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Bob Dylan's first couple of records in the 60's weren't considered cover records, but he only wrote one or two original songs on each album.

quote by John Mellencamp
Added by Lucian Velea
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Each Morning At The Breakfast Table

Who’ll stone you when you feel unable,
eating at the breakfast table,
to answer who’s the great composer,
implying that you are a loser?
Not my wife, though she’s most brainy;
on my creations never rainy,
she doesn’t let me feel alone,
rolling like a lonely stone.
Less than I a fan of Bob
on no occasions will she rob
me of my confidence. Sure, Dylan
to her appears to be a villain,
because of his association
with other forms of inspiration.
but she won’t stone me ever, that’s
why I won’t settle for ersatz.
She sees through masks, including mine,
but never stones the wearer, she
is morning coffee, evening wine,
and midnight she is ecstasy.
Not number twelve or thirty-five,
she’s number one, and helps me thrive
like Scarlett on the screen with Gable,
each morning at the breakfast table.

Inspired by Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women, #12 and 35, ” which he sang wwith a lot of other songs at Prospect Park Bandshell two days ago. Nate Chinen writes in the NYT, August 14,008 (“In Prospect Park, the Consequences of Love and a Shot of War”) :
In the final moments of his sold-out Celebrate Brooklyn concert at the Prospect Park Bandshell on Tuesday night, Bob Dylan struck a pose. He was standing at center stage, feet planted wide. Dressed in black from his hat on down, he faced outward, proud, flanked by stone-faced band members. Then he formed his hands into pistols — six-shooters, let’s say — and fired shot after shot, roguishly slaying the crowd. It was a pretty good illustration of what had been happening for the past two hours.
Mr. Dylan can be an inconstant performer, and sometimes an indifferent one. But here he was dynamic, enthusiastic, out for blood. His set list featured more than half a dozen irrefutable classics, starting with “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.” And he showed ironclad focus, commanding the same professionally gritty crew heard on his most recent album, “Modern Times” (Columbia) . As usual Mr. Dylan transformed his old songs, in some cases preserving only the lyrics. “Girl From the North Country” adopted some shadowy new harmonies, and “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) ” turned up with a Celtic-Appalachian lilt. “Blowin’ in the Wind, ” the civil rights anthem that put Mr. Dylan on the map roughly 45 years ago, underwent the most radical revision, riding a crisp backbeat and rhythm-guitar part that suggested the heyday of Muscle Shoals rhythm and blues. Necessity surely birthed some of these inventions: Mr. Dylan,67, now sings with a (more) limited range, and a coarse, throaty tone. (When he rasped, “Lay across my big brass bed, ” in “Lay Lady Lay, ” he sounded like the Big Bad Wolf entreating Little Red Riding Hood.) And he rarely plays guitar, instead favoring an organlike keyboard, and occasionally the harmonica. Rhythm is his asset, his best means of asserting control; the bassist Tony Garnier and the drummer George Receli dug in but followed his lead.
Mr. Dylan has a new edition of his popular Bootleg Series due out in October: “Tell Tales Signs” (Columbia/Legacy) , consisting of relatively recent recordings, many previously unreleased. Only one track from that package, “Lonesome Day Blues, ” crept into the show. (It can also be found on the 2001 album “Love and Theft.”) Meanwhile the five songs culled from “Modern Times” held up admirably. “The Levee’s Gonna Break, ” set at a hard-rollicking tempo, was especially strong. But the two most potent songs, in a show that often touched upon the consequences of love, had to do explicitly with war. One was “John Brown, ” an early protest song that Mr. Dylan never released on a studio album: its narrative, forcefully told, involves a shattered soldier returning to his chastened mother. The other was “Masters of War, ” a much more celebrated song from the same era, which draws its focus wide but sharp. Here Mr. Dylan enunciated unusually clearly, over a drone-haunted vamp. “I hope that you die, ” he snarled, leaving two bars of open space before the next line, “And your death will come soon.” But his peak of intensity came paired to something other than a death wish. “I can see through your masks, ” he wailed, stretching out the last word of the phrase for emphasis. He seemed to know firsthand about masks, and seeing through them.

8/14/08

poem by Gershon Hepner
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How Does It Feel To Be Alone?

How does it feel to be alone
with no one round with whom you can
hang out, e-mail and telephone
now silent from your loverman?

How does it feel to get no kicks
from your beloved? Who is left,
for you to mix with, will you nix
your lovelife, loverman bereft?

Stone cold and lonely, lady, will
you roll, or will you gather moss?
On empty running, will you fill
your life again, make up your loss?

I knew that you were bound to fall
when first you fell for me. D’you feel
there’s someone else now you can call
and hope that you can make a deal?

With no direction home, is there,
d’you think, another man who’ll hold
you as I did, and if so, where
d’you think that like a stone he’s rolled?

Inspired by an article in the NYT by Adam Liptak on the use of lyrics by Bob Dylan in the Supreme Court (“The Chief Justice, Dylan and the Disappearing Double Negative, ” June 29,2008) :

The last chief justice liked light opera. The new one cites Bob Dylan. oour pages into his dissent on Monday in an achingly boring dispute between pay phone companies and long distance carriers, John G. Roberts Jr., the chief justice of the United States, put a song lyric where the citation to precedent usually goes. “The absence of any right to the substantive recovery means that respondents cannot benefit from the judgment they seek and thus lack Article III standing, ” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “ ‘When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.’ Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone, on Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia Records 1965) .”
Alex B. Long, a law professor at the University of Tennessee and perhaps the nation’s leading authority on the citation of popular music in judicial opinions, said this was almost certainly the first use of a rock lyric to buttress a legal proposition in a Supreme Court decision. “It’s a landmark opinion, ” Professor Long said.
In the lower courts, according to a study Professor Long published in the Washington & Lee Law Review last year, Mr. Dylan is by far the most cited songwriter. He has been quoted in 26 opinions. Paul Simon is next, with 8 (12 if you count those attributed to Simon & Garfunkel) . Bruce Springsteen has 5.
But Mr. Dylan has only once before been cited as an authority on Article III standing, which concerns who can bring a lawsuit in federal court. His key contribution to legal discourse has been in another area.
“The correct rule on the necessity of expert testimony has been summarized by Bob Dylan: ‘You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, ’ ” a California appeals court wrote in 1981, citing “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” Eighteen other decisions have cited that lyric.
Chief Justice Roberts’s predecessor, William H. Rehnquist, cited his beloved Gilbert & Sullivan in a 1980 dissent from a decision that the press had a constitutional right of access to court proceedings. He was still an associate justice, and he thought the court had made up the right out of whole cloth. In rebuttal, Justice Rehnquist relied on the Lord Chancellor in “Iolanthe” to rebuke the majority. “The Law is the true embodiment of everything that’s excellent, ” the Lord Chancellor says. “It has no kind of fault or flaw, and I, my Lords, embody the Law.”
That made Justice Rehnquist’s point pretty well. The Roberts citation is more problematic. On the one hand, he showed excellent taste. “Like a Rolling Stone, ” as Greil Marcus has written, is “the greatest record ever made, perhaps, or the greatest record that ever would be made.” On the other hand, Chief Justice Roberts gets the citation wrong, proving that he is neither an originalist nor a strict constructionist. What Mr. Dylan actually sings, of course, is, “When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.”
It’s true that many Web sites, including Mr. Dylan’s official one, reproduce the lyric as Chief Justice Roberts does. But a more careful Dylanist might have consulted his iPod. “It was almost certainly the clerks who provided the citation, ” Professor Long said. “I suppose their use of the Internet to check the lyrics violates one of the first rules they learned when they were all on law review: when quoting, always check the quote with the original source, not someone else’s characterization of what the source said.” The larger objection is that the citation is not true to the original point Mr. Dylan was making, which was about the freedom that having nothing conveys and not about who may sue a phone company. (See, e.g., “Me and Bobby McGee.”)

6/29/08

poem by Gershon Hepner
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Newpower Soul

2 the darkness - let there be light
2 the soundman - turn up my voice real tight
2 the n.p.g. - if u in this mother, scream
Show me how u all get down - 1 2 3, come on
Get freaky, let the head bob {x2}
We should all come 2gether 2 the newpower soul
Get freaky, let the head bob {x2} (come on, come on)
Itll make u feel much better - come on, baby, lets go!
Every while in a great once there comes 2 town a show
That lives up 2 all your funkspectation no matter how high or low
A reason 2 get your freak on in a way u never freaked before
Newpower soul lay claim 2 the booty - come on, lets go
(lemme see u get down)
Let the head bob
Get freaky, let the head bob (come on, come on)
We should all come 2gether 2 the newpower soul
(lemme see u get down)
Let the head bob
Get freaky, let the head bob {x2} (come on, come on)
Itll make u feel much better - come on, baby, lets go!
Every while in a day twice funky matters in our ear
As long as we keep our love strong, well never shed no tears
The brothas be threatenin 2 jump off buildings, newpowers what
They fear
Love 4 one another risin, newpower soul is here
(lemme see u get down)
Let the head bob
Get freaky, let the head bob (come on)
We should all come 2gether 2 the newpower soul (come
2gether)
(lemme see u get down)
Let the head bob
Get freaky, let the head bob (come on, come on)
Itll make u feel much better (feel better) - come on, baby, lets go!
Newpower soul
(we should all) {repeat sample}
Gemini rising on the 7th day
Makin mad sex, until ure in my arms, ok?
Cuz when u love somebody like that, its cool
U gots no need 4 the shoo-bed-ooh-bed-ooh
The good life, yeah, well be livin
Pushin up on every freak this side of heaven
Come on, come on, shake it, come on
U know I bes the one with the funky music, hon
And Im layin phat claims 2 the booty
Phat claims 2 the newpower booty
Keepin the crowd movin, yall, is my one and only duty, ooh wee!
With the newpower soul
Right on
We should all

[...] Read more

song performed by Prince
Added by Lucian Velea
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Robert of Lincoln

Merrily swinging on brier and weed,
Near to the nest of his little dame,
Over the mountain-side or mead,
Robert of Lincoln is telling his name.
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink,
Snug and safe is this nest of ours,
Hidden among the summer flowers.
Chee, chee, chee.

Robert of Lincoln is gayly dressed,
Wearing a bright, black wedding-coat;
White are his shoulders, and white his crest,
Hear him call in his merry note,
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink,
Look what a nice, new coat is mine;
Sure there was never a bird so fine.
Chee, chee, chee.

Robert of Lincoln's Quaker wife,
Pretty and quiet, with plain brown wings,
Passing at home a patient life,
Broods in the grass while her husband sings,
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink,
Brood, kind creature, you need not fear
Thieves and robbers while I am here.
Chee, chee, chee.

Modest and shy as a nun is she;
One weak chirp is her only note;
Braggart, and prince of braggarts is he,
Pouring boasts from his little throat,
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink,
Never was I afraid of man,
Catch me, cowardly knaves, if you can.
Chee, chee, chee.

Six white eggs on a bed of hay,
Flecked with purple, a pretty sight:
There as the mother sits all day,
Robert is singing with all his might,
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink,
Nice good wife that never goes out,
Keeping house while I frolic about.
Chee, chee, chee.

[...] Read more

poem by William Cullen Bryant
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Bob

SINGER of songs of the hills—
Dreamer, by waters unstirred,
Back in a valley of rills,
Home of the leaf and the bird!—
Read in this fall of the year
Just the compassionate phrase,
Faded with traces of tear,
Written in far-away days:
“Gone is the light of my lap
(Lord, at Thy bidding I bow),
Here is my little one’s cap,
He has no need of it now,
Give it to somebody’s boy—
Somebody’s darling”—she wrote.
Touching was Bob in his joy—
Bob without boots or a coat.

Only a cap; but it gave
Capless and comfortless one
Happiness, bright as the brave,
Beautiful light of the sun.
Soft may the sanctified sod
Rest on the father who led
Bob from the gutter, unshod—
Covered his cold little head!

Bob from the foot to the crown
Measured a yard, and no more—
Baby alone in the town,
Homeless, and hungry, and sore—
Child that was never a child,
Hiding away from the rain,
Draggled and dirty and wild,
Down in a pipe of the drain.

Poor little beggar was Bob—
Couldn’t afford to be sick,
Getting a penny a job,
Sometimes a curse and a kick.
Father was killed by the drink;
Mother was driven to shame;
Bob couldn’t manage to think—
He had forgotten their name.

God was in heaven above,
Flowers illumined the ground,
Women of infinite love
Lived in the palaces round—
Saints with the character sweet
Found in the fathers of old,

[...] Read more

poem by Henry Kendall
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Daily Records

This could be suffering
This could be suffering
This could be pleasure
This could be pleasure
Im unaware of any difference
Im unaware of any difference
My head is aging
My head is aging
My balls are aching
My balls are aching
But Im not looking for deliverence
But Im not looking for deliverence
This could be letting on
This could be letting on
This could be highly cut
This could be highly cut
Im unaware of ~any difference
Im unaware of ~any difference
One says it cant be done
One says it cant be done
Then somebody does it - but
Then somebody does it - but
Im not watching for equivalents.
Im not watching for equivalents.
I just dont quite know how to wear my hair no more
I just dont quite know how to wear my hair no more
No sooner cut it than they cut it even more
No sooner cut it than they cut it even more
Got to admit that I created private worlds
Got to admit that I created private worlds
Cold sex and booze dont impress my little girls
Cold sex and booze dont impress my little girls
Daily records
Daily records
Just want to be making daily records
Just want to be making daily records
Try to avoid the bad news in the letters
Try to avoid the bad news in the letters
Just wanna be making records
Just wanna be making records
Play in - play out - fade in - fade out
Play in - play out - fade in - fade out
Making records day in - day out
Making records day in - day out
And they say its just a stage in life
And they say its just a stage in life
But I know by now the problem is a stage
But I know by now the problem is a stage
And they say just take your time and itll go away
And they say just take your time and itll go away

[...] Read more

song performed by Who
Added by Lucian Velea
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Fundamental of Liar Chapter LXXXVI: Cover

We cover bitterness with satyr
We cover sadness with smile
We cover happiness with tears
We cover pride with stubbornness
We cover anger with jokes
We cover grudge with loyalty
We cover love with play
We cover lust with generosity
We cover sorrow with toughness
We cover ambition with hard work
We cover hope with pessimism
We cover fear with deniable
We cover dream with horror
We cover shame with sarcasm
We cover lone with rebellion
We cover clueless with boasting
We cover ignorance with invisibility
We cover truth with shadow
We cover trouble with distraction
We cover envy with humiliation
We cover lie with innocence

poem by Maria Sudibyo
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Hallo Spaceboy

Spaceboy, youre sleepy no
Your silhouette is so stationary
Youre released but your custody calls
And I want to be free
Dont you want to be free
Do you like girls or boys
Its confusing these days
But moondust will cover you
Cover you
This chaos is killing me
So bye bye love
Yeah bye bye love
Bye bye love
Yeah bye bye love
This chaos is killing me
Hallo spaceboy
Youre sleepy now
Youre silhouette
So stationary
Youre released but your custody calls
And I want to be free
Dont you want to be free
Do you like girls or boys
Its confusing these days
But moondust will cover you
Cover you
And the chaos is killing me
Yeah bye bye love
So bye bye love
Yeah bye bye love
So bye bye love
This chaos is killing me
Moondust
Will cover you
This chaos is killing me
Moondust
Will cover you
Yeah bye bye love
Moondust
Will cover you
Bye bye love
Moondust
Will cover you
Good time love
Moondust
Moondust
Will cover you
Sweet sweet love
Moondust
Moondust

[...] Read more

song performed by David Bowie
Added by Lucian Velea
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Hallo Space Boy (Pet Shop Boys Remix)

Spaceboy, you're sleepy no
Your silhouette is so stationary
You're released but your custody calls
And I want to be free
Don't you want to be free
Do you like girls or boys
It's confusing these days
But Moondust will cover you
Cover you
This chaos is Killing me
So bye bye love
Yeah bye bye love
Bye bye love
Yeah bye bye love
This chaos is killing me
Hallo spaceboy
You're sleepy now
You're silhouette
So stationary
You're released but your custody calls
And I want to be free
Don't you want to be free
Do you like girls or boys
It's confusing these days
But Moondust will cover you
Cover you
And the chaos is killing me
Yeah bye bye love
So bye bye love
Yeah bye bye love
So bye bye love
This chaos is killing me
Moondust
will cover you
This chaos is killing me
Moondust
Will cover you
Yeah bye bye love
Moondust
Will cover you
Bye bye love
Moondust
Will cover you
Good time love
Moondust
Moondust
Will cover you
Sweet sweet love
Moondust
Moondust

[...] Read more

song performed by David Bowie
Added by Lucian Velea
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V. Count Guido Franceschini

Thanks, Sir, but, should it please the reverend Court,
I feel I can stand somehow, half sit down
Without help, make shift to even speak, you see,
Fortified by the sip of … why, 't is wine,
Velletri,—and not vinegar and gall,
So changed and good the times grow! Thanks, kind Sir!
Oh, but one sip's enough! I want my head
To save my neck, there's work awaits me still.
How cautious and considerate … aie, aie, aie,
Nor your fault, sweet Sir! Come, you take to heart
An ordinary matter. Law is law.
Noblemen were exempt, the vulgar thought,
From racking; but, since law thinks otherwise,
I have been put to the rack: all's over now,
And neither wrist—what men style, out of joint:
If any harm be, 't is the shoulder-blade,
The left one, that seems wrong i' the socket,—Sirs,
Much could not happen, I was quick to faint,
Being past my prime of life, and out of health.
In short, I thank you,—yes, and mean the word.
Needs must the Court be slow to understand
How this quite novel form of taking pain,
This getting tortured merely in the flesh,
Amounts to almost an agreeable change
In my case, me fastidious, plied too much
With opposite treatment, used (forgive the joke)
To the rasp-tooth toying with this brain of mine,
And, in and out my heart, the play o' the probe.
Four years have I been operated on
I' the soul, do you see—its tense or tremulous part—
My self-respect, my care for a good name,
Pride in an old one, love of kindred—just
A mother, brothers, sisters, and the like,
That looked up to my face when days were dim,
And fancied they found light there—no one spot,
Foppishly sensitive, but has paid its pang.
That, and not this you now oblige me with,
That was the Vigil-torment, if you please!
The poor old noble House that drew the rags
O' the Franceschini's once superb array
Close round her, hoped to slink unchallenged by,—
Pluck off these! Turn the drapery inside out
And teach the tittering town how scarlet wears!
Show men the lucklessness, the improvidence
Of the easy-natured Count before this Count,
The father I have some slight feeling for,
Who let the world slide, nor foresaw that friends
Then proud to cap and kiss their patron's shoe,
Would, when the purse he left held spider-webs,
Properly push his child to wall one day!

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
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Cover Me With Kisses

Cover me with kisses
Jump back tell a friend
Ooh la la la
Ooh la la la
Ooh la la la
I want a movie moment
Were so in love it hurts
Wanna be the main attraction
Everybodys favourite girl
Wanna be in gucci dresses
I know you like that style
A symphony of stars to serenade us
A billion watt smile
Cover me with kisses
Sweet sweet kisses
Come on over and kiss me all over
Im gonna be here
So cover me
Running to you in slow motion
Thunderclaps and pouring rain
The world is falling down around us
We didnt notice anyway
Wanna be in gucci dresses
I know you like that style
A symphony of stars to serenade us
A billion watt smile
So cover me with kisses
Sweet sweet kisses
Come on over and kiss me all over
Im gonna be here
So cover me with kisses
Sweet sweet kisses
Come on over and kiss me all over
My love is for real
Come on come on cover me baby
Come on come on cover me baby
Come on come on cover me baby
Come on come on cover me baby
Come on come on cover me baby
Come on come on cover me baby
Come on come on cover me baby
Come on come on cover me baby
Cover me with kisses
Sweet sweet kisses
Come on over and kiss me all over
Im gonna be here
So cover me with kisses
Sweet sweet kisses
Come on over and kiss me all over
My love is for real

[...] Read more

song performed by Kylie Minogue
Added by Lucian Velea
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Polyhymnia

[Polyhymnia: Describing, The honourable Triumph at Tylt,
before her Maiestie, on the 17. of Nouember, last past,
being the first day of the three and thirtith yeare of
her Highnesse raigne. With Sir Henrie Lea, his resignation
of honour at Tylt, to her Maiestie, and receiued by the right
honourable, the Earle of Cumberland.]

[Polyhimnia. Entituled, with all dutie to the Right
Honourable, Lord Compton of Compton.]

Therefore, when thirtie two were come and gone,
Years of her raigne, daies of her countries peace,
Elizabeth great Empresse of the world,
Britanias Atlas, Star of Englands globe,
That swaies the massie scepter of her land,
And holdes the royall raynes of Albion:
Began the gladsome sunnie day to shine,
That drawes in length date of her golden raigne:
And thirtie three shee numbreth in her throne:
That long in happinesse and peace (I pray)
May number manie to these thirtie three.
Wherefore it fares as whilom and of yore,
In armour bright and sheene, faire Englands knights
In honour of their peerelesse Soueraigne:
High Maistresse of their seruice, thoughtes and liues
Make to the Tyltamaine: and trumpets sound,
And princelie Coursers neigh, and champ the byt,
When all addrest for deeds of high deuoyre,
Preace to the sacred presence of their Prince.

The 1. couple. Sir Henrie Lea. The Earle of Cumberland.

Mightie in Armes, mounted on puissant horse,
Knight of the Crown in rich imbroderie,
And costlie faire Caparison charg'd with Crownes,
Oreshadowed with a withered running Vine,
As who would say, My spring of youth is past:
In Corslet gylt of curious workmanship,
Sir Henry Lea, redoubted man at Armes.
Leades in the troopes, whom woorthie Cumberland
Thrice noble Earle, aucutred as became
So greate a Warriour and so good a Knight.
Encountred first, yclad in coate of steele,
And plumes and pendants al as white as Swanne,
And speare in rest, right readie to performe
What long'd vnto the honour of the place.
Together went these Champions, horse and man,
Thundring along the Tylt, that at the shocke

[...] Read more

poem by George Peele
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The Piper And The Prey

this is how friday ended
a little bit hard to believe
my perception slightly bending
as the piper came on the scene
it was something so hypnotic
the music even changed
the crowd got up and got chaotic
and they paid so they could play

the pied piper played
the pied piper pushed
songs to make them crave
songs that seemed so good
songs that made it easier
songs down in their blood
songs that take, steal the love
until the song has had enough

at first, the dance was hesitant
not long before everyone knew it
the music spun them 'round and 'round
then it pulled the dancers into it
i danced my dance at my own pace
he laughed, knowing i would change
it took all i had in so many ways
saw others dance until they fell on their face

and still the piper played...

the pied piper played
the pied piper pushed
songs to make them crave
songs that seemed so good
songs that made it easier
songs down in their blood
songs that take, steal the love
until the song has had enough

bodies on the floor
unconscious and awake
the piper gave them more;
they took all that he gave
he played a new illusion
while the world began to sway
the dance became delusion
our hearts became the prey

and i danced as he played
and i danced as he pushed
songs that made me crave

[...] Read more

poem by Thomas Quentin Sims
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Today (Watch Me Shine)

Yesterday is just a dream I don't remember
Tomorrow, still a hope I've yet to endure
I'm out of time
I'm out of rhyme
I'm out of reason
Season's change and leave me out in the cold
The story's old
The tale been told by many a scholar
Got a fistful of dollar
And pocketful of love
God above if you hear me cryin'
I've tried to sell my soul
But no one's buyin'
Lord, strike me down now if I'm lyin' Bronx Style Bob: Lord strike me down (X3)
It's gettin' cold
It's time for dyin'
CHORUS
Come on and watch me shine
Like the world is mine (check it out) today
Come on and watch me shine (check it out)
Like the world is mine today
Watch me shine (check it out)
Then the man was free from sin
Bronx Style Bob: free from sin
Cast the first stone then began the violence
Bronx Style Bob: began the violence
Let the man whose words ring true
Speak on up till his voice breaks through the silence
Bronx Style Bob: through the silence
Let the ones who lose their way
Live to see just one more day in the sunshine
Bronx Style Bob: La-la-la-la-la-la-laaa
Let the one's who choose to stray
Recognize the price they'll pay
In their lifetime
Bronx Style Bob: in their lifetime (X2)
CHORUS
Sit in the way and wait for my roads to cross
You nail me down and you watch me bleed
Bronx Style Bob: watch me bleed
So lay my head against the earth
Plant my body like a seed
Bronx Style Bob: plant my body like a seed
You can't always get the things you want, love (check it out)
Bronx Style Bob: tell me what you want
You get what you deserve
Or maybe what you need
Bronx Style Bob: tell me what you need
So fill

song performed by Everlast
Added by Lucian Velea
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Running For Cover

Spent the best of my life running scared
In the city
Left my shoes and my clothes and
My lovers behind, yeah
Oh but I felt incomplete
Living out there in the street
I was always alone and afraid
Such a pity
Little girls just dont know what comes
Out after dark
But the devil wasnt in here
Down on that dead end street
And I say
Running for cover
Running for cover
Running for cover
Its take keeping me running
Im just scared that hes out tonight
Its keeping me running
I dont know why, but its getting dark
Say the devils in the park
And its already after dark
Running for cover
Running for cover
Running for cover, now
Life is really so hard when you live in the city
No one know what a young girl
Has on her mind, yeah
But youre headed for defect
Down on that dead end street
Never learned of the lesson
You should, such a pity
Still and all youll stay away
The others behind
And the promise in the dark
Is that the devils in the park
And I say
Running for cover
Running for cover
Running for cover
Its take keeping me running
Im just scared that hes out tonight
Its keeping me running
I dont know why, but its getting dark
Say the devils in the park
And its already after dark
Running for cover
Running for cover
Running for cover
Spent the best of my life running scared

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song performed by Donna Summer
Added by Lucian Velea
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VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi

Answer you, Sirs? Do I understand aright?
Have patience! In this sudden smoke from hell,—
So things disguise themselves,—I cannot see
My own hand held thus broad before my face
And know it again. Answer you? Then that means
Tell over twice what I, the first time, told
Six months ago: 't was here, I do believe,
Fronting you same three in this very room,
I stood and told you: yet now no one laughs,
Who then … nay, dear my lords, but laugh you did,
As good as laugh, what in a judge we style
Laughter—no levity, nothing indecorous, lords!
Only,—I think I apprehend the mood:
There was the blameless shrug, permissible smirk,
The pen's pretence at play with the pursed mouth,
The titter stifled in the hollow palm
Which rubbed the eyebrow and caressed the nose,
When I first told my tale: they meant, you know,
"The sly one, all this we are bound believe!
"Well, he can say no other than what he says.
"We have been young, too,—come, there's greater guilt!
"Let him but decently disembroil himself,
"Scramble from out the scrape nor move the mud,—
"We solid ones may risk a finger-stretch!
And now you sit as grave, stare as aghast
As if I were a phantom: now 't is—"Friend,
"Collect yourself!"—no laughing matter more—
"Counsel the Court in this extremity,
"Tell us again!"—tell that, for telling which,
I got the jocular piece of punishment,
Was sent to lounge a little in the place
Whence now of a sudden here you summon me
To take the intelligence from just—your lips!
You, Judge Tommati, who then tittered most,—
That she I helped eight months since to escape
Her husband, was retaken by the same,
Three days ago, if I have seized your sense,—
(I being disallowed to interfere,
Meddle or make in a matter none of mine,
For you and law were guardians quite enough
O' the innocent, without a pert priest's help)—
And that he has butchered her accordingly,
As she foretold and as myself believed,—
And, so foretelling and believing so,
We were punished, both of us, the merry way:
Therefore, tell once again the tale! For what?
Pompilia is only dying while I speak!
Why does the mirth hang fire and miss the smile?
My masters, there's an old book, you should con
For strange adventures, applicable yet,

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Original Wrapper

I was sittin home on the west end
Watchin cable tv with a female friend
We were watchin the news, the worlds in a mess
The poor and the hungry, a world in distress
Herpes, aids, the middle east at full throttle
Better check that sausage, before you put it in the waffle
And while youre at it, check whats in the batter
Make sure that candys in the original wrapper
Hey, pitcher, better check that batter
Make sure that candys in the original wrapper
Reagan says abortions murder
While hes looking at cardinal oconnor
Look at jerry falwell louis farrakhan
Both talk religion and the brotherhood of man
They both sound like they belong in teheran
Watch out, theyre goin full throttle
Better check that sausage, before you stick it in the waffle
And while youre at it better check, whats in the batter
Make sure that candys in the original wrapper
Hey, pitcher, better check that batter
Make sure that candys in the original wrapper
White against white, black against jew
It seems like its 1942
The baby sits in front of mtv
Watching violent fantasies
While dad guzzles beer with his favorite sport
Only to find his heroes are all coked up
Classic, original, the same old story
The politics of hate in a new surrounding
Hate if its good and hate if its bad
And if this all dont make you mad
Ill keep yours and Ill keep mine
Nothing sacred and nothing divine
Father, bless me, were at full throttle
Better check that sausage, before you put it in the waffle
And while youre at it better check that batter
Make sure the candys in the original wrapper
Hey, pitcher, better check that batter
Make sure that candys in the original wrapper, hey, hey
I was born in the united states
And I grew up hard but I grew up straight
I saw a lack of morals and a lack of concern
A feeling that theres nowhere to turn
Yippies, hippies and upwardly mobile yuppies
Dont treat me like Im some dumb lackey
cause the murderer lives while the victims die
Id much rather see it an eye for an eye
A heart for a heart, a brain for a brain
And if this all makes you feel a little insane
Kick up your heels, turn the music up loud

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song performed by Lou Reed
Added by Lucian Velea
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Song For Bob Dylan

Oh, hear this robert zimmerman
I wrote a song for you
About a strange young man called dylan
With a voice like sand and glue
Some words of truthful vengeance
They could pin us to the floor
Brought a few more people on
And put the fear in a whole lot more
Ah, here she comes
Here she comes
Here she comes again
The same old painted lady
From the brow of a superbrain
Shell scratch this world to pieces
As she comes on like a friend
But a couple of songs
From your old scrapbook
Could send her home again
You gave your heart to every bedsit room
At least a picture on the wall
And you sat behind a million pair of eyes
And told them how they saw
Then we lost your train of thought
The paintings are all your own
While troubles are rising
Wed rather be scared
Together than alone
Ah, here she comes
Here she comes
Here she comes again
The same old painted lady
From the brow of a superbrain
Shell scratch this world to pieces
As she comes on like a friend
But a couple of songs
From your old scrapbook
Could send her home again
Aoo
Now hear this robert zimmerman
Though I dont suppose well meet
Ask your good friend dylan
If hed gaze a while down the old street
Tell him weve lost his poems
So theyre writing on the walls
Give us back our unity
Give us back our family
Youre every nations refugee
Dont leave us with their sanity
Ah, here she comes
Here she comes

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song performed by David Bowie
Added by Lucian Velea
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From A Distance

From a distance, the world looks blue and green,
And the snow capped mountains so white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
And the eagle takes to flight.
From a distance, there is harmony
And it echoes through the land.
Its the voice of hope, its the voice of peace,
Its the voice of every man.
From a distance, we all have enough,
And no-one is in need.
There are no guns, no bombs and no disease
No hungry mouths to feed.
For a moment we must be instruments,
Martching in a common band,
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace,
Theyre is the songs of every one.
God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us, from a distance.
From a distance, you look like my friend,
Even though we are at war.
From a distance, I cant comprehend,
What all this war is for.
What we need is love and harmony,
Let it echo through the land.
Its the hope of hopes, its the love of loves,
Its the heart of everyone.
Its the hope of hopes, its the love of loves,
Its the song of everyone.
Sing out, songs of hope,
Sing out, songs of freedom,
Sing out, songs of love,
Sing out, songs of peace,
Sing out, songs of justice,
Sing out, songs of harmony,
Sing out, songs of love,
Sing out, everyone,
Sing out, songs of hope,
Sing out, songs of freedom,
Sing out, songs of love,
Sing out, songs of peace,
Sing out, songs of justice,
Sing out, songs in harmony,
Sing out, sing about love,
Sing out, everyone.
Sing out.

song performed by Cliff Richard
Added by Lucian Velea
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Battered Bob

HE WAS working on a station in the Western when I knew him,
And he came from Conongamo, up the old surveyors’ track,
And the fellows all admitted that no man in Vic. could ‘do him,’
Since he’d smothered Stonewall Menzie, also Anderson, the black.
Bob was modelled for a fighter, but he’d run to beef a trifle;
For his science every rouseabout was satisfied to vouch,
And Red Fogarty advised us he delivered like a rifle,
And his stopping—well, beside him Harry Sallars was a slouch.

Not a man of us had met him till he settled on the station—
This was early in the Sixties, what we call the good old days—
And it’s cheerfully admitted Robert owed his reputation
To a crippled jaw, a broken nose, and eyes that looked both ways.
We were certain on the face of it our guess was not an error,
Every feature of his phiz was marked, his chin was pulled askew,
And The Critic passed the office: ‘Bet your buttons he’s a terror!
That’s the man who hammered Kelly on The Creek in Fifty-two!’

Bob was not a shrinking blossom, and he held the first impressions
By his subsequent admissions to the ringers and the mugs,
And he let himself be tickled into casual confessions
Of his battles with the bruisers and the scientific pugs.
How he’d mangled Matty Hardy was his earliest narration;
He’d completely flummoxed Kitchen, and had made the climate hot
For Maloney, Fee, and Curran. It was quite a consolation
When he graciously informed us that he hadn’t licked the lot.

The arrival of the Wonder gave a spurt to local science,
And we had an exhibition every evening in the week,
For the lightest joke was answered in the lingo of defiance,
And our blood was cast like water on the grasses by the creek.
Every fellow but the stranger had his scrap or rough-and-tumble;
No one thought of looking ugly at the slugger, Battered Bob;
And whene’er the boys addressed him ’twas in language choice and humble,—
Though they ached to see him beaten, none was anxious for the job.

How we honoured Bob, and yielded to his later information;
Let him lead in all the arguments, and gently run the ranche!
And a very small potato was the owner of the station
By the man who slaughtered Melody and fought a draw with Blanche.
Battered Bob became our champion, our boss, and by degrees he
Sent his fame down to the Wannon, and right up to Spooner’s Gap,
And he scooped the honours smiling, and he held them just as easy,
For we’d never seen him shape yet, and he hadn’t fought a tap.

We’d a cook whose name was Han Cat—he was short, and fat, and yellow,
Just a common, ugly Chinky, with a never ending smile.
Bob was careful to avoid the corns of any other fellow,
But he filled Han Cat with sorrow, and he whaled him all the while.
Han Cat groaned and bore it meekly, and we didn’t care to figure

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poem by Edward George Dyson
Added by Poetry Lover
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