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I like that song, Magrus. I have not heard of it before. This is very very famous, but I still like the sense of loss he expresses and yours reminded me of it in a strange way


Visions of Johanna

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it
And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it
Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft
But there's nothing, really nothing to turn off
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind

In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain
And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it's him or them that's really insane
Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here
The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place

Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously
And when bringing her name up
He speaks of a farewell kiss to me
He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all
Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall
How can I explain?
Oh, it's so hard to get on
And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn

Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while
But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles
See the primitive wallflower freeze
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeeze
I can't find my knees"
Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel

The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him
Sayin', "Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him"
But like Louise always says
"Ya can't look at much, can ya man?"
As she, herself, prepares for him
And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed
The fiddler, he now steps to the road
He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads
While my conscience explodes
The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain

Bob Dylan

I really like that song, and I once dated and Australian girl named Johanna.

This one, is done by one of my favorite bands. I am assuming this song was written about the lead singer's mother, she committed suicide when she was little and a number of his songs are about her. But, it holds a different meaning for me and I really like the song.

Ooooooohh I love that song Fiona: my favorite behind "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Gates Of Eden". Here's another favorite of mine, it's even more venomous than "Like A Rolling Stone" ...

"Idiot Wind"
-Bob Dylan, Blood On The Tracks

Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out quick but when they will I can only guess
They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me
I can't help it if I'm lucky.

People see me all the time and they just can't remember how to act
Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts
Even you yesterday you had to ask me where it was at
I couldn't believe after all these years you didn't know even me better than that
Sweet lady.

Idiot wind blowing every time your move your mouth
Blowing down the backroads heading south
Idiot wind blowing every time you move your teeth
You're an idiot babe
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe

I ran into the fortune-teller who said beware of lightning that might strike
I haven't known peace and quit for so long I can't remember what it's like
There's a lone soldier on the cross smoke pouring out of a boxcar door
You didn't know it you didn't think it could be done in the final end he won the wars
After losing every battle.

I woke up on the roadside daydreaming about the way things sometimes are
Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are making me see stars
You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies
One day you'll be in the ditch, flies buzzing around your eyes
Blood on your saddle.

Idiot wind blowing through the flowers on your tomb
Blowing through the curtains in your room
Idiot wind blowing every time you move your teeth
You're an idiot babe
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart
You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn't enough to change my heart
Now everything's a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped
What's good is bad what's bad is good you'll find out when you reach the top
You're on the bottom.I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind
I can't remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed your eyes don't look
into mine
The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone faced while the
building burned
I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees while the
springtime turned
Slowly into autumn.

Idiot wind blowing like a circle around my skull
From the Grand Coulee Dam to Capitol
Idiot wind blowing every time you move you teeth
You're an idiot babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

I can't feel you anymore, I can't even touch the books you've read
Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishing I was somebody else instead
Down the highway down the tracks down the road to ecstasy
I followed you beneath the stars hounded by your memory
And all you raging glory.

I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free
I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me
You'll never know the hurt I suffered not the pain I raise above
And I'll never know the same about you your holiness or your kind of love
And it makes me feel so sorry.

Idiot wind blowing through the buttons of our coats
Blowing through the letters that we wrote
Idiot wind blowing through the dust upon our shelves
We're idiots babe
It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.


@ OS: You're right of course, I tend to forget some artists don't write all the lyrics themselves. My bad.

Tony, that is another favourite of mine. This is on a completely different tack and I don't know if many people know this band. But I like them and I go to see Robin Williamson (who is now a proper bard) when I can. Saw him the week before last, in fact. I like a lot of his stuff, but this is unusual for a song, I think. (realises it will now turn out everybody knows this, and it is like Richard Thomson )

Darling Belle
By Robin Williamson


papa would take me to the park to see the swans
by hansom cab trotting so high
holding his hand to see the swans
hissing louder than rustling dresses of gracious ladies bustling by

see swan ships come sailing in
white as the clouds on a windy day

James I suppose would be in school
James I suppose would be in school

I was I was learning to spell
laughing at loud smells
avoiding the rod of the codfaced master
was it your absence made me quiet at noon
playing british bulldogs on the gravel
was it your presence coloured my dream
I burrowed in cupboards like a mole all saturday
under old chairs and old ladies knees
I framed your half remembered face
with frail white embroideries
calling for you down the mousey garden
calling for you down the mousey garden

o did you meet him at the ball
eighteen years on
tall soldier now and you full grown
Belle did you meet him at the ball

o do you remember me
thin girl with cold hands
you in your scarlet and you knew my name
step to the veranda under the wisteria
in the mysterious november
dancing as if with death or fate
to the moon black ballroom
of the silk skinned lake
kissing me you lifted my skirt
under the willow trees

keep the home fires burning
though your heart is yearning
though the boys are far away
they dream of home
there's a silver lining
in the dark clouds shining
turn that lining inside out
till the boys come home

o did I see you march to the train
did I cry was my nose red
my two day bride can you feel me in your memory
I will be the redness in your iron fire
how could i write
my words would seem sad or gay
we regret to inform you
we regret to inform you

meet me by gaslight in the dark dawn
on waterloo bridge we will walk arm in arm
hearing the leaves fall with whisper into the foggy dew
when we are dead
when we are dead

now she sits in her brother's window's house
skin like a lizard aura like a daffodil
migrant guest from relative to inlaw
she stares into the embers and remembers

I kinda like that Fiona, is he someone who'd have made it here in the states I could look up?

This has been posted before I'm sure but it's just a great song, Neil's best and most poetic in my opinion.

"After the Gold Rush"
-Neil Young, After the Gold Rush

Well, I dreamed I saw the knights
In armor coming,
Saying something about a queen.
There were peasants singing and
Drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree.
There was a fanfare blowing
To the sun
That was floating on the breeze.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.

I was lying in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eyes.
I was hoping for replacement
When the sun burst thru the sky.
There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like getting high.
I was thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.
Thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.

Well, I dreamed I saw the silver
Space ships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun,
There were children crying
And colors flying
All around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun.
They were flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home.

@Tony. Good one from Neil Young. I like that whole album, actually.

Robin Williamson was part of "The Incredible String Band" who were from Edinburgh but were hugely hugely famous in the .....seventies...I think. They were not like anything else I have ever heard. I absolutely love some of their stuff. Robin Williamson is now a bard (well I think he always was but it is amazing to me that someone can make a living like that now) He does shows where he tells celtic stories and plays the harp. Sings as well of course, some old and some new stuff. I prefer him solo, but last time I saw him he performed with his wife.

Here is another. As you will see there is a lot of religious/mystical imagery. Sadly these songs really are enhanced by the music, IMO

Ducks on a pond
By Robin Williamson


Ducks on a pond, ducks on a pond
Very pretty swimming round
The lion and the unicorn journey very far
The answers are the question, sir
The lady soothes the lion's fur
Meek as a lamb he follows her
Wherever angels are

Sing me something
I asked the ice it would not say
But only cracked or moved away
I thought I knew me yesterday
Whoever sings this song

Greetings on you kings in the sky
Who'll buy me a mynah bird
Play me a magic word
Speak of hopes with thoughts absurd
Thoughts floating by
Little ducks, pretty birds
Clouds across the sky

Moving pieces on the plains of Troy
Carving faces on the rocks of joy
Pretty lady washing the tiles
Soapy pictures like crocodiles

Chilly winds blowing
Lovely spring coming soon

I wear my body like a caravan
Gipsy rover in a magic land
Misty mountains where the eagles fly
Lonely valleys where the lost ones cry

I had a little letter full of paper

Inky scratches everywhere
Always looking, looking for a paradise island
Help me find it everywhere

Peacocks talking of the colour grey
Awaking soundly in darkest day
A howling tempest on a silent sea
Lovely Jesus nailed to a tree

Mad as the moon when Merlin falls
Silver castles and silver halls
Taking lessons from the piper's son
Learn to play while the world is young

Boys and girls come out to play
The moon doth shine as bright as day
Leave your sorrows and leave your sleep
And join your playfellows in the street
Come with a whoop or come with a call
Come with a goodwill or not at all
Up the ladder and down the wall
A ha'penny loaf will serve for all

Following my fortune now the Holy Grail is found
And the Holy Bread of Heaven it is given all around
Farewell sorrow, praise God the open door
I ain't got no home in this world any more

Poor as the birds but to give their song away
Gathering possessions round to make a bright array
Dark was the night, praise God the open door
I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

@Tony, I like that one!
@Fiona, I've never heard that song, but I like those lyrics!

The Incredible String Band I've heard of Fiona, though I can't say I know anything by them. Thank you, I think I will look him up. That second one I liked too, this guy might be right up my alley. After the Gold Rush is far an away my favorite Neil Young album, one of my favorite of all time in fact. Here's another good one from my other favorite album, also very poetic and dreamy: if you liked "After the Gold Rush" I guarantee you'd like this one, the music makes it much better.

@ OS: That's from Shrek too isn't it?

"Thrasher"
-Neil Young, Rust Never Sleeps

They were hiding behind hay bales,
They were planting in the full moon
They had given all they had for something new
But the light of day was on them,
They could see the thrashers coming
And the water shone like diamonds in the dew.

And I was just getting up, hit the road before it's light
Trying to catch an hour on the sun
When I saw those thrashers rolling by,
Looking more than two lanes wide
I was feelin' like my day had just begun.

Where the eagle glides ascending
There's an ancient river bending
Down the timeless gorge of changes
Where sleeplessness awaits
I searched out my companions,
Who were lost in crystal canyons
When the aimless blade of science
Slashed the pearly gates.

It was then I knew I'd had enough,
Burned my credit card for fuel
Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand
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.

They had the best selection,
They were poisoned with protection
There was nothing that they needed,
Nothing left to find
They were lost in rock formations
Or became park bench mutations
On the sidewalks and in the stations
They were waiting, waiting.

So I got bored and left them there,
They were just deadweight to me
Better down the road without that load
Brings back the time when I was eight or nine
I was watchin' my mama's T.V.,
It was that great Grand Canyon rescue episode.

Where the vulture glides descending
On an asphalt highway bending
Thru libraries and museums, galaxies and stars
Down the windy halls of friendship
To the rose clipped by the bullwhip
The motel of lost companions
Waits with heated pool and bar.

But me I'm not stopping there,
Got my own row left to hoe
Just another line in the field of time
When the thrashers comes, I'll be stuck in the sun
Like the dinosaurs in shrines
But I'll know the time has come
To give what's mine

@Tony, yeah, it is.

Another Elton John/Bernie Taupin song here.

I was woken up from a dream which inspired me to post this.

@Mag, nice pick.

These are two favourites of mine… heartmelters.

I love the lyrics of this first one, a lot.



And now this one… definitely a favourite.

I couldn't decide what to post from Nick Cave. But this one is good, I think, if rather harrowing


Where do we go but nowhere

I remember a girl so very well
The carnival drums all mad in the air
Grim reapers and skeletons and a missionary bell
O where do we go now but nowhere

In a colonial hotel we ****ed up the sun
And then we ****ed it down again
Well the sun comes up and the sun goes down
Going round and round to nowhere

The kitten that padded and purred on my lap
Now swipes at my face with the paw of a bear
I turn the other cheek and you lay into that
O where do we go now but nowhere

O wake up, my love, my lover wake up
O wake up, my love, my lover wake up

Across clinical benches with nothing to talk
Breathing tea and biscuits and the Serenity Prayer
While the bones of our child crumble like chalk
O where do we go now but nowhere

I remember a girl so bold and so bright
Loose-limbed and laughing and brazen and bare
Sits gnawing her knuckles in the chemical light
O where do we go now but nowhere

You come for me now with a cake that you've made
Ravaged avenger with a clip in your hair
Full of glass and bleach and my old razorblades
O where do we go now but nowhere

O wake up, my love, my lover wake up
O wake up, my love, my lover wake up

If they'd give me my clothes back then I could go home
From this fresh, this clean, antiseptic air
Behind the locked gates an old donkey moans
O where do we go now but nowhere

Around the duck pond we grimly mope
Gloomily and mournfully we go round again
And one more doomed time and without much hope
Going round and around to nowhere

From the balcony we watched the carnival band
The crack of the drum a little child did scare
I can still feel his tiny fingers pressed in my hand
O where do we go now but nowhere

If I could relive one day of my life
If I could relive just a single one
You on the balcony, my future wife
O who could have known, but no one

O wake up, my love, my lover make up
O wake up, my love, my lover make up

Nick Cave

Edit: Forgive the filter. I didn't think till I had posted. I can't think of anything to do about it which will not be sillier

Double post and this is far to long for here. But I'm flaky today and I want to post it. Sue me

Creation
By Robin Williamson

The messengers with sharpened heels
Flew backwards into whose galloping arms
And the impassioned Phoenix
Drawls a sad goodnight to fiction's tomb

Then come to me secretly
And with your silken feather
And with your silken feather
Open your rooms

Never, in fact, as he gazed amazed
At two lost eyebrows lisping into the unexpected
And the archetypal postman delivering your seed letters
Whose eyes are black eggs really
Upon a long shore, upon a long shore
Open your door, open your door

'Ask anyone,' he muttered, as he spat a small,
Brilliant blue insect whirring into the gauze.
'I would advise stilts for the quagmires,
And camels for the snowy hills
And any survivors
Their debts I will certainly pay.
There's always a way, there's always a way.

I smiled with that gallantly concealed forceful nervousness
That has proved that oysters cry
And that I have come to know and accept as myself.
And plucking a barbed feather from the morose universe
I called him deathless
And he left before he could reply
Open your eyes, open your eyes

Our first father, Abraham, whose bosom
Was the unique soul of the humans
Was certainly as bewildered as we are
If not infinitely more so
And with an ancient ceremonial gesture of dismissal
He pointed forward.

Verily, verily
Verily, verily

The first day was golden
And she coloured the sun
And she named it Hyperion
And she made it a day of light and healing

The second was silver
And she coloured the moon
And she named it Phoebe
And she made a day of enchantment and the living waters

And the third was many-coloured
And she coloured the earth
And she made a day of joy
With the scarlet strength of seed

In the fourth black and white were mingled into quicksilver
And she coloured Mercury
And she made a day of wisdom
And the signs that are placed in the firmament

The fifth was bright blue
And she envisaged Jupiter
And she made a day of awe and circles, circles
And she sent it to guide the blood of the universe

The sixth was burning with icy, green flames that glowed white
And of her beauty she made Venus
And she made a day of love
Whereby all beings are united

The seventh was rich purple of the mollusks
And she coloured Chronos
And she made a day of idleness and repose
Whereon all beings cease from struggle.

Verily, verily
Verily, verily

I am the pebble in your very own eye
I am the sword and your enemy dies.
I am the storm and the hurricane wind
I am the thorn of an unkind friend
I am desire what colour my eyes?
I am Loki wizard of lies
Catch me, find me, see me if you can
I am the guilt of an honest man

Then seven times we raised our arms and with cat-stretch
Sent our footspells yawning into the multitudes

In need we called upon the mother of all living
Three times for succor
But with ambitious spears they made us change
They crouched behind their mirrors and fought on.

I will not allow them praise
That broke the harmonious globe in splintered fragments
And yet they moved perforce with a perfect pattern
And complemented harmony with dischord
And light with darkness

It was then that we stepped out of our world machine
Between the palm and the fingers
Peeling like gloves

And for each eye that shed one tear,
We made of that tear an ocean
And in the five directions
We loosed our several craft.

Wild sea, I say today,
Please be a sweet cow for me
Amethyst galleon, out on the rolling sea
Gentle as lightning, easily
Take me to the root of the world tree
Amethyst galleon, out on the rolling sea

Your face is consumed in a bruised sky's glance
By the brazen wall with your sword and lance
Where
Where dappled maidens, endless danced
Round the root of the world tree.

Wild sea, I say today
Please be a sweet cow for me
Amethyst galleon, out on the rolling sea

Wild sea, my love is salty for me
Every ripple in her body is a wave in me
Amethyst galleon, out on the rolling sea.

There's a song on this album I wished to post, but I am pretty sure the anti-Catholic theme would pose a problem. So, I'll go with this one instead.

Lend Me a Dollar- The Abe Lincoln Story

(Chorus)
Satan, Satan, lend me a dollar
Satan, Satan, lend me a dollar now!

I have no money to pay my rent
All my money has been spent
I pray to God but I get no reply
Satan, please, hear my cry:

(Chorus)

All I see is pain and death
And lots of people with bad breath
They say the world has gone to Hell
That would be just as well!

(Chorus)

If you could spare a dime,
That would sure be grand
Won't you come up and
Lend a helping hand

I sit here with no food upon my shelves
'Cause all the "good" people want the money
For themselves!

(Chorus)

The IRS it really sucks
Uncle Sam took all my bucks!
They buy big bombs, it makes me mad
You wouldn't be half so bad!

Smiffy’s Glass Eye
Written by Richard Thompson


Smiffy was a little boy, different from the rest
He had one eye pointing East and one pointing West
Ever since Tiny Murphy hit him with a sling
Smiffy with his glass eye glittering
Playing in the school-yard, how the kids would marvel
When Smiffy popped his glass ‘un out and used it for a marble
He was such a character the kids would sing
Smiffy with his glass eye glittering

Walking down the street when two big louts
Come and tripped up Smiffy and his eye fell out
They used it as a conker on a piece of string
Smiffy with his glass eye glittering
The girls all laughed when Smiffy passed them by
They called him Cyclops, he only had one eye
He never had a girl-friend, or that sort of thing
Smiffy with his glass eye glittering

Smiffy used to dream of the Judgement Day
When the flood came and carried all his school-friends away
He was lifted up to Heaven on an Angel’s wing
Smiffy with his glass eye glittering
Nobody cried when his world fell apart
And poor Smiffy died of a broken heart
You have to turn a blind eye to that sort of thing
Smiffy with his glass eye glittering

Had this song in my head for awhile, a Brittish band, but a Scottish song, sounds pretty good.

THE DARKNESS - Hazel Eyes

I hail from the flatlands of East Anglia
A town that once could boast prosperity
She had trekked for many moons from a land afar
But the cruel nets had emptied the northen sea

And she said "hoots, I cannae get back tae
me hoos in bonny Scotland"

Girl with the hazel eyes - Aaaaah!
Girl with the hazel eyes - Aaaaah!

The elements had taken their toll on her
Her face was weather beaten and her hair greasy
I had never seen a set of eyes more hazelerer
And a tear did fall as she looked up at me

And she said "hoots, I cannae get back tae
me hoos in bonny Scotland"

Girl with the hazel eyes - Aaaaah!
Girl with the hazel eyes - Aaaaah!

I shall travel with thee
For to see your folks in Scotland
With their blessing, on one knee
I shall ask for your left hand

Girl with the hazel eyes - Aaaaah! [x4]

I shall travel with thee
For to see your folks in Scotland
With their blessing, on one knee
I shall ask for your left hand