From 10 to 1!

Wow this is a lot more difficult than I first anticipated!!!


The selection of song lyrics below are fantastically composed, beautiful, poignant, poetic and speak, when combined with compelling melody, to entrance the listener!

Course that's only my opinion! I tend to hear lyrics before music but it's the union that has an emotional impact on me and causes me to love it or hate it!



I couldn't possibly compile everything as pretty much every song by story tellers like Billy Joel, Chris de Burgh, or Jim Steinman are fab and the evocative musical numbers with such heart and soul are too many to mention but here's a taster.



So here are some songs that you may or may not know but I feel are worth knowing so perhaps I can introduce a few of you out there to some new material!



Enjoy!

Finally in First Place No. 1 a song you might not know ~ Lovers by Adrian Mannering

Lovers

(Adrian Mannering)

Soldiers in dreams are like lovers who come without warning

And take you by surprise when you think you must make it alone

Sooner or later their presence is only a memory

But you know that without them you'd never have rolled back the stone

And as lovers lie sleeping, I find myself travelling towards you

The morning arises, the wind is as soft as a sigh

And whatever's before me is nothing to what I have come through

The pain and the passion, the tears and the laughs and the lies

My darling once told me that loving was better than living

But I told him, survival for me was the easier game

I couldn't live with him, now it's I can't live without him

I thought I'd feel different, but somehow I still feel the same

Romeo tells me that Juliet can't live without him

And Ophelia's crazy for Hamlet who wants to be a king

And away in the distance, Mark Anthony loves Cleopatra

As Portia sits silent, soliloquising in the wings

So if lovers are losers, what price the game we are playing

And what price the man who has not got the money to pay

And the silence of angels means praying is just an illusion

For the lost and the lonely and those who have nothing to say.

Soldiers in dreams are like lovers who come without warning

And take you by surprise when you think you must make it alone

Sooner or later their presence is only a memory

But you know that without them you'd never have rolled back the stone

Runner up in Second Place ~ Meatloaf ~ Objects in the Rear View Mirror may Appear Closer then they are

The skies were pure and the fields were green

And the sun was brighter than it's ever been

When I grew up with my best friend Kenny

We were close as any brothers than you ever knew

It was always summer and the future called

We were ready for adventures and we wanted them all

And there was so much left to dream

And so much time to make it real

But I can still recall the sting of all

The tears when he was gone

They said he crashed and burned

I know I'll never learn

Why any boy should die so young

We were racing, we were soldiers of fortune

We got in trouble but we sure got around

There are times I think I see him peeling out of the dark

I think he's right behind me now and he's gaining ground

But it was long ago and it was far away,

Oh God it seems so very far

And if life is just a highway,

Then the soul is just a car

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And when the sun descended and the night arose

I heard my father cursing everyone he knows

He was dangerous and drunk and defeated

And corroded by failure and envy and hate

There were endless winters and the dreams would freeze

Nowhere to hide and no leaves on the trees

And my father's eyes were blank

As he hit me again and again and again

I know I still believe he'd never let me leave,

I had to run away alone

So many threats and fears, so many wasted years

Before my life became my own

And though the nightmares should be over

Some of the terrors are still intact

I'll hear that ugly coarse and violent voice

And then he grabs me from behind

And then he pulls me back

But it was long ago and it was far away,

Oh God it seems so very far

And if life is just a highway,

Then the soul is just a car

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

There was a beauty living on the edge of town

And she always put the top up and the hammer down

And she taught me everything I'll ever know

About the mystery and the muscle of love

The stars would glimmer and the moon would glow

I'm in the back seat with my Julie like a Romeo

And the signs along the highway all said,

Caution! Kids At Play!

Those were the rights of spring and we did everything

There was salvation every night

We got our dreams reborn and our upholstery torn

But everything we tried was right

She used her body just like a bandage,

She used my body just like a wound

I'll probably never know where she disappeared

But I can see her rising up out of the back seat now

Just like an angel rising up from a tomb

But it was long ago and it was far away,

Oh God it seems so very far

And if life is just a highway,

Then the soul is just a car

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

And objects in the rear view mirror

May appear closer than they are

She used her body just like a bandage,

She used my body just like a wound

I'll probably never know where she disappeared

But I can see her rising up out of the back seat now

In third Place ~ Billy Joel in General but Especially ~ We Didn't Start the Fire and Goodnight Saigon

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray

South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television

North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom

Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

CHORUS

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev

Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron

Dien Bien Phu and "Rock Around the Clock"

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team

Davy Crockett, "Peter Pan", Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev

Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez

CHORUS

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac

Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball

Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

Buddy Holly, "Ben-Hur", space monkey, Mafia

hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy

Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo

CHORUS

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"

Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs Invasion

"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania

Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex

JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

CHORUS

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon, back again

Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline

Ayatollolah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

"Wheel of Fortune" , Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide

Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shore, China's under martial law

Rock and Roller Cola Wars, I can't take it anymore

CHORUS

We didn't start the fire

But when we are gone

Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

Goodnight Saigon

We met as soul matesOn parris islandWe left as inmatesFrom an asylumAnd we were sharpAs sharp as knivesAnd we were so gung hoTo lay down our livesWe came in spasticLike tameless horsesWe left in plasticAs numbered corpsesAnd we learned fastTo travel lightOur arms were heavyBut our bellies were tightWe had no home frontWe had no soft soapThey sent us playboyThey gave us bob hopeWe dug in deepAnd shot on sightAnd prayed to jesus christWith all our mightWe had no camerasTo shoot the landscapeWe passed the hash pipeAnd played our doors tapesAnd it was darkSo dark at nightAnd we held on to each otherLike brother to brotherWe promised our mothers we'd writeAnd we would all go down togetherWe said we'd all go down togetherYes we would all go down togetherRemember charlieRemember bakerThey left their childhoodOn every acreAnd who was wrong? And who was right? It didn't matter in the thick of the fightWe held the dayIn the palmOf our handThey ruled the nightAnd the nightSeemed to last as long as six weeksOn parris islandWe held the coastlineThey held the highlandsAnd they were sharpAs sharp as knivesThey heard the hum of our motorsThey counted the rotorsAnd waited for us to arriveAnd we would all go down togetherWe said we'd all go down togetherYes we would all go down together

In at No. 4 ~ La Vie Boheme from the Musical Rent

ANGEL

Who died?

BENNY

Our akita

MARK, RODGER, ANGEL, COLLINS

Evita

BENNY

They make fun -Yet I am the one

Attempting to do some good

Or do you really want a neighborhood

Where people piss on your stoop every night?

Bohemia, Bohemia

Is a fallacy in your head

This is Calcutta

Bohemia is dead

MARK

Dearly beloved, we gather here to say

our goodbyes

COLLINS & ROGER

Dies Irae - Dies Illa

Kyrie Eleison

Yitgadal V' Yitkadash (etc.)

MARK

Here she lies

No one knew her worth

The late great daughter of Mother Earth

On these nights when we celebrate the birth

In that little town of Bethlehem

We raise our glass- You bet your ass to-

La Vie Boheme

ALL

La Vie Boheme

La Vie Boheme

La Vie Boheme

La Vie Boheme

MARK

To days of inspiration,

Playing hookey, making something

Out of nothing, the need

To express-

To communicate,

To going against the grain,

Going insane,

Going mad

To love and tension, no pension

To more than one dimension,

To starving for attention,

Hating convention, hating pretension,

Not to mention of course,

Hating dear old mom and dad

To riding your bike

Midday past the three piece suits-

To fruits- To no absolutes-

To Absolut- To choice-

To the Village Voice-

To any passing fad

To being an us- For once-

Instead of a them-

ALL

La Vie Boheme

La Vie Boheme

MR. GREY

AHHEMM

MAUREEN

Hey Mister- She's my sister

MR. GREY

So that's five miso soup,

Four seaweed salad

Three soy burger dinner,

Two tofu dog platter

And one pasta with meatless balls

A BOY

Eww

COLLINS

It tastes the same

MIMI

If you close your eyes

MR. GREY

And thirteen orders of fries

Is that it here?

ALL

Wine and beer!

MIMI & ANGEL

To hand-crafted beers made in local breweries

To yoga, to yogurt, to rice and beans and cheese

To leather, to dildos, To curry Vindaloo

To Huevos Rancheros and Maya Angelou

MAUREEN & COLLINS

Emotion, devotion, to causing a commotion,

Creation, Vacation

MARK

Mutual masturbation

MAUREEN & COLLINS

Compassion, to fashion, to passion

When it's new

COLLINS

To Sontag

ANGEL

To Sondheim

FOUR PEOPLE

To anything taboo

COLLINS & ROGER

Ginsberg, Dylan, Cunningham and Cage

COLLINS

Lenny Bruce

ROGER

Langston Hughes

MAUREEN

To the stage!

PERSON #1

To Uta

PERSON #2

To Buddha

PERSON #3

Pablo Neruda, too

MARK & MIMI

Why Dorothy and Toto went over the rainbow

To blow off Auntie Em

ALL

La Vie Boheme

MR. GREY

Sisters?

MAUREEN

We're close

ANGEL, COLLINS, MAUREEN, MARK & MR GREY

Brothers!

MARK, ANGEL, MIMI & 3 OTHERS

Bisexuals, trisexuals, Homo Sapiens,

Carcinogens, hallucinogens, men,

Pee Wee Herman

German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein

Antonioni, Bertolucci, Kurosawa

Carmina Burana

ALL

To apathy, to entropy, to empathy, ecstasy

Vaclav Havel- The Sex Pistols, 8BC

To no shame- Never playing the fame game

COLLINS

To marijuana

ALL

To sodomy

It's between God and me

To S & M

BENNY

Waiter...Waiter...Waiter

ALL

La Vie Boheme

WRONG:

COLLINS

In honor of the death of Bohemia an impromtu salon will commence immediately following dinner...

Mimi Marquez, clad only in bubble wrap, will perform her famous lawn chair-handcuff dance to the sounds of iced tea being

stirred.

ROGER

And Mark Cohen will preview his new documentary about his inability to hold an erection on high holy days.

MARK

And Maureen Johnson, back from her spectacular one-night engagement at the eleventh street lot, will sing Native American

tribal chants backwards through her vocoder, while accompanying herself on the electric cello- Which she has never never

studied.

MARK

And Roger will attempt to write a bittersweet, evocative song

(Roger picks up a guiter and plays)

MARK

That doesn't remind us of 'Musetta's

Waltz'

COLLINS

Angel Dumott Schunard will model the latest fall fashions from Paris while accompanying herself on the 10-gallon plastic

pickle tub.

ANGEL

And Collins will recount his exploits

as an Anarchist- Including the tale of

his successful reprogramming of the

MIT virtual reality equipment to self-destruct as it broadcasts the words:

ALL

'Actual Reality - Act Up - Fight AIDS!

Top 5 at No. 5 ~ Hallelujah ~ Jeff Buckley

i heard there was a secret chord

that david played and it pleased the lord

but you don't really care for music, do you

well it goes like this the fourth, the fifth

the minor fall and the major lift

the baffled king composing hallelujah

hallelujah...

well your faith was strong but you needed proof

you saw her bathing on the roof

her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you

she tied you to her kitchen chair

she broke your throne and she cut your hair

and from your lips she drew the hallelujah

hallelujah...

baby i've been here before

i've seen this room and i've walked this floor

i used to live alone before i knew you

i've seen your flag on the marble arch

but love is not a victory march

it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

hallelujah...

well there was a time when you let me know

what's really going on below

but now you never show that to me do you

but remember when i moved in you

and the holy dove was moving too

and every breath we drew was hallelujah

well, maybe there's a god above

but all i've ever learned from love

was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you

it's not a cry that you hear at night

it's not somebody who's seen the light

it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

hallelujah...

Just missing the Top 5, at No. 6 ~ Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue ~ Where the Wild Roses Grow

CHORUS:

They call me The Wild Rose

But my name was Elisa Day

Why they call me it I do not know

For my name was Elisa Day

From the first day I saw her I knew she was the one

As she stared in my eyes and smiled

For her lips were the colour of the roses

They grew down the river, all bloody and wild

When he knocked on my door and entered the room

My trembling subsided in his sure embrace

He would be my first man, and with a careful hand

He wiped the tears that ran down my face

CHORUS

On the second day I brought her a flower

She was more beautiful than any woman I'd seen

I said, 'Do you know where the wild roses grow

So sweet and scarlet and free?'

On the second day he came with a single rose

Said: 'Will you give me your loss and your sorrow?'

I nodded my head, as I layed on the bed

He said, 'If I show you the roses will you follow?'

CHORUS

On the third day he took me to the river

He showed me the roses and we kissed

And the last thing I heard was a muttered word

As he stood smiling above me with a rock in his fist

On the last day I took her where the wild roses grow

And she lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief

As I kissed her goodbye, I said, 'All beauty must die'

And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth

CHORUS