Sheer Lyrical Brilliance
 

With all of the critique, I thought we should show some love to our lady from the mountain, our sister of the moon, our Bella Donna with the Wild Heart that's in Your Dreams. Let's focus on her lyrical brilliance and those songs that have made us fans for sooo long it seems. I could write a really long list but these are my standouts. All of these have given me goosebumps at one time or another:

"tell me I'm wrong, I can't believe ya, we've tried a thousand times before, rained on reasons kept us believin' that there might still be more" Races are Run
" And so I follow as friends often do, I care not for love or money and I think she knew that the people still loved her but still they're the most cruel" Sisters of the Moon
"Thunder only happens when it's raining and players only love you when they're playing" Dreams
"Once in a million years a lady like her rises" Rhiannon of course
" All around black ink darkness who found lady from the mountain" Sorcerer
"Drove me like a magnet to the sea...yeah" Crystal
"I went today, baby I would go again tomorrow and the music there it was hauntingly familiar" Edge of Seventeen
" You saved my life, I won't forget it" For What it's Worth
"I have come to know this world of changing faces, I would not fight the world, I would not change it, so be true to me" Smile at You
" Don't say that she's pretty and did you say that she loved you, baby I don't want to know" Silver Springs
" Never have I been a blue calm sea, I've always been a Storm" Storms




The best of the best, is an entire song....Gold Dust Woman, perfect from start to finish, but her best line she has ever put pen to paper is "did she make you cry, make you break down, shatter your illusions of love, is it over now, do you know how to pick up the pieces and go home".

Great topic!

Some of my favorite lyrics:

"Too trusting, yes. But, then women usually are."

"And if you don't love me now you will never love me again. I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain."

"Do you always trust your first initial feeling?"

"In the drama of the moment well, there is no easy way."

"You say not even you can tear us apart."

"I'll be the dancer, you'll be the player. I'll just almost hold you, if you'd just almost stay here. I'll be the passion and you be the play. I'll just almost hold you, you'll just almost stay."

"Someday when we're older and my hair is silver gray, unbraid with all of the love that you have - like a soft, silver chain."

"You are song for me, melody ingrained in my soul."

"How the faces of love have changed, turning the pages
And I have changed, oh, but you? You remain ageless" - Crystal

all of Dreams and Landslide and Storms and The Highwayman

Dreams in its entirety.

"I'm not a child anymore
I'm tall enough to reach for the stars
I'm old enough to love you from afar
Too trusting...yes?
But then women usually are"

"To the gypsy that remains
Faces freedom with a little fear
I have no fear
I have only love"

"Even though the living
Is sometimes laced with lies
It's alright...
The feeling remains
Even after the glitter fades"

"So you're still lonely
You say that it's been forever
Maybe you never knew me
Maybe you thought that I'd never change
But you know I'm changing
You're wrong
And it's been like dying
No love's that hard to find
And I'm tired of, and I'm tired of trying"

First ones that come to mind right now, some of the verses in her songs are just beautiful.

Love your choices, Artemis!

I don't know if you know that some of these words you wrote are incorrect or this is just the way you like to sing it. But just in case I'll provide you with the correct lyrics. I know these because I have the sheet music books.

And so I followed as friend's often do
I cared not for love nor money
And I think she knew
Well the people they love her
But still they're the most cruel


Well I went today, maybe I will go again tomorrow
And the music there it was hauntingly familiar

This.

Also:

"Have you come to see, that my face is not seen, outside my frost-covered windows?
And just how deep do you hold that dream in your hands each night?"

"Wait a minute baby, stay with me awhile...said you'd give me light, but you never told me about the fire"

"We all believe in people that we think believe in God"

"If not at least within the touch of my fingers ...It was close to being in Heaven"

"I did not deal with you I know, though the love has always been, so I search to find an answer there, so I can truly win"

"I was wrong to live for a dream"

"I never did believe in time, you know, changin' anybody's mind"

from what song is the "i'll be the dancer , you'll be the player" line?

"The Dealer"

"Don't change/baby please don't change/and you say your face becomes thin/you never thought it could."

"Where is the reason/don't blame it on me/blame it on my wild heart"

"Drowning in the sea of love/where everyone would love to drown"

"You've shaken your faith in me, no/you've shaken my faith in everything else/a decision no one makes/and now you're going home"+"you say you're sorry/now you should walk away/but it's so overwhelming/you have nothing left to say"

"I said it's funny that you understood/I knew you would"

"Time makes you bolder/children get older/I'm getting older too"

"So I'm back to the velvet underground/back to the floor that I love/to a room with some lace and paper flowers/back to the gypsy that I was"

LOVE this. I never really thought much of it, but seeing it written out shows how powerful it is.

Fall From Frace:

"I didn't ask when you shook your head
I always accepted what you said
As the truth and the truth only
Well it's not enough that you depend on me
And it's not enough that you say you love me
It's not enough to just save face
Because sometimes
You just fall from grace

Maybe I am calmer now
Maybe things are fine
Maybe I made the whole thing up
Maybe it isn't a lie
Maybe the reason I say these things
Is to bring you back alive
Maybe I fought this long and this hard
Just to make sure you survive"

And one of my personal favourites, Love Changes:

"I wish I could figure a way around this
She says...like a sad song
I don't understand the way that I feel
I am terrified of being wrong
Well, I am not happy
And I am not crazy
Are you listening, do you hear
Everything happens for a reason
Stay clear"

Was I who was the hourglass and the sands of time like shattering glass went past me like a tunnel to the sea

I run through grass I run over the stones down to the sea

But never have I been a blue calm sea
I have always been a storm

And the lady's feeling
Like the moon that she loved
Don't you know that the stars are
A part of us

I know what you're dreaming when you sleep
You have secrets I will always keep
And in every morning when we arise
I see my reflection in your eyes



I also really like the lyrics to Sisters of the Moon, Sara and Crystal.

Another of my favs:

"I either say to much
or I don't say enough
well I played too hard, but still I'm not tough enough
What was it she wanted, they said she had everything..."

and

"I'm going away for a little while to remember how to feel
And if I find the answer, I promise you, I'll come back and get you"

More I've thought of:

"You won't forget me even though you think you want to
You'll run away, but in your mind, I'll still be there"

"Was it a thorn in your side
Something that you hide
Something you don't touch
Because it hurts too much"

"And the whispered secrets go on and on
No one says anything to anyone
You watch after her and your word is law
She thought she was out there, but nobody saw
I didn't win or lose...I just threw the cards
But I paid a price for it..."

"Have you been writing? Well, you say it's harder now
Well, I got the message: stay among the living

From what I can tell, I need to be here
You say someone's looking for you, ooh, nothing is wrong
Well, I can and I will go on

No one walks away from this battle
From the power, it's so strong
Like a fury
Keep the fury deep inside
And wish it to end
And when your friends start asking you why
Ooh, you just pretend, don't say nothing"

"Take me if you need me
But never hold me down
You're asking me to trust you
Well, there's little of that around

I'm trying to believe you
And I'm learning all the time
Two-part personality
The flower and the vine"

"Now I decided yesterday that I would leave you
I'm alright..."

"Go on, save yourself
Leave the key here
You love someone else
I shouldn't be here"

"What you did not need
Was a woman who was stronger
You needed someone to depend on you
I could not be her
I did not want to
My first mistake was to smile at you"

Pretty much most of the angry demo from Smile At You, actually..

I love all the choices I've seen and would just like to throw in:

"If you don't love me now, you will never love me again" (you can just about hear the - By God- attitude in it.)

All of these are brilliant, some often forgotten lyrics:

"You've left me now
And it's seasoned my soul
And with every step you take
I watch another part of you go"

"You think you hear demons
I think we are the demons
In this place where the images are born
You remember your childhood
Oh, in fiery sequences
The sun goes down"

"I play the part but then all of us do
And I do it so well as I do it to you
In this town full of strangers
In this town full of fools....

Lose yourself in a silvery dress
For you think you must do what you feel you do best
And you musn't give it up for you're still but a guest"


Stevie in her finery: All of:
Bella Donna (song)
Outside The Rain
How Still My Love
Sleeping Angel
For What's it Worth
You May Be The One
Fall From Grace
Storms
Beautiful Child
Crystal
...the list is endless

There's an endless supply of brilliance, but here are some of my favorites:

All of Silver Springs
All of The Highwayman
All of Bella Donna
All of Gypsy

"Is love so fragile
And the heart so hollow
It shatters with words
Impossible to follow"

"When it rains, it pours
When there's no one at the door
Yes, he did send me flowers
But that was a long time ago
It sounded good on a
Delicate white-ribbon card
'One more big time rock 'n' roll star'
Just what I need"

"Something in my heart died last night
One more chip off an already broken heart
I think of heart broke long ago
That's when I needed you
When I needed you most"

Mirror in the sky, what is love? Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life? (Landslide)

Rock on, gold dust woman. Take your silver spoon, dig your grave. (Gold Dust Woman -- the whole song; I just think it's a brilliant opening line)

Don't say that she’s pretty. And did you say that she loves you? Baby I don’t want to know. (Silver Springs)

So I begin not to love you, turn around and see me runnin'.
I'll say I loved you years ago, tell myself you never loved me, no. (Silver Springs)

You could be my silver spring, blue green colors flashing. (Silver Springs -- when delivered at the very end of the The Dance version, I just die)

It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams and, have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Dreams of loneliness like a heartbeat, drives you mad in the stillness of remembering
What you had, and what you lost, and what you had, oh and what you lost. (Dreams -- hard to single out one part of the song)

Your eyes say yes, but you don’t say yes. I wish that you were mine. (Beautiful Child)

Too trusting? Yes, but then women usually are. (Beautiful Child)

Every hour of fear I spend, my body tries to cry. (Storms)

But never have I been a blue calm sea, I have always been a storm. (Storms)

We were frail ... I should have known from the start, I’d be the brokenhearted.
But I loved you from the start. And not all the prayers in the world could save us. (Storms)

So I close my eyes softly and I become that part of the wind that we all long for sometimes, yeah.
And to those that I love like a ghost in the fog, like a charmed hour and a haunted song and the angel of my dreams ...(Angel)

Wait a minute baby, stay with me a while.
Said you'd give me light but you never told me 'bout the fire. (Sara)

Drowning in a sea of love where everyone would love to drown. (Sara)

And he was just like a great dark wing within the wings of a storm.
I think I had met my match. He was singing, and undoing the laces ... (Sara)

Sara, you’re the poet in my heart. Never change, and never stop. (Sara)

I would love to believe, I believe what you say.
In the drama of the moment, oh no there is no easy way.
No one ever leaves, everyone stays close 'till the fire fades. (Fireflies)

They like to wrap her in velvet. Does anyone know her name? (Sisters of the Moon)

And it all comes down to you, well you know that it does yeah.
Lightning strikes, maybe once, maybe twice. (Gypsy)

And the dream says I want you, and the dream is gone.
So she stays up nights on end, well at least there is a dream left. (When I See You Again)

I stepped into the canyons of my loneliness and I went about as far as I could go. (The Chain demo)

The clouds never expect it when it rains, but the sea changes color, but the sea does not change.
So with the slow graceful flow of age, I went forth with an age-old desire to please, on the edge of seventeen. (EO17, despite the two "age"s)

And she out in the distance sees him against the sky,
A pale and violent rider, a dream begun in wine. (The Highwayman)

Where is the reason? Don’t blame it on me, blame it on my wild heart. (Wild Heart)

I'm tired, I'm thirsty, I'm wild-eyed in my misery. (Sorcerer)

these were soo long ago....

Absolutely LOVE all of the above:D

When I run through your door I am freed from my slavery/and the fire will be burnin long before you return to me. (Julia)

I still look up when you walk in the room/I've the same wide eyes/they tell a story (Angel)

If I had my life to love over I would never dream, no, I'd still wish you gone and I will live alone. Yes, I will live alone. (Planets)

I'm just at the other end of your night, I'm always in and out of your life. Right down the middle of all of your dreams. (In Your Dreams)

"Now there you go again
You say you want your freedom
Well who am I to keep you down?
It's only right that you should
Play the way you feel it
But listen carefully to the sound
Of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat.. drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost..."

Not only are these lyrics beautifully written and beautifully inspired, they also have a great rhythm and flow when sung. They just roll off the tongue. I also really like the heartbeat metaphor. Brilliant.