"I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" - Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMIHY7jM7-Y



I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;a
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news, (bothered for a rhyme)
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,
I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore, (bothered for a rhyme)b
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.

Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,
And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform:c
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin",
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a Javelin,d
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at,
And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat",
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery –
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy – (bothered for a rhyme)
You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a gee.e

For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury,
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

The National - "Fake Empire"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KehwyWmXr3U

Stay out super late tonight,
Picking apples, making pies.
Put a little something in our lemonade
And take it with us we're half awake in a fake empire
We're half awake in a fake empire
Tiptoe through our shiny city
With our diamond slippers on
Do our gay ballet on ice Bluebirds on our shoulders
We're half awake in a fake empire
We're half awake in a fake empire
Turn the light out, say goodnight
No thinking for a little while
Let's not try to figure out everything at once
It's hard to keep track of you falling through the sky
We're half awake in a fake empire
We're half awake in a fake empire

Bruce Springsteen - "Brothers Under The Bridges" ('83)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdLGkFmIflU

C'mon la, la, la, la, la, La, la, la, la, la,

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la,

Well, every spring, when the weather gets warm,
They come, pourin' into town, straight off of them farms,
Driving, 455s running, hard and strong,
They'd scratch, built in them tool sheds, all winter long,
'Neath the, 'neath the trestles, drinkin' the beer and the wine,
Now, some King's ransom, just to pass the time,
With the brothers, under the bridges.

Me and Tommy was, just fourteen, didn't have our licenses yet,
Our walls were covered with the, pictures of cars we'd get,
We'd listen and wait, for that highway to rumble and quake,
As they drove in through town when the weekend'd break,
Bringin' girls with that distant, look in their eyes,
Now together, 'neath the trestles, they'd be laughing in the night,
With the brothers under the bridges.

Well me and my brother'd hitched a ride in Joey's pickup to the edge of town,
And we watched from the tall grass as the challenges were made and the duels went down.
We'd hitchhike back home, sneak in, get in bed before our mom'd come,
And we'd lay there in the night, talkin' about how we might, someday be one,
Yeah, someday run, with the brothers under the bridges.


A 1 2 3 4
Well now I hear a cry in the distance and the sound of marching feet, come and gone,
Well I'm stittin' down here, by this highway figuring, figuring just where I belong,
Tonight from up here on Signal Hill,
I watch a young man in a red shirt walking through a night so still,
Put his jacket 'round his girl as the autumn wind send a chill,
Through the brothers under the bridges,

Stephen Stills - "Love the One You're With"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5IVuN1N6-Y

Songwriters: BAILEY, CLIFTON GEORGE / STILLS, STEPHEN A.

If you're down and confused
And you don't remember who you're talking too
Concentration slips away
Cause you're baby is so far away
CHORUS
Well there's a rose in the fisted glove
And eagle flies with the dove
And if you can't be with the one you love honey
Love the one you're with
Don't be angry - don't be sad
Don't sit crying over good times you've had
There's a girl right next to you
And she's just waiting for something to do
CHORUS
Doo doo doo doo
Turn your heartache right into joy
Cause she's a girl and you're a boy
Get it together come on make it nice
You ain't gonna need anymore advice
CHORUS
Doo doo doo do


Songwriters: BAILEY, CLIFTON GEORGE / STILLS, STEPHEN A.

Jake Bugg - "Lightning Bolt"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY0oPg1h8fQ

Morning, it's another pure grey morning
Don't know what the day is holding
When I get uptight
And I walk right into the path of a lightning bolt

Sirens of an ambulance comes howling
Right through the center of town and
No one blinks an eye
And I look up to the sky for the path of a lighting bolt

Met her as the angels parted for her
But she only brought me torture
But that's what happens
When it's you who's standing in the path of a lightning bolt

Everyone I see just wants to walk with gritted teeth
But I just stand by and I wait my time
They say you gotta tow the line, they want the water not the wine
But when I see the signs I jump on that lightning bolt

Chances, people tell you not to take chances
When they tell you that there aren't any answers
And I was starting to agree
But I awoke suddenly in the path of a lightning bolt

Fortune, people talking all about fortune
Do you make it or does it just call you.
In the blinking of an eye
Just another passerby in the path of a lightning bolt

Everyone I see just wants to walk with gritted teeth
But I just stand by and I wait my time
They say you gotta tow the line, they want the water not the wine
But when I see the signs I jump on that lightning bolt

It was silent, I was lying back gazing skyward
When the moment got shattered
I remembered what she said
And then she fled in the path of a lightning bolt

Jefferson Airplane - "White Rabbit"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR8LFNUr3vw

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small,
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all.
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall.

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall,
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call.
Call Alice
When she was just small.

When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low.
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know.
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead,
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said:
"Feed your head. Feed your head. Feed your head"

Dire Straits - "Romeo And Juliet"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tim4VzHUUyQ



A lovestruck romeo sings a streetsuss serenade,
Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made.
Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade,
Says something like "you and me babe, how about it?"

Juliet says "Hey it's Romeo, you nearly gimme a heart attack",
He's underneath the window she's singing "Hey la, my boyfriend's back."
"You shouldn't come around here, singing up at people like that,
Anyway what you gonna do about it?"

"Juliet ,the dice were loaded from the start
And I bet and you exploded in my heart
And I forget I forget the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?"

Come up on different streets - They both were streets of shame.
Both dirty both mean, yes, and the dream was just the same,
"And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real
How can you look at me as I was just another one of your deals?"

"When you can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold,
You can fall for pretty strangers, and the promises they hold.
You promised me everything, you promised me thick and thin,
Now you just say 'Oh Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him'"

J"uliet, when we made love you used to cry.
You said 'I love you like the stars above I'll love you till I die',
There's a place for us, you know the movie song,
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong?"

"I can't do the talk like they talking on the T.V.,
And I can't do a love song like the way its meant to be,
I can't do everything but I'd do anything for you,
I can't do anything except be in love with you".

"And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be.
All I do is keep the beat and bad company.
All I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme.
Juliet, I'd do the stars with you any time.

Juliet, when we made love you used to cry,
You said I love you like the stars above I'll love you till I die,
There's a place for us you know the movie song,
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong?

A lovestruck Romeo sings a streetsuss serenade,
Laying everybody low with a love-song that he made,
Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade,
Says something like "You and me babe how about it?"