[wizely]

Just thought I'd start this thread as I'm sat here singing-away to myself. Feel free to join in!

This is what I'm wailing:

"Aotearoa, rugged individual,
Glisten like a pearl,
At the bottom of the world."

It's from "6 months in a leaky boat" by Split Enz (with Tim Finn and Neil Finn of Crowded House fame if you weren't aware of this Kiwi superband!)

It's the way he sings Ao-te-aroa to the uber-catchy tune that's got right inside my noggin! All those balanced syllables roll and crash like waves.

[headcoat]

first one that came to mind for me was

'we got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout...'

from jackson by johnny cash and june carter.

been listening to half man hals biscuits new lp a lot lately and love these lines from 'national ****e day', ok gotta post the whole song...

Pulling the ice axe from my leg
I staggered on
Spindrift stinging my remaining eye

I finally managed to reach the station
Only to find that the bus replacement service had broken down

After wondering to myself whether it should actually be called a train replacement service
I walked out onto the concourse and noticed the giant screen seemed to have been tampered with
Probably by a junior employee
Disgruntled commuters were being regaled with some dismal TVM
Involving a tug-of-love-custody-battle
Stockard Channing held sway

Down in the High Street somebody careered out of Boots without due care or attention
I suggest that they learn some pedestrian etiquette
i.e sidle out of the store gingerly
Embrace the margin

Fat kids with sausage rolls
Poor sods conducting polls

There’s a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets

I try to put everything into perspective
Set it against the scale of human suffering
And I thought of the Mugabe government
And the children of the Calcutta railways
This works for a while
But then I encounter Primark FM
Overhead a rainbow appears
In black and white

****e Day
I guess this must be National ****e Day
This surely must be National ****e Day
Don’t tell me, it’s National ****e Day

Float… float on
Float… float on
Barry… Herpes

I got a letter from Stringy Bob
Still on suicide watch
Screws not happy
Spotted a Marsh Fritillary during association
Was roundly ignored
What news you
I felt sorry for him
He’d only been locked up for public nuisance offences
One of which saw him beachcombing the Dee Estuary
Found a dead wading bird
Took it home, parcelled it up, and sent it off to the rubber-faced irritant Phil Cool
With a note inside which read: “Is this your Sanderling?”

Another time saw him answering an advert in the music press
“Keyboard player required: Doors, Floyd, etc.
Must be committed, no time wasters”
You can guess the rest

I always imagined he would simply wander off some day into the hills
To be found months later
His carcass stripped by homeless dogs
His exposed skull a perch for the quartering crow

I folded away the letter and put it in my inside pocket
All of a sudden I felt brushed by the wings of something dark
May the Lord have mercy on Stringy Bob

****e Day
I do believe it’s National ****e Day
It all points to National ****e Day
Someone’s declared it National ****e Day

****e Day
My birthday! On National ****e Day
No bogroll, it’s National ****e Day
Cue drumroll, it’s National ****e Day

[notbanksy]

headcoat, on Jun 6 2008, 12:49, said:

There’s a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets

that is a classic line!!! What's ****e Day? Can you give us a couple more letters from the expletive? Good man. I must hear this song...

To continue with the Crowdies theme (I'm going to see them in 2 weeks time!! ) I really like the lyrics to Twisty Bass by Neil Finn (from the Try Whistling This Album)

Quote

Hangman's in the noose
Prisoner is loose
The wheel has come around
And the velvet curtain coming down

....

Santa's on the cross
innocence is lost
the music's in your mind
and the windscreen wipers move in time.

I also really like Paul Simon for lyrics, and Rufus Wainwright too. Here's Memphis Skyline, his tribute to Jeff Buckley:

Quote

Never thought of Hades
Under the Mississippi
But still I've come to sing for him
So southern furies
Prepare to walk
for my harp I have strung
and I will leave with him
Relax the cogs of rhyme
Over the Memphis sky
Turn back the wheels of time
Under the Memphis skyline
always hated him
for the way he looked in the gaslight of the morning
Then came hallelujah sounding like mad Ophelia
for me in my room living
So kiss me, my darling stay with me till morning
Turn back and you will stay
Under the Memphis Skyline

Beautiful.

Thanks for starting this thread Wizely - good stuff!!

[Cabbage]

Ha I'm a little too embarrassed to post my favourite lyrics

[wizely]

Cabbage, on Jun 6 2008, 13:09, said:

Ha I'm a little too embarrassed to post my favourite lyrics

"I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky...." ?

[headcoat]

@notbanksy, think northern variant on standard four letter expletive beginning with s and ending in t. then simply add an E.

rhymes with write...

[rjdejong]

My fav lyrics. Topic might be a lil bit cliche, still think it's fkin awesome

Project 86 - Something we Can't be

Quote

Dictate
What you think is pivotal
Mandate
Just for the sake of
Ego
Controlling your decision making
The world we're missing is still ours for the taking

Accelerate
Into isolation
Gravitate
To comfort, presentation
Anxiety laden, restless confusion
No courage, no confidence, absent delusion

Most of us would be lying
Holding fast to denying
If we
Said we're all feeling swell and content
All of us would be slipping
Backpedaling, gripping
So tight
To our fragile confidence

We're trying
Just to convince
The world we're
Something
That we can't be
We are not
Afraid of
Being alone
Of being caught
By oursselves
With only
Our own thoughts

Activate
With hope and integrity
Honesty
The only true currency
Devastate
The guilt, not the guilty
And I promise a better night's sleep

[notbanksy]

headcoat, on Jun 6 2008, 13:13, said:

@notbanksy, think northern variant on standard four letter expletive beginning with s and ending in t. then simply add an E.

rhymes with write...

good to see you on the forums again Headcoat, sir. Hope you are well?

[headcoat]

notbanksy, on Jun 6 2008, 13:19, said:

good to see you on the forums again Headcoat, sir. Hope you are well?

am i well? just about, recovering from a php induced breakdown yesterday...but encouraging words from tutor and a recommendation to submit what i've done and not bang my head against a brick wall just yet have acted as therapy.

do check out half man half biscuit lyrics i rather sense that you'll find them both hilarious and observant.

and you kind sir?

[notbanksy]

Wizely - thought you'd be interested to know I went to see the inimitable Crowded House on Saturday - best gig of my life by a yawning chasm! I was in a state of spiritual ecstasy throughout the whole performance, despite being somewhat bemused by the support act (The Delays for anyone interested).

It rained but I hardly noticed it Pretty much note perfect throughout, and disarmingly beautiful. Neil Finn goes back to the top of my favourites list after a short break

In anti-climax mode for the rest of the week...

[wizely]

Brilliant! And very well written sir. I might be trying to turn you to the darkside (Copywriting) soon!
Who replaced Paul Hester on drums?
Crowded House are an amazing KIWI band and Neil Finn (unfortunately pronounced "Nil Fun" by Kiwis!) is a genius.

Funny story about that! Neil Finn had an album called "One Nil" which played on the Kiwi accent. But it had to be renamed to "One All" for the american market because of the "no-one should lose" mentality!!!!!

Split Enz are also brilliant and, just like Crowded House, featured Tim and Neil together on-an-off. Split Enz was Tim's band and Crowded House was Neil's which started-off as the Mullains (Neil's middle name and his mother's maiden name) but the guitarist left before their first album was recorded so they changed the name to Crowded House (after their pokey little loft in LA where they were recording).

Oh, and in-case you were wondering "57 Mount Pleasant Street" is in Te Awamutu (North Island NZ) where the Finns (the creative genius) are from - therefore making Crowded House a Kiwi band!

[BlueDreamer]

One that springs to mind...

"Lives of great men all remind us we may make our lives sublime,
And departing leave behind us footprints in the sands of time,
Of hewn stones the sacred circle where the wizened sages sat,
Let us try to remember all the times where they were at."

[notbanksy]

wizely, on Jun 27 2008, 01:38, said:

Brilliant! And very well written sir. I might be trying to turn you to the darkside (Copywriting) soon!
Who replaced Paul Hester on drums?
Crowded House are an amazing KIWI band and Neil Finn (unfortunately pronounced "Nil Fun" by Kiwis!) is a genius.

Funny story about that! Neil Finn had an album called "One Nil" which played on the Kiwi accent. But it had to be renamed to "One All" for the american market because of the "no-one should lose" mentality!!!!!

Split Enz are also brilliant and, just like Crowded House, featured Tim and Neil together on-an-off. Split Enz was Tim's band and Crowded House was Neil's which started-off as the Mullains (Neil's middle name and his mother's maiden name) but the guitarist left before their first album was recorded so they changed the name to Crowded House (after their pokey little loft in LA where they were recording).

Oh, and in-case you were wondering "57 Mount Pleasant Street" is in Te Awamutu (North Island NZ) where the Finns (the creative genius) are from - therefore making Crowded House a Kiwi band!

Thanks Wizely - the new drummer is Matt Sherrod who does a fantastic job, incidentally.

I would love to be turned over to the dark side - when can I start?

I really enjoyed your Crowdies history lesson. Do you have the album 'Afterglow' - it's a collection of unreleased oddities. Really nice stuff, particularly 'Lester'about his Dalmation which was almost run over by a car. You can see him briefly in the video for Weather With You.