Lyrics That Rock My World

I'm shooting this to the top again, 7/14/06; it's now up to 30 songs.

New songs will always be added right before the very last one, which will - fittingly - remain "The End" by the Beatles.

Inspired by Jack, I am starting a post featuring some of my favorite song lyrics. Some I find moving, profound, and even inspirational, some are clever and biting, some just hit me a certain way. It's up to you to decide which are which. And please feel free to post your own in the comments section.

I'll do the first dozen today. This post will be updated periodically, and bubble to the top occasionally.

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"Yes, they're sharing a drink they call loneliness
But it's better than drinkin' alone"
- Billy Joel, "Piano Man"

"I believe I've passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage
I found that just surviving was a noble fight.
I once believed in causes too,
I had my pointless point of view,
And life went on no matter who was wrong or right."
- Billy Joel, "Angry Young Man"

"I've got a song; I've got a song,
And I carry it with me and I sing it loud;
If it gets me nowhere, I'll go there proud."
- Jim Croce, "I've Got A Name"

"In my little town
I never meant nothin'
I was just my father's son"
- Paul Simon, "My Little Town"

"When you look over your shoulder
And you see the life that you've left behind
When you think it over
Do you ever wonder?"
- Jackson Browne, "You Love The Thunder"

"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key"
- Eagles, "Already Gone"

"Sometimes you're the windshield
Sometimes you're the bug"
- Dire Straits, "The Bug"

"I'll take those long nights, impossible odds
Keeping my back to the wall
If it takes all that to be just what I am"
- Styx, "Blue Collar Man"

"Here I am just waiting for a sign
Asking questions, learning all the time
It's always here, it's always there
It's just love, and miracles out of nowhere"
- Kansas, "Miracles Out Of Nowhere"

"And the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all
They just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night
They reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand
But they wind up wounded
And not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland"
- Bruce Springsteen, "Jungleland"

"I can see by your coat, my friend,
You're from the other side
There's just one thing I got to know
Can you tell me please
Who won?"
- Crosby, Stills, and Nash, "Wooden Ships"

"Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now."
- Bob Dylan, "My Back Pages"

"I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?
And each time I feel like this inside,
There's one thing I wanna know:
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?"
- Elvis Costello, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?"

"Now you're climbin' to the top of the company ladder
Hope it doesn't take too long
Can'tcha you see there'll come a day when it won't matter
Come a day when you'll be gone

I understand about indecision
But I don't care if I get behind
People livin' in competition
All I want is to have my peace of mind."
- Boston, "Peace of Mind"

"I'm gettin' sick of this universe
Ain't gonna get better; it's gonna get worse
And the world's gonna sink with the weight of the human race

Hate and fear in every face
I'm gettin' ready and I've packed my case
If you find somewhere better, can you save my place?"
- The Who, "Had Enough"

"My friends from college they're all married now
They have their houses and their lawns
They have their silent noons
Tearful nights, angry dawns

Their children hate them for the things they're not
They hate themselves for what they are
And yet they drink, they laugh
Close the wound, hide the scar"
- Carly Simon, "That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be"

"Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land
Mothers complain about how hard life is
And the kids just don't understand

Creature comfort goals, they only numb my soul
And make it hard for me to see
My thoughts all seem to stray, to places far away
I need a change of scenery"
- The Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"

"I really wish I was less of a thinking man
And more a fool who's not afraid of rejection"
- Billy Joel, "Sleeping With The Television On"

"I have my books and my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me
I am a rock, I am an island."
- Simon and Garfunkel, "I Am A Rock"

"Another year has passed me by
Still I look a myself and cry
What kind of man have I become?
All of the years I've spent in search of myself
And I'm still in the dark
'Cause I can't seem to find the light alone

Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness
I'm a lonely soldier off to war
Sent away to die - never quite knowing why
Sometimes it makes no sense at all"
- Styx, "Man In The Wilderness"

"Two men say they're Jesus...
one of them must be wrong!"
- Dire Straits, "Industrial Disease"

"Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,
And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Hindus hate the Moslems,
And everybody hates the Jews."
- Tom Lehrer, "National Brotherhood Week"

"If I were rich, I'd have the time that I lack
To sit in the synagogue and pray
And maybe have a seat by the Eastern wall
And I'd discuss the holy books with the learned men seven hours every day...
That would be the sweetest thing of all"
- Fiddler on the Roof, "If I Were a Rich Man"

"Don't hang on
Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away
And all your money won't another minute buy"
- Kansas, "Dust In The Wind"

"You drag it around like a ball and chain
You wallow in the guilt; you wallow in the pain
You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown
Got your mind in the gutter, bringin’ everybody down
Complain about the present and blame it on the past
I’d like to find your inner child and kick its little ass!"
- The Eagles, "Get Over It"

"It's those changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same.
With all of our running and all of our cunning,
If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane"
- Jimmy Buffett, "Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes"

"In sixty-nine I was twenty-one
And I called the road my own
I don’t know when that road turned onto the road I’m on"
- Jackson Browne, "Running On Empty"

"So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death"
- Pink Floyd, Time

"To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago and far away
the world was younger than today
when dreams were all they gave for free
to ugly duckling girls... like me"
- Janis Ian, "At Seventeen"

"And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love
You make"
- The Beatles, "The End"