I couldn’t even tell you the lyrics to a lot of my favorite songs. I usually fall in love with the music itself, even if the lyrics are a muddled blur.
But there are a few songs I love for the lyrics. Below are fragments from some of my favorites. I’d be curious to know how many of you recognize them (without Googling of course) and I’d love to hear some of yours.
1
Hair blowing in the hot wind
Time hanging from a clothespin
There’s no sorrow that the sun’s not gonna heal
2
Bowel shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse
Assail him, impale him, with monster truck force
3
Shooby Doo, rock steady crew
Find him an octoped ingenue
4
I killed my dinner with karate
Kick ’em in the face, taste the body;
Shallow work is the work that I do.
5
Socrates and Milhous Nixon
Both went the same way—through the kitchen
6
I nuked another Grandma’s Apple Pie
and hung my head in shame
7
‘Cause this guy don’t dance
And word’s been passed, this is our last chance
8
He looks up from World War Two
Then you catch him catching you
…catching his eye.
9
They said you were hot stuff
And that’s what Baby’s been reduced to…
10
Everybody got their Black & Decker
Blood and fettucine everywhere
11
You can call me Aaron Burr
From the way I’m droppin Hamiltons
12
And you couldn’t see a city
On that marbled bowling ball
Or a forest or a highway
Or me here least of all
13
You can raise welts
Like nobody else
14
Write your letters in the sand
For the day I’ll take your hand
In the land that our grand-children knew
March 3, 2021
