Your favourite Elbow lyrics

"and acting like I haven't dreamed of you and I
And marriage in an orange grove
You are the only thing in any room you're ever in
I'm stubborn, selfish and too old."

these are the best lyrics i have heard for years - Guy is rapidly heading for the top echelon of lyricists (joining the likes of Don Henley, Donald Fagen and Leonard Cohen).

Too many times we've been postally pipped!

Love the line "A friend of mine grows his very own brambles". It's just so simple and poignant.

And dawn gives me a shadow I know to be taller
All down to you, dear

I was looking for Someone to complete me


MIRRORBALL
I love every line of this track because to have feelings for someone as great as these words from Guy must be the best feelings ever.

WOBLEwoble wrote:

MIRRORBALL
I love every line of this track because to have feelings for someone as great as these words from Guy must be the best feelings ever.

Wow you're so right. Every line is beautiful, it always reminds me of when I saw them, and it's one of my favourite songs on the record.

"I'm tired" I said.
"You're always tired" she said.
"I'm admired" I said.
"You're always tired" she said.

always makes me smile

"Fade up your smile and mute the pain"

Too many to narrow. Each song is a like an extravagant meal ...savor each course. I agree with Hot Black. Intense emotionally. Such a journey each time

Well

Wait a while
Do it again
Glory be
I died and went to France
Now I'm climbing carpet walls
For just another chance
Not today
Just suck on your plastic spoon
Chase the thought that
George lassoed the moon
It's gonna come round soon
And when it does
I'll be falling round the room
It's not funny anymore
Had enough
I'm not laughing anymore
Had enough


A sky as black as regret
Is rolling aside for the blue
impossible face to forget
these feelings belong in a zoo

She brings the morning sun

I'll drink until the doorman is a christmas tree


So gentle, shoulder-charge, love you mate


and of course...

The headlines drip with horror
Beware, beware, beware!
The news says no tomorrow
But how can I be scared...
In her arms
World do your worst
She and I have closed our eyes
And lifted every curse
We're away
In-caving concave military light
Is merely rain against the glass
For lovers in the night.

Just love all Elbow lyrics. I've tried to choose ones that haven't already been posted, but some just happen to be my absolute favourites so

So many to choose , but a couple of my favourites are


'and I cant move my arm for fear that you will wake'

'im sick of working for a living, im just ticking off the days till I die'

The whole of Fugitive Motel.

'

for some reason i just love in powder blue "they're trying to ignore us, thats okay" just the way he sings it, it sounds so great

Its so hard to choose.... Guy Garvey writes such amazing lyrics its hard to just choose a few.
I have to say though, my favourites are:

"You are the only thing in any room your ever in"

The way Guy sings "love you mate" it never fails to bring a tear to my eye.

"Don't look down
Keep staring like you've never seen the stars" One of the best lines I have ever heard.

There are so many more but I can't think right now.

I don't think anyone has quoted this yet:

I'm coming cap in hand,
Begging you to listen,
Something draws me in,
And I just can't christen it,
Just can't christen it.

I'm only just now listening to 5th July's Finest Hour and right near the end Guy says this about one of the songs:

"I've have absolutely no objectivity. All I can tell you is that it's woven into the fabric of my universe. It's part of my DNA."

That is what Elbow is to me. Couldn't have put it better, Guy. I love the music so much, and it is so much a part of me, that I just don't understand how anyone can not love them.

"And it's you, and it's May, and we're sleeping through the day. And I'm five years ago and three thousand miles away."

"Love you, mate"

"Grow a fucking heart, Love"

"How dare the premier ignore my invitations?"

"You burn too bright"

"Bring that minute back"

"Monday is for drinking to the seldom seen kid"

"To pull my ribs apart, and let the sun inside"

"Lost in a lullaby, side of the road"

"I blow you a kiss, it should reach you tomorrow, reach you tomorrow, as it flies from the other side of the world. From my room in my fugitive motel, somewhere in the dustbowl, somewhere in the dustbowl, it flies from the other side of the world"

"I'm tired, I said. You always look tires, she said. I'm admired, i said. You always look tired, she said."

"I have an audience with the Pope, and I'm saving the world at eight, but if she says she needs me, she says she needs me, everybody's gonna have to wait"

"I miss you Louise"

"You little sod, I love your eyes"

"But the leaders of the free world are just little boys throwing stones, and it's easy to ignore 'til they're knocking at the door of your "
homes"

"Don't mix your drinks, don't mix with him, it will kill you some day."

"Brother of mine don't run with those fuckers"

"You've gone and made a beautiful hole in my heart

And basically all of the rest, Guy's a fantastic lyricist.

Of all Guy's amazing lyrics - the ones I can empathise most with are....

Throwing advice like grenades at the table
You're spinning your wisdom in stories that change
Your lies are fluorescent my babyfaced angel
Grow a fucking heart love

from 'I've got your number'....

Guy's a true gentleman
Garvey the poet
Pick your fave lyric
And let us all know it...........

No doubt I will add further posts as things spring to mind, but for now I'm really feeling Starlings':
'You are the only thing in any room you're ever in
I'm stubborn, selfish, and too old'

and Lippy Kids':
'Nobody knew me at home, anymore'

.........and further thoughts this morning.........

'she scruffs my hair in the kitchen steam, she's listening to the dream I weaved today' (from Scattered Black and Whites)

'The streets are full of goths and Greeks, I haven't seen my mum for weeks
but coming home I feel like I, designed these buildings I walk by' (from Station Approach)

This bit of Forget Myself is the best thing he's ever written:

"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"

I agree one of the best, brilliant poetic descriptions of a bouncer...
you can just see the big bald-headed gorilla standing there.

Incidentally wasn't there another Lyrics thread somewhere ? [Mod edit: Well spotted, merged!]

two from my fav b-side

'Hotel Istanbul and I was notifying strangers
that my pugilistic flair could mean a consequential danger"

and "Pissed I just insist that no-one cares, that love has only thrown me down the stairs"

And as My Bury Vest quoted in the Dear Friends thread:
'you stuck a pin in the map I was in, and you are the stars I navigate home by'

My favourite - first verse and chorus from 'the Bones of You'...

'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

And it's you....and it's May....
And we're sleeping through the day...
And I'm five years ago, and three thousand miles away'

My current favourite is from Dear Friends:


I've got bluster enough for the sails of a clipper

And the truth never frays a good yarn


That is an absolutely phenomenal couplet.

No-one else is putting that level of thought into their lyrics, yet it scans and fits the melody so beautifully.

Genius.

Once and forever will be:

"Keep staring like you've never seen the stars".

This line is haunting me!!!

Lyrically, "Red" gets to me. It reminds me of myself at some of my lower points. There are times when I listen to it that I feel like Guy is personally trying to warn me of something that will happen if I'm not careful.