New contest: Win a lithograph of Damien Rice’s album cover artwork
Okay kids, a new contest for you. I have a 14″ x 14″ lithograph print of the cover of Damien Rice‘s new album, 9, which comes out tomorrow (Nov 14):
To win this fine piece of lifestyle decor, equally at home in a dormitory setting or in a fireside study, leave me a comment with the following: What is your favorite Damien Rice lyric? Why? The answer I like the best by Friday wins the lithograph. Have at it.
Listen to the whole album on the Warner Brothers media site (the studio version of “Accidental Babies” is even more quietly devastating than the live version I had posted earlier), and watch the little video dealie too if you like.
Here’s a repost of the fantastic b-side to the “9 Crimes” single, and a live version of that song:
“Rat Within The Grain” – Damien Rice
“9 Crimes” (live on KFOG) – Damien Rice
Name: Heather Browne
From Older Chests:
Older gents sit on the fence
With their cap in hand
Looking grand
They watch their city change
Children scream, or so it seems,
Louder than before
Out of doors, and into stores with bigger names
Mama tried to wash their faces
But these kids they lost their graces
And Daddy lost at the races too many times
Older Chests is musically the most Leonard Cohen-ed song of Damien Rice.
And those lyrics Older Chests doesn’t talk about love, about friendship, about the other things that you can find on ‘O’…
It talks about the loser, the daddy who lost too many times and his child, who was born to lose too many times too, the child who already lost something his mother can’t bring back…
It talks about losing something that cannot come back, about leaving things behind, about seeing other things change, about hoping there’s still time for having those things back, but even about feeling useless as the time goes by…
ilcorvojo — November 14, 2006 @ 2:22 pm
I’m with Kyle. I know little about Damien Rice. That is a cool album cover, though. I’m jealous of whoever wins!
aikin — November 14, 2006 @ 2:36 pm
Just repeating somebody elses choice but love these lines, a perfect summation of the way Ireland has changed since the Celtic Tiger, with more homeless people being passed by, older gents watching their city change, and children being spoilt rotten by parents trying to ease their guilt over never being around.
Also the first time I played this song to my nephew when he was 2 he fell asleep on my shoulder so it always brings a smile to my face.
“Like time, there’s always time
On my mind
So pass me by, I’ll be fine
Just give me time
Older gents sit on the fence
With their cap in hand
Looking grand
They watch their city change
Children scream, or so it seems,
Louder than before
Out of doors, and into stores with bigger names”
diarmuidg “at” gmail.com
Diarmuid — November 14, 2006 @ 2:51 pm
From the new disc, “The Animals Were Gone”:
“I love your depression, I love your double chin”
You really miss someone when you even remember the negatives fondly.
Greg Norton — November 14, 2006 @ 3:28 pm
“Do you brush your teeth before you kiss?”
-Accidental Babies-
I love this lyric, it alway mkes me smile to myself!!
I love the idea of two lovers wanting to be so fresh, so clean, so “minty” when they kiss! And when kissing someone with a minty fresh breath after they have just brushed their teeth, makes you tingle, and thats what the lyrics does to me!!
Carl....... Carl_Beevers@hotmail.com — November 14, 2006 @ 4:56 pm
I think damien has a brilliant ability to make the crudest subjects sound so brilliantly eligant. There are many expamles of him doing this that i conciderd choosing as my favourite lyric, but it in the end was none of them, my favourite is more suttle, and more peaceful than “Lovgin is good if your dicks made of wood”
My favourite lyric… or the lyric that puts me in that state (you know the one) is propably “She’s always dressed in white, she’s like an angle and she burns our eyes”
Why? i dont know…
Thats the beauty. I know what this lyric means to me, but to put it in words would ruin that beauty.
Rob McGrail — November 14, 2006 @ 5:42 pm
And so it is
Just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
“the blower’s daughter”
- the simplicity, the relatibility…..who can’t listen to the beginning of that song and think..”thats the story of my life…”
-christopher joyce (joycecb@muohio.edu)
Anonymous — November 14, 2006 @ 5:56 pm
Damien Who?
Anonymous — November 14, 2006 @ 5:59 pm
“I love your depression and I love your double chin”
From The animals were gone
If someone told this to me I’d burst into tears…
Lucie — November 14, 2006 @ 6:27 pm
“there’s still a little bit of your song in my ear
there’s still a little bit of your words i long to hear
you step a little closer to me
so close that i can’t see what’s going on”
every time I hear this lyric – I think of someone very special I lost — she was sorta like being in the warmth of a blinding sun — after it goes away, there is still a little bit of you that will always yearn for it again
dave — November 14, 2006 @ 6:53 pm
Alright, since I was an English major in undergrad, I feel compelled to fully explain what makes my lyric choice good, which can really only be done by explaining the significance on the song as a whole. So, I’m apologizing in advance for lecturing…but the lyric is from “The Professor†so maybe it’s fitting…here goes:
The song itself is obviously about a break-up, but it’s the way Damien sets it up that’s great…
” Well I don’t know if I’m wrong
Cause she’s only just gone
Here’s to another relationship
Bombed by excellent breed of gametes disease
I’m sure when I’m older, I’ll know what that means…”
He’s in a self reflective state, about a new relationship that he’s just ended with his own self destruction. The line about the gametes disease refers to his inability to keep a relationship working- gamete is the union of male and female cells, his disease being that his cells always join with the female’s and kill it, or ruin things in the relationship. Which is a intellectual line (from the professor), but he’s ironic about it with the next, saying “when I’m older, I’ll know what that means.”
Which is also the theme for the song…he’s “the professor” but he doesn’t know what things mean…he never has answers to any of the questions he asks.
“Here’s to the man with his face in the mud
And an overcast play just taken away
From the lover’s in love at the center of stage…”
He drinks/salutes to the guy in the theatre who’s acting like an ass drawing attention away, when the attention is supposed to be the two actors on stage. Which also plays into his Shakespearean theme of life as a play. The girl always playing her part- “cried when she should, and laughed when she could.”
And the best line:
“Loving is fine if you have plenty of time
For walking on stilts at the edge of your mind…”
Which speaks directly to how hard love is…and how much work it takes to make a relationship work. Which is too much for our singer to accomplish…because it’s not just being able to walk at the edge of your mind, but walking on stilts…obviously harder…probably too hard or too much trouble for what it’s worth.
Alright, so skipping ahead to save time/boredom…the end of the song is great. The song is about him sitting around and pondering the freshly ended relationship…which he finishes off with some “French wine and cheese” like a multi course dinner he just ate…a sort of simple, casual ending to the relationship.
The last part is very poetic, choosing to give the only emotional line of the song in a different language, French, in order to signify the importance of it, but at the same time not to let just anyone average schmuck who hears the song comprehend it.
All in all a wonderfully written song, that I could go on and on about, but that’s enough…
Let me know what you think.
R-O-Dub — November 14, 2006 @ 9:21 pm
I kissed your mouth, and back
And that’s all I need
Id love to find that one single person that can invoke that kind of raw emotion out of me. Where a touch, a word, or a glance is all that I would need to relive that kind of passion over an over each time.
To me, this is a very powerful line.
torres#3 — November 14, 2006 @ 9:38 pm
oops, just in case
torres#3 email – jla25@hotmail.com
torres#3 — November 14, 2006 @ 9:46 pm
And she may rise, if I sing you down
And she may wisely cling to the ground
seeve — November 15, 2006 @ 1:15 am
This one line, from Cannonbal:
‘Love thaught me to lie’
Cause love will make you do stuff, stuff you thought you’d never do for anything or anyone, stuff you’re not proud off.
But then again… it’s for love, right? Right?
Stefan — November 15, 2006 @ 1:47 am
From “Prague”
Pack my suit in a bag,
Im all dressed for Prague…
I love the way he rhymes bag and Prague. He pronounces Prague in the song the same way my 84 year old grandmother does.
Anonymous — November 15, 2006 @ 9:42 am
From Cannonball:
“Still a little bit of your taste in my mouth.
Still a little bit of you laced with my doubt.
Still a little hard to say what’s going on.”
Ahhh. The beginning of a relationship. The day after that first date with someone you’ve loved for a long time.
The excitement laced in uncertainty. Does she really want me? Did we really hook up? I can’t screw this up. I can’t.
These lyrics so perfectly sum up the insecurity and vulnerability to which any person who’s ever loved can relate.
Jim C — November 15, 2006 @ 10:03 am
“La fille danse quand elle joue avec moi et je pense que je l’aime des fois le silence, n’ose pas dis-donc quand on est ensemble mettre les mots sur la petite dodoâ€
“The girl dances, when she plays with me, and I think that I like it, there are times of silence, I do not dare speak: so, when we are together, words become smallâ€
This is my interpretation of what he means. He shows uncertainty: “I think that I like it†– the feeling at the beginning of a relationship when you really don’t know. And then I love the line: “When we are together, words become small†– it just paints a picture of his inability to love the right way. Which is what the whole song is about: the inability to make love work.
rn0982@gmail.com
Richard — November 15, 2006 @ 4:00 pm
I haven’t heard the new one yet, so I’ll have to choose from ‘O’.
“And I die when you mention his name
And I lied, I should have kissed you when we were runnin’ in the rain
I die when he comes around to take you home
I’m too shy, I should have kissed you when we were alone”
- Cheers Darlin’
Both of these really capture those “missed opportunities” in life and love. Those rare moments that come along and you know you should follow your heart (and often your whole being) and capture them, but you dont. You hesitate, you waffle, you listen to that doubtful little voice in your head and then, its too late. All you can do is watch that magical moment – that possibility of true love – pass painfully by. All you can do is think of what could have been, if only youd had the “balls” to step up and embrace that ephemeral spark. Its a lesson we could probably all learn from.
Brett
lostatlimbo@gmail.com
http://www.myspace.com/excitableboy
Anonymous — November 15, 2006 @ 4:49 pm
Since “still a little bit of your taste in my mouth” has already been taken, I’ll say “unplayed pianos are often by a window in a room where nobody loved goes”. Though the song is about Aung San Suu Kyi’s unjust imprisonment, those lyrics could be about anyone that feels unloved and forgotten.
muruch — November 16, 2006 @ 10:08 am
I think “Cross-eyed Bear” (off of a War Child charity album) has some of the best lyrics he’s ever written.
I broke your doll
It was cross eyed, that’s all
I only wanted to help it see straight
A half broken moon
Sooner than soon
I was up on your wall
Smaller than small
In a half-painted frame
The wood wouldn’t stain
I hope that reminds you
Of the part you couldn’t change in me
…
So push me I’ll fall
If you pull me I’ll drown
If you’re gonna be nailin me down
I won’t rise again
I won’t rise again
I’m not God, I’m not God
I love you but I’m not God…
It’s such a simple song. It’s not one that has a thousand layers of metaphors you have to sift through before you find its profound message. Actually, I’m not sure this song even has some profound message. Instead, it’s simple and honest and about something that a lot of modern popular artist’s have decided to leave behind: reality.
People aren’t perfect, they’re fragile, even. They can be hurt to the point where they can’t get back to who they were before. Even if you have good intentions and a heart overflowing with love, there’s an immortality, and a vincibility that comes with being human.
I think it’s good to be reminded of that once in a while.
“I love you, but I’m not God”
Thanks for setting up this contest
You can reach me at: leena_1357@hotmail.com
Sharmin — November 16, 2006 @ 6:20 pm
oops. sorry, that was supposed to read: “there’s a mortality, and a vincibility that comes with being human”
Thanks.
Sharmin — November 16, 2006 @ 6:22 pm
From “9″, Rat Within The Grain, great B-Side, by the way…
The chorus:
“I wouldn’t want you to want to be wanted by me.
I wouldn’t want you to worry you’d be drowned within my sea.
I only wanted to be wonderful, and wonderful is true.
In truth, I only really wanted to be wanted by you.”
These words speak to the inequities and insecurities in relationships about which we rarely speak, yet Damien makes it seem so simple and sings it so beautifully. Who doesn’t feel like they give and give and strive to make a relationship easy, yet all they really want to say is they want to be needed as well.
I have to correlate to another lyric which makes me feel this way. It reminds me of Peter Gabriel “Love To Be Loved” and the chorus:
“And in this moment, I need to be needed
With this darkness all around me, I like to be liked
In this emptiness and fear, I want to be wanted
‘Cause I love to be loved
I love to be loved…”
-JBS (jbs@sfsu.edu)
Anonymous — November 16, 2006 @ 8:32 pm
From “I Remember” on O
Come all ye lost
Dive into moss
I hope that my sanity covers the cost
To remove the stain of my love
Paper maché
Oh come all ye reborn
Blow off my horn
I’m driving real hard
This is love
This is porn
God would forgive me
But I
I whip myself scorn, scorn
Probably the most powerful lyrics in any song ever. It still gives me chills every time I listen to it.
Ben O — November 16, 2006 @ 11:56 pm
“There’s still a little bit of your face I haven’t kissed”
What a beautiful twist on words. More obvious lyrics might refer specifically to her lips, cheek, skin etc. But when I hear this line, its yearning to love every piece of her so much that there was always more of her left to love, left to kiss. Most of us have felt that strongly at some point in our lives… this line itself, if only for a moment, takes you to that place.
Sibek — November 22, 2006 @ 4:52 pm