Great Lyrics. Period.

"How Much I Lied"

by Gram Parsons and David Rifkin

Darling, there is one thing I must tell you, you must know
But it's so hard to say the words I feel
This fancy that I'm on
s'been going on too long
It's time to stop pretending things are real
'Cause I've been living deep in sin, I've been living blind
And I just don't know what's right or wrong
To take a chance on losing you
is such a silly thing to do
A chance I might wake up and find you gone

Blue, so blue, my love is burning blue
Any brighter flame would be a lie
Blue, so blue, my love still burns for you
But I know I'll only make you cry

A thief can only steal from you
He cannot break your heart
He can never touch the precious things inside
Someone like you should surely be
Miles and miles away from me
Then you'd never care how much I lied

So try to understand the pain
It takes so long when I explain
Please don't you forget how much I lied
How much I lied

"The Country's In the Very Best of Hands"

lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Them city folks and we'uns
Are pretty much alike
Though they ain't used to living in the sticks
We don't like stone or cement
But we is in agreement
When we get started talking politics

The country's in the very best of hands
The best of hands
The best of hands

The treasury says the national debt
Is climbing to the sky
And government expenditures
Have never been so high
It makes a fellow get a
Gleam of pride of pride within his eye
To see how our economy expands
The country's in the very best of hands

The country's in the very best of hands
The best of hands
The best of hands

You oughtta hear the senate
When their drawing up a bill
Whereases and to-wits are crowded in each codicil
Such legal terminology
Would give your heart a thrill
There's phrases there that no one understands
The country's in the very best of hands

The building boom, they say
Is getting bigger every day
And when I asked a feller
How could everybody pay
He come up with an answer
That made everything okay
Supplies are getting greater than demands
The country's in the very best of hands

Don't you believe them congressmen
And senators are dumb
When they run into problems
That is tough to overcome
They just declare something
They call the moratorium
The upper and the lower house disbands
The country's in the very best of hands

Ford Motors is connected to the nominee
The nominee's connected to the treasury
When he ain't connected to the treasury
He sits around on his thigh bone

He sits around in this place they got
This big congressional parking lot
Just sits around on his you know what
Up there they calls it their thigh bone

Them bones, them bones
Gonna rise again
Gonna exercise the franchise again
Gonna tax us up to our eyes again
When they gets up off of their thigh bone

The country's in the very best of hands
The best of hands
The best of hands

The farm bill should be
Eight-nine percent parity
Another fellow recommends
It should be ninety-three
But eighty, ninety-five percent who cares about degree
It's parity that no one understands
The country's in the very best of hands

Them GOP's and democrats
Each hates the other one
They's always criticizing
How the country should be run
But neither tell the public
What the others gone and done
As long as no one knows
Where no one stands
The country's in the very best of hands

They sits around and just place they're at
Where folks in congress has always sat
Just sits around on their excess fat
Up there they calls it their thigh bone

They sits around till they starts to snore
Jumps up and hollers
I has the floor
Then sits right down where they sats before
Up there they calls it their thigh bone

Them bones, them bones
Gonna cross again
So dignified and so wise again
While the budget doubles in size again
When it gets them off of their thigh bone

The country's in the very best of hands
The best of hands
The best of hands

The money that they taxes us
That's known as revenues
They compound up collateral
Subtracts the residue
Don't worry about the principal
And interest that accrues
They're shipping all that stuff to foreign lands
The country's in the very best of hands

"Goin' Back"

Dusty Springfield

The Byrds

Lyrics by Gerry Goffin

I think I'm goin' back
To the things
I learned so well
In my youth

I think I'm returning to
Those days
When I was young enough
To know the truth

Now there are no games
To only pass the time
No more coloring books
No Christmas bells to chime

But thinking young
And growing older
Is no sin
And I can play
The game of life to win

I can recall a time
When I wasn't ashamed
To reach out to a friend
And now I think I've got
A lot more than
A skipping rope to lend

Now there's more to do
Than watch my sailboat glide
And everyday can be
A magic carpet ride
And I can play hide and seek with my fears
And live my days instead of counting my years

Let everyone debate the true reality
I'd rather see the world
the way it used to be
A little bit of freedom's
All we lack
So catch me if you can
I'm goin' back...

"Puttin' on the Ritz"

lyrics by Irving Berlin
(politically uncorrected version)

Have you seen the well to do
Up on Lennox Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare
With their noses in the air
High hats and narrow collars
White spats and fifteen dollars
Spending every dime
For a wonderful time

If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where Harlem sits? Puttin' on the Ritz

Spangled gowns upon the bevy of high browns
From down the levy, all misfits, puttin' on the Ritz

That's where each and every lulu-belle goes
Every Thursday evening* with her swell beaus
Rubbin' elbows

If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where Harlem sits? Puttin' on the Ritz

Spangled gowns upon the bevy of high browns
From down the levy, all misfits, puttin' on the Ritz

Reuben treats his sweetie to
Highbrow drinks and oyster stew
Though he knows quite well his dash
Means six days on beans and hash
Five spots he'll have to borrow
Dry spots can come tomorrow
But nobody cares
Tonight they're all millionaires!

If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where Harlem sits?
Puttin' on the Ritz

Come with me and we'll attend their jubilee
And see them spend their last two bits
Puttin' on the Ritz




* In the houses of the wealthy, Thursday was traditionally the maid's night off

Brilliant song by prog-rock masters, Marillion, from 1983. Fish was a great lyricist. Enjoy.

The Web---Marillion

The rain auditions at my window, its symphony echoes in my womb
My gaze scans the walls of this apartment
To rectify the confines of my tomb
I'm the cyclops in the tenement, I'm the soul without the cause
Crying 'midst my rubber plants, ignoring beckoning doors
Clippings from ancient newspapers lie scattered cross the floor
Stained by the wine from a shattered glass
Meaningless words, yellowed by time, faded photos exposing pain
Celluloid leeches bleeding my mind
Christ, you've finished playing hangman, you've cast the fateful dice
Advise, advise, advise me
This shroud will not suffice

And thus begins the web

Attempting to discard these clinging memories
I only serve to wallow in our past
I fabricate the weave with my excuses
Its strands I hope and pray shall last
Oh please do last

The flytrap needs the insects, ivy caresses the wall
Needles make love to the junkies, the sirens seduce with their call
Confidence has deserted me, with you it has forsaken me
Confused and rejected, despised and alone
I kiss isolation on its fevered brow
Security clutching me, obscurity threatening me
Christ your reasons were so obvious
As my friend have qualified, I only laughed away your tears
But even jesters cry

I realise I hold the key to freedom
I cannot let my life be ruled by threads
The time has come to make decisions
The changes have to be made
I realise I hold the key to freedom
I cannot let my life be ruled by threads
The time has come to make decisions
The changes have to be made

Now I leave you, the past does have it's say
You're all but forgotten a mote in my heart
Decisions have been made, decisions have been made
I've conquered my fears, the flaming shroud

Thus ends the web

Pink Floyd: Time
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say.

TOOL: Aenema

Some say the end is near
Some say we'll see Armageddon soon
I certainly hope we will
I sure could use a vacation from this

bullshite three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fricking hole we call L.A.
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away
Any fricking time, any fricking day
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona Bay

Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your Prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car

It's a
bullshite three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fricking hole we call L.A.
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away
Any fricking time, any fricking day
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona Bay

Some say a comet will fall from the sky
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves
Followed by fault lines that cannot sit still
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dip-shits

Some say the end is near
Some say we'll see Armageddon soon
I certainly hope we will because
I sure could use a vacation from this

Silly shite, stupid shite . . .

One great big festering neon distraction
I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied

Learn to swim

Mom's going to fix it all soon
Mom's coming around to put it back the way it ought to be

Learn to swim

frick L. Ron Hubbard and
frick all his clones
frick all those gun-toting
Hip gangster wannabes

Learn to swim

frick retro anything
frick your tattoos
frick all you junkies and
frick your short memory

Learn to swim

frick smiley glad-hands
With hidden agendas
frick these dysfunctional
Insecure actresses

Learn to swim

Because I'm praying for rain
And I'm praying for tidal waves
I want to see the ground give way
I want to watch it all go down
Mom, please flush it all away
I want to see it go right in and down
I want to watch it go right in
Watch you flush it all away

Tell him to bring it down again
Don't just call me pessimist
Try and read between the lines

I can't imagine why you wouldn't
Welcome any change, my friend

I want to see it all come down
Suck it down
Flush it down

Bob Dylan - "Isis"


I married Isis on the fifth day of May
But I could not hold on to her very long
So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away
For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong.

I came to a high place of darkness and light
The dividing line ran through the center of town
I hitched up my pony to a post on the right
Went in to a laundry to wash my clothes down.

A man in the corner approached me for a match
I knew right away he was not ordinary
He said "Are you looking for something easy to catch ?"
I said "I got no money". He said "That ain't necessary".

We set out that night for the cold in the North
I gave him my blanket he gave me his word
I said "Where are we going ?" He said "We'd be back by the fourth"
I said "That's the best new that I've ever heard".

I was thinking about turquoise I was thinking about gold
I was thinking about diamonds and the world's biggest necklace
As we rode through the canyons through the devilish cold
I was thinking about Isis how she thought I was so reckless.

How she told me that one day we meet up again
And things would be different the next time we wed
If I only could hang on and just be her friend
I still can't remember all the best things she said.

We came to the pyramids all embedded in ice
He said "There's a body I'm trying to find
If I carry it out it'll bring a good prize"
It was then that I knew what he had on his mind.

The wind it was howling and the snow was outrageous
We chopped through the night and we chopped through the dawn
When he died I was hoping that it wasn't contagious
But I made up my mind that I had to go on.
I broke into the tomb but the casket was empty
There was no jewels no nothing I felt I'd been had
When I saw that my partner was just being friendly
When I took up his offer I must-a been mad.

I picked up his body and I dragged him inside
Threw him down in the hole and I put back the cover
I said a quick prayer and I felt satisfied
Then I rode back to find Isis just to tell her I love her.

She was there in the meadow where the creek used to rise
Blinded by sleep and in need of a bed
I came in from the East with the sun in my eyes
I cursed her one time then I rode on ahead.

She said "Where ya been ?" I said "No place special ?"
She said "You look different" I said "Well I guess"
She said "You been gone" I said "That's only natural"
She said "You gonna stay ?" I said "If you want me to, Yeah ".

Isis oh Isis you mystical child
What drives me to you is what drives me insane
I still can remember the way that you smiled
On the fifth day of May in the drizzling rain.

Me and Bobby McGee - Kristofferson

Carolina In My Mind - James Taylor

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Lil Boosie - They Dykin

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