Lyrical genius

[Potato]

Share your favourite song lyrics. Any genre. Try to provide some explanation.

Townes Van Zandt - Rake

Well, I used to wake and run with the moon
I lived like a rake and a young man
I covered my lovers with flowers and wounds
My laughter the devil would frighten

The sun she would come and beat me back down
But every cruel day had it's nightfall
I'd welcome the stars with wine and guitars
Full of fire and forgetful

Well, my body was sharp, the dark air clean
And outrage my joyful companion
Whisperin' women how sweet did they seem
Kneelin' for me to command them

And time was like water but I was the sea
I wouldn't noticed it passin'
Except for the turnin' of night into day
And the turnin' of day into cursin'

Well, you look at me now, don't think I don't know
What all your eyes are a-sayin'
Does he want us to believe these ravings and lies
They're just tricks that his brains been a playin'?

A lover of women? He can't hardly stand
He trembles, he's bent, he's broken
I've fallen, it's true but I say to you
Hold your tongues until after I've spoken

I was takin' my pride in the pleasures I'd known
I laughed and said I'll be forgiven
But my laughter turned 'round eyes blazing and said
My friend, we're holdin' a wedding

I buried my face but it spoke once again
The night to the day we're a bindin'
And now the dark air is like fire on my skin
And even the moonlight is blinding
Now the dark air is like fire on my skin
And even the moonlight is blinding

I love this song and the lyrics are amazing.

rake
/reɪk/

noun
DATED
noun: rake; plural noun: rakes

a fashionable or wealthy man of immoral or promiscuous habits.

It starts off with the titular rake recounting his early life full of late nights, women, booze and song. Loving the night and hating the day because it ended his nights.

But by verse 5, things turn.

He seems to address the audience by saying, "Well, you look at me now, don't think I don't know What all your eyes are a-sayin'"

Then he recounts what the audience is saying, "Does he want us to believe these ravings and lies. They're just tricks that his brains been a playin'?"

He follows that with this heartbreaking line, "A lover of women? He can't hardly stand. He trembles, he's bent, he's broken."

This is an old, broken man we are dealing with here and no one wants to believe he was this rakish character who women knelt before him to command.

He ends with him recounting how his poor behaviour was now stuck with him.

He finishes with this line, "And now the dark air is like fire on my skin. And even the moonlight is blinding."

He started by saying he used to, "wake and run with the moon", but now "even the moonlight is blinding".

I love it.

[Transhuman]

[Transhuman]

[benjipwns]

I looked up a song on Genius once and one of the band members had annotated a bunch of their lyrics on the site and he posted a similar thing on one of their songs like "you know, 15 years later, I'm not sure this verse even makes any sense, but it still sounds good in the song!"

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Couple of structuralist picks;



Subterranean Homesick Blues took some shit for using nonsense lyrics (I Am The Walrus was a direct response that nonsense lyrics = easy mode song writing), but this is just Weird Al showing off tbh

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

for experimental acrostic rhythms

[Potato]

Weird Al doesn't get enough respect

Never heard the other song before, but having looked up the lyrics, they are pretty cool.