80's song lyrics thread....

AWESOME idea! Timely: this thread coincided with my decision to change my avatar to a picture of David Bowie from around 1983. So many Bowie songs to choose from... hmm...

I guess it's gotta be 'Modern Love.'

Never gonna fall for
Modern love, walks beside me
Modern love, walks on by
Modern love, gets me to
The church on time

Church on time, terrifies me
Church on time, makes me party
Church on time, puts my trust
In God and man

God and man, no confessions
God and man, no religion
God and man, don't believe
In modern love

Recently separated after 15 years of marriage brings one of my favorite 80's songs to mind, by one of my favorite 80's singers. Madonna - Love Don't Live Here Anymore. Kind of a wallowing song, I know, but it was the first one that came to mind.



You abandoned me
Love don't live here anymore
Just a vacancy
Love don't live here anymore

When you lived inside of me
There was nothing I could conceive
That you wouldn't do for me
Trouble seemed so far away
You changed that right away, baby

Love don't live here anymore
Just emptiness and memories
Of what we had before
You went away
Found another place to stay, another home

Ooh, ooh, I can I join in? Here's one of mine:



There's a club
If you'd like to go
You could meet somebody
Who really loves you

So you go and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home
And you cry and you want to die

When you say it's gonna happen now
Well, when exactly do you mean?
See, I've already waited too long
And all my hope is gone

You shut your mouth, how can you say
I go about things the wrong way
I am human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does


It's iconic enough.

"How Soon Is Now" - The Smiths

Sting wrote an awful lot of great lyrics in the 80s.

I've had "You Can Call Me Al," by Paul Simon stuck in my head all day. Now I don't have to suffer alone! You can thank me later.

A man walks down the street
He says why am I soft in the middle now
Why am I soft in the middle
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don't want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard
Bonedigger Bonedigger
Dogs in the moonlight
Far away my well-lit door
Mr. Beerbelly Beerbelly
Get these mutts away from me
You know I don't find this stuff amusing anymore

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al

That's a great song!! (call me Al)

Speaking of Sting (Police)...

Young teacher, the subject
Of schoolgirl fantasy
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside her there's longing
This girl's an open page
Book marking - she's so close now
This girl is half his age

Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me

Her friends are so jealous
You know how bad girls get
Sometimes it's not so easy
To be the teacher's pet
Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she's waiting
His car is warm and dry

Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me

My love is in league with the freeway

And the coming of night time...


Robert Plant, Big Log.

Words like violence break the silence
Come crashing in into my little world
Painful to me, pierce right through me
Can't you understand, oh my little girl?
All I ever wanted, all I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm
Words are spoken to be broken
Feelings are intense, words are trivial
Pleasures remain, so does their pain
Words are meaningless and forgettable

I like the timing of this thread. The WIP I'm currently revising is set in the 80s. Been listening to 80s on 8 on Sirius radio. Takes me back to that time and place in my life. How about a little "Africa" by Toto?

I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in twelve-thirty flight
Her moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say: "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

More Bowie... we could hardly leave out this one, could we?! (And it fits with my signature.)

Let's dance for fear
your grace should fall
Let's dance for fear tonight is all

Let's sway you could look into my eyes
Let's sway under the moonlight,
this serious moonlight

If you say run, I'll run with you
If you say hide, we'll hide
Because my love for you
Would break my heart in two
If you should fall
Into my arms
And tremble like a flower

J-a-y are the letters of his name
Cutting and scratching are the aspects of his game
So check out the Master as he cuts these jams
And look at us with the mics in our hands
Then take a count, 1 2 3
Jam Master Jay, Run-D.M.C.

I'll have to find my masterlist, but I wrote a novel a few years ago where each chapter was based on an 80s song. I listened to nothing but 80s on 8 for months in preparation, and then I had to save all the lyrics for reference (I'm terrible at remembering lyrics). Currently transferring files to a different computer, and that one's been moved over, so I'll have to come back later with something.