Inspired by recent, polarizing Silver Jews vs. Smog thread - name your favorite David Berman lyrics / one-liners here!

"I saw BB King on General Hospital/in the Cleveland dramhouse where we stayed"

"When the governor dies, the state bird falls from his branch"

"Oh Dallas you shine with an evil light (2x)/How'd you turn a billion steers into buildings made of mirrors/and why am I drawn to you tonight?"

"My ski-vest has buttons like convenience store mirrors and they help me see/that everything in the room right now is a part of me"

"I didn't really wanna die, I only wanted to die in your eyes/grant me one last wish/life should mean a lot less than this"

I'm quoting from memory, so I can't remember it all, but the one about "that tan-line on your ring finger"

"My mother named me after a king/I'm gonna bury my name in you"

smog: "i'm going to be drunk/ so drunk/ at your wedding"

Some that come to mind
The drums march along at the clip of an ivory drip like sparks from a muffler dragged down the strip, uh huh
When the sun sets on the ghetto all the broken stuff gets cold
You can't change the feeling but you can change the feelings about the feeling in a second or two, uh uh huh
Blue birds lodged in an evergreen altar--I'm gonna shine out in the wild kindness

He writes really good lyrics.

"When God was young, he made the wind and the sun/But since then, it's been a slow education"

"He was a rebel jew, he was a rebel jew, and he died for you, and your sins/he was a rebel jew, he was a rebel jew, let him in"

I prefer the more strangely poignant, simple ones like that. It's like, Yeah, man, that's totally true! Fuck.

I don't agree with this about Berman. I always feel like there's something more to them than just being clever nonsense -- at very least it's clever nonsense that always gives the impression of approaching meaning, of some sort of weight. This is what separates him for me from other *indie* songwriters that do silly lyrics.

"I could tell you things about this wallpaper /
that you'd never ever wanna know"

I wish they didn't put mirrors behind the bar
cuz I can't stand to look at my face
when I don't know where you are

What if life is just some hard equation
on a chalkboard in a science class for ghosts

time cum sand and surf
these are the building
building blocks
of life

I know you laughed
when I left
but you really only hurt yourself

Now there's a lot of things that I'm gonna miss
like thunder down country and the way water drips

If cars could run on teardrops
I'd be long long gone

When I was summoned to the phone
I know in my bones that you had died alone

the things that you do will always make your mama cry

Smog doesn't really have a lot of one-liners, his songs work much better as coherent (compared to Berman, anyway) narratives, although lines like "I was a teenage smog/sewn to the sky" and "my father said to me/but you can't swim/and I never dreamed/of the sea again" have brought me to tears based on the power of the image alone.

My favorite Berman lines are all in Self Portrait At 28 in Actual Air.

Best one-liner live:
He had just read a longer piece with a lot of sexualized imagery, though not succinctly "about" anything so concrete, when, in the same breath he drawn to read the last line of the poem he says "That one was about a handjob."

That was very very good.

"Tanning beds explode with rich women inside."

Robot walks into a bar / Orders a drink, lays down a bill / Man says I'm sorry we don't serve robots / The robot says, "Oh, but someday you will"

Bumping this thread for "souvenirs only reminded you of buying them" from Governors on Sominex in Actual Air

Yeah, that's a killer line. When is that new album out again?
I hope he does another book.

About a month I think. It's one of the best things of 08 IMO and there are some pearlers on it

"I throw my thoughts like tomahawks into this world which I disown" is such a badass line.

^^^ yes. also loves when he says "what looks like sleep is really hot pursuit" in that one

I love all of Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer especially

Aloysius woke at 5 am and the hungry girl was gone
There was blood on the bedding, forks in the ceiling and bones all over the lawn

new album sux

You're crazy

you probably like Band of Horses

anyone have anything to say about the new jews record? i had lost all faith after tanglewood numbers, which i found for the most part crushingly dull and oddly charmless, but having heard the jukebox one several times on the radio i'm ready for berman's rumours. am i about to be disappointed?

That's kind of how i felt about tanglewood numbers, but haven't heard the new one

i think the new one is quite good. but i need some more listens for a valid verdict. just heard a couple of the songs at the concert and heard the album maybe twice.

DB is on the new avalanches album!

is it cowboy eclipse ? that's a beautiful poem. 'it gets late so early, now'

IDK why I woke up with "San Francisco B.C." stuck in my head today. I go back and forth on the rest of Lookout Mountain, but that song certainly deserves a spot in the canon (... the canon of what, though? not for me to decide)

So many evocative turns of phrase: dollhouse lightning, fist cuisine, sarcastic hair, a jeweler's hands and a blurry face.

Best of all, there are moments on the record when Dave is so clearly having FUN... just like the crooks in the movies when they do that bit.

he said the power of metal will never be harnessed
I thought the wages of metal should be heavily garnished

that's not bad. but it's still the only Silver Jews song that's a They Might Be Giants song

When they turn on the chair something’s added to the air

Forevah

What’s “swa disantra “ anyway? Anyone know?

"soi-disant roi"... pretty sure it's a call-back to the title of REM's "World Leader Pretend".

Oh, neat. Thanks Al

How long can a world go on under such a subtle God?
How long can a world go on with no word from God?

Life finds a limit at the edge of our bodies

day after day up on this beautiful stage
we've been playing tambourine for minimum wage

But nothing can change the fact that we used to share a bed

Still wearin' last night's mascara
Now that her pet was gone for sure
She was shiverin' so hard
It looked like there were two of her

moments can be monuments to you
If your life is interesting and true
It's just the same for a man or a girl
The meaning of the world lies outside the world

the alleys are the footnotes of the avenues

holding up their trousers with extension cords

I suspect we could be losing now. Please guard my bed.

instead of time there will be lateness
and let forever be delayed

I had this friend his name was Marc with a "c"
His sister was like the heat coming off the back of an old TV

:)

this happy hour has got us by the balls

Songs build little rooms in time
And housed within the song’s design
Is the ghost the host has left behind
To greet and sweep the guest inside
Stoke the fire and sing his lines

his brother who was missing the part of the brain that let's you make out with your pillow

I passed an abandoned drive-in
With ivy growing over the screen
It was like I caught Hollywood sleeping-
Asleep without the dreams

if your dreams are your body telling you it's confused
then I've got a dream I think you could use

All this new technology
will eventually give us new feelings
that will never completely displace the old ones
leaving everyone feeling quite nervous
and split in two.

no one should have two lives
now you know my middle names are wrong and right
honey we've got two lives to give tonight

When you feel that first ice cold twist in the wind
Will you hang a lamp at the end of the lane?

Holding hands, starlit walks
Making plans, silly talk
All I see are couples in the street
I always had a hunch
I would crumble in the crunch
Yeah, maybe I'm the only one for me

^That one was co-written with Dan Auerbach, so I'm not sure how much of it was him and how much of it was DCB. A great song regardless!

it was from an aborted attempt at auerbach to produce the record, he must have contributed enough to the chord progression or arrangement to get a credit, but if auerbach could write lyrics like that i'd imagine he'd have done it at least once before in his life

hahah fair enough, I'm actually pretty unfamiliar with his stuff, never been a Black Keys fan, etc.

We’re off to the land of club soda unbridled
We’re off to the land of hot middle-aged women