Nominations for Best Written Song of All Time

[_silentkid]

Sexi-Mexi doesn't live in the place with lava lamps, beaded curtains and shag carpet. He drives it!

KA

Genius!!!

[Guest]

I love songs about heroin. This is my favorite (as well as my nomination for best-written song of all time):

Running To Stand Still--U2

And so she woke up
Woke up from where she was lying still
Said, I gotta do something
About where we're going...

Step on a steam train
Step out of the driving rain, maybe
Run from the darkness in the night
Singing ah, ahlalaladeday
Ahlalaladeday, ahlaladeday

Sweet the sin
Bitter the taste in my mouth
I see seven towers
But I only see one way out

You gotta cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice
You know I took the poison
From the poison stream
Then I floated out of here
Singing ah, ahlalaladeday
Ahlalaladeday, ahlaladeday

She runs through the streets
With eyes painted red
Under a black belly of cloud in the rain
In through a doorway, she brings me
White gold and pearls, stolen from the sea
She is raging, she is raging
And the storm blows up in her eyes

She will suffer the needle chill
She's running to stand still.

[_cinepro]

"Sexi-mexi's place" as in "the restaurant he works at", or "his one-bedroom apartment with lava lamps, beaded curtains, and shag carpet".

Silly Cinepro.

Sexi-Mexi doesn't live in the place with lava lamps, beaded curtains and shag carpet. He drives it!

KA

Won't bother knockin' then.

[_moksha]

This song came to mind.

America written by Paul Simon:

"Let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together
I've got some real estate here in my bag",
so we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner Pies
and we walked off to look for America.

"Kathy", I said as we boarded a greyhound in Pittsburgh
"Michigan seems like a dream to me now,
it took us four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
We've gone forth to look for America".

Laughing on the bus,
playing games with the faces.
She said, "the man in the gabardine suit was a spy".
I said, "be careful his bowtie is really a camera".

"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat."
"We smoked the last one an hour ago."
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field.

"Kathy, I'm lost", I said, though I knew she was sleeping,
"I'm empty and aching and I don't know why".
Counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike
They've all gone to look for America

.

[_moksha]

The combo of words and music by Loreena McKennitt,
make The Highwayman rather special:

Part One
I
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding-
Riding-riding-
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

II
He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

III
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

IV
And dark in the old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say-

V
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

VI
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West.

Part Two
I
He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gipsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching-
Marching-marching-
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

II
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through the casement, the road that he would ride.

III
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
"Now keep good watch!" and they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say-
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

IV
She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till here fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like
years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

V
The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain.

VI
Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs
ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did
not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up strait and still!

VII
Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night
!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him-with her death.

VIII
He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

IX
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat.

* * * * * *

X
And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding-
Riding-riding-
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

XI
Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard,
And he taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

[_KimberlyAnn]

Sexi-Mexi doesn't live in the place with lava lamps, beaded curtains and shag carpet. He drives it!

KA

Genius!!!

I always knew you'd recognize genius were you to see it! ;)

That poor girl in the U2 song needs a shot in the arm. Something in her veins bloodier than blood.

KA

[_JohnStuartMill]

Send in the Clowns" - Stephen Sondheim

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this song!!!!

As far as composition goes, this song is hard to beat. Have you heard Sarah Vaughan's version? She owns that crap, sista.

[_personage]

Here is my nomination.
"Surrounded" by Dream Theater.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muIxc0w2Q_A

Morning comes too early and nighttime comes too late
And sometimes all I want to do is wait
The shadow I've been hiding in has fled from me today

I know it's easier to walk away than look it in the eye
But I will raise a shelter to the sky
and here beneath this star tonight I'll lie
She will slowly yield the light
As I awaken from the longest night

Dreams are shaking
Set sirens waking up tired eyes
With the light the memories all rush into his head

By a candle stands a mirror
Of his heart and soul she dances
She was dancing through the night above his bed

With one hand through the window
he throws the shutters out against the wall
And from an ivory tower hears her call
'Let light surround you'

It's been a long long time
He's had a while to think it over
In the he only sees the change
Light to dark
Dark to light
Light to dark
Dark to light

Heaven must be more than this
When angels wake him with a kiss
Sacred hearts won't take the pain
But mine will never be the same

He stands before the window
His shadow slowly fading from the wall
And from an ivory tower hears her call
'Let the light surround you'

Once lost but I was found
When I heard the stained glass shatter all around me
I sent the spirits tumbling down the hill
But I will hold this one on high above me still
She whispers words to clear my mind
I once could see but now at last I'm blind

I know it's easier to walk away than look it in the eye
But I had given all that I could take
And now I've only habits left to break
Tonight I'll still be lying here
Surrounded in all the light

[Guest]

it's a toss up for me but they were all sung by Karen Carpenter. Where ever she is now is where I want to go.

When I heard her sing this song it was like being hit by lightning :

Desperado
Why don't you come to your senses
You been out ridin' fences
For so long now
Oh, you're a hard one
But I know that you've got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow

Don't you draw the queen of diamonds, boy
She'll beat you if she's able
The queen of hearts is always your best bet

Now it seems to me some fine things have been laid upon the table
But you only want the ones that you can't get

Desperado
Oh you ain't gettin' no younger

Your pain and your hunger
They're drive you home

Freedom, ah freedom
That's just some people talkin'
You're prisoners walkin'
Through this world all alone

Don't your feet get cold in the wintertime
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day

You're losin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feelin' goes away

Desperado
Why don't you come to your senses
Come down from your fences
Open the gate


It may be rainin'
But there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you
You better let somebody love you
Before it's too late

[_personage]

Dave Mason's "we just disagree would be my 2nd to throw in there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCpQLZs2Eh8
You said we get 3 right?