Saturday, August 25, 2018

The Lyrics Thing

Paula (thanks) at Light Motifs has tapped me for the Lyrics Challenge, wherein, I think, I post lyrics and write a post about them. I chose The End of the World, originally, or at least most notably recorded by Skeeter Davis, but I like John Mellencamp's cover of it quite a bit. In his recording, the tracks were all laid down together in real time, with no fill-ins, or fixes, all just one simultaneous performance. Quite good. It can be found here.

Here are the lyrics:

Why does the sun go on shining?
Why does the sea rush to shore?
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world
‘Cause you don’t love me anymore?

Why do the birds go on singing?
Why do the stars glow above?
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?
It ended when I lost your love.

I wake up in the morning and I wonder
Why everything’s the same as it was.
I can’t understand, no, I can’t understand
How life goes on the way it does.

Why does my hear go on beating?
Why do these eyes of mine cry?
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?

It ended when you said goodbye.


Why do I like it?  Lyrics blow my mind. I consider myself an adequate writer, but to write lyrics for a song mystifies me. I've thought about it. The thing that makes it so difficult for me is that they must be simple to be good.  (Of course, exceptions.) What I love about The End of the World is that it is simple, but also that each stanza creates little mental pictures. Birds singing, stars glowing, sun shining, sea rushing to shore, eyes crying. Simple and evocative.

I gave the link to John Mellencamp's version, but let's not leave poor little Skeeter out in the cold.  And her voice is very pleasing.  To me, anyway, and you can't understand why anyone would stop loving her.




7 comments:

  1. Kinda partial to the Sharon Van Etten version myself but there are about a thousand covers of this excellent sad song and I can't find the one I'm looking for so I guess I'll just love the one I'm with.

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  2. OK, Mr. Donut, I tag you for the Lyric Challenge. Only I will not bore you with details and rules. Do with it what you may.

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  3. Look, here's a pretty sad of-a-sort love song, since we're dealing in those things, and I favor the Johnny Cash comeback version circa 1994 because no one sings about killing a person better than the Man in Black and he just gets better and sadder with age. But it's the history I like, disturbing and all too real. And it's all the different versions, each changed a tiny little bit to suit the player and the times.

    Backstory: http://www.murderbygaslight.com/2010/03/delias-gone-one-more-round.html

    Delia's Gone

    Delia, oh Delia
    Delia all my life
    If I hadn't of shot poor Delia
    I'd have had her for my wife
    Delia's gone
    One more round
    Delia's gone

    I went up to Memphis
    I met Delia there
    Found her in her parlour
    And I tied her to her chair
    Delia's gone
    One more round
    Delia's gone

    She was low-down and trifling
    She was cold and mean
    Kind of woman that make me
    Want to grab my sub-machine
    Delia's gone
    One more round
    Delia's gone

    First time I shot her
    Shot her in the side
    Hard to watch her suffer
    But with the second shot she died
    Delia's gone
    One more round
    Delia's gone

    But jailer, oh, jailer
    Jailer I can't sleep
    Cause all around my bedside
    I hear the patter of Delia's feet
    Delia's gone
    One more round
    Delia's gone

    So if your woman's devilish
    You can let her run
    Or you can bring her down and do her
    Like Delia got done
    Delia's gone
    One more round
    Delia's gone

    Delia's gone
    One more round
    Delia's gone


    *My other choice was Bowie's Life on Mars.

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  4. The Other said I should post my other choice lyrics so as not to appear too alienated and affected so here goes. I like Life on Mars it because it's so alienated and affected. Doh! Also, it's the title of a really great little British TV series that ran far under the radar about ten years ago and is worth a watch.

    Life on Mars?

    David Bowie

    It's a God-awful small affair
    To the girl with the mousy hair
    But her mummy is yelling no
    And her daddy has told her to go

    But her friend is nowhere to be seen
    Now she walks through her sunken dream
    To the seat with the clearest view
    And she's hooked to the silver screen

    But the film is a saddening bore
    For she's lived it ten times or more
    She could spit in the eyes of fools
    As they ask her to focus on

    Sailors fighting in the dance hall
    Oh man, look at those cavemen go
    It's the freakiest show
    Take a look at the lawman
    Beating up the wrong guy
    Oh man, wonder if he'll ever know
    He's in the best selling show
    Is there life on Mars?

    It's on America's tortured brow
    That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
    Now the workers have struck for fame
    'Cause Lennon's on sale again
    See the mice in their million hordes
    From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads
    Rule Britannia is out of bounds
    To my mother, my dog, and clowns

    But the film is a saddening bore
    'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
    It's about to be writ again
    As I ask you to focus on

    Sailors fighting in the dance hall
    Oh man, look at those cavemen go
    It's the freakiest show
    Take a look at the lawman
    Beating up the wrong guy
    Oh man, wonder if he'll ever know
    He's in the best selling show
    Is there life on Mars?

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  5. Still working out the sinister implications of You Are My Sunshine, but Delilah is good.

    I enjoyed the American version of Life on Mars, but never watched the British one. Should I watch it anyway, having seen the American?

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  6. I do(nut) know, Roy, since I only saw the UK version. I would guess it's more or less verbatim, in the way of these remakes, but I really don't know. There's already so much incredible TV stuff that I'm already not watching that I can't afford to be anything other than ultra-choosy, so if you're like the rest of us, deluged and mildly guilty for missing so much but overwhelmed and also conflicted at considering TV something to be missed rather than to be avoided, then there is unquestionably something else more deserving of your precious remaining time on earth.

    (Goddammit reCAPTHA, I am not a fucking robot )

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  7. That’s a really beautiful, bittersweet song, Roy.

    Mr. Donut, I thought I knew all of JC’s stuff, but that’s a new one on me!

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