Your favourite Elbow lyrics

Forget Myself is the single greatest example of Guy Garvey's lyrical genius. Discuss.

hmm. good example, but...

Powder blue is a far better example.

forget Myself is TUUUUUNE ;]

Wrong.

The imagery in verse two, about the doorman? Genius.

Guy Gavey wrote:

The man on the door has a head like Mars
Like a baby born to the doors of the bars
And surrounded by steam with his folded arms
He’s got that urban genie thing going on
He’s so mercifully free of the pressures of grace
Saint Peter in satin he’s like Buddha with mace

... and then there's...

Quote :

Do you move through the room with a glass in your hand
Thinking too hard about the way you stand
Are you watching them pair off and drinking them long
Are you falling in love every second song

There are no better lyrics in the World. Fact!

Great Expectations has Guy's best work, says I. "You were the sun in my sunday morning, telling me never to go." Gets me every time!

sorry mispelt youth. i read your original post incorrectly; i thought you meant vocal talent.

if its lyrics you want then forget myself, great expectations, scattered black and whites, the everthere andfugitive motel are all amazing!!

All Garvey lyrics are wonderful, eh! I am a big fan of the urban genie thing.

likewise Jonny

and just reading the lyrics, they would fit perfectly in any anthology; from carol anne duffy, to tennison

But we know where they truly belong...

Garvey's lyrics are generally excellent, not only has Guy got a talent for a striking turn of phrase, but he manages to construct lyrical passages that manage to be poignant without being sentimental, provocative but not pretentious.

There are other great lyricist's out there - and I wouldn't care to compare, but few manage to write songs like Scattered Black & Whites, for example, which manage to convey real feeling without resorting to linguistic gymnastics.

Many Elbow songs have the feel of a private conversation between the band and the listener, I feel, and this is due in part to the songwriting, and of course, Guy's fantastic voice.

The rest of the band are fantastic too of course.

yeh

...for me the lyrics paint such an intense picture of the situations.
You can almost see what he's describing, and definatley feel it.. especially after a drink or two when your more emotionally responsive.
They are clever and witty, but real and dark and deep. They can also be gentle and uplifting depending on the track.
For anyone whos been around the block a bit, you know the lost love, desperation, hopelesness, jealousy, drunkeness etc he portrays

For me personally, Guy Garvey's lyrics have spoken more to me than any other songwriter I can think of.

I have never experienced the continual emotional response to anyone else's music as I have to Elbow's. Even after many repeated listenings the emotion still flows through the songs.

Sorry to gush. It's just how it is for me.

I particularly like the lyrics of Mexican Standoff:

Your sweet reassurances don't change the fact
that he's better looking than me.
Yet he'd look ideal 'neath the wheels of a car...

Love it, love it, love it!
Absolute genius!!!!

Hotblack wrote:

For me personally, Guy Garvey's lyrics have spoken more to me than any other songwriter I can think of.

I have never experienced the continual emotional response to anyone else's music as I have to Elbow's. Even after many repeated listenings the emotion still flows through the songs.

Sorry to gush. It's just how it is for me.

Snap.

I think 'My Very Best' are some of my favourite lyrics; and the imagery in 'The Bones of You' get's me every time:
"So I'm there,
Charging around with a juggernaut brow.
Overdraft, speeches and deadlines to make.
Cramming commitments like cats in a sack
Telephone burn, and a purposeful gait.
When out of a doorway, the tentacles stretch
Of a song that I know, and the world moves in slow-mo.
Straight to my head like the first cigarette of the day."

But the best bit is easily:
"I dealt with this years ago, I took a hammer to every memento
but image on image, like beads on a rosary
pulled through my head as the music takes hold."

This thread is fast turning into a favourite lyrics thread!

PickyBugger wrote:

This thread is fast turning into a favourite lyrics thread!

Fixed.

It's the lyrics that first grabbed me with this band. When I first heard Grounds For Divorce I thought "this is like nothing else that's out there". And when I was given The Seldom Seen Kid a couple of weeks back, the first thing I did was have a look through the booklet (so refeshing to get an album where the lyrcis are printed - I'd got used to Coldplay never doing it and it annoys me with every release of theirs). I turned to my wife and said "this is sheer bloody poetry".

The lyrics are only ever half of the story, though. You can write great lyrics but you need equally great delivery to send those lyrics home. And Garvey's no slouch when it comes to vocal lines. Add to that the kind of musicianship that I thought people had given up on years ago and it completes the picture, elevating this band above all the other dross that masquerades as music these days.

I really like Guy's lyrics though I don't understand them from time to time because it's not my motherlanguage. And because I feel a bit like Guy in "An imagined Affair"
"So lost in the sound of her voice
I don't even hear the words"

Some of my fave not-understanded lines:

"Spitfire thin and strung like a violin"

"The girls a priest (to me at least)/Since baptism peroxide."

some of my fave that I understand:

"Flying Dream 143
I stretched out my arms and my feet left the floor
and how all 15 stone (ahem ) flew to you
I don't know"

"I'll be the corpse in your bathtub"

"I drink until the doorman is a christmas tree"

"I'm selfish stubborn and too old"

KingSwinger wrote:

I turned to my wife and said "this is sheer bloody poetry".

....with illeteration Philip Larkin would be proud of

"pacing piccadilly in packs again"

ChrissyBoy wrote:

KingSwinger wrote:

I turned to my wife and said "this is sheer bloody poetry".

....with illeteration Philip Larkin would be proud of

"pacing piccadilly in packs again"

Was that a little Freudian slip there? .."illeteration ?

Don't you mean alliteration??

Good point though. I particularly like the "cramming commitments like cats in a sack" line from The Bones Of You and the "ticker tape tangles" from Tower Crane Driver.
Hell, the first verse of Fugitive Motel is all alliteration!

Guy's lyrics to be studied in schools anyone?

heshofcheese wrote:

Was that a little Freudian slip there? .."illeteration ?
Don't you mean alliteration??

yes, noted. Its been a long day....

ChrissyBoy wrote:

heshofcheese wrote:

Was that a little Freudian slip there? .."illeteration ?
Don't you mean alliteration??

yes, noted. Its been a long day....

Yeah, tell us about it. I'm up at 5 in the morning aswell

Hotblack wrote:

For me personally, Guy Garvey's lyrics have spoken more to me than any other songwriter I can think of.

I have never experienced the continual emotional response to anyone else's music as I have to Elbow's. Even after many repeated listenings the emotion still flows through the songs.

Sorry to gush. It's just how it is for me.

That is EXACTLY how I feel about their lyrics. I'm constantly surprised by how a song will still affect me after so many listens, I guess thats one of the many reasons that they're just bloody brilliant.

Ahem, I'm not usually that fussed about grammar and spelling but MY - it should be your, not you're. That is all

The stops.....

ill be the corpse in your bathtub - useless

You are the only thing in any room you're ever in