List songs where a major part of the human condition is summarised in a few lines...

1. "Well you can never really tell, when somebody wants something you want too." - "Stay", David Bowie

2. "I wanna fuck you" - akon

3. "Life goes on, long after the thrill of livin' is gone" - "Jack and Diane", John Mellencamp

4. "Fake eyeball!!!" -Fake Eyeball, by the Strangulated Beatoffs

Damn... I thought the title meant "list songs", like Gin Soaked Boy, or I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major General

"Life is short and love is always over in the morning" -- "Temple of Love" by the Sisters of Mercy

"All but the few every notice anything at all... oh dear" -- "Chop Chop" by Killing Joke

ever, not every. oops.

"Life! Life! Life is the only thing worth living for."

"Death be damned... life"

"BIRTH.... SCHOOL.....WORK.....DEATH"

He who fucks nuns will later join the church - "Death or Glory" The Clash

or another way of putting it...

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. "Won't Get Fooled Again" The Who

Life is the best game in town and death goes to the winner - Harvey Milk

"Fuck the world, don't ask me for shit. Everything ya get ya gotta work hard for it"

"You wake up every morning, go to school every day. Spend your nights on the corner, just passing time away."

"Sometimes I think I love you/But I know it's only lust"--Damaged Goods, Gang of Four

"Do you remember the first time? I can't remember a worse time."

"The earth which fed you now consumes you"

"Love is like oxygen/You get too much, you get too high/Not enough and you're going to die"

"This plan... is random at best."

"Life is sad... and so is love" -- Kate Bush "and so is love"

But if a man is content/his life is not worth a cent/And money's only good when its all been spent

Vic Godard - Make Me Sad

"were you flying or were you falling... when you reached out for the pillar of smoke" - Elvis Perkins

"I fought the floor and the floor won."

"They think you got it they're going to beat it out of you/With work & debt, whatever all else there is" -- "Didn't It Rain", Songs: Ohia

"Your third drink will lead you astray/Wandering down the backstreets of the world" - "Advice to the Graduate" Silver Jews

"nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah BAT! MAN!!"

"You can have the one that you don't want" - "Canada", Field Mice

sleeping in my piss / waking up all wet

I don't have no trouble with you fucking me
But I have a little problem with you not fucking me

"Got Your Money" - Ol' Dirty Bastard

^ GREAT job!

"life is a game and true love is a trophy" - rufus wainwright, poses

"well, you wish upon a star, and it turns into a plane" - "Valentine", The Replacements

borrowed from Joseph Conrad, but still:

"We Live As We Dream, Alone" - Gang Of Four

"In the paper, on the TV screen, pictures of Adolf again. Sure as I sit here, there will appear, pictures of Adolf again." -- Bill Fay

I guess maybe that's more like the human political condition though, which might be narrower than The Human Condition

"I'm not living, I'm just getting older" - The Turning Point -Jimmy Holiday

First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.

--Donovan

"Show no shame, feel no pity" - Carleton Ridenhour

Most of these men are so hard to understand
- justin hinds

she got screwed up by religion
she got screwed by soccer players
she got high for the first time in the camps down by the banks of the mississippi river
lord to be seventeen forever

she got confused about the truth
she came to in a confession
she got high for the last time in the camps down by the banks of the river
lord to be 33 forever

^^ "stevie nix," the hold steady

"Though all are different, all are great" - INXS, "The Stairs"

"AAAAAAAH AAAAAAAH AAAAAAH AAA-aaaah aa-aa-aah aahaah!" - Pink Floyd, "Great Gig in the Sky"

"rock and roll will never die," he thinks,
"but my god, it deserves to."

Man's life is but vain, for 'tis subject to pain
And sorrow, and short as a bubble;

Tis a hodg podg of business, and money and care,
And care and money, and trouble.

But we'll take no care when the weather proves fair,
Nor will we vex now though it rain;

We'll banish all Sorrow, and sing till tomorrow,
And angle and angle again.

"The Angler's Song" (lyrics Izaak Walton, music Henry Lawes)

The wind blowes out; the bubble dies;
The spring entomb'd in autumn lies;
The dew dries up; the starre is shot;
The flight is past; and man forgot

Earth covers earth
Time tryeth truth

Current 93 "Earth covers Earth"

"You only hurt the one you love." That may be true.
But better said, you only hurt the one who loves you.

- Quasi, "The Poisoned Well"

>>i don't see what that last one has to do with the human condition, really?

You may be right. I may be crazy. But it just might be a lunatic you're looking for.

People are people so why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully

Wait, am I on the human condition summarised in a few lines thread or the who is the worst lyricist thread?

^^^you're right, the threads might as well be combined!

"Life is short, and full of stuff" Lux/Cramps
"Work, work, work, work" Blue Orchids

2nd on the Flipper one...

This is best served by a Youtube clip:

I read this thread title wrong and almost suggested "Detachable Penis."

I don't know about the human condition, but the clip of Danny Gokey's dream on "screetch" nicely sums up my feelings about AI.

Wow. How have I lived this long without "Life Is Life"?

They didn't write it, btw, but theirs remains the definitive version if you ask me.

What keeps mankind alive?
The fact that millions are daily tortured
Stifled, punished, silenced and oppressed
Mankind can keep alive thanks to its brilliance
In keeping its humanity repressed
And for once you must try not to shirk the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts

Thank you, Kurt Weill

Ur, um, thank you Bertolt Brecht

Thanks, Alex. I trust this is the original?

I thought Life Is Life was by Opus.

An opus by Opus.

Rt!

And the making of...

Cheeky Girls - "Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum)"

come and smile
don't be shy
touch my bum
this is life.

― Mr. Hal Jam, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 16:46 (Yesterday)

^GENIUS!!!

"If there's one thing you can say
About Mankind
There's nothing kind about man
You can drive out nature with a pitchfork
But it always comes roaring back again"

Tom Waits, "Misery Is The River Of The World"

"God is a concept by which we measure our pain"

John Lennon, "God"

"It's nice to be liked
But it's better by far to get paid
I know that most of the friends that I have
Don't really see it that way
But if you could give 'em each one wish
How much do you wanna bet?
They'd wish success for themselves and their friends
And that would include lots of money"

Liz Phair, "Shitloads of Money"

Cure - "One Hundred Years"

I really don't need a dose of reality atm, so will leave the reader to peruse the lyrics.

they say money can't buy love in this world
but it'll get you a half a pound of cocaine
and a sixteen year old girl
and a long black limousine
on a hot September night
now that may not be love
but it's alright

Randy Newman "It's Money That I Love"

You have to sleep late when you can
And all your bad days will end

i love tube disasters
i wanna marry a tube disaster
i want another one like the last one
cause i live for tube disasters yeah

Now you're punching and you're kicking and you're shouting at me
I'm relying on your common decency
So far it hasn't surfaced, but I'm sure it exists
It just takes a while to travel from your head to your fist.

Everybody needs a place to rest
Everybody wants to have a home
Dont make no difference what nobody says
Aint nobody like to be alone

Bruce Springsteen "Hungry Heart"

Life is full life is grey:
At its best it's just OK.
But I'm happy to report
Life is also short.

Quasi - California

Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream - King Crimson

All life we work,
But work is a bore.
If life's for living,
What's living for?

-Ray Davies, Oklahoma U.S.A. (Muswell Hillbillies - The Kinks)

Now the people cry and the people moan
and they look for a dry place to call their home
and try to find some place to rest their bones
while the angels and the devils
fight to claim them for their own

-Curt Kirkwood, Lake of Fire (Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II)

It's tragic magic,
There are no coincidences,
But sometimes the pattern is more obvious.

-Neil Innes, Keynsham (Keynsham - The Bonzo Dog Band)

Life stinks.
I'm seeing pink.
I can't wink.
I can't blink.
I like the Kinks.
I need a drink.
I can't think.
I like the Kinks.
Life stinks.

-Peter Laughner. Life Stinks (Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance)

Brian Wilson - 'til i die

Surprised it hasn't been said yet:

"You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan,
and the next five years trying to be with your friends again."

"look into you - don't you be so happy, and for heaven's sake - don't you be so sad" - marquee moon

"All the jokers and gaolers, all the junkies and slavers too,
all the throng who have danced a merry tune...
human we can all be, but Humanity we must rise above,
in the name of all faith and hope and love.
There's a time for all pilgrims, and a time for the fakers too,
there's a time when we all will stand alone and nude,
naked to the galaxies...naked, but clothed in the overview:
as we reach Childhood's End we start anew."

– Peter Hammill, "Childlike Faith In Childhood's End"

"Sometimes I don't know what to feel,Dont want to admit to my friends I feel confused"...Todd Rundgren

Sentir que es un soplo la vida,
Que veinte años no es nada.

(To feel that life is a breath,
that twenty years is nothing.)

- "Volver", Carlos Gardel.

Why must I feel like that
Why must I chase the cat
Nothin' but the dog in me

- George Clinton, Atomic Dog

"I want to live / I wish I was dead" (Black Flag)

If we heard mortar shells,
we'd cuss more in our songs
and cut down the guitar solos.

One more chance to get it all wrong
One more time to do it all wrong
One more night to get it half right
One more warning
One more warning sound
We're comin' out
We're comin' out

"People's rules and what they do are often different things" - Glass Candy, "Beatific".

"And if you really want to kiss her,
Just go right up and tell her"

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - "Patio Song"

re: youth

But you know the summer always brought it--
That wild and reckless breeze.
And in the backseat, we're just trying to find some room for our knees.
And in the backseat, we're just trying to find some room to breathe.

Finished listening to that Gorky's song within the past minute, weird coincidence imo

*listening to it for the first time, that is

mother do you think they'll try to break my balls
ooh, ah, mother should i build the wall?

There's leak, there's leak,
In the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves, and lawyers

--Tom Waits, "God's Away on Business"

Too many people do not know
Bondage is over the human race
They believe slaves always lose
And this fear keeps them down

One of these days while you sit by yourself
You'll realise you can't shaft without someone else

you just wear your umbilical cord like a noose

and make believe it's a tie

- Foetus

Well, that must be the widow in the car
And would you take a look at that
That sure is a pretty dress
You know some women do look good in black
Well, he's not even in the ground
And they say that his truck is up for sale
They say she took it pretty hard
But you can't tell too much behind the veil.

(from here)