Waxing lyrical #3
Because The Ivors are coming up, we thought we'd pick out our own favourite lyrics and say why. You'll probably notice a fair few bloggers you haven't come across before. That's because everyone here at The Writer's having a go.
‘Lippy kids on the corner again. Lippy kids on the corner begin, settling like crows / Though I never perfected that simian stroll. But the cigarette scent, it was everything then.’
Lippy Kids, by Elbow – written by Guy Garvey.
It doesn’t matter where I am in the world, or what time of the day it is, this song envelops me like a shroud of nostalgia.
The lyrics, for me, paint a picture of a happy youth. They take me back to my own school days of meeting mates on street corners. Clutching cheap tennis rackets, bottles of fizzy pop and anything else we could drag to the park to while away the summer holidays. Summer holidays that seemed to go on forever back then.
The idea of us ‘settling like crows’ makes me smile. All the boys had ‘that simian stroll’ which they’d spent term-time perfecting. And some of us smoked, but not all.
Love or loathe Elbow, there’s one thing Guy Garvey does well. He poetically structures lyrics that effortlessly drop you in a given time and place. And for me, Lippy Kids does just that.
By Vic
‘The end of the day remember the way, we stayed so close till the end / We'll remember it was me and you.’
High, by The Lighthouse Family.
I know it sounds cheesy but I love this song. And these lyrics. When I hear it I feel warm and smiley. I remember all the times when things have worked out for the best. They always do in the end. You just need to wait and see what happens.
I guess these lyrics have a special meaning to me because I connect them to when my dad passed away. Obviously a horrible time. But it’s also when I had the closeness and support of Mark (who I married three years later), and I felt like I could get through anything with him by my side. So it reminds me that good things can come out of awful times. Even when it’s hard to see the light at the end.
You don’t need fancy words and phrases, complicated poetry or metaphors to say what you mean. By keeping it simple these lyrics get their point across in an honest, straight forward way.
By Rosie
