I Was Born, In A Cross Fire Hurricane

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

The piano has been drinking
My necktie is asleep
And the combo went back to New York
The jukebox has to take a leak


TOM WAITS - THE PIANO HAS BEEN DRINKING LYRICS

They're selling postcards of the hanging
They are painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They've got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tightrope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squads are restless
They need somewhere to go
As lady and I look out tonight from
Desolation Row

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

This is a public service announcement
With guitar
Know your rights all three of them

Number 1
You have the right not to be killed
Murder is a CRIME!
Unless it was done by a
Policeman or aristocrat
Know your rights

And Number 2
You have the right to food money
Providing of course you
Don't mind a little
Investigation, humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation

Know your rights
These are your rights
Wang

Know these rights

Number 3
You have the right to free
Speech as long as you're not
Dumb enough to actually try it.

Know your rights
These are your rights
All three of 'em
It has been suggested
In some quarters that this is not enough!
Well..............................

Get off the streets
Get off the streets
Run
You don't have a home to go to
Smush

Finally then I will read you your rights

You have the right to remain silent
You are warned that anything you say
Can and will be taken down
And used as evidence against you

Listen to this
Run

Billie Holiday?

Yep; those are the opening lines to Strange Fruit.

My girl my girl don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines in the pines
Where the sun never shines
I been shivering the whole night through

Us and Them
And after all we're only ordinary men
Me, and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do

When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school . . .

Yesterday,
All my troubles seemed so far away,
Now it looks as though they're here to stay,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
I'm not half the man I used to be,
There's a shadow hanging over me,
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

*edit* good one George

You need a new song
I'll set the words up so they tear right at your soul
Don't take me too long
But there's a danger that I'll plagiarize something old

The Who ~ New Song

I'm a gut level stones fan (sorry, Kicky). Like that as an opening line in any case.

I don't have a background of knowing a huge range of opening lines over years and years, so no proper judge, but when I wasn't playing symphonies or opera, my then interest, when driving through the forest (the drive requiring use of cds), I was playing the Stones or so it seems in memory. I remember driving through the tricky-plus slow section with the Stones Lady Jane on loud. Especially compelling with a humongous loaded logging truck clutching your car's ass. I don't remember the speed limit but something like 15 mph. There's one section where the road sometimes closes at least for one lane if not both re falling rocks. A potential no-way-out situation.

Hear the lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
Im so lonesome I could cry

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long long year
Stole many a man's soul and faith

And I was 'round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate

(Ohh, that beat and those guitar licks!)

Well, I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she would go meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man

No, you can't always get what you want
No, you can't always get what you want
No, you can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime, you just might find
You get what you need

yeh. Well, we all sync to certain starts.

Me, I can barely stand one more word about Dylan, whom I liked for a while.

Obviously, I get that a zillion people don't like the Stones.

Somewhere in the last '70s, I drifted away from Dylan, though I still hold 'Blood on the Tracks' as one of the best written and performed contemporary music/literary creations. I became disaffected with Dylan as his intent seemed to be to confuse everyone in his path. He was no guru nor mentor, but he was very creative and ironically funny. His insults in his lyrics in Idiot Wind stung like no one could (it's a wonder you still know how to breathe).

He certainly did write some timely powerful lyrics that had major cultural and political affects on a naive and willing public. He scorned the adulation and spit in the faces of both loved ones and his fans. Besides that he had bad breath.

With the Stones, I never had such lofty expectations for them. I just took the music is a primal energy that moved me.

After all, it's only rock and roll!

Not arguing.
I'm still sick of Dylan and not quite sick of the Stones. But I'm one of those people who can hear stuff too much.
Back when we were house remodelling, a helper, pretty good, had the radio up loud, and that about did it for me for rock and roll in general, who had long liked it, though waning. Thank goodness he didn't go off on the blues.

I didn't take what you wrote as arguing at all. In fact, I feel we're pretty much in sync. I cannot listen to anything in the last few years that he's done at all. His voice, never a pretty thing, is a gutteral croak that raises my hackles.

Much to the chagrin of some of my friends, Springsteen I've heard too much of...for a lifetime. He was played to death in the 70s and early 80s on FM in Boston and at a few of my friends house's. One friend goes on and on on FB about his concerts which they attend even if it's long distance. Holy crap!

Somehow, my faves S&G as well as Paul Simon have escaped my being tired of. However, Garfunkel alone I tire of quickly.

I think it's because now I play a greater variety than ever... I don't play my older music very regularly. I listen daily to a mix of some classical, jazz...acoustic folk..world music and new artists far more.