Many thanks to Kyle “Crysis” Ward for taking over the ‘Sputnik Discusses’ reins last week. The cheeky bugger made my discussions look like pure fluff in comparison, with his piece on the ‘Message Behind the Music’ eliciting responses that included references to Marx, Shakespeare, Jim Crow and the U.S. Supreme Court! If you have yet to read Kyle’s thought-provoking column, I urge you to do so by clicking here. Otherwise, since I am currently in the midst of a reviewing hot streak, here is more sugary DaveyBoy fluff to hold you over until the next guest columnist. And due to my orderly want to attempt to link each column, today’s ‘Sputnik Discusses’ exists so you can all share your favourite lyrics with us.

When it comes to taking in lyrics and rating their importance to my listening experience, I’m somewhere in-between those who completely ignore them and those who think they are the be-all and end-all. They’re more the cherry on top, rather than the ice-cream itself. Basically, with a few exceptions, top-notch lyrics can make a great song superb, while poor lyrics can make a great song only good. While the likes of The Smiths and The National are sure to pop up in discussion, I’m personally not one for sitting in the corner of my bedroom enjoying mopey lyrics. The closest I get to such despondency is that of the lazy, realist self-loathing kind, as NYC rockers Bayside sang so infectiously on 2005’s ‘Blame It On Bad Luck’:

“Pound my knuckles hard against the floor, my head against the wall, but I did this to myself.
Assume it’s just not worth getting back up, so I’ll blame it on bad luck, and I’ll shake responsibility, yeah”.

While most won’t admit it due to the high cheesiness factor, the type of lyric that often appears on a list of favourite lyrics is that of the motivational kind. Whether it is Tupac’s simple “I got nothing to lose, it’s just me against the world” mantra or something overly literal like ‘Keep Your Eyes On The Prize’, whatever works for you doesn’t have to be what’s cool to the rest of the world. Another lyric which falls into this category is “How we survive is what makes us who we are” from Rise Against’s 2006 tune ‘Survive’. Strangely, that song does contain one of my favourite lyrics, but elsewhere: The opening line of “Somewhere between happy and total fucking wreck” is such a succinct – and often correct – encapsulation of how I’m feeling.

Without taking up too much space and time, other favourite lyrics of mine include Brand New’s schizophrenic ‘Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t’ (because they’re oh so c-c-c-c-c-controversial), The Swellers’ nostalgic ‘The Best I Ever Had’ (partially due to the significance of some of the time periods mentioned) and The Gaslight Anthem’s forward-thinking chorus to ‘Old Haunts’ (mainly as a result of my want to eye-roll when someone’s only form of conversation seems to be outlining everything that has occurred in their distant past). Overall, though, I find it difficult to go past ‘Everlong’ by the Foo Fighters:

“And I wonder, when I sing along with you;
If everything could ever feel this real forever, if anything could ever be this good again.
The only thing I’ll ever ask of you, you gotta promise not to stop when I say when”.

So, the discussion point should be obvious concerning this topic: What are your favourite lyrics? Please try to keep your answer to no more than 2 sets of lyrics. And for goodness sake, please don’t list out the entire lyrics of the whole song. Four lines/sentences should be more than sufficient, since it’s usually a certain passage that captures our imagination.

As they say at the end of those dreaded English essays: DISCUSS…..