OMG this is gonna be so much fun. Ok I'll post this one because it's Memorial Day Weekend and I almost always post something on Facebook or Twitter about this song on Memorial Day.

Dress Blues
Jason Isbell

What can you see from your window?
I can't see anything from mine.
Flags on the side of the highway
and scripture on grocery store signs.
Maybe eighteen was too early.
Maybe thirty or forty is too.
Did you get your chance to make peace with the man
before he sent down his angels for you?

Mamas and grandmamas love you
'cause that's all they know how to do.
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
or sleeping in your dress blues.

Your wife said this all would be funny
when you came back home in a week.
You'd turn twenty-two and we all would celebrate you
in a bar or a tent by the creek.
Your baby would just about be here.
Your very last tour would be up
but you won't be back. They're all dressing in black
drinking sweet tea in styrofoam cups.

Mamas and grandmamas love you.
American boys hate to lose.
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
or sleeping in your dress blues.

They got the high school gymnasium ready,
it's full of flowers and old legionnaires.
Nobody showed up to protest,
just sniffle and stare.
But there's red, white, and blue in the rafters
and there's silent old men from the Corps.
What did they say when they shipped you away
to fight somebody's Hollywood war?

Nobody here could forget you.
You showed us what we had to lose.
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
or sleeping in your dress blues.

No, no you never planned on the bombs in the sand
or sleeping in your dress blues.


Here's a pretty decent version on Youtube, vocals aren't the best quality though:
[www.youtube.com]


There's a really great sports writer for ESPN named Wright Thompson, who is a friend of Jason Isbell's, and recently wrote this article about Matthew Conley's family.
[sports.espn.go.com]

If anybody's curious "What did they say when they shipped you away to fight somebody's Hollywood war" is my favorite line(of many). "Maybe 18 is too early, maybe 30 or 40 is too" might be as good.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2014 04:41AM by bgriffin.

BG--You're welcome for the suggestion!

I'm not going to write the whole song, just the last line:

"For when you really love someone, you see the face of God."

Cried like a baby the first time I heard it. Bonus points
to anyone who can say where it's from!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2014 09:46PM by SandiAigo.

SandiAigo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BG--You're welcome for the suggestion!
>
> I'm not going to write the whole song, just the
> last line:
>
> "For when you really love someone, you see the
> face of God."
>
> Cried like a baby the first time I heard it.
> Bonus points
> to anyone who can say where it's from!

Please tell us where it's from or I'll go crazy....

Amanda Seyfried, Epilogue, from the Les Miserables album.

Here's another deep and meaningful song from my youth...

RiffRaff:
It's astounding;
Time is fleeting;
Madness takes its toll.
But listen closely...

Magenta:
Not for very much longer.

RiffRaff:
I've got to keep control.

I remember doing the time-warp
Drinking those moments when
The Blackness would hit me

Magenta:
And the void would be calling...

Transylvanians:
Let's do the time-warp again.
Let's do the time-warp again.

Narrator:
It's just a jump to the left.

All:
And then a step to the right.

Narrator:
Put your hands on your hips.

All:
You bring your knees in tight.
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane.
Let's do the time-warp again.
Let's do the time-warp again.

Magenta:
It's so dreamy, oh fantasy free me.
So you can't see me, no, not at all.
In another dimension, with
voyeuristic intention,
Well secluded, I see all.

RiffRaff:
With a bit of a mind flip

Magenta:
You're into the time slip.

RiffRaff:
And nothing can ever be the same.

Magenta:
You're spaced out on sensation.

RiffRaff:
Like you're under sedation.

All:
Let's do the time-warp again.
Let's do the time-warp again.

Columbia:
Well I was walking down the street
just a-having a think
When a snake of a guy gave me an
evil wink.
He shook-a me up, he took me by surprise.
He had a pickup truck, and the
devil's eyes.
He stared at me and I felt a change.
Time meant nothing, never would again.

All:
Let's do the time-warp again.
Let's do the time-warp again.

Narrator:
It's just a jump to the left.

All:
And then a step to the right.

Narrator:
Put your hands on your hips.

All:
You bring your knees in tight.
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane.
Let's do the time-warp again.
Let's do the time-warp again.

I was going to post one of my fav NIN (Nine Inch Nails) songs (Closer) but I forgot how "inappropriate" the lyrics are. It was the '90s; we were all rebelling against something. Grunge rocks on.

Shop2LiveinFL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It was the '90s; we were all rebelling against something.


Like in the 60's and 70's? Oh that's right, we knew what we were rebelling against

Frank Zappa, 'nuf said.

cindy55 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Amanda Seyfried, Epilogue, from the Les Miserables
> album.

Actually, it's the last line sung by Jean Valjean with Fantine (Ann Hathaway in the movie). Cosette does not sing with them in the stage version. Don't remember that part in the movie, but it is
very gripping on stage. (Just saw it again on Sunday.)

S2L--I loves me some "Time Warp"!

@ LisaSTL ~ 60's and 70's rebellion can't even compare to the 90's rebellion against an all-girls' Catholic school with nuns. Serious issue requires major rebellion. What better way than to wear a plaid shirt, ripped jeans and Doc Martens?

@SandiAigo ~ Which character were you? I was Magenta in full maid's uniform.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2014 02:42AM by Shop2LiveinFL.

Shop2LiveinFL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @ LisaSTL ~ 60's and 70's rebellion can't even
> compare to the 90's rebellion against an
> all-girls' Catholic school with nuns. Serious
> issue requires major rebellion. What better way
> than to wear a plaid shirt, ripped jeans and Doc
> Martens?

Oh, please. In the 70s I did it with an army fatique instead of my blazer, bobby sox
instead of nylons and "flappers" instead of Hush Puppies. And then there was the
hair.....

@ SandiAigo ~ I thought bobby sox were those white socks that girls wore in the 50's with their poodle skirts. And I thought Flappers were the dancing girls from the Roaring 20's. I guess I have no idea what they were in the 70's reference you made.

@ LisaSTL and SandiAigo ~ How do you think bgriffin is going to feel about us hijacking his lyrics thread? He was a giddy as a school girl when he first created it.

Well, hey, it was my idea in the first place! He'll live--he's a big boy.

"Flappers" were these brown and tan saddle shoes with detachable, fringed flaps that
covered the shoestrings. (I knew someone would ask.)

And, yes, bobby sox are those white sox, HOWEVER, when I started high school only
nylons were allowed. Eventually, the rule was changed and they allowed knee socks
in 4 colors, white, navy, black and brown, so of course everyone tried to get away with
red.

Well I can see how protesting against the dress code at a Catholic school would have a greater impact on the world than anything as silly as those earlier protests, marches and sit ins.

LOL! Right? How about going into the men's room for a yearbook photo? Yeah, I was a wild one!

Wow, no one was in the Vietnam protests, getting beat up? The civil rights marches with the equal opportunity of getting beaten up from either side?? Getting stopped on the wrong side of town by the cops and having your wrong skin tone date dragged out of the car and half beaten to death by the cops? So many opportunities to get your A** kicked by so many different people. When Governor George Wallace was shot, I was in high school with his brother. Class of '73
I don't bother going to the reunions, there aren't many people I knew well alive anymore. After the protest years came the disillusionment and the drug culture. What the 'Nam didn't get, heroin or other drug related stupidity did. Picking up a lid and getting killed when the buy went south, a LSD trip that takes you off the top of the Downtown YMCA on your last flight.

I just have a old school / different view of protesting. We were trying to make a better world for everyone.
Now I just feel incredibly sad at the wasted lives.

>>>still waiting for bgriffin to return to the thread he created...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2014 04:22PM by Shop2LiveinFL.

Making sure an important time in our history didn't get compared to trivialities may be a downer, but then again, so was segregation, the Vietnam war, and Lake Erie being considered dead.

:cries for his lost child:

It's not too late for a little CPR

bgriffin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> :cries for his lost child:

Get off the sofa and fight for it then, d*** it. Wringing your hands and boo hooing don't get s*** accomplished. Come on man, fight, fight for your child.

Need help with the Molotov's? Get out the diving goggles and wet the handkerchief for the tear gas. Curl into a ball and protect your head from the kicks.

Well, God help the neighbors today. Ain't going to be holding hands and singing Kumbaya. Feels like a flash back to 1972 coming on.

The best comment I've ever heard about a song is "Only the Decemberists could take a story about 2 teenage male prostitutes and turn it into a poignant tale about the lasting bonds of friendship. Or vice versa."

There's really no outstanding lines or anything in this song, it's just the imagery is amazing and the story is kind of sad and it kind of rips your heart out a little bit. Also it's a song about prostitutes, there could be a line or two that more conservative types might find distasteful.



The Bus Mall
The Decemberists

In matching blue raincoats,
Our shoes were our show boats
We kicked around.
From stairway to station
We made a sensation
With the gadabout crowd.
And oh, what a bargain,
We're two easy targets
For the old men at the off-tracks,
Who've paid in palaver
And crumpled old dollars,
Which we squirreled away
In our rat trap hotel by the freeway.
And we slept-in Sundays.

Your parents were anxious,
Your cool was contagious
At the old school.
You left without leaving
A note for your grieving
Sweet mother, while
Your brother was so cruel.
And here in the alleys
Your spirits were rallied
As you learned quick to make a fast buck.
In bathrooms and barrooms,
On dumpsters and heirlooms,
We bit our tongues.
Sucked our lips into our lungs
'Til we were falling.
Such was our calling.

And here in our hollow we fuse like a family,
But I will not mourn for you.
So take up your makeup
And pocket your pills away.
We're kings among runaways
On the bus mall.
We're down
On the bus mall.

Among all the urchins and old Chinese merchants
Of the old town,
We reigned at the pool hall
With one iron cue ball
And we never let the bastards get us down.
And we laughed off the quick tricks--
The old men with limp dicks--
On the colonnades of the waterfront park.
As 4 in the morning came on, cold and boring,
We huddled close
In the bus stop enclosure enfolding.
Our hands tightly holding.

But here in our hollow we fuse like a family,
But I will not mourn for you.
So take up your makeup
And pocket your pills away.
We're kings among runaways
On the bus mall.
We're down
On the bus mall.
We're down
On the bus mall.
Down on the bus mall.
Oh oh oh

Obligatory youtube linkity link [www.youtube.com]

It has been said by a friend of mine that Colin Meloy (the lead singer and lyricist) could take a dump on a record player drop the needle in it and turn it on and I would laud the resulting sound as brilliance.

I have not disputed this.

I'm having daydreams, about night things, in the middle of the afternoon.

OR

Drop-kick me Jesus, through the goalpost of life.

Country & Western performers will sing about ANYTHING!

Jesus was a Capricorn, he ate organic foods.
He believed in love and peace and never wore no shoes.
Long hair, beard and sandals and a funky bunch of friends.
Reckon they'd just nail Him up if he come down again.

Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on.
Who they can feel better than at any time they please.
Someone doing something dirty, decent folks can frown on.
If you can't find nobody else then help yourself to me.

Sung to the tune of a John Prine song btw.

I know and can you name that tune.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2014 06:42PM by LisaSTL.

The John Prine tune is Daddy Was A Carpenter I think? The Kris Kristofferson was obvi Jesus Was A Capricorn.

You see that endless line? They're victims of our time
Who's only crime was to bank on their fathers dreams
To work hard all your life, to raise your family with your wife
And to survive all the heartaches and bad breaks fate may bring
But dreams are seldom real and an aching heart won't heal
Standing in a line for a meal at a strangers door
As night begins to fall, they lay down in the hall of the mission
Of the Salvation Army that is loosing the war
And they dream of home, where someone's waitin'
Waitin' by the phone at the end of their rope
But come early dawn as dreams are fading
They're hanging by a slender thread of hope
Now it's closing time again, she turns her collar to the wind
Goes running in the rain to a friend on the way back home
To hold the only joy the world did not destroy
A laughing little brown eyed boy she calls her own
Though he leads her by the hand and tries to be her little man
He's really still too young to understand her quiet fears
Oh bills weigh on her mind and she hates her daily grind
'Cause time for romance was impossible to find these last few years
Now they're goin' home, where no one's waiting
Weary to the bone, she tries to cope
Sitting there alone, while slowly fading
She rocks to sleep her slender thread of hope
The news comes on at ten, the public servant will explain
How pouring water on the drowning little man will solve the mess
To save our way of life and to help us all survive
Those with nothing will now have to stay alive on even less
And as he spoke these words of wisdom
Like a cruel joke beyond his scope
With just one stroke from his fountain pen
He cut the last and final thread of hope

Slender Thread of Hope, Steppenwolf

Writer/s: KAY
BUG MUSIC
Lyrics Licensed and Provided By LyricFind

Close bg, Grandpa was the carpenter.

For me favorite songs make me feel; happy, sad, inspired, overwhelmed or the like. Live performances go a long way to driving those feelings home. Springsteen is a personal favorite and sites like YouTube have allowed so many bootlegs to make it out in the open. I found an acoustic version of Thunder Road with poor video and only about 160,000 views. That performance just oozes emotion for me.

BGriffin's signature line reminded me of a song by Stevie Ray Vaughn called "Life by the drop."

Hello there, my old friend,
not so long ago it was 'till the end
We played outside in the pouring rain,
on our way up the road we started over again

You're livin' a dream, wo you on top
My mind is achin', Lord it won't stop
That's how it happens, livin' life by the drop

Up and down that road in our worn out shoes,
talkin' 'bout good things and signin' the blues
You went your way, I stayed behind
We both knew it was just a matter of time

You're livin' a dream, wo you on top
My mind is achin', Lord it won't stop
That's how it happens, livin' life by the drop

No wasted time, we're alive today
Churnin' up the past, there's no easier way
Time's been between us, a means to an end
God it's good to be here walkin' together my friend

You're livin' a dream, wo you on top
My mind is achin', Lord it won't stop
That's how it happens, livin' life by the drop
That's how it happens, livin' life by the drop
That's how it happens, livin' life by the drop