Nominations for Best Written Song of All Time

[_silentkid]

4. Cat's In the Cradle

I love Harry Chapin. A Better Place To Be is one of my favorites. So depressing. As a kid, I remember listening to Greatest Hits Live on many trips in my parents' station wagon. Singing along to 30,000 Pounds...Of Mashed Bananas.

[_Gazelam]

I keep thinking about this thread off and on and what I could add to it, its an impossible task for me, but I heard this song on random on my ipod and it really struck me, so heres this offering:



Tori Amos - Silent All These Years

Excuse me but can I be you for a while
My dog wont bite if you sit real still
I got the anti-christ in the kitchen yellin at me again
Yeah I can hear that

Been saved again by the garbage truck
I got something to say you know but nothing comes
Yes I know what you think of me- you never shut up
Yeah I can hear that

But what if Im a mermaid
In these jeans of his with her name still on it
Hey but I don't care cause sometimes, I said sometimes
I hear my voice and its been here
Silent all these years

So you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts
Whats so amazing about really deep thoughts
Boy you best pray that I bleed real soon
Hows that thought for ya

My scream got lost in a paper cup
You think theres a heaven where some screams have gone
I got 25 bucks and a cracker, go you think its enough
To get us there

Cause what if Im a mermaid
In these jeans of his with her name still on it
Hey but I don't care cause sometimes, I said sometimes
I hear my voice and its been here
Silent all these years

Years go by will I still be waiting
For somebody else to understand
Years go by if Im stripped of my beauty
And the orange cloud raining in my head
Years go by will I choke on my tears
Till finally there is nothing left
One more casualty
You know were too easy easy easy

Well I love the way we communicate
Your eyes focus on my funny lip shade
Lets hear what you think of me now but baby don't look up
The sky is falling

Your mother shows up in a nasty dress
Its your turn now to stand where I stand
Everybody lookin at you, here take a hold of my hand
Yeah I can hear them

But what if Im a mermaid
In these jeans of his with her name still on it
Hey but I don't care cause sometimes, I said sometimes
I hear my voice
I hear my voice
I hear my voice
And its been here
Silent all these years
I've been here
Silent all these years

[_Mercury]

...beautiful and tear-jerking ballad about a group of siblings' earnest desire to adopt a cat, ...

OMG, I almost died laughing when I read that.

[_gramps]

I will throw into the ring one of my favorites:

Sunday Morning Coming Down (Kris Kristofferson)

Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An' I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

I'd smoked my brain the night before,
On cigarettes and songs I'd been pickin'.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid,
Cussin' at a can that he was kicking.
Then I crossed the empty street,
'n caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin' chicken.
And it took me back to somethin',
That I'd lost somehow, somewhere along the way.

On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin' city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin' comin' down.

In the park I saw a daddy,
With a laughin' little girl who he was swingin'.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school,
And listened to the song they were singin'.
Then I headed back for home,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin'.
And it echoed through the canyons,
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.

On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin' city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin' comin' down.

Do do do do do do do do,
Do do do do do do do,
Do do do do do do do do,
Do do do do do do do.

To fade

[_gramps]

One more from Leonard Cohen:

Anthem

"Anthem"

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government --
signs for all to see.

I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
a thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.

[_gramps]

And yet another Cohen beauty:


"Alexandra Leaving"

Suddenly the night has grown colder.
The god of love preparing to depart.
Alexandra hoisted on his shoulder,
They slip between the sentries of the heart.

Upheld by the simplicities of pleasure,
They gain the light, they formlessly entwine;
And radiant beyond your widest measure
They fall among the voices and the wine.

It’s not a trick, your senses all deceiving,
A fitful dream, the morning will exhaust –
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.

Even though she sleeps upon your satin;
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined;
Do not stoop to strategies like this.

As someone long prepared for this to happen,
Go firmly to the window. Drink it in.
Exquisite music. Alexandra laughing.
Your firm commitments tangible again.

And you who had the honor of her evening,
And by the honor had your own restored –
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving;
Alexandra leaving with her lord.

Even though she sleeps upon your satin;
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined;
Do not stoop to strategies like this.

As someone long prepared for the occasion;
In full command of every plan you wrecked –
Do not choose a coward’s explanation
that hides behind the cause and the effect.

And you who were bewildered by a meaning;
Whose code was broken, crucifix uncrossed –
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.

Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.

[_gramps]

Well, you can guess what I am listening to tonight. LOL

The Future

"The Future"

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I'm the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
but love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...

[_William Schryver]

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.

Wow! We found something we can agree on.

Running to Stand Still, certainly one of the great songs of all time. At least in my book.

(By the way, I'm pretty sure it's "She walks through the streets ..." Heroin addicts don't run anywhere.)

I'll have to give some thought to other songs that I think should be mentioned in this thread. One that immediately comes to mind is one of the few songs by Joe Walsh that I ever really liked, The Confessor.

The Confessor

If you look at your reflection in the bottom of a well
What you see is only on the surface
If you try to see the meaning hidden underneath
The measure of the depth can be deceiving
The bottom has a rocky reputation

You can feel it in the distance
Deeper down you stare
From up above it's hard to see
But you know it when you're there
On the bottom words are shallow
On the surface talk is cheap
You can only judge the distance
By the company you keep.

[_Gazelam]

U2's Running To Stand Still

[_Gazelam]

For Gramps,

Sunday Morning Coming Down