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SamIAm's avatar

Most powerful song lyrics?

Asked by SamIAm (8703points) March 13th, 2011

This question was asked a while back but I figured it was time to relive it

I was driving yesterday and the lyrics You’re gonna catch a cold from the ice inside your soul struck me really hard! One of those things that just makes you think…

So what are your favorites? Most powerful?

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24 Answers

Itsaboutme's avatar

Revelry by Kings of Leon.

filmfann's avatar

I would go with the words to Amazing Grace. I am laid bare by it.

Joker94's avatar

I feel like I’ve said this before, but the Shins song “Gone for Good” has a rather depressing line:
I found a fatal flaw
In the Logic of Love
And went outta my head.
You love a sinking stone
That will never elope
So get used to the lonesome,
girl you must atone some,
Don’t leave me no phone numbers there.

El_Cadejo's avatar

Ive always found this song really meaningful.

FireMadeFlesh's avatar

The most powerful in my opinion are those of Flag in the Ground by Sonata Arctica:

“Please let me know everything’s alright
Thinking about you, ‘though you’re out of sight every night, when I’m turning in, my tears find me.
Please hurry, dear, come back and rescue me…”

I stuck my… flag in the ground, screaming ‘n shouting,
I’ve never felt so proud, Love!
We are free from eternal serfdom!
I’m gonna bring you home, my light!

crisw's avatar

Sugar Tongue by Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls

All the fur and fin will lose again
Cause our better is their worst reckonin’
And our fine-feathered friends will sing until they bleed
And how will we replace that symphony?

I’ve got the blackest boots, the whitest skin
Satisfy my sugar tongue again
Sing me lullabies of shoe-shine days
Gilded verses for your atheling
And sing it to me free and clean

All the kids come home with foreign limbs
from hunting trips abroad they lose again
and we’ll teach them how to talk
and whistle while they walk
and do the dirty work of battle hymns

I’ve got the blackest boots, the whitest skin
Satisfy my sugar tongue again

Sing me lullabies of shoe-shine days
Gilded verses for your atheling
And sing it to me free and clean

Drinking tea with milk and Janjaweed
Pontificate on genocide and greed
With a spoonful of dissent
For the orchestra of need
Just enough to please this colony

I’ve got the blackest boots, the whitest skin
Satisfy my sugar tongue again
Sing me lullabies and morphine dreams
Belladonna with her atropine
And sing it to me free and clean

ETpro's avatar

Old Man River— Paul Robeson describes the unstopable arrow of time in powerful, earthy terms.

All along the Watchtower—Jimi Hendris talks about our seemingly insignificant place in the arrow of time.

Shine on You Crazy Diamond—Pink Floyd mourns the loss of a loved member. You have to know that this piece talks about the insanity of one of the band’s brilliant founding members, Syd Barrett, who slipped into mental illness to the point he just sat with an unknowing, blank stare, apparently unaware of the world around him,.

xjustxxclaudiax's avatar

“And there will come a time, you’ll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.”-Mumford & Sons

“And my head told my heart
‘Let love grow’
But my heart told my head
‘This time no
This time no’ ”-Mumford & Sons

“The worlds a roller coaster, and I am not strapped in. Maybe I should hold on with care but my hands are busy in the air screaming, ‘I wish you were here, I wish you were here.’ ”-Incubus

“If joy really does come in the morning time, then I’m gonna sit back and wait for the next sunrise.”-P.O.D.

“Its our god forsaken right to be loved.”- Jason Mraz

I remember soooo many lyrics that strike a nerve with me…but these are some of the ones that stick out the most. As you can see….I couldn’t pick just one…I listen to music almost all day..everyday..

GladysMensch's avatar

“and then I ran my tin-cup heart along
the prison of her ribs
and with a toss of her curls that little girl goes wading in
rolling her dress up past her knee
turning the waters into wine
she plaited all the willow vines.
Mary in the shallows laughing
over where the carp dart
spooked by the new shadows that she cast
across these sad waters
and across my heart.

Sad Waters by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

SamIAm's avatar

@xjustxxclaudiax: whoa. that first song is incredible. I can’t wait to share it… thank you.

Joker94's avatar

@xjustxxclaudiax i love Mumford & Sons..

Also, I remembered another lyric by Neil Young from the song “Love in Mind”:

Man-made rules been holding back, my love
Can’t hold it back no more
Churches long preach sex is wrong,
Jesus where has nature gone?
What am I doing here?

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

These two old songs come immediately to mind—the music is good too:

The very thought of you and I forget to do
The little ordinary things that everyone ought to do
I’m living in a kind of daydream
I’m happy as a king
And foolish though it may seem
Why to me that’s everything

The mere idea of you, the longing here for you
You’ll never know how slow the moments go till I’m near to you
I see your face in every flower
Your eyes in stars above
It’s just the thought of you
The very thought of you, my love

~ The Very Thought of You,
by Ray Noble, 1934

Now you say you’re lonely
You cry the long night through
Well, you can cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you

Now you say you’re sorry
For being so untrue
Well, you can cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you

You drove me, nearly drove me, out of my head
While you never shed a tear
Remember, I remember, all that you said?
You told me love was too plebian
Told me you were through with me and…

Now you say you love me
Well, just to prove that you do
Come on and cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you
I cried a river over you
I cried a river over you

~ Cry Me a River,
by Arthur Hamilton, 1953

gravity's avatar

I Need You To Turn To

You’re not a ship to carry my life
You are nailed to my love in many lonely nights
I’ve strayed from the cottages and found myself here
For I need your love your love protects my fears

And I wonder sometimes and I know I’m unkind
But I need you to turn to when I act so blind
And I need you to turn to when I lose control
You’re my guardian angel who keeps out the cold

Did you paint your smile on, well I said I knew
That my reason for living was for loving you
We’re related in feeling but you’re high above
You’re pure and you’re gentle with the grace of a dove

Elton John
Lyrics by Bernie Taupin
The song is hauntingly beautiful.

rebecca_harris9's avatar

anything by eminem and bruno mars :)

linguaphile's avatar

This song gets me every time- makes me stop, look around, take a deep breath, appreciate, and go on. Fragile

and anything from RENT

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

~Lyric from the 1949 Rogers and Hammerstein Broadway Musical South Pacific adapted from the book Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener.

It also works as a Rap.

Poser's avatar

Because my GF and I are separated by a continent and an ocean, the lyrics to Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat’s song Lucky struck me as particularly poignant.

GabrielsLamb's avatar

@Joker94 The Shins have some PROFOUND lyrics… Love that part too, great song!

GabrielsLamb's avatar

@Poser How do you deal? For you and your love… This ones on me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_5oTsMNvjs&ob=av2n

GabrielsLamb's avatar

I think that this song has a strong juxtaposition in it’s sentiment and intent, it is a weakness, and a strength at the same time in being able to put it forward in this open, and beautifully pleading dialoge. I have always found it to be one of the most beautiful songs ever written…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLzbKm56dLI

And the simplicity and depth of this song too… It’s a close tie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV65wClfGWc

crgraham's avatar

two entries:

“Childhood’s End”
by Pink Floyd

You shout in your sleep.
Perhaps the price is just too steep.
Is your conscience at rest if once put to the test?
You awake with a start to just the beating of your heart.
Just one man beneath the sky,
Just two ears, just two eyes.
You set sail across the sea of longpast thoughts and memories.
Childhood’s end,
Your fantasies merge with harsh realities.
And then as the sail is hoist,
You find your eyes are growing moist.
All the fears never voiced say you have to make your final choice.
Who are you and who am I to say we know the reason why?
Some are born;
Some men die beneath one infinite sky.
There’ll be war, there’ll be peace.
But everything one day will cease.
All the iron turned to rust;
All the proud men turned to dust.
And so all things, time will mend.
So this song will end.

“The Last Resort”
by The Eagles

She came from Providence,
the one in Rhode Island
Where the old world shadows hang
heavy in the air
She packed her hopes and dreams
like a refugee
Just as her father came across the sea

She heard about a place people were smilin’
They spoke about the red man’s way,
and how they loved the land
And they came from everywhere
to the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand
or a place to hide

Down in the crowded bars,
out for a good time,
Can’t wait to tell you all,
what it’s like up there
And they called it paradise
I don’t know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
while the town got high

Then the chilly winds blew down
Across the desert
through the canyons of the coast, to
the Malibu
Where the pretty people play,
hungry for power
to light their neon way
and give them things to do

Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught ‘em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought ‘em
And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea

You can leave it all behind
and sail to Lahaina
just like the missionaries did, so many years ago
They even brought a neon sign: “Jesus is coming”
Brought the white man’s burden down
Brought the white man’s reign

Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
‘Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here

We satisfy our endless needs and
justify our bloody deeds,
in the name of destiny and the name
of God

And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it’s like up there
They call it paradise
I don’t know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye

ETpro's avatar

OK, It’s been this kind of day on July 3. But the calendar has rolled over here in GMT -5 and it’s Happy Birthday America today.

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