Happy Halloween.

Enjoy Splatter Splatter by Moxy Früvous (from 1999’s Thornhill)

Kids in their PJs, big bowl of nachos
Another perfect day in Rhododendron Park.
The sun is shining, now dad’s reclining
Roll down the blinds to watch a movie in the dark.

Some buxom ladies, a Lamborghini
Shadowy motives in a shadowy land.
Some idle chatter, then Splatter Splatter
Cue soundtrack music from the up-and-coming band.

This is (This is)
The best (Just a movie)
I’ve ever seen (She’s just a teen)
I want to see it again and again and again.

She’s babysitting and doing homework.
A sudden phone call from the senior quarterback.
She loves attention, she craves attention
He’s got a present for her from her daddy’s shack

She getting cozy, the window rattles
A few allusions to last summer’s episode.
The windows shatter, then Splatter Splatter
What could be more perfect than to see her head explode?

This is (This is)
The best (Just a movie)
I’ve ever seen (She’s just a teen)
I want to see it again and again and again.

Ahhhhh Ahhhhhh Ahhhhh
She’s just a teen
I want to see it again and again and again.

We came from monkeys, we once were hunted
Perhaps we recognize that haunted human face
Maybe the suburbs are just far too antiseptic
Kids need some splatter splatter messing up the place.

This is (This is)
The best (Just a movie)
I’ve ever seen (She’s just a teen)
I want to see it again and again and again and again.
Again and again and again.

This is (This is)
The best (Just a movie)
I’ve ever seen (She’s just a teen)
I want to see it
Again and again and again
Again and again and again
Again and again and again

If you have a favorite song that features entertaining lyrics which you’d like to see featured as a Lyric of the Week, drop me a line in the comments (or email me at ed@suitcasefullofdimes.com) and tell me what you find special about the song.

I remember picking up Sugarbomb’s album Bully in the cutout bin at a local music store. The first time I listened to it, nearly every track was pure enjoyment. This week’s lyric was one of my favorite tracks from that CD.

Enjoy Posterchild for Tragedy by Sugarbomb (from 2001’s Bully).

You got to come back to me
I can’t bare to spend my life alone
Just waiting on your ghost
And living without you
I’m afraid that wouldn’t do

You have to believe me
I can’t spend one night alone
Without your breath in my ear
I’m empty without it
And I’m afraid I couldn’t live

Maybe there’s a chance that I could carry on with your memory
Maybe there’s a hope that I could live in the shell you left of me
Maybe I could last a while as the posterchild for tragedy
I’m afraid that couldn’t be

The silence is deafening
Must I face another day
Without the rhythm of your voice
That echoes inside me
It’s a song I’ll never sing

If you have a favorite song that features entertaining lyrics which you’d like to see featured as a Lyric of the Week, drop me a line in the comments (or email me at ed@suitcasefullofdimes.com) and tell me what you find special about the song.

Sometimes a simple lyric is all you need.

All you need is love.

De, do, do, do.
De, da, da, da.

‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy.

This week’s lyric is to a song that I simply can’t not sing along to in the car.

Enjoy Girlfriend by Matthew Sweet (from 1991’s Girlfriend).

I wanna love somebody
I hear you need somebody to love
I wanna love somebody
I hear you’re looking for someone to love

‘Cause you need to
Get back in the arms of a good friend
And I need to
Get back in the arms of a girlfriend

I didn’t know nobody
And then I saw you coming my way
I didn’t know nobody
And then I saw you coming my way

Don’t you need to
Get back in the arms of a good friend?
‘Cause, honey, believe me
I’d sure love to call you my girlfriend

‘Cause you got a good thing going, baby
You only need somebody to love
Oh, you’ve got a good thing going
You’re only looking for someone to love

‘Cause you need to
Get back in the arms of a good friend

And I’m never gonna set you free
No, I’m never gonna set you free

If you have a favorite song that features entertaining lyrics which you’d like to see featured as a Lyric of the Week, drop me a line in the comments (or email me at ed@suitcasefullofdimes.com) and tell me what you find special about the song.

This week’s lyric is more commonly referred to by classic rock radio listeners as “Teenage Wasteland.” Its original title was going to be “Teenage Wasteland,” but the title was used for another, unrelated song. The title is a mashup of two of Pete Townshend’s influences, Meher Baba and Terry Riley.

Enjoy Baba O’Riley by The Who (from 1971’s Who’s Next).

Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living

I don’t need to fight
To prove I’m right
I don’t need to be forgiven

Sally, take my hand
We’ll travel south ‘cross land
Put out the fire and don’t look past my shoulder

The exodus is here
The happy ones are near
Let’s get together before we get much older

Teenage wasteland
It’s only teenage wasteland

They’re all wasted

If you have a favorite song that features entertaining lyrics which you’d like to see featured as a Lyric of the Week, drop me a line in the comments (or email me at ed@suitcasefullofdimes.com) and tell me what you find special about the song.

This week’s lyric is by Big Star, a band that remains a major influence on a huge number of today’s artists. The band broke up in 1974, shortly after the release of their second album, but reformed in 1993. They continued until Alex Chilton’s death in 2010.

Enjoy Back of a Car by Big Star (from 1974’s Radio City).

Sitting in the back of a car
Music so loud can’t tell a thing
Thinking ’bout what to say
I can’t find the lines

You know I love you a lot
I just don’t know, should I not?
Waiting for a brighter day
I can’t find a way

I’ll go on and on with you
Like to fall and lie with you
I love you, too

Baby, I’m too afraid
I just don’t know if it’s okay
Trying to get away
From everything

Why don’t you take me home
It’s gone too far inside this car
I know I’ll feel a whole lot more
When I get alone

I’ll go on and on with you
Like to fall and lie with you
I love you, too

Sitting in the back of a car
Music so loud can’t tell a thing
Thinking ’bout what to say
I can’t find the lines

If you have a favorite song that features entertaining lyrics which you’d like to see featured as a Lyric of the Week, drop me a line in the comments (or email me at ed@suitcasefullofdimes.com) and tell me what you find special about the song.

Sunday before last marked the fifteen year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. To a lesser degree, it also marked the fifteen year anniversary of the release of one of my favorite albums, Ben Folds’ Rockin’ The Suburbs.

Enjoy The Luckiest by Ben Folds (from 2001’s Rockin’ The Suburbs).

I don’t get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot
Now I know all the wrong turns
The stumbles and falls brought me here

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it every day

And I know
That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

What if I’d been born 50 years before you
In a house on the street where you live?
Maybe I’d be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?

And in a wide sea of eyes
I see one pair that I recognize

And I know
That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you

Next door there’s an old man who lived to his 90s
And one day passed away in his sleep
And his wife, she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away

I’m sorry, I know that’s
A strange way to tell you
That I know we belong

That I know
That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

If you have a favorite song that features entertaining lyrics which you’d like to see featured as a Lyric of the Week, drop me a line in the comments (or email me at ed@suitcasefullofdimes.com) and tell me what you find special about the song.

I discovered the music of Jennifer Trynin after Aimee Mann did some backing vocals on one of her songs, “Snow.” “Better Than Nothing” got a lot of airplay on MTV’s “120 Minutes” and was her one big hit, but you should do yourself a favor and check out the rest of her catalog.

Enjoy Better Than Nothing by Jennifer Trynin (from 1994’s Cockamamie).

Maybe we could talk in the shower
I’ll bet we’d be gone in an hour
Maybe we could leave all this behind
Or we could just stay home

Maybe we could pool all our money
Maybe head out west to the country
It’d be just like here but we’d be there
Or we could just stay home

It’s better than nothing
It’s better than nothing
I’m feeling good, I’m feeling good
I’m feeling good for now
Good, I’m feeling good, I’m feeling good
I’m feeling good for now
But I know that by tomorrow I’ll probably come around

Maybe we could stay out all night
Two shots of whiskey and have a good fight
Finally figure out who’s really right
I think I’ll just stay home

For now, things don’t seem so bad
I don’t wanna know if I will sink or swim my way to shore

If you have a favorite song that features entertaining lyrics which you’d like to see featured as a Lyric of the Week, drop me a line in the comments (or email me at ed@suitcasefullofdimes.com) and tell me what you find special about the song.

I was at home this morning, fifteen years ago, having recently been laid off from work, watching NBC’s Today. Katie Couric broke away to show that a commercial jet had flown into the World Trade Center. Shortly after that, America watched as a second plane flew into the opposite tower.

Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance) was on his way to work when he saw this happen and it inspired him to write “Skylines and Turnstiles,” the first song written by the band.

Enjoy Skylines and Turnstiles by My Chemical Romance (from 2002’s I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love).

You’re not in this alone
Let me break this awkward silence
Let me go!
Go on record,
Be the first to say I’m sorry
Hear me out
And if you take me down,
Would you lay me out?
And if the world needs something better,
Let’s give them one more reason now

We walk in single file
We light our rails and punch our time
Ride escalators colder than a cell

This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin
Stolen from my eyes
Hello angel, tell me
Where are you?
Tell me, where we go from here
This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin
Stolen from my eyes
Hello angel, tell me
Where are you?
Tell me where we go from here
Tell me we go from…

And in this moment we can’t close the lids
On burning eyes
Our memories blanket us with friends we know
Like fallout vapor
Steel corpses stretch out towards an ending sun
Scorched and black
It reaches in and tears your flesh apart
As ice cold hands rip into your heart

That’s if you’ve still got one that’s left
Inside that cave you call a chest
And after seeing what we saw
Can we still reclaim our innocence?
And if the world needs something better
Let’s give them one more reason now

This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin
And stolen from my eyes
Hello angel, tell me
Where are you?
Tell me, where we go from here
This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin
Stolen from my eyes
Hello angel, tell me
Where are you?
Tell me where we go from here
Tell me where we go from here

If you have a favorite song that features entertaining lyrics which you’d like to see featured as a Lyric of the Week, drop me a line in the comments (or email me at ed@suitcasefullofdimes.com) and tell me what you find special about the song.

There are so few great pop songs about abduction. This week’s lyric is one of those pop-perfect songs that are actually pretty twisted when you really start listening to the words being sung. Brendan Benson co-wrote the song with Jason Falkner (of The Grays and Jellyfish), another of my favorite artists.

Enjoy Sittin’ Pretty by Brendan Benson.

If I point my gun at you
Are you gonna see it my way?
And if I tell you what to do
I think we can make it work this way

And if you run from me, I’ll know
I’ll find you and God help you
She just waits for me at home
I’m going down, I’m taking you

My baby’s tied to a chair
Don’t she look pretty, just sittin’ there?

And if she wants some air, she tells me
(I can’t breathe!)
And if she wants some love, I’ll kiss her
And when I’m close, you know, she can smell me
And when I’m gone, I’ll surely miss her

My baby’s tied to a chair
Don’t she look pretty, just sittin’ there?

If you have a favorite song that features entertaining lyrics which you’d like to see featured as a Lyric of the Week, drop me a line in the comments (or email me at ed@suitcasefullofdimes.com) and tell me what you find special about the song.

Long before the mp3, before the CD, before the cassette tape, there were 8-Tracks. It was meant to be a more portable version of reel-to-reel tape, which was popular with audiophiles of the era. I fondly remember my portable Panasonic 8-Track player and many of the 8-Track tapes I intentionally and, frequently accidentally, acquired through the Columbia Record and Tape Club. Accidentally, of course, when I forgot to mail back those damned cards. But that was just another way to discover new music, right? That’s my excuse and I’m owning it (only because I forgot to send back the card for the Weak Excuse of the Month Club).

Enjoy 8Track by Jim Boggia.

My older sister used to spend all of her time listening to 8Tracks.
She had a plastic Panasonic that she carried in her backpack.

Fresh as a Daisy was her favorite song.
She taught me the words and we’d sing along.
We always had a lot of fun listening to records on the 8Track.

Sometimes the way the music played it came out different on the 8Track.
They did a lot of crazy things to make the record fit the format.

They’d move the songs around to do the math.
Sometimes they’d even cut the songs in half.
But even so, the way my sister always listened was on 8Track.

And we’d sing: “Ooh la la la. Ooh la la la. Ooh la la la. Ooh la la la.”

We’d start it off on Program 1, then Program 2, then Program 3, then Program 4, and then it STOPPED!

PRESS FAST FORWARD!!!

I made this whole thing up, I was too young.
But still, it seems like it was lots of fun.
I know I missed out on a lot because I never had an 8Track.

(I don’t even have a sister.)

If you have a favorite song that features entertaining lyrics which you’d like to see featured as a Lyric of the Week, drop me a line in the comments (or email me at ed@suitcasefullofdimes.com) and tell me what you find special about the song.