The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Resurrecting an old thread. My contribution:

"The heart is a muscle, it needs exercise
Or it atrophies"
-- Frankie Big Face, "Is it Cold?"

Didn't he get lyrics to that from, uh... 'silvergirl', or something? Or maybe it was a collaboration, or my mind's failing me. Great lyric, regardless.

Er, I mean:

"Everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful."
- John Linnell, They Might Be Giants, "Don't Let's Start"

"If I roast marshmallows over their bodies, do you think God will still find their souls?"
- Matthew Good, Matthew Good Band, "Under the Influence"

john m wrote:Didn't he get lyrics to that from, uh... 'silvergirl', or something? Or maybe it was a collaboration, or my mind's failing me. Great lyric, regardless.

No, that was me. I made music for silvergirl's bad lyrics, and submitted as "Silver Medley".

"Dear everything.
Today I witnessed a crucifixion in pink and lavender and gold.
I've heard people say that beauty is in details,
but I don't think they have ever seen you.
There were mortal wounds inflicted on the sky
and incrminating blue stains on my shirt.
The shirt you bought for me.
Christ it hurts.
Like stars in my belly going supernova.
I feel like a zombie that refuses to live.
Haunting the junkyards and cutting myself on scraps of you.
The other day I masturbated to pictures of you at your birthday party.
They were the only ones I still had.
It felt so wrong, just like my life.
I hope I'm dead by the time you read this. I love you."
- "Starbelly". Pig Destroyer

"You say you don't love me
Well that's alright with me 'cos I'm in love with you
And I wouldn't want you doing things you don't want to do"

and

"Though I've got this special feelin' I'd be wrong to call it love
For the word entails a few things that I would be well rid of"

(Buzzcocks, 'Say You don't Love Me')

(Though I think the second one would be better if it was actually as I first mis-heard it, ' ... should be wary of')
j$

"Some of this is true
Some of this is better"

-Too Much Joy, "Thanksgiving in Reno"

---

"She wears my love like a see-through dress"

-U2, "So Cruel"

---

"They say that these are not the best of times
But they're the only times I've ever known
And I believe there is a time for meditation
In cathedrals of our own."

-Billy Joel, "Summer, Highland Falls"

---

"I wanna wake up in your arms
I wanna set off your alarms
I wanna break into your car
and take out the back seat
The one where you told me
everything I thought I always wanted to hear
The one where you told me
that it's over.

And everytime you look in your rearview mirror,
I hope you see me."

-Bowling for Soup, "Two-Seater"

---

"I met a girl, snowball in hell
she was hard and cracked as the libery bell
...
Her mama called me a theif
& her dad called himself commander in chief
...
She had a dream, woke up in shock
She had seen her own body outlined in chalk."

Elliott Smith, fragments from "Don't Go Down"

There are mouths to be kissed
Before mouths to be fed
And there's many a tryst
And there's many a bed
There's a lot I'll have missed
But I'll not have been dead
When I die
And a person should celebrate everything passing by

- Stephen Sondheim, "The Miller's Son"

Out of wine comes truth
Out of truth the vision clears
And with vision soon appears
A grand design
From the grand design
We can understand the world
And when you understand the world
You need a lot more wine

- Stephen Sondheim, "Hymnos, Evoe!"

The sky's so heavy it hangs like a beer gut
Spilling stuff on my shoes
Tim Rogers, You Am I - "What I Don't Know About You"


And then one day it happened
She cut her hair
And I stopped loving her
Billy Bragg - "Walk Away, Renee"


She began going out with Mr. Potato Head
Billy Bragg - "Walk Away, Renee"

"What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all"
-neutral milk hotel, "in the aeroplanes over the sea"

"our love is all of god's money. everyone is a burning sun."
-wilco, "jesus, etc."

"apples, i'm home.
gonna grab a f*ck
maybe play some hockey"
-adam green, "apples, i'm home"

"realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round"
-the flaming lips, "do you realize?"

"And we'll remember this when we are old and ancient
Though the specifics might be vague
And I'll say your camisole was a sprightly light magenta
When in fact it was a nappy bluish gray."

-The Decemberists, "July, July!"

*~*~*~*~*~*

"When you were young you were the king of carrot flowers
And how you built a tower tumbling through the trees
In holy rattlesnakes that fell all around your feet

And your Mum would stick a fork right into Daddy's shoulder
And Dad would through the garbage all across the floor
And we would lay and learn what each other's bodies were for."

-Neutral Milk Hotel, "The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1"

"Trembling in your tableau vivant
What are you wearing that mask for
You say I don't know what I want
I just don't know what to ask for"
---"Tablea Vivant", Franklin Bruno

fodroy wrote:

"realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round"
-the flaming lips, "do you realize?"

Yes - good pick

Caravan Ray wrote:

fodroy wrote:

"realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round"
-the flaming lips, "do you realize?"

Yes - good pick

The fool on the hill
Sees the sun going round
But the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round

- Beatles
(I always thought the FLs stole that lyrics from them)

well there is no such thing as original thought. i prefer the flaming lips' lyric myself.

Suddenly a shot
Ripped into his heart
He lay in need of some attention
And there he played his card
Going into shock
The last thing that he said was
Set this fucker off

Every single night, the same arrangement
I go out and fight the fight
Still I always feel this strange estrangement
Nothing here is real, nothing here is right
I've been making shows of trading blows
Just hoping no one knows
That I've been going through the motions
Walking through the part
Nothing seems to penetrate my heart...

...Will I stay this way forever?
Sleepwalk through my life's endeavor?
<i>(How can I repay-)</i>
Whatever.
I don't wanna be
Going through the motions
Losing all my drive
I can't even see
If this is really me
And I just wanna be
Alive

<i>-Joss Whedon (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Once More with Feeling")

Jim of Seattle wrote:

Caravan Ray wrote:

fodroy wrote:

"realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round"
-the flaming lips, "do you realize?"

Yes - good pick

The fool on the hill
Sees the sun going round
But the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round

- Beatles
(I always thought the FLs stole that lyrics from them)

You really can't *steal* from the Beatles, because you know you can't hide the theft. You can only refer or quote or give them homage in your lyrics. Depending on how well you pull off the reference, quote, or homage, people will either appreciate it or think you're trying to get some Beatles glory to rub off on your song.

Love's in the kitchen with a culinary eye
He's making something special and I'm smart enough to try
If you don't trust yoursel for at least one minute each day
Then you should trust in this girl, cause loving is coming our way
-Obstacle 2, by Interpol

Hoblit wrote:Suddenly a shot
Ripped into his heart
He lay in need of some attention
And there he played his card
Going into shock
The last thing that he said was
Set this fucker off

Good pick. Here's another one:

"I am not your rolling wheels
I am the highway
I am not your carpet ride
I am the sky."

"Let me tell you about my blues
My blues have turned black
Black, black, black, black
And my rotting stinking flesh
Black, black, black, black
I couldn’t stay high
I’m in some cemetery
I don’t know where I am
It’s been so many years
I lost so many tears
I don’t know who I am
It was all a moment in the ocean of time
I thought I had to go
And then I really was gone
I was gone, gone, gone, gone
I lost the way
I went way on tears
It was all I could do
Keep on keeping on
I walked and I walked and I walked and I walked
I didn’t see nothing in the midnight blue
My blues turned black
Black, black, black, black
Inside I’m a zombie
Outside I’m unknown
Black, black, black, black
That rotten stinking flesh
Maybe you can’t see it
But I know it’s for real
My blues have turned black
I forgot how to feel
My blues have turned black
I’m gone, I can’t come back"
- "Blues Turned Black" - Jandek

"You want to jump and dance
But you sat on your hands
And lost your only chance

Go back to your hometown
Get your feet on the ground
And stop floating around

I find a fatal flaw
In the logic of love
And go out of my head

You love a sinking stone
That'll never elope
So get used to used to the lonesome
Girl, you must atone some
Don't leave me no phone number there"

-The Shins

let's just forget
everything said
and everything we did
best friends, better halves, goodbyes

and the autumn night
when we realized
we were falling out of love

there were some things
that were said
that weren't meant
like we never did

not to be
overly dramatic

i just think it's best
cause you can't miss what you forget

so let's just pretend
everything and anything
between you and me
was never meant


-American Football