You know how sometimes lyrics are just so intense and just really hit you. What is one or two that really affected you? One that really hit me this weekend:
Franky Perez - "Something Crazy." (http://www.franky-perez.com ) The song is basically about a woman who is asking for help in getting out of an abusive relationship. A subject that isn't new in song, but the way he communicates this woman's story is great. The play between the main character and the woman and his longing is palpable.

Bob Dylan, no-one else comes close.

Two that spring to mind are "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll", the true story of a black waitress beaten to death by a white man who said she hadn't served him quickly enough. And "Idiot Wind" which is about the breakdown of Dylan's marriage to Sara. There are literally hundreds more I could cite.

Most folks either love or hate this song but I was always blown away by "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" by Bonnie Tyler. "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who also hit a nerve. I suppose it all is about when the song came out and where you were at when it did.

I've said it before and I'll say it again
(Agreed Lupetta)
Times they are a'changing! (Dylan)
There but for Fortune (Baez credited to Phil Ochs)
and my all time favourites are a little obscure
Strangest Dream by Ed McCurdy
http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/s/stranges.html
And one for Ren - D-Day Dodgers http://www.ingeb.org/songs/werethed.html Note the last few lines (My dad (8th Army REME in Italy always had smiles and then tears in his eyes!)

I'm sorry but modern day lyrics do not have the power of the folk song perhaps in 50 years time they might have made it.

Bob Dylan - "My Back Pages" - which perfectly encapsulates the tendency of people to get all romantic and passionate about "just causes" and "protests" and the like in their college days, until they finally mature and renounce the empty mantras, escape the influence of their professors, and come to realize that issues they once regarded simplistically are far more complex than they ever acknowledged.

Bob Dylan - "Every Grain of Sand" which perfectly encapsulates the human struggle with faith and doubt

Bob Dylan – "Gates of Eden"- which paints an extremely affecting picture of the fallen world we inhabit as contrasted with the seemingly unobtainable Eden.

One particular lyric that has struck me hard is from Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma": "Got everything from toy guns that spark to flesh colored Christs that glow in the dark. It's easy to see, without looking too far, that not much is really sacred." I think this really hits home in today's society, where mystery and holiness are pretty much dead and society is materialistic and utilitarian.

But I could probably go on and list twenty to thirty more Dylan songs with profound lyrics; he is simply the greatest song writer pop music has had in the 20th century. He wrote music that actually played a powerful role in affecting social change, and he is generally cited as one of the driving forces behind the Civil Rights movement, with songs like "Only a Pawn in their Game" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carol" (already mentioned here). Yet he would not be pinned down or put in an idealogical pigenhole either (part of what "My Back Pages" is about). He became a born again Christian and suffered plenty of ridicule for it; but continued to preach and sing Christian songs at concerts amid the booing; then later, when the Christian world tried to make him its pop poster boy, he turned back to more Jewish-based lyrics on "Infidels" and finally again to his folk roots on later albums, saying, "even Jesus only preached for three years." Now he seems to be rock 'n rolling again. With over 600 ecclectic songs to his credit on a myriad of religious, political, and social topics...no, no one comes close.

But there is much profound in Simon and Garfunkle's lyrics as well, and they are often very poetic. In particular, I would site "The Dangling Conversation," which in a very subtle, highly poetic way realistically depicts the state of two people drifting apart from one another.

I also have to put in a word here for Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy," which is intense but in a bitterly satirical way; its sardonic portrayal of the effects of society's misguided leniency is really quite impressive.

So long as we are sharing...

Something Crazy by Franky Perez

She wears make-up to hide the scars
got bruises up and down her arms
and the coward's name tatooed on her wrist.

She says that she's afraid to leave.
She says, "Someday he's gonna kill me
Cuz when he's drunk he talks with his fists.

And she said

Help me get outa here, the walls are closing in.
I wanna be gone before he comes back again.
Help me get outa here, I need to get outa here
before I do something crazy."

Fosse you've just reminded me of another one, Pink Floyd's "When The Tigers Broke Free". Roger Waters' father was killed at the battle of Anzio which makes this song more poignant than it would be anyway.

Also Eric Bogle's songs about the first world war "Green Fields of France" and "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda". I'd rank these with Wilfrid Owen, they're poetry.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to nought or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desparation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say.

Time-Pink Floyd
When I first heard this song as a teenager I didn't
really notice the lyrics to much. Now that I'm 46
these lyrics really hit home. From my favorite rock
album-Dark Side of the Moon

Hi Lupetta, I'd forgotten the Waltzing Mathilda one -
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/matilda.html
I'd think that would have the same effect in OZ as the D-day Dodgers.

Wow, some folkies showing up in this thread! Eric Bogle is a master lyrical poet. A couple of my favourites are "A Reason For It All" about an elderly women who passed away inside her home and nobody knew about it for almost a year (even though she had children in the area) and "Singing the Spirit Home" about a South African freedom fighter facing execution. Then there's his beautiful tribute to Stan Rogers. He's another of my faves. "The Jeannie C." is outstanding. James Keelaghan's "Cold Missouri Waters" is one of his many great songs, but I think the most profound lyric I've ever come across is Garnet Rogers' song "A Row of Small Trees."

McG, some of us appreciate decent music I'd rephrase that as some of the singers are abysmal musically(but who cares! ),.

I'll add "Shelter From the Storm" to the list of Dylan lyrics.
More loss of love and marriage but there's a glimmer of hope towards the end of the song. Of all Dylan's lyrics, I love the imagery of this one the most.

Springsteen's "Stolen Car"- also based on a failed marriage, though not the singer's- has a less hopeful but more powerful ending than "Shelter From the Storm". The beauty and the sadness of this song- for me, anyway- is how I've related to different verses of it over the years.

More great lyricists I like- Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Nick Saloman (of Bevis Frond) and David
Thomas (from Pere Ubu).

Almost all songs by Guy Clark but "Randal Knife" especially.
All songs by Townes Van Zandt but "Marie", about a homeless couple, gets my vote as most moving song lyric - he did a duet of this one with Willie Nelson, so it's a song that you might actually be able to find.

Yes Gosteelers, that's another one I thought of mentioning.

"Shelter From The Storm", god it's years since I've heard that song and it is indeed a beauty. I was named after "Visons of Johanna" so I suppose I'd better mention that one too, "jewels and binoculars" etc

Dylan again.
How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail before he can sleep in the sand?
Powerful lyrics indeed.

Demented Dwarf - the answer my friend is Blowin in the Wind.

When I started reading this thread, my first thought was it's got to be "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda". Then as I kept reading, I saw that several of you have beaten me to the punch by nominating it.

I have this song on a Doug Ashdown album and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes (even now as I write this post).

Mother Goose it's an incredible song but it's the last few lines that always get me:

The forgotten heros of a forgotten war,
And the young people ask me "what are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question.

And the band plays "Waltzing Matilda"
And the old men still answer the call,
But year after year their numbers grow fewer,
Some day no-one will march there at all.

Yes, I've got tears in my eyes now and I'm so glad so many other people know this beautiful song.

http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/matilda.html
If you click on "listen" you can hear the thinking behind the song and the song!

Black Eyed Peas - "Where Is The Love" (so appropriate for these times):

What's wrong with the world, mama
People livin' like they ain't got no mamas
I think the whole world's addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma
Overseas, yeah, we're trying to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK
But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah
Badness is what you demonstrate

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love?
-------------
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting young minds faster than bacteria
Kids act like what they see in the cinema
Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to fairness and equality
Instead of spreading love we spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading lives away from unity

Full lyrics: here

Thanks for the link Fosse, the version I have of this song is by the Pogues (and Shane McGowan is someone else I'd cite as writing extremely powerful lyrics). The lyrics are slightly different and it was good to read them as they were originally written.

Hi lupetta, you can actually hear his version - http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/bandplayed.ram

john

im a huge silverchar fan and they have such deep lyrcs but the one that hit me the most was spawn again Spawn Again
Death becomes clearer through bloodshot eyes
As death from old age becomes nearer
Why can't the livestock be free
While trading soldiers for steak

Learn to evolve with the new transition
To act upon a hypocritical vision
Discard the old in with the new
Discard the old and in with the fashion

Who is the bad guy
For iron require mince
These are the facts so eat what you murder
This is animal liberation
Eight billion killed for human pleasure

Bring on the ape farm
Demolish the monkeys
Drink up drink up
Look down on junkies
A new hypocritical look and ambition
The time has come to make the decision
You drink up drink up look down
I'll hold it back
I'll hold it back

Discard the old and in with the fashion
Death becomes clearer through bloodshot eyes

I'm afraid that's too cryptic for me, gcbillygrl. Deep is one thing, but I prefer to understand what a song is trying to say, and that isn't saying anything to me. Maybe you'd care to translate.

I never was a violent man
Said the man in the bar with his head in his hands
He's trying his best to understand
The cause of his dismay
But the years of gin have broken him
They've left him cold where he's fitted in
But it's too late now to turn around
And find another way

The laughs in the late night lock-in
Have faded away when he gets in
The girl from fifteen years ago has packed and gone away

Life's never how it used to be
What happened to all that energy?
You took one too many liberties
I'm tired of being afraid
So after the fight she took flight
Hiding swollen eyes and a wounded pride
The best years of her life denied
Sold for liquid shares

The laughs in the late night lock-in
Have faded away when he gets in
The girl from fifteen years ago has packed and gone away

And the victims of this world
Are advertised on posters
Just a beach and a pretty girl
You should take this potion

It's another week til his cheque comes through
He's got a fiver left now to spend on food
The doors of the bar are open
And he breaks another rule
Well he sits on a stool that bears his name
He's got a favourite glass and it's called the same
He's never been kept waiting
Cause he pays the landlord's wage

The laughs in the late night lock-in
Have faded away when he gets in
The girl from fifteen years ago has packed and gone away

Fifteen Years by The Levellers