This may be a little too deeply personal for some, so reader discretion is advised. Don't know the reason, stayed here all season. Nothing to show but this brand new tattoo. But it's a real beauty, a Mexican cutie. How it got here I haven't a clue. Blew out my flip-flop, stepped on a pop top, cut my heel had to cruise on back home. But there's booze in the blender and soon it will render that frozen concoction that helps me hang on.
Life is just a bowl of cherries
Don't take it serious
Life's too mysterious
You work, you save, you worry so
But you can't take your dough
When you go, go, go
Keep repeating, it's the berries
The strongest oak must fall
The best things in life to you were just loaned
So how can you lose what you never owned
Life is just a bowl of cherries
So live and laugh at it all
Dancing in the dark 'til the tune ends
We're dancing in the dark and it soon ends
We're waltzing in the wonder of why we're here
Time hurries by, we're here and we're gone
Looking for the light of a new love
To brighten up the night, I have you love
And we can face the music together
Dancing in the dark
Christmas is a time, a special time of year
With peace and joy and happiness and, wonderment and cheer
Opening your presents underneath the tree
And spending countless hours with your family
That's why I'm drinking drinking drinking
I'm gonna drink all day
I'm coming home for Christmas and my family's insane
Just got to make it through the day
And there's no other way
I'm gonna get drunk, drunk, drunk on Christmas
So I can't be sober when I'm over, everyone's bipolar
So cut the crap and get some Jack and put it in my soda
And make it strong enough to put a reindeer in a coma
Gonna get drunk, drunk, drunk on Christmas
I'm heading home for the Holiday season
My dad has a stick up his butt for some reason
My mother and my sister, they're no longer speaking
And me, I'm drinking
Rumple Minze by the shot
Gin and tonic, yeah why not
Black and Tan, that's my jam
Irish whiskey I will slam
Jägermeister, Hefenweisser
Stella, Stoli and Budweiser
Santa, Santa, Santa, I've got the family blues
Just fill my stocking full of vodka, any brand you choose
I need some Christmas spirit, and by spirit I mean booze
Gonna get drunk, drunk, drunk on Christmas
Gonna get drunk, drunk, drunk on Christmas
Gonna get drunk, drunk, drunk...
On Christmas Day
The Moody Blues in general were most philosophical. Nothing like it/them and their run of excellent and unique recordings in their day. They took the musical experimentation of the Beatles to the next level. The rock critiques generally despised them as "pretentious" , but overall, much of their music has aged very well and still has something uniquely philosophical to say that people can relate to. Not to mention some very good digital remasters to choose from that should make audiophiles happy.
"And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them"
So many of the songs chosen are touching stories, or romances but have little to do with philosophy. I think that this thread has been off track for quite a while.
Douglas, I'm surprised that you wouldn't think anyone would remember Cat's in the Cradle. It still gets play on the radio.
I know that this will be a real outlier: how about the JS Bach Cantata, "Ich habe genug", translated as "I have enough"... I’m rather certain that Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau performed it best.
Bob Marley Get Up Stand Up. Peter Tosh Stepping Razor. Specials Message To Rudy. Specials Nightclub Musical Youth, Pass the Dutchie. Loza Alexander Let’s Go Brandon.
They say we are endowed with Free Will --at least that justifies our need for indecision. But between our insticts and the lust to kill We bow our heads in submission. They say that no man is an island But then they say our castles are our homes; It's felt the choice is ours, between peace and violence ... Oh, yes, we choose, alone? While the comet spreads its tail across the sky It nowhere near defines the course it flies, Nor does it find its own direction. Though the path of the comet be sure, Its constitution is not, So its meaning is possibly more Than the tracing of a tail In one brief shot at glory. Love and peace and individuality-- So order and society are man-made? War and hate and dark depravity-- Or are we slaves? Channeling aggressive energies, The Death Wish and the Will to survive Into finding and preserving enemies-- Is that the only way we know that we're alive? In the slaughterhouse all corpses smell the same, Whether queens or pawns or innocents at the game; In the cemetery a uniform cloaks the graves Except for outward pomp and circumstance. There is a time set in the calendar When all reason seems barely enough To sustain all the shooting stars: Times are rough. I'm waiting for something to happen here, It feels as though it's long overdue: Maybe a restatement of yesteryear Or something entirely new. And the knowledge that we gain in part Always leads us closer to the very start, And to the founding questions: How can I tell that the road signed to hell Doesn't lead up to heaven? What can I say when, in some obscure way, I am my own direction?
@simonmoon, Now that's certainly a thought provoking lyric.
It's quite amazing how you get to learn about stuff from over 30 years ago.
I can't remember anything about this from the time, but then this was the UK and look what happened after that infamous Maureen Cleave Lennon interview...
Anyway, (apparently, acc to wiki - yuk!) the producer Todd Rundgren and the writer Andy Partridge had different recollections about it's initial release in 1987 when it was initially pulled off the early pressings of the XTC album Skylarking.
Producer Todd Rundgren said that Partridge himself demanded that the song be pulled because "He was afraid that there would be repercussions personally for him for taking on such a thorny subject. ..."
Whilst Partridge remembered differently,"I called them and said, 'This is a mistake."
"...if you can't have a different opinion without [somebody] wanting to firebomb your house then that's their problem."
If only it were so. If only certain cows were not held so sacred.
Or as the much respected broadcaster / journalist Robert Robinson might have once said,
Dear god, hope you get the letter and I pray you can make it better down here I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer But all the people that you made in your image See them starving on their feet Cause they don't get enough to eat from god I can't believe in you Dear god, sorry to disturb you but I feel that I should be heard loud and clear We all need a big reduction in amount of tears And all the people that you made in your image See them fighting in the street Cause they can't make opinions meet about god I can't believe in you Did you make disease and the diamond blue? Did you make mankind after we made you? And the devil too! Dear god don't know if you noticed but Your name is on a lot of quotes in this book And us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look And all the people that you made in your image Still believing that junk is true Well I know it ain't, and so do you I can't believe inI don't believeI won't believe in heaven or hell No saints, no sinners, no devil as well No pearly gates, no thorny crown You're always letting us humans down The wars you bring, the babes you drown Those lost at sea and never found And it's the same the whole world round The hurt I see helps to compound The Father, son and holy ghost Is just somebody's unholy hoax And if you're up there you'll perceive That my heart's here upon my sleeve If there's one thing I don't believe in It's you
To me that's more one of his angry protest songs than a philosophical song. As usual, anything associated with the work of The Beatles or any member thereof gets over analyzed.
"Again this is only my opinion and you too are entitled to yours and I will nit assume you are a “snot nosed young punk kid” as only they are capable of liberal utopia views."
"snot nosed young punk kid" with a whole host of parental/authority issues?
Thankfully most of them/us grow out of that phase.
As soon as you’re born they make you feel small By giving you no time instead of it all ’Til the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool ’Til you’re so f*ck*ng crazy you can’t follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be A working class hero is something to be
When they’ve tortured and scared you for 20 odd years Then they expect you to pick a career When you can’t really function, you’re so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped with religion, and sex, and T.V. And you think you’re so clever and classless and free But you’re still f*ck*ng peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be A working class hero is something to be
There’s room at the top they are telling you still But first you must learn how to smile as you kill If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me If you want to be a hero well just follow me
A great sentiment no doubt part inspired by Janov and his Primal Scream therapy, but a couple of questions still remain.
Did Lennon ever manage to find out the real identities of these "folks on the hill"?
Secondly, just why did JWL (acc to Goldman) retire to a darkened isolated room with just a TV for company for years and years?
Thirdly, who was paying Chapman? That’s the trouble with philosophy, it has a habit of trying to continually swallow its own tail.
Even the so called answers only lead to more questions.
@jpwarren58. Just in the same way you make the assumptions about people who post a comment you don’t like “grumpy old cynical men” you try to tell us what John Lennon was trying to tell us. Were you in direct communication with him and his thoughts during writing? I have news for you Lennon and his wife are uber liberals and in my opinion his liberal views of living in a world with no heaven or no GOD was not an attempt of you described unicorn and rainbow world. Again this is only my opinion and you too are entitled to yours and I will nit assume you are a “snot nosed young punk kid” as only they are capable of liberal utopia views.
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