favourite song lyrics

Jack's post on favourite lyrics brought some great lines out of the woodwork (ah, Springsteen). I missed his recent 'link to Jack day' (cute idea) so feel free to follow the link through to the original post. Read the comments, too ~ lots of cool lyric snippets there, too. Strange, though I'm into lyrics, I don't have a great ability to bring them to mind at a useful moment. Not so movie lines, which pop into my head automatically at appropriate moments. Clearly the file clerk in my head is more into cinema than CDs; or maybe it's just that lyrics are indelibly welded to the music in my mind and don't come easily without the tune in my ears. Still, lyrics are poetry, poetry's a gift, yah for good lyrics. ^_^

I left some Five For Fighting lyrics in the comments at Jack's, but since then others have popped into my head.

Oh, it's asking for the taking
Come run with me now
The sky is the colour of blue
You've never ever seen
In the the eyes of your lover

My heart is aching
Coming to the edge, running on the water
Coming through the fog, your sons and daughters

Oh, so sing the greatest song
Stand on a star
And blaze a trail of desire
Through the dark'ning dawn

It's asking for the taking
Trembling, shaking
Oh my heart is aching
Coming to the edge, running on the water
Coming through the fog, your sons and daughters

So let the rivers run
Let all the dreamers wake the nation
Come, the new Jerusalem
("Let The Rivers Run" by Carly Simon)

I highly recommend turning that song up and singing along full-throatedly. At dawn. On top of a mountain. Overlooking a large city. Trust me, it will change your life.

There's a Japanese group called Every Little Thing that sings a song called Graceful World. This song has a special place in my heart because it was one of the first songs where I could understand some of the lyrics without looking them up in a dictionary. My favourite part of the song is:

こうしてる今もどこかで
泣いている人達がいるでしょう
さまざまな思い詰まった
その涙無駄にはしたくない

決して自分を諦めないで
小さなことでも出来ることがあるとても　
大切なこと！

Translation:
Even now, somewhere
There are probably people crying
Tormenting themselves over various things
I don't want those tears to be wasted

I won't give up.
They're small things, but there are things I can do.
It's so important!

Strange that the words mean more to me in Japanese. That doesn't happen often with Japanese words ~ I'm just not fluent enough for that ~ but while I rarely get emotional over my Japan photos, Japanese songs that meant something to me during those three years twist my emotions within the first few bars. 久々に聞いたこの曲、なつかしいよ。