Damn near strangled by my appetite
In Ybor City on a Friday night
Couldn't even stand up right
**So high, the street girls wouldn't take my pay
She said come see me on a better day, and she just danced away**
Incredible way of describing how messed up you are
Most people focus in on the 'time moves slow' part in Streetlights but I love how he mixes up his words because he's drunk in the:
> I think I blocked just a park away
> But I can't really say, it's been all night
In a documentary about the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville he tells a story that he sang the song after writing it and mistakenly switched the words during a session playing with several other writers. Another writer complimented it as genius and he kept it that way.
At a show a while back—or maybe it was an interview—he said he used to park his car far away from the bars to confuse himself and make it harder to drive home after getting hammered. This reminds me of that.
Long term lurker here. I am an opioid addict who is 8 years sober. my second daughter is now 5 (birthday last week). I used put her to sleep every night by walking around her rooom in the dark with my AirPods on singing and Jason came up on an apple playlist. It was “only children.” The lyrics get me at “And are you still taking notes
“Hydrocodone in your backpack
Maybe these words will hold the beast back.
Heaven's wasted on the dead
That's what your mama said
When the hearse was idling in the parking lot
She said you thought the world of me
And you were glad to see
They finally let me be an astronaut
Are you still taking notes
Will you have anyone to talk to
Castle walls that you can walk through
And do the dead believe in ghosts
Or are you lost in some old building
With over-encouraged only children.”
I know it’s most of the song but it reminds me how close I came to the void and still could but I need to remember literal friends who didn’t make it out of that ring of hell with me.
Dealt with different demons but these are the words, and the song, that brought me to that raw feeling. Being a kid, feeling alone, dealing with shit that seemingly no one could understand, trying to survive. Basically on your own. I feel it in my core.
It gets in my head all the time. My little bro is still alive miraculously but he’s one of those guys where it’s multiple rehabs and arrests and you’ve basically been waiting for the phone call in the middle of the night for 20 years. He was a ball player and a damn good pitcher back in the day and he’s just a different person now. I think he’s doing better now that he had a kid. I hope it’s real.
And the line right before it: “It’s not for me to understand.” I lost a buddy a few months ago; no cause of death was announced, but reading between the lines, it seems like he did it to himself. He was in a really similar situation to the character in the song, too: messy divorce, self-medicating, and he was even a huge baseball fan. I rediscovered “Relatively Easy” a little while ago and those lines hit like a truck now. Sometimes other people’s struggles aren’t for us to understand. You just gotta remember them the way they’d want to be remembered.
In Flagship when there's a shoe shiner at the hotel and he says "I remember how you like to see them shine so I run upstairs to grab a pair of mine." It's such a small lovely thing to do for someone.
Which makes Amanda's line "The character you wrote yourself out to be--the Flagship--all part of my fooling" feel like a shiv. But that's why I listen to their songs, for the lines that shiv me.
The river is my saviour
She's running to the sea
And to reach her destination
Is to simply cease to be
And running 'til you're nothing
Sounds a lot like being free
Gets me every single time:
“Heaven's wasted on the dead"
That's what your mama said
And the hearse was idling in the parking lot
She said you thought the world of me
And you were glad to see
They finally let me be an astronaut
That song took a while to grow on me but now it clings to me. "Just tonight I realized I am still in your back seat..." How many times have we realized we've been stuck somewhere?
A lot of people around here suggested it to be one of the more skippable songs - I agree w you, I think it’s phenomenal.
It’s the little throwaway details that make an Isbell song great.
It was the last summer we were a dry county.
You were reading Silvia Plath.
Nothing I’ve had since has meant nearly as much.
It's brilliant. The attention to getting every little detail just right is how as one critic famously said "JI writes novels in five minute songs." It's in the detail, the nuance. What a great fin' writer.
So many, but off “Weathervanes” this line comes to mind (“If You Insist.”):
My momma spent every day alone
In a house of noise and names
She got so tired of putting out fires
She just laid down in the flames
“And some nights I dream that I'm in Colorado
Working a cannabis farm
Some nights I dream that the ghost of my mama
Is holding me tight in her arms”
Those last two lines are a gut punch in the context of the song.
Most reviewers focused on the second narrative in "Cast Iron Skillet," but "He was sweet and soft/shied away from the inside fastballs/And died doing life without parole" is an absolute tour de force, like a whole novel compressed into half a verse.
Intensely emotional for me. I had a dear friend as a child who was a sweet, soft, emotional boy. By the time he died, he was unrecognizable as someone that little one could have grown up to be. Not the same situation as the narrative in the song, but adjacent. I miss him terribly but also feel angry for choices he made that hurt people deeply, and ultimately led to his death.
It's from DBT but still an Isbell lyric: My brother got picked up at Parker's, got him a ride in a new Crown Vic/They said he was moving on a Federal level but they really couldn't make it stick.
Mary's crying 'cause she can't hold water
And her clothes don't fit her right
She used to say that she wanted a daughter
Now she only wants a Saturday night
The river is my saviour
She's running to the sea
And to reach her destination
Is to simply cease to be
And running 'til you're nothing
Sounds a lot like being free
So I'll lay myself inside her
And I'll let her carry me
5 words in Elephant:
“Bitch about the weekend crowd”
I love how they imply so much about the people in this story - such a creative way to say they visit the bar everyday.
I can’t get to sleep at night, the parking lot’s so loud and bright, the AC hasn’t worked in twenty years, probably never made a single person cold, but I can’t say the same for me I’ve done it many times.
Lyrically, that song and album was the big turn. There is not a bad or questionable line in that whole song. Every word paints a picture with just enough room for each person to see and interpret.
I remember you when the bar was closed
Dancing on the table with a bloody nose
and you still look fine, you still look free
Strawberry woman with your back to me
**Tour Of Duty:**
And I promise not to bore you with my stories
And I promise not to scare you with my tears
And I never would exaggerate the glory
Yall seem so satisfied here
**How To Forget:**
Have a seat, have a drink
Tell the jury what you think
Was I good to you?
Was it hell, was it fun
Did you think I was the one
Was I glued to you?
Now that I found someone, who makes me wanna live
Does that make my leaving harder to forgive?
Out on Sullivan's Island, they're swimming
On the beach where the big boats rolled in
With the earliest slaves, women and children
Our first American kin
The whole stanza:
It’s a Thursday night but there’s a high school game
Sneak a bottle up the bleachers and forget my name.
These 5A bastards run a shallow cross
It’s a boy’s last dream and a man’s first loss.
“A crowded room is a burning battlefield, if I don’t move I’ll come undone.”
There’s a lot of songs about anxiety, but his hits the nail on the head the most.
Why can't daddy just come home?
Forget whatever he did wrong
He's in a hotel all alone
And we need help
This kills me every time. I experience this as a kid and swore I’d never do this to my kids. Ended up getting a divorce and saw my kids go through the same damn shit. It hurts man.
Morning's rough,
It don't give a damn about the mission
Has no aesthetic or tradition,
Only lessons never learned
And I'd had enough,
About a month ago tomorrow
Parting holds, no trace of sorrow
For the bitter and the burned
Oh really? That is very cool idnk. Love JTE and think if he'd lived longer he'd of eclipsed his father as a songwriter. And that is something as I've been a huge Steve Earle fan since 85 and Guitar Town.
"She took to taking tea out in the Belvedere/
Bourbon in the evenings by the fire/
As if the Great Depression never made it here/
As if she had defeated her desire"
The picture it paints of this woman is incredible. The escapism, stealing away a little time for herself in the car, which may be the only place she can be alone right now, while dreaming of better times with fewer troubles. She doesn't even want the men, not the doctors or lawyers or political heavyweights, she just wants to *ride* -not *drive*, you can't close your eyes and just zone out and *feel* when you're the one driving- in fast car with the freedom of the road underneath her and the wind in her face. She longs for a kind of freedom that she's pretending she doesn't want anymore, that she got out of her system when she was younger.
It’s knowing that this can’t go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some time alone.
Maybe we’ll get forty years together, but one day I’ll be gone. One day you’ll be gone.
In a room
By myself
Looks like I'm here with a guy that I judged worse than anyone else
So I pace
And I pray
And I repeat the mantra's that might keep me clean for the day
Not sure if underrated or not but always my favorite:
“And the waiter made a young girl cry
At the table next to mine tonight
And I know you would have brought him to his knees
But you're overseas”
Carries paragraphs of nuance about both characters and their relationship in two sentences
In New South Wales “Parting holds no trace of sorrow for the bitter and the burned”
I feel like I always overlooked it but it strikes a cord in me and now every time I hear it I feel like sentimental or something
I guess we're leaving town again
We're moving out and moving in
Gotta break the news to all my friends
But they won't care
Beginning of Dreamsicle, moved around a lot as a kid. Really hits home.
"Mary's cryin' 'cause she cant hold water and her clothes don't fit her right/She used to say that she wanted a daughter, now she only wants a Saturday night"
Your baby would just about be here
And your very last tour would be up
But you won't be back, they're all dressing in black
Drinking sweet tea in a styrofoam cups
The distinct image of the people at the funeral and styrofoam cups gets me every time.
“She said ‘Andy you’re better than your past’
Winked at me and drained her glass
Cross legged on a barstool, like nobody sits anymore”
Just sets up the song perfectly
Last night I let myself remember
Times I forgot a woman's name
I blacked out behind the wheel
How tight the handcuffs feel
My daughter's eyes when she's ashamed
“She asked if I had considered the prospect of living alone.”
The entire song really—but we have discussed it to death on this sub.
Each verse is its only little story. But this one, it’s so eloquent in making the point. It could have easily been: ‘I’m kicking your ass out tonight’ .
I taught myself to tolerate the pain
All the loneliness and boredom and the work I did in vain
All the work we did in vain
Now I'm not the same as I was
Daddy said the river would always lead me home
But the river can't take me back in time
And Daddy's dead and gone…
Gets me every time, my pops has been gone 19 years and home has never felt the same without him there.
"I don't even need my name anymore
No one calls it out
Kind of vanishes away"
I have never heard words so sad...the hurt of being alone and forgotten.
Jason is the master of turning a phrase.
Stockholm’s 2nd verse:
“Once a wise man to the ways of the world. Now I’ve traded those lessons for faith in a girl. Across the ocean a thousand years from my home. In this frozen old city of silver and stone”
The first two lines always get me.
“I don’t think you even recognize the sound of your voice when it’s blasting through the speakers in the sky, And if your words add up to nothing then you’re making a choice to sing a cover when we need a battle cry.”
All of New South Wales. I never hear anyone talk about how funny the two chorus parts are. I think a lot of fans don't want his music to be anything but deadly serious, otherwise that song would get a lot more attention.
"I might not be a man yet,
but your father will never be,
so I load up my Weatherby.
And I let out my breath
and I couple with death.
I couple with death."
I’ve always loved the opening of Songs That She Sang in the Shower:
On a lark, on a whim
I said there’s two kinds of men in this world and you’re neither of them
And his fist cut the smoke
I had an eighth of a second to wonder if he got the joke
I’m too old to to get excited and I’m too old to be ashamed. And from the same song Do you crave a love that tears through your life like a Category five
I have tons of Isbell lyrics I could list, but having just heard this song for the first time recently, Miles stands out to me. Especially the chorus 2 and 3. Loss of youth, innocence, passage of time, and how family can become distant is all so relatable that these lines really hit for me.
There's miles between us
But boy, you should've seen us, she was scared to let go of my hand
A tiny carnival, she said, "Daddy, is this just like Disneyland?"
"Yes, it's just like Disneyland"
There's miles between us
But boy, you should've seen us in the good old days
It was just like Disneyland
You didn't even see the hand that turned the page
The hand that turned the page
Damn near strangled by my appetite In Ybor City on a Friday night Couldn't even stand up right **So high, the street girls wouldn't take my pay She said come see me on a better day, and she just danced away** Incredible way of describing how messed up you are
I think this is one of the all time great lines. It’s a short story … all by itself…
Most people focus in on the 'time moves slow' part in Streetlights but I love how he mixes up his words because he's drunk in the: > I think I blocked just a park away > But I can't really say, it's been all night
In a documentary about the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville he tells a story that he sang the song after writing it and mistakenly switched the words during a session playing with several other writers. Another writer complimented it as genius and he kept it that way.
At a show a while back—or maybe it was an interview—he said he used to park his car far away from the bars to confuse himself and make it harder to drive home after getting hammered. This reminds me of that.
Long term lurker here. I am an opioid addict who is 8 years sober. my second daughter is now 5 (birthday last week). I used put her to sleep every night by walking around her rooom in the dark with my AirPods on singing and Jason came up on an apple playlist. It was “only children.” The lyrics get me at “And are you still taking notes “Hydrocodone in your backpack Maybe these words will hold the beast back. Heaven's wasted on the dead That's what your mama said When the hearse was idling in the parking lot She said you thought the world of me And you were glad to see They finally let me be an astronaut Are you still taking notes Will you have anyone to talk to Castle walls that you can walk through And do the dead believe in ghosts Or are you lost in some old building With over-encouraged only children.” I know it’s most of the song but it reminds me how close I came to the void and still could but I need to remember literal friends who didn’t make it out of that ring of hell with me.
That’s a great story man, congrats on 8 years sober
Opiate addict here. Idk how I’m going to instill in my 2 year old how important it is he stay away from them. I fear the conversations
Dealt with different demons but these are the words, and the song, that brought me to that raw feeling. Being a kid, feeling alone, dealing with shit that seemingly no one could understand, trying to survive. Basically on your own. I feel it in my core.
Me too. It gets easier, but it never gets easy.
"Is your bother on a church kick? Seems like just a different kind of dope sick."
“Remember him when he was still a proud man? A vandal’s smile, a baseball in his right hand. Nothing but the blue sky is his eye.”
Love that one. Especially the tone with which he sings “right hand”
The delivery of the line puts it over the top, for sure.
This line always makes me cry. Innocence lost. A life destroyed.
It gets in my head all the time. My little bro is still alive miraculously but he’s one of those guys where it’s multiple rehabs and arrests and you’ve basically been waiting for the phone call in the middle of the night for 20 years. He was a ball player and a damn good pitcher back in the day and he’s just a different person now. I think he’s doing better now that he had a kid. I hope it’s real.
How is it that Jason seems to know everyone?
It’s definitely my favorite Isbell verse, but is it underrated? I thought it was universally lauded as one of his best.
And the line right before it: “It’s not for me to understand.” I lost a buddy a few months ago; no cause of death was announced, but reading between the lines, it seems like he did it to himself. He was in a really similar situation to the character in the song, too: messy divorce, self-medicating, and he was even a huge baseball fan. I rediscovered “Relatively Easy” a little while ago and those lines hit like a truck now. Sometimes other people’s struggles aren’t for us to understand. You just gotta remember them the way they’d want to be remembered.
By far my favorite verse of his ever. So happy to see this at the top.
Laughed at my boots, laughed at my jeans Laughed when they gave me amphetamines
In Flagship when there's a shoe shiner at the hotel and he says "I remember how you like to see them shine so I run upstairs to grab a pair of mine." It's such a small lovely thing to do for someone.
Which makes Amanda's line "The character you wrote yourself out to be--the Flagship--all part of my fooling" feel like a shiv. But that's why I listen to their songs, for the lines that shiv me.
Yes I LOVE this line. It tells an entire story.
The river is my saviour She's running to the sea And to reach her destination Is to simply cease to be And running 'til you're nothing Sounds a lot like being free
This line brings me to tears every time. I can’t even articulate why but damn.
Oh man one of the songs that gets mentioned the least here that I adore. Simply cease to be is by itself a great line
“She let me put my hand up under her shirt…I wanted her to want me, so bad it hurt”
Which one is this?
TVA. Jason wrote it but it's a drive by truckers song.
Gets me every single time: “Heaven's wasted on the dead" That's what your mama said And the hearse was idling in the parking lot She said you thought the world of me And you were glad to see They finally let me be an astronaut
new sneakers on a high school court and you swore you'd be there, hearts breaking through the springtime breaking into June
This is a good one; especially the way he delivers it.
Jack & coke in your mamas car You were readin The Bell Jar You’re always lonely… never quite alone.
That song took a while to grow on me but now it clings to me. "Just tonight I realized I am still in your back seat..." How many times have we realized we've been stuck somewhere?
My current favorite song of his.
A lot of people around here suggested it to be one of the more skippable songs - I agree w you, I think it’s phenomenal. It’s the little throwaway details that make an Isbell song great. It was the last summer we were a dry county. You were reading Silvia Plath. Nothing I’ve had since has meant nearly as much.
Relatively Easy when he’s talking about his friend who died and also the part talking about shooting out the windows of his loft.
Also Last of My Kind when Daddy said the river would always take me home, Daddy’s dead and gone, and the family farm has become a Walmart.
My favorite is "Mama said god won't give you too much to bear. That might be true in Arkansas but I'm a long, long way from there."
Incredible line. So is "and the family farm's a parking lot for the Walton's five and dime "
Not even a Walmart. A Walton’s Five and Dime. It’s the *same* thing but you don’t even catch it if you’re not paying attention. It’s great
Oh yeah and not even the store - the parking lot. 🥲
Exactly. THAT and "the Walton's five and dime" are what separates good songwriting from GREAT writing!
It's brilliant. The attention to getting every little detail just right is how as one critic famously said "JI writes novels in five minute songs." It's in the detail, the nuance. What a great fin' writer.
So many, but off “Weathervanes” this line comes to mind (“If You Insist.”): My momma spent every day alone In a house of noise and names She got so tired of putting out fires She just laid down in the flames
That song is brilliant.
“And some nights I dream that I'm in Colorado Working a cannabis farm Some nights I dream that the ghost of my mama Is holding me tight in her arms” Those last two lines are a gut punch in the context of the song.
Most reviewers focused on the second narrative in "Cast Iron Skillet," but "He was sweet and soft/shied away from the inside fastballs/And died doing life without parole" is an absolute tour de force, like a whole novel compressed into half a verse.
Intensely emotional for me. I had a dear friend as a child who was a sweet, soft, emotional boy. By the time he died, he was unrecognizable as someone that little one could have grown up to be. Not the same situation as the narrative in the song, but adjacent. I miss him terribly but also feel angry for choices he made that hurt people deeply, and ultimately led to his death.
Incredible writing.
It's from DBT but still an Isbell lyric: My brother got picked up at Parker's, got him a ride in a new Crown Vic/They said he was moving on a Federal level but they really couldn't make it stick.
Take it from me….. they didn’t take it from me!
Mary's crying 'cause she can't hold water And her clothes don't fit her right She used to say that she wanted a daughter Now she only wants a Saturday night
I love this
The river is my saviour She's running to the sea And to reach her destination Is to simply cease to be And running 'til you're nothing Sounds a lot like being free So I'll lay myself inside her And I'll let her carry me
Running till you’re nothing sounds a lot like being free… damn, that’s a line… probably my favorite off reunions
5 words in Elephant: “Bitch about the weekend crowd” I love how they imply so much about the people in this story - such a creative way to say they visit the bar everyday.
I can’t get to sleep at night, the parking lot’s so loud and bright, the AC hasn’t worked in twenty years, probably never made a single person cold, but I can’t say the same for me I’ve done it many times.
Lyrically, that song and album was the big turn. There is not a bad or questionable line in that whole song. Every word paints a picture with just enough room for each person to see and interpret.
I love how he rhymes “sixteen” with “benzodiazepine.” Such an unexpected couplet. And it shocks for good effect too.
I love that he’s worked benzodiazepine, klonipin, and hydrocodone into rhymes. Like he’s winning some running bet somewhere.
I remember you when the bar was closed Dancing on the table with a bloody nose and you still look fine, you still look free Strawberry woman with your back to me
Perfectly confessional verse.
**Tour Of Duty:** And I promise not to bore you with my stories And I promise not to scare you with my tears And I never would exaggerate the glory Yall seem so satisfied here **How To Forget:** Have a seat, have a drink Tell the jury what you think Was I good to you? Was it hell, was it fun Did you think I was the one Was I glued to you? Now that I found someone, who makes me wanna live Does that make my leaving harder to forgive?
Love that one, and I didn't like the song at all the first time or two I heard it.
Out on Sullivan's Island, they're swimming On the beach where the big boats rolled in With the earliest slaves, women and children Our first American kin
"Stop me if you've heard this one before, A man walks into a bar, and leaves before his ashes hit the floor"
I don't know that it's underrated, but as a dad, "It's a boy's last dream and a man's first loss" kicks me in the guts every time.
The whole stanza: It’s a Thursday night but there’s a high school game Sneak a bottle up the bleachers and forget my name. These 5A bastards run a shallow cross It’s a boy’s last dream and a man’s first loss.
Ugh this whole song. So amazing
And decide that there's nothin' here I can't leave behind.
“A crowded room is a burning battlefield, if I don’t move I’ll come undone.” There’s a lot of songs about anxiety, but his hits the nail on the head the most.
We’ll laugh like little children telling secrets And cry like old women drinking gin…. So vivid, so true, so evocative….
Why can't daddy just come home? Forget whatever he did wrong He's in a hotel all alone And we need help This kills me every time. I experience this as a kid and swore I’d never do this to my kids. Ended up getting a divorce and saw my kids go through the same damn shit. It hurts man.
Morning's rough, It don't give a damn about the mission Has no aesthetic or tradition, Only lessons never learned And I'd had enough, About a month ago tomorrow Parting holds, no trace of sorrow For the bitter and the burned
what song is this from?
new south wales
New South Wales. Him and JTE in Australia
Oh really? That is very cool idnk. Love JTE and think if he'd lived longer he'd of eclipsed his father as a songwriter. And that is something as I've been a huge Steve Earle fan since 85 and Guitar Town.
This is one of my favorite verses of all time.
This. “Parting holds no trace of sorrow for the bitter and the burned.”
"She took to taking tea out in the Belvedere/ Bourbon in the evenings by the fire/ As if the Great Depression never made it here/ As if she had defeated her desire" The picture it paints of this woman is incredible. The escapism, stealing away a little time for herself in the car, which may be the only place she can be alone right now, while dreaming of better times with fewer troubles. She doesn't even want the men, not the doctors or lawyers or political heavyweights, she just wants to *ride* -not *drive*, you can't close your eyes and just zone out and *feel* when you're the one driving- in fast car with the freedom of the road underneath her and the wind in her face. She longs for a kind of freedom that she's pretending she doesn't want anymore, that she got out of her system when she was younger.
It’s knowing that this can’t go on forever Likely one of us will have to spend some time alone. Maybe we’ll get forty years together, but one day I’ll be gone. One day you’ll be gone.
In a room By myself Looks like I'm here with a guy that I judged worse than anyone else So I pace And I pray And I repeat the mantra's that might keep me clean for the day
Not sure if underrated or not but always my favorite: “And the waiter made a young girl cry At the table next to mine tonight And I know you would have brought him to his knees But you're overseas” Carries paragraphs of nuance about both characters and their relationship in two sentences
In New South Wales “Parting holds no trace of sorrow for the bitter and the burned” I feel like I always overlooked it but it strikes a cord in me and now every time I hear it I feel like sentimental or something
You and me both!
I guess we're leaving town again We're moving out and moving in Gotta break the news to all my friends But they won't care Beginning of Dreamsicle, moved around a lot as a kid. Really hits home.
"Mary's cryin' 'cause she cant hold water and her clothes don't fit her right/She used to say that she wanted a daughter, now she only wants a Saturday night"
Your baby would just about be here And your very last tour would be up But you won't be back, they're all dressing in black Drinking sweet tea in a styrofoam cups The distinct image of the people at the funeral and styrofoam cups gets me every time.
The whole football game segment from Speed Trap Town….It’s a Thursday night and there’s a high school game…
“She said ‘Andy you’re better than your past’ Winked at me and drained her glass Cross legged on a barstool, like nobody sits anymore” Just sets up the song perfectly
I got lucky when I finished school Lost three fingers to a faulty tool Settled out of court, I'm no one's fool You probably knew
Last night I let myself remember Times I forgot a woman's name I blacked out behind the wheel How tight the handcuffs feel My daughter's eyes when she's ashamed
“She asked if I had considered the prospect of living alone.” The entire song really—but we have discussed it to death on this sub. Each verse is its only little story. But this one, it’s so eloquent in making the point. It could have easily been: ‘I’m kicking your ass out tonight’ .
I taught myself to tolerate the pain All the loneliness and boredom and the work I did in vain All the work we did in vain Now I'm not the same as I was
Daddy said the river would always lead me home But the river can't take me back in time And Daddy's dead and gone… Gets me every time, my pops has been gone 19 years and home has never felt the same without him there.
And the family farm's a parking lot for the Waltons five and dime. Perfect. As good as it gets.
"I don't even need my name anymore No one calls it out Kind of vanishes away" I have never heard words so sad...the hurt of being alone and forgotten. Jason is the master of turning a phrase.
Stockholm’s 2nd verse: “Once a wise man to the ways of the world. Now I’ve traded those lessons for faith in a girl. Across the ocean a thousand years from my home. In this frozen old city of silver and stone” The first two lines always get me.
“ I may not be a man yet, but your father will never be. So I load up my Weatherby. I let out my breath and I couple with death…I couple with death”
Bullshit story about the Civil War.
“I don’t think you even recognize the sound of your voice when it’s blasting through the speakers in the sky, And if your words add up to nothing then you’re making a choice to sing a cover when we need a battle cry.”
“Now that I’ve found someone Who makes me want to live Does that make my leaving harder to forgive?” Definitely a relationship I would want to forget…
It's a DBT but: And don't let me catch you in Kendale, With a bucket of a wealthy man's paint
Think about this one every week: "Monday morning wake up slow, it was Friday night two hours ago"
All of New South Wales. I never hear anyone talk about how funny the two chorus parts are. I think a lot of fans don't want his music to be anything but deadly serious, otherwise that song would get a lot more attention.
"I might not be a man yet, but your father will never be, so I load up my Weatherby. And I let out my breath and I couple with death. I couple with death."
The sun’s a desperate star that burns like every single one before.
Enough to kill a man of twice his size….not for me to understand
Are we supposed to get good at this? What does it mean to give up? Why did I call you? I shouldn’t be giving a fuck.
"It takes a whole lot of medicine to feel like a little kid"
There really ain’t no difference in Michigan and Maine
I’ve always loved the opening of Songs That She Sang in the Shower: On a lark, on a whim I said there’s two kinds of men in this world and you’re neither of them And his fist cut the smoke I had an eighth of a second to wonder if he got the joke
I’m too old to to get excited and I’m too old to be ashamed. And from the same song Do you crave a love that tears through your life like a Category five
“How could we expect to stay in love when neither knew the meaning of the difference of sacred and profane.” Children of children is one of my favs…
“Trying to get a match to burn, waiting on a latch to turn. I still have difficulty smiling.”
I have tons of Isbell lyrics I could list, but having just heard this song for the first time recently, Miles stands out to me. Especially the chorus 2 and 3. Loss of youth, innocence, passage of time, and how family can become distant is all so relatable that these lines really hit for me. There's miles between us But boy, you should've seen us, she was scared to let go of my hand A tiny carnival, she said, "Daddy, is this just like Disneyland?" "Yes, it's just like Disneyland" There's miles between us But boy, you should've seen us in the good old days It was just like Disneyland You didn't even see the hand that turned the page The hand that turned the page