Best 80s Song Lyrics, Ranked

Hey hey, what do you got three? I wrote you the song. How the funny old let's come in along. Seems second, it's hungry, it's tired and it's torn. It looks like it's a dying and that's hardly bandborn.

Hey, welcome to Pastimes at 80s High. Got another good one for everyone today. We are gonna do lyrics. Now, these are song lyrics that you know they can go quite deep. They can be simply just what is meaningful to us, and I mean we're gonna take different routes through this down the line because I feel like this could wind up being a series. But anyway, today I have Donald. Hello. How you doing? Good Ice Hole, Kevin? Ice Hole. Uh Brother Mark.

I'm doing really well today. How's how's it going?

Good man, good. And I am AJ. So uh Donnie, you're gonna have the honors today, and we're just gonna, without further ado, just kick right into it if you might. Cool.

Yeah, so for me, this was kind of a challenging uh topic because my wife and I were discussing how I'm not a lyric person, like I'm a melody person. When I listen to songs, I I hear lyrics as melody more musical than I I can't just hear, I'm you know, whether it's my hearing, I have tinnitus, blah blah blah. I can't hear the words, right? So I struggle. And I remember a roommate in Berkeley kind of making fun of me because I would always like, uh just like mumble words because I didn't know what they were or whatever. So and there was also a really funny skit on uh I think it was BLM, which I don't even think is around anymore. This is but they they did a skit that was like songs you can't forget, words you can't remember. But so my my first one, I'm gonna do a customer service uh to the public out there on one of the classic misinterpreted lines, and it's um blinded by the light, which was written by Bruce Springsteen, but the famous version um was Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and everyone thinks, you know, I was blinded by the light, ripped off like a douche. Oh yeah, which is not the correct. So the the lyrics that um Manfred Mann's Earth Band did was blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce. Yes, another runner in the night.

Blinded by the light, rep up like a douche, another runner in the night, blind by the light, that is correct.

And and Bruce Springsteen's was cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night.

Dressed up like a douche.

Right, right. And uh I guess Springsteen actually got a chuckle when he heard it because everyone thinks it sounds like douche. Oh, yeah, big two ripped off like and and it's revved up because the deuce I believe is a reference to a 1932 Ford that is commonly made into a hot rod. Yes, and you know, revved up like a deuce. And uh you know, going back to and deuce, and I'm sorry, I'm talking a little bit, but I'll go for it. Gene Simmons for Deuce, you know, you know your man is working hard, he's worth a deuce. Yes, yes, right. You know, and I was like, what does he mean by that? And it was he just liked the word, he didn't he didn't even have any meaning behind it. I know, and they put so many different meanings into it, you know.

It's like the second chance, yeah.

Your man's working hard, he's worth a blowy and a I always I always took it in the kiss song as he's worth a deuce, a number two, he's worth the shit. The guy's worth the shit, right? He's worth a deuce. Yeah, everyone has dudes.

Everyone has buddies with that one, but I just like to tie in the deuce, the deuce line.

But one lyric I saw, sorry to interrupt, uh you know your man is working hard. I've seen you know old Jim is working hard too. So old Jim instead of your man.

Oh, yeah, they he he's kicked that in live too, for sure.

All right. We wanted to we wanted to kind of say that you know, for all of us, finding the correct lyrics is very difficult. And if we happen to wrongly portray a lyrics, it's because you know we're we're at the mercy of what's out there online. Don't crucify us.

Yeah, it's not an exact science, no matter how you slice it. Even if you were in the recording studio, you still might not have it. Exactly.

Speaking of Gene Simmons, watch him sing I Love It Loud once in a while. He never gets the words right. All right, Kev. So we are heading to the show.

All right, I just want to say, Donnie, I think it's funny that you're talking about not being a lyrics guy because while we go into the lyrics show, I just saw an interview with Stuart Copeland, the drummer from the police, and he says the exact same thing. He says, I don't even know the lyrics to our songs. He says, I that's not what I'm listening to. Yeah. As a drummer, he's he's tuned into completely other things. So you are not alone in being a musician that doesn't know the words. Right.

And I uh the Ellis song that I wrote, I had to look at the lyrics to remember my own song.

So it's I'm I'm I'm sure that's pretty common too, especially some of the people that I see that are pushing their 70s and 80s. I mean, you know, it's hard to remember, you know, your name at that point. Oh shit, right? Never mind what uh what you wrote 40 years ago. But so I'm gonna jump right in with the lyrics that I think kind of embody everybody here and everybody that's that's listening, something that we all relate to and kind of feel pretty deeply, and that's invisible airways crackle with life, bright antennas bristle with the energy, emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength, bearing a gift beyond price, almost free. Which is, you know, thinking about those lyrics today, and and I know I get a little wordy with that one, but it's yeah, I'm going I'm going there too, though. You had to close it. Exactly. And I mean, I could have gone into all this machinery making modern music and all that, but I think that's something that we miss with whether it's Spotify or nothing against Spotify because we're on there, but whether it's a streaming service, either audio or video, there's a something missing from you know when we all tuned into Happy Days one night, or we when you heard a song on the radio. If you were driving to school, you all listened to the same radio station, and you knew that you heard Spirit of Radio at 742, and it was there was a communal thing, and that's what I think a lot of that song is about was that how great the music is and what great feelings it gives us still, but we have lost a little bit of that that we're all connected by it because we're not listening on the same surfaces and the same times and and in that unison that we used to have.

One of my favorite rush songs, probably. Yeah, yeah.

And I'm not I'm not a huge rusk rush guy, but I can only assume that the lyricist, Neil Peart, pretty much is responsible for most of them, and he was fucking incredible.

Yeah, for a drummer to be everything, yeah, yeah. A lyricist like that is pretty rare, I believe.

Yeah, it definitely is. Great pick, Kev. All right, brother, off to you. Let's see if we can get some some repeats here.

All right. Well, uh, my list is is gonna be lyrics that certainly mean a lot to me. Some of them actually choke me up in some ways. But um, I'm gonna start off with some lyrics from Ted Nugent, Great White Buffalo.

Is that a boy?

Well, it well, the Indians needed food and skins for a roof. Only took what he needed. Millions of buffalo were the proof. But then came the white man with his thickened, empty head. He couldn't see past the bill folds. He wanted all the buffalo dead. I mean, to me, this song is emotional because I mean, listen to that lyric. Millions of buffalo were the proof. Oh, yeah. They didn't go out and they did not go out and exploit the herd. They took what they needed, which is basically what the hunting season's about. I mean, they the the fishing game regulates the herd, the count and everything. But then you have the white man that come over and they exploit everything.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know if this is because they're they're trying to kill off the Indians' uh food source. I don't know.

They're using the animals for things more so than they need, is my point. They're killing them off just for greediness. Let's put it that way. Exactly. What a great I mean, that whole song is just friggin' incredible. That's from the Amboy Dukes, uh, just so y'all know. So this one's to me, and I must admit, we have just realized that I have broken the law. We're supposed to be 1999 or prior everyone, and this is post that, and I do apologize. My bad. But this is a band, Blue October, and the song is called Hate Me. And for me, I mean the the opening lyrics on this are so deep in it, but I didn't go with that. I went with this. Oh god, I don't want to get emotional. I simply went with Hate Me Today, Hate Me Tomorrow, Hate Me for All the Things I Didn't Do For You.

Hate Me to Rate Me for all the things. I didn't do things.

The reason I get emotional with this is it makes me think of my mom, you know, being a shitty teenager and how awful I was. I didn't treat her as the way I would have liked to back then. That's what I think about. Fucking hate me for what I didn't do for you.

You know, AJ, um, I think we all feel that way. You know what I mean? We we and and that's part of being a teenager is is learning those things so that you don't continue the process and propagate it again. And then and then to make things right, we have teenagers that do shitty stuff to us.

Oh, right. Oh, yeah, oh yeah. It's the circle of life, it is a circle of life, and I know I am forgiven, and I talked to my mom about this over and over. And but not about the song, but you know what I mean.

You had you had to bring this song up. I don't give a rat's ass that it was off the off the uh perimeters.

But that open in line with the you know, cockroaches dropping little reels of tape in the bed, making a porno feel like home, and just it's fucking very, very deep.

My friend Gino uh turned me on to that song that I'm the one who told you about it, and you called up and you really hit you hard. Oh yeah.

All right, so that's to you, Dungo. All right, in keeping with the emotion, and and this one was one my father loved, and every father loves and and regrets and hates because it's got profound truth to it. Is um, and as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me he'd grown up just like me. My boy was just like me, and that's Cats in the Cradle, Harry Chapman. And um, you know, just a song about you know, when you're a young dad, you're busy, you're working, you gotta do work, and you know, your kid wants to play and you don't have time, and then you know, you you kind of put them off, and then before you know it, they grow up, and then you want to see them and they're doing the same thing. Yeah, it's just it's life, you know, it's just it just mirrors life. Absolutely. You know, it's been used in movies and references um quite a bit. Wow, Donnie.

That that song makes me very emotional. I don't might add in that one, but uh yeah, yeah, I I can't get through the song without tearing up a wee bit, you know.

Yeah, I got a few of those. That's what makes it great, man. Yeah, yeah. I get a few a bit opposite than that, but you know, like I said, meaning meaning doesn't necessarily have to be emotion in heartbreaking way, or yeah, it can go multiple ways, you know. Uh awesome. So do you, Kev.

All right. So I'm going to illustrate that point right here. And you're absolutely right. It doesn't have to be emotional, although a lot of them are. And this one just kind of hit me right in where I was at the time. And it's um it's called Paper Thin by my one of my favorite songwriters, John Hyatt. And the line is I was gonna get up off of that bar stool just as soon as I could figure it out.

I was gonna get a bum bam bar stool. Just as soon as I could figure it out.

It kind of really describes uh a pretty good decade of my life. Managing and and you know, I don't. Uh, but managing a gin mill um where celebration and partying was what we did for a living. You know, it was not uh other people went to jobs and and then and came in to kick off some steam, and we just we just kind of partied for a better part of a decade. That was your job, yeah.

Oh yeah, did all of it.

So but that song always in the and the house band used to play that song, and it was just like there's a couple other lines. I was just mixing up some chemicals, just just some great lines in the song that just really hit, but that one always struck me. I was gonna get up off of that bar stool just as soon as I could figure it out.

There's uh there's a guy I was in the Navy with who was a bartender, and he uh ended up down in Key West, and he's you know, it's amazing. He said it was amazing, but he got sucked into like the party scene after life, and uh he had to he had to escape it because it was just too much. Yeah.

Well, just to continue a little bit to you, Kev, your decade there continued into the next decade for a brief time. It was a decade and a half. I know because I was the one serving him. Kevin and I would have a an ongoing battle of if one of us worked the day shift and finished at 4 p.m. So yeah, we're gonna have one and get out of here. I'm gonna have one and get out of here, and then we'd both be there till last call. Exactly.

Not not to give too much away, but I can still remember that with you. Um, I could tell where you were on the spectrum by how far your head was tilted back and how closed your eyes were.

Right. All right, brother, that's to you.

All right. Well, this is from a female folk singer. Her name is Jewel. Her last name, I believe, is Kitchener. The song is Pieces of You back from 1995-96. You can change the word after the first verse to anything he wanted to be, but you say that he's a Jew. No singing. He can sing. You say that he's a Jew as if being born were a sin.

Say he's a Jew as though being born were a sin.

Which tells me it's very simple. Nobody can help who they are when they're born. They're born whoever they are. And it's just very simple. Very simple. Either you treat me nice or you do not treat me nice. If you're nice to me, I will like you. I don't care what your background is or anything. But it's just that's that line as if being born were a sin has always spoken to me.

Absolutely, because there's a lot of people that feel that way, that being born was a sin, by the way, you know, life has treated them and so forth.

But no, but no, I get it, but I'm j my point is a lot of people just get it in their head that a certain group of people are not good. Oh, of course.

I mean, that's the way of the world, Mark.

Yeah.

But so deep.

It is deep, but I mean my point is you guys you guys like people that are nice to you, right? That's my point. Okay. So but that that that always spoke to me. Good that line. I mean, of course, this is 30 years ago. I did carpool with a girl for a while, um my last year at the state, and she turned me on to Jewel.

And she has come up in other casts too. This this case.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, she kind of uh maybe she wanted a carpool, not to say fuel, but she didn't get a wish. But oh well, I mean, there's a lot of there's so many women out there that didn't get their wish, okay? So take it on to you for your number. What next pick?

All right. So this is one for me that is not emotionally hitting, but just incredible lyrics in my eye. And I do have to read because I'm going blank. I mean, normally I could just recite this. Uncovering things that were sacred manifest on this earth. Ah, conceived in the eye of Seek of a Secret, and they scattered the afterbirth. Mr. Crowley, Ozzy Ozzy. And I mean, I I didn't look up any any notes today because I was doing most of this off my head this week. It's either Lee Kurt Kurzlake or Bob Daisley, of course, writing these lyrics. And Donnie, something you were talking about earlier about how you went more to melody instead of lyric. Ozzy was the master of that. Maybe he's not the greatest singer on the planet, just a very unique voice, but obviously not a vocalist. But man, did he bring friggin' melody to his vocals? His vocals had always had that. Those words to me were just such great writing. And obviously, it's about Mr. Crowley. Yeah. Yeah. But just think of that. You know, manifest on this earth, and then just they scattered the afterbirth to hide this, you know, and just I don't know, it it it's deep to me. That's all. Yeah, that's all. Yeah.

Yeah. Crowley was trying to bring the literally trying to bring Satan, the Antichrist, to life. Right. Some people might say that he succeeded, but we're not going to get into that.

Right.

Because the guy's out there and you can look him up. But anyway, um, yeah, that it's it's it's pretty powerful.

Yes, for sure. Love it.

Okay, Donald. All right. So keeping in kind of a religious theme. I swear there ain't no heaven, but I pray there ain't no hell.

I can swear there ain't no heaven, but I pray there ain't no hell. Swear there ain't no heaven.

Blood, sweat, and tears. And uh one of my father's favorite lines. So I always remember that, but you know, it's just it's kind of true, like a lot of people out there who may not be religious, but um obviously are fearful if it is, you know, if it's what they say is true.

It's very such a great line because there's so many people on that, you know. No, wavelength that would would think that way.

You know, it's the artist Donnie again.

Blood, sweat, and tears. Blood, sweat and tears.

What was it? I'm I'm drawing a blank on the name of the song. And when I die. And when I die.

Yeah.

No, no, no worries. Yeah, definitely one of those, because I mean that's what faith is. You know what I mean? And I don't care how faithful a person is, it it wavers at times. Sometimes you question it, it just happens. Uh so yeah, that definitely embodies that. Yeah. And a great flipping song as well.

Great song. Speaking of faithful, oh well, we'll get there later. Great pick, though, Donald. Such a great line. I mean, so true. Great pick, Don. So do you, Kev.

All right. So I'm gonna mix it up a little bit here and do something a little different because this is not a spoken line in the song. It's not a spoken lyric exactly, but it's one that always just made me like physically wince. And that is the ending of Young Lust from Pink Floyd on on the wall. And as the song's fading out, you can hear him. He's trying to call his wife from the United States. Yep. And the phone keeps hanging up, and the operator says something so innocent, but it just rips your heart out. She says, it's a man, it's a man that keeps answering.

Hello, this is United States calling. Are we reaching?

I mean, she's literally just strongest suspicion that his wife is banging somebody else's. I'm sorry, is there someone else there besides your wife, sir, to answer? Oh. And it's just like, ah, that just it hurts. It literally hurts when you hear it the first time.

So how come I never heard that part at the end of the United States trying to reach the United States calling?

Yes.

Yeah. Are we reaching?

And then you get the at the end the near near like the beep. Yeah. Oh, great. Great call cav. I never thought about going, you know, into those little tidbits of songs, but uh the first pick tonight, the blue October one I was talking about, kind of starts out with an answering machine call. But uh yeah, kind of bookends. But the wall cav, I used to fall asleep to that every night. I'm not a Pink Floyd fan in the least, but I love that album. It's so weird. I don't know why I never moved.

It's funny you say that because for a number of years in my life, I had I had we talked about the you know the rack system that we had in the 80s that was all that. I had a Fisher rack system and it had 15-inch subwoofers and they were massive speakers. And I used to put I'd lay on the floor, I'd sleep on the floor on a mattress and have those speakers on either side and put on Pink Floyd the wall and and listen to that. That's how I'd go to sleep. Might explain a few things.

That was a very obscure record. A lot of people haven't even haven't even heard of it.

So yeah, not quite as big as Amagama or uh Adam Hartmother.

Awesome pick though. That's a great call, Kev. No pun intended.

Oh right, Mark, you're up. I've been damned, I've been cursed, I've been guilty and abused.

Okay, that is kiss not for the Oh, you're not gonna go to the next one.

I spit the hanging man in his face and hung him in his news.

Not a boy.

I've been guilty.

And anyone who's ever been a scapegoat kind of knows what this means. I've been guilty, meaning judged guilty without being proven guilty. Yes. And then I never felt guilty. But seriously, like when I worked at the state, there was four of us. I was the lowest labor grade, and of course, I'd get blamed for everything, and and other times in my life. I'm not gonna get deep into my childhood and all these other areas of my life. I mean, from the time I heard this song, th these lyrics really reached me. I I get angry. This is an angry song, and I love this anger.

Yes, it's a great song, too. I mean, we, as Mark would say, ad nauseum, you know, talked about this on Preachers of the Night, but that's probably the greatest Gene Simmons song of all time.

And I could have I I could have taken lyrics from this entire album and had my my freaking seven picks.

Right? Absolutely. Alright. So here's another one that I might get emotional for a different reason. Alright, and this is Well, I was there and I saw what you did. I saw it with my own two eyes. So you can wipe off that grin. I know where you've been. It's all been a pack of lies. We were talking about faithful earlier, and you know, there's this brings me to so many different aspects in my life. I mean, whether it was a woman, whether it was a friend that was stabbing me in the back, it always fucking hit me. And ironically, I was actually listening to this for some reason the other night before we were even discussing the lyrics. I mean, Phil Collins, obviously, in the air tonight. An incredible line to me. Yeah, great song. And I could have taken so many of his lyrics too. I just they really hit me in the heart. You know what I mean? Yeah. All right. So that's off to you, Dongo.

All right. So I'll I'll stick with the uh there's a lot of themes. We're always gonna have a lot of themes, and there's always religion and love and and remorse and all that kind of stuff, but I'll stick with the uh Pink Floyd because they were they were masters of lyrics. And uh, and this one, I'll have to say the one I sang it a couple times with a friend's band, and I sang the rear lyric wrong. So I'm looking up, I'm like, oh shit. I've been singing that wrong for a long time. So this is another public service announcement. Are you just finding this out right now? Struggle. Yeah, well, I found it out this morning, but so this could be a Donny Bunker moment.

Well, come on, I'll turn it on as soon as you give me the first few lines on the national anthem. Oh, second, you see by the dawn's early light, what's so proudly we hailed off the ice scene. Wrong.

All right, so the lyric from Pink Floyd, and it's from Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here. Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in the cage?

Did you exchange a walk-on part in the wall for a lead roll in a cage?

Yeah, it's it's great. And so I've been singing it. Did you exchange a walk-on by in the wall and the leaves roll in the cage? Close, whatever that means, but a little less meaningful, right? Right, right. The leaves are all in the cage. He's also saying, you know, did you sacrifice your your morals or your you know you're fighting for you know justice or fighting for the little guy for just to become part of the machine kind of thing, you know, to to just give in and you know, be proud of the problem, so to speak. But yeah, it was a profound lyric, but it is a profound, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so much of what Waters wrote was about Sid Barrett, who was just as they were becoming uh more, I hate to call them mainstream because I don't think Floyd was ever mainstream, but they went from being very experimental to and he early on was like, let's get some black backup singers and saxophones in the world. That's part of it. And that's when they were like, Okay, he's losing his shit, and then they made you know dark side of the moon and and wish you were here. But I th I always took that as he was talking about Sid Barrett saying that you know a lead role in the cage being you know locked up in the nuthatch, kind of right.

I believe that is it too. Like they were trading their, you know, like you said, they were experimental to going more mainstream, but also how Sid had kind of a you know, too much LSD might have been, you know, yeah, put off to the Hassane Asylum kind of thing. And uh, you know, he put himself in a cage kind of thing. So yeah, there's a lot of interesting things with that. Awesome. That's to you then, Kev.

All right. Well, this one is just he's one of those guys that probably could have been on my list multiple times, just because there's some people that just, I don't know, they kind of live in that realm where they can just maybe not effortlessly, but quite easily write lyrics that just you know rip your heart out and get to the the soul of it. And it's one of those songs that you know, we talk about songs that we get burnt out on, fatigue and all that, but I've never gotten fatigued from this one. And it's Peter Gabriel's in your eyes. And when he says, the light, the heat, I am complete. I see the doorway to a thousand churches, the resolution of all the fruitless searches. I see the light and the heat. I want to be that complete in your eyes. And that just like, I don't know, with it, especially with the music with it and the backup singers singing in your eyes after every lyric, after every line. It's like that's that's a that's a fucking love song, man. That's an incredible song. That is that's like dude, that's he he nails it. He nails it.

And the classic ending to say anything, you know, the movie. Exactly. Right? Like they had pondered which song to use for that, and uh, I can't remember what was some of the other choices, but then they they ended up with that one.

And there were other ones that would not have been. I saw you do that at the beginning, Donald. Yeah, I picked up our psychonic. Which always reminds me of I don't want to sell anything that's bought. I don't want to bought anything, buy anything that's sold. I don't want to sell anything that's bought or sold or buy anything that's sold or bought when when her father asks him what he wants to do. It's just such a great, I mean, it embodies what our mind was at that time. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna work for the man.

I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold bought or processed, or repair anything sold, bought or processed, you know, as a career. I don't want to do that. So uh my father's in the army. He wants me to join, but uh, can't work for that corporation. Um, so what I've been doing lately is kickboxing.

I'm gonna do what I want to do. I'm not gonna buy or sell things.

Good song. All right, Mark. That is to you.

Hey, why must you be such an angry young man when your future looks quite bright to me? And how can it be such a sinister plan that you hide such a lamb, such a caring young man? Keep going.

You're not fooling yourself if you don't believe it. You're killing yourself and you don't believe it.

And uh song reaches me, and this is how I chose to go down the this lane tonight or today, or whatever it is. You know, the the line that really gets me is that could hide such a lamb, such a caring young man. I was so bitter after you know, you always talk about Hensdale AJ when I was sent to Guildford. I know I lost, I mean, I was no I was dead, pretty much. And uh, you know, I was so angry, nobody knew the real me, nobody could know me. And I yeah, and it hits home, brother. What's that?

It hits home. I get it.

And and you know, when I got a little bit older, I mean you remember Artie Adler, Johnson, great guy, loved him, absolutely adored him. But he used to say, You got the world by the balls, Mark. And that's that's I think that's what I started coming out of it. And that's another meaning that this song said to me, but but yeah, it it killed a beautiful soul. I mean, I'm sorry to say I'm a beautiful soul, but I have to believe that about myself, and uh and that's what that's what the last two lines of that song mean to me.

Absolutely, that's awesome.

Yes, I think that's also a kind of I think everybody kind of goes through that as a young man, that that you are forced to change and harden up and face the world. I think that's kind of becoming a man. So I think it's universal that we all go through some degree of that. But I mean, I remember listening to that song going, yeah. Yeah, yep, exactly.

And and if you guys get a chance, look up uh Tommy Shaw is doing the song with a uh I think it's pretty much a high school or maybe slightly older orchestra. Great. I mean it's just orchestra is already said.

Okay, Marky Bunker. Whoop de does the word is.

Tommy Shaw, I love him. He's awesome.

Yeah, see, yeah, I mean who's who was the other guy from Styx that did a lot of the songs? I think I think he ended up getting thrown out of the band because he took the band into a wrong into the wrong direction. The guy with the mustache.

Dennis DeYoung.

Thank you. You know, he started going down with it. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. He didn't need to be a little bit more than a lot of things.

Which worked for Yeah, it worked for some of it, I thought. But yeah, I think he might have been they wanted to go a little bit harder and and he wanted to do, you know, Phantom of the Opera or something.

And basically, and he we did what Kilroy and all that. He was going down concept uh ideas and stuff. Yeah, I'm definitely a Tommy Shaw guy, though.

What are you gonna do if a guy in your band makes you do Mr. Robotto?

Exactly! Exactly. Domo Ari. What is it? Just Domo. Domo Arigato.

Domo Arigato. Mr. Robato. Thank you very much. So we're off to me. Like I said, all of these emotions of these songs hit me in a different way. And this one is a fear, if I may. Very, very deep to me. Not one of my favorite songs from this band because I think that I could do this exercise with this band over and over and over. But my line, and I'm gonna try might have to sing it too, Mark.

But that is I told her I was in a gloy club.

Maybe I should have imprisoning me. All that I see, absolute horror. I cannot live, I cannot die. Body my holding cell.

Imprisoning me.

I cannot live. I cannot die.

Oh, my hair's standing up on my arms right now. Oh my god. Okay. I mean, obviously, we know the songs about Johnny got his gun being in that circumstance. You know, it always makes like I always think Helen Keller could at least walk. You know what I mean? This poor guy is just literally dead in a body. That is one of my biggest fears. This this song has so many other deep lines, but just that one line, you know, body my holding cell. Hetfield is a damn damn good lyricist and one of the best in my eyes. You know, I mean, I didn't go, like I said, this exercise this week, I kind of just went, you know, right off the top. But if I were to really research a lot of these, the shit that I could come up with from that band, just incredibly exactly choose the entire Injustice for All album.

That's my exactly. You mean the last Metallica album? The last Metallica album.

Yeah, it's like what mood are you in? Are you in an angry mood?

You you might think of lyrics that are most of the time.

Um depressed mood, are you in a happy mood? You know, it uh that's music, you know, it hits you from memories too. Beautiful way, yeah. Off to you, Donald. Cool. Again, this is I kind of went heavy on the folk side because singer-songwriters, that's their niche, right? They're they write beautiful songs, beautiful lyrics. It also um had meaning to me because it was like my father would love these songs and and would uh kind of play them with me and and sing the lyrics with me. So these were songs that I did catch the lyrics on. And this one is a profound song, it's a beautiful song. I love it no matter who performs it, and a lot of people do perform it because it is one of those songs that's just beautiful with melody and and everything about it. So I've looked at life from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow it's life's illusions. I recall, I really don't know life at all.

I've looked at life from both sides now, from up and down, still somehow with life's illusions. I recall, I really don't know back.

And it's both sides now from Joni Mitchell. Yeah, just one of those beautiful songs that has you know, it's about perspective, you know, how you look at things when you're a kid, and how you look at things when you're a young adult, and how you look at things when you're kind of in your 50s, and then how you look at things when you're getting older. And it's life, it's life's illusions and how you see it differently at different times in your life, and it's just a beautiful song.

Yeah, it is a very cool tune. Yeah, perception.

Yeah, touching just how these all hit us. I think it's so great. It's amazing. The differences, and just I yeah, it's awesome.

Go ahead, Martin. No, something with Joni Mitchell. Um, she hit us uh the long black veil with Johnny Cash on Johnny Cash actually had a variety show. Well, it was a music show, actually. Yeah, and her voice is so beautiful on that. Yeah, it's a duet between Johnny and and uh Joni. So yeah, that's a that's a great one.

Yeah. I kind of prefer the band's version of that myself, but that is an awesome version as well.

Yep. And my biggest cut from today, I'm very angered. But anyway, uh, we'll get there. All right, Kevin, to you.

Yeah, and absolutely I just wanted to reflect back to Donnie's pick, too, is that you know, some of those songs that we just get so used to hearing them that we forget sometimes how powerful those those lyrics are. Um, but on that note, I'm gonna go with um a guy that that wrote some really powerful Lyrics and was, I don't know, he could be on this list a million times. And I'm going with Bob Marley's Small Acts. And he says, Um, I said you're working in equity to achieve vanity.

I said you're working in equity to achieve vanity.

And it's basically it's talking about people with power that are just serving themselves and taking from us little folk. It's it's about that kind of the injustice, I guess. Uh, and that's what small axe is. If you are the big tree, we're all the we are the small axe ready to cut you down. And that one always just kind of grabbed me and and was like really embodied what that injustice feels like.

Yes. The hatchet, if you will.

Marley an amazing songwriter. Like amazing. Yeah. A revolutionary, too. Like he was a revolutionary. He certainly was. I have not. That was pretty recent. What within the last three years or so, wasn't it?

Yeah, the Bob Marley movie, right? Yeah. Yeah.

I wanted to see that because it looked really cool.

What country was this? He was Jamaica. Jamaica, of course it was Jamaica.

No, it was a good movie. It really was. I mean, the still the whole story of him getting shot and then going to play and being like, you know, there's what do you say, Kev? You know the line probably. I just can't. He went up there to play a couple days after getting shot, and he was like, They're not stopping working. Why should I? Something like that.

But that was, and I mean, you think about you know, like some of some of our artists here in the States are like really think more of themselves than they really are. But he really was a revolutionary. People really did respond to what he had to say, right? And he understood the weight of his words, which is you know pretty amazing. And you know, maybe maybe not so much for um the kid from uh Green Day who thinks he's oh no. Oh no.

Oh god.

Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, but but Marley did have that weight and and he did understand what it was worth. Awesome, great. So yeah, all right, brother. That is to you.

You my friend, I will defend, and if we change, well I love you. And he all right, it's not over. Okay, this is you, my friend, I will defend, and if we change, well, I love you anyway from Allison Chains, the end of No Excuses. In that I mean, how many friends have you guys had that you don't you're no longer in touch with? You know, and it's and it nothing really ever happened to cause the friendship to end except for maybe distance. Time I mean I think I think of my former neighbor Anita when I think of the song. She was a pleasure to to talk to and everything, and Dana, of course, he died at 40 years old, unfortunately. But I mean Troy, my friend Troy. I haven't seen him for 20 years since he was here at my 40th birthday part. He was a fishing buddy, wasn't he? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Fishing, and oh you know, we worked out together and everything, but but you you guys know what I'm saying, right? Oh, yeah.

There's so many acquaintances in life that you might have been really close with for just a short period of time, but then because of time, distance, life, whatever, you just don't follow, you don't circle back, and it's it's sad, it's tragic in a way, but it's extremely sad. Yeah.

Yeah, there was never a bad thing between you, there was never anything negative. It's just your lives went in different directions. But when you see each other, you pick up the conversation right where it left off, and and it's fantastic. Great pick, Mark.

And that's off to me, yes?

Yes.

All right. So this like as I know, I've been bouncing around the map here, but everything on my list has been kind of taking me to a different part or a different interest in my life. And the last thing I really am, if I'm being honest, I'm not a huge Rolling Stones fan. But this line has always hit home to me, and that's because I did a lot of uh reading back in the day about this this subject. I wrote a tank that held a general's rank when the Blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank. I can never pronounce the guy's name, but I believe it's Ellie Weasel wrote a book called Night about his time in the Holocaust, you know, going to the concentration camps with his father. Yeah, it's a it's an incredible, incredible book. It's only like 120 pages, and I think I've read it over a dozen times. You know, it's that deep, so well written. I mean, he wound up being like the chairman for the Holocaust memorial and all that. But just that line right there to be, I mean, obviously Jagger goes through like different time periods, you know, talking about Pilate and and Jesus and all that, and just going through history, but this one just you know really, really hit me just to to think about. Are you talking about sympathy for the devil? I am indeed. Yes, yes, okay. To be driving through fucking Germany or wherever at that point, Poland, the that stench in the air and how god-awful that must have been. And it just it hits me in a very, very deep way. So that's why I went with that. So to you, Dongo. Let's lighten it up a little.

Uh yeah, I wish I could, but I'm not sure. I'm not gonna do that. No, and it's it's a little bit kind of what we've been talking about. Um, it's a lyric from a Bob Seeger song, Against the Wind. Oh, yeah. The lyric is I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then. Ah, what a great line.

Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then. Against the wind.

I wish I knew now what I didn't know then. But he kind of twisted it and said, I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then. And that makes absolute fucking sense to you. Way more sense than the because when you start to learn things, you then become, you know, you can do this in politics, in life, in medicine, in anything. Like the more you know, it's like, oh shit. Then you know like all the depressing things that go along with that, right? Right. When you know more about politics, you realize all the corruption and all that kind of stuff. When you know more about medicine, when you hear a friend say something like, Oh, I got this test result, and you're like, that means they're gonna have cancer. You know, you just know the shit, and it's like, fuck. So, you know, I wish I was blissfully ignorant, like when I was 20 years old and didn't know shit, could hear things in the news and didn't give a shit about it, and just wanted to chase girls. Yeah, you know, that was it. That's all you want to do back then. Have fun and chase girls. But yeah, the more you know, the more it's kind of sucks. You know, it's kind of a curse in a way.

But well, funny because AJ was just talking about sympathy for the devil, and now you're talking about this and what was the apple? The apple was knowledge, yes, right, right. Knowledge is a burden.

What a great pick Dawn. And there were a lot of lyrics, you know, when I was actually going through things that had that very aspect where they reversed, you know, the analogy of it and the wording, and it fucking makes it so cool. Awesome.

Yeah, all right, Kev. All right, well, now this one's just kind of funny, and it's it's the only repeat I have, although I could have had many, but I'm going back to my boy John Hyatt. The line is you can learn to live with love or without it, but there ain't no cure.

You can learn to live with love or without it, but there ain't no cure.

It's just a slow and and ain't that the truth. It sure is F is that the truth. You can figure out how to make it work with somebody, or you can stay solo. That's it. But there's no cure.

I believe, Kevin, that you and me, you and me may have taken the latter route. Yes, yes.

All right, Mark. That is to you, brother. Okay, well, this is my walkout song when I was a professional wrestler um at uh in Manchester and the backyard wrestling. It's from Queens Reich, Eyes of a Stranger. Is this all that's left of my life before me? Straight jacket memories, sedative highs.

How do you know is about all she can say to you here because she uh caught a touch of lemon joses in this month? No happy ending like they always promise.

There's got to be something left for me. This song always reminded me of what it would be like to be in an institution.

Absolutely.

I'm not saying that uh I ever belonged in an institution, although the audience might disagree with me. Yes. But this just reminds me of being in an institution. I I don't know if you guys ever had dreams about this happening to them. You wake up, you wake up, you're sleeping, and all of a sudden you're locked up in an asylum. It always spoke to me for some reason. Straight jacket memories, sedative eyes.

Touching Larry Jones is in the smoke.

Sedative eyes. All right. I don't know how uh the singer sang it. All right?

Oh straight jacket memories sedative.

Thank you. That's what a great, what a great song.

And what a great pick and a great line. So we're to me, correct?

Your next one, yes.

Because you're talking about, you know, an asylum. Like I said, I have bounced around so much in my picks for different times of my life. We've all dealt with some of this, and you're talking about the insane asylum mark. And this is my first repeat, Kev. And when I when you said repeat, I thought you meant by an artist, right? Oh, it was I got nervous that it was like we had stole the pick or something. No, no, no, no.

Just Kev had used the same artist twice.

And that's this is my first repeat doing just that to me. And this is uh now I I'm trying not to sing it here big time, but these words always really hit home. Manic depression befriends me. Hear his voice. Sanity now it's beyond me. There's no choice. This is Ozzy Osborne's Diary of a Madman. I probably could have taken 20 other, you know, different things from this. Manic depression befriends me. And I have had that at times, so is half of America or more, that deep, deep sorrow and depression where you can't fucking snap out of anything. Kind of like when you slept with a girl you wish you did. And you stay in bed for seven days because you can't get out.

She chewed off both arms so you'll never drink again.

Exactly.

But anyway, that will go to you, Donald. So is this number one? I wish the number one is your last pick. My last pick. And I went with, and this is it's painful because in other casts we have disparaged this man. Allegedly, he is an asshole. Um, thank you. He's got a Billy Joel, who is a master lyricist. Um he is a great uh great songwriter, but allegedly he is a dick, so that that kind of sucks.

I never met him, so how do you allege piano man?

Piano Man is one of my most favorite songs. The visions I get from that song, I'm in that bar. Like he just brings you into that bar, which I love.

And the microphone smells like a beer, right?

Incredible. The descriptions, you know, the piano sounds like a carnival, all that stuff. But my favorite line, favorite profound line from that song is they're sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it's better than drinking. Yes, I mean that just it just nails the you know, you guys work in in that in that environment, you know. People are in a bar for multiple reasons. Some people are just passing through, some people, the everyday people, some people are celebrating, some people are depressed. There's life happens in a bar. Yes, and they're all sharing that drink they call loneliness, but it is better than drinking alone, it's being with friends and people, and you know, could be one of the greatest songs of all time.

I love it. I love it. Wait a minute.

Right, the guy from Gippi's dud did wrote that song, right?

Giovanni. Yeah. Giovanni Varano, the last American Romeo. Yeah.

But I love it. I love, I could do all the lyrics of that song. As we can all four of us could, yeah.

Yes, I think most people have got those lyrics pretty much tattooed in their brains. Because everyone is fucking incredible. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I guess the story behind that was that he put out his first album and wasn't happy with the record company or whatever else. And he literally, I think, went out to California or something and got a job as a lounge act. Nobody really knew who he was. He'd had a little bit limited success with the first album, and that's where that came from. Is he was he had started up the ladder of being a successful musician and just kind of paused and sat down in a bar and started playing? And that's where he wrote that song. Yeah, and I don't think there's really anything such thing as a real estate novelist. I was about to sing it and then I was like, that can't be right.

Like, is it someone that just talks too much kind of thing? Like, like they they're just like telling you too much information that you don't want to know, like you don't care about kind of like to be a bartender, to be a bartender, pretty much.

How many times do you just want? And that's very deep of him when you think about it, to sing those lyrics. Because if you were not the musician and you were the bartender, the song would be called Will You Just Please Shut the Fuck Up.

Right, right, right. I'm sure there's some profound like you're like, Oh, that's interesting. But uh, and then sometimes it's most times it's like whatever. Exactly.

But I think to be a lyricist, I think you have to be able to pick those things up. You know what I mean? You have to be able to be like a sponge and observe and add those things in. And and again, he is Billy's pretty damn good. Yeah, whether I want to hang out with him or not, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. No, he's a prick, but can he give me Christy Brinkley's phone number? Because you know, I still would.

Great pick, Dongo.

All right, Kevin, we are off to you. All right. This might be a little departure, but this is something that in today's world where everybody has an opinion, and anybody that disagrees with said opinion is a fucking moron and knows nothing, and you're stupid because you don't agree with me. I always think of Chris Christofferson, Jesus was a Capricorn for me. Yes. 72. And the line is because everybody's got to have somebody to look down on, prove they can be better than better than at any time they please. Someone doing something dirty, decent folks can frown on. And if you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me. And that is just one of those lines, it's like, you know what? You're all so fucking wound up in thinking you're right. Right. So go ahead, be right, look down on me. You're you're you're better than me. Go ahead. Just go ahead. And that's just I don't know, it's it's such a perfect kiss off to all the people that just think that their opinion is so much better than everybody else's, that their life is is so much purer than anybody else's. Listen, we're we're all pretty damaged, and if you can't admit that to yourself, then You think go ahead, shit on me.

We could do a whole episode on this subject.

Pretty damaged, huh?

What's the name of the song again? It's called Jesus Was a Capricorn, and the subtitle is Ode to John Ode, not O-D-E, O W E D, Ode to John Prime, which I now have to say that one of my favorite songwriters, and yet I did not have anything from him jump out at me as I was doing this, but certainly a man that deserves to be on any list talking about lyrics lyrics.

Yes. Great Pip Kev. Ah, the highway man. That always he always makes me think of them. Yeah, that is to you, Brad Hare.

All right. I my song is from John Caffety and the Beaver Brown band. I never knew the song before that. Did I say beaver brown band, right? Well, anyway, um, Eddie and the Cruises Eddie Lives is the first time I heard this song. It's very personal to me for many reasons, or really only a couple reasons, all right. But the lyric is I'm going to New York City, gotta find out where I stand, and I'll be walking down Broadway with this guitar in my hand.

Go to New York City. Find out where I stand.

And after uh hanging out um with David's friends, I wanted to continue the the uh white family musical tradition as being a musician, and I found out where I stand is in the musical unemployment line if I count on my brother's friends. So that's exactly where I'd be. And right now I'm I'm you know, I've been through some serious surgeries and I'm starting to play again. And you know, screw them all. I'll play, I'll play for Mark White, I'll record for whatever. Record for my own injection.

That's what you need to be recording for, my brother. If you're not recording for you, then fuck them all.

Yeah, so they you know they they all made promises. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

One person was gonna uh play drums for my everyone in life, and I don't mean to cut you off, but everyone in life is our friend until that connection goes away. So when I say that, I mean it with all respect. For example, I'm not gonna bring names up, but how often do you think those people are reaching out to me? Never exactly, that's because David, God rest his beautiful soul, is gone. That connec that was the connection to them. That connection's gone. That's all.

Yeah, so so I don't even I mean, one of them texts me every once in a while. He doesn't even know about my knee, he asked about the shoulder a while ago, but before the knee thing, oh that's a lot more than you'd get from most people, so you should enjoy that one. Well, you know, he li he he The man lives about ten, fifteen minutes from here. But I'm just saying that I am it makes me emotional when I think about my guitar plan. Good because I think I've written some pretty decent stuff that's not all that technical. Ing Ingve Okay. I'm not gonna try not to You said it right, Mark.

You said it perfect.

Ingve Malmstein or Mel whatever you said the first name.

It was a diamond headshwinger by the name of Sigmund Frush.

It's Ingve Malmstein. Yes, I write some very tasteful music with some really, really nice lead guitar stuff, and uh I'm this is just this song really meant a lot to me. That line just goes right to my soul. So that's just what I had. Perfect.

I'm I'm curious though, just for clarification, when you guys just a moment ago were talking about Ingve Malmstein. Were you talking about Ingve J. Malmstein or the other one? The other guy. The other one, okay, because I know he puts that on a lot of his music, Ingve J. Malmstein.

I was gonna say not to be confused with the other Ingve Malmstein. Here I go to my number one pick, and that's what I was gonna lead off with Kiss number one? No. What I am about to say to you is I did not choose a kiss lyric for this day. Wow.

Shot amazed.

And this is gonna be probably the most, or may I say the least deep lyric of the day. Alright, because these are not Bob Dylan words, but this song just fucking meant something to me. So my number one is a song by Tesla called Getting Better. The very first line is fallen rain outside my window. And that's the one I was gonna talk about earlier, where I always thought it said all the rain outside my window. Fallen rain outside my window, but I'll live on, I know it's getting better every day. Soon the sun will shine through my window. When it's gonna come, you know. I really couldn't say. Oh, but I know it's getting better every day. That's what our album in Hinsdale. That's fuck I'm pretty sure it's 1987 release, which was right at the height of my misery thing. Right, right. You know, that's what I would I would fucking play it over and over sitting in my bedroom, like, please get me the fuck out of here. I am shot. As my I I mean, it's so ironic because I have so many great memories about that area, but they were all like going actually, Dongo, your visits, fucking going down like through the woods to the Connecticut River. But the actual life I lived there was such pure fucking misery, and to hear these words, it was like I gotta have hope. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, mechanical resonance. I love it when it kicks in, man.

Yeah, yeah. Mechanical resonance was released January 1st, 1986. Um, but wow, those guys were still, I mean, so many people that can't do it anymore, and those guys do it. I mean, Keith to sing like he does, and still pull it off. I mean, unbelievable. Hats off to him.

Yeah. Awesome, boys. That was a lot of fun. I think that this, like I said, should be able to go into a series. We can do separate genres. We'll figure it out down the line. But anyway, real quick, just before we head out, I just want to get a few things out there. Of course, our please check out our website at www. Do I have to say that nowadays? I don't think so, but anyway, check us out at pasttimes at 80shigh.com. And please shoot us an email, which is pta80H at gmail.com. Please check out our Facebook page, and that is past timers at 80s high. You know, that's I'm hoping we can get some uh interaction going there. It's been awesome. We we can't thank you all enough for the downloads and thus far, all of the five-star reviews, because that's all we've gotten. So that's nice to see. All right, Kev, thank you very much.

Thank you, AJ. And I want the folks out there to remember not to forget that there's also Past Times at 80s High Facebook page as well. They do connect. And if there was something that that you know, a lyric that that's special to you and you want to talk about it, throw it up there, comment on the on one of the Facebook pages and and get the conversation going.

Awesome. And to you, Dungo, thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

It was a great time, thank you. Awesome, great times, and brother Mark.

Yes, that was fun. I mean, a lot of emotion on this episode. Yes, again, we could do we could do this episode a hundred times and not have any repeats, and perhaps will, right?

Awesome, that would happen.

That was yeah, great fun, AJ. Thank you.

Well, I am AJ, and all of you out there, thank you so much for listening, and we are out.

Who can feel better than it enlightened be? Someone doing something that a decent foes can frown on.

You can't find nobody else.

To help yourself me.