This is just the beginning

A few months back I produced a list of what I felt were some great opening lyrics.

Well, after a weekend of blasting numerous genres every which way but loose, I have another list. 

This list is very non emo; the last list was full of it.  Look Here!

So here is list number two, a better looked over list and one that doesn’t include as many personal moments.  Yet still producing those, “What the fuck did they just say?” moments.

This is a list of 9, because the other is a list of 11. So now you can make a kickass 20 song Music Notes From The Past compilation CD or playlist or however you listen to music.

Also, I want to note right now, that talking doesn’t count. On a few of these, the first thing that you hear is some sort of talking intro.  I am only counting where I think the lyrics start.   Ok, so anyways.  Here goes.

There must be some kind of way outta here

Said the joker to the thief

There's too much confusion

I can't get no relief

Jimi Hendrix- All Along the Watchtower

First off, Yeah, I know it’s a Bob Dylan song.  But Bob Dylan’s version never went anywhere on the charts. And if you really want to know, I find the Bob Dylan version to be almost unlistenable.

It may be because I know the Hendrix version exists, but generally, I usually prefer Dylan to those covering him.

Dylan himself prefers the Hendrix version too, stating:

"It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent; he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day… I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way... Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

So lyrically, the song doesn’t really go anywhere. But at the same time it makes sense and invokes its own odd reaction.

There’s no damn chorus

And if you read the lyrics, it seems that the 3^rd verse should be the first, it uses the song’s title and introduces the joker and thief. (I think)

Well, have at her. And see what you think for yourself.

Here I stand head in hand

Turn my face to the wall

If she's gone I can't go on

Feeling two foot small

You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away – The Beatles

So we go from a Bob Dylan song, to a song John Lennon wrote during his “Dylan period.” 

And now you kind of get why Dylan won a fucking Nobel Prize; his way of writing inspired other people

The lyrics to the song have always been under scrutiny. 

Was it about Lennon being married, but that marriage being kept a secret from the fans?

Was it a reference to Brian Epstein’s homosexuality?

Was it about an affair, or some other secret love?

Some people even think it was a reflective piece about the image that he kept as the “cool” Beatle, even though he was just a very loving guy.

Personally, I always thought that it was just a break up song.   At least the first line sort of reflects that. 

The song is featured in the movie Help!  And somehow still looks cool and holds up 52 years later.

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away from chika etoda on Vimeo.

Miss Jones taught me English

But I think I just shot her son

Cause he owed me money

With a bullet in the chest you cannot run

Slow Motion – Third Eye Blind

I’ve spoken about this song before, so I will quickly rehash that. 

This was off their second studio album, however the album version did not feature the verses, and it was instrumental other than the choruses.

The song itself is a joke about Hollywood’s glorification of violence, and drugs and other such chaos.

Supposedly the lyrics were left off because it reminded people of the Columbine High School massacre, but the song was written years before that happened.

If you think about the joking content, it makes sense.  The label wouldn’t allow these lyrics on an album in 1999. But the same company released  Eyes Wide Shut, South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut, House on Haunted Hill , Any Given Sunday , True Crime, A perfect Murder, all in 1998 and 1999.  

So really the band had a point.

So here it is, in an entirely different fashion than I gave you last time.

You were workin' as a waitress in a cocktail bar

When I met you

I picked you out, I shook you up and turned you around

Turned you into someone new

Don’t You Want Me – The Human League

If you follow me regularly, you are probably aware that 80s synthpop, or synthpop at all isn’t something that I normally talk about.

Ironically it was this song that made me want to do another list of opening lyrics.

This is one of the top songs in British chart history, so it definitely is worth talking about.

The song is a back and forth sort of break up song.  In fact the second verse which is sung by the lady character revises the opening lyric to reach her point of view. which reads as :I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, That much is true, But even then I knew I'd find a much better place, Either with or without you

Some people also see this song as like a sexual/friendzoned angry male depiction of life, followed by the real story provided by the woman. 

But I’m not here today to talk current events of feminism. Maybe next time.

I don’t know why this song is so great. It just is.

Just check it out, reminisce, do whatever, just enjoy.

Fuck the police coming straight from the underground

A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown

And not the other color so police think

They have the authority to kill a minority

Fuck Tha Police – N.W.A

Ok, so this is one of those moments where I don’t count the spoken intro.

This song is from 1988!

Not 2016!!   And, here I said I wasn’t going to talk about current events.

So, I mean, by reading the title, I don’t really have to tell you what the song is about. 

As you can imagine, there was a lot of outcry to this song from police and other government authorities.  The FBI even wrote a letter to the group’s label.

To me, this song and its lyrics were a crucial step in civil rights. Nowadays, people say anything about anyone.  But to have a song coming out against the police in 1988 was a big deal. It was an idea that was thought about, but never said commercially. 

Ok. Go

Please allow me to introduce myself

I'm a man of wealth and taste

I've been around for a long, long year

Stole many a man's soul and faith

Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones

What can I say about this that hasn’t already been said? 

This is one of my favorite Stones song, and contrary to the backlash that they got at the time, The Stones aren’t glorifying the Devil.

But can you blame the public, when their previous album was titled “Their Satanic Majesties Request”?

The rest of the lyrics tell the tales of history, from the view of the Devil.

The word Devil doesn’t appear in the lyrics though. And honestly had they not titled it as such, there’d probably still be people trying to translate the lyrics.

There are a number of videos featuring this song; here is the one I chose.

Down in Louisiana

Where the alligators grow so mean

Lived a girl that I swear to the world

Made the alligators look tame

Polk Salad Annie – Elvis Presley

So this was written and originally performed by Tony Joe White.

It’s about a poor family that seems to only eat Poke Salad or Polk Sallet.  

It’s actually a weed, that is poisonous, so that lets you know what kind of life you are living when a toxic weed is your supper.

Or dinner, whatever the fuck you call it.

So basically you are hearing about a weed that poor people eat after picking it from swamps and other areas where alligators lurk about.

So you get this opening line, after the spoken intro, where you hear about Annie, this chick who was poor and tougher than an alligator.

Well, Elvis just performs the shit out of it.  

Elvis could perform the shit out of anything he wanted to.  This was recorded before he really started to pack on the pounds, and he looks great.

Better than anyone else wearing a jumpsuit has ever looked.

Oddly, I want to try it, I mean, I get that it’s just greens, and I have had plenty of greens in my life.  I like the idea of playing Greens roulette with Polk Salad

Levon wears his war wound like a crown

He calls his child Jesus

'cause he likes the name

And he sends him to the finest school in town

Levon – Elton John

So the title was inspired by Levon Helm.

From The Band. Seriously?

Levon fucking Helm!

You know what, I don’t have time for this, look him up on your own time Mary!!

Now that that is out of the way.  So this song, like most others of Elton was written by himself and Bernie Taupin. 

It tells the story of a man named Levon, the son of Alvin Tostig.

Levon has a son named Jesus; I mean obviously you read the opening lyric.

Jesus wants nothing to do with his father’s balloon business. In fact, he wants to take a balloon to Venus while his father dies.

And you thought your family was messed up!

Alright, here it is.

Off comes the make up

Off comes the clown's disguise

The curtain's fallin'

The music softly dies.

The Curtain Falls – Bobby Darin

A fitting end for a post about music. 

It’s literally a song about show business, and giving the audience the highest regards.

And, God Bobby had a voice.

The song has a very good ending where you think you are about to hear a huge climax, but it ends after only 3 lines, with no conclusion.   And it works,

I can only imagine being at a show wanting more.  And Bobby didn’t do the shows where you stood there and nodded your head.  No, you sat down, you ate, you drank, and you experienced an event.

So as far as the song is concerned, I can tell you it was written by Sol Weinstein. There’s a story that it was written for Bob Hope.   I can’t verify that, but I also can’t find proof that it’s not true. 

I just like the song. Having been someone who has performed in many different ways, I feel like it’s a peeling back of stage persona, and just being out there to your audience.  After all, if not for them, there’d be no show.

Goodnight ladies and gentlemen and God love you, thank you.