Sharing Favourite Lyrics / Help with Welsh Lyrics / All things Lyrics!

Welsh Lolfa SSiW Lounge
#1

David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen. . .

2016 has taken from us some of the world’s most talented, prolific and legendary musicians we’ve ever had the pleasure of liatening to.

Music is such an inportant part of lives, helping us to process difficult emotions, bringing us joy, hope, friendships and love.

I thought it would be interesting to have a thread where we could share our favourite lyrics (in any language) and the reason why we like them. Also seek help with Welsh lyrics, or indeed discuss anything lyrics related.

Please share words/phrases/verses/choruses as you wish and as many times as you like, giving full credit to the musician/author.

Diolch! :slight_smile:

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Welsh Language Song Lyrics
Trying to get back into Welsh Music
Welsh Medium - MUSIC
#2

‘I don’t believe in an interventionist God, but I know, darling, that you do…’

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, ‘Into My Arms’ - my vote for the best opening line to any song ever… :slight_smile:

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#3

“…with hurry-home drops on her cheeks
that trickled from her eye…”

(Part of “Memphis Tennessee” by Chuck Berry)

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#4

An unusual one by Status Quo (actually written by their keyboard etc player, Andy Bown), from the 1994 Album Thirsty Work:

Confidence
( Bown )

All she needs is a little confidence
All she knows is to run and hide
Through a lifetime of knocking back
Oh don’t do this you can’t do that
But she never learned to interact
All she needs is confidence

All she learned was a little self-defence
Looking out over number one
She’s been diving and ducking round
In and out the lost and found
But it never laid her to the ground

All she needs is something to believe
Sweet security
All she needs tries so hard to please
But all she really all she really needs
Is confidence

No chance of keeping her close to me
No sense abusing her liberty

Through a lifetime of knocking back
Oh don’t do this you can’t do that
But she never learned to interact
All she needs is something to believe
Sweet security
All she needs tries so hard to please
All she really all she really needs
Is confidence

(A good melody too…worth looking up on Youtube if you’ve a mind)

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#5

“Breathe out, so I can breathe you in … hold you in.”

A line from the greatest love song ever, Everlong by the Foo Fighters.

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#6

“I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel, I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real.”

“Hurt” by 9 Inch Nails. The cover by Johnny Cash is probably the most emotive music video you will ever watch.

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#7

With the money from her accidents she bought herself a mobile home - Billy Bragg, Levi Stubbs’ Tears

‘My father used to warn me, I thought that he was mad, he said times that make you happy just turn round and make you sad’ - Jez Lowe, Bait Up

Love this thread, top idea!:+1:t2:

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#8

Ooh, ooh, yes:

But on the Che Guevara highway filling up with gasoline
Fidel Castro’s brother spies a rich lady who’s crying
Over luxury’s disappointment
So he walks over and he’s trying
To sympathise with her but he thinks that he should warn her
That the Third World is just around the corner

Billy Bragg, ‘Waiting for the Great Leap Forward’

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#9

I have to mention Leonard Cohen and these beautiful words which make me catch my breath…

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I’m gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We’re both of us beneath our love, we’re both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I’m gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love

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#10

Quite fitting in light of current proceedings …

“In the depths of a mind insane,
Fantasy and reality are the same.”

Dead Skin Mask by Slayer. A rather beautiful ballad. :joy:

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#11

Some of Bombay Bicycle Club’s lyrics are pure poetry and as musicians seem to be now eligible for the Nobel Prize for Literature I think Jack Steadman (who wrote the lyrics for them) should definitely be considered :raised_hands:

It’s that ancient love
That you won’t outgrow
It’s the fee you pay
It’s the debt you owe
It’s that subtle way
That you throw me down
And I’m inches above
The dust on the ground - Dust on the Ground

Raise high in me what once did sink below
All dark within now radiantly glows
Come on take me back all that time ago

Our love was just one of your discarded jewels
You think back to it’s price and, oh you feel a fool
But in that certain light, it looked so beautiful - Jewell

Now the night has fled, just like everything I said - Luna

http://www.azlyrics.com/b/bombaybicycleclub.html

And a very talented up and coming singer Isaac Gracie (one to watch over the next few years)

The age of ignorance has crept away and, you’re all so very lost now… (We’re so very lost)

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#12

Diolch for mentioning Leonard Cohen, Catrin.

On the eve of his world tour, starting in late 2008, Leonard Cohen agreed that the Welsh language band, Brigyn, could release their version of Hallelujah: http://welshmusic-cerddoriaethcymraeg.tumblr.com/post/8565177016/haleliwia-brigyn-hon-ywr-fersiwn-gymraeg-or

RIP Leonard.

2 Likes
#13

I once created a special site on which I was trying to present (and free thranslate in English) some of our or Croatian songs I love the most. I am glad @CatrinLliarJones has got an idea of this thread. I hope I’m welcomed to share the whole site (not actually much there though) with you all. Here it is - Songs Free Translations

I’ve checked the site just right now after a while and I am sorry to say that it needs a bit of edit due to new software and due to some YouTube videos were obviously deleted but majority of the content (lyrics are all there of course) is still there. I hope you’ll enjoy.

Oh, and the song I like the most? This one: Divno je biti nekome nešto (It’s great to be something to someone).

The translations of the songs into English are all my work and I hope I did it good enough.

Enjoy.

1 Like
#14

I’m an atheist, this song made me look at religion in a different way, with respect. To me it shows how some people still believe through adversity.

"It’s not like you killed someone, it’s not like you drove a hateful spear into his side, praise the one who left you broken down and paralysed. He did it all for you!"

“Judith” by A Perfect Circle.

If you are easily offended I would not recommend looking up the rest of the lyrics.

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#15

First thought I had when seeing this thread name was:

Heb gysgu dim mewn dyddiau,
Rhy hir heb rannu geirau

and now I can’t get it out of my head.

Not profound in any way, but a great little pop song. Could have been a hit in any language.

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#16

Anyone into 90’s rock would be able to sing this …

“I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life, I know you’ll be a star in somebody else’s sky, but why, why, why can’t it be, can’t it be mine?”

“Black” by Pearl Jam.

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#17

I used to play all my music off my computer, hundreds of albums, thousands of songs, on shuffle … when I arrived home late at night after my wife had given birth I pressed play and this song came on … I sat there and was blown away by the lyrics …

"If I had just one wish
Only one demand
I hope he’s not like me
I hope he understands
That he can take this life
And hold it by the hand
And he can greet the world
With arms wide open…"

The whole song is amazing, go and listen to it.

“With arms wide open” by Creed.

3 Likes
#18

Just for a laff…

The Laughing Gnome (David Bowie)

I was walking down the high street
When I heard footsteps behind me
And there was a little old man (hello)
In scarlet and grey, shuffling away (laughter)
Well he trotted back to my house
And he sat beside the telly (oaah…)
With his tiny hands on his tummy
Chuckling away, laughing all day (laughter)

Oh, I ought to report you to the gnome office
(gnome office)
Yes
(hahahahaha)

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
“I’m a laughing gnome and you don’t catch me”
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
“I’m a laughing gnome and you can’t catch me”
Said the laughing gnome

Well I gave him roasted toadstools and a glass of dandelion wine (burp, pardon)
Then I put him on a train to eastbourne
Carried his bag and gave him a fag
(haven’t you got a light boy? )
"here, where do you come from? "
(gnome-man’s land, hahihihi)
"oh, really? "

In the morning when I woke up
He was sitting on the edge of my bed
With his brother whose name was fred
He’d bought him along to sing me a song

Right, let’s hear it
Here, what’s that clicking noise?
(that’s fred, he’s a “metrognome”, haha)

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
“I’m a laughing gnome and you don’t catch me”
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
“I’m a laughing gnome and you can’t catch me”

(own up, I’m a gnome, ain’t I right, haha)
"haven’t you got an 'ome to go to? "
(no, we’re gnomads)
“didn’t they teach you to get your hair cut at school? you look like a rolling gnome.”
(no, not at the london school of ecognomics)

Now they’re staying up the chimney
And we’re living on caviar and honey (hooray!)
Cause they’re earning me lots of money
Writing comedy prose for radio shows
It’s the-er (what? )
It’s the gnome service of course

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
“I’m a laughing gnome and you don’t catch me”
Ha ha ha, oh, dear me

(ha ha ha, hee hee hee
“I’m a laughing gnome and you can’t catch me”
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
“I’m a laughing gnome and you can’t catch me”)

(one more time, yeah)

(You really have to hear it though :slight_smile: ):

(Attenders of a certain southern bwtcamp may remember a particularly strangulated interpretation of this work (not in English on that occasion, of course), or more likely are struggling to forget it … :slight_smile: )

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#19

Could not agree more.

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#20

“Hier soir deux inconnus
Et ce matin sur l’avenue
Deux amoureux tout étourdis
Par la longue nuit.”
Aux Champs-Elysées by Joe Dassin.

I took my wife to Paris in March this year and we really enjoyed a RedBusTour:- during the trip the commentary played music in between the info and this song hit me for six as we drove down the Champs Elysées.
At this point I’d like to digress, because I particularly enjoyed learning that Hitler (Apparently he personally wanted to plant a Swastika flag as a symbol of his dominance over Paris and France) had to walk to the highest point of the Eiffel Tower because all four lifts had been sabotaged and spares were impossible to acquire, although a few hours after the Libération they were all working again!
Anyway, I love these lyrics because they talk about love being spontaneous and unexpected. I have translated these lyrics into English that fills in a few gaps as this is a style which is typically, beautifully and unmistakably FRENCH!!

"Yesterday evening, two people were unknown to each other and this morning two lovers (walk down the avenue), both dizzied by the long night (they hadn’t slept, they talked all night).

While in Paris, I fell in love with the place. Paris made me totally aware that I had a deep love of places and people and more importantly, that I awoke to the fact that it was much greater than I had previously thought.
So Paris made me fall in love with LOVE!!

1 Like