Songs Lyrics and YT- Youtube Music Videos

Parquet Courts - Black and White

Parquet Courts - Black and White Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Sunbathing Animal
Released: 2014

Black and White Lyrics

Black and White

The black-and-white video for this ominous, finger-snapping track was directed by Austin Brown and Johann Rashid and inspired by the experimental films of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin.

The clip features a long walk through lead singer Andrew Savage's Brooklyn neighborhood. According to a press release, the visual is "meant to represent the depth and complexity of the personal stories which exist in a simple city stroll."

The video ends with a shot of Savage's window, the same one that his cat sat near to sunbathe in Parquet Courts' previous visual.

Donovan - Mellow Yellow

Donovan - Mellow Yellow Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Mellow Yellow
Released: 1966

Mellow Yellow Lyrics

I'm just mad about Saffron
Saffron's mad about me
I'm just mad about Saffron
She's just mad about me

[Chorus: ]
They call me Mellow Yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow

I'm just mad about Fourteen
Fourteen's mad about me
I'm just mad about Fourteen
She's just mad about me

[Chorus]

Born high, forever to fly
Wind velocity nil
Want to high, forever to fly
If you want your cup our fill

[Chorus]

(So mellow, he's so mellow)

Electrical banana
Is gonna be a sudden craze
Electrical banana
Is bound to be the very next phase

They call it mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow

[Chorus]

(Oh so mellow, oh so mellow)

Writer/s: LEITCH, DONOVAN
Publisher: Peermusic Publishing
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Mellow Yellow

In an interview with the June 18, 2011 edition of the NME, Donovan was asked what the song was actually about? He replied: "Quite a few things. Being mellow, laid-back, chilled out. 'They call me Mellow Yellow, I'm the guy who can calm you down.' Lennon and I used to look in the back of newspapers and pull out funny things and they'd end up in songs. So it's about being cool, laid-back, and also the electrical bananas that were appearing on the scene - which were ladies vibrators."

Donovan set out to capture the mellow vibe of the '60s with this song, adding what he called "cool, groovy phrases." These phrases were interpreted in ways he never imagined, as people came up with lots of ideas as to what the song meant. Most of these interpretations concerned drugs, but there were even rumors that the song was about abortion.

When this song came out in 1966, there was a widespread rumor that it was about getting high on banana skins. The idea was that you scraped the fibers off of a banana skin and cooked them over a low fire. This was supposed to release the hallucinogenic qualities. Of course, it was never true! (thanks, Victor - Boston, MA)

This was used in popular commercials for The Gap, and also in ads for the soda Mello Yello.

The Ready Set - Higher

The Ready Set - Higher Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: The Bad & The Better
Released: 2014

Higher Lyrics

This feeling can't be wrong
Like it's so good it hurts
I've never heard this song
But it's like I know the words
Woke up in a dream
That I've had a thousand time
I held on real tight
Never got what I need to survive

Don't forget what it feels like
All the walls I caved in it and took it in
So we can let em fall

Climb on top and we'll get Higher
Higher
Get on top and take it higher

And never wake me up
We can watch this world
Spin from above
Both eyes shut tight
Don't wake me up
If it's in my head, that's real enough

Now we're swinging from the stars
We were reaching for
Yeah we're swinging from the stars
And never wake me up

Can't find the way to say
Without a thousand words
What sparks is all it takes
Let it free and let it burn
And if it's a dream
I don't want to leave again
I'll give it all I've got
I'll look around, take it in

We've got it all
So let em fall
Let your walls fall down
We've got it all
So let em fall
Let your walls fall down
Now we're swinging from the stars
We were reaching for
Yeah we're swinging from the stars

Writer/s: WITZIGREUTER, JORDAN / KIRKPATRICK, IAN / MORAN, JOSHUA
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., WARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC INC, SONY ATV MUSIC PUB LLC, CYPMP
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Higher

The second single from The Bad & The Better, the song was serviced to contemporary hit radio in the United States on May 6, 2014.

The song's music video finds The Ready Set's mainman Jordan Witzigreuter eating nails and feeding manicans baby food. Asked about the inspiration behind the clip during a Reddit AMA, Witzigreuter replied: "Finally having the opportunity to do something less conventionally 'pop video' style. I ended doing more 'party' videos than I would have preferred, to be honest. I started to feel like that wasn't my vibe- and I figured eating nails is what people really want to see anyway."

Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy In New York

Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy In New York Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Bridge Over Troubled Water
Released: 1970

The Only Living Boy In New York Lyrics

Tom, get your plane right on time
I know your part'll go fine
Fly down to Mexico
Do-n-do-d-do-n-do and here I am,
The Only Living Boy In New York

I get the news I need on the weather report
I can gather all the news I need on the weather report
Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile
Do-n-doh-d-doh-n-doh and here I am
The only living boy in New York

Half of the time we're gone
But we don't know where,
And we don't know where

Half of the time we're gone
But we don't know where,
And we don't know where

Tom, get your plane right on time
I know you've been eager to fly now
Hey let your honesty shine, shine, shine now
Do-n-do-d-do-n-do
Like it shines on me
The only living boy in New York,
The only living boy in New York

Writer/s: SIMON, PAUL
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Only Living Boy In New York

Paul Simon wrote this song about his partner Art Garfunkel going to Mexico to act in a movie called Catch-22. Art was missing a lot of recording dates while trying to kick off his acting career, and Paul was hinting at a breakup. The duo did indeed split up after the album was released.

Regarding the lyrics, "Tom get your plane right on time. I know that your eager to fly now," before the folk duo became famous, they were known as Tom and Jerry. Tom was Art's stage name, so this line symbolizes their increasing need for musical and personal freedom.

In a 1990 interview with SongTalk magazine, Simon said: "I liked the 'aaahhhs,' the voices singing 'aaah.' That was the best I think that we ever did it. It was quite a lot of voices we put on, maybe twelve or fifteen voices. We sang it in the echo-chamber."

Simon & Garfunkel split up after this album was released. Paul recorded as a solo artist, and Art pursued an acting career.

This was used in the 2004 movie Garden State. Zach Braff, who wrote and directed the movie, thought the song worked perfectly to convey the loneliness of a character. Simon & Garfunkel rarely license the song, but they let Braff use it for a greatly reduced fee after seeing the scene. (thanks, Denise - Santa Clarita, CA)

The session musician Joe Osborn played an 8-string bass on this track, which the album's producer Roy Halee said was the featured musical element of the song. Years later, when Osborn tried to relearn his part to demonstrate it, he realized it was very difficult to reproduce live, as Halee spliced together various takes for the recording.

Tori Amos - Wedding Day

Tori Amos - Wedding Day Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Unrepentant Geraldines
Released: 2014

Wedding Day Lyrics

The deafening sound of silence
Silence the siren between us

Now I drink back the past
Back to our Wedding Day
We'd hang onto every
Word the other would say

Blanket on bluebell knoll
Under a starry night holding us close
As Jupiter winked at the earth
On that our wedding day

I run back to your arms again
Back there safe in your arms again

Your thoughts safely were shared
My secrets to you I gave
I swore angels were born
You said heaven can be made

Above us on bluebell knoll
The laughing seven maids chased by the bull
As Virgo she danced through the dawn
On that our wedding day

I run back to your arms again
Back there safe in your arms again

The deafening sound of silence
Silence the siren between us

I run back to your arms again
Back there safe in your arms again

I run back to your arms again
Now I take off the mask
That hides all this from your gaze
As you sleep I pretend you dream
Of our wedding day

Writer/s: MYRA ELLEN TORI AMOS
Publisher: SWORD AND STONE PUBLISHING CO.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Wedding Day

This Celtic tune on how love morphs with time was inspired by Amos' marriage to English sound engineer Mark Hawley whom she wed on February 22, 1998. She told Radio.com : "Well, first of all, my husband is a muse for me. Mark, he's very quiet. He's British, rides a motorcycle, supports Arsenal, and the last thing I think he ever thought would be happening to him is that some woman would be talking about him, globally. It's just the worst nightmare for him. And yet, he's one of the sound engineers and hears it getting recorded."

"When I'm singing these songs, I'm singing to him," Amos added. "He's the first one to hear them. It's a strange relationship, that we work together and he's hearing these things, and they're about him. He's my boyfriend, he's the love of my life, and yet – as you know – to have a marriage for sixteen years, we've been together almost twenty years, you're going to experience all kinds of things. And if you love each other enough, you work through it. For many people, their wedding day happens before they've walked that dark road. Whether it's illness, or the death of a parent, or a miscarriage, or career changes. These 'little earthquakes' that happen. That song was about a marriage being tested. But they do ok (smiles)."

Simon & Garfunkel - El Condor Pasa (If I Could)

Simon & Garfunkel - El Condor Pasa (If I Could) Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Bridge Over Troubled Water
Released: 1970

El Condor Pasa (If I Could) Lyrics

I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail
Yes I would, if I could, I surely would
I'd rather be a hammer than a nail
Yes I would, if I only could, I surely would

Away, I'd rather sail away
Like a swan that's here and gone
A man gets tied up to the ground
He gives the world its saddest sound
Its saddest sound

I'd rather be a forest than a street
Yes I would, if I could, I surely would
I'd rather feel the earth beneath my feet
Yes I would, if I only could, I surely would

Writer/s: JORGE MILCHBERG, DANIEL ALOMIA ROBLES, PAUL SIMON, DANIEL ROBLES
Publisher: CARLIN AMERICA INC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

El Condor Pasa (If I Could)

This song started out as an Andean folk melody that Paul Simon came across in 1969 when he played a week-long engagement at a theater in Paris along with the South American group Los Incas, who played an instrumental version of the song called "Paso Del Condor." Said Simon: "I used to hang around every night to hear them play that. I loved it and I would play it all the time, and then I thought, Let's put words to it."

The Peruvian songwriter Daniel Robles recorded this song in 1913, and copyrighted it in the United States in 1933 during his travels in America. When Simon recorded it with his added lyrics, he thought it was a traditional song, as that's what Los Incas told him. When Robles' son filed a lawsuit, Simon had to give Robles a composer credit on the song, with his estate getting those royalties.

In discussing the song, Simon always talks about it as being based on a traditional Peruvian song, and we've never heard him mention Robles. This wasn't the first time Simon got tangled over songwriting credits on traditional melodies: Simon & Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair / Canticle was based on a folk song, but his arrangement came from a singer named Martin Carthy. Simon was always clear on his influences, but legal misunderstandings were a problem in these cases.

Los Incas, who were the group that introduced Simon to the song, provided the instrumentation when they recorded it in Paris with Simon. Their leader, Jorge Milchberg, played a charango, which is an Andean string instrument made from the shell of an armadillo. Simon played acoustic guitar, and other members of Los Incas played flutes and percussion. When Simon brought the track to America, he added his lyrics. This was one of the easier songs to record for the Bridge Over Troubled Water album, since the backing track was already mixed together - it was just a matter of adding the vocals.

The title translates to English as "The Condor Passes." The lyrics Robles wrote to the song in 1913 are about returning home to his native Peru.

Los Incas leader Jorge Milchberg got a composer credit on this song along with Simon and Robles. Milchberg later became the head of the group Urubamba and remained friends with Simon, who toured with them and produced their first American album. (thanks, Kristy - La Porte City, IA)

The Wainwright Sisters covered this for their 2015 Songs in the Dark album. Lucy Wainwright Roche explained to The Sun: "I chose 'El Condor Pasa' because it was one of the first songs I ever learned to play on it guitar and it has a childlike quality to it, but it also has a darkness and sadness that fit in well with the album."

Primus - Wynona's Big Brown Beaver

Primus - Wynona's Big Brown Beaver Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Tales From The Punchbowl
Released: 1995

Wynona's Big Brown Beaver Lyrics

Wynona's got herself a big brown beaver and she shows it off to all her friends.
One day, you know, that beaver tried to leave her, so she caged him up with cyclone fence.
Along came Lou with the old baboon and said "I recognize that smell,Smells like seven layers,That beaver eatin' Taco Bell!".

"Now Rex he was a Texan out of New Orleans and he travelled with the carnival shows.
He ran bumper cars, sucked cheap cigars and he candied up his nose.
He got wind of the big brown beaver So he thought he'd take himself a peek,but the beaver was quick and he grabbed him by the kiwis,
and he ain't pissed for a week.(And a half!)

Wynona took her big brown beaver and she stuck him up in the air, said "I sure do love this big brown beaver and I wish I did have a pair.
Now the beaver once slept for seven days And it gave us all an awful fright,
So I tickled his chin and I gave him a pinch and the bastard tried to bite me. Wynona loved her big brown beaverAnd she stroked him all the time.
She pricked her finger one day and it occurred to her she might have a porcupine.

Writer/s: CLAYPOOL, LES / LALONDE, REID L. III / ALEXANDER, TIMOTHY W.
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Wynona's Big Brown Beaver

Nice beaver.
Thank you. I just had it stuffed.

This exchange is from the 1988 movie The Naked Gun, where Leslie Nielsen is admiring Priscilla Presley's taxidermied beaver.

Primus used a similar gag seven years later in this story about a woman and the adventures of her pet beaver. In our interview with the band's frontman Les Claypool , he explained that the story was inspired by a fishing trip. "I was fly fishing with a friend of mine up in Lassen County (California), and the sun was going down and we were heading back to the car," he said. "He was off in one direction, and I went off in another direction. I come around this corner and I step into the creek. And just as I spied this thing, it spied me. It was this big, furry mass coming my way. It flipped and popped its tail and scared the s--t out of me, and I scared the s--t out of it.

It was this giant beaver. I mean, it was huge.

So it kind of got in my head. This big brown beaver, big brown beaver. Okay. Well, how can I make a song out of that? And then it became, 'Wynona's got herself a big brown beaver.' And from there it just built into this little mythological character that obviously had a little double entendre to it."

Primus has never had a Hot 100 hit, but this is one of their most popular songs, making #12 on the Alternative chart and #23 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The band had much more modest ambitions for the song when they conceived it, at first considering it one of the filler pieces the band sometimes puts between their proper songs for comic relief.

"It just happened that I had this bass part with all these triplets in it and it kind of fit real well with those lyrics," Les Claypool told us. "So when we did Punchbowl, we put the two together and that became the 'Wynona's Big Brown Beaver' that everybody came to know."

The video was quite a production. Shot at a time when record companies were willing to shell out big bucks for videos (which MTV still played), this one featured the band in foam rubber suits dressed like cartoon cowboys. The film was shot 25% slower than normal (18 frames-per-second instead of 24), to create a sped-up, jerky look to match the cartoon theme when it was played back. This meant that the band had to mime to the song at a slower speed, so the song was played 25% slower so they could match their movements.

Les Claypool's sideband Duo de Twang recorded this song on their 2014 debut album Four Foot Shack. This version was similar to the original vision of the song, which was more stripped-down.

Due to the name, there was confusion over whether this song was written about actress Winona Ryder, which Les Claypool denied in interviews. In response, Ryder's then-boyfriend, Soul Asylum singer Dave Pirner took offense and renamed one of his songs "Les Claypool's A Big F--king Asshole" in concert. (thanks, Lucas - Los Angeles, California)

Jay-Z - '03 Bonnie And Clyde

Jay-Z - '03 Bonnie And Clyde Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse
Released: 2002

'03 Bonnie And Clyde Lyrics

Look for me, Young, B
Cruisin' down the west-side, highway
Doing what we like to do, our way
Eyes behind shades, this necklace the reason
All of my dates been blind dates
But today I got my thoroughest girl wit' me
I'm mashin' the gas, she's grabbin' the wheel; it's true to the heart
She rides with me--the new Bobby and Whitney
Only time we don't speak is during "Sex and the City"
She gets Carrie fever, but soon as the show is over
She's right back to being my soldier
'Cause mami's a rider and I'm a roller
Put us together--how they gon' stop both us?
Whatever she lacks, I'm right over her shoulder
When I'm off track, mami is keepin' me focused
So let's lock this down like it's supposed to be
The '03 Bonnie And Clyde, Hov' and B

[Chorus]
All I need in this life of sin is me and my girlfriend
Down to ride till the very end it's me and my boyfriend
All I need in this life of sin is me and my girlfriend
Down to ride till the very end it's me and my boyfriend

The problem is you dudes treat the one that you lovin'
With the same respect that you treat the one that you humpin'
Dat ain't 'bout nothin
If ever you mad about somethin', it won't be that, oh no, it won't be that
I don't be at places where we comfy at
With no be-atch; oh no, you won't see that
And, no, I ain't perfect; nobody walkin' this earth's surface is
But, girlfriend, work with the kid
I keep you workin' at Hermes, Birkin' bag
Manolo Blahnik, Timbs, aviator lens
600 drops, Mercedes Benz
The only time you wear Burberry to swim
And I don't have to worry--only worry is him
She'd do anything necessary for him
And I'd do anything necessary for her
So don't let the necessary occur, yup

[Chorus]

(Talk to 'em, B)
If I was your girlfriend
I'll be there for you if somebody hurts you
Even if the somebody was me
(Break it down for 'em, B)
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be
And so I put this on my life
Nobody or nothing will ever come between us
And I promise I'll give my life
My love and my trust if you was my boyfriend
Put this on my life
The air that I breathe in, all that I believe in
I promise I'll give my life
My love and my trust if you was my boyfriend

[Chorus]

Writer/s: NELSON, PRINCE ROGERS / WRICE, TYRONE J. / ROUSE, RICKY / SHAKUR, TUPAC AMARU / HARPER, MARVIN DARRELL
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

'03 Bonnie And Clyde

This is based on a 1996 song by Tupac called "Me And My Girlfriend." Some lyrics in the chorus came from Mariah Carey's 1999 song "How Much," which was also based on Tupac's "Me And My Girlfriend." (thanks, Donovan Berry - El Dorado, AR)

Bonnie and Clyde were Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. They went on a crime spree in 1932, committing several robberies and killing an estimated 13 people along the way. After a famous manhunt, they were killed by police in 1934. Their story was made into a movie in 1967 starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. The film glorified their story and created the image of Bonnie and Clyde as a romantic couple rebelling from authority.

Beyoncé sings on this with Jay-Z - it was their first collaboration. She was the most prominent member of the group Destiny's Child, and was getting ready for a solo album after a prominent role in the movie Austin Powers in Goldmember. Kelly Rowland, her bandmate in Destiny's Child, had a huge hit when she teamed up with Nelly for the song "Dilemma." Joining an established rap star was a great way to launch a solo career at the time, as the airways were flooded with hits featuring a male rapper doing the verses and a female singer coming in for the hook. Most of these involved either Ja Rule or Ashanti.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z were a real couple at the time, although they kept coy about their relationship. Over the next few years, they were seen in public more and more, and it became apparent that they were an item. This song marks the first clues that they are dating, as Jay declares them "the new Bobby and Whitney" (referring to the happier times of Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston's love affair) and raps, "Only time we don't speak is during Sex and the City."

Most of the video was filmed in Tijuana using a real Mexican police force.

Some of Beyoncé's lyrics were taken from the Prince song "If I Was Your Girlfriend."

Birdy - Not About Angels

Birdy - Not About Angels Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: The Fault in Our Stars
Released: 2014

Not About Angels Lyrics

We know full well there's just time
So is it wrong to toss this line?
If your heart was full of love
Could you give it up?

'Cause what about, what about angels?
They will come, they will go, make us special

Don't give me up
Don't give
Me up

How unfair, it's just our love
Found something real that's out of touch
But if you'd searched the whole wide world
Would you dare to let it go?

'Cause what about, what about angels?
They will come, they will go, make us special

Don't give me up
Don't give
Me up

'Cause what about, what about angels?
They will come, they will go, make us special

It's not about Not About Angels, angels

Writer/s: JASMINE LUCILLA ELISABETH VAN DEN BOGAERDE
Publisher: FOX MUSIC, INC.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Not About Angels

This is one of three songs recorded by Birdy for The Fault in Our Stars movie soundtrack. She explained to The Idolator that this track was completely inspired by the film's storyline. "'Not About Angels' was really about how Hazel, the main character, feels like she's like a grenade," she said, "but her realizing that if you have something so true and beautiful, it should be cherished, so, for me, that was really inspiring."

Neil Young - Long May You Run

Neil Young - Long May You Run Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Decade
Released: 1976

Long May You Run Lyrics

Long May You Run

Neil's beloved Pontiac hearse, "Mort" (a.k.a. "Mortimer Hearseburg"), was the inspiration for this song. Neil drove "Mort" from Toronto to Los Angeles, where he met Stephen Stills and formed Buffalo Springfield.

Neil was in Canada driving to Sudbury when 'Mort' broke down in Blind River, June 1965. (Which is contradictory to the lyrics; "well it was back in Blind River, in 1962, when I last saw you alive").

In 1976, Stephen Stills and Neil Young formed The Stills-Young Band and released an album called Long May You Run, which turned out to be somewhat ironic when the collaboration quickly stalled.

Stills and Young wrote separately for the album, which Stephen contributing four songs, and Young adding five, including the title track.

Stills is a longtime collaborator of Neil's, having worked with him first in Buffalo Springfield and then in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. However, they had a falling out only nine days into the Long May You Run tour. Young decided to abandon the project, leaving Stills with a mere telegram to explain his departure. It read: "Dear Stephen, funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach. Neil."

In addition to Young's compilation album Decade this also appears on his 1993 album Unplugged. (thanks, Paulus - Tasmania, Australia, for all above)

The last ever Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on Friday January 22, 2010 finished in style when O'Brien's final musical guest, Neil Young, performed this song in what appeared to be a poke at NBC. O'Brien had been asked to move his slot to 12:05 a.m., and the TV host refused to move his show to such a late hour, and instead negotiated a $45 million exit deal.

Neil Young performed this song at the Closing Ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games to a rousing ovation of Canadian audience members. (thanks, Chris - Red Deer, Alberta, Canada)

Chrissie Hynde - Down The Wrong Way

Chrissie Hynde - Down The Wrong Way Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Stockholm
Released: 2014

Down The Wrong Way Lyrics

I have become what I criticize, oh, oh, oh
The porn queen in my deck of lies, oh, oh, oh
Where was you?
In a caravan next to a Phantom ride
You’re left here with nothing, but something to hide.

I am back o Gasoline Alley
Where the smoke looks like a misty valley
And those dotted hills where pills come Down The Wrong Way.

And you can serve yourself a king and your kingdom, too

Oh, oh, oh,
I was the man and the woman, and the who knows who
The good news,
That made her an offer that she can’t refuse
The truth I have nothing to lose.

I am back o Gasoline Alley
Where the smoke looks like a misty valley
And those dotted hills where pills come down the wrong way

You could say,
I did it the only way, your own way
But life goes on and it’s another day!

I am back o Gasoline Alley
Where the smoke looks like a misty valley
And those dotted hills where pills come down the wrong way
I am back o Gasoline Alley
Where the smoke looks like a misty valley
And those dotted hills where pills come down the wrong way

Writer/s: HYNDE, CHRISTINE / YTTLING, BJORN
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Down The Wrong Way

This song features a guitar cameo from Hynde's friend Neil Young. His contribution was recorded in London in the summer of 2013 when Young was in town playing the O2 with Crazy Horse.

Hynde told Mojo magazine that she is a longtime fan of Young. "He listened to it a couple of times and played it and left and we were all fighting for the plectrum that he left on the desk," she said. "Which I got. A fair cop. I was the first one to reach it."

The English Beat - Tears of a Clown

The English Beat - Tears of a Clown Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: What is Beat?
Released: 1979

Tears of a Clown Lyrics

Say oh yeah baby baby
Now if there's a smile on my face
It's only there tryin' to fool the public
But when it comes down to foolin' you
Well, now honey that's quite a different subject

So don't let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
'Cause really I'm sad (so sad sad)
Oh I'm sadder than sad (so sad sad)
Look I'm hurt and I want you so bad (so sad sad)
Like a clown I appear to be glad

Ooh yeah
There's some sad things known to man
But ain't too much sadder than
The Tears of a Clown
When there's no one around

Say oh yeah baby baby baby
Oh yeah baby baby baby

Now if I appear to be carefree
It's only to camouflage my sadness
And honey to shield my pride I try
To cover this hurt with a show of gladness
So don't let my show convince you
That I've been happy since you decided to go
Oh I need you so
Look I'm hurt and I want you to know
Just for others I put on a show

Ooh yeah
There's some sad things known to man
But ain't too much sadder than
The tears of a clown
When there's no one around
So just like Pagliacci did
I'm gonna keep my surface hid
Hiding in my room I try
But in this lonely room I cry
The tears of a clown
When there's no one around

Now if there's a smile on my face
Don't let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
Don't let this smile I wear
Make you feel that I don't care
The tears of a clown (tears of a clown)
The tears of a clown (tears of a clown, tears of a clown)
I'm going down de town
I'm going downtown
Tears of a clown

Writer/s: WONDER, STEVIE/ROBINSON, SMOKEY/COSBY, HENRY
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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Tears of a Clown

The citizens of Britain are to thank for the success of the song "The Tears of a Clown," which was first recorded by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles in 1967 but not released as a single until 1970, when it was issued in the UK and went to #1. It was subsequently issued in America, topping the chart there a few months later. In 1976, the song was re-released in the UK, this time going to #34. A favorite of The Beat (as they're known in their homeland), the group took the song back to the UK charts with their 1979 cover. This version was released as "Tears of a Clown," omitting the the in the original title.

This was the first single recorded and released by The English Beat, a group that would soon be instrumental in the UK Ska revival movement, borrowing its sounds from early '60s Jamaican music. Dave Wakeling, who was a guitarist and singer in the band, told us how they came to record this song: "When we first started rehearsing the songs, the drummer (Everett Morton) thought our songs were a bit weird. We had rehearsed the songs, and it would go okay for a minute, and then we would all veer off on our own little tangents and we'd lose the groove on it again. And so Everett said, 'Why don't we find a song that we all know and learn that one by ourselves, come back next Tuesday, and we'll play that song and get a groove with that one. And then we'll go back and play one of your weird songs, like that mirror thing.' And so that's what we did, we'd play 'Tears Of A Clown,' then we'd play 'Mirror in the Bathroom,' then we'd play 'Tears Of A Clown.' We'd play 'Twist And Crawl,' and we'd play 'Tears Of A Clown,' 'Big Shot,' 'Tears Of A Clown,' 'Click Click,' 'Tears Of A Clown.' And by the time we got five or six songs together that would hold together, David Steele, the bass player, said, 'Let's do a show. We should do a concert.' We're like, 'We've only got six songs.' He said, 'Yes, but one concert is worth a thousand rehearsals.' Because you can sit around and be pretentious in rehearsals as long as you like. So we started doing shows, and in order to have seven songs instead of six, we put 'Tears Of A Clown' in the set. We'd practiced that song more than any of the others, it turned out. Because it was our magnet, our training model for all the other tunes.

We took all and any sort of gigs, some were punk gigs, some were reggae gigs, some were working men's clubs, some were pubs that were trying to get some business going midweek, we'd take anything. And sometimes the punky songs went well, sometimes the reggae songs went well, and sometimes neither of them would go down well, but everywhere we went, every time, 'Tears Of A Clown' always went down fantastic. So Jerry Dammers came to us, told us about 2-Tone and came and saw the band. He said, 'Would you like to do a single for 2-Tone,' and we said yes, we'd love to, thanks. And he said, 'We really liked that 'Mirror In The Bathroom' song.' And we said, 'That's probably our best song. Yeah, that would be a good one.' Then he came back a week or so later and he said, 'Oh, Chrysalis says you can do 'Mirror In The Bathroom,' they like it, but they would own the rights to it for five years.' We're like, 'No.' I said, 'You know, that's our best tune. We'd want it on our album. But so long as we can bring it out on our album, that would be fine, you can have it as a single.' So he went off again and he came back and he said, 'No, Chrysalis said if it's the single it can't be on your first album.' So we said, 'Well, tell them to f--k themselves.' and we said, 'We'll do 'Tears Of A Clown' then.' Because that always goes down great. And you can tell the fellows at Chrysalis they can argue with Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson about whose song it is. And so we just insisted, and as luck would have it, our song came out in October, and by December 6 it was #6 in the charts, and it was the runaway dance party hit of the Christmas of '79. It was on every jukebox and every turntable for every Christmas party. So I think it probably worked out really well, because I don't know if 'Mirror In The Bathroom' would have been that cheery as a Christmas single." (Read the full Dave Wakeling interview.)

The 2-Tone label was started by The Specials, another prominent band in the Ska movement, and Jerry Dammers was The Specials keyboard player. The song was not included on an album until the 1983 greatest hits collection What is Beat?.

In the US, this was never released as a single.