Forget about kindergarten. The only thing I learned in kindergarten is that it’s a mistake for a five-year-old child to wear a one-piece Halloween costume to class, because when she needs to pee she’s not going to be able to get the costume off in time, and after she pisses her pants her mother will have to come to the school with a clean pair of plaid bellbottoms for the poor child to change into.
No, kindergarten didn’t tell me everything I need to know about life—all my important life lessons came from the sage wisdom of 1980s song lyrics. Below are a few of them, all of which would probably be right at home inside a fortune cookie. If you can name all the song titles from whence these lyrics came, I’ll toss you some cookies (or some biscuits, for you Brits). Please feel free to add your own lyric life lessons to the comments section, if you’re feeling philosophical and wise.
Sometimes love can be mistaken for a crime.
Hollywood ain’t paved with gold—it’s just a trick of light.
Life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone.
Everybody’s looking for something.
We all have wings but some of us don’t know why.
Different people have different needs.
Life is cruel—life is never kind.
A man can tell a thousand lies.
Ain’t no use in complaining when you got a job to do.
Love is a battlefield.
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should.
To the heart and mind, ignorance is kind; there’s no comfort in the truth—pain is all you’ll find.
We’re fools to the rules of a government plan.
Like a drifter I was born to walk alone.
If the wind is right you can find the joy of innocence again.
When you go you’re gone forever.
You don’t know what you got until you lose it all again.
It can cut you like a knife if the gift becomes a fire.
When you’re born to run it’s so hard to just slow down.
You’ve got to roll with the punches to get to what’s real.
You live for the fight when that’s all that you got.
Summer’s like a merry-go-round.
If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change.
We are stronger when we are giving love.
Everything is nothing if you got no one.
When a problem comes along, you must whip it.
No one can take away your right to fight and to never surrender.
Some things in life you cannot measure by degrees.
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble.
There ain’t no perfect world.
There’ll be rumors floating around on Judgment Day.
You can’t fight passion when passion’s hot.
When you hear temptation call, it’s your heart that takes the fall.
We don’t have to take our clothes off to have a good time.
The sun always shines on TV.
Even doves have pride.
There’s nothing fair in this world, there’s nothing safe in this world, there’s nothing sure in this world, there’s nothing pure in this world.
Playing games is part of human nature.
Everybody’s going off the deep end.
There won’t be snow in Africa this Christmastime.
Sometimes there’s nothing to feel, sometimes there’s nothing to hold, sometimes there’s no time to run away, sometimes you just feel so old.
Some things will never change.
Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past; you must fight just to keep them alive.
In violent times you shouldn’t have to sell your soul.
Some will win, some will lose, some were born to sing the blues.
Love’s a game of easy come and easy go.
Love is like a bomb.
It's so much easier to push instead of pull.
If you know what you want, just go on out and get it.
Fact is fiction and TV reality.
Every night has its dawn.
Everybody’s got a reason to live. Everybody’s got a dream and a hunger inside.
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?
So many times it happens too fast—you trade your passion for glory.
There is freedom within, there is freedom without.
It’s no better to be safe than sorry.
The more you live, the faster you will die.
There is good and bad in everyone.
Memories will burn you.
The passing of time leaves empty lives waiting to be filled.
Love is a dangerous drug. You have to receive it and you still can’t get enough of the stuff. It’s savage and it’s cruel and it shines like destruction; comes in like the flood and it seems like religion. It’s noble and it’s brutal, it distorts and deranges, and it wrenches you up and you’re left like a zombie.
Everyone needs a place and home’s the most excellent place of all.
We all need control.
song heard most recently before posting:
The Prayer—Bloc Party
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4 comments:
Dear God Jen! How long did it take you to come up with all of those?! This one stood out most, "If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change." We have a classic video of Allana punked out, lip syncing these words. Good times!
It took me a while! I worked my way through the gigantic '80s folder on my iPod every day during my commute, jotting down appropriate lyrics as I heard them. Then I graduated to casually looking for lyrics in an online '80s lyrics database.
If you can figure out how to convert that video into a digital file, you should put it on YouTube!
This is the best thing ever. I love "There won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime" in the middle of the list.
Some of the lyrics jumped off the page and are now melodically stuck in my head. Others are more like, "DAMMIT I KNOW THAT LINE BUT WHAT IS IT!" Heh. I'm going to try to get as many as I can without googling and then get back to you...
LOVE!
Okay.. what's worse: me singing out the line over and over again until I THINK i recognize it or Elizabeth saying, "It was bad enough in the 80's and you're not helping it now!"
Great collection, though some of them I don't have the foggiest idea from which songs they came.
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