A list of the best song lyrics always brings about passionate debate so feel free to get out your VOIP phones and voice your opinions. How can you pick some quotes above others when the choice is so subjective? Nevertheless, I’ve picked this list based on the theory that great music lyrics seem to have a way of popping up out of the hidden reaches of your sub-concious at the most unexpected times.
"Your Apple Crumble Turns Me On" Jarvis Cocker, Pulp
The following three have also at some point offered a timely reminder that I need take a step back and take a fresh look. Often they remind me of the absurdity of some of the things that we as people busy ourselves with.
Before I give the final three that made my list I’d like to give a notable mention to the traditional song that tells us that life is but a dream so row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Sound advice from our ancestors. Anyway here they are three of the best song lyrics:
3 – “There are fewer more distressing sights than that of an Englishman in a baseball cap”
Taken from Time For Heroes by The Libertines this gem was written by the much maligned Pete Doherty. I guess that this was written with reference to chavs and wannabe gansters in mind but it always pops into my head when I see an east london fashionista or someone that has obviously gone to the effort of looking ultra fashionable but has neglected the fact that they look like an idiot. And it is important that I make a distinction here. I am not against people making an effort and having their own style but I am against people that blindly adopt trends.
2 – “He who fucks nun will later join the church”
You’ve got to love the clash. Crude and violent yet at the same time insightful and beautifully poetic. This snippet comes from the song Death and Glory. For me it climbs into my conciousness whenever I have the misfortune of hearing someone being disgustingly hypocritical. Sadly the person I hear most is myself. So this one often resonates most when I’ve been over polite to my mother-in-law or other such hypocritical misdemeanors. I wish I heard it less! But, I guess, that’s what great poetry should do – prick prententions.
1 – “Your apple crumble turns me on”
Taken from a pulp song and sung by the lamenting voice of Jarvis Cocker this absurd beauty doesn’t necessarily provide me with any life lessons but it never fails to make me smile. Strangely enough it does seem to pop into my concious every time i’m a bit hacked off. Perhaps the brain does work in mysterious ways because it always provides a little pick me up.
