Dustin's pop lyric picks

Dustin Fridkin sent me an email responding with picks, and it was great.  I have to post it:

i will stifle my disagreement with the myriad assertions of the goodness and/or perfection of many of the pop-song lines quoted by my esteemed colleagues.  surely, of course, others will similarly disagree with many of those quoted below (the very volume of them, if nothing else, must guarantee it).

furthermore, it should be noted that when i hear a pop song, i don't tend to listen for this or that lyric, but rather to the thing entire.  as such, many of my favorite bands (sleater kinney or the band, for example) don't appear here, in spite of the fact that they write great songs.  this is so simply because their songs don't have easily extracted "great lines."  on the other hand, some bands (the mountain goats, for example) could, i think, easily fill a list of great lines from pop songs by themselves.  this sounds snobby.  i don't mean it too, and i apologize for it.

anyhow, here's my contribution.  it's a bit over-long, i know.  i don't like much, but when i like, i have very little filter.  some of these, i'm sure, are included because of the strength of their delivery, others by their placement in the context of the song, and the rest, it's likely, by virtue of idiosyncratic (or, it's possible, idiotic) judgment. it will be easily ascertained by the attentive reader that this list did not come "off the top of my head."  in my, and this list's, defense: tho it was not exactly spontaneous, neither was it the object of much thought.  i just sort of cruised around my itunes library and thought things like "oh, shit! this is awesome!  what about..." and so on.

enough.  let's get on with the list.

for starters, and apropos of what's said above:

"it's the sonics, not the phonics, and it's all in the delivery"
- ted leo & the pharmacists

moving on to matters of the heart:

"i am not gonna lose you; we are gonna stay married in this house like a louisiana graveyard, where nothing stays buried"
- the mountain goats

"maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song; and who do i think that i am to tell her she's wrong"
- townes van zandt

"why don't you show me now how to lose control"
- bikini kill

"your phone's off the hook, but you're not"
- x

"i ain't no goddamn son of a bitch: you better think about it, baby"
- the misfits

"baby even the losers get lucky sometimes"
- tom petty

"i don't give a damn about my bad reputation"
- joan jett

"all i need in this world of sin is me and my girlfriend"
- tupac (which, i realize, isn't really about a guy and his gal; nevertheless, it goes here)

on to politics, history, and economics:

"we came from the farms and the city streets of a hundred foreign lands, and we shed our blood in the battle's heat, now we're all americans."
- steve earle

"if you've got a lot of money you can make yourself merry; if you've only got a nickle it's the staten island ferry and that's hard times"
- bob dylan

"mixing pop and politics, you ask me what the use is.  i offer up embarrassment and my usual excuses"
- billy bragg

"maybe somehow this scam will still save us all"
- against me!

"till things are brighter, i'm the man in black"
- johnny cash

"if this is what we're for, then this is what we get"
- allergic to bullshit

"the harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all"
- jimmy cliff

"louisiana, they're trying to wash us away"
- randy newman

"let me tell you 'bout your blood, bamboo kid.  it ain't coca cola, it's rice"
- the clash

"it's so easy to defend the status quo, with everyone so cool an cynical"
- nofx

"if you're out to get the honey, then you don't go killing all the bees"
- joe strummer

"the poor stay cold, the rich stay rich.  that's how it goes, everybody knows"
- leonard cohen

"i'm gonna miss your money in my life"
- bikini kill

"i only had a corona; five cent deposit"
- the minutemen

or, perhaps, your interests are in philosophy, theology, and/or aesthetics

"hey suburbia, we're in love with you"
- screeching weasel

"new york's alright if you like saxophones"
- fear

"when i got the music, i got a place to go"
- rancid

"that summer feeling's gonna haunt you the rest of your life"
- jonathan richman

"you can't roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you've a mind to"
- roger miller

"stand! you've been sitting too long.  there's a permanent crease in your right and wrong"
- sly and the family stone

"bend your knees and bow your heads; save your babies; here's your future"
- the thermals

"how we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me; that's why i love mankind"
- randy newman

"hey suburbia, we're in love with you"
- screeching weasel

"see the stars, where the birds make their homes, staring back at us, indifferent, but distanced perfectly, projected endlessly, it's so fuckin' beautiful"
- rilo kiley

"every little memory has a song"
- ted leo & the pharmacists

okay, that was unnecessarily long-winded.  hope it's fun to read, tho, cuz it was fun to put together. it may be that none of the above are perfect or great, but they all stick with me.

cheers!
dustin

Comments

[J. Maggio]

This discussion probably needs Smiths songs

Jay

[J. Maggio]

FROM THE DESK OF DAN O'NEILL:

Yes...there is "pop" as in the pop charts, then the genre, I guess. So Like a Rolling Stone fits the former, but not sure about the latter. I mentioned Archers because you did. And I only gave you the one lyric to Leonard Cohen's "Anthem." Striking to me that there is no Jagger/Richards, like:

"I wasn't lookin' too good but I was feelin' real well..."

"go ahead and bite the Big Apple, don't mind the maggots"

"I saw you stretched out in Room 1009, with a smile on your face, and a teardrop in your eye"

"Send me dead flowers to my wedding, and I won't forget to put roses on your grave"

"his coat is torn and frayed, and seen much better days, just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away"

"yesterday don't matter if it's gone...dying all the time, lose your dreams and you will lose your mind, ain't life unkind?"

I could go on for two hours!

Neil Young? Horrifyingly glaring omission!

Paul Weller and the Jam?

At least Dustin rectified the lack of Clash and Sly

but...CCR? God, the entire song "Lodi" is an epic poem of one line wonders! "things got bad and things got worse, I guess you know the tune," "If I only had a dollar for every song I sung, for every time I had to sing while people sat there drunk, you know I'd catch the next train back to where I live, oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again." Fogerty may have been the greatest pure pop lyricist ever.

Christ, I visited Lodi with my buddy in 1989 just because of the song!