Poetry in Popular Music

[Dingleberry]

I used to teach a class, Poetry in Popular Music. Poetry need not be (usually isn't) flowery and wispy. Just kick ass use of language and imagery.

Try to post poetic portions of songs if possible rather than entire songs. But if an entire song stands alone as a piece of poetry, by all means...


My first example is the beginning of Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks. Pete Townshend once called Ray Davies the greatest songwriter ever out of Britain. Lennon and McCartney were great writers of pop hits. Davies was a poet.


Lazy old river
Must you keep rolling
Flowing into the night?
People so busy
Make me feel dizzy
Taxi light shines so bright

But I don't need no friends
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise

Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is evening time
Waterloo sunset's fine.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Time, Pink Floyd

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

—-

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again

Sun is the same, in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Sign On The Window, Bob Dylan

Sign on the window says "lonely, "
Sign on the door said "no company allowed, "
Sign on the street says "why' don't own me"
Sign on the porch says "three's a crowd"
Sign on the porch says three's a crowd"

Her and her boyfriend went to California
Her and her boyfriend done changed their tune
My best friend said, "now didn' I warn ya
Brighton girls are like the moon,
Brighton girls are like the moon"

Looks like a-nothing but rain
Sure gonna be wet tonight on Main Street
Hope that it don't sleet

Build me a cabin in Utah
Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout
Have a bunch of kids who call me "pa"
That must be what it's all about,
That must be what it's all about

 

[Dingleberry]

Time, Pink Floyd

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

—-

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again

Sun is the same, in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

That's one I used to teach, LOL.

 

[Dingleberry]

Sign On The Window, Bob Dylan

Sign on the window says "lonely, "
Sign on the door said "no company allowed, "
Sign on the street says "why' don't own me"
Sign on the porch says "three's a crowd"
Sign on the porch says three's a crowd"

Her and her boyfriend went to California
Her and her boyfriend done changed their tune
My best friend said, "now didn' I warn ya
Brighton girls are like the moon,
Brighton girls are like the moon"

Looks like a-nothing but rain
Sure gonna be wet tonight on Main Street
Hope that it don't sleet

Build me a cabin in Utah
Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout
Have a bunch of kids who call me "pa"
That must be what it's all about,
That must be what it's all about

I wish Dylan's singing voice didn't sound like ass. Just can't listen to him. Excellent writer though.

 

[Dingleberry]

"Autumn Almanac" The Kinks


From the dew-soaked hedge creeps a crawly caterpillar
When the dawn begins to crack
It's all part of my autumn almanac

Breeze blows leaves of a musty-coloured yellow
So I sweep them in my sack
Yes, yes, yes, it's my autumn almanac

Friday evenings, people get together
Hiding from the weather
Tea and toasted, buttered currant buns
Can't compensate for lack of sun
Because the summer's all gone

 

[Dingleberry]

"Tomorrow is Today" Billy Joel

This obscure song reads like a poetic suicide note. Why? A good portion of it IS from a suicide note he wrote at the very beginning of his career. Obviously, he didn't follow thru with it.

I've been livin' for the moment
But I just can't have my way
And I'm afraid to go to sleep
'Cause tomorrow is today

People tell me life is sweeter
But I don't hear what they say
Nothing comes to change my life
So tomorrow is today

I don't care to know the hour
'Cause it's passing anyway
I don't have to see tomorrow
'Cause I saw it yesterday

So I listen for an answer
But the feeling seems to stay
And what's the use of always dreaming
If tomorrow is today, oh

Still I'm waiting for the morning
But it feels so far away
And you don't need the love I'm giving
So tomorrow is today

Oh, my, I'm goin' to the river
Gonna take a ride and the lord will deliver me
Made my bed, I'm gonna lie in it
If you don't come, sure gonna die in it
Too late, too much given
I've seen a lot of life and I'm damn sick of livin' it
I keep hopin' that you will
Pass my way
And some day if your dreams are leavin' you
I'll still believe in you

I don't care to know the hour
'Cause it's passing anyway
I don't have to see tomorrow
'Cause I saw it yesterday

Though I'm living and I'm singing
And although my hands still play
Soon enough it will all be over
'Cause tomorrow is today

 

[Lord Chevy]

View: https://youtu.be/SYkQIMMzZ5s

 

[Dingleberry]

The final song on the final Kinks album is a beautiful contemplation of the loss of a loved one and life after death. Written by Ray Davies after his mother dies. The video tells the story pretty well.



View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h7a8VOeCeEY&pp=ygUPS2lua3Mgc2NhdHRlcmVk



Like a seed that is sewn
All the children are scattered
By a breeze that is blown
Now the crops are all scattered
We are torn, we are shattered
Now some of us are barmy and battered
And the fields where we gathered
Are overgrown in weeds and in tatters
Through it all we were scattered

To the fields we are scattered
From the day we are born
To grow wild and sleep rough
Till from the earth we are torn
And a soul that is free
Can live on eternally
And the spirit can live on
Though it's scattered in the world beyond
And I've been out of my mind
Ever since she's been gone

I look around that empty room
No sight nor sound
She's left so soon
She's out of view
But the I find
Those scattered clues she left behind
A photograph with a smiling face
A cigarette stubbed out on the fireplace
A coffee cup with her lipstick stains
I guess I'll never see her again

Now my life is all scattered
Ever since she's been gone
I feel older, I feel fatter
I feel the blues coming on
We get bruised
We get battered
But we'll pick up the pieces that scattered
And with emotional glue
We're gonna stick together, body and mind

Ever since she went away
I've been alone to contemplate
Time and space and why world's move
While sitting in my solitude
I've watched the stars and wondered why
They're scattered up there in the sky
And is she up there out of view
On some higher platitude

I wish I knew
Wish I could prove
The reason why this life on earth
Is scattered like the universe
I'm scattered here and scattered there
Bits of me scattered everywhere

To the fields we are scattered
Then from the dust we are born
We survive somewhat battered
To a new life, a new dawn
IN the end what will it matter
There'll only be my ashes to scatter
And all the logical answers
To a worrying mind
Will be scattered in time
Beaten and battered
To the earth you are scattered
You're going home so what does it matter
To an atomic mind
Scattered here while you travel time