Songs That Say So Much With Very Few Words

The Go-Go's - Surfing and Spying

 

Well, if we're Ramoning...

"I Remember You"

I remember you I remember you I remember you

I remember lying awake at night and thinking just of you
But things don't last forever and somehow baby
They never really do

 

The Ramones, "I Don't Care":

I don't care, I don't care
I don't care about this world
I don't care about that girl
I don't care

You know, based on this I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Joey doesn't care.

 

More on point, I think "The One I Love" by REM gets a lot across with only one verse and no real chorus. Funny how anyone could take this as a love song.

 

Hanky Panky - Tommy James And The Shondells.

 

The Wrens' This Is Not What You Had Planned. Last song on an unbelievably great record. (The Meadowlands.) Just a little over a minute, just piano and voice. One line punched out beyond any semblance of comforr. I have captialized it below.

Something isn't just quite how you planned
Something isn't just like it ever seemed
This is not what you had planned
But, baby, don't you even know what's right
But, babe, GOT TO HAVE SOMETHING, SOMETHING RIIIIIIIIIGHT
This is not what you had planned

 

A beautiful song with great lyrics

 

Why Don't We Do It in the Road?

 

Sex And Violence - Lothar And The Hand People

 

Dylan's worst song ever? It has my vote.

 

Amusingly, I was going to say "Careful With That Ax, Eugene."

 

Means a lot to me.



Faust - It's a Bit of Pain

It's a bit of a pain
to be where I am
It's a bit of a pain
to be what I am

But it's all right with
But it's all right with
But it's all right with me

Who is satisfied?
Who wouldn't sell his mind?
Who is satisfied?
Who wouldn't sell his mind?
Who can really say?

Yes it's all right with
Yes it's all right with
Yes it's all right with me

 

This one as well.



Faust - It's a Rainy Day (Sunshine Girl)

It's a rainy day
Sunshine girl
It's a rainy day
Sunshine babe

It's a rainy day
Sunshine girl
It's a rainy day
Sunshine babe

(repeat)

 

Peter Gabriel - Lead A Normal Life

It's nice here with a view of the trees
Eating with a spoon?
They don't give you knives?
'Spect you watch those trees
Blowing in the breeze
We want to see you lead a normal life

 

Goodbye Cruel World

Curtains - Peter Gabriel

 

I think that with the right few words (and repetition) I can get a lot out of those words.

My mind reflects on them and comes up with so many associations.

 

It seems Bill Withers' tunes could get a lot across without a lot of words. Both "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Lovely Day" each consist of two verses and one chorus.

Oh, oh, and Bruce Springsteen, because "Blinded By The Light" does not try to cram as many words as possible into each verse, and by the time that song ends, you know exactly what the song is about and who each of the one hundred characters is.

And don't forget the Beatles and, in particular, Ringo--masters of everything ever in music that is good, and not sucky. And you don't even have to explain why. Just post the title of any Beatles song and you "win" the thread automatically.

 

Woody Guthrie --- This Land Is Your Land.

 

Cream -- I'm So Glad.

You know that they are and so am I, every time I hear it!

 

"And in the end the love you take
Is equal to the love you make"

I decided to take only the essential words..

 

The Cure's "Plainsong"

 

The perfect love song - listening to Alex Chilton sing this. (Reading the lyrics - alone - it doesn't seem so perfect.)



Big Star - I'm In Love With A Girl

I'm in love with a girl
Finest girl in the world
I didn't know I could feel this way

Think about her all the time
Always on my mind
I didn't know about love

All that a man should do is true
All that a man should do is true

I'm in love with a girl
Finest girl in the world
I didn't know this could happen to me

 

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine.

 

I don't wanna walk around with you
I don't wanna walk around with you
I don't wanna walk around with you
So why you wanna walk around with me?
I don't wanna walk around with you
I don't wanna walk around with you