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Songs you wish you'd wrote yourself...


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Posted

You know songs that "hit you where you live"...

 

Here's a fairly new one for me...possibly the only Tim McGraw song I've ever heard that I like.

 

 

"

Between The River And Me"

 

I was fifteen when my daddy died, mama worked two jobs just to get by

Seemed like a blessing when Harley came around so she took his name but I had my doubts

Didn't take long for his drinking ways to start showing up on mama's face

One violent night hiding under my bed I swore that he wouldn't see another sunset

Next day I followed him down to the riverbank

I knew one of us wouldn't walk away

 

I might have had a plan but he didn't know it

I might have been scared but I didn't show it

That's all between the river and me

With the current and the rocks it could have been misty

He might have been sober but I brought the whiskey

That's all between the river and me

 

I walked up to him and I said his name

Just so he could see the look on my face

We stood eye to eye and toe to toe

When I told him that he wasn't gonna come back home

He raised his fist to me but I didn't flinch

I said 'I ain't your son you son of a bitch'

 

I might have had a knife in my back pocket

I might have pulled it out before he saw it

That's all between the river and me

I might have had a gun but I didn't fire it

He might have tried to yell but I kept him quiet

That's all between the river and me

 

That's all between the river and me

 

Sheriff came knocking on our front door

They said they found his body by the reservoir

Bottle in his shirt and liquor in his blood

He must have fallen in the river and he never came up

 

There might have been blood but they never saw it

Just a little mud on the living room carpet

That's all between the river and me

Well after what he done there ain't no wonder

I can't remember how long I held him under

That's all between the river and me

 

That's all between the river and me

 

That's all between the river and me

 

That's all

 

That's all

 

 

 

What song "hits you where you live"?

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Haven't heard that McGraw tune. Lyrically it's got quite a bit going on...

Songs I would love to lay claim to, in no particular order:

Dylan's "If You See Her Say Hello", "Tangled up in Blue"
Mark Knopfler's "Telegraph Road", "Tunnel of Love"
Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in Paris", "Rainy Night House"
R.E.M.'s "Try Not to Breathe", "Half a World Away", "Ebow the Letter"
Townshend's "Behind Blue Eyes", "Heart to Hang Onto"

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Dire Straits - "Sultans of Swing", "Brothers in Arms"
Mew - "Am I Wry, No"
Manic Street Preachers - "Motorcycle Emptiness"
The Pillows - "One Life"
Stevie Wonder - "Superstition" (so groovy!)

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Posted
tickin.elton

rockin in the free world. neil

i'm an english boy.townsend

travelin star.jt

watching the wheels.lennon

yesterday.mccartney

wichita lineman.glen campbell

two knights and two maidens. roberts/crash test dummies

she's got a way.joel

give me love.harrison



"Wichita Lineman" was written by Jimmy Webb, who also wrote "McArthur's Park", "Galveston", "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", "Up, Up, and Away", "The Moon's A Harsh Mistress" and a bunch of others...very prolithic songsmith! :)

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Posted

One I was listening to today: Daylight Again, by CSN:

Daylight again
Following me to bed
I think about a hundred years ago
How my fathers bled

I think I see a valley
Covered with bones in blue
All the brave soldiers
That cannot get older
Been asking after you

Hear the past a' calling
From Armageddon's side
When everyone's talking
And no one is listening
How can we decide?

Do we find the cost of freedom buried in the ground?
Mother earth will swallow you
Lay your body down

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Posted
thanks. i always thought it was glen. regardless, i loved that song. the chord changes and melody are hauntingly beautiful.



Absolutely...most of Webb's stuff is "hauntingly beautiful", to cop your apt phrase! :)

Not sure if Campbell writes songs, now that I give it some thought... :confused:

btw, "Ticking" just might be my favorite Elton John song...very powerful!

Another songwriter who blew me away was Harry Chapin...check out his "opus", "Sniper":

It is an early Monday morning.


The sun is becoming bright on the land.
No one is watching as he comes a walking.
Two bulky suitcases hang from his hands.

He heads towards the tower that stands in the campus.
He goes through the door, he starts up the stairs.
The sound of his footsteps, the sound of his breathing,
The sound of the silence when no one was there.

I didn't really know him.
He was kind of strange.
Always sort of sat there.
He never seemed to change.

He reached the catwalk. He put down his burden.
The four sided clock began to chime.
Seven AM, the day is beginning.
So much to do and so little time.

He looks at the city where no one had known him.
He looks at the sky where no one looks down.
He looks at his life and what it has shown him.
He looks for his shadow it cannot be found.

He was such a moody child, very hard to touch.
Even as a baby he never smiled too much. No no.No no.

You bug me, she said.
Your ugly, she said.
Please hug me, I said.
But she just sat there
With the same flat stare
That she saves for me alone
When I'm home.
When I'm home.
Take me home.

He laid out the rifles, he loaded the shotgun,
He stacked up the cartridges along the wall.
He knew he would need them for his conversation.
If it went as it he planned, then he might use them all.

He said Listen you people I've got a question
You won't pay attention but I'll ask anyhow.
I found a way that will get me an answer.
Been waiting to ask you 'till now.
Right now !

Am I ?
I am a lover who's never been kissed.
Am I ?
I am a fighter who's not made a fist.
Am I ?
If I'm alive then there's so much I've missed.
How do I know I exist ?
Are you listening to me ?
Are you listening to me ?
Am I ?

The first words he spoke took the town by surprise.
One got Mrs. Gibbons above her right eye.
It blew her through the window wedged her against the door.
Reality poured from her face, staining the floor.

He was kind of creepy,
Sort of a dunce.
I met him at the corner bar.
I only dated the poor boy once,
That's all. Just once, that was all.

Bill Whedon was questioned as stepped from his car.
Tom Scott ran across the street but he never got that far.
The police were there in minutes, they set up baricades.
He spoke right on over them in a half-mile circle.
In a dumb struck city his pointed questions were sprayed.

He knocked over Danny Tyson as he ran towards the noise.
Just about then the answers started comming. Sweet, sweet joy.
Thudding in the clock face, whining off the walls,
Reaching up to where he sat there, answering calls.

Thirty-seven people got his message so far.
Yes, he was reaching them right were they are.

They set up an assault team. They asked for volunteers.
They had to go and get him, that much was clear.
And the word spread about him on the radios and TV's.
In appropriately sober tone they asked "Who can it be ?"

He was a very dull boy, very taciturn.
Not much of a joiner, he did not want to learn.
No no.No no.

They're coming to get me, they don't want to let me
Stay in the bright light too long.
It's getting on noon now, it's goin to be soon now.
But oh, what a wonderful sound !

Mama, won't you nurse me ?
Rain me down the sweet milk of your kindness.
Mama, it's getting worse for me.
Won't you please make me warm and mindless ?

Mama, yes you have cursed me.
I never will forgive you for your blindness.
I hate you!

The wires are all humming for me.
And I can hear them coming for me.
Soon they'll be here, but there's nothing to fear.
Not any more though they've blasted the door.

As the copter dropped the gas he shouted " Who cares ?" .
They could hear him laughing as they started up the stairs.
As they stormed out on the catwalk, blinking at the sun,
With their final fusillade his answer had come.

Am I ?
There is no way that you can hide me.
Am I ?
Though you have put your fire inside me.
Am I ?
You've given me my answer can't you see ?
I was !
I am !
and now I Will Be
I WILL BE !!!





I recall seeing the debut of this song, when he was guest-host of "The Mike Douglas Show"...when he and his band finished, the cameras panned over the stunned audience, who sat there, collectively, for maybe 20 seconds, then burst into applause...that was powerful! :)
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Posted
thanks. i always thought it was glen. regardless, i loved that song. the chord changes and melody are hauntingly beautiful.



I like Glenn/Jimmy Webb stuff too. We're kindred spirits. :)


Come Sunday - Duke Ellington
Who's Is He? ( And What Is He To You?) - Bill Withers
Rosalinda's Eyes - Billy Joel
What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life - Michel Legrand
Backwater Blues - Sheila Wilcoxson (songwriter) but made famous by Bessie Smith and Dinah Washington. Dinah version is heartbreakingly beautiful.
As - Stevie Wonder
I Write A Song For You - Earth, Wind, & Fire
Just Ease My Mind - Curtis Mayfield
Harvest For the World - Isley Brothers


Trina

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Posted

There were many songs that spoke to me about different things. I can't remember most of them, lyrically, but I'll always remember how they left me and that's good enough. There was a time, repleat with repertoire, when I was a prodigal son of my musical generation. There was pride and sentiment in that time and it could be heard genuinely invested in song. It was a cultured soul and renaissance of old world spirit that, once again, will be lost by the simple passage of time.

Edit: Anything by Mason Proffit, who influenced most subsequent writers with an axe to grind, no pun intended.

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Man,all the good ones! Here's a few of them:

Bridge over Troubled Water---Simon & Garfunkel

Fire & Rain-------------------James Taylor

Thrashers-------------------Neil Young

Southern Cross--------------C S & Y

County Down----------------Phil Keaggy

Areial Boundries-------------Michael Hedges

Anything by Tommy Emmanuel

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Posted

"Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge,
drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain."

"Jungleland" - Springsteen

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"Dust in the Wind" - Kerry Livgren

 

"Don't Get Around Much Anymore" - Duke Ellington

 

"Imagine" - John Lennon

 

"The Girl From Ipanema" - Carlos Jobim

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I wish I'd written more songs than I've actually written. And I've written quite a few.

 

I wish I'd written every song in my set list that I didn't actually write, (9 of 12). I guess that's why I put them in the set list. Some, like "Music to Watch Girls By" are big orchestrations. Some are more or less acoustic arrangements.

 

Of those, I wish I'd written:

 

"I'll Have to Say I Love you In a Song"

 

"Oh, Lonesome Me"

 

"Happy Trails"

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Posted

The Alarm
Song: Spirit of 76.
Album: Standards
[" Standards " CD]

Well I find myself in reverie
'Bout what we might have had
And what might have been
We had something going once
That was such a long, long time ago
It was way back in '76
Our friendship formed of pure innocence
We first met in Mathew Street
Where we heard something that would set us free
A sign stands over a door, it says
"Four lads who shook the world"
In the depths of those heady nights
We would dream of those bright lights
Oh my friend, Oh my friend, Oh my friend

And my friend John, he went away
He made some mistakes
Spent time in Walton jail
And now when I see him we still talk
But there's no light shining in his eyes
And Susie, she was seventeen
And more beauty in this world
I swear you'll never see
I was gonna be king
And she was gonna be queen
But now all she does is hide behind the tears
If there was more sense in this world
And work wasn't so hard to find
You would not be going your way
I would not be going mine
Oh my friend, Oh my friend, Oh my friend

Somewhere tonight out on the street
Somewhere beneath this city's heat
In the eyes of strangers who pass me by
Life is cruel and so unkind
Oh, Oh the SPIRIT OF '76

And Pete has seen his dreams come true
But that don't make him no hero
He's just one of the lucky few
If a man can't change the world these days
I still believe a man can change his own destiny
But the price is high that has got to be paid
For everyone who survives there are many who fail
I've seen my friends caught out in that crossfire

All their dreams and hopes smashed on the funeral pyre
I will never give in until the day I die
Get myself some independence
Carve out a future with my two bare hands
Oh my friend, Oh my friend, Oh my friend

Somewhere tonight out on the street
Somewhere beneath this city's heat
In the eyes of strangers who pass me by
Life is cruel and so unkind
Oh, Oh the SPIRIT OF '76


Mersey lights shine in the distance
Same as they did for us then
Mersey lights shine bright in the distance
Where are you now my friend?

You see some nights when I can't sleep
I still think of you

And all the promises,all our dreams we shared
I know those lights still call to you
I can hear them now
I can hear them now

(Still shining for us)
(Let em shine)

(Can you hear them)
(Can you hear them)

(Lights are still shining)

Somewhere tonight out on the street
Somewhere beneath this city's heat
In the eyes of strangers who pass me by
Life is cruel and so unkind
Oh- Oh
Where's it gone
The SPIRIT OF '76

Lyrics > T > The Alarm Lyrics > Spirit of 76. Song Lyrics

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Posted

"
Between The River And Me
"

 

 

TAH, did you hear that on the radio? If so, mainstream country radio? If so, did they censor "son of a bitch" or not?

 

I think The Warren Brothers did this song first and I suspect they are the writers.

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