the kind that you can't do without.
Parsons/Hillman
I'm so tired of being lonely.
I still have some love to give.
Won't you show me that you really care.
The Traveling Wilburys
Just then a friend of mine came through the door,
She said she'd never pegged me for a scumbag before.
Said she didn't ever want to see me no more,
And I still don't know why...
I think I'm an alright guy.
I think I'm an alright guy.
I just wanna live until I've gotta die.
I know I ain't perfect,
But God knows I try.
I think I'm an alright guy,
I think I'm alright.
Todd Snider
...Painful scars are all that's left of me,
But thank you girl for teaching me
Brand new ways to be cruel.
And if I can find my mind now, I guess I'll just leave.
Dwight Yoakam
If I can't change the people around me,
I change the people around me.
Chuck D
Make me a bed of fond memories.
Make me to lie down with a smile.
Everything that rises afterward falls,
But all that dies has first to live.
As longing becomes love,
As night turns to day,
Everything changes,
Joy will find a way.
Bruce Cockburne
When the world is wearing me down,
And the wind is throwing its weight around.
So cold, it blows right through me.
I need your love.
I sure could use your love.
Right about now.
Ron Sexsmith
I do my best to hide this lowdown feelin'.
I try to make believe there's nothing wrong.
But they're always asking me about you darling,
And it hurts me so to tell 'em that you're gone.
If they ask me I guess I'd be denyin'
That I've been unhappy all alone.
But if they heard my heart they'd hear it cryin'
"Where's my darling, when's she coming home?"
I ask myself a million times what's right for me to do,
To try to lose my blues alone or hang around for you.
But I make it pretty good until that moon comes shining through,
And then I get so doggone lonesome.
Johnny Cash
But you've been cold to me for so long,
I'm crying icecles instead of tears.
Jim Steinman
I tried so hard my dear to show that you're my every dream.
Yet you're afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme.
A memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart,
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart?
Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue,
And so my heart is paying now for things I didn't do.
In anger unkind words are spoke that make the teardrops start,
Why can't I free your doubtful mind, and melt your cold cold heart?
Hank Williams
I hear some people, been talkin' me down
Bring up my name, pass it 'round.
They don't mention the happy times
They do their thing, and I'll do mine.
Ooh baby, it's hard to change
I can't tell them how to feel.
Some get stoned, some get strange,
But sooner or later it all gets real.
Walk On
Neil Young
She ain't ashamed to be a woman,
Or afraid to be a friend.
Kris Kristofferson
Words once spoken,
Can't be taken back.
Eddie Vedder
It's how you look and how you feel,
You must have a heart of steel.
Neil Young
Yes I know those empty nights get lonely,
Sometimes you feel like you're the only one,
To lose more than he wins.
Guess these troubled times get scary,
But that's just ordinary,
Everyone gets crazy now and then.
Kevin Welch
More drinks because love stinks.
It hurts, it hits, and makes you cry.
It's insane in the membrane,
The pain that kills won't let you die,
But man it sure does try.
Eddie Spaghetti
Foolproof
That's what my heart's become.
And I challenge anyone to break in,
I challenge anyone to make me open up the door,
Cause I've been fooled before.
And now I'm...
Foolproof
Ron Sexsmith
I need you more than want you.
And I want you for all time.
Jimmy Webb
I couldn't sleep at all last night!
Just a thinking of you.
Baby things weren't right,
Well I was tossin' and turnin'
Turnin' and tossin',
Toss and I turn all night.
Ritchie Adams and Malou Rene
Low down freedom, you done cost me,
Everything I'll ever lose.
Billy Joe Shaver
I keep takin' dirt roads, that turn into dead ends and dust.
Eddie Spaghetti
Well, I waited for you when I was half sick,
Yes, I waited for you when you hated me.
Well, I waited for you inside of the frozen traffic,
When you knew I had some other place to be.
Now, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Well, anybody can be just like me, obviously,
But then, now again, not too many can be like you, fortunately.
Bob Dylan
If it makes you happy,
It can't be that bad.
If it makes you happy,
Then why the hell are you so sad?
Sheryl Crow and Jeff Trott
Now I'm older and wiser,
I've travelled around.
I've slept in many dark cities,
I've been jailed in small towns.
Now my father would tell you,
If he lived to this day,
That if life be a gamble,
Let blood be the stake.
Willie P. Bennett
It takes a uniquely fucked up man to break his own heart.
And the right girl at the wrong time to make him do it.
So if I am the guy and you're the girl and the time is now,
Then I'm as broke as any man can be.
Luke Doucet
Do you know how it feels to be lonesome,
When there's just no one left that really cares?
Did you ever try to smile at some people,
And all they ever seem to do is stare?
Gram Parsons and Barry Goldberg
I've been trying to get down,
To the heart of the matter.
But my will gets weak,
And my thoughts seem to scatter.
But I think its about forgiveness.
Forgiveness.
Don Henley
You wake up in the middle of the night.
Your sheets are wet and your face is white,
You tried to make a good thing last,
How could something so good, go bad, so fast?
Neil Young
My pride is all gone,
Whether I'm right or wrong,
I need you baby,
To keep on keepin' on.
Holland Dozier Holland
Darlin' you don't know,
How bad it feels.
Darlin' you don't know,
How bad it feels.
Yah you don't know,
How bad it feels,
To be back here again.
To be back here again.
To be back here again.
To be back here again...
Waco Brothers (Jon Langford?)
Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and mars,
Any heart not tough or strong enough,
To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain,
Love is like a cloud, it holds a lot of rain.
Love hurts, ooh-ooh, love hurts.
Boudleaux Bryant
As a man I ain't never been much for sunny days,
I'm as calm as a fruit stand in New York and maybe as strange.
Ryan Adams
And we just can't have that, girl
'cause it's a sad, lonesome, cold world.
And a man need a woman, Lord to stand by his side,
And whisper sweet words in his ears about daydreams,
And roses and playthings,
And the sweetness of springtime,
And the sound of the rain.
Townes Van Zandt
When you're sitting there,
In your silk upholstered chair,
Talking to some rich folks that you know.
I hope you don't see me,
In my ragged company,
You know I could never stand to be alone.
Jagger/Richards as channeled by Steve Earle
Time to move on,
Time to get goin'
What lies ahead, I have no way of knowin'
But under my feet baby,
Grass is growin'
Time to move on,
Time to get going.
Tom Petty
This next Willie Nelson song I tweaked a bit apparently changing the first line of my quotation.
So you thought, you found heaven in her eyes,
Well I think it only fair to warn you that sometimes she lies.
When my sweetheart listened to the songs I played,
She said I love a few honey,
But there aint much money in serenade.
I need a man with a real job.
Billy Joe Shaver
Once there was a friend of mine,
Who died a thousand deaths.
His life was filled with parasites,
And countless idle threats.
He trusted, in a woman,
And on her he placed his bets.
Once there was a friend of mine,
Who died a thousand deaths.
Neil Young
I don't want to be the bad guy,
I don't want to do your sleepwalk dance anymore,
I just want to see some palm trees,
Go and try and shake away this disease.
Art Alexakis
Hate is strong, and darkness thrives.
How can a song survive?
Ron Sexsmith
He says "Baby don't you want me in your life?"
She says what's wrong, not right.
Neil Osbourne
But only the lonely,
Know why,
I cry,
"Only the lonely".
Roy Orbison
This next song I think I put on the mix CD I made for Marlene Lau, this was well before March 2005, well before things started to get strange. I thought she would like the Supersuckers and Ron's guitar playing.
Now I know people change,
And sometimes that's good,
But some people don't,
When maybe they should.
Right now that don't help me.
I might just throw up.
Cause it sure does feel shitty,
When things just get pretty fucked up.
Pretty fucked up!
Yeah pretty fucked up now.
She used to be pretty,
Now she's just pretty fucked up.
The Supersuckers
No one knows what it's like,
To be the bad man,
To be the sad man,
Behind blue eyes.
No one knows what it's like.
To be hated...
Pete Townsend
All the friends that I have had,
Or misplaced along the way,
No amount of energy could ever bring them back.
It weighs down on me like a tonne,
And it never was no fun,
But I never meant to do any harm.
Willie P. Bennett
Girl of my dreams,
Things are as bad as they seem.
...
What do I do this for?
Got to get out some more,
Go down to the grocery store,
Meet someone I'll adore.
Someone to make me laugh,
Someone to be my better half,
Keep me warm under the sack,
Share with me my midnight snack.
Hayden
Yesterday is dead and gone.
And tomorrow 's out of sight.
And it's sad to be alone.
Help me make it through the night.
Kris Kristofferson
Don't know that I will,
But until,
I can find me,
A girl who will stay,
And won't play,
Games behind me.
I'll be what I am,
A solitary man.
Neil Diamond
Promises are made to be broken
Haven't you heard?
He said he'd never break your heart
Now haven't you learned?
You believed in the words,
In all that they meant.
Oh, but love is not some popular song,
Filled with empty sentiment.
That's what passes for love.
That's what passes for love.
That's what passes for love these days.
Ron Sexsmith
Doctor, Doctor, sign my prescription, I'm in trouble again.
Ever since I was a tiny little baby, I couldn't get rid of the pain.
Jon Langford
Get the money,
Don't leave anything behind.
Just some pieces of your heart,
And some fragments of your mind.
Jon Langford
This next song was covered by the Supersuckers on the Must've Been Live album, but I didn't know it was a cover necessarily, it is a reasonably obscure song by a reasonably obscure band. They are called Alabama 3 or A3 for short. Their claim to fame may be the theme song to the Sopranos is performed by them. It took some Googling, but these are the lyrics to the verse that came to my mind riding the bus today, but I changed plan to friend, that is always how I sung along to it...
I got Ecstasy, but I need some company,
You got that mystery; Lord I need a friend.
All I got is a compromise and a bag full of alibis
Lord, as empty as this bottle of whiskey in my shaking hands.
These next fellows, once famously chose not to sign with David Geffan and his record label because of how David Geffen treated Neil Young. You see it does matter Marlene how you treat people, because years later you might miss out on signing a little band from Athens Georgia, who appreachiate honesty and integrity.
When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,
When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on.
Don't let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.
Berry, Buck, Mills, and Stipe
Don't cry, no tears, around me.
Don't cry, no tears, around me-e.
When all your waters gone,
The feelings linger on.
Old true love,
Ain't too hard, to see.
So don't cry, no tears, around me.
Neil Young
I thought I loved her, but I didn't know how.
I don't love her when I see her now.
Stephen Drake
Hello woman of my dreams.
Is this not the way it seems?
Purple words on a grey background,
To be a woman is to be turned down.
I changed slightly two lines to this Neil Young and Crazy Horse song that is famous for its guitar parts more than the lyrics. This is how it sounded on my iPod in the gym one day on my iPod or how I would make it more provactive and obscure, sometimes that is best in song lyrics.
I just can't seem, to drink her off my mind.
Jagger/Richards
I need a new perspective.
Yah, I need a fresh start.
I need a girl like you,
Like a stolen car.
Luke Doucet
Well the first days are the hardest days,
Don't you worry any more.
'Cause when life looks like easy street,
There is danger at your door.
Think this through with me.
Let me know your mind.
Wo oh, what I want to know is are you kind?
Robert Hunter
Where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find.
I tried to reach for you, but you had closed your mind.
Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson
In the morning I get up
And I try to feel alive but I can't.
Neil Osborne
Does any one know where the love of god goes?
Gordon Lightfoot
Dolores, I live in fear.
My love for you is so overpowering,
I'm afraid I will disappear.
Paul Simon
Workin' inside all day,
Make no money, go out and play.
Get drunk and pick a fight,
Sin works best in the night.
Nils Lofgren
Oh I believed in us.
Long before deceit and lust,
Had lost the trust.
Forgive me girl.
Forgive me girl.
Ron Sexsmith
Everything is not enough,
Nothing is too much to bear,
Where you've been is good and gone,
All you keep is the gettin' there.
Townes Van Zandt
History is written by the winner,
This is a loser's song.
I took this job in the summer,
Never saw the winter rollin' on.
Never thought it would end in a second,
A burnt out smoking wreck.
Expectations and ambitions,
Were just a rope around my neck.
Broke my back to earn a crust,
Saw my dreams die in the dust.
Now I'm walking on Hell's roof looking at the flowers.
Jon Langford
You don't want to die,
But living gets you down.
They want you to act like nothing's wrong,
Even though you heard a sound.
And then you're ripped right out of the ground,
Like a fuckin' root.
No you simply cannot hide,
From the ugly truth.
Matthew Sweet
Met an Indian boy in Ottawa.
He laid me down on a bed of straw.
Said "Don't waste your breath,
Don't waste your heart,
Don't blister your heels,
Running in the dark."
Oh where, will I be?
Oh where, when my trumpets sound?
Daniel Lanois
You belong among the wildflowers,
You belong in a boat out at sea.
Sail away, kill off the hours,
You belong somewhere you feel free.
Tom Petty
There's room at the top they are telling you still.
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill.
John Lennon
Theres no time to lose, I heard her say.
Catch your dreams before they slip away.
Dying all the time,
Lose your dreams,
And you will lose your mind.
Ain't life unkind?
Jagger/Richards or perhaps Brian Jones?
You're gonna drown tomorrow,
If you cry too many tears for yesterday.
Tomorrow's half of all you've got,
So treat him good, 'cause when I'm gone, he'll stay.
Townes Van Zandt
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.
Don Schlitz
Haven't laughed this hard in a long time,
I better stop now before I start crying.
Go off to sleep in the sunshine,
I don't want to see the day when it's dying.
Elliot Smith
If you waste your time a-talkin' to the people who don't listen,
To the things that you are sayin', who do you think's gonna hear?
And if you should die explainin' how the things that they complain about,
Are things they could be changin', who do you think's gonna care?
Kris Kristofferson
And now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen.
They're not list'ning still,
Perhaps they never will.
Don McLean
Why'd you have to say those things
about my face, about my name?
I didn't want things to end this way.
I didn't want things to end this way.
Scott Kannberg
Crying,
My tears keep fallin' all night long.
Waiting,
I feel so useless, I know it's wrong,
To keep crying, waiting, hoping, you'll come back,
Maybe someday soon things will change and you'll be mine.
Buddy Holly
Blame it on the moonlight, blame it on plate tectonics.
You thought I wasn't listening, but I was.
Talk about attraction, talk about electronics,
You are the reason, you are because.
Rhett Miller
Hey crazy socialite woman slash girl,
Why is it you seem to be in touch with half the world?
You're upbeat, light feet, hot stuff smokin'
I'm the only one who knows, your heart 's broken.
Steve Coffey
Well I don't wanna be nobody,
Just want a chance to be myself.
Buck Owens
I'm too alone to be pround.
And you don't know how it feels,
Yah, you don't know how it feels,
To be me.
Tom Petty
Oh yeah, life goes on,
Long after the thrill of living is gone.
John "Cougar" Mellencamp
Maybe soon there'll come a day,
When no more tears will fall.
If we each forgive a little bit,
And we both look back on it,
As just bad timing that's all.
Blue Rodeo
Home is where the needle marks,
Try to heal my broken heart.
Gil Scott-Heron
In the land where souls can be sold,
They never heard of us Canadian bands.
Dave Bidini and Dave Clark
And the days fly by like paper in the wind.
Everything changes, then it changes again.
It's hard to find a friend.
It's hard to find a friend.
Tom Petty
Blackie and the Rodeo King
Well they were just good friends.
Been to every rodeo
And they rode on every old train.
Blackie lived out her life every night
Trying to sort out the lies that people would tell her
And the Rodeo King was an Indian who found the bottle
A better friend than any old white man.
Willie P. Bennett
I heard there was a secret chord,
That David played and it pleased the lord.
But you don't really care for music do yah?
It goes like this, the fourth the fifth,
The minor fall, the major lift,
The baffeled king composing Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen
This much madness
Is too much sorrow
It's impossible
To make it today.
Neil Young
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend.
But I always thought that I'd see you again.
James Taylor
You can barely get yourself to sleep at night,
Over some little thing you said,
That you worry was misread.
It keeps on running, round and round your head.
Rick Fines
I don't want to live,
But what else can I do?
I feel like I faked,
All that I ever did.
Loudon Wainwright III
The only two things in life that make it worth livin'
Are guitars that tune good and firm feelin' women.
Bobby Emmons and Chips Moman
My weakness is stronger than I am,
I guess I've always been the losin' kind.
Now I'm full speed ahead down the wrong lane of life.
And I can't hold myself in line.
Merle Haggard
And though I may not always be the way you'd have me be,
And though my faults may grow in number day by day,
Let no one ever say that I've ever been untrue,
I always loved you in my own peculiar way.
Willie Nelson
You can take your accusations,
You can have all your records back,
You can have an opinion or a heart attack.
If you lose a kindred spirit,
You find another one,
But you have to pull the trigger,
To have a smoking gun.
Luke Doucet
You don't know me but you don't like me,
You say you care less how I feel.
How many of you that sit and judge me,
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
Buck Owens
If you make me scared,
if that's what you do
If I'm unclear can I get out of this thing
with me and you
If you feel scared, a bit confused,
I gotta say
this sounds a little beyond
anything I'm used to
Now there's a precious few
that can prove that at the root
This is all nothing but a cold calculation
Gordon Downie
Here in this cold room lying,
Don't want to see no one but you.
Lord I wish I could be dying,
To forget you.
Oh how I wish your heart could see,
How mine just aches and breaks all day.
Come on home and take away,
This ribbon of darkness over me.
Gordon Lightfoot
You stand up proud
You pretend you're strong
In the hope that you can be.
Like the ones who've cried,
Like the ones who've died,
Trying to set the angel in us free.
While they're waiting for a miracle.
Bruce Cockburn
I just can't fit.
Yes, I believe it's time for us to quit.
When we meet again,
Introduced as friends,
Please don't let on that you knew me when,
I was hungry and it was your world.
Bob Dylan
The squinting of her eyes when she smiles,
The glinting of the sun in her hair,
She wets her lips and takes a sip of,
Her tea as I try not to stare.
And though I try, not to,
It's such a beautiful view.
Ron Sexsmith
She says I'm caught up in triviality,
But all I really want to know is what she thinks of me.
I think my love for her makes me miss the point.
Sloan
I would rather be dead,
than have you think,
that you were anything,
less than the strongest thing,
that has ever lifted me up.
Alan Singley
It's only to herself that she's lied,
She likes to pretend there's something that she should defend with her pride.
I don't intend to standby and be the friend from whom she must hide.
Oh but maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song,
Who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong.
Townes Van Zandt
Sometimes the world begins,
To set you up on your feet again,
And oh it wipes the tears from your eyes.
How will you ever know,
The way that circumstances go,
It's going to hit you by surprise.
I know my past,
You were there.
In everything I've done,
You are the one.
Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy
He's a walkin' contradiction,
Partly truth and partly fiction.
Takin' every wrong direction,
On his lonely way back home.
There's a lotta wrong directions on that lonely way back home.
Kris Kristofferson
And if you read between the lines,
You'll know that I'm just trying to understand,
The feelings that you lack.
I never thought I could feel this way,
And I've got to say that I just don't get it.
I don't know where we went wrong,
But the feelings gone,
And I just can't get it back.
Gordon Lightfoot
I hope I treat her kind,
And don't mess with her mind,
When she starts to see the darker side of me.
Neil Young
Grandpa said to cousin Jed
Sitting on the porch,
"I won't retire
But I might retread.
Seems like that guy singin' this song,
Been doing it for a long time.
Is there anything he knows,
That he ain't said?
Sing a song for freedom
Sing a song for love
Sing a song for depressed angels
Falling from above."
Neil Young
I swear by this song,
And all I've done wrong,
I'll make it all up to thee.
Leonard Cohen
Everybody's going out
And having fun.
I'm a fool for staying home
And having none.
I can't get over how she set me free,
Oh, Oh, lonesome me.
There must be some way
That I can lose these lonesome blues.
Forget about my past and
Find someone new.
I've thought of everything from A to Z
Oh, Oh, lonesome me.
Don Gibson
And the mercy seat is glowing
And I think my head is smoking
And in a way I'm hoping
To be done with all these looks of disbelief.
A life for a life and a truth for a truth
And I've got nothing left to lose
And I'm not afraid to die.
Nick Cave
Did I ask too much,
More than a lot?
You gave me nothing,
Now it's all I got.
Bono
Beauty becomes you, be who you are.
If I should rob a corner store,
Or kill a cop who prayed for mercy.
Forgive me, I don't know what made me this way,
But I'll be alright if you'll be okay.
Dave Bidini
And if you saw him now,
You'd wonder why-i-i
He cried,
The whole day long.
Gordon Lightfoot
If I, if I have been unkind,
I hope that you can just let it go by.
If I, if I have been untrue,
I hope you know it was never to you.
Leonard Cohen
The next song is a Neil Young song, it even comes from the album Neil Young, but it was the cover version by Blue Rodeo that made me truely apprechiate the song. Even Neil Young doesn't much care for the album "Neil Young".
I'm looking, for a woman,
To save my life.
Don't want to beg, or to borrow.
A woman, that knows the feeling,
Of losing once or twice.
Who knows, it could be, tomorrow.
So close yet so far away,
From all the things I'd hoped to say.
Will have to go unsaid today,
Perhaps until tomorrow.
Your fears have built a wall between,
Our lives and all that lovin' means.
Will have to go unfelt it seems,
And that leaves only sorrow.
Townes Van Zandt
Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight,
Got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight.
Bruce Cockburn
And there's nothing left inside your heart but the same old hurt.
Hillman/Parsons
I know what I know,
I said what I said.
Paul Simon
She really worked me over good,
She was a credit to her gender.
Warren Zevon
One day you're gonna miss me.
One day you're gonna wake up cold.
Then you'll wish you could kiss me,
When you're old and you're alone.
Cry if you want to, yah you can come undone.
But you've gotta have a heart to have a broken one.
Luke Doucet
Why she had to go I don't know,
She wouldn't say.
I said something wrong,
Now I long for yesterday.
Lennon and McCartney
Lovers leave and friends will let you down,
But you're the only sure thing that I've found.
No matter what I do I'll never lose,
My old friend the blues.
Steve Earle
Loneliness and frustration,
We both came down with an accute case.
Warren Zevon
It's a hard way to find out, that trouble is real.
In a far away city, with a far away feel.
Gram Parsons?
She's the kind of woman that keeps you coming back for more.
Got the kinda face you swear you seen some place before,
Could have been your mother, could've been a Mexican whore.
Steve Earle
I need someone to show me the things in life that I can't find.
I can't see the things that make true happiness, I must be blind.
Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry.
Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal.
Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward
You wonder why I lay awake at night,
I just can't get to sleep,
It's not the devils or the feeling inside,
It's the peace of mind I seek.
And you stand there staring,
I'm standing laughing,
Cause I've come all this way
And all you ever said was "that's OK".
Music in your eyes.
I can tell by your surprise,
You've been doing fine
so don't give me no more lies.
We'll understand it all in time.
Willie P. Bennett
You were surrounded by shadows
Each one battling for control,
You fed upon their dark promises
They fed upon your soul.
And you loved them like you'd love a lover.
And they loved you,
Like they'd love something to sell.
Kyp Harness
Sometimes I'm crazy,
But I guess you know.
And I'm weak and I'm lazy,
And I've hurt you so.
Randy Newman
No affection were the words,
That stuck on my mind,
When she walked out on me,
For the very last time.
Oh, mama, sweet mama,
Can you tell me what to say?
I don't know what I've done
To be treated this way.
In a cold dirty room,
That's where I found myself.
With a bottle of wine,
And some pills off the shelf.
Oh, mama, sweet mama,
Can you tell me what to say?
I don't know what I've done,
And I'm feeling so ashamed.
Then an angel appeared,
She was just seventeen.
In a dirty old gown,
With a conscience so clean.
Oh, mama, sweet mama,
Can you tell me what to say?
She's brought back the life,
That I once threw away.
Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman
I know a woman, who became a wife.
These are the very words she uses to describe her life.
She said a good day ain't got no rain,
She said a bad day is when I lie in bed,
And I think of things that might have been.
Paul Simon
I wonder, I wonder, what she's thinking of,
Forsaken, forgotten, without any love.
Hank Williams
Freedoms just another word for nothin left to lose,
And nothin left was all she left for me.
Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster
Yes I'm lonely wanna die.
Yes I'm lonely wanna die.
If I ain't dead already
Girl you know the reason why.
In the morning wanna die.
In the evening wanna die.
If I ain't dead already
Girl you know the reason why.
Lennon and McCartney
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there.
Leonard Cohen
You'll find your ignorance is blissful every goddamn time.
Tom Waits
Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61."
Bob Dylan
Well you can roll your eyes and nod
But I swear that I saw God,
In the moonlight on a side street in the wreckage we call Queens.
Rhett Miller
Cause I know, yes I know.
Everything, there is to know
Cause I lost everything I had.
Dave King
Ought to hang my picture
In the All-Time Losers'
Hall of Fame
Bad Karma
It's a low-down dirty shame.
Warren Zevon
The silence is unusually loud tonight,
The strange sound of nothing fills my ears.
Willie Nelson
Three days I dread to see arrive,
Three days I hate to be alive,
Three days filled with tears and sorrow,
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
There are three days I know that I will be blue.
Three days I dream of you.
And it does no good to wish these days would end,
Cause the same three days start over again.
Three days I dread to be alive,
Three days I hate to see arrive,
Three days filled with tears and sorrow,
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Willie Nelson
And you've been down this road before.
Which is not to say you're bored,
Or that you shouldn't want for more,
It's just your expactations,
Should be lower.
Edwyn Collins
Maybe things will get better,
Before we drift away.
I save whatever's left behind for another day.
It freaks me out the thought of going through this life without you.
I need you to help me make it through the night.
The truth hurts more than the lies.
Tom Wilson
Here I am with this old guitar
Doing what I do.
I always expected,
That you would see me through,
I never believed in much,
But I believed in you.
Neil Young
My biggest mistake was loving you too much,
And letting you know,
Now you got me where you want me, and you won't let me go.
If my heart was made of glass,
You would surely see,
How much heartache and misery,
You've been causing me.
Holland-Dozier-Holland
At least that is how I thought the Band did it, the internet seems to think the lyrics are a bit different than me.
My life's an open book, you read it on the radio.
Neil Young
I want to live,
I want to give
I've been a miner for a heart of gold.
It's these expressions I never give
That keep me searching for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
Neil Young
I see so many people happy, I can't get used to happiness.
Maybe it is true, happiness is not for me, I guess.
Brownie McGee
And I don't want to hear a sad story,
Full of heartbreak and desire.
The last time I felt like this,
It was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire.
And I stood on the mountain in the night and I watched it burn,
I watched it burn, I watched it burn.
Emmylou Harris and Bill Danoff
That drunk tank in Atlanta, was just a motel room to me.
Tom Petty
Now, my name is on the line
How could people get so unkind?
Neil Young
I don't have the strength,
To get up and take another shot.
And my best friend, the doctor
Won't even say what it is I've got.
Bob Dylan
Lately I've been looking in the mirror,
And wondering if that was really me looking back.
Steve Earle
Losing all faith in humankind,
But I pretend I don't mind.
Marlene Lau
All he believes are his eyes,
And his eyes they just tell him lies.
Bob Dylan
Losing in love is like a window in your heart,
Everyone sees you're blown apart,
Everyone hears the wind blow.
Paul Simon
If three and four were seven only,
Where would that leave one and two?
If love can be and still be lonely,
Where does that leave me and you?
Townes Van Zandt
Things went down that we don't understand,
But I think in time we will.
The Grateful Dead
I'm a careless,
Hopeless,
Hard drinking man.
Frightened of the thunder and the cold.
Jon Langford?
You that hide behind walls,
You that hide behind desks,
I just want you to know,
I can see through your masks.
Bob Dylan
I'll see you in my nightmares,
And I'll see you in my dreams.
And I might live a thousand years,
till I know what that means.
Neil Young
I need a chick,
With big potatoes to mash bay-bay.
De La Soul
Tell the gossipers and liars,
I will see them in the fire.
Johnny Cash
The more you suffer,
The more it shows you really care.
Right?
The Offspring
She'll casually cut you
And laugh while you're bleedin'
Billy Joel
I like "casually" instead of "carelessly", what can I say I don't own the album.
Broken skyline, which way to Loveland?
Which way to something better?
Which way to forget her?
Which way do I go?
Tom Petty
Or at least that is how I think it should go, sometimes a misheard lyric is better than the real thing. The third line should be "Which way to forgiveness?" which is also a pretty good line and question.
He not busy being born, is busy dying.
Bob Dylan
Life's a piece of shit,
When you really look at it.
Monty Python
Day of judgement, God is calling,
On their knees the war pigs crawling.
Begging mercies for their sins,
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings.
Oh lord, yeah!
Black Sabbath
She is all,
And everything else is small.
Beck
When you got nothing,
You got nothing to lose.
You're invisible,
You've got no secrets to conceal.
Bob Dylan
And her face looked like something Death left in his suitcase.
Warren Zevon
Three fingers whiskey,
Pleasures the drinker.
And movin' does more,
Than the same thing to me.
Willie he tells me,
That do'ers and thinkers,
Say "moving's the closest thing to being free."
Billy Joe Shaver
Being born is going blind,
Bowing down a thousand times,
The echoes strong,
Of pure temptation.
Sorrow and Solitude,
These are the precious things,
The only words
Worth remembering.
Townes Van Zandt
Legs to walk and thoughts to fly,
Eyes to laugh and lips to cry,
A restless tongue to classify,
All born to grow and grown to die.
Townes Van Zandt
Chained upon the face of time,
Feeling full of foolish rhyme.
Ain't no dark till something shines
I'm bound to leave this dark behind.
Townes Van Zandt
They say you can't miss something you've never had.
But that is not always true and it's sad.
Was (Not Was)
Amsterdamn was always good for grieving,
London never fails to leave me blue,
Paris never was my kind of town,
But you hang around,
With the Fort Worth Blues.
Steve Earle
Home is where the heart is
Least that's what they always say.
My heart lies in broken pieces
Scattered along the way.
Steve Earle
Look at the lonely boy,
Out on the weekend.
Trying to make it pay.
Can't relate to joy,
Tries to speak and
Can't begin to say.
The woman I'm thinking of
She loved me all up.
And I'm so down today.
She's so fine she's in my mind
I hear her calling...
Neil Young
I'm sick of spending Sundays,
Wishing they were Mondays,
Sitting in a park alone.
So give my best
To anyone who's left,
Whoever done me
Any lovin' way but wrong.
And tell them that the pride
Of just the otherside
Of nowhere's going home.
Kris Kristofferson
It's plain to see, the sun won't shine today.
That's alright, I aint in the mood for sunshine anyway.
Maybe I'll go insane,
I've got to stop the pain,
But maybe I'll go down to see Kathleen.
Townes Van Zandt
I reached for her hand
And her eyes turned to poison
And her hair turned to splinters
And her flesh turned to brine.
She leaped cross my room
She stands neath my window
Screams that my first born
Surely be blind!
Townes Van Zandt
Never love a woman with hair dark like midnight,
And a dress made of satin all shimmering blue.
Townes Van Zandt
If you're travelin' the North country fair,
Where the wind blows heavy on the the borderline.
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine.
Bob Dylan
Her face was crystal,
Fair and fine.
Her breath was morning,
And her lips were wine.
Her eyes were laughter
And her touch devine.
Her face was crystal
and she was mine.
Townes Van Zandt
It's hard to make that change,
When life and love turn strange,
and cold.
Neil Young
Raised eight boys and only I turned bad.
Didn't get the beatings that the other ones had.
Grateful Dead
The point is not the grammer it's the feeling.
Sloan
She's fine when viewed from behind.
I don't mind.
I don't mind.
I don't mind.
Gordie Johnson
If I am bright enough to see you,
Then you're just too dark to care.
Neil Young
Out of my mind, through a keyhole in an open door.
Neil Young
I never got over those blue eyes,
I see them everywhere.
John R. Cash
Take my advice, don't listen to me.
Neil Young
I long to recall every kiss, every kind word,
I miss her so much I could die.
But the creatures of evil have captured her heart,
And that same old obsession still keeps us apart.
Gordon Lightfoot
I was down with a frown when a messenger brought me a letter,
I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her.
Any girl in the world could have easily known me better.
She said "Your strange but don't change." and I let her.
Neil Young