Some songs demand more attention to be fully appreciated. Songs that are so powerful once you’ve heard the lyrics that they can change people’s lives forever. Today I’ll share with you five of my favourites.
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Townes van Zandt - Tecumseh Valley
Our Mother the Mountain (Tomato, 1969)
The devastatingly beautiful Tecumseh Valley tells the tale of a young woman growing up through rock-hard times. As money is running out – and with winter on its way – her father sends her off, on her own, to Tecumseh Valley for work. In these beginning stages of the song Van Zandt, in spite of everything, portrays her as a girl full of colour and life, still untainted by her early life’s misery.
The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her
But once she arrives in Tecumseh Valley she soon finds that when you pack your bags, all the bad things in your life inevitably attach and will travel with you. The times are just as hard in Tecumseh Valley and - though full of vigour and determination - she’s struggling to earn a living. She finds a job tending bar at a place called Gypsy Sallys and throughout the song we see life slowly taking away her colour, wearing her down day after day. Once the winter is finally over and she has earned enough money to return home her father dies and the song takes a heartbreaking turn for the worse. Townes van Zandt (still 25 years old here!) is at his best as he sings the tale of a lively young woman, still full of spirit and grit, who tragically succumbs to the crushing weight of a tough and bleak life that knows no mercy.
So she turned to whorin’ out on the streets
With all the lust inside her
And it was many a man
Returned again
To lay himself beside her
They found her down beneath the stairs
That led to Gypsy Sallys
In her hand when she died
Was a note that cried
Fare thee well… Tecumseh valley
* Full lyrics in the comment section *
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David Olney - 1917
Through a Glass Darkly (Rounder Philo, 1999)
As an interesting contrast here, David Olney, one of the most underrated songwriters of our time, also writes about a woman who has turned to prostitution in his masterpiece 1917, but with an entirely different sentiment. He delivers the song from the point of view of a French prostitute catering to World War I soldiers. A harrowing lament, remarkably enough told in such a way that is as romantic as any song ever written.
The strange young man who comes to me
A soldier on a three day spree
Who needs one night’s cheap ecstasy
And a woman’s arms to hide him
He greets me with a courtly bow
He hides his pain by acting proud
And he drinks too much and laughs too loud
How can I deny him
Let us dance beneath the moon
I’ll sing to you “Claire de Lune”
The morning always comes too soon
But tonight the war is over
As the strings delicately swell in the background and the startlingly beautiful story unfolds, she realizes all too well that these boys are doomed and probably won’t survive the horrific battlefields. She feels pity for them and asks herself: “who am I to deny them?” It is with this extraordinary sense of compassion and humanity that the song can be free of any moral condemning that typically surrounds this issue.
He speaks to me in schoolboy French
Of a soldier’s life inside a trench
The look of death, the ghastly stench
I do my best to please him
If I would have to make a top ten of my favourite songs, 1917 would be in there without a doubt. To be able to write a tale about a kind-hearted French prostitute giving comfort to doomed soldiers in such a way is a gift that few songwriters possess.
I’d pray for him but I’ve forgotten how
And there’s nothing, nothing that can save him now
But there’s always another with the same funny bow
And who am I to deny them
* Full lyrics in the comment section *
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Tom Waits - Poor Edward
Alice (Anti, 2002)
Rarely does a song possess the ability to put you under a spell like Tom Waits’ Poor Edward inevitably does, even with its most well prepared listeners. This song tells the tale of a man called Edward who seems doomed for life. As the strings create an eerie and melancholic atmosphere that is so typical for his exceptional Alice album, Tom Waits sits himself behind the piano and unravels a horrifying tale.
Did you hear the news about Edward?
On the back of his head he had another face
Was it a woman’s face or a young girl?
They said to remove it would kill him
So poor Edward was doomed
The face could laugh and cry
It was his devil twin
And at night she spoke to him
Things heard only in hell
But they were impossible to separate
Chained together for life
Finally the bell tolled his doom
He took a suite of rooms
And hung himself and her from the balcony irons
Some still believe he was freed from her
But I knew her too well
I say she drove him to suicide
And took poor Edward to hell
Once the song is over – and for the first time you’ve paid real attention to the words – you cannot help but to feel shocked. It floored me and left me baffled the first time I heard it, much like on the day when I saw a glimpse of the lifeless arm of a girl hanging out an upside down car’s window when passing by a highway accident six years ago. You instantly know that you’ve seen or experienced something that is so powerful and haunting that it will live in your memory eternally.
Whenever I look at the lyrics I’m puzzled by how few lines there actually are. In my imagination this song is much bigger. Like a novel. I can see Edward’s expression as he stands there desperately in a darkened, brown-coloured hotel room with a rope tight around his neck getting ready to walk towards the balcony and the street-lights below. Like the short folk stories of the Brothers Grimm, Waits only needs a couple of lines to bring to life a tale of epic proportions. Lines like “And at night she spoke to him / Things heard only in hell” are ingeniously simple and effective. Not even a 1,000 page book could better describe the things Edward heard than these five simple words.
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Mark Kozelek - Ruth Marie
Rock ‘N’ Roll Singer (Badman Records, 2000)
Probably the saddest and most human of all songs, Ruth Marie deals with an aging mother who struggles with loneliness and her declining condition as she feels her death inevitably coming closer. Kozelek sings the song from the perspective of the mother while she’s being taken care of in a nursing home where she’s reminiscing about her life and the things most valuable to her.
I grew so old in that house I lived in
They brought me here ’cause I can’t take care
I lost my worth and my purpose here
But the song is not so much about being afraid of dying. She is not fighting that final day. Instead the song is about the period that leads to that final day. The song is about losing what’s most important to you and the almost unavoidable loneliness that comes with aging in our Western, individualized culture. It’s about not being able to express your feelings or to be with the ones you love the most, just when you need them the most.
I watched you grow up from babies on the floor
To the beautiful women that you are
And I hated that you’ve gone away so far
‘Cause I know I won’t ever see those eyes
The eyes I gave you
It is with this mindset that the song becomes one of the most moving and painfully honest pieces of music I’ve ever heard. These sad events seem so excruciatingly truthful and recognizable that you cannot help but to think about your own life and the ones around you; to feel an utmost determination to be there for those who need you the most.
You know I love you, though I can hardly say
And I hate it when you see me in this way
But in darkness, I’ll always see those eyes
The eyes I gave you
* Full lyrics in the comment section *
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Vic Chesnutt – Iraq (live)
Live recording MFA Boston 2-14-2006
While performing with fellow songwriters Mark Eitzel (American Music Club) and Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel) as the Undertow Orchestra around 2005 and 2006, the prolific songwriter Vic Chesnutt regularly performs a cleverly written song about the “war” in Iraq. Chesnutt rather uses the word invasion for what’s still going on in Iraq and makes sure to point this out in this song, written from the perspective of Uncle Sam. He uses a metaphor with the US as a rapist who deludes himself into thinking he’s spared his victim from an abusive marriage.
She is beautiful and rich
And married to a world-class prick
He beats her and rages
So I’m gonna save her
That puty bully is no match for my
Well toned muscles
While I’m tearing him limb for limb
She will see what great shape I’m in
She’ll kiss me on the cheek
And say “you’re my hero”
I’ll take her in my arms
And then I’ll have her
She’ll be mine!
Well I did just what I said
I beat that bastard dead
But as I was punching and pounding and beating
She was sobbing and bleeding and screaming
Which wasn’t exactly what I was expecting
But never for one moment did I
Let it distract me
The lyrics seem painfully real even with such an absurd metaphor. Vic Chesnutt has always been applauded for his ingenious and cynical lyrics but on this song – when the motive for writing the song is of so much importance – he seems to outdo himself. Rarely have I heard a song that so well captures the absurd reality of today’s events.
She spat at my face
As I tightened my embrace
And as I pressed against her
She twisted and resisted
She tried to fight it
As I pushed inside her
I said, you’ll learn like it
You’ll learn love it
You’ll learn to love me
For I am your hero
* Full lyrics in the comment section *
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Is there a song with great lyrics you feel similarly passionate about? Share it with us and write about it on your blog (if you have one) and let us know. Or if you don’t have a blog, share it with our readers in the comment section. We’d love to hear it!
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