Limbs & Branches

This is the new, acoustic Jon Foreman album (lead singer for Switchfoot). His lyrics are captivating. I sometimes wonder if these lyrics count as lists, but I think so. I’m listing my favourite pieces so I can remember them and mull them over and maybe someday write something half as lovely.

I want to see us work, dear
To reach the other side
Our treachery is love, dear

We’re on both ends of the fight  (Behind Your Eyes – possibly my top favourite)

I’m heading home
But I’m not so sure
That home is a place
You can still get to by train (Southbound Train)

I could try and point the finger
But the glass points in my direction
Sure you’ve got your sharp edges
But my wounds are for my own reflection
You’ve got nothing I could ever hold against you
I’ve got fatal flaws to call my own
Please don’t go
Please don’t leave me alone
A mirror is so much harder to hold (A Mirror is Harder to Hold)

Here, my dear
This is where
We’ll shake the nightmares free
I dream to hold you in my arms
I dream to hold you in my arms
To hold you in my arms
Wide awake in my arms (In My Arms – my other top favourite)

We’re Going Down…

Last night, as I was driving home listening to my iPod, I heard a quadruple hit of no-longer-in-love songs in a row.  They are four of my favourite angst-ridden tunes.

• The Runaways – Anberlin – “It’s your fault, you’re like a rare disease. I know you’re in love with love, I believe.”

• Tainted Love – The Cure – “I gave you all a boy could give you, take my tears and that’s not nearly all…”
  

• Love You Madly – Cake – “I don’t want to sit across the table from you wishing I could run…”
  

• Slow Dancing in a Burning Room – John Mayer – “This is the deep and dying breath of this love that we’ve been working on.”
  

Rock Band on Replay

Rock Band is in my head. Songs I didn’t know, songs I’d never sing. Over and over, in my mind.

• In Bloom – Nirvana – “He’s the one who likes all our pretty songs and he likes to sing along…”
• Waves of Mutilation – The Pixies – “Waves of Mutilation, Waves of Mutilation…”
  
• Foreplay/Longtime – Boston – “And it’s been a long time. I think we should be going…”
  
• Train Kept a’Rollin -Aerosmith, I think – “And the train kept a’rollin…”
• Are You Gonna Be My Girl – Jett – “I said 1,2,3 take my hand and come with me because you look so fine…”
  
• Blitzkrieg Bop – The Ramones – “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!”, and not to be confused with
• Ballroom Blitz – Sweet – “Are you ready, Steve?”
• Say It Aint’t So – Weezer – “Dear Daddy, I write this, inspite of years of silence. You cleaned up, found Jesus…”

In My Head

I have had the following songs/lyrics in my head this past week. I don’t mind, except that I’ve had only these lines. Not the whole song.

• “Put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up…”
• “If you change your mind – I’ll be first in line…”
• “I’ll send an SOS to the world. I hope that someone gets my – message in a bottle…”
• “My dad said be an actor, my son. But be a comical one…”

More Great Songs

In the last month, I’ve added to my library of musical melodies:

• The Beastie Boys The Mix-Up
• Katie Herzig Apple Tree
• Belle & Sebastian The Life Pursuit
• Stars In Our Bedroom After the War
• The Killers Sawdust
  

My current favourite lyric from each album:

• oh wait, no words at all on The Mix-Up…but my favourite song is “B For My Name”
• Have I ever seen such kindness
  Such resigned delight all in one glance
  Right when you pass me
  I watch, you see
  You smile, I breathe
  Air in my chest
  I’m trying my best (Katie Herzig, “I Want to Belong to You”)
• Oh, if I could make sense of it all!
  I wish that I could sing
  I’d stay in a melody
  I would float along in my everlasting song
  What would I do to believe? (Belle & Sebastian, “Acts of the Apostle”)
• I never got your name, I assume you’re 33
  Your voice it sounded kind
  I hope that you like me
  When you see my face, I hope that you don’t laugh
  I’m not a film-star beauty
  I sent a photograph
  I hope that you don’t laugh…(The Stars, “Personal”)
• Take me to the place where the white boys dance.
  Take me to the place where they run and play.
  My baby is gone, you might have a chance.
  Just take me to the place where the white boys dance.(The Killers, “Where the White Boys Dance”)

Great Songs Lyrics (2)

Still enjoying my latest music purchase – William Fitzsimmons at the concert last week. Here are my favourite pieces of “inappropriate lyrical self-disclosure” from Goodnight. It’s an album “about families and what happens when they fall apart” (to quote the CD jacket).

• everyday’s another chance to bury my regret
  everyday’s another chance to make it but i can’t
  but i can’t

• now we’re stuck in this together
  and i don’t think i can run
  from the ties that you have started
  from the sins that we’ve become

• did you think about my mother
  when you shared the same bed cover
  did you wonder if it changed her
  when your sons became your strangers

• my mother warned me of people that would take advantage of my money and my grace
  but she forgot to tell me i’m the same
  and i’m the one to blame

• she is like a cigarette inside an ashtray
  nothing but a fire sets her free
  filling up my lungs until my body needs her
  holding on so i can never breathe

• that dress you wore is faded to the ivory that remains
  the frame of wedding pictures looks ten years out of date
  the toaster’s been replaced since we even thanked them for the thought
  the last time that we kissed, i saw you checking out the clock

Thankfully, the final song on the album is simplistic and hopeful:

• i still love you after all
  i still want you after all
  will you keep me after all
  please don’t leave me after all
  for better or worse after all
  sickness and health after all
  till death do us part after all
  i still love you after all

Great Songs Revealed!

Here are the songs I posted earlier in the week. I know that people were reading it, even if they didn’t make any guesses…

1. Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield
2. Live by Good Charlotte
3. Knock ‘Em Out by Lily Allen
4. Keep Your Hands to Yourself by The Georgia Satellites
5. Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright
6. Supergirl by Krystal
7. So Nice So Smart by Kimya Dawson
8. Playground by Sia
9. The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson
10. Even Rats by The Slip

Great Song Lyrics

Can you name the songs these lines come from? (answers in the entry “Great Songs Revealed”)

1. “I wanna tell her that I love her, but the point is probably moot.”
2. “I rock a lawsuit when I go to court, a white suit when I get divorced, a black suit at the funeral home, and my birthday suit when I’m home alone.”
3. “Go away now, let me go. Are you stupid? Or just a little slow?”
4. “My honey, my baby, don’t put my love upon no shelf. She said don’t give me no lies and keep your hands to yourself!”
5. “It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift.”
6. “Sometimes I have dreams. I picture myself flying, above the clouds, high in the sky. Conquering the world with my magic piano…”
7. “I like boys with strong convictions, and convicts with perfect diction.”
8. “I don’t wanna grow old, bring me all the toys you can find. You don’t wanna grow up; you can be my partner in crime.”
9. “If you were falling, then I would catch you. You need a light, I’d find a match. ‘Cause I love the way you say good morning. And you take me the way I am.”
10. “I hear spring is nice in Canada.”