Three songs
Apr. 21st, 2003 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiThree great songs in a row on iTunes. Figured I'd share them with all of you.
First, there's Fairport Convention's near-perfect cover of Leonard Cohen's "Closing Time." I think it's got some of the best lyrics Cohen ever composed, and the song is a thing of utter beauty. And also fucking hysterical.
So we're drinking and we're dancing
and the band is really happening
and the Johnny Walker wisdom running high
And my very sweet companion
she's the Angel of Compassion
and she's rubbing half the world against her thigh
Every drinker, every dancer
lifts a happy face to thank her
the fiddler fiddles something so sublime
All the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found and it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops
It's closing time
We're lonely, we're romantic
and the cider's laced with acid
and the Holy Spirit's crying, "Where's the beef?"
And the moon is swimming naked
and the summer night is fragrant
with a mighty expectation of relief
So we struggle and we stagger
down the snakes and up the ladder
to the tower where the blessed hours chime
And I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
but closing time
I loved you for your beauty
but that doesn't make a fool of me --
you were in it for your beauty too
I loved you for your body
there's a voice that sounds like G-d to me
declaring that your body's really you
I loved you when our love was blessed
and I love you now there's nothing left
but sorrow and a sense of overtime
And I miss you since our place got wrecked
I just don't care what happens next
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's closing time
And I miss you since the place got wrecked
by the winds of change and the weeds of sex
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's closing time
We're drinking and we're dancing
but there's nothing really happening
and the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night
And my very close companion
gets me fumbling, gets me laughing
she's a hundred but she's wearing something tight
And I lift my glass to the Awful Truth
which you can't reveal to the Ears of Youth
except to say it isn't worth a dime
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the Devil and it's once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights --
we're busted in the blinding lights
of closing time
Second, there's Stuart Davis's "Amsterdam," a sweetly nasty tell-off to a guy who helped make a cuckold of the song's narrator. Not as nasty as some of his other songs (like, say, "Barbie"), but the restraint he shows actually pays off here:
You met her on the airplane
as I waved goodbye in a teary blur
you pulled some strings
the stewardess sat you next to her
In a gentle voice
with an affecting tone
you touched her hand on the armrest
over the first time zone
Crossing oceans
will break down boundaries, won't it?
Like any worldly man
you knew that and you seized the moment
While I was feeling sick
trying not to miss her
at the terminal in Amsterdam
you grabbed her and you kissed her
But don't overestimate how wounded
I should be
She pretended you were me
Yea, she told me about you
No, she never hid it
Now I've calmed back down
and I'm glad you did it
It's common knowledge
how comforting a surrogate can be
If it's comfort she needed,
thanks for standing in as me
That's a hero's instinct
to which all men are true
and if I ever meet your girlfriend
I'm gonna do the same for you
While I was feeling sick
trying not to miss her
at the terminal in Amsterdam
you grabbed her and you kissed her
But don't overestimate how jealous
I should be
She pretended you were me
You never realized how lucky you could be,
till she pretended you were me
And finally, Tanya Donelly's "The Night You Saved My Life," simply one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard (and lyrics don't do it justice -- her voice is perfect for this song):
In the beginning my love was fierce
One heart stopped and another started
I flashed my eyes, cracked wise and left them dry
Now I sit with my babe at my breast
I was never this good at my best
Never higher
The moon was paper white the night you saved my life
When my spirit guide left me behind
The wood was closing in, foggy was the night
The night you saved my life
When my spirit guide left me behind
I spy with my third eye
Something volatile and vital
So say goodnight, sleep tight, don't let them bite
Now I stand with the wind at my back
Every day brings a new breed of jackass
I was never good at monkey-in-the-middle
Never a fighter
The moon was paper white the night you saved my life
When my spirit guide left me behind
The wood was closing in, foggy was the night
The night you saved my life
When my spirit guide left me behind
The moon was paper white the night you saved my life
When my spirit guide left me behind
Yes, my iTunes app loves me. :-)
First, there's Fairport Convention's near-perfect cover of Leonard Cohen's "Closing Time." I think it's got some of the best lyrics Cohen ever composed, and the song is a thing of utter beauty. And also fucking hysterical.
So we're drinking and we're dancing
and the band is really happening
and the Johnny Walker wisdom running high
And my very sweet companion
she's the Angel of Compassion
and she's rubbing half the world against her thigh
Every drinker, every dancer
lifts a happy face to thank her
the fiddler fiddles something so sublime
All the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found and it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops
It's closing time
We're lonely, we're romantic
and the cider's laced with acid
and the Holy Spirit's crying, "Where's the beef?"
And the moon is swimming naked
and the summer night is fragrant
with a mighty expectation of relief
So we struggle and we stagger
down the snakes and up the ladder
to the tower where the blessed hours chime
And I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
but closing time
I loved you for your beauty
but that doesn't make a fool of me --
you were in it for your beauty too
I loved you for your body
there's a voice that sounds like G-d to me
declaring that your body's really you
I loved you when our love was blessed
and I love you now there's nothing left
but sorrow and a sense of overtime
And I miss you since our place got wrecked
I just don't care what happens next
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's closing time
And I miss you since the place got wrecked
by the winds of change and the weeds of sex
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's closing time
We're drinking and we're dancing
but there's nothing really happening
and the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night
And my very close companion
gets me fumbling, gets me laughing
she's a hundred but she's wearing something tight
And I lift my glass to the Awful Truth
which you can't reveal to the Ears of Youth
except to say it isn't worth a dime
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the Devil and it's once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights --
we're busted in the blinding lights
of closing time
Second, there's Stuart Davis's "Amsterdam," a sweetly nasty tell-off to a guy who helped make a cuckold of the song's narrator. Not as nasty as some of his other songs (like, say, "Barbie"), but the restraint he shows actually pays off here:
You met her on the airplane
as I waved goodbye in a teary blur
you pulled some strings
the stewardess sat you next to her
In a gentle voice
with an affecting tone
you touched her hand on the armrest
over the first time zone
Crossing oceans
will break down boundaries, won't it?
Like any worldly man
you knew that and you seized the moment
While I was feeling sick
trying not to miss her
at the terminal in Amsterdam
you grabbed her and you kissed her
But don't overestimate how wounded
I should be
She pretended you were me
Yea, she told me about you
No, she never hid it
Now I've calmed back down
and I'm glad you did it
It's common knowledge
how comforting a surrogate can be
If it's comfort she needed,
thanks for standing in as me
That's a hero's instinct
to which all men are true
and if I ever meet your girlfriend
I'm gonna do the same for you
While I was feeling sick
trying not to miss her
at the terminal in Amsterdam
you grabbed her and you kissed her
But don't overestimate how jealous
I should be
She pretended you were me
You never realized how lucky you could be,
till she pretended you were me
And finally, Tanya Donelly's "The Night You Saved My Life," simply one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard (and lyrics don't do it justice -- her voice is perfect for this song):
In the beginning my love was fierce
One heart stopped and another started
I flashed my eyes, cracked wise and left them dry
Now I sit with my babe at my breast
I was never this good at my best
Never higher
The moon was paper white the night you saved my life
When my spirit guide left me behind
The wood was closing in, foggy was the night
The night you saved my life
When my spirit guide left me behind
I spy with my third eye
Something volatile and vital
So say goodnight, sleep tight, don't let them bite
Now I stand with the wind at my back
Every day brings a new breed of jackass
I was never good at monkey-in-the-middle
Never a fighter
The moon was paper white the night you saved my life
When my spirit guide left me behind
The wood was closing in, foggy was the night
The night you saved my life
When my spirit guide left me behind
The moon was paper white the night you saved my life
When my spirit guide left me behind
Yes, my iTunes app loves me. :-)